Update on Life

So it's been a little busy in my house the last couple of weeks!

I had two new roomies move in: Zasha and Siobhan. They're settling in nicely, and looking for work. It's nice to have a family feel in the home again. Also nice to have another couple of sets of hands to help out from time to time. We're anticipating much gaming. :)

In addition to that, I got my commissioned piece to its new owner, and he apparently loves it! I'm glad, because I really enjoyed working on that piece, and working with both ink and graphite. I have a few other commissions in the works now that the Ram is completed.

However, my big project is one I've been putting off, and putting off, and finally pulled out (with the encouragement of my new family) and began working on.

I had this massive canvas that I'd worked with awhile back, and the person who requested the piece and I had a falling out, leaving me with a partially completed piece. Well, I hate to waste a perfectly good canvas, so I've re-gesso'd it, and I'm working on a piece for our living room.

My mom decided she wants to do our living room in steampunk, which I am ALL FOR. So, I'm going to paint a deep sea nautilus submarine on this 5' by 4' canvas for us to put as the centerpiece for our evolving steampunk decor. I'd give a WIP shot, but honestly, it's just blue and green washes on a massive canvas.

I'm super excited, and will post pics as soon as I have something worth posting. :)

I'm off to nap for now. I will post more later, I promise.

-Me

Art - Work In Progress! Commission, Pt. 2

Some shots of the last part of the work, and the finished piece. Again, crap camera. It couldn't get the whole piece in the shot.

 

01

 

02 - Skull 

 

03 Final

 

04 Final Left

 

05 Final Right

This is ink outline with graphite detailing on illustration board.

 

Better photo.

Gaming - Systems

So, if you've ever heard a gamer debate systems, it can get heated. There's nothing more passionate than a geek defending their existence.

That being said, also know that there are geeks defending their gaming consoles just as fiercely. I've heard the Xbox 360 vs PlayStation 3 debate ad nauseum. However, this blog is mine, so I'm focusing on tabletop systems.

There are a few systems I've tried over time. Let me type out a list real fast:

System	Pros	Cons
Dungeons and Dragons (versions 2.0, 3.0/3.5, and 4.0)	Depending on edition, it's the system I know best. I have a love for "high fantasy", and can adapt characters to this system well.	4.0 = death. They're progressively dumbing the system down, and making it less like a table top and more like World of Warcraft. Not a fan.
World of Darkness (two different versions that I don't know the numbers for)	Nice and dark. Fills the little holes in my gaming life that are craving horror and chaos.	After playing d20 based systems, it's actually very open to interpretation. That can be either confusing or awesome, depending.
Call of Cthulhu	I LOVED this system. It was so tense, I was chain smoking through it!	I didn't get to play enough! That, and there wasn't a whole lot published, either.
White Wolf (non WOD titles)	Scion and Exalted. Had a blast. Both alternate ideas for settings that were amazing to immerse my characters in.	Again, not enough content. Also, the WOD d10 system has the same "loose interpretation" issues that WOD has.
RIFTS	Tons of material. Very customizable.	Can get very hard to wade through the books. Rules are NOT well organized.
Shadowrun	Nice setting (I honestly played it only once).	At the time, I was looking for less a sci-fi flavor, and didn't appreciate the setting. So, a con for me as a player?
homebrew	Getting to build whatever you need.	Being responsible for ALL content. Nothing published.

So, gamers out there? What are your favs, and why? What will you NEVER play again?

Non-gamers: any questions for the blog? Let me clarify stuff!

Art - Work In Progress! Commission, Pt 1

This will be updated a couple of times throughout the night, until this piece is done. So come back to see if there's anything new. (Or better yet, follow my blog, and you'll get a notification anytime I update. :D )

Here's the first shot. This is on illustration board, and it going to be graphite and ink. Again, taken with my crappy camera, so it doesn't look like what *I* am looking at...

01

This is grayscale as well (again... shitty camera jacked up the slight sienna colour of the board)

 

02 

 

03

I may go back and add more dark to this. It looks dark in the pic, but it's really not. Lilies done, now moving on to the skull. Bwahahaha!! 

 04

Last update tonight. Heading to bed, and will have more tomorrow. :)

-Me

Art - Commission: Rams Skull Drawing and Products: Graphite Pencils

So after drawing the Ram Skull Tattoo piece for my buddy, I got a TON of requests on Facebook. Apparently, it was a very sought after piece. So I'm working on a commission for the concept of a ram's skull, but I'm seriously thinking about doing this one in ink. I've been craving working with ink for a bit now. I'll post progress pics on here (and should probably move my OLD progress pics off Facebook).


This piece will be brought to you by coffee in a can, by Starbucks,  the number 7, and orzo pasta with alfredo sauce.

In other news, I decided to track down some information about the supplies I use, and just give everyone a head's up about what I work with.

When I first started out, it was to draw characters for my games. So I began drawing about the same time I started gaming. My supplies were easy:

and

That's it, folks. A kid who really wants to draw will not need an arsenal of drawing supplies. It takes motivation, and I was very motivated to put an image to the characters in my head that I was rolling dice for. I started off with profile images of faces. And OH DAMN, did they suck. I'm glad they don't still exist, because I would be mortified.

Nowadays, I have a whole desk crammed with stuff. Brushes, pencils, paper, canvases. Some things I'm cheap about (acrylic paint) and some I'm not (coloured pencils). I buy the bulk of my supplies from Blick's Art Supplies, and use their website, which is easy to use, and their deliveries are always top notch. I've even ordered frameless frames from them, and they were in amazing condition, packed with care. My paper from them, always beautiful.

To start off my "these are my supplies" segment, let me talk a little about pencils. I know, I know, what a boring subject. Really? Pencils?

But what can I say, it excites me. To get a good graphite pencil, for me anyway, it has to meet some basic needs:

1 - Fluid, unhindered motion of the graphite onto the page. Ever had a pencil where it feels like something is stuck on the paper, stopping the pencil from moving? Add a little force, and it moves like a small earthquake, leaving a gouging dark mark in it's wake. Other who work with graphite know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. The lead should be smooth, consistent, and buttery almost in it's application to the paper. The only resistance I want is in the paper itself, when I am working with textures.

2 - Ease of sharpening. How many times have you sharpened a pencil and the lead breaks? Or maybe you sharpen it, and the wood comes off in clumps? This can have to do with a dull sharpener, or a cheap one, but also it can be the pencil itself. I used to ADORE the pulp pencils when I worked with the standard yellow number 2. Smoothly sharpened, and not broken. Oh yeah. I've since learned that the high pressure pulp pencil isn't the best for graphite quality. So if it sharpens decently, that's fine with me.

3 - Can I drop it? This is important for me. When I'm knee deep in a piece, and I decide to take it everywhere with me with the tenacity of a mother taking her ill tempered four year old into EVERY Walmart to find a specific cheap romance novel, I want to know that I can accidentally drop my pencil and not be ruined for the day. I've tried woodless graphite, and while the graphite itself is AMAZING quality, the fact that they break when I so much as look at them cross eyed is enough to make me pass.

4 - Is it decently priced. Nuff said here. I'm not selling my car to buy this thing. Sorry.

For my recommendations, I like the Prismacolor Turquoise graphite the best, I suspect. Originally Berol Turquoise, produced by Sanford, these are made now by the Prismacolor name (coincidentally, also owned by the same people who make Rubbermaid, Graco, and Papermate products). I have some originals (or vintage) displaying the Berol name, and also some newer Prismacolor. They're both exceptional for the job. I rarely have issue with the graphite quality, or the wood. Other names I use from time to time are Staedtler Mars Lumograph and Derwent Graphic. Staedtler is produced in Germany, and Derwent in the UK. Both are decently priced, however.

The brand I do NOT use is General. While I'm sad to say that it's a choice that takes business from the "Made in the USA" market, I can't abide supporting a product that I feel is inferior. And that's what General pencils are for me. Now, everyone has preference, but for me, the above standards that I need in pencils are consistently not met by General. I especially have issues with the pencils falling apart while being sharpened, even with a new sharpener. The wood quality and graphite is not worth it to me when I end up just throwing it away, and reaching for one of my other pencils after minutes of frustrated sharpening.

So that's my "review" for this post. I will have work in progress photos up (with my awful camera) once I get started on this newest piece!

-Me

Gaming - The WEG

I've been playing tabletop or LARPing* RPGs** since I was 11 years old. Now, that might not seem impressive (and I am dating myself now...) but that's 20 years of gaming. That is a LOT of time devoted to one hobby. I often think, "What if I had played an instrument that long? What if I had learned business savvy that entire time? What would I be now?" But quite frankly, I am SO fulfilled by this one little piece, that it has become a HUGE piece of my life. (Plus, the only other hobby I've done as long, started hand in hand, and that was art.)

The fine art of roleplaying, for me, involves sharing a story with friends. You'll find all manner of gamers out there. Those who love the system, those who love their characters going through certain scenarios so that they can feel empowered, some who love the equipment and "character building" that comes from creating a person to plop down into the game. But I'm all about the sharing.

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. Who can blame me when it's such a big thing in my life? Let me lay out the basics...

"Gaming" for me (even though I live near Vegas) has nothing to do with sports, gambling, or anything so mainstream. It deals with consoles sometimes, but most times, it's dealing with role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, World of Darkness, or other games. It's part acting, part story telling, and part dice rolling. It involves creating a character, setting that character into a story being told primarily by one person, and then adding a random factor to the luck your character has.

The person running the game is the Game Master or Dungeon Master, depending on which term you prefer. Some call that person the Storyteller. And there can even be more than one. They create the setting. Non-player characters, events, buildings, etc. It's a daunting task. It's a task that I love.

 

The reason I'm bothering to explain all this is because inevitably, at some point, my posts will bring this up. I'm not JUST an artist, I also play tons and tons of RPGs. I text game with buddies, I run a weekly session online with friends who are in different states, I collect books for systems, even if I rarely play said systems. So, there will come a day when it's a blog topic.

Like today.

So, part of running a game is building a sense of anticipation. Players have spent time, creativity, and energy building characters, and usually get a little attached to them. So, one of the tools I employ is the Wicked Evil Grin (WEG). This is where I tell a player something seemingly inane (the forest is still ... too still) and then flash my WEG. They know at that moment, they're in deep shit. But they're not sure what or why! That's the beauty of it. 

Using the WEG too much can make it lose effect. I would estimate that I use it once every six months, across ALL the games I play or run. But when I do use it, I save it for choice times. It's an amazing tool. I recommend it highly to all out there running games.

So now, it's my turn to ask questions, and hopefully get some comments.

Have you ever participated in an RPG? Was your character badass? Was there a specific moment you will ALWAYS remember? Share that and anything else. :)

-Me

*LARP: live action role play. Meaning, go out, act like your character, beat each other with sticks and use fake spells. It really is as nerdy as it sounds, but SO FUN.

**RPG: role playing game. As explained above.