Slime Cat Blog

Sorry!

2012-01-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not posting for a LONG while!

I'm definitely going to start to make constant posts quite soon though. I have a lot of artworks/stories to share, so I will be back soon :)

-Heather

Ontario Tornado Warnings!

2011-08-25T07:05:00.001-07:00

We had a pretty impressive storm roll through last night! Dan and I were pretty jittery before the storm. We put all our emergency supplies together and once we heard there was a tornado warning, we grabbed the cat and rabbit and fled to the basement. Our poor kitty (Doom) was not happy about going in the basement, it's an unfamiliar place to her. Her tail was all puffy and she was clinging to me so hard! Once we were down there though, the mood changed....call us weird but we actually kind of enjoyed it (even though we were in a 4'x4' room with a toilet and a lotta spiders). The kitty was a useful barometer, if she started freaking out we knew we would need to stay down there...either that or she needs the litter box.

Ball of ants

2011-04-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not going to talk about all the ants invading my kitchen right now.

Do you ever talk to someone really high up in their league and get a little nervous?

I know I do. I was laying in bed thinking about this, and it was kind of a trippy thought...but this is how I get rid of that fear: I think of the earth, the big gorgeous ball slowly rotating in space, glimmering with beauty , and then I think of humans as ants or tiny specs, and I think of myself HUGE hugging that ball with ants on it...and whoever I'm talking to is obviously one of those ants. It's funny, but when I think of people in that way, all connected, all ONE, I really don't feel too scared anymore. Life when you think about it is kind of pointless, but that's why theres no real reason to fear. Love that little ball of ants, they need it, they're a ball of ants for gods sake!

Nosebleed!

2011-04-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

Today I had the biggest nosebleed I've ever had in my life! A friend suggested what I do to get rid of it via Facebook. Bring your head forward and plug your nose for about 5 minutes. I did that, but I think I did it wrong because soon afterward I felt like blacking out! It was WEIRD! I jus sat in my chair with a cold sweat and dizziness to the EXTREME! I could taste the blood trickling down my throat which made me feel sick...ECK!

So that's what happened to me today.

it sucked.

A few things

2011-04-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

Now that I've added a few gadgets to the Slimecat blog, I feel like I need to post something new...

hmmmm...something new...

Ah! Here's a MAJOR thing! :

Have a look at Tentacle Tarte Studios I've started with my friend Amanda Nightingale-Terwoord!

Being the ditz I am sometimes... I didn't really update about the business on the Slimecat Blog.

Tentacle Tarte is our name and we do Graphic design, Illustration, Toy design, and even some baking!

At the moment I'm working to get a logo finished and sharp looking for Yggdrasil's Child.

Yggdrasil's Child, "Natural handmade soaps, candles, body products, and hemp jewellery"

I haven't tried any of the products yet, but one of my friends says they're spectacular. Her name is Sarah Paulette Bongers, she's a journalist, and she kindly wrote a review for Yggdrasil's Child.

Getting back to Tentacle Tarte, we have a show coming up in Kitchener, April 16th, called the Bloomin' Earth Festival, located at the Kitchener Market! There'll be tonnes of local handmade artisans selling their goods. Being a market day, we're anticipating a packed festival. Let's all hope for a nice sunny day!

We're focusing on toys at the festival, here's a picture of our handmade toys called Dinosquares :D

There's kind of a funny story behind this picture^^^^

Back to work now!

Slime Cat has a Friend!

2011-01-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

We've moved! We have a Kitty too! Her name is Doom. She's a cute little black cat with adorable yellow moon eyes and a small tuft of white on her chest (kinda like an opening on a tux). Here are some photos of her:

Doom was adopted at the Humane Society in Kitchener. She was the last kitty of her family to be adopted...I guess everyone in Kitchener is superstitious or something. Doom was also born on site (which is apparently rare). Her name at the shelter was Tinkerbell... yeah, no comment there. They gave her that name so people would adopt her, but luckily they had no luck until we came! We immediately changed her name as soon as we saw her.

