Claviculate

Another of my obsessions: tendrils! How handy that "C" was up next in my Curiotype series.

Photoshop with text from an old dictionary.

Buccal Cavity

Oh my, this week's IF word surely hit home. I'd already begun this image, & in fact had already begun lecturing myself about my obsession with detail... I have a tendency not to see the forest for the lichen, so to speak.

I obsess about a lot of things actually, but detail is probably at the top of the list. It gets in my way as often as not, but it's a deeply ingrained part of my personality. Usually I try to fight it, but I let it take the reins on this piece. (Except that, to tell the truth, I could easily keep tweaking it for another 3 hours or more, making changes that were virtually invisible to the eye. But I have a lot of other things that need doing, so this will have to be it.)

I used to have a related obsession with putting hidden words in every picture. I let that one sneak back in here too.

This is the second in a series I'm calling Curiotype.

Photoshop with text from an old dictionary. I kind of veered off from the word that inspired this originally: Buccal, having to do with the cheeks or the cavity of the mouth.

Auriculate

This ear-y oddment is inaugurating a new series... can you guess what it might be?

Photoshop, text from an 1876 Introduction to Botany

Edit: Sarah got it! The series is Curiotype, an alphabet of figural letters illustrating scientific terms.

Speed Garden

(...and speed oddment too... this has been a busy day, sorry for the late post!)

This oddment is from an old sketchbook, with Photoshopical additions. The gardener may look a bit odd, but really it's the garden itself that is unusual. I suppose I must have been feeling impatient with my own garden when I drew this.

(This is my second oddment for IF this week; the first is Perennial Curiosity.)

NEWS FLASH! Tuesday 26 July: Oddments & Curiosities is featured on Noah Scalin's Make Something 365 blog! I'm so excited! Noah is one of the most creative & inspiring bloggers around. If any of you don't know about his Skull-A-Day blog, you should head right over there & have your mind thoroughly blown by his original year of daily skulls. He is also the author of 365: A Daily Creativity Journal, a great resource for anyone pursuing a daily (or odd-daily) project. (See store links on the 365 site.)

Perennial Curiosity

I loved the quotation in this week's IF prompt:

“A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.” ~ Frederick Seitz

I think artists tend to be the same way, don't you?

This curious specimen grew out of the painting I'm working on (with a few changes).

Photoshop, text & acrylic textures. Please click to see details.

Legally Odd

And now for something completely different! Here's a whole parade of oddments, marching in a highly disorganized fashion. Or maybe it's a page of legal notes in an alien language?

Either way, I worry that this document could someday be used against me in a court of law.

Click on the image if you want a closer view of the oddments. Which of these do you think should grow into bigger oddments?

Crow-quill pen & ink on legal pad. As I was drawing this, my husband kept walking by & shaking his head. :-D

Woodland Oddment

I found this oddment lumbering through the forest.

I invited him into my painting but he doesn't look too happy about it.

Photoshop, text, & acrylic

21-Gun Salute

In a gesture of pride for its number, 21, this oddment is showing off its appropriately numerous biceps (count them if you don't believe me).

Coney Camouflage

Another shy character... found him hiding in my painting-in-progress.

Photoshop with acrylic textures.

Camouflage

You may have passed this oddment in the park without even realizing it!

Character for... you guessed it.

Photoshop & acrylic textures.

Wanderers

Characters from The Painting, again... where do you think they're going?

Photoshop with paint textures

Flightless

I doubt this wingless oddment gets much migrating done, but he seems fairly contented to stay put.

Photoshop with vintage music: a Russian folk song called "The Caged Bird."

edit: I just discovered that today (07-09-11) is a very special ODD DAY! One of only 6 per century!

Masked Oddment

Sorry for the delay posting this-- I'm having computer issues. (I think my graphics card is dying, help!) Maybe this superhero type from my sketchbook will come to my rescue.

Ball-point, marker & white gouache on brown paper, plus paint textures, text & Photoshop.

Dance Your Way to Health

I must confess that the title, & the background graphic from a wonderful old (empty) package of eye-dressing that I found at the Flea Market, are a shameless attempt to make these oddments fit this week's IF prompt. Leah culpa.

The sprouty dancers are (of course) figures for the Painting That Has Yet to Be Named, executed in Photoshop &c.

Tweet-hopper

Somehow I get the impression that this little guy makes a lot of noise & covers a lot of territory.

Another one from "the painting"-- one of these days I'm going to have to come up with a title for this painting!

Photoshop, text from a 19th-c. book on reptiles (yes, frogs & toads were included) & some scanned paint textures.

Gone Fishin'

From the oft-mentioned painting, Photoshop with scanned paint & text.