Week 7 Has A Late Start

The lack of updates over the past few days is due to school continuing to be a cruel mistress with high demands that are never met. These demands include having to start over on my painting for class. The other concept is actually too illustrative  and since it's a painting class, the piece needs to be universally readable, meaning you can make something of it whether you're "in" on the subject or not.

Though I'm going to take a different approach, The Hunger Games will still be the subject matter. I'm keeping the other painting because I like it for what it is, but since I have until Wednesday for my second attempt, it's going to be the Weekly Art this time.

The new idea is a portrayal of Katniss in her interview dress, doing the awesome twirl that shows the fake fire effect. You can see (maybe) an animated GIF of that here.

Week 6 Is Satisfied

Well, it is unless I find a typo in the required text I had to add. That wouldn't shock me in the least, but that's why I still have it as a multi-layer file as well, for easy fixing. I'm putting it up with text so maybe if someone else spots an error they can let me know.

Week 6 Drags Its Feet

This week has been busy with little time (or motivation) to work on the poster for the contest. I toyed with giving up but after coming this far I will make myself finish even if I don't like it enough to enter it on March 2nd. Hopefully the girl looks more "Disney Princess" than "anime girl".

Also, started adding Katniss and Peeta to the top of the painting. She looks weird and blobby right now but hopefully once I add more highlights and detail to her hair so you can actually see it, she'll look better. Also the numbers are more annoying than I expected.

Week 6 Realizes This Is Silly But Continues Anyway

As the title implies, I came to a realization while working on the drawing this evening. That is that I will no longer be living in this city during the Renaissance Fair for which this poster is being drawn. I will be busy settling into a new life and won't make a trip back the weekend of the fair, mostly because it's really small and partly because it's unlikely I'll have the energy.

That, however, doesn't mean I'm going to just put a stop to the drawing. Practice is practice and it's always healthy.The slight chance of winning $200 or $100 doesn't hurt either, nor does being able to say that I entered the contest on a resume. Not only that but I'll have to put text on this thing, which will also be worth my time to practice.

I updated with a close-up screenshot of Paintool SAI this time because all the work I did was on the girl and a full shot wouldn't really focus on that too well.

Week 5 Waves Goodbye and Week 6 Arrives

Aside from the fact that this looks nothing like Jensen Ackles anymore, the print turned out decently. I'm not sure what went wrong there.

Lithography is stressful (partly because of my instructor) and I plan to never do it again. Ever.

On a happier, more relaxed note, I started Week 6 last night at a craft night get together with a friend. The local Renaissance Fair is having a poster contest and it wouldn't hurt to enter. The theme is Springtime. I did a lost last night but there are far more details to add. The deadline is March 2nd, but no harm in having it done early and being able to fix anything before-hand.

This is Not for Week 5

No, indeed it is not. It is, however, my current painting project for class. It's another conceptual book cover, this time for The Hunger Games. It's going to be far more symbolic than the last one, but the book itself uses a lot of symbolism.

The Roman numerals will all be white with dripping blood in them (hey it's a very macabre book), and there will be a forest on fire at the top with silhouettes of Peeta and Katniss at the top of the "clock" where the 12 is. I'm considering using a bow and arrow for the clock hands.

None of that probably makes any sense at all unless you've read the book or seen the movie, but I'll explain it more as the painting progresses and makes more sense in and of itself. Also my canvas was lop-sided when I took the photo. The numbers need work but they are straighter than that.

Week 5 - He's a Son of a Gun

This morning I finished drawing on the lithography stone and there progress will halt until I print on Tuesday morning. There will only be eight prints on nice paper from this. After that the stone has to be washed off so that the next person can use it. I've already decided to give one away, but I'll hold onto the rest as long as I can.

In other news, my new computer has arrived! I picked it up from the Post Office this morning. The "shell" of it is an old Thinkpad, but the internal workings are wonderful and smooth. As long as it works the exterior isn't a big deal to me. It's running Windows 7 beautifully and I'm very grateful to have Google Chrome back, plus a large screen.

The mass installation of all my software will take place tonight once I'm home from work.