Visual Arts, v. 2011
Whatever your medium, if it’s visual, here’s a place to talk about it, dream about it, or share ideas.
Continued from Visual Arts, 2010.
Date: January 16, 2011
Categories: Life, The Universe, Things We like
Saturday, 27 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Whatever your medium, if it’s visual, here’s a place to talk about it, dream about it, or share ideas.
Continued from Visual Arts, 2010.
Date: January 16, 2011
Categories: Life, The Universe, Things We like
First Post!!
Model airplanes are cool, and I like making things. When I finish my plane, can I send a picture?
second post?
I do a lot of graphic design and collaging. I’m also very good at both. I don’t have talent for drawing and painting, but I have a good eye and a lot of patience, so i’m better at gd and collage than most people.
I took some closeup photos of a mushroom’s gills a few days ago, and they look really weird–and kinda cool–when you can’t see the rest of the mushroom.
I want to see that!
I’ll send the photos off to the GAPAs.
Fun fun! I made 3 of those hyperbolic planes out of beads, maybe I’ll send in some pictures!
I’ve been playing with Adobe recently and I figured out how to make patterns and brushes. So now I have HPB brushes. It’s amazing. And veryvery helpful…
Does anyone else here use oekaki? It’s a fun tool for a digital artist, and I’ve been using it a lot along with GIMP for drawings.
Sorry to bug the GAPAs, but did you get my pictures?
As I might have mentioned, I *gasp* cleaned up my desk and I fond some teeny oil-pastel drawings (read: done on post-it size paper that was laying around when I rediscovered them) of various fishies. If I recall correctly, there were some sorry-looking puffins and two HBPs as well but they’ve mysteriously disappeared…
I’ll scan in and send in the ones I find- there’s a rather cute shark which turned into a chibi shark because I ran out of paper.
Visusl arts… Well, I do a lot of pencil drawings. I suck at color but am pretty good with pencil. I do mostly faces, profiles, eyes…
Here are a shark and a stingray from bookgirl_me:
And here are three photographs of mushroom gills by Groundhog:
*squee*
Whoa, mushroom gills look really awesome magnified.
Flammy!!!
The stingray is super cool
…I wish these threads lived longer.
Should I resend my drawings, or are the GAPAs too busy to post them?(sorry)
We’ve still got them, sf. I’ll do some catching up today.
Thanks
Here are shadowfire’s drawings, which she describes thus:
This is a drawing I did on oekaki for a contest. It’s a creature I made up that still lacks a name. I’m ridiculously proud of those water highlights.
And this is Edward Elric, drawn in Photoshop at a friend’s house. She has a tablet, and let me try it out. Happiness ensued.
Thank you, oh wondrous GAPA
These are really good, Shadowfire! I love the creature-with-no-name.
It looks kind of like Eeyore. An Eeyore that devolved/evolved. Beautiful drawings.
That observation made my day
A Sea-yore?
And got crossed with a pre-historic manatee.
My profiles look like strange rocks. I congradulate you (I have no idea if that’s spelleds correctly).
Close. It’s a t, not a d.
I had reference. Usually I don’t draw like that, but thanks anyway. If you have trouble with something, look at and draw lots of pictures of it. That helps a lot.
And here is something Mikazuki sent a while ago:
Mikazuki’s explanation:
The text on bunny stationary is, in the top corner, “Adopt-a-bunny” and below:
“Bunnies of different colors. For years, these bunnies have strived to prove that they are no less evil than their siblings. Despite this, for years they have been bullied, taunted, discriminated against- all because they are simply not hot-pink.
These bunnies have led miserable lives, deprived of the evil, brutal acts of murder, torture, and spiteful killing. The time has come to do something about this and stop the injustice. Join us in our quest to attain equality for the bunnies. Adopt and help a bunny today. THEY NEED YOU.”
I’ll adopt one! An evil black bunny would be more welcome than a hot-pink one. For me anyway.
Personal feelings about bunnies aside, as an editor I’d make the following correction: stationary stationery.
Thanks, GAPAs!!!
Oops. Aside from the spelling mistake, I meant to say ‘the second one’ instead of stationery. Also, the text on the first one says ‘*Not applicable for persons over the age of 100. Muse Academy students only. Offer expired January 1st, 1879 anyway. We are not responsible for any accidental bunnification.’ I must have missed it; I had to resend it because the files were way too big. Sorry.
We painted in my English class the other day, and I painted a tree, because that’s just what comes naturally to me. Trees are easy to draw, for me. My teacher took a look at it and went on for ten minutes about how amazing it was compositionally and the detail and blah blah. And then she asked me if I was an artist. That really stumped me. She got a half a minute “errrrr” and blank stare. I mean, am I an artist? I’m just okay at art, in my opinion, and I don’t often do art. I don’t know. I never think to do it, and I never like what I draw, so I just don’t. Does being good at art when you don’t do it very often make you an artist? Thought provoking questions, *gasp* :O
My definition of an artist: A person who does art.
I got snarked at in drawing class after offering this definition. I snarked back. I mean, that’s how it works, right?
Well, being called an artist is better than being called a “draw-er.” I really bugs me when people say that. Like the sensation you get when you scuff your sneakers on concrete? Ugggh.
I agree with shadowfire.
By thinking for 15 seconds, I came up with this: art is something beautiful, meaningful, thought-provoking, and/or something that can make people happy by enticing them by capturing their senses and/or mind. An artist is a person who creates these things, whether on purpose or accidentally, but the thing they create has an impact, whether big or small, for one person or five thousand. Art is a binding force between beings, and artists are people who help create those bonds.
Does that make sense…?
You’re an artist if you consider yourself an artist.
I think of someone as an “artist” not because they are extremely good at art, but because the art is a part of en,and en is a part of the art,. The same goes for “musician” : a true musician is a person who truly is a part of the music, and the music is a part of them, not just simply a person who can play music well.
I want to send in my art. It’s absolutely terrible, and there’s much too much of it. But I’ll send in my comic first and see how that goes…?
I’m sending it in to the address you directed me to, thegapas @ gmail . com . That’s correct, ne?
It is done!
We’ve made a Photobucket album for Zinc’s comics.
As a sneak preview, here’s the first selection:
Me likey Zinc! Especially the two-who-are-definitely-not-together-no-sir. They amused me.
Very nice!
I know that the people at the end are MBers, but are others supposed to be?
If so, who is everyone supposed to be? I’m getting a nasty feeling that I’m either the pyromaniac or one of the people who certainly isn’t in a relationship.
Zinc, these are flammy! Who are the people-who-aren’t-on-a-date?
I like it.
And I would like to know who everyone is supposed to be as well, if they’re MBers. (Obviously there’s Zinc, Avalon Neko, and Sudo…)
I get the feeling that if I’m one of those characters, I’m the pyromaniac. XD
I didn’t get the beginning, but the end was very funny. “I do not like you or your mother or your hair, which is quite ugly.” Ha. If that’s Witchneko/Thief of Light/Avalon Girl, isn’t anyone worried that she’s going to get mad?
Oh and by the way, the artwork is really cute. They have such nice faces.
“We are in love, whether you like it or not.”
Beautiful. Good drawings, too.
Thank youuuu!! (In process of securing the right version of Paint to insert text for page 5, but it looks much better and is *colored*!)
Well, it’s Ver Ling (Silver Lining) and Sudo, and then there’s me. This whole thing is based off gossip and Gmail chats that happened a year ago, so yeah. Kind of old. Eh. But then we have Armadda (Armada) and Xerix (ZVX? Does anyone remember him?); Armadda is Sudo big sister. And then comes along Beat (Beatlesrockr; another old person… I just needed someone and I needed to insert her and I out her there because I love her character), and then Avalon appears. And that’s where it leaves off. In page 5 returns Zinc (because I remembered the fun banter Avalon and I had all the time) and some one else’ll probably turn up.
I’ll try and insert more people, but I’ve lost my pencil. Sorry, Enceladus and PM, yo’re in another Guild with Groundhog and Kittymine. I might add in an omake with you guys if I finalize Enc’s design.
Ehh… for people who didn’t get the beginning, check the fanfiction thread, I have notes on this. PM, your question will be answered on page 6, hopefully!
Did you make fun of me in a comic?? I’m really excited if you did I really liked this one
Well, in pages 5 and 6 (which don’t answer your question, sorry) you, Enc, Faye, Bookworm, Fireh, Ebeth, and Bookgirl get three panels while I make an xkcd reference. Real-life-me also makes an appearance in the fourth panel.
Yay
Wait, who/where am I?…
(That’s going to sound awful in the Recent Comments bar, isn’t it…. -_- XD)
Ive been doing a lot of comic-ing lately too. I have a lot of random strips, including a “We Are The World” parody (“We Are The Borg”!: Franticaly made to expend trekkie energy after watching BOB worlds), Chthulu vs. Godzilla, and some other random things. I also have an attempt at a long running series, of which the firs line is “Somehow, blowing up the world had seemed like a really good idea at the time…”
I’m hoping that they will ever go somewhere. May beI should send them to you! How would I do that?
thegapas @ gmail . com
Gak! So many spelling errors!
Eeep! I meant to comment that my post was so full of mistakes since I accidentally posted it instead of previewing it, but I got an answer so quickly. Thank you so much!
I had a free period today, and was sitting in a corner when two girls walked up and asked me how good an artist I was.
…how the cake do I answer that???? Turns out me showing them the thing I was working on was sufficient to answer that question.
But really, how should I answer that?
I think that what you did was perfect. Let them decide for themselves. That way you don’t have to embarrass yourself, or get forced into sounding full of yourself.
Whenever I can find my inking pens(They’ve disappeared completely. Gah) and borrow my friend’s scanner, I might send in some of my own comic pages.
…I also might have to take a picture of my Soul Candy.
GAPAs, okay if I send in some pictures of the metal sculpture butterfly I made? I just had a pyro moment. And a metal moment. And my mom offered to teach me how to curve the metal in strange, amazing ways.
Sure!
Great! *sends pictures in*
Some announcements!
1: Rebecca recently posted the next few pages of the comic, which are much better than the previous installments. Go see! Also, the 3rd and 4th pages should be switched.
2: I recently got some photos to drawn on on Photoshop, so if anyone would like to be drawn just say so!
I forgot to announce that earlier, Zinc. My apologies.
So. I’ve got lots of news on the art front.
As you may know, I attend a high school for the arts. Actually, you probably don’t know that because although I posted about my audition, I don’t recall saying that I got in. Anyway, at this school there are nine different areas of study. In order of when I’ve taken these classes this year: textiles, printmaking, digital media, art history, painting, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, and photography.
In textiles, I made a bunch of cool stuff (stuffed animals, muslin dyed using a variety of techniques, a pillow made from said muslin, and felt), of which I can send pictures if there is any interest to see them.
In printmaking, I made a book (the cardboard, babies-can-chew-on-it-and-it-will-be-OK kind of book) and then told an abstract sort of story with pictures from a random kid’s novel. I made enlarged xerographic copies of its illustrations (and some other pages) and transferred these copies to the paper on the book using wintergreen extract mixed with alcohol. You know what? That sounds insane. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a really cool technique; the book is in a contest right now, but when I get it back I’ll take photos to show you. And I’ll try to explain the process better another time.
In digital media, a friend and I made a REALLY terrible video about polio for a contest. Let’s not talk about that.
In painting, I painted a bunch of portraits (just practice ones on paper), and then a large (1.3 meters tall, I would say) abstract landscape-ish painting, which involved a lot of underpainting technique which I was sick for, but oh well. I’ll get to it someday.
We just started ceramics and drawing for this year, but I’m really excited for both of them. In drawing we’re going to learn to use pen and ink, which I am super excited about, because that’s far from how I usually draw and I’ll probably learn a lot. The first assignment is going to be to create a detailed drawing that could serve as a cover image for our choice of nursery rhyme or fairy tale or otherwise well-known children’s story.
In ceramics, we’re learning wheel-throwing. So far, I have created a piece that was supposed to be a bowl but ended up as a plate with a slightly taller body than you might expect.
That’s pretty much the story of my art this year. Oh, and last spring I took some photos of roses in the rain. I’m no photographer, and the point-and-shoot only does so much, but I think they’re nice photographs nonetheless.
You must be kin to the gods of patience if you read all of that text on a visual arts thread.
Why, thank you! And yes, I’d love to see pictures of the things you made in textiles.
SFTDP, but I just made a picture of my first name with tweaked letters. It includes 2 tardigrades, a snail, and a pea. Well, it was supposed to be a pea, but it’s more like a green circle. Anyway, I just found a hot pink cat drawing I made when I was really little that looked disturbingly lapine.
I just sent in three more drawings. Having gotten the opportunity to hijack my friend’s scanner, one of them is on paper.
Here they are, shadowfire. I’ll include your descriptions:
“This first is a weird sketchy concept-thing. It will probably never leave my sketchbook but I found it interesting anyway.”
“The second is a, um, dress that I felt like drawing (Me? Designing clothes? What?). I got some pretty encouraging feedback about it on The Nameless Website and might do more eventually.”
“The third is a couple of strange creatures from… a certain movie. Cookies for anyone who knows which one. An no, it’s not Doctor Who.”
Thank youuuuu.
The last one…… yikes. However, the movie freaked out my dad more than it did me, though the war parts had me chewing on a pillow.
I like the first one; is it some sort of dragon/horse hybrid?
And I like the dress!
Haha, i guess you would recognize that one. The Goodbye Blue Sky sequence is one of my favorites. Then again, I have weird tastes.
I have no clue what it is, you’re quite welcome to decide yourself.
Thank you
It looks like a dragon/horse/cow hybrid to me. A hippodrabo?
Hello, visual arts people!
I haven’t gone through and read all of your posts yet, but I will–and in the mean time, I will share my personal visual arts news.
I’m taking a ceramics class this semester, and I love it! I’ve spent most of my free time in the studio, practicing throwing, etc., and learning a whole bunch of extra stuff that most Ceramics I students don’t learn, such as loading the bisque kiln, loading and prepping the wood kiln, mixing glazes, etc., which has been super cool! We’re firing the wood kiln for the second time this semester on Friday, and I’m really excited. I have a lot of work in there that I think is actually pretty decent (whereas in the first wood firing, I only had a few mugs that weren’t very good, because I had just learned how to throw the week before), and it’s always a surprise to see how everything comes out. Also, my family is coming to visit this weekend, so they’ll be able to see the firing–it takes the whole day, loading wood into the kiln–and during the very end of the firing, huge gigantic magnificent colorful flames shoot out of the chimney, and it’s like watching fireworks except better.
I think I had a lot of borderline run-on sentences in there. Or, at least, really long and probably incoherent sentences. Sorry about that.
Only one true runon. And yes, I know this is a fragment. And that, too, and this. It wasn’t intentional; I promise.
1. Zinc, I finally looked at the second installment–flamminess!
2. Did my picture of the butterfly I hammered out of metal make it? I accidentally sent five pictures instead of one ( ) so I’m not sure if it went through. I was going to pick the least blurry picture but I pressed send before I could… Sorry about that. If you have, in fact, received it, and haven’t had the time to post it, then I apologize. (And I apologize for the excess of pictures too…again, sorry–you can pick what one to post) I just want to know whether I should send it in again.
3. I’ve been marbling. I’m not very good at it, but it’s quite fun.
Isn’t it better? Isn’t it cleaner? *laps up praise and attention like a manatee*
Yes! It’s great! (Although I thought the other part was really good too.)
I’ve been trying to get some comicing in lately, but it’s mostly during school, when I’m half paying attention, so they come out somewhat less than logical and understandable. Most of them end up being about either how bored I am, or the Borg, for some reason. I have a few that are close to finished, but my handwriting needs drastic improvement before I can send any of them in.
These are the two STS-134 desktop backgrounds I’ve made in Photoshop.
This one has the lyrics from Jimmy Buffett’s “Good Guys Win”:
And this one uses the lyrics from Rush’s “Mission”:
“Once in a while, the good guys win”–D’awww. That’s so appropriate.
Like I said a while back, in the discussion of fandom shipping, I ship Kelly/Giffords.
Purple Panda – I’m taking Ceramics 1, and two of my pieces have won ( minor ) honors. Please send in pictures of your work; I’d love to see them!
Kai – Those are very well-designed, powerful images.
OKAY OKAY OKAY
So lately I’ve been noticing I’ve strayed away from using you guys as the actually personality basis and I hope you’re not offended. It’s just that I’ve noticed that you’re all extremely nice people and I have to have a little diversity. As such, I barely act like Zinc and Rainbow is much more friendly than Renier and blah blah blah okay so! I’ve decided that the characters of people are more like adoptions than depictions. So watch over them carefully and love them for me. The names are also usually pulled from their adopters, so an added bonus?
Anyway, with this I now have three character designs that have no people to love them besides me. Here we go!
This is Ane Kamela/Rosenthal. Her last name is still up in the air. She’s polite and is one of three (the other being Mallory [look down] and Choklit Orange’s character) librarians in the city of Spandow. Her dress is a dark color, and that thing she’s wearing over it is a work apron. Her hair is cherry-wood colored and she has blue eyes. She’s polite and courteous, but other than that her character is still very new.
This is a girl with no name or much of a personality yet! Oh well. She’s a horsewoman, I know that much, with tan hair. The dress is a grayish brick-pink color with watered down gold lining. Every Girl Looks Cuter With Hair Decs!
And the boy… even though he doesn’t look like one. That’s the point, anyway… his name is Cerule Mallory but most call him Mallory (long story). The hair is and eggplant-purple color but it’s not natural, it was a magic accident, and his eyes are brown. He’s sick and tired of boys thinking he’s a girl while girls think he’s a boy and both genders hit on him. And treading into dangerous territory here…
I want my world to be well-rounded and diverse. As such, among the numerous couples, he is part of the gay relationship.
Ahhhhh really worried about this because of his androgynous nature. The androgyny was the basis for his character (“hey I want something weird and an interesting thing to drawâ€) and the couple was added later. It doesn’t define his character (they’re more like best friends than a couple anyway, and they see each other very infrequently) but input please? Worried about this.
Anyway, Ane and Cerule are part of a new race: Commonfolk! They can use manufactured charms but don’t have much else, and they’re just fine with that. Commonfolk are from ancient mixing of the races, etc. etc.
Please adopt them ;_; I need some help here with naming… and characterizations… and snarls… and depth for my mains… and nearly everything…
I’m a little confused by what you mean by “adopt.” Does that mean you want more people to base these characters on?
(If so, you can use me for one of the girls, if you like. Second one might be better, but it doesn’t make a ton of difference to me. Or if you had other MBers in mind that’s cool too.)
Not exactly… more like provide names and a little individualistic flavor. Most of the other characters started out based off people, and I don’t like to leave people out. Also, I get personal relationships easily, and I think it’s fun and gets people more involved and interested.
Okay, cool. I’d like to adopt a character, I think.
Okay, superfine! Your name is easy to adapt, anyway, so character development away!
Are there any quirks in your personality you’d think would be interesting?
Personality quirks? Hmm.
I can just describe myself and you can use whatever you like? I’m 17, 5’4″ and have brown hair and eyes that pretty much change color daily. They’re bluish-greenish with a little gray and some orange/yellow in the middle. I spend far too much time on the computer, but I really love to read. I’m on a a classics kick right now. I play oboe, (English horn), violin, alto saxophone, (soprano saxophone), and a bit of ukelele (learning) and I’m going to work on clarinet and French horn this summer. I’m reasonably introverted, but I do get along with most people and have a good number of friends. I like modifiers. I try to be mostly realistic an get frustrated when my friends are too down on situations, but I find myself trapped in the “This [project, all-district audition piece, collage, whatever] is awful and I can’t fix it and I will fail at everything for the rest of my life” loop a lot. Er… What else? I like kids’ movies, especially Pixar, a lot. I worry about growing up, and I don’t like change. When I find a new webcomic I like I push everything else to one side much more than I should in order to read it (1200+ strips of QC in three days…). I love musicals.
…
Tess Enract?
I’ll think about things. My plans are to add more Gypsies, so a lot of your personality you just entailed to me can’t really work for that. I’ll do my best, though!
And the girl with the ponytail is her. Goodie.
Okay. Feel free to change the personality, you don’t have to stick to mine very closely if you can’t make it work.
Wait, is the top one the same one you based on me? I remember you mentioning the name Ane Kamela, but it doesn’t look the same… Whoever they are, they’re all awesome.
You should make one based off me. You don’t have to but I’d like it.
I’ll do my best~
No, she was on the same page as the one I showed you. The one with black hair and ponytail is you. (not here)
You want people to take over your characters? Do you need any psychotic characters with trust issues? Or schizophrenic characters? Or complete cloud cuckoolanders?
Get ya asylum inmates here, low, low cost! We got father issues, paranoids!
Ahem, my mind is not at its best right now. It feels more like an anglerfish.
Ahhh… you already have a character… but I can add in some issues. He has a girlfriend.
Besides, since we’re all the same age, it would be weird if I was your mother. Especially since I don’t imagine Kendall as the warm, loving type.
Well, Fireh is her Morality Pet at times in my head. But you are quite right.
Hmm, if he’s based off of/ inspired by me, then he cannot possibly have a girlfriend. I’m gay.
Gay people rock!
Thank you kindly.
… I’m sorryyyyyy ;_; I can barely keep up with R+R… agh.
Um… CouldyoutakeMallory? *wince*
Certainly- and it’s okay, you didn’t know. *hug*
*huggg* Thank youuuuuuuuuu
Mallory is totally one of my favorite characters right now; he’s so much to deal with.
That doesn’t mean he can’t have a girlfriend. She’s writing a character based on/inspired by you. It’s not actually you.
That’s kind of the big argument about being gay. It doesn’t really change anything about you—not necessarily.
Plus, if you’re looking for an issue, you could make him gay and that would certainly create some.
Except if it’s going to be inspired by me, then I’d like it (and she’s agreed) that it would be less… awkward? for him to be more like me.
And it fixed a problem she had with another character- it shouldn’t change much.
I thought you were half gay and half bi?
Wouldn’t that just be bi? I’m not an expert, but I don’t see how you can be half and half…
Wouldn’t it be 3/4 gay?
So anyone can adopt a character? I might. I’d like my character to be androgynous, if possible. I love to write, have brown hair, blue eyes. I like thinking and imagining. I like reading and perching in trees. I like architecture and looking at buildings. I can add more when I’m not on a borrowed computer.
… this is perfect ( ; u ; )
I can recycle most of Enc’s old design and… yay~ I loved that character too much.
Minor changes… and… mindset done!
I’d love to adopt a character! You can name her Aggie, if you like.
She is medium height, with auburn hair and sea green eyes. I would assume she rather likes dresses, skirts, and Converse sneakers. She’s friendly to everyone, and very bubbly, but impatient to the point of being a tad annoying sometimes.
… well! You already have a character! I suppose that’s my fault for not talking about this enough, ah?
Anyway,s he’s a Healer named Aggie (previously Agi) Misiuk. Here she is with Sudo and Armadda (and I’m thinking over how I colored Armadda’s hair here):
[Sorry, Zinc. The link brought up the whole album, and we don’t allow links to personal sites. –Admin.]
Pretty lucky on the looks, ne? She originally started as a point of conflict for Armadda, who was originally going to grow up well-rounded (that’s been ditched since then). They’re both students of Midni (aka Fiddler) and Aggie has some undeveloped-upon resentment/grudge toward Armadda. Maybe an inferiority complex, but I’ve decided to give Zinc that instead (tentatively, mind you). Most of this has been mostly swiped, so she’s pretty much open, other than she kind of broods at times.
If my four younger Healers, Armadda Simon, Sudo Simon, Aggie Misiuk, and Nilly Kroes (pronounced ‘kroos,’ they speak a german-like dialect in the Forest I believe) were in a Four Temperament Ensemble, it’d go like this:
Sanguine: Sudo
Choleric: Armadda/Nilly
Melancholic: Aggie/Nilly
Phlegmatic: Nilly/Armadda
Um. Anyway. Maybe a Four Philosophy Ensemble, then…?
Optimist: Sudo/Armadda
Cynic: Aggie/Armadda/Nilly
Realist: Armadda/Nilly
Apathetic: Nilly/Sudo
Argh. Everyone needs more characterization.
…I hope what you see is okay? I’ll think more on this.
Very awesome! I applaud you.
And an inferiority complex would definitely fit my personality anyway, so you can add one you like!
I wonder what I’d be like as a healer. That would rock in real life.
SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT Ahhh….! Sorry, GAPAs!!
*tries again*
Hopefully this works?
These are great!
I’d like to adopt a character. Erm… she’d be really tall for her age, about 5′ 9″ish, even though she’s 13, and really quiet around people she doesn’t know. She’d wear pretty nondescript clothes, glasses, and (unlike me) have short, spiky hair (I’ve always want to have hair like that). And she probably wouldn’t be noticed much. She’d always be the observer, writing something down or drawing something, and looking really distracted all the time. But around friends she’d be more open (sorta like she’s letting out all her thoughts).
If you want, you can adopt me. I’m almost 13, 5″2, and have straight brown hair. If I’m a Gypsy or Nomad who lives near prairie dogs, I really want a prairie dog familiar. If I’m a Gypsy or Nomad who lives nowhere near prairie dogs, I would still like some other kind of familiar If I’m not an Artisan or Industrialist who can turns people into animals, I’ve specifically asked one to turn me into one just to see what it’s like (which you don’t have to mention, of course, but I think it says something about my personality that I would do it, so I’m letting you know, in case it helps you understand me). IRL, I’m obsessed with tardigrades, and if microscopes haven’t been invented in the story, I’d probably just be obsessed with another animal. Nudibranchs work. If that’s inconvenient, though, just ignore it. I love reading and nature, and I don’t generally start conversations, so if no-one else doess, I seem really quiet, but once I start talking, I’ll go on for a really long time and often annoy someone. I analyze everything and compulsively correct things. I don’t tend to generalize as often as the people I know, at least in my experience. I don’t just mean sweeping ones, either; if you mention a trend, I will usually point out the exception, if I know it. I’ve been told I know myself really well, and Ivery rarely say things I don’t mean. I’m paranoid about people guessing that I’m narcissistic, so even though I am, people don’t tend to realize it. I’m intelligent. I have a good memory for things that interest me. I’m typically much more serious IRL than here, but my speaking style, which has been called distinctive, formal, proffesorial, and pedantic (but it isn’t pedantic; I don’t mean to use obscure words; they just pop into my head first) is the same. I speak with a plethora of pauses because it’s hard for me to put my thoughts into words. I take things literally. I want to be a nomad, but anything would work. I’m introverted. I generally follow rules and laws unless doing so harms someone. I’m usually oblivious to popular opinion. I love all animals including cockroaches, spiders, mosquitos, etc along with the usuall fluffy things and everything in between, and get really angry when I see someone killing something, even an insect, for a reason other than food or self-defense, and even in those cases I hate to watch. I am very, very obsessive. I’m not very independant. That was way too much information. You don’t need to use all or even any of it if it’s unhelpful.
OKAY OKAY OKAY
I designed something during promotion practice today. I’ll get it up when possible!
yay! I just got all my pottery back from the kiln. It mostly came out well, except for one piece which simply refused to turn itself red (the red is made with copper, and when it is put in the wrong part of a kiln it instead turns green…) I might send you guys some pictures when I get the rest back, probably in a few weeks, if I ever get around to that.
I also have some cool tessellations, but I need to wait to get them back from the art show at my school. My comics are also underway, but are going to take more self confidence to post since I am much more sure of my drawing abilities than my writing abilities.
CREATIVE STALEMATE AGAIN
Blerg. Think I might try taking pictures of people? Because usually I do nature but I feel like I’m not going anywhere with that. And I only have photoshop over the summer now, so. We’ll see.
I usually stink at art.
Then I took my sister’s poster paints and drew squares all over the back of one of my dad’s blueprints.
It’s pretty!
GAPA’s what email should I send pictures to?
thegapas at gmail.com.
GAPA’s have you gotten my email? I think I sent it on Sunday…
I sent in two pictures last night!
Sorry, Rosebud — there was nothing attached to your message.
There wasn’t?! Strange.
Okay, I sent ’em again, and I’m pretty sure it worked this time.
Two paintings by Trojan Tiger, who apologizes for the blurriness of the photographs:
Wow, Trojan Tiger, these are amazing! I would actually pay money to see these in an exhibition. I LOVE the details on the tigers and the sky in the first painting. Please, please, PLEASE send the GAPAs more of these!
The blurriness isn’t a problem. These are fantastic! I especially like the tigers.
WOW. Just…wow.
I love these, especially your use of light and shadow. The shadows on the tigers are especially powerful. You should enter them in a competition or something.
I really like, both of them, especially the one of the tigers!! The big tiger’s shadow looks a bit like the shadow of a human walking…
These are terrific, Trojan Tiger! The color and composition is really quite something, I think. Are you using photographs as a reference or are the paintings imagined?
These are amazing! Are you a proffesional painter, Trojan Tiger? Because, wow…
Is it okay I I do a comic and send it here? It’ll probably stink, seeing as I have no tablet, nor a scanner, but still…
I need a scanner, but i have none! *sob*
Did you get my drawings this time, GAPAs? *is impatient*
Got ’em!
Two drawings from Rosebud2:
These are really good! The first one scares me, though…
Agreed. *keeps eye contact with HPB*
BUNNIFY BUNNIFY BUNNIFY
Yay! Thanks!
Hmm, I just noticed that both of them have green walls and blue floors. That was entirely coincidental.
….The first time I looked at this, I read the caption on the top one as “Has your carrot eaten its pet bunny yet, dear?”
Um.
I was bored today and decided to get out the five pounds of Sculpey we have in a cabinet downstairs. I tried something I first saw with candy, then with clay a while ago: making something large, then rolling it into a rope and cutting it to get smaller “slices”. So I made some orange slices. An irritatingly small and low-quality amount for how much clay I had, but orange slices nonetheless. I think I’ll try again tomorrow.
As I’ve mentioned on the random thread, I’ve started drawing a comic-story about a giant space squid. Here’s the first one.
(This is a link, but it is one that is through an online site (imgur) that can’t be traced to me and so offers no chance for any communication with me off-blog. So my dear administrators, can you just embed this into the post as a picture if it’s okay with you? Or reload it into the MB photobucket album as you usually do. But this seemed easier than sending it in an email (which I am having trouble logging into at the moment…))
That squid is adorable
can I take it home with me?
Can I travel with it for the rest of my life?
Space is vast.
All of time and space, where do you want to start? I love this. Never thought I could sympathize with a giant sentient cephalopod, but you made it work. Adorable.
D’aawww!
Awww…
PERFECT STUNNING AND FLAWLESS
so cute!!! ;~;
SQUID!
MUST. FIND. SQUID.
Tried again today. I has orange slices now! They’re hard to cut well, though. *finds bigger X-Acto knife*
Thanks guys! Glad you liked it! Here’s the second page:
I have the 3rd and 4th totally done, and the 5th mostly. But I’m not going to have access to my scanner until tuesday night (family is visiting grandma at the moment). I’m hopefully going to do two a week, though. I’ve got a sort of storyline worked out, at least for now.
In other news, I am going to try to make a dragon-costume-esque hoodie. Saw one on the internet and oh my god I have to have one. But they are way to expensive so I’m gonna have to try to make my own. We’ll see XD
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
So cute.
*is currently making small, kitten like noises*
I’m trying to repress my cooing. I don’t do cooing. But it’s such a cute space squid! (Though I am sure you are majestic as well, as their leader)
And that turtle. Well, its role remains to be seen, but I automatically thought of A’Tuin the World Turtle when I saw a turtle in space. And then I remembered there were babies at the end of the 2nd discworld book, although it doesn’t look like there are elephants on it. Still, nice fodder for plot bunnies, which can be nearly as destructive as their hot pink cousins when it comes to wrecking my brain.
Aww, it’s so cute ~
I thought of Discworld when I saw the turtle too! We shall see…
Aaaaaaw, he found a friend. <3
*speechless from adorable*
It’s the Great A’Tuin!
This is so so cute. I love it. The first page too.
Why was that crossed out?
I only meant to cross out the first sentence, but I messed up the tags. Gah.
Not to worry. The HTML Gnome took pity on your plight.]
Thank you!
Seeing this in the Recent Comments bar is the reason I came to this thread.
But I’m glad I did! These are amazing!
…awwwwwwwww. I didn’t know squids could look so CUTE. *squee*
Question. Which is better to concentrate on: fanart or my own series?
Your own series.
Aww, thanks everyone! I should have the next one scanned by tomorrow (I’ve had it drawn for nearly a week but away from home and all), so I’ll post it then. And then the mystery will be revealed
A scanner!!!! Where is a scanner??!!!!?? *near state of hysteria* I have so much stuff that i want to send to you guys, but I need a scanner!!!!!! Auuughhh!!!
It’s possible to take a picture of it on your phone and put it on your computer afterward. I don’t know how, but my mom does, so if you don’t, either and can’t figure it out, I can ask.
I just started a box turtle drawing for a turtle-drawing contest thought up by a turtle rescue organization. The winners each get a free light-up stuffed turtle. I think. There may be other prizes. It was unclear…
I think you just need to plug your phone into your computer with the USB cord on your charger, although I’m not entirely sure what you do after that.
You could also just… email it from your phone… if that’s possible…
You could use your phone to send a picture message to your email, that’s what I usually do!
Could’nt I just take a picture with my camera…?
I don’t see why not, if you have the right cord to connect it to the computer.
I’ve been drawing a comic about HPB’s, but there’s something wrong with my printer/scanner, so I can’t show it to you guys! *sob*
I just sent in a picture I’ve been working on in GIMP for a couple of weeks now.
Here is Shadowfire’s picture, which she describes as follows:
“An original character named Lilah, sitting on a hill and angsting (Thinking, she says. Right) about something or other. The landscape was definitely Puget Sound-inspired (that all right to say?).”
Wow, that’s amazing!
I find it impressive that people can do these sorts of things on the computer.
I find it confusing that people think drawing things on the computer is more difficult than on paper.
I find it difficult for me to freedaw straightish lines on the computer.
That depends on what you’re doing. I draw with a mouse, so I’d agree with Bibliophile. Lines are hard. I adore coloring digitally though.
You drew that with a mouse? I am greatly impressed. And yes, I suppose lines are rather more difficult on a computer. And yeah, coloring digitally is awesome.
I love it! It reminds me of Shell Cottage.
Thanks, you guys! I really appreciate it.
Though, what exactly is Shell Cottage?
POSSIBLE SPOILER HP#7 EVEN THOUGH EVERYON’ES READ IT ALREADY POSSIBLE SPOILER I DON’T KNOW POSSIBLE SPOILER SPOILER WHATEVER
It’s where Bill and Fleur stayed after they were married, and also where Harry, Ron, and Hermione planned their Gringotts heist.
Ohh, yeah. Thanks.
That’s so nice. The texture is amazing. How long did it take to do that with a mouse? (impressive in its own right.)
I love that faraway look, by the way. I never figured out how to draw eyes nicely (and facing the “correct direction”).
Thank you
I actually have no idea how long it took. I work on things for brief intervals over a long period of time, because drawing with a mouse for a long time starts to hurt a lot.
Very nice! I love the color scheme. Perfect for angsting.
I have made a stuffed squid! I sent in pictures. It’s a protosquid, so I’ll probably make some different ones, try a little experimenting. The arms/tentacles didn’t come out the way I’d hoped and look a little wonky, so I think next time I’ll just use felt? Or something. It needs to be a little flatter.
It needs a name. Ideas?
Cthulhu? Teuthida? Kraken? Prussiania (floating island, you know?)? Pererro (which means ‘roam’ in Latin)? ferðast (which means roam in Icelandic)?
I think I like Kraken. I’m afraid I can’t pronounce most of the others.
Come, my little Kraken, and we shall travel to the depths of the sea! *gathers squid in arms*
Kai–
My little Kraken?! /bizarre mental images/
My Little Kraken: Madness is Magic!
With its own following, the cthulhonies.
We need to make this into an actual cartoon. A trio of creepy-adorable baby cephalopods train at the underwater-steampunk (bubble-punk?) Cthulu Academy, where they complete various quests to become full-fledged terrors of the deep. Along the way they learn that friendship is powerful, but not as powerful as crushing things in your razor-lined tentacles.
I used to wonder what cephalopods could be … (My little Kraken)
Theme song:
My little Kraken, my little Kraken
Aaah …
I used to wonder what monsters could be (My little Kraken)
Until Cthulu Academy came and showed me (My little Kraken)
Training octopi and squid
Till we can become cryptids
Lovecraftian horrors in the deep
And madness makes it all complete!
My little Kraken, my little Kraken
At Cthulu Academy! *salute*
Where do you get ‘onies’ from? Wouldn’t it be either brthulhus, brothulhus, or brtholhus?
Archie.
‘Cause he’s an… archie-teuthus! *ba bum bum*
Trying to figure if I should send some of my art in, but I have approximately four pieces of original art anywhere within finding distance. I draw way too much fanart… -_- Would anyone like to see some of my stuff anyway?
Original or not, I’d definitely like to see it.
Of course we’d like to see your drawings.
Here’s a drawing of Feather that I just completed. Is this link okay, GAPAs? It’s the same website as Jade’s been using…anyway…
Awww. That’s byooteefull. *sniffle*
This is really nice! I love how soft and pastel-y it is, that’s perfect for Feather.
What do you draw these with? I could give you some tips on how to get rid of those white lines.
GIMP.
Cool, I use that too.
It looks like you’re using the pen tool and then filling the rest of the space, and the pen tool leaves spaces around the solid lines that don’t get filled in. Layers are good, I’d advise using them–probably one for, say, Feather and one for the background.
Helpful?
So cute!
It’s so cute it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside!
Hmm, it looks rather squished-up on a computer with a non-fail graphics card.
Awwwwwwwww. Feather. *cuddles* So warm and pastel-colored.
GAPAs, can I send in my Wordles of the Recent Comments bar and June Random thread part 2? The Random Thread one was rather… surprising… seeing as it was impossible to take out certain words on comments, and the thread’s so long… I can’t save it as a PDF, so should I post them on the gallery and send you a link?
Can you save it as a JPG and email it (to thegapas at gmail.com)?
Um… I don’t know… I’ll try… My computer is rather annoying, but I’ll try.
I’ve spent a good portion of both yesterday and today drawing genderbent fanart.
There is something wrong with me. (Though I can at least partially blame N for the idea)
I know the feeling. I went on a brief genbend spree at one point… -_-
Squid, take II, has been accomplished! He is huggleable and rainbow and his tentacles actually turned out okay. His name is Archie.
I hope it’s okay to talk about stuffed squids on this thread. I consider it sort of sculpture-like art, to make stuffed animals or whatever, but it is sewing, so I realized it might not count. Eh, I hope nobody minds. We should have a squid thread.
I can’t find any buttons so he doesn’t have eyes yet, but that’s okay. Anyway, I’m sick of handsewing, and my other squid has a friend.
I thought this was a way to use fabric that I have large quantities of, but my squids are pretty small (though Archie is bigger than Kraken) so I may end up with a lot of squids.
Oh well, the world can always use more cephalopods.
I always thought sewing was its own kind of art.
You could give one to a friend on Cephalopodmas. I can’t remember the exact date, but it’s in December, so you’ll have enough time to see how many you’d have left for yourself.
You could make a Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus, too, and put it on… hm. It could be a Christmas and Cephalopodmas (they’re close enough timewise that the same tree can be used) decoration if you don’t want to put a miniature tree or tree sculpture in our bedroom…
I didn’t know there was a Cephalopodmas! Now I have an excuse to make tons of squids and octopodes and..ah…probably not cuttlefish. Thank you!
On scifi hall at my school we use Squidmas, hasvn’t heard it called Cephalopodmus before (can I just point how awesome it was to walk in there my first week of school and see a picture of a squid in space ALREADY on the wall?)
It’s visual. It’s creative. It’s design. Sounds like the right thread to me.
Can I try to make another squid? It will probably be like my first sewing attempt: AKA Colonial day. *shudder*. But Archie and Kraken can have pen pals. Squid Pals!
My inner dialogue, as of recently.
I should start a webcomic!
You are bad at making things funny!
It doesn’t need to be funny, it can be PHILOSOPHICAL!
Then nobody will read it!
I don’t need readers!
If a webcomic is published on a website, and no one’s there to see it, is it…
Is it what?
I don’t know.
Don’t know what?
I’m not sure. What were we just thinking about?
I’m bored.
I should start a webcomic!
Ad infinitum.
You think you’re bad at making things funny? You’re really not…
Besides, you can become funnier with practice. Or maybe you’ll invent a new genre. Don’t expect it to be everything you want it to be right off the bat. Give it time to develop. Challenge yourself and have fun with it!
I’m bad at making things funny:
a) to the masses (i. e. not MBers)
b) when I’m trying to.
One GAPA’s advice: Don’t try. That won’t work. Just do what amuses you.
Okay! Now I just need to convince my hands to stop typing and start writing!
I have a basic idea for it: people with some strange characteristics that correspond to pieces in [game_name_here]
I’m thinking Clue, but if anybody has any suggestions they might work better.
For a), don’t worry about what the masses will think of it because chances are they’ll only keep reading it if they like it. Robert gives great advice for b).
It’ll find its rhythm after a while. Have you read the early strips of any webcomics? With very, very few exceptions, they’re quite dull. But as the author gets more experience, the strips get better.
You should start a webcomic!
You seem like exactly the kind of person who could make an awesome webcomic.
By the way, I’d read the webcomic. I imagine we all would.
If you made a webcomic I’d totally read it. Even a PHILOSOPHICAL one.
Okay, guys. You are so inspirational I’m going to start it TODAY!
Well, maybe tomorrow, I have a fencing tournament.
I’ve been reading Homestuck as of late, so it may or may not be inspired by that.
GO GO GO GO because you know we’ll all appear out of nowhere and start reading.
Urg, why is it that the only thing I can draw at even semi-decently is a human eye? I’m an utter FAILURE at drawing anything else. And with any other art medium, forget it.
Man, I wish there was some form of art I was actually good at.
Would you like the speech? (Probably not, but too bad )
Being able to draw a human eye is a really good thing. Eyes are hard to get right, so you’re starting from a good place. The only thing I can really do is tell you to practice. Maybe carry a sketchbook around with you, draw the things you see. Look at magazine pictures, photos, other people’s art, and just keep doing it. You might think you’re bad now, but improvement is inevitable.
And if drawing is too frustrating, seek out other forms of art. You’ll find something you like. I’m thoroughly convinced that people who say they are bad at art just haven’t found the thing they really enjoy.
The thing is, I love to draw. I’m just horrible at it. And I’ve been practicing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. Shouldn’t I have shown some improvement by now if I’m going to?
Another problem is, I am very rarely inspired to draw, and when I am, either the inspiration vanishes by the time I can get a paper out, or I think about it and my thoughts ruin whatever I’m trying to draw.
I doubt you’re as horrible as you think. I’d love to see your art at some point.
And yes, it can be of an eye if you don’t feel comfortable with anything else.
…I’ve seen some of your art, R101, and I love it. Wonderful creativity you’ve got there. Remember art class? T’was awesome fun. Oh, and the random doodling things we did when I was over at your house. Amazing.
But as shadowfire said, send over some art!
I know we were in both art classes together, but I didn’t really meet you until the second semester. Wasn’t it 3D art where we sat together? Because there is a big difference.
And the random doodles were… doodles. Fun, but hardly aesthetically pleasing. Don’t you remember the Infernape? *shudders*
It was an Infernape? I thought is was a Monferno… but. *falls off chair laughing*
Oh, but even 3D art had some 2Dness in it. Those lovely trees you drew, I still remember them. And your nice sense of color. Like that rocky-textured pot.
…Rocky-textured pot? What? Oh, wait… Are you talking about that assignment that was supposed to be a Japanese style teacup but ended up way too round and bumpy and I painted an ugly shade of gray because I thought the glaze looked nice before it dried?
Oh yeah. It was supposed to be a Monferno. I forgot. Probably because when I drew it I forgot that Infernape had flames on its head and Monferno didn’t.
…Trees?
Randomosity101:
I am not well-trained in art instruction, and I haven’t even seen you draw so I really don’t know, but there are a few things I can say that might help you out.
.
One thing people don’t seem to realize is that drawing isn’t about drawing. It’s about seeing. Controlling your hand to draw what you see isn’t difficult, but a lot of people get stuck when they don’t realize how to look at their subject. If you haven’t been drawing from direct observation, I would strongly urge you to do that. Then, you need to look at what you are drawing as one continuous image. When you look at a face, for example, draw a face. Draw the structure of the cheekbones, the ins and outs of the shadows of the face, the motion of it. A face is not two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It’s bones and shadows.
Looking at shadows and where the light falls is truly an excellent way to learn how to draw and see things. In drawing shadows, you will find that you have drawn the whole thing. Mind relationships and work from the inside out and you’re golden.
.
I have a couple of techniques you could try that I learned from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, an absolutely wonderful book that was recommended to me by Lady Bunniful (if you don’t trust my word, trust hers. Go to the nearest giant bookstore and take a look at it).
One technique involves getting a square of plexiglass and a dry erase marker. I don’t know whether that is feasible for you, but if it is, carry on reading.
1. Find a subject, ideally a wooden chair with lots of openings of negative space.
2. Take the plexiglass and hold it up to your subject.
3. Holding the plexiglass still, outline the chair with the dry erase marker. (Just an outline, mind you, but be sure to outline any sizeable holes within the form.) Continue until the entire chair has been drawn.
.
That’s the gist of the exercise. If you look at that dry-erase drawing with some white paper behind it, you’ll probably notice that it pretty much looks like a chair, all dimensions in shape and all legs and spaces proportional. This is because you translated the form directly on to the plexiglass, exactly as you saw it. This is realistic drawing. If you can elevate this understanding to translating shadows as well as lines, you’ve done it. There’s nothing you won’t be able to draw realistically. Practice will make it easier and easier to access this.
.
You know what? I’m going to cut it off there. I have tons more stuff, and I’m sure other people do too, but this post is getting awfully long. Please tell us about your art adventures. If you have any particular questions, or want some more generic advice like I’ve posted here, just ask! We have got tons of artists here, as is obvious, and everybody wants to help.
Oh, and also, about the webcomic- I’ll probably be sending it in semi regular installments to the GAPAs.
SFTDP
I have about 3 hours of spare time today, and I have a format planned out (One large detailed image, followed by text.)
And a plot! With arcs! And it will be more complicated than it first appears (Of course, with me, is it ever possible for that not to be true?)
Any art programs I could use? PC. Windows XP. Rather ancient too.
I think that GIMP works on XP? Dunno.
Finished Page 1!!!
Sending it to the GAPAs, along with text.
Constistency contistency etc. aghhhhh
Been drawing a lot of Armadda lately, trying to pin her down. I might be revising Beat’s hairstyle, and I think I’ll do a portrait of my mains soon. They are (height order): Beat Baylee, Avalon Liu, Zinc Rovaviemi, Renier Alesund, Sudo Simon, Armadda Simon, Xerix Tomera. Sudo/Armadda and Avalon/Zinc are prone to change.
Maybe I’ll just do a portrait of all the groups I have.
I’ll start working on the comic when I finish the sketchbook. A week or so… maybe… just organized my art & doodles I ripped from old schoolwork. I have definitely improved greatly by leaps and bounds.
I’ll scan stuff sooner or later. I cold picspam right now if I wanted to but there’s so much on the Photobucket album so does anybody wanna see 12+ pictures of whatever?
OH BUT THERE’S ALL MY OLD STUFF I POSTED ON LJ TOO. Old stuff or new stuff or not at all? GAPAs participate too, this is a poll. I don’t want to beleaguer you…
GAPAs, Check your inbox(es?)
I don’t think I’ve anything interesting ever since March, when I drew a duck. With this art block around, I haven’t even been drawing Pokemon. All I have are…sketches.
So, question: Should I send in the duck (or the other things I find lying around all over the place) and hope that sending in something will inspire me somewhat to keep drawing, or should I sit boredly and wait until I’m desperate enough to draw something?
Which reminds me. The city art exhibition still hasn’t sent back a picture of mine. How long is it logical to wait until I should attack them/inquire about that work of art I’d like to have back soon?
PFFFFFFHAHAHAHA
I’m sorry, just… ducks.
“when I drew a duck”
“should I send in the duck”
My brain is articulating these hilariously.
Please do send in the duck.
… *snork*
Can somebody explain GIMP? I don’t get it… at all. In other news, the scanner and my laptop are having a ‘ I’m not talking to you ‘ fight.
What exactly don’t you get?
All of it. It aggravates me.
I’ve never “gotten” GIMP, either. Paint is far more intuitive for me, although part of that is due to experience. GIMP seems so fantastic when other people use it. I’d love to learn, but I don’t know of a good tutorial or way to get started without a massive time investment in trial-and-error.
Paint?!
Yeah, Paint – that program that comes default on Windows computers. High-tech, isn’t it?
Yeah, it’s just I’ve always found it okay for pixel art and terrible for drawing, though i think this weird new Windows 7 Paint is the other way ’round.
XP paint totally sucks for me.
So you have it and can’t figure it out, or you’re just wondering what it is? There are a lot of tutorial-esque things on the Internet if you look around, but it’s fairly straightforward.
The first one.
I’ve mostly figured it out by messing around with it and asking other people how to do (whatever). Sorry, that’s just a big question and I don’t know what to do with it.
GAPAs! Inbox! Please!
Enc! Patience! Please! Remember, the GAPAs are forced to be employed so they can eat and whatnot.
I know…
It’s just my mind is kind of gloopy today.
Now I’ve drawn a picture of Pwt in the same style. It’s not as good as the drawing of Feather, but…
Awwwww. The fluffiness is adorable. *heart*
…Fluffiness?
His hair. And the thingie he’s wearing (I forget what it’s called but it’s that thing around his neck.) Fluffy.
And I love his expression, by the way. “Where is Crraw???”
Wow! That’s so cool! I never could have imagined Pwt in this style of art, but it looks fantastic!
WEEKS OVERDUE
Had some scanner trouble but it’s up and running again and hopefully so am I
THAT IS AMAZING
I LOVE IT
Whoa. That’s beautiful. And you can tell just how huge both of them are.
The turtle is amazing.
This is brilliant.
Oh my goodness SQUEE! I love your squid! ^^
77–D’awww… :3
I have squids on the brain.
Okay. Squid #3 is done. Still no name, but he’s cute! *cuddles* I have no idea what I’m doing making random stuffed animals, but right now they’re sitting on my shelf being adorable, so…Room decoration? I also have no idea why most of my squids are male. (Except Kraken, which might be a girl–I haven’t decided yet.) (It’s probably because none of the squid names I’ve thought about I like for a guy squid.) My squid family is beginning. *rubs hands together* I have a pattern, too, so. More squids will be forthcoming.
O GAPAs–I will send in pictures of all three squids in an email in a few minutes, so please ignore/delete the email I sent earlier… I know that you probably don’t have time to post anything right now, and if I send you pictures later that’ll just be way more work for you, I assume, so sorry, and, yeah, I’ll send the email with the 3 squidites.
Pie Girl(63.4)–YES YOU SHOULD DO THAT, THAT WOULD BE COOL
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\/…\/ Okay…fail. I’ll try to figure out a squid icon later.
^
(O)
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/ \
Squid?
Hey GAPAs, I emailed you some of my stuff just now…
In any case, random art discussion starter: Digital art versus traditional art, which do people feel like they’re more comfortable with as a medium? I do about half-and-half. Sketching shapes and lineart is so, so, so much easier with pencil, but coloring is simpler digitally…. I need to learn how to shade with colored pencils more.
Sent Something. Working on squid tomorrow!
GAPAs, did you get the duck I sent in? *imagines Zinc snorking*
And when I get to it, I will possibly did through my closet for that Feather picture I never finished. Our scanner doesn’t work, however, so until it gets fixed, I can only sit boredly (or blog. Whee!).
Thanks for the positive responses guys! I’m trying to update biweekly (mon/fri), so here’s the next one:
I didn’t work on it yesterday though. I spent several hours on another drawing I’m doing just for fun. It stared out with me just wanting to put moth wings on a person but then I had the great idea to add a background so spent probably 4 hours drawing birch trees (well, and watching internet television. If I’d been fully concentrating on the trees it wouldn’t have taken so long but would have sucked). I am so good at drawing birch trees now I never want to again.
Also, pen is hard. I almost never draw in pen seriously. I always use pencils, and with pencils you can SHADE. But for my comic/this last drawing I’ve had to do all that silly learning stuff about how to make things look shades of gray with only black and white lines/spaces. Merp. Not overwhelmingly satisfied with how it turned out, there’s some spaces that just don’t look right, but it wasn’t bad for a first attempt I guess.
Sweet little Squid. *hearts*
*melts*
So… very.. beautiful/cute!!!!
OK, forget what I said about not doing cooing earlier. *coos*
I can practically see the elephant’s on that turtle’s back! That squid is sooooooooo cute!
And now for more Pokemon fanart from the Rosebud! This is my absolute favorite style to draw in.
OMG OSHAWATT! SQ
Did you get my drawing, GAPAs?
Yes, we have pictures from you, Enceladus, and Armada and will post them as soon as we can.
Could you post mine in about 2 weeks, so that people won’t go for 4 complete weeks without a page?
I may get another done today, I don’t know.
Wait…did you get my email? I sent in pictures of my squids.
Ah, yes, I found them! Sorry I missed them before. Today has been super busy at work, so I probably won’t be able to post anything before this evening.
Oh, no, it’s fine! There’s been a little problem with my email lately, so I wanted to make sure they didn’t get lost. Thanks!
*squee*
I didn’t like Oshawott that much until I went to Yosemite. But now I find it adorable. *coos*
I never liked it much until the first time I drew it. But now I like it better. I suppose this means I ought to draw some pictures of the Vanilluxe line…
Cute lil’ otter that evolves into a big awesome sea lion? YES PLEASE! *cuddles*
Cake, I think Wordle ate my wordles. That or my computer. Sorry, GAPAs.
No, you can’t post Wordles. You can post a link and if the GAPAs are nice that day, they’ll put it in.
I know, I’m saying I can’t send them.
I’ve been experimenting with Adobe Photoshop 8. I’ve figured out how to scan rough drawings and computerize them. I really enjoy drawing that way; it sort of adds a quality to the picture that I adore. So…I’ve decided to start a webcomic; I want to see if I can do it. I swear I’m not copying you, Jadestone and Enceladus; the only similarities are that it’s a webcomic and involves squids. (Although they are not of the giant space variety, being rather puny, and sea creatures. Also mersquids.) It’s a storyline I’ve had kicking around in my head for a while that would probably be better as a webcomic; some extent of visual imagery would definitely add to it a lot. I’m not sure if it’s good enough to send in or if it will just remain on a small, blog that I set up, in a corner of the internet for all eternity. Who knows. Right now I have the first page done and it actually looks okay. It will be about a book of all things, called Eolas, that the ancient squids made, then retreated to the sea. The book is unopenable. I like drawing squids even more on the computer, so we’ll see where this goes…
Mersquids. *searches for pen*
Hello! I haven’t been on here in far too long. Such cool artwork on this thread! I have recently downloaded a graphics program, but am not very good at it yet. But maybe that’s because I haven’t played around with it much. Let’s hope that’s the reason. I have been doing a lot of drawing, though. GAPAs, if I were to send in a drawing sometime, would you post it?
If you send one in sometime, we will post it sometime.
Now introducing, without the awkward pink tint on one side!
Blerrrrg art fail in this one. The first panel looked a lot better in pencil, when it was more apparent that the dots on the turtle’s shell were… dots on the turtles shell, that matched up to the stars behind. ALAS, now it just looks like an awkward astroid belt between them. LESSON LEARNED I HOPE.
