Creative Entry #6: Planning A Roleplay Event

This entry links back to my first Creative Entry Blog here: http://canadian-rainwater.blogspot.com/2010/01/creative-reflection-1-on-roleplay.html which was about roleplay in the MMORPG 'Aion'. As I mentioned in that first entry, the roleplay community, how much of it there is, and the kind of "Roleplay Events" that are planned are a major make-or-break factor for me in any game I play. In the past, timezones and the small roleplay community in 'Ryzom' eventually drove me from the game, as it got dull roleplaying with the same three or four people, and otherwise waiting for those same people to login. 'Everquest II' had roleplay tags so you could see who was a roleplayer and who wasn't, and there was a decent roleplay community there, but I left it to play 'Age of Conan'. I am a massive Conan nerd and LOVE the artwork of Frank Frazetta ... in fact "love" here is probably an understatement - Frazetta is my art God, so it was only natural I'd jump on an opportunity to play a game like 'AoC'. Sadly, while the roleplay community in 'AoC' was fairly active, it seemed to be only at certain hours of the day, which was usually late from 10pm-2am on for me, due to my playing on the European servers while I was living in Singapore (Asia). This made it incredibly hard to catch roleplayers during weekdays, and much of this roleplay was also "tavern roleplay" - the sort that involves sitting around in bars with a drink or some food and talking, which gets old very quickly.

'Aion' itself is a fairly new game, having been open to the US and EU for only about four months so far, so I don't expect the roleplay community to be as established and stable as in the other games I've played. As someone who was playing it since the last few Open Beta weekends, I've seen the roleplayers come and go. When the game first went live I couldn't sneeze without spraying on a roleplayer; one of the earliest things I remember was roleplaying with a friend of mine, walking throughout the main city, and running into three other people roleplaying within an area of town called the Vanahal Noble District. Since then, that area has become almost devoid of activity. While the tavern remains popular for roleplayers, it does get tedious, and sometimes I feel as if most of us roleplayers stay in contact via sending each other whispers or private tells, or by joining the private roleplay channel on Gorgos via the command /joinchannel Roleplay ARP.

Even the Aion Roleplay Forum http://www.aionroleplayers.com/ has gone eerily quiet on the Gorgos threads, which is disheartening, to say the least. I believe this is due in part to the gold farming and selling "bots" that run rampant throughout 'Aion', throwing the game economy awry, and hacking accounts. Gold botting and selling is illegal according to NCSoft's terms of agreement, and after the first month more than 27,000 bots over both the US and EU servers were banned http://uk.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=285&page=3. A further 23,000 were later banned as well, and their efforts are still continuing: http://uk.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=394&page. However, more recently the people behind the bots have begun hacking player accounts. In the past month three roleplayers I knew had their accounts hacked by gold bots, lost all their good armor, weapons, and whatever they had in their account banks and warehouses, and became what I lovingly refer to as "zombies" - mere shells of charatcers running around killing mobs much too low for them for the items they drop, selling these items and otherwise farming mindlessly for Kinah (the in-game currency). For those unfamiliar with gaming terms, they then give the Kinah earned via these hacked bots to players who pay real-world money for it, which is illegal by NCSoft's terms of agreements. These three people who were hacked lost everything, and one even got banned. Sadly, she was also the leader of the largest Roleplay Legion on our server, and when she left I began to see fewer and fewer of her legionmates online.

That was basically a tedious and drawn-out way of saying "the roleplay community on 'Aion' is dwindling, and I wanted to do something about it". Since the major roleplay Legion is incapacitated at the moment due to disagreeable botivity, I decided to try and stir up the roleplay community on my own. Obviously this wasn't going to happen overnight, but through my OOC webcomics on DeviantArt I've already had FOUR people from the US servers come to Gorgos, on the EU servers, for the roleplay. My art has been getting the roleplay community noticed, so last weekend I went that little extra step further.

The idea itself was one I'd been sitting on for a while, and even discussed briefly with said member of the other Legion. I wanted to hold a Player-versus-Player (or PvP) event instead of tavern roleplay, using the lore and game mechanics NCSoft offered the players to have a little something more than just standing around talking. Guilds in 'Aion' are called Legions for a reason - the entire game is very PvP and miltary-oriented, with multiple factions fighting for dominion over what's left of their planet Atreia after the terrible Cataclysm that split it apart (two of these factions are playable). As such, I thought it was about time we had an event that took all this into consideration.

Being the lore-whore I am, and through my journeys exploring Asmodae, I've come across readable books throughout the game that reveal more and more small snippets about the lore. I took screenshots of the books' pages and compiled them in a forum thread so people could read it, here: http://www.aionroleplayers.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=2990&start=10. One of my favorite areas in the game is a level 17-19 area in Altgard called "Impetusium", which is a ruined colloseum that is being rebuilt after hundreds of years in abandonment. Following the quest dialogue you help in the reconstruction efforts yourself when you run through this area, and I wanted to combine this with the story 'Impetusium of Glory' (the first story in the above link) to hold an event where Asmodian players would partake in a day of games like gladiators in the Roman colloseums would have done. When I first proposed this idea, the leader of the other Legion was already looking to plan something in the PvP arena in our main city of Pandaemonium, so I put the idea on hold, but when I found out she'd left I decided not to wait any longer.

The pot luck event our class held proved to me that planning things can count as a creative process, and this was my little take on it. Over the course of reading break I began contacting people in-game and planning the event. I spoke with a few players in the other Legion, who live in Europe, and asked about good times for them, and then tried to find a good overlap with the members of my Legion that live in Canada/the US. I finally settled on 6pm Saturday for those in Europe, as it's shortly after dinner, people are back from work, and there's no immediate rush to get to bed early for work the next day. This amounted to 9am for me, and 11-12am for the others in our legion, and seemed the best time. Of course some people did have work, but it's hard to please everyone, and I did the best I could.

I then drew out an advertisment and broadcasted it on both my DeviantArt website: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Impetusium-A-Day-of-Games-153556234 and the Aion Roleplayers Forum: http://www.aionroleplayers.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=3117&p=44974#p44974.

I posted this advert a week in advance, which gave people plenty of time to prepare for it. I then contacted a few players to help me "cater" for the event. According to the lore, Impetusium was once a bustling hub of activity, of sparring, games, jousting events for money, to settle disputes, what have you, as well as a main trade berth boasting exotic goods and food. I contacted a few players to cook in-game food for the event, while I and another legionnaire made health and mana potions for the fighters. All this was done in advance, so when the day finally rolled around we made our way to the grounds early and set up player shops. We could roleplay while we sat there advertising our wares, and I thought it was good fun. I also shouted out on the roleplay channel every half an hour, ten minutes, and five minutes before the event, as well as poked anyone I knew on Skype to be present.

The turnout wasn't as great as it could have been, and I had hoped for more people to attend, but as my first attempt planning and hosting a roleplay event I think overall it was a success. We ended up delaying the fights until an hour after the original planned start, as we needed that time for everyone to trickle in to join the games, and also to get down their names for the event. My boyfriend helped me here and drew up a table, organizing people according to their level brackets (21-25, 26-30, 31-35, etc. etc. ...) and then calling them up to duel in pairs. Impetusium is a flight area, so people were able to take to the skies with their characters and duel in the air as well as on the ground. It was a proccess of elimination: two people would fight, the winner fought the next one in line, and so on. In the meantime I had written a speech about a week prior and Jaris read it aloud at the beginning of the event.

(Above: the speech I read. Originally Jaris said "and my General Bix ...", to which she intercepted and yelled "BRIGADE General Bix!" for a fun twist we had planned in advance. I put screenshots of the actual event in the image above - those are all real people playing their own characters - in the hopes of perhaps attracting more people to join us in future.)

(Above: the winners for each level bracket that attended. I spent days worrying about how to reward the winners, what prizes to give them, as many items in-game have far too much worth to be handed out simply as rewards. In the end I had the idea of using Bronze, Silver, and Gold "coins" that are easily gained by doing a few repeatable quests. They may not be worth all that much, but they stayed in the spirit of bronze, silver, and gold medallions, and people seemed to enjoy getting even such a small thing as thanks for coming.)

Although I was very nervous at first that my first roleplay event would fall flat on its face, I am happy with how it turned out in the end. People seemed to have fun - I know I did! - and enjoyed a break from their usual routine of grinding, or from tavern roleplay. I've entertained the idea of holding it again sometime in the future, after having planned a few more, or maybe planning one in the PvP arena next time, so more than one player can fight each other at the same time. My goals for improvement, then, should that happen, is to get more people excited enough to join us, possibly through more thorough planning, maybe over the course of two weeks instead of one, and more propaganda to attract more players. Heck, I can draw, I'll use my artsy skills to bribe them next time! "First place winner gets a free drawing!" Overall, I thought the event was a success, and I can't wait to host another one. Hopefully this will draw more roleplayers to our server in the future.

--Sak

Creative Entry #5: Crossover Art

As I've already established (or hope that I have) I draw a lot. As in, a whole lot, and most of this art I upload to my online gallery on Deviantart: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/ Since discovering DeviantArt more than four years ago I felt like my art's improved in leaps and bounds, and I can spend hours just poring through the galleries of artists I like. Usually I'll drop them a comment, or "fave" a piece of their art if I especially like it. Since then I've developed my style mostly following people with similar art styles to mine. For instance, I love cartoons and animations, facial expressions, and crazy angles, but dislike anime/manga with a passion, and most "realistic" art doesn't strike my fancy as much as a little comic that makes me laugh. Some artists who greatly inspired me were http://enolianslave.deviantart.com/, http://shoomlah.deviantart.com/, and http://abigailryder.deviantart.com/. More recently names like http://tracyjb.deviantart.com/, http://coelasquid.deviantart.com/, and http://teonora.deviantart.com/ have been added to my "watch" list because their styles really appeal to me. That's not to say I don't watch artists who don't draw in comic-like styles (I watch over 200 people on DeviantArt all with various styles) but, most of the time, when I see something from these artists I spend time poring over the little details: how they drew the nose, positioned the eyes, the mouth, etc. so that I might improve in my own work later on.

This brings me to one of my other favorite aspects of DeviantArt: meeting new people. Since joining four years ago I've found myself in all sorts of "circles" of people, usually based around fanart. On my first account, "solarpoweredgeek", I drew a lot of fanart of the cartoon series 'Invader Zim' or the comic book 'Johnny the Homicidal Maniac' by Jhonen Vasquez (every teenager had their angsty period, and I was no different, though I hate to admit it). During this time strange original characters such as rapist assassins, dinosaur internet personas, and vampires ran rampant in my art. Some of these people who I "watch" later "watch" me back, and sometimes DeviantArt becomes a bit of a chat site for me, where I talk with the people who comment a lot. I meet a lot of people who share similar interests to the content of my work. Sometimes these friendships result in crazy collaborations like the following:

Memes. Memes are a DeviantArt phenomenon, and are usually blank questionnaires for a whole SLEW of various topics (be it Disney movies, "Meet your Original Character" memes, or procrastination memes) that you then have to fill out with art. I've done a few memes already over the course of my stay on DeviantArt, although not usually too often because I tend to spend too much time adding details to something people will barely glance at (memes are meant to be filled out quickly). Some of my previous memes were the "Art Meme" (OLD): http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Art-Semen-66667612, the "Fanservice Meme" (OLD): http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Fanservice-meme-Colored-114838971, the "Disney Meme": http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Disney-Meme-145061823, the "Meet Your OC Meme": http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Meet-Your-OC-Meme-145661675, and the "2003-2009 Improvement Meme": http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/SAK-s-Improvement-Meme-152319693. These are all single-person Memes, that is to say, they're about me and I filled them out by myself.

More recently, however, I came across the "Doubles Meme", which becomes a collaborative effort: http://renny08.deviantart.com/art/Remie-s-Double-Meme-127549078. This time the Meme is divided into two, and two artists fill it out (each does their half seperately) then surprises each other with the final result. I asked a friend from DeviantArt, Aoixin http://aoixin.deviantart.com/ if she'd like to do it with me, and we did:
Most of the jokes are inside jokes relating to our OCs (Original Characters) and the MMORPG 'Aion', which we both play, and through which we found each other via searching Aion art. This was such a fun Meme to do, because I was chatting with Aoixin to the side throughout drawing it, not so that I'd give anything away, but it was still fun just chatting, and the end results were hilarious. In fact, I found a collaboration like this so much fun I decided to do it again ... with my sister! http://threevoices.deviantart.com/
I don't draw collaborations very often, but I found both of these to be very enjoyable to fill out. It even bolstered my confidence about drawing digitally straight into Photoshop with my tablet, so much so that I want to draw more stuff digitally, instead of drawing it traditionally with pencil and pen, scanning it, and coloring it on the computer.

--Sak

Book Response - The Element, by Ken Robinson, Ph.D.

