As we head towards a dystopian future where the rich 1% keep the rest of us (the 99%) fighting each other over political and social ideals, while they cart-off the peoples resources under the guise of public service – oh, wait, it’s already happening.
Uh, okay then. I decided to get a little more gritty with the digital artwork – No one is going to hang this on a wall, but I think art can be a record of the times in which one lives, so…
On a micro-scale, this is also about remembering those less fortunate than we; the homeless, the dispossessed, the hopeless drug addict, alcoholics, and those that simply are making due with less.
To me the #holiday season has become less out our fellow humans, and more about unabashed #capitalism (look what I got on Black Friday!), but I we can all do our part to make it a little less grim.
“In the gritty near #future of a #dystopian #fantasy world, Rag studied the holo-screens. He’d been hired to find this woman, he didn’t ask questions beyond what was needed to catch the #kitten – this would be an easy job for the grizzled private investigator.” – More #Digital #Art for my two fans (thank you 🙂 It’s kind of a foray into the #noir of the old fifties movies. I didn’t develop the story more because I’m in a ‘meh’ place right now.
So I’m thinking of doing a Kickstarter for a coffee table book of my art – one year per book. 2020 has 131 digital paintings so far. Past years would follow.
2020 Art So Far
I’m thinking it would help me advance ‘Operation Immortality.’ What is Operation Immortality, you ask? Well, I’m not interested in making money off my artwork – I know, right? The ideas in this post are an oxymoron. Hear me out.
I want to be that guy who some future digital archeologist finds my work on the hard drive of a dead freighter orbiting Ceti Alpha V, and brings it back to high society on Europa; or is recovered in the buffer of a defunct satellite repeater drifting in interstellar space.
I want to be like Vermeer (my favorite – don’t tell Caspar-Friedrich); not his skill, he’s got me in spades, rather, his path to immortality. A recap: Vermeer dies in poverty, a sad panda, forgotten for hundreds of years. He is then discovered by an enterprising art dealer in the 1860’s, & now people actually remember that he existed.
That is the key of Operation Immortality, to not be one of the billions forgotten within a year or two after they die. This is one reason why I’m prolific, like a virus, germs all over the net. If my art is in the nooks and crannies, the dust bunnies of cyberspace, it’s all good!
Not to be morbid, it’s not a sad post, in the meantime I get to do something I love, and give it to the world for free (credit to use, I’d love a donation) – because really, this isn’t the type of art contemporary society would hang on a wall. Plus most contemporary artists sneer at digital work. Artist? C’mon you know… 😉
Back to the Kickstarter, so the book would serve a dual purpose, to be an analog record of my work, maybe dug up in a future landfill (those will be fun for archeology), and to upgrade my computer to something that can really handle the creation process. It would be nice to have more than 2 cores (24/32 would be a dream, 12 would be average for 2020) of processing power.
Anywho, thoughts on this? Interest in the project? Tiers would be a donation to the cause, an e-book, a hard copy, or something like a signed book.
Yep, it started as yet another take on my favorite painting Twee tronijnen geschildert op sijn Turx by Vermeer aka Girl with a Turban aka Girl with a Pearl Earring.
My original idea was to do something along the lines of “Call Girl with a Pearl Earring” but abandoned that idea early on.
I also decided against doing a copy of a girl who’s been dead for three hundred years and change. I needed to bring her to the 21st century to stand on her own.
Closeup
Fun facts: I learned that during the restoration of the #painting, they discovered the background was emerald green, instead of black, so I threw that in there. I also kept the lack of eyebrows, the long lashes that had faded over time, and of course the timeless expression.
Crying Game Version Aged 300 Years.
Earlier I did a version where she was crying, but looked at it later, didn’t like it, pulled up the skin box and realized that once again, despite religious saving, the program decided to muck it up and not save past a certain point – so I redid it.
Like the Anya Taylor-Joy painting yesterday, this artwork was hours of eyeballing the features and tweaking settings on her face.
The original
I also decided to do a final exam of sorts – e.g. put the original over a screenshot of my work to see if I hit the mark, and I think I got fairly close. What do you think?
Thomasin challenges Black Phillip to a game of #chess instead of signing his book. Neither win.
