DIY Howl's Moving Castle

So Amazing!




In case somebody wants to make one for me, I Google translated the instructions below.

How to make Howl's Moving Castle

Things to prepare: aluminum foil, paper clay x 3, wire, toothpick, brush, paint (SILVER and GOLD DEEPTO and BROWN) to feel rust. Bond, cutter, sponge etc

After that, guts and time. It took me a week to make it.

I will briefly explain not to lengthen.  "How to make"

1. Make the aluminum shape as you like. It is roundish.
2. Put the paper clay from above.
3 All clothes are paper clay. Once the paper clay has been stretched in a different place, it is dried and cut appropriately, such as triangles, squares, trapezoids, etc. with a cutter or the like.
4. Attach to the body as you like.
5. From now on you actually stick the wire like you like, or turn on the house made of clay. It is really free. I ceased to see a sample saying that it would be fun to do as I liked it from the way.

I think that any order can be applied to color. However, the first color can be painted with a brush, but from the next color put on a small cut sponge and feel like "Ponponon Pompon", please attach with the image which gently puts out the rust.

Cherry Plum

Wendell bought this from Times. I loooooove it!! It has a sweet, juicy crunch to it that's just perfect.

Homework

Homework for this week was to do a self-portrait. I used one of those photo-booth photos for reference. I spent hours erasing and redrawing until finally I just told myself, "Enough already. Just step away from the drawing pad." 

So this is it. 



And yes, I do have da kine Buddha ears.

Rubik's Cube Costume

Awhile back Geri found this Rubik's Cube costume at the swap meet. She paid $2 for it. 

After lugging it around for a bit, a kid approached her and told her how he thought it was just the coolest costume.

So she gave it to him. 

Line Weight

"Line weight is the visual lightness, darkness, or heaviness of a line within a drawing. By varying the line weight within your drawings, you can add dimension and importance to certain elements. Various materials and the pressure you put behind it will affect the the strength of your lines."

There is a 23(!)-year-old guy, Kesh (for short), in India whose artwork I like, and I think it's because I like the way he varies the line widths in his drawings.





This is the kind of brush that Kesh uses. It was on an Amazon Lightening Deal for $9.04 so I got it . . . 'cause, you know, I like copy Kesh.


The brush is soft and requires a bit of getting used to.


This is Chihiro from Spirited Away. I copied a sketch from an awesome art book that I ordered called The Art of Spirited Away. 


And here's my favorite birthday cake that I like to draw. Not exactly Kesh-looking, but I'll keep practicing.

Artist Trading Card

Artist Trading Cards are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch cards which artists and crafts-people create and then trade among themselves. 

Erick gave me a pack of blank precut Strathmore cards to use so I made my first Artist Trading Card for him. After sketching, I inked it with the finest-tipped (0.3) pen I could find and then colored with alcohol markers and colored pencils. 



Inspiration came from this book. I got it for a really good deal on Amazon's Prime Day . . . $16.

Wendell's Lemon Blueberry Scones

Wendell made this the other night, and it was sooo yummy right out of the oven while it was still warm and had a nice crunch on the outside. Uuuuuuuuu!!

The recipe is from Mom on Timeout site and can be found here. Wendell said that it was easy to make.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup blueberries
• 3 tbsp lemon zest
• 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
• 1 egg, large
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cold heavy cream
• 2 tbsp sanding sugar, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until only a handful of small, pea-sized pieces of butter remain.
4. Add blueberries and lemon zest and stir to combine, just until blueberries are coated with flour mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cream, egg, and vanilla extract.
6. Pour cream mixture into flour mixture and stir with a fork until just combined.
7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a disc about 6 inches across. 
8. Use a large knife or bench scraper to cut into 6 wedges. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. 
9. Brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired.
10. Bake for 16 to 19 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, rotating baking sheet halfway through.
11. Serve warm or room temperature. Store leftovers in an airtight container. Best enjoyed the day they are baked.

    
    

Capsule Toys

Earlier this month I was at that Shirokiya Food Court place and I noticed these capsule toy machines.  When me and Leslie were in Japan, we (mostly Les) wasted a lot of money trying to get some toys from these machines.

Sketches

We did a few sketches in art class yesterday with fellow students as our models. The instructor asked us to try to do the foundation sketch without lifting our pencil off the paper. After the baseline was done then we could enhance the features, etc.

It was hard at first, and I did cheat in a few spots, but for the most part I really enjoyed the exercise. I liked the loose, easy feel of not having to be perfect.

Rebirth by Manabu Ikeda

Wanted to share this This is Colossal article and video about Manabu Ikeda and the pen and ink drawing that took him 3 1/2 years to complete.