The Trouble with Dragons

So, I am back after another sojourn away from home.  I feel as if I have barely been home other than to 

wash clothes then head back out of town.  When I have a few minutes to step into the studio I have this
disconnected feeling from my current project.  It has been hard to get back into the walking stick
project.  Although I have not been blogging as much recently due to vacations, ill family members, and computer problems, I have been attempting to work on the project.  I have photos for you today.

My latest project has been a walking stick.  Until I had a better idea on how I wanted to proceed with the project I called it Walking Stick Z.  At some point I decided that I wanted to wood burn dragons onto the walking stick.  Actually, I wanted to put flowers on the stick, but it is a big hefty walking stick that could be used as a Quarterstaff and
flowers just seemed a bit too girly for it.  So I started looking at clip art of dragons.  There was good news and bad news there.  The good news is that there is plenty of it.  The bad news is that it is on websites that want money.  At this point I would not mind paying for it, if it was a one time fee, but that is not the case.  You pay for the image, but if you have a plan to sell your project now or in the future, you are required to keep an for active membership in order to sell the piece.  Being that walking sticks do not sell much, it was
hardly cost effective.  So I ordered a book from the Dover series on dragons. The dragons in the book were pretty much what I expected, Asian dragons, some dragons from the Middle Ages.  There is still a fee to purchase the book, but permission is granted to use images so long as no more than four images are used.  That would leave a whole lot of area on the walking stick to fill with images of something. 

At this point I decided that maybe I should try to draw my own dragons.  The dragons from the Dover Dragons book were my inspiration, but none of the dragons is a copy of any of their dragons. 
After all, my imaginary creature should be just as valid as someone else' imaginary creature.  However, I don't feel that I have enough drawing skills to pull it off.  I drew a few dragons.  The trouble is that the dragons I am drawing do not look fierce.  They look friendly or cute; sort of as if My Pretty Pony turned into a dinosaur.  I just have not been able to get the look of something fierce, strong, and deadly in my drawings.  I intend to keep practicing my drawing, but it does not look like it is going to be anytime soon.  I think I will have to go (pardon the pun) back to the drawing board on this project.  I have to do something else because I am just spinning my wheels and getting nowhere.  I have other things that I want to do, and I don't want to put this project aside to get to them.  It would be better to keep practicing drawing dragons in the hope that they will eventually be good enough to wood burn onto a different stick and use this stick for some other images.  In the mean time, I will use other images on this stick.  Check back to the blog to see what ideas I will come up with for this walking stick.

Anyway, I am putting my dragon drawings on the blog.  Maybe one day I will be able to look back at them and laugh at my early drawing attempts.   Who knows, maybe they will look better on the blog.  Sometimes art does not look right when you are too close to it. 

Hopefully, I will have more time to get back into the studio for the rest of the summer.

Back after a Vacation - Photos

My apologies to regular readers.  I have been on vacation.  Normally I try to have some content set up
to post while I am gone, but this time I just ran out of time before we left.  I have been home for several days but it has taken me this long to get caught up on everything. I think I have everything caught up enough to get back into the studio this week.

This last vacation trip was a working vacation trip up at the cabin. My husband and I finished stripping out the old flooring and laid down laminate through the kitchen, dining area, and living room.  There is a story behind the laminate.  Last year we had a plumbing disaster at our home. 
A pipe rusted out under the concrete slab.  We had to have plumbers come in to jack hammer up the floor through two closets and about fifteen feet across a bedroom floor.  Some of the flooring had to be discarded.  The rest of the laminate was still usable.  There was enough left that we could use it in the cabin.  We dismantled the rest of the flooring and brought it up to the cabin.

The laminate sat up at the cabin for a year before we reached the point in our renovations that we were ready to put it on the floor.  In the past year we have painted the walls and trim, repaired the porch
and screening, and put in a wood slat ceiling in the kitchen.  This spring we started stripping the old flooring out.  We also had to repair a couple of joists.  It seemed like it has taken forever, but considering that we are only up there for three four days at a time, we are making good progress.  This trip we completed stripping off the old flooring and under layment and put down the laminate.  It took longer than normal because we had to do some work on the floor to get it level.  Nothing is ever easy with an old cabin.  When
laying laminate, the floor must be level because if it is off more than an eighth of an inch it can cause the laminate to crack.  A lot of time was spent crawling around on the floor making sure that we had the old warped floor boards level enough to accept the laminate.

The laminate is a much nicer floor than we would normally have put in the cabin, however, since we had the laminate we decided to use it.  We still have some questions about how well the laminate will hold up in what is much of the time unconditioned space.  Time will tell.  It has been up there in boxes for a year and does not show any signs of deterioration.  This was laminate that was related for below grade areas, so it may hold up better than some laminates.  If it only lasts a few years then we will take it up and put in something else.  But for now, the price is right.

Since I have been back, I have not done any work on my projects.  I have had an idea for the walking stick project I am working on.  I think it wants to have dragons on it.  I have been looking at copyright free dragons online, but am hesitant to use them.  Many of the sites require a membership fee and the membership must be kept active if you want to sell the work in the future.  I am more inclined to purchase the Dover Dragons copyright free book.  At least that is a one time purchase.  I am planning on ordering it today.  It should be here in about a week.  If the dragons look okay I will use them on the walking stick.

Other than that, I have spent a few minutes painting a couple of art tiles.  The small size is great because they only take a few minutes and the projects don't need to have a lot of detail.  Or they can be as detailed as I want to make them.  This time I made a Zentangle orchid, painted a daisy, and played around with gel pens on a butterfly.