Studying Art - GCSE Art Journal Inspiration

I feel inspired after discovering this video of a GCSE Art Book.  I never studied GCSE Art, and kind of wish I did.  Although I have a feeling my school would have told me what artists (probably abstract) to study, and I imagine there would have been a fair amount of clay and pottery sculpture.  Not really what I wanted to study.

I've always been attracted to graphite pencil and colour pencil art, I don't consider myself to be particularly skilled with a paintbrush.  I love what this young Grade A student has produced in an Art Book, she's made illustrations she's proud of, emulated the work of artists she admires, and even experimented with drawing using colour Biro pens - something I wouldn't have thought of.

Here's what she created:

I like the idea of creating an Art Journal, or a kind of Scrapbook Junk Journal / Smash Book idea.  But I hadn't thought of creating an Art Book / Art Journal merely for working on and improving my art skills.  I really like the idea of exploring the work of artists I admire, and experimenting with styles and genres of art I might not have thought of before.  

When I first started to be inspired to create art of my own and aspire to become an artist, I was inspired by the Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques, a book by John Grant and Ron Tiner, where I discovered the works of Chris Achilleos and David A. Hardy, amongst many others.  I was also inspired by the Fantasy Art Calendars of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, and later Luis Royo too.  Since then I discovered the works of Clyde Caldwell, Greg Horn, Amy Brown, and Anne Stokes.

Sketching to recreate the artwork of the artists I admire could be fun, especially as a way of trying out different styles and techniques.  Learning from the masters, only I get to choose who the masters are that I wish to study.  For example, Chris Achilleos work is highly detailed and colourful, whereas Luis Royo's work is usually kept to just a few colours, and he does beautiful pencil illustrations I could learn from.  Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell produce hyper-realistic work, which would be very difficult to recreate, certainly a challenge for me.

What Artists inspired you to create art?

Learning Graphic Design - And My Very First Photo Composite!

This blog is all about exploring new adventures, trying out Big, Fun, Scary things to do.  Well, now I'm trying out a Big, Fun, Scary and Exciting New Career!  Well I am at least dipping my toes in!  I have started a brand new course with Shaw Academy, a Diploma in Graphic Design.  I'm going to be learning how to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

I've previously worked in traditional art mediums, Pencil and Colour Pencil being my favourite go-to mediums, and I still want to continue that.  But I've had my curiosity peaked by seeing some of the beautiful art, and photo composites, created in Photoshop.  I've dabbled in the past with other photo editing suites, and always ended up with very jagged lines, and not quite what I wanted.  I think this was more down to my lack of knowledge than the software though.  Now I have had a little teaching, with video demonstrations, and getting to recreate what I have seen step-by-step, and I am loving it!  

In my first week of the Graphic Design course I really got to grips with Photoshop.  Here is the first piece I created from Lesson 1:

I recreated our first Photoshop demonstration, finding a similar background photo online, I followed through step-by-step, and although the lessons are using the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud, Shaw Academy told us about Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2), an older version of the same software, containing Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.  You just need to create a free Adobe ID to be able to download and use the software free.  If you want to play with the latest Adobe Creative Cloud, I am told you can also download a free 30 day trial.  It's great that you can learn how to use this software without having to commit to buying it, and find out what it's like to be a graphic designer.

I really got excited when I got the chance to create my own photo composite, stitching various images together so they look like they were always meant to be together.  Being a big fan of Steampunk and Science Fiction, this seemed like a great opportunity to create a fun piece of digital art!  (It still seems strange to think that I created digital art!).  So I followed one of the links Shaw Academy suggested for getting free Creative Commons licence images that we are allowed to modify and distribute, and I discovered Pixabay.  Here I found these fun images to piece together to create a scene:

A squad car, this seemed to fit the setting of a possibly post-apocalyptic setting, possibly with zombies, aliens, or monsters.  I could picture it easily in a Resident Evil setting.




This Abandoned Factory also seems perfect for a post-apocalyptic setting.  I have a thing for urban abandoned places, I love searching for images of eerie desolate places, I just feel they are full of atmosphere.  I also love the graffiti on this particular setting, and seems right for urban warfare.

