Angel Sean and Steampunk Costume concept

I wanted to attend Windycon this year but alas, the truck failed prior to soo... oh well. I'm hoping to attend next year, or Steamcon, or something of the sort ;)

Anyways, so with that in mind I was doodling some steampunk costume sketches at the Croswell. In the dark so hopefully you like ;)







The first is what I was thinking at first, but now I'm thinking I'm gonna lean a little more towards the latter costume! The wings will be a challenge though. I will be material hunting from now on ;)

Corel painter

Well I was giving Painter a try. I just got it, and I've never really used it before. There are similarities to Photoshop, but the way it paints is extremely different (AND BETTER!) I never thought I'd say it. Well what better subject then my wonderful pup Mischief.



Enjoy :)

P.S. Anyone know any basics of Painter tutorial?

A Tell Tale Heart

For those of you who don't know, and those of you who want to know what's going on.. I have made the Tell Tale Heart Animation Project a blog. It can be found here, and will hopefully keep you more up to date on the projects. I want to keep this to just postings of recent art. You may still see story specific art here, but I'll keep it brief and simple. For more detailed discussion, you can see the other blogs. (Yeah I plan to make more ;) )

Thank you as always,
Desi

An unusual school

In case anyone was wondering what I've been busy with ;)



View the animation

This is just a sampling of the many fish I've done for Powerpets.com 's new Aquarium feature! Its a somewhat rushed job so I was only able to infuse personality in a couple of them :(

That's one spastic hammerhead!

****EDIT****
A little puffer was excluded from the preview, but he's fully animated (puffing and unpuffing) in the swf!!

Migrant Camps

My sister Alisa (Her gallery) and I went with a friend and his mother to the migrant camps south of town. She works with the counties educational system to provide educational resources to those whenever they're here for the season. It's actually pretty amazing, they are the only group in the state who provides the migrants with a mobile classroom.



It's wonderful to see how excited the kids got when she pulled the large gutted out motorcoach into the farms large circle driveway. Despite the bitter cold and threats of rain they ran out, excitement beaming from most.

Before they head south for the winter the migrants (children and parents alike) are treated to a picnic day. There were hot dogs and hamburgers, new shoes donated by a local church, cookies, cupcakes, watermelon, sooo many different foods. This time, Alisa and I came along to give the children a special treat. Some face painting! This kept them out of the adults hair as well ;)

I've included some pics of the kids. Spiderman was the top choice, some robber masks... not a whole lot of creative choices but what can you do ;)



I had a good time, hopefully we can do it again!

Art-A-licious!

Art-A-licious was a short but very entertaining festival. It took all of an hour to walk up one side of the block it encompassed and down the other. When I say block, I don't mean it covered four streets surrounding a block. Nope. One side of the block. It was tiny! I heard rumors they had trouble blocking off the streets for this. They had to section of one block of Maumee st? Must have been taxing.....

Anyways, despite the size Alisa and I had a good time. We took a couple friends and hit the fair first early Saturday afternoon with both husky's in costume. They looked great. They behaved really well, and there was very little costume maintenance. I was pretty proud of our pups. The kids LOVED them, but I was really impressed with how many adults actually stopped us wanting to see Mischief and Gandalf, wanting to know their names and how are dogs behaved so INCREDIBLY WELL in their costumes. They were angels, they really were. (For anyone who knows them, this isn't common public behavior.)

It was pretty hot so we kept them on the shaded side for the most part, and they were treated to a frosty boy cone on they way home with a dog treat on top. It was adorable :)

The adjustments I made to the costume made a huge difference. I tightened the cap and it survived head shakes much better, the elastic connecting the two leg bands helped to keep his leg bands up. I also made a few decorative additions to Mischeifs costume.




Mischief's costume by Desiree Joy Bradish






Gandalfs costume by Alisa Bradish





The afternoon trip wasn't particularly productive for viewing and buying so we went back in the evening. It was a bit cooler then, and there was a Patsy Cline cover band playing the whole time. I'm not a huge Patsy Cline fan, but the lady put so much enthusiasm into it, it was impossible not to enjoy.

There were most types of art; woodburning, ceramics, oils, knitting, beading, metals etc.. etc...

I really enjoyed a metal work booth that had sculptures entitled "Dreams" and "Rift" and things of that nature that were really amazing. Dreams was my particular favorite. It was a metal plane taking off from a large rock, an anchor was tied to it and hooked into the rocks. The fuselage of the plane was a house. It was extremely interesting. All of the metal work seemed to focus on the home in one way or another. I'll try and go back tomorrow to get the name of the artist!

There was another amazing section, called "Lost Arts" that captured my eye. I liked the concept of it! I love finding hidden treasures, and if I were going to that seemed like it'd be the place! There I found Steve Cameron's windharps. The amazing instrument played by the wind. If you don't know anything about them I definitely recommend you visit the site. They're beautiful and produce the most engaging haunting beautiful sound you're likely to hear. I have worked with Steve as his web designer, as a woodburner, customizing the harp for customers, and was recruited by him for toastmasters. Luckily he had a copy of his Lenawee Magazine article there for me to view, as I had not had the chance to yet. It is not in the online archive yet, but hopefully it will be there soon.

View the footage of the festival online!
(unfortunately our timing didn't coincide with the recording so no air time for the dogs :()

http://globalworldtv.com/index.php

Two days to Art-i-licious

Hello All,

Artilicious is the local art festival (Terrible name, I know) and while my sister and I were unable to procure booths in time (LCVA is rarely open when it's supposed to be), we will be just browsing and having our Husky's serve as a mobile booth. Honestly, that sounds like more fun to me anyways. ;)

Gandalf is being dressed by Alisa to look somewhat peasant-y with a little American Indian thrown in there for flair. Mischief is my project and he is a dark mage/warrior. He looks sweet (for being my first costume EVER) but he has a lot of work to do.

Dog costuming requires a lot more durability, I think it would be a lot easier to do a human costume. Which I will be doing for Novembers WindyCon!

I've learned to install eyelets but they're still giving me a lot of trouble. The bulk o his costume is made of a really thin material that tears easily, and the eyelets last for a little while, but eventually tear when he shakes (Which he does a lot, and that can demolish the costume) or gets particularly excited. I'm thinking I should have put an extra square of fabric underneath the main fabric to secure it. I'm going to have to read a lot more on costuming before attempting eyelets in my own costume. (Design ideas coming soon!)

I've also had to make this costume accessible in case he needs to relieve himself and just for breath-ability. I left the bottom of his tunic open so essentialy it is wrapped around his back and held tight by a belt that I've shortened to better fit him. So far the eyelets in this (used for lacing it together at the chest)have stayed in tact. I think this is my most durable piece. It also has a lining of red around the neck that I spent almost 40 minutes blind stitching as my sewing machine is Out of Commission just in time for this costume ;) And of course, his hair completely hides it. You live and you learn. Something good to know if you're going to costume your long haired dog. I would like to add a red lining to the back of his costume as well, not quite the same but maybe red cris-crosses? I'm gonna have to look into some decorative stitches. I'll probably use red yarn, which is what I used for all the lacing. I have some ribbon as well, we'll just see what I find in my online browsing.



The major problems I have run into are with the leggings. It's hard to make them actual stay up. He moved around a lot, and I don't want to have to pull them to tight. I've tried pulling them tighter with the lacings, and puttings snaps on that I snap after I slide them up, and I've tried taking and extra bit of fabric at the center and lacing it there. This gives it the puffy look I was hoping for so will remain, but is not good enough to secure it in place. I have decided to try placing a strap that goes from one legging up over his back (under the tunic) to the other legging, so they will be pulling against each other and hopefully remain fairly stationary!



