I finished the thing. I tweaked until until I started to hate but that’s my usual work method, so I guess it’s okay. In the end it had very little to do with what I originally had in my head, but ideas are meant to change and adjust. You can tell I got lazy because it doesn’t look very different from the draft I posted yesterday…actually, come to think about it, it wasn’t exactly laziness – it was more my tendency to get lost in insignificant details and forget the larger picture. Here, literally.
Do you get it it? It’s supposed to be deep. I’m thinking about doing a series.
I hate it when I’ve got an idea stuck in my head. Don’t get me wrong, ideas are good, but sometimes I get so consumed by one, I have to put everything on hold until I make it happen. That being said, for the first time I’m sharing a work in progress. I don’t usually do that, I like to wait until things are appropriate for public exposure, but since I don’t really know how things are going to evolve from here on, one picture won’t do any harm. Maybe I’ll get some tips…?
It’s also the first time I’m using Photoshop to create something from scratch. Of course, I did a pencil sketch first and used a reference photo, but the digital shading is completely new to me and I’m pretty proud of what came out. The problem is that I worked at a very small resolution and everything looks sort of weird and low quality-ish. Can it be fixed?
There is a lot more to be done, and maybe I will stick with the original idea, maybe I won’t, but hopefully the whole thing will be done before Friday, when I leave.
Oh wait, that’s two days. Well shit, now I have to choose between playing Assassin’s Creed or finishing this. Or perhaps doing something productive…?
As I’ve mentioned yesterday, I am taking part in a challenge on Daisy Yellow blog. I know, I know, I said I won’t be doing these things anymore, but this one sounded sort of interesting. It’s called The creativity queue challenge, but I like to think of it as the Stop Procrastination Dare. The whole idea is that you have to do something that you’ve wanted to do and put off for a long time. And I kind of related, so I thought, why not?
A long, long time ago I heard a song on Youtube that I really liked. It inspired me. It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then, I come in contact with something that speaks to me – in images, mostly. I had it in my mind and I wanted to put on paper, but there’s a huge step between thinking it and creating it.
My first attempt was a major failure. It was pathetic and I hated it, so I dropped the whole thing. Except the idea – I still kept onto that.And then I read about this thing and once I signed up for it, social pressure played its part. I mean, ahem, I…felt very motivated. Yes.
So I tried again. I sat down with the sketchbook in lap (my new, beautiful sketchbook) and tried to sketch. It was looking acceptable so I kept going, adapting things while I went. The image in my head doesn’t always stay the same, neither does the one on the paper.
The cat was pretty supportive too. I mean, that’s what I like to think, since cats aren’t exactly the cheerleader type, but maybe this time she really wanted me to feel encouraged.
The pencil drawing took longer than I would have wanted but since I usually rush and ink the sketches before I make sure they look good enough, I consider this a progress. Obviously, I still fucked a bit up, but since I was going to edit it later, I didn’t panic as much as usual.
Then came the fun part – actually it was only fun for the first 2 hours or so. After that I kept coming back to it, obsessing over every aspect and constantly modifying the whole thing and the fact that I still didn’t like it was driving me nuts.
I edited it in Photoshop, adding textures and what not. I tried so many different things, I saved four versions to show it to you, but there were a lot more than that. It just wouldn’t come out the way I wanted which was probably expected since I didn’t know exactly what the fuck I wanted.
As you can see, I took out the outline rather early in the process and focused on the shapes. I like it so much better this way because it looks simpler. The only thing left from the original sketch is the face and the contour.
And the final version. Final, final. I mean I am not going to alter anything. I’m done. It could have been better, but I’m happy with it. Happy-ish…However, I accepted the challenge and completed it – I got it out of my system and cleared it from the queue. So you may call a success.
Sometimes writing comes natural, but sometimes the blank page just stares you mockingly in the face and there’s nothing you can do. However, having a blog means you can’t always be waiting for inspiration to strike, you have to “constantly supply new content”, as they say. So here I am, supplying.
I’ll have to admit though, it’s not just the blog who’s being neglected – there are over 400 unread articles in my feed reader and I am making making no progress with the books I’m reading. Or was reading…yes, I’ve been slacking this week.
The thing is, I am super duper excited that one week from now I’ll be on my way to Romania, to spend a chaotic Easter home. I can barely wait and it’s really hard for me to concentrate on the present, when the very near future gets me so stirred up. I guess that’s why I haven’t been doing anything productive this week, unless you count finishing the first season of My Little Pony…but anyway.
Today I decided to start packing my bags- I have never been this late, considering the departure is so soon and the only thing I have so far is a list – so unlike me! Panic arose.I hastily gathered all my clothes and laid them neatly on the bed, ready to sort them into three piles - yes, no and maybe. Yes, that is the right way to pack.
I took one long look at them, wondering how am I ever going to pack all of them… and the procrastination reflex kicked in. I decided to do something else instead. Something so ridiculous that it will take my mind off stuff. Something like…a stop motion film. Don’t laugh just yet, wait until you see it.
So basically I spent about two hours playing dress-up and it was so fun I absolutely cannot understand why I’m not doing this more often. I enjoyed myself and what came out is a somewhat sketchy video that I recommend you to watch because it’s not everyday that I embarrass myself on the internet. Or perhaps it is.
The moral of the story? Maybe, just maybe, I have too many clothes…
On a different note, stay tuned, I may be starting to post more often these coming weeks because (hopefully) there are lot of things going to happen. Things worth mentioning. And tomorrow I’m writing about a challenge I’m doing. I know, I know, I said I’m done with such things but this actually sounded interesting.
It’s been raining here since yesterday, which I don’t really mind because I like rain. Yes, it is inconvenient at most times, but it does have its charm.
It proved its inconvenience last night when I went on a short walk: trying to take photos at night, while it’s raining and people are laughing at you (yes, that really happened, but hey, I would have laughed too!) is no easy feat.
I’m still new to night photography, but it’s starting to grow on me – now if I can only manage to properly focus in the dark…and as much as it hurt me to see my baby suffering like that, the raindrops on the lens create the prettiest effects.
Anyway, enough with the bitching; less text more photos – the perfect strategy for a lazy blogger!
I think I’ve never more fun taking photos than I had today and to think that it all started with me roasting in the sun with a book on my lap…but enough with the cryptic attitude, here’s what happened.
Until some weeks ago I had no idea that grapefruit can be, and normally is, eaten with a spoon. As far as I knew, the only way one can eat a grapefruit is to peel it and eat like an orange, after removing the bitter skin. That’s how I’ve done it, that’s how my family’s done and that’s how everyone I know has done it. Apparently it’s wrong.
So today I was sitting on the balcony, properly eating a grapefruit and trying to read a book at the same time – not a smart thing to do, since grapefruit juice and white pages are not a good combination. So as I was trying to balance the spoon, the grapefruit and the book, I noticed this really beautiful pattern made by the shinny spoon on the book. Call me crazy, but I’m a sucker for the things light does – intriguing shadows, enigmatic light-rays, reflections, they are all fascinating to me.Hence, I did the only normal thing to do – I got my camera.
I’m rarely truly excited by the photos I take, but this time, oh man, I love them! The process was so impredictable and I think the results are just beautiful. I’ll definitely try this some other time, with more preparations beforehand though, because managing the camera, the spoon, the remote control and the manual focus simultaneously is nerve-wracking.
They are just as nice raw, but considering my currently obsession with colours, I had to edit them a bit. I was thinking about making some PS brushes out of them…should I? I mean, they are certainly workable.
Taken in broad daylight with nothing else than paper, some shiny cutlery and the sun. Added some colour layers in Photoshop. Head to my flickr account for some more!
Imagine my surprise today when, after a long and exhausting walk, I got home, downloaded my photos and while flipping through them, saw a stormtrooper staring right at me. Do you see it, too?
I was going to ramble on the subject of creativity, because I think it is a rather vague term and much can be said about it. However, I’ll diverge; when your purpose is being creative but you haven’t really settled on a specific method, conflicts arise.
That’s why even though lately I have been going crazy about taking photos and barely let go of my camera, I can’t seem to be able to pull myself together and write an actual blog post. And even though I have loads of ideas pouring out of my brain, I am absolutely incapable of forming coherent sentences and so I’ve decided to wait until inspiration strikes and just leave you with some of stuff I did before the “photo phase”.
As you’ll see, I have developed a taste for massively photoshopped drawings – it helps me disguise the bad anatomy while still being somewhat visually pleasing. I love it and – what’s more important – I’ve come to actually enjoy the process instead of stressing over how inaccurate everything looks.
That being said, it’s late, I’m tired and not being able to write (or to order the damn photos as I want) is unbelievably frustrating – I’m going to bed.
This is a photograph of my happy socks and a sketch I made while not learning. It’s my Freddie-Mercury-pose with stacks of books and flying paper all around me which you can’t really see, but don’t zoom in because it’s not a pretty drawing yet. The point is, I am going to a party but it’s to late too study and too early to leave – speaking of that, if the party is at 18:30 how late do you have to get there to be cool? Anyway, this is probably the most random post I have ever written and I have no justification for it. Thank you and good night.
