Draconaei’s Blog

Flavoring vodka with skittles is delicious and easy (and looks really cool too!)  I originally found the instructions here.

Here’s a list of the items you will need:

• non-flavored vodka (I use Smirnoff)
• skittles
• 5 bowls to separate out Skittles flavors
• funnel
• coffee filters
• 5 water bottles (or any containers to hold the Skittles vodka during the infusion.  Mine are actually little cranberry juice bottles.)

Step 1: Separate the skittles into their individual flavors, and count up the number of skittles you need of each color.

You will want ~10 skittles per oz. of vodka you mix them with, so plan accordingly.

Step 2: Pour the skittles and the vodka into the water bottles, and give them a good shake.  You’ll already be able to see the colors mixing into the vodka- these bright colors will stay!

Step 3: Let the mixtures sit overnight.  Shake the bottles again to un-stick any mostly-dissolved skittles from the bottom of the bottles, and then filter out the excess sugar using the funnel and coffee filters.  I found that I either needed to filter through two coffee filters together, or filter the entire liquid twice, but this will depend on the filters you use.

Step 4: Once your flavored vodka is free free from goop and clumps of sugar, place in your fridge to chill.  Beware that even though the mixture may not taste strong, it is nearly pure vodka.  Don’t be deceived!

Skittles vodka can be mixed with many things, but I would recommend a clear mixer to enjoy the full color effect (I personally enjoy really sweet drinks, so I use cream soda.)  Mix and enjoy!

Graphics are a language.  Some ideas can only be conveyed through images, and not at all through words- or clumsily, at best.

(As a side note, if you have never read Rice Boy, the story is a beautiful example of what I’m describing.  Go. Read. Now.)

A single image can use many visual devices that give it more significance than its surface-level appearance.  To give some simple examples: flat images can give the illusion of depth.  Overlapping shapes- or rather, a graphic with a break in continuity, which alludes to one shape overlapping another- appear to be layers in space, where changing color intensity implies nearness or farness.

Still images can hint at movement.  The repetition of similar shapes implies a connection, and as our eyes are drawn across them, we can infer the connection is time.  We even project aspects of reality into images, such as the implication of gravity when looking from up to down.

After already labeling words a clumsy means of explaining the language of graphics, it would seem silly to type much more right now.  Instead, I will share a small graphic I designed as a phone decal for a friend:

So, what is this image?  I have no idea.  I only know the image I saw in my mind as I began, and the graphic evolution that took place as I drew.  Yet this simple, still, 2-D image seems to have depth, to imply motion, to imply some kind of evolution over time, even if only in a whimsical sort of way.

If a simple phone decal can do that - using only a basic graphic vocabulary - what could someone speaking fluently in graphics say?

The first of what I hope to be many images to spread the message of To Write Love On Her Arms.

Tell me what you think when you see this.

Having already posted about the tattooing process, I won’t bore you with more of the same.  Instead I will inform you that my tattoo has now mostly healed, and has given me a delightful surprise: the flame aligns straight up my leg while my foot is flexed, but curves along my foot when my foot is pointed.

I placed the tattoo along the interior curve of my ankle, in order for the shape of the flames to coincide with the contour of my anklebone, and because of the high significance I place on my feet, as a dancer.  The bright colors now hide the subtle shadows of my protruding bone, but more interestingly, the tattoo appears different from different angles.  From the front, it appears as designed, but from the top, bottom or sides, the design is truncated to the tips of the flames, or a single tongue of fire.

I enjoy how the two-dimensional tattoo has become three-dimensional, living art.  It moves as I move, and as I dance… its appearance is tied to my motion and the perspective to my body.

Okay, so it’s not trippy like the others- but at least it’s seasonal!

And a close-up of the headless horseman, carved by yours truly:
.

ooooOOOOOooOoooooOOOOOOooooooOooooo… Halloween is nearly here!

One of my first disorienting stitches: