New artwork: Line upon Line. Going for a slightly more varied background texture this time.
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New artwork: Face to Face II. It’s a more minimal, more focused version of my earlier Face to Face piece.
New artwork: Oil in Their Vessels. I’m taking more artistic license than usual with this one (how oil lamps look, where the light comes out, etc.). Also, with these last two pieces I’ve been playing around with more of a clean-line approach. It won’t be the right fit for every piece, but I do look forward to using it more.
On Instagram, I’ve decided to split my non-religious art off to its own account, @bencrowderdraws, so I can post other types of art without feeling weird about interrupting the spiritual pieces. I’ll still post everything in one stream here on this blog, though.
New artwork: Water, Spirit, Blood. Years ago, by the way, I first tried executing this idea, but I wasn’t happy with it and ended up taking it down sometime later. Much happier with this version.
Weeknotes #17
- Last project of my master’s: done! (I ended up implementing cell noise and Voronoi diagrams along with the reaction-diffusion and Perlin noise.) A fun project to end on. One more week of class and then a brief final demo the following week, after which closure is mine. Surreal.
- The art hiatus is definitely over. In the past I tended to release new pieces the day I finished them (or the next at the latest), but I’m now trying to space releases out a little in an attempt at a more regular, metered flow.
- These past couple weeks I’ve done a handful of Lunchclub chats. They’re randomly assigned video calls with other professionals elsewhere in the world, and they’re delightful. Much, much less stressful than job interviews, too. So far, I’ve talked with people in Atlanta, New York, Barcelona, and St. Petersburg. Lunchclub is currently invite-only, so let me know if you’d like an invite.
- I’m making good progress on my design portfolio. The goal now is to have it ready enough by the end of the year that I can start applying for jobs again.
- Nonfiction reading: I really liked The Ride of a Lifetime. One of the more interesting business books I’ve read so far. (Which maybe isn’t such a huge surprise in retrospect.)
- I read Alan Jacobs’ How to Think. I wouldn’t necessarily say I loved it, but it was good and I learned some things.
- I’m now about a fifth of the way through Dava Sobel’s Longitude and I am seriously loving it. This is my type of book, full stop. Also: while I claim to be a functioning adult, it wasn’t till reading the book this morning that I realized the fundamental difference between latitude (circles of varying sizes, inherent) and longitude (circles of the same size, manmade).
- Fiction reading: The Crown Conspiracy just wasn’t clicking for me (at least not right now), so I bailed on it. Maybe I’ll pick it up again someday.
- I finished Mark Lawrence’s Limited Wish. A fun read. I’m pretty much always a sucker for time travel stories, so if you know of any good ones I haven’t read yet, let me know!
- I’m now a third of the way through Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education. What a dangerous world. The story’s great so far, though. This reminds me that I need to finish reading the Temeraire books (I’ve only read the first) and try her two fairy tale novels as well.
Links #30
- An Open Plan — I love the idea of a plan page, so there’ll probably be one on here soon
- John Carmack’s .plan files — an early incarnation of a plan page
- ozziegooen on working in virtual reality — I seriously can’t wait to be able to do most of my day job in VR, honestly (it seems more flexible, and I think it would also open up some interesting options to relieve neck and back pain)
- Scorpion-style gaming chair — if someone makes a (much) cheaper version of this, I’d be all over that
- Matt Webb on innovation in office furniture — where I got the above two links, also has other good stuff
Links #29
- Jonathan Borichevskiy on digital tools he wishes existed — I like the idea of a page like this
- Beepb00p’s ideas page — and also a page like this for listing ideas
- Jonathan Borichevskiy’s ideas page — ditto (I now have a to-do item to do something like this on my site)
- Guzey’s rebuttal of the first chapter of Why We Sleep — good to know
- William H. Douglas on the unreliability of George Watt’s edits in the Journal of Discourses — also good to know, and hopefully they’ll publish the original transcriptions at some point
New artwork: I Am a Child of God II. A remix of I Am a Child of God using the recent loose stained-glass style I used on Christ Visits the Nephites III, acknowledging fully that it doesn’t actually look like real stained glass. (And on this piece I decided to go with sharper edges, so to me it almost looks more like stone tiles.)
New artwork: In the Beginning. I’ve been trying for a couple weeks to figure out how to do this piece, and after many failed attempts, I finally figured out something I’m happy enough with (which I honestly was beginning to think would never happen).