Snowman Wallpaper Made in My New Art Program

This was a picture I whipped up with my new ArtRage program. It's sort of all I have to use until I buy Photoshop and Illustrator with my tax return eventually. It's a pretty cool program for being a package deal with a drawing tablet. I didn't get the one with Photoshop Elements since I will be getting the full version later. I hope to draw more and more skillfully later.

Creative Commons: For personal use, or for use in another work that will not make profit. So go nuts!

I also have a tumblr!

Anger

Lately, I've thought of certain people and I get angry. These are people from the past who opened their mouths and said something so ignorant that I still think of them with nothing, but dislike.

There was Jeff at college who had a fit at me not being able to afford materials for a certain project, shouting that because I was an art student like him, I should have set aside money for supplies instead of books. Little did he know I was at college on a wing and prayer with the maximum loan that my credit would allow me to take out.

There was also Cassandra who called me stupid for not buying my products ONLY if they were products of the USA. Her wealthy parents bought her a new BMW for her birthday. I have to buy my own groceries, and yes a penny here and a dime there makes no difference, but when that little bit of change can add up to save sometimes a couple hundred dollars over the course of a semester, that can be the difference between eating and not.

There is also a certain family member who claims to love gay people and thinks they're so fabulous, but then says they shouldn't be allowed to marry because that is spitting in the face of God. First, not everyone believe the same as you. Second, if you love homosexuals, then why aren't they allowed to have the same rights as you, but you have the same expectations that they go to work, pay for their own homes, buy their own food, not murder or rape, etc.?

I've just been angry lately, and I keep thinking back on the times when people have opened their mouths without having any idea what the world is like for other people. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of this crime, but I make an effort to be mindful of the fact that not everyone lives like me, but I can't help feel that most of the people surrounding me are small-minded in their beliefs and publicly make themselves look foolish and uneducated.

China Dragon Pattern

I made this pattern very quickly with Illustrator. It's a repeater, so it should tile well (though I didn't test to be sure.) Yes, the grey lines are slightly "off" on purpose. It adds a little more interest to a very rigid even pattern.

New Uses

Everyone knows you can do cool things with photo filters, but what about putting something in front of the camera lens itself? This picture was taken with some weird kaleidoscopic glasses. You can also achieve crazy pictures through water, cellophane, and anything else see-through. Some things, like these glasses were fine to hold right up to the lens itself, but if you have something with shapes on it you want visible (such as cellophane with a flower pattern), you might need to enlist a second person or some sort of stand with clips to hold it so that the shapes don't blur. This can result in a blurred background as well if your camera focuses on the foreground shapes and it is still too close for both layers to be focused on.

Shapes and Shadows

Sometimes the best photos aren't of an actual real object. This was captured when I noticed it on the front porch on my way to work. Now, I'm not calling this an amazing photo, but it's an amazing example of how looking at objects doesn't always give you the best shot. Sometimes it's the way light, water, or other things play with the objects to make whole new shapes. This was water and stains on the side of the porch wall that look like a skull. I haven't seen this happen ever again, but I managed to catch it the one time it has happened. Shadows are much easier to play with since the light comes back each day and you can move the objects or light sources to make things the way you want them.

Journal the Unexpected

Everyone knows and loved the Mystery Machine! This pic was taken just before Halloween, so I bet I know what this group of meddling kids was planning to be.

 

This shot is a little harder to make out since I was trying to capture both cars in the image. It's a Camaro SS with a tiny exact duplicate of the same car sitting toward the back of the engine. Carception? Or more like "Yo dawg, I heard you like Camaros so I put a Camaro in your Camaro so you can show off while you show off?"

One way to get great photos is through candid shots. As if you're making a visual journal, you can always just photograph random things throughout your day because if you see something weird, you might never see it again. Plus, Instagram and Facebook are great ways to share these little moments with other people! If you remember before the internet, you'd try to tell others about what you saw, but you could never get them to imagine it exactly and god forbid it was something too amazing to be believed!

Even candid shots of people can be the best photos. Capturing someone while they're not paying attention, but also when they aren't blinking or making funny faces, can lead to some fantastic natural shots that are often much more attractive and show more personality than any studio shot in the whole world.

PhotoSynth

PhotoSynth is a free program where you phone uses its accelerometer to take pictures that overlap and stitches them together. Very cool. Might be iPhone only.