She's a happy little thing now.

Packing and more Packing

2010-10-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

A few more weeks to go until Dan and I are settled in our new apartment. We'll have a large portion for a studio, a good sized dining room (no more eating while sitting on the floor), an upstairs with a bedroom and a quirky closet, a living room with a glass door; it leads out to a fair sized balcony which overlooks a HUGE backyard with a fire pit...the list goes on! Best part is that it's inexpensive. All inclusive and only $1100 a month.

Until then, we're dealing with the constant haywire of strangers eye-balling our current home. We're hoping for someone to take over for us, but damn it's a pain in the ass cleaning just about every day to show off the place. The landlord lets us know a few hours in advance that someone will be coming to look at our place, I scramble to clean, the people look...and the cycle continues.

As far as packing goes... it's convenient living next to a large appliance store, just today I was digging through their dumpster to look for some jumbo sized boxes :D Bit by bit we're getting outta here!

So on another topic, my friend and I decided to gang up and start a graphic design/illustration/toy business together. By the *end of October we'll have our website up. We're in the midst of coming up with a business name so we can register that title to the Small Business Centre. We're both working on a few projects as I speak:

- Dinosquare toy tag (including the product name and our website)

- Our website

- The first design in our NEW toy series.

- Ordering eyeballs for the toys

- A tag design for LoopClothing

I had planned to make a new website for just myself, but this way it'll be a little cheaper, also stronger with both our voices in the mix.

I'm off to pack some more.

-Heather

*The website will be up depending on how busy we are with the move

Fruit for thought

2010-10-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine requested that I design her next tattoo.

Botanical illustration with watercolour first came to mind when I thought of what she was explaining to me. She told me she wanted something "girly and pretty" with some "realism" in there.

After the strawberry design, I couldn't help but start on some new projects. So I did a few Raspberries...

These were a lot of fun to make, so the next project I thought could be a warmup for a large illustration I'm planning. Here's a little breakdown on the development:

I darkened this a bit in photoshop so you guys can actually see it.

So in that image I'm drawing a basic outline for the layout.

Next the underpainting is applied. This makes all the finishing colours more rich in appearance.

This is when I start to apply the next layer. The greens, and some of the shadows are being formed. It's important to keep the highlights nice and crisp until you know what effect you want. In this case, blueberries have a matte texture to their skin, which means light doesn't bounce off to make them shiny in appearance. In the raspberry and strawberry painting, I had to reserve the whites with masking fluid because they do have a shiny look.

Next I establish the heavier colours and also make some layout decisions (the bottom-most green berry was added to balance the image better). Some of the veins in the leaf take form.

The final layer of colour is applied, some late layout decisions are made (third from the bottom green berry) This is when the blueberries take on their true colour from all those purple tints in the previous stages.

Inking is a little tricky. There was a phrase in Doug Chiang's book "Mechanika - Creating the Art of Science Fiction" that basically explained the process of inking. Carefully choose what you want to ink and leave the rest for the audience to build in their minds. It makes for a more attractive piece of art in the end.

I've still got shit tonnes to learn about watercolour. I wanted to use it for the first time when I saw a friend's work, Oswald Kenneth Schenk. An AWESOME watercolourist/graphic designer. He's dead now...but he was a real character apparently, that's what my mom tells me. He wanted to marry my grandma originally.

anyway, that's all for now

New Website Coming in October!

2010-09-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

I just got married, and you know what that means!

NAME CHANGE!!

Yes folks, I'll be going through all my cards and all my accounts and all my addresses changing my name for the next month or two... these new changes are bringing on the awesome opportunity to change my website name and domain.

Here's a little breakdown of my next website page:

Unfortunately this name change stuff is going to be one HELL of a process, but as soon as I get that new birth certificate in the mail I can finally start...hopefully it'll be one more week.

