chantico

The first part of my financial aid *finally* arrived, leaving the 'mind-numbing panic' reflex of coming rent lost, lonely and confused, surrounded by cheering throngs of the 'spend money', 'eat real food', 'feel human again' reflexes.

I have purchased a new sketch book, as I've filled all my others, and began it by doodling whatever I could see in front of me. Lots of tiny, thumbnail sized sketches came out of it. Scary bus people have to be the best subjects ever, as long as they don't notice you staring at them, because then they get *really* creepy and/or crazy.

The next things I need to purchase are a harddrive and Window's discs, so that I may revive my poor dead computers and begin anew. I have tried my wacom on other systems, but either it is finally giving out or it despises any computer that is not christened by me, characterized by it randomly deciding to draw lines where I didn't want them/not draw at all. I mean, I really hope it isn't dead, but that thing has had a very long and fruitful life for hardware-- it'll be 7-8 years old this december.

I bought myself a few presents yesterday for not completely dying and losing my mind at the horrible setbacks in my lack of money, leaving me with two new artbooks. I have one of the Pre-Raphaelites, focusing more on the advent of the school and its predecessors than others I've seen; I also have required a giant book full of Norman Rockwell, who has to be one of my favorite artists EVER, up there with Mucha, Waterhouse and Leonardo. His expressions! His body language! His light! His sense of humor! Ah!

Good books. Avery am pleased.

Um . . . not much else, other than some links:

First up, we have some fantastic and fascinating resources that detail all the different types of humans and how to break them down proportionally. Great for artists, but an interesting purusal for anyone else, too:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32046017/?qo=36&q=by%3Acedarseed&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/33220929/?qo=31&q=by%3Acedarseed&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34877428/?qo=23&q=by%3Acedarseed&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

Secondly, this article disturbed me quite a bit. Dunno why . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/09/28/dyleski.profile/index.html

And third, I posted this in the comments to my last post, but this is the rant which kicked off my ponderings. it's a good read, if long. It's interesting . . . right after I finished this, I stumbled into a debate over whether or not its right and 'honest' for an artist to use photo references for their works. I'm not sure how I feel about it . . . on one hand, I really, really hate people like Greg Land and that guy who does the Punisher MAX covers whose name I cannot remember at the moment who simply trace over photos (PORN STILLS, in Greg Land's case). The end result is pretty, and the craft takes some discipline, but I don't know if I would rightly call it 'art', or even good (more so in Land's case-- the other guy manages some pretty neat effects with his tracings). on the other hand, even the masters used refernces and sometimes projectors to get their effects, and models are considered a necessity in most college art courses.

I think I lie somewhere in the middle . . . I think it's good to have a reference, but you can't rely on it fully. You need to make a new and interetsing peice, not a copy of a photograph. it's good to be able to understand things like light and texture and anatomy, but if you can't elaborate on them and change them some to suit your needs, you're shit out of luck.

Uh, anyway . . . here's the link.

http://www.merekatcreations.com/mere_html/tutorials/process.html

Finally, we have the digital manips I did for my project in T230. I *very* much like "And on 'Til Morning", and shall probably have a poster made of it sometime.

Delerium