Ne invoces expellere non possis

Celestial Season- Vienna

The Song of the Hunt

For rpg-gamers The Witcher might be familiar already. I've just poked around the second game, poked to the end, but it's a bit shameful to admit that's how I started the game-series: from the second game. That's why I feel that I am not the best one to give it a review of any kind. Still, I hope one day I'll get to the third and final part. And of course I should really play the first part as well. After all, it is said that it's really good.

And perhaps one day I could read the books these games are based on.

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Wolves asleep amidts the trees 

Bats all aswayin' in the breeze

But one soul lies anxious wide awake

Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths

Birds are silent for the night

Cows turned in as daylight dies

But one soul lies anxious wide awake

For the Witcher, brave and bold

Paid in coin of gold

He’ll chop and slice you

Cut and dice you

Eat. You. Up. Whole.

Eat. You. Whole.

"Incurable lover of the grotesque”

"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad." - Salvador Dali

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I'm still wanting to learn tattooing, but since my energy has dropped very low, my practicing has come to a halt. I copied several pictures with all kinds of subjects and coloured them with colour pencils, and even tried out the fake-leather and few fruits, but now I am finding difficulties to take care of myself and my all-day chores. I was given a bigger dosage for my medication, and there's a plan to change the medication if nothing improves, so I am waiting to get my energy back one way or another.

Here's few drawings I made from pictures I found. There's
some differences with the original pictures. There's bound to be some differences since the artist is different and has a different style. Also the more details some pictures have the more difficult it becomes to copy, and at that time I just improvise. Not all leafs or branches need to be exactly at the same spots and sometimes you think that the picture looks better without something or add something to it, to make it look better for your needs. I do have ideas of my own, of course, you might have seen the ink-drawings and paintings all around this blog.



Also I did use photographs besides drawings and paintings as models for these images. A crucial part of portraying people and animals is using photographs as models. It's not enough to just copy them, you need to be able to draw people just by looking at them, to know how to draw their anatomy. Copying without really seeing and understanding how for example arms are attached to the torso or not measuring the limbs to fit to their natural places creates horrid looking mistakes.





As you can see, these pictures were photographed, not scanned, so the quality looks a bit blurry. I am the most laziest photographer after all. No good light at these pictures. And scanning seemed to take too much effort. Also the size of each drawing is very small. In the pictures below, the paper size is A3.

After I get my energy back, and I can continue practicing, I'll make more pictures that are more my own making. This was a good way to get to know the different styles and how to make them and colour them. If this becomes something more, I would want to be able to do as much of different styles as possible. There are some styles I do not like as much, and feel reluctant to even try, but still I want to learn as much as possible. I really hope this works out somehow. I don't have many options left.

This Haunting feeling of The End.

(Copyrights mine)

I've been haunted by this peculiar feeling of ending. I don't know if it is simply my imagination or what, but for at least a year now it has been moving around in my head. It feels like my life is coming to an end, or maybe it is the world or humanity that's ending. Or it might be just all in my head. But these odd sensations come and go or float around behind my eyes, and I keep waving them away like pesky flies, but they keep coming back.

*

When I read and hear about people's happiness, it makes me want to hurl. I remember happiness, I do. And the logical side is glad about other's happiness, but one thing that has been growing, raising and descending is hate. Hate towards me and everyone and no one. It's not surprising that I am still this sloppy mess of a person with these messy feelings and sensations that make sense in a mad world. A hacked up sack of meat, pretending to be alive, that's what I am. Different sensations keep haunting me and I try to remember to write them down. Perhaps I will understand it all someday. Perhaps I will heal, forgot and cannot understand a word I have written.

"The Sweetness was turned to Adamantine, Heartless cruelty, and the Purity to Voluptuous Wantonness."

More diy. Now that for the time being I am feeling a tad more energetic.

Unfortunately I cannot remember where I found this picture. Perhaps from Propnomicon-blog. That blog is one of my favourites.

I am putting together a vampire slayer-kit. Unfortunately I found my wooden box to be a bit too small for it (so there's no photos), so I need to keep looking for a larger yet cheap wooden box.. which is as easy as finding a leprechaun. I found an old bible for a few cents and a cylinder shaped wood from all the woodblocks I've collected, and I sharpened it into a stake. I have a crucifix from a flea market, but I rather keep it on my wall. But for religious items I recommend religious flea-markets - if your country has one. Those types of flea markets are usually cheaper than the average ones and there's a lot of crosses and bibles.

But the whole slayer-kit project seems to be a long road of collecting different things from wherever I happen to find them. Pretty much like every project I have. I collect things and then figure out how to use them. Small glass-bottles filled with - for example - tea-leaves. Perhaps a bag made from fabric filled with garlic or some other. And I've seen steampunk-pistols and shotguns made from water-guns, or perhaps an antique-looking prop-gun from some masquerade-shop would be a good addition to the kit. Since a larger slayer-kit looks good with some firepower and - or with some wicked blades and axes.

Step one, do it yourself. Step two, I don't know. Something exciting happens. Step three, profit.

*

Here's a bit more DIY-projects.


Some of the things in different websites about "diy" are projects harder to make when you live in a country that's too young to have a lot of old objects in every flea-market. There's also no cheap stores that sell feathers, jars, paints, pins and every kind of thing you might have seen someone mentioning in instructions. Every last piece from rusty nails to cardboard is expensive - used or new.