I'll update as soon as I get some stuff on the go.

Holy Hell! Imma gunna be a WIFE!

2010-07-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

So it's the end of my life according to this random person I met downtown, because I'm going to be married! Dan and I have been together since April 2004, "and we still act like we met", my friend told the random person.

Honestly...it doesn't feel any different, it's just another step I guess.

I'm a little worried about getting the marriage license because Dan needs to find a second piece of ID before we get it. As for the wedding itself, we have little tiny details to think about, like decorations'n stuff, my mom keeps...well...being a mom (if you know what I mean)

*breath* it should be fine, it's just a wedding it's just a wedding it's just a wedding.

Lots of new things happening!

2010-03-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, lets start with art.

The new Tee design will be printed next week! I have a contract to sign and that'll be that for the Perimeter Institute Tee. I'm about half way through the new Tee design, this is to be held a secret until I'm fully finir!

Now let's move on to toys.

I've discovered some useful info from another artisan about legit tags for toys. I am to sign an application for registration as a home hobby/craft operator. This is a specific application in Ontario, anyone who makes/sells stuffed articles should register. It's 20 bucks a year, and that gives you the right (in my case) to create/sell 1-999 stuffed animals in one year. Should you create/sell more, you are to sign a manufacturer application which is a staggering 400 bucks a year! When I've registered I can finally get some contents tags done. I'll follow these guides and visit one of the specialized printers, luckily one of them happens to be down the road from my house!

Before all that happens...

I'd like to sign my name for a small business. I'd like to start doing things properly and I think that'll be a good way to start. It's 60 bucks last I saw (could be more by now), that's to register your legal name only. I'm currently reading the pdf about starting a sole proprietorship and what's involved. It won't be anything big to start but it should be interesting and fun making toys n' stuff all the time!

Hmm what else?

I went to Cuba in February, had a real fun time with a friend of mine and her dad, he goes down every month or so. We stayed in the city of Holguin, did what Cubans do. It was really different and enjoyable. I could really write a whole blog about this alone, so I think I'll do that next!

Here's a greek face for shits and giggles.

-Heather

New tags for DinoSquares!

2010-01-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

This morning I wanted to have a bit of fun finding ideas for my new DinoSquare tags. So I spent an hour and a half of my time in Toys "R" Us just looking at toy labels. People were giving me the weirdest looks too! It was fun to look like I was stealing stuff but actually wasn't. >:3

The tag that stood out from everything else was this Hello Kitty tag, it was all pink but had a knock out white Hello Kitty face taking up the whole one side. It was stunning as a tag. It reminded me of some Japanese toy tags I've seen before. So I've decided to base my design off that one. I want my tag to be one solid color with a knockout toothy DinoSquare face and possibly "DinoSquare" written underneath.

Rough Sketch!

There's another part to the tag I need to worry about if I want to start selling these in professional toy stores, that would be the contents tag: What's in it, how it was made, where it was made. As far as I know that's all I'd need...I wouldn't necessarily need a logo tag, but that's would make it look pretty.

This is getting way off the topic, but Dan and I have been casually discussing the fact that I should think about registering my name into the Small Business Association at City Hall... just in case we do come to that decision, I'm leaving my business logo as Heather Russell. I've heard the rumor about registering your name being less of a pain than registering a made up business name.

I'm done.

-H

Alien Transformation!!

2010-01-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

I promised it in my last blog, so here it is, a step by step on how I built the newer and more improved "Klyper" alien being.

First I want to admit I was too lazy to imagine a pose so I found a male model on the net and drew the basic skeletal structure of his pose.

I applied Klyper's facial features to this skeletal structure and the basic outline of where his new hair style will be placed.

I then darkened some of those features and added a blue underpainting to start forming his skin.

Starting to fill in features.

Adding a bit more emphasis to his facial features and cleaning up his hair so the outline looks more pleasing. Notice the cast shadows starting to form...