D’awww.
Poor squiddy, he must be lonely. Hopefully they can be friends now?
I know how you feel with the inking. I really, really frequently draw something I love in pencil and somehow mess it up when I ink it. This still looks great though.
Oh, I actually like the effect it has. it gives the picture some nice balance by having a steady line through it.
I need to get my pictures to you…but alas, a scanner. I refuse to ink anything, but pencil just doesn’t show up well when you take pictures of it. So a scanner it shall be, but I need to find one…
Uhm… GAPAs? Art?
Sorry to be pushy, but it’s been something like a week…
I’m very sorry, Armada, this turned out to be an exceptionally heavy-duty week, much more so than I expected. And right now we’re in the midst of a major thunderstorm, so my computer is unplugged for the time being (your pictures are on my hard drive because I had to convert them into a format that can be posted).
I can do it.
Dear GAPAs, have you received my duck yet? I don’t know if I sent it correctly (but I did make the size smaller, to help it work)?
You reduced the size of the duck?! Is it alright?
It’s still a duck. It’s just 701 x 510 pixels instead of 7008 x 5096.
… *sits and giggles*
Thank you!
Ah, ‘sfine, just making sure you hadn’t forgotten, as I assume you’re all usually pretty busy…
Armada’s drawings (no storms up here!):
They’re excellent! I love them!
Ooh, pretty!
I really wish I could draw half that well.
Wow. I wish I could draw like that. I especially like how you did the hair on the people.
:XD: Thanks… The woman with the lighter hair is supposed to have much frizzier/kinkier hair, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to texture it…. Sigh.
Whee, I love that hand. What lovely, lovely shading. I never figured out how to shade hands so that they wouldn’t look like bananas.
I can’t take all the credit for the shading (or for any of it, really), because it was reffed from a black-and-white photo — it’s Michelangelo’s David’s hand. My unreffed and non-realistically-styled hands do often look kinda like bananas. XD
And that is why reference is good.
Thanks for posting them, Robert…. ^_^
These look fantastic!
You have interesting ideas, and it is very difficult to draw hands, so I commend you for that.
Nice! I think you did a realy good job with facial features in the second, especially with the dark-haired person. I cannot draw faces (noses, mostly, sometimes mouths) to save my life. And the shading looks really good on the hand!
Photoreferences help. I have a whole different system for drawing realistic features and stylized features, and I haven’t really figured out a stylized nose method that works from all angles yet — the best method I have is a kind of semi-but-not-really-manga type thing, and that’s part of the reason why I like drawing anthro (and Asian people): flatter noses are easier than 3D ones. Noses are hard to draw…
I love the hand! Hands are just so awesome! I love their shape in general. Great shading.
Hate to be rude, but, Pictues, GAPA’s?
Prepare to squee (or squeed, as the case may be), as here are the squids Mikazuki made:
SQUEEEE!
….Sorry, that had to be done.
Oh! Thank you so much for posting these! You can’t tell, but the flowered one is actually about half the size of the other two.
*squee*
SQUIDSQUIDSQUID so colorful, too.
It’s a rainbow squid. *dies of cuteness overload*
From the Ghost of Pie Girl, we have a Muse collage from her room and a flammy drawing of one of her book characters, named Ellie.
I also just sent some pokemon Pics. Hate to over work you guys, though.
So I’ve recently started working on the comic again and while t’s stilll way more crappy than my regular art, I’m forging through.
Would you like me to continue with doing four half-sheet posts, or should I just finish it and send it in then?
Could I send in a few pictures from my trip, once I get back home? Or would that not really count as “art”, in the sense of this thread?
Photography isn’t visual art?
Well, it’s not set-up-for-three-hours photography. Just little snapshots. I just wasn’t sure if that was okay, to post them here.
How about the Travel thread?
There’s a travel thread!? I need to explore MB more. I’ll send ’em in as soon as I get home.
GAPAs, did you ever receive that duck? And if not, ought I send it in again? Sorry to bother you, but it’s been a while, I think…
I hope that all this isn’t too traumatic for the duck.
Here is Cskia’s long-awaited duck. Isn’t it a beauty?
Sorry for the pushiness, oh flamablamabous GAPAs!
That’s all right, but you left out an “l”: flamablamablous.
I apologize. I did not know there were three l’s in the word.
That’s beautiful, Cskia! Is it colored pencil?
Thank you! Yes, it is.
Can I take it home with me?
The duckkkk~~
I thought I loved that phrase, but now it’s even better~~~
SO COOL. GREAT JOB!
Oh my. That’s….that’s amazing!!
Holy cow! I actually thought that was a photograph until I read Jade’s comment. Spectacular.
That… is amazing. From the duck’s neck down, I have a hard time believing it isn’t a photo, and a good one at that. Above that I can see that it was drawn, but it’s still beautiful.
Wow.
That is…spectacular. It looks incredibly realistic. You got the water perfect, and the duck’s feathers’ texture just right, and the reflection, and everything. I love this.
Amazing! The water looks like I could touch my computer screen and I’d get wet!
That’s stunning! I thought it was a blurry photograph at first! You have some real talent. The ripples look fabulous, not to mention the feathers/light… *applause*
Giant Space Squid comic, I am still doing it, and I have proof again:
D’awwwwwww. ♥
How sweet. *hearts*
Choklit Orange just sent in this photo of the door to her room:
(Coming soon to the bathroom down the hall: the Watcher in the Water.)
SO MUCH APPROVAL. Oh man I should do that to our dorm door next year. Except I think we may have decided on making it into the Tardis already hmm.
Thanks! It’s kind of messy, but it was fun. And it glows in the dark.
(Yes, I hate the carpet too. I plan to cover my room in area rugs.)
OH man I want your door.
Ooh, pretty!
I wish I could do that to my door, or something similar, but I don’t have the right kind of door.
There’s more than one kind of door?
Yes. Mine isn’t flat.
So beautiful!
I’m making this MB-themed trading card game thing (because I clearly need to start more projects I won’t finish). Here’s the first card in the Hedgepig Base Set, plus the card back:
It’s like a trainer card in Pokemon! Except it’s like a non-trainer card, too. *squee* (at pie, not at that HPB *shudders*)
Hmm, I’d say it’s more like a trainer card combined with an energy card. Attacks which are listed on weapon cards can’t be performed just by the weapon; they have to be attached to a battling card, and then the battling card can use that attack instead of one of its own once, and then the weapon card is put in the discard pile. Pie Points are needed to power the attacks of battling cards (which are like the cards with Pokémon on them; they’re anything animate that can fight).
Very elaborate idea, I see. Congratulations.
That’s awesome! It’ll be great for Kokons if you do finish.
Yo. GAPAs. WHERE ARE MY POKEMON!
( Sorry, it had to be done.
But not in that way. *scolds*
I’ve decided it’s time to teach myself how to draw. I bought a sketchpad and a small set of pencils (though I’ll most likely just use some standard #2s for a while). Any advice, other than “PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE”?
Well what kind of art are you going for? I’d say that if you’re going for realistic images, start off with simple objects. Try looking at something to draw not as that thing exactly, but instead as patches of light and dark. Another good idea is taking a picture and drawing a grid over it. Draw another grid on your paper to match it and draw the picture square by square. It gives you a particular section to focus on so that you don’t get boggled by the entire thing.
Draw it upside-down, then turn your paper the other way so that it looks like it was drawn right-side-up. The only people this doesn’t seem to work for are almost always really good at drawing already, so I highly recommend this.
I’ve been thinking of sending some of my stuff in. Actually, I’m going to get up and do it right now. *gets up*
How do you determine the quality of a scanner? How good does a scanner need to be to pick up light pencil shading, since I refuse to ink anything? What about good color? Please help. I have no Idea what all those numbers mean.
I have been experimenting with cartoons! And today was my first time using Adobe photoshop. As a result, I am now hooked. I think I’ll send in a cartoon. ^^
Here is kiwimuncher’s cartoon, which she calls “Maurading Marshmallows Attack.” (I suspect she means “Marauding.”)
I wonder what they’ve been attacking. Peeps?
Those are excellent.
And a bit terrifying.
Oops…. typo. Yes Marauding. You know… that is an excellent idea! So far they have only been destroying other marshmallows.
Apparently marshmallows with red interiors.
That’s genius! Jelly-filled marshmallows! AND THEY WILL BE DELICIOUS
Such a thing actually exists, and comes in a variety of gooey colors.
Urhkadfg. Things filled with jelly (or any other sort of goo) gross me out.
Are they cannibals or just malicious?
They can be cannibals, yes. I have another cartoon actually that I could send it, but it is slightly more disturbing. Sometimes I scare myself.
Your comment rhymes with Piggy’s. SONGIFY BEAM!
Jelly-filled marshmallows, psychotic but delicious
They might be cannibals, they might be just malicious
Marauding with their weapons, rampaging just for fun
If they approach you, you probably should run
… Tune?
GAPAs? Did you get my stuff? Sorry to be pushy, but it’s been two weeks since I sent it.
I couldn’t find anything from you. What did you send?
Three bad photos of three of my drawings. The subject line was “Visual Arts from SilverLeopard”. I’m pretty sure I sent it to the right address, and I didn’t get one of those Failed to Send Message things… maybe it ended up in Spam?
Aha! Spam is indeed where they ended up. Odd, that hasn’t happened with pictures before. That I know of, anyway. Pix posted below.
Shhhooooot I am so behind in the Giant Space Squid comic D: I WILL GET ON THAT.
Yes do! It’s so cute! ^_^
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.(O)
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Squiddy! <3
Drawings by SilverLeopard:
“The first drawing is of my exchange host’s cat, Trine.
The second one is a self portrait that didn’t turn out looking like me.
The third is is a seagull. (It’s watercolor and oil pastels on cardboard.)”
I love the seagull. Delicate simplicity.
Beautiful! I love the seagull and the cat. I love animal drawings; they are my favorite.
Thank you GAPAs!!!
And thanks for the compliments!
New Giant Space Squid comic! Finally x_x
This is panel 7, by my count.
Mine too! Glad to know I didn’t forget to send one in, that’d probably be confusing.
That. Is. Beautiful.
Thanks! I got overexcited while drawing it though so there iiiis a mistake. Pies to anyone who catches what it was.
You spelled “separate” wrong.
Indeed! *hides in shame and self-loathing*
There’s also a continuity error that’s less noticeable. But I could technically work it into the comic (although I won’t) so it’s less shaming of an error.
I’ve been wondering… is the squid actually travelling through space or just through the seemingly infinite space of the ocean? Because I can see how the depths of the ocean might seem like space…
Seeing as said squiddy just met the Great A’Tuin from the Discworld series, who floats through space carrying Discworld and a bunch of giant elepahnts on his back, I’d say that most likely the squid is in space, in another dimension.
That’s an interesting way to think about it. I’ve been drawing it as literally space (hence the planets and suns) but it could also be some strange ocean filled with things we’ve never encountered. Whichever way you prefer to think of it.
OKay okay, I don’t want to ink my drawings (which I think turned out moderately well) for Armada and MB’s birthdays. So I’ll see if I can scan those and send them in… sorry!
Major character revisions etc etc
Yes!!! Yes!!!!!! Yessssss!!!!! I have a scanner!!! It has been in my house all this time, and I didn’t even know it was there. You will be getting some Ooba art soon.
