Category: creativity

Colouring In
by Kimliatach

Daily

A less productive day today.

N and F went to the farm. L had one on one swimming lesson during which I managed to swim 650m (200m freestyle). L’s water confidence is continually improving but he cannot swim independently yet. Despite sunscreen we both had a touch of sun and were pretty zonked out all afternoon. We spent some time drawing and colouring together and I let him indulge his latest obsession Lego Marvel Superheroes for a while. They are an improvement over Power Rangers but only marginally.

 

This is going to take me a while, particularly so as it is an activity to make me draw with L & F more. It was cheap at the post office a week or two ago, broke it out for the first time today.

I actually made the first five of twenty six planned images of an ‘affirmations’ colouring book with intention of releasing the whole on amazon for a dollar in the months prior to starting this blog. I’m not going back to it, I’ve missed the boat for the colouring book mania and I’m not a huge fan of the idea, I just noticed that most of what was available was to my mind not really designed with adult colouring in mind. Meditative detail and pattern were what I would look for, not so much the affirmative words that I chose for these to match the most obvious markets. In truth I am a little perplexed by the explosion of adult colouring as a normal activity, but I am grateful in this instance as it means I get to do a collaboration with one of my favourite artists and keep the result to hang on my children’s walls.

Creative

So here is my small contribution to adult colouring anyway if you do any please send me a picture of your results. Click through for full sized versions. I am not revisiting them but if I were ‘Peace’ would be most likely to receive a major overhaul.

 

Love

feel

hope

Peace

Passion

 

Focusing on updating copyright text on all so far completed cards this evening.

Also had an idea for a simple, pretty mobile/ VR/ AR game this afternoon. Not telling here after all I’ve already discovered one of my designs made real by someone else before I got around to them. ‘Cosmic Boom’ the concentric circles piece half way down the page here is the design of a piece I sketched two years ago, I’d have used different media but the effect would have been near identical.

 

 

 

 

Hey Big Spender
by Kimliatach

Daily

A couple of big purchases today. Having searched far and wide over the past week, comparing many, many systems I have chosen this computer with the memory bumped up to 24gig. While I was at it I found a decent looking multiport usb charging and connection hub. For sanity and self preservation I must now avoid looking at computer advertisements or sales for a period not less than six months, preferably a year. I have absolutely gotten the best I could afford, in the end it came down to a choice between the MSI and a custom build from this company. Both were of very similar specs, ultimately I opted for the established brand over the custom architecture.

Now begins the tense anticipatory wait for delivery.

I also bit the bullet and purchased this legal contract for the formalisation of my agreement with Half Monster Games. The agreement is likely to be useful for multiple projects so it is an investment in future income.

And to cap off the ludicrous spending spree I ebay’d some swimming goggles after swimming 550m breaststroke today. In addition to my standard 75 kettlebell swing workout.

Creative

Small progress on the castle card today. I’m feeling a bit anxious to finish some projects, chicken tractor, paving and a few partial cards are all weighing me down being so close yet so far from done.

This evening I have delved into the legalise, enough to know I won’t finish that tonight. I’m now trying to get some more painting done. To help give you a picture of what I am working towards Jack has been doing some play testing in tabletop simulator and has produced an example layout of the terrain cards using the limited number I have so far completed. The terrain deck will, with shuffling create a new playing surface each game. The evolution or ability deck will add spice to the gameplay.

 

 

More bugs

 

Pill #millipede #macro #arthropod approx 15mm

A photo posted by @liatach on

More Pill #millipede #arthropod #macro

A photo posted by @liatach on

Unknown #moth #lepidoptera #insect #macro approx 40mm

A photo posted by @liatach on

Post Format Changed
by Kimliatach

Source unkown.

Daily

Risked heatstroke for some garden labour. Preparing to finish off the paving under the washing line and begin laying the second path.

