Today is double helping! You get a comic, and some bonus material. Under my usual write up (which is a lot longer today) I added in a progression shots/write up of my weekend painting exercise.
Last week I had a scare. My computer randomly shut itself off at like 11:00 at night while I was checking my schedule for the next day. It didn't shut down and it didn't lock up. It was like they went for the hardline. I was very confused. It got worse when I tried to restart it. It turned on, just long enough for the fans to kick on and the motherboard indicator lights to flash on but then immediately shut back off so I couldn't get a read on if there was an error code in the lights. I had I feeling that it may have overheated so I let it sit and cool off for a while while I researched. I came up validated that over heating could be the cause as well as CMOS and/or BIOS issues. I decided to wait til I had more time to actually pull it apart.
The next day after work, I unplugged everything and started to get down to it. when I had it out on my coffee table my initial reaction was "yup! overheated". Mainly because I was flabbergasted at the amount of dust that had accumulated over the vents and fans. I have never seen a computer I've owned with so much dust (and I once went 2 years without cleaning one before). It was appalling. Every fan was pretty much covered. It was like cleaning out the lint tray of a communal dryer. After a good cleaning, I plugged in just the bare essentials (bootdrive, videocard, mem, and cpu fan) and tested. Still no go. So I yanked the battery out of the motherboard, let it sit for a bit and reinserted. Good as gold. I wasn't overly stressed since I still had my old rig's stuff sitting in my closet that I could have used as a hold over til the fall when I build a new box (since there aren't too many games out that i want to play on PC, much less any that require a serious build out). Still, I am very happy that my computer has managed to sidestep death for at least a little while. Meanwhile, I removed 2 of my case fans (still have 2 extra ones in) to hopefully keep the dust down, and to let venting do the job instead...
The next day after work, I unplugged everything and started to get down to it. when I had it out on my coffee table my initial reaction was "yup! overheated". Mainly because I was flabbergasted at the amount of dust that had accumulated over the vents and fans. I have never seen a computer I've owned with so much dust (and I once went 2 years without cleaning one before). It was appalling. Every fan was pretty much covered. It was like cleaning out the lint tray of a communal dryer. After a good cleaning, I plugged in just the bare essentials (bootdrive, videocard, mem, and cpu fan) and tested. Still no go. So I yanked the battery out of the motherboard, let it sit for a bit and reinserted. Good as gold. I wasn't overly stressed since I still had my old rig's stuff sitting in my closet that I could have used as a hold over til the fall when I build a new box (since there aren't too many games out that i want to play on PC, much less any that require a serious build out). Still, I am very happy that my computer has managed to sidestep death for at least a little while. Meanwhile, I removed 2 of my case fans (still have 2 extra ones in) to hopefully keep the dust down, and to let venting do the job instead...
Recently I bought a small 4x6 sketch book. It has been fun swapping back and forth between working on my surface pro and on actual paper. Recently Bioware posted that they would like fan art or various kinds and it made me think how much fun it would be to paint something. I am not sure I will actually submit this, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to do. I actually may hold onto it...
Saturday afternoon, I started with a quick sketch up of what I had in mind on the canvas. Just enough detail to get a good feel for it, but obviously not all the detail I would end up using. Notice I had a different idea for what I would do with the Reaper.
Saturday afternoon, I started with a quick sketch up of what I had in mind on the canvas. Just enough detail to get a good feel for it, but obviously not all the detail I would end up using. Notice I had a different idea for what I would do with the Reaper.
It was fun getting graphite on my hands again. I've been slowly introducing myself back to physical media. Most of my work the last year has been digital. I noticed that I have yet to be able to get the same results as I did before the transition to digital. I seriously need to play with my digital brushes and techniques.
Painted in KEI-9 to begin with. when drawing and coloring on my comics and other work, I usually go top down. This made it a bit of an interesting experience.
Greggle's has been suggesting I do some of my quick sketches and warmup portrait drawings with the subject upside down, or at least go bottom up to help me relax and not stick to preconceived images of what things should be, but to just produce what is actually there. I think it helped.
the main portions are painted in... not with all the details, but the main figures. still a lot of detailing and tweaking will be added.
After this, I took a break. I had to run out to the fabric store to go buy some stuff to fix a friend's 501st stuff. Also, I had to eat... I hadn't eaten since 9am, and it was now 4:30... It also allowed me to take a step back and see what I needed to do. After eating, I worked on the sewing, and then jumped right back into the painting.
between the last pic and this one, I didn't take a progress shot. I figured I just wanted to get the background stuff done and all would be well. I just put my head down and swish swish swished away. I actually ended up with a different backdrop than what you see here. I kept changing it. I think I went through about 3 different ones before deciding this would be alright. I then went back and worked on details on the coat, and some touches on Shep's face.
Overall This took about 10 hours over the 2 days. I probably should have taken some more time and thought things out more. There are things I would obviously improve, but considering I haven't lifted a brush (other than painting 40k minis) in about 4 years. Even when I did paint last I hadn't tried anything of this amount of detail or complexity.
It was a fun exercise. Still have a lot of growth ahead of me. (At least I hope) Mostly, it was really great just relaxing and painting away. It felt really good. It was a calming and rejuvenating experience.
It was a fun exercise. Still have a lot of growth ahead of me. (At least I hope) Mostly, it was really great just relaxing and painting away. It felt really good. It was a calming and rejuvenating experience.
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