A blog about a girl who speaks her mind and talks about whatever she wants. So its a blog about everything, and absolutely nothing, all at the same time. . .
Profile
Name: Kami
Alias: Risawn
Location: Washington State, United States
An avid Snowboarder, rabid NRA supporter, Starving Artist, Military Junkie, anti-fru-fru Glorified Private that basically posts incoherant ramblings and things better left unsaid.
I was moody yesterday. Then I discovered it was probably because I'm not feeling well.
Heck, I'm generally just a moody person, and I take opportunities to cultivate my moodiness for the purposes of jumping all over people when I hit the trail. One day.
*sighs*
Meanwhile, I drew a Mosquito.
I'm doing a homework assignment on Mosquitoes and took the opportunity of having to insert a picture into my assignment as an excuse to draw. I'm going to take all of the excuses I can get, because I need to draw more.
Alright, so I think I need to explain my little rant more in depth, to give you an idea of the mind of an artist.
Most real artists like critiques. They see it as a way to make themselves better, as long as the critique is constructive. Nobody likes to hear that their work sucks without it being explained why.
If you look at my gallery and tell me i'm a sucky artist, I'll go right back in your face and tell you you're an idiot, unless you can give me a reasonable excuse as to why you think my art sucks. If I don't know what is wrong with it, I can't change it, and as an artist, I often get to close to the work to see the obvious faults in it, or on the flip side, I'll see everything that is wrong with it.
Most often then not, I can rip to shreds any artwork you throw at me. You want it critiqued constructively? I bet I can find something wrong with it.
But let me go into it a little further. To tell you the honest truth, I don't see myself as much of an illustrator, I never have been. I've been working on the illustrator side of my art for a few years now, but honestly, I consider myself an artist.
My illustrations always have something wrong with them. heck, my art does too but usually not to the degree.
So I had a bunch of illustrators tell me my art is 'wonky' (which is a word I am going to use to describe everythign I see wrong with a peice from now on) without going into detail and me, being, well, me, I blew a gasket on them. Because you don't tell an artist they suck without giving them reasons as to why. Especially somebody who considers themselves an artist.
My illustrations are always from my head, but this latest episode made me realize that I need to work more on my art and away from my illustrations (which has, in fact, been killing my art to tell you the truth). So I'm going to start sketching more. I just need to draw more. I need to find pictures and draw what I see. It doesn't matter that it doesn't look like the person I'm drawing, just so long as it is a drawing.
I need to focus on how I'm going to illustrate my project anyway.
Ok, I have to say something, because I'm a cranky person and I can't stand it when people tell me I suck at something without having a good reason as to state why.
See, when I draw anthropomorphic characters (basically anything non human with human qualities) I generally draw them a little cartoonish, and granted when it comes to art this is not my strong suit. At all. Even though its basically the only thing I draw anymore because I don't draw as much as I used too.
I am also usually very good at taking constructive criticism with my art, because I am an artist and sometimes when a person is too close to a piece, they don't see the problems with it. So as long as the criticism is constructive, I take it well.
So I joined this art exchange, thinking I'm bored and I want to draw more and I like drawing other people's characters because it gives me a fresh look on things as I tend to get caught up in little rifts where I draw the same thing over again. I gave them a link to my two galleries online, one on this website and one over at DeviantArt.
I got this email in the mail saying I had been declined for a sketch exchange. Here is their exact wording in fact.
Mods voted: You have some interesting stuff, but we feel you could use a bit more practice before you join us. Feel free to try again in the future though! :)
Comments were: Anatomy's a little wonky, such as this piece: The legs look dramatically different from each other. She needs a little more work on getting her anatomy to look natural as far as her anthros go.
This is the piece they critiqued.
So basically, because I use foreshortening in a lot of my art so the legs don't look exactly the same, I got dismissed. Is this on me as an artist? Or is this on them as art critiques? Because as far as I'm concerned, this is a perfect example of foreshortening. You are looking at two legs from different angles, of course they are not going to look the same. This looks like an example of a Digigrade Biped to me (digigrade meaning walking on toes, not flat footed, all of my anthros are digigrade unless stated otherwise.)
I replied with a comment that wasn't so nice that I won't link to because, well, it will most likely get deleted, but I mean, come on?
Because my reply will most likely get deleted, I'll post what I wrote to them here.
Um, do you guys know the definition of Foreshortening?
The freakin' right leg is at an angle facing the audience, if you were to actually look at the left leg, you might actually see that there is nothing wrong with this. But oh wait, that's right, this is a freakin' SKETCH exchange. This may not be a traditional anthro because it doesn't show as much human in it, but it doesn't mean its wrong.
Oh, and I know how to draw anatomy, thanks for the heads up on telling me that I don't know what the hell I'm doing. PS - for a sketch exchange, I would probably complete my art a little more so that it doesn't need to be completed in Photoshop, because believe it or not I CAN draw.
Thanks for everything, but I think I'll pass and not bother with this stupid exchange in the future.
PPS - The rejected art piece is freakin' two years old. Since you said I apparently need to practice my anatomy, I'll let you know I've had plenty, thanks.
Ok, Yes, the annoyance is apparent, but really, come on!
Give me your opinion, do you think I have a decent argument or do I suck at anthros? Or are you just a non-artistic type that goes 'hehe, puppy!'
EDIT - So my rant got some attention, they didn't delete the post after all, but I calmed down considerably when I got a constructive critique back. Mind you, I don't delete this stuff, so if you want to see how this goes, please visit the LJ.
I may have mentioned that I have been let go from my civilian employer (but I have been meaning to quit so no loss there), my *six month* deployment has been pushed back a couple of months, and I cut my class load back to one class on Adobe InDesign which is about Digital Layout.
I have a lot of free time on my hands.
The thing is, I really enjoy working my creative side, so I thought about this and decided that I would utilize my creative side toward something that could eventually be productive and make me money.
I want to write a book.
And not just any type of book (I've written a gob of unpublishable crap that sits on my hard drive) I want to write a Children's Book.
When I was in first grade or something, I wrote a book about Animals doing fun things. The art in it can be described as cute, as I was quite a little artist at the time. And I've always wanted to go back and rewrite it and get this idea published.
So I was reassessing this little picture book I had planned when I was about seven years old and thinking to myself 'how can I make this idea work for print?' It occurred to me that I wanted to be the artist, but with some creative help, I could probably work on putting this book to verse.
I just hope that the idea is original enough that I'm not infringing on somebody else's creative genius. But the thing is, I had the idea for this book for something like twenty years now.
I think its doable. I just have to figure out the medium I want to work it toward.
Today had been interesting, in the absolutely nothing going on in my life sort of way. I was thinking 'gosh, since I'm not working, I should have all of this free time and my creativity should just go nuts and I should be getting all of this stuff done!'
Um, no. Yes, I have put myself on a budget because I have money in the bank, but I got to make it last until I get a new job or go to Ft Knox, and I've still got living expenses. So I've got a few projects I'm working on.
I thought about going out and renting a movie or something, but something else got in the way.
It's called about a foot and a half of snow. I shoveled the driveway with the help of the kid across the street (we started talking about the army, he has the perfect private mentality and plans on joining as soon as he turns 17) but I just gave up when it came to digging my car out of the snow. It just won't stop snowing around here, I'm thinking about trying to go up to the mountain if my car can handle it and taking advantage of the conditions, but, well, I am on a budget right now.
So I did the next best thing. I decided to get my creative juices flowing by doing some art. I don't do enough art these days.
And when I mean art, I mean fine art, not illustration which is what I tend to do more then anything now a days.
I actually found this exercise to help loosen up the creative juices, you grab your MP3 player, put it on random, and draw a picture in the amount of time it takes you to listen to the song. THe song is supposed to help you come up with an idea of what to draw, but I discovered since I haven't been in figure drawing for about five years, my drawings gone to crap when it comes to gestures. I don't think I got a single good drawing out of the mix, at least, nothing worth posting.
But it is a little exercise I plan on doing again soon.
Once I got myself loosened up a bit, I decided to dig out some of my paints and a canvas and paint. I didn't have any idea going into the painting, so I just threw paint on the canvas as an idea started to take hold.
Um, this was kind of where it was heading, and I was just staring at it as I was painting it and thinking 'what is this mess?' It wasn't doing anything I wanted it to so I came up with this brazilliant idea and flipped the canvas over.
Um, it's still nothing fancy. I'm letting the paint dry while I stare at it and decide what I'm going to stick in it. When I paint, I tend to be a little bit on the expressionalistic abstract side, so I have to create a focus for the painting and shove it right in there, probably within the first third of the painting because if it is dead center, it is going to be BORING. Not that this is anything exciting anyway, because I still have no freaking clue as to what I'm going to do with this painting. I think I'm going to put a figure wading in the water with the nuclear sky in the background, but the figure will have to be in bizzarro land colors in order to make this work.
No, it is not done. It might go the way of my last painting, which I hated how it was going so much I covered the canvas in Gesso and am awaiting the opportunity to strike so I can cover it with more paint. Not going to happen anytime soon.
I really need to get back into my art. Maybe I'll put a post where I ask my readers to give me ideas, or something. Because I haven't got a creative flow going and it's driving me stark raving mad!
And I'm snowed in . . . *sighs* Damn that Global Warming
So yes, I have made a few more flash animation type thingees, and I can definitely say that these will become more and more frequent upon my blog and other various ideas on the internet.
Bloody hell, I feel like I'm twelve again. Everything I do seems to surround a horse or horse like creature (with an occasional ferret jumping in and stealing the show now and then.)
So you have a horse, and you can dress him up, granted if you know what's going on here. The assignment was called "Ms Potato Head" and the example was a potato with a bunch of body parts, kind of akin to, well, the potato head toys. You were supposed to be somewhat original with this game, but I didn't know what to do really so I decided to draw up a horse and give him a bunch of tack that you can put on him. You can even mix and match a bit. Hmm, I probably should have done more mix and matching. But whatever the case, here he is, though yeah, not to exciting but the fact that I can do this is just cool to me. I'm going to do a lot more with it later.
Flash is awesome and I'm totally getting it (most of the time). I'm still completley lost on 3ds Max.
Yes, I am currently learning how to use Flash, however there are still quite a few things that I still need to learn about it. Like how to embed files so that they look exactly how I want them to look.
This file is VERY rough, as I ignored artistic talent in favor of actually making something that was animated. If you use Netscape, I'm sorry but I'm still trying to figure out how to embed objects for Netscape browsers and I can't test it to make sure it works, so you might not be able to see it. Also, you will need a Flash Player.
I call it Running Ferret. I can foresee using Flash a lot more in the future. It is lot's of fun!
I was at work after stocking some Cds and when the cart gave me a flat tire that caused me to nearly lose my shoe, I looked down and realized that I was wearing an old Nike Tennis shoe on one foot and a new Sketchers Sneaker on the other.
Fortunately my pants were covering them up for the most part, so they weren't entirely noticeable, but it didn't stop me from laughing at myself and showing a couple of coworkers my error. They laughed with (or maybe at) me. Doh.
I get to be gone for the weekend, away from a computer, but things should be fun. I actually was on top (for the most part) of my homework this week and its all done so I can focus on playing Army all weekend. I should have a post up by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest, detailing my adventure.
In the meantime, I leave you with another piece of art I did in Illustrator. Not perfect, I understand, but still fun and I used a couple of techniques to do the lineart and it has become a thing I can do a lot more with. I think I will be using this particular program more and more. Now that I actually comprehend how to use it, I can see it coming into a lot more use.
So, remember the post of me with the bigass gun that I did in illustrator a few days back?
Well, let me finish the assignment for you.
See, we had to take a picture of us and convert it into a super hero pose, and I decided to do a girl in a post apacolyptic world. So I stripped her down to just grey BDU bottoms and a tank top, and gave her a scar and some tattoos (that's to seperate this fictional alter ego from myself) and then I slapped a horrible background onto it because I suck at backgrounds and this popped out.
I had to give it a comic title name, so its a comic called "Girls with Guns", until I could think of something more clever, which I didn't by the time the assignment needed to be turned in.
I've grown a little attached to Illustrator now. Excuse the abnormally long neck and the strange shape of the left pantleg, I took the bottoms directly off the other picture and I'm actually not this skinny so it looks a little. . . weird.
Eh, but not bad for a person just learning how to use Illustrator, eh?
So, for my current homework assignment, I have to take a picture of myself or somebody I know and convert it into a digital illustration, or more specifically, a super hero.
Huh?
Well, I got the converting part down at least, and so I've been playing with the illustrator software and I must admit, I'm not in love with it. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm kind of getting the gist of it.
So, back to the 'super hero' assignment, which had me scratching my head. When I first heard the assignment, I wasn't aware of it being an assignment converting a picture into a super hero, and I was thinking of doing something with a ferret (I have plans to do a spoof comic with ferrets, its not a long term thing by any means) but alas, I got the memo that I was to use a picture for this assignment.
Well, I need a lot of work, but after fiddling with it, I got, something?
What picture did I use you might ask? Why, the one that I ran into the ground about two years ago.
It's still a work in progress. I've got to find a way to make this all super hero-y. But I just converted the bare basics.
I even thought about giving myself long hair with it down, but, well, that would feel weird because I'm in uniform, so in order to make that a go, I have to ditch the uniform. And its so baggy that I'm having trouble trying to figure out where my limbs are underneath.
Maybe I should get another picture instead? Ah, but it's so much fun!
So, I'm ending my second week of this quarter and so far everything seems to be going fairly smoothly.
So far.
My first real assignment in 3d Modeling was making a robot. This is the rough work-in-progress. I decided to do something along the lines of a dinosaur bird type thing.
Meanwhile, in my character development and design class, I had this assignment that I ended up doing backward. Once upon a time I used to not draw humans at all. I've gotten a lot better, but now I need to learn how to color.
I took a basic character design and had to give them traits of a character type (ie Villain, hero, side kick, comic relief, etc) that you find in a story. Then you had to take that character and modify them so that they fit another role. I ended up making a girl and giving her five character roles. The last one is my favorite. I think this is obvious.
No, just because she's blonde and a chick, this is NOT me.
I don't get the reason to flatter somebody over a job that is subpar. Being an artist, I am a firm believer that if you see something you don't like about a piece, you tell the artist what it is (constructive criticism here). They can then use your criticism to either fix the piece, take it into heart the next time they do a piece, or tell you to go to hell and ignore what you said. I don't believe in being rude about it or anything, you can just say "hey, I really think that this color doesn't go well with this other color in the way you put them here, try a different shade, like a darker red perhaps.)
I've been getting this from my Image Editing class. There are some people who are awesome in the class, and then there are others who are still learning the software and therefore because of their experience, they are prone to having work that is not as clean as the others. Often times, I get the impression that other students in the class are catering to these students by telling them "this looks great!" when it is obvious that there is plenty of room for improvement. I won't cater to your feelings by telling you a piece looks great if it doesn't, however I will acknowledge improvement and encourage them to keep working at it. Undue flattery doesn't help anybody, and I have found that you learn greatly from your mistakes.
In fact, I learn more from my mistakes then my successes. As long as my mistakes aren't fatal, I generally only make them once because I learned from them the first time. I like to be told what I'm doing right and not have every mistake pointed out to me, granted, but please give me constructive criticism and tell me how I'm doing. Let me know if I totally messed something up or if it doesn't work. I'm a big girl, I can take it.
So far my image editing class has been interesting. A lot of this stuff is repeat of things I already knew but I'm also reinforcing techniques and picking up on some stuff I didn't know. I've been enjoying the class immensely.
My first assingment I was given three black and white photos of butterflies and was told to put them into a collage in some manner. This was in essense a practice of the Marquee, Lasso and Magic Wand Tools. This is what I came up with.
Nothing fancy really, me mostly playing around and messing with the color.
The second project was reinforcing the ideas of the first, except for we had to find a full body image of a human either online or a picture of ourselves and at least five additions to it, whether it be articles of clothing, background or what not. I didn't feel like searching for an already made image, so I used myself. I mean, i have Photoshopped myself before. And then I looked for the strangest outfit I could find. It was really tough finding a pair of shoes that would work. But overall, I had a lot of fun.
I actually bought a hat like that in Bulgaria. More for the novelty of it then anything.
This week's assignment was a practice with the Gradient Tools and an enforcement of colors. We had to create a 'still life' using geometric shapes. Well, I wouldn't really call this a Still Life so much, more of me goofing around (which a lot of these assignments seem to be) and for a bit I was thinking that this wasn't going to work. And then I messed around with it a bit more and then discovered that I actually really liked it! I'm not much of a color person, I'm more into subtle tones, monochromatics and neutrals. This is bright and cheerful, and it looks sweet! I see one thing I should probably go back and fix but overall, cool!
I do one to two images a week like this, one major assignment for that week. The fact that I have prior experience with Photoshop (and a lot at that) has really helped, and so does the ownership of a Wacom Drawing Tablet. Don't do Graphic Arts without it!
I really need to draw more, and not just sketches colored on the computer. I mean I really need to draw and paint and do more of the traditional art more.
Its kind of cool that we have a bit of a studio set up in the basement now, so I can actually make a mess with my paints and stuff and its all cool. That's what the room is for. Upstairs is getting more of a home-like feel to it, and all in all, its feeling like home. This place didn't feel like home back in February.
Meanwhile, I'm working on getting a job and not spending money. I'm kind of found myself on a budget for the first time in, well, a year and a half. So I have to maintain some discipline that doesn't include going out and buy a LCD Flatscreen Television and the such (however, we really did kind of need the TV upstairs).
I should be fine in the long run.
