inkeater

Painting for a friend.

Alethea — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:00:12 +0000

Holding yourself accountable. Ever started a painting you never finished? Goodness only knows how many times I’ve pulled this guy. Well, I thought I would show you a project I’ve been working on that isn’t quite finished yet. But I figure if I post about it, I’ll be forced into finishing it. And my friend will be in possession of something awesome. Plus, enough about school assignments. we’ll go back to that next week. This week is the type of painting you do for fun. I found out last semester, that I enjoy painting. I thought I was only into painting clay sculptures I made. I never actually considered myself a painter. Not saying I can’t paint. But rather, it was something I did but never really did much of. I never mixed my own colors unless the color in the tube didn’t tickle my fancy. I never painted on canvas, I mainly stuck to bristol board.

I learned though that painting relaxes me. It’s my way of unwinding after a stressful messful work week. It’s my zen. Turn on some tunes, and get lost in the shapes of what you’re about to create. Here is a painting I’ve been working on, it’s a scene from Une Femme est une Femme.

[Avid Blog Readers: (if we even have those) Sorry, we've been missing in action! Due to ear infections, yucky medicine, and thoughts that our lil' grandma gave us the plague since we've been sleeping so much! I blame the rainy weather we've been experiencing. Yet, we're feeling like a million bucks now! So expect tons more stop motion paintings from us to come, along with some fun tutorials and hopefully maybe, but please don't hold your breath possibly a store opening later on this year! ::gasps:: as along as we play our cards, right?]

Plus, today marks the countdown to this girl’s birthday, 4 days till we’re 28! And this is why, Tuesday is awesome!!

How was your Tuesday?

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I’m alive and awesome days to post.

Alethea — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:29:01 +0000

So, I’m alive. I thought I was dying for a while or rather my ear wanted to run away and have extramarital affairs with my jaw. Or maybe they were getting a divorce? hahaha. I don’t know, I don’t interfere. Regardless, I hate ear aches and jaw pain induced by ear aches. I’m just grateful I have awesome insurance and that I have an ear. With that said and out of the way, back to artsy nerd party and why today is an awesome day to post!

It’s Eadweard James Muybridge’s 182nd birthday! And you might be saying, who? And to that, I say read a wikipedia article! He created the Zoopraxiscope, an early device for displaying motion pictures! He’s one of the many reasons I got into making stop motions. And maybe one day that geeky story will emerge. hahaa. It was a nice greeting when I actually typed google.com today, it was nice visual and a lovely google adventure of the day.

via google search page

I really love the images Google creates for the main search engine on special days. They’re all pretty genius in their own rights. I really enjoyed discovering Pacman functioning on my screen via Google, that day plays vividly in my head, does this happen to anyone else? haha. It’s funny how long ago it was that I started creating these things, and every day is an adventure. And I’m always learning new things along the way and that’s the best part. Hope everyone had an awesome Monday! And we’ll be back to chugging away here.

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Work space: 2 desks, better than one?

Alethea — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:01:05 +0000

Work spaces, we all have them. My problem has always been never having enough space to work and not having any areas to store items away in. And often I find myself perplexed, wondering how do others do it? I know very well I have too many hobbies, but can you blame 01the creativity that flows from my veins? I can’t. So I’ve adjusted and tweaked my areas as needed. I once tried sharing the same desk and all this did was create clutter, plus get paint in every crevice ever imaginable. So I improvised and added a storage area. Except you can never have enough storage.

So I improvised further and decided two desks are better than one. Except, I don’t know about anyone else. I have a hard time sitting in the other area. You would think adding a record player and ton of records would entice me to sit and create. And yet it doesn’t. I even added some artwork on the wall. And nothing can actually gravitate me towards this space. So it sits, dormant. And everyday I get home, I stare at that lonely space and wondering when will I sit there?

Ever since I moved into a larger space, it’s been weird adjusting to having so much room and a place for everything. My last place was a studio apartment which I affectionately called my tree house and it was like living in a sardine can. My new place has spoiled me, but habits are hard to kill, no? Instead of opening up and branching out into my house for creative work spaces. My bedroom has sort of become my creating sanctuary. Except it lacks in speakers and records. And this is where my other desk would brilliantly shine. Except, it just sits there collecting dust. As I organized my other desk I found myself removing things from the other, to the point where there’s nothing but a pile of papers just sitting there. Which makes me wonder do I really need two desks? Or am I good with one?

I’m curious to know what setups other fellow artists have out there. Are you limited or free to roam?

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Storytime: How to become successful

Alethea — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:19:47 +0000

I don’t know how many times I’ve sat here and told myself I need to get more organized. It’s funny how no matter how hard I’ve tried I couldn’t quite grasp the outer edges to bring myself to the surface. So I stayed under water making silly faces instead of changing and fixing things to spec. So instead of hoping for time to appear like my long lost socks in the dryer I decided I needed to make changes so that I would be able to hold myself accountable and move forward instead of drinking in limbo. Although a lovely place, not so lovely when you see others pushing ahead and striving for better. It’s funny how we can be our own worst enemy and sometimes it takes reading something old to make you feel renewed.