Wiring continues on the chook tractor. One piece at a time. There was a lull as we were struggling to find anyone who would sell us some point of lay hens locally, as it happens today we hear there is the possibility of some available in a fortnight. I have had to replace the wheels I found on the farm and attached, as they were too old and had collapsed under the weight. The new wheels found at the dump presented a engineering challenge as they will require a very different axle. I think I have figured out what to do and it will involve my first ever welding job. I’ll have to get help with that.

Went for a swim, L has improved in leaps and bounds, still cannot swim independently though. I pushed myself and swam 150m breath stroke today, despite significant increase in muscle mass over the last few months, my actual fitness still has a long way to go as that slaughtered me.

Experimenting with splitting my posts up a bit using headings, if they are still feeling jumbled I may start seperating the dailies from the thoughts and reviews.

Creativity

Managed about an hour on the castle card today. I’m struggling to find the right line weights and I will need to redo some of what I have done to match once I get it just so. Working on some neglected and now late cards this evening.

 

Accidental selfy while cleaning lens. Post swim hair.

A photo posted by @liatach on

 

Drowned beetle found at the pool. #macro #coleoptera #insect

A photo posted by @liatach on

 

More drowned #beetle #macro #insect #coleoptera approx. 35mm

A photo posted by @liatach on

Thoughts

Powering though ‘Better Call Saul‘ season one. Likely to finish this evening. A couple of very powerful episodes so far. N and I took many, many years to finish ‘Breaking Bad‘ as N was understandably reluctant to return to the show after season three and again at a later break. We ended up watching the very first episode of ‘Better Call Saul’ directly after the last ‘Breaking Bad’. It was too much and we only returned to it this past week. It has been pretty impressive, so far.

We finished season two of ‘The Almighty Johnson’s‘ last week and to be honest felt that they had kind of written themselves into a corner. Season one was a lot of fun and season two had its moments.It is possible that we will return for season three sometime but honestly it had lost a lot of the charm and humour of the first season and descended into a fantasy soap. When they introduced the Maori gods mid season two I was pretty annoyed that they had chosen to portray their main god as such a dickhead then I recognised that in fairness the whole show was about doing just that with the Norse gods.

Links

While on the topic of NZ media. I came across this hilarious looking film today. From the director of the splendid film ‘Boy‘ which I rate very highly indeed.

That got me onto a bit of a trailer binge. The best of the rest I watched was the new Coen’s

 

Good News Everyone!
by Kimliatach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzr27jhvWiQ

In the process of researching something for an adult client I stumbled upon this article today. It deals with the creation of Sci-Hub which is just about the most exciting thing in science today, bigger and I would argue of far more global significance than gravitational waves.

Alexandra Elbakyan has solved the problem the extraordinary Aaron Swartz was charged as a criminal for tackling. She has freed the research, her site Sci-Hub, is aiming to create a complete collection of all human scientific research free an open to all and they are well on their way to doing so. Elsevier is of course doing their damnedest to stop Sci-Hub, but the rabbit is out of the hat and it will never go back. The game is up for Elsevier’s business model, of charging researchers to hand over copyright on their -often publicly funded- research so that they can then charge library’s and readers exorbitant fees to access the papers, while also doing their damnedest to stomp on any competing publications.

In other news, progress on the castle card. L’s first day at Pre-School went well.

Three cool artists to share:

The simply incredible doll’s of michael zajkov. Occasionally NSFW depending on attitudes.

#art #bjd #doll #dollmaker #polymerclay #livingdoll #craftdoll #handmade #ooak #шарнирнаякукла

A photo posted by Михаил Зайков, скульптор?? (@michael_zajkov) on

 


The gobsmacking drawing skills of Kim Jung Gi, paraphrasing a good description “He draws like someone who could build a house starting with the paint.”

Some guy made a Plumbis. “I always wondered how uhh plumbuses got made.”

