wander_realtai

Well, I figured it was long past time for my main gallery site to get a makeover and update.  So what do I do?

I deliberately delete every single piece of art from it.

Yep, it's getting a FULL overhaul.  I'll need to pick and choose what to put up there.  Fortunately, I'm producing a fairly steady stream of art these days, so it should fill up pretty quickly.

Really, really needs that makeover though.  Not sure what to do with it.  Hrm...

This morning, I'm in this odd state of flux, where I feel pretty inspired creatively, but somehow the inspiration isn't flowing into action.  I may need to just do some doodles or something to get the creative flow started.

My Muse has apparently decided to take a journey to Faery and stay there.  Maybe she ate the food?  She should know better than that.  I'm giving her free reign, as long as she helps with the convention art too.  *laughs*  Of course, I might attribute this to the fact that I've been absolutely enthralled by the art of Brian Froud lately-- I've been spamming my poor Tumblr followers with it, on my RP blog, no less.  I justify it by reminding myself that my character is an artist too and would likely enjoy Froud's art.  So nyeh.  :P

You know, I think the thing I love the most about Brian Froud’s art is that his faeries— yes, the humanoid ones— do not look or feel human.  They have this unique, alien, slightly sinister and mildly whimsical feel and appearance.  A lot of faery art just presents us with human-looking women in pretty dresses, with wings.  They’re gorgeous, but they lack that utterly alien quality, where you look into their eyes and wonder how such a mind would work, what colors those eyes see, what music those ears hear, how emotions and desires manifest.  He’s really quite magnificent in that way, because it’s as if he taps into a world of pure other-ness where only rare human souls have tread.  I could stare at his art for hours.

Okay, I think I'm going to break out the Wacom for a bit and see if I can get things moving today.

fannishliss wrote a blog entry in which she encourages people to take a pledge: Bring commenting culture back online, and to Live Journal.


I think this is a fantastic idea.  It's one of the things I loved so much about LJ to begin with-- it's the perfect format for sharing art, writing, and blogging, while supporting a very interactive feedback system.  You can actually talk to people here, hold conversations, and I loved that.  But, as social networking sites have multiplied exponentially over the past several years, people are migrating elsewhere.  Which is okay-- I role play on Tumblr, have a Facebook, keep backups and a private blog on Dreamwidth, even toy a bit with Wordpress.  But none of these have quite the combination of creative platform and interactivity that LJ has (except maybe Dreamwidth, which is pretty much an LJ clone, but I can never quite fully integrate myself over there).

And I've been guilty of it.  My friends page is pretty large-- not as big as some, but big enough that I often quickly skim through it, and thus rarely leave comments, though I always try to respond to people commenting on my blog (which I'm not perfect with either-- I've been known to miss comments sometimes, or to delay response a ridiculous length of time).  I know that sometimes it can be difficult to come up with that perfectly phrased response to a work of fiction, a personal blog, or a drawing, but I don't think I'm alone in saying that even a single, succinct acknowledgement can often make an entry worth posting.  So yeah, I'm going to take that pledge, because I think it's a good pledge.

Sorry for my posty-ness today.  I have a tendency to want to ramble when the Muse is awake, and she's wide awake today for once!

I've dropped some color tone into the background of the faery piece, trying to get a feel for the overall color scheme.  Now I need to either a) work on WOTW, or b) work on the DW piece.  As the DW piece has a deadline, I may put my focus on that for a bit.  I just... honestly don't know what to do!  But, well, now that I think about it, I'm considering the famous kiss at Bad Wolf Bay... hrm.  How to make it unique and not just a copy of a photo....... hmmmm...

Gotta shift gears!!  Outta Faery, into... well... Norway.

EDIT:  Nope.  I am, in fact, going to do this one.  Angst.  Angst wins.  Seems I can't not draw angsty Doctor Who these days.

I had the absolutely overwhelming urge to redo my Trickster piece last night. I really don't have time for it, but then again, if I've learned one thing, it's that my Muse is capricious and obstinate and must be obeyed if she is to cooperate with me and give me all the pretty, pretty inspiration. (Actually, I'm quite suspicious that my Muse is an Egyptian cat that is accustomed to worship. Well, that makes it sound like she's Bastet. Which I doubt, because I'm being metaphorical here. But still... highly venerated inner feline aspect of self. Or what have you. Mrow.) So... I guess I'll start the sketch sometime today. It'll be basically the same idea, but with a slightly different pose, and something about an off-kilter reflection in water that I'm not quite clear on yet. I'm going to either do it as a digital painting or as a grayscale with color tint. Not sure yet.

Speaking of the Muse, I feel perhaps it might be a good habit to adopt, to begin to honor her in small, daily rituals. Whether or not she's some sort of divine figure or messenger or literal embodiment of creativity, or just an aspect of self really doesn't matter, because the fact is, this is where I get my inspiration, my drive, my desire to create. If she's internal, honoring that side of myself can only help me flourish. If it's external, the same, plus the added benefit of having no angry Muse to deal with. Of course, with my perspective on the universe, it could be either. I'm not big on faith, so I can't say I actually believe she's an actual, external embodiment of creativity, but I'm not gonna say I necessarily disbelieve it either. It's a possibility. I'll admit to that and only that.


I do wear a Muse's star, actually. That's always been the symbol I've felt drawn to.


So, if all goes well today, I will do a little bit each on three projects: Trickster, the Doctor Who piece for the convention, and Will O' The Wisp. I still have no idea what to draw for the DW one. WOTW is still just in rough layout mode. Trickster will probably thus have the most work to show.

Just wanted to let you all know that I've finally got around to uploading a few of my other art pieces to my Society6 account.  They've got a promotional thing going on right now where you can order an unframed, non-canvas print and get free shipping on it.  The promo ends on the tenth of this month.  Just thought I'd drop that here in case anyone was interested.  :)

Here's the link to get to the promo:  http://society6.com/Amyla?promo=e20e22

Dark Lena is complete!  (Except for a couple refinements which will take about two minutes, but I'm eating dinner right now and it can wait.)

Will finish Light Lena tomorrow.  I'm going to wait until both are complete to submit them to the contest.

The thumbnail leads to the full sized piece.

I'm attempting to draw Castiel now.

Eh.  The line art leaves much to be desired.  I may look for another reference photo.  We'll see.  I may be able to play with it a bit to make it work; the reference photo has very stark shadows and is a bit grainy.  I chose it because I liked the noir-ish look, but it's proving difficult to draw the outline.

He will have wings.  I have plans for said wings.  Just haven't blocked them in yet.

Click for larger size. :)

Edit to say:  I have no idea why my entry says I'm curious.  That was random.  But I'll leave it there because curiosity is fun.  :D

Latest update on "Memories of Gallifrey," which I'm re-titling "Snow Falling Like Stars."

Greyscale is coming along.  I think I need to define the city a bit more, just slightly; it disappears a bit too much into the snowfall.  Right now I'm focusing on the Doctor though. Finished the detail on his face tonight; still need to do his hair, ears, neck, and clothing.  Then the color tint.  :)