Here's some pictures of projects I want to try to make as soon as I can. I can't remember where I got these pictures, so I'm hoping no one takes offence for me adding these here:

I want to try making something like this, but since I don't have deer horns(?) just laying around, I want to try horn-shaped wood/branches, and paint them black or dark blackish brown.

Perhaps a doll's head would be a good substitute for this - whatever the material is? Wood or plastic perhaps? There's also Styrofoam-heads on Ebay. They are cheap but not sure how practical in use.

When you have limited space, either a fake or a real one would be interesting. A fake one is perhaps a bit harder to make, since I found no instructions on how to create fake-cabinet drawers.

A real one might be easier, since if you have a cabinet of any kind, all you need is more drawers. Perhaps it's not easy to find the smallest ones, but for example any old cabinets or work-desks drawers might do the trick.

And these things seem easy enough to make:

All you need is some wood-blanks and jars. Also chains and a wall-hook. Not difficult things to obtain.

It looks like this one doesn't have real tree branches, but I would like to try out real branches. It's quicker, cheaper and easier. Although burning real candles instead of led-candles is a bit risky, and I cannot recommend it.

I have the wood-boards, but no crowbar. It's a project I'm working on. I had to get really creative for living in a rented apartment. A house of my own is a wish, that might never come to be reality, unless I am able to re-educate myself or get a second job or something. So I use my energy by creating things that I can just as easily remove if I ever have to move out of my apartment.

I almost bought a cool looking oil-barrel with rings around it, so I could paint it to look like a real wood-barrel, but I didn't dare to spend more money at the time. Real barrels are really amazing, but also expensive. Usually over ten times more expensive than an average plastic-barrels.

And here's the last one of the easiest to make diy I added here. Plastic instects painted and hanged on a frame. Easy as pie.

"Untouched by the sunlight, Or the moonlight, I stand like a statue, As the stars bring their light"

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Do it yourself. DIY. A poor man's choice. An opportunity for artistic endeavor.

I have apartment full of different kinds of wood to work on and some metal-objects. At times I get an idea but mostly I look for ideas and inspirations. With zero-budget or otherwise very low starting points.

I think I might have written about this before, but when you don't have any money to spend, you can always make something from flour, baking dough, to be exact.

Couple of years back I made few baking dough-bones and bird-skull-look-a-likes for Halloween. Perhaps a person with patience and a touch for details could make better looking skulls, I just peeked at a picture and molded them to look something like that.

(About year old pictures)

Although these pictures and their use belongs solely to me, if you, my dear reader, get any kind of ideas and inspiration from these, you may of course use the ideas - but not the pictures.

Actual modelling clay or even play-dough can allow you to make a really fine, detailed and realistic work, but like I said, when you don't have money for it, and if you want decorations for a party or something to put into your jars of curiosities you can make these cheap. Also you can make small holes into the still-wet pastry and after its dry, you can put wire through and hang them on a chandelier. All you need is some fine-grained flour, water and salt. Salt is the key-element. Without it you end up with a paste that starts to stink and rot. Unfortunately I made that mistake with a mummified-hand I made. So you don't need any actual instructions, you just add equal measures of flour and water, but add more flour to keep it dry enough to handle. Also some use ovens to warm and harden the figurines, I just put flour over a newspaper and left it to dry for few days. I'm not sure if the shape changes in the oven.

Anyway, that one is a bit difficult thing to make, but like I said, if you don't have money nor imagination to try something else, it is an option.

Another idea, that I haven't yet tried, is to carve bones and skulls out of wood from forests. I have a little experience on carving wood, but in theory it sounds like an easy enough option. Just gather up some branches and whatnot and start carving. But the tree needs to be thick enough and not rotten or old. Also it needs to be completely dry.

One interesting idea I got from several different websites, that include making statues and other decorations from dolls and doll-heads. One thing I accidentally stumbled on was a practice-dollhead, for barbers and make-up artists. The difference from kids dolls is the size of the thing:

In this picture the practice-doll was painted from its natural human-like skin-colors to white. Not the most delicate colouring technique I used there, but any other person could try spray-painting to get the best, cleanest result. I used what I had. Equally I had to get creative with the hair the doll had. I cut it off the best I could, but with closer look you can see small pieces of hair sticking out. Using any razors or carpet-knifes would cause scratches on the skins surface, and they didn't get all the hair out.

Also the doll had an average head but I got an idea to make a head with its top cut off, to reveal its "brain". It kind of reminds me of one of those phrenology-heads.

There's also couple of books I tried to transform into something else, but I'm not all that happy with the results. Cardboard, and pins besides paints and hot glue were used with these.

And there's another picture I have once shared. But I got an idea, that I haven't yet tried out. Besides making octopus-figures on bottles, all other options are equally possible, but what I haven't tried, which might work even better as a 3-dimensional decoration is an actual plastic toy-octopus. Unfortunately they are hard to find and the ones I found from Ebay are surprisingly expensive for average toys. So this plan is currently on waiting-mode. But when I find a toy to hot glue on a bottle, I would probably paint it at first. I don't know how this idea might work, but hopefully I get a chance to try.

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Cabinets of curiosities are fun things to have, and I have something like it. It goes through transforms every now and then, but currently it looks like this:

There was no space to get the whole cabinet into one picture, but as you can see, it has all kinds of jars and bottles - from grocery stores, flea-markets and alcohol-stores. Printed labels (which I need more and different kinds) and more things from flea-markets, like the candle-holders. Only the skull-replicas are from Ebay. The human-skull one was the most expensive one, and it is a real treasure.

I'll add ore pictures later, like the mummified hand and a bit better looking diy-books.