condenstion

totally not a word. 

but what i've been doing (more) of is condensing. i've put the novel on hold. and i'm going to get to a stopping point with the illustrated book. i'm considering still moving forward with the illustrated one, but i need to make more room for painting. i think i actually need to wipe everything out that isn't painting. i just feel like it's what i need to do, like i'm ordained or smth. and i'm all about the gut, following the instinct. and i'm afraid, lol. like if i don't follow it, that i'm going to be guaranteed to fail. i've had this problem for years, multiple interests and nothing getting done. a little work here, leave it alone, work on smth, come back to it, etcetcetc i gotta concentrate. 

here's a link to my deviant page:

http://jt-hendrix.deviantart.com/

Fine-tune Sketching

Catching up has been hard to do! Not too hard, just challenging, and from the looks of it, lengthy! But maybe this is just how it is, and that's not bad at all. 

I started by doing some sketching.

I just went online to find a figure reference, and one of the first images was this guy there. You can probably find the original picture of him online pretty easily lol. I chose him because he had a good form, but also because he was male. Most figure drawing tends to use female references. I wanted a guy, I wanted to draw a guy who could be sexy too. I felt that it would be a lot more interesting.

The second one is kinda gross, but it's true. I went for whatever was in my head at the time. And I think I had just taken a piss, and this was it. My thoughts about my piss. lol. I think it turned out to be pretty interesting. 

Most of my sketchbook has pretty "finished" sketches. One of the things I'm working on now is to do quick sketches. Ones that take 5minutes or less, of things, without much additional detail. It's totally stuff I've done before, but now my approach has become more focused and concentrated because the way I've set it up, is to go into each piece with very many studies and to sketch daily along the way in hopes of tuning my existing skills further, and in hopes of learning and applying new techniques. 

So, I have a painting that I've had in mind for a while. The way I'm going about it is to sketch the painting, in different compositions quite a few times. So from this, composition comes up, so I do some quick-refreshing on composition. YouTube videos, articles and practices. 

Then I take each component and do studies on it, with pencil and or with pen. And then I take that study and then paint it. Through these practices I think about the things that go towards this thing that I'm studying. Color theory? Shading? Perspective? Things like that. Then I go and study a little bit about the things involved, and then I go back to making small bits of progress towards the final painting. 

My weakness is speed. And dedication. I find that days can go by in between painting sessions. Painting is my primary focus, but right now other things, literary things, are being finalized, and once those things are finalized and get to being sent out, I'll be able to free up more space for painting every night. Hmm. Sounds like an excuse. lol

I'll talk more about those "literary things" in the next posting, along with a few more pictures from my sketchbook.

p a i n t i n g

Hi :o)  

So the last time we were together, I was about to start painting again.  And I did.  But it had been so long, about six months and a move, I didn't realize that I didn't have all of my materials unpacked. Well, maybe they're unpacked but they're in a location unknown lol.  I have the basics...some oil (walnut), my brush kit and (most of) my paint.  But what's funny about my paint is that white and black weren't in there.  I mean, not so bad, but eventually I'm going to be needing those things lol.  

So I started to search and rummage throughout the apartment.Fortunately, I was able to score my white, it was in the drawer of my French easel.  Now all i need to do is find black.  But it's not bad because it's way easier to get by without black than without white.  You can just mud up something to darkness, but how do you make the light? Set fire to it? Never mind.  

Anyways...lol, just my bizarre sense of humor there.  

Painting in a new place is always interesting.  You get in there and figure out what's going to go where, what's not going to fit, what's ok to get dirty that's nearby and what's not.  These things are mainly factors in home, makeshift studios.  When you have your own place to paint, nothing really matters.  Your clothes are there, change into them, and when they get worked it doesn't really matter unless it's some sort cross-contamination to your outdoor gear.  But there aren't computers and home-stuffs that can just transfer not-drying-for-a-really-long-time paint all over the place.  

It's pretty good at my place, except for ventilation.But that's a a problem almost anywhere besides somewhere pretty airy.  Here, we don't open windows, and the place is relatively small. So to me, it's intense.  I guess I measure the intensity by level of smell I smell vs the amount of smell that could exist (or not) in a place that has great ventilation.  So, it is what it is.  

Another challenge I'm having, and pretty much will always have at home are pet fur and dust.  Houses are dusty compared to studios. Even if you keep it clean, the nature of the place just is dirty, I think this is mainly because houses are lived in.  All of that human filth just becomes part of the atmosphere.  Along with pet stuff.  Part of the territory.  I'm trying out places to store works in progress. Right now, my place of choice in on the top of a pretty tall bookshelf. Stay tuned on that whole...situation~

Reverting Back

I've done all of the exploring that I've needed to do. I've changed houses,done some other work,and now I've reached the finale of my pseudo mini-vacay.  

So now I think is a good time to start on our journey together. I'm really sorry though,I got a bit of a head start. I lost ten pounds ;o) That's the other part of what's going on. See,I had to get my partying out of my system. And,I couldn't start on a Saturday night,and so by the looks of this calender day,I still have one good night left. And I also had to do a little bit more gaming. Isn't it crazy that this is the first Call of Duty that I haven't been in on since the first day? Call it a sabbatical. I'd better reaching some sky-high type enlightenment for all of this. This isn't one of the fun-monk moments. Not at all. It's actually making my stomach turn a little bit when I see all of the pro's tweets. I know they're excited. Sheesh,a little off-topic,but being forced to play Ghosts,exclusively,for an entire year? Woah. I mean,I had to switch between BO2 and the newest installment just to make the moment last.lol.

But back to what I was saying,I can stray,so be careful. But as I was saying, I have one good night left. So it's been COD3 and Skyrim,and I'm thinking maybe,if I'm fortunate,I'll be back on the wagon. And, with some new "inventory". I figure I'll do some abstract stuff. Some people are really into abstract art. I like doing it, so it tends to work out relatively well. You'll see some pictures later on tonight, so stay tuned ;o)

a concentrated story

i've been working on a graphic novel, and then i had some side-stories to add to it.  and then i got another idea for another chapter for it, which would be a second book.  each book is a chapter, but since they're graphic, each chapter makes more sense as one book.

so i have this idea.  it was something i've been thinking about for a while, and it's a bit dark, but it's the perfect idea for a novel.  i've started a few novels over the past 5 or so years, around 3 of them i've started.  but the most recent one, the one i wrote like a years' worth of notes for, i started.  got the farthest in that i'd ever gotten before, but then i just got lost in the story.  it wasn't just writer's block either.  i just realized that i really had no plot.  i had so many characters and areas that i loved so much, but i had no story.  and the story i was trying to force was really complicated, and the places that were involved were all really complicated and would have had to have had a ton of research behind them all in order for them to have even made any sense.  i had characters in paris, and i've been to paris, but describing the streets that they were taking would have been massive research.  so compound that with israel, japan, and jamaica, and it would have just gotten out of hand....lol, at least out of hand for me.  

but the stories i'm working with now are a lot easier for me.  the first one is the main one of the graphic novel, and the second one is the main one for a book.  

the second story is really comprehensive and it's definitely not as complicated, and i definitely have a plot for it.  i'm excited to get started on it, and i think it's going to be really successful, probably one of my successful pieces ever.  and having considered it for some time, i reached a cool milestone with my writing because for a while i was having a tough time getting the concept of a plot.  i would think of a lot of interesting premises and characters, but to have a story, with direction and an end didn't come to me at all.  until now....phew.  that was close lol

Lost.

i'm wondering, for anyone who's been reading my posts for a while, if they're feeling like they're reading the same thing over and over.  i feel like i've been doing the same things over and over.

i have the same ideas, and the same interests, i write them out, explore them a bit and then move in the same circular way that i did over and over before.  i really don't mean to.  i mean to come here to document progress, to share ideas and i would love to start a dialogue with any of my readers.  i'd really love to find a community of people who create things to be able to interact with.  

but i don't stay on one thing for very long.  i think it's because i think i need more time to put towards the things i'm interested in.  i've tried to just do the thing i'm most interested in, and that's painting, but it's a bit of a process to get into and out of each session, and i think having a newborn and a 2 year old, i'm already severely overwhelmed by just my home life.  

i'm also interested in writing, sketching, inking, and making films.  and i'm really doing nothing more than posting youtube videos from my phone.  lol, that definitely doesn't feel like enough.  and i see these artists, who are sooo good.  and i think, yeah!  i just need to focus on practicing.  i just don't know what to do.  it all just feels like a pity.  but, things i can definitely overcome pretty easily.  it's not like i'm not trying.  i just haven't gotten it right yet.  

sidetrack on webbage...

*PREVIOUSLY-WRITTEN, SAVED DRAFT...published just for kixxx*


a little update on the things i've been working on....i'm trying to make my website a little more interesting and a little more dynamic, so i've been looking towards animation, i think that i've already mentioned that, but i'm actually not sure.

but starting out in animation, is pretty tough.  maybe because i've approached it by beginning to learn programming first, but maybe there's another approach that could go alongside learning programming, since programming seems to be a lifelong relationship.  i've gone back to learning off of lynda.com, and i've started the courses through mit courseware,  but i'm most likely only going to have my subscription to lynda for the next month, so i'm considering just doing an intensive there of all of the things that i'm interested in and then at the end of the subscription month officially starting the courses, in the kinds of time slots that they were intended to be in.