The Hobbit - 1/16 Dwalin

"It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked in a golden belt,

and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood."

(Someday I will buy a good camera and you will have a good-quality picture, I promise.)

So Dwalin and his little bald head ! My god the ponies are so disproportionate in the original art. In the same way as Balin, I still have the details to stitch. (I just made the eye to have an idea what it would look like.) And I intent to sew little beads in their beards.

Next time : Thorin !


What show was I watching at the time ?

A few, but let's talk about the finale of How I Met Your Mother. I may not be the biggest fan of this show but I quite liked it, and it has been a constant, tiny part of my (and a lot of others people's) life for many years. And it produced Barney Stinson, so - yeah.

The absolute bastard everybody love.

Some episodes were hilarious. Some were good. I forgot a lot of them, because they are like cookies : they make you feel good at the end of the day, for a short period, and it's all you want from them. Robin irked me a bit (but I like Cobie Smulders ^^), Ted is the standpoint the story needs to be funny, Marshall and Lily are actually my favorite. But it's the team that made a great show, of course.

A have mixed feelings about the finale. I like the fact that the episode takes the time to show the future. I like that this future is realistic. (*SPOILER* : Barney and Robin's divorce, Ted's wife's death ; I actually cried.) I'm not convinced by the "trick", as I want to call it : that the story was not about meeting Ted's wife, but about realizing that he is still in love with Robin.

But all in all, it was a pretty good ending to a legen... wait for it... dary show !

Small project : Yoda (2013)

Do or do no

there is no Try

Mmmmf. Not very satisfied about the face. Maybe I will do it again. Someday. Because I'm the kind of person who, when one of her projects is almost over, loses her motivation and drop her work.

(This one was almost finished one year ago. I just added the details and the sentence this week. This blog seems to have a good influence on me.)

But I'm working on my flaws ! ><


What was I watching at the time ?

No idea. Instead, I will talk about Rise of the Guardians, the DreamWorks movie. Because it is awesome.

Sandy. So badass.

I didn't see it in 2012. I simply was not in the mood. But last month, I was in a FNAC bookstore (it's a big brand in France) and there were these 5 DVDs / 20 euros sales and I took it. (With Hot Fuzz, The King's Speech, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil and Intouchables. Nice week.)

It was. So. Great.
I thought it would be a "Hey, let's take these characters children love and put them in a plotless movie but who care, children will want to see them anyway" film and I'm so sorry for ever suggesting it, DreamWorks.

It was funny, in a "oh my gosh I just understood the joke 3 minuts later !" way. Good backrounds for the characters. A bit slow from time to time, but nice fighting scenes (Sandy vs. Pitch, yeaaah !). I loved the voice of Jude Law. Hugh Jackman'as was... okay, I guess.

After, it took me maybe one hour to undestand there were books and to amazon them. ("Amazon" should be a verb. The kind of verb which mean the next day, you have books in your mailbox.) The movie is quite different. They are children books, written by William Joyce, with illustrations, and they are the kind of books you would like to see more often. Although not a child, I took pleasure reading them. A bit like re-reading The Hobbit. I'm a bit in love with Nicholas St. North now.

Large project (2014-?) : The Hobbit - 1/16 Balin

"Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step

with a white beard and a scarlet hood;

and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open,

just as if he had been invited."

Balin sans the details. (I plan on outlining the different colors with black thread, and maybe a bit of silver or gold for the belt.)

If you remember this post, the dwarves in the original art are not very sexy differents one from the other. The author respected the colors of their hoods though, and kept them in the same order they arrive at Bilbo's.

As I'm a big fangirl SCREW IT I'M A BIG FANGIRL I decided to mix the book and the movie : I will keep the original hoods, but they will have the faces of the movie. So I spent a good thirty minutes studying the skull and the beard of Balin, and I'm quite satisfied.

You can see that I moved them back a rank, too, in order to have Thorin at the head of the company.

The ponies... the ponies are UGLY. Their legs are too short ! And they have no manes ! I will draw one with black thread, too.


