Today's post brought to you by the need to throw SOMETHING on this journal no matter how silly...

[red_satin_doll]

And also, to remind everyone to vote in the otherworldlyric icon challenge contest #162.
ETA: dragonydreams just let me know that voting is closed and winners have been announced. Congratulations to winners spikesredqueen and chic_c !
(While I'm here I might as well send more kudos to wickedbish for being such an awesome icon beta.)



Now go get some sleep - tomorrow's a long day, sweetie.

Comments

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

and I hardly ever agree with the results. :D

Sorry I meant that my vote seems to be very different to the results not that I do not like the eventual winners just that often, others caught my eye. Sometimes the competition is so good it's hard to pick anyway.

I love that Dawn icon. Now I have to go see who I voted for in that round. *giggle*

I'm over the worrying about posting multiple images - I do it so often, sometimes just for me to look at, and then find others like looking too. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, sometimes I think all of the winners are really good ones just not the ones I happened to vote for (and sometimes I do think "That won?" But then again my sweetie and I have gone to art gallery exhibitions for years and when they're have been judges prizes etc we have said that a lot. We're such snobs *lol*)

Slayerstillness Challenge #16 has been my favorite set of icons as a group that I've seen so far in a challenge. They're ALL so gorgeous voting was almost painful because I didn't want to decide, I wanted to say "All of them, please!" (But you know, you won mod's choice in that one!) http://slayerstillness.livejournal.com/tag/challenge%2016

I honestly don't think I even remember who I voted for in that round, I loved them all so much. Especially the tie-breaker round. Oh boy was that HARD. That challenge to me represents some of the best of icon art in this fandom and they are so OF A PIECE with one another it looks more like a collaborative project than a lot of artists working independently.

I do it so often, sometimes just for me to look at, and then find others like looking too. :D

Something else that you do that I really appreciate is that you talk about your artwork, both the concept and the execution, which also gives me a little courage because I want to do that with my icons as well - talk about them, not just throw them up on the screen. To me that's kind of what LJ and (this) fandom is all about - talking to each other.

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time I went as a YA to the Qld Musuem of art's exhibition of Old Masters from the eighteenth century. Works by people I'd heard of. I was a little dissapointed at some of them. They were painted in such broad colors and huge strokes. Not at all what I expected. Mind you, I've since learn to take the space one needs to view a painting properly but really it is all in the eye of the beholder. Art is, to me, a very personal thing and one's appreciation of a piece can be altered by one's state of mind at the time. The same with music. I don't think there is any right or wrong unless you are a scholar and then of course there must be right and wrong and technique. :D

The icons I made for that round are about my faves I've ever deliberately made. I wanted to win with them and was a little dissapointed not to have though it was the most beautiful round and yes I agree the entries are so of a piece it does look like they were made to be together. :D You've now made me go make some for the current round. I rather like them too. :D

I quite like talking about the process. I really am talking to myself mostly, reminding me how I did it, vocalising what I was going for. I know that art is supposed to be left to the viewer to interpret but as a viewer I've always wondered what the hell the artist was trying to get at. Sometimes, I've not liked what the artist thinks of a piece of his work so it does backfire because I think something else entirely. I love when someone sees something in one of my works that I put there and no-one has seen it.

So really go for it. I often wonder how folk pick the cap, what quality they are trying to capture, why they used a certain effect. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I was a little dissapointed at some of them. They were painted in such broad colors and huge strokes. Not at all what I expected.

Really? Most of the 18th century work I've seen in museums is rather "tight" and detailed. Now I grew up reading books about Impressionist art in the 19th century and most of it in museums is something of a disappointment to me in real life. (I used to adore Renoir, now I have no idea why.)

But you're right about "eye of the beholder" definitely. My tastes have changed as I've gotten more educated and simply seen more work. When my sweetie went back to art school at a classical academy over ten years ago I "didn't understand" abstract art. After looking at enough mediocre to middling realist art, I started to learn to appreciate good abstract and modernist art. There's certain things - form, surface, color, composition - that always apply.

I don't think there is any right or wrong unless you are a scholar and then of course there must be right and wrong and technique. :D

Right, because you have a thesis to defend *lol* The fact that no two scholars can agree on anything is very telling.

When my sweetie was in art school and learning technique she was suddenly "correcting" me, that I didn't see paintings with an artist's eye. Well, true - I wasn't trying to figure out HOW something was painted, most of the time. But I have nearly 40 years experience reading about and looking at art so I don't take kindly to being dismissed. *lol* (She hasn't done that in forever btw - mostly she asks me to critique her paintings. So apparently I do know my stuff.)

