Old cats can sometimes be useful...

[Ilaekae]

Found most of the old stuff... Now all I have to do is expand the dinky tute I put up on composition, finish the next 5 sections or so, finish my LMS3 piece (Which will be MIND-BOGGLING!--Hurricane may take me down, but he's gonna be hurt bad in the process...), get the comics activity started, finish my filing for Social Security, and feed the cats first. Then...it's sketchbook time...

I'll let a hint slip on the LMS3 piece...it's on exwives...heeheehee...

[Sepulverture]

Ex-wives? Good hell those are scary... I know about those.

[alesoun]

I'm not going to moan about not having this or that function on Artrage; the fact is, with time I should be able to manage much better. So, to try everybody's time and patience......


249863

What I don't understand is that when I'm working on the pic in Artrage, the colours are much more subdued (like somebody had laid tracing paper over them),- but when I post, the colours are really hot. I've just pulled the original work up to compare it; and I'm definitely not imagining it. It's not scanned, so I can't blame the scanner, and I'm comparing both on the same monitor. I promise I'm not making excuses. Does anybody know what's happening here, and how I can put it right?


251767

[Sepulverture]

Doesn't Adobe has the photoshop essentials available for free download? I can't remember, but i know photoshop essentials comes free when you buy various things.

[alesoun]

Sadly, not the Adobe I've got...

[llothcat]

ok, I'll show you how to do this with the Gimp for Windows..'cause this is getting a bit painful for me to watch....

...after work, that is.

yeesh...!

[Chance.]

Forgive me Master!!!

:ilaekae: :lounge:

I won't be able to do this weeks assignment. IIIIIIII'mmmmm Soooooooooorrry!!!

All of my deadlines are coming together at the same time. I should be back in gear by the end of next week.

Please don't kick me out!!!

I'll keep checking in and harassing you like usual, You'll never know I'm gone.

Here you can have my new griffin as a sacrifice to cool your wrath!

[Ilaekae]

Stick to coffe and beer, my little munchkin. Those funny purple pills are makin' you hyper. Don't worry about missing a bit of time here and there. i'll be here when you get back. There will even be times when i'll have to disappear for a few days, but I'll make sure everybody knows it...:P

Nice griffin, btw. I'd take a good look at his wings, though. That poor sucker has a garden hose holding his feathers up instead of bones...The top of the wings should be heavy like you have--and straight, with maybe a little tip down at the end. Then the feathers go from there, which means that the heavy structure you have at the left should actually be biggish feathers. Sorry...couldn't help it. :P

[llothcat]

alesoun:


tutorial...yep, it's ugly, but hopefully clear:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112258


and where you can get the Gimp in the first place, various platforms, of course:

http://www.gimp.org/

no excuses now:D

(oh lookie, a new version is out....I like nice new shiny toys to play with...!)

I don't know anything about artrage since version 1...I abandoned it because of it's lack of layers support. What you're going though might be something in the program itself. Hopefully you callibrated your monitor when you got it:D

You might want to shop around for an older version of painter on Ebay. That's where I got my version over 2 years ago. Been very happy with it since.

[llothcat]

In an effort to get my wacom to stop jiggling, I've been spending the past 2 days putting a new desk/workspace together. It helped, but I'm too beat to do art today. Will post the corrections tomorrow for both pieces:D

[alesoun]

I got the gimp, and we're now engaged in a battle of mutual and unwavering hatred. I may be gone some time.....

[Chance.]

Aaaah... I puzzled over some raptor images I have but they weren't very good so I couldn't figure out what was going on. You comment makes a lot of sense.

BUT HECK, I don't want him flying off! He's not much more than a garden ornament. So the whole "hose wing" theme actually kinda makes sense.
I want to get my hands in the clay again, this was kinda fun! My portfolio is going to be so weird. Half of the pieces in it are the first I have ever done in those particular medium. First acrylics, pastels, sculpture, 35mm photography, scratch board.

Digital and pencil are the only ones I have any "experience" in if you can even call it that.

Hey! I'm getting a digital slr camera for Christmas! What a great new tool to work on composition with! Photography! I'm hoping it will help me rethink how I approach my art. Don't worry though, 2d art will always be my main form of expression. (Unless I find I'm really good at photography or sculpture, unlikely)

So, the five day countdown begins! The only problem is, by getting my present, (note that it is singular) early I won't have anything to open on Christmas :davi:
Whatever if I'm going to take pictures this christmas I've got to have some time to figure the contraption out.

[Ilaekae]

Know the feeling. I always used 35mm film cameras, but all 45 of mine are so old they need major repairs, and I haven't had the time to tackle it yet. Last Christmas, I got my wife a nice digital for about $400 bucks that she never takes with her because she "doesn't want to lose it..." Sigh...

So about a month ago, she bought a $130 little digital and said I could have the "old one." So, all I have to do is read 300 pages of directions and learn to stop swearing in public, and I have a "new" digital camera... :P

I like the way you "play." We all should do it more. When I was in school, there weren't any computers, so we dove into every media we could and learned how to make it work. Some we liked, some we hated, but we did 'em all... Nowadays, I'm not sure what we've got is actually an improvement. Everyone seems to "specialize" too early--probably something that can't be helped with the technology and work-world evolving as fast as it does, but I can't help feeling that something is missed by not just diving in and making a fool of yourself with something you've never tried before. 75% of what I learned as a painter still comes back to me when I work on the comp, and I sometimes end up doing things that are thoroughly stupid by modern standards but work for me. For example, I often execute a multi-layered "drawing" in Illustrator of the areas that are important or hard to execute cleanly in PS so I can use them as a sort of "stencil"--like in silk screening. When i'm through, I just toss 'em out. Saves me hours/days of work on a really complex piece...

[llothcat]

I got the gimp, and we're now engaged in a battle of mutual and unwavering hatred. I may be gone some time.....

hopefully not too long:D

[Ilaekae]

I...think...you're enjoying this...just a bit...too...much, llothcat... :P :P :P

[llothcat]

ehhhhh...it's my inner teacher..it slips out sometimes...:P

apologies.....


anyhow..this better?

[Ilaekae]

Much better...

...and what are you apologizing for? The only reason I started teaching 30 years ago was because I knew i'd have a captive audience to annoy the hell out of... :P

[llothcat]

annnnd the 2nd...:


(painter is kicking my ass again...damn pen tool is jiggling a little..and just enough to make the lines that are supposed to be straight a little off.)

[alesoun]

Argh! I've spent untold hours of my life battling something that doesn't even care if I win or it does!. I've discovered a hatred in my heart that could light up a city! I've invented a whole new cornucopia of swearwords!

*Glowers and gets paper out*

Edit: I finally found a way to desaturate it,- but I think I overdid it. See update above...

[Ilaekae]

I somehow lost a day somewhere...sorry about that...

My cats have been particularly annoying lately, so how about something a bit different for an assignment?

ASSIGNMENT 3: GETTING EVEN WITH THE CATS...

Your assignment, if you should choose to accept it, is to humiliate my cats. You will produce, through any means you deem fit (media/style/etc., but no photography) an animal that is part cat, and parts of at least two other REAL animals. You can add one more animal to the mix if you feel adventurous, but no more. The more ridiculous the result, the happier I'll be. Heeheeheehee... little bastards...

The animal should be believable--that is, if it flies for example, it must have proper and large enough wings, and the same goes for any other nasty artifacts you add. We've been boggling for two weeks over boring shit like composition, so I thought it was time to have some fun...hopefully...

Oh...and it can be any kind of cat. And it can be B&W or color--your choice and comfort zone. Just do your best. I'm gonna hit you on believable anatomy, overall design of the critter, the creature's surface treatment and texture (fur, scales, feathers, etc.), and whether I had any coffee yet or not...


I think I missed a few items posted. i'll check them tonight and post tonight or tomorrow.

[Sepulverture]

Hey Teach', I've got something to turn in for assignment two, I'm just beat - don't wanna scan and resize and blah right now, I'll turn it in tomorrow morning though(monday is the beginning of my weekend <3)

[alesoun]

253079

Not my finished image; that has four legs.....

[Sepulverture]

Nice one Alesoun.

This is all I was able to get done Ilaekae, Hope it doesn't suck too bad

[alesoun]

Door and window; black and red felt pen


253719

[Chance.]

So just so's I'mm still an official student and all.

ballpoint pen on notebook paper, low tech, but practical.

I got my camera today, and I also have to do my entire semester project for BIO today cause I put it off till the day before it was due.
So no playing with my camera este dia.

[Alice]

I started making an approach guide, Thanks a whole bunch for the crits. I guess its a wee bit of a bad thing that you imagined me working in my jammies. Not really professional, now is it :p

Anyhow, picked an old actress who died in 1890 I think, and started to redraw her in several different styles and techniques.

http://www.heybaberiba.com/images/350.jpg

http://www.heybaberiba.com/images/351.jpg

:hugsmile:

[Sepulverture]

I get the feeling that Alice posted in the wrong thread, unless i was asleep during something.

[Sepulverture]

Here's some stuff I did for this weeks assignment. I did a super quick cat study to get things down in my noggin before attempting any thoughts.

And a truck sketch.

...vroom

[chaosrocks]

I think alice may have posted in the wrong thread too but its a really nice piece. where woul dyou like me to put it dear?
roxie

[alesoun]

My very first attempt at pastels

254157

Gave it about 10 mins, I think.

Pastels are messy...... I like 'em!

[Alice]

The US advertising market is obviously huge, and you will definitely be able to get work out of it, but there are some idiosyncracies that can drive you nuts. The worst is "type-casting." A lot of these people must be so anal, or so mentally handicapped, that they can't handle someone who can actually do more than one thing well at a time. Because of my long history of running my own business, I picked up /developed at least 30 different...ummm...what people here would call "styles," I guess. I just refer to them as "approaches." You seem to be the same type of person. Bravo! Oh, and that's where the problem comes in...

In the US, many Art Directors and large-agency types have a tendency to pigeon-hole people into what they see as certain areas of expertise. This can cause a multi-directional outsider with a wide-ranging portfolio to be stuffed into a "what-ever..." file, both mentally and literally...and then forgotten. Then, if by some chance you get to do a cartoon, for example, you're a "cartoonist" forever in their minds...and don't really do anything else. Very short-sighted people...

The way to get around this is to prep a series of different pieces (a mail-in portfolio file) each aimed at a particular part of the market and send only the one that you think is most suitable to that market.

My last post was a response to this.
Hope i didnt get it wrong here :)

[Chance.]

I think you are fine Alice, everyone just forgot about you because it has been so long since you posted in here.

[Ilaekae]

Calm down everybody... Alice is in the right place. She's running on a different "thread path" than the rest of you guys. In fact, starting next week, we'll all be doing that so we can move faster and get projects underway that are more suited to everyone's weaknesses and strengths.

I've been in an annoying fight with the feds for the last two days over my Social Security (for you non-US types, that's my "old retired man survival money"), so I have a little bit of catch-up to do, which I'll do tonight and tomorrow morning. Thanks for being patient...



and Chaos...WOOF! Nice ankles... :P

[alesoun]

You want I should set my catfish on them? Chance's beastie can scare 'em into the water first and they won't stand a chance......

See you when you're ready.

Edit: Can I stop with the snake and the boy? Puhleeeeeeez????

[Ilaekae]

On the snake...Yes, Dear...pleeze do... :P

[llothcat]

welp...i got the sketches done for this assignment, but I got distracted by rl badly, (damn OT at work, and an interview for a new job) and another website in which design contests take place. (Hey, it's been a while since I won one, and I wanted extra xmas money. Eh..I lost the contest for likely the same reason i didn't complete this week's assignment yet.:P)

I post something in the morning.:D

[Ilaekae]

Don't sweat it. I'm still working on catch-up myself. Gawd, are we a sorry lot... :P

[Sepulverture]

Illaekae - You sound like a busy fellow in real life, so I was just curious - in regards to posting responses to our work, why not just post it in little chunks as you get them done, instead of large time consuming posts. Perhaps I'm wrong, I don't know your time situation, but it just seems as though posting small chunks would be easier for you, as well as us.

Whatever works for you though naturally, just a though.


meow.

[llothcat]

but, im liking it. Wanted to add snake scales too, and maybe hamster cheek pouches....

[Sepulverture]

Ok, assignment for this week. I present to you: Scorpiat! *dun dun dun*

I tried to get a texture of some sort in there, so I used photoshop+corel painter IX, and made some custom brushes for the kitty cat thing.

[Ilaekae]

Alright, my fine ladies and gentlemen...and you too, Sep...

I'll have comments up today on everything you turned in, and something else as well...

We are no longer doing "one size fits all" assignments. From this point on, I'll be dealing with each of you on a specific project that I tailor to what I think are your little problem areas. we won't have a specific time frame (but you start pulling this gimme-another-month-master bullshit, and you're outta here...), so some of you can move faster than others if you have a better time arrangement.

The main reason I'm so late getting the comments together is I've gone back and studied everything you did so far, and as many of your sketchbooks and other posts as much as i could. I think I finally have a firm enough grasp of what you're capable of and your kinky little flaws to actually start pushing you a bit in a way that makes sense.

Bear with me for a few hours and you'll see what I mean.

I DO have three questions...

llothcat--do you want to go painterly or vector at first, or would you prefer we alternate on our projects?

Alesoun--do you want to work traditionally or try to kill both of us with Gimp/what-all? I'm game for either...I'm old...and I have insurance...:P

Sep--do you want to go for finish-to-paint? Either way, you're going through a lot of pencil work...

I'm going to be asking you for things that will require some searching for reference, submitting thumbnails or roughs, revising those roughs and then starting a final piece, also in stages. That's why there won;t be any real "deadline" except the one we force ourselves to work to.

And just in case TheGnoll and Kronos stop in between their school work--are you two guys still game for going in the directions we origially discussed when you free up enough to start something? And the same for Morganna?

And just so you don't think I forgot you, Chance, I already know where you want to go with things, so don't fret... unless you've changed your mind, I mean...

...?...

I actually...said... "fret"...?! Damn... I need to start drinking again...

[llothcat]

um...how about alternating between the two. Painter was handy for this last assignment, and it does have a pen tool that is like vector (assignment before last assignment). Vector does have is moments though.

I've noticed that I tend to make things way too simplistic, so I'll be working on making things more complex-ish, if I may.

[alesoun]

Traditional or Gimp? Gee....... that's a tough one (not)!
Traditional, please, for the sake of both our sanity.

[Sepulverture]

Ilaekae - Define "finish-to-paint". When you say that are you referring to the thumbnails choose a few i like, more thumbnails, refine then finished piece process, or what?

I prefer to work in pencil just because that's the most flexible medium for me. Meaning I can do pencil drawings at work (I can do colored pencil and, as you've seen, marker drawings but I'm most comfortable right now with black and white pencil.

knowing the importance of being able to paint effectively and efficiently I would like to have a focus on digital painting. I have the materials now to paint traditionally but I'm not willing at the moment to dive into traditional painting media simply because I'll be moving back to east-asia within the next few months and don't have the clams to dish out on painting materials. In addition to the lack of cash I can spend on traditional painting materials I know that many game studios work in the digital for speedy concept works.

