alexds1 answered your question: What kind of things inspire you to worldbuild?
Honestly? I just feel like it is the default form of my imagination. My mind just automatically goes to possible alternate realities and worlds and timelines what-if cause/effect stuff. It happens a lot when I think about my own life too which is a problem :| I have trouble existing in the present...
Would you take science into a lot of consideration when creating worlds and their inhabitants, or would that take some of the joy out of it?
Well, considering that my favorite genre is... science fiction... I'd say no XD I put a lot of thought of that sort into my fantasy worlds as well, to the point of asking whether or not a clockwork person winding themselves up in order to keep running indefinitely violates the laws of thermodynamics (it does). So I suppose in my case SCIENCE is where I actually derive a great deal of joy :D
Taken with Instagram
I noticed that this raised some questions, lol. I did waffle on it for a while but yeah there was some reasoning behind it (no really)
a. rubber bullets.
b. she is a cop (detective NOPD anti-gang, coast guard reservist instead of full time) and feels naked without it /stereotype
c. she has great aim with firearms, not so much with powers.
d. edited her abilities so she has to switch her entire mass to energy form to use her power, no laser hand-blasts.
e. this version of Monica is when she is very new and doesn't have precise control over her ability, her resting energy state is basically a glowy white-light energy being that is diffused over a fairly wide area so she doesnt risk incinerating everything/one around her. When she concentrates it she can tap into the cosmic background radiation to boost her intensity but its like opening power floodgates. This is great for battle against superbeings and giant monsters, not so much against humans. She CAN manifest at more midrange intensities but no matter what area of the spectrum she's at this would be either very annoying to downright dangerous (disrupting radio communications, internet and wifi, being too blindingly bright. Or uh giving everyone around her radiation poisoning/cancer... not really an acceptable form of collateral damage. Everyone tends to draw the line at weaponized throwing cars)
f. IN CONCLUSION, her two current settings are essentially "light show" and "atom bomb".
/nerd
PS- later on she learns to reign it in enough to work as an Active Denial System though :p but takes a level of precision she doesn't initially have and would just microwave everything.
barbwire butt (Taken with Instagram)
jakface:
Zazzle Quality!, a set on Flickr.
Hey guys! This is the amazing print quality of a print off of Zazzle. They do an amazing job and are SUPER fast. This is a print of my friend Aysha’s THE PALADIN, which I am so happy I bought! So I can totally vouch for the quality! YAY!
SWEET arrrghhghgh I can't wait until I can have one of these for myself lol oh Errikan <3
Prints of my masterpiece totally still for sale guys *plug plug plug* 8x16" 15x30" and 26x52"!
Rabbit with *~sparkly~* pink pincurls because I said so. I started doing more with this because I have too many fancy design elements not to, but not the time to complete it right now…which is annoying cos that’s my favorite part :C Yes, clipart and filters are my favorite part, leave me alone
SPG’s new album is SO great, YOU NEED IT, I love albums that tell a whole story, I love rock operas, I love SPACE, SO MUCH!! My favorite songs are SteamJunk, Sky Sharks (with my bb Professor Elemental, squeeee), Oh No, and Necrostar *3* BRING IT INTO YOUR LIFE~
I use HDR Camera+ app to tweak exposure/saturation/etc. I do actually own a real camera but lol who uses those anymore :p it kinda makes me want a camera phone with real HDR and the fancy cases that let you attach real camera lenses geez. I don’t have room to take an actual camera with me when I’m out on bsns, despite some sweet photo ops out in The Nature. To think I used to view camera phones as the silliest thing ever (I still find them silly, but let’s be honest, the thing smartphones are worst at now is actually being a phone).
What college did you go to to learn how to be such a fantastic artist? And what was your major?
ahaha I don't know what you're talking about, I was a fantastic artist way before college *snortsnortsnort*
In SLIGHTLY more seriousness, I never finished college and part of the reason was because I felt like I wasn't learning anything (except how to be pretentious), I had professors looking at my work and asking me why I was bothering, and struggling with a severe depression ended up losing my scholarship, the only way I could afford to go to such an expensive school (Carnegie Mellon University).
... Though hindsight is 20/20 and honestly my mistake was majoring in Fine Art, it was a terrible fit. Still dealing with some residual bitterness to this day, for an idea of my Opinions on the matter I recommend the movie Art School Confidential, it mirrors my experience pretty accurately!
I've been struggling with what feels like, to me, a severe chronic art block for most of my adult life. I can and will go MONTHS without drawing, sometimes farting out occasional barebones idea doodles, but sometimes drawing absolutely nada. When I was younger up until my late teens I had this burning drive to create ALL DAY ERRYDAY with ridiculously large body of work strewn behind me (so much that I have lost more than I've ever had and its still a ton), peaking very early in terms of skill level through the sheer brute force of practice and study... but burning motivations led to burnout. I don't actually blame being TOO driven to create (no such thing dammit!) leading to the burnout, BUT I think some forms of motivation are more sustainable than others. I was driven by ambition, belligerence, more than a little fear. Not so healthy.
I've learned that it's not simple laziness because the "draw anyway" strategy of overcoming art block has NEVER worked for me. The more I push through a block with sheer willpower the more miserable I become, and the only reason I create at all is because it's a source of joy! I have arranged my life in ways to protect this, and is a major reason I have steered away from turning art into a career. There are a lot of IRL factors that I don't really want to elaborate on here (depression is a major one, however), but art doesn't happen in a vacuum, and an artist's life has to have SOME stability in order to have the surplus time and energy to actually draw/paint/compose/write/craft. My own psychic resources have simply been too scarce, I haven't been able to afford to spend those resources on creative projects. Its a Hierarchy of Needs thing. Once Food/Shelter/Safety has been taken care of, I'm spent. There is no surplus.
Annoyingly, fangirling sometimes injects some extra energy and if I then also have the time I just start scrawling fan art uncontrollably (if the fangirling is intense enough you can bet I will MAKE the time! There is NO stopping The Feels). But it's a sugar high and as soon as it's over the art stops too, independently of my desire to actually FINISH anything either (this is the worst part for me, guilt and frustration are the sugar coma, tho the pattern did help me identify the various sources of creative energy).
I dunno how to sum this up. To make art you gotta have an idea. Then the energy to translate the idea out of your soul, and the time/materials to make the actual piece. The spark, the fuel, and the engine. My flavor of art block is akin to running on fumes. Most discussions of art block seem to revolve around the missing spark/faulty ignition. I don't know if this comes off as self-pitying I SURE HOPE NOT but! I do believe I know what steps I need to take in my life to do something about this, so. I'm working on it. Talking about this stuff makes me very uncomfortable but I think it's important. Plus this is an art blog and well, I guess I feel a need to explain myself when I don't post any art??
In the meantime I work hard to not be too mad at myself for lack of productivity (especially when I used to be disgustingly prolific) cos that's an energy-spending exercise not a refueling one.
Artists!! How do you deal with art block, or periods of depression? (Do you deal at all?) Researching my dissertation, scary stuff.
questionstar.org & questionstar@deviantart. I like to make art, friends, costumes, trouble, and history this is an art/creativity/rambling blog where I complain about art more often than I actually post it!
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