We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Because that novel isn't going to delay itself
Sommer Leigh
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We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Sommer Leigh » September 28th, 2010, 10:55 pm

Hey everyone!

Over at this post: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2311&start=10 a lot of us shared that we like to pursue other creative interests outside writing. That's not really surprising given that most artistic people I've ever met tend to try out many creative outlets. I proposed starting a thread where we could share some pictures of our artistic talents (or in my case, not very talented but enthusiastic!)

Just to make sure a picture thread wouldn't kill the forums, I contacted Nathan and asked if he had any picture guidelines or if we'd cause any hiccups by posting a bunch of pictures and he gave us the thumbs up, so we should be good! I do recommend though that pictures are kept as small as possible, so even if the forums are ok we don't suffer from loading lag. Shrink the pictures down without losing any of their awesomeness and try to only post a couple at a time. (For example, one of the first ones I'm going to post I shrunk down to 350 x 226 and that worked pretty well.) Use your best judgment.

I personally use TinyPic to load and share pictures on my blog, and you can re-size in their editor. If anyone else has any better ideas please share.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! And please tell us about the pieces you post, whether they are paintings, drawings, sculpture, gardening, knitting, poetry, music, graphic arts, youtube videos, needle point, costume design, cover design, sewing, crafts, blog and website designs, papercraft, whatever! Give some background and plenty of details. If you have larger versions posted anywhere (like deviantart, etsy, flickr, or wherever) please share that info too if you want to.

Enjoy!
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

Guardian
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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Guardian » September 29th, 2010, 7:56 pm

Well. I have a flash based portfolio for my arts. These are from my present WIPs. The second row, the sci-fi is just turning to a shiny noir webcomic. Maybe I'm going to post some sketches from that one later.

http://www.portfolio.crystalshadeangeni.com/

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Mira
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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Mira » September 29th, 2010, 8:15 pm

What an awesome thread, Sommer.

I'm very sad to say I have no other talents. I really don't. Here is a stick figure that is an excellent example of my artistic ability:

o
/I \
/ \

If you can't tell, that's a head, with two arms and two legs. And that is what I draw when I'm NOT on the computer.

But I'll cheer everyone else on - let's see what ya got! :)

Guardian - I couldn't load yours, so I'll have to see if my home computer will let me see it.
Last edited by Mira on September 30th, 2010, 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.


Sommer Leigh
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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Sommer Leigh » September 29th, 2010, 11:27 pm

So I was all set to post something of my own yesterday after my original post and then I picked up the book Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson and the rest of the night disappeared. Whoops. My husband's sophomore classes are reading it and he's got some kids in his class that haven't turned in a single piece of homework all semester and refused to give their book up when reading time was over because they had to know what happens next. So if that's not a huge favorable review of a book, I don't know what is. I just finished it and it's pretty awesome.

Anyway! I personally do lots of things, from knitting (I can only do scarves though) to painting. I worked in an art store in college for a couple of years even though I didn't do anything artistic except writing. Because I had access to cheap art supplies I ended up learning how to use watercolors and acrylics. I'm not very good at any of it, but that's ok. I also do papercrafts, particularly 3D layer pieces. Unfortunately they don't photograph well, so I haven't figured out yet how to share those. Papercraft I feel I'm pretty good at.

The first two are done in acrylics on watercolor paper in my travel watercolor notebook, 2008. The originals are only about the size of my hand.
Image
Image

This is watercolor on watercolor paper, 2009. I did a whole series based on the Wizard of Oz after I watched the mini-series Tin Man.
Image

This is a silly watercolor I did in my travel watercolor notebook when I had this "paint something quickly every day" phase. I was also knitting a scarf during this time so this was my sketch of the day. I used to participate in IllustrationFriday.com all the time, which is what this ended up being for.
Image

Last one for now. Acrylic on canvas. It is one of the few pieces I named called "Little Leviathan." It is hanging in my bathroom :-)
Image
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Sommer Leigh » September 29th, 2010, 11:31 pm

Guardian wrote:Mira. I've uploaded few of them to direct http. Your computer will be able to load them now.
These are great! I like Angeni3. Very cool. They look like movie posters.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Mira » September 30th, 2010, 10:54 am

Guardian - wow, those are gorgeous. The Angeni look completely professional. They reminded me alittle of that artist - shoot, I can't think of his name or even how to google him - but he does pictures of women in roman looking settings with light in the background. How fun to be able to draw so well that you can illustrate your WIP!

Sommer - I love yours, too. A very different style, than Guardian, of course, but I love the detail and delicacy of them. Open and lighthearted, too. Have you considered illustrating?

Okay, I'm making fun of myself, because I really have no artisitic talent, but I shall contribute to this thread with a drawing of a palm tree blowing in the wind:

I)))))
I))))))
I


There. :)

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by dios4vida » September 30th, 2010, 11:09 am

I'm just like Mira - even my stick people stink.

