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What creative projects have you been working on?
This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.
Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.
If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.
Currently working on a cross stitch of the Great Wave off Kanagawa in pastel colours!
I have left the worst for last though as I finished all the colours yesterday. What's left is a few thousand stitches of white, on a white background... It's going to be worth it though!
Oooo you gonna post it when it’s done?
Sure! 😊
That's my favorite painting! I never could place why, but I always appreciate seeing it wherever it is. Definitely love seeing people do something with it!
That sounds awesome! Looking forward to seeing the finished version if you post!
I'm trying to renovate a basement into a suite. We bought a rental home that I hope to retire into. It has beautifully renovated main floor, keeping a lot of the character of a 50s home (curved dark wall panels, crown molded ceiling) but upgraded enough that its got a modern kitchen and an open floor plan.
But the basement was hideous. Red patterned carpet. Wood panelling with vertical stripes, common in the 70s. Cut up space with very small rooms and doors everywhere including to a hidden cold storage room (havent seen one of those in a long time).
Ive knocked out most of the walls (3000 lbs of waste according to the dump) and am installing a kitchen and a new bathroom and two bedrooms. Should make it quite rentable, while we keep the upstairs for ourselves. As per usual, it will likely take four times longer than I estimated.
This is cool stuff! Music is so emotionally freeing. Even with ADHD, just noodling around with tunes is such a great way to relieve stress and boost serotonin! Keep it up, friend!
I've been making music (non-professionally) for a few years now and I definitely relate to that. Listening back to old stuff is a mix of emotions, some of it makes me cringe, and the handful I'm still proud of make me feel disappointed I don't do more.
But music is transformative, and it helps us grow - there's no shame in where we were because it was a stone in the pavement towards who we are today.
Be proud, your music is you and it's good enough on its own but it stands there as a part of you, too.
I'm in the process of printing an x-wing helmet.
Doing a lot of worldbuilding lately, and I'm getting close to the climax of the novel I'm working on. Scary, but also really exciting
Do you use any websites/tools for worldbuilding? I have an idea for an original novel and it definitely requires some worldbuilding but I'm finding the entire thing very daunting and intimidating.
Also congrats on your novel! That is a huge accomplishment and I wish you luck with the rest of it!
The easiest tool to use for Worldbuilding is probably Notion. They market it as a tool for organising businesses and wikis, but it's very low-friction and simple to use to keep your ideas together. Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) is the one I currently use. Markdown based, like Tildes, and it has a really cool feature where it shows your notes and ideas visually connected to one another. It also publishes, and has a great plugin community.
Once you've got your "tools", you may want to think about where to start. What's your world in scope? Is it a whole universe, is it just a town, is it a few charming oddities in an otherwise unremarkable copy of our world? Who are your characters, why are they like they are, how do they get influenced by what makes your world special, and vice versa?
I personally sorta jump from thought to thought, you can see my worldbuilding at https://onyx.rmv.fyi/, I have the web thing enabled so you can jump from note to note.
Oh wow! I had no idea something so intricate exists! Thank you so much, I will definitely be checking out Obsidian. It’s almost like a nicely laid out wiki with how everything links together.
And thank you also for your advice. Having those questions at the back of my mind to work from makes it seem somewhat less daunting!
I haven't done much in the way of creative projects but from occasionally skimming /r/WorldBuilding to have something to talk about with a sibling who does you might check out stuff like:
For organizing notes/mindmapping I use Obsidian.md but a similar looking thing for world building from that sub is LegendKeeper.
There's probably some great free courses out there, like Brandon Sanderon's creative writing lectures, style and BYU aside.
How did I not know Brandon Sanderson had lectures on Youtube?! I'm about to have a very busy weekend! Thank you so much for all your resources!
I have written 150k words in a Fanfic! Normally, when I start a fanfic, I write about 3 pages and then get bored or discouraged and give up, but this time I can't seem to stop writing. I'm having so much fun with it and seeing where the story takes me. I even came up with my idea for an original work of fiction, and once I finish my fanfic I'm planning to get started on it!
I've been working on some origami stuff.
I recently finished up a design for a blue jay, and I'm really happy with how it's come out. It's a pretty direct continuation of a structure I've been toying with since I was a kid, so turning it into something that's actually pretty nice after so long feels great. I'm most of the way through drawing diagrams for it, but I'm not really sure what I want to do with them when they're done...
I've also been working on a red-winged blackbird to go along with it, but I haven't made any serious progress there. I want to do it with the wings outstretched, which makes the color changed bit pretty tricky to figure out...
I've been doing nude photography. I find that I enjoy helping people see themselves in a new light. I'm not going to beat around the bush and say that everyone is beautiful and a 10 out of 10 yada yada. My subjects are often self-conscious about certain parts of their bodies, but I do think that everyone has beautiful qualities and sometimes it helps to see an outside perspective. So I focus and hone in on those qualities and highlight whatever they do like about themselves.
Also, it's 90% lighting. I pick good lighting and bam, magic. People usually look at themselves in the mirror in badly lit bathrooms — an unflattering setup.
What's your tips on finding the best lighting?
I do amateur landscape and floral photography, but I definitely want to try doing something like nude model photography - and not for anything sleazy. To me, it just feels like the human body is an expression of art in its own way, and it's a beautiful machine that deserves far more love than most people give it.
I feel like modeled photography is business, but nude photography is art - it's functionally the most human it can be.
But I'm also willing to just leave that to professionals and appreciate it for what it is. Good on everyone who does it though, I'm genuinely impressed by it.
New music!
I've got a new song out next week, and if you're into Drum & Bass or heavy EDM stuff, you'll probably dig it. You can check it out here: https://www.hckrs.download/ ... it's up for preview and on bandcamp now, and on streaming worldwide next Wednesday.
There's other music and mixes to give you an idea of my style. If you dig it, throw me a follow on Spotify or YouTube for more. I only recently got back into producing after a looooong hiatus, so any feedback or follows are super appreciated.
Dope tunes my dude
My jaw muscles started clenching before the intro finished, haha.
I play lots of tabletop wargames, but one of my favorites is Bolt Action, a WW2 themed game.
Just recently got British 8th Army, which I was pretty excited to have as a second faction (my first being late war US Army), as I love their sand colored shorts and shirts. When I received them and started building them, I noticed I had the option to build them as Sikhs, which just got me all the more excited.
So I got my Sikh Desert Rats all built and have started painting a majority of the infantry. This week, I was able to get two coats of two major colors on them and am hoping to have a few hours tomorrow to do a bit more.
Still have a couple of vehicles and random infantry to paint up, but I'm excited about the process; especially being that I thought I was bored with painting as nothing else in my cabinet felt inspiring, but as soon as I picked up the colors for my British, I set to work and have been stoked to keep going.
Apologies for gushing, I'm just excited about the project.
Another alternative social media website, lol. This Reddit exodus from API changes has been hitting everyone hard with applications.
What’s your spin on it?
At a high level we think itemized rules allows for rules-lawyering behavior and for jerks to exist on a platform, so we have a single rule (be nice) which is intentionally open to interpretation to encourage discussions around behavior. We're also an explicitly nice and safe space.
At this point, I feel like anything that even just emulates Reddit, without any new spin, would capture a lot of people looking for an alternative.
I've been working on a baby blanket for a friend that's expecting. Using a slightly different blanket yarn than usual (Bernat Baby vs ordinary blanket). So far it's holding up nicely!
My experience with Bernat blanket yarns overall has been good. Recipients have been able to machine wash and dry as needed (on delicate) and handed blankets down to later born children.
Starting a business. I've been doing Salesforce consulting for a few years now, and went on my own for a few months, only to join another firm. I'll tell you what, the grass was definitely greener. I don't wanna work for someone else anymore. I'm currently planning my exit-strategy, and in a few months, will commit to being fully on my own.
I appreciate that! I think I realized that I'd rather have self-employed problems than the problems that arise working for someone else. Not as many dynamics to navigate, if that makes any sense.
I do sewing from upcycled fabrics because it's an inexpensive hobby that produces things I can either use or sell. I'm getting my courage up to open up an Etsy shop!
I've been designing bird houses that look like real houses. I'm trying to do most different styles of homes; contemporary, modern, victorian, farmhouse, etc. I recently got a laser cutter and I'm hoping to make kits and design files to put on Etsy or something.
A few years ago I created a cross stitch pattern of my best friend's favourite band's favourite album. It took several months to recreate into a suitable design that would capture the essence. I started the process in 2018, giving myself 3 years to complete around 5000 stitches.
It's the skeleton album cover of Machine Head's The Blackening album, a woodcut of 'the mirror which flatters not' https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-1230-185 fantastic piece of art and an excellent album if you like that kind of thing.
I'm hoping that I'll now have more time away from a certain doom scrolling website to actually finish it now.
I've been writing a video game for the past 6 years or so (not coding, just writing). It's very Myst-inspired, so most of that writing is getting the lore into a good spot, coming up with places and scenarios that would be interesting for the player to explore and discover, and describing things both visually and mechanically for when I get around to actually designing things for real.
Idunno if it'll ever actually happen, as the scope of the thing has kind of grown to epic proportions in my head, but it's been a good fallback for when I need to sink some creativity into something.
