Changewind's Ink

Life Imitating Art?

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:00:37 GMT

Work is surreal at times. Sometimes, I think work doesn't know what to do with me because my position was created by my former boss who doesn't work here anymore. Also, I'm probably a lot more forgiving about what I do than someone with more experience/fame/ego would be.

Yesterday was both amusing and odd, as I ended up painting carpet. The color came in wrong from the vendor for the logo embossed on the carpet. It came as a sickly yellow green instead of a turquoise-teal, so I ended up taking some acrylic house paint to go over the fibers on the carpet. I felt a bit like the playing cards in Alice in Wonderland who had to paint the white roses read or else, "Off with their heads!"
I don't think I've ever intentionally painted carpet before. The result was a slight gradient one the edges of the teal-turquoise color since I couldn't get the paint into the smaller crevices of the carpet fiber near the thinner ends of the logo. It turned out better than I thought it would for painted carpet and everyone's happy with how it looks.

Here's something more in line with the more serious side of work, the latest completed project, a sail-like banner for Shark Lagoon.

My grandmother's doing better today. She's now in the Recovery room and complaining about the noise there and not being able to go home due to the doctor's orders.

Bleah, bleah, and more bleah

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:21:39 GMT

Ergghhh, sick.
Weirdest thing about this particular form of flu/cold is the burning in the eyes. Staring into the monitor is slightly difficult. Can't do it for long. At work now and not terribly coherent/present. Spent the last two days off work in a sleep/drugged state. Can't really see why a 1 degree increase in temperature wreaks this much havoc. Thought it would be okay today, but nope, still unfocused and vague. Hoping to get over this soon.

Only good thing so far is that I got my Maw!

Christmas Stuff

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:51:21 GMT

And now for something completely different--
Didn't point to my UnChristmas electronic greeting in time for Christmas, but did put it up in time. Also, here's some slightly disturbing holiday cubicle decorations . . .

For more cheerful stuff, I've also put up the entirety of the mini 2"x2" canvas gifts I finished this year. You can see them here.

Happy Holidays all!

Beyond Obsession and Horribly Infatuated

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:47:51 GMT

Ah sorry, LJ. I promised to post some sketches, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I've scanned some of them in, but, as many of you may know, my current infatuation with all things Doctor Who and David Tennant has taken over my life. I can probably blame Kimbo and my local library for this. I go to pick up Series 4 from the library later today! You don't know how incredibly giddy this makes me. This is worse than my Andrew Bird obsession, mostly because David Tennant has much more of a media presence and it seems there is no end to what I can find.

For some stuff to hold you over, here's some more work art.
I have nice watercolor sketches from the zoo, contour line-sketches from an Andrew Bird concert back in February, but that will have to come later.
Currently working on a 2nd David Tennant as Doctor Who pencil portrait. First one wasn't very successful and went into the Scraps section of my Deviantart page. Second one, I am confident, looks a lot more like him, but I won't really be able to tell until I put it up and have other people look at it. Also working on finishing a piece I started from Kimbo's b-day Trail of Stars.

Waiting for the Amazon box to come with new CDs and books.

Blog Action Day 2009: One person's effect on climate change

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:17:28 GMT

It is exciting to know that at least our current President is willing to take a stance on and do something about climate change. However, all it takes for one person to have a positive effect on climate change, is to be conscious of how our own actions affect the world around us and to have willing partners in the desire to change our ways.
In my own ways, I have tried to become more green by taking the train to work despite the fact that it takes twice as long as driving, carpooling as often as possible, recycling, and using CF bulbs. Unfortunately I don't yet own a hybrid gas efficiency level car, but I do own a Honda Fit, which does get some decent mileage and is a partial zero emissions vehicle.
I am also lucky to work for a place that cares about climate change. At the Aquarium of the Pacific, our newest classroom was recently Platinum LEED certified with green features such as running off solar power, a floor made of flyash, and grey water used to water the greenroof, which has local and drought tolerant plants. In addition, the Aquarium was recently awarded the Super Nova Star Award by the Alliance to Save Energy for being "the most energy efficient business with annual revenues under $50 million." Through education and the Green Team, the Aquarium takes the extra effort to help the public and its staff understand the ways people can change their habits to keep climate change from becoming a bigger problem.

Mural Madness!

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:04:37 GMT

Still a little sore and tired from spending time at the beach yesterday. Caught a couple waves on the boogie board, slightly improving. No sunburns yet, though I am a little more tanned on my toes than usual.

Might post a few sketches later, but meanwhile, I finally posted photos of the murals I did this year. Check it out!
http://changewindsink.blogspot.com/2009/09/mural-madness.html

Audio Visual and a New Bird

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:15:49 GMT

Went biking around the Santa Fe Dam today and walked some of the nature trails. It's a good place to spot quail, though only in the distance today. However, I did see a bird species I haven't before, the Cactus Wren, which strangely does sound like a car engine that won't start, as they described on the Nature Center signage.

Also, decided to get involved in K's idea of drawing to a song within the songs time limit. I have a limited playlist on my iPod shuffle, so I did this with iTunes. I did cheat though and skip one song though that I didn't want to hear, mostly because I haven't even heard some of the stuff I have on my iTunes. But otherwise, I followed the rules. :D

My illustrated playlist:

So I did this a little differently than K and V, going digitally with a tablet and Corel Painter, adding color into the mix. One file with two layers for each song, sketch and color.

This was an instrumental "The Heart of the Matter" by Antoine Dufour.
I decided to go with a woman feeling down, sitting under a tree in the woods. Something about the melancholy strains of the song.

This was a country song called "Dreaming Under the Same Moon" by Julianne Hough.
Went pretty literal with this one based off the song lyrics. Somehow beach scene suggested itself.

This one is "Only Mama Knows" by Paul McCartney.
The lyrics and the pounding drive of the song suggested some kind of tough guy to me. Why he ended up an anthro beats me.

This is for "The Crane Wife, Parts 1&2" by The Decemberists.
As an 11 minute song, I was able to get a lot more elaborate with this one, the strange yellow-orange background I started out with lends an almost gold color, like the old Japanese screens. Mostly based off of the lyrics.

I think if I do this again, I'd like to get more interpretive, less literal. It does end up being a fun venture, and a nice way to loosen up those sketching muscles. :]

Next time, I will possibly have my murals up.

Ad nauseum on the subject of a particular Bird

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:59:53 GMT

Mostly reviewing one of the CDs I got today.
So I finally broke down today and bought the deluxe edition of Noble Beast by Andrew Bird. I also got The Boy with No Name by Travis to listen to on my journey up north for my annual sojourn to the Illustrating Nature show opening.
So, having listened to Useless Creatures, part of the deluxe edition, it's not quite what I expected. There's a few songs I like, though songs is a strong word for the instrumental tracks on Useless Creatures. I was expecting more of "The Supine" from Armchair Apocrypha, but the tracks are more of an experimental, discordant sound environment, but I suspect it will grow on me. Now, my biggest complaint about Andrew Bird is that he outclasses himself with his live concerts. I was debating for the longest time whether to get Noble Beast or not because from the sample tracks on Amazon, I could tell that the songs on the CD were nowhere near the tracks I enjoyed in their live incarnations. There's a live concert on NPR's All Songs Considered podcast if you're wondering what I'm talking about. The tracks on the CD are more restrained and some of the things I love the most about the songs are missing, such as the beautiful violin intro to "Natural Disaster" or just the more subdued tone, and lower notes he sings "Natural Disaster" with on the CD. I suspect they will grow on me in time too, as they are still good songs, just not as good as the live versions.

Meanwhile, the mural I've been working on is close to a point where I can declare it done. There's still a lot of touching up I can do, but I'll give it just one more day, because I have to start on the next one to be in time for summer . . . Erg, what craziness work sometimes is.