I want to make his skin a little darker, more like the way it looked in my last blog. I copy and paste another body...

...and paste it right on top of the older body. If you are the type of artist that gets nervous of darkening hues, this is a good way to get over those nerves...if you can think of a better way, lemmie know!

Here I add some more skin textures to match the style of the last painting.

He's supposed to be a vampire, so fangs help in that respect.

Final cleaning and texturing.

I fixed the original concept too! :,)

Holy Space Pirate!!

2010-01-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

I thought this was a neat commission: an illustration/concept of a humanoid alien space pirate with blue skin, yellow eyes, thick jet black hair, pronged ears, the list goes on. I made a few sketches in the beginning to get the feel of what this guy looked like. When Dan mentioned, hey, that guy looks like Avatar I couldn't help but think of Avatar the whole time. I tried my best to steer clear of that.

Here's my first (hilarious) drawing of "Klyper" the space pirate:

I looked in my old art instruction books for ideas on what pose wanted this hotshot to be standing in, I thought this pose would suffice:

but then I started looking at super hero poses on the web and found this Deadpool dude, he has a much cooler pose:

So unfortunately I don't have a step by step on how I painted "Klyper" but this is how he turned out in the end:

So when my client saw it they were quite happy with it, there are however a few changes to be made to the hair, and I also need a 3/4 view of him smiling with his canines.

I'll post it bit by bit to give an idea on how I painted him next time.

-Heather

Fish and Ships! MMm mmm Gooood...

2009-12-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

So here are a few ships I didn't post yesterday because it was getting late. They definitely need more exploration, but it gives you an idea of what we're looking for. I'm posting the Post-It note sketch first, then the more finished version.

Hopefully these lead to newer more amazing ideas soon!!

I thought this looked cool until I realized what it looked like...a mustard container.

This was alright...a little boring though.

I've been told this looks like an organ fighter!

So even though all these make me reminisce about ridiculous things..I'm going keep plugging along and see what else I can come up with. I think my favourite so far has to be the droid I completed (in my last blog).

Doug Chiang experimentation!

2009-12-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

So! Doug Chiang... yeah I picked up his book called Mechanika at Chapters the other day, practiced a few of his works, then tried to come up with my own with the book by my side. I was surprised with what I did come up with. I've gotta be honest that I'm not mechanically minded at all, in fact I loathed the very idea of trying to come up with spaceship designs. I was even asking Dan WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THIS STUFF!!? I've always found it too hard to come up with anything that looked good enough.

Just today I proved myself wrong.

Doug Chiang's book on drawing mechanical beings and spaceships really forced me to look on the fun side of all this. He uses a simple yet striking technique that makes the whole process of concept to finished art fun as hell. My concepts are not exactly where I want them to be yet, but I was very happy that I could draw something that looked good.

So the steps for getting from a small concept to totally awesome art according to Chiang (and I decided to change it up a bit too!):

1. Try to draw your earliest concepts on post-it notes. This seems silly but really works. Even when I try to just draw small images on a large piece of paper, I feel inclined to draw those tiny concepts bigger and bigger and BIGGER for some reason. Try the post-it note thing because with what Chiang explained in the book, it forces you to think in the main shapes rather than the details.

2. When you've come up with something you like, switch to a bigger, but not your final, piece of paper. Start with your blue pencil as it's more forgiving when you're experimenting with shapes. You are NOT focusing on the details yet, you're still focusing on the large shapes, but you're further exploring what can be done with the shapes. Try to "eye" what feels best as far as proportions go.

3. Now that you have a sturdy concept, switch to your final paper. Try to find/use the tools he lists, I've experimented with a different brand of marker because I happened to have them kicking around from first year graphic design. I'm using a very light (20 or 30 percent) Letraset cool grey for the base guidelines which will become part of the final drawing.