The icons I made for that round are about my faves I've ever deliberately made. I wanted to win with them and was a little dissapointed not to have

YOu are just making me feel less and less guilty about everything, hon! Because I said "oh I don't care if I win in this challenge I just want to share my icons" and then I didn't and I was like, "oh maybe I did want to win." *sniffle* And that's ok - it's normal to feel that way about something we've put a lot of ourselves into!

Did you post the entire series for that challenge on your journal btw?

You've now made me go make some for the current round. I rather like them too. :DI know that art is supposed to be left to the viewer to interpret but as a viewer I've always wondered what the hell the artist was trying to get at.

Something I learned when my sweetie was in art school was that people who are interested in art are also interested in the artists and the process, not just the final product. They're curious about it. And that makes sense - I love antiques, and I've bought very few but spent a lot of time learning about the subject.

I think "ART" has been shrouded in mystery for so long, almost like a PR campaign. It's something that "only the very talented have access to" (when it's mostly about practice and hard work in reality); it's special, it's magical, blah blah bitty blah. People want to be creative but don't see themselves as such because they don't fit the stereotypes.

And as artists, it's nice to know what other people do and have done. My sweetie spent hours at museums studying the works there. That is how we learn - from others. Talking, studying the work etc

And I'm chatty anyway (pretend to be shocked) so, yeah, I like it when people share the process. Even the stuff that doesn't "work" - why doesn't it work? How did you get around that? What did you learn from it?

I love when someone sees something in one of my works that I put there and no-one has seen it.

Or when someone sees something in my works that I didn't even see because they have a different interpretation. It can lead to fascinating discussions.

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

They probably were 19th century - it is a couple of decades ago. Durn I must be mature. Lol.

oh I don't care if I win in this challenge I just want to share

I know such noble intentions. But of course we are only human so can't help but seek a little more.

Yes I did post the icons to my journal here: http://comlodge.livejournal.com/145910.html

Well I did guffaw when the chimpanzee fooled the experts all those years ago. But perhaps the lesson there is that all primates enjoy a sense of balance and color?

We most of us if not all, can only learn by seeing. I frequently see someone else's piece and think wow how'd they do that. I must have a go. I have though stopped berating myself for not making stuff that looks like others. I realise I have my own voice and I need to listen to it. That's the thing. We might be retouching others photos, but what comes out is something of our own. There are little bits of me in what I produce. Little bits of what I've experienced in life, what I've felt and tasted and suffered and loved. That's teh best part of growing older - so much to put into what we do.

Post your stuff, tell yourself why you did it and how. Someone else is waiting to read that story with you.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Yes I did post the icons to my journal here: http://comlodge.livejournal.com/145910.html

And I was the first person in the thread to congratulate you! This no longer surprises me. That's the upside of ADD - everything old is new again. (My age - and the volume of information thrown at us on the internet, and that we're expected to know - make things worse but I've always been forgetful. My mom called me "absent-minded professor" when I was five years old!)

But perhaps the lesson there is that all primates enjoy a sense of balance and color?

I remember seeing a video years ago about Ruby, an elephant at the Phoenix zoo who liked to paint - and did some marvelous abstract paintings. As in genuinely good work - color and composition and everything. We had to get the need to create art from somewhere within ourselves, something genetic; and I don't pretend that humans have the patent on everything y'know?

I have though stopped berating myself for not making stuff that looks like others. I realise I have my own voice and I need to listen to it. That's the thing.

YES! This is very wise, and good for you for getting to that point. I do the same thing all the time with my writing - "Oh someone wrote a fantastic story, I can't match that, etc" It becomes an excuse for not trying. So what if it's "not as good"?

I think the thing I like about icons and images is that I don't feel the same thing? I have an "excuse" - I don't have photoshop so there are things I know I cannot do. That frees me to do what I can. I just did a bunch of Faith,Buffy and Who Are You icons today and I'm really pleased with them because I'm expressing my view of the show through them.

And thank you ever so much for all the encouragement, sweetie!

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

That's the upside of ADD - everything old is new again

Isn't that true. Soon I will have no need to buy new books. I'll be able to read the same one over and over again. :D

So what if it's "not as good"? No. It's good. It's not the same. (Though I do wish I could write like lizzerbeathan. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

No. It's good. It's not the same.

OH VERY TRUE! (intellectually I know that anyway. Maybe I need to post it somewhere. Like a bumper sticker?)

I could write like lizzerbeathan

My if only list includes snowpuppies, kwritten, clockwork_hart, quinara, beer_good_foamy (esp for his wit)....et cetera and so forth.

My friend Kendra Saunders has published several novels and she cites Neil gaiman as an influence. We learn to write by reading so might as well learn from the best, right?

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

We learn to write by reading so might as well learn from the best, right?

Reading crap can be a good lesson too. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Reading crap can be a good lesson too. :D

Touche!