Well, here is a little more progress on the seahorse project. I haven’t been able to put much time in lately but I have made a lot of headway on the subtle folds and shaping around the head. In addition, I worked out the change in color around the mouth to bring it out. Finally, I began redoing the white crustiness layer and am fairly happy with where it is going.
Just an update. Made some progress on defining the shape of the ridges over sections of its body after I backtracked and removed the white layer that was not working for me. I decided I needed to get the shape of the underlying structures down before I played with the more crusty looking white bits. I was also thrown off because some of the eye work had been done on the white layer instead of the main painting so I had to go back and rework the eye. I am happier with what I have done though.
A post or two ago I asked my readers to help me chose a title for a short story I was writing. Both were equally good for me so I was having trouble deciding which one to choose. The idea for this tale grew from a very interesting Youtube video (AIRL) a friend suggested I catch. Well, the story is finished, albeit in a rough form so here it is.
Tides of Mortality
by
Robert Garbin
The subject shuddered with the sudden onset of sharp discomfort, shock and dismay registering in her outward expressions while her inner turmoil spilled out in pleading.
“Wait … Wait … No this can’t be right … ahhh … can we start over?”
As the observer watched silently, her pleas became more piteous.
“Please, Please, something is horrible wrong. Please stop the experiment!”
Fear became more pronounced as the world she knew became less defined, paler in the wake of lost senses no longer needed. A faint high speed thudding underlined the increasingly strident calls for mercy.
“Why won’t you listen to me?”
“Damn you, stop this now!”
“Please … Pleaseeeee … Mercy, oh mercy … Please!!!!”
She began screaming and snarling in agony, fear, and desperation. The observer noted all of it but remained dispassionately quiet. Soon the screams lost strength and coherence, turning into sobs then pitiful mewling. The thudding; however, slowed down while growing stronger until it became a steady beat. Thump, Thump. Thump, Thump.
***
In the delivery room, Mrs. Sanchez was in the final stages of delivery with her husband by her excitedly exhorting her to one last push. The doctor spoke calm words of reassurance to the first time parents as he gently helped the new person from its comfortable nesting place. A final all out push delivered the tiny being and all the messy accoutrements of new life into the doctor’s hands. Deftly he set about cleaning the child then hung it upside down to deliver a firm but not too firm smack on the rump.
***
With a wail of displeasure the immortal god took in her first breath for the six hundredth time. The observer watched as the reincarnated god was swaddled and placed into the arms of her mother, another re-born god. He sat for a long time watching the scene as complicated thoughts flowed through his mind like radioactive particles streaming out from a star into the depths of space.
After millennia of transitioning the immortal beings of the universe into and out of mortality, the pattern never changed. They came with a strong desire to see the universe from such a unique perspective followed instantly by regret and fear when the processes of reducing their cosmic consciousness down small enough to fit began. Their short time lived on the mortal plane ends with their re-emergence into the immortal universe where they truly belong. Eons spent with comrades missed in the other realm, while a slow yearning builds for a return to mortality. He never lacked for participants in his on going studies.
The observer began to conjecture the possibility of tides ebbing in and out of the mortal plane that drew immortals like the mariners he watched at times to the ocean. He wondered at other properties, such as the tides of mortality, contained within the never ending mysteries of the universe.
This is a post I entered recently at SFFworld.com under writing in the thread “Hook me in 25 words or less”, which is a thread devoted to writing killer first lines to a book that make you want to read it.
The fires of heaven cleansed the earth below, while the Gods wept bitter tears for millennia. One God; however, sat and played among the ashes.
OMG, OMG, I am doing back flips, somersaults, and cartwheels. Well, not really because the mess and doctor bills would be incredible, but I am extremely excited. One of my favorite bands has just released a new album after six years and I had no idea about it until today. After a long day of work with a longer one coming tomorrow, I drove home in the pouring rain listening to their station on Pandora. Out of nowhere comes this track that I hadn’t heard before. I have to admit, I do not have all their stuff so could not be sure if this was not an older track I did not hear.
Well, I have had time to check into it and it is indeed a brand new album that released on November 2nd. Gonna get it, gonna get it, gonna get it, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. This was a sorely needed uplift given all the crap going on in my country. So anyway, here is the track I was listening to on the way home. Whoa there, don’t freak out. Yes it is over 19 minutes long but there are sooooo many interesting changes that are well worth listening to. It looks like it was designed as a story in some way. Also, the cover is really cool to an artist like me.
Here is as far as I have gotten so far. I had had a layer with the white crusty stuff done in a basic sense but was not pleased with the results so I deleted it and I am now working on the physical shape underneath before I do that.
Here is the final version of Atomic Joe and I am really happy with how this turned out. I came up with the idea of creating a demonic being to represent man’s constant blindness and idiocy towards his own foibles when dealing with forces that are intolerant of such things after watching this documentary on the Chernobyl Accident.
The number of errors due to pride, arrogance, greed, etc. that created this accident are staggering. While the Three Mile Island and Fukushima Diiachi accidents were different, they all share one similar trait, a failure of imagination. In other word, the inability to comprehend and plan for all the natural and man made disasters that could create catastrophic reactor conditions. Not only do we have to deal with the results of and continued dangers presented by Nuclear Power, we also have to face the dangers created by making Nuclear Power a business where cost/benefit ratios and bottom lines become more important than safety. Businessman play Russian Roulette with societies safety just to make more profit. How many times have manufacturing accidents, disasters, or toxic spills occurred because someone was trying to save money where they shouldn’t have? With Nuclear Power, the costs are even higher since the radiation can last for centuries. So remember that whenever you leave a light on or waste energy. Atomic Joe is always lurking in the background to give you a real good radiation tan. Bones.
P.S. If you look, you will find the names Chernobyl, Fukushima Diiachi, and Three Mile Island in the painting.
