Christmas Cookies

I made Christmas cookies!  My mom gave me her Kitchen Aid mixer (!) while I was home for Thanksgiving, and I got the yen to bake.  I made the dough, rolled out the dough, formed the cookies, and baked for about four hours on Sunday, and iced them all day Monday.  It took a crazy long time, and killed any dream I ever had about opening my own bakery, but I freaking love that mixer.  I would write odes to that mixer.

I used recipes that I got off the internet - you can find them here:
Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
Sugar Cookie Icing

The icing recipe is a good one, but you have to fiddle with the amounts of milk to get the right smooth consistency.  I followed them to the letter the first time and it gave me what looked like good snowball packing snow.  But after you figure that out...  The recipe gives you that shiny frosting that you normally get in bakery cookies, but be warned - the light corn syrup gives you the shiny, but if you put in too much it will take hours for the icing to dry.  Long, sticky hours.  (Something to think about: I used the almond extract suggested in the recipe, but that stuff is really sweet.  Too sweet.  I should have just used vanilla.)

The cookies are good too.  I'm usually not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but these are pretty tasty.

Disney Coloring Book Pages, WIP's

(Do I ever post anything that isn't a work in progress?)

All this time I thought that other digital painters must have some secret that they weren't sharing with me.  I thought I couldn't make the really pretty stuff because I didn't have the right program or whathaveyou, but it turns out I'm just stupid.  It's called 'Flow', and it's a brush setting in Photoshop, and all this time I thought it was just another way to say 'Opacity'.  It's not.  *facepalm*

I recently found a really amazing digital artist on Deviant Art.  Her painting style is just gorgeous.  It's all big brush strokes and texture, and I love it.  Anyway, I was going through her stuff and she wrote a bunch of FAQ/tutorial things, and one of them was what brushes she uses, and it was there I learned about 'Flow'.  So I've been trying to mimic her style all weekend to figure out how she does it.  So far I'm an epic fail.  I see chunky brush strokes and my brain goes, 'Gah!  Soft edged brush now!  Smooth that out!'  So that part isn't going very well, but I'm learning stuff through failure, which is a plus.

I've been trying things out using the painting exercise shown above.  You take a Disney coloring book page - Choose your favorite princess! - and you paint it in the style of some work of art.  It's fun and pretty silly, but I've seen it done with impressive results.

I started out this exercise with Jasmine, as I attempted to turn her into a Degas ballet dancer (in the coloring book page she's holding this length of sheer fabric, and I thought it might work), but my digital painting skillz aren't up to imitating Degas, so I gave up.

I moved onto Ariel and Eric.  I'm painting them in the rococo style (you can see the painting I'm drawing from here: Francois Boucher's Venus Consoling Love), because this pose screams 'rococo' to me.  I'm actually really excited about this one.  I don't think it's very accurate as far as being rococo goes, but I think it might turn into a cartoonish version of it.  And anyway, Ariel's hair looks fantastic.

I only started on Alice this morning, because I wanted to try the eye thing.  She's going to be the creepiest version of Alice I've ever seen.  The only part of her that's 'done' is her eyeballs, though I think I need to make the inner part of her irises darker...  But she'll be fantastic and weird when I'm through.

Marie in the Meadow, WIP

Marie in the Meadow, WIP

It's taken a long time, but I've discovered a horrible truth about myself: I shouldn't buy nice things, because I'll never use them.  Case in point, gorgeous gallery wrapped canvas.  I have several of these lying around my office, all languishing with backgrounds for paintings that will never be completed.  Why?  Because when the canvas is so nice then the painting must be too, and I find that creating anything with such a high standard to begin with is impossible.  So I never start.  Thus I haven't painted anything that one could actually call a proper painting since college.  In a painting class. 

So I was at JoAnn Fabrics, looking at the canvases and thinking, 'Oh, wouldn't it be nice and calming to paint something?  Wouldn't that be great?  Then you could hang it on the wall if you like it, or hock it on etsy if you don't... Yeah, that sounds awesome.  Hm, what should I get?'  I was drawn to the gallery wrapped stuff, of course, because it's the BEST, but then I thought about it and realized that it would collect dust, looking lovely and full of potential...  But in the end, a waste of money and depressing.  Instead I got a two for one deal that's got the staples showing on the sides.  UGLY.  But look!  I painted something on it.  And it's pretty great so far!

I took pictures of some of the details with the camera on my phone, so they're crap, but you get the idea.

The painting is based off a still from the movie Marie Antoinette, with Marie and three of her gal pals sitting in a meadow.  They're all wearing gorgeous dresses and hats, and it seemed like a fun thing to paint.

It's been fun so far.  I'm trying to be very painterly with this, as my former painting teacher always complained that I was painting like I was drawing, and that's really not the way to go about it.  I did the trees in the background yesterday, and the faces today.  I'll start on the hats this weekend, and maybe block in the dresses.

