Ninja July 6th, 2009
Yawn & happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful weekend. And for those of you in the States, a lovely Independence Day.
I did a lot of painting of my weekend—yay! Here’s where I left off on my Kaki King guitar project.
Previously, her neck was too thick. There was more neck on the left than on the right, so I extended her hair to cover that part up.
I have the tendency to obsess and overwork when I paint—apply paint, hate it, sand off, repaint.
Later, I took a break and sketched this giraffe-icorn for Penguin, too.
Happy painting,
Ninja
Related posts
Tags: Acrylic, Brooklyn, Exhibitions, Hair, I never said I love you, Kaki King, Kaki King Guitar Project, Painting, Process, Tanya Dakin, The Littlefield, Wood
Penguin July 3rd, 2009
The Guardian has an article by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) on the Exhaustion of Narrative.
Writers have always known there are a limited number of storylines. Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots popularised the number seven, but others have argued for three, 20 and 36 basic plots – Rudyard Kipling said 69… That’s not what I mean by the “exhaustion of narrative”. What is new is the omnipresence and ubiquity of plot created by media proliferation. We are inundated by narrative. We are swimming in storylines.
[...]
What does it mean? For a storyteller, it means that’s it is increasingly difficult to get out in front of a viewer’s expectations. Almost every possible subject has not only been covered but covered exhaustively. How many hours of serial killer plot has the average viewer seen? Fifty? A hundred? He’s seen the basic plots, the permutations of those plotlines, the imitations of the permutations of those plotlines and the permutations of the imitations. How does a writer capture the imagination of a viewer seeped in serial killer plot? Make it even gorier? Done that. More perverse? Seen that. Serial killer with humour? Been there. As parody? Yawn.
[...]
The bar of originality has been raised. The media marketplace puts a premium on anything “new” or “fresh” and, at the same time, inundates its viewers with continual and competing narratives.
I’ve been wrestling with this issue of originality as I work on The Intern Project but I try not to get too caught up with it. Because it’s easy to make excuses that become barriers to the actual writing process.
You look at the latest blockbusters, Star Trek, Transformers 2. One is a great film, the other is trash. But neither of them are particularly original. But you can still make something entertaining.
This is also why it’s so important to watch a lot of films. See what’s been done already and see what’s entered the cultural narrative. Especially in the same genre that you’re writing in.
-Penguin
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Tags: Narrative, Paul Schrader, Screenwriting, Storytelling
Ninja July 2nd, 2009
Wow, I am in awe of Wataru Itou’s handmade, papercraft castle. This intricate paper castle took four years to create and includes lights, a ferris wheel, and a moving train! It is on view at the Umi no Ue no Oshiro (A Castle On the Ocean—海の上のお城) exhibition at Uminohotaru.
Via tokyobling
Thanks for the tip, Ray!
Related posts
Tags: Castle, Crafts, Design, Exhibitions, Japanese, Paper, Papercraft, Sculptures, Wataru Itou
Ninja July 2nd, 2009
Hallo, hallo you lovely folks! Thank you so much for all your encouragement and little love notes as I nervously go through prepping for this show. You have no idea how much it means to me.
For her hair, I layered burnt siena, raw siena, and raw umber acrylic paint around thin strips of ochre underpainting.
Here’s where I left off at 3 AM. Seemed like a good stopping point. Stay tuned for more obsessively detailed hair painting. ~__^
Much love back atcha,
Ninja
Related posts
Tags: Acrylic, Brooklyn, Exhibitions, Hair, I never said I love you, Kaki King, Kaki King Guitar Project, Painting, Process, Tanya Dakin, The Littlefield, Wood
Ninja July 1st, 2009
I have the bad habit of doodling on any random bits of paper that I find, and I lose sketch books at an alarming rate.
I’m trying to remedy all of this by starting a sketchbook I really care about. Here’s my first entry.
I know it’s kind of hard to read. The text that goes with these images is just a small bit about when left half my face went numb from my root canal and Penguin had the right side of his face temporarily paralyzed from Shingles. So we smiled lopsided smiles at each other until the pain medication wore off.
Happy sketching,
Ninja
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Tags: Ballpoint, Pen, Sketchbooks, you & me
Ninja July 1st, 2009
The human printer is a team of 11 humans who generate unique, CMYK halftone images by hand.
The original matchbook and a work in process.
Cyan
Magenta
Yellow
Black
Layers
The human printer accepts image submissions from readers for their prints (afterward, the prints are uploaded to their blog). If you fancy seeing your photo lovingly rendered in halftones, you can contact the human printer here.
Happy hump day,
Ninja
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Tags: Blogs, CMYK, Halftone, Prints, Process, the human printer
Ninja July 1st, 2009
Thanks for joining me as I go about my painting process and prepare for my first group show.
Fixed the crooked jawline and added some tone with light acrylic washes.
Evened out the eye levels. Then I built up and layered the shadows with thin acrylic glazes.
Next step: hair! I can’t wait. ^______^
Happy painting,
Ninja
Related posts
Tags: Acrylic, Brooklyn, Exhibitions, Hair, I never said I love you, Kaki King, Kaki King Guitar Project, Painting, Process, Tanya Dakin, The Littlefield, Wood
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