That gold looks great, what are you going to put over the top of it, to stop it getting damaged.
@Worcestershire_Farms nice progress.
@Shadey I’m looking into synthetic paper, getting some free samples. I had not heard of this and am interested in the new effects of depth in scratches and heavy pencil lines that I could remove paint from, when the paint comes off is it just where the other medium blocks it’s connection to the paper? Or is it more radiated out from the source?
@beacher almost there…
The Jag is looking good.
I have one type that came off a frame wrapping, it’s better than the stuff I paid $30 for lol.
The expensive paper, does not absorb the paint it sits on top of the paper and has no real mechanical or chemical key. Once dry you can use erasures, and scratching tools like fiberglass pens, knife blades, for shading and highlights. Excellent for fur or hair. I was having a little practice the other day, I will post it up later. The good thing about synthetic paper is you can wash any paint off if you don’t like what you have done.
Sweet! The perfect color with the moon as a backdrop.
here is some hair practice on the paper that was used for a frame wrapping. The flash messed up the lower one
Really nice air brush example, thank you @Shadey
I haven’t put pencils to paper for going on 3 weeks now, hands are hurting, nerve damage from a lifetime of hand tools, pneumatic and electric, a decade of artisan M.I.G and T.I.G. Welding, marble and granite fabrication, all combined over the years has taken a toll.
Iv’e been spending my time not drawing, working with a 3D program that I haven’t used since I made these 20 years ago…
Tru-space 7.6 freeware, when I first started 3D graphics in 98, i was a beta tester for Tru-Space and stopped all graphics work with version 3.0. I had just started working with maya 1.0 when me hand built from the motherboard super computer and animation station were destroyed, the roof was ripped off the house and it rained for 3 days during hurricane Charlie 17 years ago.
That’s a bummer, when I was using Daz3D I had a good gaming computer I built, and that struggled to render the image in under 20 minutes, one of the downsides to 3D graphics back then.
I concur, the rendering was always the major problem, glass, lighting, reflections, more of them the longer it took. This picture took 29 hours to render (1024x756) on a 2002 P3(733) 256 ram with 32 meg vid card.
Looks like the electromagnetic pattern human auras have, love the colours.
The label I designed for @OleReynard
I was never a good enough surfer to be sponsored and get a sticker on the nose of my board so I decided to sponsor my self
My friend does these quirky stickers
When I arrived in Alaska, a family friend picked me up at the Anchorage airport in a busted up 250,000 mile truck that never let him down. I threw my duffel in the back in between the crab traps and the side of the truck, getting in… I thought, here I go. Tony is married but they don’t want to have any kids because of where they live and how harsh life really is, after meeting his wife we stepped out on the back porch and he pulled a small oval tin from his pocket, He looked me in the eyes As he opened it and said this my friend is Alaskan Matanuska thunder fuck. As soon as the rim of the can came apart and exposed the spicy dankness that was inside, he passed it to me and was in a state of awe looking at purple and orange hair, purple leaves and all of covered in sparkling trichromes.
The aroma made the inside of my nose tingle, I packed the elk horn bowel sitting on the railing with just a pinch at his request. Becky came out with some beers and asked Tony if he was going to let me feel the thunder fuck standing up. We sat around the table as they had a conversation about a place called the monkey wharf, looking at the incredible sky line my senses were in overload, Becky went back inside glancing a look at me with a broad smile and said, “lean back in the chair when it hits, if you lean forward, you’ll white out and fall out of the chair”. Tony laughed in his Italian way and ask for the pipe, placing another pinch on top he pushed it in and lite it up, after a deep hold, slowly releasing a cloud of smoke, he handed back and I took a long hard hit with no additional fire. As I leaned back with my eye’s open the color of the sky changed in intensity, the clouds, the mountains, everything developed silver glowing outline and I closed my eye’s for the release. Static electric rings racing toward me in multiple colors, as I faded out, the jet lag, lack of sleep all combined and I slept for about two hours.
When I woke up, they were in the kitchen working on something and it hadn’t gotten a lot darker outside for being 7 PM in the evening Tony saw me through the window and came out and said hey sleepyhead, chow is almost ready, after that we’re going to head down to the monkey wharf. He told me that it was a bar that all the locals loved and that it would help me to get out and meet the people and we would hang out with his friends. When we went inside and I looked at the table It was rather shocking to see a loaf of bread, grilled hot dogs, a jar of peanut butter and a big bag of Lays potato chips. Tony looked at me very sternly and he said what’s the matter you never had peanut butter on hotdogs before? It’s was awesome! I couldn’t believe it, the flavor combo was beyond compare for being so simple.
On a walk about around the property, he lite up a number and the smoke blew around me in a thick haze while looking at his best view of the mountains. As we sat in the giant hand carved hard wood chair with totem poll figures of life and death lining the outsides. I took and released several times over a period of 3 or 4 minutes. Then something happened that I suppose I’ll never fully understand, sparkles in my brain… I wasn’t seeing flashes of light, the sparkles were in my mind. I looked over and Tony was grinning ear to ear, are you feeling it he happily asked? Hell yeah, I feel heavy and light at the same time, butt… i got like mini explosions all over my brain and all my skin is tingling. He pushed his head back on his shoulders and handed the resin dripping black and brown roach that he jammed into one side of a thick flat round stone with a smiley face on it. Standing while handing it to me, he chuckled under his thick grizzled beard and said “sounds like you need to finish this before we head out”.
We both looked back at Becky standing on the porch of the double wide trailer, she was wearing a yellow sundress with a pair of muck boots and her long black Italian hair frolicking in the breeze. I waved goodbye and jumped in the shotgun seat, Tony held a last minute conversation like lovers do before a period of time passes that they might not know that the other is ok. Sliding the key into the ignition he turned it start and pushed the clutch, we slowly rolled down the wash board drive way as he put it in gear and popped the clutch, the motor sprang to life. The tree’s were blading the evening light rolling by the window with Waylon whaling away about county life being the best, I could see Anchorage in the distance coming over the ridge. Excitement was building inside, the very air itself was different, so many sights and smells.
He said were gonna pick up Bill on the way, we turned off the main road and drove into an area where all the houses were round. They were mostly dry cabins for renters who work in town but can’t afford to live there, Tony and Bill exchanged mountain man greetings with a growling hand shake. Bill exclaimed “Is this the young buck from the flatlands that I’m gonna work with?”, they both laughed as I got out and climbed in the back of the truck for the rest of the ride. I asked Tony if we could stop somewhere and get some grub and Bill reached in his backpack and pulled out a baggie of venison jerky that I finished off riding thru town to get to the docks.
As we walked up to the front of the monkey wharf bar, lights with several colors shined out of the windows over the top of the long fishing dock rain roof above the doors. The lower windows were blacked out, some patrons were gathered around one end outside with a column of sweet Cheba smoke rolling into the sky. I was looking it that direction, thinking about joining… tony put his massive hand on my shoulder to turn me toward the door as he opened it. Thundering music, yelling, drunken laughter of men and woman blasted me in the face, stepping across the threshold the very first thing that made me draw back was a monkey in a cage master bating as it started to howl, while looking directly at me. I looked away only to find there were several cages with monkey’s.
Tony and Bill were leading me thru the crowded room to another smaller room where people were definitely smoking the same stuff Tony lite up earlier. We sat down at a old wooden round top with wire spool chairs, they rolled up three J’s as I was looking around the room. A tall women with one leg and a crunch was looking in from the doorway surveying the room, she made a meh face and moved back into the main room. I could hear the monkeys screaming, glass breaking, men and women going at each other with cut downs for turn on’s. Tony tapped me on the should, handing me a scooby doobie, I asked him about the women with one leg.
After lighting up the spicy fruit wonderland, he told me that Sally had come to Alaska years ago to work on a trawler, there was an accident and her leg was crushed so they had to amputate. I couldn’t tell which was blowing my mind more, her story or the cloud of smoke around me. Then it took a darker turn, she couldn’t get a job and started selling her affections, becoming the one leg hooker. Tony stood up and said “wanna talk to her?”, while snuffing his joint. Bill stayed to talk to another guy, we made our way thru the crowd to a wall of people cheering as a half naked waitress went sliding by with everyone pouring beer on her and the floor. Another one and another as everyone cheered, a naked man tried to run after them and fell on his face, splitting his forehead. Bartenders wrapped his head in a towel and duct tape, the monkey’s all went crazy in unison as the smell of blood filled the air.
I walked up to the bar after losing track of Tony and asked for a beer, the bar maid turned around, grabbed a rope and started pulling. A metal basket with crude stick welding burns all around came up from below, water was still falling off. I thought it was really cool the way they keep the beer cold using Mother Nature. Turning to look around, standing close behind me, was a tall, blonde, green eyed, woman in her mid thirties who definitely knew how to apply make-up. Hey there, as I tipped my beer to her, she said “Hello Stranger, just get into town?”, she started giggling and reached out to take my hand while turning on a crutch to lead me into walking with her.
Turned out, she was the best fisher aka hooker in town with one leg, Tony and his sister were running a welcome to Alaska family joke on me. still makes me laugh.
You write a good story, I enjoyed that
Thank you @Shadey
The opener for my sci-fi movie…
The quarter moon lights a sandy trail down to the crashing waves, on a midnight adventure to the beach they walked in pair, looking to the stars for guidance. All of their thoughts and dreams put on hold for the battle in the days ahead that might take away everything they have known as home. Trying to ease the tension with a joke, how excited humanity was about sprouting a seed on the dark side of the moon, they laugh and smile in the starlight knowing that the next generation may never know the pleasure of wishing on a star.
