Anatomy of an Image

I am posting a new piece over at The Grand Conspiracy today, and for those who are interested in those sorts of things, this is the image, and this is how I put it together.

Final Image

(click to see full-size)

This started with a render. Well, first it started with an idea about a girl who gives up her world of colors for the novelty of black and white. And then came the render. This took me about 2-3 hours to set up in Studio, and then probably another 2 hours or so to render out at 3600×3600. (Naturally I did this overnight, so I don’t know the exact render time)

This was the result of that.

I'm just a girl in the world...

I wanted something beautiful and magical in feeling, but I didn’t want the distraction of focusing on the girl’s looks rather than her actions, so I thought a full-back shot would be best. I lost the companion butterfly pretty quickly, as it just didn’t work in the final image, but otherwise this render needed very little post. Continue reading »

Product of My Environment

Click to embiggen

You can also see this larger at my gallery at Renderosity, if you hang there.

This is just how I’ve been feeling lately, which, if you read my stuff here you already know. Overexposed with too many people needing too many things. all at one time .

The work was done in a mixture of DAZ|Studio (girl, hands) and Photoshop (mostly everything else) with a little bit of Illustrator (for the dress pattern) thrown in. Originally I had envisioned this going much grungier and layered, espescially in the spray area, but once I started working on it I just kept reducing and reducing until it was a graphical as it needed to be. Anyway, I hope you enjoy  – I kind of want to make a t-shirt out of this.

Burrough’s Invite Controversy (+ poss. artwork thievery?)

Burroughs Prom Invite Pushes Envelope.

So those wacky over-privileged kids at Burrough’s created this over-the-top invite to an after-prom party.

With a theme of either “Lust” or “Sin” (I really can’t tell – maybe the theme is just “debauchery” or “we have no sense”) it features “satanic” imagery (a pentagram) and invites all “sinners” to come enjoy the fun. There was a minor brouhaha over the invite, and I think any reasonable observer would say that it really was not appropriate for a high-school audience, no matter the school in question.(I do love the defenders who say it’s more OK for Burroughs’ kids to do this, since they’re so smart and special and elite and need to blow off steam, darnit.)

But what really caught my eye was this cover image, which I recognized immediately as belonging to Marta Dahlig. Marta is a prolific Polish digital artist who contributes digital painting training materials & tutorials to many of the art magazines I read. This image belongs to a series of “Seven Deadly Sins” that she completed a few years ago, and I actually own a print of her image Vanity.

Marta’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last few years, and so I doubt that these kids could have afforded to license her work for use on this invitation (of course, they’re Burroughs’ kids, so who knows?)

If they didn’t license the work then they’ve stolen it. Is art thievery all part of the “sinners” theme of their prom? Perhaps there could be a few lessons learned here  – one on using discretion in party-planning and in thinking things through before we go to print with them, and one on respect for copyright and other people’s artwork.

I’ve emailed a link to the PD story to Marta, and am interested to hear back from her whether the work is, in fact, licensed.

The Clearing

The Clearing

Originally uploaded by Erin_T

I adore this type of work. Any kind of landscape built in miniature and photographed to look life-size makes me feel like I am about three years old, and that all my daydreams are possible.

Any kind of forced-perspective, playing with scale and DOF work totally draws me in. I could look at this for an hour. Imaginary worlds – infinitely preferable to my own.

Go have a look at all of her work, some of the snowy scenes really remind me of creepy snowglobes.

My Print Finally Came!

I ordered this print on 03/02 and it finally came yesterday! Took a follow-up email wondering politely where the heck my freaking print was, and when it arrived it came to the wrong address (billing address versus specified shipping address) but it finally arrived! And it had sparkly stickers on the outside, so that sort of makes up for it being sent to the wrong place. I do love a sparkly sticker.

Click to embiggen, it's totally worth it.

Anyway, normally I don’t geek out over limited edition things, but this is Gaiman and I absolutely love not only the poem but also the illustrations by Jouni Koponen. Then add the fact that there are only 750 of them in the world…

Originally Neil had posted about it on his blog. I saw it, thought (in a moment of fiscal responsibility) that I probably didn’t technically need such a thing. Waited a month and still was thinking about it, so that (plus the fact that 20% of the proceeds are donated to the CBLDF) finally forced my hand. Had to have. I am actually thinking about redesigning my bedroom around this poster, since my bedroom is stupid looking and I have felt uninspired to change it. I think color blocks like this might be really cool.

Now I just have to go about finding a 10″x28″ frame. Hints and suggestions?

THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME

Drewbama

Obamicon.Me – DREW by superbadgirl. Obamacise (Shephardize?) your own uploaded images courtesy of Paste magazine.

Vintage Hollywood Manga

Vintage Hollywood Stars As Manga Characters Contest.

Saw this Worth1000 Photoshop contest via Boing Boing, loved this image in particular. (Note: this isn’t mine, just thought it was cool. Can’t give attribution b/c the artist chose not to reveal their name on the site.)

Equal parts cool and creepy

Let’s Keep it a Silent Night, OK?

Full size at Rendo, for those who partake.

Holiday Greetings!

Love you! Mean it! – S

Birdmad Girl

This girl has got a smile that can make me cry.

She flies outside this cage
Singing girl-mad words
I keep her dark thoughts deep inside
As black as stone
And mad as birds

This is based on the main character of my second NaNo novel, and the photography I did last week in Benton Park.

Had to do a little day-to-night action on the BG photo, but I am very pleased with it. Click here for full size (it’s worth it, much better at 1200px wide)

Also at Rendo for those who hang there.

Pale In Flower

What happens when I mix art and politics. Larger size at Rendo, should you want to see that.

Artless

I am sitting on the floor of the living room, looking at my accusatory pile of magazines, watching last night’s The Daily Show and… well, blogging. I am trying finish some of these long-pending tasks, because I think it might make me feel better to not have so many piles of undone things staring me in the face.

I’ve had an accusatory pile of magazines following me around for a few years now, because I remember blogging about them back when I was in my apartment. The current pile is about 18 inches high, and is comprised of: home and garden magazines, political magazines, eco magazines and art magazines. It used to have a contingent of fashion and shopping magazines, but I had another fit of “Fashion magazines! They are trying to destroy my self-worth! They are making me even more dissatisfied with my looks! Shopping magazines! They encourage wanton consumerism and make me unsatisfied with my amount of goods! I throw you all away!” Even though I didn’t have to pay for those magazines, they were costing me too much.

Now I have less to read. I am still making very little headway though.

My art magazines particularly are hard to get through. And that’s because I am not making any art, and haven’t been for months. I haven’t made anything, I haven’t learned anything, I haven’t tried anything new. Sometimes I try to do something, but then I just stare at my screen blankly, and then go away from the computer. It makes me sad, not being creative. I feel like I am missing part of myself. And yet when I try to think about creating anything, it just won’t work. Everything that I have to say right now is so dark and twisted. Making anything pretty would feel like a lie. My creative side is so depressed and pessimistic and sad. And my art isn’t about that. It’s dark, but it’s not ugly. It’s sassy sometimes, but it’s not sadistic. And I feel too angry and betrayed and abused to say anything other than that. And I can’t bring myself to say that with my art.

So until I can find a way to say it in some other fashion and clear it from my system, until things get, or at least seem, better I think I may stay artless.

DAZ P|C Membership Loses its Benefits

I was just perusing the “benefits” of being a DAZ PC club member. They’ve pretty much eroded. The lame “anniversary sale” that turned out to not be a sale, for one thing. And then I was reading this description from their promo page. (where they no longer list the free intro pack of content you get, as you did when I joined.)

DAZ Productions – 3D Models, 3D Content, and 3D Software
Hundreds of $1.99 Products
Not only do you receive a permanent discount, but you also have access to hundreds of cutting edge products for just $1.99 each. Every week, new products are released that can be yours for just $1.99. These products are created by a select group of DAZ 3D’s top artists. LisaB, LaurieS, and Moyra are the art directors for this exclusive line of products. Masters in their techniques, they have a combined experience of over 15 years in their craft. (Wow! 15 years between the 3 of them? That’s FIVE YEARS APIECE! HOLY CRAP!) Only the best models are accepted by them for release into the Platinum Club. (OK, if you say so) Each item undergoes the same rigorous tests of Quality Assurance that submits all products to. (A) That’s some kind of nonsensical sentence there, and B) That’s not saying much even once you interpret it correctly. “Same rigoruous QA” means zilch when you see the crap they pass.) Only the best receive the DAZ?stamp of approval, and nothing less is accepted into the Platinum Club.

DAZ Platinum Club – The Celebration That Wasn’t

So basically the platinum club celebration this year is… the ability to buy more stuff? They’re not giving members anything, we get no special vouchers, no free products, no package as in former years. The big “gift” is Hey, buy more things and you will get some money back in a few months that you can use to buy more stuff!

Yeah. Ummm. Thanks?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I have seen nothing even approaching the previous years’ anniversary gifts.

Once Again

Once again I thought I might play around with 3D. I opened D|S – needed a new version. Downloaded, installed.

Checked plugins.

Needed to redo all of my settings, re-save all my preferences.

Wanted to use A4, needed a new version. Downloaded, installed.

Now it’s an hour later and I need to go to bed.

Repeat every 6-8 wks, as needed.

*sigh*