Finally the headpiece. I don't have a lot to say on this unfortunately. It took a lot of tweaking and it was the first thing I did. I basically laid it on his head and guessed where I wanted things to be. Then made adjustments while it was on him. I wish I could tell you more but I honestly don't remember the earlier shape. I believe it was a large square with one rounded side, and two rectangles projecting from either cheek. (That's the part you would tie beneath his jaw. It's all one piece of fabric folded and stitched to make it's shape. I'm sure there's probably an easier method with multiple pieces of fabric, but this is how I ended up doing it. It was probably the easiest piece.



I added studs for looks, and did decorative stitching to hold it in place. It needs a little tightening since when he shakes it slides back off his head, but other than that it works great. I am considering adding antlers to it. I have real ones but I think I'd just use a paper maché.

I hope this has helped, or at least entertained!

I will be posting more tomorrow or the next day. You'll definitely see a post to let you know how this weekend went!

Happy Trails ;)

Desi

Mischief Making

Good evening, nearly morning. Thanks as always for checking in on my humble art blog. I try to keep updating regularly, so here's what I have for you this time.
I've been busy doing terribly boring graphics for the online game I work for, and haven't been doing too much in the way of digital art. However, I do have something fun done in the traditional vein to hopefully entertain you!

I suppose I probably have mentioned Mischief before in this blog, but just in case I haven't, here he is. My adorable, albeit far too aptly named, Siberian Husky, Mischief.



Well he and his brother Gandalf are going to the art festival next weekend in style. They will both go in costume, Gandalf as a peasant turned hero, and Mischief as the dark knight he must battle!

They're gonna look amazing, and I have a preview of Mischief for blog readers only!

Steampunk

A real quick doodle of some of Alisa and I's primary characters in a steampunk-ish style. My baby Sean is up first, then hers Rich Leo and Bailey! Expect to see others.. I'm also working on my website, so excuse the issues that are arising.

Expect it to be much coooooler!

Also vote for my sisters entry to the firefox design contest!
http://creative.mozilla.org/designs/339

Her entry is awesome. :)

Sorry about the shortness, I'm pretty swamped right now!

Tweet This

The Harvester

FINALLY! The Harvester is complete! He's been built for a day and a half, and now he has finally been properly photoshopped and put into, what I think, is a pretty decent presentation. I hope you guys like! This is my entry to the 9 creature design contest!

I'll probably wait a little while before submission, just because so far my idea is totally original and I would like to keep it that way ;) But soon, very soon, I shall post this to my devart gallery.

Upcoming Contest!

Currently:
I am working on an entry for the 9 contest being held by DeviantArt. I've decided to do a combo of a sculpture and a sketch. The idea is to create a "creature" that could inhabit the world of 9. This means found/common objects, mechanical, purposed! I'm doing a harvester, it's sole job is to find and capture the steampunks, and any other small creatures it may find.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I think it's awesome. It has a cage with old halves of hinges as doors. On top of that is mounted a PVC tube that contains the batteries all wired together and the main flood light. There's a small wire that comes out and holds a teaser light. This works like an Angler fish. The device hides in the dark with this small light on, so it looks like an exit. It lures the creature right up to the cage. Then it turns on the flood, blinding them while the arms (not yet attached) shove it in. If this fails, it is equipped with a front roller and it just steam rolls whatever it finds!

What I was doing:
I worked up a website design for my boss, but I can't show you that... I did 20 or so animations... can't show you that. Ugh! I did however do some chalk pastels which you can view. These were a collab with my sister. Who's gallery can be found on DeviantArt as well.

Tell Tale Heart Voice

I now have 4 recordings for Tell Tale Heart. None of them are just right, but they all have good bits. I believe I'm going to have a primary voice for Proto (Narrator), but that in different parts of the piece I will use multiple voices. It's hard to plan it out without hearing all the audio tracks.

I was going to put up my example to give everyone an idea of what I wanted, but I have thought better of it. I want different interpretations to chose from. So, the more ways you're willing to submit it, the better. (Meaning styles of reading, not format. The format can be Window WAV or MP3)

My only real comments are

• Pay attention to pacing, it is important!

