ArtsWalk Weekend 1: PinniPerformance

On Friday Pinniped played at Kitzel's Crazy Delicious Delicatessen to an awesome ArtsWalk crowd. We didn't get people really going until the last couple of tunes, but we had people up and stomping and clapping to two sets at the end, one of which we hadn't performed before, so that was awesome! I'm especially thankful to the group of ladies who'd been holding up the wall most of the show; for the last few tunes they came right up front, even though it meant sitting in tiny kindergarten-size chairs, and having people up front really helped get the energy going.

westrider and Kiyoko and a friend of hers made it down in time for the concert, and a whole bunch of our music friends dropped by.

The space is high and echoey, so we probably should have taken the time to set up a monitor, but once we'd played a few tunes and corrected the sound it was great! At the last minute E's coworker volunteered her husband to run sound for us, and it was just fantastic to have someone else focus on that part so we could focus on playing. We may have to find a way to bribe him to come to our next show, because he was great.

Also, I now know to start with the fiddle mic at ~60% compared to everything else for decent balance. The sound-guy was actually impressed that I figured that out -- probably because he's not used to people asking for less of themselves in the mix. :P

After the show one of the brave kindergarten-chair ladies approached Erik about this producer she knew in Seattle who we should really get in touch with. I heard the tail-end of the conversation, and, sure enough, the producer in question is Hearth Music, the brain-child of my music acquaintances Devon and Dejah Leger. I told her I knew them and occasionally played music with 'em, and it turns out Kindergarten-Chair Lady is Dejah's aunt. Small world!

Before the show I spent quite a bit of time coming up with new graphic ideas for the PinniPage and business cards, which I should be able to finalize fairly quickly, so things are moving right along.

ArtsWalk Weekend 2: The Procession of the Species

Every year in Oly people dress up as plants, animals, fungi, bacteria etc, and parade/mosey/dance through downtown to the beat of not-quite-marching bands and samba drums.

I don't know why every city doesn't do this, but I suspect it's because they're boring.

I've only been in the actual parade twice*, but we've got a little tradition of showing up early and making use of my family's natural ability to be, basically, a mobile party kit. This year we brought my fiddle, dad's drum, the new face-paint kit I put together, and some indescribably hideous balls shaped vaguely like distended animals which mom found. She also gathered vetch from the side of the parking lot and made head-wreaths. Dad and I played a few tunes, then I painted Kiyoko's face, then two little kids I didn't know asked shyly if I'd paint THEIR faces, then a few more tunes, then mom is gives away the hideous elephant balls (heh) and everyone's having a pre-parade party.

Dad might have better pics, but until then, here're crappy ones from my phone. I don't take or post pictures of strangers' kids, so you just have to imagine lots of hello kitty cheek art, one faded cheetah, and a pretty spiffy dragon.

( Procession pics! )

The evening kinda fell apart after the parade -- there was a complete and total snafu** and the less said about that the better -- but I got to sit in with my friends' band at Cascadia for a few sets, and they had the place hopping. During their last set there was clapping and dancing in a cleared space.


*I have danced along with the parade for less than a block on numerous occasions. Audience participation is encouraged.

**The only reasons this isn't going down in history as my greatest failure as a host ever is A) I've been a truly craptacular host at least once in the past and it takes a lot to live that down and B) I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't actually my fault. I'm so sorry, westrider.

ArtsWalk Weekend 3: The Recovery Period

On Sunday E came over early and made a delicious breakfast for westrider and I, which I suspect was partially by way of apology for the evening before. The three of us had a nice visit until he took off, at which point Westrider and I continued to have a nice visit. It was really low key, which was perfect after the prior few days. I got some cleaning and painting done while we chatted (yes, cleaning the living room is low key for me, and I'm fairly certain Westrider's used to that by now. Poor guy used to live with me).

When he left in the afternoon I switched from acrylic painting (on the sheep commission) to digital painting (on one of those Rhi/Joker things I abandoned months ago). I started working on it again Saturday, with a total change in process and style that is going much, much better. A whole bunch of things just fell into place at once, and I'm really enjoying it again.

Anyway, I went into the week with a clean living room and an almost-clean kitchen, which is far better than normal, and a weekend that was productive both musically and artistically. If I hadn't stayed up until midnight I'd say it was a pretty damn perfect start!

Artz! I does them! (WIP post)

I was inspired by Charlie Bowater's tutorial/watch-me-paint thing floating around Tumblr, and a skin tone bit that evilsherbear posted. That, combined with a slight decrease in my stress-level, were just what I needed to pull out the art I abandoned months ago -- and change how I was working on it completely.

It's much, much easier, now.

The tutorials hit that perfect sweet stuff of "Enough new things to try without being overwhelming," and lead direction to a big realization (which, like many epiphanies it left me feeling slightly dumb) -- namely, that if I attempt to paint digitally more like I paint in, well, PAINT, I won't be trying to learn as many new things at once and it'll be much more natural, therefore I'll be better at it. I'm not sure now why I didn't start off that way -- maybe because I thought I'd be frustrated trying to make pixels behave like paint and that I should use the media to it's strengths or something -- but ah well. I was also terrified of opening the rabbit hole that is photoshop brushes, sure it'd be way too complex for me, and I was sick of managing all of my oh-shit-I'm-afraid-I'll-ruin-it-layers.

So I collapsed those damn layers. And I stuck with one brush -- but a much more natural one. And I made a skin tone chart (well, borrowed one for Joker, made one for Rhi, since she wasn't quite represented).

And, well...

( Cut for big artz )

The several month gap also made it much easier to notice things like the fact that I had his arm on backwards. There's still a hell of a lot to do (argh, hands! How do I paint open mouths? Will I be able to fit Marvin the Martian on his sock? etc), but I feel like I'm going somewhere. I'm excited to put the deep shadows back in, but I'm going to wait until I've got a rough background so I don't wander of into the wilds of screwed up lighting. Er, don't wander off more than I usually do, anyway.

And I had a lot of fun doing it!