Glee! And arrrgh!
Finished another box this week, a small pirate chest inspired by vintage tattoo flash. I've never done anything in that style before because in general it's a little too modern, and the subculture and era it implies don't resonate with me in any meaningful way. But it's a fun style to work in, as I discovered, and the finished product looks really good for a first attempt. I'm looking forward to putting up pictures and maybe doing more like it. It's a popular style, at any rate, so I shouldn't have trouble finding a home for it, even if I'm going to be pricing it considerably higher than the other pirate chests due to the amount of detail.
Having basically become nocturnal, I'm having trouble getting anything done that needs to be done outside under the light of the flaming hatestar. That includes taking pictures in natural light. I'm getting bored with the style of pictures I usually take. I still like it and am satisfied with the results, but I'd really like to do something different now and then, and I just don't have the resources to do as much of that as I'd like. If I could get a thin wood veneer to go over my shooting table to make it look like a real table, then get about six linear feet of old, cool-looking books, that'd be a start.
That's the aggravating thing about being an independent artist. Fucking everything is up to you, from bookkeeping to taking and editing pictures. I've had to learn to do so much stuff I'd never have had to mess with otherwise. And I'm really happy that I've had that opportunity, I'm glad to have the experience, but the thing I don't like is that these things are not optional things I can do for fun, they are things that must be done, and they take time. The other thing I don't like is that these things take money. Lighting and so forth. I don't even have a DSLR camera, I'm just working my PowerShot for all it's worth. And some days, I am just fucking tired, and would like to delegate things.
I'm trying to paint another glass-topped box sort of like this one, and discovered something deeply unpleasant and embarrassing. All those lovely gradients I used to do on my boxes? People used to be all like "Hey, how do you DO that? Because acrylics aren't supposed to be ABLE to do that!" And I was always all like "It's not really that hard. It's just getting the steps in the right order and getting the paint to the right consistency."
Yeah, well, that was many years ago, and now I find I've forgotten how to do it. I've lost my touch. I spent an hour trying and couldn't get a goddamn 3" x 5" area evenly faded from black to red. I can't get the paint right. Annoying and embarrassing. I'm pretty sure it'll come back if I keep practicing, but until then, I'm going to be annoyed for the rest of the day every time I try to do it. It's less than ideal, but I have to admit, it's also rather funny.
On the bright side, I finished a 100 days, 100 words, 100 ficlets challenge. (I really hate the word "drabble," despite its amusing origin and its utility. It sounds like drab + dribble, and those are two things that I don't want my fiction to bring to mind.) Nobody will ever see the results but me, but I proved to myself that I could do it, and I'm proud of myself. And it let me spend time with my imaginary people, which is never a bad thing.
X-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment count:
Having basically become nocturnal, I'm having trouble getting anything done that needs to be done outside under the light of the flaming hatestar. That includes taking pictures in natural light. I'm getting bored with the style of pictures I usually take. I still like it and am satisfied with the results, but I'd really like to do something different now and then, and I just don't have the resources to do as much of that as I'd like. If I could get a thin wood veneer to go over my shooting table to make it look like a real table, then get about six linear feet of old, cool-looking books, that'd be a start.
That's the aggravating thing about being an independent artist. Fucking everything is up to you, from bookkeeping to taking and editing pictures. I've had to learn to do so much stuff I'd never have had to mess with otherwise. And I'm really happy that I've had that opportunity, I'm glad to have the experience, but the thing I don't like is that these things are not optional things I can do for fun, they are things that must be done, and they take time. The other thing I don't like is that these things take money. Lighting and so forth. I don't even have a DSLR camera, I'm just working my PowerShot for all it's worth. And some days, I am just fucking tired, and would like to delegate things.
I'm trying to paint another glass-topped box sort of like this one, and discovered something deeply unpleasant and embarrassing. All those lovely gradients I used to do on my boxes? People used to be all like "Hey, how do you DO that? Because acrylics aren't supposed to be ABLE to do that!" And I was always all like "It's not really that hard. It's just getting the steps in the right order and getting the paint to the right consistency."
Yeah, well, that was many years ago, and now I find I've forgotten how to do it. I've lost my touch. I spent an hour trying and couldn't get a goddamn 3" x 5" area evenly faded from black to red. I can't get the paint right. Annoying and embarrassing. I'm pretty sure it'll come back if I keep practicing, but until then, I'm going to be annoyed for the rest of the day every time I try to do it. It's less than ideal, but I have to admit, it's also rather funny.
On the bright side, I finished a 100 days, 100 words, 100 ficlets challenge. (I really hate the word "drabble," despite its amusing origin and its utility. It sounds like drab + dribble, and those are two things that I don't want my fiction to bring to mind.) Nobody will ever see the results but me, but I proved to myself that I could do it, and I'm proud of myself. And it let me spend time with my imaginary people, which is never a bad thing.
X-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment count: