Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cornhusk Dolly

Yeah, I'm sort of on a kick here. This cornhusk dolly is very much on my tree. I picked her up at the Gonzales pioneer village one year, where they have popcorn over a fire and tell stories of pioneer Christmases and make the best ginger cookies I've ever eaten.



The Dolly didn't stop spinning to talk to the Pony. She wasn't rude, she just didn't stop spinning, her cornhusk skirts catching the slightest breezes that came up from the base of the tree.

"I don't know what a Pony is", she said, twirling, "or I've forgotten. But you have a very nice voice."

The Pony thought she was being polite, and said so. She laughed.
"I'm too dizzy to be polite! But you're dizzy too, or you wouldn't say silly things."

Monday, December 15, 2008

Golden Impossible

I hate missing a day! But I could not get Blogger to cooperate yesterday before Christmasness took me away from the computer. Alack.

Anyway!

I seem to have a storybook happening. I'm getting all these scenes, but not in order.

The Unicorn is a real ornament on my tree, by the way. But it has never said anything in my hearing, even after a whooooole lot of eggnog.



"Of course I cannot be real all the time," said the Unicorn "but this is a Christmas tree, and things are different here."

The rocking horse was a rocking horse anywhere, even if it was more of a Pony, and thought it must be very fine to be real only sometimes.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Epic Battles

I was just going to draw one of the ornaments on my tree. But I do not like still life, apparently on a molecular level, because this happened:



The mighty wooden soldier does battle with the ancient dragon-fly for the life of the Christmas Tree! Huzzah!

My favorite thing about this picture is the way the background turned out. I wanted to get some of the speckled effect that actual Christmas ornaments get from the lights and branches and all, and it was just luck that the background showed through pretty much along those lines.

Also, I love the heck out of Christmas. Expect blather along those lines for at least the next 12 days.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Tiger Stealing

Sorry to fall off the face of the world, folks-- I work at a college testing center, and the last two weeks of the semester meant finals, which means no energy for Carapace outside of work. But I survived! And now I'm free! So expect sketchery to return for the rest of the month. Like so!



This tiger is blatantly taken from a photo in National Geographic. This sort of photo inspiration always makes me uneasy, because I don't want to be accused of image theft. On the the other hand, the photo-tiger was rather less....swirly. So I don't know, maybe I've changed it enough?

Another thing about this tiger, and the issue with a lot of my pictures, is that it is not anywhere near as cool as it could be. If I really had any artistic talent, I'd make it out of cut paper. Wouldn't it look awesome in purple and orange paper? Or cast iron, or anything with a bit of dimension? Yes it would. Heck, even a good textured acrylic painting would be better than this. At least that last one might be in my capacity. I don't know when it'll get done, because paintings take a looooong time. But sad experience has taught me it's better to get the idea down and save it for later than wait until I can do things right and lose the whole concept. So, tiger!

I have gallons of sketches- and chattery -- saved up from the last couple of weeks, too, so start coming back now, y'hear? Hope everyone else is having a great month!