Artwork 2020, Year In Review

 

 

 

 

I made a slideshow of all the artwork I did in 2020 in chronological order. :)

The Color Version

Like I said, the color version.  I think I'll keep working on these for a while.
 

The Pepper Tree

 

They said this was the worst year ever and I didn't believe them. Sure everyone's hopes and dreams in the whole world were being fed through the wood chipper, but I personally was more well off. I got a little bit of time off work for a while there, which allowed me to work on art projects which was nice. And I've been making more money and working less which is great because it means more time to work on art projects. All in all its been a good (although not great) year for me working on art projects.

Certainly the evils of this year outweigh the good, but for me personally it had been a good year.

And then the neighbors across the street cut down the pepper tree. It was probably a couple hundred years old and it had been there my entire life for me. Every time I looked out the window there was an ocean of flowing green as whatever wind there was flowed through it. But some people, like Mordor Orcs, cannot abide beauty, and there is evil encamped against us. Yesterday it was there and today its just plain gone, they didn't even leave the stump. Its like if you lived in a house by the seaside and one day you woke up and found they'd just packed up the ocean and taken it away somewhere and gotten rid of it. And you'd never be able to see or hear or smell the waves coming in anymore. You'd say that was impossible but that's what happened.

So 2020 did turn out to be the worst year ever for me as well. That was December 30^th when they came in there roaring away all day with their chainsaws and chippers like the unholy nuisances they are, and here I am snagged on the tail end of it and pulled down like Gandalf by the Balrog in Mordor, the way 2019 snagged us all on the tail end of it with its bat virus from China.

That got me thinking about giant trees with regard to hopes and dreams and having everything you live for smashed or destroyed. You can't just plant a two hundred year old tree, not unless you get it from somewhere else, they really don't grow up that way from seed.

So that got me thinking about life as an artist. Like a lot of artists I can never be content unless my work becomes the art equivalent of two or three hundred year old tree – no mere sapling with two or three leaves, growing in a little pot, but a vast and spreading sea of beauty – and it saddens me inconsolably to reflect that in this cruel world I will almost certainly be cut down long before that.

Its easy to say that destroying statues is merely a left wing movement and its just liberals that are trying to destroy America so if we could win all the time everything would be fine. But it isn't just liberals who partake in unspeakable acts in the destruction of beauty. I don't know what the actual political leanings are of the neighbors across the street, but it doesn't matter. As they said that tree was “just a liability” its the sort of thing anyone might do who appreciates “the value of hard work” more than the beauty of nature.

I used to think that everyone had a natural built in appreciation of the beauty of nature, but I guess some people have it more than others and some people are just a bunch of Mordor Orcs.

That tree was like a sea of flowing green feathers, and the wind of the world flowed through it, and now I will never see it again until I am reunited with it in heaven. But the sea of life flows on and I can only give the following advice for 2021 and beyond:

Batten down the hatches, and look out for squalls!

Crumbling Overgrown Ruins

 

Things I like about crumbling overgrown ruins.

To Be Continued!

I can keep going for many many more pages, and I think I’ll do a color version at some point.

:)

Bird Berries

 Another Celtic Design! :)

100 Short Stories Challenge - Update

 

 To summarize here is my previous post:

So I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year because they got all BLM and I don’t want to support the destruction of statues.

But of course I still wanted to do some sort of writing challenge, so I decided to do do a short story challenge a month early in October.  So that’s what I’m doing.  I call it the 100 Short Stories Challenge, and my goal is to work on 100 short stories and that’s what I’ve been doing.  These are short stories that I’d already started and had lying around on my computer and my secondary goal is to write an additional 25,000 words.

So that’s why I’ve been kind of absent and haven’t finished or posted much artwork lately.

Also I think coming up with and working on some kind of short story challenge is a great idea, whatever time of year you do it, because it can be a great way to help finish those loose short stories that you have lying around or to start new and better ones.

Aand here is the update:

I did work on all 100 of those short stories, so I achieved that goal!  Yay!

With my word count goal I only wrote 19840 words (not counting what I’d already written before),  leaving me 5160 words short.  Oh well.

Anyway I’m calling it done.  And of course I will continue working on the stories, just not as a monthly challenge.

I’m starting to really like monthly challenges, I’m finding them a great way to stay motivated and get more work done.

Aaand since I did my totes not NaNoWriMo challenge in October I’m going do do my totes not Inktober in November so stay tuned for that!

Just because 2020 is a dumpster fire doesn’t mean I can’t work on art!

Mermaid on an Underwater Floating Island

Mermaid on an Underwater Floating Island

I think it came out pretty well.

Weeping Angel

So this is something different for me.  Instead of just an outline I actually shaded it.  Of course I wanted to do this study of a weeping angel statue because a weeping angel statue is a main character in a book I'm working on.  This one is based on a photograph on Wikimedia Commons which you can view here by pasting it into your browser: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WeepingAngel.jpg

Because Blogger had an update and the links don't work anymore.  Anyway I hope you like it.

Floating Islands

Another watercolor, this one is 9" x 12", and I think the larger size works better.  I did the original lineart back in October of 2019!

