cephalopod – Dabbled

Awesome Octopus Cake

Dot — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:17:19 +0000

This is some serious cephalopod! Octopus Cake by by Karen Portaleo/ Highland Bakery. Wait.. Highland Bakery? That’s in my neighborhood. They make awesome TASTING cakes, too.

Another view

via the always awesome Great White Snark

Speaking of octopuses… I got stalled on my update to the hexapus tutorial, but I’ll get it out this week, I hope!

Illustration Friday: Music

Dot — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:36:19 +0000

I’m making up for lost time apparently this week. This is the fourth (or third, depending on how you look at it!) in the black and white series…

Illustration Friday – "Instinct"

Dot — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:30:00 +0000

My plan was to have another in the watercolor robots series for you here today, but I didn’t have time to draw today. So I present to you the commissioned graphic for a t-shirt I just finished, instead. Don’t blame the giant space squid when he has you for dinner, he’s just acting on Instinct!

PS: Anti-Vday Winners HERE (Overall), HERE (Art), and Vote for People’s Choice HERE.

c nancy dorsner -2009
Ink, colored digitally

Oh, here’s Last Week’s Robotic Octopus if you missed it.

One more octopus… and Making Soup!

Dot — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Skitzophrenic post here, but I wanted to get one more Octopus out for Cepholopod Week.
And I also have a new instructable up, on how to make a totally easy, kid-veggie-friendly, inexpensive soup – Carrot Vichyssoise…

So here he is — “Cedric”… But I also need an opinion.. I didn’t ink him like I’ve been doing (see others) just darkened the pencil outline. Like? Not as good?
Would love some feedback on this.

So the second thing is the soup… It has some great things going for it:
1. Sounds fancy! and French! Well, it isn’t really french in origin, but was invented at the Ritz, so that makes it fancy, right!? (By the way, it’s pronounced ‘vishee-swahz’, sounds like ‘fishy bras’)
2. Easy, quick and inexpensive to make.
3. Kid friendly way of getting them to eat their vegetables. I serve this with cheddar cheese on top, and call it “Cheese Soup” and my 3 yr old is happy!
4. Soup is great on a cold day to warm you up! Well, technically, vichyssoise should be served cold, but I like it hot. Especially in cold weather. But in the summer, this works great as a cold soup too, nice for brunch!

Soup! Make an easy, healthy, kid-friendly Carrot Vichyssoise – More DIY How To Projects

See the Photo-Recipe here on flickr

Cephalopod Week – It's the octopus' turn!

Dot — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Apparently there was an outcry of discrimination among the octopuses of the world that my cephalopods this week were of the squid-y variety. To make amends, here is a sweet little Octopus pal, Edvard, is just looking for love (probably in all the wrong places).

(I have been instructed to add that the shrimp in the heart shape was the adorable Handy Hubby’s idea. Please make a note of it. He also consulted on the proper way to draw the bottom of the tentacles.)
Original Watercolor 5×6″
SOLD

In case you missed it – Anti-Valentines Day Contest updates and links from earlier today.

Other Cephalopod Goodness from this Week:

Squid Valentines Day Free Card
Valentines Special – Dirt cheap little original watercolors – next few days only
Cephalopod Neato Links
All Cephalopod Week Posts

The Squid Kids

Cephalopod Week – Links to cool things with Tentacles

Dot — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:20:00 +0000

In Soviet Russia, Squid Eat YOU! This squidee’s over at Laughing Squid!

Bizarre Tentacled Robots
via @joshpincus, who also reminded me of this cool squid cake spotted on Craft.

@TorreyBelle pointed me to some gorgeous cephalopod jewelry by sculptor Sheryl Westleigh at Noadi’s Art Blog

All Things Squid at squid.us

Dabbled reader Adrienne from Baby Toolkit pointed me to a neat special on cuttlefish from Nova

The coolest sea creatures can be found on futuregirl!

At Superpunch: A Tentacle Pendant, Tentacle Bandana, Tentacled Converse Hightops (all by Miss Monster), and a Tentacle Tshirt

–Build your own squid — pick different attributes and colors, you can even save him!

I don’t know what this is, but it’s got tentacles and it’s crocheted!

See bunches more Cephalopod links over at the Smidgen… (including a giant inflatable octopus, a squid tie, knitted octopus, and more!)

Flickr Roundup: 1. 21 Feet of Spandex., 2. Pentapus outside, 3. Squid (for Plush You), 4. Baby Octopus & Her Mommy Pattern :), 5. swaptopus detail, 6. Squid (de-inked), 7. Buddies, 8. tako!

Non-tentacle related, but cool:

Here’s a link to the month view human calendar – they all look at the current date, how cool! And here’s the little one (above)[
I ran across this here (thanks for promoting the Anti-Vday contest!)]

And here’s a way cool Shark Tea Diffuser at Tissuepapers…

I’ve dubbed this Cephalopod Week!

Dot — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Wanna play? If so, send me links to any good crafts or art you made, or stuff you’ve found you think is cool, related to all things cephalopod-ish (squid, octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus…), I’ll be linking to some of the cool stuff around the web this week.

So, in honor of Cephalopod week, here is another order of calamari in watercolor form.

And–since I think it’s the only cephalopod I’ve made craft-wise, I should re-introduce Henri the Hexapus… He’s a pupput and/or a stuffed toy made from recycled sweaters and lots of annoying to sew on buttons…. Go make one today (Tutorial here)!

More Cephalopod Art (IF: Flaw)

Dot — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:59:00 +0000

OK, if you missed yesterday’s, check out the free Squidee Valentine Cards and the custom illo opportunity!

Apparently, my husband has been teasing me that this week is my “Squid Period” (you know, like Picasso’s Blue Period, etc?) So, this week’s Illustration Friday theme is “Flawed”. This little squid has a small flaw marring his perfect body. But at least he has a band-aid. Maybe one day he’ll be perfect again. I really love this one. He needs a name too, so I’m taking suggestions!

Don’t forget… Just about 2 more weeks for the Anti-Valentines Day contest! The Crafters are getting their cool items in, and I know my fellow artists can come up with a cool anti-valentines day card or something! … Enter it!

Cephalopod Love! (and a free Valentine card)

Dot — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:36:00 +0000

2/12 update: Like the squidees? I’m donating one of the original squid watercolors to the Handmade Help relief effort for the Australian bushfires – go bid on her and help a good cause! Details and links to the auction Here.

For you, a free Valentine downloadable card!

Here are two cards you can print and share, featuring our lovely valentine squid. (He needs a name, any ideas?)

You can either snag it from flickr (click on the above image), or grab the higher quality pdf (prints 2 to a page) here.

Aren’t Cephalopods the ultimate valentine’s day theme?

[Edited to remove special valentines deal on artwork – remember, you can always contact me directly for art–I will do commissions, or check out my artfire shop which usually has a few pieces in it… You can also buy prints of any of my work at my Imagekind shop– if you’ve seen a piece you want, and I don’t have it listed there, just email me.]

(It’s Cephalopod Week, see all squidy/octopussy posts here!)

The Peace Squiddee: