My Bad Art Habit

I have this bad habit of taking on lots of creative projects and then having no interest/motivation/desire to start them.  It’s pretty bad.   However, I am now trying with renewed effort (and some meds because apparently I’m sick and that’s why I’ve been sleeping so much).  It began with rampant cleaning and organizing.  The bed is made, the desk is nearly free of clutter, you can see the pictures on top of the dresser again and the easel is no longer a clothing rack. After all this cleaning I was left to stare at this:

Two lovely stretchers and my favorite shoes.  Favorites for many reasons, but mostly because they remind me of these:

Remember When I Used To Want to be an Art Teacher?

Way back in early 2008 I was student teaching and I was required to make a professional portfolio.  I made a book with lots of colorful paper and used it as a student teaching scrapbook.  My professor said it was great, but not as a professional portfolio.  Later that year I brought it to my only job interview for a teaching position – and I got the job! I think my amazingly creative and handmade book helped. Anyways, after my two months as a leave replacement teacher I decided I never want to teach again and I should avoid it at all costs.  Because of this I am currently quite poor and not too long ago I carefully removed all the pages I had used in this handmade book.  There were still many more unused pages and I wanted to re-use the book.  Today’s project was to add new pages.

The Blanket

Way back in the fall of 2010 I started crocheting a blanket for Ryan.  His mom had started a blanket that would match the new couch and, after watching her crochet, I asked her to teach me.  It was pretty easy considering I had previously had almost no experience crocheting.  She taught me the/an afghan stitch (I’m not sure if there’s more that one kind of afghan stitch).  Ryan picked out the colors to match his room; black, white, gray, and red.  I made many squares with a yarn that changed colors between black, white and gray.  We decided each square would get a border of red before all the squares were attached.  To learn to make the border I asked Ryan’s mom and she taught me because she’s awesome like that!  After making 49 bordered squares I attached them all in a large 7 x7 square blanket.  It was lovely, but it was not as large as we had hoped it would be.

And that is why I have gone back to making and bordering squares in my spare time.  In the past couple weeks I’ve completed 9 squares and I only need 6 more.

Here’s what it looks like:

Cthulhu Screen is Nearly Half Finished.

Today’s art adventure involved the Cthulhu GM Screen.   The second to last layer of oil paint is on and it looks like water. The player’s view side now only needs the tiny boat for size comparison.  On the far right is the GM side of the front panel, it has the resistance table on it.  It got a blue border and will eventually get chart labels.

Ok, so it’s not the best picture, but florescent lights are not good for photographing shiny surfaces.  Small boat, labels and better pictures to come.

New Start for an Old Project – Call of Cthulhu Screen

Quite some time ago, around November 2009, I started a special project for my boyfriend, Ryan, a Call of Cthulhu game master screen.  Ryan is very into tabletop role-playing games and is frequently the game master. After the first GM screen we made, I was excited to make the Cthulhu screen, but it kept getting put off and never finished.

The first screen we made was a GM screen for Whitewolf’s Mage:The Acension.  It did not take long to make and the whole process seemed faster because of how excited we were to be making it.  This particular screen has six stained wood panels with hand carved and painted details, as well as a fitted clip for holding papers.  Ryan recreated the necessary game charts to match the theme and they were attached to the inside panels.

Mage Screen, Book Front