Art-A-licious!

Art-A-licious was a short but very entertaining festival. It took all of an hour to walk up one side of the block it encompassed and down the other. When I say block, I don't mean it covered four streets surrounding a block. Nope. One side of the block. It was tiny! I heard rumors they had trouble blocking off the streets for this. They had to section of one block of Maumee st? Must have been taxing.....

Anyways, despite the size Alisa and I had a good time. We took a couple friends and hit the fair first early Saturday afternoon with both husky's in costume. They looked great. They behaved really well, and there was very little costume maintenance. I was pretty proud of our pups. The kids LOVED them, but I was really impressed with how many adults actually stopped us wanting to see Mischief and Gandalf, wanting to know their names and how are dogs behaved so INCREDIBLY WELL in their costumes. They were angels, they really were. (For anyone who knows them, this isn't common public behavior.)

It was pretty hot so we kept them on the shaded side for the most part, and they were treated to a frosty boy cone on they way home with a dog treat on top. It was adorable :)

The adjustments I made to the costume made a huge difference. I tightened the cap and it survived head shakes much better, the elastic connecting the two leg bands helped to keep his leg bands up. I also made a few decorative additions to Mischeifs costume.




Mischief's costume by Desiree Joy Bradish






Gandalfs costume by Alisa Bradish





The afternoon trip wasn't particularly productive for viewing and buying so we went back in the evening. It was a bit cooler then, and there was a Patsy Cline cover band playing the whole time. I'm not a huge Patsy Cline fan, but the lady put so much enthusiasm into it, it was impossible not to enjoy.

There were most types of art; woodburning, ceramics, oils, knitting, beading, metals etc.. etc...

I really enjoyed a metal work booth that had sculptures entitled "Dreams" and "Rift" and things of that nature that were really amazing. Dreams was my particular favorite. It was a metal plane taking off from a large rock, an anchor was tied to it and hooked into the rocks. The fuselage of the plane was a house. It was extremely interesting. All of the metal work seemed to focus on the home in one way or another. I'll try and go back tomorrow to get the name of the artist!

There was another amazing section, called "Lost Arts" that captured my eye. I liked the concept of it! I love finding hidden treasures, and if I were going to that seemed like it'd be the place! There I found Steve Cameron's windharps. The amazing instrument played by the wind. If you don't know anything about them I definitely recommend you visit the site. They're beautiful and produce the most engaging haunting beautiful sound you're likely to hear. I have worked with Steve as his web designer, as a woodburner, customizing the harp for customers, and was recruited by him for toastmasters. Luckily he had a copy of his Lenawee Magazine article there for me to view, as I had not had the chance to yet. It is not in the online archive yet, but hopefully it will be there soon.

View the footage of the festival online!
(unfortunately our timing didn't coincide with the recording so no air time for the dogs :()

http://globalworldtv.com/index.php

Two days to Art-i-licious

Hello All,

Artilicious is the local art festival (Terrible name, I know) and while my sister and I were unable to procure booths in time (LCVA is rarely open when it's supposed to be), we will be just browsing and having our Husky's serve as a mobile booth. Honestly, that sounds like more fun to me anyways. ;)

Gandalf is being dressed by Alisa to look somewhat peasant-y with a little American Indian thrown in there for flair. Mischief is my project and he is a dark mage/warrior. He looks sweet (for being my first costume EVER) but he has a lot of work to do.

Dog costuming requires a lot more durability, I think it would be a lot easier to do a human costume. Which I will be doing for Novembers WindyCon!

I've learned to install eyelets but they're still giving me a lot of trouble. The bulk o his costume is made of a really thin material that tears easily, and the eyelets last for a little while, but eventually tear when he shakes (Which he does a lot, and that can demolish the costume) or gets particularly excited. I'm thinking I should have put an extra square of fabric underneath the main fabric to secure it. I'm going to have to read a lot more on costuming before attempting eyelets in my own costume. (Design ideas coming soon!)

I've also had to make this costume accessible in case he needs to relieve himself and just for breath-ability. I left the bottom of his tunic open so essentialy it is wrapped around his back and held tight by a belt that I've shortened to better fit him. So far the eyelets in this (used for lacing it together at the chest)have stayed in tact. I think this is my most durable piece. It also has a lining of red around the neck that I spent almost 40 minutes blind stitching as my sewing machine is Out of Commission just in time for this costume ;) And of course, his hair completely hides it. You live and you learn. Something good to know if you're going to costume your long haired dog. I would like to add a red lining to the back of his costume as well, not quite the same but maybe red cris-crosses? I'm gonna have to look into some decorative stitches. I'll probably use red yarn, which is what I used for all the lacing. I have some ribbon as well, we'll just see what I find in my online browsing.