About two years ago, I posted a story that has stayed with me for the long haul. For every time I’ve felt like I wasn’t sure of what I was doing and it came to me out of nowhere. It’s a story that I feel anyone with a creative or artistic soul needs to hear. It came to me at a time when I doubted everything I was doing and the directions I was headed in. It was something I felt I was meant to hear and again to share with you. So sit down, relax and enjoy a nice story about success!

A guy goes to this guru, and tells him he wants to be as successful as him. so the guru asks him to meet him at the beach at 4a.m. the guy thinks the guru is crazy… and doesn’t understand why he wants him to meet him at the beach at 4a.m.

so then they’re at the beach and the guru asks the guy to get in the water… so he’s in waist deep.. then the guru asks him to go further, and at this point he’s almost at neck line. the guy thinks the guru is crazy making him go swimming… and just when he’s about to get out of the water the guru holds his head under water….then pulls him back up just in time.

then the guru asked the guy the number one thing he wanted to do when he was holding him under water and he said “breath”… the guru then told him “when you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath.. then you’ll succeed”.

Hope everyone’s week is going awesome. If you really enjoyed our first time-lapse painting, we posted another one yesterday with Slugs!

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Time-lapse Tuesday – Slugs Spaced Out In Time.

Alethea — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:59:19 +0000

It’s Time-lapse Tuesday (which I made up right now) that and because I’m dying to show everyone another time-lapse painting I did last year, while I was in Color Fundamentals (fancy name for learning how to mixing colors). While taking this class, I got into the habit of taking photographs along the way of all the projects I painted from beginning to end. It was my way of checking my work you could say. BECAUSE at some point down the road things start to look the same. 4-10 hour sessions, plus working 40 hours a week, you begin to lose it.

Or rather you begin to hallucinate, and you begin to only see the shapes within your art piece and not the piece as whole, I love detail. especially tiny detail. Things begin to look like shapes not images. does this happen to anyone else? or am I the only one? If so, that’s fine I’ll own it! So to remedy this craziness, when I wasn’t flipping my painting around. I took pictures of my work, while I worked…because anytime I would stop to check my work and take a look at my progress, all I could see were the phallic shapes hidden in the details of my painting. I found it really hard not to stare at my painting and find little nit picky things wrong. I guess you are your own worst critique. It was hard for my brain to take a step back and admire the whole thing when all the tiny details that I had spent the last 10 hours staring at were screaming my name for laughs and giggles. So I would take a picture and get an idea of where the painting stood and whether or not I need to add more, call it quits or claim it was finished. So you could say this is the reason for the weird angles and choppiness that is involved in these videos.

Today’s time-lapse is one of my favorite paintings I’ve done. The painting is suppose to be a surreal , (think Salvador Dalí ) and I racked my brain trying to come up with this one. The idea was slugs coming off a paintbrush as though the paint had been transformed into these creatures sliding across the canvas painting and filling in the areas.

The colors are subdued, a little too much for my taste. I have a tendency to live in the vibrant. But for this project, we were mixing to make muted colors and were limited in how many colors we could use. My favorite part of this piece are the paint splatter that is scattered through out. In the future, I hope to revisit this piece and possible add some shadows in, and finer line work to the paint brush that I got lost in the painting process. Never the less enjoy the show! I hope you enjoy!

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In between Creating.

Alethea — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:43:50 +0000

Anytime I’m creating items that I have to paint, the part that frustrates me is waiting for these items to dry. Sometimes I’m so eager to finish the project that waiting for paint to dry is like the last thing I want to do. Does any one else have problems waiting for things to dry? Or do you have a ton of patience to wait? I usually start tackling other side projects while I wait. But last night, I decided to have some fun with some dragonflies I made, while waiting for paint to dry. Enjoy the little stop animations of Dragonflies plus the music we snuck away and made! Enjoy!

Music Featured: Dragonflies Dance by Inkeater

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

What do you do while you’re waiting for paint to dry?

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Painting a Self Portrait

Alethea — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:22:56 +0000

I never imagined in a million years that I would paint something so awesome, my skills have definitely come a long way since my HULK SMASH Portrait seen below! That self portrait was done back in my college days around 2002-2003, when my favorite was green. Can you tell? It’s been almost 9 years since.

Fast foward to 2011, and we’re back in college taking Color Fundamentals for a second degree in FUN, and one of our many projects was to paint a self portrait. While, also painting what you see and not what you know. Sounds like one heck of a puzzle, huh? To me it was instant fun and a big tetris puzzle waiting to be solved.

My favorite part was painting what you see, not what you know. And what exactly does that mean. It means painting the colors you see. Yes, your hair may be black but that’s not the color you’re seeing on a printed photograph. So instead of black hair you use a really dark purple, your skin color shows hints of blues and reds and light purples not just skin tone colors. Get it?

