WIP: A first crack at sculpture

It’s not much to look at yet, but here’s a work in progress.

First print of my own design

Out of the set of Midjourney images I sifted through yesterday, I thought the one below would be fairly amenable to interpretation in FreeCAD for an absolute beginner who still hasn’t finished the first tutorial because he got distracted.

Fun in FreeCAD

Apparently, the first step to me falling off a plan is to develop a plan. At least, that’s what this last week has been like. Between being a bit run down and somewhat distracted by the 3D printer, I gave myself the week off from the new routine. The step back has been good for perspective. As planned, those dailies and rounds leave no room for spontaneity. So I’ll be tweaking the plan next week to see how well it works out. Current thinking is to keep the dailies and limit the subject interests to one a night instead of trying to cram two into the limited time I’ve got. And instead of rotating through after only half an hour of scratching the surface, stick with a topic until I’ve got some meat on those bones, preferably something to show for it, like a piece of art or some kind of stand-alone offering.

Phantasmagoria Friday

This week’s phantasmagoria came together whilst scouring the photon mines in search of an illustration for my Law MOC.

Phantasmagoria Friday

This week’s Phantasmagoria Friday features the last set of scenes from the photon mines that I extracted during my quest for an illustration of my Spirit MOC.

“What the hell am I doing here?”

Radiohead – Creep

Wherein our intrepid psychonaut answers the age-old question, “what is art?” and raises a great many besides.

Why should there be something rather than nothing at all?

In this case, because I know what happens when I post nothing. Posting nothing becomes a habit. Next thing I know, months will have passed and I’ll just be the least bloggiest blogger to have ever blogged a blog again. This isn’t my first run around to the back of the barn where I get distracted and wander off into the woods. Two nights ago (Tuesday) I made a wee bit of progress, but then last night and tonight I just kind of hit a wall. Well, a wall and a distracting Midjourney rabbit hole. This is probably a pretty good indication that I need to spend some time centering to get back on an even keel.

The above scribble is hardly a beauty. I’m not terribly satisfied with my slop in this one. But this early in, and for another crack at speed drawing, I’ll cut myself some slack. It might have yielded an artistically deficient dodecahedron, but by golly it’s a recognizable one. The guitar practice went well enough. The notes on law were taken. The navel was gazed it. Then the next topic my rounds came up, Gaming (by which I mean just about any kind, boardgaming, ttrpgs, video). I wasn’t quite sure what direction I was going to spin off to. It ended up being a search through a few different game systems for a rule system I like for playing gods against gods. Still haven’t made up my mind yet on that one. Then I considered and reconsidered whether I wanted to tackle solo BECMI D&D or solo AD&D. Still leaning to BECMI at the moment, but probably with a lot of material migrated in from all over the place.

As for tonight. I’m off-schedule and I’ve got a few hours left. I’ll probably get another post in and go play in the photon mines some more.

Back at it again

If Thanksgiving was your thing, I hope you had a fine one. I did, after my own fashion. For four days, there were no alarms. Time became meaningless. I cast myself adrift on a sea of turkey with trimmings and whatever creative impulses came along. This time it turned into a four-day spree at Midjourney. Good fun.

That was then. And here’s Monday, all of a sudden, and back to the routine. Mostly. Work was work, huzzah! Mostly highs, no lows. That’s a win. At lunch I dropped the car off at the shop, not to be seen again for I have no idea how many days. Timed myself on the walk home. 10 minutes. 10 minutes the other way back to the office. Not bad. A gracious offer of a ride home help keep my evening from being 10 minutes shorter. Those minutes count. And I really, truly, did not feel like hearing any of my countless evening alarms. I was feeling kind of post-holiday back to work whiny and just didn’t feel like doing any of the things. That I enjoy. That I intentionally set aside time for. What the hell is wrong me me?

Alarm. All right, all right. Chores. Gotta do ’em. Alarm. Realization…four days of blowing my schedule through the Rounds off. Fix? Revise the schedule to bump everything up. As it happens, tonight was an Iaon/Worldbuilding night. That felt like winning the lottery. Okay. I’m back in.

Phantasmagoria Friday

Happy Phantasmagoria Friday! Here’s another fun set of lushly-colored mandala-inspired images extracted from the photon mines.

So long Wednesday, I barely knew ye

Wherein our intrepid adventure survives another day. Here there be navel-gazings about doing the things we value, the Capitolian brooding grounds where regulations are hatched and set forth like so many flying monkeys, a nod to music history, and a brief reflection on the dramatic shift in the context of art perception over the millenia, along with the daily requisite of noodling and doodling. We may even get handsy with Rachmaninoff. Now with Jedi mind tricks and Feastings Greetings.