Uncaring Kitty

Harlot

2011-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about getting another tattoo. Might go visit the studio tomorrow and add my name to the waiting list. I can't decide between ribs, or thigh.
I don't think I would ever want a person tattooed on me. But girls sure are fun to draw. I heard the word Harlot on a television show last night.
Okay, back to some real work now.

Girl

2011-03-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

Ugh to all this rain. I am confused. I wore an outfit, similar to the above, last night to a letterpress art fundraiser called Queenslake. I wished I had $50 to buy a print but I don't spend that much on anything these days. The whole outfit above cost me $7 from a yard sale. Note to self: attend more yard sales.

I Found Out Where Unicorns Come From

2011-02-23T20:00:00.000-08:00

My dreams make more sense than my real life does.
If you've never had a dream about Unicorns, you should. This is my second ever dream about unicorns and both have been set in my parents' paddock. I can therefore only deduce that there must be unicorns that live in their paddock.
I sleep more when I'm stressed out. Maybe I'll dream about unicorns. Or maybe I'll dream I'm a woman/bear/alligator making out with a cat, which is what I dreamt LAST night >_>

Cupcakes

2011-02-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

I baked cupcakes last night and traded them for the second volume of Batman Black and White.

Procrasticat

2011-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

After stumbling on some neat artist's blogs, Emily Carrol, Vera B, Kate Craig etc it eventually led me to Steve Wolfhard's Portrait-Dex. A place where cartoonists create Pokemon self portraits. It's entertaining and definitely worth a look if, like me, you just can't get enough of Pokemon related anything. It doesn't look like it is updated anymore but it kept me up half the night wondering what I might look like if I were a Pokemon...

Meet Procrasticat. It has a very stubborn nature and is easily distracted by things that are soft. If it's two heads cannot agree on an action it will not do anything at all. Special abilities include sensing when cake is within a 4 meter radius. It can often be found grocery shopping for things it doesn't need.

Please click to view fullsize.

While on the subject of Pokemon I feel it necessary to mention this article that was recently brought to my attention.
493 Pokemon Drawn as Sexy Anime Girls Because the Internet that's Why.

You're wondering what you might look like as a Pokemon now, aren't you.

Sparkletramp

2011-02-15T17:41:00.000-08:00

I posted a while ago about my friend's fashion label and thought it deserved an update!

Hayley is still a fashion student but is already working hard with her label Sparkletramp.

Visit her blog here.
Become facebook friends with Sparkletramp here.

We did another photo shoot before Christmas, Hayley wielding the camera, me posing like an idiot and then editing the pics in photoshop.

Huge amounts of fun be I struggled to get my hair big enough! I wore this ruffle one last week for Hayley at Brisbane Threaded. A kind of young designer's night

A before and after photoshopping. Even half-decent lighting at the actual shoot makes it so much easier to photoshop.

This is the bath sponge that is actually inside my hair. I've got a clip-in white streak in my hair but I like it so much I'm considering getting a real one.

Love Sucks

2011-02-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

Despite my claims of complete indifference towards Valentine's Day, perhaps it makes me a little depressed at how single I am. Only for a second though. One.

There. Better now.

I am completely enamoured with the work of Emily Carroll. I really don't know anything about her except that she's rather good at drawing...

Like.
Incredibly good.
Please visit her blog Emily Carroll

What with Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and Emily Carroll's blog, I ended up sketching this.

Click for full size.

My Chinese Zodiac is the Rabbit. I do enjoy drawing girls clutching things.

Sewing a Rainy Day Tote Bag

2011-01-02T04:13:00.000-08:00

I made another tote bag with a simple little design on it. It's been raining a lot lately so the cloud is sad. I love humidity and sunshine! So poor summer weather makes me very sad.
Sad.
Sad.
Sad.
Sad cloud.
Happy jellyfish.

There is something so satisfying about turning this....

Materials!

Into this.....

Sad Cloud Happy Jellyfish

I used natural coloured Cotton Drill fabric for the bag, grey felt for the shapes, black cotton for the rain and legs and embroidery cotton for the faces.
Here is a basic pattern I made using measurements from a bag I bought years ago.

Bag Pattern

Captions for everything!
I filmed myself making this one, not sure how the footage will turn out yet....

S

Felt Crafting Fun

2010-12-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

I gave hand-made Christmas presents to my family this year. It seemed like a great idea at the time but I was cursing myself when I was up til 4:30am Christmas Eve finishing them. I'm very glad I put the effort in though. I bought some natural coloured cotton drill fabric to make the bags and stitched on some bird shapes I cut from felt.

