Art Update: Smudgey Face Couple

Getting somewhere...

Art Update: "Couple" (more progress)

^-^

I UPDATED! No really, I want to, but for some reason I can't gather the words to do so, even though its "safer just to write my whole life down". har har

Art Update: Moor

Amanderz Painting: More Revisions

It's got an overpainting on it so it's not tidy, but I'm not sure how I feel about the progression from the original face. It looks more like her, but on the other hand the original underpainting captured something I think I kinda lost (or let slip). That will happen with any original sketch/underpainting, but still... meh.

I'll ask her about it.

Art Update: More on the Amanderz Painting

So something happened to Brent that made him look like George Lopez. I guess I shouldn't have bothered to work on Brent until I got the concept down (will note that next time). I tend to paint and make things up as a go along. It's not a very good habit of mine, but it works. I did similar with the Bessy painting (kitty painting), but in that one I had a full feeling and I just had to intuitively put it on canvas. I guess that's one way to work.

I've done a lot of sketching, and I need to get those up here. I'm thinking of scanning my sketchbooks (no matter how horrible and good they are) into PDF format and putting them up here. Why? Because even for me, it's kinda nice to go back and see what I've been doing. I need to buy another one, because I just filled up my other small one. I need to ask a friend where she got a sketchbook in Japan, because I fell in love with it's paper. I can't find any bound sketchbooks that have like that paper quality, but it's not quite as thick? It's a smooth smooth surface. I guess it's kinda like Bristol paper for pen work. But you know, I don't know, because I've never used Bristol but as far as I'm aware, that's the difference.

Art Update: "Amanderz"

Would love to work more on this, but I have so much school work >< Here is some of the progress, fixed the face. I think Brent is too dark. I don't want him to look too animated.

Art Update: "Amanda and the Brent Dwarf" (In Progress)

Is it me or was Brent looking like a Wii Mii for a minute there?

Art Update: "Frank and M1 Garand"

If you read my blog, you know this painting was started a while back. The face has problems, but I adore the composition

Late night sketching

It's so good to have an opportunity to paint again. Time is rare these days. I need a new blending brush before I can get back to oils!

Painting: Morning Cat (I think that's what I named it)

I am late on my updates will be very good, but this is a good one I promise. The only two people subscribed to my blog will probably appreciate it this the most.

I have updated my photostream on my Flickr with most of the recent most current stuff. I had to hide the EXIF data though, Sorry! Don't want to give away people's addresses (as well as my own)

This started off using mostly Umber, so it looked really cool. I like how it came out towards the end. Of course... photos don't do it justice. I have to wait until it fully dries in order to get an accurate color of it. Done in a la prima, so drying will take a while.








She was happy until she got her hand in the paint and I had to use dish washing liquid to get it out... :( Whoops.

Steve Jobs talks down Amazon Kindle, Google Android

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13947

"It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore," Steve Jobs asserted when discussing the Kindle. Mentioning a statistic that says 40% of Americans read one book or less last year, Jobs added, "The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."

But that means 60% of Americans do. Steve Jobs is a dumbass. He's not telling the whole story. That's like saying movie theaters are obsolete because 40% of Americans only go and see one movie a year. Does that statistic also account for people who read comics, etextbooks, magazines, etc?

I can just as easily say 40% or MORE people use a Mac one time or less a year. So does that mean Mac is obsolete too? There you go.

Still Around

I'm actually looking into another layout update. Things have been crazy and my computer went kaputz and now I'm on a new one. :( I want the semester to slow down...

Furlough

So I've been away for much longer than I ever wanted to be from this. There technically hasn't been a reason for that, I'll admit. Sure, I could say that "real life" has played a role, but that shouldn't stop me from completely abandoning it.