Latest piece of Illustration I did, includes a Kelpie stallion that looks kind of. . . dead.
Anyway, my mom comes in and sees it, and I ask her about it. Basically a 'what do you think?' kind of question.
She looks at it and says 'well, I can't wait to see you finish it, you always seem to make them work.'
Me. 'Well right now I can't stand it.'
Mom. 'Oh, you hate it too?'
Being a parent, I guess mom doesn't want to hurt my feelings, as, well, she's my mom and parents love everything their kids do artistically. . . most of the time.
I got some more colors and decided to work on some other paintings, so I walked into the art supply store. They had a sale on canvases.
I went nuts.
I'm going to be painting a lot through this month I suppose.
My laptop is working great, well, the hardware is. I still need to reformat it and get it running smoothly again, but overall, I'm just delighted to have it back.
Meanwhile, in the realm of work, a friend of mine is commissioning a piece of art. All I can say is 'Yay!' I've also got a couple other ideas to brainstorm in other art projects, and these projects will be blogged. I need to blog about something, it might as well be art.
I've got a friend who is requesting some art pieces from her friends for a Reptile Rescue she's doing, to earn funds for her critters. Eh, she's a friend, its for a good cause, I'm game :)
Further more, in the realm of even more work, I've got more news on my summer job issue. See, I was originally scheduled to work in Glacier National Park in Montana, and though I was excited about the opportunities and the job, it really wasn't what I wanted to do. But I felt it was important to at least secure the job in case something else didn't materialize.
Well low and behold, I got a job off in Yellowstone National Park, doing what I wanted to do originally! It looks like an awesome opportunity, its only for the summer, I'll be out in the middle of one of the most beautiful areas in the country, and I'll be working with horses doing trail rides and learning how to drive a stage coach!
This is one of those experiences that I'm taking soully for the experience and the little money I make on the side is nice to keep the bills paid, but I can't begin to say how excited this job has me feeling right now! I should have done something like this years ago, but the army has always kept me from doing something like this. This is the first true opportunity where I have the freedom to pursue a job like this.
Its great work around school and army drill as well. I just have to talk to my command about negotiating around drill this summer, and hooking up with one of the two units in Montana.
I've kind of picked up a side job here in Kosovo for the last part of time I'm here. It's working with PsyOp, illustrating.
They put out publications and stuff to the locals to help sway their minds about certain issues, and the big issue in Kosovo is getting the Albanians and the Serbians to try to find some way past their respective differences and get along. Because as soon as they stop fighting each other, this little community might be able to gain independence. Or who knows, getting turned back over to Serbia. Or something. But until that happens, well, you might as well just expect NATO and a bunch of member nations protecting these people from each other as it remains a protectorate of the UN.
One way they try to pass the message is to the kids. This is through various magazines and such, which is a cool idea. In fact, hanging out with Psyop, they have a pretty interesting job.
Meanwhile, where do I come in? Well, I'm an artist type person that's been working in illustration a bit lately, especially anthropormorphic characters recently. They put up a notice for Artists, Graphic Illustrators and Computer type Peoples to help them with these various publications. I answered their call because I had to do something with my time.
Well, they set me up with the task of creating an illustration for their junior magazine with a winter safety message. Like "dress warmly for winter" or "Be careful when walking on Ice" that the kids can color or something. It's also important to have characters that are obviously different depicted as getting along, to try to enforce the message of unity between different people. What's funny is the Psyop guys have furry costumes to dress up in when distribtuting their magazine (they wore them during Halloween, seeing a disney type character armed with an M9 was a riot, I've got pictures) so they liked the idea that I did Anthros.
Now I've been supposed to work on this for the last week. Due to my current issues with the unit, well, I haven't exactly been up to speed on it, so I decided to try to work on it tonight.
But they should be fairly playful and nothing sensitive. This really isn't a traditional project in the military. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
. . .I think. I'll wait to see if Murray has any other requests on how to fine tune the little oinker.
For those of you coming into this post a little late in the game, this is in direct response to this post HERE. The one with me deciding to make a Crusader Pig verses a Boarhog, and if I did a Crusader Pig, which style should I use?
I kind of made one completely different, but fine tuned it a bit so he's not so uneven and crooked. Though, well, if I dwell on him, I'll point out all his flaws. That's what I get for being a highly critical type artist. Blah.
Those took far longer then they probably should have. You can buy Boarhog and piggy merchandise at the Risawn Down Under Shop. All proceeds go to getting me down under. My minions are behind it.
update So. . .I am told that this little piggy is supposed to look cute and unintimidating. I was asked to fix the eyeballs and make them big and round, not pointed and angry. And make a few other changes.
