Toadfish Monastery

I work as an Illustrator, so I draw things for a living, but I also do all sorts of other creative things.

I write some, I sometimes make jewellery, I draw and paint, but my favourite hobby is photography.

I intend to put up some of my doodles here as well as links to my Flickr page and my home page (when I finally get that online).

Comments are of cause welcome!

/Darlica

These are some of my photos, hosted on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/)

Nature

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Desolated buildings

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miscellaneous

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I rather favor #6 the and the last two...very nice.

Wow! You are really good! I really like the toad and snow-covered feather grass.

Thank you!

If anyone here want a printable version for some reason just PM me and add your e-mail and I'll send you a high resolution JPG.file

:)

I like the buildings--- I've always enjoyed photos of all types of buildings.

One of the best photos I ever took with my old Minolta was of a doorway in the French Quarter in New Orleans--- not a really great photo ( I was 13) but still striking and I like architecture.

A dingbot for Scrible!

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2219840695/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2219840695/)

Sorry for the huge ©... but when I put drawings up on flickr I like to make them less attractive to grab. :-\ It will be better when I get my own page up.

I made it a little less than a year ago. I even made an Easter egg version, unfortunately I dropped the egg when it was almost finished but I plan to try a again this year.

Ooooh! Very nice drawing. I love the photos, too. Especially the frog (he's really looking at the camera!) and the snowy fruit hanging on the branch.

I have got to get a digital SLR one of these days.  I love my old Cannon AE-1, but film is kind of a hassle.

God yes. I'd sell my soul for a digital SLR.

Darli, that's freakin' awesome. He's so cute and confused! :squee!:

 :mrgreen: Thank you!

I got inspired when I started reading GG, I had read other Steampunk stuff before but I found the playfulness of Foglio's drawings and the humour realising in some odd way. 

Scrible, if you want a cleaned up version for the Blog I'm game, as long as I get my ©  ;) , just PM me your e-mail address, it would be nice to contribute to it in some way.


And don't go sell your soul, You know that will give you problems with automatic doors... :P ;)
DSLR's comes in quite affordable prizes now days, especially if you're not going for one with all the bells and whistles.

For me getting a DSLR was a new beginning for my interest in photography. Before that I had almost stooped taking picture because developing them was so expensive and they never came out like I wanted them to anyway since developing/copy machines usually sets the exposure values for the whole roll on basis of the first two or three pictures. ::)

I use a Nikon D70s, I bought a kit 1 1/2 year ago with body and two lenses (Nikkor 70-300mm and Nikkor 18-70mm) I'm very happy with it and I plan to keep it for many years even if newer cameras have may more pixels. If I use the highest available JPG resolution I can make prints the size of A3 with out visible pixels (if I use RAW I think I can do A1) and that's good enough for me.

My first SLR was/is (I still have it and it still works just fine) a Nikon FG-20. I don't know if that's why I prefer Nikon to other brands. It is a bit heavier than for example Cannon and IMHO it feels less "plastic" and the Nikkor lenses isn't as flimsy as the budget lenses for Canon.

If you buy a DSLR second-hand be aware of that the shutter can get worn out after about 40-50 000 exposures. You can see how many picture a camera has taken in you take a pic load it over to a computer and then check the EXIF data that comes with the pic.

kanaloa.the.squidly@gmail.com
I'd love to have that as our logo, and of course you would retain the copy right. It's your work, and I most definitely believe in giving credit where it's due.
I will have to investigate what I can get once I'm a little closer to my birthday (I have some relatives that forgot my 18th and graduation, so they can make for it now). I'll keep in mind what you said.
I have a regular old SLR, a Nikon X-370s. I have no idea how old it is. Got it from my grandfather a few years ago. We have a non-DSLR (Canon PowerShot S2 IS) that I really like, and while I still want a DSLR, I'd be happy with something like it.

If you are used to a Nikon stick to Nikon. Honestly.

My old SLR Nikon has no motor or AF the only automatic feature on it is the shutter time.
I took a lot of pictures 15 years ago and felt that I needed a fully automatic cam with AF and motor.
A Nikon was out of question because it was too expensive so I bought a Pentax MZ-50 which was good but slow, since it wanted to adjust things after I had pressed the button to take the pic...

Taking pictures of things that was moving in high speed got nearly impossible (and I used to be good at that with the old Nikon). Any how after almost 10 years I decide to trade up (or that was at least my intention), my SO got the Pentax and I bought a Minolta 505si. It had a lot more bells and whistles than the Pentax but was even more stubborn when it came to moving objects, so I kept using my Nikon for more difficult shots since it was much faster and easier to work with in manual mood than any of the other cams.

I bought the D70s about midsummer 2006 and one of the first things I did was taking pictures of a Road Racing competition, Motorcycles driving past in about 200 km/h, most pictures turned out if not perfect so at least a whole lot better than they did the last time I attended with my Minolta. Keep in mind that DSLR's are supposed to be slower than film SLR's...

It feels right in the hands, it's heavy enough to be stable but light enough for me to hold in the same position for several minutes and it seems like my reaction speed and the D70's trigger to release where synced from the beginning. :D

I'm hooked, I'll stay with Nikon!

Btw it also works fine in -20°C and that is quite unusual for DSLR's.  :)


Can the dingbot wait until I'm done moving? I'm swamped right now, I'll dig up some Road Racing pics then too.

Of course! Whenever you get around to doing it is fine with me. I just wanted to get you the address so you could send it along when you got a moment.
I'm attached to my Nikon, but I like cannon, too. I'd be fine with either for a DSLR.

I hate insomnia...

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2221179019/in/set-72157603422763256/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2221179019/in/set-72157603422763256/)

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6 more on my flickr site just follow the links.

I'm painting again! :D

I haven't been working with watercolours for a very long time, it was even longer since I painted just because I wanted to...
This will be my birthday gift to my SO's mother.

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Link to my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2593360373/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21661703@N07/2593360373/)

I was perhaps a bit too concentrated, I thought I've been painting for perhaps two hours and it was about 10:30 pm when I looked up it was 1:25 am...  ::)  :)

My respects. I never learned to use watercolors (I have a hard time controlling them). How did you manage the edges?

Watercolour  include a metric ton of different methods and some of them are considered a little finer than others, no sketching and a lot of water is supposed to be the finest and most artful technique...

I'm a practical person so I don't give a dime about that (that's perhaps why I'm an illustrator and not an artist). ;)

I have a nice photo, I make a sketch of the object, try different dispositions etc. when I'm happy with the result I scan the sketch, mirror it and print it out after adjusting the size (if needed).
Instead of using carbon paper I use the mirrored sketch, I tape it to the paper and rub gently over the lines with a smooth stylus or a medium soft pencil, the picture will now be transferred to the paper.
I now fill all areas with their base colour (with watercolours that's the lightest shade in the area) after that I fill in the edges/contours, where needed, with a darker shade of the same colour to hide the grey from sketch lines.

The trick to get even colouring and more control over the paint is to work with smaller areas and well kept brushes. This way you can use the lines the watercolour makes when it dries as contours.
The longer I work with a picture the dryer the paint, the first layers are flowing but after that the paint gets dryer and more concentrated. I might add a final flowing layer to brighten some colours, for example if I want a more lustrous green or red I can cover the green or red areas with a very thin watered down yellow coating.

However some people would say that I'm not really painting with watercolours I draw with them... :)

Quote from: Darlica on June 20, 2008, 02:22:00 AM

However some people would say that I'm not really painting with watercolours I draw with them... :)

Maybe.

The results are excellent, however.

Rumble. That's gorgeous.

Thank you!

:)

Beyond pure geometric forms my own painting/drawing talent is extremly limited and I am a lost cause with the free use of colors (i.e. more than filling out defined areas). All the more I appreciate the ability in others.
Do we have a clapping hands smiley?

That is lovely. Absolutely gorgeous.

Really very lovely, Darlica!



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I took watercolour last, instead of first, and never learned to "let the paper sparkle through." 
I tend to oilpaint everything, regardless of the media! :mrgreen:

Words fail me, but my admiration and enjoyment don't.  :TYfg-a.com:

D@mned good painting.  Beautiful.

That's quite beautiful. Lovely.

 :thanx:

It is lovely---

*cough* :sweepgirl:

I think it's time to dust of this thread...

I haven't been painting or drawing much lately but I do other things.

When I have slow hours at work I knit or crochet.
-I'm much nicer when I'm not bored so I try to find ways to keep myself entertained...

So far I've knitted caps and scarf's/mufflers and I make little crocheted critters.

The mouse/rat and the hedgehog in the first pic have movable limbs.
The dragon just have movable "arms". A Lion in the same style is in the making right now, it just need another hour or two.
:D

They are so sweet! I especially love the hedgehogs.

Little treasures. Amazing.

Thank you!  :)

They are little yarn doodles. I get an idea, perhaps do a quick sketch, and start crocheting. I don't have any patterns, I add or close loops as I go, if I'm not happy with the result I just re do it.
It's good for my brain to think in 3D.  :D

Aren't you clever! I couldn't do these even if I had a pattern.

Of cause you could!

Basic crocheting isn't very difficult. I only use the two most basic types of loops (I don't know the terms in English right now) and a little nifty trick called a "magic circle" (crochet + magic circle on youtube should do the trick).

Of to work!!!

Edit: Crocheting not knitting  :duh:

Very cool... and cute!

They look awesome, the hedgehog and the dinosaur are my favs.

Thank you!
:)

I've given away two little critters, one to a colleague and one to a friend, the rest usualy sits on a shelf in the living room.

When I came back after my summer holiday leave one of my colleagues "B" saw me work on the little owl and seemed to like it a lot. She also told me how she and her SO rescued a little baby hedgehog from some crows and nursed it back to health for a couple of weeks before releasing it again.
Since there are no medals for saving hedgehogs I made her one like the one in the second picture and gave her the next time we met at work.  :)
As far as I know it now "lives" in a little cosy nest on a shelf by her computer at home.

The other critter (see the picture below) is was a figure from Melbourn Metro Trains "Dumb ways to die" commercial/information film  that went viral last winter
My friend who also work in the underground albeit not in Sweden has a rather black sense of humour (sort of comes with the territory working in the underground) and liked that film very much and I thought it would be fun to give him one of the characters to hang from his bag.
I think it was appreciated. ;D

Quote from: Opsa on January 30, 2014, 09:59:11 PM
Aren't you clever! I couldn't do these even if I had a pattern.

Quote
Of cause you could!

Basic crocheting isn't very difficult. I only use the two most basic types of loops (I don't know the terms in English right now) and a little nifty trick called a "magic circle" (crochet + magic circle on youtube should do the trick).

Of to work!!!

Edit: Crocheting not knitting  duh

OK I've done some research...
These are all made only using only chain stitches and single crochet stitches
My preferred method of starting is called the magic ring or magic circle.
:)

Those are too cute.

I'm a wee bit jealous of anyone lucky enough to have been gifted one of your creations.

:)

Thank you Bob!

May I present the Lion...
He's not scary at all, he's a real soft belly... ;D

He will be moving to my mother next week, she is as crazy about lions as I am about mice and hedgehogs...

Actually I'm starting to run out of ideas for the critters Teddy-bears ain't no fun, the same goes for rabbits and some other common toy animal stereotypes.
I'll happily crochet a cat or a dog if someone asks me to because they really want one but when I do them for my own amusement I like to do something slightly weirder (dragon, DWTD) or at least a bit unusual (owl, lion).