Sketches and Obsessions

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:21:09 GMT

Been working on a mural lately, of which the computer mockup can be found here along with a photo of an older mural that I did for work. I've forgotten how physically draining it is to work on a mural. Always ready for food and bed these days. Going on four weeks now and it's still not done. Probably another week'll need to be thrown in. The actual painted mural is in some ways better, in some ways the same, and in many ways different from the computer version.
Meanwhile, been obsessing over Andrew Bird, who makes a great backdrop for the painting of this endless mural, a nice soothing voice and sound to cover up the sounds of screaming kids . . . Now I want to own more (~~or all~~) of his albums, even the obscure ones. Cannot get enough of "The Trees Were Mistaken" from the Soldier On EP, which can be found here virus-free. O.o
As promised eons ago, here are a few sketches. Will post more as time permits. These are some watercolor sketches from the various places I've been over the last year.

Hairspray stage from my visit to M in NY last February.
Really would like to see NY again sometime soon.

Max Brenner from the same NY trip. A cookie jar while waiting for delicious chocolate
decadence to arrive. Also some jelly beans and a random dragon from a later sketch
session.

A seascape on my way up to the Illustrating Nature show in Santa Cruz by Amtrak.

Shameless Pluggin'

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:01:29 GMT

I keep forgetting to post this link, but here it is. LOOK MA, I IZ ON THE INTRAWEBZ!!! Erhmm, anyway, click on the "View Online Exhibit" to the right of the page. I did most of the illustrations there, though not the design, nor the coding. As I have no actual credit on there, this is me stakin' my claim. Right, anyway, this website also includes the two paintings I did way back in February of 2007. Those double trouble paintings I reference here. Click on the Menu section "How Have Our Watersheds Changed?" if you're curious to see two of my least favorite paintings (mostly because the perspective's way off (Behold! Wavy landscapes!) and they had to be done in a hurry after the first ones were scrapped X[ ).

In other news, I going to be a mandatory volunteer art mentor for the Art Miles Mural Project that's going on at work.

I have many sketches and small bits of work art to post, but that will have to wait 'til I get home and get around to putting them up.

Noble Beast

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:56:22 GMT

Andrew Bird is back with a brand new album. It's different enough from the one before to be an album worth getting in my opinion. A little more of the whistling, multi-talented instrument guy. Already, I'm having fun discovering more to each song with additional listens. Take a listen at NPR's All Songs Considered. Dunno how much longer they'll have that up for, since they'll be doing a new album next week, but well worth the listen if you've got the time. The deluxe album looks pretty cool too with some nice original artwork. Anyone for a SD or LA concert in Feb?

Procrastinating Without School

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:21:18 GMT

Realizing I haven't finished a full artwork this year besides the stuff at work. Still need to finish two black and white illustrations whose due dates are starting to become years behind. Don't really know what it is, but I'm making excuses for myself, and just can't get past that start barrier. Will need to start on a Holiday card soon or I'm not going get one done. I get the itching to start, I want to see it form under my hand, but I can't seem to get it started, get it done. I feel guilty, I feel lazy, I feel obligated to myself, and I need to find a way to get over this.

Politically, I'm hoping the Supreme Court of California will defeat Prop 8. Gay marriage is NOT going to destroy the sanctity of straight marriage. I just got an email recently from a good friend that I really didn't agree with. It was a commentary by Ben Stein about how our distancing ourselves from religion is the reason behind all the school shootings, kids being more unruly these days, and essentially why the world is falling to pieces. I don't believe America is an atheist country as Ben Stein says of those who are adverse to religion being in schools and in government. It's not an atheist country, but it is a country where there's freedom of religion, which is why religion isn't taught in school, or why it doesn't have a big hand in government. Religion is a touchy subject and a personal one, and should best be left as a personal thing, because there are so many different beliefs, and no one should have to be subject to someone else's belief above their own. It shouldn't affect how we structure our government, how we vote, how we study science, and shouldn't be an excuse to discriminate against other people. There are good things to religion, general moral ideals like love each other, do good to each other, don't kill each other, don't steal from each other that we should teach our children. Truthfully, if we taught our children to play with others outside more, loved them, demonstrated by example how a decent person should act, there would be less of things like school shootings. Kids are probably messed up these days more from being distanced from reality by their time on the computer by their parents time away from them, and by the drug solution to psychological problems. So back from the digression, what I mean to say is that we shouldn't discriminate on sex, race, color, religion, gender, or gender preference. Let each person be equal in their basic rights for all things.

More Money than You'll Ever Know

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:17:55 GMT

While there are interesting things happening in my life—I'm going to the taping of Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me on Monday and doing some more biking this weekend—I've been following the news closely on this Economic Rescue/ Bailout bill. For the most part I'm somewhat angry, but I'm also somewhat conflicted about how I feel about it passing today.
Why is it that in order to pass this already top heavy bill, the house and senate has to pad and pork it until another billion and some was added onto it? So much for limiting excess spending. I realize this is the way Washington works and it's going to be a when-pigs-fly kind of situation before lobbyists stop controlling our government, but when we're already hurting for money, how does adding more money to the bill help us swallow this bitter, bitter medicine any better? It seems likely that this much money being sunk into the financial market will cause massive inflation. How does this help the common people? Unfortunately, we can't say this is actually going to help in the long run or not, so I can't say this is definitely a bad thing. I just wish they had all thought about the bill longer and about its consequences short term and long term. Whether it would be better to let the market go through its cycles or not, or whether putting more money into the market now to avoid a greater fall later is really a good idea is such an unknown. I don't really know how this is going to turn out, just that there's definitely some bad weather coming through; we just don't know how bad it's going to be.

Grating >:[

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:52:56 GMT

Let me just say that Sarah Palin's voice is annoying to me. Not even taking into consideration the contents of the speech, she simply sounded condescending and false. Granted, I am a registered Democrat, and I have no desire to see the current Republican candidates in office, but Palin's speech put me off even more. I suffered through listening through parts of the Republican convention to give myself a more rounded view of the candidates and issues, but for the most part the Republicans just made me angry. I can't say I'd go screaming like a fan girl for Obama, he's got some issues to address too, but at least the Democrats speak more to me than the Republicans do. As for the actual speech, it was full of exaggeration, a condescending attitude, and far too negative for my taste. I really, really hope the Obama/Biden ticket can push their numbers up because I don't think I could stand these Republicans running our country, no matter how different from the stubborn, sedentary shrub that we have now.

Mercilessly drowning you in sketches

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:08:52 GMT

So, without further ado, I shall sent you directly to my blog post of sketches from Artist's Night at the Body Worlds III exhibit, here. This is not the entire totality of sketches I did that night but most of them are up, not sparing the good, the bad, or the ugly. Perhaps I'll put more up later. I do have the color study of the plastinated ostrich after all. Ah yes, and as this post contains artistic nudes, this post is not for the general public. Consider yourself warned.

Exhausting Weekends

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:57:10 GMT

Wow, had a few busy weekends bookended by trips to the SD Zoo. From ComicCon, which was a whirlwind of fun all crammed into one day, to Artist's Night at the California Science Center, best way to see the Body Worlds exhibit ever and get some figure drawing practice in to boot to kayaking and tennis to biking this past weekend. I have yet to scan figure drawings from the Artist's Night at the Body Worlds III exhibit, but here's a sketchy digital dragon anthro meanwhile. All that exercise and I still feel all jiggly. Must be spending too much time in front of the TV watching Michael Phelps. O.o More sketches from the zoo and Body Worlds to come.

Over Capacity

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:56:16 GMT

So it doesn't look like I'll be able to go to Friday's ComicCon, even though I've already asked for the day off. Apparently, even volunteers had to register online a month ago. Looks like I'll be trolling the Exhibit Hall for goodies only on the busiest day of the crazy blown-out event--Saturday.

