Since I started drawing with oil pastels again, I’ve been experimenting more with colors, as opposed to just the bright ones I used in the past. I love going over and over the same spot with different colors and seeing the change in hue and how pasty and thick it gets.

can't help but draw pregnant bellies these days

here's a quick sketch of the position the baby's in right now

It’s a girl again! Kumari’s gonna have a sister at the end of June! Had my ultrasound last month and did this sketch the very same day, this is exactly what her face profile looks like on the ultrasound!

a birddog to protect the little one, I added this a few days later

getting into drawing horns!

So I love watching trailers on the Itunes trailers website, I rarely get to go out to see a film, so it’s one of my little pleasures to see a bunch of trailers. I’ll even watch the ones I know are gonna be bad movies! Which is how I got inspired to draw horns on the character above. I saw a trailer for a really bad looking movie with Diane Keaton recently, can’t remember the name of it, but there’s a ram in the middle of the road and Keaton and some guy are tryna get it to move……the horns just looked so cool…..was inspired to draw horns on my characters!

fascinated by monkeys

it's been a long time since I drew something realistic!

This is a sketch of Vijay Iyer playing the piano. Kenji and I saw him perform a few weeks ago and it was amazing! Just what I needed. I especially enjoyed his collaboration (Tirtha) with Nitin Mitta on tabla and guitarist Prassana. It was so great to hear such amazing music, so inspiring! I used to listen to music every time I drew or did anything really, but ever since I had Kumari I kinda do everything in silence. But now I feel like playing music all the time again!

Their set was amazing, seriously, the shape of sounds yet to come….get Tirtha’s new album.

So lately I’ve been thinking about drawing flashcards for Kumari, but wasn’t sure about what words to use. I was inspired during the show to do a set of musical instrument flashcards, with my characters playing the instruments, but I thought I’d practice by drawing people first. I want to better understand the motion/stance when playing, before attempting sketches with my more animal-like characters. So this one of Vijay Iyer is my first attempt at drawing a musician playing…

first sketch this year

I haven’t drawn in like a year….thought I never would again, or at least that’s how it felt. Just drew this last month. Been feeling like sketching again, finally put oil pastel to paper in February……

learning to string pearls

So you might look at this pic and think, big deal, a pearl bracelet, the big deal is it’s really hard to make!!!! I took a pearl knotting class last night, and developed a whole new appreciation for stringing beads.

First of all, you’re not just stringing beads, you’re making knots between each, and while you’re making the knot, you’r holding the other bead back with tweezers, then you push the knot back with the tweezers too.

But before that, you have to stretch the silk thread so it’s not all wonky and then you have to drill a bigger hole into the two end pearls because the thread has to go thru twice in those, underwater! So you’re holding this tiny bead underwater in a bowl and you’re sticking an electric tool, the drill, in it! And it’s slippery! and your fingers are like a few millimeters away from the drill bit!

Then you gotta get the gimp on, which is the shinier looking loops attached to the clasp, its actually coiled wire, and every time the teacher said gimp I kept thinking of Pulp Fiction…and then I had a vision of the gimp wearing a pearl necklace…scary!

Anyways, there was only 45 minutes left in class and I only had 4 beads strung! At one point I had to start all over cuz the thread developed a knot that I couldn’t undo. But I managed to finish it. There really is an art to stringing beads!

the hands take a beating making jewelry!

We learned how to make tube riveted metal beads in class on Saturday at Veberod Gem Gallery. It was cool to learn how to make my own beads, but super hard!!! Because after you dome the circle shape, you gotta drill a bigger hole through the middle so the tube will fit, and you have to hold the tiny piece between your fingers and the metal gets crazy hot when you’re drilling it!

Then when you’re riveting the tube, it’s really hard to do it without making the tube crooked, need lots of practice! I used the same rolling mill technique to get the textures, you can see my paper cut out on the right top corner of third pic. I’m really enjoying doing that and I plan on spending a lot more time making intricate cut outs for the metal, it’s very satisfying seeing a finished looking pattern come out!

getting ready to saw all the brass pieces

This is still for the textured panel bracelet class, but I wanted to make some new pieces for it because the others were a bit too wide and would jut out when connected together on the wrist. The dark lines are sharpie marks so I can follow the lines better when sawing. I’m really enjoying making cutouts for them and want to develop this technique further. It’s just like when I’m cutting out paper for a shadow puppet!

enjoying experimenting with hanging chains in different ways

The pic above is of a necklace I made a few days ago. Kumari took a nice long nap, almost 4 hours!!! Once I have more skill with creating my own brass pieces, I’m looking forward to using my own handcut and designed ones for the necklaces.

this is the other one I made during her nap

the top right prong, there's a mark where I was drilling the hole because the ring moved but at least it didn't break open!

Had a great class yesterday! Learned how to make a prong ring, it was all about a ring for setting an irregular shaped stone. Mine is a rough ruby, uncut.

I started out with a brass rod, then hammered it til it became wide, then annealed it to make it bendable and soldered it together, then drilled 4 holes in the ring to attach the prongs, then soldered those and trimmed them before setting the stone….the red you see on the brass is copper, when you heat brass, the copper comes to the surface, so you have to sand it back down to the brass, bottom pic is my finished piece, which I still have to sand a bit, I really enjoyed making it, and it’s only the second project I’ve actually finished in class!

I wasn't really a fan of prong set rings before but I really enjoyed making this and looking forward to making more!

My latest class project from last night, a textured panel bracelet that we’re making. Normally I draw organic shapes, but since I’m cutting them out with an exacto knife I made more geometric ones.

This class is for practicing sheet metal techniques, like the rolling mill again, also sawing shapes and riveting (you can see my bad riveting job on the two pieces at the ends). I also didn’t challenge myself with the sawing, just stuck with rectangles, but next week in class I think I’ll try to do some more unique shapes.

proof of my bad riveting job

some more proof