Drawing with Toned Paper

Prior to going to college, I had never worked with toned paper before (please don't shun me).
Fear not though for I have seen the light. And oooh child. Yeah.

I've really been loving getting back into working with this type of paper. All toned paper is, in case anyone else out there is like poor little former-me, is colored drawing paper. Usually a mid tone, like grey or tan or something. And if you consider yourself an artist, or even a dabbler, trust me. It's great and you should try it, even if just for funzies.

I recently (as in like... a few months ago) decided to partake in a good ol' treat yo' self moment and purchased a tan toned sketchbook. And I dabbled around with creating a few things:

Such as some P-Cap eyes. Which, if you watched the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, hopefully you can recognize those intense attack eyebrows. I actually gave this one away to my good friend Ginger, so he's happily hanging on her wall.

But I kept this one for myself because get it? Toned paper? With a toned dude? Shut up, I'm witty okay.

The thing that I love about working with toned paper is that it gives you a good starting point for laying out all of your values. If you find drawing or shading to be daunting or scary because the white of your paper is taunting your very existence, then I highly recommend giving toned paper a go. It takes away the fear of the dreaded white canvas, which allows you to focus all of your attention on just plugging in your key highlights and shadows. Also, you don't have to do quite as much shading because your mid tone is already there. You don't have to blend it out and establish it for yourself.

Also, when working with color, you're able yo use more of your lighter hues because they appear much more rich and vivid on the toned surface, rather than being washed out like they tend to be on white paper.

One of my most favorite recent pieces I've done on tones paper is this moon and antlers, which actually got a good scan of because I decided to remove it from the actual sketchbook for once. I decided to frame the original and I have it hanging in my apartment which is kind of neat because I've never displayed my art in like... my actual living space before. This is a new thing for me.

But I have a confession. After I bought this tan sketchbook, I realized you can't just have one toned sketchbook in one color. That's like... art law right? Shhh, just go with my logic. So I decided to buy a hard bound grey sketchbook as well because treat yo' self.

And I christened it with this dudely dude. Because I unabashedly love drawing good-looking dudes. I'm not ashamed to admit that.


So really, I just wanted to take a moment to make a fangirl post about how much I love toned paper. But here is the take-away hopefully--

Pros of working with toned paper:
- Your mid value is established already, which allows you to spend more time on your highlights and shadows.
- You can use a wider range of colors due to the fact that light hues don't disappear.
- This is a really good type of paper if you find shading on white paper to be scary.

Cons of working with toned paper:
- None. There are no cons. Shhhhhh.


Also, side note, but I'm getting back in touch with my Esty account, so if anyone is interested in prints of these artworks, or of any of my works, please let me know!

Linkin' up:
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Zentangles Vol. 1

(Why volume one? Because shhhhh. There will probably most likely be more.)


So I realized that I haven't posted any of my artwork in a while, and I don't really know why that is. It's not like I stopped drawing once I graduated, though I do admit that now that I have a full time job, it does kind of put a strain on my free-time/ability to function.

So I've decided that I want to start posting my artwork again because why not. This is a creative space, no? :]


One thing that I've been doing a lot of lately is doodling random zentangles/ patterned pieces. Though I have a confession to make-- I didn't know they were called zentangles until like... two years ago. I always just referred to this type of art as just non-representational works (thanks, good ol' art history class) so now I feel so pretentious calling them zentangles. Don't judge meeeee. Eh.

The thing that I really like about zentangles is that I find them so mindless and stress relieving to do. There's no pressure to draw them "right." You don't have to worry about proportions or shading or have making them look like something specific. They're just so.... monotonous but in a really good way? Does that even make sense?

 The way that I usually start mine is that I typically choose a motif or a couple of motifs. Then I just repeat those shapes over and over until I have a general flow that I like. It also helps me to think about positive and negative space, and whether I'm leaving any room for the eye to "breathe" (such as how I left large spaces of plain black and white in the above ones).

And not all my designs are successful either. Like the one above? Not much of a fan. But I like to keep my mistakes and finish them because I sometimes the process of just creating something is what is important, not necessarily the finished product.

I also bought a 24 pack of sharpies not that long ago and am having fun just messing around with them. By no means is my coloring neat, but hey, at least this was fun.

(Fun fact-- this one was actually made from cutting up and collaging some weird demon money that this eccentric magic shop owner gave me....long story, not shady at all....)

And sometimes the zentangles find their way into my regular, more representational drawings. I actually thought about cutting my hair like that (that's why I drew this) but then I realized that I am a giant baby nerd and would miss my hair too much.

But like I said-- I hope to get better at posting my artwork some more. When I started this blog, I really thought I would be doing more of the artsy posting, but that got a little bit away from me. So my question is-- would y'all like to see more? Or would you like me to explain my process/any art processes? Because I'd love to do more of that if you all are interested :]


Linkin up:
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Dresser Makeover

Another furniture makeover? For real??
Yes, internet; this is for real. I made another thing.