I found this fella shooting some kind of Steampunk / Sci-fi heavy duty gun.  And it seemed perfect for blasting aliens / monsters.  He looks pretty Steampunk, which really appeals to me, perhaps he's a time traveller from another dimension come to save us?



I put them all together using some masks, but for me, although the cop's squad car blended in really well, I didn't feel my Steampunk guy did, nor did his weapon's blaster fire.  Take a look:

The scene also seemed overly bright, like it needed to look darker, possibly taking place at night.  After darkening the image, cutting back on the purple glow, and adding a little light reflection on the nearby pillar, I am very happy with the results.  Not bad for my very first photo composite!

Blogging Inspiration - Exploring New Hobbies & Living An Adventurous Life!

I stumbled across a blog today called Sphere of Annihilation, a blog about Tabletop Gaming, Comics, and other nerdy stuff the blog's author, +Ned Leffingwell, likes.  I was first drawn by his post about a new Shadowrun Anarchy product coming out soon - I am loving exploring Tabletop Roleplaying Games, especially Dungeons & Dragons (D&D 3.5e) and Shadowrun (Fourth Edition).  So far I have been enjoying learning to play D&D, and have so far only collecting books on Shadowrun, and hope to learn to play it soon.  

I am enjoying exploring new hobbies, and hope to share what I try on this blog.  Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with everything I want to try, and everything I want to blog about, that sometimes I don't try or blog about anything.  Which brings me to another lovely blog post Ned Leffingwell wrote, on a Blogging A to Z Challenge he took part in.  I don't know much about the challenge, though it seems to be a challenge where you write something related to each letter of the alphabet, which sounds a fun challenge to me!  But what I really liked about this post, was that it was a personal post of reflection on the challenge, what he liked blogging about, and what he got from blogging.  He says, "I like writing about my hobbies."  It "helps me to gauge how much time and interest I put into them."  "By writing about them I make sure that I am appreciating the things that I collect.  I look at them, read them, play them, and think critically about them."  This is a lovely way to think about hobbies and why to write a blog about them.  

I originally chose to write this blog as a way to explore new hobbies, discover more about what I love, and share an interest for some perhaps unique hobbies that people wouldn't otherwise thought of trying.  I want my life to be more adventurous.  I don't imagine myself travelling the world be doing amazing feats (I'm not sure that is what I would want, even if I had the means to do so), but I do believe you can live a more adventurous life from your armchair.  Even if you are tied down by a career, responsibilities, or even ill health.  There are many fun, unique and exciting hobbies for to discover, attempt and challenge yourself with.  Why not achieve amazing feats in a hobby you can do at home?  Why can't every day of your life be fun, exciting, and filled with a sense of achievement and time well spent, in overcoming a personal challenge of your own choosing, in your own life, right here, right now.  That's how I want to spend my life, always discovering and exploring something new, and having fun in my an adventure playground of my own creation.

Whatever you do, this morning, afternoon, evening, or weekend, have fun and enjoy your life.  

OMG, They made a new Independence Day movie!

I LOVED this movie in the 90's, and I had no idea they were even going to make a new one, let alone that they have already done it, and created a trailer, for a summer (June) 2016 release.  Wow!

The original movie was EPIC!  It had Bill Pullman as the president of the United States of America, Jeff Golblum as a seemingly insignificant guy who wanted to save the planet - and he literally got to do just that, on a hugely epic scale!  The original movie had awe, and huge spacecraft looming over our skylines, like the characters in the movie, you gaped open-mouthed at the marvels of a far superior alien race arriving to annihilate you.  

Well they're back, and so are key members of the original cast, including Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, and the guy who played his father (Judd Hirsch I think, loved his character).  I haven't seen Will Smith yet, but it appears Liam Hemsworth is in this movie, possibly playing a similar role to Will Smith's daredevil pilot, and perhaps 'a little eager to whoop ET's ass!'

