Old Smokey - 700 Dragons

455. Old Smokey on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I almost gave up on Corel Painter until I came across Robert Chang's custom brushes. He has several good tips for getting the best performance out of Painter and reducing the lag time. I also have grown to really like his brush set - the pencil is fantastic. Using his pencil brush and blenders feels very natural, and it is much easier to obtain the results I am looking for. Check out his amazing artwork and there is even a little bit of music composition on there to boot!

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Aida Wedo

22.Aido Wedo, the Rainbow Serpent on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I finally finished my third entry for the 700 Dragons series. I had the most trouble getting the face right - I am still not happy with it but no sense in kicking a dead horse. Really enjoying using Corel Painter X, learning to master the palette knife and the blender brushes has been great fun. This was an interesting character to work on too, learned a little bit about pagan religion along the way.

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Snake Women in Religion and Mythology

Doing more research on Aida Wedo  I discovered a lot more interesting info on the combination of women and snakes in religion and mythology:

In the story in Genesis 3:1-5,Eve is tempted by a creature referred to as "He" and described simplyas a serpent. Its only unusual features in the story are that it couldspeak and presumably didn't yet crawl (it was made to crawl on itsbelly only after being cursed by God).

Frequently in art the serpent isrepresented as female. In a fresco by Michelangelo, for example, theserpent is shown with the upper body of a woman and snake-like lowerparts.

female serpent
detail of the Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve, 1510
Michelangelo. Fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome

Google Image Result for http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/images/michelangelotemptation.jpg

The ancient Greeks feared similar creatures, notably Lamia,a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of asnake. In one version of the legend, Lamia was one of Zeus' mortallovers. Filled with anger and jealousy, Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera,made Lamia insane so she would eat all her children. Once Lamiarealized what she had done, she became so angry that she turned into animmortal monster, sucking the blood from young children out of jealousyfor their mothers.

Google Image Result for http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/vampire-lamia.jpg

Two figurines of the Snake Goddess were found here at Knossos. Both depict her withbare bosom, open bodice pulled together at the top and bottom pushing herbreasts together in a globular cluster, prominent nipples protruding from thetwo masses of flesh. In the smaller of the figurines, the goddess has a snake ineach of her upheld hands, and in the larger one, the snakes are coiled about heroutstretched arms. Her face is wide-eyed, severe.Minoan society was noted for its perpetual peace,and one wonders about this society which was older than the Mycenaean andretained its reliance on female goddesses instead of male.

Google Image Result for http://greek-myth.com/images/Photos_Pale_Horse/Photos_Crete/SnakeWoman.jpg

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Aido Wedo Notes

While looking for some imagery for a possible Aido Wedo illustration, I have come across some really interesting info at several sites:

Aida Wedo Loa of fertility and new life, especially conception and childbirth. Wife of Damballa. Known as the Rainbow Snake, she takes a snake form. Her symbol is the rainbow, and her color is white. Sacrifices of white chickens and white eggs are often made to her.

NEW ORLEANS VOODOO LOAS HauntedAmericaTours.com

A common saying is that Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant and 100% Vodou. Thus the Catholic contribution to Haitian Voodoo is quite noticeable. However, in the United States the story is different, despite claims to the contrary.Confusion about Voodoo in the USA arises because there exists throughout the United States a widespread system of African American folk magic belief and practice known as Hudu or more popularly as hoodoo. The similarity of the words hoodoo and Voodoo notwithstanding, hoodoo is not an organized religion like Voodoo, but is an integral part of the Vodoun religion in West Africa and arguably throughout all of Africa. Some aspects of hoodoo is considered derived primarily from Congo and Angolan magical practices of Central Africa and retains elements of the traditions and practices that arose among Bantu language speakers. However, any serious practitioner who has travelled and studied Hudu in West Africa, will readily conclude that this ancient, magio-botanical practice is indigenous and essential to all indigenous, West African religious systems, having only minute variations.Today, due to the suppression of the Vodoun religion in America, most hoodooists are now members of African American Protestant churches, such as the various Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Pentecostal, and Holiness denominations , but when hoodoo is compared to some of the African religions in the diaspora, the closest parallel is Cuban and Dominican Palo, a survival of Congo religious beliefs melded with some Catholic forms of worship.