In better news, I just went and saw The Dark Knight today. I really enjoyed the movie, which kind of surprised me because I wasn't really expecting much from it, but Heath Ledger did an amazing Joker, and the overall tone of the movie was very dark, especially with those screeching violins, which made it fit better with the whole Batman story. And while the movie was pretty long, it kept me interested the whole way, so that was good too.

Meanwhile, at work, things have slowed down so I've had more time to do some pen&ink experimenting with my b&w illustrations. Here's a buffalo sculpin and a duck foot done in a more technical, carefully-inked style, a generic duck worked up with a crappy watercolor brush, , a duck head done with a looser, more varied stroke with a larger croquille pen, and a desert tortoise, playing around with pen stroke thickness in the shell, and slowly building up detail.
Also, here's some color if you feel wearied from looking at all that black and white. A sketchy, scruffy sort of werewolf.

Work this week and then off to ComicCon on Friday to see if I can sneak my way in somehow . . .

And away they go

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:13:48 GMT

Right. So, this year's exhibit is finally up, done, over with. Phew! This one was a tough one to get through 'cause the deadline was so tight, but here I am, still in one piece, and finally rested up enough to feel grounded again.

Here is a painting I did last year for my sister that I finally got up. Currently working in Painter 8 on a couple images that should, with some tweaking, be finished soon. So hopefully more stuff soon.

Went to go see Kung Fu Panda with dakinestuff on Sunday. It was a fun movie, perfectly fit the mood I was in, though the theaters were crowded with rowdy children. Also got me a pair of pants, a new battery charger, St. Ives facial wash, and some Mint Milanos. All in all, a productive day.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to weekends again.

After the Storm

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:29:55 GMT

Hello LJ,
Haven't been up for a post lately, been busy with a couple of large mural maps of the Gulf of California for our new exhibit. So tired of that mustard yellow and brown colors that I've been gradienting between. Still haven't uploaded photos from NY, so that'll be later. Anyway, the majority of the painting's done, so a brief respite. I offer you two drawings, also part of the same project, of a vaquita and a totoaba . Originals were 11x14. Walls are 9' high. It's been a trio of long weeks, and I'm glad the majority's over. Exhibit opens at the end of the month.

To Slither and Fly

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:40:03 GMT

Off to NY in a couple of days to go visit meltho8 and find some good holes in the walls. Hope to visit the NHM and explore its depths and find some tasty NY food. So for now I'll leave you with some eels in pen and ink. So many complicated patterns. O.o Ack, my hand!

In political news, seems I was mistaken about the House passing the wiretap bill with the immunity for phone companies. They passed it without. However, the Senate just passed it with immunity. How this will work out I don't know. Either way, it seems a bad idea to renew a bill that allows for warrant-less wiretapping and gives the government more clout than it should have. Don't know why the Democrats didn't put up more of a fight against this flagrant overstepping of executive powers.
Just heard about a keychain that counts down until the time Bush is out of office. Just hope that things do change when he's gone.

From Another

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:35:06 GMT

Hmm, this seems like a fun thing to try. I realize it's a subtle sort of chain letter type thing, but it's a fun one. This is from Conna.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, (even if we don't speak often) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your journal and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.

Sharks in the Water

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:54:59 GMT

Some watercolor sharks from work here, here , and here .

Political news has me fuming at our idiotic, cowardly Congress. Just yesterday, NPR reported that the House has let the Dept of Intelligence surveillance bill through, granting immunity to phone companies that are giving out personal information to the government. Not only that, but they rejected the Justice Dept bill, which did not grant immunity to phone companies. So the original surveillance bill, which was supposed to expire in six months is going to continue on with more onerous provisions.

The new Democratic congress, which was supposed to change the direction the country is going, is instead giving into every single one of Bush's demands. No questions about what happened to that missing money in Iraq, no questions about Haliburton or paying Blackwater, just "Yes, Mr. Bush, here's the money you requested. Yes, if we put a timeline to withdrawal we'd be dissing our troops. No, you're right, the surge is working and those IEDs that weren't there before we came is an indication of reduced violence." The only thing this new congress has done is made things take longer.

