Hair
Got another lesson done today, so thought I’d share. It was about how hair can make a big difference to your character – like different styles make them look like different people. I did such a study years ago when learning to do manga:
You will be happy to note that, though tempting, I did not just turn that in. (I could have, you know) but instead I did a new one, so there!
I did a lazy version of the highlights/lowlights, but it’s passable. However, there was a bit about simplifying hair, and since there were a lot of lines in some of those, I tried simplifying the line art (also used a thinner brush) and did a more specific highlight/lowlight:
Yeah, yeah, the second one is better. Stop being lazy. Blah, blah.
I’d be remiss though, if I didn’t share my Victoria approved version – she was quite concerned about why they were nekkid, and felt it needed fixed. I did it on a top layer, so she said since it would cover girl #1s hair, she could stay that way, but the rest needed a dress.
So there’s the censor approved one 😉
Have a hair highlight kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Dancing with the Devil
Been awhile. I fell off the blogging wagon. Though I’m in West Virginia right now, I haven’t really taken any photos, so not much to share. Been doing some of those digital art classes I’ve been supposed to be doing since July…yeah, those. They’re going to run out eventually, so I better get to it. I think I’m like 43% through it. Now that we’re past the how to use the (new to me) program and just drawing, it’s going faster as far as how long it takes me to move through the videos. The homework should take longer, but I’ve been half-assing it and being lazy trying to rush. (I always did the minimum necessary for a good grade in school and called it good) Some examples: 1) Create a character or share a character you previously created – yeah, it’s the Jo character from TTC. A lot of other people made brand new ones and I imagine spent hours on it. 2) this involved action lines and center of gravity which honestly I will probably not use because I think it’s more complicated than how I already do it. Other people did shading and even colors! Yeah…. 3) expressions. Yeah, they look fine, (though keep in mind other people did color and shading, too) but it’s low hanging fruit. Straight on, easy expressions that are symmetrical. Took me longer to watch the video than it did to draw those.
So, I decided to really go out for one of them, and since it’s not too bad, thought I’d share:
And that’s what I got. Oh, and a pumpkin painting, just a sec. There, I did take some pics of that. This is my painting, Amy’s painting, and some wine, because they have to give you wine at painting parties. My only complaint is that they drew the truck for us, and there are some lines that bug me because I followed them instead of trying to correct them. *sigh*
What else have I been doing? Eating dip and watching the K Drama Her Private Life. It was quite good, btw.
Oh, and I finally put up a new FB pic with the green hair that I don’t think I ever posted about. For that matter I never posted the final Halloween yard, did I? Bit late now Oh, well.
And now it’s past my bedtime because this is a day people place. 😉
Have a wine party kinda day!
Jo 🙂
P.S. The secret to the hair “glow” look is that I routinely do the blonde highlight kits, so my hair is varied shades of dark to blonde, then I use the Splat for brunettes…Which is super vivid on the blonde and of course darker on the brown. That’s how I did the red the year before last, too. I like the color variety it creates.
Black and White or Color?
Working on the pamphlet for Mom’s memorial on Sunday. I have the inside sussed (she wrote the obituary except for a couple of small edits I made, and I picked the photo. The clip art came from vecteezy)
But I can’t decide about the front. She chose the photo – it comes from Dunans castle. Actually this isn’t the exact photo she chose – she had a low res one that came from the web, but when Duncan took some of her ashes there for us, he very awesomely took a much better quality image for me to use for this. He also took a bunch of other amazing photos there. Anyway, so the two choices are black and white or color:
I’m printing them myself, but ink isn’t really an issue – Walmart only sells the kind I need in a two pack of color and black, so not like I can save any money going one way or the other, so it’s purely an aesthetic choice.
After we get it chosen, then I need to spend a day printing them all up. Have to make my print layouts so they all line up. Fun times, haha!
I did get the funeral text all lined up – she left most of it, but not actually in order, just in disorganized chunks, so I have that sorted, and I found all the music she wanted. I’m not expecting a large turn out, maybe 20 people tops, but it’s the quality that counts, not the quantity.
That’s it for now. More later.
Have a pretty clip art kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Fresco
Hello. I’ve started several blog posts in the last weeks, but never finished them. I get tired the photo part, and then I have to upload, resize, download…bleh. I’m lazy.
But y’all knew that.
Anyway, some time back hubby got me the-tablet-that-must-not-be-named (can’t ruin my android loving persona, here). He got it because it was supposed to be the best option for photoshop only, surprise, we don’t use photoshop now, apparently, but rather Fresco, another app I have to pay for and learn to use.
Hrmph.
But I did find some tutorials and after three of them had the hang enough I could get on with it. I was going to share the tutorial images, but they use a base image created by someone else, and I don’t know who, so better to skip it than have someone pissed off.
Anyway, so here’s my first solo attempt:
I mean, there are some issues, but those are my own drawing issues, not a lack of program knowledge. Not that I’m a master by any means, but it’s a start anyway.
In other news, the flowers are blooming, the yard needs mowed, I need to paint some furniture and make cookies…We’ve been doing a year of cookies thing where we make a different kind of cookie every week. Wed initially planned it because mom loved cookies, but that aspect went out the window in February. However, since we’d started it, we’ve stuck with it. I should find all the cookies and post them. This weeks will be strawberry shortbread.
Not much else, so I end this here and maybe add some photos. Maybe not. (If you see them, then I did).
Have a J-pop kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness 124:Lots of Stuff
I’m thankful for lots of stuff today.
#1: Today was my book launch. Goddess of Night is available everywhere and goes up to $3.99 tomorrow. The awesome Book Born group is hosting a giveaway for a chance to win one of three free copies via Amazon, so check that out. <—click that link right there or this one to go straight to Amazon.
#2: Today was WWE Payback and I was very happy with it as a PPV! (So I’m sure everyone else is mad). Everyone I wanted to win won (except Roman vs Stroman, but you knew that was coming.) I was surprised to see Jericho win, given his album drops May 2nd and his band is on tour after that. Neville winning was fine – I kind of like this evil Neville character. I like both Shaemus/Cesaro and the Hardy Boys, so either winner was cool with me there (though his tooth! My god, he lost his tooth, had a big hole in his gum, and just kept going! Where was all the blood? Was he swallowing this stuff?? Insane!) but I did think the attack at the end was unwarranted. I liked the better as good guys, though I guess Cesaro is due for a heel turn. Unbelievably, I was rotting for ALexa Bliss – she has grown on me. She’s such a little b**** and she’s just so evil…I dunno. I admire that. I hate Samoa Joe so was glad to see Rollins beat him. And the House of Horrors match – the first half was a lot of fun, with all the horror gimmick things (though it would have been snazzier had they been able to set the house on fire, but I imagine the owners weren;t keen on that, and that that was the point of the red lights at the end to make you think of fire without having to use it.) I was also delighted to see Bray win, BUT he could have won all by himself without interference. I realize the point of the interference is to end the Wyat/Orton feud and push the Orton/Jinder feud because of the shake up and Orton and Wyatt being on different shows BUT I think it took away from Bray, who I think WWE under-utilize as it is. But, I did mention the other day that I like those Rotunda boys, so…
#3: I got Paint Shop Pro x9 Ultimate set up. Finally. I know, I have been hanging on to X2 for years but the time has come to upgrade. Anyway, I spent a couple of hours setting it up (my toolbars and all of that). I’m having an issue with the tool options palette. I like it floating with auto-hide but I can’t seem to get it to auto-hide…and without rolling up it is 100% in the way. I’ve tried docking it right now, but my active area is practically non existent that was, so…
I did try out their new “templates” and made a “scrap book page”
Fun, huh? Probably took me longer to use their template than it ould have to make it from scratch, but what the heck.
And now I need to go to bed!
Have a House of Horrors kind of day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #78:Time Out
I took some time out tonight, even though I am days behind my writing deadline, and did some drawing (nothing you’re going to see. I don’t think I will even finish it.) but I feel much better now. As I mentioned in the discouraged post, I enjoy writing, but I don’t find it to be any kind of stress release… it’s not soothing or necessary to my mental health. Though I have tried to avoid it, in the end it’s drawing (or sometimes just playing with graphics) that makes me feel better. *sigh* I am forever “the girl who can draw”.
Do you remember when you were in elementary school and the teachers would make you do this self-esteem building exercise (over and over) where people wrote nice things about you? All mine ever said was “you draw good”. Not “you’re smart”, or “You’re fun” or any of the cool things everyone else had. It was just “You can draw”. I hated that because while, sure, I could draw, I wanted to be fun, and smart, and all the other things. i wanted more of an identity than just drawing. Subconsciously that’s probably why I am always fighting to be known for something else, but in the end I always end up going back to it because whether I like it or not, I am “the girl who can draw”.
Not that the thing I was working on tonight looked good, but it was all tablet with no reference image or base, so not bad for that, and I have not used the art media tools in sooooo long that I don’t remember how I used to do it exactly. Ha ha! Oh well.
And now I am going to bed. Have a you can draw kinda day!
Jo 😉
PS some random pics:
Thankfulness #77: The Tablet Worked!
I don’t know if I’ve complained about my wacom graphics tablet here or if that was Facebook, but I’ll give you a quick version. For some reason (and it seems to be a known issue) the wacom tablet will randomly loose it’s drivers. Normally, a “workaround” is to restart the service, but some people, me included, have to instead totally uninstall and reinstall it every time… so for the last year that’s what I’ve been doing, but last week I found a new post in a forum with some new directions that involve going in and deleting some extra .dat files… anyway, so I tried it out last week, but who knew if it would still work this week.
the tablet
It does.
I don’t want to get too excited, because it has worked for tiny chunks of time before, and then a windows update sends it back to not working, but for now I am thankful that it is working.
And now back to work on the turtles. Have a working tablet kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #60
Today I am thankful for FINALLY getting the TTC page done for this week (two days late). I won’t go into the breakdown of trouble I had in it, because it involves a “jaw dropping” amount of the f-word, but I think it’s because we had the characters form the cursed chapter eight in it. Whenever they appear, curses start!
Want to know what the heck is going on? Check out the Terrible Turtles site and find out!!
Have a conquering the curse kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Thankfulness #57: Squishy!
And today I am thankful for my squishable headgehog ballerina, direct from Squishables.com that is my brithday present from my mom and brother. Tada:
Isn’t she adorable??? Hee-hee! I’ve wanted a squishable of my own for some time, and this was one I had my eye on, so a double yay.
In other news i worked on the book, played with snapchat:
(This photo looks nothing like me. I think I may use it as my author photo from now on because, why not?)
And ate dinner:
And that was pretty much my day. Fun times, huh? Oh, and I did make a banner for the Book Born group:
Yes, on Tuesdays we celebrate the Terrible Turtle Conspiracy web comic at http://facebook.com/groups/bookborn – you should join us.
And now I am outta here.Have a squishable kinda day!
Jo 🙂
There Be Turtles
Jonathan and I are selling autographed prints of the Terrible Turtle Conspiracy comic (20$ includes S&H). We’re taking the first round to the Book Born retreat in Michigan on Monday, where we’ll autograph them.
As for the retreat, I guess I haven’t mentioned it before. Book Born is an awesome facebook readers and authors group. Back in June (just when we started saving to paint our house, ha ha!) Christine came up with the awesome idea of renting a lodge on one of the Great Lakes and getting together for three days.
Fastforward to now, and we leave Monday morning. We’ll drive all day, get a motel, then finish the trip Tuesday and arrive to meet everyone – including the aforementioned Jonathan who I have collaborated on a million things with over the years. The funny thing is, people think we’re related, but we’ve never even met in real life. So, this will be a first, that we are celebrating with a live Terrible Turtles Broadcast on Tuesday. Readers can PM their questions on facebook and I’ll throw them at Jonathan during our live appearance. It is going to be fun.
Past that there are a lot of plans. There’s a dark space park an hour away that looks cool, there’s a lighthouse, there are foreign pokemon I need to catch, there’s talk of a bonfire, we might watch a movie, there may be some book discussion, we’re going to head into the nearest town for lunch on Wednesday…My only plan is the TTC video, some pokemon, and at some point I am hitting up that lighthouse with a camera.
The retreat ends Wednesday, but we’re hoping not to be home until Sunday. It’s going to depend on how much money we have left, but if there is enough we thought about going to New York for one night, and then heading home through Ohio (I think there may be the tiniest corner of Pennsylvania, too), just to say we’ve been to those states. Bust, as I said, it depends on whether we can eat and sleep cheap. And since there’s three of us…
In other news, Brothers of Darkness is formatted and uploaded. I may run through it again real quick and check something I forgot about (a formatting issue), and I need to finish the paperback version. That’s on the list for tomorrow; that and digging up stuff to pack, since I need to go to bed super early Sunday.
And speaking of bed, I should head there now.
Have an autographed comic kind of day!
Jo 🙂
Most of the photos and art on this site, by Joleene Naylor are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
My Flickr Photos
ramblingsfromthedarkness.wordpress.com 