Making, Crafting, Creating... aka Whatcha workin' on?

Woah, very cool.

Would your machine be able to support a camera looking at a live feed of someone bowing, say in the dark with lights on bow?

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Yes, a live feed can be used as an input, so a live performance could definitely be used to influence the output.

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In the past Iā€™ve had a video camera in an area with black velvet as background and a light where someone can stand and have their face used as an input. A musician against a black background would be a great input.

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I recently decided to try watercolors and water color pencils. Iā€™ve used watercolor pencils a little before but never watercolor paints. I received some generous gifts and bought some other gear myself. I did a few practice pieces, exploring how the pencils and paints worked together. I wanted to do some ocean theme paintings for our kidā€™s room. This is the first serious attempt. I did a jelly fish because that seemed like a forgiving subject. Iā€™m pleased

I bought cheap brushes in the hopes that it would help me not freak out when kii-kitten ruined them. Well, it didnā€™t help. I did not enjoy trying to manage how the kid used the brushes. Kii-kitten didnā€™t either. Iā€™m also unhappy about the brush performance, they are so floppy, I canā€™t get clean lines, and I donā€™t need extra animal hair on my paintings. Fuzz-bot has that covered. So kii-kitten will get those to practice how to treat brushes and Iā€™m buying myself some Princeton Aqua Elites.
Once kii-kitten has thoroughly ruined the cheap brushes and learned how to ā€œplay nice with the brush,ā€ Iā€™ll get some Princeton Snaps. They seem fairly durable.

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Iā€™ve tried several times to use truly cheap brushes and honestly it pretty much always ends up with me thinking ā€œwhy am I trying to paint anyway?ā€ They donā€™t have the be the most expensive brushes but thereā€™s a big difference between the cheap cheap ones and the ones that work.

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A very minor project. A simple cutting board I really liked (exactly the right weight and size for most cutting) split into two pieces. In order to fix it I was going to need to clean up the ragged splintered edge anyway, so decided to add a tiny strip of pizzazz to make it slightly more personalized.

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My niece is getting married next year, and my wife is gifting the the cake (since thatā€™s what she does.) I decided to do something diffrrent, so i started on a salad set for them from a chunk of maple tree from our front yard. Weā€™ll see how it turns out. Just started the hollowing process.

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Nice!
@wanderfound : thoughts/comments?

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Wanderfound stopped coming here a while ago.

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Heā€™s still an ā€œactiveā€ user and reads stuff, he just hasnā€™t posted anything in a good while.

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Not satisfied with the cat. The part between the nose and eye bugs me. But I continued anyway so I could experiment. I like how the stripes on her body ended up.
The new brushes arrived and are easier to use. Did the entire eye with those and didnā€™t have the same precision issues.

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Yeah, the bridge needs to be lower. But still, so much better than I could ever do!

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That isnā€™t actually what bothers me :joy: the color is wrong. The actual cat has a very bold nose. The head-to-body ratio doesnā€™t match the perspective of the photo

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Ah, but that photo is what I imagined the cat would look like when I saw your painting.

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Thatā€™s too bad, because I really enjoyed their posts. I thought they were long gone.

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Finally got around to putting shelf tops on the firewood storage thing. Added some tubes to one side to facilitate stacking smaller kindling.

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To me thatā€™s the trickiest part about watercolor, if you go too dark and it dries you canā€™t do anything. Unless you have gauche. I havenā€™t tried that much. I did just order some white pilot pintor pens to possibly add touches to watercolor pieces.
Some other tips if youā€™re interested: pentel Aqua pens (the kind you put the water inside) are inexpensive and precise and donā€™t lose fibers. Might be a good option for kii-kitten.
Finally, last year I discovered the 30-sheet multi-media sketch books from Sophieā€™s art supplies. 3 for $10 or so. Theyā€™re the perfect size for a travel journal and with that, some watercolor pencils and the water brushes, you have a pretty portable way to keep in practice while documenting your travels.
We just got a book on drawing kawaii animals. Hereā€™s a sample from our sketch books:

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And now I want all the things! Including the book in the picture. Are those drawings yours? I like them a lot
Sakura gel pens seem to layer over water color fine. I already had a bunch of those on hand.

Watercolor is taking a bit more planning. Iā€™m taking the idea of painting light-to-dark to heart. I think where I messed up on the last one was trying to get all the pencil stuff down at the same time, like I could for color pencils. But the same principle of light-to-dark and many layers probably applies to the pencils too. Iā€™m going to try a new piece this week (though maybe not till the weekend) and concentrate on the layers.

I should really look into taking a class. That would be fun

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Yes, me and the mr have been drawing while watching the great British bake off of an arctic evening. Thanks. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
Iā€™ve been playing around at watercolor for years and still donā€™t have a handle on the layers. I feel like half the time I overwork it, and it wouldā€™ve looked better if I stopped 10 minutes earlier. Then the other half, it looks unfinished or washed out.
Either way, itā€™s a relaxing hobby. And on trips, like our train trip last summer, itā€™s a great way to force myself to really look at stuff.
Never had a class, but I have a couple more book recommendations if youā€™re interested.

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Yes please.

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