Category: Creativity

Lego: The Supply Lama

Nothing to do with the new project, this set has been sitting around unopened for a couple of months.

I bought it originally because it looks like how I imagine the tiffanies in Earth Fall, thought i could maybe use it to illustrate various chapters.

Then opened the box and discovered the intricacy of the build. This will be one of those sets I’ll never take apart.

So last week had a surprise visit of the grandkids. The five year old went to the shelf and got down transparent bricks set she has been working her way through.

Leaving the almost eight year old a bit affronted, not being part of that far too easy a set for him. I said what about this one then? The supply lama that was.

He and his father built mightily and got to the end of bag three with the lama still just a forebody—very sturdy—and a box with open sides. Forgot to get that image.

After about a week of it sitting around, I thought I better start on it. Most of Bags 4 and 5 were the cladding. Struck me that I really had to trust the instruction booklet because most of the time I had no idea what I was putting together.

This for example …

Then the booklet gave me what the finished article should look like, and then where on the lama it should be installed.

A side neck piece, in case you’re wondering.

It wall be how to do the legs that I will be taking away with me, as they are quite elegant and I can see them on several other animals.

Constructing the head was fun, when you put the eyes on it suddenly has a character.

Moggy is a bit iffy about it. Like she’s saying, Do not come any nearer!

I haven’t put the Fortnite stickers on the hatches yet as I may still use the animal in a different story.

Lego: Success!

So far, anyway. Built three eighths of a 32 x 32 base plate and managed to fasten it to the pilaster beside my front door.

Four of the velcro type wall click-ons will together ‘carry’ four and a half kilos but I’m more worried about the Lego, This little scene is clicked to the blue background with three plates, all with between 8 to ten studs. Hopefully it will stay up. I’ll know tomorrow morning.

And then there are the four stud wide horizontals anchored only by a single row of studs at their inner edge. Have so far not weighed them down with too much, this is a test piece, after all.

If anything will give up, I’m betting on the base plate. They are such weak bits of plastic. I know, I know … I’m making this one do stuff it’s not designed for.

Using the third of my MILS plate designs did not work, scenes just too hard to install vertcally. I ended up having to take the whole base plate off the wall, and lay it flat, click the scene on, and re-join the velcro.

Knitting

Treated myself to some new yarn …

And the beginning of a new project. This little knit is a trial piece … can I knit a square by starting with a 4 cm centre and pick up stitches at each corner every round?

It’s working so far, though not yet looking particulrly tidy at the corners. I like how the patterning seems to be twisting. I haven’t worked out yet why it’s doing that.

When I imagined it the sides growing from the centre were straight. It’s possible that something totally different will eventuate if/when I knit a square all in purl. Wild times ahead.

‘Spatter and Spray’

… is a way of painting with watercolors, I’ve discovered. And I’m in the throes of experimenting using the technique.

First came across it on Susan Cornelis’s blog. https://susancornelis.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/googleeye.jpg

So I’ve fallen in love with granulating paints. My first effort was Miss Tabitha…

Ordered a couple more tubes of granulating paint and washed out a fine spray bottle originally used for a deodorant.

Second, this fish. I call it a bottom feeder, but may rename it … I’m having so much trouble getting this from my mobile … might have to do magic. Like, abracadabra … OK I’ve got it. Ended up saving it to the desktop … isn’t she beautiful? A spatter and spray painting barely touched up. Well, OK, I painted the scales. The rest is dabbed. Not yet sealed.

This is the top half of my third effort. I’ll tentatively call it The Aviatrix. The bottom half of this painting is still a problem. one thing is for sure, I’m learning a lot about gouache.

It’s hard to believe what you can get from spattering paint onto the paper then spraying it with water. But that’s only the first layer. You let it dry, then the next day, if the pattern you have doesn’t yet suggest anything to you, you do it again. Like I did with this one. The third day, this aviatrix lay there waiting for me. I painted some of the areas to increase that likeness and here she is.

The bottom half of her face needed work of a different sort. After my efforts first with gesso, then with gouache that’s still in the thought-pan, and another post.

As well as the spatter and spray technique, I’m experimenting with sealing my watercolor paintings with an acrylic varnish. I hate the look of paintings behind glass or the whole process of framing. Miss Tabitha has been varnished and the look is good.

And plus, I don’t have enough wall space to hang everything I paint. Nor will I foist amateurish experiments on my nearest and dearest. So, most must be stored. Varnishing them seems like a good option.

The varnish I’m using is water-based so easy to cut. A mixture of 25% acrylic varnish in 75% water seems to be working pretty well. Ideally this should be sprayed on but since I’m still only experimenting, I’m laying the varnish on the painting with a watercolor mop brush. A time-consuming procedure but the only one I can afford at the moment.

Colours/colors …

What do you see?

I see a warm red and a warm green watercolour reaching out for a 50/50 agreement.

I might be wrong though. The red is warm, I have no doubts on that score. But the green?

Apparently if a green leans to its yellow side on the colour wheel it’s classified as warm. And cool if it leans to the blue side.

Light yellowish green has always seemed greener to me, and so cooler. Blueish green on the other hand, felt richer and lush, and so warmer.

I’m about to do that exercise again using Alazarin Crimson, which leans towards its blue neighbour so is classified as cool, and Hooker’s Green wich also leans to the blue side.

And after that, a second trial with the so-called warm versions of red and green. I assume I’ll need to use a scarlet and green made with a warm blue and a warm yellow.

I expect neither of these exercises to resemble the above but we’ll see what we’ll see.