Admin Post: Community Check-In for December (Sorry it's a day late, guys)

[goss]

Yesterday was the last day of the month (and year!), and we'd love to have you check in and chat with us. How have things been with you?

Did you get a chance to take part in any fandom activities in December, 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, New Year's Resolutions, etc.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to you guys for your friendship, encouragement and support, and for making this community a joy to be a part of. *hugs everyone* Happy New Year!

Comments

[mific]

​Happy New Year, everyone. I’ve had a bit of a frustrating time, as my home laptop hard drive melted down suddenly 2 days before Christmas, then my telecoms company made my very old first-ever email address defunct (changed it without telling me), while simultaneously cutting me off from wireless internet due to some tech glitch, for 4 long days. I lost everything on the laptop, but of course almost all my fanstuff is archived on line, and the art is on my old pc which runs my preferred old version of Photoshop 5.0. I lost a podfic I’ve been stalled on, and a few fic WIPs, but mostly I’ve lost work stuff, and that side of it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. I had cloud backup but it’s not working and no reply from their helpdesk as it’s the holidays. So dealing with all that's mostly what I’ve been up to.

In between that I did manage a few art things:

Hand painted Christmas cards for friends and family. These were inspired by a youtube vid with white baubles with delicate shading and patterns - mine were ... not so delicate! But cheerful! Using masking tape to to keep the edges clean worked well, largely as I have a roll of cheap masking tape with less stickiness than a good brand - ideal. :) 

Safe and Happy Animals. Art made as a present for a close friend who's had a tough time across 2017 with her health. Learned that the masking tape edge doesn't work so well if you paint heavily or with quite a wet wash across it. Will be more cautious with RL art in future - may be better to paint down the line of the edge, not across it. 

Theseus bull-leaping for Art Yuletide. This one was for minoanmiss *waves* and I was thrilled to get the prompt, as I love Mary Renault's books.

Overall, I've realised that although I do like experimenting with and trying to learn watercolour techniques, I'm mostly using watercolour like gouache - that's what seems to come most naturally to me. I'm not going to stop doing watercolour-type things because I do like some of the effects a lot (washes, special effects, etc.), but I think I'll experiment more with gouache as well (hello youtube teachy vids!) 

ETA: Oh, and I forgot the art I did for the due South Seekrit Santa: Home in Time For Christmas - it features a flying canoe and a somewhat jerky gif.

One good thing to come out of the laptop disaster is that I've replaced it with a sleek new Surface-Pro laptop/tablet (it can be either, and runs Windows so good for all my work stuff). So that means I can use a pen and do digital drawing more easily. I've always drawn with the mouse before now, which, I know! Daft and not great for my carpal tunnel! But I never had an art tablet before. I lost my modern CS version of Photoshop with the laptop - hopefully can get it restored as was a download, but as usual, holidays so no reply to emails. While exploring alternatives meanwhile I happened on a gorgeous digital programme for tablets called Rebelle 2. It's relatively cheap ($50) and designed by a trad artist to mimic watercolour and similar traditional media brushstrokes - even does drip and wet-on-wet effects. I found it easy to use even though (typically) I rushed into playing with it and haven't properly learned all its bells and whistles. Here's pic I made as a first attempt - not fannish, just an imaginary  portrait. 

Clarissa (click for full size)


 

 

So that's me for the past month. RL Work was frantic up to Christmas. Quieter now, but still steady with a big project due 15th January. I've loved interacting with you all and getting more into art, especially traditional media, through Drawesome, and am looking forward to more across 2018. \o/
(oops - did this as a post not a comment initially, sorry to be confusing)

[goss]

Oh my goodness! So sorry to hear about your laptop, especially the work stuff. D: Good thing you keep some of your other stuff backed up online though.

I keep meaning to back up my own art and work stuff, but haven't done it in quite some time. :/ *makes note to get that done*

[mific]

Yeah, backing up isn’t something I took seriously until I got more heavily involved with fandom on line! :)
Might be why I’m not more stressed about losing a bit of work stuff.

[mekare]

Oh wow what a total disaster! Hope you get your stuff recovered and in contact with the right tech people to help you.

I saw your Theseus today (totally missed the reveal date for Artyuletide) and he is soo so cool!

Have fun playing around with your new programme. I've been eyeing some Wacom tablets but didn't buy one. Yet. Maybe in the summer.

My own laptop has been acting up for days which is mightily frustrating on so many levels. For instance right now I'm trying to your linked artworks and I just can't. GRRRR. So hugs for your tech problems (which are way worse than mine but I feel your pain).

[mific]

Tech hassles, such a pain! But we soldier on. :)

[syntheid]

oh I love those cards! I always intend to send drawn cards, but usually don't actually get around to it... probably because I'm often blowing it into more of a project than it needs to be, ahah. (One year... my attempt to do custom cards turned into doing 8x11 marker illustrations for friends which was. Too Much.) I should try something simple like yours and goss's watercolor ones next year.

Curious about Rebelle 2, too, I've never heard of it before. I've tried ArtRage and Corel Painter, both of which are also meant to be very traditional-media-esque, too, but I'm afraid I was mostly confused by them, ahah. I use Clip Studio Paint, which is also cheap/often on sale for as low as $20, though, which has some real media mimicking tools too. I love the brush engine on it.

[mific]

Rebelle was pretty eas6 to use, but the more complex drip and bloom water colour effects take more practice I think.