jeliza

It used to be, when I was a bit more hale but still a massive procrastinator/artistically blocked that when I need to make a bunch of stock for an upcoming show I would do massive amounts of cleaning. That stopped, not only because of many fewer shows, but lacking the physical stamina for the endeavor (which also meant that the blocking piles of stuff that need to be cleared are even bigger.) 

I am still significantly lacking in stamina, but have hit a decent rhythm today of 5 minutes clearing, 15 minutes doing computer work (mostly low-brain effort things like testerup (my biggest source of clickywork/microwork? revenue this year, it is in fact stupidly easy and not actually proper user testing. Just ... getting paid to play mobile games I, at least, would have been playing anyway. Yes, that is a referral link, but I'm just sharing the love in general, not campaigning.)

I hadn't really grasped the psychic weight my piles of stuff was inflicting -- it certainly isn't gone, but looking around now I can literally feel like I can take bigger breaths and my shoulders have lowered a touch.

(Still haven't found my most critical painting supplies, though. Might be a different balance of boxes etc to paintings than I was aiming for at this rate, because they aren't trivially replaceable locally or quickly or inexpensively.

We've decided to start on the 12 days of yule kind of ... half-way. Because we aren't ready for Christmas even though it is the 24th, and while my paganism is distinctly half-assed, half assed is better than no assed. Or something.  

 My brain has suddenly decided that most of my drawing issues would be solved with a fountain pen. I do not know this to be true, but am starting to think it is worth a try - I dislike markers for how they *feel* as they draw, both in how it feels to my hand and the drag of the ink across the paper, and the regularity of the line. In the drawing class where we used ink, I loved working with a really thin brush or reed and pot of ink (which is too messy for working portably.)

Brush pens seem like the easy solution but in practice I start getting painterly with them immediately, and I want a comfortable way to work with line. 

So. Have any of you used a fountain pen? How do they compare, action wise, to something like a good ball point?

I got one new design finalized today that pleases me: pendants that will be cut custom with the person's natal triad.



That was version 6, I think? Of a design first sketched three years ago.
After that, the rest of the day all my ideas came in two flavors: ugly or beyond my ability to execute, but I'm slowly working through an Illustrator textbook that should help with the second one at least.

 My thumb was feeling decent today even if my wrist is a bit dodgy, so I spent some time doodling on adobe sketch which was really frustrating until I realized that I was in "wet watercolor brush" mode, which is really cool and makes up a bit for the fact that the brush on my 4 in 1 stylus is only registering intermittently. Having the spreading effect to counteract the perfect roundness of the regular end of the stylus made it feel a lot more comfortable. I didn't make anything but a mess, picture-wise, but I'll take anything at this point.

The first three designs in my refillable notebook line are ready!




(I tried about a billion variants of font and shape and so forth on the words for this, still only 90% sure it's right. maybe the NASA font is too ... idek.)







Now I just need the laser to stop being sulky, so that I can get a lot more made before NerdFairecon.

I made a bookmark display box on the laser today too, but it isn't pretty so it doesn't get a picture right now.

I have now become extremely jazzed by the idea of making nifty plaques/wall hangings/boxes combining the laser cutter and the kind of glass cabochon painting I already do, which leaves me with a big decision about how to spend the next three weeks of my learning time before we leave on the trip. Option 1 is to keep working on "forwards" translucent painting on the 3d glass and Option 2 is to to learn Inkscape/vector drawing so I can do the design work needed. It is possible that option 2 will be easier, given that I am familiar with graphics programs in general and can take a literal online class through the library, and it is semi-likely that the vector drawing apps I've got on the ipad will work (I am not taking my computer on the trip, as it is stupidly heavy.)

I need to ship off to three conventions before we leave (Confluence, WorldCon/ConJose, and ArmadilloCon) and I'm not shipping vases/etc even if I suddenly start being successful at it.

Or maybe this is all a ploy by my hindbrain to try and get out of painting more moon phase jewelry pieces, which I need to do in either case because they sell well, they are just really, really annoying to paint with my current set up.