Trailing Off

This picture looks more impressive than the amount of work that went into getting it. One of the tricks to getting a good Instagram photo is that you simply have to start with a good camera or good picture. What I mean is the quality. You want a high-resolution image so that you can't see the individual pixels of an image. Older photos or ones taken and blown up from the internet have a bit of fuzzy coloring and texture to them. With the iPhone this isn't a big concern because it is great quality for a camera on a phone.

When you frame up your shots, you also need to make sure they're well focused. If you tap once on your screen in shooting mode, the camera will try to focus the area you tapped on. If your image is still out of focus, then you are simply too close to the object. This picture was actually taken about 6-8 inches from the subject. Because you've started with a higher quality image, you can zoom in once you're in Instagram and the image will still look crisp and clean because you don't need to zoom in much so there isn't much loss of quality.

After that it was as simple as popping the Lo-Fi filter on this because I felt it gave a nicer, more contrasty, old school feel than the original. The background sinks away more definitively and the flowers pop out.

Shoes

Anyone can post pics of their shoes, but it's usually sterile, plain shots of the shoe sitting on the floor fully in frame. Now this works for selling most products, but as a photo to be enjoyed it often doesn't invoke much response. Instead, try zooming in very close, capturing the texture of the shoe. Or try a strange angle like shooting the picture from underneath or up one side. Just because a person can't see the whole subject of your photo all at once doesn't mean it isn't effective. An air of mystery or a unique perspective can greatly add to an images charm and power. This image, for example, is the inside side of one of my athletic sneakers. There's more interest here because it is a focus of color, pattern, and texture, rather than just a picture of a shoe.

Summer Pie

This was a picture that I took with my iphone and only edited the color a bit in PhotoForge2. I like to try to keep my pictures simple and realistic. I know many of the ins and outs of Photoshop, but I don't feel like you need it to take a great picture. There a photos from the time that cameras were invented that show more skill and originality than many images of today which are run through multiple filters and are barely recognizeable as the original. I also find the iphone takes amazing pictures with incredible clarity that is better than what nearly any average person needs.

The pie is a graham cracker crust (store-bought for ease), berries of my choosing, whipped cream and banana cream pudding. DON'T overfill your crust. The weight of the berries on the pudding will push all the outer berries and pudding over the side and out of the pie. :(

Instagram

I can also now be followed on Twitter and Instagram. My handle is @cirienphoenix. I will try to post pics here too and maybe give more insight as to how I take them.

Toracon 2012

Corpse Bride

This is just an old sketch dump. I still thought it was worth sharing. Drawn with pencils.

Moving pictures, but not a movie

Cinemagr.am is so cool! This was my first ever usage of it and I was just kind of huddled in bed listening to music, but I think this came out super cool! There are way more of them that are much cooler. I recommend trying it out.

Another Cat Picture

Cat on Fire = Katniss?

Cement Floor

The dirty basement floor. Ew.

Horror Room

This is a creepy picture taken in my basement.

Cemetery

I had taken a walk in the cemetery and had snapped a couple pics from a distance of things. Despite it being a walk, I was in a hurry so the shots aren't very good. I was geocaching with my brother. But I still took these shots and then I edited a couple of them in Instagram and they came out really great! Thought you might be interested in the bland becoming cool and artsy. If you have an iPhone I recommend you get Instagram!

Cupcake Closeups

This looks like a blue and orange Oompa-Loompa!

Made him by mistake! He looks like the Lorax!

He's a happy little snowball!

Much closer to being a for-real Oompa!

He looks like a Ninja Turtle sort of.

One of my favorites! He was my Scottish cupcake!

If I had taken this photo at an angle, he would look like the tiny blue Angry Birds.

This one sort of looks like a luchadore.

Tray 3 of monster cupcakes

Tray 3 of the monster cupcakes

Tray 2 of monster cupcakes

Tray 2 of monster cupcakes

Monster Cupcakes - Tray 1

Tray 1 of the monster cupcakes

So this is the first tray of monster cupcakes that I made for the boyfriend! I only used orange and sky blue food coloring from Wilton's. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on them and I knew I could still create a lot of variations with only 3 colors (including the white). I've also never done piping and frosting with tips before, just usually slap frosting on with a knife. I found this shockingly easy. I did make mistakes, but overall, I felt this was really really simple! So this is just one third of what I had made for him. He loved them! There are 2 more trays to come and then I will post individual pics of the monsters since they're really cute. Although, I wasn't thinking about it, but I got red velvet for the cake part so it was a little morbid to bite into the monster and reveal his red innards. Oh well. :)

Oranges Repeater

Based on how cute yesterday's limes were, I repurposed them into oranges and made a different background that instead of only repeating horizontally, can be tiled in all directions.

