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red_satin_doll** Pirate Bride ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snogged returns to the world of fanart after an extended hiatus with this: "Mr Gunn Will See You Now" ("Fifty Shades of Gunn") a Gunn/Willow banner that is incredibly erotic. To call it "yummy" almost sounds dismissive; "perfectly scrumptious" works better. And yet, it's pretty much worksafe. (Unless a pretty lady in lingerie and a bare leg is a no-no in your office. Or implied interracial shipping. Or looking at fanart or anything not related to work and really, is this the kind of workplace you want to be in?) I've never considered that pairing but looking at her banner it suddenly seems perfectly right. Where's the faction for this ship? And, tell me again why m'lady has been away from fanart and denied us these lovelies for so long?
** Working in the Key of Light: Happy birthday topickamix, who started things off by giving all of us a gift: "Light Willow". A total turnaround aesthetically from a Mistress of the Dark Art(works): astonishing, unexpected and gorgeous. I'm kind of beyond words here because everything about it could have been, in lesser, hands, cliche - the butterfly wing texture; in her sure hands, nothing here is cliche, all of it is absolutely, meltingly lovely. It was the second thing to greet my eyes Sunday morning, after a proper cup of tea, and I began to tear up. Then I simply sat with it, studied it, took it all in - the way Willow emerges from the light, the way the texures wrap around her, embrace her. I could go on all day about it.
What unites these two artworks in my mind is their shared elegance: visually clean, uncluttered, nothing out of place. Simplicity of composition that belies the work that surely went into making both of these. Both of these have room to breathe and yet the composition in each one directs your eye exactly where the artists want it to be. You can roam around, you can go deeper (I can study these for quite some time to suss out the subtle, almost hidden layers), but your eye is not likely to fall off the canvas. That takes a sureness of touch that comes with talent, yes, but also intellegence and conscious practice of the craft. There's no way around it.
The presence of negative space in both goes a long way towards achieving that elegance; and this is a quality I need to study and learn from. My sweetie once described my writing as "too much velvet" for her taste. Too many adjectives, too much description, too much verbiage in general. And I find myself doing the same thing with artwork, especially now that I'm discovering layers and textures and oh boy is it easy to fill up the spaces and just because I can doesn't mean I should. Knowwhatimean?
Yesterday I thought to myself that if I were a fic author and received either of these artworks as a banner to go with a story I'd die of happiness, aka jump up and down and grin and hug myself uncontrollably. Silently, in my chair, so only I would know. (Ok, the grinning and hugging would actually happen. The jumping would be entirely mental but it would be intense.)THEN I'd show them off and say "Look what I got, y'all!"
But of course, I'm not not a fiction author, and not much of a writer at all, currently....
And then LOOK WHAT I GOT, Y'ALL!
"....yellow is the color of intellectual energy, positivity, but also jealousy and illness and in the yellow shirt there are birds flying (freedom) except that you go on and see the shape of the knife buried in the flesh and all the blood spilling. It's broken freedom and innocence lost...."
kikimay not only snagged my "There Once was a Girl" icon for her default icon, which is an honor all by itself; she wrote an analysis/interpretation of it! MY ARTWORK HAS BEEN META'D! And of course her commentary is as intelligent, concise and elegant as her prose. I always imagined I'd be writing the meta about someone else's work, never the other way around. Eventually I decided I wanted to provide the pictures to compliment for other people's words, instead of asking other people to provide them for me. (And at that point I knew velvetwhip would be the first second recipient. it had to be her. ETA: clockwork_hart1 was actually the first person I made a banner for. Mind like a sieve over here.)
Now Kiki has provided the words to compliment my picture and so it goes. And this is addition to the honor of a Mod's Choice Award at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
slayerstillness. The little icon that could.
...but then I came right away back because I've got to finish my set for Round 4 ofbtvsats20in20, which is due Sept 27th. Have you seen the awesome entries so far by spikesredqueen, sweet_lyri, pickamix, snowpuppies, teragramm, killing_kurare, and oh_cheezit? Plus I needed to cast my vote on the current challenge of slayerstillness, which I missed the boat on entering; therefore, doubly important that I participate as voter.
It's nice when we the artists vote for one another but there ARE MORE THAN 15 PEOPLE IN THIS FANDOM. I know there are. And if you can't or don't want to make icons, by all means vote. Your opinions count and don't let "Well I don't know anything about art" nonsense (because of some stupid thing your parents or your fifth grade teacher told you as a child) hold you back. YES YOU DO KNOW ABOUT ART. Of course you do! You're surrounded with it, you've taken it in your entire life. It's no different to voting in the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards even if you haven't written any works of fiction yourself.
My sweetie has a classmate in art college ten years ago who was a wonderful artist (pastel was her preferred medium and she could make a pastel painting look like it was done in oils), and just the sweetest person imaginable. One of their professors told her in class, in front of everyone, that she "lacked artistic intelligence". Need I describe my feelings towards this arrogant jackass in minute detail or can you just pick up the vibe of my loathing?
We all have "artistic intelligence". We just need safe space to practice it and express it, as artists and appreciators. (Without people to appreciate, there is no point!) I can say without hesitation that participating in icontests, and thanks to the wonderful community of folks here, I've been pushed farther and faster just the last six months than I could have imagined possible. And I haven't even begun to skim the surface of what's possible.
But I've gone on long enough, Gentle Reader: goest thou and vote, create, offer feedback and share the love - do your part to keep this fandom alive and lively. What medium of expression have you not explored, or are just beginning to? What holds you back? What ideas do you have for bringing new excitement to this fandom and what about it continues to excite you and keeps you interested?
snogged returns to the world of fanart after an extended hiatus with this: "Mr Gunn Will See You Now" ("Fifty Shades of Gunn") a Gunn/Willow banner that is incredibly erotic. To call it "yummy" almost sounds dismissive; "perfectly scrumptious" works better. And yet, it's pretty much worksafe. (Unless a pretty lady in lingerie and a bare leg is a no-no in your office. Or implied interracial shipping. Or looking at fanart or anything not related to work and really, is this the kind of workplace you want to be in?) I've never considered that pairing but looking at her banner it suddenly seems perfectly right. Where's the faction for this ship? And, tell me again why m'lady has been away from fanart and denied us these lovelies for so long? ** Working in the Key of Light: Happy birthday to
pickamix, who started things off by giving all of us a gift: "Light Willow". A total turnaround aesthetically from a Mistress of the Dark Art(works): astonishing, unexpected and gorgeous. I'm kind of beyond words here because everything about it could have been, in lesser, hands, cliche - the butterfly wing texture; in her sure hands, nothing here is cliche, all of it is absolutely, meltingly lovely. It was the second thing to greet my eyes Sunday morning, after a proper cup of tea, and I began to tear up. Then I simply sat with it, studied it, took it all in - the way Willow emerges from the light, the way the texures wrap around her, embrace her. I could go on all day about it.****
What unites these two artworks in my mind is their shared elegance: visually clean, uncluttered, nothing out of place. Simplicity of composition that belies the work that surely went into making both of these. Both of these have room to breathe and yet the composition in each one directs your eye exactly where the artists want it to be. You can roam around, you can go deeper (I can study these for quite some time to suss out the subtle, almost hidden layers), but your eye is not likely to fall off the canvas. That takes a sureness of touch that comes with talent, yes, but also intellegence and conscious practice of the craft. There's no way around it.
The presence of negative space in both goes a long way towards achieving that elegance; and this is a quality I need to study and learn from. My sweetie once described my writing as "too much velvet" for her taste. Too many adjectives, too much description, too much verbiage in general. And I find myself doing the same thing with artwork, especially now that I'm discovering layers and textures and oh boy is it easy to fill up the spaces and just because I can doesn't mean I should. Knowwhatimean?
****
Yesterday I thought to myself that if I were a fic author and received either of these artworks as a banner to go with a story I'd die of happiness, aka jump up and down and grin and hug myself uncontrollably. Silently, in my chair, so only I would know. (Ok, the grinning and hugging would actually happen. The jumping would be entirely mental but it would be intense.)THEN I'd show them off and say "Look what I got, y'all!"
But of course, I'm not not a fiction author, and not much of a writer at all, currently....
And then LOOK WHAT I GOT, Y'ALL!
"....yellow is the color of intellectual energy, positivity, but also jealousy and illness and in the yellow shirt there are birds flying (freedom) except that you go on and see the shape of the knife buried in the flesh and all the blood spilling. It's broken freedom and innocence lost...."
kikimay not only snagged my "There Once was a Girl" icon for her default icon, which is an honor all by itself; she wrote an analysis/interpretation of it! MY ARTWORK HAS BEEN META'D! And of course her commentary is as intelligent, concise and elegant as her prose. I always imagined I'd be writing the meta about someone else's work, never the other way around. Eventually I decided I wanted to provide the pictures to compliment for other people's words, instead of asking other people to provide them for me. (And at that point I knew velvetwhip would be theclockwork_hart1 was actually the first person I made a banner for. Mind like a sieve over here.)Now Kiki has provided the words to compliment my picture and so it goes. And this is addition to the honor of a Mod's Choice Award at
slayerstillness. The little icon that could. I died of happiness....