Here's the brief update. Job situation nearly went completely haywire, but that's sort of back on track. I found out on the first day I was heading back to college that our site was going under. Needless to say, stress ensued. Went to college for the first two days and did HW across the next week. Got a call about four days after initial job issue. They've got something for me in Baltimore in about 3 weeks. In the mean time, I'm on what I like to call the "poor mans vacation".

That all said and done, I've been having some pretty lucid dreams. They've typically been about old friends coming to visit my new life. True enough, some of them were people I still talk to, but there were a few others where people I'd never met, yet spoke to like I'd known them for years came around. Locations varied from my bedroom to a cabin on the edge of the woods with a large field out the front through a small stand of trees.

The cabin one really was surprising though. The cabin was empty of people save me and one other person and she spent most of her time making food at a wood stove. I remember spending most of my time in a clean white sheeted bed, fully dressed, but not really going anywhere and watching out the window next door as the sun was nearly directly overhead with the leaves occasionally blocking the sunlight. They would move and I'd put my hand up with a finger extended so I could stare at the trees and the streams of light filtering through the upper branches of the tree. I could describe more, but I think I'm going to save that for myself.

All those dreams have had very personal meanings and I don't know exactly how to describe them in a way that I'd be satisfied with.

I've had some story ideas lately, but I have this strange emotional attachment to the characters that I've created. Strange as it may sound, it's true. Because I inherently "know" the characters in my story and how they'd react to any situation as well as empathizing with them to grab that particular feeling, it's uncomfortable to try to write the situation and conflict I've mentally presented to the character. It also makes me think I'm just a little crazy to view it that way.

My history professor apparently enjoys me being in her class. I'm constantly starting crap, but in a good way. Anytime she asks a question, I get looked at for the answer and, most of the time, end of providing it. Luckily there's at least one or two others in the class who are pretty good about answering questions specific to the coursework. Whenever we get a hypothetical question though, I seem to be the go-to person. Even during the chapter presentation being given by the other student responsible for the chapter, the one who tried to get the class involved kept coming back to me for the answers. It also opened up the class to more debate on hypothetical situations.

The prof was asking if we believed that slavery would've ended without the Civil War. Once again, eye contact. Crap. "Well, it's hard to really answer that question. For one, there's an old quote. 'War doesn't determine who's right, only who's left'. That being the case there's a good chance that plenty of things that might've happened without the war never were given a chance and that leaves a massive what-if situation. Things like Lincoln assassination may not have happened since tensions between the North and South may not have run so hot at the time." Reasons like that, etc etc.

She was also making commentary about firearms being shipped across the border to Mexico from the US. I bit my tongue, but made it clear I had a discrepancy with the statement. After class, we started talking about it due to my "possibility of becoming a police officer". I needed an out!

Twice now, I've left that class talking to my professor. She said she was going to try to find a copy of the program she watched on it. I'm halfway tempted to write a brief essay on it, but then I'd be, as Katie put it, "A massive suck-up." She also talked a bit about me being a history teacher of some kind since I mentioned the police officer thing. She also asked about what chapter I'd pulled for the chapter presentation. One of them is the Cold War. When I recalled that I had some old East German gear and the like, she got excited and I suddenly realized my mistake... Now she wants me to bring in some of this gear as part of my presentation. Haaaaa. This ought to be good.

Criminology is tonight in a couple hours. I need to print out that stuff, so until next time, “A farewell is necessary before we can meet again, and meeting again, after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends.”

Art Update: Freedom and Liberation

Art Update: The Clergywoman, Other Randoms

Frank came up with this concept. Not sure if I will use it, but he likes that his head was drawn out.


Frank at our party

Art Update: Further Photoshop Work

Weird faces, etc, It went wrong so I'll probably bring the other one back. But I had fun tutorializing someone live when doing this piece (I was teaching someone to paint in PS). I'm gonna fix the face, as I do think it's a charming picture in itself.

The cruddier face:

Art Update: Huge Update Win

It's amusing how much time has passed since I've updated...

Frank's chair as a robot :P... I hate and love that chair.