Photoshop Image

This is an image that I can pretty easily say that I'm not going to paint. I do like the original sketch, so I might hang on to it and see if I end up using that idea sometime, but I just don't think this stands alone well, so I'm not going to take this one any further.

Art Journal, part two

Alright, I'm posting some more scribblings here.



Here's another one I plan to photoshop, mainly because I want to see how it looks when it's all cleaned up, solid and bluish. I'm not entirely sure what I could do with this one, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.



This one started out as a neat idea, but came out as a not so neat sketch. Oh well. It's sort of based around how our negative thoughts can affect us physically.

The smoke is there to show a connection to smoking cigarettes, as being pessimistic is similarly damaging and is also a difficult habit to free yourself of.

I love being optimistic.



... Well, this appears to seriously contradict what I just said about being optimistic, but uhm...

This is basically a 'bad things happen to good people' picture, but the wings (they look like fire, yes) are still there to show that there are beautiful things in the world, too. See? Optimism.

Art Journal, part one

As of late I've been messing around with an art journal, so I thought I would post some of my extremely rough sketches.

I didn't have an abundance of good ideas throughout this process, but I came out with some okay stuff, I think.



Cards! Or rather, the little symbols (are they called suits?) that are printed on cards, springing out of one card.
Despite the scratchy lines and bad scanning job, this one is probably one of my favorites, and I plan to clean it up and colour it in photoshop later today.



I was just messing around with shapes here. There's probably not a lot that I could, or rather, would do with this as a two-dimensional piece. However, this would be a pretty fun looking fused glass necklace. I really would love to learn how to make fused glass someday.



Yes, that is a ton of spark-plug-headed, blobby comic people rising from the earth. It's sort of a mental image I get from the internet sometimes. There's a lot of uniformity and overall it's pretty silly, but I like it anyway.

Regarding Toxic Pigments

As someone who is fairly new to the idea of using paint that comes from anywhere other than the local Michael's, I had no idea that pigments could be detrimental to your health. When I found out about this, I thought that it would be a good idea to locate a list of which pigments are toxic and how to handle them (and it's probably a doubly good idea when I take my ever so slight clumsiness into account.) Hey, it's always nice to know what you're dealing with beforehand.

At any rate...

I present to you, internet, a lovely list of pigments, their ingredients, and their hazards:

http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/arthazards/paint1.html

So many of them were classified as highly toxic. Especially when consumed.... Who on earth tried that?

Tempera Paint

http://www.alessandrakelley.com/whyegg.html

Alrighty.

I've come across a guide to mixing your own paint that has far more detail than the site I posted on Tuesday. The page I've linked to lists some pros and cons of using egg tempera, as well as some basic facts, and has links to a nice multi-part guide to mixing and using tempera paint towards the bottom, as well. They even provide a page full of common techniques employed with this medium.

Definitely keeps one occupied for awhile, to say the least. That my previous source of information on this was suddenly taken offline may have actually been serendipitous, given how much better this source is.

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/2036/tempera.html

This nice little site provides a far more basic look at tempera paint and pigments, so it's nice for getting the gist of what tempera paint really is (as opposed to poster paint from the craft store that likes to call itself tempera.)

Er, enjoy!

Pigments

http://webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/

The above website gives a basic history of pigments, as well as numerous detailed articles about specific pigments.

While they do have a great deal of information, what I found the most interesting was the bit about how oil paints do not dry due to evaporation, but instead oxidize when they come in contact with the air. Clearly this does not change much in practice, but I never would have guessed. I also found it intriguing that the type of pigment suspended in the oil can significantly increase or reduce the speed at which the paint dries.

I thought this site was a well put together introduction to pigments and the like for somebody like me who has never had the pleasure of making their own paint before.

http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/palette/palette_anatomy_of%20_paint.htm

This site used to provide a nice guide to creating egg tempera paint, but for whatever reason was removed just recently (thus this edit.) I'll have to locate another. Oh, woe.

Regarding Categorization

While this may be a bit irrelevant, I feel like I should be able to post about it, this being an art related blog and all.

I'd just been thinking about the ways art is categorized lately. On websites, I mean. The system for submitting art is extremely inconsistent in most cases. Like, in most cases, it's classified by medium, and whether it's traditional or digital, but in other cases they don't ask for it at all and only ask for the style. I can understand doing that to filter out an overdone style (which seriously needs to be done sometimes), but I also feel like it's sort of like saying that said style isn't considered art anymore. I dunno. I'm probably being vague, but that's because I agree with both sides of this argument.

About Georgia O'Keefe

I've been looking into her life and works lately. For those of you who know me, she did not, in fact, give birth to herself and/or Snoop Dogg. True facts.

http://www.ellensplace.net/okeeffe1.html
This site provides a nice biography as well as images to accompany it.

I like to accentuate the positive, so I'm not very good at being a critic, but you know, the thing about Georgia O'Keefe's work is that it's really pretty and all and stylistically interesting, but in my extremely humble opinion, she never did anything all that interesting. Everyone and their second cousin paints flowers, buildings and landscapes. Still, some of her works are very aesthetically pleasing - this one (entitled Radiator Building At Night) being my favorite. It's just a gorgeous image. It's just the subjects of her work that leave me feeling kind of bored, you know?

A blog? ...But why!?

Basically, this blog is here for me to organize my thoughts/information I collect, rather than letting it roll haphazardly around in my noggin. You understand, don't you, anonymous reader(s)? But hopefully it will become interesting/useful to someone at some point. I suppose I should also mention that the main focus of this blog will be art. To be more specific, appreciating, analyzing, and making art. Which I like.
(Almost as much as speaking in fragments!)

I'm going to try to explain this without leaving an obnoxious and pretentious textblock behind. Wish me luck.

Anyway, art is one of those things that really makes you notice how much weight one human being really carries. Think about it. As of right now, there are 6,652,728,501 people on this planet alone. And if you consider the possibility of life on other planets, there are 50-60 billion planets with conditions extremely similar to ours in this very galaxy. (I've been sick and watching the history channel.) In the long run, once we shed some of our natural selfishness, it's almost too easy to assume one human life, even our own, to be somewhat insignificant. If it's not us, or it's nobody close to us, or a celebrity, we don't even know, let alone care, when they die. But the truth of the matter is, everyone has incredibly important things to say and a right to express them. Everybody has an opportunity in life to immortalize their ideas and feelings through art, and leave something truly beautiful behind.

Thus, art matters to me, and should matter to everyone, really.

I'd love to receive comments, as well, so I can hear the ideas and opinions of others.

Right then.