12/01: Still alive
… and in Phoenix. Again. And for some weeks, this time.
It’s not all bad. Phoenix in January is actually not scorchingly hellishly hot. It’s actually kinda nice. 18ish by day, 5ish by night.
Mind you, you can’t so much ski. And I miss my mountain.
… or, okay, you sorta can. As, apparently, there are mountains a few hours to the north, with groomed trails, even. And, in fact, after having had something of a breakthrough in the thing I came down here to get done, I probably could, even, in good conscience escape for a few days in that direction over the next weekend, if I wanted.
… except that by ‘sorta can’ I mean: the snow pack is 24 inches at best, right now, apparently. I’m not sure that’s quite worth the trouble.
Anyway. Had a sleepless ‘n confused night t’other evening, byproduct of long days of travel. And so another one of these happened:
… click, as previously, for legible version.
(/Fun and serendipitous fact: prior to his death some months back now, Keane lived right ‘round these parts, in Scottsdale.)
It’s not all bad. Phoenix in January is actually not scorchingly hellishly hot. It’s actually kinda nice. 18ish by day, 5ish by night.
Mind you, you can’t so much ski. And I miss my mountain.
… or, okay, you sorta can. As, apparently, there are mountains a few hours to the north, with groomed trails, even. And, in fact, after having had something of a breakthrough in the thing I came down here to get done, I probably could, even, in good conscience escape for a few days in that direction over the next weekend, if I wanted.
… except that by ‘sorta can’ I mean: the snow pack is 24 inches at best, right now, apparently. I’m not sure that’s quite worth the trouble.
Anyway. Had a sleepless ‘n confused night t’other evening, byproduct of long days of travel. And so another one of these happened:
… click, as previously, for legible version.
(/Fun and serendipitous fact: prior to his death some months back now, Keane lived right ‘round these parts, in Scottsdale.)
11/12: Oh, okay. One more.
Yeah, I said I wasn’t gonna be doing more of these. But dammit, the laptop was just sitting there. And I’ve missed drawing these two.
(… click, as previously, for legible version.)
ETA: I’m liking this whole no-mess way of getting more or less the same result as I did more ‘n a decade ago. But, oddly enough, I think I may have experienced some form of synaesthesia doing this one. Last night, doing the final assembly, I coulda sworn I could actually smell the india ink. And again, absolutely no real brush nor paper nor ink was involved.
(… click, as previously, for legible version.)
ETA: I’m liking this whole no-mess way of getting more or less the same result as I did more ‘n a decade ago. But, oddly enough, I think I may have experienced some form of synaesthesia doing this one. Last night, doing the final assembly, I coulda sworn I could actually smell the india ink. And again, absolutely no real brush nor paper nor ink was involved.
… however, in my defense, c’mon. This laptop here, it has a tablet. On the screen. You can, like, draw right on the thing.
… so what else would you expect me to do but try something like this with it:
(… click for legible version.)
Discoveries: yes, you can coerce the stylus to act a fair bit like a drybrush. Sorta. A lot of those lines are actually built up in multiple strokes, to emulate the effect. But I think with a little practice, I could do a lot more of ‘em in a single stroke.
… and yes, the Gimp and a tablet laptop are a pretty cool combination for doing this stuff. Do your ‘pencil’ rough on one layer, ‘ink’ right over top of it on another, and away we go. Notwithstanding the (also deliberately retro) reference to photocopies, no actual paper was used in the making of this thing. It’s all digital, start to finish. And yeah, it is a fair bit faster and easier than a real drybrush on real bristol… real drybrushes don’t have an ‘Undo’ button.
Still, sadly, yeah, that’s probably going to be the only one I ever do. Faster and easier all the same, it’s still just more hours I do not have in my life.
What can ya do. I’d probably have to live several centuries to find the time for all the stuff I’d like to try, truth is.
… so what else would you expect me to do but try something like this with it:
(… click for legible version.)
Discoveries: yes, you can coerce the stylus to act a fair bit like a drybrush. Sorta. A lot of those lines are actually built up in multiple strokes, to emulate the effect. But I think with a little practice, I could do a lot more of ‘em in a single stroke.
… and yes, the Gimp and a tablet laptop are a pretty cool combination for doing this stuff. Do your ‘pencil’ rough on one layer, ‘ink’ right over top of it on another, and away we go. Notwithstanding the (also deliberately retro) reference to photocopies, no actual paper was used in the making of this thing. It’s all digital, start to finish. And yeah, it is a fair bit faster and easier than a real drybrush on real bristol… real drybrushes don’t have an ‘Undo’ button.
Still, sadly, yeah, that’s probably going to be the only one I ever do. Faster and easier all the same, it’s still just more hours I do not have in my life.
What can ya do. I’d probably have to live several centuries to find the time for all the stuff I’d like to try, truth is.
