There’s chalk everywhere
Whenever I say this people’s eyebrows shoot up over their heads, they lean in close to me, only to lean back and squint and say
“REALLY?”
And yes. Yes really. Here, I’ll say it:
I’m afraid of chalk.
Yes, I know it’s not going to hurt me. No, a chalk didn’t kill my father.
It started out as just a dislike. Then an intense aversion. Now a fear.
It makes my blood run cold, and gives me the overwhelming urge to lick my fingernails in recovery. (Yeah, I don’t understand that either).
And you know what sucks? REALLY sucks?
Chalk is everywhere!
I swear that almost every movie, every sitcom, even every documentary that I’ve watched in the last 3 months contains at least, at least one chalk scene.
Can’t they put warnings for this sort of thing on the DVD cover? Or in the opening credits? What if I had a seizure and died from seeing chalk?
Seriously, next time you’re watching a movie, take note of how many times people use chalk.
And if the number is zero, drop me a line – it sounds like the very movie for me!
June 15, 2010 Comments Off
More to life
A lot of shitty things have happened to me in 2010.
A lot.
2010′s latest gift to me (a concussion and a cracked cheekbone) caused a friend to suggest that this is the universe telling me I need to slow down.
That I’m working too much, and I need to look after myself.
I thought about this for a bit.
I actually don’t think, as far as illustrators go, I DO work that hard. Do I?
I mean, usually get up and am at my computer by 9. And I’m usually there at 6pm. 7pm. 8pm.
But I DO take breaks. I check the PO Box. I go for a walk. I go out for coffee.
I even spend some time every evening watching some DVDs or documentaries with Seth.
I mean, sure, there’s never a day I DON’T fire up the computer and at least check that no clients have sent me urgent messages. Or maybe just tweak a painting for 15 minutes or so.
And a few weeks ago, when I had a whole weekend away from my computer and work, I almost had a panic attack about it.
I know that’s not healthy, but hey, I’m an illustrator. I’m freelance.
It’s hard!!
It comes with the territory. Suck it up princess and get to work.
Still, it’s been on my mind. So today I asked Seth:
“Do you think I work too much?”
“Yes”
“I…oh. Yes? You don’t even need to think about it?”
“No. Yes. I told you that before. I keep saying you’re spending too much time at the computer.”
“But it’s where my work is!!!”
“I know.”
My initial response was to feel anger.
Don’t people understand what my job is? That I’m a freelance illustrator and designer? Don’t people know how hard that is? Don’t people know what odds I’m up against? Don’t they understand that there are more neurosurgeons about than full time illustrators? Do they know what that means, and how much time it takes to be able to reach that level?
Don’t they care?
And you know, I realise, the answer is no.
No, they don’t care about that.
They care about me.
They couldn’t give a rat’s if I make it into this competition, or that one. But they sure as hell do care when they see somebody they care about hell bent on obsessively working themselves to death.
And while it might not be a heavy workload by ‘industry’ (I despise that term) standards, it is by sane people standards.
I guess I would do well to remember that.
And I guess it might not actually hurt me to unplug my computer one day a week for some rest and recovery and…dare I say it…relaxation?
I’m going to give it a go.
April 14, 2010 3 Comments
Remembering what’s important at Christmas
This toddler, followed by a vulture, collapsed in the dirt on the way to a feeding clinic.
Luckily, the photographer chased away the vulture, and this particular little girl made it to the clinic. I shudder to think how many didn’t.
December 17, 2009 Comments Off
So! A note about this blog
I have made the decision to change the way this blog works, as you may have noticed from a lack of updates.
Mundane sundries now go to my personal livejournal once again, here at livejournal.
However thoughts on work, art, being a freelancer, misc general interest items and videos of cute animals will be posted here. Oh, here’s one now!
So The Ugly Goat is not dead…just….uh…whatever.
Stay tuned!
November 29, 2009 Comments Off
You should probably see this
I’m not ashamed to say I laughed. REALLY hard…
Even the dog thinks it’s tragic. I love that he stands and stares the whole time.
November 16, 2009 Comments Off
Talking about photo paintovers
Being a digital artist striving for a certain level of realism in my work, I’m constantly accused of ‘photo paintovers’.
Those other digital artists out there know exactly what this is, but for those not familiar with the term, allow me to explain: a digital painter (like me) paints, but some digital artists pull apart photos, insert them into their painting and paint over the top of them.
Some artists do this to great effect, and some people ruin artworks this way.
Either way, to be accused of a paintover when you claim you have painted it yourself is quite an enormous insult, as a) it’s suggested that you are not telling the truth about your process and b) people are suggesting you don’t have the skill to paint it yourself.
To show I DO have the skill, I created a walk through of my process and uploaded it to my website some time ago.
Now I’m going to show you something else.
The Opposite of a Paintover!
If it is assumed that you do a paintover to cut corners with reaching realism is characters and objects (I know artists who make lovely multimedia work and DON’T use it for this reason, but we’ll ignore this in this instance and discuss just the digital painter who is trying to take shortcuts), then what is it when you put a bit of painting IN to a photo, having not painted over any photo as a base?
That’s exactly what I did for a competition entry for a design school. We were supposed to express, in 25 words or less, why we wanted to win, and I decided to opt for a visual approach.
The design school assumed it was photography. But it wasn’t.
It’s part photography, part paint.
So this image, here, is part photography, part painting. See if you can pick what I photographed and what I painted:
I’d like to think it isn’t too obvious.
So before I show you the original photo sans painting, I’m going to explain why this is different to a normal paintover – I painted the extras INTO the photo without the aide of a photo to paint over.
November 12, 2009 Comments Off
Worth watching
An artist friend shared this with me (thankyou Lisa!), and it’s worth watching.
It’s a video on TED wondering about how we approach creativity and ‘genius’ but keep our mental health at the same time.
November 11, 2009 Comments Off
