Fatalistic Screaming Calms the Inner Soul

This will be my final post for this semester...and I am happy to finally find that I have done something right for once. My Flash animation is complete (or as complete as it can be)...and after 37 pounds of birdseed and 2 stints of 4 hours and 14 hours straight stitching, my pillows are complete. I only hope that it turns out well as a whole. I am completely prepped for crit, minus my artist statement (which will be done later tonight). Come join in the fun and any comments on my work would be amazing for my life. Much hard work has happened and I can say I don't feel quite as lazy now as I did after midterms. Go me.

Stitches Holding Together the Fabric of Time

I've been thinking about how to fix this cracking situation...and while I was finishing my Flash animation last night, I came up with "the idea". Instead of staining it or covering up what I'm trying to fix, I'm going to add thread and needle to the front in a metaphorical sense of "piecing yourself back together". These images are a few of the dark sources of your life that threaten to break your life apart...and I want to show that people hastily try to stitch themselves back together, but are really unable to completely without help. I think adding the sowing to the front in this case on the pillows makes it a little bit more meaningful.

Also, a suggestion was made to me by Amo to stuff them with something other than regular stuffing...and I think I'm going to take her suggestion, especially since the substance she wanted to stuff them with is rather heavy...and stitching yourself back up sometimes leaves you with a heavy heart. ^_^

However, my Flash animation is done! If you want to take a peek, visit here. It's a bit big for the page, but I can't really help that. http://elfqueenalaina.deviantart.com/art/Whisper-120929039

Infernos of Hell Rage Against the Icy Winters of Death

The cracking has succeeded in getting worse. I'm going to have to stain the canvas and image in order to make the image flow from one side to the other without distraction. I am also going to try spraying an acrylic sealer on the cracks so it doesn't crack nearly as bad when I turn the images again after I have sown them into pillows.

This idea of mine, while very, very meaningful to the content is a large pain in my ass that I just want to be finished with...NOW!

Good news is my Flash animation is nearly complete (except for the transition of frames and the title/ending page) and I plan to finish that Wednesday. I am going to get the stuffing for the pillows on Saturday morning and then stuff and finish them that day and Sunday. Everything will be done for critique and my life will not feel like it is going to be over. Yay life...go me!

Softly Sighing Beneath the Willow

I am a VERY UNHAPPY Rebecca right now. My images are CRACKING!!!! When I tried to invert the images when making a pillow (turning them inside out to sow them) the edges and other spots started to CRACK and leave the canvas lines beneath it. I don't really know what to do at this point since I cannot print them on linen (since the linen won't load!) and I might just have to deal with sowing the canvas, painstaking, by hand...oh, the things I do for art...

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, but I think I might just have to deal with this on my OWN!

La Juala de Cuerpos Sangriento

My prints are finally done!!! After 4 test strips...Gywn, Jessie, and I were finally happy with how they turned out. I'll be sure to scan in the two fabrics later for the pillow idea...but I don't want these to be soft pillows. I was thinking about adding nails, bits of broken glass, and other interesting things (maybe buttons)...things that will make these pillows a bit disturbing.

I'm looking for more ideas as I go along. This next week will be the finishing of my final image and my Flash animation (hopefully). I can't wait for the final critique and that means ALL of my work will be done! WOOT!

Seas of Floating Souls Whisper Down the Nile's Banks

I am finally going to print some of my images! How does everyone like that?

My cameo series and the two toys will be printed on linen or canvas (more than likely linen) and made into small pillows. The back fabric will be a dark clock fabric which has symbolic meaning as well. I think this is the best way of presenting them...since I think it makes the point a little bit better as slices of a child's life. Plus, pillows get used, tossed around, thrown, stepped on...and so many other daily things (I don't know...maybe the dog puked on it as well?) that happen to it. It makes the point of the wear and tear on innocence that might not be there by the use of texture or of the desolation that these pieces seem to give.

Any comments are helpful!

Those Who Conceal The Hidden Heart Are But False Liars

I really, really suck at keeping up with this blogging assignment. X_X Either way, I'm posting now with more images and hopefully critique on these images! The first 2 are images from the Flash animation and the last 2 are the new cameo girls (with adaptations!) Please comment and help me out!

Vanessa and The Medium

My flash animation is cruising right along, however, I forget how to upload a SWF file to Blogger...I know that you can't do it, but would you then go to Youtube to do such a thing? But since I don't have my junk drive on me right now as I'm posting this, I have still created two new images...let me see if I can find them....and no, epic fail on that... I will post the images later tonight or Thursday when I get back to my dorm room for the evening. However, I would like ALL of you to comment on the images below, especially the bottom two because I need to know if there are any awkward compositional errors with the really bright colors (since the bright patch of yellow, for example, is not the focal point of the piece on the middle piece in the below post)

If any of the texture is distracting, sorry, but you'll get over it. ^_^ Have fun with that and keep commenting! Information helps, not hurts!

Hidden Cameo Children and the Pools of Textured Tears

As I clip right along in making these images, I just wanted to show you all more images than the ones I showed at critique. The ones of the teddy bear and the first cameo child are now complete, so these above images are all WIP's. Please comment on all of them. The first one is part of my Flash animation with the ballerina and the last two are stills. I need feedback to move on with more images!

Electra's Whims Lead to The Death of Man

Ah-ha! New work! I have at least a few things, many in progress, but I didn't have enough time to save all of them as JPEG's to post them here, so I'll post what I have. I really like working with the textures and colors (and I really think that this is working much better and faster)...and I am hoping to get the work back that I lost and create loads more (including the Flash animation). Right now, I have plans for the one Flash animation and 6-7 images in the works, but I might have more by the end of the semester. Here are a few "teaser" pictures for critique on Monday!

Corruption of the Inner Circle Provides No Relief to Living Water

How I love that spring break is no longer spring "break". However, spring break did break my files...as both of my image files are unable to open (the teddy bear and the china doll--which was ALMOST DONE!), randomly shut down if they do, and leave with me absolutely nothing to base my semester on. Just great.

I still have the Flash document and the files that go with that, but my images are GONE...I am currently figuring out what to do about that (more than likely re-doing the images in Photoshop, but with a different approach...) All I can say is this semester really bites on the computer art side of things and that I have a LOT of work ahead of me...oh what joy...

Thank God two of my classes are cancelled next week. I'm going to be spending my life in Computer Art to make up for so much lost time.

Adultery Is No Sin We Confess, Yet It Condems Us To Satan's Grasp

And I am steaming right along (Thomas the train engine style) to get lots of work done before break. My images are almost done, except for the teddy bear image whose file has been incinerated and turned to ash (blown away in the wind as well) by my lovely, dysfunctional computer.

I will post the sketches for my Flash project over break (at least some of them) and I'm chugging away on that as well (lots of train references tonight). Obviously, I'll do some sketching over break (maybe even of a toy train set...?) My subconscious brain might be telling me something.

I want to split the semester between images and Flash, but somehow Flash seems to be treating me better...how lovely (sarcastic glare). I'll try to stick to my original theory of split, but if it leans one way or the other, I won't mind in the slightest.

Death Beseeches The Living Water

After deliberation, I will still paint the sketches in Photoshop, but I'm going to redo them in pen. My sketches aren't transferring well, but after redo-ing them, I hope to finish the storyboard and start on the actual Flash part as soon as possible (to have something to show for midterms)

My teddy bear image file keeps getting corrupted, so that image might have to be scrapped or redone (depending on what the verdict is). My china doll, however, is coming along nicely and needs a few more paint applications and then some color adjustments in Photoshop to be done!

Yay! I feel productive, but comment if you like!

Fortune's Gamble Amidst the Midnight Gatherings of Soft, Ethereal Melodies

I finally have some sketches for all of you about my flash project! I'm posting them here, but I haven't decided yet whether to do black and white for the whole thing or little splashes of color. What I might do...is go back into the drawings I've made with colored pencil instead of the colored one below, but I'm really not sure if I should do that or not.

Here are the sketches and post what you think.

Stuffed Horses, Ballerinas, and Growing Up Beneath the Maples

I feel as if I haven't really done anything for computer art yet, so I decided to look up some sounds for my short Flash project. I have a few different ideas running around in my head on the basis of content, deciding which one will be easier, so I want some critique to help me out!

The first idea is of a little girl and her stuffed horse sitting beneath an autumn tree and playing, but the little girl forgets her toy outside when her mother (another sadder loop that I haven't found yet but possibly this one? http://www.flashkit.com/loops/Ethnic/Last_-calpomat-6851/index.php). I thought about this sound loop for that particular scene (beginning): http://www.flashkit.com/loops/Easy_Listening/Instrumental/_In_T-Edgen-6900/index.php

The next idea is the idea of a girl's musicbox with a ballerina inside that spins around and around, playing the same little melody. The little girl would open it up from time to time throughout her life (when she receives it, teenager, maybe even moving out for college...and then getting married--she would open it one last time and bring it with her) I'm sure lots of girls had these as children (my sister has one that she still keeps and still plays). For this scene, I thought that this would be appropriate (as long as it faded in and out for when the box opened and closed or when the girl flipped a switch to turn it on): http://www.flashkit.com/loops/Easy_Listening/Instrumental/_Sad_-Edgen-6838/index.php

Sadly, I don't have my title screen background shrunk yet or I would show that too! I need comments so I can get moving on this stuff!

Dark Red Wine Is The Drink of Menotti

After my computer epically failed (not just a blue screen, but a black screen of death!), I am both very irritated and out of luck, especially since my project pieces thus far are based off Painter X, a program which I have, but the school does not. My question to myself then is "What are my other options for this semester if my computer takes a nose-dive into hell's little oblivion?"

My solution is a simple flash animation that tells the life of a baby's toy from the day it enters their stubby little arms until its decomposing little body (the toy, not the baby) hits the garbage heap after many years of use, stains, and lots of love. I think it would be interesting to watch the life of this little toy as it follows its own little path of life...and what toys do when they aren't in use?

This is just another idea I'm throwing around (possibly even to combine with the images that I want to produce as well). It's sort of a more follow-the-path thing (straightforward) than the images I'm producing which are more in-depth mentally than a flash animation would be. Tell me what you think!

Incarceration of the Three Little Fishies Into Their Own Little Circles of Hell

I have decided that I HATE and DESPISE painting in Photoshop. I don't know which tools to use or which tools not to use. I would much rather stick to Painter (which I will). However, I did use the Brightness/Contrast tool in Photoshop to darken my image overall. I'm not really sure as to which one I like better, but I am a fan of the darker bear especially against what will be a standard light pillow with ruffled edges (because whose grandma didn't make their grandchildren one of those old things?) It is only dark now because Photoshop and I are not friends, but I'll change that soon. I just wanted to post it up again so everyone can visualize the changes. Critique is VERY WELCOME!

P.S. I took the hand out which is why I'm a little wary about this whole changing up the thing, but it makes the scene a little more intimate. I checked the size of this image and it's 14 width by 20 height, which makes it about the size of an actual teddy bear (which was my point initally!)

Carrying the Cross of Empathy Across the Great Sahara

I've decided that a baby mobile might be a good idea, however, now I'm running into the problem of what I want my backgrounds to look like. Obviously, they can't be some plain color because then some of them might give the imagination that they are floating in midair. Truthfully, I'm thinking about discarding the hand in the teddy bear painting (which is why the question of background then becomes so difficult)

I don't know what I want to do with it, but I'm thinking maybe putting it on an embroidered pillow or something of the like (scanned into Photoshop and played around with...) would give it a sense of space in the picture without being too out there. Especially when it comes to the doll, I think of a wooden floor and the bear is something a child would sleep with, so maybe a pillow. The baby mobile would be hanging above a crib with a wall in the background.

I need suggestions on how to solve the issue of background, but keep it from distracting away from the actual object in the image. Any suggestions?

Underwater Skies of the CMYK/RGB Nature Verses A Human Canvas Of True Emotion

After reading the required blog topic (long and boring, of course), I felt that even though there is a "difference" between the new media and old masters, they share similarities that will never diminish. Computer programs, for instance, have media that will imitate real brushstrokes, oil colors, and charcoal brushes to sketch with, right on the blank white "canvas" that sits on a computer screen. At the same time, the technical nature of canvas painting (the traditional way) lends itself to a more emotional and expressive approach compared to the finished and overly polished quality of some digital pictures.

