I'm pretty psyched, according to the UPS website, the air compressor I order should arrive this evening. That means if I am trapped in for the weekend due to the weather, I'll feel totally not guilty about sitting around for three days oing nothing but practicing my airbrushing.
I've had the airbrush itself for a while. I've always wanted to get into airbrushing. I feel it is exactly the sort of painting experience and look I want to obtain. Through out my many years of painting, I've been trying to obtain a "look" with brush and acrylics that I eventually figured out is in fact what results from the airbrush.
And, yes, a big thrust towards airbrush is the fact that my biggest artistic influence (HR Giger) uses one.
I have a little Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS airbrush... and the Iwata Smart Jet is on it's way.
*SQUEE!*
The following are the results from tweaking the program I presented in my last entry. I decided to see what happens when I got rid of the lines, and just let the circles fill the screen. I was pleasantly surprised!! As you can tell, I made minor changes to the code and got many, many different results. The following are a select few:
( Lot's more under cut!! )
My first few visual works generated entirely through code, in the Processing language. All are randomly generated from the same code (though with some obvious slight tweaks.) The heart of the code is an iteration that randomly selects a point on the screen and draws a line. Each drawn line extends until it hits the edge of the screen, or hits another line. This repeats for anywhere between 24,000 and 30,000 times.
And in the case of the fourth one... I have it draw a cirle where ever it crashes into another line.
Click to see larger versions...
Also a couple screen shots from my increasingly complex artificial life simulation. Though, the pictures aren't much to look at, the real entertainment is seeing them in motion. Swimming around, latching onto food and humping each other...
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milkgonebad posted this in her journal (thank you!) so I assume its cool if I post it as well.
The above is a comic a did for some freaky weirdos who are starting a monthly "alterna-dance" night at Geno's here in Po'tlan'. The night is called DYSTOPIA and it has promised to help you get your "rawk on" and to cure your syphilis.
Or maybe, it will get your "rocks off" and give you syphilis.
I'm not really sure about the details.
My office caught on fire today. No joke. I got paid to be outside in the beautiful weather for three hours (but, being goth, I sat under the shade of a dying tree). It was pretty radical. But not enough damage was done, so I had to go back in and finish out my day. :\
I'm in that weird pre-vacation restlessness. Where I want to do tons of stuff but don't want to engage myself in something involved, knowing that I will have to pack up and head to NYC in a week or two. For example, I want to order some more tools/materials for the leather crafting, but goodness knows if I will get my orders in time. And if I do, I won't exactly have much time to work on stuff. So I am slowly driven mad, not much of an outlet for my energies.
I'm looking forward to NYC, a lot. I need some time and clear my head and get some perspective for the future -- both personal and professional. I'm bringing my electronic abacus (ie, my really old and crappy laptop) to get some writing done (I'll be posting the beginnings of my serial novel-ish works soon) and work on some designs for t-shirts. I'm hoping to kick things into a higher gear once I get back from NYC. Hopefully make small, but significant steps toward my goal of professional doer of awesome.
Self-doubt beats me down on a daily basis, but I hope to drown such things in the Hudson river. To return from NYC with new determination. To live fully and completely in that vision.
Did I mention my office caught on fire today?
Are you familiar with the burning bush?
A sign of greater purpose.
 I rarely paint in green... |
Well, since I'm likely going to be homebound due to my car issues (see previous entry), I guess I should take this time to get some painting done. Here is another painting I started this evening (no, I never finished that blue one with the three chicks... my emotional mood has drifted past that). I don't have a name for it yet. Usually something comes to me through the process, and I have barely just begun this work. As I've mentioned before, color caries heavy symbolism in my art, especially my paintings. Green tends to represent growth, fecundity, and creative energies, on the positive side, but also obession, greed, excess and hedonistic distraction on the negative end of things. And if you missed it, see the purple painting I did recently. I want to get enough paintings done to actually have a little gallery showing... someday. |
I took a bunch of the weird emotional/drama stuff I have been directly or indirectly involved in and used it to form the following painting. It's been a long time since I've actually sat down and painted, so I decided to do this instead of sleep on Saturday night. It isn't finished yet, but I thought I would share...
klemrev and I ransacked a local art store that is having a going-out-of-business sale. I bought some brightly colored plastic thread stuff and craft foam to use in future hair falls.klemrev found a bin that had scraps of leather. I bought every piece of black leather I could find.
Hrmmm... whatever-the-hell am I supposed to do with all this black leather?!
