There are a lot of stages to mask making, but one of the most time consuming is the staging and photo sessions that happen after each mask is complete. I’m still in that process with this one, but I couldn’t wait any longer to share it!

This mask is made to be comfortable for someone who has a wider face or plump cheeks The form itself is flattened out a bit more than my normal standard so it rests on the nose without touching the cheeks at all. Someone with a thinner face could of course still wear this, but I can’t guarantee my normal standard of comfort.

Look for it soon in my Artfire shop and if you are looking for a perfect accessory take a look at the necklace I just posted there as well!

Today’s trip to Kroger, set me back $42. I saved $45, but in actuality I really only needed one or two of the items I picked up. I think that I need to learn a bit more patience and start carrying a calculator.

Another rookie mistake I made was not totaling things before I got to the cash register. I see a sale sign for something I have a coupon for and it’s like my hands go on autopilot and drop whatever (there’s no way I’ll ever use this product) product in the cart. *sigh* Darn my must buy syndrome!

Of course, on the upside of things, I’m starting to build my own surplus product box. Now if only that would keep me from buying more of the same things…

Oddly, this deal searching hyperactivity never seems to extend to … the Real World…

Well step back, because that’s all about to change! A few days ago, I joined the Michigan Coupon Club and now I’m on the prowl.
I’ve got my binder ready, and my scissors warmed up. Manufacturers and cashiers beware, this is one bird that’s looking for in-store deals!

If you’ve found a great coupon/promotion code site or have coupon tips of your own to share, please post them below. I’ll need all the help I can get.

Enter the seven color pencil, which to my mind is one of the quickest and easiest things to lug around with you and still introduce a little color to those random ‘on the road’ sketches. If you are anything like me, ideas take a whack at you out of the blue at the most inconvenient times. It’s much easier to throw one pencil and sharpener in my purse than to try hauling around a set.

I was introduced to these lovely pencils by a rather excellent friend of mine in Japan. I’ve received quite a few now with different patterns and illustrations on them. Unfortunately, I can’t read Japanese, although it does appear that they are made by several companies. So far I’ve found the names: Crux corporation, San-x, Kamio Japan Inc., and Mind Wave Inc.

I’ve searched online for these particular seven color pencils for a very long time and I’ve only found a few places to buy them bcmini.com and pencils.jp are two of such places.

I have found a version of this pencil in America.They are most often in the kid’s arts and crafts section and I seem to stumble across them pretty randomly. While these pencils do have multi colored lead, the downside is that the lead colors are swirled together. (The Japanese version of this pencils separates each of the colors so that when sketching you can turn the pencil slightly to introduce a new color.) The swirled lead makes the sketching effect much more random. You can take a look at this variety here.

If you decide to give these pencils a try, please share a link to one of your drawings. I’d love to see!

This is my first ever WordPress site, so if you see any glaring mistakes (why do I have the urge to scream “I DIDN’T DO IT!” ?) I just haven’t noticed it yet.

I also had the extreme pleasure of using the Headway theme to help (and boy did it ever) in the new design. (If you haven’t heard of Headway, check out the link in the footer.)

Now as no post is complete without at least one picture, here’s a prelim sketch of another book cover I’m working on.

Of course, it probably doesn’t help that instead of working on it, I’ve been tromping around in the woods with my sister’s dog snapping photos like a maniac…

I rarely keep records of the exact time I spend on each piece, but I’m going to estimate that this took between 15-20 hours of hand painting in Photoshop. I am really in love with the new color mixer brush in CS5! All total I think I also created 6 new brushes for the texture work, which was quite a bit of fun to experiment with.

I’m pretty happy with the end result and I’d love to hear your comments.

Here’s the finished illustration, the complete designed cover and and couple random detail clips:

The preliminary thumbnail:

and a sequence of progression following that:

As you can see from the progression, I still have quite a bit of work to do on the castle and there is a tree line/woods section that has yet to be added. I will be sure to post the completed image as soon as it’s ready. In the meantime, now is your chance to visit the author’s site: K. Writerly

Bookmark it, check out all her incredibly awesome stories and don’t forget to buy a copy of The Last Legend as soon as it’s available!

This year I chose to make a griffin costume… enter mass quantities of fur, feathers and assorted yarn, lots and lots of planning and some very lucky thrift store purchases. The mask, bra and fur/feather belt were made by yours truly. Kudos to my mom though for the crochet work along the top of my yarn skirt! (One of these days I really must learn how to crochet.)

My sister went with a phoenix theme and we decided to use a lot of different colors of fabric to simulate a fire effect. In the end it’s a bit different than I think either of us was thinking, but I still think it turned out great!

So to commemorate what I believe to be some pretty successful costume designing this year my sister and I had our pictures taken professionally on site by Medieval Memories. The photos below are posted with permission by Medieval Memories – I highly encourage anyone attending the Michigan Renaissance Festival to have their own photos taken! (ps. if you need garb – they’ll even dress you up first!)

ps. coming soon, several new masks, a new header for the blog (please excuse the current incompleteness, and hopefully some new content on the portfolio