#hand techniques

[dazfashionz]

This is another creative sample I wanted to experiment with based on Mexicans Los Muertos make up they wear to respect the dead.

I wanted to further develop my skills and see what I can do to create a similar aspect based on Mexico traditions with the skull aesthetic make up.

To construct this textiles sample, I first choose a portrait photo of a woman and print this using the digital printer,on a black A4 size fabric.Once it was all printed off and dry, then I could start the embroidery techniques. I chose a few designs I could do on the face and improvised from a vision of mine to build a detailed and textile effect bringing this sample to life.I chose different bright colours to outline all the details and filled them in with colour by using an embroidery hoop to sustain it and not come loose.once all the details were added I went over and outlined them in black.

When I got to the teeth, I had to move fast and carefully to not go over the lines and ruin the shape. Although once I have filled them in, there was too much thread gathering and harder for the needle to go through. I finished them with the same technique for the first row and decided to try something different for the bottom teeth to see what would cooperate better. I thought of using puff binding for the teeth as it was easier for me to sew on around with lack after drying it off.

My last step was to add the 3D marigold flowers to add the last touches.I used the same method of hand stitching and some in the machine. Sewing them in the middle and twisting them around till I get the shape I wanted.

Overall this was an interesting sample I got to finish and experience the new skills with materials I could combine and build together to create something amazing based on Mexico’s traditions.I think this would be a very eye catching print on my final designs as I could interpret this as a similar textiles technique.

[hinamie]

I could've been a better man, but I'm not

more lmhs megu bc i love him. he is here fr ur lunch money :>

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[aethersea]

I've always wanted to learn bookbinding, ever since I was a wee little nerd, but there are a lot of things I've always wanted to learn, and this one has both a daunting upfront materials cost and a daunting upfront research cost. however, my sister is a jewel among siblings and gave me for christmas last year a handy dandy bookbinding manual, a block of good paper, and a little bag of tools.

but I still didn't have a suitable workspace, nor any of the many important tools and materials that she didn't include in her gift. so I just read the manual and pined. until maybe a month ago I got fed up with pining, flattened a cardboard box for a cutting mat, and went to town.

and I'm real proud of myself, so here's me rambling, plus photos!

I went to the thrift store and got glue + some fabric to bind the cover, went to Michaels for a paintbrush (and later went back for a metal ruler lmao it's amazing how useful it is to have a straightedge for cutting the paper), and...could not find material for the cover boards. so I went home and pined some more. but the urges were too strong, so after a couple hours of moping I got a stack of printer paper at the grocery store (I could not bring myself to use the good paper for my first, inevitably weak attempts, I just couldn't do it) and started making a little booklet. which was a great idea, it turned out, since it makes for good practice with cutting the paper, measuring things, punching holes in the signatures, etc.

I have a big box of greeting cards from Michaels, which I used for the covers. it didn't feel like I was making a Real Book, so I got some colored paper from the stationery store and used that for end papers.

so fancy~

galvanized by this success, I ordered a stack of chipboard online to use for cover boards; and once I was confident that I could cut paper without making it look too stupid (getting that straightedge ruler sure helped lol), I made signatures out of the good paper, left them under some heavy books overnight since I don't have a book press, and then punched holes in them! (huzzah for this nice video on getting the holes right)

my sister's gift included good linen thread. it's unwaxed, but after some poking around on r/bookbinding it looks like that just means I'll have to be more careful to avoid tangles and keep good tension. I am fine with this. I can be extra attentive. (I considered just running it over a beeswax candle, but one commenter said if your wax has paraffin in it, it could melt in a hot car, ruining the spine. I can't guarantee my candle is 100% beeswax, I didn't make it, so maybe we just move on.)

I don't have good linen fabric to use for the tapes, but the important part there is that the fabric be thin, sturdy, and not stretchy. the probably-cotton I got from the thrift store fits the bill, so it'll do!

this is a french link stitch, which I got from this exceedingly good tutorial. apparently it's strong enough on its own that for a book of this size, I don't actually need tapes, but I'd already cut the things so eh here we are. and tapes plus french link will make it a stronger binding still (according to a friendly redditor on r/bookbinding), so we carry on.

specifically we carry on to the gluing step. now as I mentioned, I do not have a book press, and you....kinda need one for this step. you need to hold the book block in place with the signatures facing upwards, pressed together hard enough that the glue won't run down between them and stick the pages together (though you do want the glue to get between them just a little, just for like a 16th of an inch). you at least need some clamps and a couple boards to sandwich the book block with.

but you know what? I'm not a professional, this is my first ever book, if it's a little bit off it'll be fine. so we grab all the heaviest books off the bookshelf and improvise.

it's fine! I'm sure it's fine! and just in case it's not, I've tucked a bit of cardboard underneath to catch any glue that drips down so it won't land on the floor. see? I'm prepared! I'm acing this.

and actually, it really was fine. I used clear elmer's glue, applied with a flat paintbrush from the art supplies aisle at Michael's, and frankly I liked the way the flat paintbrush let me slip glue in between the signatures. I did poke around on a couple bookbinding sites to see what kind of glue I should use, and the gist is that although there are better options than this, elmer's glue is perfectly serviceable, and the main downside is it's not archival grade. but I don't need my first bookbinding attempts to last 200 years, that's fine.

the next step is to add the mull. mull is a specific type of fabric – extremely loose-weave linen – and the idea is to paste it down over the spine to essentially hold the tapes and signatures all in place in relation to each other.

but I don't have mull! so I'm using more of the thrift store probably-cotton, because it's thin enough and not really stretchy at all. I'm sure this will be fine too. I painted a layer of glue onto the spine, then left it to dry a bit while I measured and cut the fabric, then painted a generous stripe of glue down the center, where it'll affix onto the spine. then I added a bit more glue to the spine, just to be sure, and pressed the mull into place, rubbing it thoroughly to make sure it's firmly affixed to every signature, with no creases in the fabric or air bubbles beneath it.

honestly I might have overdone it on the glue. I've never done this before, I don't know! I think it's okay, though – I tried not to ever let it become a thick layer, just a slight coating, since the danger of too much glue is that it might crack once dry and weaken the spine.

and now we leave it in the press overnight to dry, and pick up the next step in the morning!

[malcontentonline]

Naruto doodle dump:

The next one is a reference to this fanfic I wanted to do a design for his seal and it became a whole thing.

these next few are doodles from my own silly time-travel fanfic I'll probably never write

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wei Wuxian 🤝 Maleficent: Not being invited to a child's birthday party but showing up anyways (to make things worse).

(for @youremysunshine8)

[lbhslefttiddie]

"Shen Jiu, you really are a demon!"

in which yue qi saves an injured fox kit, which turns out to be an young fox demon. once he's recovered enough strength, he adopts a human form so that he can talk to yue qi properly, but ends up being caught by the slave traders as well. Since he can change form, it would be pretty easy for him to escape, but if he's discovered as a demon he'll never be able to return, and he has no home or family anyways, so he decides he would rather stay and help qi-ge, who will probably get himself killed without someone to stop him from doing stupid shit.

when shen jiu saves yue qi from death by horse carriage, and subsequently is bought by qiu jianluo, fairly quickly qjl realizes he is not human, and delightedly gifts him with a enchanted collar, which renders him unable to chnage forms, stuck in him demonic form and unable to change to full fox or full human shape. like this, he cannot leave the qiu manor at all without immediately giving himself away, even if qjl hadnt also locked him up. like this, he has no choice but to wait until yq makes his way back to the qiu manor at last, but when he's finally freed, he's initially almost feral from how he's been treated, and very nearly kills yqy...

[obliviani]

10 Shadows Technique

[alicenpai]

i love...wanpee...........🍊🍶🧡💚

[francy-sketches]

little meowmeows 🫶

[essenceofarda]

Not Tolkien related, but I'm actually lowkey proud of how this self portrait embroidery is going 🤩 Ignore the eyes being proportionally and directionally "off" lol, and the too-long nose/anatomical mistakes. I'm more focusing on learning "thread painting" techniques than exact and accurate anatomy representation (or at least, that's my excuse 😅)

Also I chose to do a self portrait bc at the time of needing a reference photo to practice embroidered portraits, I have, in fact, the face most readily available to me lol

[canisalbus]

Machete and Vasco are so pomegranate-and-the-hand-that-slices coded. To me.

Pomegranates are seen as messy, bloody, inconvenient fruits. You slice or tear or bite and in return for your effort you come away underwhelmed, disgusted, and stained too deep to wash. The consumption of a pomegranate is a violent act of defilement, for both the fruit and the eater.

But that is because most do not understand how to open a pomegranate. They have little patience for the precise carving. They see no point in coreing the fruit gently, no reason to be reverent as they pull the quarters apart. When done correctly, opening a pomegranate leaves little mess. Your fingers will still stain, your knife will still slick, but there will be no pool of crimson drowning both you and the fruit.

The seeds are only sweet to those who understand the merit of a light hand and intricate slicing. Why put in so much effort for a food so bitter and clearly armored against consumption? Surely it must not yearn to be eaten.

(^insane about silly catholic dogs)

.

[tiiramisu-cake]

hilarious that yuji's domain expansion hand sign is just middle fingers up

[dimeadozencows]

I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before

I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son

[fanning-the-flames]

Madame X redraw!

It was a bit nerve-wracking redoing a beloved piece but I had gotten much more familiar with digital painting since December 2021 (was it really that long?!) so I really wanted to give it a go. I started completely over, not even looking at the old art to see if i would get a different look and feel. Some effects I still didn’t achieve to my liking but in general I think I’m closer to the vision than before!

For folks who are more recent followers/Jiang Cheng enthusiasts, this is a painting imagining our favorite sect leader as Madame X by John Singer Sargent. He would’ve loved to paint Jiang Cheng exactly like this, I’m positive.

Details below:

Now that my painting juices are flowing again maybe I can get back into drawing (both my real life stuff and these fanarts…I’ve been in a rut for a few months at this point…)

[sunlit-mess]

hi! firstly, i love your art so much! you're one of my biggest inspirations right now in my own art journey 🤍. Ok my question is that, while you were improving go where you are right now, are there any tutorial videos or youtubers you watch? if you do, who would you recommend? :3

I shit you not this is what my screen looks like every time I draw

And I hardly watch tutorials ( Unless it's Adobe stuff, certain app settings idk, 3d/Game dev coding or Graphic design) 😭 Digital Art: SamDoesArts / tppo Graphic Design/Editing: Envato Tuts+ / Satori Graphics Animation: Alan Becker / Toniko Pantoja

[lsandom]

“I think that you’re worth keeping around / I think you’re worth holding onto” ☀️