Filed under: Doodle by ramune

Benoît Pioulard – Together & Down

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I have been playing around with this fantastic procedural drawing tool called Harmony by Mr Doob, and I cannot stop. It is so much fun to draw with, especially if you have a tablet. At first I just drew massive curly flowing lines, and after I was sufficiently impressed with the tool I tried to control my lines a bit more. I still need to perfect my use of the different brushes, but I like how this one turned out.

As of now there are 10 different brushes, although more may be added as Mr Doob develops them. I really like the simplicity of the tool since there are no color options or sizes, it’s just black. You can probably expect to see more of these “Harmony” sketches here in the future.

Filed under: Doodle by ramune

Lykke Li – Let It Fall

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It’s a bird.

The other day (while waiting for some friends at a bar) I had the urge to draw something. I asked the bartender for a pen and this bird showed up. He appears to be falling. The other side of the napkin has a big-toothed fish on it, but I doubt you will see him. Enjoy.

Filed under: Doodle, Postcards by ramune

The Knife In Collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock – Colouring of Pigeons

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To start . . . I have had this song on repeat for the past few days. It’s The Knife’s latest project in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. Tomorrow in a Year is a Darwin-inspired opera and I am curious to hear more from it. I am not a huge fan of opera (having gotten sick when seeing Aida at the pyramids at Giza and walking out early . . . something I never do) but I really like this song (although I will admit my favorite parts are when Karin is singing and not the opera singer). You can download the song for free here. It gets good after about three minutes.

Onto the post . . . the other day I was at Paper Source and they had a bunch of card stock on sale for 50% off, wee! Their paper tends to be a bit pricey so I was pretty psyched to load up on postcard materials to doodle on and send to you! I am not sure what the post office thinks of oddly shaped postcards but I guess we will see. If you happen to receive this week’s postcard please let me know.

If you would like an original hand-doodled postcard, email me here with your mailing address. I will only use your address once to mail the postcard and then I will delete it from memory.

Filed under: Doodle, Postcards by ramune

Toro y Moi – Blessa

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Yesterday I was in a very contemplative mood, thinking about 2010 and what needs to change this year. Things have been a bit stagnant lately and I am planning on making some moves to change that. The most extreme idea I had was to just pack up what I really want with me in my car and drive west to some place where I don’t know anyone. I doubt that will happen, but a good sized road trip and a move are in order this year I think (anyone out west want to hire me???).

All of that is to say, I was a bit overwhelmed yesterday thinking about all these things and had a very strong desire to draw (doodle to be exact). I searched high and low for my sketchbook but could not find it. Since the force was strong in me and I would not rest until something was on paper (and not just regular paper), I found some postcard-sized card stock and drew a postcard to mail to someone. A sketchbook is nice, but why keep all my doodles to myself? Wouldn’t it be fun to get a random postcard that someone drew in the mail?

Thus was born my latest weekly project! Along with my normal every.seven posts (that should in theory go up every Sunday), I am going to draw a postcard every week, post it on Wednesday and mail it to someone randomly (without revealing the recipient). If you would like to receive a postcard, please email me your mailing address and you just might receive one in the mail. I will only use your address once to mail the postcard and then I will delete it from memory (I will not subscribe you to any strange magazines (somewhat NSFW)) . No two postcards will ever be the same since I will be hand drawing each one. Who knows . . . maybe when I get rich and famous (Ha!) you can sell it for bank.

Soooooo . . . to start off this new project I give you this week’s postcard! One of my lovely friends will be receiving it in the next few days. I also need to come up with a good name for this new series of posts. Thoughts?

P.S. I’ve had this Toro y Moi song on repeat for a while now. It’s a bit summery, but I think it works well with the watery nature of the postcard and keeps me warm on these chilly days.

Filed under: Design, Doodle, Enamel, Jewelry, Process by ramune

The Shins – Sea Legs

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Well friendlings, it’s been two years and I’m still here . . . plugging away at a project a week, or something like that. Thank you to those who have dropped by and commented or silently perused through my projects. Thanks also to those who were patient and collaborated with me, I would like to do more projects with friends in year three. This might be a good time to mention that on the right side of the page you can send me suggestions for new projects, since I like a challenge and also run out of ideas. Back to this week’s project . . .

A while ago, a friend of mine (who shall remain nameless for the time being) asked me if he could commission a cloisonné pendant for his significant other. He wanted something that was Art Nouveau inspired and that included vines and floral elements. These are the four sketches I came up with that were both Art Nouveau inspired and true to my style. In other words, not only will he and the recipient hopefully like them, but I will too and it’s always nice to like what you’re making (please don’t ask me to enamel a portrait of you and your cat . . . I won’t do it). The sketches are a bit light, but the colors on the actual piece will be much more vibrant and all the black lines will actually be silver.

During the coming weeks I plan to post my progress on the design he chose. I was hoping to get a decent amount done this week, but because my materials were not what they were advertised to be, I ended up wasting 3.5 hours trying to figure out what was wrong and eventually had to admit defeat. Now I have ordered new silver (from a different and more trusted vendor) and hope that things go smoothly from here on out . . .

