Thursday, March 25, 2010

Projects galore!

In a previous post, I had showcased an assortment of vintage beads my friend K had given me to incorporate into a necklace. Well, the necklace is finished! I have created a long necklace using sterling silver parts (chain, beads, clasp) along with the one-of-a-kind, vintage beads. I am very pleased with the results as I'm sure K will be when she sees it up close!



On another note, I have become inspired to sew a summer dress for myself.
Here is the lovely grey-blue fabric I will be using.


And here is the Burda pattern for the dress. I'm so excited to be making this dress! And you know what? The supplies hardly cost that much. The pattern, 3 of metres fabric and the zipper came out to $30 CDN with the Fabricland member discount card. Of course, there is labour involved, but since I'm making the dress for myself, I'm not factoring in the cost of the labour. I'm anticipating that it will take me a while to complete, as I am a newbie. All I know is that if I had purchased a similar type dress at a clothing store it would have been priced anywhere from $60 to $100 and it would have been made in another part of the world, and probably in a sweat shop.


I have also (finally!) completed the Photoshopped image that my photographer friend J asked me to help him with. Here is a portion of the image with the copyright watermark splattered all over it. Yes, I'm paranoid and neurotic! (As a side note, for the Bloggers that may want to know how to re-create this copyright watermark effect, there is a tutorial on YouTube showing you step-by-step how to do this using Photoshop).

On the image below (and with the help of Photoshop), I tweaked the model's make-up, the skin on the entire face and body, the eyes and eyebrows, the hair, I added a motion blur in the background and I also highlighted some details of the vintage car. I sent the photographer a jpg of the finished image and he really liked the work I did!!! I have learned quite a bit at my Photoshop course. I now have new work to add to my portfolio and a new skill set to add to my resume!


Sunday, March 21, 2010

a walk down memory lane

I have been digging into my numerous art portfolios of yesteryear and walking down memory lane as I unroll my drawings and dust off my old paintings.

Have a look at what I unearthed recently:


a cubist ink drawing of moi (1992)


me holding an onion (how symbolic!)
chalk pastel/conte (1999-2000)



gouache paint in a multi-colour me (1999-2000)


chalk pastel and peeking self (1999-2000)

These are all self-portraits drawn for my various drawing classes over the past 20 years. I swear I'm not vain. Well, maybe just a little - but these self-portraits were requested by my art instructors over the years. Frida Kahlo did several self-portraits of herself too so self-portraits is a common theme in art.

I have plenty more drawings/paintings to scan or photograph and upload. Some really weird stuff from my abstract Salvador Dali-inspired days. Like this one for instance:



an oil painting called "Hush" (1993)

Stay tuned...