Friday Rants and Raves - February 21

[sarillia]

Hello again! How are you this week?

I had a new idea that may or may not continue depending on the reaction. I've collected thousands of pictures that I use as inspiration. So each week I can include one to pretty up the post and possibly inspire someone else too. This week's picture is a painting by Remedios Varo called Insomnio I:




I love using surrealists for inspiration. Lots of opportunities to use the image either literally or symbolically.

Comments

[sarillia]

I'm still trying to get myself to write a short story that will actually be submitted somewhere. I'm nervous but I really want to try this.

[splinteredstar]

Good luck!

[ayumidah]

I had two days set aside I thought I'd have plenty of time to write in. Tuesday and Thursday. Well, Tuesday, the car died because someone left the lights on and drained the battery. Yesterday, my attempts at writing was interrupted when heavy rainfall led to severe leaks in the basement, which I had to fight for close to five hours before it subsided enough that I could just leave a pan down. First noticed the leak around 4:30 PM, it was still dripping a little around midnight, and subsided completely by 2 AM. Ugh.

[sarillia]

Oh I'm so sorry. Just one of those is frustrating enough to deal with. I hope you got some rest after fighting with the leaks at least. And I hope you finally find some time to get some writing done.

[ayumidah]

Indeed it was! Fingers crossed the coming week will be better. Thanks!

[inkdust]

I've enjoyed this week a lot, but my productivity was sort of up and down. My biggest success wasn't writing related - I actually decided to draw, for the first time since early high school, and it was really rough going because I'm not much good, just sort of passable, but I relaxed and kept at it, and for the first time ever I feel like I created something on paper that looks like the character in my head. It turned out better than I could have ever hoped, and I still keep looking at it three days later. It's such a wonderful feeling!

Plus, it's been really warm this week and I've been able to work with the windows open :)

[sarillia]

At the beginning of this year I decided that this would be the year I learn to draw. I haven't made much progress but I did do this last month. I got lazy when it was time to do the hair but I've found I really like shading skin. I should practice more.

It's pretty motivating to see my character appear in front of me. I finally started writing this girl's story after I drew this.

[inkdust]

That's really good! This is mine. I wanted to do shading on her skin but it wasn't looking right, and in the end that's alright with me because she's a ghost and they don't get as much shadow cast on them. I do want to add more detail to her dress later, fabric is super hard.

[sarillia]

Her hair is really cute! I'm a little stuck on that part. :p

I haven't really tried to do fabric but I can imagine it's tricky.

[inkdust]

I googled "how to draw ringlets," haha. Which turns out to be pretty geometric and only really need patience. I'm not sure how well I'd do with freer styles.

[lunabee34]

Please do post picture prompts!

This one has gotten me thinking. I never used to have insomnia. I've always been a great sleeper at least until my youngest daugther was born this summer. Now I have insomnia more nights than not. I see a lot of echoes of my own insomniac thinking in this painting. Definitely food for thought.

[sarillia]

I'm glad you like it! I will keep posting these and I know I will have a lot of fun picking one out each week. Just got to make sure it's not all Remedios Varo and René Magritte. ;)

I'm kind of the opposite of you. I used to have terrible problems with sleep but they've gotten better as a side effect of treatment for related problems.

[lunabee34]

I'm so glad they've gotten better; that is really awesome.

Mine is exacerbated by not taking good care of myself (staying up too late, not eating well, not exercising) and having an infant who may or may not sleep through the night. And the hormones. Lord. It can take years for all that shit to get regulated again. LOL

[splinteredstar]

I am mostly alive, though some days that has been debatable. Mostly that has been my own fault though, after discovering that there is NOVA on youtube and staying late to watch documentaries about cuttlefish.

Writing has been sporadic, but occurring. I've been half-heartedly editing a short story I drafted a while back. It's mostly in the " arg I know this is wrong but I'm not sure /why/." stage, but, it's progress. I feel like there's the germ of something special in it, even if it's kind of impossible to describe. (I can't call it fantasy, but I can't call it not-fantasy either.)

Mhm. might work on that tomorrow.

[sarillia]

Ooh cuttlefish documentaries sound really interesting. One of the plans my girlfriend and I made for this weekend was watching animal documentaries.

I wish you luck in figuring out what's wrong with your story and making it better. That is definitely a frustrating place to be.

And you're reminding me of an idea for a post I had about the definition of fantasy. I've seen some fascinating discussions on that topic and I'd be interested in what people around here have to say about it.

[caecilia]

I fully support this idea and that is a great picture! I love weird stuff and I want to experiment with surrealist writing so I AM EXCITED I will do a writing exercise with this later tonight!

[sarillia]

I'm glad you like it!

If you want I can give you the names of some other surrealists or artists who are just weird. I definitely recommend looking at more Remedios Varo. I love her.