Until I sat down to write this post, I had a really productive few days, especially artistically. I finished my leaf piece, did a quick vector art sketch in Illustrator, started a new pastel piece and started work on a new fun idea in Blender. I was on a roll. So I thought I would work on my post. That’s when I ran into trouble.
I ordered a new computer this week, and, I was going to tell you all about the thought process I went through to decide on what to get and why I was getting that. And I kept getting further and further into the reasoning and detail and it was getting longer and longer. And then I realized that I was really just trying to justify the purchase to myself because I thought others might care or judge me for said purchase. Because of that, I think I am on my fifth draft of this post.
I am looking forward to getting the new computer and getting it all setup. It won’t get me any more space on my desk but it looks like it will be about half the size of my current computer so it should get me some floor space. It will probably take me at minimum, a weekend, maybe a full week to get everything setup and working as I want. At least moving all my files over won’t be a big deal. I purchased a portable hard drive a couple of weeks ago that is big enough to hold everything and I’ve already got things copied to it. I even managed to do some organizing of the really old files as I went so I might not have as many copies of the same files as I did. I still have a few things that I have duplicates of I don’t doubt. For now, I consider it an improvement.
I have been working on some art this week. I finished the leaf pastel piece I was working on. I like how the leaf came out but I’m not quite as fond of the background. I think I originally just wanted to do the leaf but I didn’t want to the background to just be the color of the paper so I added some background to it. I may do the same subject again on a different color paper and just do the leaf without anything else to distract from it.
I’ve also started a digital version of the leaf. As I was working on the pastel version, a thought struck me about what I was seeing and I decided it could be really cool if I did it digital and then I could maybe put it on a t-shirt or something. So I’m working on it in Adobe Fresco right now. I’ll probably end up transferring it to PhotoShop at some point.
Since Adobe Max I’ve been getting many more emails from Adobe, mostly with links to tips and lessons on some of the software. I followed one and then another and found Adobe Live just as someone was talking about the current Illustrator challenge. At the end she said something about the next day the she would cover more of what the challenge would be and that it has something to do with breakfast. I don’t use Illustrator a lot. I go months without opening it. Though, that may start to change. Because. I found myself opening up Illustrator on my iPad and creating a vector art sketch of a breakfast. And there is more that I’d like to add to it. A bit surprising to me and also kind of exciting.
Now that the leaf pastel piece is done I can start on my next piece. I found this great picture of just the eyes and top of the head of a Mantis Shrimp that looks like it’s sort of peaking over the bottom of the page at you. I think it will be a great piece to do and even hang on the wall over my computer. I got started on that and have it blocked in and some basic detail started. It should be interesting to see how it goes. It may be one that I would be happier if I did it in colored pencil because there is some fine detail to it that could be difficult to get with pastel pencils, I’ll just have to see how it goes.
I haven’t gotten started on the stand for the aluminum Christmas tree yet. Though, I did start on another idea. It’s inspired by these plugs for the Aerogarden that I printed out. I got the top part started and figured out how to get the hole, and then realized I need to figure out how to get that to have threading for a screw so I will probably be doing that bit over again as soon as I find a tutorial for how to make screws and screw threads in Blender.
And finally, I started on the Christmas Guitar course. I can’t say as I’ve played much yet. The first hour or so is primarily lecture and preparing you for what you need to know. Like the primary chords for the songs, and the time signature, and even some history of Christmas music. Though, I haven’t quite made it to that video. It’s a start and a good way to get back into playing after having neglected my fingers for the last few weeks as I finished up studying for that test. Unfortunately, once I get out of the habit of doing something, it can take a bit of effort to get back into it. Especially when the other things I do are just as interesting and engrossing.
While it has been a busy week, I don’t have a lot of pictures to share. I’m planning on getting further along on a couple of the projects so I could have a bit more to share next week. It will depend on which squirrel I go chasing next.