Grandma's Bag

Mum's Bag

I forgot to take a picture of the pigeon bag I made for my sister!
I raided my Mum's craft supplies and got a little carried away on Boxing Day.

Owl Plushie and bird cut-outs.

Roast Turkey Leg and Strawberry Plushies

Why a roast turkey leg? It's actually a long story involving an episode of the Jonas Brothers Show and a bag I ordered from a Japanese website.

I'm currently trying to make a video on how I went about making the bags so hopefully when that is done I'll be able to include a basic How-to on here.
I had such a great Christmas! (Despite all the dreadful rain). Playing with sewing and playing with my beloved Kitties!!! I miss them so much!

Practise Fashion Shoot

2010-12-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

I barely need an excuse to muck around with hair and outfits but now I actually have one! My fashion student friend needed someone to model her sewing creations. She's in the midst of rebranding but this is her current Etsy store. Here's a little sneak peak at the practise run we did today. I'm basically set for life with sweet facebook profile pictures.
She hired the lights and did the photography herself, then I tweaked them in photoshop. I can't wait for the next shoot!
The sailor bow is my creation.

New House

2010-11-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

I spent a lovely afternoon playing video games, eating Okonomiyaki, and watching cartoons at my future house! 4 more days till I move. I also did some sketching in the morning.

My Book

PROCRASTINATION

2010-10-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

TL;DR Skip to the end for the pictures.

I am a terrible procrastinator and I will tell you why. Sure I do the normal procrastinator things; I am up to date with my Lolcats, I know what everybody is doing on facebook, I am eating unnecessary amounts, I even did my tax. This worked for a while but I knew I'd have to get back to work eventually. So I took it up a notch and for 2 months I had a second job waitressing at an adult nightclub. I pretended I needed the money and well, I don't have time to do my drawing if I'm working two jobs right? RIGHT! Mission accomplished!
I was completely burnt out to a crisp by the two month mark. 5AM finishes + painful high-heeled shoes (with the clear heel and all) just really took it out of me. Some of it was fun but for the most part it was all a bit creepy and gross.

So what now. It took me a couple of weeks to recover back to my normal ridiculously cheerful self but after that, there was nowhere to go except *GASP* back to my artwork.

And then I somehow stepped up to the plate and spent quite a lot of hours on it. And I LOVED it. Whenever I actually do some work I remember how much I enjoy it and I wonder why I procrastinated so much.

And now I'm procrastinating again. I look at other people's artwork and think "gee I wish I could do something special like that" But I am writing this to remind myself that I AM doing something special.

Concept art for the animation look and feel.

Very early concepts for the main character.

Sailor Bows and Serious Cats

2010-05-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

I finally made some more bows. I'm so slow at making them. I get distracted half way through and spend too much time thinking about how to make every single one different. I think once I get to 20 bows I will sell them all on Etsy. This fabric is from the lovely Violet LeBeaux, who is stupid and moving to Melbourne.

I'm also going to make a few more leopard bows. When I'm sewing them I keep saying to myself "Bigger! It's got to be bigger!" This one is as big as my face.

So many possibilities.

These cat stickers are a gift from my sister from her trip to Japan. I love the way they look so serious about their balls of yarn. The text roughly translates to Cat's Letter Seal.

Inspired by How To Train Your Dragon

2010-04-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

What I wouldn't do for a dragon right now. A Night Fury would do me nicely thank you. I have seen this movie twice now, once in normal-D once in 3D. Honestly, I preferred it in 3d. Except I need to get a custom pair of 3D glasses made.

Reasons I love this movie:
The character and dragon designs.
The dragons are just like big spiky kitties.
The Night Fury makes the coolest sound when powering up.The soundtrack.
The concept art.

I can't wait to get my hands on the "Art of" book. There is a fantastic video with a large sample of images from the book on this blog here.
Or check out the reviews on Amazon.
Some part of me deep down still believes I will get a real dragon but for now the only outlet I have is drawing. Drawing dragons is ridiculous amounts of fun. My art inspired by the How to Train Your Dragon concept art:

Decoden DS

2010-04-20T17:39:00.002-07:00

After spending time with Violet LeBeaux as always I was in the mood for some cute, pink, shiny arts and crafts!