The only semi-creative thing I can do besides writing is photography. I'm not into the expensive cameras and manual focus and all that stuff, I just use my husband's palm-sized Canon. I think they turn out pretty well, though. I'll post some of my favorites when I figure how to make them...not ginormous.
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Sommer Leigh » September 30th, 2010, 12:10 pm

dios4vida wrote:I'm just like Mira - even my stick people stink.

The only semi-creative thing I can do besides writing is photography. I'm not into the expensive cameras and manual focus and all that stuff, I just use my husband's palm-sized Canon. I think they turn out pretty well, though. I'll post some of my favorites when I figure how to make them...not ginormous.

I use Tinypic.com. You can upload a picture, resize, crop, do all sorts of edits, and then it gives you the image tag code for posting the picture in a forum post. It is very handy, I use it for the HTML code for my blog sometimes.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Sommer Leigh » September 30th, 2010, 12:25 pm

Mira wrote:Guardian - wow, those are gorgeous. The Angeni look completely professional. They reminded me alittle of that artist - shoot, I can't think of his name or even how to google him - but he does pictures of women in roman looking settings with light in the background. How fun to be able to draw so well that you can illustrate your WIP!

Sommer - I love yours, too. A very different style, than Guardian, of course, but I love the detail and delicacy of them. Open and lighthearted, too. Have you considered illustrating?

Okay, I'm making fun of myself, because I really have no artisitic talent, but I shall contribute to this thread with a drawing of a palm tree blowing in the wind:

I)))))
I))))))
I


There. :)

Awe Mira, I like your stick figure art!

I'm honestly not very good, I just like to try. If you saw them up close you'd see the mistakes and it is clear that I've got only enough knowledge to just get by. I think they are ok, but anyone with any training would be amused by my attempts. I like doing it though. It's kind of fun to create things!
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Holly » September 30th, 2010, 1:44 pm

Sommer, just a quick note to tell you how much I love "Little Leviathan." Wonderful!

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Guardian » September 30th, 2010, 2:06 pm

Sommer. Glad you like it. I also like your arts. Your style is what I can’t learn, while I tried in the past. Have you ever considered to create a graphic novel with this style?

Mira. Thanks. Angeni, the little winged lady is my favorite art of all. She is my favorite character. :)
How fun to be able to draw so well that you can illustrate your WIP!
I’ve created around 22 black and white book illustrations for the novel, but as I heard maybe they can’t appear in my novel... if it’s ever going to be published, as publishers rarely like the work of outsiders. So creating the arts is my hobby. I know how Angeni and everything else in these two worlds look like. So regardless how these characters and things will look like in the future, these are their official sketches and their official look. At least to me. :)

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Quill » September 30th, 2010, 7:21 pm

Guardian wrote: I’ve created around 22 black and white book illustrations for the novel, but as I heard maybe they can’t appear in my novel... if it’s ever going to be published, as publishers rarely like the work of outsiders. So creating the arts is my hobby. I know how Angeni and everything else in these two worlds look like. So regardless how these characters and things will look like in the future, these are their official sketches and their official look. At least to me. :)
I don't think you should tell this to yourself as if it's cast in concrete. There are plenty of examples of authors who illustrate their own works.

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by dios4vida » September 30th, 2010, 8:57 pm

So I didn't really want to pick a few of my absolute favorites of my favorite photos, and then I remembered I can show you guys all of them! Here's the public link to my Facebook photo album. They're mostly nature and sunset photos (I decided to keep the pictures of my cats and niece/nephews out), so I hope you guys enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 98386730a5

BTW, I love your paintings, Sommer, especially the knitting one. It has such character!

Guardian, I agree with everyone else. Your art is incredible!!
Brenda :)

Inspiration isn't about the muse. Inspiration is working until something clicks. ~Brandon Sanderson

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Re: We're not just writers, share your artistic talents!

Post by Quill » September 30th, 2010, 11:59 pm

Awesome pics, Brenda. Thanks for posting! And for the cool captions. I love photos with captions. I especially like the wildlife ones. The bobcat is amazing. And the reclining bunny. I visited a friend down in Tucson. She lived in a sort of community on the outskirts and there the pigs (javelina) hung out like they owned the place. Just laying around under the trees, wouldn't run if you approached them. Almost didn't feel safe. And the pack rats would ruin your car's wiring if you weren't on top of that, too. Wild country that Tucson.

Off course we get cats up here in the Prescott area, too. Several mountain lions photographed in yards this year and a bobcat killed. The occasional bear, as well. The javelina run amok here, too, although they don't hang out unless one feeds them. And there's the coyotes.

Anyway, loved your travel shots, too. Cool that you get to travel.

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