DIY Triceratops Hat

I promised myself I'd create more digital art - and I actually have three projects in progress! - but here we are again with another unexpected extra DIY project (let's even call it one of my first commissions!). A friend and a colleague of mine asked me for a help with her daughter's school project, a dinosaur inspired mask or something similar.

One of the ideas was to use a baseball cap and I went with it, because time was short and it was simple and something I had experience with before. The dinosaur was supposed to be a triceratops, so I found similar ideas on the Internet, but also tried to add my own style.

The hat was accompanied by a set of vertical plates on the back, a long paper tail and paper origami claws (I know all these things aren't usual for this type of dinosaurs, but kids wanted them, so why not?). I was planning to use craft felt sheets at first (size A4), but eventually went with foam rubber and, all in all, it didn't cost much and I'm more than satisfied with how it turned out. And it made my friend's kid happy, which was the most important thing in all this.

P.S. In February there's a celebration in my country that's similar to Halloween - there are carnivals and children make masks and go trick-or-treating. The tradition is older than the American counterpart, but since Halloween became more and more popular some time in the 1990s, we now actually have two similar traditions. 😁👍

Art Summary 2019

Let's finish this year with two artwork charts: the Top Nine algorithm application for Instagram and the Art Summary from deviantART. The first depends only on your likes and for the second I get to choose only one favourite post for each month.


TOP NINE

Here are my top 9 posts for this year according to your likes on my Instagram account throughout the year! I waited this whole month to get the latest count, because three weeks ago I converted my IG account to a business account and decided to try out the promotion feature, which drastically changed the number of likes.

Before the promotion my posts didn't get that much attention. The first one on this list had 55 likes and the least one 42 and that was approximately the range of likes I got used to. But what really worried me was the fact that at the end of the year it became obvious the number of followers wouldn't reach my next milestone, 400 (it kind of stuck at 393 or so). But experimenting with promotion skyrocketed one of my illustrations to the magical number of more than 400 likes, and although it didn't affect the number of the followers, it changed the whole dynamic of my account. Before that it wouldn't have reached the best nine (it had 36 or so likes) and now it's on the first place. So I tried to do so with another of my favourite posts, but I broadened the audience (which wasn't limited only to my country like the first time) and shortened the time of promotion. It also got about 400 likes and it's now on the second place. You can see the number of likes in the top left corner of each image - the first two, which were promoted, have 425 and 398 likes, whereas the third one (without promotion) has only 55 etc.

On one hand, I'm excited my promoted posts reached so many new people, but on the other, the plan wasn't quite working, because they liked just these two images, but didn't seem interested in following me further. I reached my milestone - had even 403 followers, which meant that only 47 out of 800 people decided to visit my profile and only 10 decided my profile was worth following. Interestingly enough, I didn't get any comments at all (!?) and it seems like the number of followers is going down again (at the moment it's precisely 400). I got my first 100 followers some time in 2017 and it took me almost a year to get to 200. I reached 300 followers in November 2018, and now, finally, a year later, 400 (and probably only because I paid for that promotion).

I got my first 100 followers some time in 2017 and it took me almost a year to get to 200. I reached 300 followers in November 2018, and now, finally, a year later, 400 (and probably only because I paid for that promotion). I know the biggest problems of my account are different techniques and styles I use, different themes and irregularity in posting, so I get it why I can't reach more followers. All I know at the moment is that when I draw something I really like and find worthy seeing, I'll probably use that promotion feature again, maybe it'll change something in 2020.


2019 ART SUMMARY

This has been my favourite art review template for years, because I get to fill it in according to my own preferences (one for each month)! The author of this specific layout is AsterianMonarch from deviantART.

I know that sometimes it's difficult to choose just one drawing for the whole month, especially if you draw a lot. Although I can't say I was very productive, I'm happy to say that I drew more than last year, which means I fulfilled my last year's wish to some extent. There was only one month when I didn't draw any digital drawing (May), so I chose my DIY projects, but I'm happy that digital art is still the biggest category in my gallery. There were 37 digital drawings, 18 comic strips, 6 DIY projects and 3 watercolour pencil drawings.

For 2020 I hope I'll continue mainly with my digital art, but I also hope there will be time for my other techniques and projects. Thanks everyone for your support and I wish you a happy new year! 😊

Yoda Ears

If you follow me long enough, then you already know that I usually make some kind of DIY projects (pins, keychains, hats etc.) for movie premieres that are important to me. This time, for The Rise of Skywalker, I made a headband with Yoda ears! It's actually inspired by Baby Yoda or The Child from The Mandalorian, and although it doesn't have anything to do with TROS, it's all about Star Wars after all.

