Another challenge - draw something for the shirt.woot.com contest. I succeeded :) i think it's pretty cool for a first try.

okay, for those of you who buy from woot.com, go vote for my way cool t-shirt design at shirt.woot.com-- if you have ever bought from woot.com you can vote.

I got the idea for the sushi (http://dotdorsner.livejournal.com/239541.html) from the evilmadscientist.com site, I love their stuff... and they posted a link to ones I posted.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/sushitips

They have some great ideas -- for those who liked mine, here is the original inspiration:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/DessertSushi

Pics of the food from the April Fools party.
I didn't actually take any pictures at the party after this, so no incriminating evidence :)

Here's the faux "sushi"... i think it came out really well. CLick through to see it better.

It's rice krispy treats with dried mango, dried papaya (sliced), and candy ginger for fish, and wrapped in slices of green fruit rollups and green 'Yogos' candy roll.
With wasabi peas and candied ginger on the side.

More:
The meatball 'cupcakes' and the cool fish platter, click the pic.

Uploading photos, finally, and I remembered i promised to post a pic of the tshirt i made for MicroD using a freezer paper stencil..



I also made a cool monkey based off the code monkeys, but i gave that one to my neighbor for baby Hazel.

pencil sketch I admit i have been quite a slacker when it comes to posting art lately. mostly because i generally like to post finished work, rather than just sketches. but since i have mostly been pencil sketching lately, i figured i might as well post one of those. I've really been enjoying drawing from imagination lately, and have been working on both figures and architecture. it really is true : "Draw Every Day". Because i'm amazed at the rusty skills that i have dusted off. my ability to draw from my imagination (rather than looking at object) has improved exponentially.

As you may know, i'm the queen of unfinished projects. I get a neat
idea, buy supplies, possibly even start it, but can't get around to
finishing it. But! I finished one the other day! I was reading about
freezer paper stencils the other day (somewhere, i'll have to find the
link) so I decided to try it myself. I made a cute robot stenciled
shirt (new kinda stumpy robot creation) for da Boy, and a monkey (using
one of the code monkeys) pink onesie for the neighbor's baby. Both came
out really well, and i managed to save the monkey stencil, so i'm going
to see if it is re-usable. I'll post pics later. it was a fun and easy
project, and the results look close to professional screen printing --
the hardest part is Xacto'ing out the design.

a little something artsy playing around with color and style... it's a little dark, but i like it. click through for the full drawing.. trying not to kill my friends page.. (xposted to Illustration Friday - topic: Communication)

you'll have to wait on the code monkeys. i'll probably not get around to working on that til tomorrow.

i realized i was getting away from the genesis of my idea, which was to turn crappy doodles into something interesting. so in the interest of that, here is the doodle. i like the effect that the manila folder it was doodled on remains the texture in the background.


the colored sketch.




Doodling in ink gives a much different finished product than pencil. it's more angular, less neat. more like doing the crossword puzzle in pen.. you can't correct your mistakes easily. all in all, an interesting experiment.

So, by popular demand of skullx, i'm posting this here. this is the inked version that i'm going to color--i'll edit out some of the inking i don't like when i get it into photoshop. It looks a little more Cowboy Bebop than Frank Miller, but oh well ;)

( sketch behind cut )

ok, this is not as elaborately coloured as yesterday's but here is today's doodle art.

Sketch:


The Simpler Robot, Final
Click to view larger.

I challenge my creative writerly friends to write the backstory on these pics :)

I haven't done this lately, and one of my new years resolutions is to start doing, and posting more art.

So in that vein, here is a doodle i drew at work during a breathlessly exciting 4 hour meeting, that i colored in photoshop tonight.

Original doodle scanned in


"final" (well at least for tonight)


Click on either to see larger version..
[ yeah, it's creepy, but that's one of the coolness factors ;) ]

as always, feedback is appreciated.

	Behold my crafty-ness For those who have been paying attention, i was lamenting my lack of ability for my ideas to fully translate into reality. Anyway, since the presents have now been given, i saw reveal the gift. I had the idea of making 'placemat/blackboards'. I took oilcloth on one side, and chalkboard cloth on the other, sewed on some little cute shapes and a pocket to hold chalk, to make a little portable drawing pad. This was the prototype placemat blackboard - this one was given to Sarah. I made one for Erin too (i think it's actually a little better done. my big concern is that they aren't as sturdy as i'd hoped, so i hope they stay together!

please remind me that i'm not...
or at least remind me that whatever i envision will take a lot longer and be more stressful than i'm imagining.

I decided i was going to make something cool as xmas presents for some of the little girls on my xmas list.
ok, the end product actually looks pretty cool. i'll post a pic later.
but after doing the prototype one, i'm not sure i'm going to do the others... we'll see ...

halloween party pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dotdorsner/HalloweenParty2006

so much to do and so little time..
Halloween party prep in progress, as usual it will all be done at the last minute!
I did make the peanut butter eyeballs and the witches finger cookies last weekend, so at least that's done.

I'm not even sure exactly what i'm doing with my costume. oh well.

but hey, we'll have fun and friends and stuff, so that's all that matters!

Weekend was busy, went to the Pumpkin Carving at Griegs and much fun was had. Brought boy, figuring he'd be asleep by 9, but he wouldnt go to sleep and stayed up til midnight.

watched most of the steelers/falcons game, which was quite good.

more later. i'm just not in the good writing mood.

Some selected coolness from RSS feed these days...

artsy -to keep me inspired in the drawing arena:
www.drawn.ca
www.weheartprints.com

crafty - to keep me imagining yet another unfinished project that I
haven't started yet:
www.craftzine.com/blog
www.notmartha.org

Current unstarted project:
Inspired by these big 3D stars i've seen at DHS (Dirty Hotel Sh*t, as we
like to call it) -- i think they are old department store displays from
Macy's or somewhere--I want to make a big 3D star for my wall (something like this). I figure it can't be that difficult
to make something like that out of heavy paper or cardboard, and then
spray paint it so it looks like metal or wood. hmmmm...

I've been slammed at work and home, so i've been lax in the update dept.
I did manage to squeeze a few minutes out to do an illustration for ironcreator, here: http://community.livejournal.com/ironcreator/2144.html. I think it came out pretty well.

Inspy did a neat one too: http://community.livejournal.com/ironcreator/2384.html


...more later :)

Culinary experimentation has yielded several things in the past few days..

1) a good scramble – Mushroom/Ham/Goat Cheese:
-sauté a handful of fresh mushrooms in a touch of olive oil in a nonstick pan.
-whisk 3 eggs with salt and pepper
-add eggs to the pan, stirring.
-as eggs thicken, add thinly sliced ham pieces
-when eggs look almost done remove to plate, and sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese.
-note, adding the cheese last keeps it from being overpowered by the eggs.

2) update to the BabyCakes recipe.
- on further experimentation, I’ve determined that the cakes are easiest to cook if you don’t thin the batter out, so here are the new proportions:
For 1 pancake: 1oz puree , 1 egg yolk, (optional spices), & as many oz of dry baby cereal (at least 2) to make a thick pasty batter, similar to cookie dough.
Spray nonstick pan with cooking spray and heat over medium, spoon batter in pan, and use either wet fingers or the back of a spoon to gently pat out the batter to about a ¼ inch thick. Brown on each side, cut or tear into bitesize pieces.

3) a yummy Gumbo! I’ll post the ‘recipe’ when I get a chance to document it.

Well, as i mentioned before, i needed to do something artistic... what ya think?

Here's my attempt at a cool handpainted looking photograph. i think it came out pretty well.



edit: thx for the feedback! i added an explanation of what i was trying to accomplish here: http://dotdorsner.livejournal.com/184708.html

Hey Will (wtf100), i think this is knitting even you could get into!

http://www.patriciawaller.com/images.html

I like the shark and the rabbit the best.

edit: changed the link to the original site, and apparently it's crochet!