Creating textures

Well back home to play with the paints. Digital paints anyway. Picmonkey added the color canvas feature to the basic abilities menu and now it's "Build Your Own Texture" time. As I wrote on the other blog about a very special Christmas event for me (and millions of others who tuned into BBC and BBC-A) I've been inspired by the color Tardis Blue. As you can see.

2014

Yes, 2014 will bring you more digital art. Picmonkey was a great find. Another great find might make posting a rare occasion for the foreseeable near future. I love blogging and I feel really weird when I don't do it. 2014 has also brought a new relationship so there will be a period of adjusting that into the regular folds of my life.

The biggest lesson from 2013 must carry on into 2014 and beyond. And I want to remind all of you of that lesson.

Be Yourself! Be your most authentic self that you can be. Make no apologies. Allow no one to dictate to you who you are and who you are meant to be. Of all the compromises that you will make in your life let this not be one of them. Accept no substitute interests. Subvert no intention to another's will.

Be Who you are with Grace & without Guilt. Fly the banner of your own design and those who recognize its symbolism will find you and incorporate you into a larger group. Being a geek is more mainstream now than it ever was; more mainstream than it will ever be again. We are able to find each other now and build the relationships that even our most introverted brethren crave.

There is no reason to be less than you are. None. NONE. Anyone who would subjugate you under their standard of what is and is not acceptable (beyond moral codes of course) must be cut from your life as ballast is dropped from a hot air balloon. Be yourself and be truly free.

Yes, friends, it will still take a while to get to that social group that you know is out there. Yes, there will be a period where you will feel like you are sitting through the longest dark tea time of your soul. The table is set and no one is there to share it with you. Fear not. They will come.

Through yourself into the things that you enjoy. Hold nothing back from yourself. And eventually you will find your tribe, or it will find you. And this is where true happiness lies. We make ourselves miserable making others happy in conforming to their style. Let them find their own authentic people and let you find yours.

And let's make 2014 the Year that we Truly embrace Who We Are!

Strength in Solitude

As I am embarking on a new personal journey, the question of solitude has come up. Again. In many ways introverts are completely comfortable with the concept of seclusion, especially in the creative arts. However.... and you thought there was a but coming, however; introverts don't always want to be alone. Ideally we would like to be with an extrovert that can be our world representative. I think. Maybe it isn't fair to speak for all introverts. I speak for myself and say it is nice to be able to share the quiet and be connected to someone.

It's hard to find people to do that with though. So many people in the World freak out over the concept of spending time alone that we seem weird. There is almost always something wrong with people who need a lot of time alone. I have a friend who just made bread from the mold of a grape found on a walk.... it's yeasty good bread raising mold. But those things take time to cultivate and work out to perfection. Those things don't need an audience in the experimental phase. But they do need an audience for the reveal and the applause. Accolades are just as important to introverts but we feel like we have to work harder. And that takes some time alone to be the genius.

Reflecting on that, I found words from the Impressionist Paul Gauguin. And this is the result:

100% Digital

Tutorial to follow

Die Entfernung

 

 

So artists got a great Christmas present a little bit early from the British Library & Microsoft. 1 MILLION gifts of copyright free/public domain images. I found this great graph and fell in love with it. Keep in mind Math and I are still not very cordial with one another. If Math had junk I would punch it.... several times daily. I love logic just not the tedium associated with its actual moving parts.

 

This particular graph is for finding the middle point (mittelpunkt)of a particular thing (Karten). Die Entfernung is the measurement. Instantly put me in mind of one of my many favorite Matthias Reim songs, Wie Man Liebt.

 

He describes how we are free to our youth until school starts and then are heads are crammed full of many things we will probably not need (Physik, Chemie & Algebra, assorted historic points and how to measure the distance between stars) and are never taught the things that we need to know, the ONE thing we need to know... how to love.

 

We teach kids how to make war, how to build empires with technology and economics but not how to love each other. Or, as I am a champion, to make art and music and nourish the soul in addition to the coffers.

 

I loved to learn things because it kept my mind busy.

 

But oh how I would have a heart as full as my head.



Monument to Sucess

I've talked about Michelle Ward for forever because I love her stuff. I especially love what the graphic design world has been calling "Maximalism". I noticed it but didn't really connect with the trend until Michelle blogged about it. That was back in 2006 and I am just now getting around to being brave enough to try it. Of course this style goes hand in hand with the cool things that she is doing with stencils & spray paint.

As I am not set up for elaborate processes, I have chosen to play with the picmonkey and explore what I can do with the concept. No physical space required. No wasted material in failed attempts.

Tonight's issue:

The background was generated using picmonkey layers and editing the crap out of them. The engraved drawing is from the British Library collection I mentioned yesterday. And the rest was a lot of frustrated picking and deleting.

I'm not normally found of mixing cool and warm colors, which is what holds me back a little. But this red and blue/green combo is starting to grow on me.

A wise man once said

My cousin David is quite an inspiration. And so...