Filed under: Design, Doodle by ramune

Fujiya & Miyagi – Dishwasher

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I like subtlety, paper-cuts (not the kind you get on your fingers) and the computer. More on this later . . . for now here are some new changes to my earlier posted original. I am pretty sure I have a long way to go before I get this where I want it, but this will have to do for today.

Filed under: Design, Doodle by ramune

Helios – Coast Off

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This image is not done. I was fiddling with it a bunch and not getting the results I wanted, so I figured I could post what I had and will save the rest for tomorrow . . . It might look familiar.

Filed under: Doodle, Enamel, Favorites, Jewelry, Process by ramune

Song of the Week: Benoît Pioulard – Loupe

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I just realized that my two year anniversary is coming up in two weeks and well, that means I should be at around project 103 by now. Oops. Where did those missing 13 go? Spooky. Since I have two weeks to catch up, I am going to post a project every day until October 31st. I am not promising any Michelangelo here, and my commentary might be lacking, but I will do it . . . dammit.

In the meantime, here is something I am very excited about . . . PNP paper! I have been taking the same enamels class for two years now and (for the most part) do my own thing. Occasionally I ask my teacher for help/advice, but there hasn’t been much new in the way of techniques learned. A few weeks ago however, she taught the new students how to use PNP transfer paper. With PNP you can photocopy any black/white design to the paper and then transfer that to copper as a resist. We did not have great luck with PNP when we tried it two years ago, but after experimenting with some different techniques, my teacher figured out a way to successfully get the paper to adhere to the copper. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the details transferred and how well the PNP held up in the etch.

Below are some photos of the PNP paper after I had successfully transferred my designs. In some areas the PNP didn’t transfer, but it was pretty easy to touch up using asphaltum. It isn’t a huge deal, but I forgot to reverse the images before printing, so all of my designs are flipped. It bothers me slightly that everything is facing the wrong way. At least I didn’t have any words anywhere.

I was hoping to post some nice photos of my shiny new etched pieces, but I am having a hard time getting the PNP paper off of the copper. I thought I could use mineral spirits, since that’s what I use to take off asphaltum, but I think I need to use paint thinner. Instead of buying a large container for a few uses, I will just wait for class this week.

You may recognize this fish and this guy.

Luckily the touch-ups I had to do with the asphaltum were pretty minor. Here are the copper discs ready to be etched. The piece on the top right is my halftone test. It was also the first one I placed on the PNP, so the pattern is off a bit. My next mission is to find some photos I’ve taken that might work well on copper and transfer those.

Here are my original designs.

Filed under: Doodle, Favorites by ramune

This guy materialized in front of me while sitting in my car last week. He’s a little shy and gets nervous when people look him in the eye, which is why he has all those decoy eyes . . . to throw you off. He doesn’t have a name yet but I think maybe he would not be as freaked out by you if you gave him one. Not Mr. Bubbles though . . . that just isn’t his style.

“Why were you drawing in your car last week?” you ask . . . well here is that story. A couple weeks ago I drove up to NYC for a change of scenery and to visit my sister and some friends. I could probably have taken the Bolt Bus up as I do quite often, but for a number of reasons I decided to drive instead. Although driving has it’s advantages, there is also the (necessary) annoyance of biweekly alternate side street cleaning (although I really think weekly would be fine). On my sister’s street I can either move my car every Monday/Thursday or every Tuesday/Friday depending on the side of the street. I opted for the Tuesday/Friday special. On each of those days during my visit I would go down to my car at 11am, sit with my windows open and wait until the street cleaners came through, at which point I would drive around and come back to roughly the same spot and then continue to sit until 12:30pm. Cops would come and go, but as long as I was sitting in my car I would not get a ticket. At first I dreaded these 1.5 hour disturbances in my day, but then I came to embrace them as forced moments away from my computer (I did try to bring my lappy 486 into the car and get wifi, but had no luck). Sometimes I would knit, sometimes I would draw and sometimes I would try to get some non-internet work done on my laptop. My friend above was one of these creations that kept me company.

The funny thing about all this is that I am not the only one doing the biweekly car rotations. There are loads of people all over NYC taking their lunch breaks in their cars twice a week while the cleaners clean their streets. What blows my mind is that most of them just sit and do nothing for those 1.5 hours. Please excuse the very brief and poor quality video I took with my cellular device, but you can kind of see the silliness of the situation. Cars sit on the street, then the cleaner comes up behind them and they basically just drive around in a circle and pull right back into their spots. I had to cut the video short because it was my turn to turn like the rest but I think you get the idea. I would really love to get an aerial video of the whole thing but that might have to wait.

Filed under: Doodle, Favorites, Self-portrait by ramune

Cold.

It’s been chilly the past couple days, supposedly chillier than it’s been in five years (brrrrr). On one of these chilly afternoons I decided to work from a coffee shop. Unfortunately this coffee shop gets incredibly crowded, so I had to sit in what I call the “quiet” or “overflow” room. The overflow room has no speakers, a horrible wifi connection and as far as I could tell, no heat. I froze for a good two hours and while my interwebs connection was crapping out I decided to draw (it’s been a while my sweet Moleskine). The only thing on my mind was that I was cold, so I figured why not draw me being cold. I sketched it at the coffee shop, scanned it when I got home and then worked on it in Illustrator. It isn’t supposed to be photo realistic.