• Leave at least small spaces in between lines unless they seem like something that should really flow.. such as "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!"
• Make sure you pronounce words correctly and be careful of microphone pops!
• More is better! The more you give me the better, so if yu wanna read the line 4 or 5 times, that's fine with me!
  

This reading!!

I read through a few and this one is the one that seems most correct. (Sadly the section on dismemberment is missing in the Literature.org version!)

The only problem with this is where it says "His eve would bother me no more." Obviously, Eve is Eye. As you're reading I'm sure you'd catch it, but just in case.

Also it says a simple thin ray, instead of a single thin ray.

Thank you to everyone!

Fun with Sculpey!

I have now completed my first project with Super Sculpey Firm! Despite claims to the opposite, I found it great to work with, a lot more durable then regular sculpey. I am rather pleased with the result! It's not perfect. There will have to be some repairs done for the second version (which I will hopefully be casting and selling on Etsy!) such as a higher gauge wire and smoother wings.

Those of you who follow me on twitter got to view a pre-baking preview!

Cable or DSL?

Sorry about my absense, I feel like I say that a lot. Well no more! I think we're going to be switching to DSL.

Thankfully we're really close to the office so it should be just as fast as Comcast. The brand new modem they gave us is junk, it dies every two hours if I'm lucky, every 15 minutes if I'm not. It constantly needs reset! I'm actually on one of the longer stretches of it working right now.. so who knows, this may very well never get posted....

We at least have them through the end of the month since they're paid up. So if anyone has any comments on DSL or TC3net let me know? I've always had cable. Anyways, a little venting, now I'm done.

Well my power cord died so I had to wait a week or so for the new one which arrived today!!! YAY! And since just the tip was broke on the old one I have a backup one now (since I can take the end of this and put it on the old one. (Provided the tip doesn't break again ;)) So I'm back to work.

EAP has had a little done but I'll have to type it up, I've scribbled up my printed copy of it. I will be getting you guys a script soon. There may be some extra sound effects I'll need and I'll post a list of those as well. I'm going for a more modern approach to this so it should be exciting!

I have a lot of animating to do since I've had no access to my computer to do my paid work. But I will be getting to some art I can actually post here.

TTH Adendum

I just wanted to say, after receiving several responses I'm thinking of making a change in my requirements. I think I will use several voices over the course of the piece so submit, there's a good chance at least some of your dialogue will end up inside! And as I have changed it, I will now accept female voices as well.

Thank you guys!


Email me
Desiree Bradish @ Gmail . com (without the spaces)

Tell Tale Heart (Voice actor wanted)

I am planning an animation of my all time favorite short story, Tell Tale Heart. You'll be hard pressed to find anything that rivals the movement found in this piece. Poe masters rythym and suspense to draw you in further. The words dictate the pace, and the reader is just along for Poe's ride.

Anymore writers will come up with a few good characters or plotlines (not often, but it does happen) but the writing will be very little more than utilitarian. The best you can hope for is... maybe.. some catchy dialogue..

"It is more than probable that I am not understood; but I fear, indeed, that it is in no manner possible to convey to the mind of the merely general reader, an adequate idea of that nervous intensity of interest with which, in my case, the powers of meditation (not to speak technically) busied and buried themselves, in the contemplation of even the most ordinary objects of the universe."

Nervous intensity. That is an excelent way to describe the mood of Poe's piece, and I'm definitely hoping to capture that nervousness in my cinematography. My primary objective, however is the pacing! I have heard many.. less than exciting renditions of TTH. One by ziggy pop, "I felt that I must scream or die" will make you want to cry.

And on that note, I'm looking for someone with a good voice and a flair for reading to submit a version. I feel a male voice would be more appropriate, but a husky female voice would be fine. I like how I read the story, but my voice doesn't translate well on recorded media... i.e. my voice is awful. So if anyone would like to help me out it would be awesome! It wouldn't pay (well maybe if it's really awesome I could scrape together something, and certainly if it is succesful) but it will be submitted to animation/video festivals and you would receive all credit due!