4. Use a darker tone of grey to start finalizing the guide drawing and to work in some more guides for the finicky detailed shapes. I found the more you use and experiment with your grey markers, the more thought out and amazing the final piece will look!

5. (For the non-mechanically minded) Here is where you want to start listening to some good music. Take your .05 fine tipped Staedtler marker and start bullshi*ing final shapes based on those grey guides you drew. Again, I've got to be honest, I did have the book beside me, but it gave he a good hand in coming up with my own mechanical structures that looked like they would work in real life.

There was a lot more Chiang explained in the book that I found very interesting. He went on about using these toy model cars and other mechanical things as reference for his creations. He also explained that not finishing the drawing (like I did below) is good for letting the viewer fill in the blanks.... I'm not going to get into all of it because I'm really supposed to be talking about Dan's game.

But yeah, I had fun.

Post-it note sketches, they really work!

This guy was inspired by a Stremeline Moderne/Art Deco lamp of all things!

Final Rendering

I'm working, yes indeed, I'm working....

2009-11-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

This is what I needed to see. I just realized I had a sampler of this book from free comic book day. I picked it up from Carry on comics in Uptown Waterloo before leaving to go to Newfoundland last year. Doug Chiang explains how to build a concept from blue line scribbles to a fully refined piece of artwork. All I need is...(PENCILLL ALLLERT!!)

-my blue line pencil

-30, 40, 50 60% cool grey Pantone Letraset marker

-triangle

-any scrap paper

-fine tip black marker

-Colour printing paper (for the more finished artwork)

I'm now going to take what I've created in my scribbling stage and apply it to Doug Chiang's way of refining a concept! See you soon!!

Menacing faces!!

2009-11-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

Trains, especially streamline trains, were scary looking, I'm not talking about Thomas the Tank Engine faces either!!! Have you ever looked at the back bumper of a car and said to yourself, "Hey! That car looks really happy!" or "Hey that car looks like it's gunna kill me." or "Hey that car looks constipated.", well I'm trying to find some good mechanical "faces" for the ships in Dans game. I've been watching videos and looking in books about streamline trains and have noticed a pattern of menacing looking faces. Heres what I'm talking about but with cars.

I have a ship concept that hasn't been scanned yet, but is based on a zigzag art deco motif from a door in the Chrysler Building. It's a 2D frontal view of an eagle with ziggurat wings. Dan brought up a good point that maybe I can try turning those 2D motifs into 3D ship designs. I found an amazing walkthrough were someone uses the body shape of a Manta ray in the design of an organic spaceship. The design I'm doing won't be very organic, but this is kind of the same process I'm going through for the zigzag inspired spaceship design.

H1N1 was the best flu I ever had!

2009-11-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Everyone is freaking out about the piggy flu, but I'm contrary to all the hype. I had swine flu after Dan had it, and I've got to say it's not all that bad. It lasted me a total of ONE day. I thought the symptoms were gonna be back after the tiny attack and they never came.

Every other flu I had was waaaaaay worse.

So I've been too busy for words at work, trying to find the time to do a bit of sketching is tough, but I got ON it today. I've come up with some conceptual work for Loop Clothing, nothing really stands out too much yet though. I renewed the books I borrowed from the library for Dans game. A lot of the Art Deco motif hunting is finished. Dan would like me to get on with the more refined stuff asap. There will need to be a logo for the game coming soon (not to mention a name)...

I'm allowed cry about one thing though... WE NEED A FREAKING SCANNER! As soon as we get one installed I'll be able to show off a lot more than what I have so far. I think I'm going to go hunting for one this week, I hope you don't mind Dan.

Here's a hedgehog I'm working on for sh*ts and giggles.

He's based on this one I found on the interwebs, I thought it was too adorable to pass and not make a character of. I think he'll make a good strong sticker.

Sickness SUCKS!

2009-10-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

I apologize for those of you who were expecting to see some new art/sketches. Dan most likely has H1N1, and I may be coming down with something. I'm hoping not though...