The major problems I have run into are with the leggings. It's hard to make them actual stay up. He moved around a lot, and I don't want to have to pull them to tight. I've tried pulling them tighter with the lacings, and puttings snaps on that I snap after I slide them up, and I've tried taking and extra bit of fabric at the center and lacing it there. This gives it the puffy look I was hoping for so will remain, but is not good enough to secure it in place. I have decided to try placing a strap that goes from one legging up over his back (under the tunic) to the other legging, so they will be pulling against each other and hopefully remain fairly stationary!



Finally the headpiece. I don't have a lot to say on this unfortunately. It took a lot of tweaking and it was the first thing I did. I basically laid it on his head and guessed where I wanted things to be. Then made adjustments while it was on him. I wish I could tell you more but I honestly don't remember the earlier shape. I believe it was a large square with one rounded side, and two rectangles projecting from either cheek. (That's the part you would tie beneath his jaw. It's all one piece of fabric folded and stitched to make it's shape. I'm sure there's probably an easier method with multiple pieces of fabric, but this is how I ended up doing it. It was probably the easiest piece.



I added studs for looks, and did decorative stitching to hold it in place. It needs a little tightening since when he shakes it slides back off his head, but other than that it works great. I am considering adding antlers to it. I have real ones but I think I'd just use a paper maché.

I hope this has helped, or at least entertained!

I will be posting more tomorrow or the next day. You'll definitely see a post to let you know how this weekend went!

Happy Trails ;)

Desi

Mischief Making

Good evening, nearly morning. Thanks as always for checking in on my humble art blog. I try to keep updating regularly, so here's what I have for you this time.
I've been busy doing terribly boring graphics for the online game I work for, and haven't been doing too much in the way of digital art. However, I do have something fun done in the traditional vein to hopefully entertain you!

I suppose I probably have mentioned Mischief before in this blog, but just in case I haven't, here he is. My adorable, albeit far too aptly named, Siberian Husky, Mischief.



Well he and his brother Gandalf are going to the art festival next weekend in style. They will both go in costume, Gandalf as a peasant turned hero, and Mischief as the dark knight he must battle!

They're gonna look amazing, and I have a preview of Mischief for blog readers only!

Steampunk

A real quick doodle of some of Alisa and I's primary characters in a steampunk-ish style. My baby Sean is up first, then hers Rich Leo and Bailey! Expect to see others.. I'm also working on my website, so excuse the issues that are arising.

Expect it to be much coooooler!

Also vote for my sisters entry to the firefox design contest!
http://creative.mozilla.org/designs/339

Her entry is awesome. :)

Sorry about the shortness, I'm pretty swamped right now!

Tweet This

The Harvester

FINALLY! The Harvester is complete! He's been built for a day and a half, and now he has finally been properly photoshopped and put into, what I think, is a pretty decent presentation. I hope you guys like! This is my entry to the 9 creature design contest!

I'll probably wait a little while before submission, just because so far my idea is totally original and I would like to keep it that way ;) But soon, very soon, I shall post this to my devart gallery.

Upcoming Contest!

Currently:
I am working on an entry for the 9 contest being held by DeviantArt. I've decided to do a combo of a sculpture and a sketch. The idea is to create a "creature" that could inhabit the world of 9. This means found/common objects, mechanical, purposed! I'm doing a harvester, it's sole job is to find and capture the steampunks, and any other small creatures it may find.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I think it's awesome. It has a cage with old halves of hinges as doors. On top of that is mounted a PVC tube that contains the batteries all wired together and the main flood light. There's a small wire that comes out and holds a teaser light. This works like an Angler fish. The device hides in the dark with this small light on, so it looks like an exit. It lures the creature right up to the cage. Then it turns on the flood, blinding them while the arms (not yet attached) shove it in. If this fails, it is equipped with a front roller and it just steam rolls whatever it finds!

What I was doing:
I worked up a website design for my boss, but I can't show you that... I did 20 or so animations... can't show you that. Ugh! I did however do some chalk pastels which you can view. These were a collab with my sister. Who's gallery can be found on DeviantArt as well.