There's a Dragon on my Lawn!

It's that time of year again.

The skeleton

Last year, I didn't do a Halloween display in the yard because we were in the process of moving. After a year of moving into the new house, I was finally able to resume the tradition. I was unsure if I was going to do something elaborate because this is a new neighborhood and even tough we've been here long enough for people to wave hello to you, this was basically going to be some people's first impression of us. Did I want to start things off by being THOSE neighbors? Especially for the conservative neighbors who just wanted to retire in peace without any shenanigans. Then I remembered that it is almost my duty as an artist to shake things up. It wasn't like I was putting an 8 foot phallus on the front lawn (mind you, a friend of mine suggested that) I was going to create something to bring joy to all who saw it and perhaps get some conversations started. 

Fleshing out the dragon.

The choices for this years design was: Bat Man, Zombie Attack, Giant Snake and Witches. Because my daughters were big fans of The Lord of the Rings,  I ditched the other ideas and decided to go with a fantasy theme. The winning idea: Dragon.  Thanks to designing the giant robot years back, figuring out how to make something so large was an easy process.

The only hard part I had to use my brain on, was how to make it look more organic. I work with nothing but cardboard boxes, sticks, and paint, so making something smooth had to take a combo of cardboard boxes and paper mâché .

Added head. Notice the large amounts of duct tape which will  have to be covered.

Covering with craft paper gave it more of an organic look.

The best thing about these Halloween displays, it teaches me a new skill. I had no idea what I was doing as I cursed my way thorough this project.

Ta Daaaa!

You can't have a dragon without someone showing up with a sword to slay it.

The final look with lights.

As I had hoped, as I was working on the dragon, lots of people in the neighborhood would slow down driving or walk by and talk to me. It was a great ice breaker.

Wine and Unicorn Angel girls

Spending my time trying to get my studio ready in my new house is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. Believe me when I say: always empty the furniture completely out of a room before painting it. I did manage to do a side project. There's this space underneath my house's stairs that I thought would  be perfect for wine storage. It has the perfect temperature and everything. So I decide to build my dream wine rack. I am so sick of those 12 bottle wine racks. I mean seriously, when I find a good bottle  of wine I like, I get at least 12 bottles of it and save it for the holidays such as Old Wine Day (a holiday I made up where you pick an old bottle of wine and drink it. It takes place on June 22 because there ain't nothing going on at that time of year.)

As you can see, the old set up was pretty crappy:

A week later;  little paint, a cheap over-head light from IKEA, some sawing and screwing and voila, a contoured wine rack that can hold at least 53 bottles! 

 Not to be completely out of the art practice, I did this digital drawing of a cross between a unicorn and a winged female called an Cornalas: