Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Awkward's aPOPcathery

Halloween is next week (!) and though I might be a little behind on my own costume, I have been working hard revamping my booth setup for Awk's next show. Black Market SF has titled this event "Night of the Living," so that is clearly a sign to go weird and halloween-y (right?). Awkward Affections may be a little thematically disjointed (bright pop cynicism thrown in with old vintage styles and packaged in hot pink and gold). I have never been great about sticking with a branded theme (call it art kid defiance) but I am making this booth costume tie everything together. I am calling it "aPOPcathery," hoping to blend the vintage weirdness of a witchy/apothecary with (pop) bright colors and bubbly letters. Part of this process is making props that are odd but also fun: there will be hot pink pumpkins, cloche jars containing illustrated oddities and some vials filled with the anatomical remains from my studies (unicorn hairs, phoenix tears, etc).

Here is a quick peek at how I am turning my portfolio books into creepy old leather bound props! I enjoyed this process if you want to learn more.

I used cardboard and measured out the front, back and spine from the book I was covering. You might want to give yourself a extra little room to be sure. This is a ghetto bookbinding shortcut here.

use a strip of paper to bind the pieces together (allowing room for the book to close)

Then crumple brown paper to get a crinkled, leather look

Cover your cardboard entirely with glue and press the crinkled paper down. On the inside you can fold the corners like a present. 
Paint the paper with acrylics: I used purples, reds, burnt sienna and umber
Once the paint is dry, seal with Mod Podge (or another finish)
I added flaps on the inside to slip my Itoya portfolio in and not ruin the actual book

And voila! (ooo)

Friday, October 11, 2013

Factual Friday

Fact 1: 

This month shall be named Batober for my extensive (yet, unintentional) Batman themed birthday week.
1. In my house, "Bat-Napkin" must be sung in key of the Transformers theme 2. you can see Batphone in the reflection of Batring*
 Re-watching Batman the Animated Series, I realize:
i.   ThatShowWas. Heavy.
ii.   I can only watch it in the afternoon (like old times)
iii.   I am almost positive that half of my proclivity for psychoanalysis is because of Batman.

Fact 2:

I get a little disproportionately giddy about pens (writing pens. Drawing pens is a whole other bag of nonsense).

Fact 3:

I am not a writer. I say this because much of my job is responding to/constructing client e-mails (and, uh, blogging, though you wouldn't know it). The problem is, writing (and anything not art-related) requires switching from "Art Brain" to "Everything Else Brain," which is like taking a steam engine from cold to full power just to get to the next town over. Once the switch is made, I process what I want to say, write an introduction, then pace in frustration after every other word (plus, some internet stuff). Actually, if you write to me, expect my side of the process work like this:


This post was meant for Wednesday, but due to my writing affliction, we have it way past working hours on Friday. "Factual Friday" works much better as a title anyway (and lists are so much easier than that full sentence crap).



*saying it before Mikey