 And I was watching...

BLACK SAILS. Pirates ! Yay ! Toby Stephens, oooooooh ! (CAUTION : bad puns coming aboard.) I didn't really like him in Jane Eyre, but Captain Flint can board my ship when he wants.

Come and loot me baby.

Yeah Billy, you can too.

Actually, they must have been terrible times in terrible places. (Especially for women.) But there is something about pirates... The freedom (to die horrible deaths) I suppose. The sun, the sea and those tigh pants maybe.

*updated 04/07/2014*
A nice lady wrote an article which describes exactly my reactions when I was watching the first episode : Black Sails: Pirates were a real thing
I laughed. I laughed all alone in my appartment like the crazy fangirl I am.

Quotes :
"Ship chases are super anti-climactic."
(About Flint :) "And he looks just like a ginger bearded Ser Jorah..."
 "Smart, resourceful, powerful women with *shock* THEIR OWN PLOT LINES but like also twisty connections to other plot points that aren’t one note or strictly about the men in the show. It’s kind of revolutionary."

Large project (2014-?) : The Hobbit - 1/16 The thunder-battle

"The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver,

and great crashes split the air

and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow;

and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light."

Okay so maybe not so impressive on the canvas, but not bad either.

I took so long ! (And before you ask, yes, it is Dwalin's head you can see.)

I changed the color of the lightning. The first drops (on the left) are not very pretty, but I got better. The worst was counting the stitches every five minutes.

No stone-giants in the scene =(

During this I watched :

- The three LOTR movies (I needed my fix !)

- The three seasons of BBC's Robin Hood (A.k.a. the show where Irene Adler is the sister of Thorin Oakenshield and she is not the one wearing the more eyeliner ; this drama is so bad it's actually hilarious. Love the sheriff. Love Guisborn's pecs.)

- Seasons 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and aaaaalmost 10 of Spooks (MI5). At first for Matthew Macfadyen and Richard Armitage, yes, I confess, but finally for the character of Harry Pierce. I mean. What. Writers, how could you. The last episode shit I was spoiled and I decided not to watch it.

A really liked it. I think I learned more about geopolitic stuff watching it than watching the news these last years. (I don't really watch the news.) But it's so depressing. (Ros. Why. And Lucas. And basically everybody. Why.)

Told you it took a long time.

Small project (2013) : R2D2

A bit of Star Wars wisdom

I made this one last year : I was starting a new job and I moved into a house in the middle of nowhere. It was a building with four appartments and then... crops. And fields. And meadows. And a road. And a kind neighbour with internet, thank god.

It was so big. Maybe 100, 120 m² ? There was a TV. I brought my PS2 and my books. And then it started to snow, and it became a bit lonely, even for me.

The job was horrible and I moved on six months later.

This little guy found a home at my friend Zoé's last week ! =)

 Here you go !

What was I watching at the time ?
 The Simpsons, I think. And a bit later I bought a PS3, and I discovered Mass Effect 3. (I must make some cute Garrus cross-stitch art.) I cried when I finished it and I watched every ending three times. It had been a long time since I had been so impressed by a story. It's so perfect, and the music... !

Small project (2013) : Sherlock BBC

"Sherlock Holmes - the Game is on"

"John Watson - not a Couple "

When I don't have any money

When I don't know what to buy for my friends

When I'm looking for a small gift, and I don't want to offer something impersonnal but instead something a bit meaningful, here is what you can get : bookmarks. (These were for a friend's birthday.)

Choosing the colours for Sherlock was easy, for John a bit less. But his sweater is quite horrible, I'm glad.

What show was I watching at the time ? It was September, so I guess the first episodes of some new seasons. 2 Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Downton Abbey maybe ? Not a lot of great new shows this year...

Large project (2014-?) : The Hobbit - Getting ready

Yep. This will be it.

Remember the art I showed you last time ? I decided not to do things by halves.

This will be a pretty badass tapestry / cross-stitch / thing. I bought a 1x1.6m canvas in a shop called "Le Bonheur des Dames", an amazing place in Paris, near la Bastille.

