This, That, and Star Trek

It's been over a month since I last wrote...typical. I'm not a committed blogger obviously - too involved in art I guess.
I've been a bit slow with the photography since I'm putting together disc for sale that will contain what are referred to as 'stock images' and on those discs will also be collections of seamless tile graphics which are ( somewhat sadly to me ) the most popular items in my main gallery at 12monthsOFwinter. Out there are some wonderful and inspirational artists who have really made me wonder about why I'm letting a natural ability just rot away...I've never been very good at managing my time and these days I've got a lot of time on my hands. I just finished a tattoo commission for my sister and right around then started watching Deep Space Nine and Star Trek- Next Generation and have become a Trekkie of sorts- more on this later. I've also ( foolishly ) tried my hand at writing a short story and that went surprisingly well- but I say foolishly because I've got enough on my plate right now without idling the time away on plot, grammar, polishing up loose ends etc. ( Of course I've completed a second story- creativity is crazy.)
I'm also WALKING. I can't begin to say how amazing it is to wake up with not a single pain in my back, legs or shoulders- dropping around 10 pounds means the utmost difference between misery and an almost light headed strength. You would think it should be easy but it's not- something has to make a person really happy and motivated to actually go and do it and keep doing it. I'm eating less as well- not even thinking about it either. Speaking of which, I had marinated grouse last night for dinner. My husband shot 2 birds 2 days earlier and prepared them for last nights supper. Delicious meat and very lean- lovely stuff for a game bird. :)
Now on to the meat of this post:



Black On Gold - bigger view

The bear was literally 'climbing a mountain' as the old song goes. My camera was set at manual exposure which I did not realize when I was taking the shots. I had to do quite a bit of correcting in software to balance out the colour which is why it has that kind of 'post card' look.



Nefangled - bigger view

I was driving west of Merritt on 'Sunshine Valley Road' and saw this bizarre construction near the road at the entrance to someone acreage. A shame the weather was so dull- I wound up altering the colour a bit to enhance the weird mood of the whole thing!



Garak - bigger view

But as I said, these days it's 'real' art as in traditional drawing. I've picked up my pencils again and am happy to say that although I'm rusty with the portraiture and my tastes in subject matter have gone a bit odd I am still capable of pulling off a respectable drawing and as a bonus- getting a decent likeness!
I made a first attempt with the Cardassian character from DS9: Garak, the tailor/spy which didn't turn out resembling him at all but the third and forth attempt got closer. I never was one to hammer away at sketch after sketch till I got it right - I was lazy- but I kept trying with this one before deciding to stop at this point. That lazy artistic ethic is something I will really have to work hard on to overcome.



Gul Dukat - bigger view

But besides laziness there is a bit of artistic epiphany. I finally decided to go back to doing things the way I should always have been doing them instead of persisting with rules that never really worked for me: I was completely prepared to go through 4 drafts to get a resemblance for the next picture so I decided 'might as well get comfy and start the way I like' - RATHER than the way I had been taught in school. And strangely enough the first sketch became the final portrait. Maybe not the greatest resemblance to the character but a finer and more committed work than the other portrait.

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Hopefully it won't be a month between the next post.