Vodou - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Goddess Gallery by Hrana Janto

She rules fire, water, wind and the rainbow. When she appears in a voudoun ritual, she slithers across the ground wearing a jeweled headdress that - like the treasure at the end of the rainbow - is elusive but enriches anyone who can grasp it. ~Text from Patricia Monaghan's The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines

Aida Wedo

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Food for thought

People live frugally. There is so little food that nothing goes to waste. Yet every once in awhile something disturbs this necessary thrift. A cow dies suddenly and is immediately buried. Not so much as a steak is cut from its flank before its fearful owners hastily push it into a deep ditch and cover it over, crossing themselves as they walk away from the rough grave. "Calamity meat," they called it. The result of accident or mishap, calamity meat was never to be eaten. Say the cow stumbled into a ditch, or over a rocky cliff, or into a marshy stream. When the body was found, everyone understood what was to be done. For what lay on the ground was not-so the belief went-the real animal, which was at that very moment kicking up its hooves in fairyland. The real cow had been stolen away by ancient powers never mentioned by name but always by euphemisms like the Good Neighbors, the Gentry, or simply Them. In place of the stolen beast, They put a fairy cadaver, upon which They cast a glamor-a spell-so that passersby saw only a dead cow, fallen helplessly to its death.

Calamity Meat

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Finished at last! 700 Dragons entry: Ogopogo

442. Ogopogo on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I still have not been able to acheive the level of detail that I have seen in so many digital paintings lately, but I am happy with the general feel and shading of this piece. I chose to name this entry for the 700 Dragons group after Ogopogo. Ogopogo is the name given to a lake monster reported to live in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada. According to Wikipedia, "The first documented sightings of the Ogopogo by European settlers date back as far as 1860 and occur as the area was being colonized by the first, though the first clear sighting, witnessed by a large group of people, occurred in 1926 at an Okanagan Mission Beach. There were about thirty cars of people who all claimed to have witnessed the same event. It was also in this year that Bobby Carter, then editor of the Vancouver Sun, wrote, 'Too many reputable people have seen [the monster] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts.'"
©2007 Kevin Brammer

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

All Seven Dwarves on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is the final version of the dwarves created from the concept drawing in the previous post. Pencil and charcoal on illustration board.

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Dwarf

Updated Dwarf study on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is a dwarf study I did for a Snow White illustration that I really liked. It was done originally in pencil and charcoal, and I did a quick background and some additional shadows with Photoshop. Probably needs more polishing, but I am happy with it for now.

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Corel Painter

Another quick dragon painting on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Here is a dragon that I painted pretty quickly last night. This program is really pretty amazing. I had tried painting with it before and just ended up getting frustrated, but now that I actually took the time to sit through some tutorials and learn how to use features like the Artist Oil Blender brushes and the Oil Palette Knife, as well as the Mixer palette - I have to say I am really excited. I hope to finish this one off soon, so check back later!

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I'll read this later...

blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity

I love this article by Marc Andreessen. A couple of choice excerpts:

"Generally in the course of a day, there is something you have to do that you are not doing because you are procrastinating. While you're procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead."

"By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day. As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time."

And don't miss his reference to John Perry's essay. Sounds great, then the comments bring you back to earth. Thanks, Michael!

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Funny Signs from Around the World

A Collection of Funny Signs from Around the World 3 - Gadling

This is a great selection of photographs.  Check out all of them at the link above.

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How I Surf

I have really gotten into reading blogs for the last couple of months, and just recently discovered Google's application, Google Reader. What Reader does, for those who may not already know, is aggregate a large number of blog subscriptions using folders, tagging and additional methods to help you sort through enormous amounts of information in an easy and seemless interface.

I love how once I read an article, it disappears from the main list. I also have the option of creating a blog roll of my favorite articles via javascript that I can add to other websites (see Shared Items in the right column of this blog). Finding and adding new blogs is a breeze, thanks to the ability to either browse by categories or keywords.

A couple of blogs that I am finding indispensable, in no particular order:

• Boing Boing
• Wired Top Stories
• Newsweek Top News
• Slashdot
• GigaOM
• Hackzine
• Drawn.ca
• CSS Beauty
• Ma.gnolia: Recent Bookmarks in Web Design

I have also found myself spending an inordinate amount of time browsing DeviantArt. If you are an art fan, then you really must take a look. The sheer breadth and scope of talent will keep you distracted for hours.