I didn't have much time, but all I really needed was some green fabric and a headband, both of which I bought in a dollar store (I already had everything else that I needed i.e. green thread, sewing needles and glue). I was looking for any kind of green fabric, but was lucky to come across a green polyester pillowcase and all I had to do was cut one of its corners and then cut that piece into two identical parts. The fabric was so rough that it was enough to sew it to look like ears and glue it to the headband. I was actually surprised how easy it was to form it in a shape of ears without any stuffing or wires.

In the end I didn't wear it to the premiere, but let's just say that there was a photoshoot recreating the Baby Yoda sipping soup meme. Of course, I don't intend to post it, so I drew a little illustration instead. I tried to recreate Baby Yoda's cuteness by drawing myself as some kind of a Chibi character with big eyes, so the only question remains: who did it better? Baby Yoda or me? 😊

DIY Spider-Man Badge

Another DIY badge/pin for another movie premiere! Yep - obviously - it's Spider-Man: Far From Home!

OK, this version of the logo may not belong to Tom Holland's Spidey, but I really like this design. Again, I used foam rubber (black and red), glue (B-6000) and a metal pin. I thought I'd have enough time to make more and with other colour variations, but cutting out the spider turned out to be too complicated and took too much time. Anyway, looking forward to seeing the movie tonight! 😊 🕸 🕷

X-Men Dark Phoenix logo badge (DIY)

The time has come for the X-Men saga to finish, so let's celebrate the latest movie premiere with another DIY project - here's my Dark Phoenix logo badge!

It's actually really simple: I designed something similar to the original logo in Inkscape in three sizes and printed it out. Then I copied the shapes on thin foam rubber sheets in three colours (red, orange and yellow to represent tones of fire), cut them out, glued together and in the end glued a pin - and that's it!

DIY Marvel's Tesseract

DIY Marvel's Tesseract, the vessel for the first (at least in the MCU timeline) Infinity Stone - the Space Stone! After making a baseball cap inspired by Captain Marvel's helmet design, I came up with the idea to accompany it with that important glowing cube that keeps appearing through the Avenger's timeline, starting with Captain America and continuing with Captain Marvel. I believe it will be an interesting addition to both of my redesigned baseball caps you've seen in my IG gallery. The SFeraKon convention lasts three days (10-12 May), so there'll be plenty of time to show all these props off.

The YouTube tutorials I came across suggested I should buy some kind of baseball cube display case, but I don't think there's something like that in my country. 🤔 Instead of that, I browsed through some variety shops to find any cheap item (it didn't matter what it was) in a clear plastic cube package.

So, these were the materials I used:

* a clear plastic cube packaging container

* LED micro light string (3x)

* AA batteries (6x)

* white spray paint

* acrylic paint (several blue shades)

* paint brushes

* wax/parchment/baking paper

* Mod Podge or any decoupage glue

* strong glue

First I had to glue the edges of the plastic container, so it doesn't open (the upper part). Then I applied the coat of white spray paint and when it dried I painted it (dabbed, not smeared!) with blue acrylic paint. I finished it with decoupage glue (also dabbed with a paint brush) to seal it and protect it from scratches. I wrapped three LED micro light strings in parchment paper to defuse the light and closed the cube from below (that part won't be visible anyway and I need to open it somehow to turn lights on and off).

Well... It sounds easy, but it wasn't, because not everything went as I had planned and I had to improvise a little bit. The biggest mistake was the white coat, which turned out to be too thick, so the light seemed a bit yellowish. Logically, after I applied blue paint, the light turned out - greenish! So I tried to create some kind of illusion with different shades of blue - darker on the edges, lighter in the center - but if you look at the lit cube, it still seems to emit a little bit of green light.

But all in all, it's not so bad, it'll just have to do. I don't have time to make another, but if I wanted to try again, I know now what I'd change. Anyway, I believe I'm ready for this year's @SFeraKon and I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and maybe meeting new ones and bore them to death with my Marvel knowledge and theories! 😜

DIY Captain Marvel's cap

How to top last year's baseball cap inspired by Captain America's helmet? It's simple - make another cap inspired by Captain Marvel's helmet! 😁

Materials needed:

* a plain red baseball cap

* red and blue thick felt sheets

* knitting yarn (three shades of yellow)

* scissors

* a wire pin dog brush

* a comb

* a crochet needle

* strong glue (or fabric glue)

* a lot of patience!

Oh, boy, this surely took a lot of time! The hardest part was to brush and straighten about 900 yarn strings, but I'm completely satisfied with how it turned out. Captain Marvel's design is one of the most inspiring I've seen lately and I'm a sucker for mohawks, so it wasn't a brainer for me. The main idea was to find a narrow strip of yellow faux fur, but getting it turned out to be a bust, so I was more than happy when I came across YouTube DIY videos with the idea of making wigs using yarn strings. I just adapted it to make a mohawk and - the rest is history! 😜

In order to copy some of the helmet design, I used thick felt (red and blue), which was a very good decision, because the original idea to use foam rubber wouldn't work out this well. As for the center piece, instead of making and sewing or gluing a new logo, I used a badge I had made for the Captain Marvel movie premiere two months ago.

