Category: Art

The Year In Postcards

  • December 10, 2019

As I’ve shared on this blog several times, this past year I started Postcrossing, and it’s become a favourite hobby of mine. This post is about the postcards I sent and received from friends and family, and once again it was a great year.

I received postcards from all over the world! Specifically from Scotland, England, Budapest, The Netherlands, Australia, Hawaii, Tonga, Norfolk Island, Denver, China, India and probably one or two other places I’ve forgotten. The above photo shows just a few of them, and as usual they ran the gamut from scenic to funny to saucy.

I love them all of course, but the above – sent by SMC from Colorado – gave me the absolute giggles. The cowboy just looks so serious 🙂

Naturally I sent myself/KLS a legion of cards (more than one per vacation day on average) and once again I relaxed in many a hotel room sketching, drawing or even painting on the back of such cards. Many of these illustrations went to one of you, but I made sure to send many home as well. Here’s a selection:

Australia was when I developed a few extra skills in watercolor, and I think you’ll agree my likenesses became photorealistic. The above examples – all sent to KLS from Oz – weren’t chosen randomly: for some reason each of these three are often repeated as topics of my postcard art. I’m sure many of you have received a Grimace by now?

The above was drawn in Florida back in May, and on that trip I think I made a few strides toward more realistic renditions in this and a few (requests) I sent others. I also did a series (ten or so?) of Dobby the elf from Harry Potter cards that I sent from Florida. When I do such things I usually choose who gets which one randomly. I hope you liked your Dobby 🙂

In California I dabbled with many more likenesses, and using watercolor pens even went so far as to attempt blending and shading! I even did matching portraits of the Supernatural boys that I feel cane out pretty good:

Alas my cards are in disarray, and the necessary task of sorting them so I can better prepare a post like this must wait until the new year. I’ve also got lots of them now – going back >25 years – and will have to upgrade my storage.

Very soon I’m off again to Australia and Japan. Needless to say I’ll be sending cards again so watch your mailboxes in the new year. And if you have any art requests – I’ll be using watercolors again – please let me know…

Beading

  • November 10, 2019

Over four years ago I made a masterpiece using Perler Beads. It was a day of the highest highs and lowest lows but from the ordeal emerged what it still one of my favourite possessions.

And yet despite using 3364 beads that day it was only a tiny fraction of the beads we had bought! Perler Beads, purchased in bulk, are cheap and I had tens of thousands remaining! And in time – now and then over the intervening years – I have used them for what they are most often used for: making physical models of game sprites!

The process is somewhat laborious to be honest, but it’s a fun diversion every year or so and the results usually look ok. Ironing them to melt the beads together is still the irritating part, since it’s difficult to get them regularly melted. Color matching can be iffy too, at least for me since I just use what I have.

The above was made using very tiny beads and the finished invader is only about 2 cm wide. As you can see I melted him thoroughly so you can’t even see the holes in the beads any more. I think he looks good!

For most of these I superglue magnets on the back and they live on our metal doors. The lower left frog was an original creation made by JK (and also uses tiny beads) and the squirrel – which is quite large – was originally made for my mum but due to fragility I haven’t brought it to Australia for fear of it breaking!

That’s a black mage from Final Fantasy. He took longer than I expected and almost fell to pieces during ironing. My heart skipped a few beats!

For a couple of years now I’ve entertained the thought of doing another large scale project, albeit not as big as The Masterpiece. But then I recall that 7-hour nightmare and reconsider 🙂

But who knows… maybe one day I’ll get to it…

  • Posted in Art
  • Robert

Inktober 2019

  • November 1, 2019

I did ‘Inktober’ again! This is where artists – such as myself – create and share a new piece every day in October. I used the same app as last year and once again followed no theme, making each piece up as I went along. You’ve already seen one example in the previous post; here I’ll show more.

They started off rather simple. The above was inspired by a dream in which I was tending a strange plant just like the one drawn. I was still getting refamiliarizing myself with the app at this point.

That was drawn after listening to Bela Lugosi’s Dead over and over again (“The virginal brides file past his tomb…“). I wanted to superimpose a window over it with Dracula looking out but lacked the skill.

This one was inspired after watching a YouTube video about the days of airships flying over NYC. It also features silhouettes, which were a common motif this year.

One day, when I was very tired after my 11.5 hours at work, SMC sent a dazzling photo of an ocean sunset in Vanuatu. I used it as inspiration for the above. To be honest I could have put more detail in but I was simply too exhausted!

Around halfway through the month I developed a few new tricks that allowed me to squeeze a bit more detail out of what is a very limited drawing app. This simple sketch of a tower was an early example, but things progressed in time to pieces like this:

And eventually this:

The above is my favorite drawing of not just this years group, but last year as well. I feel I – finally – achieved what I wanted with the starfield and the lighting of the silhouette and enjoyed reusing the tower from earlier. I wonder who lives there?

Another Inktober is now over, and my talents will – at least for the next 11 months – remain exclusive to cards and postcards. But I’m sure I’ll be back for Inktober 2020!