Been testing out my brush pen. As someone who is too used to pressing
hard into a paper using any writing instrument, it does take some
gettin g used to, and I guess I’ve only learned around 5% of what it’s
capable of. It is a lot of fun, though, and allows you to quickly get
very evocative, flowing lines down.
This character is nobody in particular — not yet, anyway. The anatomy is a bit crap, but the face is exactly what I wanted.
It was an editorial illustration on the back page of an industrial company’s newsletter. The article (by Samir) was about plumbing in ancient Rome. Yes, I realise that the Venus De Milo is actually from ancient Greece, but hey, I’m an illustrator, not a historian (more on the Amputated Aphrodite here).
Did it in inkscape. I seriously can’t imagine going back to Adobe Illustrator anymore.
V
Almost forgot, but a while ago I finished up the Kamon (Japanese family/house crest) for Dan. It’s not the Heraldic crest he initially requested, but during my research into the subject I was intrigued by the minimalist style and thought it would be a good starting point for teaching myself this kind of illustration, which I’ve never done before.
I’m 60% happy with it. I like the otter and the general yin/yang effect between it and the cock, but I’m not happy. The design of the cock bothers me (stop giggling!) and one day I’ll refine it. Now, however, I have other things to move on to, not the least of which is the heraldic crest, which I realise is going to take quite a lot of effort to get right, and I don’t just want to palm off a shoddy product because I think I’m not good enough.
The other day my brother was discussing a design with a client who mentioned that it was far too good for what the thing was, and he replied that doing a bad job was not an excuse just because the people who would see it didn’t know any better, or he wasn’t getting paid much for it, or for whatever reason.
There is a lot to be said taking pride in one’s work (frankly there isn’t nearly enough), for getting things done to the best possible level you can achieve. I’d like to live my entire life that way.
Hence, the cock still bothers me.
I said stop giggling!
It’s been a while since I did an illustration. Not much — the
shading’s a bit silly and overall it lacks depth — but not nothing
either.
V
I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year. For those who may not know, it basically means that I’ll be one of thousands of deranged lunatics… um, writers who will be attempting to churn out a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and 31st.
Yes, I know.
The sad part is, this is the fourth time I’m attempting it, and I’ve yet to finish one (My count is 34,000 words, then around 5,000, then 2,000). I skipped it last year because some some reason I can’t quite remember. Oh, I think I had a trip to India back then and couldn’t even get the laptop to start up, let alone stay on long enough to type some prolix gibberish.
I can tell you right now, this is going to be a hard NaNo. It’s quite a hard task as it is — even more so if you’re doing anything else at the time; if you do the 2,000 word-a-day average it takes to safely finish it at a steady pace you need to put aside a good three hours a day. Sure, you can sort of cheat by just typing whatever the hell you want with no plot, no coherence, and no thought, but for me the process of writing has always been one where plot and story come above all else; I’m writing specifically to tell a story rather than just write as some kind of exercise routine or competition goal.
Which means that the first one I attempted (“The Tale of a Thousand Savants“) stalled at 34K not only because I ran out of time (I wrote 24 of those 34K within the last 3 days of November 2001), but because I ran out of plot. I simply ended at the 1/3rd point of the story. I knew what came immediately after it — even started writing a bit of it — but the plot just didn’t make sense, or seem very exciting (four years later I sort of have tied up the loose ends in the story… now I just have to write it down). But I’ll tell you, those three days were some of the happiest creative days of my life. For the first time I knew that what I was doing was what I am meant to do in life; telling stories in a creative form is my purpose, and writing silly novels is one of the most enjoyable ways to do it. The rush one feels as good dialogue suddenly crashes upon your fingers like an avalanche from some part of the universe that doesn’t quite feel like its within your head, the way plot threads suddenly come together and characters starts to become people, real, alive, people you’d like to meet and know and touch and smell — it’s Mega. Reading the best novel in the universe can never compare to the pleasure gained from writing even the crappiest novel in the universe.
My second attempt at Nano in 2002 (“Undecided at the Moment“) was something I was just not ready to write. Mostly because it was the beginning of a plot that would eventually be resolved in Tale of a Thousand Savants, and since back then I didn’t have a sufficiently good resolution to my first NaNovel, the second one didn’t have one either. Undecided at the Moment also didn’t have a particularly interesting plot on its own. It would end on a necessary plot point that would affect 3275 years of Savant storylines, but everything leading up to that point pretty much consisted (and still consists) of Savant just moping around and scaring people with his hook.
Entertaining, for sure, but not yet. Lucky for me in the four years since Tale has got a good story, and because of it so does Undecided, and consequently 3275 years of Savant stories have a kickass backstory that I’m going to enjoy dropping vague hints about for the rest of my life.
The third NaNovel (“Polendron” — not a Savant tale) was something I never should have attempted as a novel anyway. The story is nice enough, but it depends so much on my perception of how it would look visually — and the plot itself is a very visual one — that it’s better attempted as a movie, or at least a graphic novel. I liked what little of PolendronI did write, however.
Since then I’ve barely written any fiction, and that’s why this NaNo will be a particularly tough one — I’m out of shape. I may have written around a few thousand words over the last year on a single project that I have not finished yet. It’s a short thing and I really should have done it by now. Perhaps as a warm up for the NaNovel, I might finish it.
Perhaps I may just go in blind at midnight on October 31. Unlike the last few times I haven’t a clue as to what I will be writing. When I wrote Tale I had the outline down a month before it started, and the others too had some early storylines in place.
This time I am faced with the prospect of either looking through my file of “Things to Write and Do” and pick something that I think I may have the chance of finishing in a month — or at least 50K words of in a month — or just going in blind.
There is one project, I’m not sure if I’ll choose it yet, but at this point it’s just a title and an image I had in mind for the cover of a novel with that title. That’s it. No plot yet.
But, as the NaNoWriMo slogan assures us, that’s no problem.
V
Vishal
No pictures this time, but you do get an illustration of everyone’s favourite rambling bag of witticisms. Enjoy.
This took me far too long to do, but it’s my 2nd (!) illustration this year; I’m surprised I even got one out. I like the technique, and thanks a bunch to Samir for helping me put the finishing touches on the background and stuff. Meanwhile he’s working on a spiffy looking moth. I’m jealous. His blog is linked to the right (“Updatingly Yours”).
Whee, I actually finished something! When’s the last time you saw that happen, huh? :laugh:
Vishal