It's no secret that Marvel is my passion. I'm often inspired by their comics and movies and I like making things like props for movie premieres or - in this case - the local sci-fi convention @SFeraKon (May 10-12). If you see me there, don't hesitate to say hello, just beware - I can talk about Marvel endlessly! 

DIY badge (Captain Marvel)

Here's my new DIY project, a badge I made for today's Captain Marvel premiere in my town.

The materials I used:

- a round wooden tag

- foam rubber (black and yellow)

- colour paper (red and blue)

- a black marker

- mod podge

- multi-purpose glue

- a pin

- a glue gun

As usual, it's a pretty simple project and I had a lot of fun making it. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to make more, so there'll be no giveaways like for Avengers and Star Wars this time.

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Happy International Women's Day! 🌹

Tic-Tac-Toe (DIY)

Let's have some fun! This is a simple DIY tic-tac-toe game made with round wooden chips, foam rubber, a marker, some glue and a small drawstring bag.

DIY Ferragosto Jam badges

Last week I was at Ferragosto Jam music festival, so I made these badges with this year's logo. The festival takes place on the first weekend every August next to Orahovica lake in Croatia. This is its 11th year and it lasts from Wednesday to Saturday. There are live concerts by famous musicians from Croatia and the region (so-called ex-Yugoslavia countries), as well as stages with unplugged and electronic music. It's about an hour and a half away from the town I live but you can also camp around the lake and stay there all four (or more) days. As for my DIY project, I used all materials I had from previous similar projects, such as round wooden tags, foam rubber, coloured papers, mod podge, safety pins and a glue gun. I didn't have much time, so I made only five pieces for me and my friends, so unfortunately I didn't have any giveaways this time.

Here's some work in progress:

...and the result:

Captain America's cap (redesign)

I decided to redesign my (baseball) cap inspired by Captain America's helmet, which I had made two years ago. I believe it served its purpose very well and it was time to improve it with some new materials and techniques. So I used the same cap, but removed the sewn letter A and wings and replaced them with foam rubber. If you compare both versions, you can see the result looks much more professional and fresh.

The original cap was made two years ago for Marsonikon, a sci-fi convention in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, and after that I also wore it at Sferakon and local Marvel's movie premieres.

You can also see the original here.

DIY comic book mobile phone case

It's time for another DIY project! It's actually an easy one - I made a comic book mobile phone case using materials I already had. There was an old phone case that I didn't use any more and some leftover Marvel comics prints from my comic book shoes project from almost a year ago. As usual, it was a decoupage technique and it didn't take me much time to finish it.

GrdiArt logo (clear flat marbles)

I got some clear flat marbles for future projects (badges and/or fridge magnets), so I tested one and made a marble with my GrdiArt logo. I decided to use it while taking photos of traditional drawings and filming my drawing process. I think it looks effective and I know it may seem silly, but you have to agree it's practical.

Hggg

My Inktober 2017 book

I finally decided to finish my Inktober 2017 book. Actually,  it was just another DIY project and I made only one copy, because I wanted to make something to remember the effort I put into all the poems I wrote for each drawing. I believe it was an interesting twist to the usual Inktober challenge and I'm happy with how it all turned out.

Napokon sam završio "knjigu" za Inktober 2017 s mojim radovima i pripadajućim stihovima. Zapravo je u pitanju tek još jedan uradi-sam projekt i samo jedan primjerak za osobne potrebe, da me podsjeti na sav trud koji sam uložio u osmišljavanje lika i već spomenute stihove koji su trebali pratiti zadanu temu za svaki dan.

Kao što možete vidjeti na fotografijama, proces je bio prilično jednostavan. Crteže sa stihovima i uvodnu stranicu sam otisnuo na A5 format, za korice sam upotrijebio karton u plavoj boji, probušio rupice i povezao ih metalnom spojnicom za dokumente, te sve zajedno zalijepio užom trakom od tog istog kartona. Stranice su numerirane, s mojim logom, kao i s detaljima na koricama kako bi sve izgledalo koliko-toliko profesionalno. ;-)

Zadovoljan sam kako je ispalo i nadam se da će mi ostati kao inspiracija za neke buduće radove. Također se nadam i da ćemo se češće vidjeti ovdje u nadolazećim tjednima. Do idućeg posta! ;-)

Čestitka i kutija za poklon

Prva kreativna rukotvorina koju sam ove godine napravio bila je čestitka i kutija za poklon za rođendan. Tema je bio internet i društvene mreže.

