Night Vale Jack-O-Lantern

For Halloween this year I decided to go with a Night Vale theme, Night Vale being my latest obsession interest. Night Vale is a podcast in the form of a radio broadcast, so I carved the pumpkin and then painted on the radio station (Night Vale Community Radio). 

Quantum Leap Music Video | Mambo No. 5

This video took me a while on and off to do, but here it finally is! It's a Quantum Leap video about Al and his frankly unending list of lady friends. The song is "Mambo No. 5" (A Little Bit Of...) by Lou Bega.

Captain Jack Harkness Digital Art

So I was playing around with some digital sketches and then I started coloring this one and then I felt compelled to finish it. It's Captain Jack Harkness, a character on Doctor Who and the main character of the DW spin-off Torchwood. His face isn't quite right, but it's pretty darn close and I'm still working on faces in general. His face took about 4 hours and the rest of him was like an hour and a half. Worked off a photo.

Book Carving

Recently I've been seeing some really cool book carving art on the Internet, and decided I would try my hand at it. Unfortunately, the experts online weren't spilling any secrets on HOW they made their works of art (seriously, just Google "book carving" and be amazed), so I had to come up with my own method.

First, I selected five victims *cough cough* VOLUMES from an old incomplete encyclopedia set we had lying around.

I then sort of designed in my head what I wanted the landscape to look like (valley with a path and a river). I then sketched out in pencil on the book covers what I wanted to cut out on each volume, and numbered them. I also made sure to number them on the inside cover, down by the spine where it wouldn't get cut out.

From there I cut out the negative space on a band saw. I couldn't cut the curves or change angles too drastically, so I cut it out in triangle-shaped bits and shallow slices.

Before cutting the books I had selected, I grabbed five OTHER books, traced the contours from the other volumes, and rough-cut the sample books on the band saw. Then I arranged those and noted which cuts and angles I would need to alter for the actual books.

After cutting the actual volumes, I set them up in a clamp on the bottom and also along the top to keep the books nice and closed and tight.

I then set about the actual carving by using a dremel. I tried several different bits on a space piece of wood first, and finally settled on a spherical bit with blades that looked like a star from the top. That seemed to take off the most book/wood at once. 

This process, the actual shaping of the landscape, was the most time-consuming, and took about 7 hours on and off. The most important thing was that the edges of the books lined up (one book couldn't be taller than another, they all had to flow together). I did the left hills first, carving them down until they were flush, and also giving them a very rugged appearance.

The second day I roughed out the trail that would go through the middle, the river that would come down the third volume, and the hills on the right.

Once I was done smoothing all the books together, it looked like this:

Next I wanted to give some texture to my rugged landscape, so I took a flat circular bit and etched some scratch-like marks into the hills. I also took a drill bit and deepened the ravine where the river would be coming down the hills on the right, flowing underneath the path, and joining the river at the bottom of the hills.

Once I was happy with the way it looked, I set about coloring it. I wanted to avoid water- or oil-based paints (in case they wrinkled the pages or stuck them together), so I experimented on my spare books with several types of media. I ended up using pastels and colored pencil.

And that was all there was to it! 

Hobbit Day (Year 2)

Following the success of Hobbit Day last year, my family and I decided to do Hobbit Day again this year. That means 7 meals during the day, each one with Hobbit-ish food. The meals were smaller than regular meals, and were all made by me.

7:30 am : First Breakfast: cinnamon bread, green peppers, tomato(es), doughnut halves, water, and juice

9:00 am : Second Breakfast : seed cake, crackers, cheese spread/spray, whipped cream, fruit, water

11:00 am : Elevensies : nut mix, crackers, cut cheese, cucumbers, cookies, dinner rolls, water

1:00 pm : Luncheon : pasta salad, nut mix, ham/turkey sandwiches, juice

4:00 pm : Afternoon Tea : tea, root beer floats, cinnamon bread, seed cake, cookies

6:00 pm : Dinner : pie and shakes

8:00 pm : Supper : pasta salad, dinner rolls, ham/turkey wraps, water

In greater detail:

First Breakfast

Originally we were slated to have toast and jam, but a last-minute doughnut purchase replaced the toast. The green peppers and tomato were left over from the pasta salad. The cinnamon bread was store-bought for convenience.

Second Breakfast

More of a fruit-based meal, second breakfast featured strawberries, grapes, and bananas, to be eaten with whipped cream. We used the spread cheese we had on hand to compliment the crackers. The seed cake was made using the traditional recipe here, and turned out very well.

Elevensies

We had more crackers for elevensies, though this time they were joined by cucumber slices and several types of cut cheese. We also had a nut-M&M-raisin trail mix, lightly buttered dinner rolls, and sugar cookies. 

Luncheon

For the main course, I made two sandwiches (one ham and one turkey, both with lettuce, pickles, cheese, and a tad bit of butter) and cut them into quarters. Again we had nut trail mix. We also had a large bowl of pasta salad made using the recipe here. I used rotini pasta, provolone cheese, pepperoni, cherry tomato halves/quarters, green peppers, and zesty Italian dressing.