I'll keep you updated on whether or not this is the finished product.
Update Again Ahh. . . all is well, Murray is satisfied.
I can't tell you to honestly go buy stuff however, because I'm not allowed to ask for money on my website while I'm on active duty. So. . . you can go over to Silent Running and THEY can tell you to buy stuff.
So, there's the finished Boar hog. I guess I could go back and make adjustments to it in Photoshop, as I did it in colored pencil and the colored pencil didn't scan very well. So I already tweaked it in photoshop, but I think there are a few more adjustments to be made, and if I stare at it for to long, everyhting that is wrong with it will pop out at me.
Gah! I hate being my own worse art critic.
Since the boarhog was the most popular, I did it. Next up, a simple image of the 'cute' pig as well. Look for that in the not to distant future.
Meanwhile, my foot is cluing in the rest of my body that its time to go to sleep. As for some reason I've lost all feeling in it.
In fact, it has even gone so far as to remove any item that refers to pigs out of the workplace (specifically banks), including icons such as Piglet off of Winnie the Pooh in an attempt to be more sensitive.
Ok, do I need to state the obvious? This is rediculous. For one, becuase the pig is a creature, not like a symbol or something like a swastika. If I like pigs and I like to decorate using pigs, are they saying I can't because somebody might not like pigs due to religious reasons? Is this retarded? Yes.
When we dumb down our culture to try to be accepting of other people so as not to offend them, we only lose our culture in the process.
Hey, so you don't eat pork. You know what? A pig is a living and breathing animal that exists in the world. Just because one group of people thanks they are a dirty animal doesn't mean that they should be written off the planet. But hey, why don't we slaughter all pigs just so we don't accidentally offend somebody. But wait, won't that offend PETA whackos? Oh, that's right, you can't please everybody.
Which is good advice, eh? You can't please everybody. Something everybody should remember.
Meanwhile, Murray (who I've been watching a lot lately) posed this picture on his blog, in an attempt to offend who ever might be offended by this image.
The image has become so popular in regards to this PC overkill that people have been asking about stickers and T-shirts. With one problem.
Disney owns the rights to the oppressed Piglet. So Murray recruited me to draw a pig in a crusader outfit, trying to get a bit of the point across ya know.
So, well, I came up with some various designs, thinking cute was the way to go because it made the whole thing kind of laughable, becuase the whole thing WAS laughable.
Unfortunately, I'm not really a graphic designer so I don't know how well these will transfer to a T-shirt. So anyway, here are a few images, (still somewhat of a rough draft, not the finished image) anybody got any preferences of which one works the best?
1)
This was one of the first ideas, just simple you know.
2)
This is kind of a pig in my style, cartoonish, that is. Not quite, but to give you an idea. The finished product would actually have shading and what not in it.
3)
Another uber simplified piggy, similar to the first, but, erm, simpler in some respects. You get the idea, right? I'm not sure if I like this one in its entirety. Just parts of it. Maybe the head of number one with the body of this one. Yeah. Something like that.
4)
Uncolored, but the mean Boarhog look. Boarhogs are a type of pig, and I suppose they would be counted as a banned item. Since they are the true badasses of pigdom, I thought I would try something with them.
Now the problem with make a Pig a Crusader is will you get a reverse effect from what you're trying to accomplish. As in calling the Crusaders pigs, or what not.
I don't know, Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? Does it work? Does it not? Which one should I go off of?
So, I came back from leave, had a great time, to the inevitable. A dark cloud loomed over my head all throughout leave because I knew I was coming back to bad news.
The bad news came, much like I thought it would, and at first I took it well.
Then I broke down five hours later.
*sighs* Well, I'm doing a lot better now that I can focus on something other then, well, other then work. I've been using art therapy a lot to get my mind off of whatever and I'm currently planning some drawings. Hopefully they'll turn out all right. I can post drawings, because, well, as you have see in the previous post, I can no longer post photographs. Go figure. So to keep my blog from getting to bland, I got to post SOMETHING!
So anyway, I'll probably be doing a lot of drawing here as this deployment comes to an end, and maybe they'll even be half way decent drawings for once. I'm also steadily shipping everything home, slowly but surely. Hope there's room back home for it.
And then of course, my other task. I've ruled out the army. So what am I going to do with my life? I'm thinking school. Now I have to decide on what I want to major in.
I have never been very good at making up my mind on such matters. But I think I would work best if I got into a jobfield where I could work independantly. Freelance stuff would be awesome, but I would have to be pretty good at what I do to get away with it. But other then that, well, there is always Hastings?