This Book Response was a homework assignment for my FA100-A01/T01 class, as was uploading it here to my blog. Please respect this and don't copy/reproduce, nor any of the work shown. Thank you.
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'Doing something “for your own good” is rarely good if it causes you to become less than you really are’ (pg. 139) … this is a quote from Ken Robinson (Ph.D.)’s book ‘The Element’ which I read for the purpose of this book response. As with most reading assignments, I expected to find the book choices bland and dull, braced my heels in the dirt, and expected a long, dry read. However, this quote struck me hard and stuck with me despite the one-hundred and twenty one pages that followed, and in the end I am glad I chose to read it.

His book explores the idea of peoples’ creative “Element”, that is to say, “the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together” (Introduction, xiii). Throughout the eleven chapters Robinson gives examples of famous people in history, some of who are still around today, whose’ lives were changed because they found their creative Element. These people discovered what they were meant to be doing, and strove to make it their life’s work, despite usually being met by opposition from family or friends. A few of the examples he gives are Paul McCartney (pg. 9), Matt Groening (pg. 4), and Helen Pilcher (pg. 108).

It’s pretty daunting, getting handed a four-page long list of books to choose from, and my first concern was not only finding the books in the first place (in a country I haven’t lived in before), but also finding a book I liked. However, I needn’t have worried; no sooner had I skimmed through the first few pages of ‘The Element’ than I was hooked. The Element is “the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion”, and while you are engrossed in your Element “time passes differently and [you] are more alive, more centered, and more vibrant than at any other times” (pg. 21). I read this and recognized instantly that this book appealed to me because I could relate to it at once: my Element is art, more specifically drawing. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about, and that I’ve been doing since I could hold a crayon in my mouth. So why, then, didn’t I make a drawing in response to Robinson’s book? Truth be told that was my original intention, but after reading it there were so many things I had to say that I wanted to write down as much as I could in an attempt to share my thoughts.

Paul Samuelson said “Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play … this turns possible underachievers into happy warriors” (pg. 7). As previously mentioned one of the first things I “discovered” about myself was that I loved drawing. Picking up a pen or pencil and making pictures come out came as naturally to me as breathing, and all throughout kindergarten I was constantly drawing. We received cheap sketchbooks from our kindergarten teachers that we would doodle in during “Drawing time”, and I would fill page after page with mostly the same thing: pictures of dragons, fire dragons, water dragons, breathing-fire-at-knights dragons. At that time I didn’t draw humans or many other animals, but that didn’t stop my friends in my class from wanting me to draw for them too. I even irritated the teachers because the other children never wanted to draw on their own anymore, instead they always asked me “Shamine, draw a dragon for me next!” Reading in Robinson’s book that Dr. Terence Tao, a mathematician since a young age, was “extremely fortunate because he arrived at his version of the Element when he was very, very young” (pg. 101) made me giddy, because I’ve known since I was small that “when I [grew] up, I want to become an artist.” It also made me feel very fortunate that I could “be what [I] was naturally inclined to be before the world put any restrictions on [me]” (pg. 102).

What Robinson is referring to is that young children don’t see the need to think outside the box, because they don’t know the box is there. Dr. Tao—and myself—were fortunate to discover our Element before we were old enough to have the “real world” bearing down on us, telling us what would be the “right” thing to do to land a job that would keep the bills paid. That’s not to say I haven’t been met with opposition for my passion in art throughout my life, but again Robinson’s book gave me more examples that proved to me I don’t have to take others’ opinions so seriously, when they tell me there’s no future in art.

For instance, Matt Groening, who everyone knows as the artist and creator of ‘The Simpsons’, would draw in class to keep himself amused (pg. 4). Drawing in class is something I’ve been doing avidly since sixth grade, and it was only in ninth grade that teachers finally left me alone about it, because my grades were almost always the top few of the class. Also like me, “his teachers and parents … tried to encourage him to do something else with his life” (pg. 5), and it was in his first-grade teacher that he found inspiration. Throughout my life my parents, particularly my father, have turned down the idea of art as a profession because of how unstable and difficult it is. He’s a banker, graduated from the University of British Columbia with a major in engineering, and is very left-brain oriented, which didn’t help his opinion of the arts. That’s not to say he discouraged me completely, on the contrary he’d always make sure there was paper and pencils and pens to be had, so that my sister and I could whip out drawings to our hearts’ content, but the underlying tone was always there: do well in maths and sciences, because that’s where you can make a “good living”.

