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!)