Non-Decaffeinated Art

Sailor Moon Redraw Challenge and More

I’m very late to this #SailorMoonRedrawChallenge and as a timestamp of whats going on in the world; everything is terrible.

So with that, I bring you 3 things:

Thing 1: A downloadable coloring book page / line art of the Sailor Moon Redraw screen-cap incase you need a break and want to color; or don’t have the time/energy to draw but still want to participate. The Lines were traced in the Procreate App. If you want to share your finished colored page with me on Twitter I’m @NonDecafArt. If not thats OK too! Just have fun. (note: for printing you should be able to open or download the image and just print at 100% size it should be about 8×10 ish, if that does not work click the ‘fit to page’ checkbox when the Print options come up)

Thing 2: My entry for the SailorMoon Redraw Challenge is below, I channeled all of my inner middle school student in the early 2000’s anime drawing powers for this. I really enjoyed watching, the edited US version, of of Sailor Moon with my friends when it was on. I’ve always been into putting too many lines in ‘anime’ type artwork than is really needed, I’ve made my peace with that, so judge me as you will I guess? (oh no google says it was on between 1998 and 2001 on Toonami? wow. ok what is time.)

Thing 3: I made Artemis and Luna leather cat masks way back in 2015. I feel like I have gotten better at making the cat style masks, most of them have been ‘Egyptian cat’ masks recently, so it may be nice to get a new cat mask design back in my shop lineup… my shop is sparsely populated right now as just… a whole heck of a lot of things have been going on in general, and personally I haven’t felt like making Any art recently.

Let me know how your creative endeavors have been going~

PS Accidental 4th thing: I forgot I made a Tuxedo Mask style mask too…

October Drawings of the past

It’s that time of the year again for Drawlloween, Inktober and the numerous other 31-day drawing challenges for this very Spooky month! I’m not doing any drawing challenges this year, and honestly have only ever gotten to around day 15. In my defense this is the busy time for last-minute mask orders!

So here are some of my Favorite Drawlloween & Inktober drawing from the last three years:

You can view more of the artwork on my instagram at NonDecafArt

BANG: Artists Create the Universe 2019

Earlier this year I created a piece for a show at the new ARTSWIN location to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon mission. Forty Artist were challenged to create artwork based upon a selected celestial body. I was assigned Oberon, the second largest moon of Uranus.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Oberon is named after the mythical king of the fairies who appears as a character in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Wikipedia

For this piece I wanted to incorporate imagery that would bring the subject matter back from space and closer to home.

My Grandmother kept a wide array of flowers and had a habit of placing fairy figures in her garden. I chose purple Hosta flowers to overlay on the moons as they reminded me of the fairies from her garden — and name sake of the moon Oberon; King of the Fairies.

My Grandmother passed away in 2019 just before this show was put on, it has been a difficult time for my family and is partly why there has not been many updates from me across platforms. In saying that, I wanted to thank you who made it out to the show in June~ and for understanding the lack of new masks for this upcoming Halloween season.

View of a wall of the new gallery and some of the beautiful vintage astronomical implements that were on loan.

PS: Thanks Sandpaperdaisy Art, who reminded me to write about this show, go check out her BANG blog post Here

PPS: if you want to talk to me in the comments about what Hostas or flowers or the ninth most massive moon in the Solar System means to you, leave me a comment.

Leggings!

Recently I having been creating patterns for a company called Whimsies. They offer a variety of clothing, leggings & nail strips with unique artist made patterns.

Shown below are the designs I have made that are currently in-print.
Take a look at their website Whimsies.shop to see the full set of legging patterns available! (They also have leggings with Pockets)

leggings 2019 — photos by Kayla Graves, digital artwork by Non-DecaffeinatedArt, leggings printed by Whimsies.shop

Whimsies has recently introduced nail strips to their product line.
Since this new product was just launched, they only have a select set of nail patterns that match their leggings, but hope to offer more if people like the product.

“If your nails are short, you can get two manicures out of them. If they are long and you have to use both strips, you’ll get one manicure out of them.”
Quote from the Whimsies.shop

Opened Whimsies Nail polish strips package includes nail applicator, small file, removal wipes & the nail sheet

I haven’t tried out the nail strips yet but have tried the capri leggings, full length leggings and the bike shorts. (the bike shorts are only offered in solid colors) The fabric is soft and stretchy, but not too stretchy to become lose or sag like some leggings do.

Check out the Whimsies.shop page for more product sizing details & stay tuned for more pattern updates!

Additional places you can find my designs:
on Redbubble and Society6 as user NonDecafArt

2018 Art Fairs

If you follow me on social media such as Instagram and Facebook you have already seen these photos, but I hope you stick with me for the little stories that go with them.

I had the opportunity to sell at two art fairs this October, it was a little chilly both weekends; but still a nice time to be out soaking up the last bit of sun for the season.

Fall YArt

The first event was YArt (A Yardsale for Art); an all-local fine art sale with nothing priced more than $50. YArt was held outside near the beautiful grounds of Angel Mounds. I had a selection of leathercraft masks, keychains, bookmarks and block prints. The feather bookmarks were a real hit this year.

For a closer look Click any of the above photos to enter into photo viewer

Upcycled Glass Jars

I also had a chance to launch a new project, shown below, at Yart. Belt loop jars! I started off with 3 prototype jars; by the end of the day this was the only one left for me to snap a photo of. After Halloween sales wrap up I’m going to get started on batch #2 in order to have them in the shop for the holidays.

They are made from upcycled glass yogurt jars, the same vegetable tanned leather and dyes I use for my masks, aluminum rivets, and the ‘stick’ closure is actually a old paintbrush. I love giving a second life to materials and I hope you all will love these jars as well. I’m looking for something to call them, if you have any suggestions I would love to know. I have been calling them ‘fairy jars’ or ‘elf jars’ because that is what spoke to me the most.

Vine Street Makers Market

My second event was a new one for me; “Vine Street Makers Market” in lovely Fort Branch Indiana. This was their first Fall event, usually it is a Spring gathering, but even in the Fall it had a large turn out in attendance. The Market was on the ground of the Fort Branch Community Park. The park is a nice open space with a few community buildings dotting the grounds. It was a nice but windy day, thankfully my tent held up and the show went smoothly.

several leather carnival masks on a table

Vine Street Makers Market outdoor tent set up

For a closer look Click any of the above photos to enter into photo viewer

Fall Shop Sale

I will be posting the leather bags and cat necklaces you see in this post in my shop for the upcoming gift-giving season. My shop is running a 30% off sale on selected masks, mostly the ones you have seen in these photos. The current sale will run through the 20th of November.

Thanks for reading!

Tractor photo op set up at Vine Street Makers Market

Making Oni Masks

I recently received some requests for a Oni mask & thought I would take this opportunity to show you how I make my resin masks.

I’m not covering the process of creating the mold in this post; you would be much better served checking out Smooth-on.com for a very extensive library of mold-making and casting videos!

Also; If you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen some of these photos before, I update there more often than here (oops)

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resin mask process 01_nondecaffeinatedart — These are my molds, made from silicone (the pink stuff) and a layer of plaster to hold the silicone mold in shape. I mix up the two part Smooth Cast resin 65D and pour it into my mold. The process is called slush casting or rotocasting, you pour the resin into your mold and rotate it to get the resin evenly coating the mold surface. (I have some extra molds set out, so if I mixed too much resin I can pour it into the other mold and not have wasted materials.)

resin mask process 02_nondecaffeinatedart — I used 3-4 coats of resin for each mask, what you see below are some de-molded masks with the flashing not trimmed off, I will also have to so some light sanding on the edges so there are no sharp parts.

resin mask process 03_nondecaffeinatedart — Batch of Oni and Skull half-masks with the flashing trimmed, I still need to cut the eye-holes out for the Oni masks – and drill the holes for the elastic cord that will be used to secure the masks.

sanded resin masks — Sanded masks! – I use a dremel tool to smooth out edges and drill the holes where the elastic cord will pass through.

resin masks with first coat of paint — Painted masks! – These have been sprayed with a coat of metallic spray paint, then I do washes of acrylic paint to achieve the look I want. After everything is dry they are coated with a clearcoat sealer.

il_570xN.1563657871_3ybv — Finished Oni Masks – they have been sold & shipped off to their new homes.

My next post will be about the Skull masks in the 2nd to last photo.