Also knowing how fucking slim the chances are that I'd get hired straight away as a concept artist, I'm also going to be dabbling in 3d until I find a niche that grow in.

I want to learn to paint traditionally so after I get up and on my feet back in Asia I'll be more than happy to delve into that realm, otherwise whatever your grandfather clock noggin thinks this one should practice on, this one will do.

[Sepulverture]

Yawn.

On a side note I HATE FUCKING COREL PAINTER.

[/venting]

[alesoun]

Ha ha! I hate Gimp! (We could start a revolution here....)

[Sepulverture]

Alesoun, I like your thinking.

I'll get the broken beer bottles and firearms, you do whatever it is that Alesouns do.

[alesoun]

Eye of frog and toe of newt
Nuke digital 'til it plays cute.
If it won't make all things such,-
We'll just kick-drop it into touch!

[Sepulverture]

music to me ears

[alesoun]

Links arms with Sepulverture and walks down the yellow brick road scattering magnets at software.....

[Chance.]

Uh, magnets are just going to fry your HARDWARE. Take some glass to your cd's if it makes you feel better

Besides I like digital apps.... HEY! GET THAT GUILLOTINE AWAY FROM ME YOU NUTS!!! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? THE FREAKIN' FRENCH OR SOMETHING?--AAHG! LEGGO MY ARM!!! ILAEKAE SAAAAVE MEEEEE!

[Sepulverture]

no one can save you NOW MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[alesoun]

Your lightest wish is my command......

257852

[Sepulverture]

now just think... if ILAEKAE WERE HERE that cd wouldn't have had to die so needlessly. muahaha.

[guggemmaneuver]

hiya folks...
Finally, an opportunity has opened up for me to be messenger to unregistered senile cats. just passing along a message:

Originally posted by Ilaekae:
I haven't been able to get into the
forum for a couple of days now (3 or 4 I think). The problem's at my
end. I was working on my back room and knocked over a heavy metal
ladder...which missed my computer by 2" but landed smack on my modem.
It's now in eight pieces, and I've been able to get it working
sporadically with some tape and a bit of solder, but I can only get
hit and miss access to my email account. I can't go online past that.

A new one is supposed to be here thursday or friday morning, but I
have no way to alert my kids in the mentoring section. Can you please
get a message to Chaos and/or Seedling for me and explain the
situation, and they can take it from there. I should be back online
about an hour after the modem arrives, whenever that is...

Thanks

Ilaekae

g

[chaosrocks]

don't stop working you bumms
just because the cat isn't around to spurr you on
and smack you every now and then

make him proud
:ilaekae:

[Sepulverture]

Well shit son, if it is modem woes that's got the old cat in trouble I could have sent him one of the dozens that I have.

Thanks for passing the message along G-man.

Chaos - yes ma'am

[Sepulverture]

Oi! The old one told me my understanding of the anatomy of the back was lame at best... only not in so many words, so I did this last night while at work. Im gonna do more. Really I am.

[Chance.]

That is a really nice muscle study. You are going to be shocked at how much this sort of thing affects your imagined work.

[Sepulverture]

Ayuh. I've done real anatomy studies here and there throughout my sketchbook. I was really tearing through them last year dunno what happened to me this year.

[alesoun]

258809

[Chance.]

ok so I have this huge project to finish in the next few days. I don't know how I'm going to get it done but we shall see. It is due early next week.

I have to pull together 4 maybe 5 color illustrations plus a b&w ink one and then a few small, middle of the page sort of things.
I'm posting the first one that I am working on for all you lovely people to tear up. Just know that this is the final compostion and all adjustments from this point on must be in the details.
I am having a difficult time aranging the little girl on the guys lap.
The goal is to obtain a warm, safe, cozy, winter by the fire feel.

thanks guys.

[alesoun]

I think the little girl would look more comfortable facing toward the fire, Chance. She would naturally sit on a lap sideways anyway, so that she could interact with her father.

They're both sitting staring into space; maybe they could look at each other, or the fire, or the dog?

[Sepulverture]

I know that you're not done coloring this yet, but I just want to say that the composition is getting fucked by the treatment of the colors as is.

Remember to use a lot of reds, and oranges as I'm sure you already know to pull off the warm look, using some cool blues and soft white/blueish colors in the windows for the snow outside (as it seems there should be) would help the inside look warmer by comparison.

Soften up the look on that guys face, right now he has a very stern look about him.

I did a little paintover to demonstrate a few things, including a pose I think might work for the girl.

EDIT: Looks like Alesoun and I were thinking the same thing for the girl. Also, you need to get rid of all the whites in the fireplace. I'm sure this is something you'd have done anyway, but it's really cooling everything down. In some situations the color white can be taken as a really hot color, in others it can make a really cold looking color, as is here it's really cold.

[Ilaekae]

Alright, I leave for a couple of days and the entire bunch tries to overthrow the government of OZ...you oughta be ashamed of yourselves... :P

I hope you all had a good laugh over my little purdikament. I found it rather interesting actually. I discovered if you hot-wired a smashed modem with phone wire and taped the damn thing together, for some weird reason, you could SOMETIMES access your email account, but you couldn't get the browser to work. Still haven't figured that one out. I actually did get in here three times by hitting the whole mess with my shoe, so apparently I missed a loose piece of wiring somewhere...

Just so you understand what happened-- I have a back room that was added on by the previous owner (a sub-human mushroom with no construction skills what-so-ever, and the engineering abilities of a wombat) which I've been trying to rebuild and add bookshelves and some closets to for the last year or so in my spare time. It happens to be where the computer equipment is.

I also have six cats, one of which is a gray and black tabby named Tazz that thinks he's a dog, which may actually be the case, since he weighs 31 pounds, stands up on his hind end for head scratches and to beg for food, and follows me around like a puppy where ever I go. He, like myself, is NOT FAT! We are simply...big-boned. And like most...BIG-BONED...people, we don't often see our feet, especially when carrying a 50-pound box across the room. Tazz led the way as usual for about 10 feet, but suddenly decided it was time to stop cold, turn around and stand up for a head scratch...all completely out of my sight line... Now when two big-boned entities meet head-on, a rather graceful dance ensues, completely beyond the ability of a simple fat person/cat team. Add a fifty-pound box of books, and you have the equivalent of the Hindenberg crashing into downtown Milwaukee. Tazz went one way, the box went the other, and I grabbed for the only thing I could see to keep from going through the floor into the basement--a ladder. The ladder flipped, summersaulted over a pile of crap, and came down square on the edge of my computer table. it missed the comp by about 2", but totally obliterated my DSL modem and about 10 feet of tangled wiring. GoooOOOOoooood sound. End of story.

So...my apologies for being in so erratically for the last few days. The new modem is in, the wiring pretty much repaired, and everything seems to be working.

The post below is comments on your pieces that are overdue. The following post is an attempt to get us in a more constructive mode by dealing with one-on-one pieces without a specified time limit. i know that Sep has a weird work arrangement, and Chance and alesoun have weekly brain transplant sessions, so this should allow us to move a bit more constructively and at a pace that suits whatever pops up and interferes.

I tried to gear the pieces to each of you, but if you feel uncomfortable with what I'm suggesting, feel free to speak up so we can do some finessing on things.

ADD: I finally got in to see your notes. I'm making a few quick changes to the new assignments, but they'll be up this afternoon.