Afternoon Tea

Since we had a surplus of root beer on our hands, we decided to forgo the tea and instead have root beer floats. Another option for the wintry months would have been hot chocolate. We ate some more seed cake, cinnamon bread, and sugar cookies.

Dinner

Dinner was planned to be BBQ beef sandwiches with dinner rolls and possibly some potatoes. The day before, however, it was decided that we instead go to a local county fair, so we ended up having pieces of pie and shakes.

Supper

Our last meal for the day, supper consisted of sliced wraps (ham/turkey, cheese, and pickles), lightly buttered dinner rolls, and more pasta salad.

The first time around, we overate at the early meals, making us terribly full by the time dinner and supper rolled around. This time, though, armed with that knowledge, we took the meals more as snacks, and I was perfectly alright until halfway through supper, when I think the other six meals caught up to me.

It's Still Doctor Who to Me

Here's another video of mine, this one has clips from all of Doctor Who and is set to the song "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" by Billy Joel.

Castiel: Angel of the Lord (w/ Wings!)

In Supernatural, Cas is an angel, but we are never directly shown his wings. Some have hypothesized that his wings are black, or white, or a dark blue-- but why not all the colors? So I decided to do a bit of fan art giving him very colorful wings. It served as a very interesting study in color for me, and I experimented with some interesting effects. Made using Corel Photo-Paint X5. Entirely my own work except for the picture of Cas, which is actually two separate pictures I spliced together.

on tumblr: x

Stronger // Doctor Who

So I made another Doctor Who music video. This one is all of Doctor Who, and features all 13 Doctors accordingly. Song is "Stronger" (What Doesn't Kill You) by Kelly Clarkson. All rights to the BBC, etc.

Linderhof Castle

So you've been seeing all my art of Neuschwanstein Castle, which was built by King Ludwig II. Today I've got a drawing of Linderhof, Ludwig's first castle and the only one to be completed in his lifetime. It's based on Versailles, and is an homage to  the French Sun King, King Louis XIV. The grounds around Linderhof are fabulous, and behind the castle is the Grotto of Venus, the largest man-made cave in Europe. It features an underwater lake, lights that change color (impressive when it was built), wave-machines, a waterfall, and paintings of Wagner's operas.

Neuschwanstein Candle Holder

You may have noticed I have a thing for Neuschwanstein, the Bavarian castle built by King Ludwig II. My German teacher asked if I could paint it on a little glass candle holder about three inches high for her. It features the castle on one side and a little red-roofed village on the other. It's acrylic on glass, but the fine detailing on the castle is gray pen.

Before the Joust

Here's another painting I did. It's called "Before the Joust" and is a study in color. Watercolor and pencil on paper.

Talk | Doctor Who

So we've had some serious snowstorms lately, and found time to make another Doctor Who video! This is all of New Who, and features the song "Talk" by Coldplay.

One Hundred Percent Rebel Time Lord

Here's another digital piece, this time featuring Twelve and some Gallifreyan. The Gallifreyan says: "No frills, no scarf, no messing. Just 100%" and the bottom continues the quote with "Rebel Time Lord." Corel Photo-Paint X5. Took a little less than an hour.

Doctor Who | Dear Maria, Count Me In

Here's a Doctor Who-themed music video I made to the song "Dear Maria, Count Me In" by All Time Low. In the first half, the Doctor is Amy's Maria, and in the second half, Amy is Rory's. 

A Daft Old Man Who Stole A Box

There's a Doctor Who quote that goes "[I was] a daft old man who stole a box and ran away. Silly me." It's from the Chameleon Circuit song 'Silence and the End of All Things' but is also a very close quote with the Doctor Who episode 'The Big Bang.' Eleven says it, referring to the theft of his TARDIS and his flight from Gallifrey as the First Doctor. After 'The Day of the Doctor' aired I realized the quote applied to John Hurt's War Doctor as well, as he stole the Moment (in the guise of a box) and ran off to a distant planet to use it. So here's a bit of fan art I made:

Wizard's Tower

So my sister was home for about a week before interim and was working on a D&D campaign. The adventurers were going to come across a wizard's tower, which my sister was designing. I was bored, so I decided to draw the tower for her. It's digital, using Corel Photo Paint, and took about 2 1/2 hours. The tower's shape was inspired by 80s architecture, so there's some 80s design on it as well.

Doctor Who Big Finish Audios Infographic

So I'm working on listening to a bunch of Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories-- basically the original actors from the classic Doctor Who years recording audio books of new adventures. There's something called a "main range," which is the "original" and central series of audios, though they're not really consecutive. There's also a huge amount of spin-offs, some quite long (Bernice Summerfield) and others short (I, Davros). It took me quite a time reading the wikipedia page on the subject to figure out what was going on, so I decided to make a visual guide to the adventures. The information is off of wikipedia, but simplified and hopefully more understandable. Adventures are color-coded by Doctor. All the little graphics are mine, the main background image is not. If anyone finds any mistakes or errors in typing or labeling, please point them out in the comments so I can fix them. :-)

Right click and "open link in new tab" for larger image