And, unbeknownst to me when I first thought about doing this project, this turned out to quite possibly be the most annoying furniture makeover in all of human history. Well, that might be a little of an overstatement, but still. You'll understand why in a moment.

Back in ye olden days of summer 2014, my mother came home from a church thing with this dresser. Another lady at church was going to throw it away and asked my mom if she would like it or not. So she took it home and gave it to me saying "do something with this." (A common theme among all of the furniture in my apartment, it seems.)

This thing was in some major rough shape though, so I can understand why the lady wanted to get rid of it. Half the drawers didn't have knobs, the drawers themselves were really tight-fitting, one of the legs was broken, and overall it just smelled like the color brown (Tangled reference, anyone?).

But, being the sap that I am, I could see the potential in this one. I couldn't let the poor thing just be sent to the grave... and I def couldn't leave it as is. So I decided to do a major overhaul on it, which turned out to be quite the project.

First off, I primed the piece and I found out along the way that the last time this was stained, it wasn't sealed properly, so this vague red hue kept on bleeding through the primer. Then, as I went to take the remaining knobs off the drawers, I realized that half the holes were completely stripped, so I just had to fill all of the holes and sand them down.
Finally, when I went to paint the piece, the paint warped the drawers even more so that none of the drawers would even fit into the dresser. After lots of sanding and profuse swearing, I finally have a somewhat functional dresser:

And I must say that I feel that the final product is much cuter than where it started. I decided to go with black and my favorite off-white just because I thought it would be crisp and somewhat different. I also got all new handles which I thought about spray painting white to match the top of the dresser. Thoughts?

The drawers still kind of stick, but it got to the point where I just had to say "the hell with it." You know what I'm talking about? Where you work on something for what feels like forever but then good ol' apathy creeps in to save the day? That happens to me allll the tiiiime.

(this is just a picture of a jar of rocks I have because rocks are so important. I love rocks. I will fight you on how great rocks are.)

One day I suppose I'll go back and touch up the paint and do a bit more sanding or something, but for now I'm calling this one done. Aww yeah. It's nice to have something to put my items in again, that's for sure.

So has anyone else had to suffer through a project like this one? I'd love to hear/read your stories!

Linkin' up:
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Thrifted Trunk Makeover

"Furniture makeovers?" you ask. "You don't do that, do you? Stop it."
Actualmente, I kind of do. Or I have. Or I sometimes do...

Remember when I said that I'm attempting to decorate my new apartment at least a little bit? Well over the past few months, I've updated a few furniture pieces, so I thought I might share them :]

The first is this trunk that was gifted to me:

My mom found it at the thrift store for about 5 bucks and decided that I needed it. You go mom.

Her reasoning was that she had a big ol' trunk when she was in college; therefore, I needed one too. But now that I am newly post-college, and since I have no attachment to Northwestern since I didn't go to school there, I decided that it would be fun to paint this one.

I mean, I didn't really think that painting would hurt this one or anything. It was all scuffed and banged up and had def seen better days anyway...

So all I did was update it with a few coats of some cheery yellow paint! Now I feel like it is a thousand times cuter.

All I used was some regular interior paint from the hardware store and put on three coats. I suppose I could have taped off the edges of the metal parts of the trunk, but let's just say I'm lazy I like living life on the edge.

I still have quite a bit of decorating to do, but I think that I am making steady progress. (For example, since taking these pictures, I decided that a mature adult would CLEARLY have some Game of Thrones and Hobbit posters next to their bed, so that is precisely what I did. Hell yeaaaa~)

Also, added bonus, check out that dope thrifted lamp. It's so creepy, it's beautiful. Like dancing creepy naked babies and demon faces on the handles and everything. That's my new aesthetic.

So what do you all think? Any tips for a novice furniture makeover-er?


Linkin' up:
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Polka Dot Skirt Refashion

Sometimes I start to go about a refashion, I get all in the groove, and then I have to step back and say "What. What are you doing.Why are you doing this."

This refashion, my friends, was one of those cases.

I got this skirt from the Goodwill for a dollar and although floor-length button up skirts scream high fashion, I thought it would be good to change it up.

The weird thing about this skirt though was that even though it had a buttoned waist, it also had an elastic waist band which was still entirely too big for my waist. So I decided to do the most back-asswards thing I could think of to fix this situation.

(Get psyched for some really bad pictures in terrible lighting aw yeah.)

I started off by unbuttoning the entire skirt so that it was completely open (that's attractive). I then used my pinking shears to separate the waist band from the skirt itself, leaving about an inch of seam allowance.

I then measured the waist band against my own waist, pinned off the extra room on each side, and then sewed the elastic down so that the entire thing felt comfortable.

With the remaining fabric, I compared it to my body and decided that I wanted it at more of a knee-length, rather than a floor length. So I cut a few inches off the top of the skirt (so that I wouldn't have to re-hem the bottom) and ran a gathering stitch along that top edge.