Poe's characters writhe in their torment, they are round and you can touch, feel, taste their emotions. He does not require that you know the history of the primary characters, he does not require you to study the text in great detail... only that you listen, and be entertained. I believe that so many separate themselves from Poe work because he draws them into a world, that is often dark and frighteningly real. In tell tale heart he draws you into the mind of a killer who's obsession brought his doom. He uses language and rythym to pull you inward... into the mind of a man who peers in on an old man, a family friend, a father... it is never told, he peers in with a small lantern building the resolve to do what, he feels, he must...

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the evil eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! --do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once --once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.

Prayer (Mature warning)

I am an agnostic, bordering on atheist...however, religion always intrigues me. It's such a power in our society, it should not be ignored.

Anyways I did two pictures based on my impressions of prayer.

This one is based on desperation developing into anger.

It will probably get a dabbing of color at some point, it's a lot more realistic than the next prayer pic.












This one is a much quicker doodle, but I was so pleased with the emotion of it I didn't feel it needed a lot of clean up.



I hope you enjoy them.

Quick Animation update

I did an animated piece I'm fairly proud of. I wanted to make it somewhat stylized and I think for the most part I accomplished it.

To be continued!
http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/A-Journey-Above-131479192



If anyone has advice for how to export a movie, from flash, that doesn't kill the movie clips, please send me a message or give me a comment! I love MCs :(

Afternoon all!

I did an art challenge suggested to me by my friend Jessica. Well she didn't suggest it to me cause she's a jerk, but she did Belle and I felt like copying her! ;)


The concept behind this challenge was to do a coloring page of a Disney character in the style of a traditional painting, preferably a classic. All the rest decided to do a Disney Princess, but I figured that's too easy ;) I chose Goofy!

My coloring page was this

And here's mine!



Overall I like it, but I need to work on color blending. I'm going to attempt some methods that were suggested to me by friends then hopefully you'll be seeing Goofy again even better!

The originator of this idea was the amazing Ryan Wood

http://woodyart.blogspot.com/2009/06/princess-coloring-book.html

What's going on...

I realise I've gotten a bit behind as of late. With the birth of my nephew (my first!) and this almost "money-pit" falling down around us, I have found it difficult to keep up with my artistic aspirations. Most notably in the 11second club. I was unable to finish it. I became disheartened with flash in general (UGLY UGLY lineart!) and I stepped back for a while. I think I'll finish it depite the contest having finished, just because it'll be a good show piece if I ever get it done. I have a light box now, and will try and figure out ToonBoom to create some hand drawn stuff!

The Blissfield Center for the Arts is holding an event "Art at your Feet" for street painting! I will hopefully be participating either way I will post photos of it on my deviantart.

I am currently working on building a set of Audrey II sculptures for use in Little Shop of Horrors. Right now I have the smallest one constructed, the hand puppet is nearly finished (construction wise), and I've got the frame mostly worked out for the largest. Lots to do yet, but it'll be cool once it's complete. I will post pictures within the next couple days.

So right now I'm working on paintings, sculpture, and animation! (Not to mention the odd logo/mascot design that pays the bills ;)) I promise you guys something better to look at soon!

~Desi

Catching up!

I apologize for the lull in posts, I've been working full tilt on getting artwork and animations around for my application for masters programs. That's right, I am going after my MFA! Right now I'm looking at a couple different programs one of which is highly selective and very local. This is the program of my dreams, If I made it in I might very well die from sheer overstimulation. So everyone please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Let's see, so what's been going on...

I have updated my youtube account to get rid of some of my stupid channels, and actually uploaded a few videos there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WytherianDesireeJoy

Right now it contains my graduation Demo Reel (terrible! That class was terrible.), my Galaxy Quest Speed Synch (Speed lip synch), and a wip for the 11 second Animation club contest! I've wanted to enter it for years, so I decided to just knuckle down and do it!!!