Hey GAPAs! Did you get my second marshmallow?
Sorry to bother you, but did the GAPAs get my SPACE video?
Yep. Sorry, we’ve been a little busy for the past few days. We’ll try to post it before the hurricane wipes some of us out.
watercolors, how do they work x_x
You paint with them, mess up, try to paint over, fail, try to blot out, paper soaks through, rips, is thrown at wall. At least, that’s how they work for me.
For a start, stay away from student-grade materials; they will frustrate you no end. The paints are full of fillers so they don’t handle properly. The colors are insipid, the paper will shred, the brushes will collapse. If you’ve ever tried to print a photo on plain paper at low resolution, you know how little that shows you about what a photograph can be. Watercolor materials are expensive, though less than they appear. Even a small tube will last quite awhile. You can often pick up a decent set of Winsor and Newton on eBay for almost nothing.
Finding bargains for artist-quality paper is more of a challenge, but you can tear down big sheets into smaller ones easily enough (tear them against a straight edge, don’t cut; you’ll get better, faster results). Don’t waste your money on those blocked papers unless you have a specific reason for needing them. They’re hideously expensive for what you get. Look for 140 lb weight. Less than that won’t hold up to corrections or wet techniques; on the other hand, 300 lb is overkill for a beginner. I tape (dry) paper to a 2’x2′ piece of Masonite from the hardware store, using plain old masking tape.
Sable or a sable-synthetic blend works best for brushes. Decent sable is not cheap (and good sable is oohlala you don’t want to know), but the cheap stuff or most pure synthetics will actively work against you, so don’t bother. Might as well paint with a Q-tip or a wad of cooked spaghetti. (Not that I rule those out for special effects, mind you, but that’s another story.) Look up Daniel Smith, ASW Express, Jerry’s Artarama, Blick, or Cheap Joe’s to find decent brushes that don’t require you to sign yourself into indentured servitude in order to afford them. Note that the companies run periodic sales on most any supplies. Most of them have some tutorial information, too. (There are other suppliers out there, but I’ve used all of these myself except Cheap Joe’s, but I know other artists who buy from them.)
I’m starting with materials rather than techniques because otherwise there’s no point. Cheap materials should be left to the experts. Beginners need the help that only quality materials can provide.
Hmm this is very interesting, thanks! Materials are probably more important than I was giving credit. WHenever I think of watercolors I think of being 8 and making a mess with them, so when I re-learned they can actually be really pretty I wanted to try them out, but then it just looked like the same results as when I was 8. Which is probably because I was using similar materials so that does make me feel better, haha.
My grandmother was a painter/potter and I spent some time saturday going through a bunch of crates we have of her art stuff. There’s mostly oil paints which scare me and I don’t know if they expire, but they’re very old so I didn’t really touch any. There’s also some of the cheaperish canvases, but mostly what I was looking for was in fact paintbrushes, which I did find. I’m not sure the brand/quality but once I get home tonight I’ll try to look that up. I didn’t even think about how that would affect working with them, when I played around the other day it was a mix of her brushes and others we had out.
Unfortunately the paints I was using are probably terrible -_- Not quite the ones in plastic, flip-open containers, but not good ones by any means.
Paper is where I was mostly stuck… among the crates I found a book of paper that said it was okay for watercolors but I am pretty sure was meant more for sketching. I couldn’t find a weight on it but it felt kind of thin and went all wavy after it dried so I had to stack books on it. Is the 140lb for large paper? The terminology is confusing me a bit, from the internet it looks like the weight per page kind of depends on it’s size so 140 with one set of dimensions is different than 140 of another? This is like trying to figure out what size jeans I allegedly wear all over again XD (except probably not that bad, I am assuming the numbers here actually represent SOMETHING rather than being totally made up).
But anyway, the reason for searching for watercolors/working with them is I’m trying to add backgrounds to my comic. White is boring and also not very space-like (will post the (not very good) results in a not-reply).
So, depending on the brushes, if I decide to keep messing around with watercolors (which I would kind of like to), I’d have to get paints and probably paper (though we may have better paper somewhere). Hmm. Thanks so much for this information!
The short answer: they work like water.
That’s not just a flip answer. The more you know about how water behaves the more you can ignore a lot of confusing, misleading, or downright stupid advice.
Then I shall keep that in mind. I DID learn very quickly that you can’t actually paint over them like you can with other paints because it gets wet again. The water comparison makes quite a lot of sense.
Results: this is the first one I did, which was just a sort of doodle and kind of washed out from my scanner:
Second is the actual “next” comic. This one the scanner decided to undo all the blending I did x_x Sooo that’s something to keep in mind. Anyway imagine the purple/blue lines aren’t quite so sharp D: It’s also on a different paper than the first and I’m not sure which tone I like better (although I did have to correct both a little digitally, but they do look different in person as well)
A tip someone gave me was to sprinkle salt on the paper as it was drying to make lighter spots to look like stars. I don’t think I got the timing right for it on either of these but on a test strip I had it worked okay so maybe I’ll keep trying it.
The color looks great, and it helps with the atmosphere of space/ocean/whatever you decide it is.
Glad that it’s working! Going to try a bit more today
When this goes into print, the first picture should be the cover.
Haha, thanks! Glad you like it! I have a high resolution of the first that might work well as a desktop actually, hmm…
if you do that I want it
if you actually do I have a pretty big filesize of it, remind me sometime
I love this! The squid bigger than a planet? Epic!
Rainbow*Storm’s NASA music video, referred to in comment 115 above:
Fabulous! I enjoyed that you put some editing/effects in versus a straight slideshow
I love it. I absolutely love it. Good show.
This. Is. Fantastic. Can I post a link to the YouTube video on [an external blogging site]?
Thanks everyone! And yes, you can.
I showed this at last night’s BU SEDS meeting. It was a hit. The microgravity team may play it when we go to elementary schools for our outreach presentations.
Wait, my video? Thanks, I didn’t know it was that good!
Microgravity team?
The Boston University team (That I’m a part of) that’s proposing an experiment to fly on the “Vomit Comet” jet.
Okay, so going through the paintbrush box.
The large majority seem to be royal, craftint, and marxbrush. There’s also some large ones that seem to be Robert Simmons? I am googling these things trying to figure out how much they are worth because maybe that has something to do with quality (since I’m not sure how else to judge) but it’s kind of difficult since they’re all pretty old.
Most are red sable but there’s some white sable ones too… does that mean anything other than the color of the bristles? Like is it different material?
okay so
“Red sable. This is usually from the pelt of various subspecies of marten (Martes martes) or sable (Martes zibellina). The hair is slightly thinner and stiffer than kolinsky but comparably resilient and thirsty. Red sable is usually a somewhat darker and duller brown than kolinsky, and the tips are a little blunter because the hair has a more abrupt taper. Because red sable hair is not as long as kolinsky, there usually is less hair visible outside the ferrule in a red sable brush (the ferrule must pinch the hair just below the belly to get the tapering effect). Sable can make excellent brushes when the hairs are high quality and are arranged properly by the brushmaker. In most brush brands, “red sable” hair is indistinguishable from or substituted for “kolinsky” hair.”
…brush making is like 300% more complicated than I ever guessed. For reference, the “kolinsky”
“Kolinsky Sable. The most exalted hair for use in watercolor brushes is kolinsky sable, which is said to come from the winter pelts of the Siberian kolinsky, Mustela sibirica, a variety of weasel or mink (shown at right, wondering why you are so interested in his tail). These are considered the ideal hair for watercolor brushes because the hair gently tapers at both ends, with a very sharp point at the tip and a widening of the shaft (the belly) about two thirds of the hair’s length from the tip to the root. The taper of the hair from the belly to the tip is what gives natural hair brushes their capacity and their ability to point so well. At its best, kolinsky sable is durable and has a spring and resilience unmatched in any other brush material.”
Also, this “the label “kolinsky” does not consistently refer to any species of harvested animal, type of hair or hair attribute. The right attitude is always to replace the word “kolinsky” with the word “varmint,” and proceed to evaluate the brush from there.”
also while I UNDERSTAND HOW FANCY IT LOOKS WHEN YOUR BRUSHES DO NOT HAVE A LABLE IT MAKES THINGS KIND OF DIFFICULT FOR THOSE OF US WHO CAN’T IDENTIFY A BRAND BY “RED SABLE WHITE BRUSH WITH GOLD FERRULE AND HANDLE END”
I mean the do look very pretty and are nice and pointed but seriously.
In other news these other unidentified red-handled fan brushes are really really soft and I keep running them over my face.
Also I spent like 10 minutes trying to identify what I thought was a fancy specialist brush but it turns out it was just weirdly deformed.
GAPA’s I just sent you some more of my stuff… Please post soon?
Soo… GAPA’s I sent you something about a week ago…
Here are the drawings Trojan Tiger sent:
TT’s descriptions:
“The first is a sketch of my cat I did a few months ago, the second is a abstract-ish painting I did at around the same time. It was supposed to be displaying isolation/loneliness. I used acrylics on a wooden cabinet door for it, very fun. “
Very nice! The cat is just beautiful.
Would anybody like a link to a Youtube video for themes of characters friends and I have made for a Homestuck collaborative fanfiction?
Sounds at best borderline, MuseBlog rule-wise.
Okay.
There are no other videos on that account, if that helps…
GAPAs? I sent in a drawing to you a couple weeks ago, along with the edited version of BA… did you ever get it/them?
GAPAs? A response of some kind would be nice — either “We got your stuff” or “We didn’t get your stuff”…
Sorry, haven’t had a chance to check. More than a bit hectic lately.
That’s okay. I sent them from the Gmail account — is that the one which was hacked?
comic comic comic
I am so bad with updates also I still need to buy watercolors but that’s scary ahhhhh
Until… duh duh duh!
The color really does great things for this.
This is beautiful.
I love the texture. You’re amazing.
Artwork from Armada, with apologies for the delay:
MY GOD THOSE ARE SCARY
…SCARILY GOOD!
THOSE ARE TERRIFYINGLY ACCURATE DRAWINGS
I’M SORRY I CAN’T APPRECIATE YOUR ARTWORK FULLY BECAUSE I’M TOO TERRIFIED TO GIVE IT A CLOSE ENOUGH LOOK.
*RUNS AWAY SCREAMING*
So, here’s a drawing I did recently of a (gasp!) rose. I think it turned out quite well.
That is gorgeous.
Thanksh!
Oh my wung
I was just struck by an idea for the most terrifying drawing in the history of the world
I’ll start working on it pretty soon, I just need to finish hiding under my pillow
I drew a squid. With bubbles. It has lots of colors. Whee, I like squid.
So remember this ancient drawing?
Recently I did a redraw-meme-thingy for an art-networking website, and this is the result (the skin washed out rather, and I forgot to crop the white space along the bottom, but meh):
http://i.imgur.com/Jt9n4.jpg
I said I had things scanned and that was met with pies, so I have finally sent them (minimally edited in my haste)! I think that these are some of the best things I have ever drawn~
Oh, they’re my MB inspired fictional universe by the way, if any of you remember it. I’ve been sticking with it.
Zinc I’m really excited to see your things! Your comic is so funny! YAY!
