Day 51: Cute n Cuddly

Title: Skullybunny
Assignment: Make something that would not normally be considered cute and cuddly into something that is.

Materials: Fluffy white Easter rabbit toy,

  

Skully, knife and scissors

 Inspiration: What child could possibly resist cuddling up with this every night?

Day 50: Minimalist

Title: Yeti, Saltsucker or Self-Portrait?

Assignment: Work only with white materials today. Try working white on white for a real challenge.

Materials. White paper, white plastic bag, scissors, stapler, tape, PS.

Inspiration: I liked the idea of only seeing the outline of a Yeti in the snow, but she also looks a bit like Nancy Crater or myself during tech week...

Day 49: Quantity over Quality

Title: Rice Ghost
Assignment: Work with a lot of something. It could be dried grains from the kitchen, a jar of buttons, or all your t-shirts.
Materials: Long grain white rice on a black board background, PS edge blur and color
Inspiration: I liked the unexpected way the grains fell on the board, and though this was a quick assignment, the textures and ease of creation made this one fun for me.

Day 48: How tall?

Title: Tower of Terror
Assignment: How tall can you make something that stands up on its own?
Materials: All my classic horror dvds, Vincent, some PS.
Inspiration: Luckily, I am...the JENGA QUEEN.

Day 47: Flowers

Title: DaffoKILL
Assignment: Work with flowers - artificial or real, live or dried, picked or bought.
Materials: A bunch of daffodils that were ready to be tossed, PS
Inspiration: What would I NOT want to have spring out at me on a jungle trek? This guy, spiders, snakes, giant cockroaches, the list goes on...

By the way, today's assignment was the first one I shot with my brand spankin' new Canon PS ELPH 300HS. SaWEEET!

Day 46: Face it

Title: Oatmealian
Assignment: What can you do with a face - yours or someone else's?
Materials: My face, some oatmeal, mud mask and some Photobooth.
Inspiration: I figured I could create a fairly gruesome look using mud mask and oatmeal, but it didn't really come to life until I played with some simple effects in Photobooth I didn't even know I had.

Day 45: Tape

Title: Masking Tape Mummy
Assignment: Create an image with masking tape or any other kind of tape. Try making it on a nontraditional surface.
Materials: Masking tape, Bob the model, acrylics, sculpie, blackboard for background. Natural light and PS for blending two shots.

Inspiration: Hammer's THE MUMMY - I loved the movie and hearing Chris Lee's commentary about how the film nearly killed him. You can certainly see the pain in his eyes, as that was about all he could act with after being mummified.

I started by wrapping Bob in saran wrap to protect him, then I sharpied a little section for his eyes and wrapped him in masking tape, then gave him eyes made out of sculpie. I started off with some shots and the afternoon sun giving Bob a great Nosferatu-ish shadow, but realized after that his wrappings were whiting out the shot. By the time I'd applied some moldy paint color, the sun had gone. So I blended two shots together, as you can see.

Day 44: Light

Title: Dark Shadows and Light
Assignment: Make something that lights up. Work with an existing lampshade or put a small electric lght or candle inside something you make.
Materials: An old lamp I found at Goodwill, prints of Dark Shadows Comics covers, some white lacy gift wrap.
Inspiration: I liked the idea of creating a new lampshade, and so I stripped the old asian paper off the lampshade I picked up at Goodwill and jazzed up some DS images with the wrap. Note that Barn's eyes now glow at you! ;-)

Day 43: Learn a New Skill

Title: Gardening with the Undead
Assignment: Learn something new. Ask a friend to help you do something using a technique or skill they are good at.
Materials: "Mold-it" Kit that I got from Goodwill a while back, some acrylic paint, PS for touch up, my backyard.

Inspiration: 2nd in the "Zombie Hand reaching up out of the ground" series. I unfortunately didn't have the time to strong arm one of my many talented friends into sharing a skill, so I followed the instructions on the molding and casting kit I found. I made a mold of my left hand out of one solution, then let it dry and poured the casting material (very like what dentists use) and let it dry overnight last night. I think perhaps because I was rushing a bit and the molding powder was old, my cast came out more ragged than I was expecting.

But a little paint touchup helped and just made the hand all the more disgusting.

 Hopefully my downstairs neighbor will enjoy the surprise outside her window...

Day 42: Junk Mail

Title: Heart Attack

Assignment: Turn today's junk mail into something much more appealing.

Materials: Store flyers, pen, glue, scissors, hole puncher.

Inspiration: With Valentine's Day next week, my mailbox is overflowing with red colored ads for flowers and MEAT MEAT MEAT along with the usual boxes of candy. So I decided to make a Valentine mosaic based on a human heart filled to bursting with all that. Not sure that it is more 'appealing', per se, but hopefully appropriate for this blog. I was actually surprised at the different shadings and depth I was able to create with the different reds, and especially like the little Chordae tendineae made out of strip steak.