3D Printed Rick and Morty Plumbus

 

For the uninitiated:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing, Docos and Lavish Links
by Kimliatach

Painting all day. N took the boys to the farm for the day so I sweated it out at home painting digitally, listening and peripherally watching docos. Despite hours of attention the bloody village card is still not done. It’s getting there but my goodness it has been time consuming. Some minor and some significant changes still to go. Had took take a break as my wrist got sore.

village 2

Edit: Finished the bugger.

Village-in-template

 

I watched or rather mostly listened to the following today:

Deep Web The Silk Road story which has a particular focus on the case against the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts user/admin Ross Ulbricht who has been jailed for life in a trial that involved some significant miscarriages of justice in the name of making a statement with his sentencing.  Interesting for a variety of reasons, particularly so for the old law enforcement officers acknowledgements that the online trade has a profound effect in the reduction of violence in the drug trade. Which as the formost stated aim of The Silk Road counts as a success for the market. Also like so many other examples of distributed access as quickly as one is shut down others spring open. It seems that finally the writing’s on the wall for the ‘drug war’. Thanks largely to capitalism and the internet.

The Island President Follows the interesting figure Mohamed Nasheed during his brief time as president of the Maldives as he attempts to convince national leaders from around the world to act decisively on global warming prior to and during the Copenhagen summit. A somewhat depressing film particularly so for the endnotes which told how the Maldives have since slid back under military rule.

Unhung Hero follows Patrick Moote as he recovers from a humiliating breakup in which his penis size is implicated by travelling the world exploring the weird and wonderful field of penis enlargement treatments, almost all of which are decidedly dodgy scams. Occasionally quite touching, mostly annoyingly American, self indulgent and trite.

 

Playing link aggregate with a few other interesting things from the feed today:

Cool Paper wigs

The tragic glory possible with a D20 

New Potter!

Very much enjoying Rubicon still. This vid is quite timely really, though it shows Roma a few centuries after what I’m listening to. I do wish I had read it before my last trip to Rome.

 

 

Three sided solid of constant width

Another great .Gif site this time with good mathematical explanations. 

Pretty fish handbags

Teacher friends who have an actual class of their own this year should totally sign up for this.

Extraordinary Dune poster by Caper Konefal

#Feeling the Bern

Is it the music, the pacing, the intonation or the combination? I don’t know. Got frisson tho.

Delightfully random finish

 

 

 

 

Art, Memory and Mortality
by Kimliatach

A day spent with my boys. A trip to the library, some paperwork and the first meeting with some new clients: A pair of boys fresh from Brisbane over the holidays just like us.

Fbook, by minor coincidence put me in touch with friend of my father and mentor Brandon Cavallari (Gallery Link). He shared a pic of one of my works from childhood, in his house. I went looking for and found this in mine:

Fire-of-Henalon

‘Fire of Henelon’ Acrylic. 5″x7″ 1984 aged 6.

Painted in Brandon’s studio of the time somewhere in Sydney. I remember the day and my cousin Caitlin is still slightly resentful that I used all the red and yellow before she was even really started, leaving her canvas a little ah, drab by comparison. Also proof that little boys taste in topics hasn’t changed that much in the past few hundred years. 

We exchanged a few more pictures including these two of Brandon’s:

Brandon-C-Amsterdam-small

This one of my father although laminated for protection is badly faded. I think it’s from when we lived in Balmain so about the same period as my painting above.

Steven-by-BrandonC-4mg-

My friends father’s passing reminded me of an essay extract I read in Tell Me No Lies of the extraordinary The American Way of Death. Let me say with absolute certainty that I do not want an open casket funeral when my time comes. In fact the quicker you can get me mixing (hygienically) with the biosphere the better. I take great comfort in knowing that my atoms once belonged to stars and will again someday.

Trying to get that terrain card over and done with now. Oh and I’ve some Hallmarkish cards to produce as well.

Lots of Links & Love for Software
by Kimliatach

Discovered the joy of face dancer Luciano Rosso care of Blue Art Xinja.

See also Viva La Papa Co-starring his, I assume, daughter.

A rather cool 360º Dali video

Be sure to full screen and let it buffer so you can pan around in style.

