QuerulousnessBot

A supposedly useful thing I may never try again: Adobe Illustrator's perspective tool. I thought it would save time, but there were many things it didn't seem able to handle-- although I must admit the problem probably exists "between chair & computer" as my brother the electrical engineer likes to say. :-\

I had to fake the y-axis eyebrow curve, for instance, & the eyes came out looking excessively flat. If anyone knows any tips on how to make AI render curves in perspective, I'd appreciate hearing them! (I have tried the 3D tool, by the way but I don't like its color-deadening nastiness.)

After all that fussing, I remembered that I've never actually felt satisfied with mechanically accurate perspective in a drawing anyway. It usually makes it look a little stiff & dead to my eyes.

All in all, the experience has left me quite querulous!  Should've seen that coming, I guess.

PuzzlementBot

I've been trying to learn to code lately, so I've been experiencing plenty of puzzlement! However, I thoroughly enjoy the Lynda.com tutorials, in part because it tickles me to hear serious-sounding British dudes saying "curly braces" repeatedly.

Still, I do sometimes wish I could remove my head & give it a good tune-up from time to time. For one thing there is loads of useless information in there that I wish I could dump out to make room for more!

Marginaliens

It's been far too long since I posted an actual painting! The Illustrator experiments have been good training, but my hand was itching to hold a brush. So here's the result:

I imagined a medieval monk patiently illuminating a manuscript, when suddenly an alien spaceship lands in the monastery courtyard. Surely his new acquaintances would make their way into the margins.

Acrylic on text on canvas, 12" x 6"

OverwhelmednesstBot

Sometimes it's all too much!!!

And before you say anything about the undeniably awkward title, there is NO really good noun form for "overwhelm"! I had a choice between a rarely-heard & semi-archaic word ("overwhelmedness") & a cleaner, more current, but non-standard one ("overwhelm" as noun). I rather liked someone's suggestion of "overwhelmment" but that wasn't in the OED either. So I went with the superannuated version, because that's how I roll! I mean, I use a dip pen every day. What did you expect? ;-) It would have been easier if I'd chosen adjectives to begin with, but too late now!

NostalgiaBot

Sometimes these bots come along at just the right time. It happens that my parents are selling the home where my siblings & I grew up. It’s the right thing to do, but still a bittersweet moment. We had a family “house-cooling” last weekend where we all indulged in a good bit of nostalgia, along with some champagne, a few tears & plenty of laughter.

Do you think the electronic beings of today look back at vacuum tubes with fond nostalgia?

I must say crafting this one in Illustrator was quite the maddening experience. Although I felt it was the perfect program for all the mechanical precision, it kept selecting the wrong paths of the zillion & three I had to create for the circuitry. I was locking everything else down, so I don’t quite understand why. Any wisdom from the AI wizards out there?

On the bright side, I discovered Envelope Mesh. Man that was handy for tweaking the perspective!

p.s. Please forgive my electronic ignorance, all you folks out there who know how circuits really work. (You know who you are!) I’m sure this configuration is ridiculous & impossible. I claim artistic license!

MiseryBot

Apologies for the miserably late post! I thought robot’s tears would be hard & sharp– tears do sometimes feel that way.  And misery can accumulate like a bed of nails, making it hard to find one’s way out without pain.