I am also a little ashamed to admit that I have also jumped onto the MySpace bandwagon. I used to scoff at the idea of social networking, but I suppose that as I grow older this has simply become an easy way to find and keep in touch with old friends and coworkers.

If you find yourself in a rut looking for new things on the net, then you probably haven't heard about social bookmarking. My favorite site for this is Ma.gnolia.com, simply because it is easy to use and beautiful to look at and easy to browse and share bookmarks with other members. They also have a javascript roll which will add your most recent bookmarks to another website if you so desire. The neat thing about Ma.gnolia is the ability to rate each bookmark, give it a really long description, see a thumbnail of the bookmarked site and, yes, even add and remember tags for all of your bookmarks. This site exemplifies all that is good with Web 2.0.

Last, but definitely not least, is Yahoo's Flickr for photo hosting. This is hands down my favorite site. I am simply blown away by the usability of the site. It could not be any easier to edit titles and descriptions for your photos, as well as organize them into albums. I have also discovered several new groups that have been keeping me busy of late. Great interface, networking and all for free. What more could I ask for?

Oh, and I should also mention that I am posting this using Flock, a new mozilla style browser with some nifty built in tools for posting to blogger and uploading pictures to Flickr. I have to say that so far I have been very impressed by the functionality this new browser has to offer. Although, the new Safari 3.0 does seem awfully fast...

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Jaw Harp Madness!

I have been determined to learn the jaw harp. I got one for Christmas, but it is deceptively difficult! Supposedly, it is one of the worlds oldest musical instruments. Here is a great video showing what the jaw harp can do:

Maidenhead

I am really excited about the new feature length movie my friend Jim Spanos is directing. I was lucky enough to be able to read an early version of the screenplay for the short version, and I have to say it is really quite excellent. Sorry, no plot spoilers here, but I will warn you — it is pretty dark subject matter. I haven't been able to track down much info on the net; however, I have the link to the trailer of the short version at ifilm.com. There is also a good description by one of the cast at www.lorrihammwilson.com.

A trailer for the film, MAIDENHEAD, Directed by Jim Spanos, Starring A.J. Bowen, Lorri Hamm & Gary Chason.

Drawn.ca

Drawn.ca delivers fascinating articles about new trends in illustration and links to artists on the web.

Worth1000

I heard about Worth1000 a while back, but never visited until today. Wow! Did I miss out. The best place to start browsing is via the gallery. Thanks to arsap for posting this video to get me there:

Web 2.0 design traits

I discovered these sites after searching for the various design traits of newly published websites that have jumped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. I wanted to mimic the clean and simple design that has become so popular lately, and discovered Scratchmedia's Web Design from Scratch. I have to say, Scratchmedia has created a really impressive and useful site. I honestly can't remember when I visited a site and had all my question answered methodically and completely.

If you are looking to capture that fresh, simple look that has become so popular with sites like Apple , Mozilla/Firefox , or even the new WidSets site - then Web Design from Scratch is a must.

There is a great section describing the use of simplicity and function in designing your site. The message here is remove everything that is unnecessary and you will be left with only the design that serves to best deliver the content of your site. This is really one of those Zen, "can't see the forest for the trees", K.I.S.S. type of comments that for all of its obviousness ends up being dreadfully easy to forget about. I can't bear to think about all of the hours I have spent creating icons and tweaking CSS, only to end up with a cluttered mess. A big thank you to Scratchmedia!

Michel Gagné

Canadian illustrator Michel Gagné has put together a great website showing many of his illustrations and even some animations. I was particularly interested in his Photoshop illustrations for XEKO - where he combines photographic textures and shapes with traditional illustration. Take a look at his gallery if you haven't already.

McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys produces unique action-figures-slash-sculptures for the discerning geek in all of us. They have a some truly great pieces in the HORROR, FANTASY AND SCI-FI section of their site. Moreover, instead of simply placing their figures on a white background, they show them in a variety of settings and lighting conditions. Anyone illustrates within this genre would do well to take a look at McFarlane's Dragons Series One, Series Two and Series Three - Quest for the Lost King, as well as the subsequent Series Four, Series Five and upcoming Series Six - The Fall of the Dragon Kingdom. More photos are also available at the main HORROR, FANTASY AND SCI-FI section of their site. Be sure to also check out the Giger, Clive Barker's Tortured Souls and especially the Twisted Land of Oz.