Self Portrait, acrylic on canvas 12 x 12, Fall 2011

I thought it would be fun since I saw ScratchandPaint’s timelapsed painting video of a portrait he did of Jared Polin from Fro Knows Photo (if you haven’t seen it you can check it here!) it left me in awe, plus painting to heavy metal totally awesome! I’ve been dying to share the series of photos I took while I painted this and Adam sorta gave me good push into doing it after seeing his videos, and I’m so glad I did. Thanks, Adam! It’s amazing seeing something unfold before your eyes.

This isn’t a complete time-lapse self portrait considering some painting was done in class and therefore why some big gaps exist in the painting process. It was painted over the course of a week. But nevertheless ENJOY!

Have you ever wanted your portrait painted or one of your pet…the only limits are your imagination. I suggest you head over to ScratchandPaint’s Channel, he’s hosting a contest and you could win a custom painting by Mr. Adam Holden Rosenberg! Click here for details!

Have you ever painted a self portrait of yourself? Or do you paint? If so please, feel free to share in the comments I’d love to see your work!

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It’s only monday and the machine ate my money.

Alethea — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:08:04 +0000

I thought about blogging on productivity and what helps me stay motivated. Except, that sounded all too boring plus I wanted to share something funny that happened to me this morning. It’s little things like this that make me laugh myself silly, and I thought someone else would enjoy. Plus give someone else something to laugh at cause it’s monday, do you have a case of the Mondays?

Anyways, this morning I was getting ready for work and happy because I was going to be purchasing my a soda for once. I’ve really grown to LOVE hibiscus tea, except my traveling cup wasn’t clean. SO I declared today, a soda day and went out to face the world!

I got into work and started checkin’ emails when I decided lets get that soda. As I fought with the machine to accept my dollar. It finally took. I then placed my change in and made my selection when I heard a not so normal sound and no soda came out. I pressed the button a few times and then attempted to withdraw my money. Except, the soda machine ate my money and for once in my life I actually contemplated beating up the machine. For one, all I wanted was something to drink, and two it sucks when a machine eats your money. Doesn’t it? I can’t be the only one to think so.

Well instead of climbing the machine and beating it up with a baseball bat, while also weighing the pros and cons of committing an act like that and getting away with it. I admitted defeat and pressed the buttons a few times for last time sakes, hoping my soda was just taking it’s sweet time. Sadly, no soda resulted. And I didn’t want to become a Darwin award because knowing my luck the machine would of fallen on me.

Instead I waited until the bookstore opened later and purchased some soda, plus a bag of Swedish Fish because didn’t you know, that Swedish Fish makes it ALL better! So if you’re having a case of the Mondays, do yourself a favor and purchase some Swedish Fish and just enjoy! Or a Slurpee both have a tendency to bring a smile to my face when the whole day feels a mess.

I hope everyone’s Monday was a lot better than my random fight with the soda machine. Have you ever lost change to a vending machine? How did you deal with it?

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A Book I made: Robots in Space!

Alethea — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:50:59 +0000

Last semester, I took Color Fundamentals. The class was amazing, with a wonderful professor that brought so much insight to the table. Plus learning how to paint colors you see versus what your brain perceives those colors to be. AMAZING! I painted my first self portrait, came up with crazy ideas for other projects I did in class, I painted slugs coming off paint brushes painting with their slime, Slurpee cup splattering all over the place. So many beautiful and yet silly ideas I conjured up that I’m extremely proud of. Most of all, the class worked my brain and made me think outside of the box. I walked away with a firmer knowledge in painting and acrylics. But also a greater understanding of color mixing.

I really enjoyed the constraints and rules that were placed for each assignment because it made me rack my brain for answers. One of my favorite projects was our final, where we had to create a book while being non-objective. The front and back cover could be anything we wanted. Sounds easy, right? For this project I used two small 4 x 6 canvases for the front and back cover. The book was bound using an accordion style method and is about Robots visiting another planet taking pictures, and having a vacation before they go off to attack another planet.

Have you ever created your own book? Or taken a class where you had to create such a thing? If so please share in the comments I’d love to see some! Hope everyone has an awesome St. Patrick’s day tomorrow and weekend!

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Extending the life of a necklace, or saving the cool parts.

Alethea — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:35:59 +0000

I can’t be the only person in the world that has a favorite piece of jewelry, maybe it’s a necklace or a bracelet. It’s one that you could wear day in and day out just because it’s that awesome of a piece. In my case it’s a necklace. Sadly, this necklace had started to show it’s wear and was becoming a mission to even put on and getting off was near impossible. Fraying and all, really, not nice. I decided to perform some necklace surgery and thus elongate the life of my favorite necklace. I lucked out cause I happen to carry a stash of necklaces that I love the beads, but feel that the ropes or chain can always be swapped with others because it looks better. Lucky me, I’ve been meaning to take apart a few of these, so this was an easy swapping of ropes and removing beads. Thus making me a happy camper because I can continue to wear my favorite necklace.

This is also a way of saving the really cool parts of old necklaces that you would like to reuse later on down the road for a newer project and building your bead collection. Do you ever buy necklaces because you love the beads? I have a huge collection of beads I’ve obtained through the years of saving old pieces off necklaces.

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