[Ilaekae]

CHANCE: I really wish you had had more time to push this a bit, because it's a very solid start. The spider body is a nice touch and accents the half-puzzled look on the cat's face beautifully--I'm sitting here trying to tell if he's more pissed at being a spider, or at me, for seeing him looking like a spider. :P The beaver end is also funny, but from a graphic viewpoint, I'm wondering if it shouldn't be larger in relation to the other units. His beaver legs look a little short, and his rear end is just generally a bit small for him to really sit back on his ass and have a decent cigarette and cup of coffee if he wanted.

With a bit more work, and if you could sustain the cat's facial "character," I could see this being quite a character in a sequential comic--sort of a pissed-off Alice-in-WonderWhatsit counter to the Hooka-using Caterpillar.

You obviously need some ref for the spider legs, but overall, there's a sound sense of reality and depth to the sketch.


SEPULVERTURE: On the "employees only" sketch--where the hell's the window?

You've got some minor compositional problems here that are adding up and reinforcing each other badly...

The door is highly lit, and therefore the strongest element in the drawing, but it's just barely on the page at the left. It's literally screaming to have at least a little bit more wall at the left, because it looks like it's trying to run from a mugger... (Smart-assed comment coming...warning... "What? All the employees are midgets?!" [position of push plate on door] :P )

Our happy little mugger/employee is literally touching the right edge of the page, again anchoring him a bit to the edge (like he's got some gum on his shoe right at that point) rather than letting us interpret his stance as a "walking-into-the-pic" routine. Now...remember that window...that ain't there...come on...think about it for a minute...maybe it would be...useful...right about...now...kind of tucked behind the dude...even bleeding off the art... with maybe a blind or thick curtain on it to tone the interior light back...and push our little employee's upper torso and head forward a bit...maybe? Hummmmm...?

You have our little employee and the door sitting right on the bottom edge of the art, like a cartoon floor edge. This is okay where you have a space problem...like in a panel cartoon...but not so great on an illustration because it again makes us overly aware of the edge, which adds an element of "falseness" to things. You have a tendency to do this on many of your pieces and I want you to really concentrate on trying to break that habit. It gets you into trouble real fast.

The light could have been moved up to totally clear the door. You had the space, and it would have separated it from the door frame instead of slightly blending into the door frame as it does now. Details details details...

AND...about that light...detailsdetailsdetails...I know these kind of fixtures (I stole about a hundred of them when I was a kid), and the bulb sits way up inside the metal cone, which is usually some gawdawful green color. That means...that all the light coming from the bulb source is affected by the hard circular rim of the cover. And that means the shape you have for the lit area of the wall is wrong. The light would be affected by the shadow of the rim, making it a parabolic shape on the wall, with its highest point just a few inches down from the edge of the lamp...like an inverted graceful wine glass. Basically, the edge of the lit part of the wall would be a graceful curve on either side, and the lit part would not be touching the lamp at all. You can check this out at home with a lamp with a long shade on it. The further the bulb is from the rim (vertically), the steeper, narrower and more obvious the curve. This also means that the outside of the cone itself, which is metal, would be in total darkness--almost lost in the dark part of the wall.

The light from this kind of fixture is also not very strong generally, so it would start to disperse as it got near the ground, so the most lit part of the door is the top, and the least lit part is at the bottom.

All of these positional things are splitting up your piece more than a bit. the door is prominent, but pushed too far to the left for us to really believe that it's important. The guy is interesting enough to attract our eye, but he's off to the right a bit much, which again confuses us, so we end up with that space between them taking on more prominence than it should, which is splitting the piece into two halves, even in spite of the fact that you have that nice diagonal light mark to tie them together.

while we're in the general vicinity--the guy has a few lighting probs that would be easy to fix. The darkness is so obvious everywhere except under the light that I would expect to find some really contrasting points on the employee where his surfaces immediately face the light source. His left leg is a good start, but should be more extreme maybe in contrast between light and dark. His right leg which now has no light on it at all should have at least some points of light where the upper folds of his pants catch it. Where the light "rim" cuts his body, there would tend to be a more obvious separation between the areas of his lower coat where the direct light ended and some scattered reflected light started above it.


Cat Sketch: Just had to say i liked the quick sketch of the cat in the upper left. A few small value probs, but it definitely says "cat."


Painting of the Cat Thing: Alright, you've got a decent start. The two "hard" elements (the horns and tail) are gonna need a good bit of work to blend better with the main body. Because of the horns and the hooves, I'm going to guess we've got something like a goat or antelope here as part of the team. If so, you need some reference for the leg/rump shapes, because they're built different than cats in that area--the cat's a heavy-duty leaper/pouncer and the others are runner/leapers primarily. I'm thinking they should be a bit longer, too. This would eliminate that bad visual overlap at the hoof and horn.

This is kind of a dumb question, because I haven't looked it up, but is that tail right side up? I know scorpions stab over their own head, so I'm thinking the segment connections are reversed, which is okay, I guess, because we're talkin' fantasy here, but it would make the tail kind of ineffective as a weapon...

I realize you didn't get much time to refine this, so I'm going to concentrate on probs that might cause you some hassle if you did...

Your light sources (or at least where you seem to have indicated them) appear inconsistent. The tail and the horn are getting a strong reaction from our direction and low, but the cat's upper body seems to have a strong light coming from the far upper left. That would put the area under the cat's arm (belly) in a darker shadow than what you have. The gray leg and side of the cat (that's not white), if that's their base color, would need some shadowing along their right edges to build the form out and define the muscle masses.

I have to figure out a way to get you to work with a more definite area edge. You have a tendency to "smudge" areas where you're not quite sure what to do next, and you do it with B&W and color, so it's just a bad habit you've gotten into. We'll work on it with your first tailored assignment. It's a matter of working out the structure with values without losing that structure when you apply the values... Did that even make sense...?


ALESOUN: Door--You kept it stark and simple, so I'm going to hit it from a purely compositional standpoint.

The hanging basket is trying to be the point of interest, which is good, but the door's mass and position on the page is fighting it a bit. Maybe the way to resolve this is to crop just right of the left vertical edge of the inside door panel and let the door bleed off like the windows. This will tend to make them "less important" in the viewer's eyes, and move the basket definitely to the front.

A nit that ties in on the right--you have the same tendency to do something that Sep does--the crop at the right JUST barely misses the vertical frame of the window, which creates a "collective" visual mass here (all the details add up to a stronger image at that point than you probably want, which does distract the eye a bit). The edge of a painting definitely has weight. It's there! And in spades...so we have to watch what happens near the edges as much as we care about the center of the page. I'd move the crop further to the right about a 1/2" (or move it to the left so it cuts off that vertical section completely.

It's a solid basic start to what could be a strong image--simple, stark, uncluttered and very organized--a nice base to play with shadows and textures on to soften up the "Mondrian" feel.


Sketch of the kitty: This is a nice little gesture piece. I'm not sure that orange patch on his left side makes sense, though. It's very strong, especially considering it's on the shadow side of the cat. The yellowish areas on the leg and extreme left side seem a bit inconsistent, too.


The Meowmaid: I thoroughly enjoyed this one--laughed my ass off... You've got a decent texture going on with the fur and scales, but there are a couple of anatomy probs that should be looked at. The junction where the main body hits up with the front section seems like a bit of a glue job. I'm thinking (without ref in front of me) that the prob is the blend where the neck line moves down to become the spine. The pattern of stripes suddenly changes direction when it should be more of a gradual turning. Maybe it's because the chest is too full, or too far to the front which forced you to treat the head the same as you would a person's, when in reality, the head is an extension of the spine with a cat. To get their head in the position you have it, they'd have to curve their entire spine up a good bit, then down, like an "S."
The tail end looks like it's working except for one small thing...the base of the body where the tail fins start is turned away from us and into the distance, so to speak, but the fins appear to flair off to the right a bit strongly for that position. I don't think it's ...wrong... maybe it just looks a bit forced. I almost want to see the tail fins flowing away from us more, sort of partially behind the cat.

Shadows are pretty good except in the lower chest area, especially at our left. Wouldn't you expect to find a bit more darkness in that area based on the strong directional shadows under the head? A little bit of a strong shadow touch at the very front of his front paw might be in order, too...


LLOTHCAT: Nice cat! Maybe the rear legs need just a bit of weight, but overall, the body's nice. Like the transition up the neck. Wondering about the ears--Rabbit ears can move around to the rear, but I'm wondering why the pink color on the far ear. It would seem to want to be the darker brown color that's so obvious around the ear in front. Now to the chicken head... Have no problem with the head itself, but when I study it, It seems too low in relation to the top of the skull curve that's gray. The two parts on either side of the ear seem a bit out of sync by about 1/4-1/2" which makes the face seem too low. I think it might be possible for a chicken head to sit where it is if it's connected to a chicken body and look good, but with such a strong cat presence, you kind of want it to almost act more like a cat skull, which would it ending up a lot higher up the neck and maybe even tilted up a bit on the left.


ALICE: "I guess its a wee bit of a bad thing that you imagined me working in my jammies. Not really professional, now is it :P"

If you could only see what I looked like when I was into my third or fourth day of a tight deadline at my office! A couple of my clients were so used to what i looked like that they'd yell up the stairs first that they had an "outsider" guest with them so I'd have time to comb my hair and find my shoes... :P

That is ONE handsome woman...love the hat! The full color piece is perfect for what we were talking about, and the one with the red background is an excellent match-piece for it. This would be especially nice if you had two or three additional pieces that matched to some degree, either in theme or in treatment, to form a set. It would be very memorable.

Lovely work on the costume. It has just enough of a an "old-photo" feel to place it in period without looking phoney.

[Chance.]

Great crits guys, here is my progress so far. Please take note that all of this was done before reading your advice.

I just remembered that the problem with building on a b&w underpainting is that the gray leaks in a cools everything down. So I put a yellow layer underneath, hopefully it works.

I'll get to work taking into account your advice

[alesoun]

You have my sympathy, Boss Cat. We used to have 2 dogs and 2 cats; if it wasn't the elderly dog wandering into a room in front of you and stopping dead to wonder why it had gone there, it was the elderly dog stopping to remember why it had gone into the room while the smaller of the two cats chased the younger dog past you to knock seven bells out of it. For some reason the dog never chased the cat; it probably had more sense.. Either way, i've gone tip over apex more times than I care to remember.

259500

Li'l devil looked a bit like that, but without the fish tail!

259501

[Sepulverture]

thanks for the crits old fellow. I'd leave a longer message here but I'm just getting up to leave for work.

[Ilaekae]

NEW ASSIGNMENTS:

These are one on one. If you want, you can ALSO try somebody else's assignment if you want, but Id' prefer that you at least did the one for you. Since two are black and white and two are color and painted, I mentioned that these can be switched or duplicated if you don't feel all that enthused about yours...

All of these require reference--REFERENCE--don't try cheating these from memory. I made sure you couldn't do that without getting yourself into trouble immediately. Lets all go through roughs and thumbnails when you think you have a handle on something, then we'll move on to the next stage.

******************************************

SEPULVERTURE: Geared this to pencil so you can work on it whenever, BUT you will have to gather some reference first. DO NOT attempt to do this without some sort of ref.

Assignment: I need a street portrait, like those photographs you've seen of city scenes from around 1890 to the 1930s. The subject is a man who owns a business that requires a horse-drawn wagon, the kind of wagon that has a nice wooden painted top with lettering on the side, like a carriage. I want to see the horse, the rigging and wagon and the man, dressed in whatever appropriate "business" clothes he should be in. For example, if he's dry goods or a pharmacist, he'd be in a top hat and dressed to the nines. If a butcher, fish monger, or ice man, he's be in an apron and shirt/pants. Follow me here?

The background should be a street from the turn of the century, with those "brownstone-type" homes and businesses that all line up against each other, some with stores in the first floor. Maybe it might be nice to have the guy posing in front of his storefront.

Does this sound like something you'd wanna attempt? It's gonna require a lot of attention to detail, and since it's a pose out in the sunlight, the shadows are going to be hard to fudge. You have a lot of things to worry about, and they all have to fall into place. Just don't have him and the wagon sitting smack on the edge of the paper.

Take the time to find your reference, and do some sketches of how you think you would handle it and post them. then we can go from there. You're going to need a lot of care here with line weights, values, clean edges and textures, and should I even mention anatomy...? :P you get too dark or smudgy overall, and you're gonna lose everything. Pull this off to a decent level and we can save it for when you have time to ink or paint it, possibly.

this could turn into a real mess of boring grays really quickly if you're not careful. You must think about three levels of depth here--the background (not too important to the story), the wagon and horse (fairly important to the story), and the proud business owner (He's important--he's payin' the bills...).

******************************************

CHANCE: Another soft image, and I'm assuming you're doing it in black and white in your favorite approach...

It's noon, sometime in the autumn, in the western United States around 1870-1890, and we're stoppin' for a quick cup of coffee and maybe some biscuits. We are THREE COWBOYS in working gear, real pros, with all the cockiness and presence that goes with that. One's STILL ON HIS HORSE. The other two have already dismounted (their horses are "off-screen" if you want) and are gettin a fire ready. One is KNEELING or SITTING, the other is STANDING looking down, maybe with an armload of gathered wood. The setting is prairie and scrub, with mountains in the distance if you want.

You are going to have to contend with extreme values and strong cast shadows, as well as well-lit and harsh backgrounds that still have to look interesting. No matter what you do, we are going to be drawn to the three men and the horse, so anatomy is a major factor here. You WILL need reference--these guys are real, not dude ranch wannabes.you entire illustration is going to depend on how successfully you pull off the primary group in their environment.

************************************************** ********

SEP and CHANCE: Since you're both working in Black and White basically, you can trade the two assignments, or do both if you want, one after the other. Your decision.

************************************************** ********

ALESOUN: You're painting... If you'd rather use Gimp, I could add an alien and some time travel machinery, but... :P

We have a portrait--female, attractive, self assured, RICH, pampered, used to being in charge, either sitting or standing (your choice), in an INTERIOR that is hoity-toity well-to-do for the period. We want her important, the rest is just minimally-supporting background. The time frame is somewhere between 1500 AD and 1700 AD, anywhere in the world. I want decoration, gorgeous fabrics, hand-carved furniture where it shows, all the rick-rack that goes with being stuffed to the gills with whatever they called Euros or Yen back then.

You will need reference--DEFINITELY. Even though our Lady is going to be covered in 300 pounds of fabric, she will need some attention paid to her anatomy, especially the arms, boobs and face. You're going to have to pull off a "royally (slightly) stiff" pose and make it believable. The cloth and textures are gonna be a bitch, and the decoration on them is gonna make it worse. Lighting and values are gonna be a real pain. Main light probably from window, possibly supported by candle or lantern or some such if needed. You don't have to show here in full-length, but we should see her at least from mid thigh or hips up if standing.

My goal here is to have you create a believable main structure (the girl's body and her clothing) that is confused with a lot of texture and detailing that could easily destroy what you have underneath. You not only have to worry about the shaping values, but also what they're doing to the designs on the shapes themselves.