In the time before now, when the images of a second earth prototype planet was found within reach of modern science and space travel we rejoiced at the second chance probabilities. In the now… coastal cities are mostly abandoned and flooded world wide, earth quakes, tornados, hail storms and hurricanes all over the planet that last for months are common everyday worries. Survival is the only thing that matters, as always, it is at hand, seventy two hour count down clock to the meteor storm flashes on their wrist sleeve coms.
Making their way back to the shuttle craft, they both give a grime look to the sign that reads “Death Valley, it never rains here”. The time in the fresh air is always limited when there’s a job to be done, return to stations is on the schedule because earth needs it’s best pilots to fight against the waves on meteors inbound threatening to destroy the space stations and moon bases. These farming communities are the last hope for the next generation to survive long term space flight to anywhere but here, each station and base has become a city where we live and breathe in cubes inside of tubes to survive.
Breaking away from earths gravity the shuttle changes bearing and head towards home, a communication screen flickers to life on the control panel as the commander makes a universal statement as a talking head “All squadron leaders report to the flight deck for situation report, attack formation protocols and logistics on the triple!” The landing bay door slides open to reveal a world at work in a three thousand meter long silver tube, with a radius of one thousand meters there are no windows to break, only maneuvering thrusters and end to end connectors are visible on the exterior. For as far as the eye can see, enormous slow spin silver solar tubes are pulled along in orbit around a planet cleansing itself of the cosmos’s most feared bacto-virius… humans.
Four in the afternoon on a dusty road that not even the mail truck will go down, I awake to the sound of banging the door of our double wide. BANG! BANG!! BANG!!! Dragging myself from the couch I look out the window to see… a face looking in at me. As the lock clears the bolt the door swings out and there stands 3 friends looking for a place to crash till the sun goes down.
Yeah come on in, I’m going to go to town in a bit… make yourself at home. After showering and getting ready I check on my unwanted guests before leaving… 2 sleeping and 1 eating. Seeyah. I slam the door on the way out, just to get some pay back for waking me up. My beauty sits on her stand waiting for her man. The chrome rims popping off sparkles to my eyes, rolling with me as I mount. I’m outta here. The dust behind blocks my view of the past as I ride faster for the main road.
Liquid ribbon of black top stretches for the horizon to both sides, making the turn with a slide of the back tire. I slowly start to accelerate… hair twisting in the wind, the skin on my head tingles and sends a goose bump run down my arms. The clouds billow and climb the ladder of sky to paradise in mind as mesa’s in the distance slowly crawl towards me.
My mirror shows me something coming up from behind, moving fast… more than one, several in fact! It looks like 6 pins and flat heads being operated by the spawn of Satan. I can see their slowing down the closer they get and my heart starts to skip to every other beat. Holding my line tight to the right of the road… ceasing to look in the mirror as two ride up on my left side, both intently looking hard at me. My chest hurts from the stress and I turn to greet a fellow trail blazer, a broad grin is the first thing I see on a brown leather face surrounded with thick unwashed black and gray hair.
A leather clad, dust encrusted beast of a man is smiling wide and takes the time to wave to me after signaling the other riders to fall back. Whipping my head right around, second place is awarded me by the looks of things. I question with a glancing what? He slides close and I move in unison to the side, matching my speed… we ride. Never had I been so afraid and aware of life’s short calling, I swivel a little now and then and it makes him belly laugh out loud… How long you been riding? I shout back 10 years, he seems caught in a moment of glorious thought. Peeking in the mirror I can see there is at least 20 pairs riding behind the head of our new formed biker triangle.
Miles of road under the wheels later, euphoria has set in my mood. The One Stop is coming up from the rounded orange brown horizon, everything you’ll ever need to survive a desolate life. A dozen rigs lay sleeping in their lots, I throttle back and point to the place… a nod of his head lets me know understanding. A chain of motorcycles slows for a much needed break from the thing they crave. Life.
A wary man quickens his step returning to the false security of a van, a couple sleeps slumped in their seats near the entrance to the left. I pull hard right and slow down to clear the way for the others. Couples and singles ride by in pairs, past the main building turning around the back to the favorite biker parking. As the last ones ride by I get a quick nod and a thumbs up.
Pulling up out front and parking where I always do, as a man of enormous size comes around the corner with a course heading for me. A spine tingling shoulder shiver catches me off guard and leaves me speechless. He stops on the curb and crosses his arms and looks my machine over. Dropping the kick to park my ride, he exclaims with a thunderous voice as deep as the pipes on his lady. You gonna be staying here long? No sir, I just came to get a gallon of milk and some dinner for my mom before she gets home from work… Your going to be a damn fine man one day, when your ready I’ll ride back with you.
He pulled my groceries from his leather saddle bag and hung it on my bicycle handle bars, as I went to shake his hand, he slid his hand up my arm and said grip like this… now you’re in the brotherhood, be good to yourself.
@RuamadraTheBard is the blood coursing thru your veins still warm?