Second time lucky?

I loved the delicacy of light and tone in the chrisnmonicas original photo ...earlier attempts ended unfortunately ... but such ripe roundness of form and monica's shy delicate smile were all too inspiring, firstly in charcoal then in a second attempt using a series of watercolour washes.


Watercolour on paper

I trust I have captured the delicacy better this time

Red reclining

Watercolour & pencil on paper

Oh no not that!

I've just had some disturbing news from my doctor ....i've felt dizzy and disoriented for a while ... and mostly not self inflicted (via overindulgence) ...seems i have some serious pressure problems in my eyes that this is causing a kind of come and go blurriness ... I had put down to the aftermath of previous problems. Am I supposed to stress out at the grim prognosis? ...rather I just want it to go away ... cause I know deep inside I have been ignoring it ...but why so many tests? ...what are they going to say ...other than make some doctors/medical test centers a little richer

the unfortunate wash

Watercolour washes on paper

It seems to have been a long time since I last did a watercolour sketch of my flickr friends .. maybe to long ...in my excited of getting a good ground for the blue in monicas's dress ... i let things get to soggy and the colours bleed and bloomed ... such is life ...pity it happens when you think you have captured the light ...oh well i just have to learn and try again

Good Content Trading & Timer Wasters

I'm glad to see that it is not only me ...that is a bit taken aback when trying to use an Apple Mac after becoming used to something else (aka microsofts various window clones, XP being my current burden) ...BUT what is the great appeal ... ok it does some basic things easily ... BUT it only does things ... there are never any buttons or switches to the creative stuff ...or even the mundane ... and everything seems to depend on tracking the mouse around the screen and a number of twickes on the mouse ...just getting the mouse trained to interpret my hand movements seemed a task and a half. me thinks the apple mac is for those people with a lot of time on there hands and not a lot of things to actually do

...SO where does that leave me ... I'm really a self taught user butIi'm already leaning towards the open source community ... yes all those geeks ... they are actually the creative folk the peoples I think I need to be with .... not the flashy "look at me" types in second life and with the noisey overtop myspace and facebook pages filled with every glitzy widget there is ... it is definitely time to start putting a tax... opps I mean TRADING SCHEME .... on GOOD CONTENT ... we need to realize that there is only a finite bandwidth and time to absorb it ...lets get rid of the me-too pollution on the interwebs

natural curves

Some time ago I inherited the private flickr group natural curves ... which at the time was loadedup with "glamour" shots stolen from others ... and particularly porn sites ...flickr doesn't seem to worry about that but it annoys the heck out of me ... firstly they are pretty boring, stereotypical, naked should mean porn anyway and I don't approve of stealing other work and posting it as your own ... So I set about deleting all the photos I could reasonably discern should not be there ...it took months ...there was a bit of flame mail but I stood firm ...& introduced moderation on submitted photos ...SO NOW flickr has again a place for curvy ladies and their photographer friends to post decent photos that pay homage to the wonderful curves of the human body ... hey blokes can be posted too, its just ladies have more curves. ... i also still moderate the public group the funbag fascination, which is also still civilized in its homage to naked female reasts

These couple of sketches are candidates to become the new buddy icon for the group.

Bigglesworth the penguin

Sometimes inspiration lurks in strange place ...not sure just why i started drawing red head penguins with bare feet ... oh thats right my timelady twitter friend, describes herself as one ...I find it is easy to be amused on twitter, even when it is working! ...anyway somewhere between that and a wood pecker I started imagining a super hero (or heroine) spheniscidaeian that could fly (as in the sky) ... well the red WWII aviator's helmet just seemed very appropriate... I wonder if Dr Who needs the little fella to help around the tardis

And some people have the gall tosuggest twitter is one of the worst time wasters on the web

the haircut

OK I'm a bloke and an old one at that... but there are still a few things I don't get about girls ... the all taking at the same time things and the obsessions with haircuts (and/or new "colour") ... what I do know is often they are always at their most radiant just before and just after the "new haircut" ... & deep in my brain there is a entry that says this is the very best (actually no the only) time to sketch a female friend ... I think it is because it is a fleeting moment when they are at one with themselves and their self image ... well it is my experience that it is a fleeing moment ... before the tantrum and storming off to have a shower and mutter about never going back to that person again .... just glad I'm a bloke

I could not manage to find a video of the waif's performing their wonderfully insightful "the haircut" but this young lady gives her all for the sang ... ok she tries too ... but I guess you will get the picture

The Haircut (The Waifs cover)

[via FoxyTunes / The Waifs]

armed & dangerous

I have had a lot of computer hassles lately so I have decided that i will stop worrying and just use what every is around... I wouldn't say I becoming obsessed with using computers in public ... ok I am actually starting to worry about some of the long time users at the local internet cafes and library... but I don't think I need to be as monogamous in my computer use ... infact my best work is inevitably done when my no using my computer... SO I'm on a interwebs computer diet kind of thing, looking to be slimmer and trimmer ...moving all my web interaction onto my sexy little black sports version of a memory key, using portable apps (gimp in particular), for my general purpose camera and scanner(using shozu & qipit) there is my mobile phone ... ok and i still need a pencil, pen, rubber & sketchpad ...ok there is no room for backups and archives but that's what the webs there for ... isn't it? Such is life

deja vu bebo guru

Bebo Guru – Flashback
I pause and listen, its a very simple melody, a flash back flashes as I listen to songs from my past, and I loose myself down memory lane, ...in a sentimental phase, ...it makes me sad... isn't it strange how a song can trigger such emotion. The memory can seam just like yesterday, light happy and full of fun and laughter, healing those deep wounds. I often wonder how you could begin to paint such emotion, does an image or a photo have to be personal, before you experience the moment, unlike a music which is likely to find a share experience...or is colour like melody and tonal balance like an unwritten song.


