Deco Diabloceratops

Vivid artforms in color:

Diabloceratops is an older pattern with a bright, new design in relation to the magenta and gold slim wallet. Creating skulls to go along with the colorful card cases has been a fun experiment in finishing looks to the fossils in a fresh way.

Normally I like to keep the tones of dye in an earthy range and this is a definite departure from my comfort zone as a leather artist. Keeping the look within a realm of scientific accuracy is also important to me, so to do something new and revisit a looser-ruled method of coloring has been refreshing and awesome... even with just a couple of pieces. It definitely make me want to do more and get back to pushing my limits on where I'd normally "draw the line" with color.

Diabloceratops is a strange ceratopsian in its own right; not the well-recognized triceratops that we all know. To add a different look to this skull is fitting and fulfilling a part of me that has stayed within my own guidelines as an artist for a very long time.

It's loosening the restraint my own work had given me over the years. As small an excercise as it seems, it potentially opens up something creatively to me that I'd unknowingly cut off for a long time and that's an awakening thought...

These simple projects could become accessory combos or the start of something more that's yet to be determined. I have discovered that using unconventional methods for leatherworking can work in favor of my style of art and so in addition to what I'd learned in the past that works for me with sculpting, the same can go for coloring.

Some of the hard edged lines can be made with the help of alcohol based, brush tip markers. Layered up, these can have the same effect as alcohol based dyes as used with a dauber in common leatherwork. I'll be trying out more with this method because these markers are a ton of fun to blend and design things that would be difficult with a brush. As an illustration major, it also brings me back to what I'm familiar with and don't utilize as often as I'd like on the surface of my art.