Test post

Attempting mobile stuff.

I drew birds all over this clock. 

Reorganisation

It's been a long time. My computer finally died last year, but now i have a new one (hooray!). And a new desk to go with it, chosen specifically to accommodate my cat, who likes to observe my work behaviour.

Meanwhile, i'll be moving things around a bit here. Maybe i'll try a new layout, or something.

I'm still Doing Art, look, i've even got proof! A recent self-portrait:

Grouchiness is my default state.

Drawn on a whiteboard. So so lovely to use. I've fixed a semi-permanent schedule to it now, though, so i need to buy another one. Self-portrait coloured in gimp, a nice freeware picture edit/create thing. My first attempt at colouring something with a digital brush, actually. I like how the face turned out.

So, that's it. Hopefully there'll be some changes here soon.*

*- soon from a geological perspective, possibly.

Art 48

Computer broke for a bit. Angst! Horror! Drama! It was awful, not only did i not have internet access, I couldn't stare at all my files and procrastinate! Four exclamations marks have been used in this post already, that's how terrible it was.

But now it's fixed. Hooray! I briefly* fell in love with the IT guy, the way one does with the doctor looking after your ill child, or, more to the point with me, the vet looking after your scratched-up cat. Siiigh. But I'm over it, it's all good, strictly professional relationship resumed. Next computer step is to buy a laptop, so I can take my work with me when I travel. Work other than a sketch book, that is.
*- about two minutes. Tops.

Meanwhile... Well. I finished sorting all the cryptomnesia pieces into colours! Awesome. Now I'm slowly and laboriously arranging them over a trial picture, which I may do several times before embarking on the final piece. It's a shot of Laura Palmer*, slightly recoloured so I can use snips that aren't exclusively blue-grey.
*- Twin Peaks!* Spooooky!
*- warning: tvtropes.org will ruin your life.

All the bits mashed together.

Trial piece with recoloured pic of Laura Palmer.
I drag and drop the snips over the pic.

Here you can see the snips I've arranged so far. Still a long way to go.

Have also started work on the cryptomnesia grid piece I mentioned in another post. Pixel by pixel. It may* take some time.
*- it will.

The pale blue is to differentiate the background from all the other
colours, for easy-to-use-ness.

In other news, I did a sketch of an idea I had while falling asleep. Some slightly grisly thing (hint - it involves teeth). No photos yet. Want to work on it more - had a couple ideas for other versions of it, to make it better, etc. It's the first home sketch I've done on an actual easel, though, which somehow seems important to me.

I also downloaded a journal app for my clever clever phone, to help keep a record of the art-making process. It FAILED. Well, it ate all my credit, so I deleted it. There are others I haven't tried yet... I should just get a polaroid camera and keep a physical journal, because that would be cool. Also super fucking expensive. Damn it, world, just give me more money! Then I'll show you! I'll show you ALL! (Note to google analytics/adsense - please don't take the previous statements as an excuse to send me more get-rich-quick ads. Thank you.)

Also! While I didn't have computer access, I started work on another project. It's a sort of... Well, I took seven struts from a broken umbrella, tied them together, and I'm now filling in the gaps with acrylic yarn. It's pretty weird so far. Vaguely sun-like, vaguely dream-catcher-ish, and mostly like a web made by an intoxicated spider.* Again, no photos yet. Really want to finish it, I'm curious to see how it's going to turn out.
*- google it. science is Crazy.

More newsish stuff - I looked at my deviantart print account tonight and recoiled in horror.* I like my idea of having everything in postcard-size-only, sort of thing, but the selection of pictures there... Ew ewwww. I'm reassured that even great artists are cringey of their work as years go by. Nevertheless, action must be taken! But what action? I could just shut the whole thing down and start again somewhere else. It wouldn't be much of a trauma - in five years I've made just over seven bucks with it, mostly through buying my own prints. But then what? I could find another site to sell on, I guess, or sell things through my main deviantart account. Decisions decisions.
Or I could sort of clean up the print account... Upload some new stuff, take away crappy old stuff. I dunno. I like the idea of starting over, though.
In any case, it's something that needs sorting out. I'm just not sure which direction to go with things.
*- slight inward cringing, more like, but that it isn't nearly dramatic enough.

I think that's it for now... Oh wait, there's more. I'm making a 3D fractal tree thing in Second Life now. Not properly fractal, given that infinity is a little difficult to fit inside the standard PC, but it shows/will show that kind of multiple branching that I'm so obsessed with. Currently up to 4 iterations, hooray. It always amazes me how quickly it gets complicated - 3 iterations is already quite a lot of branches. That's what being exponential does for ya.

Art 47

Meaning to write this for about a week now. So, right to it. Fabergé are holding a wonderful Big Egg Hunt in London this Eastery season. It's just halfway through now - from February the 21st until April the 3rd. Over 200 fancy eggs, made by various artists, have been hidden around London, where they wait to tumble out on unsuspecting pedestrians, breaking open and showering bystanders with yolk and albumen. No.

Over 200 fancy eggs are hidden, and people are invited to find them, and say when they've found them, and I think there's prizes, or something. Here is the link for information that's more helpful*: THE BIG EGG HUNT!

Really wish** I could take part in this, looks like a lot of fun.

* And more truthful.

** If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. For some reason that makes me think of horses with wings.

A horse with wings. So happy!
Inspired by John Tenniel's rocking horse fly in Through the Looking Glass.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite eggs. So far, at least - I haven't finished looking at them all yet.

Eggshabbychic by MIA

Slice by Paul Kelley

Pretty Polly by Karen Hollis

The Embryo of Human Greed by Wooden Horse

There are loads more that I really like. Maybe I'll post more next time, I dunno.

***

Meanwhile, the cryptomnesia piece... Still working on it, yes indeedy. And still working on it exclusively, which is very unusual for me. Maybe I'm moving into a more focused period of my, dare i say it, career? Dum dum dummmm! I really hope so :) So far, all portents, omens, augeries, signs, ouija boards, and magic 8 balls, say YES. I haven't checked my horoscope, though, and that is where I Draw The Line.

Anyway, I'm still sorting the snippets into colours, and it looks like this:

Early on I realised i didn't actually need to sort the snippets, but I kept doing so anyway - i got sort of caught up in the process of it. This is largely because i was outlining each section of colour, to make them easier to differentiate from each other.* As new snippets were added to each colour section, i'd leave the outline instead of erasing it, and just draw another outline. If outlines conflicted, then I'd erase the older one.
* I needed to do this because the process of deciding which snippet should be sorted into which colour was (and is) a strange and eldritch and slightly silly process that didn't (doesn't) always lead to accurate results. But I like it anyway.

So here's a closer pic of the outlines:

In sorting and rearranging the snippets, a grid pattern is being formed by the outline, and I really like it. Here's a bit of it:

I like the way the colours are overlapping and staggering and whatnot. Will be interested to see how the whole thing turns out once I've finished my sorting process :)

I still intend to arrange all those snippets into a coherent image... Have some very loose ideas about it - really should get sketching.

***

One more thing! Here are some oh-so-cute wee things found via mocoloco, an art/design/etc blog thing. Cork animals. Sho shweet! The Corkers.

They're made by Monkey Business, who look like they do fun things.

Ps - I have a bloggish thing (so far me wowing at other people's stuff) on tumblr that's intended to be sort of all the stuff I have/like/do/whatever that isn't specifically art-related. As much as anything can be non-art-related, anyway. I'm still working on prettifying it and whatnot, but here 'tis: Extrantice other log.