I'll try to get back to posting soon!

Birthday Tea Monkey!

2009-10-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

I made myself a Tea Monkey for a mini interview at Loop Clothing in Waterloo! I'm hoping to do some freelance illustration for Loop Clothing because their merchandise has (in my mind) the same vibes as my illustration.

I wish the picture size was just a bit bigger than this but whatev. I'll decide on colors a little later today, but for now the black plate is done.

This has been a good little break from all the Art Deco stuff!

I'm getting sick of saying Deco.

2009-10-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

So I watched this video on youtube about Art Deco and apparently there were different periods in Art Deco.

ZigZag Deco 1925-1929: Everything had this zigzagy, geometric look to it.

Streamline Moderne 1930-1939: Everything looked like it was going fast. This is what Dan and I are interested in... nice to know the real name of this period.

These are different types found in a few areas:

Tropical Deco: Used a lot in Miami Florida, everything looks colorful, Deco Style.

New York Deco: Focusing mainly on the skyscrapers. Using the ziggurat pattern creates the illusion of space, tallness, and sleekness.

Hollywood Deco: Apparently the deco you see a lot of today. Bold dramatic lines. Mainly what hollywood was using to create their sets back in the 20's-late 50's.

There's probably more than just this.

Let's explore!

2009-10-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a roaring urge to go urban exploring.

I never knew Barra Castle existed until my friend pointed some pictures of it on Facebook. I read a little about it and discovered it was built in the 1930's, there was also this huge story that it has been neglected for quite some time. Some guy bought the place for $780,000 spent another $250,000 replacing the roof, then was kicked out because the fire/electrical inspectors sought it was too dangerous and was in really bad condition... which to my mind makes no sense because the guy was trying to FIX that problem. I mean come on let the guy finish at least!!

Anyway, what I was more interested in was finding some more Art Deco motifs. We took a lot of pictures, but came out with not much relating to Art Deco, even though the place was built in the 1930's. I'll post the ones I liked best, including the ones that came close if not on the dot for Art Deco. For those of you who are not caught up with the earlier blogs, I'm needing as many Art Deco motifs as I can get in aid of a video game that Dan is currently programming. These motifs will be used for creating some spaceship/fighter designs.

Here are some pictures (some taken by my friend and some taken by moi):

Neat little light cover.

One of the many many many bathrooms.

Yeah, don't know if that's black mould but stayed away anyway.

My favorite room, mostly because I could breathe

Not a big fan of the brick wall paper.

More decorations I really liked.

Wowee.

I liked these decorations on the fireplaces.

Creepiest part of the visit.

Some more boarder details.

I did not want to go down there, but guess what, we did.

Nothing like a hot steaming bath to end all your worries. Add wood to enhance the experience.

The top of that metal thing was the only motive I liked enough to add to my collection.

Amazing hallway, too tight for my liking!

A better example of one of the many fireplaces.

The glass designs caught my attention in this photo, I've seen glass like this in Deco books.

This is a good example of the water damage we found... what a stinky mess.

This is the facade of the building cracking off, believed to be one of the

issues the inspectors had.

You can't see it too well in this photo, the motifs in the boarder of this doorway.

Concrete pillar SMASHED!

Old style mailboxes, probably from the original design.

Bad example but the fireplaces in this house were the closest things I could find to Deco.

Cherub on the point of this arched doorway.

Nice lion face on the outside of the building.

I hope you enjoyed the photos...

I'll be back with some artwork that combines the deco with the fighters/spaceships.

See ya!

Deck the halls with Deco artists Fa la la la la la la la lahh!!

2009-10-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've been looking more in depth with all this Deco stuff, and have found a few favorite Deco artists so far.

François Pompon - Known for his stylized animals. This guy's ability to work in extreme simplicity is stunning. My favorite piece of his has to be the Polar Bear. I really like the Hippo too! They're almost like the designer toys everyone is going crazy over today.