;)
 All I want is some clothing made out of a potentially hazardous industrial chemical -- is that really so much to ask for? |
Being an artist means that you spend your life in constant frustration, wading through the remains of an innumerable amount of failed projects. My living space becomes a graveyard of creative abortions -- used, shredded, consumed, shat out and disposed of -- a mocking monument to my incredible ineptitude as an artist. The conversion of some cast-off blue vinyl pants into a sexy little skirt (pictured, left) is tough going. I shreded the thing and am now desperately trying to get it all to fit together. I bought some nylon thread to stitch it together, but the material is worn and I'm afraid the stitching will not hold (if I even had the skill to sew it properly). Instead I opted to use some liquid stitch fabric glue to at least get all the pieces into place. But the stuff holds like shit. I'm going to let what I have so far dry over night, and if it doesn't work I"m going to saturate the entire thing in fookin' Gorilla Glue. That'll hold anything. This project may be a failure and that makes me both sad and greatly frustrated. This will only fuel my fear of working with fabrics. I have a bolt of stretch black vinyl that I haven't dared touch since I bought it. Anything I do will likely turn something so beautiful into shit. I'm also frustrated with just about every other creative venture at the moment. I think I am zeroing in on finding the kind of vibe I want for my music (in hopes of releasing a new lemur album before year's end), but the exact sound still escapes me. I've been working on not less than three dozen tracks and I hate everyone of them. Recently (as in the past 27 hours) I think I have finally pieced together the world (atmosphere/backstory) that will act as the setting for my dark, sci-fi-ish adventure tales. And as exciting as that is, I'm now feeling powerless in the face of the daunting task of actually trying to some how put all of this into some kind of approachable, consumable product that I can then share with all of you. angerbunny is working with me to try and bring some of this out in the for of graphic novels.It's all so damn maddening! I have an overwhelming need to create, but feel like I can never really bring it into being. I'm never fully successful. The closest I ever get is a beautiful bastardization of the original vision. It's frustrating and makes me want to stab a screwdriver into my temple so I don't have to think about it all anymore. |
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uncomfortable
Today's painting is not quite as delightful as past experiments. I've just been feeling really angry, confused and anxious as of late and, as I often do, tried to capture that in artform.
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predatoryAnyone know where one could get prints made up of their artwork?
I'm really happy with the current trends in my creative pursuits and I would like to make them availble for sale.
Recent events have expedited the desire to seek fundage elsewhere.
depressed
This is today's little experiment into this weirdo style I stumbled upon. Today I had three distinct goals... 1) Using a different color for highlighting (originally it was white, but it was way too bright so I colored it). 2) Using a different color to create a blood vessel like effect (for those who know my art, you will know I like blood vessels**). 3) To see if I could create a BRAIDED look, as you will see at the bottom, used in the harpy's wings.
Not bad... but it still needs tons of work. But I must say, I'm absolutely excited by this current artistic flow! I think I've hit upon something I really enjoy working with! And to think it started by sort of accident. As I was just telling someone on AIM, basically I was freaking out about how I can never realize the visions I see in my head. In a fit of frustration I opened a new Photoshop file and smeared some red paint on the canvas... Lady and the Swan was born! O.O
** I studied medical biology in college. Years of studying anatomical drawings got to me and it found its way into my art (to pleasant affect!). So if nothing else, this is what I got from my expensive college education -- I like to draw organs and muscles and veins and genitals and stuff.
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contemplative 0701212255 - Purple Bianca |
Just another experiment with this style. One of the most appealing textures, visual realities, to me is the look of polished latex or PVC. I'm not sure what it is about it, but I find it so hypotic and beautiful. It's been a goal of mine in my artistic pursuits to learn how to re-create this effect and then use it as a basis for numerous visual projects. This work, and those like it, are part of that exploration. I used a picture of the beautiful Bianca Beauchamp as reference for this work. |
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contentMy apologies... It's an "art day." I'm sitting here working on some sketches for the Maine Roller Derby logo and I keep getting distracted...
On the off chance that all you weirdos that visit my site/LJ might know a little about the subject, does anyone know of any resources for learning Kinbaku/Rigger rope/bondage art techniques? I'm trying to gather resources, but searching for such things often brings up creepy, porno, icky stuff, not the more serious artistic pursuits.
Today I ventured with my elven friend, Melian, into the desolate realms of downtown Portland to find this so-called "Place of Great Awesome" (aka The Portland Artist Co-op). I spoke with the founder and manager of the establishment and became immensely excited about what was taking place in that space.
The Portland Artist Co-op is a "public market" for local artists to display and sell their creations. Michelle, the lady to whom I had spoke, said she is looking for a place where artists of all mediums can come together under a single banner and cross-promote, without the bullshit attitudes and other such snobbery. This is EXACTLY what I am all about and I strive to find environments that are high on creativity and low on snobbery (because I think such elitist, suppressive foolishness is counter productive and really the antithesis of a pursuit that is supposedly about personal expression and freedom of thought). This underlying philosophy is exactly the reason I enjoy being around the scene surrounding Plague and the crew at Vivid Motion.
Being a (semi-)starving artist, I'm not entirely sure at this point whether or not I can truly afford to fund the renting of space at the Co-op. As it is right now, my finances are super tight. But I feel I need to at least give it a shot.
So it's limited fun and eating nothing but rice for the foreseeable future. O.o
I'm also approaching this from the trans-angle: Since my experiences being transgendered have affected my art in a major way, it seems only fitting to try and sell my art to help pay the medical bills. I will be volunteering this information, letting this intention be known, when I get around to displaying my work at the co-op. My thought is to have the header of the display bearing the name of one of my past works, something that sums it all up rather well: The TransForm
I'm so overtly annoyed at my drawing ability. I'm so damn inconsistant and messy as an artist. I love VG Cats because the art is so insanely clean. How is that done?!!
I may have to just face the fact that I am just a messy artist, so being absolute spot clean may just not be in may cards. But I feel there is an aesthetic quality to cartoons that I am missing. Even in messier art styles (see: Jhonen Vasquez) there is still that quality that really catches the eye, so its not all about perfectly clean lines (though I would still love to be able to pull that off).
So what is it? What the hell am I missing? I think I've improved in my art, but it still falls so far from where I would like it to be. On ocassion I create a Dis strip I kind of like, but the rest I post only after many hours of tormenting myself over how much I think they suck.
thelemurgod: Not his own cheerleader.
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