Is it wrong to love digital art too much?

Is it wrong to love digital art too much?

I don't think so.

In fact I'd guess that the joy to be found doing digital artwork makes up for the many frustrations that other aspects of computing bring into one's life.

I like digital because it's such a challenge... both artistically and mechanically. Somehow it engages both sides of one's brain in a delightful way.

The 'geek' brain gets an excercise in logic, figuring and analyzing all the while... and the artistic side of the brain is equally challenged. And then there are those special moments when ideas arrive, and one breaks through to a new level of understanding, building on the techniques of the past all the while.



I've finally discovered a new line quality that I just luv... simple, fast and changeable. It's got bits that remind me a little of japanese prints and touches of andy warhol. Such fun!

Making art of any sort is fun... but it all usually begins with an idea & the lowly pencil. And when I get bored doing digital art, there's always my watercolor paper, brushes and real paints.

If books were like movies...

If books were like movies, then this new book I've been working on would be a historical costume drama. It's non-fiction in theory, but I've tried to make it read like a fictional story. It's set in the past... 100 years ago, so it appears that everyone is in costume.

It's more of a Jules Verne type story, with astonishing adventure to do with dirigibles, flying bicycles and that sort of thing. I actually sent away to the patent office trying to get some kind of copyright on the story, since I think it'd make a terrific movie. And that was even before I sold it to G.P. Putnams & Sons B.F.Y.R.

I have discovered that it requires a goodly deal of attention to detail to recreate scenes from a past age. In fact it takes a LOT of drawing! It requires drawing until one's hand is ready to fall off, essentially.

Just categorically, I'm sure in the last few months I have drawn the following: (partial listing):

4 horses, complete with harness detailing
3 carriages (those spoked wheels are challenging!)
3 antique motor cars
15 vintage skyscrapers including the Flatiron building
150 costumed extras for background scenes
17 feathered hats
12 pigeons
15 bicycles (bicycles are notoriously difficult to draw)
16 bowler hats and the gentlemen wearing them
12 straw hats and the gentlemen wearing them
14 ladies in fancy full length skirts
16 dirigibles
16 victorian houses
16 assorted odd children in vintage garb
1 Titanic like steam ship
7 odd bizarre flying machines
4 picket fences... (those take a while)
2 ironwork fences (those do too!)
5 assorted lawns and park settings
4 barn interiors with multitudes of tools and furniture
22 drawings of the main character
17 drawings of the character's mother
12 drawings of the pet dog
1 complete vintage fire fighting crew, with antique firefighting pump truck
5 barrels
37 tiny people in a crowd, with aerial perspective

Oh... and I have drawn the complete 1904 World's Fair including Ferris Wheel.


I mention all of this mostly to point out the difficulty of achieving such a task for someone who basically has a hard time drawing. I make up for it with erasing and stubbornness though.

I think my next book effort will be an emotionally based story with two cute little animal characters... no crowd scenes or perspective required!

p.s. No, this is not the finished art... just the pencils. And that's the drawing just for one scene!

If at first you don't succeed...

Paint, Paint again.

This painting started off as something else entirely.

But I had fun finishing it off in a new way that wasy completely different.

I knew from the start that it would be impossible to mess up this painting. So much of painting seems first to just make the brushstroke, and second, figuring out ways to correct regrettable brushtrokes.

I guess it's knowing when to quit is part of the secret.

From travail to triumph!

Yes... I am pleased to say my web-hosting and domain name transfer have gone through at last. It almost gives one a delusional sense of grandeur to be able to fine tune the DNS server settings, add in masking, re-point a secondary domain name.... and I haven't even started with the email yet.

Such triumph! Almost overtook the absurd rejection letter I received today. I suppose one problem with getting such a letter is that it contains that slipperiest, most illogical of all creatures... an opinion.

Editors, of course, are not sensitive to the fact that when they praise one's writing, but add that one's artwork isn't quite up to par... when sending said opinion to a professional illustrator who has for decades earned a living selling artwork... this is illogical to say the least.

Well, what can I say? Opinions are free... everyone has one, naturally.

:0)

Flower Children & HTML Gnomes

I wonder if when H.G. Wells wrote 'The Time Machine', whether he was writing about today's world of HTML and the internet?

I was always struck by the two kinds of Future people. There were the surface dwelling Flower Children, who lived lives of blissful simplicity in the sunlit gardens above... carefree and ideal. But their carefree existence was preyed upon by the dark underworld Gnomes... evil creatures who lived via their technology, in an underground world. The evil Gnomes might emerge anytime into the midst of the sunlit paradise, to grab a Flower Child for dinner every now and then.

That's how I see the internet... we internet users, the Flower Children live carefree lives, until one of the HTML beasts rears it's ugly head. I've been wrestling with the Gnomes lately.... trying to transfer my site to a new internet host.

Ah, the Joys of the Gnome underworld of HTML! What Flower Child would not rejoice at the choices that multiply without end? The endless tunnels and complicated choices? Gnomes do not speak regular english after all. They speak HTML... a language laden with evil words such as:

'PleskXHTML to PHP standard Single Domain SSL ns43.domaincontrol.com ns44.domaincontrol.com ns3.secureserver.net ns4.secureserver.net SMTP Setting POP3 Setting MYSQL DATABASE sub-domain CBI-b CBI-a $usertable= $username="your_dbusername"; $password="your_dbpassword"; $dbname="your_dbusername"



More to the point... I myself encountered a Gnome the other day, out in the garden. He had popped up from a hatch beneath an azalea bush. He was plainly sizing me up for lunch. I stared him in the eye. He growled at me and said:

" LxAdmin Host-in-a-box is using lighttpd and djbdns and only consumes 9MB RSS and 15MB memory usage on bootup on the OpenVZ platform. mysql_select_db($dbname);"

Staring him down I replied,

"HyperVM is a multi-tiered, multi-server, multi-virtualization software allowing a VPS vendor to provision, manage and delegate Xen or OpenVZ based Virtual Private Servers. HyperVM also comes integrated with Lxadmin hosting control panel which means that, using HyperVM, the provider can deploy a full fledged web hosting system out-of-the-box. HyperVM also allows users to manage VPS' across multiple servers transparently!"

Usually technology is a Love/Hate thing for me... but some days it's totally Hate/Hate all the way!

lol!

The Mountain & the Moon

Here's Mt. Rainier... some 60 miles distant. It doesn't really seem this imposing in real life, that's just the magic of the 'telephoto lens effect'. Usually in fact, you can't even see the mountain. Even on a clear day, there's too much humidity or clouds in the way to get a view of it.



Still an active volcano, it's gonna go off some day, like it's cousin Mt. St. Helens did back in 1980. It ought to do wonders for real estate values... making the city more affordable once again.

I didn't notice the rowers out in their boats when I took the picture... amazing what a little sunshine will do to motivate people to get out.


And here's the last full moon... the 'Wolf Moon' it's called, as I read somewhere.

The only gear I used for the moon picture was a tripod and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.

I had it on maxium optical zoom... at which point (18 times optical) it was somewhat difficult keeping the moon within the camera viewfinder. Being slightly sloshed didn't help much, though it did make sitting on the front porch in the freezing moonlight a bit easier.

:0)

Icy & Slippery...

There's a new house in the neighborhood. It seems almost like a UFO landed in the midst of mostly plain and modest little clapboard dwellings. It's kind of startling actually.

It startled me the other day... whist walking to the grocery store, down a very steep hill, I was so entranced staring at it's roof-line that I failed to keep my eyes on the icy sidewalk.

Next thing I know my left knee is whacking into the concrete with severe pain...my right leg shot out ahead of me... and there I was, all akimbo, laying sideways on the sidewalk wondering if I'd broken my kneecap or something.

It is truly asonishing how one's mind copes with these situations. Anyhow... I was lying there afraid to move at all when two carpenters came up the sidewalk.

"Look out for that ice!" I warned them.
"Oh I know all about that damn ice!" one of them replied... "It got my knee!"
"Me too!" I shouted, still wracked with pain. "I was looking at the damn house and slipped and fell"
"I was looking at the blueprints when I slipped", replied the carpenter with the gusto of a shared misfortune.

Luckily nothing was broken and I'm fine. I did think it hilarious that the exact same slippery patch claimed two knees in such a short span of time. Both of them distracted by the architecture!

Very icy!

Twas brillig...

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
(translation: It was a bright cold day at the beach)


All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe
(translation: Just a few remnants left of summer... at least it's not pelting down rain!)



And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
(translation: I just luv the lens range of my new camera... here's the wide-angle)


Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
(translation: And from the same spot, a telephoto photo of Mt. Baker in the distance. I think the curvature of the earth shows in this photo...Amazing telephoto from such a little camera.)

Cloud Gets Trapped...

Cloud gets trapped in high reaching branches...


I think lichen probably thrives in this climate...


The door to my studio...


The trusty coffee can scarcely ages over the decades.

Snowy Day

Snowy steps... and sunshine! That's a rarity around here lately.


a snowy lawn... a dusting that is.


a bright studio is nice to be in...


cat's not going out either!

Adventures in Plumbing

Lately, a good deal of my life has been devoted to plumbing. Let me assure you, it has been an adventure!

I had a clogged bathtub.

First I tried snaking and plunging. Days of snaking and plunging and Liquid Plumber. All to no avail. Being stubborn, I just tried harder. The real disaster came on day 3. I decided to try a new pure sulfuric acid plumbing product.

It was a new sort of drain cleaner which is primarily pure sulfuric acid. I had never seen this product before, so being curious about how effective it might be, I bought some.

Let me tell you, the results were a total disaster! Worse than the clogged drain!

I carefully read the instructions... I poured the cleaner down the drain as instructed and covered it with a pan. 5 minutes later I noticed an awful egg smell... even from way upstairs. I rushed down and ran the cold water. The drain was not unplugged... the water backed up into the tub. The egg smell in the bathroom was truly toxic... unbelievable. I opened all the windows and doors and put on an exhaust fan. Even 4 hours later the smell was still there.

But I'm not complaining about the awful smell. What SHOCKED me was that the previously antique ivory tub was now stained with horrible ugly brown stains, just from the sulfuric acid fumes! (photo) This was some sort of chemical reaction that was horrifying to experience!!!


I tried scrubbing the stains with an abrasive cleanser. No effect whatsoever! These stains appeared to be permanent! I can't begin to tell you how angry this made me... the thought of a lawsuit crossed my mind. I was VERY UPSET. Mental anguish would be putting it mildly.

And to top it all off, it had FAILED to unplug my drain.

I searched Google to see if there was anything online about this. I soon found other people having the exact same problem. They recommended Lysol toilet bowl cleaner to remove the stains.

In a moment of inspired despair, I then tried pouring regular Liquid Plumber down the drain.. hoping to at least unplug the drain. But then I noticed another chemical reaction... the Liquid Plumber was removing the horrible stains wherever it made contact with the porcelain. A chemical antidote!

So next I put on a pair of industrial rubber gloves and with a solution of Liquid Plumber and water was able to clean the majority of the stains off! What a lucky accidental discovery! Now at least the tub was restored to it's faded glory. I should have worn a respirator too...


Anyhow, after a week of trying everything under the sun, I finally called in my pal Sal... a real plumber.

Luckily, our only misadventure was cutting through a water pipe. There was water gushing all over for 2 minutes. But now it's all working perfectly and the tub drains so rapidly it almost sounds like a jet powered geyser... less than a minute and it's empty!

First comes the plumbing... then the Art! That's the necessary order of things.

So much for my adventure in plumbing... now it's back to Art! Like Nietsche said... "Man would be a God were it not for his abdomen".

lol!

Horizontal Photographs

A light... a mystery


Two pathways... a choice


Early Spring... a welcome sight!