Unfortunately, my brain was stupid and I decided to use acrylics instead of oils, so painting the faces has been a trickier process than I would have liked.  Acrylics don't blend like oils, because they dry out too quickly for that, so I've made the same skin color three times and tried to recreate shadow colors a dozen more.  But Marie's face turned out lovely, and since the other girl has the excuse of wearing a hat I don't have to fret too much over the excess of shadow around her eye.

Marie in the Meadow, acrylics on canvas.  Work in progress as of November, 2010.

Novelist : WIP

Novelist : WIP

I've been working on three pieces to submit to iStockPhoto to be approved to sell stock there.  I didn't really have anything 'portfolio' worthy to submit, so I started this dude.  He's not only totally vector based, he's also an homage to National Novel Writing Month.  That frown, that wild hair, the tired eyes, that annoyed curl of his mouth, the mug of coffee, that finger poised over the delete key?  Yeah, it's so NaNo.  But it can also work as harried office worker, so there you go.  Stock.

He's not done.  He needs shadows in his shirt (which I can't wrap my mind around, and is stalling the hell out of this project), and a chair and some other things.  This is actually an older version of what I'll eventually submit - I changed the solids to gradients on nearly everything - but I really like it so far.  His face is so angular, which is different for me since I tend to make people more curvy, but this guy was crying out for a jutting brow bone and that nose.  And somehow it all works.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, be there or be square.  My ambitious YA Fantasy Epic?  Yeah, it's so on.

Snow Queen : Finished!

Snow Queen

All done!  I decided not to do anything crazy with the background, because I didn't want anything to detract from her face.  So there's a blizzard going on back there.

I sharpened up her hair and lashes, then stamped the whole mess, hit gaussian blur and set it to multiply to play up the shadows, and then put a Hue/Sat adjustment layer over it with the preset Old Style.  It gives it a nice de-saturated look, and makes the whole thing look like winter.

Snow Queen : WIP II

Snow Queen : WIP II

Today the Snow Queen got her icicle tiara, frosty cheeks, and a neck full of feathers.  (Does it look like feathers?  I fear it looks a lot like fur.  I think the feathers need spines, and maybe to look fuzzier.)

Those icicles were tricky, but not as tricky as I thought they'd be.  First I sketched out with a very fine brush where I thought the base of each of the icicles would sit, then a series of similar circles to the tips.  After that it was a mess of painting and blurring with the blur brush.  At the end I went back to the fine point brush and lightly lined the left hand side of each 'cicle.  I'm not entirely sold on the white fluff at the base of the tiara.  It's meant to be snow, but I don't think it comes across well.

I'm going to need to go over her hair and eyelashes again to sharpen them up.  The tiara is too sharp to leave them as they are now.  They don't match each other.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the background yet.  I've been flipping between having a darker one and this pale one.  I like the drama with the dark, but I also really like how pale and icy this one can get with a aqua gradient map overlay.  I've got a ton of snowflake doodles that I've never used sitting on my computer, so I'll probably fill the BG with them.  Ooh, or maybe some kind of art nouveau frame!  I've been looking for an excuse to try my hand at that...

I'm so happy with how this is turning out.  She's so pretty!

Snow Queen : WIP

I've been working on Christmas cards this week, and this face is the start of what will be the Snow Queen.  I was thinking Narnia, but darker and more dramatic.

I'm going to give her an icicle crown and some kind of neck thing - I'm torn between feathers, fur, or an Elizabethan collar with diamonds.  I've been working on the collar idea for the past couple of hours though, and it's not turning out how I'd hoped.  Feathers could be fun to paint.

In painting this, I finally figured out the secret to digitally painting skin!  You throw down some color, hit Gaussian Blur until you get something you like, then rinse and repeat ad nauseam.  But it works!  I did the same thing with her hair. 

Why is her hair blue, you ask?  Well, in my head she was going to be white blonde, but then I realized I'd done her eyebrows and lashes in black, so I'd committed to a dark color without realizing.  Hence, blue.  She's a Snow Queen, after all.  She can get away with that.

Carnival Ticket Wedding Invitations & RSVP Cards

Carnival Ticket Wedding Invitations

New invitations!  More to the point, carnival ticket themed wedding invitations!

A Bride-to-Be asked me for carnival themed invitations about a month ago, and I wasn't able to get to them at the time - so busy!  But here they are, because they were on my List and I was able to bang them out in a couple of days.  These aren't exactly what Miss Bride wanted (she wanted stripes), so look for a second version coming soon, because stripes are always a fun idea.

Zazzle has a distressing lack of carnival/circus-y fonts, so I had to make due with this simple one.  I think it might look just as good.  More ticket-y.  (But, you know, if you were to buy these far into the future when such a font is available, please put the bride and groom's names and the date of the wedding in that circus font.  Trust me.)

