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[lithiumbot]

I haven’t been drawing very much recently, because I have been woodworking! I work with a group that upcycles pianos. We pick up old pianos, disassemble them (carefully!) and make new things from the antique wood. A lot of these pianos are 100-200 years old, and the people who are getting rid of them didn’t want them to go to a landfill. 

The materials are amazing! they are often made of fine woods like mahogany and black walnut, birds-eye maple or Brazilian rosewood. The veneer and finish on the wood is great too, beautiful and textured with age. 

The craftsmanship is notable as well, as we take them apart layer by layer you can see the skill and care that went into every piece. There are often handwritten notes and dates left by previous tuners and piano repair technicians. We find ticket stubs to school recitals, playbills, music sheets, and other bits that fell between the cracks. 

After the piano is taken apart, the real work begins, we build the parts into something new, and give the piano new life. 

One of our members is an instrument maker, and turns the piano wood into guitars (2nd picture), dulcimers, and banjos. Another member takes the carved front-pieces and makes hope-chests (third picture) and cabinets. 

Me, I tend to make things out of the leftover bits. I made the jewelry box pictured up top from a key-cover, integrating the locking mechanism and the brass hinge from the same piano. I have been using the backposts to make tool-handles and restore old axes, sledges and mauls. The pin-blocks have been repurposed as knife blocks and cutting boards. 

In this way we try to find a use for every piece of the piano. We started this project as a way to keep these fine antiques out of the dump, but now people bring them to us specifically to have something new made from something old. 

We’ve made so much more than what I showed you here, if there is enough interest maybe i can do a series of posts about the different pianos and the things we made out of them.

[lithiumbot]

Looking through my sketchbook for drawings to finish, found a page from when i watched ‘Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space.’ Its Ms. Coffee Cup, school teacher, hopeless romantic, and hot mess! Hard to find reference for her outside of the show itself. Not a popular choice for fanart, it seems, and no one has even bothered to update her wiki entry since the show came out.

[lithiumbot]

Modeled and 3D printed a tiny cauldron to celebrate the advent of fall! 

[lithiumbot]

Been learning Fusion 360 so i can make things for my 3d printer! I originally learned how to 3d model in Maya and parametric design is vastly different, but way easier to make parts that screw together. 

Using modern technology to make old-fashioned things!

[lithiumbot]

The Lamb

Bearer of the Red Crown

Emissary of He Who Waits

[lithiumbot]

The Lamb!

[lithiumbot]

In the dark and quiet, nothing else exists but the words on the page.

[lithiumbot]

Red

[bogleech]

Is there any art program that not only lets you add text to an image, but keep coming back to it and editing it? In every program I know with a text feature, the text layer basically becomes a flat image once you’re done typing in it, so to do any editing you would have to put in a whole new text block and start it over. Sure you can keep the text in its own file, edit it there and copy/paste it but those extra little steps really build up if you’re talking about maybe a hundred or more pages for book projects

[lithiumbot]

I recommend Krita! it is a free and open-source drawing program that keeps text as an editable vector layer. You can set it to photoshop shortcuts if that is what you are used to. The default brushes are really good as well, right out of the box it draws like I want, whereas in photoshop I always had to set up custom brushes. I have completely transitioned to using Krita as my default drawing program.

[lithiumbot]

Thought I’d post the sketch and ink versions of that Backpack Hero drawing! I always find the sketch version to be very appealing, and some of that rough charm gets lost during ink and color. 

[lithiumbot]

I’ve been really enjoying the demo for Backpack Hero, a roguelike game about inventory management, where you play as a literal packrat.

[lithiumbot]

Never shoulda brought up Bruno

[lithiumbot]

Hush now, hide, all you little ones Rush now, into the middle of nowhere Singing and laughter will die

[lithiumbot]

Working on a winter drawing, and thought this would be a good opportunity to talk a bit about how I approach color.

After inking, I start out by working in greyscale value, picking greys to show how light or dark a thing is in comparison to its surroundings.

For an old-timey feel, I’ll drop in a sepia overlay, all one color, which will take its values from the grey underneath it.

This also works for regular coloring. Set an overlay layer, pick a general color and flat-fill areas. I can pick individual colors but I often don’t have to. For instance, in the third drawing, Cecily's lips, cheeks and skin are all the same flat color fill, but the value underneath has made the darker areas pinker. Same thing for the scarf, its just one color of purple on the overlay.

I handle shadows and highlights in grey as well, and then color-shift them, but that’s a post for another time. Oh, and I haven’t even gotten into coloring the line art. 

Stay warm!

(I think this is the first time I’ve posted a drawing of her in color. Since I usually only draw her for Inktober, she tends to live in a monochrome world.)

[lithiumbot]

Born under a lucky star, she glows in the dark.

But if you want to see her really light up, ask her about constellations.

[lithiumbot]

I always liked seeing my villagers reading by the stream. They put on their little glasses and pull out their book and they’re all ready for an afternoon of reading. Makes me wish I still lived in a house with a stream running through the backyard.

[lithiumbot]

Gotta make those bells!

I found some old drawings I never finished from when I was playing a lot of animal crossing. At the time I had named this mouse “Biscuit,” but it turns out there is already a villager named that. I don’t wanna double up on names, so I suppose I’ll name this character after my favorite cheese: Pepperjack.