For Groening, his first-grade teacher kept his pieces, which flattered him because “there’s like, you know, hundreds of kids going through [there]” (pg. 5). I was surprised at this, because in the first grade I had a teacher who I still remember very well for how much she supported me, even at that early age. Ms. Velasquez was always very happy and encouraged my drawing to a certain degree. There were always times where drawing all over my paper was unacceptable, of course, and she made sure I learned that, but she cherished the pictures I drew and would constantly tell my parents that I had something there. I was living in Japan at the time, and when I left she gave me two illustrated books about the culture of Japan done in a very cartoony way, and even signed one, telling me to keep on drawing, so that one day when I was famous she could point and say “I taught her!”

Robinson also makes clear the importance of “mentors” in many of these successful peoples’ lives. These are people “who [see] something in us that we don’t see in ourselves … [or] a person [who brings] out the best in us” (pg. 174). Again I have to recall Ms. Velasquez, as my parents have told me it was her constantly reminding them that I had something there that finally led them to believe I wasn’t just another kid drawing scribbles on a piece of paper. At that time, too, drawing was just something I found “fun”, but I had never considered having any sort of talent, especially when I saw the art older students were producing. But it was things like this that have kept me going, and to see examples of others who had similar experiences, complete with discouragement from family members, in Robinson’s book gave me hope that maybe I could achieve something similar later in my life.

Robinson also points out that the reason many people are discouraged from finding (or, if they’ve found it already, pursuing) their Element is due to the outdated education systems we have. The educational systems most schools still follow were “designed to meet the economic interests of those times … dominated by the Industrial Revolution in Europe in America” (pg. 13). During the eighteenth and nineteenth century mathematics, science, and language were important because of the jobs arising as a result of the rapid industrial improvements in nations across the globe. Additionally, the academic culture of universities has “tended to push aside any sort of activity that involves the heart, the body, the senses, and a good portion of our actual brains” (pg. 13). Schools are no longer nurturing the students’ Elements. An extreme example Robinson gives to illustrate his point is of Paul McCartney, lead singer of The Beatles, and Elvis Presley (no need to introduce him) who were both rejected from their schools’ choirs because “[they] weren’t … good enough [singers]” (pg. 11). Paul finished school without anyone once acknowledging he had any sort of musical talent at all, and yet he went on to become part of a band that sold millions of gold albums around the world, and is still being celebrated today.

As a result of these academic systems being carried through into today’s generation, children’s creativity is limited, if not “destroyed”. People still believe that force-feeding their children a “nationally prescribed menu of reading, writing, and arithmetic” (pg. 15) will see them better prepared for university, and a well-paid job in the end, even when this pushes their children into a direction that doesn’t nurture their creative input. For instance, societies have even based themselves around the IQ test to see if their children are qualified for tougher systems of education. Ironically, Alfred Binet, who was one of the creators of the IQ test, intended it to be used to identify children with special needs so they could receive compatible schooling. Another extreme example of society’s preconceptions about intelligence is the SATS. Robinson quotes John Katzman, who criticised the SATS, saying “What makes the SAT bad is that it was nothing to do with what kids learn in high school … the SAT has been sold as snake oil; it measures intelligence, verified high school GPA, and predicted college grades. In fact, it’s never done the first two at all, nor a particularly good job at the third.” (pg. 42).

I include these examples because I agree with Robinson’s arguments completely, in fact I ruled out the options of going to university in the USA because I didn’t want to have to participate in what I considered a useless test. However, it was also rejuvenating to read an adult’s opinion that I agreed with, stating how outmoded these IQ tests and strictly academic-based school systems are. My parents made me participate in an IQ test when I lived in Australia, and throughout my two years there they were constantly sending me off for a few weeks to participate in MENSA, a “society” of people considered to have the highest IQs in the world. And let me make it perfectly clear: I hated it. I remember complaining and wondering why I had to spend my summer break cooped inside large halls, feeling so small and timid sitting by myself, a third-grader surrounded by sixth, eighth, maybe twelfth-graders, bent over exam sheets and tables. In fact, the only thing these MENSA weeks managed to do was make me feel all manner of miserable and stupid, because the questions always confused and confounded me, and I felt like I didn’t know anything.

