The Fourth Wall!!! :D

This is one of my younger brother's websites where he features his online comic strip about a professor who discovers how to visit other dimensions.  He's still developing his art skills, but his storyline and comedy are above par! And I am doing 3D work in Maya in certain parts of his comic, and will continue to do so.  This is one of my many ways to keep practicing my craft and add to my portfolio.

Check it out!

 

http://thefourthwall-comic.com/comic/2010-06-16

And more specifically, here is a direct link to the beginning of my work:
http://thefourthwall-comic.com/comic/2010-11-12

And also, you can become a fan on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fourth-Wall/125200107499423

Beating the Clay

     Believe it or not, I still have a bit of clay beating to do tonight, the night before the project is due.  Dang stuff doesn't like to clump together properly for me.  I always find stubborn cracks, and to make matters worse, some of my friends and family believe I'm literally going OCD when I do it, but they just don't understand the process with the clay.  Even so, I don't have the ability to concentrate on my work AND try to explain the whole entire process to my stupid, drunk friend/family member (ish).  Why don't people get it that there is a certain way things need to be for the creative process to take place, and that a little peace and quiet (excluding certain music) can go a long way for one's concentration.
     Back to the clay beating.  It makes your main arm hurt after a while.  And it can be hard to stop, however, once you're on a roll, and in the back of your mind, you're thinking about time restraints.  But the truth of the matter is, it's important to take breaks.  I discovered I just got to rest my arm, and my left arm just isn't any use.
     And while I was looking around for a proper illustration for beating clay, I discovered this delectable, if not funny, little morsel of a pic for you to enjoy.  And then another one of particular interest to this Organic Object clay assignment we are working on.

Finding New Music and Media

     With the inevitable end of "Lie to Me", and continuous interruptions by my friends and family, I'm a little bit at my wits end on what new long video type media to watch and help pass the time as I weave my sculpture of clay.  Alas, the extra company has lent a hand in making it hard for me to always get my choice of music, which seems to be an important element of my process.
     Not long ago my company and I were enjoying a little of the Valentine's Day festivities by listening to the sappy Love Songs station on Pandora, but it didn't take long for it to drive everyone crazy.  I'm giving Evanescence a shot right now to help start off my sculpture, but I have a feeling before too long, I'm going to end up switching to Loreena McKennitt, a very talented Irish musician.

A Little Word About Freedom of Expression

I cannot continue this blog without saying something about it.
When someone cuts my words short, me, the person of very few words,
It can cut me to the core, and kill my inspiration.
It can take away my energy and my drive to do.
Not to mention, especially during those very rare moments
When great wit does not escape me.
My words were cut short and stamped out!
My Inspiration torched for three days.
This is true artist death.

Playing With Clay

I've been playing with the clay I brought home.  I got all into kneading it and forcing the air out of it.  And then I got into beating it with my paddle.  And then I went right on into starting to shape it and mold it.  And guess what? I TOTALLY forgot to put the newspaper in the middle!! I guess that means all I was really doing was PLAYING with it.  The almost perfect shape I worked on was all for nothing.  Now I get to go smash it up and re-knead it all over again, and this time, put NEWSPAPER in it! :P

Gawd, I frustrate myself, sometimes!!

Problems Logging In To This Blog

    Okay, I figured it out.  (My problem with being able to sign in to my blog)  When you have to share the Google blog space with anyone else (which includes blogger, blogspot, and anything else by google), you have to erase a certain amount of your history in order to be able to get in, and I'm pretty sure that's true for each person, each time they have to log in.  I think this is because our computers and our browser applications have become too smart and user friendly, and they store cookies that help instruct our browsers to expect that the last person who signed in to one of the Google services is going to automatically be the next person that signs in, again.  Which obviously, is not true when there is more than one user on a computer, which is rather common.  Gawd, I have to post this on my blog, now!
     Anyway, I took too long to figure this out, and I was forced to erase my entire history.  That kind of sucks, since there are many things that I would have liked for my computer and my web browser to remember.  On the upside, our computers remembering all this stuff is not very secure, so I'm not too upset about the inconvenience.  Just thought I should share because I'm sure other people are going to run into this problem, especially if they don't have their own private computer.

Music and Movies for Inspiration

I tend to listen a lot to music on Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/), since the music I choose is more controlled than a typical radio station, and it's constantly flowing.  Granted, there is a 40 hour limit per month, but it's only 99 cents to listen for the rest of the month.

My favorite stations to listen to when I'm creating things are the Enigma station and the Loreena McKennick station.  The later is an Irish Celtic music star, whom apparently is too good to come and play for Fairieworlds, or even acknowledge them.  However, in spite of that, she IS amazing! And lastly, I always listen to the Led Zeppelin station, mainly because Led Zeppelin is the BEST BAND IN THE WORLD!!!

Now, for the shows I've been watching, especially while working on my wire project and my scale project- I've been watching a one-hour series that I believe is produced by Showtime, although I get it through Netflix (http://www.netflix.com) Instant Viewing.  It is called "Lie To Me", and it's about a man who helps out police and detectives, and is practically a detective, himself, by telling them which people are telling lies, and what kind of lies they are.  He just reads their micro facial expressions and body language, and before long, all is revealed.  I think considering the content, this show is really amazing.  I'm not sure how they can get all the actors to make all those specific and very subtle micro facial expressions.  And they are so quick.  They also put a lot of really great twists into the storyline, many of which end up surprising people by the end of the show.  It's always so fresh and well-written, and well produced, that I have no problem watching them one after the other as I spend many hours working on my art projects.

Oh, and btw, I have free trials for Netflix I can give to people.  I also have free trials to World of Warcraft.

My Wire Project

I have something I've written up about this project someplace on my computer, and will post it with this picture here soon.  For now, here is a pic of it, with "My horrible couch" in the background.  Sorry it's a little out of focus... I took the picture in a hurry.

A Side Creative Note: Photography

I'm currently taking Lighting for Photography.  I am attempting to post a rather funny photo that I captured of one of my peer's models.  It turned out to be a great photography piece, although it is too humorous to be taken seriously, I think.  It's a uniquely rare shot.  I just had to show this somewhere!

And here she is, one of our best models, telling one of the other photographers what she thinks of his suggestions:

Scale Project

     The first small object that caught my attention for using with this project was a little electric tea light that is for Halloween jack 'o lanterns.  It was somewhat simple in shape, and I thought that it would make it so it wasn't so complex that it would take me 40 hours or more to create it, as did my previous wire sculpture.  I needed to focus more on simplicity because of my tendency to focus so much on making things more difficult and challenging for myself.  Even so, I ended up acting completely OCD while working on this cardboard and tape sculpture of an enlarged electric tea light.
     The main thing that I got so OCD about was the placement of the tape, as well as my need to try to remove every little dark, dirty, or debris item that would stick all over the edges of the tape.  The tape's tendency to collect dirt and debris, especially while sitting in my backpack, was the thing that almost put me over the edge.  To me, it made my piece look dirty and unprofessional, and yet, it was really difficult to deal with.  If I had not controlled myself, I would have spent all of my time just messing around with that, and not finishing my project on time.  Thankfully, I realized that it was important to stay focused, and not let the little things get to me.
     I decided to make little "flames" out of the cardboard to try to emulate the one flame coming out... and I had to carve intricate little designed holes in the flame, so that a light I was planning on trying to use could shine through, and make it seem like it was a lit up candle.  This concept worked well, however, I played around with the idea of using both sides of the cardboard- the plain side, and the colored sides.  I thought this would help to illustrate the flame colors a little more, but they just ended up distracting.  Thankfully, this part is easily replaceable.  Also, I struggled with the thought of making the flame it's actual shape on the original object, which I could only see being possible by doing paper mache, which wouldn't allow any light through.  Whether there really needs to be a light, making it very literal, is still a hard question I can't answer.  Would this object be as affective without a light? Perhaps adding the light is taking it too far, or it's like "adding extra frosting".  It's a super fancy detail that may not be necessary.