radiodark 2013-02-25 01:52:41

Aw, shucks.

radiodark 2013-02-25 08:01:33

Jessie, to find the holy grail, and I fluctuate between blue, green, and red. What's the capital of Assyria?

radiodark 2013-02-25 08:32:14

*blushes*

radiodark 2013-02-25 14:04:36

Cat, depends on the movie, and I don't know. One of the pieces that got me to join NG was Sucho's curious dick monster drawing she did for a sketchbook tour, but I don't think it's in her portal any more. Other than that, I don't know. Any of my favorited pieces. I'm a sucker for okoo's work, maybe one of those. Ne7ers too.

radiodark 2013-02-25 14:24:22

I live near Washington DC, and I as I grew up my grandmother would take me downtown to see exhibits at the many spectacular (free!) museums there. I think the Impressionists won my heart first, but seeing such great works of any shade in person did a lot to inform my understanding of art. Children's books were an influence too- I went to buy a few for a friend's kid a few years back and realized how much they'd contributed to my aesthetics. Stories are important.

I'm drawn to art as a method of communication that is at once so much more and much less concise than language is. It can express all sorts of emotional nuances we don't really have or need words for, and while so few of those subtle nuances are useful data, they're still an important part of what makes us human. There's something distinctly awesome about being able to compress abstract ideas into bits of pigment on paper or welded steel.

As to actually becoming an artist, I'm not sure where to start. I was always more inclined to art in school than any other field, although I don't think I was able to think of myself as an artist until I got to community college and started taking decent art courses. Learning to draw a proper figure was like a lightbulb going off- I'd always assumed my attempts were hideous monstrosities because I sucked, rather than just that I didn't know the right proportions to draw with. Anyway, I kept studying, kept making things, and kept getting better.

radiodark 2013-02-25 21:41:47

I did a sort of basic stick figure stop motion animation once for a class that's probably on vimeo somewhere. It was fun, but it took hours and hours to shoot three minutes of uncomplicated footage, and I came out of it swearing not to bother again unless i had a really worthy idea.

I've never really played around in flash successfully- I think I'll need some kind of lessons before I understand the program.

Crafting stories from scratch and telling them in a time based form tends to be hard for me- I have an easier time with single images that hint at everything all at once.

radiodark 2013-02-25 22:34:47 (Updated 2013-02-26 09:55:33)

Good question. I'm not entirely sure I understand- when I analyze my ng favorites, I see fuckloads of detail and a variety of lighting.
As to the rest though, I've gotten to the point in my art where straight up photographic realism doesn't impress me- I want to see that level of description applied to things that photos can't show you, hence the warped perspective and proportions.

Fanart bores me, largely. Generic fantasy paintings of dragon, robots and fairies bore me. Anime is usually fucking awful, made by lazy people who have never learned to draw properly.

Composition is always important, no matter the piece, but otherwise I wouldn't try to keep what I like to exact requirements. I like pieces that break the groove of what I'd expect of them. I like art history jokes- references to much older pieces with a piece. I like anatomy and I like incidental nudity. I like pieces that start stories and leave the viewers to finish them. I do like lots of texture and detail.

I don't there's a perfect state of art- it would immediately become boring. Taking a novel approach is important.

Do I strive towards all that myself? Huh. I strive towards good compositions, always. I try to be subtle with my meanings. I try to challenge my abilities with every piece- diving into the unfamiliar each time is part of what keeps me going.

My NG favorites really only tell a fraction of my art taste, considering the number of historical and contemporary but not on NG artists that I adore, but it's interesting to see what that index says about my preferences. Thanks.

radiodark 2013-04-29 01:55:38

Heh. It was lovely to meet you for realz. I knew I'd seen your name around but I couldn't remember where in the thick of things, so I'm glad to be figuring that out now. We were at the Best Western too! Hung out at Stamper's a bit that night and in the morning we got donuts with Legolass and shuffled Emily back to headquarters to pick up her stuff before heading home. Have you made your way homeward yet?

radiodark 2013-04-29 21:28:02

Oops, just realized I never responded to this. Sorry to hear about the tooth, I hope all is better now. The photos are wonderful- I'm so glad our couch pile was preserved for posterity and I love the shot of Tom dual wielding small children.

radiodark 2013-05-28 16:00:14

I was at an after party for a rock opera I was part of, karaoke and booze for cast and crew. Fun times, but none of us were watching the door to make sure that we were the only ones that came in, and a group of young men we didn't know came and grabbed my backpack from under a table and also stole a purse and the car that matched the keys in the purse. We didn't notice until a while later when I went to grab my stuff to catch a train back to dc home and found there was nothing there to grab, no wallet, no phone, no camera, no laptop.

The people I was with took good care of me though, and everyone since has been super supportive.
We've filed police reports but I haven't heard of any findings yet. The phone is dead or off, untracable.

The rock opera was balls awesome though, so at least there's that