If this isn't exciting or challenging enough, we can come up with something else. Lets do pencil roughs first to work out different layouts and poses, and stuff like that. And REFERENCE. USE GOOGLE. REFERENCE...

******************************************

LLOTHCAT: You're painting on the comp. Another portrait--sort of...

We have a young girl, 15-20, pretty, outside, definitely NOT rich but dressed to the best she can manage. She is dancing. Very active dancing. Like, "Hi, I'm ready to get laid!" dancing that happens in small ethnic villages or gypsy camps. Wild, everything flying in all directions--hair, ribbons, skirts, petticoats...

Time frame is roughly 1800 to 1920, maybe. Lots of color, lots of bangles and shiny things and doodads bouncing around, including her if you can do it without making her look like a hooker. This is a nice happy girl, not married yet, but gettin' there, and she's showin' off...

The background, what there is of it, is small rural village, kind of peasant kind of thing with dirt streets--at least what you can see of it, because the dancer takes up nearly the entire canvas.

This could turn into a real mess in ten seconds. There is a lot going on here, in seemingly random patterns, but underneath that flashy mess is something solid--our young lady. If you lose where she is and isn't, you lose the entire piece.

************************************************** *********

ALESOUN and LLOTHCAT: since you're both working in color, you can trade assignments, or both do the same assignment or do the both of them one after the other. I have no prefs here. It's up to you. Whatever makes your evil hearts leap with joy... :P

************************************************** *********

I have assignments prepped for TheGnoll, Kronos, and Morganna if they make it back...

Don't try to rush these just to get done. The holidays are coming. LMS3 is finishing right after christmas and a few of you are involved in that, and you all have work and school. I don't want anyone having a nervous breakdown.

Good luck. Any questions, complaints or suggestions, just post 'em here.

[Chance.]

Fun, I likes mine. I'll get started on it right after I finish this project I'm working on now, and after lms3 is over.

This is a cool assignment, one where I MUST use reference. Old cats are good for that, makin you do the stuff you should but never seem to get around to.

Just so's you know what the holdup is.

After looking at you guys advice and really reevaluating the piece, I said "heck with it" and started over. It is an illustration for a story so I"ll let the story handle the background and focus on the figures.

Started the next one too. It is a story within the story so I'm using my favorite style. This is just a thumb. I KNOW it is centered, (but not the horizon) It is a carpenter dragging all of his work from his burning shop.

[Ilaekae]

Painting...MUCH better. More relaxed situation, which makes us feel better. That's the trick of an illustration. We know it's phoney up front, so you have to make us WANT to believe it.

NICE nice start on the other. Very dramatic, especially since it IS in the middle. You actually want this this time. Hit me in the face. make me worry about that poor guy. Fuck everything else. You do understand that there are times when something should be centered (at least horizontally) for impact, and when it shouldn't be. It's your way of telling me what to look at and how I should get there. In this case, You want me to dive right in through the front door.

On the painting, things work best if I kind of drift from the father's face to the book to the little girl's expression. This is story-telling.

[llothcat]

kinda working on my LMS entry at the moment...


hmmm........hey, there's an extention:D

[Sepulverture]

Ilaekae - Thanks for posting the assignment so timely-like. I wish I had been able to see that before going to work, last night was so dead I'd have had plenty of time to make quick sketches to work stuff out. I did, however, start to redraw our last assignment. I admit that the version I turned in is so sloppy in some of the ways that it is because it was supposed to be a final rough draft before starting the turn-in piece, and I ran behind so I just finished that one off as best I could and turned it in, so here's a redraw, plus my very first ever attempt at traditional painting...

For the painting, it's acrylic on panel and it's not done. It's not done because I ran out of fucking paint. grr. I ran out of yellow paint halfway through and (and no i'm not ashamed to say this) started using mustard as a substitute.

Never mix acrylic paint and mustard. It's the same consistency, looks like it would work, but they don't play well together. I feel like I really learned a lot from those first few strokes, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know it's pathetic to have spent so much time on such a shitty painting, but before I knew it 2 hours had passed and I was just having a blast.

Edit: The redraw I posted here isn't a finished drawing, I know there are lots of stuff left to be done, but I just wanted to show that I was taking your crits into consideration Ilaekae.

On a more personal note, I'm curious why we don't just refer to each other by our real names, since we are getting to be such a tight-knit bunch what we being a functioning class under the leadership of the goofy old one. My name is Nick... hi!

[alesoun]

On a more personal note, I'm curious why we don't just refer to each other by our real names, since we are getting to be such a tight-knit bunch what we being a functioning class under the leadership of the goofy old one. My name is Nick... hi!


Huh! If your mother had wanted to name her baby girl after her favourite brother, Charlie..............

Luckily, she bypassed Charlotte; called me Shirley instead! Hi, Nick!

[llothcat]

Hi...Nick.


I'm Debra

[Chance.]

My name is.... Chance!

That probably wasn't as enlightening as it was supposed to be.

Its what I get for giving stuff away too soon. :nohope:

[Sepulverture]

Its what I get for giving stuff away too soon. :nohope:

I think they call that premature ejaculation.

Anyhow... Hi everyone!

[Ilaekae]

Guess what? My name is Mary.







For real... :P


But you can call me Al...

[Sepulverture]

Hey Al, didn't johnny cash write a song about you? (http://youtube.com/watch?v=M89c3hWx3RQ)

OH... Wait...;)

[llothcat]

what i have so far...

any real glaring mistakes compositionally? I know I've got a long way to go..(such as actually looking up period costumes and having a background that does NOT look like the desert in my backyard...) this is actually the 3rd one i've started...I think of this one as the "pull my finger" one.

[Sepulverture]

What's going on in the image Debra?

I'm not really sure what's supposed to be the main focus here, because it seems that the cowboys are supposed to be the points of interest, but I keep finding my eyes wandering to that pallete with those bag looking things on it.

The face of the guy getting smooshed by the bag looking things is good, but all the other figures are pretty lifeless at this point to me. The hands especially are what makes them seem so lifeless I think.

[alesoun]

Digging out refs between playing with my idea of Medusa and LMS.

Nick, I have refs of horse-drawn wagons, storefronts and turn-of-the century shopkeepers if you need any..... nothing on cowboys, though.

[Sepulverture]

Shirley: I suddenly love you. gimmegimmegimmegimmegimmegimme.... please?

[chaosrocks]

oooh Giles Cory...."more weight"

im wondering at point is he. if he is still trying to fight against the weight. his hands would be tightly balled as all his muscles were tensed, if he has given up and just let the weight squish him as he mutters "more weight" his hands would be open all the muscles exhausted... you need to picj a dynamic moment in your narrative.

Im not sure why the camera is tilted. and you could use a little research on Salem hair styles. This scene has tremedous dynamic possibilities. Oh crap..I shouldn't be commenting in here.. My greatest apologies....sorry Kitty...I butted in.. Carry on
Make It Work
crx

[llothcat]

camera tilt...cause it's a twisted scene batman:D

I actually tried it straight on in the other attempts...but I kept wanting to pull back to show more of the scene rather than focusing on Cory. If you think it's too distracting, I can easily put it back that way.

Ya, I know about the hair and costumes not being right..haven't looked up the refs yet. Heck, I haven't even looked up the geography of the town. I figured they'd do something like this in the town square or something, rather than in the backwoods...but the pictures that I remember seeing about this scene usually shows the outskirts of town or some such, by a river or creek.

