I've been enjoying this comic book about French astronaut Thomas Pesquet: And, for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, I find this image really sparks my imagination: I really want to create the world in which this scene occurs, somehow
How about... you fall into a time-travel closet and end up in 1960s France? Appropriate research: go around meeting old people and asking them to tell their stories. One of them ought to have something that will ignite the process for you. Auxiliary benefit: life insight. Or are you looking for a world to build, specifically - other than the Earth in a different time period?
Wow, you guys' works look stunning tho. Recently, I'm drawning to Mandala art. Just starting with apknite Mandala coloring, so not much to show, still working on it. Anyone interested in Mandala art?
I was inspired by the World Cup. I've always liked soccer - showing my 'murica right there - and this year I vowed to watch more of the games than just half of one in passing. But FIFA is a corrupt nightmare - Sepp Blatter is just the most public of that. Most of the FIFA decision makers from the last 20 years are either in jail, awaiting trial, or can't come to the US for fear of being arrested for corruption. So I wrote some friends - most of whom are on here! - an email about each day of the cup, adding some weird dark elements and a gradually more horrifying narrative. It was fun! I mean, with a certain specific definition of fun. I've also discovered a whole shared narrative of the SCP foundation and a modern way of talking about monsters and ghost stories - I've stayed up until dawn a couple of times this week falling through a rabbit hole there. World Cup and Internet Monsters will forever be entwined in my heart, now.
This is America by Childish Gambino. I was working on the latest project of mine at the time: fleshing out the idea of a setting where high-tech and functional AIs prevail to the point where lines between human and machine become really blurry. I was wondering how to wrap it all together. It lacked substance, even though it had essence. Then I saw the third scene from the music video. You know that feeling when you finally come up with something, and it's so good you feel that deep, intense-yet-subdued kind of joy - non-expressive yet highly satisfying? That was it for me. I got it right there. The cars in the scene were American, but their angled shape made me think of the old Mercedes - and 80s Germany. This is the setting now. 80s Germany, with high-tech implants, AI and reality programming (magic in the form of C and Rust). Less recently, I wrote up a character based on Henry Rollins. I wanted to roleplay a character in written form. Most people in the forum RP area take up fantasy looks: the Hollywood-esque people of modelling looks and/or sexy exteriors - the ones you'd drip saliva over (although really, the appeal is more personal and depends on one's perception of the person, since Donald Glover was there too). So I thought: "Well, nobody's done that before". Henry Rollins. I did Stephen King before, as well as a random black guy off someone's well-made photograph. There's a cave and a half of untapped potential when it comes to basing the character's look on a less-popular person. For one, they often make very distinct images. For another, they're unlikely to ever be picked, so you don't have to worry about being the first to "claim" them in the game.
This is America is the first work of art that has made me cry for a long time. Cry in a good way, I guess, in that it makes me feel all the world's pain at the same time, which motivates me to help make the world a better place. Wow is it powerful.
Lately I've been paying attention to a lot of metal engraving, so I'll often have Youtube playing a video of it in the background while I'm doodling in my sketchbook. There's something about watching a piece come out of slow, methodical work, that's a lot of fun.
Having done that slow, methodical work I'm kinda over it. One of the points my jewelry professor kept raising is that it's important to figure out how to get it done quickly so you can make more of them so you can make more money. And I'm stoked that we're setting up for engraving next quarter, and I totally respect the craft But you know what I'm stoked about? automating that shit. As I mentioned to blackbootz a couple weeks ago, I'm drawing a fair amount of inspiration from Rene Lalique.