So recently I wanted a new substrate to start working on, and Utrecht had a line of wood panels that were 5×5 that I thought would be an interesting thing to apply ink and marker on. To begin with, my Copic ink pens worked wonders on it, with very little line fuzzing or ink bleed over, but I will say that the thicker linework and ink fill areas held up best when I followed up this step with my Copic markers for color.
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The first one I tackled was the zombie piece as I was still in a bit of a zombie kick from my work on the Taser infographic. One thing that consistently surprises me is just how seemingly indifferent the Copic markers are to whatever surface you try to use them on (within reason of course, as I have found that any gesso covered substrate is the kryptonite they yield to).
I really wanted the wood grain to come out and give some subtle texture to jazz up the marker color, and out of the two of them, I think that my zombie was actually the more sucessful of the two. But mainly because I worked faster and more aggressively on that one, where by the time I had gotten to the second one of the red haired girl, my studio (which was already a pile of everything shy of the kitchen sink…) needed a serious cleaning. It was beginning to affect my thought process and quite literally, cramping my style.
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One of the things that is paramount to me to be able to get my art and projects completed (much less, started), is to have a good studio area that I can use to store my stuff in, and yet not be easily distracted, yet provide enough distraction for when I need it. Usually after a run of projects, I ended up having to consistently clean and reorganize my work area and art supplies to fit around the other stuff that is in my office/studio/cat room.
All it took was a nearly catastrophic crash of my main hard drive and the loss of a few files to make me want to get my proverbial shit together. I work primarily in traditional mediums, with pen, ink, and occasionally watercolor, so the first steps of my work rarely need a computer to get started.
But last week, my hard drive took a turn for the worst and just STOPPED. No buzzy buzzy noises, no warning, no nothing. I was mortified, and just a little angry. Not at the drive for failing, but because I never bother to use a backup system of ANY kind. Not even jump drives.
I guess as I explain what I ended up doing to fix my problem, I can showcase a bit of my studio layout for you guys. First, anyone that knows me, knows I am a fanatical Warhammer Online player, and so of course, I have a nice SteelSeries keyboard and a Cyborg RAT 7 for my gaming supremecy, but they also work rather well on doing day to day design work. (Although the keyboard is nice for gaming and shortcut keys, TYPING on it, is a bit of a hassle. I’m not sure why, but it lacks a certain something ergonomic about it. )
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Recently I had to start adding some shelves to the office as I like to put my statues and other knick nacky sort of things around me so I can look at them and regret (jokingly) about my incurable collector ways. But the shelves come in handy of course for putting recent magazines, books, my older printer and a few other things where they are still accessible, yet out of the way.
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I like quirky things that some people might think are just stupid, but they necessary stress relievers for me. Notice the calculator robot above there? When bill paying times comes, it’s hard to get angry when you’ve got a small green robot helping you do your math.
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And of course I am a gamer on a level most people cannot comprehend. My Gamecube with Wavebird controller is now set up in this room (comeplete with GameBoy Advance add on) and when I need a quick bit of gaming, yet I don’t want to go all MMO, I just plop in a disc or cartridge and get some RPG good vibes flowing this way. I do have this to say about Gamecube memory cards, the one I got with my system when they first came out is what I put in there, and it STILL had my save for Sega’s “Skies of Arcadia” saved on it!
The other two inset pictures are (top) my usb missle launcher, which believe it or not, has helped me decide story ideas or make decisions on things because I hate responsibility and making choices. Image may be NSFW.
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The two boxy things next to my calculator bot, are my 1TB external and my dual band Mac wifi router (I decided to come in to the 21st century). I don’t really trust cloud storage, and frankly, if I have a laptop with me, I can always log onto my external drive from anywhere in the world so long as I have a signal.
So, that’s a small preview of what my studio looks like, and a bit of my brain dump for today. Until next time, stay safe and be kind to your fellow beings. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue