What I've done and What's to come...

Hi everyone, if there's any one left that follow my posts.  Sorry for that; I've been more productive than interactive.

What to say after it's been about a 16-months hiatus since I've posted anything here?  I can say that I got some things cleared away from my backlog of projects or just simply dropped, leaving less things on the back burner of my mind.  I can say that I have changed some of my old habits, working out what tends to do better for me at different times of the day.  I like to say that I'm in a better place in my life in comparison to where I was last year but I don't seem to feel that.  However, that's probably a good thing as I can be motivated to keep improving myself until I start to feel happier.

As I'm starting to make all this purging more of a timed-weekly chore list rather than stuff to take up my free time in-between my work shifts, I'm getting what I want to do as an artist worked.  It is about time I start to do this more professionally rather than as a side-hobby.  I'll reveal how I plan to in the near-future.

In the meantime, I might as well show you some photos from one of my projects that I cleared off last year.  Or you can click/tap away from this page for something else, it's up to you.

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One of the longer projects was my scarecrow doll project, taking a lot of the scrap fabric to use up for a halloween decor idea. Depending of some features, it took weeks to get one of them done.  For the 1st half of the year, I was getting all 4 of them sewn and stuffed into blank sitting dolls:

• Sawing and gluing wood scraps into a weighted head spikes for styrofoam heads.

• Drawing out the templates for their fabric limbs.

•  Cutting out multiple sheets of limb templates from discounted canvas cuts.

• Strenuously Hand-Stitched (Machine-Stitched for some parts thankfully) and Hand-Fluffed & Stuffed all 4 into blank canvas dolls, button eyes and thread smiles.

And that was just before I start working on each one individually by summer time in-between my work shifts.  I've worked roughly from July to October to complete 2 of them before Halloween, only to have it pouring rain on the big night (Thank you for front porch awnings).

The first one was a funky mop-head hippie.  The hardest and longest part to work on it was the hair, not just for twinning into locks from literally a discounted disposable mop head but the stitching it all in staying in place with multiple cut strands.  I remember this took about 3 weeks to do out of its difficulty and having to find another mop-head that came close enough to complete the whole head.  After that, I decided to make hats for the rest of them to cut down on all that hand-stitching work.

 Next came making its clothes. Much of it was possible by sewing machine but for some aesthetics, I used colourful threads that I've double-double folded for decorative hand stitching.  A lot of the fabrics are ones I've found (and cleaned) via salvaging while some are old worn clothes and textiles like old throw pillows or seat cushions.

After many hours and hours of sewing, I took old dried corn leaves or some plant fibres and hot glued  to the hem ends of the sleeves for a straw-stuffed look. They looked a bit too long so I trimmed them.  I'd also hot-glued some extra decor for finishing touches.

...And after about 2 months' of work, this is its final look. It definitely carry much from the original sketch I drew.  It doesn't have many halloween colours but the project was about using up the old materials I had hoarded for a long time.  

Now onto the 2nd one, which is a more autumn-coloured country girl.  I used a lot of old denim pants' scraps to make her dress, embroidered with some orange threads courtesy of my sewing machine.

After the dress, I did the pointed hat in denim too but made more patch-like with both sides and discoloured wrinkles.

I decided to have a colourful inner-liner for the hat. This took lots of sewing to get every bit of that dollar store-bought dishcloth to fit under but the patchiness works with the hat.

After a few adornments included to the hat and dress, I've moved onto the hair.

Taking unwoven dishcloth strands and dyed raffia fibres left-over from my Scarecrow Angel Makeover project, I've hand-stitched front banes and back hair to weave into a braid.  Remembering how much trouble I had for the first one and I didn't have enough "red hair" for the 2nd, I used the hat to cover over the "bald spot," giving the illusional look.

And then after a few additions, voila the second doll is done and just a week before Halloween.  Had some trick or treaters said that they liked how they looked.

Well, that's what I got done for this project last year.  After putting in about 6-8 months of my spare time into those, I took a break from them, just to take time for clearing other things and to get a gift idea for my niece done.  That's part of the old habits I was talking about, how I tend to drift off into other things than to stay focused on my current task/work.  Youtube clip-watching while working is another one, should stick to more non-lyrical music videos.

Okay, I'm starting to sound unfocused here, partly for extending my bed time and still am working during this pandemic.  But this was a long overdue post that I should've made months ago, a habit that I want to be less tardy about.  So, fairly soon, I post up here what I plan for my future work as an artist. Succeed or fail, I'm going to go for it!  Laters!

Some Future Planning and Seasonal Planning

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the late update; I wasn't back home until this evening and wasn't aware that my images weren't on here. How are you faring for the coming winter?  Toronto had already got its first snowfall for the season. Not much had stayed around for long but it’s only the start of dealing with the snow for the next 5 months.  I’ll least have more chances to sip hot drinks from cafes around now.

I had wanted to get more of my Halloween decor plans done back before the end of October but my time-management to balance prep time with work was fluctuated at least. Plus the scarecrow angel had taken the most time to finish. If given the infinite desired time, I would’ve got these made as well.

Wanting to use my excess pile of fabrics, I had the thought of making other smaller scarecrows. Supposedly a bunch of old fabric scraps including some new materials to expand my seasonal decor.  I might’ve already said this but I would like to create/buy a new decoration piece for each year; just like to upkeep the same love for Halloween as my Dad did. As for these thumbnails, I’ll probably be working on them on & off thru the upcoming year so not to be pressed for time for next Halloween.

So Christmas is coming and I usually do a Christmas Card Illustration to mail out to friends & family.  I’ll be doing that again, along with working on other DIYs.  Eventually when a lot of my DIYs done (about 5 or 6 big ones left) and I've mostly purged out anything else that I don't want to be routinely dealing with, I’m going to have to start planning my career path for freelancing my Illustrator skills soon enough.  I have some general idea of direction but I really need to work out the business half of it, plus can't hurt to build up a buffer of savings should when I choose to go full-time again or stop having my part-time job for any reason.

Well, that's enough for now.  Got to get back to trimming away my perpetual To-Do List.

Dental Hassles and Belated Halloween Photos

Sorry for not posting up anything last week; I've gotten a bad problem with my mouth that took over my available time during last weekend that kept me from it (including back to back 8-hour shifts).

It started with just not being able to bite down on one of my molars (bottom-right-middle). I've had that tooth to be a sensitive one for years since I've got it last filled in replacement of an older one. It was so close to the dentin (the soft tissue of the tooth past the enamel, before the nerve roots) that it may have been beyond the nerves to heal.  It got extra sensitive whenever I had ate too much sugar or citrus-acid or bit down on dense foods like a steak but I usually could treat it myself or the dentist would disinfect it for me.

Well, it finally got to where it couldn't just be disinfected anymore; the nerves had rotten out from within the root canals and my gum line swelled up painfully from the infection that it throbbed constantly.  Before knowing that, I was at first seeing if it would pass the sensitivity, by last weekend at least but the throbbing was too much. Had you tried to work on a grocery superstore cash during one of the busiest times of the week, constantly moving your sore mouth for 8 hours? I had to cancel my remaining shifts for the week to see the dentist to confirm my condition and to get a root canal treatment done.  That was how bad it was.

I had an "interesting" side-adventure to that dilemma while waiting for my root canal treatment on Thursday.  On Tuesday morning, I was taking my medication prescribed by the dentist. I'm to take these Amoxicillin pills for the disinfection in my nerves. However, Mom informed me that I had when as a child that I had taken Amoxicillin before to the point of developing an immunity to it.  I was told to also take some painkillers like Advil for the throbbing.  There was another painkiller pill by Life Brand I was taking before, being composed of acetaminophen, caffeine and codeine which was working well despite being a bit old. Well, I took one Amoxicillin pill, one Advil pill and two Life Brand pills all together that morning with water. About half-hour later, I took a big sip of my coffee and a few seconds after, my mouth, throat and part of my chest started to swell up.  It may had been a bad combo of medicine with the coffee drink that triggered it or I had an allergic reaction to it all; Mom helped me to the hospital emergency to help clear out the medicine/swelling from my system. Got strapped with chest sensors while they put some IV and Benadryl in me, monitoring me until I felt back to normal.  It wasn't easy waiting for about 5 to 6 hours on a hospital bed in a bright hallway with only your pants and a hospital gown on, including trying to nap to pass time with hunger cramps.  When I left the hospital, I got a new prescription to take instead. They recommend that I avoid taking Amoxicillin or Codeine for medicine in the future.  The good thing I'll say that happened for it was that it got rid of the painful swelling I had (the abscess bursted out from the gums from the overdose swelling apparently), not that I would try that again.

