Cranky's Progress

So, I haven't painted in oil in FOREVER! which is a shame. I love oils. I love the way it feels going onto the canvas and I especially love the smell, it's magic to me.

 I decided to take on of my characters- an undead priest affectionately nicknamed Crankypants ( gee why does that sound familiar?) and do a portrait of her.

I started with a black and white under painting but alas it required a lot of corrections so I just started doing them in color.

This is the first go in color and I am pretty sure those lilies at the bottom are going to piss me off.

But I don't mind really, I have been doing so much digital work lately  that a return to the traditional methods is welcomed.  I'll keep you posted on how she is faring.

A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the World Today.

 So, my awesome-sweet-wonderful friend and mentor Maria bought me a copy of Rhonda Byrne's The Magic. It's all about gratitude. Now, if you're a hippie like me you know all about the magic of gratitude and the wonders it can do in your life.

BUT!

Life often has a way of making you forget that. Like for instance, when you go to log onto your faithful old computer with all your graphics programs to do some work and find that the last power surge the frequent storms in your area caused it to not want to come on anymore.

Now normally this would be my typical reaction to something like this.

But today I think all the gratitude work is finally kicking in. My first thought was "oh holy shit, is the laptop OK? I still need to play wow!!" and yes, the laptop (and therefore my much more awesome digital life) is still intact. I am grateful. 

My second was "well, damn, all my work was on there. The adobe programs I purchased were for a mac and incompatible with the laptop" But then after a whiny Facebook status update, I found a free basic digital program I am testing out. For all the developers who create open-source programs I am grateful.

So I decided to try a self portrait. 

Ooooo concentration face!

Now, the interesting thing is many of the tools were ones I was already used to but the layout and mechanics of them all just different enough to be frustrating. Then, as I was muttering in my cantankerous way, I realized I was fascinated again.

You know when you start to learn something you become absorbed in it? You are fascinated. When you are more intrigued by the process than the outcome. It was really nice to again look on my own face with renewed wonder and ( *gasp*!) appreciation as I tried to make the curve on my nose in pixels or using the right size eraser to get the weird shade of my irises.  

It's funny when you let go of things and let it be what fun you can have. So today I am grateful to be led back into a sense of wonder with the art I love so much. 

OKC's Paseo Arts Festival

 I spent a lovely afternoon in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at the annual Paseo Arts Festival. The Paseo is the arts district of the area originally the home to hippies and bohemian counter culture, it evolved and evolved to the chic hot spot it is now. (if you stop down there for food I recommend the Picasso Cafe. The pizza was mediocre but their quinoa tacos and chili were amazing. Vegan friendly to boot.)

The festival brought artists from all over the United States not just Oklahoma. There were dozens of jewelry and pottery artisans. When browsing their wares it always amazes me to see how one medium can produce so much variety. It is the reason I love art so much. It is as individual as the artist.

I won't be critiquing the artists I mention here because I thought they were the best of the lot and I want you to enjoy them with out being encumbered by my opinions and viewpoints, lol.

So I don't repeat myself, PLEASE visit these artists websites they offer so much more than the one or two photos that I craptacularly took.(I did receive permission to photograph the work. I always ask and so should you. ALWAYS! It is only polite.) 

Like for instance, Daniela and Vladimir Ovtcharov. Their website is extensive with incredible work. So check out all the artists here! I couldn't photograph Daniela's work-her booth was too crowded-but was able to snap a few from Vladimir's (another reason to visit their site).

Vladimir Ovtcharov's The Sea Inside

Vladimir Ovtcharov

Vladimir Ovtcharov's Dandelion

Next I came across Chris White. Incredible encaustic works that are perfectly stressed. You can't really tell due to it being a photo but in person these pieces have a play of shine and matte, and according to Chris they feel wonderful to the touch. ( I didn't touch them with my grubby hands, I had just been eating cinnamon sugar pecans. What? Nuts are good for you.)

Chris White

Chris White's Spring Biscuit

Across from Chris was a collective gallery that held a lot of emerging artist work. Not all the artists were there but I did get to speak to Caleb Shelton, a photographer who uses a 360 panorama technique that he then puts together to create his “Little Planets” He doesn't have a website per say but he does have a tumblr, so go hook up with him there.

Little Planet by Caleb Shelton

Little Planet by Caleb Shelton

In the same gallery as Caleb was this piece by  called Catfish by Matthew Klapper. He wasn't there so I couldn't talk to him about his work or find a website for him but it's still a fantastic piece.

Catfish by Matthew Klapper

I came across Steve Nowatzki's etchings, they are truly fantastic. This was my favorite. But the glare on the glass (silly Oklahoma sunshine) is kind of distracting so visit his website, which he says is still under construction but has a test gallery up so you can see it. His “neglected” gallery, as he called it, is here.

Steve Nowatzki's The 11th Hour. 

I came across Sean Corner's booth, he was diligently working away. He said he doesn't have a website, sadly but this is a taste of his work here. He seems to be very active on the arts festival circuit so keep an eye out for him!

Sean Corner

Sean Corner

Then I came to an Oklahoma artist Jan Brieschke. She has had a nice long career as an artist and teacher. She developed a really cool style she calls fractured light and these amazing reverse glass paintings (which isn't really done anymore so it's wonderful to see it revived)

Jan Brieschke. This is the"fractured light" technique she  created.

Jan Brieschke. Reversed glass painting. I am SO sorry about the glare. It's such a beautiful piece.