All I had left to do was reattach my waist piece to the body piece of the skirt, which I did by using the gathers to manipulate the body into being the same length as the waist.

And now I am a beautiful polka-dotted baby bird who still doesn't know how to pose for pictures. Fly away baby bird-- off to your destiny.

In retrospect, I supposed I could have just, you know... hemmed the skirt and took the waist in normally, but at the time, this method made more sense to me. I had to take the waist in a lot, and I was afraid that if I just sewed down the sides, the skirt would be too clingy. Hence the cutting off the waist and gathering the bottom. At least this way, the skirt stayed a little fuller. Ah well.

Has anyone one else had this sort of refashioning situation before? Where you literally have to be like "Woah.What."
Because I feel like that happens to me at least once during the course of every sewing project haha.


Linkin' up:
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DIY Pom-Pom Garland

It's amazing how Kitty thinks that every single thing I make, I make for him. Like this project for example:

I mean, according to him, this just screams, "hey, this is a cat toy, right?"
Yes Kitty. You are correct.

I've been living in my new apartment for about six months now, but I haven't done a whole lot of decorating. Sure, there are a lot of rocks and a few creepy paintings here and there, but I'm starting to do a few more things here and there. A little while ago, I decided to use up some scrap yarn and ended up making a cute garland of sorts. And it was actually really simple and quick to make--

I started by making around two dozen little pom poms. All I did to make these was wrap some yarn around my fingers 30-40 times before cutting off the extra yarn.

I slipped the yarn off my fingers and tied the bundle together with another piece of yarn.

Once everything was tied together, I cut all the little loops apart on each side.

 Then fluffed it up and repeated.

To make the garland-y part, all I did was crochet a mega-long string of chain stitches, which I measured against my wall to get the final length.

Finally, I laid the whole string out on the ground,laid out my poms where I thought they would look good, and tied them all on with separate little strings.Of course, Kitty appeared to lend his expertise, and I was ever so grateful. If you are a crafter and do not have a helper cat, you should really consider adopting one :]

And although it IS a very tempting cat toy, it's still hanging up on my wall! Succeeeeessss~

At first, I thought, "hey, this is almost Christmas-y" but then I realized that the colors go quite nicely with the magnificent throne of a patterned chair that you see here, so that is really quite satisfying.

And it was really just as simple as that! I'm slowly decorating the rest of my apartment, which mean there are a million things in progress, but nothing is done. I'll be sure to share whenever (if ever?) they get finished!

I'm also trying to figure out how else I can use up all of my odds and ends of yarn that I've accumulated. So if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Linkin' up:
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The Modern Thranduil Dress

In case you were not aware, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies comes out in exactly t-minus one week. Needless to say I am so excited and emotional.

(Carolyn can back me up on this one)

Now, if you've been reading this blog at all, you might have noticed that I'm just a tad attached to elves and other nerdery. Which is 105% okay with me because elves are so important. SO important.

In order to celebrate my love of Tolkien and to get even more psyched for BotFA, I couldn't think of a better time to share what I made for my Halloween costume this year. But Becca, wouldn't Halloween have been a good time to share your Halloween costume? Shhhh, no.

But not going to lie, this is quite possibly one of the best dresses that I have ever created. Not that I'm biased or anything...

I knew that for Halloween I wanted to dress as Thranduil because I have so many elven feelings, but I really didn't know how to go about making any of his outfits. I mean just look at this majestic being:

Source: x

So instead of trying to figure out how to create his robes with my limited sewing skills, I decided to go with something more cute and wearable.

And in the end, I'm actually really excited by it. Here is what I did to make it:

First things first, I made a simple circle skirt for the bottom of the dress (with the overseeing eye of Kitty, of course).

I then used my trusty New Look pattern that I use for everything to make the bodice of the dress. 

I knew that I wanted to do something that was a little more elaborate on the bodice rather than just leaving it plain grey, so I decided to do some stitching to mimic the look on his original robes. I did this by pinning down the middle fold of the bodice and started to pin some matching angles meeting at the middle.

Just so. many. pins. Which I then stitched in with tan and black thread. Then I just attached the bodice to the circle skirt, hemmed it up, and threw in a zipper. I decided to wear the dress over a grey chiffon shirt I had, as well as a red circle skirt that I had previously made. And now I have a Thranduil-inspired dress to frolic in whenever I please. Which is everyday. All the time.

Because who wouldn't want to pretend to be an Elven king? Especially one as precious as the party king himself. 

Also, as noted many times in the past, I am the most awkward picture-taker on the planet. Actually, I'm just an incredibly awkward person in general... but I did have fun screaming at walls and pretending to shout at dwarves while photographing this dress.

Now I'm going to see how many times I can wear this outside of Halloween before people start to notice/become concerned... Hello all future family functions (I'm already "the weird socially awkward art school graduate." This shouldn't phase anyone in my family). (Also, check out that alliteration).

So, anyone else as pumped as I am for the final Hobbit installment? Because I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared...

Linkin' up:

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