Sometimes I really hate how much sharper, artistically, I usually get when painting to a tight deadline.  It's not like what I do these days is hugely difficult -- I need to work within the constraints of a pretty tight theme and to some extent compositions -- so the work I'm making this morning that will basically finish their final cure 6 hours before I install them at Norwescon should be the same level of work I make most of the time. 

Perhaps part of it is that holiday sales were really good and so much of the best stuff sold, hence my current point of comparison with stock on hand is a little bit harsh, but still. A starfield, and some pretty nebulas, and maybe a planet or two. How do I mess that up? (other than, you know, continuing to really like orange and green, which sell like molasses even when they are magnificent.)

I do not want to thrive under stress. I want to thrive under calm. I'm certainly happier under calm.

Feh.

There has been real progress in improving the room, but I still don't have a place where I can paint while sitting down, or work on things bigger than a switchplate, Ao my massive backlog of ideas is still all backlog (especially the stuff I want to do that involves the laser cutter.) and I can't actually even have all my paint within arms reach at one time.

Again, Feh.

I think as far as show schedules go, given everything else going on in my life (which is kind of a lot) I'm going to apply for the one-day show that's two miles from my house in mid-December, and other than that the schedule is as full as it will get. December, business-wise, I think will either be collapsing for several weeks (hopefully not) or if I am not collapsed and the rest of life is at a manageable level, putting up all the things up online and maybe pushing head a little faster on the backlog of prototyping/technique learning (I have epik planz involving fluid art techniques and acrylic skins and layered plexi, but that requires physical and head space I just don't have yet.)   I have been vacillating for weeks about which of five possible shows to apply to in December, all of which had evenly balanced pro/con lists, so this decision frees up a few brain cycles.

So my show schedule for the rest of the year is:

September 30-October 1 - GeekGirlCon (Seattle)
October 7-8: Puget Sound Pagan Pride Festival (Tacoma)
October 15: Galaxaar Pop Culture Marketplace (Issaquah)
*pause for breath and restocking and also my intense PTSA project is usually in early October*
November 11: Artisans Harvest Fair (Snohomish)
November 18: Pancakes & Booze (Seattle)
November 24-25: GeekCraftExpo (Seattle)
December 2: Cascade Winterfest (Shoreline).

and then either done, or December 10th at Lake Forest Park Farmer's Market.

PLUS I'm mailing work to convention art shows:

September 22-24: FenCon (DFW)
October 6-8: Contraflow (New Orleans)
November 17-19: Orycon (Portland OR)
November 27-29: ChessieCon (Baltimore)

(the realities of shipping mean that both FenCon and Contraflow are effectively done for me already, as the handoff to USPS already occurred.)

I am still making lots of things, because I am low stock on most of the things, so basically I'll be going at a dead run through Thanksgiving weekend. I am also managing O 24/7 now since we are technically homeschooling at the moment (it's complicated). I expect I will get to take teacher off my list of responsibilities by November, but it is all very very much up in the air right now.

I've re-installed and using my 3d program (Vue) for the first time in three computers. This is still cat waxing, but fairly productive cat waxing, potentially, since I need it to finish several unfinished sci-fi landscapes that could nicely fill out my card line.

(I laid out my entire jewelry stock for inventory two days ago and I need to paint at least 40 new pieces of jewelry in the next two weeks. That should be my focus. Um. Don't know why I am so procrastinating on that, it's not even hard, and I have a ton of new ideas too.)

This might be finished now? Maybe? It is certainly much further along than it was two hours ago, which is where it had been paused for six years.

I got this 4in1 stylus from @thefriendlyswede & tried it out for the first time during a lull in the show on Sunday. Having the cover over the brush end flip around to give an normal brush handle size makes a *huge* difference! This is a two minute fishy painted right after I opened the box, and I got through most of a complex nebula background over the course of the rest of the show lulls. This is going to be so useful! They always advise bringing work to demonstrate when you are doing a show, but everything else I do is so messy! And this is the iPad I run square on so it isn't adding another thing to my packing list. Not an ad, I am just super pleased.
http://ift.tt/2qSDApC


( why are the insta cross post images so big )