SOLI-Starrunner

I just discovered the draw feature on comments. Now, I'd seen the "add drawing" option when I made comments, but I never clicked it. Until just a couple minutes ago. It's pretty awesome. Gimmicky and not something I would *ever* show any of my art professors because they would freak out, but fun to use.

If anyone still reads this, please show me your best comment drawing I want to see what people do with this thing.

When I first joined Deviantart I thought to myself "this'll be great! A community of artists where I can get critiques from people who know what they're doing!" Critique is one of the most valuable things to a serious artist, a good critique can lead to new ideas, improvement in your technique, or style, and praise feels deserved when it is phrased like so: "I really like your use of color and line quality, but I think the over all composition could be better. What if you moved the subject from the center of the image and offset it a little toward the upper right?" Such a critique offers praise, tells you what you're doing right, and suggests a change to improve future work, and even a way to change it. This is a useful and helpful critique.

The comments I see on work on this site are 9 times out of ten not critique, they say things like "OMG so kawai! <33333 yuuuu!!!" yeah... what's an artist supposed to do with that? the first is great for feeling good for the moment "hey someone thinks I'm awesome!" great, and you'll keep producing the same thing over and over and over with no improvement. There is no value in that, you'll be stuck in a rut, and continue to stare at the great artists on Deviantart in wonder and despair because you have no idea how to do such work yourself. Why? because you get no helpful critiques or hints or tips on your own work.

An even worse type of "criticism is such comments as "Your art sucks and you're a terrible person" Not only is such a comment not constructive but it's an attack on the artist themselves. That is never OK in a critique. Critiques should be objective, constructive, and overall lead to an improvement in the artist's work.

The potential for good solid critique is incredible on this site, but it is never realized for whatever reason. Maybe you're afraid you'll discourage the artist from ever working again, maybe you're afraid their friends will all see your critique and hunt you down in the night, maybe you're afraid the artist is the boogeyman and he'll get you from under your bed. Whatever the reason for not properly critiquing on this site it is senseless. There are so many advantages granted by the internet; anonymity, the variety of styles, mediums, and experience in the artists in the community, I am truly disappointed that this site is not what it could be.

I know there are not many people who read my journal, probably due at least in part to my epic fail at updating with any sort of reliability, but anyone who does I would encourage you to really look at the work you are viewing and (if it is asked for) give an honest, helpful, constructive critique. We all have more to learn in our work, we'll learn new things until the day we die.

Over a year in fact. >.<
I admit I'm terrible about updating this thing. Not just the journal, but the gallery too. To anyone who actually looks/reads what I post: I'm sorry, I am horrible.

See, the thing is. I like to make work. I like to make work so much that it's all that really matters. I don't actually care if people see it or not.  I wouldn't say this is necessarily good or bad, it just is. Although, it's probably annoying for anyone who wants to see work from artists like me who get so wrapped up in the studio we forget life exists outside of it.  
I don't know what I'm going to do when I don't have a studio anymore. I get very grumpy when I can't work.

Speaking of work! I would like to introduce one of my two newest projects. A "comic" telling the story of an alien who gets abducted by humans and put into the Zoo.F.O. where he meets other aliens and must escape. I wrote it in collaboration with my sister. The aliens do not use words. They speak using punctuation only. That along with their expressions I think gets across the emotion of what is going on. Context, however, is required to decipher what is actually happening. I invite anyone and everyone to put a caption in the comments. I will post them as I finish them, however as I do not have a scanner/photoshop to clean up the images, they will most likely wind up in scraps when I do get access. They are also out of order. I know this makes context difficult. I will fix this out of order thing when I get the scanned and cleaned up versions up.

Since it has been over a year, I figure it's probably fair to give ya'll an update.
I am planning on graduating from College in December with a BFA in studio art. I have dual emphases in printmaking and ceramics. Three days after graduation I am getting married. I'm just crazy like that. Also excited.

Well I can't think of anything else, so I'm out.

Soli

I got up at five thirty this morning because I could not sleep. so, here I am trying to keep myself entertained until my fiance and I go to breakfast. I'm BORED!  ... and now I'm hungry.
anyway, boredom = random -> here ya go. my first meme ever.

You're a 90's kid if:

You remember watching
[ ] Kenan and Kel
[ ] Doug
[ ] Ren & Stimpy
[ ] Pinky and the Brain
[ ] AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!
[ ] Rocko's modern Life
[ ] Animaniacs
[ ] Gargoyles
[ ] Hey Arnold
[ ] Out of the Box
[x] Bear in the Big Blue House [I have three younger siblings, of course I watched it. Also, why isn't seseme street in here? or was that 80's?]

