Jammin'

When I saw this week's IF prompt ("hurry") I thought about traffic jams. I don't enjoy driving, least of all in heavy traffic. Also, I think modern cars are needlessly boring. Wouldn't it be much more tolerable to be stuck in traffic if there were interesting vehicles to look at instead of a sea of clones?

Acrylic, ink & white gouache on c.1950 mileage report form, ~4.5" x 7"

Blue Man Drupe

Okay, technically that should be blue man drupelets, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Another inhabitant of that painting I'm always on about.

Photoshop

Twinelings

More tree-dwellers for the painting... Photoshop with added background.

Lakelifter

More characters (created in Photoshop) for the painting I'm working on, with background added from an old school music book.

Curiously Contiguous Creatures

This is my hundredth oddment post! (That's only counting the ones with critters in 'em.) Frankly I'm a little surprised that I've made it this far, & I thought I should do something special for the occasion, but I was drawing a blank, so I just decided to do 100 little oddments, all jammed in together like a jigsaw puzzle. I hope I counted right! It got confusing after a while.

It would have been nice to color these, but then I'd never get it done on time! In general, making all these oddments fit into my life has been quite a puzzle in itself, but overall I'm glad I decided to give it a try. Thanks for cheering me on! Now we'll see if I make it to my actual goal, a full year of oddments. I'm over halfway there! :-)

Pencil on paper, plain & simple. ~7.5"x4"

Mini Monster Mash

I'm feeling a bit dizzy at the moment, with five different projects underway (in addition to Flash classes & deadlines) & none of them quite scanner-ready.

So I decided to post this little doodle, completed while watching online Flash tutorials, in between taking notes on the stuff I needed to know. (Yes, I do take notes with a crow-quill sometimes! Call me antediluvian,* but it helps keep my calligraphic hand in fighting trim.)

I thought it looked a little like a particularly odd Halloween party.

I draw this sort of nonsense often-- it helps calm me down when my brain is boiling. You should see my college calculus notebooks. By the way, I firmly believe that doodling helps me concentrate. I caught no end of grief for it in school (even though I made good grades) but a couple of years ago I saw this study & felt vindicated. :-D

Hunt's flexible crow-quill pen & ink on legal pad, ~3"x4"

*This is actually a teaser for one of the pieces I'm working on!

The Girl with the Oddment Tattoo

Some people look little & cute, but inside they're ferocious. A touch of ink can help bring the inside outside. ;-)

Acrylic on found doll, with bead & pin for belly-button piercing, about 3½" tall.

p.s. Anyone recognize this doll? My sister found it on the street & kindly gave it to me, knowing I'd do something odd with it. If it's yours, I apologize.

Her Odd Materials No. 4

Xerophilous

I'm quite fond of cacti, but I wouldn't want this prickly curiotype as a pet-- imagine how it would feel to have him brush up against your legs!

Photoshop with text from Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1949

Wavelength

It's a rare & beautiful thing when two individuals transcend the boundaries of self & begin to move through life on precisely the same wavelength. These synchronous swimmers were loosely inspired by the astonishingly graceful & romantic waltzing weedy sea dragons.

(Many thanks to Isaac for introducing me to these real-life oddments!)

By the way, you may note that this curiotype is a departure from the more arcane vocabulary of previous entries. That is because there was no W in classical Latin, the base language of most scientific terms. I'm rather glad since it gave me the perfect opportunity to celebrate sea dragons!

Photoshop with text from Steele's Fourteen Weeks of Physics, 1878.

Curiotype Collection

You might say this is cheating, & I do apologize, but two oddments in a row would wreak serious havoc with my current work schedule. :-( So I thought instead I'd see what the first 16 curiotype characters looked like all nicely lined up in order, in the spirit of Things Organized Neatly. I think their letteriness comes through a little more as a group, what do you think? But the "N" sticks out like a frostbitten thumb... I may redo that one at some point.

Quadripartite

I love seedpods & tend to pick up a few whenever I take walks in Autumn. They can have amazingly complex & fascinating interior structures (though I've never yet found one that contained quadruplets as this curiotype does).

I also have a serious thing for cross-sections & cutaways. It's so much fun to get to peek inside something & see how it all works. Peacay of Bibliodyssey has posted some beauties & I was filled with absolute giddy glee when I first saw the "Let me tell you about my boat" scene from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. {Sorry this is such a lo-res copy-- if you know of a better link please let me know.}

And have you seen this wonderful animated version of "Man as Industrial Palace" by Fritz Kahn?

Oh yes, back to the curiotype. It's Photoshop with text from Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Perfoliate

Is it an animal disguised as a plant? An oddment disguised as a "P"? Or a curiotype disguised as an entry for this week's IF?

Photoshop with text from Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Muricate

M marks the midpoint in the Curiotype alphabet!

Apologies for the late post-- I had two deadlines today that had to be done first, & boy do all those points take time to draw!

Photoshop with text from good ol' Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Kinesthesia

Gone are the days when the average gnome was content to spend his golden years happily puttering about the garden. Today's modern senior gnome stays buff in the gym, diligently swelling his biceps instead of his belly.

Curiotype K, Photoshop with text from Websters New Collegiate Dictionary 1949

p.s. I know this is a little late for "Swell" but better late than never, I hope.

Irruption!

Invasion of the Oddments!! When the population of a single species in a given area suddenly swells, it can pose problems for other less populous species. For instance, in my house we are now experiencing an irruption of fruit flies (due, no doubt, to the also-increasing numbers of peaches, figs & tomatoes populating the kitchen counter). These obnoxious beasties definitely have the local humans way outnumbered, & despite a distinct disadvantage in size (& one would hope, intelligence), the little guys are clearly winning. *Sigh*

This is Curiotype Number Nine. (Cue white album.) Photoshop with text from Webster's Dictionary, 1945.

Return of the Oddments: Helicoid!

My computer seems to be working fine now-- I've been scrambling to make up for lost work time. At last I'm back to my master plan for world oddment-ification! Another in the Curiotype series.

Photoshop, with text from Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Dimorphous Dance

Vive la Différence!

Photoshop with text from an old dictionary.

Curiotype No. 4

Claviculate

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

Photoshop with text from an old dictionary.

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