Pierre le Faguays - I'm not familiar enough with him to know what he's really known for, but his Faun and Nymph statue really caught my attention, very geometric stance. The wavy hair on the nymph is another Deco motif I added to my collection.

Paul Philippe - I would Imagine he's well known for his human figurines. "Dancer with Turban" was my favorite, but unfortunately couldn't find it on the net. So, here's another of his...

Gustave Miklos - I really enjoyed looking at some of GM's work for it's beauty, simplicity, and mostly, it's strange forms.

All of these guys are sculptors, so I guess that means I like the sculpture part of Art Deco, I'm going to dive further into all this and explore more forms. There's still two dimensional and architecture to explore. My goal is not to study the artists themselves, but get a really good feel for this style so I can start creating my own stuff. I've already started sketching my own artwork in this style...

Ravi Shankar in Toronto

2009-10-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a beautiful concert with my parents as a 23rd birthday gift. Ravi Shankar with his daughter Anouksha Shankar at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The Concert was sold out (no surprise there). This concert was also part of the grand opening of the Royal Conservatory's expansion. It was cleverly expanded on the actual side of a building so that the original building was inside of the newer building, most likely to preserve it. I thought the walkway to the hall was neat too because there were artifacts dating back to about 200 BC displayed in glass cases. One was a tuning box of a cello with a scroll shaped like a lions head, another was a tiny flute made of wood from the Medieval times, there were beautiful figurines of Han Dynasty Musicians made of some type of clay.

The setup of the Shankar Concert was like no other concert I've been to. Each musician was of course barefoot seated upon a large box. Each seat had a glowing red, yellow, orange indian carpet laying flat. The carpet glowed even more in the spotlight. Anouksha was out first with the other musicians (correct me if I'm wrong), Two Tanburists [Tambura], One Tablist [Tabala], and a wooden flute player (if you listen to Ravi Shankar's music you'd know what this sounds like) <3 (,:

There's nothing else to say about the music other than HYPNOTIC. Especially when later they had sandalwood incense burning. It really seemed to connect everyone in a way. First thing Ravi said when he sat down, his water and Sitar given to him was, "Welcome to Montreal!"
We were in Toronto.

In Ravi's Part of the concert, they switched the wooden flute player to a Pakhawaj player and had a DRUMMING BATTLE between him and the Tablist. It was pretty wicked. Anouksha was hitting only four notes on her sitar while the two drummers were battling with speed and laughing.

I'm glad I had a chance to see the two Shankars in concert, Ravi is 89 now and he's still playing the Sitar like he always has. I don't think this will ever happen again in my life, so I'm super thankful for going!! Best Birthday gift EVAR!

Crude Yet Useful Beginning

2009-10-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have a small collection of art deco motifs cast in my notebook. Most of these drawings are so crude that it's really going to be me and only me that understands what their purpose was.

Art Deco is very broad as a style. What Dan and I are most interested in are the more powerful looking shapes from the 1920's and 30's. It was interesting to see that the 1980's and 90's tried to replicate the Deco theme, but [from what I saw in my book] it all ended up looking like sh**. It looked as though they were close, but they were always off somehow. I wonder if there's some Golden Mean stuff happening in the 30's that made it look so damn attractive. Don't worry too much about reading the notes I wrote with the drawings... it's mostly just me thinking and commenting to myself.

So there's obviously not much shown, but it gives you an idea of what I was looking for in the Deco books. Down below I have more sketches, mostly just me trying to get a "feel" of how to draw spaceships. In the nicer sketch you can see a futuristic looking ship that I think was my favorite one out of the bunch.

I don't have any distinct style yet, these drawings are purely me just having fun, trying to figure out how the heck do you go about drawing a spaceship concept??? There's going to be a lot more where these came from, but this should all lead me to drawing something with more personality. Thanks for reading! More drawing to come tomorrow!!

