Category: musings

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musings

30 Day Painting Challenge in Seattle

So, there’s this thing that I signed up for: HERE WOULD BE A LINK IF THEY HAD A WEB PRESENCE.

Basically, I gave them 75 simloeans and they gave me 30 canvas boards and a deadline.  One painting per day (October 2-31) and then I turn them over on November 1st.  December 6th they will put on a show of all the challengers’ works which the public can buy for fifty bucks a pop (I think).  Some goes to the gallery, some goes to us.  Everybody wins (anything I don’t sell becomes a handy Christmas gift for family members; they HAVE TO appreciate relative-art: it’s a genetic compact).

So, I had this idea about pandering to the Christmas hipster audience and doing a series of Icons of SciFi Holiday Party stuff:  Jawas running downstairs to open presents, Princess Leia photocopying her naked butt at the office xmas party, Chewie doing Holo-karoake, that sort of thing.  I then decided to scrap that plan and to use this time to actually explore new painting techniques (scumbling, for example) – thanks to free Internet tutorials.

Today is day one and I have painted on four of my 30 canvases (backgrounds at least; 8″ x 10″, by the way).  I have ideas for the foreground stuff to do later tonight or tomorrow after work (tonight I think I’m gonna relax and let the psychic spasms release and wash over me from my work this afternoon).  I don’t plan on uploading images here until after the month is up.  I reserve the right to flake on any commitment or non-commitment as I see fit – except for working every day this month on those paintings (unless I finish early).

I will write about this as if someone were reading this.

Categories
musings

The value of the act of drawing

An interesting opinion piece from the NYT about the value of the act of of drawing, and how it’s disappearing (oh, boo hoo).

I’ve never drawn on a tablet, though I’d like to try it.  No hurry, though.  There’s a lifetime of skill to be honed with plastic and metal and India ink in my hands.

 

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illustrations musings

I like writing by hand

It’s been a long while.  Sorry about that.  Here’s something I just whipped up:

 

inspired by a conversation last night

The “… by hand” bit above has nothing to do with the drawing.  This is just an unedited page from one of my sketch books.  And since I just used it: I never liked the term “sketch.”  It seems weak, inconsequential.  Draw Book?  It’s not great, but it’s better than “sketch pad” or sketch whatever.  A Latin term would be better – or even better still, a Greek loaner word.  Dibum?  Iconologue?  And speaking of original terminology, I often wonder if snow-globes have a technical name; perhaps a manufacturer’s jargon for the thing made.  Uniopticon?  Friuniopticon?