High Points:

• The elephants at the top form a little heart with their trunks.  Adorable!
• The raffle ticket number at the bottom is also the date of the wedding in number form.  Clever!
• Is is possible to be invited to 'crash' a wedding?  Doesn't one cancel the other out?  Intriguing questions.
• These are Pick Your Own Background Color.  So you don't have to have a hot pink wedding if you don't want to.  Though, why wouldn't you?

This invitation set includes 5x7 invites, reply cards, save the date postcard, and thank you notes.

Steampunk Air Ship Mechanic Sketch

Steampunk Air Ship Mechanic

I doodled this on my iPad last night.  (The iPad is the best sketchbook ever).  I'm going to make a manly steampunk pin-up.  There just aren't enough pin-ups of hot guys in the world.

This guy is the mechanic for a steam powered air ship, hence the giant wrench and goggles.  He'll need more hardware to look steampunk-y, and maybe a shirt.  Or maybe just suspenders.  I'm undecided.

No, no shirt.  Pin-ups of the girly variety are all about the legs, so when it's a guy I think it's probably all about the arms/chest.  Though, look at this guys thighs!  They're huge!

The background of this, I'm thinking, is going to be a pain.  I want a sort of docking station of air ships in the background.  I'm still trying to figure out what it would look like. 

Oh, fi sci.  I do love you so, though you make me bend my brain.

Oneword.com Drabble

I found www.oneword.com yesterday, and signed up, because it seems like a good time and a good little writing exercise.  There's a one word prompt every day, and you get sixty seconds ('oh, my god! The clock is ticking!') to write about that word.  Today the word was 'loft'.

The loft was a wide open space, light filtered through milky glass windows, and Arthur stood at the heart of it, hands on hips, scowling.

“Hi,” Merlin said. 

"You're late," Arthur replied.

It's a tiny Merlin/Arthur reincarnation!fic drabble!  I like this method of writing.  It's mad.  The thought process is like, "Gah!  'Loft?'  What do I--  Shit.  Clock is ticking.  Oh, this sucks-- Shut up.  Okay...  Hm.  All right.  That's not... that didn't come out as terrible as I thought it was going to be."  It's fun.  More, please!

Okay, seriously now, Rachel, that's enough procrastinating.  You've got massive amounts of work to do for your Travel Fair piece, and you are Running. Out. Of. Time.

Chicken Alfredo with Mushrooms & Grape Tomatoes

Today I made alfredo pasta with chicken, mushrooms, and grape tomatoes.  I've made it once before, and I think it tasted better the first time.  Not enough butter when I sauteed the mushrooms and tomatoes?  Maybe.  But hey, I made dinner like a good little housewife, so go me.

You'll need:

• 1 lb-ish boneless white meat chicken (I used chicken tenderloins, because they're cheaper than breasts, and I was going to dice them anyway.)
• box of pasta in your choice of shape (I used medium sized shells this time, but previously I used the bow tie stuff)
• a jar of alfredo sauce (might want 2 for next time.  There wasn't a lot of sauce.  Maybe I shouldn't have used the whole box of pasta?)
• package of your standard white mushrooms
• 10 grape tomatoes (or more, depending on preference, but I wouldn't go overboard)
• 1/2 stick of butter (the real stuff)
• salt
• pepper

Cook your chicken at 375* for 25 minutes.  I top mine off with salt and pepper, and dot with pats of butter.  Then at 10 minute intervals I take it out to brush the top of the chicken with the melted butter.  It keeps the chicken from drying out, even if I overcook.

Cut up your mushrooms in slices, and quarter or slice your tomatoes, throw them in a frying pan with some EVOO and some butter.  Med to low heat, and cook until the mushrooms have lost all their raw mushroom-y-ness.  Stir often.

Make your pasta.  Don't forget to salt your water.

When chicken is done, dice into bite sized pieces.  By this time your pasta and mushroom/tomatoes will be done too.  Put all finished ingredients into serving bowl.  Add alfredo sauce.  Stir until co-mingled.  Or if you don't want to casserole it, top your chicken with pasta mixed with alfredo, and then top that with the mushroom/tomato mixture.  It's prettier that way, but is more of a pain when it comes time for heating up leftovers.

Love Letters :: The Complete Wedding Invitation Set

Love Letters :: The Complete Wedding Invitation Set

The Love Letters wedding invitation set uses the same color palette in a variety of patterns and styles, so you can mix and match to your hearts content. Red, pink, navy, and green. (Vintage air mail envelopes, classic nautical theme, polka dots, vintage wallpaper, etc.)  Pictured above are the vintage air mail envelopes set.  Full nautical, polka dots, and vintage wallpaper sets coming soon.

Included in the set are 5x7 Invitations, Save the Date magnets, 4.25x5.5 Reply Cards, Thank You notes, and envelopes.