Also, If any of you desperately want a unicorn horn to use for a costume or in your own craft projects let me know – I am thinking about posting a few in my shop depending on the demand for them.

Thanks for reading~

Infinity Gauntlet prints

With the Infinity War premiere last week and Free Comic Book Day just around the corner I have made a limited run of 13 Infinity Gauntlet prints. They are hand pulled 5×7 embellished art prints, making each print a unique piece.

The below images showing the process of printmaking; from the initial block design, to the first prints in a light gold ink, to the final stage of hand embellishing each print with acrylic paints

Prints comes sealed in a plastic sleeve and ships in a bubble mailer with a cardboard insert to prevent wrinkles. Since this is a Limited Edition, no other prints will be made of this set.

If you would like to grab one of the 13 prints please check out my shop on Etsy If you are not a fan of Etsy but still want a print let me know, I also accept business through Paypal.

Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see more of these types of prints (ie small prints, fan art prints, prints in general?) I think I may do an Ironman styled Gauntlet next ~

Nature masks

This years crop of greenmen masks have lost all their leaves in time for fall – or how I really like carving ‘woodgrain’ patterns into leather…

Here are a few of this years newest crop of Forest Spirit themed masks currently posted in my Shop.

My intention for these nature fantasy masks are to have them be worn as part of an druid, elf, witch/sorcerer, or a really woodsy steampunk themed costume – for a Halloween or Larping event or even to attend a Masquerade Ball. Ultimately it is up to you what you do with the mask, be it constructing a costume or hanging it on your wall!

(Have you herd of the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball? It looks amazing i’m in awe of the costumes, seriously, check out the photo gallery)

I really appreciate the interest and enthusiasm everyone has had for these nature style masks in the last few years; especially for use in theatre and film. I can’t believe its been over a year since I got a an order for 25 of my ‘Druid Warrior’ masks shipped out and sent off to bigger things! (see the instagram post below)

Thank you for all the enthusiasm for these masks over the last few years!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Courtney H (@nondecafart)

Bonus: These three masks were made in celebration of the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse! Two of these are still up in my shop. **The crescent moon, my favorite, has sold.

Magical art sale

On July 29th a selection of masks, wands, sculptures, jewelry, paintings, and other artwork will be available at the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana – in honor of Harry Potter’s birthday!

(they tell me there will also be cake)

My contribution will include:

Three paper pulp Gargoyle masks

They have been hand pressed from my original molds, padded with felt lining, and strung with elastic cord. These were a limited run of masks produced early on, so they are the only 3 of their kind in existence.

Three artist wands with ‘artist brush cores’

The wands were up-cycled from worn-out well-loved paint brushes then coated in a layer of Smooth-on Freeform air (if you are a sculptor you should check out the medium)

I gave them handmade tags detailing the lenght, name, and materials of each crafted wand.

And One Skull and Snakes ‘dark mark’ inspired ink drawing

The artwork comes framed and has been detailed with gold ink to highlight the snakes’ shimmering scales. A work-in-progress shot is shown below~

Excerpt from the Artswin post:

Celebrate all things magical with us July 29!

In honor of Harry Potter’s birthday, the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana is planning a day filled with “magical” objects and birthday cake! Join us July 29 to shop for wands, magic-themed artwork, unique jewelry, and more! The items will be available at the Arts Council during the Saturday event and for a limited time afterward

Check out the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana Facebook page for event details.

Skull pen and ink drawing — Work in progress photo of a pen and ink drawing of a skull with two snakes.

harry potter wands — Three harry potter themed wands made from well used paint brushes. the paint brushes were decorated with Freeform air super light clay, painted, then given handmade tags .

three gargoyle masks made from paper pulp

Project: Boston Crusaders & Animal Farm

I recently had the opportunity to make over 120 leather masks for the The Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. They toured the 2014 season with the theme ‘Animal Farm’

My assignment was to take the following animals; goat, dog, ram, horse, pig, chicken, and crow and turn them into recognizable, breathable, and sturdy masks that could be worn for the color guard’s full performance (and repeating performances through the season) What I would like to share today are some photos of the progress and design of these masks.

The finished product being worn by the BAC Color Guard can be see at the sites at the bottom of this page. You can also search #bostoncrusaders on twitter and Instagram for photos of the show.