Lime Art Room Background

In the event that SOPA or ACTA come to pass and they visit this blog, let it be known that this background is made by me! Just some quick work in Adobe Illustrator and now we have a cute looking blog.

Art for Love

My boyfriend and I have a different way of going about Valentine's Day each year. We celebrate by making each other a gift and we each provide part of the meal. Generally, I paint something for him and I plan to do the same thing this year, too. I have a few ideas rolling around, but I'm not sure what I'm going with yet. I might draw us in the style of some of our favorite comics, like MS Paint Adventures or Girls with Slingshots. We'll have to see where I go with this. Ultimately though, this is about having fun while making the gift for the other person and showing your love.

The follow-up dinner will likely be homemade spaghetti from him and I am going to be making cupcakes as I've done a couple times for this holiday before. This year when I was at Walmart, I was looking through the seasonal section and they had the usual cutesy V-Day related stuff like red velvet mixes and pearly foils, but then I saw the one thing to make this the most awesome cupcakes ever!

Candy eyeballs! They have flat bottoms and are entirely edible. They aren't googly since the black spot is just a sugar spot, but they are still so cute. This means my boyfriend is getting MONSTER CUPCAKES! Probably mostly in 2 colors since I don't want to buy a bunch of colors for just a dozen or so cupcakes, but that might look more cohesive anyway. 

So what says romance? Clearly nerdiness and monsters.

Snow Zombie and his Victim

My boyfriend and I were outside. Most people would enjoy "outside," but it's winter and I hate winter so much. You don't even understand. I hate waking up in the dark and getting out of work in the dark. I hate cleaning my car off in freezing cold temperatures. I hate my shoes and pants getting wet and cold, then never drying. I hate slipping. I hate falling. I hate snowblindness. You get the idea. Winter is pretty much the worst thing ever.

That being said, the only redeeming part of winter is making a snowman. It's the only thing that makes the suffering worth it all. I build a snowman every single year and I try to make it cute or funny. I do have a really nice picture of last year's snowman, but that will come later.

This year though, the snowman needed to be super cool since we're having a very warm winter here and it's hardly snowed at all (HOORAY!). So we made a small zombie and his victim.

How did we make them? 

Build 2 snowmen: one standing, one lying. Use whatever you want for the eyes and use branches for arms. We used chestnuts for the victim's eyes and the spiny shells for the zombie.

For the green color, you take a 4- or 5-oz. bottle, like an old eyeglass cleaner bottle, and you fill it with water and leave just about a quarter inch at the top below the screw portion of the neck. Add four drops yellow and four drops of blue food coloring. Yes, regular food coloring, like you use for cookies. Spray your zombie (he's about 2-3 feet tall) and this covers him front and back. 

Next, dump any extra out. Refill the bottle and use two drops of red and two drops of orange. This will get you a "jersey orange" look, so you can change it if you want, but we thought it would be funny to have it be someone with a "jersey tan". Spray down your victim.

Dump out the extra and refill. Use about 4 drops of red. You will end up with pink, but for spraying the little blood spots on the zombie, this is a great way to give him some variation of color. You can also carve him a mouth and spray a lot in there. You also need to give your victim a wound (carving with a butter knife works pretty well) and spray a lot of red in there. You're not trying to soak it bright red since you would need a lot of undiluted color for that, you just want people to get the idea.

Break off some little branch pieces about an inch big and make them zombie teeth. For the final touch, take your red food color and gently touch single undiluted drops to his lips to make his mouth especially bloody, you can give your victim a bloody mouth while you're at it (he's got no organs!!), and also put a couple of drops in his wound. This might use your red up, but I'm assuming you're reading this and didn't rush straight outside, so you knew what you were getting into.

Now go outside and hate winter a little less... unless you live where there is no snow, in which case you're lucky!

Welcome!

Hello there!

My name is Sue and I'm starting this blog. I just want somewhere to post comics and art. I want a space full of freedom without worrying about really designing the site itself. I don't really do web design. I've dabbled and I had classes for it in college, but it's been a long time.

Anyway, this is a blog where I plan to post things that help me relax. You'd think an artist would want to do something else with their time besides more art to relax, but I didn't become an artist for the money or anything like that. I want to have some fun and share it with others.

Here's a picture of me from a few years ago with my "space" sunglasses! I don't really look like this anymore, but this picture still makes me happy.