From the trailer below, the new Independence Day: Resurgence looks just as fantastically epic as the original, made 20 years later, and I can't wait to see it!

Independence Day: Resurgence - Official Movie Trailer

Youtube video

NaNoWriMo 2015 - Story Ideas

It's September and I'm starting to think about Nanowrimo 2015, that exciting and crazy month in November, where every year I attempt to write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.  I think September is the earliest I've thought of my Nanowrimo novel, normally it's some time in October I start to think of it.  But I'd really like to give myself a good go of it this year.  Perhaps this year will be the first one I actually win Nanowrimo?

Beckie / Flickr Creative Commons License

Feeling inspired by my Art Challenge earlier this year, where I created a fantasy image based on an idea of a British secret service covertly fighting alien threats in the Victorian era.  How would Victorian technology fare against alien technology?  Aliens, alien abduction, experimentation on humans, shapeshifting aliens, alien robots and monsters attacking Earth and it's inhabitants would all seem very alien and very strange to 19th century humans.  

My Artwork: 'Ancient vs Futuristic' - Colour Pencil on A5 Sketchbook paper

Although they could use Victorian guns, probably flintlock pistols and rifles, and gunpowder (most enemies don't fare too well against large explosions), I think they would still struggle against alien enemies.  Perhaps they could make use of the occult knowledge that was so popular in Victorian times.  Consulting psychics to determine when and where any alien encounters or threats had or would happen.  They could also seek out witches and mages to do battle against alien enemies, summoning spirits and werewolves to do their bidding.  This may make the battleground a more even one.

Lemurian Grove / Flickr Creative Commons License

Their communication abilities would be very archaic compared to today, before telephones of any kind were invented, not even radio communication existed.  Letters would have been posted, and if something could not wait 24 hours for first class post, messengers could be sent, like errand boys (or grown men if they could not trust them) to deliver paper messages that were urgent.  Members of the secret service could turn up at an agent's house, or meet them at a pre-arranged time, such as at a park.  They could pass paper messages that would need burning after reading.  Or they could have some sort of code.  Perhaps Braille? They could have secretly invented before it was released to the public to be used by the blind, it could have been used as a discreet code around the edge of postcards or greeting cards to be sent through the post to secret service agents.

lokarta / Flickr Creative Commons License

Steampunk technology could have been invented in a similar way, to look like Edwardian technology, that was secretly invented earlier than was released to the general public.  What kind of Steampunk technology could they have had?  Electricity hadn't been invented, so it would have to be something running from a steam engine, or cogs like a wind-up clock mechanism, which could be very small like a pocket watch, or something very large like Big Ben.

Calsidyrose / Flickr Creative Commons license

Perhaps I can spend these 2 months leading up to Nanowrimo researching Victorian technology and what occult and superstitious beliefs they had, to give me plenty of ideas to go through in November.  I find I struggle when I don't know what is going to happen next in my novel, I've tried winging it with absolutely no prep at all, and I've tried with lots of ideas seemingly carefully planned, and then run out of steam.  

This year I hope to be more prepared with ideas I can pick at random, and make use of the Mythic Game Master Emulator, originally designed to emulate the Game Master (or Dungeon Master, if playing Dungeons & Dragons), and allow a group of friends to roleplay without a GM (or DM), or to play a roleplaying game solo, without any other players (which is what I originally bought it for).  But when you read into the Mythic Game Master Emulator ebook, you learn that it can actually be used for writing a novel, ideal if you up against a deadline (such as Nanowrimo), and don't know what to throw at your characters next.  I'm hoping it will help me keep pressing on with my novel, when I'm stuck and feel I don't know where to go next.  It should also help it feel like a game too, making it more fun!  I might even try having a list of ideas or events, up to 100, that I can then throw a 100 sided dice (1d100 or 2d10's), to pick something at random to put my characters through.  I love challenging my characters, and seeing what they can survive through!

Anyone else thinking of their Nanowrimo 2015 novel?  I'd love to hear what you're working on and any tips you have for ploughing on through 50,000 words in 30 days!