Hello my name is Krisana Hall. This is my blog Musings & Quips of an Artist. Here you will find artwork, sketches,
tons of pictures, music, informal video game and book reviews.
Various and Random musings and quips of an artist's work.
If you are an artist, hobbyist, or a spectator, I hope to encourage and entertain. :]
One joke I can only say once a month at the end of the month is...See you next month.
Some people ask where are you going? Are you moving? And some other mixed reactions.
But in all I think its an interesting way to say I'll see you tomorrow or next week.
I'll be back next month. See you next month.
-cheers!
Here's some fun Creative Insight
-If photoshop curses you and shuts down screen shot your screen before clicking anything. If you cannot work of the image you shot then at least you have a general outline of what you were doing.
Chopin playing softly in the background made my mind wander.
Did you know?
That the elements in a human body has the exact same elements as stardust does.
People ask what is your artist muse?
Coffee.
Seriously?
Yes its Coffee and or caffeinated drinks or anything to get me to a level of hyperness is my main fuel in my creativity.
It's hyper activity.
I drafted a post a long time ago about this topic but never followed through. It was a pretty long post but basically described vitamin b12 is for energy. Any drink or thing that advertises energy check the b-12 content.
Some people groan when I start to talk about coffee enthusiastically but hey here is some shameless self-promotion of something I really like. Go ahead drink your tea for meditation and sit on the side if you want.
Yup got in a long winded debate with my friend GeminEye about tea vs. coffee.
One of my good friends recently got a espresso machine and posted a picture online, And I couldn't help but observe what they had and what I had also observed visiting numerous coffee shops across the country.
I used to drink coffee all the time...and still do. I drink a morbid amount. Even more so I have increased my palette with homemade cappuccinos and occasional lattes and americanos.
I Haven't really looked on how to make latte art. But with an active imagination I already see a lot in my self-made cappuccino foam.
I drink Raspberry Dreams most of the time. It is with raspberry syrup with either mocha or white chocolate.
Also people usually crack jokes when I drink out of my christmas mugs people give me. It doesn't really matter as long as you can put a lot of coffee in it. Hey! Its Christmas everyday!
I had a fitness instructor and coach ask me what is your workout routine?
You've lost a lot of weight what do you do? What is your diet as well?
I told her it was non-existent.
If you count half effort sit ups while your feet are perched on the desk trying to reach for the keyboard on the desk then yes.
Lifting heavy boxes.
Not working at a fast food joint.
Drinking coffee and forgetting to eat at times.
Espressos
----- LavAzza =Weak Watery Sauce
I've gotten this just for fond memories and also there is a local dinner that uses this. It is really weak I can drink 5 shots of this and it is not robust at all. It's pretty weak and if your drinking it with a mocha flavor its like hot chocolate tastes stronger then this stuff. I think its like the kiddy pool of espresso. Wade and tread in it lightly but one cannot deep dive in it.
Cafe' Bustelo =Medium Strength Gets the Job done.
It's cost effective and comes in a huge container. Also doubles as regular coffee. Kind of mild but a medium roast. Gives a slight kick gets the creative machine started.
Illy =Strong ****
If you have a low tolerance for coffee you cannot drink this it'll taste like poison. It has a strong rich flavor. And will motivate. Say goodbye to sleep if you drink it at night like me. My four shot espresso drinks get reduced to 3-2 with this stuff. Also it is about $15 a can or $25 for 2. If I don't share the 2 cans can barely stretch for a month.
It's something you don't think about until you think about and it is brought to your attention.
-Random fact: If you normally make coffee from pre-ground beans then it is not as strong as if you freshly grind the beans before use.
& so begins
I'm not the only one. You know its bad when you see the
sunrise and haven't gone to bed yet.
A friend said once you are worse hyper on sugar and caffeine than when you are intoxicated.
Way before the other statement was made a relative said you don't have any friends when you drink coffee. I used to believe that...But now I have friends who we will just yap and drink coffee. This post was brought to you by a random instant message conversation in the middle of the night.
Singing words passionately wrong.
So I have to listen to something at least 30 times to get the gist of what one is saying.
Here we are in containers, avocado a potato.
It's another runner in the night. I don't think your ready for fishy jelly.
They have another video with Misheard 2014 which it's not as funny I think and also I never heard the real version of the 2014 parodied songs.
Mondays are mundane so here is a Studio Tip to start the week. A little motivation!
It's almost Tuesday anyway.
One thing you need in your digital art arsenal is a Smudge Guard.
When I was younger my hands somehow my hands were oily and traction on a wacom tablet was a nightmare. I owned a bluetooth wacom graphire. Which is like drawing on hard plastic slick clunky tuber-ware. Alas it gained me some skills to level up.
Usually drawing on paper or the likes a little bit of the side of your hand will hit your drawing surface unless you are using a paintbrush. Then your hand should not have contact with the surface. Less traction means less fluid drawing you are going to get. Means increased frustration levels of not achieving the drawings you want.
When I first purchased a Smudge Guard I had a Wacom Intuos 4 which had a little grain in the cover sheet to give a paper tooth effect. It was hard to draw on at first and at the time I purchased it I was starting to get symptoms of Carpal Tunnel.
