A Smudgy Meh

So I decided to play around with the smudge tool a bit more, and I revisited a familiar image.  Here is the result, although, although it's not particularly dramatic:

Finally got those pants shaded...

I think perhaps I should try it with something where I haven't already done hatching... I'm just not super impressed with the difference.  Like I said, it's not dramatic enough.  In fact, I give today's entry a resounding Meh.

(Sometimes it is okay to have a meh day.)

Starfall

Another good (but packed) day.

I spent the morning getting caught up on some stuff I'd been slacking on (yes, including the blog), and then around noon-thirty Nathan dropped me off down at the convention center for Stumptown, where I met up with my Katie, and good times were had by all.  One of the things I specifically wanted to do was sit in on a panel on digital painting, and thus we did so.  Which brings us to this:

Smudge Tooled

No, it is not particularly exciting.  But what it is, is me putting into use one of the things I learned during the panel.  Well not so much "learned" as "was reminded of".  See, I have this bad habit of getting into a rut with what I do with how I color; I know what works and I stick to it.  Don't get me wrong- I like my vaguely-cel-shaded-style, but sometimes I forget that I don't have to work that way.  Hence I busted out a smudgy sphere.

Anyway, we eventually wandered back across the river and into the rock gym, where I pushed the hell out of myself and tried a 5.10+ (couldn't solve it without cheating- yet) which schooled me on the importance of keeping your core tight.  But what was super the most exciting was that I tried a 5.8 overhang (ie, on a wall angled more than 90 degrees) called Starfall.  Now, what you need to understand is that I'd done Starfall before.  A couple of times, actually.  Failed it a couple of times, too.  Solving that route had involved a lot of swearing and brute strength, but I hadn't tried it since I started the technique clinic, and I wanted to see if I'd actually made any improvement in my climbing.

Holy stars, have I ever.

I'm not saying it was "easy", but it felt good.  I didn't feel like I was fighting the wall, I felt like my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing, and that I was actually flowing instead of muscling; I didn't completely deplete my strength getting to the top.  It was a fabulous feeling, and I was super, super triumphant- and super glad Katie was there to prove I wasn't making it up.

A Farmer Sort of Day

Today was an excellent day, and it started (as so many of my excellent Saturdays do) with Crossfit.

WOD (as done by me):

Team Relay

200m Farmer Carry (35lbs)
500m Row
20x Burpees
400m Run w/ medicine ball (14lbs) (I think)
30x Jumping Lunges
Move a stack of weights and a barbell 100m

So the way this one worked was that we had two teams of three, and at Go our first person started the farmer carry while the other two of us waiting.  Once he got back, the second person started the farmer carry while the first person went to row, and I continued to wait.  Once the second person got back, I did the farmer's carry while person two went to go wait until person one was done with rowing, at which point she took over rowing and person one went to burpees (except I think he did wall walks [this video calls them "wall climbs"], which I was not comfortable with, hence I did twice as many burpees) .  Get the idea?  I asked to be anchor because I knew my fitness level was the least advanced, and I didn't want to slow the whole team down.  The last part of the relay, the move-the-weights part, was the only part that multiple people were allowed to work on at the same time.

Anyway, when Jack got to the part of his explanation where he talked about the run, he said, "There is no non-awkward way to do this, so just carry it however you choose."

Readers, he was not kidding.  I tried at least eight different positions with that ball as I was "running", and do you know what I discovered?

True story.

Anyway my team did not come in last, which was awesome, and I did manage to help with the very last part of the "move the weights" leg, so I got to feel like I pulled my own weight (so to speak).

After that Nathan and I took Isis the the farmer's market (you're shocked, I know), and in the afternoon we met up with our friend Nick to watch Cabin in the Woods (a second time, in my case).  If you haven't seen that movie, you probably should.  It's awesome, and I can't tell you anything about it, but you should see it.  Unless you don't care anything at all about subverting genre, and then it may not be your thing... but chances are, if you get any sort of pleasure out of the voice that this blog comes to you in, you will derive some sort of joy from that movie.

Seeing What Can Be Done

You may recall that a while back I did a doodle inspired by my mother.  And when she saw that doodle, she very sweetly requested a few others.  Well, here is the beginning of me seeing what can be done:

Mage

There is more to the doodle, but it's not really filled in yet, so I expect it will be a few more days before you see it- especially since I have a particularly busy weekend ahead of me- one that starts in about an hour when Tavish and SCurry get here for some totally awesome Game of Thrones watching.

Patterns, People, and Pigs

Here is a page from my sketchbook, done whilst watching Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and thinking about  1) Jane Lindskold's Breaking the Wall series (so good, you guys), 2) how much my dog looks like a pig, and 3) Minoan snake goddesses/the pantheon of Tortall

Also, apparently, bustiers that shoot bullets?  I just don't  know...

My sketchbook is, in a very real way, my version of stream-of-conciousness writing.

Just a Tree

I guess it's pretty rare that I do doodles of things that are... well, things, and not people.  This is because I love drawing people most of all.  But sometimes you need to put people in settings, and thus I'd be remiss if I didn't occasionally practice drawing things...

Notice how there is a perfect place to put a PERSON in this drawing of a tree...

Of course, the fact that I love trees almost as much as I love people means that this drawing might just be considered a little bit of a cheat... but I won't tell if you won't.

Popcorn Dress

Obviously there are many days that, while I do my sketch or doodle or "progress on a piece", I don't actually get around to uploading them until later (despite how I may fudge the date stamp for the purposes of organizing this blog).  This is one of those days, and thus I can't totally remember what the hell inspired the dress at the bottom of the page.  My best guess, however, would be a piece of popcorn...

Also, although I did not fill them in, her hair is supposed to be ridiculous sausage curls.

 I am pretty sure, however, that the flow-y one up and to the right was a vague sort of Dany inspiration...