Striking portraits of murdered Soviet civilians from the Stalinist era. The ‘Rehabilitated’ beneath some images indicates that they were posthumously pardoned in that year.

The extraordinary game “Thomas Was Alone” Starring Danny Wallace’s voice talent, which I mentioned just the other day, is only 20 cents on the Play store at the moment. I bought it again because why not own it on another platform for twenty cents!

Thomas Was Alone- screenshot

 

I am seriously in love with Manga Studio best drawing software I’ve used in a long time. I’ve been making Photoshop work and it is incredibly powerful but it is not designed from the ground up for drawing. I’ve been playing all day working on pages for a children’s book, planning on trying to port some card progress over from Ps to MS tonight.

Some wiring on the chook tractor, a swimming lesson for L and cooking experiments took up the rest of the day.

A few beasties from the last day or two:

 

Large dead and 15mm. #insect #ant #hymenoptera #macro

A photo posted by @liatach on

Giant mud dauber close to 50mm dead at the pool. #insect #wasp #macro #hymenoptera

A photo posted by @liatach on

 

 

Special Process Episode
by Kimliatach

Completed the first forest card today. As they are somewhat repetitive and tiresome I may limit the number of originals for forest tiles to a maximum of four.

It all starts with pencil,

pencil

 

Then Pen,

 

1st-pen

 

More Pen,

 

2nd-pen

 

Bigger pen,

3rd-pen

 

 

Now working digitally The black is separated and clarified and a base green is washed in beneath,
flat-green

 

Highlights are added,

highlights

 

Then Shadows,


 shadows

 

Finally it is cropped and resized to fit the card template, shown here in screen resolution with a watermark:

 

Forest 1 In template

 

 

 

 

 

Vale Alan Rickman

Yet another splendid human lost this week.

Rickman played the only real teacher in the Potter series, he voiced Marvin in the more recent and unfortunately forgettable film adaption of Hitchhikers, he played many a truly fantastic villain and was by all accounts an altogether cool human.

 

Progress
by Kimliatach

 

 

Completed a terrain card. Screen quality with watermark displayed below.

This one took way longer than it ought to have, partially due to the lure of good SF, partially heat, partially I’m just out of practise. Planning to smash a few out and get into flow with them.

For reasons unknown this image won’t centre justify.

Mountain 1 In template

Finished the thrilling and at times extraordinary ‘Seveneves’  overnight. This book has been interfering with my projects because it was so good that I had to force myself to put it down and turn out the lights a few nights in a row. I’ve been snatching time to read a few pages at the expense of more pressing activities. a more detailed review another night.

Received two calls in minutes of each other requesting my tutoring services beginning next week. I’m thrilled to bits and looking forward to getting back to work.

 

 

 

 

Heat & Exhaustion
by Kimliatach

Everything is hot and dry.

The breeze is hot, the cold tap runs hot, not warm, hot! and hot for minutes, all surfaces, seats and belongings are hot.

We switched on the air conditioner for the first time this evening, we fear ghastly power bills. It accomplished very little, possibly needs servicing, possibly it cannot actually cope with reducing air temperature from its intake point next to a radiant hot brick wall. N was given two evaporative cooling fans for her birthday and Christmas gifts which have been helping somewhat.

L’s first lesson went swimmingly, 9 more to go. Pool water was warm of course.

Finally won the battle with the wheelbarrow wheel by getting the new tire and tube put onto the old rim. The wheelbarrow is back in action with an extensive list of jobs pending.

Some links to share:

Great short film about art and motivation seen over coffee this morning:

The Long Game Part 3: Painting in the Dark from Delve on Vimeo.

A delightful procedural toy, the download of which works best.tiny world

Plodding away at a few pieces of art, struggling with exhaustion in the evenings and responsibilities, jobs and heat during the day.

 

Vale Bowie.

tumblr_nhuxa68O5x1qaetdco1_500

Fabulous and extraordinary human being.

bowie

.gif by Helen Green