Getting a feel

2009-10-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've never been into drawing spaceships and other mechanical objects, so creating the concepts for the game will be a challenge for me. Usually when I have no clue which way to go as far as concepts and sketching goes, I'd get a feel of how to draw this stuff from other artists work and build off that. I guess you can call it research... or stealing. In the end, I want to be able to know how these spaceships move just from looking at the drawings... just like a character.

I dropped by the library yesterday to find some books that'll be of help for the concepts. The list consisted of : Guns, Art Deco, Trains a History, various illustration books, painting techniques, drawing textures. I even had a look at some children's "How to Draw" spaceships book, some of those books can be a great way to get some initial ideas. Last night I started the process of compiling some motifs in one of the Art Deco books I grabbed.

As far as the net goes: Some artwork on Deviant Art in the spaceship/fighter/robots section has given me some new outlooks. Drawn is one of the default places I visit for instant inspiration. If you (the reader) knows of any place that would be useful to visit for spaceships or even just to get inspired, please let me know!

Some initial concepts will be up tomorrow (Thursday)... I'm off to keep drawing!

A dream I wanted to see end

2009-10-13T04:01:00.000-07:00

Dan and I have been watching this show called Metalocalypse, the back of our DVD explains it like this: "Metalocalypse is the chillingly brilliant and terrifyingly [not] real story of Extreme Metal band Dethklok: the biggest entertainment act in the universe. Perhaps one of the most disgusting and disturbing pieces of art in the 21st century...that suggests moral redemption is not unlike our Nordic gods that we once prayed to, a myth." Basically about this spoiled metal band and their adventures.

I just woke up from a dream that had that same style of art, but there was me, Catwoman, Fantastic Mr Fox and this douchebag that thought he knew everything. We were in this ice cave all wondering how this man built the temple walls of this ice fort. The douchebag guy started just building them trying to show us that that was how they were built, but whilst he was being a douche, Fantastic Mr Fox pulled down this invisible wall from the ceiling, clearly that's how they were built. The douchbag guy got really upset and wanted to fight Fantastic Mr Fox, but we heard some noise like chains spinning really fast. Cat woman told us all to shut up, she looked around and swords/spikes/chain gears started popping out of the invisible walls around us. Cat woman Shouted, "Stay away from the walls!". Meanwhile outside the temple Nathan Explosion atop a fat pony in his Thunderhorse outfit was ready to charge into the temple dispite the swords/spikes/chain gears popping out of the walls. He was shouting/singing something like his band song called "Go into the Water" instead of "Go Into the Water" he was shouting "slain by swords", like he wanted to be torn apart by spikes and swords. He galloped into the temple atop his fat pony...

and my alarm went off.

That was the dream I wanted to see end.

Space Combat Sim

2009-10-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend is currently in his 4th and last year at Conestoga College for software engineering. The BIG project of the year is called the "system's project", where teams of students had to choose a project to sell or market in some fashion. Dan chose to create a videogame on his own which in the end will be released on the X-Box 360. My job is to do conceptual work for this game (to learn more about the programming end look at Dan's blog at dandandandandev.blogspot.com) I'm a little fuzzy on where to start with these concepts. After watching Batman the Animated Series Dan had the idea to take a peek at some art deco related artwork. We were both taken aback when we saw how powerful some of the background art looked in that style and had a hunch that maybe that's what we should try. Even though art deco is a very unique idea, I think I'm just going to start the apesh** way and have way too much fun with the first few concepts. Stay tuned for thoughts and concepts!

New site almost up!

2009-10-12T10:12:00.000-07:00

www.heatherrussell.net is going to be active tonight. It's a collection of my portfolio work from the three years of graphic design I had at Conestoga College. There are still a few things to be programmed, but for now there's enough for it to be online. Take a peek a little later on!

Welcome!

2009-10-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to the Slime Cat Blog. This blog is not only meant to keep tabs on the work I do but also to share life's strange things. This kitty loves to feast on comments so please be generous!