How do you leave the past behind

Well, it’s online, so….just don’t delete it, I guess.
And that’s why I’m leaving the ancient beginning blog posts right where they are.
Four years isn’t that long ago, really, but I’ve died since then, and that kinda makes it seem longer.
Anywho, that’s a story for another time. This is just a “hey! The Lazy Goddess is back!” post. Stayed tuned. There’s a lot brewing in this noggin.

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There’s a foul plot afoot

It’s not my feet! I just vashed them!

I’m really not sure why that came to mind as a post title, but it’s immensely better than what it was going to be: “Updated update.”

Anywho, I scrapped SerifDraw in favor of Inkscape, and I must say, I’m diggin it. Whaddya think of the new background, eh? That and two other new creations from today can be found here on Deviant Art. Lookin good Billy Ray! Feelin good, Louis!

I see faces, do you see faces?

s!

An update, and a warning

Update!
I’m writing this on the computer that I thought I had totally FUBARed. With help from the lovely folks at http://www.anandtech.com/, it’s all nice and shiny and new again. The Adobes will have to be reinstalled, and those disks are with the original owner who is out of town. I downloaded GIMP and SerifDrawPlus today (anybody used these? what do you think?), but it was date night (:)), so I haven’t had a chance to play with them yet. Hopefully the next time you hear from me it, it will be with some amazing new piece of digital art.

Warning!
Don’t watch movies with me. I overanalyze. Out loud. Just in one week, two people have complained.
While watching The Sandlot with mom I found a lot of things to question, like in this scene http://youtu.be/fC89cgK5Sp0 I noticed that there were empty spaces on the ride, and I thought, well, why would that be? The fair looks pretty busy, they shouldn’t run the ride at less than full capacity. Then I thought, ah, well, maybe those empty spots are in front of the cast members so the cameras can go there. But why didn’t they have separate shots of a full ride, then have the empties for the closeups? I dunno, but mom told me to just shut up and watch the movie (nicely, though).

Boyfriend was more indulgent and played along with me when today, watching Reservoir Dogs, I wondered whether the warehouse they were in was really a warehouse, or if it was a soundstage. And if it was a soundstage, did they have to dirty it up to make it look real, or if it was real, did they have to clean it up to make it not so disgusting? Or was it just a semi nice abandoned warehouse? Also, why did Mr Pink get so upset at being Mr Pink? He could have taken it another way. Isn’t pink a euphemism for lady parts? He could have said the Pink stands for him being such a ladies man. Just sayin.

 

Soundtrack for this post: Bob Marley and The Wailers, I think it was called Legend, on Spotify.

 

Day 6; Subject still showing symptoms of withdrawal

I’m not a very dedicated artist. Actually, I don’t even really feel comfortable calling myself an artist. Never have, even when others insist upon it.  In my mind, true artists have a calling. They have  images begging them for release,  ideals to be portrayed, emotions that can be expressed no other way. I don’t.  I just like to draw stuff sometimes, and even that doesn’t happen all that often.

Well, until this past April, that is. Ah, that glorious day when I finally got access to a (long coveted) copy of Adobe Creative Suites. Joyous momentous occasions!!

Oh, with the Suites I also received orders that I needed to use it to make a website, a logo, and invoices for a business, and a program page and t-shirt for a sports team.

Initial reaction? Nope. I can’t do that!

Luckily I’ve learned to push past the “can’ts”, and dove right in.  For a week I was SO diligent about doing tutorials from the book, and online…then I kinda winged it. Those projects all got done though, and the results satisfied. Apparently my creativity just needed a little nudge.

That stuff was technically the first that I created, but this one is the first thing that I created with no tutorials, and with my own ideas:

Kinda fun, eh?

I could finally get the symmetry I so wanted in my work, but can’t do freehand, even with rulers and other tools. Maybe I’m just too off-kilter in general to be able to, who knows, but it made making mandalas annoying instead of soothing. It was really easy to get lost in creating, and the feedback I was getting made me start to think that maybe I could “do something with my art.” I’ve been told to do that many times, but didn’t really feel that what I created would get me anywhere (lol, as I was writing that sentence, the lyrics in the background were “come in here dear boy, have a cigar, you’re gonna go far”. Maybe I really am on the right path!), until I saw what I created in Illustrator. It’s not the best, but I think it’s pretty good.