[alesoun]

In Scotland they took them to the seashore. One poor beggar. a Beatrice Cornfoot, was tied by a rope to a ship offshore and "swum" Thrown into the sea and dragged back and forward, then, half-drowned, dragged back to shore and "pressed" under a weight of rocks on a door on top of her; after which, a horse and cart were ridden over the door on top of her.

Didn't pay to be "odd" in those days....

[Chance.]

Now they have whole forums dedicated to being "odd" ;)

Looking good people. lloth, I would say that the camera tilt is too extreme for the scene. I know you are quite far into it at this point to be changing it this drastically, but you might try changing the altitude of the camera if you want to keep that tilt.

This scene would look cool if the horizon was on a level with the guy under all the junk. Everything else being in extreme perspective looming over. Just a thought

Still working on that project that I am supposed to have finished tomorrow.

I still haven't even begun the fourth image! I'm so in over my head, and my "client" is someone who I really don't want to disappoint as I hope to potentially illustrate more of her writing in the future.

ug
The biggest thing I think i need help on is color. I think I can handle my inky one on my own, and I don't really have anything new of that to show yo anyway.

This first one is the key illustration as it is the first and sets the mood for the rest of the story. She (the writer) wanted to actually have the book open and to see them reading from it, thus the change from the earlier version.

The other is later in the story, more towards the end when they take a nighttime stroll in the snow. What I need is a father+daughter in the foreground, a bunch of homeless people standing around "burn can" oil drum in the middle ground, and a small, late 1800's ish town in the baground. She wants the town to seem even further away than it appears in this image. I think I'll need to drop the lights some cause I doubt it would be that bright in that time period. I am actually using some ref for this one. I am just struggling to arrange it effectively the way she needs it.

So yeah. Thanks for looking.

[llothcat]

ok..redo: B/w first

[Sepulverture]

Hey folks, how's everyone doing?

I know this isn't related to anything we've been doing but I just wanted to show you guys anyway.

My second attempt at painting in a traditional medium, the photo is blurry as shit through the eyes of a person with poor eye sight, but that's because it's really late according to my biological clock and it's good enough to get the idea across for now.

I'm especially posting this here for you Al, hoping to get some critique from the old goofy master.

This isn't a continuation of the first banana I painted, it's a new one and I spent about 4 hours on it total over a period of a few days.

Ilaekae, I do have thumbnails drawn for the assignment, but will not post them until I get a full page of them.

[alesoun]

Nick! You're so lucky! If I set up a still life like that, one of my lot would eat it!

[Sepulverture]

Shirley - I just surround mine in toxic chemicals and impaled bodies.

That keeps em away.

[Sepulverture]

Here's another update for that painting, I think I'm done now, time to move on.

[Sepulverture]

First set of thumbnails. It's been abnormally busy at work so i haven't had as much time at work (which is the bulk of my day) to work on this assignment, and been exploring other mediums (as evidenced by my last couple posts) so here's what I have so far.

They aren't perfectly time, but it's a start and I'm fleshing out the general idea of what I want it to look like. I used pen because it's what I had handy with the time constraints.

I realize some of these violate one of the things you told me not to do Ilaekae, I just got carried away and all these thumbnails were ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THE BOTTOM TWO in other words simple, small, to the point.

I need to learn self control when drawing.

[Chance.]

Lloth - the guy leaning over him is getting in the way, try switching him to the other side

[Ilaekae]

This is a general note I'm posting in my Mentoring thread, and the two classrooms...

My sincere apologies for seeming to disappear for the last week. I expected a lot of problems popping up at the end of the year because of changes that are happening in my personal life right now, and they did--in spades. They've all resolved smoothly more or less, but at the worst possible time as far as my time on the forum is concerned.

I had a lot of research to do to set up the POW! challenge in time for our deadline, my social security and retirement had some problems that had to be resolved by repeated trips into the city, some final details on legally dissolving a 40-year business before the end of the year, and of course, the usual shit that occurs with the holidays. Now I'm playing catch-up with comments on everybody's work posted in the last week. I should be caught up finally today (Monday) and back on a normal schedule this week.

I'd like to thank you all for being so patient. 99% of my annoyances are over, and now I get to annoy all of you again...heeheehee...

Ilaekae.

[Sepulverture]

Holy crap! The old one's back!


I think.


I hope.








meow.



Ilaekae - I'm in need of some clarification here. Based on your description of the scene it sounds like you're looking for something that would be set in the western united states rather than the eastern u.s.. Can you clarify which you're looking for? because a turn of the century new york corner store and a turn of the century carson city nevada or san francisco corner store are going to be different in appearance.

[Ilaekae]

As far as the carriage is concerned, I guess it wouldn't matter too much, even though the western ones might be a bit more primitive. Why don't you use your own preferences based on what ref you can find...

[alesoun]

Merry Christmas to TC and my fellow mentorees......

[llothcat]

Merry Christmas all:D

This week, I discovered that anti-histamines can easily replace sleeping pills. I have allergies flaring right now because of the Santa Ana winds, resulting in my nose strongly resembling Niagra Falls without the anti-histamine self-medication. I take just one pill and 20 minutes later I'm falling asleep, whether standing or not.

This should result in some funky ideas for sketches, cause I tell ya'll, weird dreams happen under any kind of meds:D

[Chance.]

And a merry christmas to you as well.

This is the stuff i've been goofing with over the last two weeks. yesterday was my deadline so that's why I've been in and out.
I have been collaborating with a friend on a story she has been working on that she is giving out as christmas presents. I have been super sleep deprived over the last week cause of all the christmas fun. I know that I could have done a much better job on these but up until the last few days our dialogue was rather limited so it took a while for me to get exactly what she needed and by then it was so close to the deadline that it kind of ended up turning into a rush job. I think learned some things about clients for future reference and stretched my skills which is always a good thing. anyway

1 first and most important of the illlustrations, this one set up the two main characters of the story and helped to further develop the setting.

2 & 3 small in text illustrations that show some objects being discussed.

4 an illustration for a story within the story. thus the different style.

5. Another illustration of the main characters toward the conclusion of the story.

and 6, just something I did to relax today. Not in any way related to the above images save that it is a portrait of the author who's story I was illustrating.

Now it's time to start thinking about LMS3!!

Call me a nut, I haven't even started.

[llothcat]

behold my progress...:

[alesoun]

Boss Cat I did 5 thumbs for the rich bitch on one page. Checked out old paintings and it seems to be the symbolism that's important; kinda like a shorthand for those in the know. They all had iron corsets, so they couldn't bend or breathe much (which probably explains why they looked like they sucked many lemons!) Thumbs for that tomorrow.

Played with the dancing girl idea as well. I like her face just now; but the clothing/drapery sucks, so that will take longer, sorry.....

[llothcat]

eep..totally forgot about the assignment. Will get to it soon , so sorry...!

[Ilaekae]

Okay, everyone. Here's the situation...

I want this mentoring thing to continue. the problem we're having right now is a cosmic mess of conflicting events.

1. The LMS is finishing in about a week, and I still have a chunk of work to do on it before mine is presentable. I nearly finished it in time for the original deadline, but had to leave it sit to deal with other things happening.

2. Seedling's pregnant. (NOT my fault!) This means the little class thing she and I have been doing in between will need revamped and maybe some help tracked down.

3. The POW is starting this coming week, and I'm still waiting for Davi to get the set-up finished for us (He was ALSO at REV...didn't ANYbody stay home?), and the start-up date is literally three days BEFORE LMS ends.

4. Damn, Nick! Get some reference...that poor horse looks like a goldfish with chicken legs... :P

5. From a personal standpoint, here's what's happened in the last six weeks

--I had a massive fight with the Feds over my Social Security (They couldn't prove my age so I had to dig up an archaeological site in southern France to find some documents... It is now officially resolved.

