Author Archives: Sam

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Oh! I forgot to say, my new monitor is super helpful right now. There’s enough real-estate to split the screen into three. So I have my notes, the book I’m writing about, and my essay all open for easy referencing.

I just super love technology and just like the other day when I marvelled at the cloud, today I’m marvelling at well this ^^ I started life with a huge CRT monitor (in fact I remember the old BBC-B’s but only for frogger as I was little) and then here I am with an ultra-wide LCD. We’ve come so far in what’s available and what’s possible. I feel very full of wonder right now 🙂

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I’m actually doing work. This is kinda unheard of – “who are you and what have you done with me?” Hehehe *sniggers*

No sorry it’s just I felt it was worthy of comment. I know I could be a lot more productive I’m sure but the fact that I have done anything is just ??? WOW right now. I mean it’s Sunday, I don’t have classes next week, so I have all of next week theoretically do to my various assignments AND I’m actually working on an essay right now.

I like this! Let’s keep doing this!

I got a third of the wordcount so far for the first draft and it’s only just gone noon! Sorry I’m just super impressed with myself right now. The fact that I’ve even started is like eye-popping. Go me! 🙂

#honestly I could cry because I’m so pleased this is the version of me I want#I know self-congratulation is a little bit … I can’t think of the word but I mean like not the done thing#I’m going to do it anyway though because I have nearly two weeks until the deadline and I’m working on it#let’s keep this I want this

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I don’t know if I should find this as funny as I do.

I just got an email asking me to check my personal details on the uni’s online portal system. So I did and I scrolled down to medical conditions and it was a three column table.

General condition – Specifics – End date

END DATE!?!

That’s why I’m sitting here sniggering because end date on those conditions? Oh yeah I super wish. I’ll just stop having them on that date hehe.

I mean how stupid. If it was like a broken leg or something then record it and estimated date of recovery I guess, as such a thing could have an impact on studying, but for lifelong conditions just putting the end date of the course? I mean blank would be better.

There is no end date.

Progress Tracking

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I try and find artists to follow so I can learn from them. One thing I’ve noticed is that they do a status report each year, much like I used to do when I was writing a lot. They do like a neat graphic showing everything they drew that year. The boxes are even, rather than the mess above, but then this is covering multiple years.

This is a starting point. I think I wrote a post about “where I begin” some time back as I think it was when I was drawing that picture June 2017 I decided I wanted to actively attempt to improve. So I guess where I am now is less a starting point, and more a point somewhere down the road. I prefer to think of it as a starting point so I can excuse how awful I still am but let’s gloss over that.

Anyway, I’ve done posts about all the pictures in 2018 I think, saying what I think went ok and what was bad, and what I needed to focus on improving next. So I’m not going to say anything, I’m just going to let this timeline speak for itself.

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There has really been a phenomenal amount of progress in the last couple of decades. Mostly I take the technological advances for granted, I’ve just absorbed them into my life and it’s the way things are. However, occasionally it hits me and I marvel at the changes in the world.

I’m of the generation that when I started with computers, if I wanted to move a file from one computer to another it was via floppy disk. I can hear the screams of people a few years older than me, yelling how lucky I was that tech was available.

Today I’m putting a presentation together that I have to do in class tomorrow. Yesterday I took some high fidelity pictures on my phone and I need to put them in the presentation. As I’ve grown I started with film cameras that had to be developed, then when I did move digital it was a specialised camera and massive, and the photos it produced (I still have them) are grainy and low res compared to todays phone – which does a million other things AND fits in my pocket!

Anyway back to the pictures. I don’t have to find a cable, I don’t have to deal with making the PC and phone talk to each other – it’s all in the cloud and it was stored there automatically. I didn’t have to do anything, I just took the photos, forgot about it, then today I boot up icloud and they are there for me.

A few months back I moved my music collection to the cloud, no more synchronising that takes forever and sometimes fails. I find a song I like on my phone and it’s in my library on the computer and vice versa. No matter where I am, or what device I’m on, I can pick up where I left off.

I don’t know it just super amazes me really what I take for granted so much of the time.

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jackabelle73 replied to your post “WIP Wednesday”

Thanks for posting this… I appreciate your willingness to talk about your difficulties and insecurities in your writing, b/c it reminds me that I’m not the only one. I’ll try to write up my own WIP Wednesday post later, assuming the munchkin sleeps long enough to allow it. Good luck with meeting your goals this month! You can do it! *waves pom-poms*

Thank you for this comment!

I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I read a book which was entirely about the author’s mindset and it had a section on admitting your feelings. It said though that there was a ‘shelf life’ for authors complaining about such things and that people would get sick of it. I always have that in mind, and I feel very self-conscious about posting anything negative/moaning.

Obviously it slips out sometimes, alright probably far more than it should, but seriously only a fraction gets posted. The number of posts I write and then cancel draft, or save to draft and then later delete is crazy. I guess I want to talk about what I’m doing because I’m insecure, I’m filled with self-doubt and I crave reassurance but there’s only so much that can be asked of veritable strangers, and I fear that I already ask far too much.