Any suggestions?  
:)

Love the 'Dumb' guy!

Have you done a squidling, yet?  ;D

Fish and bugs are always cute. Except if they are down your swimsuit!.

Quote from: Opsa on February 01, 2014, 03:11:21 PM
Love the 'Dumb' guy!

Have you done a squidling, yet?  ;D

Fish and bugs are always cute. Except if they are down your swimsuit!.

No squidlings yet, I'v tried but the arms are a bit complicated, I'll try again. :)
Opsa: I got a vision of a bug in a swimsuit reading you post, that might be too hard to crochet but this little doodle is for you. Bugs in swimsuits are actually quite cute. :P

A baby anything is always cute.  How do we know it's a baby?  Easy:  the head's too big for the body, and the eyes are overly large for the face. 

Think: Japanese anime art.

:D

That is the cutest ( and only!) bug in a swimsuit I've ever seen!  :D

Yes, but is a bug snugged in a swimsuit as snug as a bug in a rug?

No. Nothing can be as snug as a bug in s rug!
Well, except a bug in a rug that is also fed by "Two fat ladies" that is... :P

One hot-pink squidling is in the making. Here's the prep work and a brief lesson in Swedish. ;D

What exquisite drawings! If Leonardo daVinci were to design a crocheted squidling it would have looked like that.

Wow.... you obviously have either eaten whole squid, or else you've dissected one?   <hehe>

That sketch is ... art.   Very accurate rendition-- have the squidlings been visiting your neck of the woods on the sly?  ;)

Quote from: Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith on February 04, 2014, 06:42:20 PM
Wow.... you obviously have either eaten whole squid, or else you've dissected one?   <hehe>

That sketch is ... art.   Very accurate rendition-- have the squidlings been visiting your neck of the woods on the sly?  ;)

Thank you!  :)
I wish I had a live monastery squidling poseing for me in the ticket booth!
That would have been hillarious. :squid_blue:
But yes, I've seen live ones and Lindorm  has prepared and cooked whole squid and I have eaten it.
And I tend to play with my food, or dissect it if you will, you can ask L about what happend the first time he served me an artichoke*... :D

However, there is a lot of usable squid pictures available on the net and this time I mainly used those for inspiration. :)




*I like to study things in my surroundings, it can be the food on my plate, the colours or shape of a leaf, a seed, a flower, a stone or a popcorn also people especially their faces, bugs, I like bugs. Anything that doesn't object to me looking at it intensly (and some that does. :mrgreen:)

Oooh... your typical artichoke is rather complex-- you could do one in knit, I bet.  :)

As for eating squid?  I did consider where you lived before guessing that. ::)

I think an artichoke is far to complex for knitting or crocheting the inner leaves are so thin, smooth and silk like... Silk-paper and Papier Mâché perhaps? Those mediums aren't my forte though.


Both L and I like Asian food and there are at least a couple of very good Asian food supermarkets in Stockholm. *drool* Thai squid sallad *drool* :meal:

I've also visited the coast of Spain a couple of times and seen the squid boats leave the harbour and I've seen the catch at the market the next day. :)


To get the thread back on track a watercolour from a couple of springs ago:

Awwwwww  :) ! Are they planting bulbs or picking onions?

There's a whole story behind that picture.

They are "replanting" the bulbs I planted...

L and I bought amongst other things hyacinth and daffodil bulbs and planted them in his mothers summerhouse garden on a autumn visit.
When they bloomed in the spring many of them turned up quite far from where I planted them and in some very unexpected places...

So I spun a little story about Head-gardener Sork* and his company Sork and son's and how he was so angry on that big clumsy human planting bulbs in all the wrong places. If it hadn't been for him and his sons who toiled all winter who knows what the garden would have looked like in spring!
And this watercolour as an illustration.

*a Sork is a fieldmouse in Swedish

What a charming story line.