I just thought I would mention about my Gallery. I updated it slightly, because I got a whole bunch of art from people when I was selected for the draw in one of these art exchange live journal communities. I had them draw characters out of my webcomic.
I feel all special now. And I finally got the pictures listed on my Gallery. That thing is going to get pretty large at this rate.
I've really been in an art mood as of late, and not just illustration but really getting into the desire to do funky things with art, and add to my online portfolio which is a little weak at the moment. I've been trying to do some things with the colored pencil, especially after my Wacom tablet decided to play the 'will I work?' game and I found out I don't like to illustrate so much with colored pencils. But I think I'm going to really start focusing on drawing things more.
I think I need to make plans for August. . . and while I'm at it, the rest of the day.
To start, the rest of this day, I will slump around in a vegatative state while my limbs attempt to recover.
Yeah, I'm going to do NOTHING and it will be EVERYTHING I ever thought it would be!
*yeah, I'm a fan of Office Space, so sue me*
This month I think I'll be doing a lot of art. I plan on actually updating my webcomic at least twice a week through this month, and I went nuts and signed up for about eight different art exchanges.
Then my WACOM drawing tablet, or rather the stylus, up and died. It cracked down the center. Now I need to get a new one, however it looks like they don't send to APO addresses, so I'll have to get it sent home and my family will have to send it to me. However, they are out of stock!
But I was looking at some of these other drawing tablets, and considering how much time I've put into my drawing tablet, and how much I love the darn thing, that if I shouldn't just invest in a new more expensive one? I use this thing so often, why not?
Anyway, its an excuse to use my expensive colored pencils I recently invested in until I get a new tablet. Yay for that!
August will be a little weird, we've been having soldiers in and out for leave and whatever else all this summer. September will be a little hectic for me.
And I also have that guitar I need to invest in. . .
And I also vow to update my blog more often, about a variety of things. My brother mentioned how he misses my commentaries on Politics but I'm afraid politics has to stay out of the blog until I get home.
I guess I should go eat some food (I didn't eat much yesterday other then power bars and things of that nature) and then I need to get ready to hobble over to the Chapel to attend church. See how LT G is holding up, he went on the hike too.
Blogger's been in a real funk recently. Hmm, I wouldn't know anything about Blogger doing that. But anyway, enough of that, onto more important stuff. . .
Single Soldiers should not be exposed to large sums of money (and by large sums of money, I basically mean a regular paying job with no sign of monetary responsibilities, like, say, rent. And food) Because single soldiers will buy things they don't need, because there is more money in their bank account then they are used to.
Case in point? The batch of colored pencils that just shipped to me in the mail. I couldn't help it, they were so pretty. But what was rather funny about the batch of colored pencils is the box they came in was rather large, and I know the customs form only said "colored pencils" or something of that nature, and I'm sure the people at the mail desk saw that this unusually large box of colored pencils was heading to Kosovo and immediately grew suspicious.
Anyway, I found myself getting greedy recently, trying to figure out how I can make MORE money without selling my soul to the devil, er I mean reenlisting into the United States Army and getting stuck in a contract that will leave me miserable. And I know that, if I can refrain from the impulse splurges between now and when I get home, I should have a bit of change in my pocket to buy things I actually need as opposed to want, and I should live comfortably.
In other words, I'll have some debt, but the necessary debt, like a car payment, insurance, and rent, and not like, say, mass amounts of credit cards used on impulse purchases of things I didn't know existed but couldn't possibly live without. Only to find later that I probably could. Coming home should be a breeze, if I can keep my wallet under control.
which means I need to make a list of things that I keep thinking I want when I get home. Which means I need to further seperate that list into things I actually need vs things I just want.
Things I actually need include a car. And a handgun with a concealed weapon's permit. That's necessary for the stalkers. What's more necessary is the knowledge of them KNOWING I have a handgun with a concealed weapon's permit. Somebody suggested a .40 Kahr.
Things I merely want includes an ATV. And a Potter's wheel. And an AR15 complete with Grenade Launcher attachment to further elaborate on the whole 'redneck gun lover' image that some liberals have me painted as. And a plane ticket back to Europe.
If I go into depth on this list, You will soon discover that the list of 'merely wants' dwarfs the list of things needed desperately, or just needs but too boring to think about.
And I need to remember that I want to go back to school. But first, I've got to fine tune this whole business of what I want to do with the rest of my life. It all starts there.
