Well, tonights the night where month long mayhem begins. And sometimes you'd think it's 4 years worth of blood, sweat, tears trying to make the most of this World Cup in South Africa. But, poetically, sometimes it's just plain old luck that gets you through. Like Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' Moment.
Some people hate this aspect of football. I love it. I mean, it makes the wait all the more sweeter when you know you were robbed 4 years ago where a freakish gust of wind swirled a Cahill goal millimetrically to the right, smacked against the post and some yobbo in the crowd with a gravitational pull akin to Magneto sucks the ball goal bound. Spiraling you to a state of shock and resentment keeping you up all night wondering what you did to deserve it... for four years. Yep, I love it!
Soooo, enjoy this World Cup. There'll be lots of moments to talk about in the years, even decades to come. Unless you're a supporter of Cameroon, the Netherlands, or Denmark, I wish you, your family, your loved ones, everybody, the very best of luck.
And okay I'll say it for the hell of it. Go Socceroos!
Who remembers the good old days of Mario Kart? I'd go round and round and round Mario ciruit 1 to chase those lap record times. I got close. Those days are long gone now, gone...
where was I?
Oh yeah, then Formula 1 bought in this KERS system and you'd SWEAR it was like Mario Kart. If you were an F1 driver, KERS would feel like a Mushroom giving you a temporary burst of speed. So what if we went one step further? Life imitating art? You never know.
Now you too can give this free image a home on your very own desktop. Here they are at whatever resolution suits your computer decor!
I somehow won a sculpt from Michael Defeo on Sketchoholic. But it was a great theme with a short time frame - trying to come up with our own spin on a classic sculpture. I chose Bernini based around one of his inspiring angel sculptures. I came across this image on Google. The pose, what she was doing, the instrument all, I thought, lended itself to the Bernini aura so I smashed those ideas together. And here's a turntable of the result. The model was done in Zbrush with an unorganised mesh and the inorganic objects were made in Maya. I had fun with Zbrush's "Slash 2" brush on the curl on her hair and the wings. I had fun with Maya because ...because it's Maya.
We love our art books. Or do we? Parka Blogs is fantastic and reviews all the latest and greatest art books from aaaaaaalll corners of the globe. He also gives so much back to the art community so make sure you go to his blog
And while your there, vote for your favorite image in his "Animals in Competitive Sports" contest where I entered the above image.
I'm not sure how popular the Wacom 6D Art Pen is. A hefty investment in an Intuos or Cintiq is pricy enough. Anything more seems plain indulgent. And considering how many times I've misplaced my normal pen around the room, you wonder if it's worth getting another pen... to lose somewhere under your desk again. On face value, the only difference between the 6D and the standard grip pen is rotation. The 6D also does NOT have mouse triggers nor an eraser. Is it REALLY worth the AU$140 I paid for this? I've had this pen for about a year now but after some perseverance it has become a joy to use.
You'd probably only be remotely interested in this device if you have a certain style of art or the software you use. Zbrush for example; Utterly useless when you don't have a right mouse button. Or if your style is more vector, again I see no real point of the 6D over the grip pen. If you are abit more painterly though and require alot of 'feel' in each stroke you may want to give it a go.
Say for example you are sketching away digitally and want to get a soft taper from a broad stroke. You'd either have to have a really cultured hand or (if you're like me) you draw a line and 'chip' away back into it. Not only is this time-consuming and contrived, it begins too hurt your hand. You are literally forced to rub on the screen all day until that beautiful stroke is achieved. If at all.
Now I'm not saying you can't get a beautiful line without a 6D. In fact there seems to be alot of great digital artists out there that cope without it just fine. But I don't think it's as enjoyable. Why? Because the combination of the extra gestures the 6D is picking up together with the felt tip nib feels alot more organic. You feel free-er. Much like a filbert brush getting extra finesse instead of a 'stamped' looking brush here and there.
Just a note though, the 6D Art pen seems at home in Painter than in Photoshop. I found Photoshop (CS3) doesn't sense rotation very well and the cursor doesn't rotate nor tilt with your hand so your always second guessing yourself as to what is going to happen.
Here's a YouTube video of me inking away with a 6D Art Pen on a Cintiq 12WX just to give you guys an idea of how it can be used. Let me know if you have any questions!
So it's all good to post up now, I was a finalist at this years spoof to Australia's Archibald Prize, the Bald Archy's.
Congratulations to Judy Nadin whose hilarious painting of Bert made headlines pretty much everywhere. Happy to be part of all the brew-ha-ha really.
So, okay, he's not the most glamourous, most famous Socceroos coach ever in Australia. But in this sport loving culture we have here, I thought it would be a travesty to not have an Australian football piece in this gllllllllorious World Cup year. Way back when, I just found his head to be really funny. It's commanding but if you were down 2-0 at half time, would you really take anything that came out his mouth seriously? What about the "Something About Mary" tuft of hair waving around.
And it doesn't look like it, but this piece is big. HUUUUUUUUGE in fact. So do yourself a favour and get down to the Bald Archy exhibition touring around Australia at the moment. It's in Sydney right now till the 25th of April at the ABC Ultimo Centre. Further dates can be found here.
Lately I'm falling in love with Winsor Newton Artisans Water soluble oils. It's a mouthful to say, and I'm not here to endorse a product, I'm just not sure if any other maker supplies such a unique paint? Let me know if you know.
And the reason I wanna talk about it is because I really can't find much information about it on the Internet. I'm not even sure what media to use it on! I'm finding on linen canvas, where ordinary oils are king, Artisans tend to slip off. Instead I'm finding paper that can hold water more exciting to use. Here is my very basic palette.
I'll be posting my thoughts on how they work for me in future. But if your looking for something with the convenience of gouache but the guts of oils, get out there and give these a try! Then come back and tell me how to use them properly!
