The Curious Concepts Project: WIP "Colors"

I've been working on "Colors" (still a working title), so it's time for an update;

 As a reminder, 

This is the sketch I'm painting over.

I traced over my lines in Photoshop to create selection paths. 

You can't see the paths themselves here, but I used them to add in the colors,  

Navy Blue, Purple, and "Silver", which you can see.

Not sure if I've explained this enough yet, but all those shapes/colors are on different layers, one of the perks of using a computer. When I work on digital paintings I can go over AND under what I've already painted in. I can also hide and reveal layers as needed.

Used a soft edge brush tool to add some stars.

A texture brush + the burn/dodge tools.

More burning and dodging. The stripes were given identical textures, 

so you couldn't see them very well until I started shading.

Because you can never have too many dots, 

I used a hard edge round brush and made this spotted pattern.

And it's hard to see here, but I painted a layer of texture onto the ship.

Used the paths again to remove the purple spots

 from anywhere they weren't supposed to be.

Took the round brush and switched the edges back to a soft setting. 

Then I selected the Dodge tool and went over each of the purple dots, 

so now they look round and dimensional instead of just flat purple.

Hard to explain this part. 

Basically I took the original purple lines and blurred them. The selection paths were used to keep  the lines' edges from blurring too. I added a new layer of blue underneath, again using the paths so nothing else in the image would be affected. The blue is showing through the purple a little now.

Painted in some shadows behind the ship and large striped shape at the top.

I also did some more shading.

It's not finished yet, but the next time you see this, it should be. :)
(and I will have figured out a real title-might ask Vitt what she thinks)

Fancy Things For the Van Buren

Here's a fun fact for you: This is my 100th post. Didn't even realize it until I looked a my stats last week.
This past month, vaguely put, has been quite a month. So nothing special for this milestone, I'm actually pretty wiped-out right now (not much is getting done over here), but it is a good excuse to give you a long overdue update on the Van Buren.

The last time you saw the Van Buren's kitchen it looked like this;

The old wooden floor tiles would not budge.

After disscussing ideas with the creative people over at the Greenleaf forums, a jug of vineagar, and a day or two last summer of prying/chiseling/cutting-It looks like this now;

Some may say that I put a few holes in the front and that there are still some pieces stuck inside, but I call it progress. :) Of course, the vinegar also dissolved a portion of the foundation I fixed last year, so it looks like I'm going to have to redo some of that now. At least I could get the old flooring out, right?

It's hard to picture this tiny old house as ever not being a total mess, but the unfix-able parts are slowly coming out, and then it's just a matter of adding in new flooring and wallpaper (this house definitely can't just be painted)

And since I started planning out the rooms, a year or two ago, I began to acquire some furniture for this house.

(I didn't have much room for photographing, so all the pics were taken on top of the VB's widow walk)

Remember the antique co-op where I purchased, what is now, The Steampunk House?
Well that changed hands, and subsequently now has a few different vendors. One of the new vendors had some nice miniatures in their section, and so I came home with with this lovely little rustic piece here;

Later in the summer I went on a day trip to Chautauqua with my mother. One of our stops, Chautauqua Miniatures. They gave us these tiny gift bags. Promo items? Sure, but where else would the residents of a dollhouse shop, if not a miniatures store? So hopefully I'll find a useful place for these, even if it's in another house.

Technically I didn't buy anything while I was there (this time). I just sort of helped a certain someone find me the perfect Christmas present, several months in advance. I've been looking for an old style bathroom set for the VB, to either match or replace the old fashioned upstairs toilet that used to be glued to a wall. This Chrysnbon kit is the first set I've seen that wasn't also heavy/breakable ceramic. And since it's a kit, I can build/change it to fit the design of my little house without too much trouble (I hope).

If anyone has experience with these kits-Helpful tips appreciated

Last, but not least, I also acquired this table and chair set. At least, it was sold as a set-The chairs don't quite match, but that's the kind of thing you would find in an old house (or Billy,...Not sure which house this is for yet). This was technically another Christmas present, it was the result of a spontaneous trip to another co-op, that was closing. It was on sale. Good deal, if I may say so.

I wish I had more to show, but this house seems to be more of a summer project and I ended up being pretty busy last summer. (still am)

Undersized Urbanite 2014 - Planning

Still working on The Curious Concepts Project, but over the holidays I had a couple hours where I didn't have anything to do, and couldn't use my laptop. So as promised in my last update, I scrubbed down my somewhat grimy little house with dish soap.