Some people overcame these barriers set up by the educational system, and the stress from their parents and families to conform to these linear expectations, by leaving them, even if temporarily. This reminded me of one of my creative influences who I absolutely idolize: the Gothic musician, artist, stop-motion animator, writer, and teacher, Mr. Aurelio “Voltaire” Hernández (quite a mouthful isn’t it). In his blog (yes, he keeps one, and it’s a very interesting read, including not only snippets of stories that he’s written, but sometimes his creative process as well) he mentions, in regards to his family looking down on him, that “ … at seventeen I was smart enough to know when to run. And that's what I did. And I never looked back.” He also states in an interview that “I think that schooling is important for some … However, some of us are better off without schooling.” I think he’d be interested in reading Robinson’s book. These days he’s released ten song albums, nine comics, two books, and has made many stop-motion animations and, perhaps ironically, teaches stop-motion at the New York School of Visual Arts.

The final point in this book that really stuck with me, was when Robinson suggests that “most of the people in this book … found [their] way not only when [they] found [their] Element but also when [they] found [their] tribe.” (pg. 131). He also mentions being in “The Zone”. To be in the Zone is to be “deep in the heart of the Element” (pg. 86), and finding the right tribe involves finding people who share your passion about your Element, or a similar one. I could relate to this once more as I associate my tribe with the website DeviantArt . DeviantArt is an online art community I discovered accidentally more than four years ago, where artists around the world can create an account for free and upload pictures into an online gallery. As Robinson said, “often we need other people to help us recognize our real talents. Often we help other people to discover theirs.” (pg. 25). On DeviantArt many of the people there have already discovered their Element is art through whatever means (digital photos, digital paintings, traditional oil paints, watercolors, pencil sketches, prisma colors, you name it) or at the very least enjoy art to the side and can offer constructive criticism and support to artists they admire. Occasionally I’ll get a comment on my page from someone saying my art inspires them, and it’s a nice feeling, to know they’re finding their tribe, too.

Robinson includes a good quote by Isaac Newton, saying “If I saw further it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants” (pg. 118). This refers to Newton’s discoveries not having been completely his own, but as a result of building off the discoveries of scientists before him. This quote is relevant, as, like Newton, I through DeviantArt and the artists I’ve met feel as though I’ve developed even in my own “field of expertise”. Recently I completed a “meme” that had been circulating DeviantArt, where you post snippets of your art in 2003 through to 2009 to show how you’ve improved, and the jump from 2006, when I first joined DeviantArt, and to where I am now is tremendous. Throughout the last four years I’ve been looking up tutorials on how to effectively color digitally, asking other artists (who were kind enough to answer!) how they achieved this certain effect, and lately exchanging art or having other people so enthralled by my own characters that they want to give me gift art. It’s really an empowering experience, and gives me all the more courage to pursue my Element. Additionally, some of these people on DeviantArt such as Nathie, Kerem Beyit, and Richard Johnston, do what they love for a living: they’re in their Element.

I’m not suggesting Robinson is egging me on to run away from my home in the hopes of building myself an artistic empire from the bottom up, or ditching school in the hopes of achieving what Voltaire managed to do, but ‘The Element’ offered many inspiring examples of people who have been able to do what they love for a living, and how they did it. The main reason I enjoyed reading this book so much, despite my initial intimidation, was that I felt I was able to connect to it, and relate what I was reading to people I know and/or idolize.


--Sak
External links:

Voltaire's blog: http://voltairenyc.blogspot.com/
Voltaire interview quoted: http://www.starvox.net/intview/voltaire.htm
Voltaire's official website: http://www.voltaire.net/

The Meme I completed to show the improvement of my art found here http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/SAK-s-Improvement-Meme-152319693:

Examples of fanart mentioned in the reponse aboveMy character Jaris from the MMORPG 'Aion - Tower of Eternity' as drawn by me (Sept. 6th, 2009) found here: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/OOC-About-Alchemy-p2-136067555
Fanart of Jaris by Nathie (January 25th, 2010) found here: http://nathie.deviantart.com/art/Hello-Mr-Sexy-151712083
My original creation, the dragon species called "Baroca" (Nov. 14th, 2009) found here: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Watersports-152749364

Fanart of my Baroca, a sculpture by Richard Johnston found here: http://richardj.deviantart.com/

Creative Entry #4: Digital Water

Man I feel so stressed out for uni, and when I get too stressed about what I have to do - when projects are due, keeping up with research assignments, and finishing two paintings within the next week - my brain tends to shut off, and trying to get anything academic done, such as book reviews and essays, would be an exercise in futility. So on days like this, when everything else is just BLOCKED, I resort to art.

