Introducing Diego...

A slightly different FO Friday this week (I don't have any knitting even close to being finished currently!)

I'd like to introduce Diego, the Stag:

Like I said, a bit different *laughs*

Recently I was contacted by Homecrafts, purveyors of many crafty things, and asked if I would be interested in rehoming a deer head, decorating it and showing it off. Always up for a bit of a challenge, I said I would love to ;)

So, this arrived:

My mind immediately went to steampunk... I was envisioning copper wire, goggles, the usual. But I always go for steampunk, so I thought it was time I branched out. I considered all sorts of options and then decided I really wanted to try my hand at a Dios del las Meurtos design (Mexican Day of the Dead).

I painted the whole head with a couple of coats of white acrylic, to give me a base to start from, and then started designing with marker pens.

It was really good fun *grins* A lot of the styles and shapes are the types of design that I like to doodle anyway, but put together in a different way than I have done before.

The Day of the Dead skull, or calavera, is a sugar skull used to adorn the altar during the Day of the Dead.

And Day of the Dead is the annual celebration of those we have loved and lost, celebrated as a national holiday in Mexico (hence the choice of a Mexican name for my stag!)

Diego is currently residing in the guest room, although he may have to make his way into the office, where I keep all my toys and silly, creative stuff *grins*

The Expression of an Impression*

I forgot to mention one of the other Christmas presents I got when I posted last week. My lovely brother bought me some painting supplies. He remembered that I did an evening painting and drawing class and so he bought some canvas paper and a small canvas (which I am apparently to paint and give back to him so he can have something I've created, just in case I become famous *laughs*)

It was an excellent prompt to get me back to the brushes, as I haven't really picked them up since stopping the class. Yesterday I had a day to myself and filled it with painting and knitting and catching up on TV shows, and had a fabulous time *grins*

This first one is supposed to represent a nebula. I don't think it's quite what I was trying to achieve, it's a bit like a painting a kid might bring home from school. Ah well. The problem is that I'm not skilled enough to paint exactly what I want, but that just tells me that I need to practice more ;)

For reference, this is sort of what I wanted it to look like...

My second one was slightly more successful I think, well, it looks like what it is supposed to be anyway *laughs*

I'm more pleased with this one, though I think it needs a little more work. But I have a feeling that I will be someone that feels as though a painting is never finished and always needs a little more work - perhaps I should also practice letting go *laughs*


* A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it? Ernst Hass

Sketching

I have no knitting FOs today, I'm at that stage where I work on a bit of everything and nothing seems to go very fast. I know that soon I will hit the point where everything gets finished at pretty much the same time though, so I'm not too worried *laughs*

I have been sketching though. As part of my course, we have to do a painting in the style of the Futurists. They were interested in movement, war, transport and had an almost cubist style at times. Not my style at all, but it has been fun trying to come up with something.

This is the sketch I did:

Waves at the bottom, a propeller and a cubist type representation of a ship.

I started painting it on Wednesday, which is going ok, but having never used acrylic paints before, it's a bit challenging!

Very much not finished, but a bit of a representation anyway. I may decide to scrap this idea completely and come up with something new, I haven't decided yet. I think the sketch looks better in black and white, so maybe I'll change my plans.