Ingradient Art

An evolution of my self portraits from 2004 (and probably prior to that) to 2020… 2004 These were made sometime between 2000 and 2004, during high school. I didn't keep track of exactly when I made them. I did a lot of school activities: volleyball, winter track, spring track, concert band, and marching band. This drawing of me throwing javelin must have been drawn sometime after my freshman year. I realized I was too slow and had little stamina for running mid-distance, so one day, I jokingly said I would switch to throwing. My agility from volleyball turned out to actually be helpful in javelin. This is another one from my track and field days. I still remember this moment. My now sister-in-law braided my hair and so we took a good old disposable Kodak picture while I was sitting in the stands. I felt cute (might delete later). I used the grid method to lay this out. ...

This portrait of Julian, my friend's dog, is painted on a block of wood with acrylic. Nothing beats free art supplies.

Here, we have James' “It's late and I'm waiting for my mama to finally go to bed, so I'll lay here and sigh every few minutes” pose. Drawn with a mechanical pencil in a phablet-sized sketchbook. I got really into fountain pens during the 2020 quarantine and pandemic. I went back to outline and cross-hatch a bunch of my old drawings with them. Eventually, I got brave enough to try other colorful inks (not blue or black).

I finished the Riley tote bag. I made the straps longer than the tutorial and didn't actually measure anything (as per my usual practice). I broke the foot of my sewing machine during the making of this bag, so lesson learned, no sewing through six to eight (I think) layers of cloth at a time. I finished off the bag with a simple back stitch. Lined tote bag tutorial video by Whitney Sews .

I made the other side of the canvas tote bag. I wanted to make the other side as if you're viewing Riley from his other side. I decided to mirror the silhouette. To transfer the design, I came up with a makeshift tool to trace the outline. Check out my makeshift tracing tool… EDIT He was missing a leg. Whoops!

Remember the Riley illustration ? I used the design to make a tote bag. I used fabric paint, which has some flexibility to it, and then hand sewed it into a tote bag. I just winged the bag assembly. Once again, I didn't decide on a measurement before assembling it and just did whatever looked good. It turned out to be more of a mini canvas bag.

I embroidered this beanie to give to my wife, as her Christmas present. I ended up caving and gave it to her as soon as I finished it (December 1st). I'd rather she wear it while it's actually cold anyways. To make it, I started with a pencil drawing. I turned the drawing into a vector drawing to get the more defined shapes. The vector drawing was traced onto a sheet of stabilizer. I got the kind made of material that can be washed away. Even though I don't think was meant to be drawn on, the stabilizer allowed me to transfer my design onto the beanie. I just had to fill in the embroidery floss like a color-by-numbers painting. The most difficult part of this project was attaching and securing the beanie to the embroidery hoop. It was way too thick and kept popping out. Maybe next time I'll just clip it on.

I drew an alpaca! A friend at work had asked to draw her an alpaca, so here it is. I have a somewhat funny alpaca story… My wife (then-girlfriend) and I was driving home from a day-trip one day. I was exhausted and was looking forward to a late afternoon nap. All of a sudden, my wife gets excited and enthusiastically points at a sign on the side of the road that read, “Wine and Alfalfas.” So I think to myself, what are you supposed to do with alfalfas? Can you eat it? Wine is great though! It turns out she misread the sign as, “Wine and Alpacas.” If it's not already a thing, it very well should be!