And then after it dried I started planning out the exterior.

graph paper!

The house/store/cafe (I really need to pick soon) is bird house themed, so I want to keep all the doors and windows rounded with either nest material or perches mixed in, but it should still look like a dollhouse when it's done.

Figured out where the door is going-Progress!

A fun fact about this house: Some of the pieces are permanently glued together, while others are just held together with screws. At first I didn't like the screws, one more thing to cover up,...But then I realized that the annoying front section on the top floor, that was going to be a big pain to design/decorate around, comes off.

Wow, look at all that space. 

And you can see the bird house opening from the inside now.

The roof pieces come off too. 

This room will be so easy to decorate.

Not a ton of progress overall, but I've figured out enough to think about what I'm going to do, once I have time to do it all. That's something. :)

The Curious Concepts Project: WIP "Devon" and ..."Colors"

I was working on these two over the holidays, and now it's time to post my progress so far.

As you may remember, Devon's request was a picture of Neil.
So, of course, Neil's request: Devon.

Once again, I was told to grab a photo off of Facebook.
Not sure who took the original, so I'll start by posting it after I already started painting in Photoshop.

It's going to look goofy before it looks awesome. 

Always remember that when using Photoshop.

Flat Colors! 

Not sure about the orange background, but it works for now.

Starting to shade with the burn tool.

More shading, and painting in details.

It's getting there.

 

I also started an illustration using Vittoria's color choices:  

Navy Blue, Purple, and "Silver".

 Silver is in quotations because it's going to be more of a gray. Although printed on metallic photo paper, it might look silver-kinda hoping that works out because Vitt did request silver...

My plan for this one was to just start drawing and see what happened.

I ended up with a ship sailing into infinity.

neat.

As you can see, no actual coloring done on that one-yet. I think it's off to a good start though.

Cute Stuffed Animals For Christmas

Yeah, I just used the word, "Christmas", in the title of a January post.
(Happy New Year, btw).

I mentioned back a month or two ago that I had to cut back on blogging so that I had time for other projects, one of which was a Christmas present for my pint-sized niece. I thought some of you might like to see what I made;

Cute aren't they?

I was looking around the internet for some kind of toy that I could make as a gift, here is the blog where I got the patterns from; http://whatmadeleineloves.blogspot.com/2012/05/felt-project-animals-my-very-first-felt.html

I made some changes, of course. Instead of gluing down little pieces and googly eyes, aka choking hazards, I stitched and embroidered in all of the details. And instead of felt, because I don't have/rarely ever use felt, I used printed cotton fabric and treated each piece like it was a tiny pillow that I was making. In sewing, the blanket stitch is my best friend.

I have no idea how well these will hold up against a toddler and her two little dogs, but every other gift I've made so far was a decoration or something to grow into-It was time for some toys. Anyway, my niece seemed to like them, they got a collective hug as soon as she pulled them all out of the box, and she wouldn't let anyone have them until she was allowed to open another present. Her uncle (one of my brothers) somehow got her to give up the pig so he could get a closer look at how I made them. She realized that he had it and got a little upset (so he gave it back). In closing, I'd say Christmas went well.

Should I Call It a Thank You Sale?

Thank You to all of my followers/customers this year (and all years previous).
You are a BIG part of why I can continue making small things. And Illustrations. And artwork in general.

As Thanks, from now until the New Year, everyone is welcome to take 10% off orders placed at my Etsy shop.

At checkout, just enter coupon code: SAVE10TODAY

Etsy Shop; https://www.etsy.com/shop/KyleLefort

-----

I am planning on having an after the holidays catch up mega-post up soon (loaded with neat pictures and everything), but I didn't want any of my blog readers to miss hearing my Thank You, or the coupon. So you're getting this post first.

Talk to you all soon,

~Kyle

The Curious Concepts Project: "Neil" - Painted and Ready For Proofing

Yay! I finished another illustration. 

The last time you saw this one, I was debating what to do about the eye in the shadows.
I went with the eye patch;

Now he's a space pirate.

A little cropping, and some more shading.

Even more shading-Annnnddd...Done.

Neil.

Another illustration ready for a test print, and 3 more illustrations to go.