llothcat

Artwalk in Riverside Ca

2009-07-03T10:32:32Z

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.

11secondclub.com

2009-05-24T10:32:07Z

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

Update

2009-04-22T03:43:18Z

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

11 second club fun and blender 3d fun

2009-03-02T16:46:10Z

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

11 second club fun and blender 3d fun

2009-03-01T16:11:22Z

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.

Frustrations this month

2009-02-22T17:43:31Z

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.

omg...too long away...

2009-02-11T11:37:29Z

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.

Distractions

2009-01-20T17:25:07Z

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.

Panels of the Week entry POW16

2008-11-17T16:04:57Z

Panels of the Week entry POW15

2008-10-27T21:59:10Z

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

This'll likely label me a nutcase...

2008-10-21T12:47:33Z

...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....:

blockage and brain farts

2008-10-12T14:27:21Z

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.

before I run out of juice...

2008-09-28T16:09:44Z

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

yay...progress in the ART front..

2008-09-22T16:12:22Z

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

something from dsg

2008-09-01T14:46:05Z

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

mmmmm...sourdough bread......

2008-08-27T10:55:26Z

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.

revision of the characters

2008-08-25T15:19:39Z

...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.

The re-do

2008-08-20T04:56:23Z

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...

Scooter update...

2008-08-18T05:14:21Z

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.

Riding a scooter...

2008-08-17T04:40:06Z

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.

Oh...great....

2008-08-14T02:58:15Z

My ideas got rejected. They look too much like "futurama". The only thing that was liked was the clothes.

Starting over. At least I didn't waste my time with actually getting a few comic pages done and finding this out.

YAY!

2008-08-12T13:22:30Z

I finally got a scooter!

It's SOOOOOOoo cute...and I don't have a camera to share it.

Up next, learning how to ride it. M1 or M2 licensing, which means a trip to the DMV, likely today:P

______________________

CSET test #2...I passed!

...now for test #3, but that can wait a wee bit.

Working for 24hrs...

2008-08-09T17:13:03Z

I'm tired. But I got the post I wanted, permanently, which is awesome. I will be able to substitute teach thanks to the schedule and hours. Yay me!

I think I'll be buying that scooter sooner rather than later. The gas prices are not likely to go down anytime soon, and both my incomes highly depend upon me being mobile. They get goooooood gas mileage, and they're really cute.

No 3d modeling done this week. Instead I have been working on character sketches for a project that I volunteered for. It's a long shot, but if done right, I think I may have my TMNT moment that all independant comic makers dream of. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

anyhow, since there's not NDA involved here:

Still many things to work out on it. Like giant robots and mad scientist settings, and "ninja red riding hoods". Fun stuff.

Going to sleep now.

more stuffage...

2008-08-01T07:41:08Z

I had the chance to futz around with blender today for a short while. I was having brain farts as to what I wanted to do. I finally decided just to set up this file for texture mapping. Now, I've just got to decide just how much I want to do.

There is also the matter of making different kinds of tunnels, such as this one:

Not really sure of what kind, if any, of textures to use on it.

material setting to ...

2008-07-28T20:12:28Z

get the uv to show up on a render in blender3d v.2.46

On earlier versions of blender, the uv render didn't always work. I remember fiddling around with this:

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

....and getting pissed off because my carefully arranged lettering at the top of the box wasn't showing up when I had rendered the box in the same scene with the "tunnels". My solution was to render both separately and then recombine them with Premier, which I was already using due to the tunnel color change. BTW: The box was the one that had the green screen, not the tunnels.

I remember fighting the camera settings a lot too. Came up with some pretty strange effects that I doubt I can do again.

I could forever tweak that short animation, trying to get it exactly the same as the real opening of the show, but I do know it will never match exactly due to the inherent differences in the different 3d program renderings. Plus, I really don't think the the BBC actually used 3d to get some of the effects you see going on in their opening.