Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

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!








Monday, January 23, 2012

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.