Several items of business

#1. Blender Conference 2009 was amazing! I met some great people and had my brain turned inside out from everything stuffed in there. As King Arthur once said, this new learning amazes me!

#2. Seabug 2 is coming up, December 5th! The first Seabug was a big hit, and I'm hoping it becomes a trend, then a tradition. Who knew so many talented and wizened Blender users operated throughout the Pacific Northwest? Learn more at http://seabug.eventbrite.com/

#3. Baaauuugh!!!! I had a big computer hardware wipe, which included losing a variety of art and writing projects. I have since learned my lesson, sprung for a new external, and finally set up Time Machine on my Mac.

#4. Philosophically speaking, I still like the idea of a project post per week. But in terms of real-world materials, it's just not feasible. To scan a whole sketchbook takes an hour of backbreaking, super-boring labor, if not more. And by backbreaking, I mean both my own and the spines of my sketchbook. Sadly, in getting my computer wiped, I lost a big pile of sketchbook scans that will have to be redone, from two different sketchbooks at that, and both of these poor tomes are already duct taped from all the wear and tear. So in the interest of my sketchbook collection's long-term lifespan, I've got to limit them to one big scan session per book, once they're filled.

#5. Although that means less postings, I should strive to have more non-sketchbook short term experiments posted. Such as this self portrait I did, one evening after feeling morose about my wiped computer hard drive. I keep devoting a lot of free time to nerding out over my favorite painters (William Adolphe Bouguereau, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, I'll post the whole list some time) but largely failing to attempt their best medium: representational illustration. So, while restocking my library of their paintings to use as desktop images, I took two hours to bust out a self portrait.

I religiously painted this using only one layer, because so many of my photoshop experiments have died by getting bogged down in technicalities. It was quick, simple and unrefined; I think I only used one brush the entire time even.



#6. My presentation from Blender Conference 2009 is now on the web! I think. It wasn't working in my browser, but word on the street is that this link should eventually lead to the video. http://www.debalie.nl/player/playmovie_v2.jsp?movieid=330612&videofragmentsid=

Happy Holidays, y'all!


www.oscarts.org
oscarbaechler@gmail.com