I guess it’s #fanart – @anyataylorjoy is in my top 5 actresses, mostly because of the #witch but also because the of quirky personality nuances beyond the beauty she brings to the The Queens Gambit
Eh, what else can I tell you about the process? Oh, this wasn’t a skin job (import a photo of a person and #render it to a model), it was actually a couple hours of staring at different photos and tweaking features (all 250 of them on the face) last night to get it right (just like old school #portrait #artists did). Of course, since I’ve never been good at realism, even with a brush, I couldn’t quite capture her. Mama Nature is definitely the best artist.
Black Phillip? I read an article where the director said Phil had the coolest garb when in human form, but the lighting in the movie (or lack of it) prevented the audience from seeing it. There are no pictures on the web of what he wore, and I also suck at modeling goats, so I improvised.
Haven’t seen the movie? Oh, here’s the trailer (or search for The Witch on YouTube – I wouldn’t click on just any link either (Cybersecurity plug):
Irina Skydragon (Ирина дракон небесного) is the #character I’m playing in a #5e #dungeonsanddragons campaign. She’s a #kalashtar #celestial #warlock of ancient nobility – #skydragon because in Chinese mythology the greatest of the dragons is a celestial being, although she speaks with a Russian accent. When fresh out of #spells she uses a Yklwa (pronounced YICK-ul-wah) which is a short spear with a long blade or her 16 charisma to talk her way behind someone who is not so squishy.
Regarding process? I created her during the moments in between the #rpg and the close-up came later (this morning). I couldn’t #render her during the game last night because of an old computer and the video/audio feed of Roll20 (think Zoom for nerds) would not play well with a graphics hungry program. #new #utilitarian #art #portrait
Ascension – Working title, okay, the title, because I’m lazy. What’s it mean? It’s a representation of time, sin, and absolution. If one can visualize that all time streams, past (a burning of an innocent), present (an exotic dancer), and future (I haven’t related the mech, it just looks futuristic) exist in the same space simultaneously, this is my take on it. It’s really either an esoteric exercise or a shifting of my thoughts throughout the #creation process, as my moods influence me as the moon influences the tides. Originally, I wanted a create a silly scene, a witch on a stripper pole (I’m a dude, 🤷♂️). It then became like a quasi-religious thing against the evils perpetrated on innocents over the millennia. Then I lost the plot, but it looked cool. For some reason while I was working this I was listening to a couple Murakami songs on repeat, including современная жизнь (a lot), Честности нет, 364, & 0 Km – so there’s your process. #new #artwork in the #wtf school of #art
TJ and Jimmy had been cruising all night looking for the means to their next high. As they crossed Southside and Lewis, into a dangerous area commonly referred to as the ‘hunting grounds’, due to the immense levels of crime in the area, they suddenly saw her. The snow-bunny, as they called white girls, was walking alone. “She stupid,” Jimmy said, grabbing the gun and jumping out of the still moving car. “Yo baby, hold-up,” he said closing the distance. She stopped, the still of the grave in the air around her. “Alright, give me your stuff and… Wait! What’s wrong with your eyes?” She smiled, it would be an easy meal tonight. #new #digital #artwork #everyday #modern #life with #vampires and #hoodlums
A walking cliché, Gadioka Vespalova, born in East Germany, educated in #Soviet #Russia and one of the best #assassins used by the #KGB in the #spy dances of the 20-21st Centuries. She’s bold, beautiful, scarred, and terrifying to meet when she walks up to do a job. Many think she’s dead, after the blast in London, but the wise ones, those lucky to have escaped her venom, know better.
#new #digital #art I #created last night. P.S. She doesn’t exist, but I like to combine hobbies with learning to speak Russian 😉
The boring stuff, aka the ‘process’. Originally she was going to be a lonely figure on a crowded street, a bundle of sadness in a joyful world, but it morphed into this as I went along. Sue me.
This #digital #art finished rendering sometime in the early morning. It’s based on the #flockofseagulls song that was bee-bopping around my head last night. We have a #woman running into the #sunrise or #sunset along with some #seagulls but unlike them, she couldn’t get away guitar solo, and bad pun – #new #seascape #artwork #beach