I would love to hear some critiques! Hopefully at the end of today there will be a new one up. I've come a long way since I uploaded this one. I've learned I need to learn a little more about compression and making videos out of flash anims.... Regardless of the troubles, I'm very excited about this project, and while I doubt I'll win on my first entry, you never can tell!

I have created a fb group called CreateLenawee! which will hopefully eventually have a web page. I'm trying to bring together local Lenawee County artists to do some major collaborations, either in the realm of movies or murals or sculpture!!!

If you are on faceboook feel free to friend me, if you'd like to work on a project together get in touch! I'd love to do more collaborative projects!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1343847810&ref=profile

Alright let's see, not much else, just of course the 30 in 30 is going slow.. but I'm gonna get them done!!!

Keep in touch,

and in the words of some wierd guy,

"Keep on arting!!!"

Quick Update

My internet should be up in a few days and I'll submit some more animations.
But as a preview of what I've been up to :)



http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/Grasses-WIP-122867240

Thirty in Thirty

Alright people here is some new news!

I have been working on a project called "Thirty in Thirty"! Meaning, I am going to do a new animation every day for thirty days. Obviously they're super short simple animations. And so far,at least half have been a little violent lol. My favorite is Tuesdays Angel taking off. It features Sean Liberty, one of my all time favorite characters!!!

Mondays: Friendly the Pig, he rocks :)
http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/Friendly-The-Pig-120795828

Tuesdays: Sean my Angel
http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/30-in-30-Tuesday-121002878

Wednesdays: Cards (Inspired by watching Alice)
http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/30-in-30-Wednesday-121003358

Thursdays: Bad Date (Inspired by negativity)
http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/30-in-30-Thursday-121094387

Anyways, more to come, I have a few gifts for friends coming up...


Thanks for reading!

Tiger Woods Commercial

The new Gatorade Tiger commercial is AWESOME! It's beautifully animated, looks incredible! It's about time we saw some real quality work on TV, it's better than the animation in most TV shows!



Anyways, incredible, I got a little animators high off it :)

--------

As far as work goes I'm working on a series of nursery rhymes illustrations for the little sisters baby shower games, and hopefully they'll turn out good enough to make the nephew a book!

Anyways, Alisa's rushing me so I guess that's it for now, sorry, I'll make up for it! My next post will contain the nursery rhyme illustrations!

New Uploads

I've added a doodle to DevArt http://tinyurl.com/d6b7gg and a page of simple sketch page I did at open mic night... http://tinyurl.com/cvvhvb

Progress in Adversity

Well my version of progress is at least getting windharps.net updated, It has a swf banner now, a little swf for introduction to the historical collection, and so I am going to stop using it as an excuse not to get work done on my projects!

I would like to apologize in advance for the possible incoherency of this blog, I've been feeling pretty sick the last couple days and finding it extremely difficult to concentrate.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Dr. Horrible (If you aren't GO SEE IT!! drhorrible.com It's FREE! Then go buy it. Support awesomeness! I did!) But when it first came out, unbeknownst to me, there was a contest to make your own submission to the Evil League of Evil. I was very disappointed to find out about it too late to make an entry. But my sister and I have decided to make an animated entry ayways. We need to come up with a character and a voice actor. We were thinking of making siamese twins but still haven't really fleshed it out! Anyone with any suggestions, comments, etc would be appreciated. :) P.s. Another reason to check out Dr Horrible, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS. I'm not easily impressed, but the man rocks, he just rocks all too hard. If I were a man, I'd marry him! (Providing this country steps up to bat on it's real equality)



I'm going to post some sketches up in the next few weeks of possible characters... I'm not looking forward to the songwriting portion but I have high hopes for Alisa's score. I'm much more of a lyricist. :P

Anyways, anyone think this sounds interesting and want to be involved, feel free! We'll be posting this on YouTube, FB, MySpace, this blog... my website, and anywhere else we can find! It'll be fun!