I’m working on some chubby-squid drawings and I’m pleased with the way some of them have come out. (Maybe I’ll send them in, but the good ones I did are on a sketchbook page that’s covered in really bad attempts, so I’ll have to redraw it.) I did a really pretty watercolor drawing in art and I put the Japanese characters for ‘Mikazuki.’ It came out well and I would send it in except for the fact that apparently my Japanese is a little rusty ’cause I wrote “Mikadeku’ instead. Still, the chubby-squid and it are decorating my locker, so no biggie. (No-one’s going to notice.)
Not the comic. That thing is no longer exactly canon.
…but these should be artistically better…
Oh, I meant that because the comic was so funny I was excited to see your stuff! …but I kind of thought it was some sort of offshoot..oh well. XD
It was an offshoot! You’re not wrong.
(…funny…? How was that funny?…)
This stuff isn’t exactly humor, more like character designs.
SUPER LONG POST AHEAD?
Ah, never mind. I’ll link it from PB. Sorry, I hate inking, so the lines are a little unclear. Bear with me. For those who have seen these, the next few things are edited and cropped etc. You’re not really missing much if I can’t have off-blog contact with you.
Anyway, first we have two character sketches:
Here’s Zinc Rovaviemi (not me) in her smily glory. A full body with a smile, a worried look, and open mouth smile with hair behind an ear. Just being smily.
And Sudo Simon (probably one of the characters closest to the base, who you know as SudoRandom) being smily too. Silly boy. I find Sudo is just awful to draw, and I hate to draw him but he’s just so adorkable. I think it’s the chin. I have to edit and edit and edit.. while trying to keep him looking like Armadda. These are probably the best I’ve ever draw him. He always comes out with the top of the head too tall… Ughhhh just making him innocent and childlike but still adultish and having him smile and still look attractive is difficult.
Speaking of Armadda, this is Armada’s birthday present (which was only made because I was trying to practice her at the time so don’t feel bad the rest of you!):
Yup, Armadda in a furisode because I wanted to draw Xerimadda and a furisode. My reference was vol 16 of xxxholic with the shamisen woman, and I think I did an okay job? This is pretty late in the game and Xerix and Armadda are at Will They or Won’t They status. This girl has very odd lips and nose to draw from 3/4 view… the upper lip kind of bugs me.
Anyway, Xerix, with Beat who is now longer a girl! (ZVX and Beatlesrockr, if anyone remembers them.) Although he still has a passion for hats. I accidentally designed him looking like an Asian Beatle and I pleased me when I noticed, considering his namesake. This scene is after… spoilers, if anyone cares I won’t say exactly what… but they reason Xerix is yelling at him like that is pretty clear if you look down at the random doodle on the bottom. Just know that Beat did something irreversible to try to absolve guilt he didn’t have to carry.
And here’s the MB birthday present, which was basically an excuse to draw all the characters! Clockwise at top left we have Zinc Rovaviemi, Sudo Simon, Armadda Simo, Xerix Tomera, Beat Rokir, Avalon Liu, and Renier Alesund. If you knew all the relationships and stuff between the cast I know you might be able to find some symbolism in the placements in this drawing, but you don’t so yeah. Also, Armadda’s jacket has been changed since I drew this! It now has a hood and is longer, reaching a little above the knee. It also has buttons. Sudo has gained buttons and a hood as well, but his is staying jacket-length. By the way, I don’t know if I ever explained this, but those coats are sentimentally and to some mentally (hint hint) very important to people where Armadda and Sudo come from.
Aw, geez, everyone looks pretty derpy in this… especially Beat and Avalon and Sudo… I think Renier turned out the best.
And lastly a dumb Bahvroh/Mallory sketch with them being a dumb couple because I love the library world. And Bahvroh’s bandana. And Mallory’s hair. Ignore my notes in the sides, I write all over my sketchbook. It’s convenient and I like the way it looks.
That’s it! I hope you all liked it…! I’m kinda proud of all this, but looking at it they’re actually pretty bad. But I did my best! This was done mostly a few months ago, except for the Xerix and Beat sketch which is about 2 weeks ago.
Ffff I love all your art. Something about it is just really cool…
AWESOME.
…I wish I had half your skill at manga-style drawing…
We really ought to have more art-related discussion on here, instead of just posting images. Not that images are bad- y’all are so great at drawing/painting/whatever!
The other day, I discovered the existence of Copic markers. If you don’t know, Copic’s one of the best brands of markers available. They’re alcohol-based and refillable and you can blend the colors without ruining the paper and marker tips and I want some really badly now. They’re seven bucks at Hobby Lobby, but I heard about a website where you can get them for $4.50-$5.00 apparently? I suppose I’ll have to wait for Christmas if I want a sufficient number, anyway.Â
Oh, and I recently got Paint Tool SAI! I am in love with it. Coloring things is so much easier than in GIMP! And there aren’t a bunch of annoying little windows floating around! Â
I’ve never tried Copics personally, but I’ve seen several people who were absolutely amazing at drawing manga with them. It was stunning. But they do cost a lot, don’t they…
Rosebud- Yes, markers are fun. I wish I could use them effectively.
I just sent in a drawing I finished.
Hey GAPAs, have you gotten the pictures I sent in? I can resend them if necessary.
feeling really unsatisfied with artwork again
probably since I spent a while now looking through really good photographer’s galleries on GenericArtSite and sdhblfa;sdhg why can’t I be that good x_x
And spent time yesterday trying to teach myself how to draw a person in under an hour because I want to make a portfolio to apply for this Graphic Novels class but ahhhhg I probably won’t get in but I want to so bad but UHG PEOPLE. It’s faces. I can do pretty well on everything except when I try to fill in the facial features/give it shape besides and oval it just derps and takes everything with it. Sigh.
FACES HOW DO THEY WORK
Well, they’re sort of ovoid and fleshy, and usually have eyes and noses and things in them…
In all seriousness, I’d advise you to look at reference and lots of it. Magazines, pictures you’ve taken, pictures from the Internet, real people if they don’t mind you staring at them, etcetera. Just look at lots of different people. And draw a ton, that’s helpful.
Adding to what Shadowfire said, it helps to really copy pictures. I learn how to draw people with photos I print out, draw on and use transfer lines to copy them and get the proportions right. There’s a face model that they give you in school that’s halfway down the face, halfway of that half, etc. and when you follow that well, you get a nice-looking face. But I often find that for me, it’s not a face that looks real. I think it’s copying stuff, over and over, that really helps me.
Hmmm, GAPAs, I sent in some squid things. Wonder if you received them?
So I drew a weird and creepy humanoid GLaDOS. The feet are fail (Feet, how do I draw you!?), but…does anyone want to see?
Yus plz.
I’d love to see it!
Feet ate hard. From the bottom, try to imagine a figure 8 drawn with a really thick pen, so the middle is thicker. From the side, they’re basically triangles. From the front, the toes look like a box, and then the ankle is a triangle leading into the leg. I’m not very good at drawing them either, but I got this from a very good art book, so I hope it helps. (sorry that I don’t have actual pictures to go with this so you can understand it better.)
GAPAs, I’m sending a photo and a drawing.
Would the GAPAs allow a link to a Youtube video that I made that’s on my “channel” that contains a picture of my school- the school isn’t labeled as to the name, so the only way someone would be able to find it is if they already knew the school.
If that’s not allowed- could I make a version without the school and put it here?
I’m debating whether Photoshop Elements would be worth it. Can anyone who’s used both Elements and the full version tell me what the differences are?
That’s kind of like asking what’s the difference between an airplane and a starship. Both of them can fly, but not to all the same places. What are the main things you want to do with it?
Mostly basic stuff; I’m not trying to make a major work of art here, but I would like to have most of the tools from CS3.
That’s still doesn’t really tell me what you’re looking for. “Most of” Photoshop’s features includes tons of stuff that is far beyond “basic.” On the other hand, lots of the basic stuff is in Elements. If there are specific features you want you might be able to find workarounds or plug-ins that could do the job. If you haven’t already, go to Adobe’s web site and check out the products page for Elements. It describes new features and other highlights that might help you figure out if the program meets your needs. You can also download a fully functional trial version and give it a test run. I recommend that in any case.
Thanks a lot! I should have known to ask MuseBlog’s veteran Photoshopper from the start.
Or you could just download GIMP. I found myself needing something better than Paint.net, but instead of spending $500+ on Photoshop I downloaded GIMP. It does everything I could ever want and then some. And it’s free. I don’t know if you’ve used it, but I love it.
Gimp doesn’t work on Lion, though.
And both of them have had the word “Jefferson” in front of them.
hnnng I was messing around with a canon 60D today in the store and oh man it was so nice. I mean I love my camera and honestly it’s all I really need right now but still they put SO MANY FEATURES into those things. I was playing around with the built-in digital level. It’s just so COOL, and such a good idea!
Then again, by the time you’re ready to upgrade, the cameras will have even more cool features. By the way, one of the apps I’ve been playing with adds a level to i-devices. It is rather handy.
Ohh. That sounds cool!
And yeah, that is true There will always be a better camera, both to my delight and frustrating desire
And attachments. Don’t forget attachments.
Jade (142): I just got the Rebel XS and it’s so awesome and I’ve been learning about all of everything and everything and aaaahhhhhh. But I still wonder if I should’ve gone for something newer, like one that has video and other extra stuff like that. But, really I don’t need anything like that and this is perfectperfectperfect but I still wonder. You know how it goes.
ALSO I’m taking ceramics again next semester. I think I’ll go to the art store next week because now I actually know what I’m doing and it’ll be nice to have my own tools. But mostly I can’t wait to learn how to mix glazes myself! And make teapots. And make better everything.
I JUST MADE A SQUIDDLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(now to make a pair of tangle buddies…)
I will try to take pictures of it soon.
Aaaaaaaaand 6 squidddles latter I’m back.
I just started making these things and I couldn’t stop until using up all the thread forced me to quit.
143- WOO CAMERA BUDDIES
144- SQUIDDLES
So for my winter term project I’m extending the artwork on cards from Magic: the Gathering so they cover more of the card. I did a Plains and a Mana Leak today. Color matching is something I need to work on…
So now whenever I draw anything traditionally, I remember as soon as I’m finished why I stopped drawing things traditionally.
My scanner sucks. I mean, seriously, I can work for hours on a perfectly-shaded, blended piece of art, and as soon as I scan it in it’s grainy and blotchy and horrible and makes me lose all confidence in my traditional-drawing abilities. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make my scanner behave, or at least on how to edit out some of the horridness after-the fact? Please? Help?
Scanners are made with photos in mind. Getting decent scans of artwork generally requires a little more tweaking of the settings — or even post-scanning fixes in graphics software. Also, don’t know if this applies to current models, but in the past there was a distinct difference in color reproduction between scanners that specified they could handle slides versus the standard. There was a huge difference between them as to what colors they could pick up. Large sections of my paintings would bleach out completely.
Also you can try just taking a photo of your work– set the camera up on a tripod and make sure it’s parallel with your piece of art, and the room is well-lit so you don’t need flash. I’ve had a lot truer results that way.
True. Although inexperienced photographers are likely to end up with shadows or grey paper.
GAPAs, have the art requests been received?
… GAPAs? I was just proud of them since some of them turned out okay… and I’d like for the recipiquesters to see them…
We’re working on it, Zinc. There are a lot of them, and we want them to look their best.
Oops! I got sidetracked and forgot to post the link to the album. I’ll put it here and on the Random thread.
Perhaps a 2012 thread?