Mea Culpa

I've just been so busy this semester and honestly, I don't imagine that changing... on the bright side I did manage to live up to my general plans for pushing my art to improve, though I didn't live up to posting it all. Over the next day or two I'll be posting a bucketload of my sketches including many I did of (often unaware) live models from the train. If you're one of these people, feel free to drop me a comment and I'll happily forward a cleaner image of your sketch to your email!

What's more important?

While everything in me wanted to get one of the many things left on my platter done, I made a point of basically saying "screw it" and getting a few nude sketches done instead. There's always going to be something "more important" or "more immediate" than practice... until you realize that you had years to practice and failed to do so because of all of those distractions. Well, screw that.

Starting with Trouble

I've decided that part of my trouble improving in creative outlets is probably stemming from the fact that I don't follow through enough. I draw, I write, a work on games, but I don't really share my mixed results and get the feedback that might improve me. I don't attempt to force myself to do something creative on a schedule. That's the difference between a hobbyist and a professional in my humble opinion. A professional understands that creativity may come in surges, but productivity is a nine-to-five calling.

Who knows what I'll make of myself but I'm going to challenge myself to a few things right now. They are as follows:

I will post a fresh sketch (or significant work on an existing sketch) every night.

I will post at least a page's worth of writing every three to four nights, though which project (or even just random 'moments') I don't know.

I will write a few paragraphs of my own thoughts at least once a week.


These are my vows. Let's find out if I can follow through.



Let me kick this bad boy off right from the beginning with tonight's sketch and writing:

The Sketch (Dynamic poses thanks to using posemaniacs.com, with some thirty-second drawing exercises, a hand sketch and a negative space exercise thrown in for good measure):

_________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________



The writing: A prologue for a story that's banging around in my head that's very sci-fantasy. Oddly
enough it takes place in a society that is built on corporations instead of nations, a running theme lately when I write about the future. I think more and more the idea of corporatism is cementing in my id.

_________________________________________________________________________________

PROLOGUE

The Evolutionary Imperative of Nu'ad is very similar to the human concept of Capitalism. Both suggest that by competing for resources, the optimal balance within a system can be found for the greatest benefit to all. Both suggest that competition breeds strength and that success marks both merit and survivability. What differentiates the two is that despite the humans' ability to recognize Nu'ad, records of first contact with humanity suggests that they were unaware they were serving an evolutionary necessary for transcending the limits of their species.

Archive Entry: “Nu'ad and Capitalism”

Kel'viari Knowledge Archives

For centuries we dreamed of what might lie beyond the edges of the stars. Eyes closed, we imagined creatures as alike to us as brothers and as horribly different as our darkest nightmares waiting for us to discover them. Waiting for the right time to discover us. First contact taught us the difference between dreams and reality.

Like a flash in a dark room they dazzled us and we scurried for cover. Giant Riftwalker ships the size of continents tore through space and time filling the sky with a shower of force and sound. The many corporate empires of EarthCorps ran their calculations and risk assessments and doomsday scenarios and recognized an opponent beyond their capabilities. Before the first shots could be fired, humanity prepared to lose.

And then they surprised us; the intergalactic ruling body that calls itself Kel'viari. In slivers the size of city-blocks they sent forth their exploratory ambassadors and their crippling trade agreements. Like the wise hagglers they were, they recognized in us a resource, newly come to our prominence and unprepared to compete. Like slavers, they recognized in us a primitive species with heathen ideas to be turned to their purposes. They settled into orbits like satellites and slowly stripped our resources over years with contracts and concessions.

The many Corporations of the Kel'viari would have owned us body and soul, if only they'd been anymore prepared for the Riftbound than we were. In their explosive arrival amidst their Riftwalker vessels they could not have known that the energies of the Rifts would react with human physiology. Among hundreds upon hundreds of species and in so many millions of Riftwalks, no similar event had been witnessed. Humanity's hidden ace in the hole.

The Riftbound changed everything. Humans bound in mind and soul to entities from beyond the edges of the universe. Humans able to tear through the barrier between two existences as easily as tissue and call forth fragments of that place. Humans worth more than everything else on our miserable mudball of a planet combined. The Riftbound gave EarthCorps a bargaining chip and to this day, we repay them in fear and suspicion. Humans suck.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________


So that's both in a nutshell. For whoever sees this post, feel free to comment or leave feedback and I'll take a gander.

Thanks for being interested
-GT