DIY Lino Printing

Or rather, cuttingmat printing. Linoleum is expensive, I'm a poor student, and the ACTION cuttingmats are so weak they're great for linocutting C: After a long time of cussing and swearing at the cut itself, I've fallen back in love with the printing. It's quite unpredictable when doing it at home without a press - this was all printed on my floor, with a mixture of ink, water and acrylic paint. It was a very interesting experiment, and I'd actually love to do this again sometime. I think I've got the hang of it.

Remember the Cardboard Robots I had to make for class? We had to make a lino print inspired by them, and I took my big galopping beastie as my inspiration. I wanted to take a more abstract approach, something I don't do quite often, as the technique is very suitable for thsi approach. So, let's go!

First off, the angle I took my inspiration from. Just a random photo I took of my beastie to loosely base my lino upon:

And then it's time for printing! For these prints I mixed together water, ink and blue and red acrylic paint. It was somewhat tricky to find the right consistency to keep the paper from sticking (as is what happened in the third print), but it was a fun process overall.

The textures the hand-printing caused on the paper is very interesting! I really think I'm going to try using this technique more - I'm going to be looking for excuses to do this for class! Click on the images to enlarge the photos, so you can see the lovely textures. Even the mishap of the paper sticking in the third print caused a very interesting visual effect.

And that's it, for now! You can be certain you'll be seeing more of this technique in the future, it's grown on me! Quick, gimme an excuse to do it more! See you all soon!

LP Photoshoot

So, today I had a photoshoot with Ryanne from Cats and Clouds for an important assignment for school. It's one of three courses I hadn't finished last year, but now I only have to puzzle together the LP cover and finish a stupid Indesign assignment tomorrow, and those coarses will all be done C: It's gonna take a lot of coffee, determination and No Sleep, but I'll come out triumphant! I just have to! >:C

But in the meantime, have a few nice photos from the photoshoot. Ryanne is a lot of fun to work with, very pretty ^^ Now if only she loved herself a little more ;) YOU ARE A PRETTY LADY, stop denying it D<

She's pretty, ain't she? |3 I had a lot of fun with this, and I hope she did as well ^^ She was a lovely model to work with C: AGAINZ!

24 Hour Comic Day

So, long, very long overdue, my ...creation from the 24 Hour Comic Day. It was my second time attending, and as foretold, the second time was far less exhausting. I was very awake and alert through most of the event, whereas last year I'd actually fallen asleep a few times and was very exhausted and felt quite sick.

I'm actually quite happy with how this turned out. Unfortunately, it's in Dutch, but I might translate it for the non-dutch readers later. It's just ...a hassle translating sometimes, but as a devoted fan of my First Language, I just like making comics in Dutch.

But don't worry, the translated version should eventually be created. I just ..don't quite know when, yet. So until then, just look at the pictures 8D The comic doesn't make sense, anyway, and fortunately isn't -that- text heavy.

Well then, that was it! The product of drawing a comic for nearly 24 hours straight, with the occasional food/refreshment break. My joints and back hated me for it, but it was a great experience anyway. It doesn't matter wether or not I'll still be allowed to attend school next year, I know that at least I'll be returning to the 24 Hour Comic Day!

My Secret Saint Nick's gift

Of course, I also got a present from my Super Secret Saint Nick. Spoilers, it was Ryanne from Cats and Clouds. She did a lovely job, as always, and managed to perfectly capture the silly way I pessimisticly draw myself. Especially the " ಠ_ಠ " face gets used a lot in any comic that version of me appears in. Because I tend to be a 'glass half full' type of girl. I'm not a pessimiest, I'm a realist! ...I think.

Anyway, here's the lovely comic she drew for me. For those not aware of the meaning of the inside joke, me and a certain teacher don't always get along so well. But he's a good bloke, honest! I'm just far too sensitive to harsh critiques. I don't like -fearing- going to class, so I'm not always all that positive about that man xD Poor fellow.

Now all go look at her blog! She's too talented, this delightful thing really doesn't do her SKILLZZZZ justice :3.

Cats and Clouds

Secret Saint Nick

This year we had to play Secret Saint Nick for our classmates - for the Americans among us, that's a bit like Secret Santa, but with the Patron Saint of way too many kinds of people rather than a fictional character ( Just look up Saint Nick of Myra ).

This year Mark was my victim, and it wasn't a very easy task to pull off. He doesn't update his blog very often, unfortunately, and I haven't had the pleasure of viewing his work (which is excellent, by the way!) in person all that closely. So I just had to go with my whim and based it around his affection for graffity instead. You can find Mark's blog right here: Mark's Blog

For the dutch among us, I'll also place the li'l poem I wrote for him for the sake of tradition - it's the place where we Dutchies are allowed to bitch and moan about our Secret St Nick victim, so I couldn't pass that up!

If anyone wants it translated, just ask. But it doesn't rhyme in English :'C

And here is the comic. I wasn't -all that- pleased with it, but I like it overall. I especially like how Mark turned out, and St Nick's facial expressions.

I really had fun with this, and I dearly hope we'll be something like this again next year :) Would certainly be a lot of fun!

Now let's hope that next year everyone will neatly be present while we're handing out the gift-comics >.> *grumble*