What's That Up There?

These are my duct tape flower hair ties. I sell them at craft fairs:  $5 each or 2 for $8. They are fun to make, and I have a near-endless variety for sale. But these are only a small sample of what I make. You can see more at my Facebook or Flickr.

And Bringing Up The Rear...

Phew! Just got the last few stragglers of Decepticons up on Flickr. These include my very favorite Soundwave with his minions (see above) and all the group shots.

Are you intimidated? I'm intimidated.

Decepticon Invasion Third Wave

The third wave of  Decepticons is up on Flickr! We have even started breaking them down into sets to make viewing a little easier for everyone. This wave particularly showcased the combiner sets.

And Unicron, of course.

Oh, yeah. We went there.

Decepticon Invasion Second Wave

The second wave of Decepticons is up on Flickr! Here we have all those Barricades and Megatrons. Yikes!

Find them all here.

Decepticon Invasion First Wave

Finally, the invasion begins! Got the first wave of Decepticons up on Flickr, and may I just say that there are way too many Starscreams. View them here. Two more waves will follow so get ready!

New Sketches

On May 4th, I participated in a Dr. Sketchy's event. I use the sketches I make during these events as bases for watercolors that I frame and sell. I go over my sketches with permanent marker, erase my pencil lines, and then paint them with watercolors. This time it occurred to me that before I do that, I should preserve the sketches in their original form. So I scanned them into my computer and uploaded them to my Flickr. You can see them here.

Today Is A Good Day To Talk About Decepticons

I cannot be called a Transformers geek. I have enjoyed the new movies, the old movie, and a few of the G1 episodes, but I don't have vast amounts of knowledge on the canon of the show. So my understanding of what makes Decepticons Decepticons is that Autobots were the default mode of mechanical alien beings and then a group of evil-minded mechanical alien beings broke away from the Autobots and became the Decepticons because their unifying purpose is to be anti-Autobot. I could be wrong. Please don't hurt me.

Decepticins have these characteristics:

1. They enjoy destruction/don't care about the consequences of their actions, and
2. They have cooler vehicle (and often even robot) modes than the Autobots

I am not making this up. Soundwave - way cooler than Blaster. Devastator - way cooler than Ultra-Magnus. Even Starscream - much as I hate to admit this considering what an annoying character he is - is cooler than Blurr. And Unicron just beats all.

This said, there are a few pics up on Flicker of Decepticon vehicle modes. Check them out here.

Decepticons, Assemble!

Stayed up so late last night trying to get Decepticon photos done that I passed out before I could post. In the middle of photographing everyone in vehicle mode, Derrick and I decided that when we take the robot mode photos we should splice them together with the vehicle mode photos. This means we can't post onto Flickr until we take some robot mode pictures, which requires Derrick transforming them into robot mode. In the meantime, I have gotten up early and fought to get on the Internet so that I can bring you this, the first Decepticon group portrait. Enjoy!

Transform and Roll Out!

My friend, Derrick, has enough Transformers toys to fill not one, but two china cabinets. For some time, he has wanted to make a photo record of all of them for cataloging purposes. Now he has a week off from work and we have created a stage to photograph the Transformers on. This is THE PROJECT. I will keep a running record of our progress here. You will be able to see the uploaded photos daily, starting tomorrow, on Derrick's flickr page at www.flicker.com/combatantbeast.

Posting a little late tonight because of art class. A little background on my latest project, quickly. I have a fascination with Tarot cards. I love the different artistic views shown in different decks, as well as the way the images symbolize deeper meanings. I have three decks, but only one that I really love and feel connected to. That one, in case anyone is curious, is the Robin Wood Tarot Deck. I have toyed with the idea of creating my own deck off and on since I was in college, but for some reason I only just came up with the idea of painting the images early this year. I am painting them in oils on 5x7 canvases. So far I have painted "The Fool." "The Magician," "The Hirophant," and "The Hermit." I'm not doing them in any specific order, just as inspiration strikes. Tonight I worked on the angel for "The Lovers," and the wolves on "The Hanged Man." The angel is looking a little sickly, but the icon image I'm using as a guide looks sickly too so I guess that's ok. Anyone familiar with Tarot might be wondering why I am painting wolves on "The Hanged Man." Well, instead of a man who may or may not be representing Odin, I am painting Odin hanging from the World Ash, as he does in the myth about how he obtained the runes and their wisdom. In the image that I have of Odin, he is pictured with two wolves in addition to the two ravens that sit on his shoulders so they are all being included in my painting. Since he is hanging upside-down, the wolves sit on either side of the tree while the ravens perch in its branches. As I finish each painting, I will post it to my flickr account. When I have painted all 78 cards I hope to make them into a deck.