Real Life

Working on my ‘Battlestation’

stargrace August 22, 2022 No Comments

There is an entire reddit (of course there is) dedicated to people showing off their ‘battlestations’ – their video game set ups. There’s another one dedicated to showing off work stations/computers. Both of these places are almost magical, there are some incredibly creative people out there. I love my little gaming area, but we’re still pretty new to the house, so I haven’t done a lot with it yet. One thing I wanted to do sooner rather than later was to dust off my Huion Pro 16 and have it actively set up on my desk. I do a lot of my drawing on the ipad, but my computer is (understandably) more powerful. I know Clip Studio is going through a shit storm right now with their newly announced PC subscriptions, but there are other alternatives (like Krita) and my usual ‘let’s just pull it out when I want to draw’ was not working. Out of sight, out of mind. I want to make use of the tablet (I just ordered some felt nibs for the pen) but I also hate a cluttered work area.

For now I’ve settled with the picture above. Things are neat and pretty tidy, the drawing tablet is out reminding me to use it, and my stream stuff works pretty well in the configuration I’ve decided on. I do want to mount the sound bar to the wall, and I’d love to get an arm for the monitors, or even wall mount those, but that’s a project for another time.

Now it’s time to learn Krita and see what it can do for me.

Real Life

Meal Prep

stargrace August 17, 2022 No Comments

I’m trying to eat better, and one of my major issues (besides snacking when I’m stressed) is portion control. A lot of times I’m just so busy and stressed during the day that I’ll binge eat whatever is laying around as I come across it. I don’t often feel like cooking, and because I have two littles, one who has very strict dietary requirements it means that I don’t eat very well.

In an attempt at making some time to take care of myself, I went and planned out 5 breakfast/lunch/dinner that I could make all at once and just have for the week. I don’t mind eating the same things for multiple days so long as I enjoy what I’m eating. I made egg & ham breakfast wraps for breakfast, I made a veggie soup & buns for lunch, and dinner is rice & chicken with bell peppers & pickled onion. Snacks? I got carrots and tzatziki. So far (3 days in, I know that’s not much) I’m moving more and I’m eating my prepared meals without snacking outside of it. There are some growing pains, but it’s a work in progress.

Next? I need to work on stress levels, and sleep. Maybe not trying to do ALL the things every single day. That one will take some time. But, for now, this is a start.

DailyCreative Real Life

AI Art – I have Thoughts

stargrace August 14, 2022 No Comments

I have watched the art community react in horror to most of the recent AI developments when it comes to art. People are worried about their jobs, people are worried about their style being stolen, people are worried about their actual works being stolen and used to create these AI generated pieces. AI art is getting to the point where it is difficult to tell that it’s AI generated. As an artist (even if beginner) myself, I’m torn. I absolutely do NOT like the idea of artists work being stolen. I’ve already had to splash giant watermarks on my own stuff when it was being taken for NFT’s – but how long until the AI can remove the watermarks (this is already a thing, I know). How long before a company doesn’t even bother to hire an artist to design for them, but instead types in the artist they want to emulate, a bunch of key words, and there’s the next piece already done for them in a matter of seconds.

As mentioned above, I agree that AI art can be great for certain things. Much like a reference, or for generating ideas that an artist can then take and put their own spin on. I don’t make a living from my art, so I don’t see the later part becoming an issue for me personally, but I can see why some artists out there may be worried. It’s already difficult to make a living as an artist. How many will be replaced with AI over the next 5 years?

I belong to a few Facebook art groups and already people have been posting their AI works claiming them as their own traditional pieces. While that might fool someone who doesn’t know any better, to some of us it’s pretty apparent (especially when the person drops 10+ pieces, all a different style, with no proof of process). I think that having a time lapse of the actual work is going to become more important, and I think there will be more requirements to ‘prove’ you created the piece yourself.

I think technology can be amazing, but I think in this instance it’s also very dangerous. I’m just incredibly uncomfortable with using artwork without permission from the artist, in any capacity. I guess we’ll simply have to see where this goes.

DailyCreative Real Life

Blender? Let’s Learn Blender

stargrace August 7, 2022 No Comments

For a few years now I have been following some 3D artists who use Blender to render World of Warcraft scenes – and I have wanted to do exactly that. I love the idea of making a scene with all of my characters, or just creating little scenes for friends. Or just on a whim. The problem is it involves using a handful of programs that I know NOTHING about – the biggest one being Blender. I’ve been meaning to try to learn it for a long while, but I never made time. That’s the biggest downside to having so many interest and hobbies, finding / making time.

I am working out a schedule where I can dedicate two days (evenings) a week to this, and hopefully I’ll make a little progress. I’ve downloaded the programs required and started with the YouTube video above, and joined a discord owned by the same person. I know it won’t be a quick learn, but I feel like this is a natural progression from my digital art that I’ve been working on. OK maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but at least I’m hoping it will be interesting.

Real Life

Streaming with Anxiety

stargrace August 4, 2022 1 Comment

I started streaming after a 3 year hiatus back in June, playing World of Warcraft and doing gold making. The problem is I have incredible anxiety and it’s easy to talk myself out of streaming when at the end of the day I’m exhausted and I just have nothing left to give an audience.

I want to stream. I enjoy it. I think it could help with my anxiety issues – but taking the plunge and sticking with a schedule is something that I just have such a difficult time with. I recently set up an AirPlay server on my PC so that I can stream my Procreate art to OBS and perhaps do some art streams in the future too. I keep meaning to get some sort of system set up to stream my spinning, or my sock knitting machine, but end up doubting myself and just end up doing nothing instead. It’s frustrating. I’m frustrated.

I had written out this enormous post about navigating depression and anxiety but deleted it because what is the point. People don’t like to hear about that stuff, and I don’t like to promote it. Blah blah blah words and stuff the end.

Working on my ‘Battlestation’

Meal Prep

AI Art – I have Thoughts

Blender? Let’s Learn Blender

Streaming with Anxiety

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