The New and Improved Art Thread

**Rocket Sheep** · October 22nd, 2009, 05:04 AM

How does romance even survive in the face of daily assault on every romantic notion ever conceived?

**Hereford Eye** · October 23rd, 2009, 07:54 AM

Romance survives because it constitutes a comedy of manners. We're a century away from anyone exhibiting manners so the novelty alone keeps them around.

**Radthorne** · October 23rd, 2009, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Rocket Sheep

How does romance even survive in the face of daily assault on every romantic notion ever conceived?

It survives because there are people like me who treasure it and fend off the onslaughts the daily grind attempts to inflict on it.

**Rocket Sheep** · October 23rd, 2009, 10:02 PM

So you're like someone's knight in shining armour? Snort!

Sorry, ill-mannered reflex. You can see I'm believing HE's explanation more than yours.

**Radthorne** · October 23rd, 2009, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by Rocket Sheep

So you're like someone's knight in shining armour? Snort!

Sorry, ill-mannered reflex. You can see I'm believing HE's explanation more than yours.

I may not be yours, but I'm someone's. And it only takes two to have a romance.

**Rocket Sheep** · October 24th, 2009, 03:46 AM

Or one and something you bought online if you're desperate!

**Hereford Eye** · October 24th, 2009, 08:35 AM

You have to be desparate? Where does it say that? I thought basic curiosity was sufficient. There I go breaking another rule.

**Radthorne** · October 24th, 2009, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by Rocket Sheep

Or one and something you bought online if you're desperate!

***Note to self: Send Sheepie a card next Valentine's Day. Poor cynical thing is in serious need. ***

**Radthorne** · October 24th, 2009, 04:56 PM

Back to art. And yeah, it's just a portrait, and yeah most of you won't find it to be your cup of tea. But - it's what I make!

I am experimenting with larger format and storytelling type pictures, but they do take a lot longer to build. And the portraits are quicker (and I like 'em).

Anyway, as with most of my pictures, there was one thing that started it off; in this case, I had bought the hair model, which came with this nifty hairband with a lot of different texture options. From there it was a matter of building up the rest of the items in the picture off of that starting point.

This one is called, "Little Miss Firefly", for no better reason than that it's the name of the dress.

**Rocket Sheep** · October 25th, 2009, 05:25 PM

Please don't take this personally, but you've heard about the damage that Barbie was accused of doing to generations of girls who had no way of matching the waist-hip-boob-head-pout-eye-neck-leg ratios of Barbie but still longed for it?

And how Barbie as a real life woman would look like some kind of giraffe woman freak and could never have squeezed a baby out through those hips even if she had been anatomically correct?

Therefore, I urge you to affix this warning to your pictures in the future:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOVT. WARNING: Viewing this image could seriously distort your view
of normal feminine body shapes. Prolonged viewing could lead to
eating disorders or the desire to mutilate popular toys from the 1970s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does your program have any middle-aged bawdy drunk messy women? Or are we not represented by this program because we are not seen as desirable to the men who invented it?

**Radthorne** · October 25th, 2009, 05:45 PM

When making pretty, romance-laden, idealistic pictures representing fairylands or otherwise idealized notions, then yes, middle-aged bawdy drunk messy women generally don't figure into that. Any more than middle-aged, bawdy drunk messy men would. When there are men in my pictures (which isn't frequent, but does happen) most of them are also idealized depictions (the one tubby boatman in my Departure picture being an exception). That is an artistic choice I make for the kind of art I want to do. If I wanted to make realistic, dirty, gritty representations of the truly awful nature of life as it really is, then I would do so. But that's not why I create art, nor why I write books. My books have bad things happen in them, but ultimately they're about the triumph of human spirit over the adversity thrown at them, usually by other humans. It's my glass-half-full view of life, and it's what compels me to create, be it via words or art. You may of course prefer to see middle-aged bawdy drunk messy women and men, or depictions of reality that reflect the awful nature of the world. If so then I refer you to someone like this. That's a very nice piece, very evocative and emotive and sad. But that's not what I create.

**Radthorne** · October 25th, 2009, 06:16 PM

And just to add, although I know I've said this before: the characters and clothing models that I use were not created exclusively by men. In fact, I'd say at least 60% or more of my female characters and their clothes are created by women modelers and texture creators. So I think it is incorrect to assume that just because a depiction of the female form tends toward the idealized, it is automatically a man who created it.

**Rocket Sheep** · October 25th, 2009, 09:10 PM

SoooOOooo... you don't like my Govt Warning label, then?

I get the whole fantasy idealism, escapism thing... I just don't find those stories as interesting as the stories of the broken dirty deeply damaged faulty people. The mother who can't feed her children is a good example. Your girl has no story... her life seems perfect.

Sorry if I offended you.

**Radthorne** · October 25th, 2009, 10:08 PM

I'm not offended, it's just that I think there's room for different kinds of expression. I think the mother who can't feed her children is indeed a good story picture, as are the stories of the broken dirty deeply damaged faulty people. They're just not ones I choose to create.

If were to (also tongue in cheek) suggest warning labels, I would put one on the hungry children picture saying, "Warning: Viewing this image may re-affirm a sense that there is no hope and that life is awful. It is strongly recommended that you don't even bother trying to get out of bed." But I think each viewer can appreciate (or not) whatever they like without such labels.

For myself, it's the soft-edged, romantic fantasy worlds that happen to spark my own creativity. Escapism, unreality, perfection - to me they are dreams to aspire to, not to throw away like the toys of childhood (would it surprise you to know that I still own most of my die-cast toy cars from when I was a kid? Probably not...). Such perfection is not going to be achieved, but I like the idea of where we might end up by trying, more than the view that simply assumes we and life as we know it is irredeemably flawed and horrid. I may not be able to get someone to stop and appreciate a picture of a pretty fairy instead of picking up a gun and blowing somebody's head off, but at least with my fairies around, an alternative does exist.

**KatG** · October 27th, 2009, 01:48 PM

I like the firefly one. It's good use of color with the adolescent/fairie anime look. Usually, as you know, I'm less into the anime looking ones, not because I don't like anime but because the contrast with more realistic backgrounds you sometimes use doesn't always seem to me to work. But this one, with the fuzzy, firefly, spider web, watercolor look, combined with the contemplative, dreamy expression you have for the portrait, works well. The shading on it is very good too. (Helped my daughter with an acrylic painting yesterday as part of a history project; she had drawing in art but not a lot of painting yet and so I had to teach her about shading with color.)

Now you just have to do a Halloween one. I think you should give Sheepie a sexy guy with a five o'clock shadow.