I bought the cases on special at Target and found most of the pieces from 2 dollar stores and craft stores. I used the glue that came with a set of fake nails. Probably took me about 2 hours to complete but most of that time was figuring out the look! I also made the beaded keychain attached to the case. View more pictures of keychains.

scatter brain

2010-04-19T05:16:00.000-07:00

My mind is a bit full.
Mother is stuck in London because of a volcano whose name I can't even pronounce. I could mash the keyboard and people will think I'm fluent in Icelandic.
The universe keeps shouting things at me and it's all up in my grill and I'm going to do my best but first I just need a really good nights sleep.
Did I say sleep, I meant dragon. I NEED a dragon.
YES universe, I am listening but shhh I'm trying to write a blog.

I've been trying to nail down a character design but I change her every time I draw her. I ended up giving up and just drew her as part of a completed picture to extrapolate the character design from there which worked out very well. I'll save that one for my finished folio.

Mary Blair inspired bird painting. I think I'll post it to my grandma.

My Life.

2010-02-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

When I struggle for words I tend to write journal entries as stories.

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to do EVERYTHING. But in trying to do everything it really felt more like doing nothing. She enjoyed studying Japanese, sewing, crafts, drawing, dancing in the Valley but none of it amounted to very much. Especially not the dancing.

So one day, she consulted the oracles. They weren't sure what she should do either but they do often give good advice and always offer a free meal. A plan was now in place.

She had come to realise art and animation are what made her happiest. Just the thought of them filled that empty feeling inside a little bit. And she knew that she must at least try to devote her life to it and make a career out of it. You'd think having already done an animation degree that the answer was obvious all along but life just doesn't work like that.

Four weeks later and things were still going well. There are so many wonderful resources to study from and art classes are definitely in the cards. Sometimes her motivation wavered but it's just another challenge. And there's such a long way to go yet, the rest of her life in fact.

Lace, pearls, ribbon Oh My.

2010-01-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

My latest obsession. Making wonderfully girly hair accessories. Hand stitching pearls on hurts my thumb but apart from that it's really fun! I still have a bag full of supplies so there shall definitely be more to come. The hardest part is settling on a design, there are so many frilly possibilities and I intend to explore them all. Until I get distracted.

Shinx

2009-12-13T19:17:00.000-08:00

My favourite Pokemon Shinx, hand-stitched and made with love (and felt). RE pokemon, I am still intent on catching them all.

His new owner, Baby Calvin, dropped by for a quick visit.

I heart Kitties, Pickles and Chocolate Soy Milk

2009-10-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

If code could be run in real life this program would determine whether or not I was happy.
Don't look at me I'm not a coder I'm an artist. My friend wrote this years ago and I only just rediscovered it.

enum HowManyPickles{PKLS_NONE=0, PKLS_LOTS};

bool susie=true;
int kitties=2;
HowManyPickles pickles=PKLS_LOTS;
bool lush=true;

bool susieHappy=false;

if(susie && kitties && pickles && lush)
susieHappy=true;

while(susieHappy)
{
std::cout << "Happy" << std::endl;
}

Lush is the old name for Vitasoy Chocolate Soy Milk.

I'm currently reading the biography of Shakespeare by Bill Bryson. I never realised just how little we know about Shakespeare, and most of what we THINK we know turns out to be made up by various biographers romanticising his life. I'm so used to having information about the entire world at my fingertips I find it disconcerting to be told that we don't really know anything about him and we NEVER WILL.

Op Shop Dress Modifications

2009-09-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

Until I can learn to fashion a digital SLR out of a $6 dress, the following photos will have to suffice.

I wanted super cute dresses for summer but my spending budget is about $0. Even the ugly dresses at Big W were still $40. So I hit the shops, the Op-Shops. I picked this first dress up for $6. I got a little excited and cut it all up before taking a "before" shot. I have instead created this artist's impression.

On finishing the dress I immediately went out and bought another particularly ordinary dress for just $10. I fell in love with the fabric. I couldn't leave it in the shop without regreting it for the rest of my life.

oh look why is she holding that grey brick thing? oh wait nevermind that's her camera.

keychains keychains keychains

2009-08-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

First off, Mums are great, she didn't even bat an eyelid when I demanded a kitty cake for my birthday.

I'm never having a kitty cake ever again. I can't eat food that is smiling at me in the shape of my favourite animal. I should have learnt this lesson after almost not being able to eat one of those dinosaur-shaped donuts.

As for my overwhelming, inexplicable urge to make keychains.... I now have a small, very shiny pile of keychains I don't quite know what to do with.