PROJECT DUMP

I'm really behind on posting about my projects, so here's a PROJECT DUMP. (Meant to be said in the manliest of voices)

Pita

My sister commissioned me to paint a picture of her friends dog Pita who had recently passed away, to give to her as a birthday present.  She asked that it be done in the same style that I did the three paintings of our dogs.

Kevin 2

I had posted my Kevin costume on a home-made costumes website a few years ago, and in September I received an email asking if I still had it, and if I would be willing to sell it.  I was extremely excited that someone actually wanted to buy something that I had made, and it was someone who wasn't related to me!   The costume was for her young daughter though, and the Kevin head that I had made for myself was very large, awkward and heavy.  I made a new head for the costume that was slightly smaller and made out of lighter materials.  I had learned a lot while making the original head, and was able to improve on the new one quite a bit.

The new head (left) and old head (right)

I painted the beak so that it had more of a natural looking gradient than the older one, and gave it's eye's highlights to give it a bit more life.

I fixed up the body as well.  It originally had a cardboard box inside of it to make it look bigger, but that made it super difficult to move in and almost impossible to ship anywhere.  I luckily had some of the blue fabric left over, and sewed it inside, stuffing it and cutting arms holes to make it into a sort of feathery vest.

DQ Cat

One of our managers had been away for a couple of months, and to welcome him back a friend of mine had suggested that everyone give him the gift of cat pictures.  I luckily had a large picture of a kitten just lying around....so I suited it up in the proper DQ attire and added a lovely cat pun.  I ended up being the only one to bring a cat picture, because no one else was ridiculous enough to take the note seriously...My manager really enjoyed it though! :)

Lucky's Birthday Present

My friend Shawna, the same friend who suggested that we bring my manager cat pictures, also requested that we give her dog Lucky a birthday present.  Shawna is a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so I made a tiny Gryffindor scarf and an owl for her dog.  She was very pleased. 

Birthday gift for my Mom

My mom loves both Tinkerbell and her dog, so I decided to make her a paper piece with both of those things!

You can see our other two dogs in the background as well.  Amigo is chasing his favorite carrot toy.

MAXIMUS.

As seems to be tradition, here is a Halloween post almost 2 months after the fact.  I wasn't sure if I was going to have the time or money to make myself a costume this year, so I didn't start planning one until about a week in advance.  My friend Charli was giving me a bunch of ideas, and she mentioned the 'sassy horse' from Tangled.  Tangled is one of my favorite movies and I decided that 'sassy horse' would be a wonderful costume.

I looked up some reference images of Maximus and did a couple of very rough sketches of the costume, and how it would work.  I look very happy in sketch form.

I built the base of the head out of foam.

And then covered it in felt, made the 'harness' part out of fun foam and found some ping pong balls for the eyes.

So sassy.

The front of the body was made out of white felt and then fun foam for the saddle straps.

I painted all of the embellishments gold.

The saddle was actually the first part of the costume that I made.  I had Murder She Wrote on in the background, which made working on it even more fun!  I made the blanket under the saddle out of felt and then the saddle itself out of fun foam.

I gave Maximus a glorious and luxurious yarn mane.

And painted his eyes.

It was very important that I have a wanted sign for Flynn Rider.

And a little Pascal to keep me company.

I wore it to work and put on my best Maximus face.

It was probably the easiest costume I've worn at work seeing as how it didn't have enormous wings or as 3 foot tall head.  People seemed to enjoy it, even when they didn't know exactly who I was.  I'm pretty sure that a lot of the older customers thought that I was just a very disgruntled horse.

My manager really enjoyed it and whinnied at me throughout the day.

The End of a Magical Journey

So it's been awhile since I last posted something up here, but I've been pretty busy!  I started class 3 at Animation Mentor (I'll write more about it in a bit) and I've been finishing up some side projects and starting new ones...even though I don't have the time for them, hahaha.  My latest project was in celebration of the very last Harry Potter movie.  I, being the nerdy person that I am have dressed up in costume for just about every Harry Potter related event that I've gone to be it book release, movie release or other things.  I had made a set of gryffindor robes a couple of years ago when I went on a Harry Potter fan trip in England/Scotland and had been wearing them each week when I went to see the re-releases of the past 7 films leading up to the last one.  Seeing as how this was the last movie I wanted to create a special costume, one that was very unlikely to be worn by someone else waiting in line.  I decided to be....Buckbeak.

I have always enjoyed Buckbeak and it seemed like it would be just ridiculous enough to suit me.  I made the head out of fun foam and felt (my two weapons of choice) as well as some extra padding and acrylic paint.  Here are some pictures of my sister modeling the unfinished head.

Luckily my sisters umbrella had broken earlier on sunday (there was no sabotage involved, I swear!) so I was able to take it apart and use it for the main structure of the wings.

I cut feathers out of felt and hot glued them together.

After all of the feathers were cut out I glued them to the umbrella leftovers.

I glued a big piece of white felt over the top to cover the umbrella parts as well.

To make the costume even more ridiculous I decided to make a little tiny Harry to ride on my back.

Here's his head pre-hair and body.

And here he is with hair and a body!  He also kind of looks like he's wearing a wifebeater...

I made him a shirt and tie so that he would look a little more presentable.

 Through the wonders of Velcro he got to ride on my/buckbeaks back!

He peeked over my shoulder.  His little pipe cleaner glasses look so cute on him!

We met a very tall Hagrid in the lobby.

Harry put on my friend Keaira's wig and looked a little like Sally Jessy Raphael.

There were special Harry Potter 3D glasses!  We were twins.

My friend and I tried to re-create the poster of Harry and Voldemort.

It didn't work so well...

Probably because I have a nose.

This is my 'battle of Hogwarts' face.

We also joined in on Pooh's grand adventure!

I really really loved the movie and I think that it was a great end to the series.  McGonagall was pretty bad-ass in it which I especially enjoyed.  She reminded me a bit of Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks!  I came very close to crying at certain parts of the movie, but I didn't end up crying for a straight 45 minutes like some of the people that I went with, hahaha.

I am definitely sad that there will be no more Harry Potter movies or books as they have been such a big part of my life.  I will always have the book to re-read or the movies to re-watch though, so that the magic can live on forever!  I can also just run over to the Dollarama and buy some sparklers to have a wizard fight as well...Good times.