So, now I have my molar cleaned out and refilled without the rotten nerves and taking the new meds to clear up the remaining infection in my gums. Doing okay with everything this week except for having a lesser paycheque for next payday.

It's late and past the holiday now but better late than never.

So I got the jack o'lantern carved out before the big night. Bought some interesting pumpkin carvings tools that made the work easy. Like cookie-cutting hole punches and mini-carver.

I decided to carve the face similar to my scarecrow angel with a catty look.

And this is how it looked all lit up!

So this is how my Halloween Setup looked like. A bit minimal but I can remedy that in coming years with new decorations.

And despite all the rain, it didn't dampen my scarecrow angel's debut. Got some people commenting  nicely on it.

Well, not much artwork due to my molar but I'm getting back to routine of clearing off extra things.  I'll have to be a penny pincher for a while until I get my dental bill paid.  I should also something better for artwork next week too, as long as I don't get any more sudden health problems popping up.

Computer Problems, Marathon Runners and More Halloween Decor

Oye! I'm having a hard time with my computer lately! My Photoshop CS2 via Parallels/Windows XP is slow as molasses (I say that instead of a turtle because I remember how surprisedly fast my late pet turtle Zack was when he wanted to be) and it was just making a simple sketch cleanup look like a hi-res filter application that take an hour at least to apply.

It may be high time that I start replacing or upgrading my computer studio equipment; though a gift from my brother, this 2012 Mac Mini is getting slower each year and these years old art programs aren't keeping up with the latest technology much now. I started looking into what to buy/get though the funding may take a while to get saved up. Cheap alternatives in the meantime?

And that's my personal rant of the week, now onto my work for this past week.

For sketches, I happen to been just getting off from work when the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon was going by my workplace (Lake Shore & Leslie).

After grabbing a hot latte to drink, I sat on to watch all the runners going by and thought to sketch them while I could. It definitely a challenge to capture the runners' likeness within a minute before they completely out of view.

What I like drawing them the most was getting each runner's movement down on paper. By confession, I did winged some details by guesswork and memory.

I don't usually sketch real people too often; usually it's my made-up characters. This was one of those rare times that you could sketch a stranger without that person feeling uncomfortable of being stared at while being drawn.

Next is my Halloween Decor progress. I got my Scarecrow Angel all done! I chose to add a plaid cloth (originally dish cloths newly bought) with a couple of old throw pillow cases with the indian ink-dyed burlap dress and sew them together as such in the pictures.

A shawl was added as well including a handkerchief to cover the bamboo neck.

The wings were a hassle to not only clip onto her dress but to also to position accurately parallel to the bamboo shaft as well. I managed to get done though.

Getting her hands back onto the sleeves took some hand cross-stitching. 

After putting her old straw stuffing for her arms back in, I've hot-glued more faux leaves to give the look being "stuffed" with more of those leaves like I did for her head and hat.

Lastly, I've also hot-glued some shimmering maple leaf confetti onto her shawl and sleeve ends. To include a reflective element into her dress as I did for her wings and head.

Overall, I'm happy with how she turned out.  Before, she looked like a generic store-bought or a plain homemade craft. Now she looks like she's ready for a party.

The only other decor I made was decorating this store-bought black cat wreath. Originally a black tube-cleaner wrapped around a plastic frame with plastic yellow eyes and whiskers, I took some glitter berries, faux leaves and maple leaf confetti and hot-glued them onto it as such.  So now I have a Halloween Wreath that should grab attention from nearby treat 'n' treaters.

So that's all I got here for now.  This week, I have a pumpkin to carve into a jack o' lantern and may have some more sketches to show later on. Till next week then.