I finally seemed to be going down a good path, gaining some momentum, and boom, last Friday, tragedy struck. All of a sudden, Illustrator was crashing the computer when I tried to open it. Error messaged pointed to possible RAM issues, so in trying to do a speed test, I downloaded something I apparently shouldn’t have, and the computer crashed, and refused to even boot into safe mode. I finally got the install disk and did a system restore and everything worked again…except Adobe products. Since the person who has the Install Disks for those is out of town, I tried a few more “fixes” and now that computer is down again. SQL error upon start up, which apparently is fixable when you can get into windows, but it won’t let me ctrl alt dlt to put in a password.  I’m sure there’s a way to fix it that I just haven’t come across yet, but I’m letting that one sit awhile. I can’t use the programs I want to anyway. Definitely showing symptoms of withdrawal from them too. Restlessness, irritability, lack of motivation.

Heh, no, it’s not really that serious. Irritating, but not life ruining, by any means. The inspiration even seems to have carried over into my normal medium of markers. Roomie demands that a lunchbox love note accompanies any rent money that I give him. He was feeling low this week, so instead of my normal hastily scrawled “You’re awesome! Love you!” I wrote his name all pop arty on the envelope, and on index cards I illustrated some inspirational lyrics from musicals. He loved em! I think they’re going to have to be the norm from now on. Maybe “do something” on a larger scale with inspirational notes. Who’s to say where the wind will take me?

I just hope it takes me to a place that has Illustrator and Photoshop!

 

 

Soundtrack for this post: Pandora station shuffle. Pick any Steely Dan, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Foo Fighters, Talking Heads, Steve Ray Vaughn, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, Grateful Dead, Queen, Cake, or Pink Floyd, and you should be in the mood.

 

I got a peaceful, easy posting

I have about a million and one (minus 999,995) ideas written down for posts, but haven’t really had the time or gumption to flesh any of them out.  I have, however, been cranking out the visuals. Most of them aren’t really ready to be shared yet, but I have gotten into the habit of making thank you images for those that follow me on Twitter (LazyGoddess123, hint hint!!), using my very photogenic animals. While going through all of them, I realized that they are just too cute to not share, so I’m sharin! A quickie post that doesn’t require that much thinking on my part, but hopefully will still entertain. 🙂

So I wrote that first bit like 6 hours ago, then went to “quickly edit the pics.” Or so I thought. That task turned out to be not so easy at all, but was somewhat peaceful in that way that focusing on a task so intently that the rest of the world melts away can be.  It’s the closest I get to meditation, really.
I still have a long way to go, but I like what came out today.  There are some insights into the editing in the picture descriptions. 🙂

Cast of Characters:

aka Gracie Lou Freebush, Prettiest kitty, pookster kitty

Apparently the descriptions that I added to the pics don’t actually show up. Oops. The only editing tip that I really wanted to share is about the eyes in this picture. They were awful! Totally overexposed, really bright glowy yellow, and the pupils were all white. I tried a LOT of tips to fix them, but they always ended up looking fake. Finally, I polygon tooled the whole eye, and adjusted curves, then I polygon tooled the pupil and (I think! I can’t even remember now!) applied the black and white photo filter with the mega black preset. Voila!

His real name is Farokh, but Freddie is easier 😉

AKA Prancy McGee
Roomie’s dog, but he calls me mom.

I just love this expression!

Link just loves to play. Freddie…not so much.

Dude…breath mint.

Aaaannnnd, now it’s bedtime. Goodnight, sleep tight, until we meet again!

Soundtrack for this post…you pick, they were all on Spotify during the process:

Blue Rodeo-The Things We Left Behind

Blue October- History for Sale

Elvis Presley-I’m an Elvis Fan

Random, Short, Fun

I’m very easily distracted.  It’s not conducive to productivity at all…but I find some fun stuff along the way.  Here are three of my treasures from the evening:

The Opposite of Double rainbow.

Childhood ruined.  
Is it just me, or do Yakko, Wakko, and Dot seem like a more charming version of the McPoyles?

Lots of cat poop.

Speaking of childhoods, I owe you a soundtrack from yesterday. I wasn’t actually listening to it at the time, but The Monkees first album is THE soundtrack to my childhood. Obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe! Mickey Dolenz was my first ever crush, they were my first concert,  I had their posters all over the walls. In first grade I even auditioned for a talent show by holding a pound puppy and lip-synching to Gonna Buy Me A Dog. No, I didn’t make into the show, in case you really had to wonder.
A boy-band obsession in a little girl may not seem so unusual. Except that it was in the 80’s; a good 15 years past their prime. I have a feeling one of my past lives had to have been during the 60’s and 70’s.  My exact theory is that an uber gay male bit it on the dance floor, was brought to the hospital my mother was in labor in at the same time, revived, died for good the second time, and, being so attached to the fun of life, shimmied his way right into the next body he could find. Moi. His blatant disregard of soul debriefing after one life and training before the other was a risky move. He has to share the space with the nice Catholic Girl I was supposed to be. Boy has he corrupted her…

 

 

 

 

 

She totally stole my Barbie leather jacket!

I deleted my old Deviant Art profile/gallery today and made one for LazyGoddess, and in adding images, I was inspired to finish some of the ones I’d abandoned saved for a later date. I decided to trace some things (I was NOT about to attempt the Cho Ku Rei freehand with my nemesis The Pen Tool!), and had an “A-Ha!” moment. Outline means OUTSIDE OF THE LINES. I was putting anchors right on the image I was tracing, and getting frustrated when it wasn’t turning out like I wanted it to. If I placed the anchors just outside of the image though, it turned out much better. Yay!

This revelation brought me back to the moment when I learned the opposite lesson many years ago. My cousin (who totally stole my Barbie leather jacket! (Maybe)) and I were coloring one day, and I snottily said “I’m outlining first so the color stays nice and even.” She replied “Well, I’m inlining it.” I looked, and her color lines were on the coloring side of the black outlines instead of outside of them like mine were…and it totally looked better than mine. I use her technique to this day!

Not so lazy now!

I’m not sure what I have against sleep tonight, but I keep doing things instead of it.

On Wednesday, I decided I needed to be a Tweeter, so I started an account. Easy enough, right? Not if you’re in my head. I decided that before I could “go live” with Twitter, I had to create my own profile picture. A cartoon of me. And it had to be me doing jazz hands, because it was a welcome post, and jazz hands would be closest to the two handed wave that’s an joke between my boyfriend and me.
No problem! Find a tutorial, do it up, 1, 2, 3!
I forgot the whole part about me being pretty durn bad at both drawing figures and faces, and at illustrator in general. Oops!
This was my first attempt. I placed a picture I found and traced it. I attempted color, but it just wasn’t working, and I’ve left it for now.

My normal style is just take a marker to paper, and move it around. I rarely have an image in mind that I’m trying to get out, I just see what images come out on their own.  It’s taking me awhile to get the hang of doing that in Illustrator. Then again, I don’t devote as much time to it as I should, and instead of following tutorials to learn from people who know what they’re doing, I’ve taken my typical stance of “I’ll figure it out on my own!” That usually works for me, but I think to grow in this particular area, I’m gonna have to turn to the pros. I did today to finally make a profile pic. Well, sort of. Much like my life philosophy, my technique on this image was cobbled together from about 10 different caricature/cartooning/illustration tutorials that I kind of skimmed.
Without further adieu (because I’m getting reaaallllyyyy tired), here’s the profile pic I struggled over for like a million freakin hours.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the background and header. I cheated and used a background I already had made:

But I made a header.

I’m not completely happy with them, but I was satisfied enough to let them through. They were worth the struggle. 🙂

Soundtrack for this post: the Squeeze station on Pandora.

New Beginnings

Welcome! Welcome! Come in, and know me better man!

I started this blog so that I could know me better, too. Back in the day, whenever it seemed like something “big” was happening in my life, I would get a new notebook and new pens so I could start a new journal. I never really kept up with it, I just love office supplies. Now it seems like another phase in my life is happening, but notebooks and pens aren’t really in the budget these days. Plus, it IS the Technological Age anyway, so I may as well get with the times.

A little about me: 30 something, crazy cat lady, intelligent college grad, unemployed and stressed, great family and friends, who may not understand; but still love, sexy boyfriend, helping to start a business; learning/teaching myself about social media, marketing, web design and graphic design along the way, a little too weird/a little too bright; I often get called “hippie” or “free spirit”, adventurous;but lazy, possibly psychic, artistic, waster of potential from way back.
My mind races ALL the time, but rarely does anything fruitful come from it.  I’m hoping that having a place to slow it down, get some of the thoughts out in visual form, sort them, hopefully meet some cool people, and maybe get feedback will help me first figure out, and then become the person I want to be. Or at least do the best imitation of myself.

So then what is this blog going to BE about? Well, anything I damn well please! 🙂