If I go active duty, there is no way I'll be getting that ATV. *sigh*
Meanwhile, I think I'm going to get out my nifty colored pencil kit and do some drawing. Then maybe I'll post some of the finished products online. And see if these colored pencils were a wise investment or if I should have just told my parents to dig through my stuff and ship the ones I had there to me.
Jon in Vector Control reads my blog. Since he's such a cool guy and he let me hang with him for a day and work with him, I promised him I would put some stuff on my blog about it.
However, Vector Control seemed like a Milblog thing, and since I've been largely neglecting the good ol' Milblog, I decided to post about it there.
I've also been doing a lot more drawing, but not so much realistic drawing, but rather illustration. In fact, I've been doing A LOT of illustration lately (though I'm still neglecting my comic *sob* One of my illustrations I recently did I was really happy with. I even put the much neglected background into it.
I do something a little different with each one. i think its my excuse to get better at my illustration techniques with good ol' PhotoShop. And it gets boring drawing the same thing over and over again.
Lately I've been getting into the habit of drawing in art exchanges, where you put in a character description of a character with a bunch of other artist types, all the names are put in a hat, and you are given a description of a character to draw within three weeks to post online. This is generally done through LiveJournal, and since I'm a geek that likes to draw animals, I got involved in a couple of Furry Art Exchanges, meaning Anthropormorhic characters. I've even got one back so far, so I've been having a lot of fun with it.
I've already drawn for four people, and I decided if I continue doing this that I should probably showcase my art somewhere. So I made another art blog, persay, just for this type of art. It includes pictures I've done and pictures that people have done for me. Much fun!
So far its got the lame title of 'guest art', but I think I'll think up something snazzier to title it later.
So anyway, the new Art Blog, specifically designed to showcase the illustrator in me! My goal is to get better at illustrating through this method, most of these are colored through Photoshop.
I put up my art page with the ability to leave comments a long time ago, but for some reason they never appeared on the actual page so I never read them. And being deployed, it was hard for me to manage it and to get around to actually read it.
Until now.
I finally got the coding on my art page fixed so that the comments left to me by people would show up on the actual page, which makes me think pretty cool. Though some people show very little class.
I don't mind when people tell me my art sucks, just as long as they explain why. If they can't explain why they don't like it, that's fine too, as long as they're tactful about it. There is plenty of art in this world that I don't like for whatever reason, and I've seen a lot of art from people who are really good but I just think that the art sucks. That's the beauty of art. You don't have to like it.
I wish I knew when he posted that comment, it was probably several months ago, and it bugs me that I'm only now seeing it, because my art page is a static blog. I use blogger to update it. I use blogger to update a lot of my site really.
UPDATE - Mystery solved, comment made on March 18th. What a loser.
I'm doing more with my art now, though I wouldn't classify it as being Fine Art, more illustration wise. I'm going to try to put up a page for that art specifically. Unfortunately, with only a sketchbook and a scanner, I've gone to doing mostly cartoon type stuff.
When I get home, I think I'm going to sign up for some art classes. I really want to get back into my art.
In a semi-related note. I just watched Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time ever.
You know those girls in Jr High who loved and worshipped horses and talked nothing about horses and doodled nothing but horses on the cover of their notebooks and everything was horses horses horses?
I was one of those girls. *sighs*
Anyway, in my lifetime, i got good at drawing horses because, well, in Jr High I loved them and drew them. A lot. In fact, now that I think about it, that's basically all I ever drew. Well, amongst other animals.
I outgrew the trend about 8th grade, when the obsessions started to die down a bit because people started to think I was weird. They were probably right.
So anyway, getting back to the whole insomnia bit (yeah, can't sleep), and the 'can't draw jack squat' bit, I decided to just sit down and draw the first thing that came to mind. For me it was easy.
I drew a horse.
I'm happy to note that it does in deed look like a horse, and is even semi realistic. I also sat down and started working on my comic, drawing different panels and so on and so forth, and discovered that I can draw my little cartoon guys.
But my cartoon guys are taking away from my real art. I've got so used to drawing them that I can't draw the way I used to any more. Though I shouldn't get to hard on myself, as before I turned 20, I refused to draw people and they all looked weird regardless. I didn't really learn to draw people until I took figure drawing and started drawing them in the nude. Now I can only draw them nude, I'm not very good with clothes.
Oh well, I'm working on the drawing from life for real. I vow to get some decent pictures in. When I'm done drawing them, I'll scan and post accordingly.
Heck, I'll post the aliens I was drawing too. . . you might get a laugh out of those.