--The feds don't believe my business is really closed for tax purposes, so I had to go track down some more 13th century manuscripts... That's almost resolved--just needs a final letter from me...

--Two old friends died a week apart, and the last one required me to travel and help with his estate... Kind of comes with the territory when you're my age...

--My idiot younger brother nearly killed himself in ANOTHER car wreck, so I spent a week talking him into retiring and not driving anymore. The kid's a fuckin' menace... That appears to be resolving well at this point...

--Let's add in the fact that my wife and I have birthdays roughly a week apart, a week after christmas... JEEEEEEZUZKErist, I hate shopping for a female who has more of everything than I do...!)

All of the above was mentioned so you don't think I was just randomly ignoring you all. I just couldn't help it because of the confusion. I have all your recent posts downloaded and I made handwritten notes while I was at the funerals, but I still have to type them in and finish...SO...

HERE'S what I propose...if you're all not too pissed at me...

Let's let things slide until the deadline for the LMS. By then, we'll have no conflicts of any kind, and it will allow you all to CASUALLY gather any notes and reference you still need for the one-on-one projects. The we revert to hell-bent-for-leather death and destruction to get back on track. How do you feel about this. As I finish the comments on the stuff already posted, I'll put them up, but as of the 19th-20th, we're back to full mentoring...if you still want to put up with me.

Alj

Debra: I've reminded Davi about the POW site again. I'll get an intro set of rules cleaned up for the first event on the 16th. Do you have any preferences on a subject off the list I sent you, just to get this started. We can revamp afterwards to get a better set of subject matter and approaches. I'm assuming at least 3 pages, can go to four if they wish. And it's throw the bastards to the wolves, with the overlapping event idea. We can treat the other variations and art/writer teams as periodic special events.

Thank you all for you patience. A few more days, and we're back to normal...if you're still in favor of continuing this mentoring thing. I'm for it. What's your opinions?


PS: I didn't mention he stupid incident with the ladder and modem because it just...seemed...like so much...overkill... :P

[alesoun]

Hey, Boss Cat. Sorry to hear about your friends and your brother.

No problems with me about the delay. Apart from the extension to the LMS deadline, 2008 hasn't improved since some idiots smashed my windscreen on Hogmanay (Are you SURE I can't take this year back and ask for a refund?)

My stepson tried to give me a new second-hand tower for the pc this past weekend, loaded up my stuff on his external hard-drive, found there was something wrong with his tower, replaced mine, and went home still with my stuff on his hard-drive. I don't have access to the references I'd stored right now.

Take all the time you want. I'll wait.

[Sepulverture]

Hey, Al. Unfortunate about your dealing with the government folks, and your friends and brother. I'm having my fun with the government the past few weeks too, except it's the chinese government, not the feds.

P.S.
I like my goldfish horse monster thingy:(.

P.S.S.
Why does your kitty cat emoticon smiley thing look like a mummy cat?

P.S.S.S.
Can I see you scream at people with a megaphone? That'd kick so much ass.

[Ilaekae]

"Why does your kitty cat emoticon smiley thing look like a mummy cat?"

...because...




...it IS a mummified cat...

(I had to change religions when I discovered I was allergic to linen wrappings and pitch mixed with sea salt...) :P

[Sepulverture]

(I had to change religions when I discovered I was allergic to linen wrappings and pitch mixed with sea salt...) :P

Psh. sounds like a personal problem to me.

[Ilaekae]

I wouldn't know...they sucked my brain out through my nose 5,400 years ago.










...pricks...

[Sepulverture]

I figured something like that had happened. Oh well, no use crying over slurped brains.

On a... different... note, I got this cool book of sketches and illustrations from the Lord of the Rings, which includes captions and all sorts of sketches, rough and polished, including a bunch of horse sketches so I'm going to learn what I can from those and continue with the projectamabobber.

[llothcat]

Damn...I go out to the desert to check out a local volcano, and look at what I missed.

My sympathies Ilaekae for your losses, and I sincerely hope you kick some government ass...

...especially since I've had to deal with the county out here for a project I would like to do before I pass on. It has to do with earth architecture....bureaucrats seem to think that a vacant lot in the middle of the goddam desert has to stay that way no matter who owns it:P

Its a yearly thing with me. A pipe dream at this point until i actually get off my ass and actually start, (with buying said chunk o dirt). I think i'll write a book about it when the time comes.

About the POW:

Looks to me the bunch wants to be thrown to the wolves, mostly. I was thinking of being easy on them and giving them a script, but then I saw the building concensus. So...lets give them what they want the first week and see how they do.

1)If most wuss out the first week, we can try the script method the second as an enticement to for those not quite ready.

2)If we get a somewhat ok posting amount, we can continue in such a manner, and spice it up with themes or maybe different writing style requirements like what happens IRL with books occasionally.

I've been watching what happens in the DSG thread. It would be great if maybe we can set things up similar to Mr. Hand.

[Kamikazebob]

Hmm, it may be a bit late, but I do believe I shall follow this as best I can.

[Chance.]

Well, my parents insurance decided to wait until AFTER add drop week was finished at school to tell us I have to take 12 credit hours in order to be considered a full time student and thusly stay on my parents insurance. I am only taking 9 credits this semester so it looks like I had better hide in a hole somewhere and pray that i don't develop pneumonia or something in the next six months while I wait to see if I am accepted into the university I just applied to.
Also I'm beginning to realize that I'm not making enough money to pay for school even if I am accepted. So in addition to my current part time job, I'm trying to figure out how to turn my art, and maybe my photography (one of my classes is in photography) into money. I'm going to get my art teacher (a former freelance illustrator) to start teaching me about the money side of the illustration industry is all about. I'm also in the process of trying to line up work teaching at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I also was just hired for my first PAID art job. I'm doing three illustrations for my former BIO professor. Plus I have only spent about three hours on LMS and need to finish that aaaaaaaaand don't forget all that homework

In a nut shell, I am so glad to hear, Master, that you haven't been sitting around twiddling your thumbs and wondering where I ran off to. I'm trying to pull myself together and will be back in here full force soon.

Ilaekae! Your birthday is the first week of January? So is mine. What day are you? I'm the 4th.

[Ilaekae]

The first, of course (7:26 am). I would never settle for anything else... :P

Sounds like you're busy as hell. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help...

[Sepulverture]

Sounds like you're busy as hell. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help...

Yes. Give me money. :)

I drew those horse studies, so my next round of thumbnails will hopefully turn out better.

[alesoun]

Okies; start of thumbnails for the diva of the Dorchester (or whatever the 1500-1700 equivalent was.

First, some 1500-ish thumbs


292427

Symbolism seems to have been important at this time, roses showing femininity, books booklearning, rosary religion, etc, etc. Big puffy sleeves and huge ruffs would have been used to show wealth.


292429
examples of cavalier type 1600's clothing. This thumb (when I do it) will be the only seated figure. Sitting would've been difficult in Tudor clothing....

292430
.... and next to impossible in 1700's courtesan clobber.

[alesoun]

I did this rough sketch of the dancing girl, but I just can't decide what to do with her hands or her skirts, dang it!

[alesoun]

293880

[Sepulverture]

Howdy! Wow.. I actually fucking forgot about this thread! Thanks Alesoun for reminding me. I've been so hellatiously busy here, working 7 days a week over 3 jobs sucks, and is good at the same time. I've only had a fist full of minutes for drawing, and only done some gestural stuff.

If the thread is still even mildly active I'll get back to work on that turn-of-the-century drugstore scene.

Speak up if you're still alive, let me know everyone!