Spaaaaace Mantis!

Hobby Blog Part 3 was supposed to be for graphic design, but then Covid-19 upended everything, and I forgot I had a blog. Long story short (?), I took some online classes on how to use PowerPoint and was gifted an old copy to play with. I realized pretty quickly that just because a person CAN throw pictures onto backgrounds and change colors willy-nilly doesn't mean that person SHOULD, so I took more online classes about the fundamentals of graphic design, like typography, color, and whatever category the rule of thirds and that spiral fall into. Drawing and graphic design complement each other nicely, so that helped. I learned a lot about choosing a focal point and really directing people toward what I want them to look at. Can I always execute this? No. But I do know I should be trying to think about it, and that's a start.

Phew, blog part 3, done.

Now forget all that, because this blog update is about the Space Mantis Podcast, written by my co-writing pal Laura Morrison and voice acted by a big group of our writing buddies. Space Mantis started as a fictional space opera from one of Laura's novellas, Come Back to the Swamp. The fake show quickly took on a life of its own, making its way into other books we were writing. Laura even started working on scripts that incorporate her Come Back to the Swamp character into the show. (For the 2 and a half people reading this the day I hit publish, that's technically still a spoiler).

The premise is that a Space Mantis superfan receives a box of DVDs after her favorite show is cancelled, and she starts a podcast to share the audio of those DVDs with the Mantis-starved fandom. Pretty quickly, she gets a little more involved in the story than she was expecting. I got to voice act that Narrator character, which was a blast, (even for Episode 11 where I think she talks for 10 solid pages). Our writing group divvied up the parts of the regular crew, and Laura took her Come Back to the Swamp character.

The production quality of the episodes is mind-boggling to me. We have a lot of talented people pitching in their time and effort. There are sound effects, and the dialogue sounds like...I mean, dialogue. Considering we recorded separately and in pieces across the span of years, that feat alone is incredible.

I may say more in the future about the ins and outs of recording such an involved podcast, but there are a few episodes already released, so you should definitely go listen to one. You can listen to them on YouTube or any podcast app.

Hobby Blog, Part 2 -- Sewing

Do you see that even when I have a concrete idea for a blog, I blink and a month goes by? If you also tend to drop into black holes for indeterminate lengths of time, and you missed Hobby Blog 1 on drawing, you can find that here.

For hobby two, I wanted to focus on sewing, specifically machine sewing. For some reason, I despise having to get out a needle and thread to sew cloth together, although I do enjoy embroidery projects like cross stitch. I can make no sense of my targeted aversion to hand sewing. One time, I had an idea to make bears out of old clothes, so I found a blogger's pattern with how-to pictures and turned pair of my husband's old camouflage pants and khakis into an adorable bear.

 The ears in particular were magical the way they sewed together:

Just take my word for it. The ears seemed impossible, yet they worked just like they were supposed to.

99% of this bear was machine sewn, and it went great, and I had visions of making them as Christmas gifts, but then I had to attach the head to the body with a needle and thread, and it all fell apart. It only partly literally fell apart. Mostly, I just lost motivation.

All I needed to do was buckle down and learn how to do the correct stitch so the seams wouldn't show, but it just wasn't fun and I didn't want to. The head is attached, and the bear looks nice if it's sitting still. Projects that involve hand stitching to finish are not for me.

So, for my birthday, a wonderful friend of mine (who probably took the time to read this blog) gifted me a craft class. Machine sewing is one of those things I "can" do but have never "learned how" to do, so I jumped at the chance to walk through the most complicated travel bag of all time.

This thing must have consumed its own weight in thread with the number of times each piece was sewn and resewn and attached and sewn again and sewn at least two more times in the binding stage (the most heinous of all the stages.) I did basic quilting and worked with pockets and mesh and zippers.

It has a slip pocket underneath a zippered pocket. That's a crazy amount of pockets.

Once I finished that behemoth project, other bag patterns looked more doable, and I found one that felt reasonable to make as gifts. The project below was a nice toiletry bag size with a single zipper and two handles on the sides. Plus, I was able to use old batting, fabric, and zippers, including parts robbed from old clothes, which always makes me happy.

This one that I made for myself consisted of an old skirt I used to love. The lining, zipper, and handles came from a light sweater jacket, because I enjoy creating impossible sewing challenges like attaching cotton and heavy knit fabric together. My sewing machine did not appreciate punching through that metal zipper.

This one is very floppy due to the heavy zipper and the bulky knit fabric. I love it.

I managed to make four of them as gifts along with the one for myself, which is excellent project persistence for me. I have trouble making the same thing twice under normal circumstances.

After Christmas, I took a break from sewing, but I may be able to talk myself into making a few more of these or tackling a similar project. I really enjoy making bags and containers, especially when I can cobble them together from hoarded materials.

I have one more hobby blog planned, but I won't pretend like it's going up next week. That one will (hopefully someday) cover graphic design.

I'll end with my hastily-blanket-covered-photography-background chair mere seconds after I put the bag away:

That cat is black, not some odd shade of brownish-green, but you get the idea.

Hobby Blog, Part 1

"I should blog more often," I always say to myself, and then I come up with 100 fun, recurring blog ideas that I don't write down. Months later, when I realize I haven't written anything current to put up, I try to remember all those brilliant ideas I thought I had and come up with nothing.

The Void where all good ideas go

The last time I sat down with a notebook, I started scrawling about current hobbies, so I figured I'd do a 3-part blog on some of the creative projects I've been dabbling in.

First up...Drawing!

I've always been convinced I can't draw, so I started watching a few YouTube tutorials on drawing basics to get started. Basically, I learned that a large part of drawing is reproducing real objects on paper using shapes, light, and shadow. Now, copying art styles has always been something I've been good at, so with a few tips and techniques on shading and what drawing pencils do, I've been able to draw some real life objects I'm pretty proud of.

These are objects around me that I used to try out different drawing pencils:

I was supposed to set up a still life, so I tried these:

I ran across a book that recommends doing a few passes with a black colored pencil to get true blacks in a drawing, and it's really interesting what a difference that can make:

Space Mantis fan art:

  The two below are my attempts to add texture to step-by-step drawings:

These are recreations of photographs:

For the willow tree, I wanted to see if layering twisty lines on top of one another gave the impression of leaves, rather than drawing something more detailed over and over or leaving large patches without detail. I mostly like how it turned out.

Hopefully with practice, I'll develop more of my own art style, so I can draw things that aren't right in front of me, but starting from a reference point is going well. The next thing I'd like to phase in is color, but that's a whole new world.

Stay tuned next week for another hobby-of-the-minute--sewing bags.