The Squidling prototype is done!  :D

This was fun! I had to start over a couple of times before I got it right, it might sound strange but that's part of the fun... Figuring out how to translate an 2D idea/sketch into a 3D model made of yarn. :) Things like that keeps my brain happy!

I had people stopping by the ticket booth just to see what I was doing! 
Usually people who have a question for me or want to buy a ticket, comment my little projects but this time (about the time I started with the arms) people actually came to the booth just to see what I was doing.  ;D

So here it is:

It's darling, Darlica!  ;D

Quite nice :)

amazing!


Edit: I could easily see a modified version:  scale it up, and open up the body of the squid to head-size.

Then you could easily turn this into a socking hat for someone to wear.  :)

I suppose modifying an existing sock cap might be easier-- lengthening the traditional one, adding the side-fins, then adding the arms, with too extra-long ones that double as a tie down.

:)

Thank you!  :)

If I was to make a squidling hat, I would go about it in a completely different manner. Mostly because there is such a difference in size. The pink little squid is only about 10cm long. :)

I would knit instead of crocheting because it's a faster and easier method, a knitted cap would also be more elastic and probably have a better fit.  I would probably crochet some of the details like eyes though.

I'm now working on a little octopus. The body and mantle is done now the most complicated parts are left the arms.

I'm already looking forward to the pictures.  Hint:  put something obvious in the photo (like a coffee cup) for scale.  :D

I'd also love to see an octopus hat, with little dangly legs all around the head.  It'd be a hoot to wear-- especially if you had attached googly eyes.  :D

All right. Time for a new batch of pictures.  :)

Red is the biggest about 20 cm from "head to tentacle tip", Fall is the smallest about 14 cm and  Autumn is about 16 cm.

A purple one is on the way now but then I should perhaps find some other animal to obsess about.  ::) ;D
However these squids and octopuses are ridiculously fun to make so I might make more of them any how... Anyone up for adopting one?

EDIT:
Perhaps I should make my self clearer, these guys isn't up for adoption but if anyone would like to adopt a squid or an octopus I would be happy to make one!

I like Red best.

They're wonderful!

I love those knitted-squids... I think the whole idea is adorable.  :D

Knittsquids?   Squitteds?    I like'em whatever they are called.   You have some serious talent there.   

:)

Thank you!  :)
I'm happy you like them.

Maybe I should call them Crochethalopod's ? ;D
I've been asked if a sell them but answered no to that so far.
I'm a afraid they would at some point be used as toys for very young children and that might not be a good idea.

The octopuses are rather robust and the only thing that can come loose "easily"* is the eyes every thing else is crocheted in place and would need a loose end (well hidden inside the body or tentacle) or a cut in the yarn at the right place to come off.

The squids however are a assembly of smaller parts that is sewn together, especially the catching tentacles might come off rather easily...


*would require some tugging and or chewing, also known as baby superpowers.  ;)



I thought I should add some pictures from this years Easter projects...

This is a Paper egg painted for L.

I bought a high quality paper egg (with printed decorations).
First I repainted black with acrylic paint covering the printed decorations, then I added the gold paint around the rims.
When the paint had dried I pencilled my pattern on the egg (I had made a sketch on paper beforehand) and started colouring it with gold red and green acrylic paint.   
The next day I sprayed  it with high gloss varnish.

...and this is one of two goose eggs I painted this year.

I have almost  given up painting ordinary chicken eggs, they are just too fragile.

I wash the eggs before I start to get rid of any dirt, or fat/finger prints that might mess up the work (that's why I'm wearing a glove too).

I use acrylic paints here too as they stick to almost anything.
First I lightly pencil the motif on the egg making sure I get it straight/ placed where I want it/ in the right size. Then I take one motif at the time filling the larger areas firs and then the details and lines.

In the upper left of the last picture you can see my inspiration for this egg an old porcelain vase.  

:)

You need to get an ostrich egg to unleash your full potential!

Those are beautiful. 

Thank you! :)