Wednesday, August 31, 2011

More experiments

Some more of my wallpapers. Here's #36:
It's half-experimental and half-planned: texture was planned, colours and effects were done on the job. Now #37:
It looks like something under a microscope, I think. Result of bold thoughts, tired mind and lots of time. Next, obviously, is #38:
It came to me while playing around with pictures: I was having laughs, converting stuff from Cartesian co-ordinates to polar or vice-versa, and dabbing colours randomly, when I had a nice ring-like shape of rainbow colours on a bluish base. So I started working with those colours, and did a little more of co-ordinate fun, and discovered the waterfall-like possibility. Then I used several masks and blending modes for the effects. I did the horizontal mist lines to reduce the vertical effect of it. I still think it's a bit too much, but I didn't want to overwork it.
Ooh, that was a long story. #39:
I was looking at all the available custom shapes, and the hands fascinates me. I just started drawing them randomly. I was dozy and some gathering nearby played really disturbing loud music, out of tune, and my head went buzzing. That prompted me to do the ripples. It was all in grayscale, when I had some real ideas and decided to actually make it a wallpaper. I made a few layers between my shape layers and experimented with very basic colours and diverse brush modes. It looks shocking even to me.
I didn't know that I remembered so much about the process until I started writing, heh. #40:
I was experimenting with the watercolour filter. Some day if I have patience I'll try to make something that looks like a real watercolour. I started a few times, and figured out more or less how to get the basic effect, but I never had the patience to sit with it for long enough to finish it. The filter is very gradient sensitive, and so unless I account for every layer with it's own required brush settings, I won't get much graded effect.
Adios for today, subsequent wallpaper updates probably won't come this frequently or in so large batches. I was making up for the absence, during which I made so many that I have lots not uploaded yet instead of the usual one or two. Also, wallpaper page is updated till #34. Alignment issues are not solved yet, so that will continue to be a slow process.




Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Death has a far reach

A woman lost her husband. I didn't know her. Neither did Callye, from who's blog I got the news. But the news travelled, and the blogger world is mourning with this food blogger and her family. Thousands are making the peanut butter pie that Jennie's husband loved, to celebrate his life and honour his memory. Thousands are touched by his last dance with his daughter.


The news of deaths of happy, innocent people just like yourself is a sad thing to come by, even if they were far away from you and absolutely unknown to you in  life. When I heard of Jennie's loss, I had the same sinking feeling that I would have if it were someone I knew and honoured in their lifetime. I thought of the family's immense, unthinkable sense of emptiness. Sympathy comes to me, but empathy eludes me, because I am lucky. It eludes me because I want it to: never anywhere does anyone want to have the direct experience that would acquaint them with how it really feels. But it comes. It strikes when one least expects it, leaving a giant black hole in one's life. One has to move on. Among all those who mourn, the degrees of sadness varies greatly. For some it is a parent or a child or a sibling, a family member or a friend, for some it is one close to a friend; for some it is a neighbour, or the nice person one met at the market every week and didn't know the name of. For some, it's a stranger who one somehow feels for. Everyone mourns accordingly, and take proportionate time to move on. But in spite of these differences, death leaves a mark. In spite of assurances of a better place, of immortality, of union with the divine, death is a blow. A massive blow.

I write this because he was a fellow human being -- loved, cherished, honoured and cared for, just like we all are, and will be missed deeply by those close to him; because the news of his passing brought a sudden solemnity to my day: this post was to be a celebration of my exams ending. Death, however far away, does that to me. I contemplate the nature of death whenever I hear of one. Even if predicted, it actually happens in the blink of an eye . Here last second, now here no more. How can I ignore this occurrence in the lives of a happy family, in the life of a fellow blogger? But all I can do is leave a comment on her blog, and write a post in here to show my sympathy. Rest in Peace, Mikey, and may your family have the strength to recover, and continue to keep your memory alive.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Wallpapers Galore, but with regrets (31-35)

I'm putting up loads of wallpapers today, overdue from my absence. However, I cannot update the Wallpaper page, as it is a time-consuming job.
31: Random experiment with filters: looks like some futuristic environment-saving thingie.
32: First attempt at sceneries. Drew a rough sketch with a light brush and applied mosaic and other effects.
33: One of my favourites, and the definite winner with my Mom. I didn't draw the kingfisher. I modified an internet picture. I'm going to try that more often: composition-based wallpapers, y'know.Worked hard on this one. Lots of brushes, filters, blending modes and editing. Still isn't perfect, but I didn't want to risk overworking it. And yes, I know I can always keep a copy and do it, but I don't have a clear idea what to do yet.
34: I learnt a lot about paths from a tutorial. The black and gradient-based background and the curves are (partly) from there. Then I added my own schemes to it. The pointillizing, the rings, lines, lighting effects and stars. Applied lots of new knowledge about layer handling too. I extensively used shape layers, fill layers and masks. One of my most technical ones yet. I can actually recreate it almost to the tee.
35: Ooh, chillies. Another whimsical one. Was playing around with radial gradients.




Life comes in the way

I haven't been touching my computer much these days. It takes longer than usual to do any work on the bad internet, so I need longer free hours to get anything like blogging done, which I don't get. Here's something fun to keep you occupied: Join RuneScape.
Also, my half-yearly exams are on. I'm trying to catch up with my online life too, but I keep falling behind. There's the SPICE Club Congress too, after the exams. I'm participating in the dance, quiz, singing and extempore competitions, and in the inaugural programme that we are doing as the hosts. So lots to do, and till then blogging can only happen once or twice a month.
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