First of all, thanks to all who tried the challenge. Whether you spent hours and hours trying to improve your sketching or simply made a few attempts, I’m sure we’d all love to see what you got. Post in the comments.
I watched about 20 YouTube sketching tutorials and tried to follow what they were saying. But, I didn’t know what they were saying. Blending stump? Cast vs occlusion shadow? Values? Contour shading? I went down rabbit hole after rabbit hole trying to figure stuff out. I was Alice if she had nuts and hit them on every protruding root.
Can you really learn how to be good at sketching in a month? Not when the extent of your artistic talent is drawing dicks on your older sister’s Brownie troupe group photo. I did learn some things that couldn’t possibly be useful in any other aspect of life:
1. There are shadows everywhere. There are shadows inside shadows and the shapes they make are just as real as the objects and light creating them.
2. Contrast is how you make things pop. If you don’t go bold in order to find the edges of possibility, you won’t be able to create subtleties.
3. Sometimes you gotta draw a line no matter how shaky your hand is and live with it. The next time you’ll be more careful with your construction lines.
4. Relax. Stress can cause of spaz hand. It may take a while to discover a method to relax that works for you. Keep trying because eventually you’ll be able to slip into that frame of mind easily.
5. People have interesting faces. If you think a person is ugly, try drawing his or her face. You’ll find at least one point that is intriguing if not beautiful.
My final work sketches. Not going to quit my day job.
Pics links: https://m.imgur.com/a/Cee8cYW
Music link just because I love it: youtube.com/watch?v=CbI79e5iZKs
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/NWikUjDkTRiwTSC74qvuGQ.l1Rhq1Ts3iSaocrvK8fNgb
You win the internet, this day.
I wanted to do a Hitler stache, but it wouldn’t come out right. ??♂️
I see a bold and rewarding future for you, Straff, making sketches of the tourists.
Sean, you captured one of Minnesoda Glibs perfectly, probably by telepathy.
Good job, Boys
“Secure Connection Failed
An error occurred during a connection to http://www.amazon.com. PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.”
The FBI has your wires tapped.
Wait. Does this mean you *don’t* have your wires tapped?
One month of sweat and tears turned into a vehicle for your five second mockery.
*TWO GIANT THUMBS UP*
I would have stopped at number one, but you called me out and held me accountable. This was my tongue in cheek approach to participate*. I lack artistic drawing skill. That is why I took mechanical drawing in HS, it had tools to achieve results.
*No actual disrespect intended.
I enjoyed the series.
Disappointed if no disrespect came my way for this. You can bet I’d have done it to you.
*pokes straffin in the eyes*
Try drawing now.
Which comment(s) posted so far count as “mockery” of your article? Or did you mean that it took a “month of sweat and tears” to come up with and refine “The only person here with the humility to use all lowercase in their handle.” ?
“Your” meaning “Sean’s” picture. And it got a good belly laugh from me.
Well, given who he was responding to, I’d say he was talking about Sean’s first post, which I personally found a compelling and beautiful cri de coeur against the crushing tyranny of representational art.
*snaps fingers*
Thanks. As noted above, did not get to look at Sean’s Amazon link.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/cIM-ZCyvRqmL9YJqmOND9g.JQBF4YqTvakykYGrN150KF
Try again?
Its nice the second time, too.
It worked. Thanks.
I see a series of 3 prog rock album covers.
I never meant to be so bad to you. One thing I said I’d never do.
Prog rock?!
Surprisingly better than Steely Dan.
SHUT YOUR DIRTY WHORE MOUTH!!!
Too many concussions. Give him a break.
Listen to this while you do so.
Thanks, Tundra. That guy triggers me.
Stop yelling at me!
*retreats to safe space*
Don’t you try sucking up to me with old Pink Floyd.
Here. https://youtu.be/wvpLjcXU3hY
I will forgive HM anything for that link.
Very nice.
Dang! Thanks, Mo!
Right?!
“The only person here with the humility to use all lowercase in their handle.”
Is humility compatible with the hypothetical lifestyle of wearing a monocle even if vision is not that different in one eye compared to the other, discriminating against non-orphans by giving preference to orphans in the hiring process, using cocaine and marijuana, fornicating in exchange for money, wanting dirty air and water for others, and so on?
He’s the only person too lazy to use two fingers to type the first letter.
alternatiive explanation – other tasks received priority for scarce resources
plausible ascii 63 base 10
I’ve actually wrestled with this over the years. My handle is the same everywhere – half the time it’s lowercase. The other half I go for optics.
Always go for the optics : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScGPRsHSkaE
We’ve been through this before.
Doesn’t cyto use all-lowercase too?
Yes. Good catch.
Yes, and there are others.
westernsloper for another
leon as well
Some guy named “blackjack”
I don’t anybody does.
tarran
Thanks for stomping all over my joke, Tulpa.
ahem
Oh, and now you’re piling on.
This is the worst chatroom, ever.
But only because I’m lazy.
The Cyto handle was completely lazy too…..
I had been Cytotoxic online since 1989 on an Amiga/Commodore bulletin board system. I thought it was kinda cool since I was working toward my PhD in Molecular Biology. Back in the days of The Agitator and early Reason, there were no registered handles and we used joke handles a lot. (I actually enjoyed that path to a joke. Posting “I did’t kill myself” as Jeffrey Epstein’s Ghost is a lot funnier than simply posting “he didn’t kill himself”)
Anyway, on the day that Reason required registering a handle, I was really rushed and not particularly into it.. so I didn’t post that day or for a couple of days. And someone else grabbed Cytotoxic. So I just quickly typed cyto, not thinking much of it.
And thus was born Cytotoxic and cyto, two distinctly different personalities. And lots of confusion.
And I’ve been too lazy to change it ever since.
And yet it still manages to get the fish to bite.
true dat.
I could never do that ‘draw crossed lines, then do this, then do this…’ style.
Also, I’m going to see if I can find an ad I saw in one of my DC books from the 90s about learning to draw.
Here’s the ad.
I had a bunch of books on how to draw cartoon characters when I was a kid. Hours spent trying but that method never worked for me either
And a couple months ago I was going through some old stuff and came upon two drawings I did when I was probably 10 or so.
First I saw this one. Aw, how cute.
Then this one. I’ve always been a glib.
lol
You could have entered those, who would know? Some wise ass would probably say, “Haha, looks like something a 10 year old would do”
That would not be me because yours are way nicer than the stick people I would make
That escalated quickly.
The only person here with the humility to use all lowercase in their handle.
Ahem….Nice work with the sketches. I have heard you guys talking about this but have missed all your posts. I readDrawing on the right side of your brain 20 some years ago. It was great but I never kept up with it.
Straff, that’s really good stuff, ESPECIALLY for having started from scratch and been self-directed. I am very impressed.
Your list is deep.
Try something you not good at and see what happens, right? Anyways, you in if we try calligraphy next?
Yep! I had a alligraohy section in my high school art class, and I took a couple of calligraphy classes in college. Also, I have all the tools and books. I just needed an excuse to take some time out to relax and do it.
calligraphy* even
I might be down for that one but I don’t have your head start. ?
I’m actually interested. You mean brush style, or European pen? I don’t have any equipment for either.
Pen, I guess. Seriously, I have no idea about it.
Lefties get a handicap, right?
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. You and I get participation trophies.
Even better.
And, dude. Left handed, 50 year old male libertarians. We should start a club.
Shape of, an ice bridge.
Is there a kid table in that club?
I did calligraphy for 20 years. I have 3 words-
Speed. Ball. Textbook.
It is getting harder and harder to find plain ol’ nibs. I have to go to Dick Blick now because neither Michael’s nor Hobby Lobby carry anything but the middle Cs.
In UCS’s story he called it a ‘nub’
Do I need to be that person?
He did? I didn’t notice. It’s called a nib.
Yes, you should be that person. He would.
Also, he’ll blame his “editor”.
He would
I laughed, but he’s okay with that
“nub” is the same as “hung like a cashew”.
Yes. The tip of an ink pen is called the “nib”
That’s a lot of euphemisms.
Do I win the $5000
Touche turtle?
wow tv flashback
Short beaked Trumputin?
Do the pirate next.
Okay
No pirate earring. Fail.
You just can’t see it, his hair grew out since you were a kid.
In my memory that was a parrot.
That looks like a young Mitch McConnel with a Bouffant Larue haircut.
OT: is it just me or is the picture on ESPN regularly shittier than any other sports channel? I wonder what is up with that.
Are you watching on a 4k TV? The upconvert to 4k from cable broadcast of 1080p or 720 generally looks bad in shows/sports with a lot of movement.
I… don’t know? It was new 7 or 8 years ago, FWIW.
Anyway I mean specifically ESPN versus every other channel that shows sports.
For example, I’m flipping between MSG and ESPN tonight. MSG is crisp and clear. ESPN is, as always, a muddy sludge.
Is it a “sub channel” – ESPN 12 or whatever?
As LJW was mentioning sometimes they compress the hell out of stuff on their non major channels. However, ESPN of all providers should be the last channel to do that.
The Ocho?
No, the Mothership.
The menu says the resolution is 1920 x 1080 so I guess not! My cable broadcase is 1080i. 1080p is not an option FWIW.
I’m not aware of a cable system that uses 1080p. Usually 1080i or 720p for broadcast. And some cable systems upconvert the 720p to 1080i.
There are a few demonstration channels that often have sports and occasional movies in 4K.
I actually record TV off air instead of Verizon and it’s amazing how much they compress the video to save bandwidth.
This whole thread makes me wish I’d done my bitrate vs resolution article. But my editing system kept crashing trying to do low bitrate video. Sufficed to say, if it looks blocky, that’s bitrate, if it looks fuzzy that is resolution.
It’s fuzzy. In any event, I get to shit on ESPN.
Which is funny, because I’m watching an ESPN+ stream right now – and it’s crisp and clean like it always is (except for rare lags). It’s only the cable channel that is uniformly crap.
If it’s fuzzy like old cable, that’s a signal to noise problem, if it’s fuzzy like not seeing fine details it is most likely resolution. So you might be getting an upscaled version, but I don’t think it’s 720 to 1080 if you notice it, it’s more likely an SD 480p signal being upscaled.
Then again, since it’s ESPN, you might be experiencing the Soap Opera Affect; which is a frame-rate issue. Film is at 24 fps, american video is 30 fps, but some people think sports should be at 60 fps, and you may be getting ESPN in that form. Fps (Frames Per Second) effects motion blur to simulate human perception. For some stupid reason people think 60f that has no motion blur looks better, making things look more like Soap Operas (which were filmed on video).
Honestly, I can’t distinguish between “blocky” or “blurry” or “fuzzy” or whateverthefuck.
It looks like shit. That’s all I can definitively say. And literally every other channel does not look like this.
That’s why I wanted to do the article, but my editing software kept crashing. I blame capitalism.
I, too, blame capitalism. That I can understand!
Many (most?) cable systems recompress their channels. They do not do all channels at the same rate though. The networks and top premium channels will be close to the original, while HSN-2 will be compressed to hell and back.
Too prove this to yourself, look at your local ABC affiliate on cable, then pull out the rabbit ears and check it out over-the-air digital. It will usually be remarkably crisper and clearer. This is the artifact of digital recompression.
They do it because even with cable, their bandwidth is limited. So to carry more channels (and more internet data), they have to squeeze it a little.
For ESPN, try the streaming version. If you have the bandwidth available on the internet connection, you can sometimes get the full resolution picture that way.
良くできました。お疲れ様でした。
(Have I mentioned how much I hate using Japanese input on an iPad…)
Your iPad’s wireless connection, the spaced repetition application on your iPad, arguing with you r father about the settings on your iPad…
Not sure you did that one yet. Think but not sure you complained about your iPad displaying the kanji for romantic love instead of the kanji for affectionate love where it was unclear if it was iPad or the author that was responsible.
It’s a good idea to know where things stand.
I’ll give you everything but the argument with my dad.
Definitely not a fan of screen based input.
You are right. That one was Lord Humungus on May 5, 2019 at 7:31 am
C-3PO really is fluent in over six million forms of communication.
I imagine if you could enter the Star Wars universe and play some Skrillex, you’d get some hilarious translations.
Dear God, where did you find that? C3PO is just as perfectly annoying in that Japanese version as the English.
Mad props for whoever cast it as it seems true to the character.
Is that where this action figure comes from?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GYSVTXB/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
I prefer found art.
That’s fantastic.
It’s a sign!!!!
Lol!
Genius.
Huh.
Those look pretty damn good to me.
The weird thing, though, is that every talented artist/musician/engineer/stripper that I have ever known has had the talent way earlier than the training.
I can play the guitar and bass, but I’m not a guitarist or bassist. I can take nice pics, but I’m not a photographer.
Who the fuck cares? Learning new things and doing cool shit is fun!
Kudos, straff!
Look good to me as well.
My talents are limited to cutting firewood, as long as they don’t have to be the same length
Bullshit.
You are the ultimate Renaissance Man. Shooting, building, making honey, raising beautiful and talented granddaughters, tolerating Jimbo…
You are an artist.
Don’t forget gardening.
Lol. I didn’t forget.
That’s his lovely wife.
Dang, that’s right. Well, he can’t be good at everything.
Now I understand why she said all the Glibs are always welcome.
“It’s That Time of the Month”
Huh uh. The moon ain’t full.
Ohio State in heated lawsuit with sports website over logo similarities
As if I needed another reason to hate Ohio State.
Ok, so the shape, style, number of tracings, and color are different. Clearly infringement.
Yes, but other than that….?
Maybe they like to refer to themselves as The Overtime Sports.
Hey, that school only has close to 70,000 students, so it’s not like they let just anyone go there. Need to protect that elite branding.
I wonder if this is one of those “You have to protect your trademark” lawsuits….. they don’t really intend to label the other site’s O as an offender, but to keep laying down legal markers.
I’ve heard that this is something that trademark law encourages, because any failure to enforce your trademark can result in losing it.
The Olympics is the worst about this. Back in the 80’s when the Olympics was coming to the US, the International Olympic Committee and the US Olympic Committee went around scouring the country for people to sue. In our area there was an old motel called “The Olympic” motel. It had been that since the 40’s or 50’s. The Olympics sued and somehow won, even though they are an athletic competition and not a hospitality chain. So they had to change the name.
Relax? The procrastinator’s high is the only way I get things done.
Tonight’s music.
Never heard of them and I love it.
Apple-polisher
Danke
straffinrun,
Are you inclined to pursue this current objective of sketching when you you have the time/opportunity?
It seems to me that you have support here on the “Glib” website.
Not to put you under any pressure… yet I would be interested in seeing what your future sketches/drawings might be.
“Pics links: https://m.imgur.com/a/Cee8cYW“
Not really. Thanks, though. I’m more interested in learning the basics of many different skills.
The only person here with the humility to use all lowercase in their handle.
Umm. I’ve even published here with without using upper case.
Yeah, no idea what he is talking about.
I stand by my original comment.
Capitalization is a tool of the patriarchy.
/Teen Vigue
This was probably already posted, but oh well.
Rabid antisemitism in the NHL.
NHLNBAWhatever, one of those sports franchises.
Ah, that makes more sense.
Lotsa Jewish hockey players!
I am such not the sportsball person, but I remembered that Jews were one of the early players in the northeast.
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803295889/
One of the replies:
Ha ha ha ha ha
That twitter feed is the perfect example of the perpetually offended in action. Sure, they have a laugh at this one… but they are always on the lookout.
As if there would ever be a crowd chanting “white power” at an NBA game. To believe that this is on the list of possibilities you have to have some serious delusions about what the United States is like. Delusions that are likely created by an entire propaganda machine designed explicitly for the purpose.
You couldn’t find enough people willing to chant “white power” in this entire country to make an audible difference in an NBA arena, let alone in a random NBA crowd.
It is like an audio Rorschach test… it reveals your inner prejudices.
I’m sorry straffinrun, life was crazy with the holidays so I didn’t end up doing any sketches after the first one.
I’ll offer up instead one of the things that was taking up any potential sketching time: one of the dice towers I 3-D printed and painted for Christmas presents.
Things should calm down from here, so I’d still be interested in doing calligraphy next.
BTW straff, I applaud your goal of learning new things. I can’t even draw a decent circle.
Why not? Ego kills you if you deprive it of humiliation. After years and years of trying to improve my kanji and reaching a plateau, I wanted to see if holding a pencil a different way would knock something loose in the old noggin. It actually worked somewhat. My kanji got much smoother recently as a result.
That’s well put!
I agree. It doesn’t have to be this, but there is definitely something to be said about continuing to try to grow in some way.
I consider myself a jack of all trades and master of none. Other than EMS and firefighting.
Earlier I was commending myself for a productive day in which I managed to work out some tedious problems in the Dynamo script I’m putting together.
Now I’m trying to work a piece of dental floss loose from between two molars and I feel tarded again.
How about a line?
Great line.
Everything ends up looking like a penis?
I have that problem too.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vumvMuagQtc/TVAeBqfCtqI/AAAAAAAABlM/soEXxo9g-KQ/s1600/penisisevil.jpg
I’m surprised no one submitted an entry like this.
