Yora playing chess

[eller]

Here, I was not only painting, but also playing with some craft materials! My friend Anke sent me those lovely die-cuts in the shape of chessmen (she knows my taste almost TOO well; I suspect she got these things more for my sake than for her own) and obviously, I had to start making something with them immediately (or as immediately as possible, anyway, with actual work distracting me). Even more obviously, the picture had to be Yora, a character from one of my stories. She's ever the chessmaster and she doesn't even have to distract her boyfriend with one of those outfits to win the game. (Though I have to say - these giant sequins make a nice bra.) I used all kinds of other craft materials (stickers, several origami papers and other craft papers, rhinestones, washi tape, ...) so the overall impression stays somewhat coherent.

Comments

[yhlee]

Wow, this is gorgeous! Forgive my impoverished knowledge of art terminology--I love how clearly defined all the different elements are, yet harmonious in a way that my eye is drawn through the composition of the whole thing.

[eller]

Thank you! :D I also had a lot of fun with this. For me, it's a kind of exercise to use pre-made elements (like patterned papers, pre-cut shapes, and so on) and combine them in a picture. It's a good way to practice composition, I think - at least it helps me. :)

[yhlee]

That's really cool! I have been gathering up no-longer-wanted magazines and catalogues to practice by cutting them up and collaging but haven't actually gotten started yet. XD

[eller]

Cutting up magazines also sounds like a fun idea! In my case, the resulting collages would be kind of boring, though. None of the magazines I read are particularly inspiring in terms of colors. (Although I'd have material for many, many more chess pictures. Mh.)

[yhlee]

Ours are a mixed bag--Physics Today can be very dull or very interesting, depending on the articles. (They go over my head but my husband is an astrophysicist so we get the magazine.) Stanford alumni magazine at least tends to have nice full-color photographs on random subjects. :)

[eller]

If you ever make a collage featuring "Physics Today", let me know! I don't get any science-themed magazines. Just books, and neither are they very colorful (except the mineralogy ones; at least sometimes they have sparkly crystal pictures) nor do I want to cut them up.

Btw, nice chessmaster icon :)

[yhlee]

Will do! Haha, poor Physics Today, but my understanding is all their issues are also online (at least the recent ones?) anyway. And I might as well get some use out of them before they go into recycling! :)

I used to look at the pictures in mineraology books! They are fabulous.

And thanks! The icon is by gargargarrick. I am unfortunately catastrophically poor at chess--I missed the critical period--but I love the imagery. (I'm Korean-American and come from a family of go players. Nobody in my family had the faintest clue how to play chess when I tried to learn, so I eventually gave up. Too bad I didn't try to learn some go instead! *g*)

[eller]

Now I wonder what kind of images are featured in Physics Today and what you're going to make with them. :D

...and I always wanted to learn go, unfortunately nobody in my family has the faintest idea how to play and... you get the picture. XD I used to play chess tournaments when I was in high school and I tend to be good at strategy games but go is something I didn't have the opportunity to learn. By now, someone explained the basic rules to me, but obviously I'm really bad at it since I have no one to practice with.