For example, take these above images. The top one is a piece of digital art, recognizable by the high polish of finished material and bright, bold color. The bottom image is a mix of oil and acrylic paint on traditional canvas. I, personally, find both images emotionally stimulating through color and subject. I consider both fine pieces of ARTWORK that can both be displayed in a gallery with relative ease. It is up to, in my opinion, the viewing public to make their own decisions on what they call art and what they decide to reject as art.

Each artistic movement has had its followers and its rejections. Why should the subject of new media be any different than Abstract Expressionism or Romanticism?

Intellect Destroys The Virgin Flower And Sends It To Madness

Once again, inspired by music, I am digging deeper into my many forgotten childhood memories to dig up little things I had or I kept with me as a child. I realized that when I was sketching these things that I was taking things I had owned as a child, but what about what everyone else owned?

I took that into account, and while I know I didn't have a mobile when I was a baby, that many other babies do. However, I don't know since, I want the singularity of an item, but with the number of items attached to a mobile if that idea will work.

I am a little nervous for crit on Monday, but I have a few things done as long as I paint some more tonight and get my images a little bit more clarified. I want to make my images older through texture and color, but since the finished product isn't available yet, it's a little hard to tell if it is going to eventually be what I want to portray.

Oh, on the last note, the song I was inspired by is from the opera Idomeneo by Mozart. It's called D'Oreste D'Ajace and it describes this women's fall into madness. Take a listen on IMEEM or some other free music program to the music (it's covered by the group Aesma Daeva and it's rather haunting, but inspiring none the less!)

The Quality of a Saran-Wrapped Life

Hopefully my posts will all be nice today and actually let me post these images. Comment on them when you do see them. More are in the works and the basic color schemes for these are started, so have fun critiques and leave nothing behind!

The first one is the broken china doll with basic colors (the blue might be too much and I might change it), but the other one of the discarded teddy bear is already started.

The Impossibility of Round Squares

After five million times of trying to post these sketch pictures online (Blogger was down for service, connection was reset, Javascript not enabled...), I think I've finally got it......................or not. I guess my image files are corrupt (imagine that...)

So, unable to see the sketches, I'm not sure how much critique you all can give me, but I have a few questions and a few answers to questions.

Question:
1. Should I keep a neutral color scheme for my work to signify the personal experiences in my "past" to make them feel like old sepia photographs in the back of my mind (old memories) or since they are pictures of child's toys (a teddy bear and a china doll), should I go for a brighter color scheme as to keep a pure innocence and denial of the world around it?

NOTE: This question most likely cannot be answered without viewing the images (I'll try to get them up ASAP!)

Answers:
1. From a previous question, yes, my work is based on personal experience and a glimpse to the inner self through the simpleness of the work to symbolize the mind of a child. However, as for historical reference, I am not sure at this point whether I will include any in later works or stick with what I've got.

2. From a previous statement, I changed the green to blue. Any better, Amo?

Immortality's Never-Fading Flower

After many hours of searching for the right picture to reference, I finally put out a sketch that I'm somewhat happy with...yet I don't have a scanner at the moment available to me. However, I want to get some more solid sketches down before I post them (so I have sketches worth posting)

I find myself very inspired by music, especially gothic symphonic metal (Nightwish, Epica, etc.) In fact, the one image I am happy with is inspired by the song "Eva" by Nightwish off of their most recent album. The lyrics are slightly morbid, but welcome to the inside mind of the artist. I draw from the subtle and create what I feel.

Ciao for now and may I have better luck the next time I write!

Beginning of A Series of Serious Endeavors

One of my favorite quotes deals with the power of silence. I have discovered that silence has its own voice, and as an artist (or what I hope to be), I want to portray this in my work. Even though the voice of silence might not be the largest, loudest, or most enticing, I believe it is the most meaningful.

I plan to start on a series of images done in both Painter X (which I own on my laptop) and Photoshop, heavy on custom textures and rich color, but with a subject that dwells on pain and suffering. I find the most emotional works can be simple, yet painfully beautiful, and this is what I want to achieve with this series.

My focus will be on the pain of singularity, loneliness, and the feelings of being deathly alone and afraid. Doing so, I've heard many times that people like my sketching style (which I think has an uncharacteristic roughness to it), so I want to combine that with color and more texture to make emotive images that might be pleasing to the eye, but slightly repulsive through subject matter.

Coming SOON...sketches/images of some ideas for perusal and critique