Not me but the Good Lady has been crocheting toys and keepsakes in the Amigurumi style. Some she gives to friends but we also have been known to crochet bomb an area and leave them for people to find with little messages urging them to take them and keep them.
She has arthritis in her hands and so the crocheting keeps them moving and we both enjoy when people post online expressing their joy at finding them. She doesn't ask them too but I will admit we closely monitor Local Facebook pages when we have been on one of our expeditions.
Not sure exactly how “creative” it is yet, but I recently got back into playing guitar after an almost 6-7 year hiatus. Bought a cool new Stratocaster and a sweet amp and have been having fun jamming and trying to learn more about music theory. Still struggling to translate all that to actually playing, but it’s been a lot of fun to try to get back into it!
I love classic rock, metal, alternative/90s….if anyone has any tips or advice for a returning beginner player, please let me know!
I'm a two month old guitar player myself. Metalhead, but for now I've actually been having more fun playing my acoustic guitar. There's just something about it that makes me feel more attached to it. Learning it is tough on its own, but reminds me of the fundamental work I did back when I played travel fastpitch softball. Something I struggled with yesterday is easier to pull off today and all that.
If you want something to review beginner material, I highly recommend justinguitar. He's who I've been learning with so far, and I'm very happy with him. Most of his stuff is free on this site, but his paid app is very good.
I saved this post back on reddit for my own eventual dive into music theory:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/13kukxp/question_i_want_to_understand_what_im_playing/jkm7juj/
My personal recommendation for everyone is to start with acoustic - the tension on the strings is usually much higher so you build callouses sooner and build finger strength (at least that's what I was told).
In addition, you can feel the reverberations in your body because the guitar is what's generating all of that sound and it's right there with you. It's a far more intimate musical experience, and still my preferred way to play guitar.
I usually see guitar players recommend whatever gets the beginner most excited to actually play and practice. No cases, leave the guitar out and in easy reach, and try to do practice with purpose on it if not everyday, then most days, even if for only a few minutes at a time.
I get both views on this, but I think I lean more towards whatever gets a beginner player more enthused about the instrument. I read once that one of the big guitar sites did a survey and found that most new guitar players quit within a year, so keeping up the enthusiasm while instilling discipline seems to be critical in a hobby like this.
That said, I do definitely notice the technical advantages of playing primarily on acoustic at this stage. I was in the position to get both types of guitar, so I did, and was surprised that I am leaning more towards the acoustic guitar. It is definitely easier to play the electric guitar compared to the acoustic, albeit there is a bit of a funny adjustment for a few minutes because electric strings feel... I don't know, more bendy? Rubber band-y? Compared to my acoustic. Likely because of the higher tension. I also have to play more carefully on the acoustic, it doesn't forgive poor technique as much as my electric guitar does, and you can most certainly hear bad buzzing or thunking loud and clear on an acoustic guitar.
Feeling the reverberations from my acoustic guitar is what fascinated me about it at first, and the challenge of playing it anywhere near halfway decent at this stage is what keeps me going lol. But mostly I've been working hard to really internalize that this is a hobby that is, well, forever and thus no real rush to pressure myself to get good at it. I'm hoping to avoid frustration and disillusionment with this stance on it and it has worked so far, but I am long way off from the end of the 'doomed first year' lol.
Oh absolutely - I'm just saying if I'm telling someone to buy one or the other, it's usually easier to start with acoustic.
But you're absolutely right, the tension is higher so bends are harder, and the extra pressure you have to put on makes getting clean tones slightly harder. And whatever it takes to keep doing it is important as well.
I played every day for 2 years no matter what was going on, no exceptions. It was partially just because I loved it but it was also a pursuit of progress. Now I don't play as much but every time I do I feel it come right back, and I love it all over again.
If you enjoy it, that's what's important. Don't focus on how good you want to be, just enjoy the journey and be proud of what you have accomplished. You already are well on your way with it my friend :)
The best thing I did to learn more about music theory was buy a little keyboard. Learning music theory on the keyboard is so much more straight forward compared to guitar, and I was able to translate that knowledge to guitar very easily.
That’s a good tip! I would think it difficult to translate to guitar, given how different the instruments are played. But maybe not?
I wholeheartedly endorse this. It's about learning fundamentals, things like what intervals there are and how they interact. It's a good framework for understanding how all the things tend to build and get structured and can help you to learn how to structure it yourself.
My theory teacher back in highschool had plenty of materials, but the two that he always referred back to were just a picture of a keyboard and the circle of fifths.
I’ve been working on getting a doctorate. I really wanna be a professor someday.
Aside from my novel project in perpetuity, I dabble in a bit of chiptune nonsense with a little program called Dn-Famitracker that allows for the creation of NES-like tunes that can be played back on emulators or actual hardware. I just finished (a few days ago - time is relative, darn it!) a short 15-minute EP project out of old files I dug up from years ago and gave them a fresh breath of air for a "re-release". It's hosted on Bandcamp on the link below!
https://cqns.bandcamp.com/album/wrath-of-the-omniphage
I write stuff for D&D 5e. Items, races, mostly subclasses. Lately one I've been working on is a Rogue that trades Sneak Attack for making more attacks with weapons they summon from no where. The idea was based on Morgit from Elden Ring. I'm still working out the bugs in playtest, but I've been having a lot of fun with it.
I'm constantly writing for my tabletop campaign. I like to go on walks and figure out character backstories, I plot out their entire lives in order for me to better roleplay them as they come up in the game. I run a system called Fate Core which is very, very roleplay heavy and necessitates tons of improv so I find if I have some tentpole characters I have fully flushed out as people that I can then inhabit them all the better. So I like to walk and write.
Lots of recording music. I'm hoping to build the confidence to post some on YouTube or SoundCloud or something. I've always played music but diving into the recording aspect of it has been a rabbit hole. It's crazy how much there is to it, and even crazier how much misinformation there is on the internet to navigate through.
Currently I am working on a few projects for myself.
For quite a long time I have had a handful of science fiction short stories floating around in my head which recently I have finally begun taking steps to flesh them out. As they coalesce into something more than just an idea, they are taking wildly different forms - One is written as a diary, one as a technical case report, and a few others are as more typical stories.
I have not had much time for personal creative outlets for a while so it has been refreshing to try something completely new!
That sounds like so much fun! You should share your stories once you have some finished stuff, would be interesting to read.
I've been working on getting my Braiding Sweetgrass stickers cut, but I have to calibrate my silhouette cameo (no surprise there), but I need to print a paper out to do it but I haven't used my printer in quite some time so THAT will probably need to be calibrated as well and I'm just like... I think I'll send it to the library (the calibration page) because that'd be easier 😮💨
Other than that, I am gearing up for artfight as always! It's mostly just updating character information and trying to plan out if I want to do a larger piece, whiiiiich I might but we'll see. It's just hard sometimes because you have to contend with people and kids who are on summer break and I work a 9 to 5 so my time is so many limited.
I also have a sewing project floating around my head. I've gotten a couple of patterns but I need to buckle down and find fabric, accessories, and get the patterns printed out.
I would also just like to say that it's so amazing to see so many people post in this thread!!! For so long they've been pretty empty with me and a handful of others posting updates here and not really anyone else. It's very delightful to see so many other people posting here 🥲💕
I've been trying to get better at artsy Instagram videos.
Currently writing my first story in the form of a webcomic to go along with a video game that I'm developing for it. Currently I'm doing all of it (programming, writing, music, modeling), but there are some assets that I just have no experience in creating, so this whole thing is a learning experience.
I'm thinking about hosting the webcomic on Lemmy. Still trying to gauge my capabilities with it.
I've recently been modding multiplayer into the Steam game Coloring Pixels. I wanted to learn Unity modding, and wanted to learn the basics of C#, and figured I might as well try my hand at it, as I wanted to be able to color with people. It's actually going really well, and it's made significant progress. Unfortunately, I likely won't be able to publicly release it, but it's fun to play with friends.
I’ve got a few things going at the moment.
I’ve been developing a desktop environment in Svelte for the web browser. No real purpose to it, it’s just a relaxing thing to work on! So far it has a window manager, basic desktop launcher, file manager (read only), and some default applications. And of course a theme based on Aero from Windows Vista haha (still my favorite looking OS).
I am working on a doll house! It's got 10 rooms. It came as a kit but that just means you get shipped like a thousand pieces of wood that you then have to paint, glue and assemble.
I love it because it gives me a mix of all sorts of creative outlets. I can try clay to make tiny pieces of food. Print off paper and saw and paint pieces of matchsticks to make paintings. Sew together tiny curtains. So it's painting, sewing, diy, pottery etc etc. Really cute and fun!
I've got a handful.
the big one this year is making some wooden arrows for a very specific type of aerodynamics experiment and making a youtube video about it. I just need one more arrow, then I can seal and test them.
I'm restoring a leather shield/golden sword wall decoration from Spain that's been in the family for well over 35 years. I think it's from Toledo. I've conditioned the leather very well, but I need to make some sort of frame mount for it to hang up properly.
I'm nearly done with a full grain leather chest harness that Link uses in Twilight Princess. The main strap needs to be redone, but I'm out of 7-9 oz hide and need to get that. Then I need to make a new table and get a long piece of steel flatbar to get the first cut right. Then it's smooth sailing.