Saying Chow for Now to O.U.A.I (Once Upon an Iceberg...)

WoWzer! How oh how is it already Friday!

That's a good thing the week has gone so fast isn't it?  And guess what our last and unfortunatly quick little post will be about? 

That's right I'm on track for my last week, being my last week for O.U.A.I! I have been in discussions about still attending for a little longer to  help out bit more, but we shall see how that go.

And what have I been doing? 

Well I'm glad you asked! So we have an iceberg but no ice caps! What do we think, Tatutuga's iceberg is the only one? No, so here I am creating the basic shapes to create some truly amaze background features. Its all in the little things. That's the key. (Take a look at the Witcher! -if thoust dost game, you get me)

I digress! 

I made my caps by getting what tibits of foam and poly the team could muster, and stuck and cut them into general shapes that kinda looked like what I wanted it to. And then I cut the foam with a hot wire, which can get very toxic in fumes BTW, so if you do ever melt foam or poly, make sure your not breathing in any nasty stuff with a mask and good ventilation. 

Here I am in a time laps so you can see a little bit of what I'm doing and get a better 

understanding of it.  

After this I simply cleaned up what I needed to and covered the pieces in plaster! Tada! Iceberg. 

And some more pictures of my work space and the process of making the ice just for you guys. 

And that's it.

Hope you liked my short but creative post. =P

Hit me with a comment and let me know if you like my time laps and if I should put more on here. Also if my step by step was interesting to you, or if you wished I would go into less; or perhaps more detail. 

Just hit that comment and let me know! 

Until Next time,

~Chow4noW~ 

Back to Once Upon and Iceburg.

Back to Once Upon an Iceberg

And I am in my final week (with potential for recall in EMERGENCY! =P)

For the last few weeks I've updated you on how I've been helping to create this wonderfully cute yet strange animation. And after this post there may only be one more on my 'icy' blog post! Yes that means I will no longer be able to keep you updated an right in on behind the scenes.  But I have seen a few clips and test shots and it is looking amazing and I cant wait until next years release! 

So What Have I been Up to...

...last week I was painting these little guys along with making a few props myself for a boat. If you follow me on Instagram you will already have seen a mock scene of the boat. Have a looky! here is a link  If you have the Instagram, why not follow to get more in depth updates on what I'm up to and where I'm at! 

My work space painting TINY lite props.

And bellow is what I painted! I had a lot of fun with these, especially the made up language. Luckily I had developed this writing from a young age...aka I used to use this type of writing in a lot of my drawings growing up. ✍(◔◡◔)

And here is a collage of pictures showing my making process of a bucket. Perfect for fish! Or so I'm told. And I think there going to be dead fish too.... oh look there they are below.

I also helped to paint these little guys... aint' they cute..  These were made by Becky, from wire, masking tape and sculpy. Arnt' they amaze! 

And last but not least, to get an idea of the final piece, some of the assortments mixed with the boat. The boat its self was made by the wonderful Becky. It's made of a body of foam, fashioned with planks bolsa wood around the edges, and a bolsa cabin. All etched with a wood grain and painted with rosco. I helped construct the roof of the hut and I finished the paint job on this puppy. 

I think it looks soo cute! the design was inspired by a mixture of Inuit and western fishing boats. 

I am going to add a few more shots of where we left one of the stages (for now) and some screen shots. Photographs are by myself and the crew who are all very talented. To see morw of the project and more amazing work! Why not check out the links below and have a look at all the skill. 

Enjoy! 

 Becky! 

Inside of Tuts' place. (unfurnished)

Screengrab of animation

OH TUTS! Why you so cute! You heartless little one you. 

Before I leave I am going to leave you with a few links to the producers and animators websites if you would like to follow this project more! I defiantly recommend it as they have more amazing information and pictures for your drooling chops. 

onceuponaniceberg.tumblr.com

facebook.com/onceuponaniceberg/timeline

lizzieosborne.com/animationshortonceuponaniceberg

How did you like the props I helped make? Think of any other cute tiny things I can make that could help. or have you ever made any tiny props? I'd love to hear from you and what you made your tiny props for.

Until next time,

~Chow4noW~

Animating again!! Well, sort of...

So iv'e been busy recently; doing what? Oh nothing much, just reforming my life. As you do.

I'm sure we've all been there at one point or another. Finding the creativity and inspiration to implement what we actually want to do though is another matter. In my case it's a matter of organisation, presentation and implementation.

Knowing is the first step I think, and I have decided that I am going to extend this blog to an inspirational blog as well as creative sketchbook and behind the scenes blog.

That said I'm not quite there yet. Soon but not yet, I'm in the process of planing. The organisation part of things. While I'm doing this I am also working on a few projects with the hope of more to come. I have completely jumped into the pool of freelance!

So this is one of the projects I'm working on and I think its the one i'm most excited about. I'm back to Design and Prop making! Its been a while since I've had the ambition to get back into animation but with the help of an old friend and just a swell story line and aesthetics I don't think I could resist. 

So my current tasks are paint work, texturing and modeling; all for testing so far, but when they are approved by the director we will go ahead and make the final models. And I can proudly say this is my first time Polly sculpting, so I've had a lot of fun there. (Polly is what you can see under the desk there to the right, if your not sure its kind of like foam you get in parcels, just heavy duty.) 

Here are some resin tests with and without paint. Here we are testing  which texture would be better for ice. 

And more testing of materials here seeing which would be best for the icebergs inside columns. This is built up with more polly and plaster caster. Simple! 

I'm defiantly enjoying this project at the moment, so I'll be keeping you up to date! 

Until next time,

~Chow4noW~

x

Making A kindle book cover.

OK! So I needed a new Kindle cover, and being a creative person that I am I thought, 'Hey, why don't I make my own. So I did a little research on how to make books, then used the principles of this to form my Kindle cover. 

S first I selected my material. I wanted it to have an old leather type feel to it, and since I had no leather and I was too impatient for the shops to open the next day, I created my own mock leather. 

I did this by basing my canvas material using acrylic. 

I then continued to add layers with the desired colours. 

After I had the colours and thinkness coated onto my material, I finished by texturing a slightly wet top coat with wire to really create that skin feel. After this I applied a gloss, then when this was dry a dry rubbed white watercolour into the grooves to create that extra depth. 

Once my material was created, I then cut out some foam covers and bound them with a softer car between them. I then folded the corners around the outside and secured them to make the main frame of the book cover. 

With the majority of the cover now made, I set to decopaging the inside with torn up paper and images.

Left it to dry. Added some stretchy cord to hold the kindle and pen and...

Vola! 

One Kindle cover.

That was lots of fun! I can see myself making more of these. 

Until next time,

~Chow4noW~

Chana!

x

Christmas Gifts!

Do I know its no longer Christmas? Yes, yes I do. Don't worry.

But as I do every year and as I have mentioned, I have just gotta show you my craftiness at Christmas time!

So this was an eventful December. Not only was I working through the holiday period for some of that extra dosh, I was crafting these beauties for my friends and family. (as well as continuing my personal projects, few!)

Not only was all of this going on, but my buddie ol' pal who is just in her last year of teaching in Kenya was coming home for Christmas. Now, her theme tune is driving home for Christmas, and it couldnt have been more appropriate!

So I will start with Aimees present first.

I bought the frame of the owl from Tiger. Tiger is amazing. If you don't know of this wonderful store yet, get to know it. Especially if your into crafting.  Not only is it reasonable prices but it contains all of the stuff you never knew you needed. And then more. And they regularly update the stock, which is a bonus. Think f it as a Woolworth's with more hipster in its DNA. 

(ahh, i miss Woolworths) 

I also made a few mugs again this year. They went down a treat last Christmas and I still have a few people that I hadn't given mugs to the previous year. 

Designed after the image of my friend in a similar
style to one of my own mugs painted year in the year. 

And another design painted after
a really cool cartoon, Adventure Time. Again if you havent seen
his one I would recommend it as it is funny and weird and wonderful all at the same time. 

I also painted this little figurine inspired by Sante Maria.

And I burned the lid of this pot, engraved with the surname of my friend and filled the inside with home made lavender bags. Really does smell delish' when take off the lid.

If your curious at how I made the bags, it was really quite simple. 

1. All you have to do is cut off the flowers from any strong smelling lavender bush, pop them onto a tray an leave them to dry. NOTE: the earlier the bud the stronger the amount of oil in the flower. 
2. Once dry, rub off the flowers into a container, then with your desired amount of lavender mix in granulated sea salt. This holds in the smell.
3. Mix then place into desired container or bag. Vola! Simple eh? 

Well I thoroughly enjoyed Christmas this year. After all my prezzies were made I indulged in a sizeable amount of mould wine. I do love that stuff.  I leave you with a few random pictures and collages of my Christmas festivities. 

Enjoy until next year! 

Channa!

x

I Made a Tabloo....

...Why? I Have No Idea. 

It started with a little house for my main logo character, witchpencil, made by the wonderful Aimee Williams. Or better known to her students Miss Williams. I believe I've mentioned her before on this blog, we do do (hehehe, i said doodoo) quite a bit of crafting together, is always a lot of fun.

So as i said, no idea why this was made, but when do we need an excuse to make something these days, huh? So below are some pics of the process of making the tablo. Probably not the proper masterful technique, but none the less, it got the job done.

 

Making houses! 

Because a tablo needs a few houses. 

And Vola! i popped it into the garden to give a more ...realistic background.? Yes. Obviously. And this is what it looks like! 

And here i just messed around with the image in photoshop, but i was in a bit of a rush if i remember correctly, so i only spent maybe 10 mins on editing it. If you know photoshop, you can probably see. 

And Vola!

This is one way to waste your time, make a tablo! Because why not.

x

Card time!

So I have had a lot of birthdays recently and naturally I have made cards for all these lovely people! Bellow are a some of my favourite cards that I wanted to share with you. Eventually, I will be selling these on my Etsy page I think, as soon as I build up a stock. So if you're interested in these cards, please feel free to check out my Etsy page in a few weeks! Or now if you're reading this in the future. Dun dun DUN!

 Hope you enjoy!

                                 

                                   


I had quite a bit of fun doing these, so keep an eye out for more in my shop!

x