Category: artist

Gingerbread Star Wars

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, Christmas, food, geek, Holidays, Star Wars, Sweets, Uncategorized

Full disclosure: This project was actually completed in 2013. But it’s still pretty epic. 

There is that one picture of an AT-AT made by a baker in CA that has dominated the gingerbread geekdom and it really made me want to try making a geeky work of gingerbread myself. I’m really not sure if it were me or Zorro who said we should make it, but I got in the supplies, called in Zorro’s siblings, and whipped up the dough. I also came up with one twist for our AT-AT which solved the problem of structural soundness.

He was a happy AT-AT, and he tried to go ice skating.

Zorro made a schematic, then he and the Minstrel spent forever measuring and cutting pieces. We decorated gingerbread cookies while it baked, and then the gluing and waiting and then  finally decorating took place. We started working on the schematics at 1 in the afternoon, I think they put the finishing touches on around 11 that night!

I’m so excited for how it turned out!

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We had some leftover dough and made the shield generators, and tried to make an x-wing, but it came out more as an imperial shuttle. It tried to ice skate, too.

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Merry Christmas!

Watercolor landscape

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, mountains, Uncategorized, watercolors

Landscapes have never really been my thing. I get bogged down in details, it takes forever, looks wrong, and I find it both frustrating and less interesting than people or horses. In spite of this, occasionally I want a landscape on my wall, or want something other than stark white paper behind my heroically posed main subject.

So, I learn.

The most useful thing I’ve learned in these watercolor courses is to focus on light and dark. It helps you focus on what’s really there, rather than what you think you see.

I’m finding that I like the results of my concentrated practice, even if it doesn’t look exactly like the reference photo, it’s still pretty.

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Psychology of Clothing

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, Redbubble, Society 6, style, Uncategorized

This article in the Atlantic (linked here) about the psychology of clothes, and how they make us feel, made me laugh. Not because I think it’s ridiculous, but because women have known this for years.

It’s an oft used joke that the first step a woman takes in a new endeavor is buying clothes for the occasion. Power suits, cute work out clothes, stilettos that make you feel in control (or, if you’re like me, like you’re going to die). There is something real there.

How often do people comment “I feel so official” because you handed them the team t-shirt or button, or whatever?

 

“Once you start feeling better, you’re gonna dress the way you feel,” Rudnicki says. “Your clothes represent your inner motivation and feelings. It’s a feedback loop—I feel good, so I’m going to wear the things that make me look good.”

The Emerald Horse

Posted on by abigailcossetteryan in artist, horse, Redbubble, Uncategorized, watercolors

My grandmother passed away in early October. I’m still getting used to the idea that I can’t write to her anymore. We had a short, lovely little memorial service for her, afterwards a few of the family friends came back to the house with us and we ate cheese and crackers and drank pino grigio (some of Grandma’s favorite things) and celebrated her life.

Being an introvert, and a sad one at that, I eventually huddled up on the couch with my sketch pad and watercolor crayons to listen to the conversation swirling around me. Since horses are one of the few things (only thing?) I know well enough to draw without a reference, I drew a horse. I drew an emerald horse.

Green and blue like the sea and seaweed on the beaches Grandma loved so well.

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