Goals - Accountability

Well they say writing things down is the best way to hold yourself accountable... well that and telling others. So I figured with this blog I would do both!

So here are my goals for 2009!

Professional:
Get Storybook finished, illustrated and sent out to publishers!!!
Animate a short (Perhaps Gentle?)
Get my art on Side7, Artwanted, and any other gallery I can get my hands on!
Complete one comic - at least 5 pages! (Pogen or Nuclear? or AID... or heck any of my millions of ideas!)
Be involved in at least TWO collaborative projects!


Personal:
Go to Chicago (I miss u!!!!) and NYC!
ROAD TRIP!!! (May involve above)
Lose 20lbs (That's typical isn't it?)

HP wow...

Just when you think you can't be surprised by how terrible the service at big name companies is anymore... you get HP. (As if Microsoft support isn't enough) Since you guys probably don't know, last year I sent the laptop in because the DVD player wasn't functioning right, and it wouldn't allow me to use the restore partition. It had some other quirks and since it was the last month of my warantee I figured it'd be best just to send it in so they'd look it over. After two weeks and several ulcer-inducing conversations with techs about things that had nothing to do with my computer (and after they figured out they had the WRONG computer the first time) they sent it back to me without having done a thing. NOTHING had been changed. I contacted Customer Service who were very professional and apologized a million times and sent me restore CDs. These have been life savers many times and worked to repair the issues I was having... so I forgave them. Well this time I sent it in because the left hinge on the thing blew and caused major LCD damage, to the point I had to use a second monitor. Turns out this is a defect with all HP Pavillion 9000's so it was covered. Sweet! They sent me a box I sent it in, after a week it arrives back. Now I remember last time, and I think I got the same tech, so I expect problems. But I open up and it's gorgeous! All new plastic everywhere, not a scratch or dent. I was so excited I stuck the battery in fired it up and... x.x The same screen. As I type this it's with a second monitor set to clone. Somehow this is worse than the last time, because I actually expected it to be fixed.

So I started with the bad, but as I'm loading up my computer, that's what's on my mind.

There is some good. Last night Alisa and I attended the toastmasters local speech and evaluation competition. It was nice to sit back and relax watching some good speakers. All in all I thought they were pretty good, and it was cool to hear some fresh voices. Steve Cameron of windharps.net won both the speech comp and the evaluation comp btw and will be moving on to regionals. Kudos to him! I was not entered, Alisa and I just brought food. One speaker was particularly awesome and reminded us of our New Years Resolutions! He actually went so far as to hand out his business cards and instruct everyone to send him one res. that we want completed by Dec 31st so he could actually mail us then and see if we had. I am much better when being held accountable. You're 10x more likely to do something if you write it down, and for me 20x more likely to do it if you tell someone you will. So I'm going to mail him.. and I'm going to put it here in my blog. They will be mostly professional, but I'll mix in some personal goals as well. :)

Updates and such...

I have spent this weekend making my site xHTML compliant, re-arranging pages to make it more readable, adding more images etc.. Tomorrow I will be working on windharps.net, the client has made a lot of big decisions in the last few weeks on how he wants his marketing to go. We're refocussing on selling the kits online and drawing attn to Steve's new designs. It's gonna be something else. He's also having a month long gallery show at the Croswell this April featuring the debut of his historical collection!



On a non art note, I've been training the husky's using the "Perfect Dog" program you may have seen on one of those late night infomercials. They're extremely difficult and stubborn, but they're really catching on. We're only having a problem when they're around distractions.



Wytheria is getting a complete overhaul very very soon. You can read details about it up and coming in Wytheria's new blog. Wytheria.blogspot.com Jacqui Cameo and I will all be submitting to that.

Anyhow, on the art front, let's talk about contests. Contests are a great way to get your work seen. Even if you don't win these contests you will get exposure. I personally have gotten quite a few commissions this way. So if you're an artist looking for some popularity or paid work, entering contests is a nice way to do this. And of course, if yo u win them, there might be a good prize involved.