And of course, environmental concerns have simply taken a back seat, despite the fact that we're not going to kill off the earth if we mess it up, we're going to kill ourselves, humans; the human race is going to be slowly poisoned by chemicals in the air and in the ground (NO, NUCLEAR ENERGY IS NOT GREEN!), choked by the smoke, and beaten down by the super diseases, immune to all known anitbiotics. More cancer as our bodies change with what we put into our stomachs, into our air, with what we use. The planet will survive past our deaths; we're trying to save the earth to save ourselves!

What an Orwellian government we've plunged ourselves into, and I voted against him both times. If only my vote had counted in another of those states. The only hope we have is that Bush doesn't mess up the rest of his last year in office. However, stupid he seems, he was smart enough to pull this whole charade over all of us. Can't "misunderestimate" him, he might talk funny, but our rights have gone out the window, and we're in a war that we all knew was a lie. Come on Clinton, Obama, Kerry (er, Edwards, they're all getting to be the same), hell Paul even! Let's get this country going in another direction, because this way lies hell.

Cherry Blood and an Irishman sounding American

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:36:16 GMT

Finally got around to seeing Sweeney Todd this weekend. Overall I liked it, though it did have overtones of Edward Scissorhand with the makeup and Harry Potter with the cast (Timothy Spall looked like he just skittered from the HP set). It had a nice overlay of humor over an otherwise grisly subject. Johnny Depp's voice was decent, but, in parts, reminded me of Ewan McGregor's singing voice, especially in the higher registers, which I'm not really into. Still, it was a sweet, twisted sort of movie, and Depp's costume just inspires me to paint it. I might do a digital painting at some point.

Also saw Once, not a musical per se, but felt rather more like a documentary about the creativity behind an album creation. Greg Hansard does tend to oversing it on occassion, but combined with the soft tones of Marketa Irglova's voice and her soft undertones of piano, they do make for some good music. It was a cute, sweet, and short and shows that you don't necessarily need seasoned actors to make a good movie.

Will probably post up some more illos from work. Some color this time! Working on painting sharks at the moment.

Failure to Communicate

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:56:04 GMT

Went snowboarding for the first time this weekend. I decided to try it out just because. Good thing is that I did learn how to stand up on the smooth, slippery board, but couldn't seem to stay upright for very long. I am finally over the worst of the bruises, but this is one of those times when I'm not taking my tail bone for granted. X[ Two things I will need for further ventures—because despite it all, it was fun, damnit (probably has something to do with a scientific mentality to experiment and an insouciant mentality of challenging myself)—ski googles to prevent glasses from digging into forehead with face plants and ski pants to prevent wet underwear when outright falling on my ass.

Persistent cough still persisting. Blah. Currently seem to be wrapped up at work with starring at my computer for hours on end, isolated from the rest of the office through the open door by the music streaming through my headphones and my inability to start conversations. It's been a slow sort of day, and a sluggish sort of week. News of Congress is not picking up my day either. Sounds like, even with the Democratic majority, President Bush is still putting them on their ass. *shakes fist at American government*

*Edit to add* Oh yes, Paprika is a pretty good movie, nice visuals and I'm in love with the electronic theme song. Thought it was going to be scarier from the previews, but still I liked the crazy Japanese take on dreams and technology.

Slow Day at Work

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:50:35 GMT

Erm, haven't been able to shake this cold, or whatever this disease is, off yet. Still have a persistent cough that won't go away.

Meanwhile, have some black and white stuff from work. I've done a fair bit of these small spots for the volunteer information cards at work, some definitely come out better than others, but one thing is that black and white is relatively quick compared to color work. Been able to do some experimenting with pen techniques too. Good ol' croquil and ink bottle, old-fashioned technology at its best. Besides, ink blots are fairly easy to fix in Photoshop. ;p