Recently my good friend Richard Johnson, from DeviantArt http://richardj.deviantart.com/, finished an amazingly detailed sculpture of one of my made-up fantasy creatures, the dragon-lizards I call "Barocas". I was stunned to see his interpretation of my creatures (see below), and I was also especially flattered to see someone so interested in my strange monsters as to want to turn it into something three-dimensional. It made it seem so much more real!

Well this sculpture also reminded me that I had an unfinished pen drawing of a Baroca I drew in November 2009, when my laptop crapped out and had to go in for repairs for a month. During that time I drew and colored like mad, until my Intuos 4 tablet burned out and the picture sat on my hardrive, forgotten and unfinished ... until now, that is.

So last night, during my creative stint, I finished the picture. I actually began to color it the day before that as well, but the details in the background and ESPECIALLY the water took forever. (Original link here: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Watersports-152749364). I had to use Dianae's water tutorial (another artist on DeviantArt) for tips on how to digitally paint water, found here: http://dianae.deviantart.com/art/Simple-Water-Splash-Tutorial-89945904.

This reminded me of something Ken Robinson mentioned in the book I'm reading, 'The Element', in which he mentions finding your "tribe" will help you to excel further in your Element (the thing you love to do, and that comes easily to you). I long considered DeviantArt to be "my place" as far as little niches on the internet goes. These days most people like to use Myspace or Facebook, but I'm logging into DeviantArt daily instead, where I feel like I've found my tribe. In his book Robinson states that "often we need other people to help us recognize our real talents. Often we help people to discover theirs" (pg. 25); tutorials like Dianae's are an example of sharing ideas and styles to help improve yours and others' creative processes and techniques. I found her suggestions to paint water very useful for this picture, although it didn't make it any less arduous!


--Sak

Creative Entry #3: One and One makes One

So we've already established I don't do much by the way of photography, and neither do I like taking photos of myself. Taking a step back and thinking about it, I realize it might not just be because I'm uncomfortable and more than a little conscious about how I look, but also because it's been done before so many times through various ways. I'm one of those silly people who can get pretty damn nitpicky about making something unique, it's part of why I strive to put so much detail into my pieces, I suppose, so that even if the subject matter has been done before it can still make people go "wow, that is neat!", but I digress.

Last week while browsing DeviantArt, my little niche in the big bad internet, one of the people I "watch" uploaded an interesting ID for their homepage:

Original link here: http://astrozerk04.deviantart.com/art/In-my-Mug-ID-151909859

The minute I saw this ID I loved it and knew I had to try it for myself. Combining photography with an art form I prefer like drawing wasn't something unknown to me, in fact I'd had the idea to do something similar before, but perhaps not for an ID. But usually when I draw the sketch is done in pencil, the lineart finalized in ballpoint or gel pen, and the only digital touch is in the final coloring stage when I whip out my trusty Intuos 4 tablet, Photoshop CS, and a movie to run in the background while I work. Seeing AstroZerk04's ID gave me a little boost of "I can do this!" and I tried drawing straight on a photo of me on Photoshop, keeping everything from the sketch to the final version entirely in a digital medium.

The result was as follows:

... And I wasn't happy with it. The character behind me is my roleplay character from Aion - The Tower of Eternity: Jaris the Asmodian, and everything about him just looked so off. He was too short, hence I cropped the original photo in an attemtpt to create the optional illusion that he's taller than me, and his face came all wrong, not nearly as dashing and (dare I say it?) sexy as he's supposed to me. And so, after brooding on it for almost a week, I took out my tablet, took a few deep breaths, and tried again:

Original link here: http://canadian-rainwater.deviantart.com/art/Jaris-Shrine-152243238

I'm much happier with the newest version, having learnt from my mistakes before and using the tools Photoshop gives me (such as the ability to crop certain areas of my base sketch to skew and resize it, allowing me to make the body more proportonal before adding the final colors) to improve. Additionally, I also used some of the fanart seen on the wall (in particular, my friend Nathie's interpretation of Jaris, seen here: http://nathie.deviantart.com/art/Hello-Mr-Sexy-151712083) as a reference to make Jaris's face a little closer to how I saw it.

It's not perfect, but I'm still learning. And practise makes better than nothing.

--Sak