Burning Books In This Day and Age

Browsing through Deviantart, I came across a post where the author had taken a photograph of burning pages of a new age book. He titled it Acts 19:19 (referring to this bible passage "A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.") and went on to say how his parents had bought the book for the sole purpose of taking it home to burn it "to prevent anyone else from reading it". The author had express great pleasure about it.

Now, I got to thinking. I'd love to burn some books myself. The whole Twilight series for instance.But if I were to burn all the crap books in the world, it would cause a level of air pollution that could possibly wipe out the population due to lack of oxygen. Not just because there are a lot of crap, but because books are  MASS produced.
You see, long gone are the days where it took skilled artisans to hand letter, bound and form a book. Now we have machines that produce them by the thousands!

Despite the rather poor selection being given to us these days, I'd rather have mass produced books and the privilege of accessing them, than not. My personal  library, which only has about 150 books actually surpasses that of kings in times gone by, suck it you royal bastards!

Anywho, so for me to justify the burning of a book whose viewpoints you don't agree with by saying you want to prevent others form reading it only shows your ignorance. And intolerance. There are many in this world who feel the bible is rubbish.There are other religions, as intolerant as Christianity, who feel the bible should also be burned for heresy.

So do we continue to breed hate? well, apparently, if you are Christian then  yes. yes you do.
The thing that gets me about these ignorant and intolerant people is they are representatives of their God. If they truly want to save people, why would you behave in a way that is contrary to the message you supposedly believe in? Why show people your God is as intolerant and ignorant as you?

For all you would be book burners out there, keep one thing in mind. If your God is almighty then he wants these books (yes, even Twilight *shudder*) to be  in the world and how dare you take it upon yourself to tell God he's wrong.

Another thing to keep in mind, or the perils of extreme persepctive

So I found this image on Pinterest. and as with the most nerve wracking thing about pinterest there is link or credit to the artist. If you know who did it please let me know so I can credit them properly.

Anyway onto the critique.

This lovely pirate lady for the most part is very well rendered. I love her cheeky expression, and the rendering of the cloth and leather textures are divine. Buuuuut ( this would be a critique without a segue) the biggest most prominent thing about the image is the limp dick pistol.

Turning the gun up  juuuuuuust a bit would have made the point a lot better. Here is a hot and totally bad ass pirate and she has a gun pointed....at your feet. Frightening. Really.
And a little too far to the right, is she aiming for some wily dwarf ninja or something? I can see it now, "Cor, I'll be taking that necklace Marm" looks to the ninja about to defend his mistress "Oi! Not so fast, ye bugger!" Admit it. You can totally see it now, can't you?

If you are going to go to the whole extreme perspective then don't slack off at the gun and the hand that holds it. He arm is jutted straight out and the elbow is locked. It would follow logically that her hand and the gun would follow suit and be pointed directly at you.

Now in the artists defense they may have originally done it that way. Then some nervous art director comes along and goes "Well, golly gee willikers. I don't think we should be pointing guns at our readers (I am assuming this is for a book cover I could be wrong.The artist could just like limp dick guns.) and had the poor artist re-paint it so the readers wouldn't feel threatened by said pigment.

But back to the  point. I've harped on this before. Logic, Muthafukka. When you are designing a composition- and you should always design it first. No matter if you are a realistic painter, an illustrator, graphic designer or abstract expressionist poopsmearer. Even the greatest abstract artists designed their compositions before painting-despite what they would prefer you to believe *cough* Pollock*cough*

Your compositions have to make sense. Otherwise you have would could be a great piece end up with a limp dick. Nobody wants that.

Running...

Clears the dust from the lungs and causes the blood to circulate most ambitiously.
Did you know Thomas Jefferson advocated running a mile a day for health?
A man so ahead of his time.

Black Widow Should Be Cropped

"oh hai, i jus gunna take sip, kay?"

I found this image on Pinterest. I like it for the most part. It's cleavage-eh, clever.  Black Widow being all bad ass, the visual pun of casually flicking Vampire Ant Man away like an annoying mosquito is amusing.

Quick before he starts to sparkle!

But there was something....something I found off about the image. Ah, the composition. It's almost perfect. Almost. But in obligatory :lets cater to sexless males" style they added an unneeded element.

Boobs.

You see, I wouldn't care if the boobs where there if :
1.) they actually fit into the composition and made it stronger. (which they don't)
2.) didn't look like there an after though that looked like the editor said "Hey! moar bewbies!"

"Go read porn will you"

See? it's stronger. The hand becomes the emphasis leading the eye to the whole point to the image. Ant Man trying to suckle Widows sweet life juices. Aside from defying every law of gravity, Natasha's cleavage was little more than wasted space. It interrupted the flow of the eye.
You should always have the view stay focused on your message. Not boobage.

Actually the boobs themselves aren't the problem. There is simply too much Widow to focus on the action at hand. You see, you can still be sexist and objectify women (hell, this one makes it more blatant. Top Cow would be proud)

"oh hai, we think you can't get a date since that is the stereotype of comic reader, fat, pimply, socially awkward, basement dwelling MALE ONLY chuds, so here are some boobs. We understand. We love you"

You are still able to focus on the message of the image AND get your cleavage on.  These were merely cropped, not magnified in anyway. Thus is the importance of good editing. You have to cut out the non-essential for the story. Especially if you are wanting to use it as a cover to get buyers.
Your message needs to be clear and concise. Whereas sex does sell, remember if you want staying power there needs to be more substance.