Have a good one! :)

P.S. I miss fallout3 and my laptop, they should be home tomorrow by 4:30 according to fedex..

Snow Leapord Trust

Slightly off the art vein I know, but I signed up and so should you!

For ever subscriber to snowleopard.org enews the Kearsley Fund will donate $2 to the Snow Leopard Trust's found raiser!

They are close to raising their goal of 6000 dollars, just a couple hundred people short! They're receiving a lot of support from DevArt and Facebook, let's keep it going!

sign up

p.s. This picture is why I don't draw animals....

What's been taking you so long!?!?!

Alright I sadly do not have a lot of progress to report on my WIP of Shylock, I've tried a few different tattoo designs but have hated all of them. Anyone know some awesome places for design ideas, plz let me know! Tattoo art is not my forté. He has power over pestilence so that should somehow be incorporated. I have decided on a small shadow badge over his left pec and three claw marks symbolizing his loyalty to Tsunami, on his shoulder. I'll keep working on it.





Here's a random battle enemy for Wytheria. I realise the perspective is a little off, but I still am amused.


I've also been working on one of those 25 expression sheets. Ideally I'd like to do one for all of my characters, but this is taking some time! And this guy isn't even my character!?!?! This is Alisa's Bob Russel, a well intentioned if occasionally "out of his league" politician.





What's been taking up the bulk of my time (and why I haven't gotten anywhere on these projects) is Windharps.net It may not look as amazing as it could, but I've added a blog there, that uses rss to syndicate to the site, as well as to facebook! I've been updating the blog. I tried to make a wiki page but that failed as it got deleted because I accidentally submitted it before it was done, rather than previewing. Maybe later I'll have the energy to do it again, but I spent forever and lost it all. I'm pretty irked with Wiki. We're featuring a new upcoming exhibition of some really awesome harps. I have seen them in person and they look wonderful! It's of course a secret until they're revealed at the Croswell Opera House in Adrian Michigan for Steve Cameron's solo exhibition!!! (All of the month of March) So go there, but make sure you buy your harps through the website ;)

This is it for this blog, I promise these will be better thought out and written in later posts! I'm kind of overwhelmed with all of this windharps stuff and learning about how amazing RSS is! Now if only Myspace would let you import blogs... stupid Myspace... -.-

:) As always, I love critques on my art! post your thoughts!

Broken Potters Wheel - The WEBSITE!
My Dev Art
My Facebook Page
My Myspace Page

So it begins...

Well this is my first blog..

I made this blog for two reasons. First I have a client who would like a blog on his site, so I need to get familiarized with it before I start messing with his site. And secondly, it's a good way to keep updating content on my own site, and publish sketches and concepts I don't neccesarily want uploaded to my gallery. This also allows me an opportunity to get feedback on my projects!

The above is my entry for a "Magical Forest" contest on Deviantart.
( http://desiree-joy.deviantart.com/art/Suicide-Wood-114602433# )
I was actually quite proud of the story and concept, though it was rather impromptu since I forgot about the contest until the DAY IT WAS ENDED. However, it needed, and still needs some serious editing.

I did not win, but my sibling Cameo ( http://cameoanderson.deviantart.com/ ) came in third with her Tsunami entry! I think mine turned out to be far too depressing and "mature" for the contest. The winner featured Stitch I'm pretty sure. (Since the entries were in Russian I really couldn't tell :P)



So here is my current WIP. Shylock, the guardian of Pestilence in the buff. No he doesn't normally wander around like this, but I decided I wanted to color him in all his layers. So I did one with no clothes, then I'll add one with bandages, and the one with the outfit!

Secretly I just suck at clothes so i don't wanna color them. *likes nekkid* Deal with it.

Anyways, that's the end of my first blog, I'd love input on the pieces up, I'll talk more about them later when I'm not being hounded to get offline and go to Taco Bell :P