Day 41: Think Big

Title: Kitten on a Rampage
Assignment: Create a large version of something that would normally be much smaller.
Materials: #1=Photoshop. #2 Watercolors, pencil, pen, a little PS.
Inspiration: I have wanted to try out using watercolors on paper that is meant for it, so I took the image that I'd PS'd together and edited, then used that to create something a little more impressionistic.

Day 40: Yarn

Title: Satan's Bookmark

Assignment: What can you do with yarn?

Materials: Yarn, Devil pin, a clipboard to secure yarn for tying.

Inspiration: I used to crochet up a storm, but that skill has sadly atrophied. I decided to try doing a version of a 'friendship bracelet', so found instructions here:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/friendship/mbracelets.htm and went to town. So much so that it soon became way too long for a bracelet, so I turned it into a bookmark instead.

DAY 39: HAIKU

Title: Brain Melt
Assignment: Write a haiku about something that happens to you today or is in the news today.           Bonus: Illustrate it.

Materials: a photo of me, PS

Inspiration: I started editing photos from the show in the morning, and found myself in that happy artist dreamland 'lost time' zone. I finally stepped away from the computer and was shocked to find it was 4pm and I was still in my fuzzy slippers.

Here's the original shot.

Here's with a little Liquify, Color and Lens Flare

And then here it is using every single 'Artistic Filter' on PS, with a little more work to emphasize the ghost that appeared. 

Day 38: Underwater

Title: Gilly

Assignment: Fill up a large bowl, vase, or old fish tank with water and create something inside of it.

Materials: Sculpey, wire, acrylic, beach rocks, glass vase with a little green/blue paint in it, pen light for lighting.

Inspiration: Creature from the Black Lagoon!

Day 37: Staplered

Title: Invention Exchange - "Porcu-panties!"

Assignment: Make something with a stapler. You can staple things together or just work with the staples.

Materials: a pair of ladies undies and a whole lot of staples.

Inspiration: With Valentine's Day just around the corner, give your special monster or mad scientist friend something they'll be sure to treasure. PORCU-PANTIES! They'll think of you every moment they are wearing them or using them to torture a victim!

(Oddly, I haven't yet been able to find a live model. ;-) )

As you can see by Vincent's look of longing in the background, he wishes he'd had these for his interpretation of Verden Fell in TOMB OF LIGEIA

Day 36: Something Old into New

Title: End Game

Assignment: Take something old and make it look new

Materials: An old, broken sculpture of two Chinese gentlemen playing chess, an old deathhead pin missing the pin, a stick and some tinfoil for the scythe, a little playdoh to hold the props in place, a metal mirror case for the platform and a bit of PS for the Grim Reaper's robe and new hand.

Inspiration: I rifled through old boxes of knick knacks and jewelry, trying to find something I could repurpose and turn into a more contemporary piece. I like the little mini photo studio look I created with a sheet of paper and shadows off the scythe.

Day 35: Instructions

Title: Staged Blood

Assignment: Create instructions that others can use to make something and then have someone try it out.

Materials: ink, acrylic paint

Inspiration: I know we're going to try to use blood in the show I'm currently working on, so I thought I'd have our props person Madeline try this recipe out. It cleans easy and tastes good!

Day 34: Wire

Title: Trapped

Assignment: Work with wire.

Materials: 28 gauge wire, Bob the wood model

Inspiration: This one took some rethinking. I started off trying to do a 'make your own' googly eye glasses, but that failed miserably. I then tried to build a wire body off of Bob, but liked the harsh look of the wire over the wood so much I went with that and sent him flying.

Not a monster, really, but perhaps inspired by Rodin's tormented souls in his "Gates of Hell".

Day 33: Pens

Title: Scorpien

Assignment: Use pens as your material/inspiration today. Draw with them, use them as construction material, or...?

Materials: a whole bunch of pens, lanyard cord, drawing paper.

Inspiration: Fooled around with trying to create an alien creature out of pens, then realizing it looked vaguely like a scorpion, drew an alien version of the creature and painted it with highlighter pens and marksalots.

Day 32: Emphemera

Title: Incensed Spirits

Assignment: Make something ephemeral. Can you create something using a material that will dissipate quickly, like bubbles, smoke, butter on a griddle, or cream in coffee?

Materials: Incense stick, black coat for background, one halogen light, a tiny bit of PS.

Inspiration: I love the creatures that appear in smoke and clouds, so this is an experiment in lighting and fighting with my Casio point n shoot which seems to be dying on me. A real challenge trying to get any sort of sharp focus, so I went with a more 'ghostly' attack.

Green Man

Smoke Gremlin

The Lady in White