heat, art, and hair

[rivendellrose]

It's very warm (for Seattle) today - 91 F at the moment and supposed to stay that way through Tuesday, and in a sure sign that Seattle is still Seattle, the National Weather Service has issues a heat advisory to remind us that Seattleites are not adapted to temperatures above about 80 F. I know this isn't a big deal for a lot of people, and honestly I feel pretty comfy about it as long as I'm in my airy apartment, but we walked to the International District for breakfast and a little shopping this morning, and I definitely did not enjoy the hill (and the slightly mistaken detour we took) on the way home. Phew. I think I'll stay close to home for the rest of the day, probably.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd put up a quick re-post of the Secret Project that I posted to babylon5_love yesterday. With thanks to icepixie for the idea - I've been working on this ever since we talked about the Art Nouveau influences of the visual style on B5.

Thumbnail:






Click to enlarge. :)

Now that I'm done with that, I have one more day next Friday, for which I hope to finish something else I've been working on for quite a while (we'll see... it keeps fighting me). Writing this time, I'm afraid - as much as I want to do more complete art projects like this, they take a lot of time, and I feel like I've been letting myself get a little rusty with writing lately. I've been working, but things haven't necessarily gelled the way I'd like them to. I feel very much as though I'm in one of those awkward growth periods where nothing quite seems to come out right, and the only way I know to get through those is to keep pounding words and hoping that they start sounding better. So, we'll see.

In other news, I finally scheduled an appointment for a hair trim today. Totally new salon, just one that's a block away from my apartment, so I hope they don't... I don't know, chop off all my hair and give me a mohawk or something. It's just a trim, so it ought to be fine. Just a little unnerving.

Comments

[icepixie]

That is AMAZING! Wow! I love the cruisers in the background, and the...lampposts? at the top. The design as a whole is very nifty. It definitely reminds me of a Paris Metro station sign and other Art Nouveau stuff.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a lot of fun with it. ♥ The bits on the sides? They're the Grey Council staff. Or at least they're meant to be, my screen-cap collection was a little fuzzy on the exact shape of the thing at the top of the staff. And yay for getting the Nouveau look at least sort of right!

[icepixie]

I recognized the staffs--awesome, BTW--but I meant the big white circles at the very top, right next to each of the cruisers. I think they might just be part of the curvy branch-like things in the background, but they look sort of like big, old-fashioned lamps.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, gah, those things. They're... um... ...you know, lamp posts is as good an explanation as I've got, honestly. They're pretty much an artifact of me sketching and thinking "oh, three circles would be nice, tie in the whole threes thing and keep it from being too focused on twos." I'm fairly sure there was an intention early on to make at least the two side ones into planets (possibly all three?) but... that got lost at some point in the process. *Headdesk*

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Aw, you're so cute. 91 degrees. We're at 92 today and it feels like heaven.

Picture? Still pretty!

You have a much better attitude than me when it comes to writing; sometimes, when things aren't working for me, I just find myself doing other writing but not writing things; outlining, editing, researching, etc. I have a hard time sitting down and actually coming up with words if it doesn't feel right, which is something I'm working on. My favorite quote about this is from Frank Herbert; I'm trying to take a page from his book:

So I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I've heard about it. I've felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I'd much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two.

And, you know, it's true; when I finally sit down to revise or edit or just polish, I can usually no longer remember the parts that came easy as pie and the parts that I had to pull out with a pair of pliers.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Inside or in the shade, 91 is lovely. Outside, walking uphill in direct sunlight carrying groceries for 20 minutes (while construction crews are laying asphalt, gag)... not so lovely.

Outlining and editing and researching is a perfectly good use of time when not able to write... one that I will probably need to be using quite a bit in the coming months, once a project I'm doing with some friends gets the green-light again. Usually if I can't get things to work I spend my time going back over the rest of the piece, twiddling with phrasing and trying to get back into the flow of the piece. The difficulty right now (as always, I suppose) is that I have lots of potential distractions and a yen to work on something other than writing. And people wonder why I don't draw often - as soon as I finish a project, I want to do another, and it eats up all my free time! Which would be fine if I wasn't supposed to be writing and working a full-time job, too. ;)

That's a very good quote, and, yes, very true. Objectively, there never seems to be much difference. Process-wise, however... oh, it does make all the difference in the world, sometimes. I do sometimes feel like I'm forever chasing those moments where everything falls together naturally and the words seem to be writing themselves. But it wouldn't be a craft if it was always that easy.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

See, my problem with writing right now is writing; that is, fanfiction. Because it's fun and I can just go "lalala writing yay!" and there's no problem, but my actual writing? Blergh. I can't make myself work on something that actually matters, and I have to make every word perfect, and etc.

I am actually pondering a writing process/meta post; I'm a process whore, and want to collect everyone else's tricks and superstitions and rituals and so on.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, totally. I'm not even touching that whole issue right now - my serious original work projects are all kind of on hold at the moment for various reasons that basically boil down to some friends starting a niche (read: porn) literary mag and me waiting for the first issue to go to print so that I can see what I need to do for the next chapter. And also that I'm lazy and have been sucked into writing fanfic.

I don't have anything terribly clever in the way of process, but I love to read about other processes that work for other writers. You should totally do that! ♥

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's wonderful! &hearts

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to do. ♥

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

Wow! That is just an amazing picture!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was a lot of fun!

[miss-arel.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's gorgeous! It's changed so much since last I saw it. Beautiful!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a lot of fun doing the coloring. <3

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's beautiful!! How long did that take to do?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And let's see... about four hours the first day, an hour or so every evening that week, another three or four the next week. So about 13 hours total, roughly?

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Beautiful picture!

The thing about it being 90+ here as opposed to 90+ other places is that in most other places, AC is more common than it is here.

That said, our new place has AC included in the rent (first place I've lived with AC), and we're taking advantage of it on the 5 hot days of the year. >_>;;

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And yeah, the AC is definitely an issue. We're lucky, our new apartment stays relatively cool as long as we keep the windows open to get air-flow. The old one... eugh.

[cordeliadelayne]

Wow! I'm totally blown away. That's an amazing picture :D

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a lot of fun with it. :D

[joellehart.livejournal.com]

Ai! How elegant! I especially like the faceted crystals just below her hand.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ♥ The crystals were a lot of fun - I didn't start on them til I'd finished most of the rest of the original sketch, so I was able to just kind of relax and have fun with them.