A new project begins

Fabric for a new project
I'm so excited to work on my next project.

I'm doing a makeover of one of these. It's made with hideous material, but it's a fantastic shape and size.

I was inspired by seeing this one.

I plan to use the fabric pictured above, with accents inspired by this patchwork.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Whence came the monsters

Friendly kitchen monsters

Sitting on my desk is a cute monster gocco print and a business-card version of another monster print, both by Carrie Wagner. They inspired me to draw some monsters of my own. Originally I was envisioning a sort of monster totem-pole, but part way through, I recalled this cute painting, which I saw when reading some artsy blogs recently. It suddenly seemed just right that the reason for this tower of creatures was cookies! My family will recognize the cookie jar. My Mom had supersonic hearing when it came to detecting the slightest scrape of that lid. Accordingly, my older sister taught me the way of removing it silently. To this day, I suspect we are the only two people with the knack.


Friendly kitchen monsters before painting

I had a lot of fun dreaming up different monsters, so don't be surprised if more cute and creepy creatures show up soon. The careful observer will also note a reference to my purple-suited aliens.



Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

On one planet, it rained paisley.

"paisley"

I wasn't too enamoured of this week's IF topic of "paisley" at first. I prefer the very abstract themes. But after doing a little mind map brain-storming, it turned out that you just can't predict inspiration. I'm really rather loving my little alien, who seems to be turning up all over the universe. I have a sneaking suspicion that my subconscious produced this little purple-suited alien because I have some fellow-feeling for a being in strange new surroundings.

I think there must be several of them on that pink flying saucer and they're on rather a long holiday, adventuring round the universe. They stopped by Earth for some ice cream, and blew some bubbles as they left. Here, one of them is rather surprised by the form precipitation takes on an otherwise ordinary blue-green planet.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A good source of drawing prompts

"crowded"

I've been using the Illustration Friday topic archive for drawing prompts. It's working well for me to have these little "assignments" since it gives me some direction, while still being open to interpretation and inspiration.

Update: I created a set to collect together all my Illustrated Words.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

drawing assignment: slither

"slither"
I decided to try following the illustration friday flickr group for some random drawing assignments. This week's theme was "slither". Snails and snakes are the only two things that really come to my mind for the word "slither", and snails are much cuter. That's about all that went into my decision to draw a snail.

Update: If you're looking for a list of topics to use as assignments, here's the archive, which I am working through.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Rather a lot of cakes

pretty cakes
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

One of the strange things about engaging in a creative activity, is that sometimes, I feel inspired and compelled to make something without really knowing why or where it's going (if anywhere). Of late, I've found myself rather obsessed with drawing little fancy dessert spreads. I have NO idea why or what I'm meant to do with these drawings. Dear mysterious mind, please enlighten me as to what's going on in my subconscious!


more pretty cakes
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I tried painting one in watercolours instead of colouring it with pencil crayon. Still no answers. Maybe I should try painting one in oils? I'm feeling intimidated by my oil paints. Perhaps starting with something frivolous like a lot of fancy jellies and cakes is the way to go? So far, this inspiration is highly confusing.


fancy cakes and fruit
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Any other creative types reading this have any idea how to channel apparently random inspiration into something more directed? In the meantime, it's starting to make me crave a fancy afternoon tea...


fancy dessert buffet
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Breath in, be inspired

crafty
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
February is a short little month and many of us feel down-trodden by the weather, so the remedy for me is to celebrate! With lots of February birthdays, I get a good start. This year I'm adding in a creative afternoon with some of my crafty girlfriends on the very last day, which conveniently happens to be a Saturday. (I used the pretty invitation above, available at pingg.com).

in.spi.ra.tion
[in-spuh-rey-shuhn]
.noun

1. an inspiring or animating action or influence
   
2. something inspired, as an idea.
   
3. a result of inspired activity.
   
4. a thing or person that inspires.
   
5. Theology.
   1. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
      
   2. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
      
6. the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.
   
7. the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired.
   

Inspired by this wordplay project that I followed on some artsy blogs last year, I've created a similar challenge. It's neat to see how different creative minds interpret the same single word and how varied the final creations are.

If you'd like to play along, I've set up this wordplay copycat flickr group for everyone to share what they create. There are no rules about what media you use or what the final format of your creation is (you can even upload videos in case your creativity runs to dance, music, or other performance art). But whatever you make, it must be created during the specified time period (in this case February-March) and be inspired by the word assigned.

So without further ado, the word is "Burst".