Halloween Costume - Vorin Havah

Title: Vorin Havah
Halloween is coming up, and with it the wonderful excuse opportunity for cosplay. This year I'll be going as a brightlady from Stormlight Archive, and I figured this would be an excellent opportunity to expand my sewing skills and blog repertoire.

I'd like to start by addressing the sleeves. Yes, one is longer than the other, and yes, this is on purpose. This dress is my interpretation of an in-book costume called a havah. Vorin tradition dictates that a woman's left sleeve be long enough to cover the left hand (called the safehand) for the sake of modesty. On the other hand, (cough*bad joke!*cough) it's perfectly acceptable for the right hand to be exposed.

I think the hardest part was designing the dress. It was an interesting mix of fun and frustrating, as there's nothing quite like it. After reviewing the descriptions in the books, what I had in mind, and dresses that already exist, I finally decided to base my dress on the Vietnamese ao dai. The ao dai's skirt is slit up to the waist and worn with loose pants underneath, which I thought would be perfect for horseback riding, action scenes, and whatever crazy adventures cosplaying brightladies might get into.

The dress isn't quite done yet -- I'd still like to do a bit of embellishing -- but it's been a really fascinating project. I had a lot of help from my mom and grandma to turn this project from an idea into a reality and I'm very grateful I've had the opportunity to work on it.

Taking a Mental Break - Shadows of Self Cast

Well, I've been working at my picture book for several weeks now, so for fall break I'm taking a break from dialogue and storyboarding.

So, presenting this week's project: The Shadows of Self cast.

Title: Shadows of Self Cartoon Cast
Size: 8 by 12 inches
Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Shadows of Self, just hit the shelves last week, so now I bring you the cast. Alright, so admittedly this isn't the entire cast, but I think I've got pretty much everyone important (except for Innate. And Saze. And TenSoon. And-). Well, either way, I'm happy to have these guys drawn out. SoS was an excellent read, so I did my best to bring the characters to life using the descriptions in the book.

This project was pretty fun, as I got to spend plenty of time checking my sources for accuracy -- "What's that you say? You don't remember Marasi's hair color? Better re-read that passage again, just to make sure you didn't miss it." (And I promise constable-general Aradel isn't DI Lestrade from BBC's Sherlock. Really, where would you get an idea like that?) I imagine I'll come back at some point and rework this piece with color, but until then, happy fall break to all, and to all a good night.

Picture book drawings - page 1

Title: Kitten in the Orchestra Pit - page 1

So here's the official start of my picture book. A fluffy kitten peeking around the door.

I'll be back later with more.

Picture Book Text - Kitten in the Orchestra

So! I've finally decided that I'll be doing my 'kitten in the orchestra' story for my picture book. I've rewritten the text so that it's shorter and more straightforward. 

Ahem. This is Kitten in the Orchestra featuring Maas the kitten and his friend Amalie. Please take your seats and enjoy.

Maas poked his head into the dark room. It looked empty. Where was Amalie?

---

There were all sorts of interesting things in the room. Bouncing across the floor, Maas found something long and smooth. A contrabass.

---

He walked further, finding sets of smaller, similar instruments.

Groups of cellos. Several violas.

---

An entire forest of violins, with a scattering of woodwinds on the border.

Where was Amalie?

---

Soon Maas came to a towering, graceful harp beside a huge piano. He batted at the strings, and the resulting dust made him sneeze.

(page 5)

---

There were chairs again, topped abandoned trumpets and clarinets. One even had a bass clarinet.

But no Amalie.

---

He looked by the swirling-tubed french horns and spindly trombones. He even checked behind the tympani.

But still no Amalie.

---

Where was she?

---

Tired of searching, Maas settled next to the tuba and blinked back tears. Where was Amalie?

---

Slowly, Maas drifted into sleep. He dreamed he was chasing Amalie through the pages of a concerto.

(page 10)

---

He woke suddenly when someone picked him up.

“There you are, you silly kitty.”

It was Amalie!

---

“I’m so glad I finally found you!” she told him, scratching his ears.

Maas was glad too.

New Collage - Timpanogos Temple Drawing

Working Title: Mount Timp. Temple Collage
Size: 8 and 1/2 by 14 inches
After my success with the Shallan Collage last year, I've decided it's time for another collage project. This time I want to focus on using paper with interesting textures. So far all I've got is the drawing, but I think it's going pretty well. :)


Here's my reference photo:

I'm so excited for this project!

Picture Book Sketches (part 3)

Title: Maas and the Abandoned Orchestra
Size: Each frame is 4 and 1/2 by 3 inches
This week's picture book features a kitten named Maas and his adventures through an abandoned orchestra pit. Writing first worked so well last week that I decided to try it again. My sister suggested I write a story that included plenty of instruments, so I decided to use an orchestra.

This story was fun to draw because of all the proportions. It's one thing to draw an instrument, but another to try and make them the right size. I also enjoyed looking for reference photos of kittens. :P

Whimsical Watercolor - 18th Century Owl

Title: Eighteenth Century Owl

Size: 7 by 5 inches

This week I wanted to do something a little more whimsical. It's been a while since I did something a silly piece. And so I bring you.... A burrowing owl in a powdered wig!

I think where this piece came from was my visit to an aviary earlier this week. It had me thinking about owls, and I really wanted to do a burrowing owl. I've done doodles of animals in different historical clothing before, so when I was looking at pictures of owls I thought "hey, that one looks like he's wearing a cravat and waistcoat" and thus this was born.

I think I like doing goofy little things like this because it's half in your head. I added a powdered wig and some shoe buckles, but the rest I just enhanced. Some of these owls do look almost like they have a necktie, and the way their feathers fade could almost look like an inversely colored vest and trousers. Add white leg feathers to knee high socks and poof! Enter eighteenth century owl.

When I started this piece I was having a lot trouble with defining lines. The whole thing looked kind of muddy. After I decided to switch this piece to be a mixed medium piece, rather than just a watercolor, things started going better. I used black and red pens to help define some boundaries and used some white paint to clean up the highlights (there's no white in watercolor).