Here it is, I finally found some music I liked and decided to finish this video off even though the quality is not as good as I would like. However, it is much better at explaining the site than the old one was. This shows the art that is at the core of my Patreon page. The music is a creative commons track from the Free Music Archive under soundtracks Borrtex __-__5 Sky.
Here is my new introduction on my Patreon page.
“Breath. That is what creating is for me, breath. It is the only thing that gives meaning to my life and is the impetus behind what you see here. From an early age I was a creator, whether in clay, Legos, or sticks and stones.
I spent hours building creatures, houses, towns, and worlds. Then I saw something my mother drew and was hooked. Drawing allowed my ideas to branch out and take on new shapes, becoming more substantial with each year. However, the path has not been easy for me to follow, disappearing several times in my life but always coming back. For decades I followed the artistic path only. I was focused on drawing and painting with sculpture sparkling through on occasion.
Then after a rough period of family issues, I found I needed another outlet for my ideas and feelings. At this time I found SFFworld.com where I interacted with kind and open people that were willing to listen to my thoughts. I lurked for a time, watching the discussions and writing contests until I finally decided to try my hand at story telling. Several years on, I am still at it, nearing the completion of my first collection of short stories.
This is where you come in. I need help to continue this journey. As I have said, this has been a hard journey for me with little support and large hurdles. I had a job that, while unsatisfying, was paying most of the bills. However, it was taking a toll on me creatively and leaving me more and more in debt. In an attempt to change this course, I decided to make this Patreon page to share my art and stories with people willing to support their creation by becoming patrons.
For a small monthly fee you will gain access to downloadable versions of my stories and artwork. I also hope to eventually create physical copies that will be available for sale. Your patronage will help me to continue creating the unique artwork displayed on this page, as well as, the fantastical stories that bubble out of my mind. Please consider joining me on this wild and crazy ride that propels me ever forward toward the stars and beyond.”
The above image is one that I uploaded for my patrons at my Patreon page back in April of this year. It is one that I created decades ago and, although it is primitive by my current works, it is still full of the inventiveness and imagination I still carry today. The reason I post it here is that it relates to this reward. This week’s reward is a jpeg version of a new take on the spider craft in this picture. The write up is:
“Here is an early version of a design for a planetary probe painting I want to do based on the idea from my pencil drawing “Jumpers”. I really liked the idea of a mechanical spider like the machines I drew decades ago, but I wanted to make a more modern version. This project is waiting in the wings because I just needed more time working in gimp to achieve what I wanted. Working on the Nebula and Termanicz projects are steps in the right direction for learning the blending techniques necessary.
In addition, each project I do pushes the boundaries of my abilities and opens new possibilities. Hopefully, I will be able to come back to this image and do it justice. The black and red color scheme was chosen because when I thought about Antares, especially relating to the space race, those are the colors that came to mind. I am hoping to create a finish reminiscent of the sixties take on those colors.”
Here is the new background I have been drawing for the Termanicz project. As you can see, I turned on all the line work to show what needs done and how it fits together. I have lots of ideas for the lighting and colors, which will be a little like the other city look but with tweaks. I have to work on painting this current city layer first because I have a smaller section that I plan to scale down to place further behind to give the illusion of depth. I am looking forward to playing with this.
I am doing this from my cellphone so it will be brief. Now that I have the color page for “Quiet Strength” done, I am back to work on the Termanicz project. I wiped out the last background I set up because it was only a beginning/place holder. I planned on trying to improve it by making the bug city more organic looking. No real idea how that could be done but it was on my mind.
After drawing some stuff I was only mildly happy with, I decided to hit the net. I looked up ant colonies and ant hills. Meh. Then I took a look a ant hill castings. I had seen these before and my first reation was that this is cruel, pouring molten metal down on them. I still wonder about the cruelity but the results are interesting and have given me ideas that I think will work. So I hope to have something to post soon.
Here it is. As you can see from the two images, I had do do a lot of work to get the tiger picture into shape for being a coloring page. I hope my patrons enjoy this. One of my fondest Christmas memories was right after Star Wars came out and my mother got me several Star Wars coloring posters and let me have them early. If you ever wanted to keep me quiet and manageable going into Christmas, just give me something to color or build. Anyway, here is the write up for the new reward at my Patreon page.
“Finally done, this has been a test of my concentration to get this drawing cleaned up to something you could use as a coloring page. I would recommend having the image printed larger so you can work the detail areas better. Included is a copy of just the tiger part of Quiet Strength – Silent Vulnerability as a coloring guide. Enjoy!”
So, I have all this extra time on my hands now. I haven’t gotten too crazy looking for a job yet because I am cleaning up a lot of stuff that was getting pushed aside by all the stress from my former job. Hell, I am spending all my time at the dentist. I have been there for four visits and now have to go for a fifth because another front tooth chipped. Damn! However, the first application fell through but I am not overly surprised because I was not centered in the geographic area of the route. Big thing with these kind of companies these days. At least my resume is on file for when and if the expansions occur in the five companies that will be allowed to work in the chain my old company was in. In addition, I may check out another company that works in this chain that is commission based. I have my reservations, but I am not totally sure I want to go back to what I did. I may even try for a pure merchandising job with someone like Pepsi or Coke.
Anyway, with all this extra time, I have decided to push on some of the backlog of projects and explore some new ideas. First off, I am almost finished with the “Quiet Strength – Silent Vulnerability” coloring page reward and hope to have it posted early tomorrow. This took longer than I wanted because the image was made years ago with no thought at all of using it as anything other than a reference. Cleaning up the sections that where shaded was difficult because of what the scanner chose to consider dark and light. All in all though, I think I got it licked, just some final lines to clean up. Second, I have been itching to get back at the Termanicz image and thinking about drawing a background the will be more concrete than trying to do it from scratch on the computer. I am not quite comfortable with that yet. Finally, I have been looking into how to do a print project on my Patreon page. It looks like I will be making a separate page just for that and will be working out the details of what to include in the reward, how many I will print, and how much it will cost. I hope to have the first one ready soon so watch for updates.
P.S. I wanted to know if anyone thinks my flash fiction entry “A Word in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush” should be added to the stories I already have slated for “Mystics and Misfits”?