This creating business is a scary one and it can feel really lonely out there on that ledge, where one ventures when one dares to try.

WIP Wednesday

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So I totally missed Skin Deep day and TMI Tuesday on account of having a crap day in real life. Anyway, my WIP Wednesday this week is all about these two dorks ^^ and having “I hope that” in the gif is super appropriate because well this is all about my hopes for the upcoming months.

I tried to do WIP Wednesday last week but I couldn’t muster up the positivity. You see I do have an idea I want to do for AMR this month – a third instalment in the In Your Arms verse – but I started planning it for August’s AMR and my faith in myself to get shit done is at an all time low really.

BUT

It’s halfway through the month and while I have zero words written I do have a plan, and not 12% of a plan either, it’s more like 65% probably.

So that is (hopefully!) upcoming.

Then in my “drawing every month challenge” – January was the Big Bang, so that’s a Rumbelle drawing to be posted in March. Then March itself is going to be Rumbelle and so is April! I have the pieces picked out, I just hope I can do them justice, I’m a bit nervous :/

Yeah so I guess this is like my kinda homage to Skin Deep day, in that Rumbelle stuff is planned and is (hopefully!) happening. Side note: I do still have that half chapter of Painting Layers of Love that I should work on and finish. It’s problematic which is what made me take a break to begin with but when I can muster up the mental fortitude I’ll tackle it.

So yeah whoo Rumbelle! Hehe 🙂

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mariequitecontrarie  asked:

For the Fanfic Asks: F and G.

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I’m supposed to be a lot of things.”

from Between Two Fires and this original novel that I have rewritten half a dozen times now and just can’t make work. I think I will hang on to these two lines until I can get them into a novel somewhere, I love them to pieces.

Why? I don’t know it just sounds awesome in my head. Maybe it’s because dead is dead but they are walking around and so there’s an immediate mystery, maybe then it’s the cryptic leading smirk of the second comment (because there’s definitely a smirk there). It’s sort of like a shrug, self-deprecating yup, I’m supposed to be a lot of things – there is just such a world in those two lines, layers of meaning and heartbreak because it’s a betrayal, not just of love but of everything the betrayed (Gold in this case) believes in.

It’s a starting point, and it’s also a middle point, the old ‘in media res’ aka starting the story in the middle, so we’re right there and these two lines bring up questions and well I’m biased because they are my lines, but I feel an immediate investment because it’s not just questions – I have the feeling. I can hear the pain (or maybe I’ve just visualised the scene too many times I don’t know) but ugh bury me with these two lines. I just love them.

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Start to finish. I’ve wished on many occasion to mix it up but my brain just won’t do it, it’s like it knows it’s not done and so it won’t move on. I guess I’m just very linear, my brain just won’t accept anything else.

February Art

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Well all of my New Years resolutions have gone to shit so far except the “draw every month” thing which on month two is still a thing – yay! 🙂

Right so what was good? what was bad?

I’ve always struggled to pin down my ‘style’ and some of my earlier pieces are quite frankly shocking because I’ve wanted it to look good but just gone crazy with brushes and it’s looked awful. With this I tried to embrace the ‘less is more’ concept, so there’s more a suggestion of shadows on the faces, rather than me trying to shade everything and it looking weird.

HG’s pose is bad. I used references, I tried so hard but it just looks wrong, but I had this image in my head to replicate – this was the kind of composition I wanted and so I did my best with it. I’m much happier with Myka, I’m particularly pleased with her nose. I don’t think she looks very much like herself, for all HG is the poorer drawing, I think she looks more like herself.

I think the hair on both of them is ok. Not great and the more I look at it, the worse it gets. I think the clothing wrinkles on both of them are patchy in terms of quality. The ones on Myka’s back I think are ok, and the ones on HG’s arm aren’t bad either but hampered by the awful pose.

Next time – like always – I need to focus more on getting the basics right to begin with. Smooth fluid lines, put life into the drawing before I add colour. I need to work on my clothing wrinkles as a priority for sure. Materials in general to be honest otherwise I’m never going to be able to draw a car or a spaceship but that’s a whole other conversation.

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I was getting so annoyed earlier because Photoshop kept freezing. This is a relatively new PC it shouldn’t be doing that! It didn’t used to do that!

Turns out “didn’t use to” was fairly important and it was some software that came bundled with the monitor that was doing it. Not a problem I just close it down and everything works perfectly again – yay! 🙂

Also think I ‘might’ have had a slight breakthrough on blending. Not sure. I mean I’m looking at it now and thinking “mmm not so bad” but when I look next week I’ll probably go “ahhhh my eyes! they burn!”

Anyway I’m on track/ahead at least. Did I say here? I’m not sure, but my aim this year is to do one art piece per month. January was RBB which I can’t post until March (but I did it in January!), this month is Bering and Wells. Next month is a secret shhh hehe.