Elf Costume

I finally got a picture of my Elvish costume. Thank you, "Rose", for needing a picture of it asap. :)

Only the dress is shown in this picture. My costume also included a white cape from an old costume and a full jewelry set I made.

I hope to do a photoshoot sometime with the full costume (if I can get my brother to man the camera...). In the meantime... just be happy with this, please. :)


EDIT: I now have several more pictures of this costume. Please see "My Masquerade Costume" [LINK]

Gandalf

The Lord of the Rings has, yet again, been dragged around wherever I go. This time around, I am reading it sloooowly, taking time to absorb all the depth and detail. Of course, I can never read such an awesome book without a strong itch to draw...

This drawing is based off of a black-and-white photograph. I drew it entirely freehand. Total time ran around 3 hours.

I have to say that this is the first drawing I have ever done that ACTUALLY looks like the person I am drawing.

I loved drawing the eyes. I love drawing eyes in general. This is the first time I've ever drawn baggy, wrinkly, squinting, strong, and kindly eyes. I'm not convinced I nailed it, but everyone says it looks like Gandalf.

THE BEARD. Ohhhh, the beard. Because of the scanner, you can't see all the light detail on the right hand side, but if you look at the left side you can see how I drew the beard. Line. After. Line. Scribble. After. Scribble.

The eyebrows were interesting but lots of fun. :)

My brother has claimed this picture for his bedroom. :) Its not usual for this particular brother to admit liking anything I make, so I take it as a good sign.

Let me take a moment to say that I don't like scanners!!!! The scanner lost half the detail. :(

EDIT: WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES

(the picture I used for reference is actually a photo, not a drawing!)

(you can see more detail if you click this bottom picture. 'Cause it was taken with a camera, not a scanner.)

Aragorn

Aragorn! Aragorn and Sam are tied for my all time favorite Lord of the Rings character. The day after I finished my Gandalf drawing, my brother immediantly printed out a poster of Aragorn and told me that I must draw it.

So I did! The picture had strange lighting... It made Aragorn look angry rather than kingly. I tried fixing that in my drawing, but I messed up the eyes a bit. It looks like he's got a black eye... I've fixed that but haven't taken a photo of the fixed drawing. :P

I spent a good four hours on this drawing. I'm not sure, though; I lose track of time! Honestly, I get as caught up in artwork as I do when reading a book. And let me tell you-- I can never put books down. If I am interrupted, I go about doing everything distractedly, wondering what will happen... running off to read the first availble moment... Art is like that, too!!!

Here is the Work In Progress:

The chainmail. Oh, I have no words for the chain mail... I have no idea how to do it, and my usual technique of "just do it and see what happens" didn't yeild the results I wanted,

My facebook status at this point said: "Some people are able to patiently spend hours drawing realistic chainmail. After five minutes, I realized that I shall never count myself among their number. Hello, sqiggles."

L. reminded me that squiggles will never protect said drawing in the event of a spear thrust...

But squiggle-mail must Aragorn don, because this artist ain't got that kind of patience.

Messing around...

As you can see, I'm experimenting with different backgrounds, layouts, and HTML. I should be finished in a little bit!

The Old Look

The New Look

So, what do you think? I love Blogger's new "Template Designer" (only available in Blogger Draft). That combined with some computer-punching and alot of Google magic helped create the new look! I know that not all of the colors match... The background is a little busy (but hey! It's Rivendell!). I might make a new header... The current one was made for the size of the classical Blogger layout, not the new, bigger one!

I would like to point out a neat little bit of HTML I did... Do you see the little butterfly on the bottom left side of the screen? Yup, it does something. Click it! Isn't that cool? Took me long enough to figure it out...

Oooh, also check out the fun little pages I've got going on the top. They aren't done yet, but its a cool idea!

What internet browser do you have? The background looks different on Firefox and Explorer... but that might just be an issue with the Firefox on this computer (I need to fix the settings).

Bag End!

Wow! Someone built a miniature Bag End! Its amazing... How someone could have the patience to build it with such meticulous detail, I have no idea.

Bag End Miniature

This shall be an inspiration. (If I ever decide to do miniatures! lol)

More Old Drawings

These are fom the past year or two or so.

Marker!

From 2008, picture of an Elf from my imagination

Random thing for school 2008

Random thing for school 2008

Okay, this takes some explaining... if you think it looks weird you are right. I did this art thing over at the senior high when I was 13 and they said that you had to made the number 11 say something about you. Very.... interesting. So I drew 13 fairies, because I was 13 and have always loved fairies. Each of them are doing things I enjoy: reading, writing, dryawing, acting, being silly, dancing, etc. I had that sword thing from King Arthur because I love myths and legends, the castle because I love fantasy, the AWESOME quote by G.K. Chesterton who has since become one of my favorite authors. I shoved in tons of other references, too. :P I wound up getting third place, which was really weird, because I was like 7th grade and all the other people there were juniors and seniors. I got a portfolio out of it, which was awesome.

2009 A fun little sign for the dressing room door at the theater during Pirates of Penzance

Pastel. 2007?

iPod Touch Stylus

I got an iPod touch awhile ago! I was slightly annoyed, though, that the screen could only be used with your finger. Being an artist at heart, I loved the drawing apps. Being big in the bones, I have rather large fingers that made drawing on a four inch screen difficult. Being a person filled with curiosity, I had to figure out why iPods can't have styluses.
Here is the info on the way an iPod touch screen works. Its seriously cool. You must read it. Press "next" to continue with the article. HowStuffWorks--iPod Touch Screen

That explained why syluses don't work. It needs to be conductive.

Being a crafty person (in more than on sense... muahaha) I had to make a stylus. That is conductive. Being a person who misses the obvious, I didn't even think to look online and realize that they actually sell nice iPod styluses. Ones that don't have the same problem mine have.

The problem with mine:
It only works if it is touching your hand or skin or a banana. (WHY the banana works? That I don't know. But I did it accidently once. And it worked. Although that might just have been a fluke...). This stylus will be useless with a glove. However, it allows for better control on the screen!

This was an experiment; I didn't actually use all supplies shown.

You will need:
Aluminum foil
Tape
Two or more foil wrappers from Wrigley's gum (believe me, it makes sense)
Old pencils to kill
A craft knife
And an iPod touch

My stylus is two-sided. One side is angled, the other flat. Take your pencil and use the craft knife to cut its tip at an angle. Make sure to round the tip. You don't want any pointy things that can hurt your expensive toy.

Make sure that the eraser end has a large enough eraser-- again, you don't want sharp pointy things.

Cover both ends with the Wrigley's gum wrappers. Secure with regular Scotch tape. The gum wrappers are a soft foil covered with a thin cushiony substance. It is much softer than aluminum foil and will not harm your iPod. It is also very conductive.

Cut a peice of aluminum foil to cover the pencil. Be sure it reaches the gum wrappers but does not reach the ends.

Secure with Scotch tape.

I then tested it out. It does work and does not harm the iPod.

I covered mine with blue painter's tape! Voila! A stylus!