...but then I came right away back because I've got to finish my set for Round 4 of
btvsats20in20, which is due Sept 27th. Have you seen the awesome entries so far by spikesredqueen, sweet_lyri, pickamix, snowpuppies, teragramm, killing_kurare, and oh_cheezit? Plus I needed to cast my vote on the current challenge of slayerstillness, which I missed the boat on entering; therefore, doubly important that I participate as voter.It's nice when we the artists vote for one another but there ARE MORE THAN 15 PEOPLE IN THIS FANDOM. I know there are. And if you can't or don't want to make icons, by all means vote. Your opinions count and don't let "Well I don't know anything about art" nonsense (because of some stupid thing your parents or your fifth grade teacher told you as a child) hold you back. YES YOU DO KNOW ABOUT ART. Of course you do! You're surrounded with it, you've taken it in your entire life. It's no different to voting in the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards even if you haven't written any works of fiction yourself.
My sweetie has a classmate in art college ten years ago who was a wonderful artist (pastel was her preferred medium and she could make a pastel painting look like it was done in oils), and just the sweetest person imaginable. One of their professors told her in class, in front of everyone, that she "lacked artistic intelligence". Need I describe my feelings towards this arrogant jackass in minute detail or can you just pick up the vibe of my loathing?
We all have "artistic intelligence". We just need safe space to practice it and express it, as artists and appreciators. (Without people to appreciate, there is no point!) I can say without hesitation that participating in icontests, and thanks to the wonderful community of folks here, I've been pushed farther and faster just the last six months than I could have imagined possible. And I haven't even begun to skim the surface of what's possible.
But I've gone on long enough, Gentle Reader: goest thou and vote, create, offer feedback and share the love - do your part to keep this fandom alive and lively. What medium of expression have you not explored, or are just beginning to? What holds you back? What ideas do you have for bringing new excitement to this fandom and what about it continues to excite you and keeps you interested?
Tags:
- art gallery,
- char: buffy summers,
- comm: btvs_hush,
- comm: slayerstillness,
- comm: sunny dale memorial awards,
- fandom: btvs,
- fannishness,
- form: icons,
- happy birth month to...,
- i have too many damn tags,
- icon challenge,
- icon(ic) thinky thoughts,
- links,
- meta,
- my flist is awesome,
- pimping,
- setting: s4,
- setting: s7,
- share the love
no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 12:32 pm (UTC)As always, interesting suggestions and links. I'm going to vote for slayerstillness.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 09:44 pm (UTC)I know maybe two things in total about art
NONSENSE. And there you've proven my point in my post - you know a lot more than you give yourself credit for! Plus, you know quite a lot about classical studies and norse mythology that I'm completely ignorant of.
I'd forgotten your description of my becoming icon in terms of how the colors affected you; you know a lot about colors, symbolism and emotional resonance that I don't know and can't articulate. So when we all share our gifts we all learn from each other.
Don't downgrade your gifts and intelligence, Kiki dear.
i hope you will produce more with this colorful/symbolic value. This one is gorgeous.
I'll take that as my marching orders! thank you so much for the feedback. I'm surprised how many of my icons are muted or earth-toned, because as you know I LOVE jewel tones and clean colors. (My sweetie is the one into earth tones.) I have no idea why my style tends towards old tea coloring in icons so often lately. It may be just where I'm at with the tools I'm using? I might get clearer brighter imagery as I learn more and get into photoshop.
Or maybe it's the depression. :P
no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 09:53 pm (UTC)Thanks a lot for the ego boosting! XD It's really nice to be so appreciated and it's lovely because the appreciation is mutual.
I really like colors and their meaning (A friend of mine once gave a book about colors and symbolical meanings and I enjoyed a lot) I think that they express a lot in terms of emotional resonance and artist's will. I especially love when you use warm colors - you know me - and I'm really curious to see your new work for the icon contest. Can't wait!
no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 10:10 pm (UTC)I admit, if writers write for an audience, then so do artists, and you're one of the primary people I have in mind when I create; is there something in it that Kikimay will like? is a question I constantly ask myself.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-23 11:09 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Greenberg
:)
BTW, I had my sweetie take pics of me the other night when we went to another gallery opening, this time for one of her paintings. I don't like how I look, but you would have approved of the hairstyle I invented - rolled the long locks into a tight rope and pinned it up one side of my head covering the ear. It looked better than it probably sounds, sort of semi-retro.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-24 07:13 pm (UTC)You are very important! You're my Clement Greenberg!
Wonderful! XD
no subject
Date: 2014-09-24 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-24 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-25 11:30 am (UTC)