this and that and the other thing

[egypturnash]

Last night I did some solid work on another spider picture - this one became extra complex, as I put two sketches together to make one image with an oblique narrative. The colors have changed; while I started with "realistic" colors my intent for this series seems to be trending towards more subtle palettes.

Today? I wanted to do some more work on it, and did a little. The left side went from 99% done to completely (barring changes to mesh with how the right side turns out). But really, I just web-browsed.

A desktop image of shortcuts for TextMate is clever, though so boring. I like the idea given in the comments of it of using GeekTool to overlay such info over whatever your desktop is at the moment. I also had the interesting idea of a little app that watches your current active application, and changes a desktop overlay to match - drop images or textfiles into its control prefs, and just hit f11 for instant quick help for that troublesome keystroke.

I also browsed over some of the collective horror of the design world at Adobe's company-wide rebranding of their icons. I'm in the "ugh" camp - I detested the move to a company-wide standard look for CS/CS2, and this just takes it further. The best snarky comment on it is this sarcastic re-design of the Photoshop toolbar to match. I'd snagged the icons from the last pre-CS versions of Illustrator and Photoshop a while back, and put these on top of the marketing-driven CS versions. I didn't like the white-boxed feather and the white-boxed flower, and found I kept mixing them up in my dock - Venus and the Magnified Eye are much more distinct in color, shape, and contrast.

If you're using a Mac, don't have AI8 or PS7 handy to swipe from, and want to keep the classic icons, I cut-and-pasted the icons into an archive.

I really need to look at some of the up-and-coming paint programs; Photoshop is really overbloated for what I do with it.

Also, here's something I scrawled out in Alias Sketchbook last night - pathia's character Syzygy caught in a web - and here's something else I scribbled in Sketchbook yesterday, a very self-satisfied asteroid spider with five tits. Spaceships and pretty girls, that's what this is all about.

I have three large spider-girl images in various stages of progress and several sketches I'd like to work up to finished images. And this weird vision of a gallery full of them all. I don't know if I'll manage to make that vision happen, but the first part is "make enough to fill several walls". I seem to be doing that.

Comments

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Noooooooooooo .... that isn't going to be the new photoshop tool palate. It can't be. It's impossible.

Whatever. I only use such basic functions of the program with any regularity it doesn't make sense for me to upgrade anyway.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's someone applying the same strategy that's being applied to all the program icons to the toolbar, to make the point that, no, the periodic table does not lend itself to readily-distinguishable icons when they're all lined up in your dock or start menu.

I use a simple, but semi-esoteric set of Photoshop functions. I just love layer masks and effect layers for non-destructive cleaning up of my sketches. Illustrator, well, I use some pretty hardcore stuff, though I've never touched recent additions like gradient mesh, 3d lofting, or integrated autotrace, beyond initially playing with them and going "ew".

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say periodic table too! What, does Adobe's lead designer have fond recollections of chemistry class or something?

I'm used to just clicking the paintbrush icon or the lasso icon... now I'm gonna have to say everything out loud! "BRRRush... LLLAAAsso..."

One rereading later...

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Oh. It's not real. Never mind!

Re: One rereading later...

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Right, I'm editing the link text to "this sarcastic re-design of the tool palette"... I guess it got lost in all the words words words of the post!

Re: One rereading later...

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was gonna say, "oh look, periodic table of elements toolbar! WTF?"
The whole point of a GUI is to have cute lil' pictures you can instantly identify.
I mean, seriously!
We're not robots! We're human beings with wacky picture-association skills!

Of course, what do I care? I'm still using Photoshop 5.5... :D
I should get 6.0 though, I want that "burn" tool.

Re: One rereading later...

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Sorry if this seems like a typical teenage-LiveJournal-user-mindless-observation, but I'm enamored of your icon there. I guess, at least I'm not saying it because there's a HOTT CELEBRITY FIGURE in it.

Re: One rereading later...

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Which one, the Big Science one or the gliders-in-the-sky one?

Re: One rereading later...

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Gliders in the sky, of course! Sorry for not being clear. :)

Re: One rereading later...

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks! I made it myself.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

nb: it seems the Adobe re-branding was done mostly by the people who used to be Macromedia's branding team.

I really, really hope this doesn't mean that Adobe's apps will get Macromedia's user interface people rubbing their sleaze all over them. Because they already ruined one career for me with what they did to Flash. I dunno what I'll do if AICS3 has its UI "fixed" by these people.

[http://users.livejournal.com/innerlife_/]

Your art is so original and lovely. You're just about the only "furry" artist (if you'll excuse the inspecific and loaded term) I follow without any erotic motivation. I do mean that as a compliment, even if it's a kinda weird one. :)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks!

I can see how that's a compliment: it's a lot easier to get interest by pushing the arousal buttons. It's pretty easy to get people's attention by drawing **TITS** and **ASSES**. And **COCK**.

There's a certain erotic component to my art, but it's often arcane and extremely fetishy - enough so that what's hot to me may not even register to someone else.

[http://users.livejournal.com/innerlife_/]

Yeah, I do recognize that a lot of your art has erotic aspects, but they're not really in tune with what I look for in smut myself. I like some of the ideas, especially the rampant gender fuckery, but your figures are usually way more abstract and stylized than I like in pr0n.

However, your general aesthetics -- including their abstract and stylized nature -- just continue to wow me, working on a completely different, perhaps you could say "higher" level. Not many folks can claim to have such an original, unique style.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

I have nothing to add, really, other than an affirmation that Adobe's new icons are the most godawful shit icons I've ever seen.

Except Irfanview. That's the worst for real.

As I said last night

[pathia.livejournal.com]

<3

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

It's hard to believe the actual icons aren't satire. The UI people must be absolutely stoned. Yeah, just in case anybody wonders why I left commercial art. In fact, by definition, these are not icons. You don't read icons... an icon is supposed to be identifiable without conscious analysis of its contents. But in composition these are all essentially indistinguishable... it'll slow down workflow, it's just a bad piece of design. But I'm guessing somebody high up had their heart set on this solution, regardless of how idiotic it was, so we the art monkeys can but bow to our god. Fuckers. How I hate them. Heads on spikes, that's what I imagine.