Floating Island Fairy

I got a fancy new printer so I can print my lineart on watercolor paper now, and it has a bigger scanner too.  This is super duper for doing watercolor illustrations, which is what I want to do for the stories I'm working on.  Now that I can just print out another one if I goof up I have a lot less hesitation about coloring everything in.  So you can expect to see more watercolors from me in the future.

Also I might not put up as much of the uncolored lineart from here on out, except for coloring pages.  I used to always share my outline drawings, partly because I had no idea if or when I would ever color them, but now I think I might as well mostly just put up the finished paintings.  I'm tired of putting up both, and I think it looks better with just the color ones, and anyway I don't like being so redundant with my creative output.  I'm sorry if you prefer to always see the lineart as well, I'm not intending to make people unhappy.

The printer is an Epson Workforce WF-7610.  I got it off of Walmart.  Here's a very useful youtube video by a gal that talks about this kind of printer with regards to printing on watercolor paper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSlewmCiHRY

This was what put me on to getting this particular kind of printer.  The fairy painting above was printed on 7"x10" 98 lb. Canson mix media paper, which is kind of thin but I think its ok.  Some people use this printer to print on thicker paper but I don't know if I'll do that because it isn't rated for anything thicker than cardstock and envelopes.  I also bought a pad of the same paper in 9"x12" which I think will be a good size to work in.

Why Deviantart sucks

You can switch back and forth right now, but they’re getting rid of the old version on around May 20th.

These are both screenshots of the first thing you see if you go to my channel on deviantart.

In the old version I had my artwork on the left, and my profile on the right, (even though I didn’t really say anything).  The default was more cluttered but at least it was sort of customizeable.

In the new version, on the other hand...  I haven’t really spent much time with it yet, but ah... doesn’t it seem like a lot of blank space?  I see a lot of data which is probably very important to them because all they care about is getting people to click on adds, but not so much art, and yes I know I can upload a cover image but that’s only one picture.  Good for advertisers.  Not very good for artists.

So that’s my first impression.  I hope I’m wrong but the new site seems like garbage.  The feedback they’ve been getting is all negative so I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way.

Anyway I hope you had fun listening to me rant about something other than youtube for a change.

PS.  I know the layout is probably the least of the reasons that DA sucks, because of all the obscenity, and ads if you don’t have adblocker, but I’m really just talking about the technical side of it today.

PPS.  Here’s the link to my deviantart channel in case you’re interested.  (Even after all I’ve said about how much DA sucks).

https://www.deviantart.com/jpmorrow

PPPS. Blogger is another dumpster fire, I'm having trouble getting the paragraphs where I want them, so please ignore any errors, they are not my own.

Viking Ducky! :))

I happened to have a rubber viking ducky lying around, so I drew and colored it.  :)

January 2020 Update

Well its the roaring '20s again!  That era of tough men, hot women, and roaring tommy guns!

Or something, I dunno...


December

I'm still working on the children's book with the brontosaurus.  I've got a name for him now.  His name is Herbert.  So now it is the story of Herbert the brontosaurus.

I also started yet another tumblr, this one is for children's books:

https://sit-he-oo.tumblr.com/

I'm having a lot of fun with it.  And, just for grins, here is a link to a post on there where I review a couple of books I got for Christmas:

https://sit-he-oo.tumblr.com/post/189872052840/new-books-i-got-for-christmas-the-foxbury-force#notes

Christmas was good.  I give it five stars, (or one big one).

January

I'm not promising to do more art in 2020, (except for Inktober), but I will do about as much, and hopefully more of it will be in color (again, except for Inktober).  My goal for January is to find a place that will print my outline drawings on watercolor paper so I can color them without losing the original and also worrying about messing it up.  This will also be important when I get around to illustrating the stories I have written.

Last month I said my goal for the new year was to set myself a writing goal as well as an art goal every month of the year, so this month's goal is, one thousand words of short fiction, and to finish one illustration, in addition to ongoing work on Herbert the Brontosaur.

February

I'd better see how this month pans out and leave February blank until I get there.

December Update

NaNoWriMo:

Well last month of course was NaNoWriMo, and I finished it with 50,181 words. Gravedigger is part of a trilogy so I will have to do a lot more outlining and write the rough drafts for the other two novels before I even know where everything is.  With that in mind I will end up publishing some other books first, and that means you probably won't see it for another ten years or so.  I'm sorry... long term goals...

December:

I still don't know what to get anyone for Christmas this year, so part of my time will be dedicated to figuring that out.  Also I would like to wish anyone reading this a Merry Christmas!

I will also be working on a children's book, a story about a brontosaurus who goes around inhaling poodles like a vacuum cleaner.  My sister helped me come up with it, and it is true hilarity!

I hope to publish it sometime next year... short term goals!

January:

My new years resolution for next year is to set myself both a writing challenge, and a drawing or painting challenge every month of the year.  These goals will change from one month to the next, and I will adapt according to how things seem to be going, and what I need to practice on, and what I want to come out with.

Also I would like to wish anyone reading this a happy new year!

Don't feel like you have to set goals if you don't want to.  I know I set myself all sorts of creative goals but it seems to work for me, and I feel like I'm having fun, so whatever you do just be sure not to stress out too much.  :)