SharondaWoodfin.net

The Problem with Karma

Some incarnations are stickier than others!

Blue-feathered Amazon Halter Shirt

Blue-feathered Amazon Halter Shirt by spuriousink

Yes, it's tacky. No, no one will buy it. But drawing it was a bit of a giggle-fest, for me. And, in the end, that's all that really matters.

Note I used the word "halter", instead of "bra". I'm not a total heathen...

OK, I lied...

Boobs. Leather-garbed boobs. That is all.

Bleeding Vampire Starfish

Bleeding Vampire Starfish Poster by spuriousink

I'm too busy to write a brand new bunch of text for this, so -- in the grand spirit of internet "theft" -- I'm stealing the description from my own product line:

Yet another face of EVIL! This is no ordinary starfish! Oh, no! Be mesmerized by its blood red (and sorta pink) gaze! Recoil in horror from its blood-stained fangs! Realize that it's a freaking starfish, that it's tiny and has no thumbs, just as it crawls away from you, leaving a trail of blood across the... ummm... periwinkle sand? WTF? Cue evil laughter!!! Muahahhahhhaaaaaa!

You can see the entire product line here.

What Kind of Fish Am I?

I don't remember when I did the original drawing for this. I do know that I never got a chance to scan the drawing. So, last night, when I was going through some of my old, unused work, I decided to re-draw it on the Wacom.

I finished the actual art work this morning, then spent a few hours asking people if they could Identify the species that I'd drawn. No one could. The truth of the matter is that I don't know if I used any sort of special -- Ha! -- reference, or if I just drew from imagination.

Regardless of the original source(s) -- Wontar thinks I'm a "fish combiner" -- my imagination failed me when it came time to name the creation. Ladies, gentlemen, and otherwise: You're now looking at "Spiky-finned Yellow Fish", and you can buy it here - while sighing in relief that I won't be naming any humans.

SVG Edit Standalone Opera Widget

Opera's Developer Relations Team - SVG Edit standalone widget

This is especially nice since I have yet to install Inkscape on the new PC.

6 Reasons I Plan to Abandon Traditional Art Methods

There are few things I enjoy more than sitting down with a pen and a piece of paper and letting ideas flow. But it's come to the point that that is no loner a feasible means of being productive, at least in terms of making designs for use in print on demand. I had hoped to hold out longer, but:

1. Black ink should be black. Soul-sucking black. The only ink I've used that's really black -- Speedball Acrylic Pigmented Ink -- has become increasingly difficult to find (at least in a size that isn't laughably small). The other inks I've tried -- FW Acrylic Artists Ink, Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Ink, and Rapidograph Universal India Ink -- don't come close to being as black as the mood I'm in when I realize how gray they are.
2. My scanner is broken. It only scans about 3/5 of its scanning length, and makes god-awful crunching, banging noises while doing so. This restricts me to working only on small areas, which isn't necessarily bad. But it also restricts me from actually scanning the larger, time-consuming piece I started before before it became so restrictive. See the black mood reference in point #1.
3. Going digital should speed up my work. I refuse to draw in an erasable medium. (Again, see point #1.) This means that a good deal of my drawing time is actually spent looking at what I've done, and deciding where the next line should go, instead of actually making the line. An undo option eliminates the need for that pondering.
4. There's no such thing as an all-purpose paper. I have essentially three tools that I like to use: pen and ink, ink and brush, and Inktense pencils. The pencils are wonderfully vibrant on watercolor paper, where my pen hangs, but duller on the bristol or posterboard, where the pen is actually useful. More often than not, I end up adding color via the computer, anyway, and doing so badly. There are people who can draw with a mouse. I'm not one of them.
5. Art supplies are expensive, and they are a continuing expense. I can get a tablet for my computer for less than $50. It may not be a one-time expense, but it certainly comes closer to that sort of permanence than the continual replenishment required for traditional supplies.
6. I live in a small town. There is no such thing, here, as an art supplies store. When I run out of something (even something as ubiquitous as a Pilot Precise V5), my work will be interrupted for at least a few hours, while I drive to a town that actually sells the stuff I need, or possibly a few days, while I wait for the stuff to be delivered after ordering it online. If I'm short on cash, that wait can extend to a few weeks. Virtual tools eliminate all all worry about running out of paper or ink, breaking my brushes, ruining my nibs, or straight-up losing my Tangerine Inktense pencil.

To make a long story short, it makes more sense to me to buy a tablet than it does to replace my scanner, inks, paper, nibs, brushes, and pencils. I'm also sick of having to choose between working on index cards or moving away from the computer in order to work on larger drawings.

That's not to say that I'm completely confident about the move. I worry mostly about the loss of "feel" in going from old school to digital drawing. On the upside, I'm hoping that it will give me the time and clarity of conscience to occasionally just do some of the random, train-of-thought line work that I used to do, before this became less about self-expression and more about paying bills.

Halloween Survival Tip #37

For the unwashed (in blood! Muahhahhaaaa!): Back in 2007, I did a series of sloppy, one-panel, Halloween-related cartoons, based in large part on stupid puns. I had a blast making them, and a few other people seemed to enjoy them, too. That original series of 36 (38, including the "covers") cannot currently be found on this blog, so looking for them would be a waste of your time. I haven't decided, yet, whether to post them; in part because my style has changed, but mostly just because they're old. Halloween is approaching, though! If I do decide to include them on this site, this post will be updated to reflect that change.

Disclaimer: I haven't read or seen any of the currently popular lovey-dovey vampire stuff. Because of that, I can't critique the work, at all. What actually inspired this cartoon was a trip I took with a friend to Barnes & Noble last week. I don't get out of the house much, so I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of currently-published vampiric romance novels. The contrast between the old vampire traditions, and the notion of human-friendly, relationship-oriented blood-suckers -- especially on such a wide scale -- made me think of the old days of reading Buffy femslash, and how proliferate fan fiction, in general, was when I was actually looking for it.

In the end, though, human = vamp food.

Yes, Angel's soul got on my nerves.

12 Easy Ways to Ruin Your Pen & Ink Drawing!

1. Don't clean your nibs between drawing sessions, even though you have both pen cleaner and window cleaner at your disposal.
2. Press on, even when you notice a bit of paper stuck in the nib.
3. Drop your pen in some pen cleaner. Forget about it for several days.
4. Clean your pen. Don't bother to wipe away the cleaning fluid before dipping said pen in ink and proceeding to draw.
5. Let your ink sit around for so long that it begins to take on a slightly rubbery texture. Use it, anyway.
6. Drag your pinky through the line you've just drawn.
7. Having just drug your pinky through a wet line, let pinky relax against an otherwise blank spot on the board. Do not clean pinky between items 6 and 7.
8. Before opening, give jar of ink a vigorous shake. Open jar. Pop enormous bubble on top of ink with the point of your nib. Do not move away from your drawing before doing this.
9. Switch from a Speedball 315EF to a Hunt 102. Do not adjust your technique.
10. Make sure your nib is thoroughly covered in ink. Do nothing to rid it of excess.
11. Use your sharpest nib. Draw on rough-textured watercolor paper.
12. Keep on drawing, even when your eyes have decided they're done for the day.

Icy Perseverance

I try to be compassionate, but...

I'm starting to think that I need a pet barn owl.