First Ukulele Cat brooch order of 2013 (this one off to America)!  Thank you so much. 

I have so much fun doing these. That envelope was especially relaxing to draw, although when I went to post it the lady at the post office gave me a strange look, like "wh- what on earth is this?!"). Still, totally worth it. I really love any excuse to send or draw on envelopes and send them away into the wild!

(Project Post)

Just an aside: I'm experimenting on Aftereffects at this very moment, but for my own motivation I wanted to post here to introduce you to the updated Oddgrim Puppet. I've simplified him a little; I gave his design less bustle and took in his coat a bit to make it look a little more natural falling over his legs (I drew his parts in different bits and put him together much like a Frankenstein monster, which had its setbacks anatomically. I won't do that again). His coat is still a bit floaty, but it's much less noticeable... phewth! 

Alright, time to go and experiment with him! Full steam ahead!

Last month I was a late participant in NaNoWriMo ('National Novel Writing Month' for the uninitiated, "thirty days and nights of literary abandon" in which you try to bust out a 50k word novel in one excruciatingly painful crazy caffeine-driven awesomesauce month. It's pure insanity, and there's a lot of coffee involved, but oh, is it so very, very worth it). I'll blog more in detail about that later (because it is definitely something that I want to further explore, having jumped into the wild world of NaNoWriMo as a wide-eyed newcomer only last month! Too, I've had such a battle with perfectionism, so NaNoWriMo was very, very helpful in allowing me to be accepting of mistakes and error. More on that later.)

I didn't win NaNo this year. Starting quite late (on the 17th of November), I actually only made it to 30k (way behind the 50k finishing line) BUT my story hasn't ended yet, and so I've decided to seize the opportunity of being on my university break to continue writing it (and hopefully finish it). After all, you don't become a writer by saying, "I have this story in my head, and it's great, and one day I will write it". 

You become a writer by writing.

 And writing. 

And writing.

One word after the other.

Sometimes, though, you just don't want to write. (And during these times, of course, you're still meant to write.) But when I absolutely can't write any more words down and I'm frustratedly slamming the keyboard with my face, I try not to give up. The moment I put the pen down, the story dies.

So I draw.

It's Oddgrim (with co-star Creepy Floating Arm)!

Having sadly become a little tired of my NaNo story lately, I've decided to continue working on it - fleshing out the characters and the world - through other ways, like through illustration and doodling, but also aiming to experiment a little with animation.

Above is my NaNoWriMo character, 'Oddgrim Idd' (looking a bit smug and Goreyesque in his big winter coat - hey, it's cold in the Land of Idd!). Hopefully I'll bring him to life soon. I've been looking at some Aftereffects tutorials on Youtube on using the Puppet Pin Tool. I'll link the more useful ones when I'm done, but my current project is creating a puppet and animating it using this tool. Simple. Boring, maybe. But I'd like to get a bit of a leg (and an arm - ha!) up on improving my animation skills before university begins again.

Le limbs of the puppet! In hindsight I should've drawn him as a whole first because he's a little anatomically incorrect. Ah well! You live, you learn!

I assembled a little puppet experiment tonight - it's very rough, but I'm purely experimenting at the moment. Oddgrim looks nice and warm, if not a little anatomically incorrect, but we'll forgive him this and move on because I'm too excited to get to the good (and probably frustrating) part in Aftereffects. Hopefully tomorrow, with a bit of tweaking, he'll be alive... ALIIIIIVE! (queue some crazed mad scientist cackling and dramatic lightning flashes).

Oddgrim Shabby Assemblage! I'll clean him up in the morning.

I'm sure it will be fairly frustrating, but if I can figure it out I think it'll be fairy rewarding. 

And heck, if I get frustrated with trying to animate, I can always do what I do when I can't animate. 

 Write.

Yesterday I got a little bit crafty and prepared a whole new batch of Ukulele Cat Brooches for my Etsy store. I've still got to prepare their packaging, but they should be ready to go very, very soon!

 

"Space Cat" Paper Doll and the Galaxy House

Work in Progress

The base used for the house was actually a papercraft version of Sol Lewit's 2003 'Wall drawing #1091: arcs, circles and bands (room)' that I picked up at the Sydney Art Gallery. The Art Gallery sometimes has papercraft versions of artworks that you can take and assemble at home for free. :) I think they're meant as activity sheets for children, though, because when I picked one up the security guard gave me this weird suspicious look... (whaaat, can't a 21 year old fold a fun papercraft activity sheet too? Geez!)

Hark, thar be creeping up upon us a Creepy Christmas! Well, not really... although in the right light, these Christmas ornaments do look a tad devilish. A good thing they do, too; they've got serious personality, and no doubt will be lurking around our Christmas Tree at night scaring off Grinches with their unnerving cracked little faces and wide staring eyes.

So, what's up with the Christmas ornament post?

My family and I were enthusiastically digging through some ancient ornaments and decorations whilst setting up the tree, and I couldn't help but take a new interest in this wayward Christmas bunch. After all, they usually go unnoticed in favour of the cuter, newer Christmas decorations.

... but not this time. 

 

 Worked on another Ukulele Cat order today!