Pisces Moon Studio

Remember Labyrinth?

Well, once I finished that blue piece — and I liked it, but had no idea what to do with it — I thought of doing a couple more in different colorways and then doing some wonky piecing to join the different colors. My thought was “elements.” I had this blue one for water; I did a quite successful yellow-red-orange one for fire. Then I needed an earth one.

I’ve been futzing over this thing for weeks now. I’ll walk around it, eyeing it as though it’s going to bite back. I’ll gingerly dab at it with a wet brush.

It sits there and glowers at me, and I do not like it and I have no idea what to do with it, or whether it’s even salvageable. It’s time to confess my abject failure. I’m really ashamed to even show it off.

It’s distorted because it still has the glue resist in it. That, of course, will be washed out once it’s done (and assuming I don’t just trash the whole thing). The color is a bit more yellow-green and not quite as olive as this shows, but I couldn’t quite get the balance right.

Anyway, I was originally thinking “forest.” This says “jail cell.” I put some brown PaintStik on it this afternoon, hoping that would make it look more like trees, but I think that made it even worse.

Bleah. This is not one of the best days of my creative life.

Although I’ve been using Adobe Illustrator since version 4.0 about 1994 or 1995 (starting on a black-and-white classic Mac), I’m constantly surprised at the things it can do that I am just now ready to learn.

Case in point: Yesterday I made a nice drawing of this little floral spray based on a Japanese textile motif. I wanted to fill the flowers and leaves with a graduated yellow-to-green fill and then float the drawing over a textile background.

Hmmm… I can do the graduated fill behind the drawing with no problem… but how to remove the parts I don’t need?

I could export it into PaintShop Pro and erase all the background, or try a mask… Hey, wait a minute, can’t I do masks in Illustrator, too? Head for the tutorials, read up on clipping and compound masks, and come back to the drawing.

Fill all the flowers and leaves with solid color.

Make clipping mask.

Oops. I seem to have lost my outline.

Oh, wait!

Undo several steps, going back to the outline on graduated fill. Copy just the outline of leaves and flowers and store the copy off the edge of the drawing.

Redo the clipping mask steps to get back to the fourth picture. (Bless you, Ctrl+shift+Z.) Now move the outlines back on top of the masked drawing, et voilá! The drawing, she looks as she was imagined.

Now to go down to the studio and photograph the fabric I want to use behind the drawing.

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? :)

I decided to get fancy with Labyrinth instead of using just the original one in blue, so I have dyed one new version in a different color and have resisted a second piece to dye still a third color. I’m on hold with the website until Monday, when I can call the nice tech support guy again, so I hope I’ll have something more to show you tomorrow or Monday.

I know, I’ve been MIA. There are several reasons, mostly just that I’ve been working on a client’s website, but I also finally broke down and bought a new laptop. Bunter was almost four years old and the video board was going wonky on me, so I figured I needed to replace him before he went out altogether. And, as usual, it takes forever to transfer files, reinstall software, and get it back the way I want it to run.

Wow, what a difference! Comparing the displays on Bunter III (the new one) and Bunter Jr (the old one) is amazing — this one is much brighter and the colors are infinitely more true. I didn’t realize how much eyestrain I was having until suddenly I wasn’t having it anymore. :)

In other news, I’ve decided that I will dip my toes into the garden this year. I’ve ordered some seeds for several types of lettuces, two varieties of tomatoes, and some bell peppers. I have absolutely nowhere to plant them that gets full sun all day in the summer, but I have aimed for shade-tolerant plants and we will see how they go.

Now I guess I will have to learn how to can and make jelly in order to be a proper pioneer mother. (I already know how to quilt.)

I haven’t forgotten, and I haven’t been slacking off. All of the creative work the last few days — in between bouts of what Melly so aptly calls “HTML head” — has been internal. My brain is smoking but there is nothing physical yet to show for it.

That will change. I’m just not sure yet when.

In the meantime, this isn’t a very arty photograph, but I loved the name of the company. Anything that makes me laugh these days is a good thing, and I count it as my Art of the Day.

No progress on Labyrinth today — other priorities took precedence — but look what I found at the art store:

Rubbing plates with mazes and labyrinths on them! I’ll have to find time soon to play with these patterns and see what comes of them.

And just look at this sky this evening, when I went downtown to pick up DH after work:

Glorious! (Click on the image to see a larger version)

I worked with the Labyrinth fabric some more today, outlining the resisted lines more strongly. Then I decided to add some stronger color with pencils, but all I had were watercolor pencils (which of course will streak and run if they get wet) and some oil pastels that I was a bit reluctant to try.

Off to the art store through the cold pouring rain this afternoon. Excellent! Prismacolor pencils are on sale, even! So I picked up a tin of 24 pencils, noted with pleasure that the box said “Highest Lightfast Rating,” and brought them home.

Piffle.

The pencils in this particular assortment are all earthy colors — various dark greens, a couple of yellows, an orange or two, and a ton of brown and gray. Not at all what I need. I had no idea that there were different assortments — I just thought, naively, that the 24-pencil box was standard.

Ah, well. Gives me an excuse to go back tomorrow, when the weather is supposed to be much better.

Click on image for larger view

I took a nap this afternoon.

So in lieu of creative work with fabric, I offer my most recent artwork: Patchwork in Cheese:

It was an ephemeral work of art, but well-received by its intended audience.

When last we left our project-in-progress, I had just applied the glue resist in a freehand labyrinth pattern. After it dried overnight, it shrank and puckered a little because I had not taped it down thoroughly. No matter — I was just going to splash some more color on there and it didn’t matter if it were flat.

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I’m not sure what I did today, but I damn sure don’t think it was creative.

::shakes calendar::

Somewhere in here, there’s got to be a creative day real soon…

Right?

Okay, so I got a late start. Like 10 pm.

The beginning of Labyrinth. More to come tomorrow. :)