(A link :http://www.bonheur-des-dames.biz/index.cfm)

The cross-stitch itself will be 80x120cm. To create a pattern, I divided the art in 4x4 parts, which I will print on 16 sheets of graph paper. I still haven't found the perfect software to create patterns, and I want to be able to make some changes. I use some light orange graph paper : it keeps the colours right but you can easily see the gradations.

Is almost splits itself in full scenes.

A bit of maths now :

On my canvas,I have 6.5 stitches by centimeter.
On the graph paper, 10 millimeters by centimeter.
I want a final height of 80 centimeters.
What is the size of my pattern ?

You have ten minutes.

The answer is (6.5/10)*80 = 50 cm (approximatively).

A stitch mesures (10/6.5) = 1.54mm
So the pattern must be (1/1.54) the size of the final result.

80/1.54 = 80*(6.5/10) and here you go.

Then you just have to resize the art and print it.

The first part...

Traditionaly, you are supposed to start at the exact middle. (You know, to be sure it's exactly centered blah-blah-blah.) But it's a BIG canvas, and when I'm working on it I have to fold it in a very intricate fashion, so I will start where the hell I want to. (Well, yes, by the top-left corner.)

So the storm in the moutains will be the first step ! (And then DWARVES !)

Large project (2014-?) : The Hobbit - Love at first sight

"Bilbo's Great Adventure" by David E. Alter, 1982

Mid-January, I was browsing Deviantart to find some slashy dwarf art to inspire myself and I stumbled upon THIS.

I fell in love. And of course, my silly brain told me : "My, it would make a lovely FUCKING EPIC tapestry, wouldn't it ?" So I started it.

The art was published in a postcard book in 2007, "Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings postcard book". I had a link to the amazon.com page, sorry, I can't find it anymore.

The tapestry-cross-stitch thingy will be 80x100 cm. I will explain how I prepared the pattern next time =)

Small project (2013) : Kirby

 

1. Where is life taking me ?

2. Vers l'infini et l'au-delà ! (To infinity and beyond !)

3. Follow the white rabbit.

4. Congratulations you win !

 So I remember, at the time, I was quite melancholic and a bit philosophy-ish. (It passed. Thank god.) And when you watch closely Kirby's face, you can see the doubt in his eyes. The sadness and the pain. Seriously guys. Ultimatly, Kirby's life comes down to running, jumping and flying, always in the same direction, always on the same path.

So I wanted to make something optimistic. Here you go !


What was I watching at the time ? I remember I was playing Suikoden V (I love secondary characters, I was delighted) and watching reruns of Kaamelott, which is a french TV show about King Arthur and his knights. Not to be confused with BBC's Camelot, this not even funny piece of crap. Kammelott is dark, profound, incredibly hilarious, and probably the only decent french drama you can found. If you don't know it yet and you speak french, lucky you : http://www.kaamelott.com/

Starting... now !

Hi,

My name is Hélène Lenoir, I'm 29, a bioengineer and in my free time (when I have some) I like watching stupid TV dramas while cross-stitching.

Because BEST COMBINATION EVER.

You know when it's Sunday, and it's 16:15, and you have spent all your day in your PJs, and the seventh episode of your favorite show (of the moment) is playing, and your conscience tells you : "You could be doing something meaningful with your life, you know" and you just tell it : "Oh, shut the f*** up" ?

Yeah. You know.

Well, I started cross-stitching at the same time because :
     1. It's fun. It's vintage pixel art.
     2. I actually create and make something.
     3. My friends and my family (hi guys !) congratulate me on my craft and it doesn't seem like I'm a pitiful slob anymore.
     4. I can watch semi-interesting shows without being semi-bored because I'm semi-occupied doing something else ; FOR HOURS.

See ? Totally winning.

So OK, I sometimes do others things in my life, but I want to share my work. Some people create amazing artworks with needles and threads. Cross-stitching is not a grandma-only hobby. Hope you will enjoy some of these posts. =)

See you soon !

          Hélène