[ ] You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

[ ] You just can't resist finishing this . . ."In west Philadelphia born and raised..." [I have no idea what you're talking about]

You remember:
[ ] Step by Step
[ ] Family Matters
[ ] Dinosaurs [Not enough]
[ ] Boy Meets World [Oh yeah.]
[x] Full House[ never watched it though]
[x] You remember when it was actually worth getting up
early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

[ ] You remember reading Goosebumps

When everything was settled by:
[x] rock paper scissors [Shoot!]
[ ] bubble gum bubble gum in a dish [Remember... but not well...]
[x] miss mary mack [ mack mack All dressed in Black Black black, I remember the rhyme, I never used it to settle anything though.]



[ ] When kick ball was something you did everyday

[ ] You used to listen to the radio all day long [Actually... no, but now I do]
[ ] just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time on a tape. [Hells no.]

[ ] You remember Super Nintendos and Sega Genesis
[x] You remember The Original Game Boy [my dad had one, I think. or it might have been color...]
[ ] You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos... but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching:
[x] The Magic School Bus [was pretty much my only source of science up until high school since I was home schooled.]
[x] Wishbone [the reason we got a jack Russell terrier *coughterroristcough* dog is dumb and hyper, I don't know how they got wishbone to do that stuff, unless they were constantly bribing him. ]
[x] Reading Rainbow [one of my favorites!]
[ ] Ghostwriter [Never heard of it.]

[x] You remember when Yo-Yos were cool
[x] You remember those Where's Waldo books. [and I can never find him...]

[ ] You remember eating Warheads and Splashers Gushers

You remember watching:
[ ] Batman the Animated Series
[x] Aladdin [the movie? watched it not too long ago. I love that movie!]
[ ] Ninja Turtles
[ ] Ghostbusters

[x] You remember Ring Pops!!! [and getting very very sticky]

[x] If you remember when everything was "da BOMB!"

[x] You remember boom boxes .vs. cd players. [my mom had one for a long time, it died recently I think.]

[x] Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them

[ ] You played and/or collected Pogs

[ ] You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere u went [neh?]

You watched the original cartoons of
[x] Rugrats [darned if I remember it though.]
[ ] Wild Thornberrys
[ ] Power Rangers [Please, I have the Theme song]

[ ] All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand

You collected
[x] Beanie Babies [sort of, they were also given to me as gifts... and my sister and I would cut the tags off and play with them]
[x] Pokemon cards [to my everlasting shame...]
[ ] Carebears
[ ] Silver dollars

[ ] Everyone watched the WB

[x] When everybody knew all the pokemon by heart [thankfully, I wasn't this bad, but I knew people who were!]

[x] When Digimon was still on. [pokemon rip-off if I remember correctly. ]

[ ] If you even know what an original walkman is [nope]

[x] you know the Macarena by heart

[x] "Talk to the hand" [my dad still does that!]

[x] You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace and it was still sanitary.

[x] Before the MySpace frenzy

[x] Before the Internet & text messaging

[x] Before Sidekicks & iPods

[x] Before PlayStation3 or X-BOX 360

[x] Back before X box period

[x] Before Spongebob [DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE]

[x] When light up sneakers were cool

[x] When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs

[] When gas was $0.95 a gallon [I remember my parents complaining when it went up to a dollar, close enough?]

[x] When we recorded stuff on VCR [Still do]

[ ] You had slap bracelets!

[x] You actually played outside until it was dark! [ ran non stop, they couldn't get me to come inside!]

[x] Way back before we realized all this would eventually disapear [NUUUUUUUU]

[x] Post this if you smiled at least more than 5 times

[x] And if you remember at least half the stuff on here.

so, spring break starts this weekend, and I only have one more class this week, friday at two.  which means I have nothing tomorrow, nothing is due, and I'm not leaving until saturday.  What do I do with myself!? well, I've been informed that the clay cut off date in my ceramics class is a lot sooner than it was last semester. so I'm going to spend tomorrow afternoon cranking out slabs to turn into cylinders to turn into plates to print from.  it takes about six  hours to carve one (which is about two hours faster than some of my earlier relief work) and I have a bunch of new stuff I want to try. I dont' want clay cut off to come! and I'm coming to resent the break...  this summer is going to be miserable, I won't have any way to make stuff...