Čestitka

Čestitku sam zamislio kao internet stranicu na kojoj su napisane želje za rođendan, a "korisnik" se bira tako što se povlači strelica. "Korisnici" su zapravo bili svi koji su sudjelovali u poklonu i pritom nisam upotrijebio imena, već adrese na Facebooku i Instagramu, da sve bude autentičnije.

Čestitka je za osnovu imala dva kartona u boji. Jedan je služio kao "kućište" s prorezom, a drugi kao "umetak" sa imenima. Trebalo je sve precizno izračunati, jer se kroz prorez jasno trebalo vidjeti 11 imena, plus još jedan red za natpis "CLICK HERE".

Kad su ta dva elementa bila gotova i funkcionalna, na čestitku sam nalijepio prikaz lažne internet stranice, a na umetak bijelu strelicu i imena "korisnika".

Povlačenjem strelice mogla su se vidjeti imena svih koji su sudjelovali u poklonu. Osim toga, naravno da je čestitka imala i "klasičnu" namjenu, odnosno mogla se otvoriti i napisati uobičajena poruka kao na svakoj običnoj čestitki.

Kutija za poklon

Kutiju sam izradio od kartona i oblijepio motivima koje sam sam složio u MS Word-u. Radi se o nekim najuobičajenijim aplikacijama, kao što su Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat itd.

Kako bih dobio funkcionalnu kutiju koja se mogla otvarati i zatvarati, upotrijebio sam kutiju od čaja - odlijepio sam je i preslikao na karton (malo sam je proširio da ispadne veća). Svidio mi se taj jednostavan "mehanizam" otvaranja i zatvaranja, pa sam original ostavio za neke buduće slične projekte.

Zaključak

Zadovoljan sam kako je ispalo, baš se sve složilo onako kako sam i zamislio. O samom poklonu i sadržaju čestitke neću govoriti, jer to vam i nije bitno ako tražite inspiraciju. Priznajem, i ja sam za neke stvari morao malo pronjuškati okolo, ići metodom pokušaja i pogrešaka, ali bit će mi drago ako nekoga uspije inspirirati ovo što radim na ovom blogu.

Do idućeg projekta!

DIY 3D paper snowflake

Christmas may be over, but the winter has barely begun! Why not make it special by making big 3D paper snowflakes (50 centimetres or 19.69 inches in diameter)? Get your DIY mode on! ;-)

Priznajem da me čeka nekoliko nedovršenih projekata, ali ima dana kad mi se jednostavno ne da crtati. Znam da bi, kad bih se nagovorio da ih završim, oni bili relativno brzo gotovi, ali uvijek mi je bilo teško nešto započeti, tj završiti nakon što sam zbog nekog razloga prekinuo proces. Crtež Pokemona Umbreona tek je skica na papiru i čeka me od pretprošlog mjeseca, a Doctor Strange je digitalno obojan osnovnim bojama i tako čeka već dva tjedna. Iskreno se nadam da ću barem ta dva crteža uspjeti završiti ove godine.

Kako bih ostao u dodiru sa svojom kreativnom stranom, često se uhvatim jednostavnijih projekata poput ovog - izrade 3D papirnate pahuljice od pola metra! Vidio sam to i prije, ali mi je danas opet pala na pamet, pa sam našao upute, točnije video, koji ću objaviti na kraju ovog posta. Za jednu su potrebna šest papira A4 formata, škare (ili skalpel za papir), ljepilo i klamerica. Znam da se na slikama ne vidi najjasnije, jer nisam slikao svaki korak, ali sve je prikazano u videu dolje. Posebno se izrađuje svaki od šest "krakova" pahuljice i na kraju se zalijepe ili spoje klamericom (može i kombinacija - čak može i selotejp ako nemate klamericu).

Nakon izrade, jedan kraj povežete koncem ili tankom elastičnom vrpcom (što je meni draže) i objesite na željeno mjesto. Na ovoj slici objesio sam je ispod lustera u dnevnom boravku, centralno mjesto koje ima najviše smisla i gdje ova divovska pahuljica vrlo efikasno izgleda.

Budući da je ovaj post praktički ispao samo filler i da su moje upute nisu ispale baš korisne, objavit ću i video koji mi je pomogao u izradi ove ogromne pahuljice. Ne znam tko je kreator, izabrao sam prvi link koji mi se ponudio u tražilici. Također moram priznati da nisam radio baš sve kao u videu, već sam neke korake ubrzao, tj. pojednostavio. Sve je jako detaljno prikazano, pa vjerujem da ćete čak i prepoznati gdje sam malo uštedio na vremenu.

Nadam se da se vidimo u nekom kreativnijem postu. Do čitanja!