Admin Post: Community Check-In for August 2020

[goss]

Today's the last day of August, and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you this past month?

Did you sign up for or take part in any fandom activities in August, or have you been working on any personal art projects? Are you currently trying to meet a deadline? Feel free to share upcoming challenges that have got you excited, any frustrations you've been experiencing, possible goals for the next month, and so on.

Comments

[olivermoss]

I've just been doing small things to keep my toes in, just pages of objects on certain themes. I am planning to do some inking this fall, though I am not doing inktober for a variety of reasons.

I am badly stalled out on my isometric projects and need to figure out how to get going on that again.

[goss]

pages of objects on certain themes

*nods* A good way to keep from stalling out, and keep the drawing muscles active.

I am planning to do some inking this fall, though I am not doing inktober for a variety of reasons.

Oh yes, Inktober! Thanks for mentioning it. I don't think I was able to participate last year, but my situation is a little different this year with the work-from-home thing, so we'll see...

[olivermoss]

I am going to do inks, but not use the inktober tag. Jake Parker who claims to own inktober and has trademarked it is up to shenanigans again. Using the tag promotes his brand basically.

I don't care if other artists use it, it's good self promote for better artists than me. But I am doing Generic Untitled Inks in October Event or something

[mific]

Interesting - I'd wondered about that. I hope to do an October inking challenge as well, not sure yet what prompt list I'll use.

[goss]

Hmm, since the name "Inktober" is now heavily trademarked, maybe we should brainstorm titles and rename our tag for ink drawings in October, going forward.

- Inks in October
- October Ink
- Drinktober lol (drawesome+inktober)

Any and all suggestions welcome. *g*

[eller]

I was planning to create my own list again - but I have no idea yet what I'm going to call it.

[mific]

Drinktober, heh.

I like October Inks, or if we want something more Drawesomey, maybe Drawtober.

[goss]

Yeah, I like both October Ink and Drawtober. Which one do you think?

[olivermoss]

I like October Ink.

[mific]

Maybe Drawtober? As not everyone sticks to inks, esp. digital artists.

[goss]

I'm good with either.

Drawtober: I like Drawtober because it's a comm challenge in October. :)

October Ink: I like that the word "ink" is part of the challenge title, because I interpret the challenge itself as creating art using ink. Or at least in the inking style, where traditional and digital could both achieve a similar effect.

What are your thoughts? Putting up a community poll for choosing a title is also an option.

[mific]

A poll would be fine.
If we use Drawtober, the challenge post could explain about the inking vs digital ink-type art options.

[dirty_diana]

I haven't drawn in an embarrassingly long time. I need to commit to figuring an accessible set up for it, but I'm not sure what. I did come across a Star Wars prompt list for September, which looked fun.

(I have been vidding, though, and there's been fun playing with composition and symbolism in that.)

[goss]

I did come across a Star Wars prompt list for September, which looked fun

Oh, that's cool! :)

[mific]

Vidding is definitely visual art - not something I've ever been able to figure out, myself.

[dhampyresa]

Have made progress on the comic and project M. Am starting to fear I have compeltely forgotten how colours work.

[goss]

It's great that you're making progress! Good luck with your comic and project. :)

[dhampyresa]

<3<3<3<3<3

[mific]

Good luck with your projects and figuring out coloring!

[dhampyresa]

You too!

[mific]

Another busy art month for me, but many of them aren't posted yet as they're part of various Big Bang challenges.

Art for Brumeier's story in WIP Big Bang. An AU take on The Sentinel, where Jim's a vampire! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25876651

3 artworks each (well, 2 plus a banner collaged from them) for two fics in the Venom Big Bang (not posted yet).
My own primary entry for the Venom Big Bang, Which is a type of art (also not yet posted).

As posted here, finished the "Shrimp challenge": https://mific.dreamwidth.org/162376.html

More BIPOC portraits - Hikaru Sulu, Yusuf al-Khaysani, Bobbie Draper: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815385

Portrait of Andromanche from The Old Guard: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25667191

A simple nocturnal landscape, following a Youtube tutorial by Mary Sanche: https://mific.dreamwidth.org/162001.html

And I just posted a detailed romantic McShep (Stargate Atlantis) gouache pic I've been working on for ages: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26192911.

I'm mostly at home these days with not much RL work taking my time, so I have the time and energy for lots of art. Also supposed to be writing another Big Bang fic, but as ever, that takes a lot more out of me and I procrastinate terribly. I think doing art's more fun for me as I listen to podfics, podcasts and audiobooks while doing art, whereas writing takes more concentration and I can't handle any distractions when writing.

Excitingly, I finally managed to clean up and reorganise my art table (well, half a table). I'd bought some shelves and filing drawers pre Lockdown, but only did the task last weekend. Such a relief and it's made doing art even more enjoyable. Here are a pics of the tidied space - still cramped, so I'll probably take over most of the rest of the table at some point, although it's also my laptop place. (Click for full size)

[goss]

Yay for tidying! \o/ And it's so great that you're having more time now for your art. :)

[dirty_diana]

Wow! You are on fire, that's awesome.

[syntheid]

I don't know if I did much in August particularly though I did kiiinda get ridiculous about watercolor and paper and did some extensive swatch testing one day to see if I could figure out some things about cotton vs non-cotton paper and blendability and backwash issues hah. Here if you're interested, unfortunately I found that Bee Paper, which is dead, was probably my favorite of the paper I own for wet-on-wet techniques.

Also was experimenting with how to watercolor darker skin tones without losing watercolor luminosity and think I finally figured it out but didn't really do much more than a test nose.

And then the art part isn't new, but I downloaded DaVinci Resolve and (re-)learned how to do some basic video editing to put music to a Procreate process video. [here]

I'm trying to figure out how to balance like... learning/practice stuff with creative projects. This year I've been mostly doing concept design and straight up practice pieces from reference to learn rendering and watercolor, but I'm kind of itching to do more actual illustration and not just portraits or character designs. The one I've done this year can't be posted yet as it's being held up by the zine not publishing.

[goss]

I'm trying to figure out how to balance like... learning/practice stuff with creative projects.

Finding this balance is something I struggle with too.

Good luck with your vidding! :) :)