I have my tablet on my angled lap.
Desperate for answers I scoured the internet. I didn't want to wear a brace. I fixed my setup with not supporting my wrists. I started this new habit some odd years ago and its questionable I generally work with my feet up on the desk. Go figure.
Smudge Guard SG2 came out around the time I stumbled on to the Smudge guard I decided to go with the SG2 because I noticed my other finger could affect traction as well.
I cannot work without it and sometimes I can't start anything until I find it.
It's quick and easy to order one. Print out the guide place your hand on the chart to determine what size you need. Then pick your design. And order it and just wait for it to arrive.
I still have my original one. I don't remember if I have the xs or the small one.
I always repeat this story. To justify my cause.
About 4 years ago I guess. My sister went out of town to finish school and we skyped. I acted normal yappty yap yap yap. She noticed I had my smudge guard on and at first she was like I know you are not wearing that for stylistic purposes. Do you have a goth phase going on? I told her what it helps with my wacom tablet. Traction and etc. She told me that's a pretty badass glove.
So every time I work I gear up put my headphones on and put on my badass glove. It feels badass. Although my hand are no longer oily it helps my hand glide across the tablet.
Even my own personal cartoon has a smudge guard!! So get one!!
I feel honored and delighted to say. This is the 50th post of Musings and Quips of an Artist!!!
Thank you thank you. Thank you so much. We've come a long way from being non-nonsensical to sensible.
Like I mentioned i'm grateful. Enjoy this short video.
A little face time...
So sorry with the Cool Kids references. My friend and I were eating at a restaurant and this song came on. She asked me some question and I don't remember what it was but I was like "I'm not the cool kids be like the cool kids." So we jammed out to this song earlier this week when I made the video.
My sketch arrangement.
I'm a sucker for kawaii things.... I think my rabbit bear bunny bag is so cute. 0////0
I have more cute and some plain pencil cases as well..
Here are the pencils I use commonly.
I use water soluble graphite. Its slick, smooth and has some grain to it but add water and it seems like a ink wash or watercolor pencil.
Col-erase pencils are pretty cool. I use whatever color that seens pleasing at the time. They are smooth creamy. kind of Generally the greens and light blues, and non-photo blue.
Mechanical pencils - 0.5mm lead I like making thin lines and I have some 0.7mm lead that I don't use as much.
Draughting pencil- because its light sleek and smooth. I'm always told I draw too light.
2mm leads. Long generally long graphite sticks that last a while. The holders are really comfortable in gripping.
Thank you so much once again and let's make more milestones!
There are plenty of ways to make your digital work space more comfortable and efficient to use.
Although I am not just exclusive in just using one sole application I use Photoshop to sketch and manipulate photos, I render some artwork with Photoshop. But not all the time.
My photoshop work space. I still use cs6.
*Right click for all your brushes to appear.
I haven't upgraded to CC, Although I do have it.
My Corel Painter work space. As a natural leftie put your color wheel
on you dominant side. I had lots of trouble cross thinking putting my colors
and main tools on the right.
When I render digitally paint I prefer to use Corel Painter. The brush tracking tool captures and calibrates the program pretty well/ More accurate with brushstrokes and imitates natural mediums.
Most of my artist friends will tell you that they are 97% (I'll leave the 3% out maybe somebody I don't know) will say why bother will Corel Painter when there is Photoshop. The interface is complicated and not user-friendly. Coming from the opposite side learning how to use Corel Painter first before Photoshop was intimidating. Photoshop originally was not made for digital painting only the last few versions made considerations and adjustments.I started on the days when CS was the hot thing on the market.
Now compare the blank raw version of when you open it to my modified work space.
For a few years I remember I did things the hard way by attempting to paint with the RGB sliders.At one point I had a notebook writing down the RGB numbers 255 255 255 is white. 0 0 0 is black. Even memorized some of hex colors/ #123456 I don't remember.
The thing that made Photoshop more tolerable is something as simple as the right color wheel .
I know the fantastic artist Simon Dominic Brewer he is a total Corel guy. He is so hardcore he uses Windows XP to just use one of Corel's discontinued Photo Manipulation program to adjust and manipulate any of his paintings when needed. He won't use photoshop for any step of his creative process. What dedication.
Color Wheel Swatches
I remember watching a Massive Black video and one of the guys used the color swatch thing and I was totally amazed. Short access to all your colors. At the time that was the bomb. Now this is like a cherry bomb compared to what I am going to talk about.
Download Monkey lunch's Swatches here and here as well.
There are more swatch color wheels out there to cater to your needs. This is one of many examples. This wasn't the exact one I used to use but it is close enough.
No now if you have Photoshop Versions above CS4 you can use Len White's Painter's Wheel or Coolerus now this is the atomic part.
Now my friend he literally nagged me for months. Get this get this get it. He buys every little thing. And I try not to just blindly just buy things. I got it out of annoyance and well I liked it.
That was version 1 at the time. The color wheel also can sort out compliments and color combinations. It's more accurate in color placement than Len's.
Also if you are unsure and just want to test it, you can download the trial version for 30 days.
Its $9.99 for 2 installs. You can cross platform and mix and match what versions or computers you want to do.
