llothcat

Had great time and managed to sell a piece, which was pretty awesome.

The weird "artsy" questions like, "what inspires you to paint this?", I can do without. Though they are entertaining.

This time there was a particularly memorable fellow, who said he was previously a bank teller, who had an epiphany, of sorts, as to a painting's value. Or what value means in a painting.

He was babbling badly, saying that painters often worked in groups to complete paintings, with just one signing the finished piece to protect the others' good name in case the painting did not make it big. They would work months on end to get the colors just right, often consulting one another. He said that he was just in the hallway, with his hand shading his eyes, and his forefinger just in his vision. He then said, wouldn't that make a great brand on a painting, always having that slight shadow of a finger in the painting...And the view that he saw in the hallway, well you just couldn't tell that the year was 2009 unless you looked carefully at the clothes...He then let me in on the know that the building that I was in was well over 100 years old.

....


I just sat there listening to the guy, thinking that he really needed to go back to school and really study art history, instead of trying to impress "Art Girl" with a vast array of non-knowledge. I was polite, but I think my thoughts did show on my face.

....

....

And then there is the "muralist" from Redlands that stopped by. The one who doesn't know how to use acrylics, only oils....

Anyhow, ran into some good friends of mine that I had met over at freedomgardens.org. One fellow works on an organic farm in Corona. We compared notes on the veggies, as the piece I was working on is related to my gardening experiences. Yep, it is a bit late for brussell sprouts, but I have 'em anyway.

May entry WIP....I'm starting late.
This month is just flying by. I feel I haven't had time for anything but the garden, and even that is getting out of hand.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaTrb4I2bcs

still working on improving/updating my skillz....

progress, but still no animation yet. Hey they just posted the audio yesterday. Yeesh...

Well today is the day that the final version on the 11secondclub animation is supposed to be done. And all I got done was this here model...finally rigged up in a way that I can understand it.

I think I might work on the head a bit more though, just because I think I can do better.

This month I wanted to do the 11secondclub challenge, but the only feedback I was getting was "use one of the free models and rigs" that they have on the site, because I was clunking my way through the newest Blender3d build with a model and rig that I had slapped together myself. I thought I was doing pretty well considering my unfamiliarity to 2.46, but decided to pull out of this month's challenge to read the manual for blender to figure out what I was doing wrong. Esp with the bones, dammit.

This model happens to be way better looking than the old one that I used for the challenge. I think I may use it for next month's challenge. Facial pose with the shape key function, and there are no bones in it just yet. It has a long way to go, apparently.

I really need to post here more often, even though it's been a wee bit slow for me right now. I've gotten my garden all started...and I think it's gonna turn out purty, in a mostly edible fashion that is. Don't want to get caught without a food supply when the world crashes, after all.

Any how, this is the vertical garden experiment, which I do dub, the "salad bar"




and my button quail managed to have a baby:




I plan on buying a couple more today, to get a good egg supply for myself. Also possibly for sale for crafts or whatnot.


All the while this was going on, I've had a block on my head in regards to ideas for any kind of story for any kind of media. The most I've managed is a couple of nonsense paintings now and again. Arrrgh. I know I can do better, dammit. I want to be on that best seller list in Diamond someday, or better.

I've got a whole lot of distractions right now. Number one of which is the garden I've started. I hope it will manage to feed me in the months to come. I even managed to wrangle up 2 vertical gardens, one of which is salad greens, the other will be herbs.

I've been hanging around freedomgardens.org for tips and tricks. Unfortuately, I have to container garden, due to being in a rental. Pictures later, when I manage to borrow a camera.

It almost didn't happen. My lazy gene was in overdrive this week.

...but it was bugging me all day. When I get dreams like this, I find it's best to document them. Yeah..I listen to Coast to Coast AM, which is why I'm aware of the nutcase status of future maps of North America. Anyhow....:

I'm having a lot of brain farts right now, especially over the POW challenge at concept art. So.


It's doodle time to work it out.

on my laptop...a dsg from conceptart.org:

I managed to win a logo contest over at 99designs. I had given up on the things and entered this particular one mostly because I was bored. Woot! Good day!


Now for the frustrating part. Landscapes. They look so easy to do, but they're not. Good thing critiques are handed out like cookies over at conceptart.org, otherwise I wouldn't have managed to get this..well..good. I still have a long way to go before I'm satisfied with my skill in this area though. Anyhow, recent-poo:

Last week's





This week, where I was clobbered by awesome pieces that show where I need improvement---like all over...:P

at conceptart.org...i think, in the spirit of dsg, this piece is a bit overdone. 4hrs Painter

Just managed to finish baking a loaf of sourdough bread from my very own starter. The smell is all through my apartment, and it tastes real yummy. I don't know just what it is about fresh bread that makes it taste so good, but right now, I'm not really caring.

I think I'll be trying to make the sourdough cinnamon rolls next time, as soon as I get more flour. That last recipe took most of the bag that I had.

...for a now defunct project that I went though the trouble of making, and signing a contract for, with a fellow who said he was a writer, but turned out to be a flake. Live and learn.

What I get for going to digital webbing for a collaboration for.



I don't think I did too badly. I was even nice and professional-like, and managed not to burst out into hideous laughter when he wrote, in an email to me,

"You seem to want what the norm is and what you think will sell better....I'm not in this for the money."

Then why make me revise the characters in the first place?

I was trying to get him to rewrite the script into a comic book format to make it easier for me to get the pacing right, and to tweak it to make it more interesting than it was. The script was over 300 pages long and set up to be a movie or something, with a lot of transitions that just won't work in a comic. It was also incredably dull to read--I read through it only because, I suppose, the teacher in me felt I had to. I got as far as page 90 before my brain turned to mush due to endless flashbacks of characters that were just introduced.

Anyway...

He decided not rewrite the script, which, I'm afraid, was the deal-breaker for me.

I find this funny though:

He wrote "I'm aiming to do something different than the usual comic book story." As if. That. Hadn't. Been. Done. Before.

I think he never looked at a comic book in his life.

The script was that bad.

I think this may be a bad idea, because it's too mainstream a style. My partner likes it though, so what can I do? I think it'll get lost in the mush that is mainstream comics.


_____________

Rode the scooter today for a bit...it survived and I managed not to fall down this time...

I totally fell off the bike today. Tried to ride down a small hill at a wonky angle. I knew better, but I tried anyway.

Hill: 1
me:0


...with bruises and scrapes on both me and the bike.

I've managed to get my learner's permit for the M1 license here in California, and for the past week have been getting up the nerve for using the scooter I just got on a regular basis. It's actually a lot of fun, and not quite as scary as I thought it would be. I think I managed to buy a good little bike.



I fear big rigs, though. They have far too many blind spots, are huge, and I am this tiny little thing that they are not really looking for on the road. I think it would be a good idea to avoid them as much as possible, which means avoiding the use of freeways.