2015 | Day 134

Day One Hundred Thirty-Four

DONE!!!  I filled in all of the circles on the linen snake!!!

Over the last three days I have been working on and off on the linen snake's embroidery floss circles and I cannot believe I am finally done with them!

I am definitely taking a break from sewing for a few days...then I will figure out what my next step will be for the linen snake's construction.

Whew!

2015 | Day 131

Day One Hundred Thirty-One

I don't know what is in the air today but I am so exhausted and physically and emotionally drained that I cannot even put it into words.  I am okay, just super super out of whack.  I am taking the night off.  If you need me I will be conked out in front of the tv with elevation and a cold pack...and a giant box of tissues.  One thing I know for sure -- it is NOT the pit -- I know what that feels like and this is maybe a tenth of the intensity of that...but still just rendering me totally incapable of anything...so I guess that is something anyway that is something decent to say about all of this.

2015 | Day 130

Day One Hundred Thirty

Nearly seven stripes closer to done...I just could not move the hoop one more time...missed the last two circles on the seventh stripe (for tonight).

2015 | Day 129

Day One Hundred Twenty-Nine

I know I am sounding like a broken record, but all I have to report for today is more filling in of circles on the linen snake.  It seems like today dragged out forever and still, not much progress was made...hmmm.

2015 | Day 128 ( and a nod to Day 127)

Day One Hundred Twenty-Eight

Between yesterday and today I filled in the outlined circles on ten stripes of the linen snake.  Last night I was having a hard time staying awake and I missed my midnight deadline...I only did three stripes.

Ten more stripes done.

Close up of a section of three stripes.

2015 | Day 126

Day One Hundred Twenty-Six

I got through another six stripes of circles on the linen snake today.  I have another thirty-four stripes to go, so around six more days of sewing and filling in the circles with embroidery floss.

2015 | Day 124

Day One Hundred Twenty-Four

I have been working on a bunch of things today...a little more on some, less on others...but busy all day and evening...yay.

In no particular order (because I kept coming back to things) I worked on:  the really long horns guy, Biteyou (the original), the 2snake, and -- even though I told myself I was taking a day off from sewing -- the linen snake circles (no photo).

I added some light color to the 2snake so that I would be able to keep track of his back vs his belly when I start to work on him.

I decided that I wasn't happy with the finish of the really long horns guy after all...he needs more work, more spiffing up.

I always get more paint on me than on whatever I'm working on.

He had some areas that needed paper repair as well...and he is getting an overall look to (hopefully) pull him together.

Taking a giant step towards finishing up on the original Biteyou...this is really hard for me.

I need to keep a bunch of stuff going on at once right now.  I have a lot of ideas swimming around and I am jotting them down into my sketchbook but I also need to physically work on several things at once...I just need to.

2015 | Day 123

Day One Hundred Twenty-Three

Today I decided I wasn't happy with the blue background for the 2snake so I gave it a quick sort of diluted black wash.  You can still see a bit of the blue through the black.  I know it won't be staying like this, either.

And I worked more on the linen snake filling in circles.  I did about twice as many as yesterday.  Yesterday I did 3 stripes and today I got through 7 stripes of circles.

And I also took a couple of quick shots of the really long horns guy so that I could print them out and try out colors on him...I think he maybe needs more done to him.  These are just a few ideas so far.

2015 | Day 122

Day One Hundred Twenty-Two

I liked the 2snake (I need to think of a better term for him) when he was a pencil sketch last night...but I really like him now that I painted around him.  I'm not sure about the background color(s) yet, but I have a very big tube of Liquitex phthalocyanine blue paint (and I like the color) so it is going down as a base.

Tonight I have been sewing with colorful embroidery floss, beginning to fill in all of those circles on the linen snake.  I want to try to use up some of the odd ends of floss (I have TWO stashes of it)  before I start using the numbered/orderly floss.

Floss ends stash #1.

Floss ends stash #2.

Starting at one end and working my way down.

This is enough for tonight!

2015 | Day 121

Day One Hundred Twenty-One

I am taking the day off today from sewing the long linen snake...but I am beginning a 2D version of its original idea.  

A big, blank canvas -- ack!  I had to move fairly quickly before I lost my nerve.  I did a big sweeping curvy line to place the snake on the canvas -- without lifting the pencil -- all in one solid line, then I went back for adjustments.  I liked the head on the right side so I used tracing paper to get the same image and then flipped it over for the left side head.  It is not exact (and I didn't want it to be) but I am pretty happy with the overall look.

This was originally thought up for a show I ended up not submitting anything for.  I liked the imagery and idea I came up with but I wasn't "sold" on the show's theme and I didn't have enough time to work out the details.  At that point I decided to make a long soft sculpture snake but then I wasn't sure I wanted it to have heads on both ends.  For the 2D version I like the two heads...not so much for the 3D snake.

I have a whole lot of ideas for this canvas and the snake and the wording that will be around it.  Choosing colors is my hard part, of course.  I am going to take my time on this since there is no deadline for it anymore.