Flashback by bebo guru can be downloaded, at the moment for free, from Last.fm

monetization for nothing

One of the sessions I enjoyed most at pubcamp was the debate between Richard Walsh (representing the old school) and Browen Clune (the new whatever, it isn't really a school so much as a conversation. I really like her terminology of control media versus free media. BUT I worry that everyone is getting the perception that on the net, means free. The struggling creative type mentioned by richard, wont be able to sell anything even enough to buy beer. YET at the same time i worry about all the talk of monetization on the web, is just cover up for ways that the advertising networks (based in old school practices) can mop up any value before it reaches the creatives. Sad but such is life.

I feel the interwebs are a fatastic gallery to display your most creative work, but I don't yet know how to ensure that some value can trickle back to the creators ... or am I just a naive old bloke ... with a romantic view of the artist and bohemian as an enhancer of life and society?

Browen Clune has just recently posted a late account of her view of pubcamp

First blog post from ping.fm

My head is spinning with despair ... my notebook is sick again ... and now my scanner is getting bad tempered it did not like that horrid appleMac i borrowed and it has been moody ever since... my ipod is the same ... it is cold and if this cyber cafe didn't have such good coffee i'd be by a warm fire enjoying a beer by now and maybe some good conversation ...instead I'm think about technology and art, and the patience required ...tapping on a strange keyboard and wondering ....evil thoughts ...should i visit harvey norman or dick smith on my way home ...or try a fourth time at the service center ...loyalty wins ...one more chance you snotty nosed service brats.

the story behind the Twitter cocktail

On sunday we had a big house warming party ...and I was barman ... some time into the proceedings talk of the best cocktails merged with some heated discussion about things interweb and stalking, pedophiles and other weirdos... i was in a minority but we all like twitter so ... well somehow... this drink was born, a cocktail in less than 140 characters! ... and it was good


The Twitter Cocktail :: start with sugar cube covered in blue curacao, half shot of richard, top up glass with shaved ice & then lemonade

Ricard is a commercial version of the popular french aperitif pastis. The sugar cube dates back to the absinthe rituals and the blue curaco was the only blue liqueur I could lay my hands on. The shaved ice turns the ricard & curaco a milky light greeny blue, the shade of the default twitter background. BUT be warned the twitter is a drink to be savored slowly over much conversation, and just keep topping up the lemonade ...two or more and your tweets may become illegible.

(: now I need three interwebs windows ..browser, twitter & ping

g'morning m'blog world

... I wonder if ping.fm will work better than gtalk (;

words of peace

My words for peace list is getting longer but not really a tree worth yet, peace שלום (Shalom) سلام мир 和平 mir mino klid fred mano vrede rauha paix Frieden ειρήνη pace 평화 pokój paz
pace

if you know the word peace in another languages please email me or leave a comment ...merci

sultry

mid western couple, originally uploaded by sigh clone.

Watercolour on paper.

This was quite a challenge...and the third attempt... I wanted to capture the emotion and expression and in the end found that there is just a fleeting moment between washes and a touch of detail that you must STOP..also a limited palette of yellow ochre, crimsom and violet, and just a touch or two of cadmiun yellow and burnt umber... in other words less is more

mid western couple was the winner of the latest exposed wife comp

Art on Technology as a Gallery

Despite my warning on copyright (on the post below) I am not against sharing and collaboration, it is good for art ... exposure is even better ... there is little point creating a masterpiece and not showing it to anyone ... especially if you want to eat ... feel the glory ... get inspired by other ...all that involves being out there.

NOW for the crackpot theory ...these days everyone looks at screens for hours on end, so why not put art (my art, your art, anyones art) on those screens ... could be as a wallpaper ...could be as a slideshow ...could be a mashup ...SO stop mucking around and DO IT

IF you are arty make wallpapers ...email stationary ...turn your blog into a scrapbook ... it you just want to be arty seek out someone creative you admire and use there work (with permission of course) (:

sharing the creative wealth

A massive problem with the US-centric view of copyright was that it had become legally exploited by the middlemen ...publisher ...promoters ...agents to steal much of the value away from from the creative artists ...authors ...songwriters ..etc through long legal contracts that always had a tiny clause that the copyright was transferred the middleman (or middlelady)... if you wanted to be part of the system you had to play by their runs ... and live in poverty

Unfortunately copyrights and having to sign them over are moving onto the web and through web 2.0 infrastructure...

SO if you create content its time to think about your rights and avoid signing them over to middlemen...

YET like me you may want to share your ideas and inspiration with others in a limited and fair way ... ok you can is called creative commons... and i strongly suggest you investigate the various levels of licencing and find the one that suits you and seek out those places (like flickr that support them) ... this is a good introductory tutorial to begin choosing a creatice common licence

peace on my phone

I remember this symbol from the 60s as a strong anti-war emblem, but its origins go deeper into the Ban The Bomb and Nuclear Disarmament movements... so is it still relevant today? ..I've made this as a wallpaper for my phone to find out