Say what?!?
Forget it, l0b0t, it’s DNT-town.
Not uncommon at all.
Whereas I have 3 of 7 letters uppercase. If all lower case is humility, then I guess that’s . . . arrogance?
It’s a fair cop, guv.
r c dean. See? Now you don’t look like the uncola.
I’ve got you beat. Half the letters are uppercase.
I was trying to remember who had more bigger letters.
STEVE SMITH, duh.
Where is everyone tonight?
Anyway, fucking watermelons.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/12/26/hot-take-to-save-cities-from-climate-change-we-need-to-seriously-reconsider-private-homeownership/
“Yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.”
LOL
“We” are going to kick your commie ass if you keep this up
Mrs Lovett’s mince pie recipe
https://youtu.be/OuaQDxEWRlA
A related recipe from the floppy-headed frogs to the North.
Mémère’s recipe
Oops. Mémèere’s recipe was probably better, but lost to the sands of time.
Also, I’d add bacon.
Now I’m hungry.
I hear when it’s shown in Canada Boris isn’t in it.
Ugh. Virtual double shift tonight. I’m just finishing up and a surprise crew shows up. I want my night shift back, ruiners! Double time today makes up for it a little.
I tried to hit you with a welcome back a week ago. Don’t think you saw it.
Then I’ve been gone ever since.
Read and appreciated, Don. Life is sort of of a whirly-twirl at the moment but your message was received with much thanks. How’s life treating you?
Quiet and steady.
NewWife and I are visiting her clans in the low country, so good eating and an easy pace amongst the live oaks and palmettos.
Nice! I should have been born a Southron. I dig manners and hospitality.
There’s nothing particularly southern about hospitality, or manners.
What they have is an unnatural familiarity with strangers.
I think I have to disagree with you a bit, on both counts.
The greeting ritual in the South is vastly more abbreviated than up here, where it takes a long time with reciprocal inquiries into one’s health, one’s parent’s health and the like. Which struck me as oddly familiar.
While southerners lie as often as northerners, they indicate that they are lying while they are doing so. This strikes me as vastly more polite than simple deception.
Who have you been hanging out with? Because I have never had to deal with such inquiries.
Pretty much every American up here does it. With me there wasn’t (initially) any inquiries beyond how are you doing and how are things going, but now people always begin a conversation with some question into a fact that they’ve learned in a past encounter. They also like to use first names often during questions and answers. This is bad for me since I’m terrible at names. I try to compensate by keeping my eyes a bit more open.
So these are people you’ve met multiple times over the course of a span of time?
Well you lot. Before I knew Glibs all you y’all were Deliverence Banjo boys!
By contrast, the greeting ritual in TX was as follows:
Person 1: “Hey.”
Person 2: “Hey.”
For more formal occasions, “Hi might be substituted, or “Hello” for client/customer greetings.
NA, your “Texas” interaction is pretty much every greeting I’ve run into in New York.
I’m thinking the chattiness may be due to some intrinsic quality to you rather than a cultural thing.
Most people I greet fall into that category, but the behavior isn’t limited to those. I can be in line to buy coffee, and the customer/cashier ahead of me is “Hi, how areya doing?” “I’m fine thanks, how are you?” “I’m pretty good thanks, what can I get you?”
Maybe it’s an Upstate/Downstate thing, with the dividing line around the twin bridges?
How’s the handicap? I’m too old to ever get back to my +8.
Quiet and steady is the way I like it.
My mental Venn diagrams for “excitement” and “trouble” started overlapping more and more at some point.
I’m guessing first mortgage payment or first child.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/n-carolina-couple-call-on-vacuum-thought-to-be-intruder/article_178d0753-2347-5de0-aadf-eaa149b714ca.html
“Twas the night of Christmas at a North Carolina house, no creature should have been stirring, not even a mouse.
But a Forsyth County couple awoke with a fright, as something was moving about their house in the night.
They dashed to their closet and hid in fear, dialing 911 with a sensitive ear.
Responding sheriff’s deputies searched the home, and found a robot vacuum alone. The source of the scare had quickly been sorted, WGHP-TV reported. The robot had seemingly started and gotten stuck, its beeping and banging made the audible muck.”
?
I know every sound in our home. From the most furtive drip of water to the music of the cats and dogs. Some folk shouldn’t breed.
I am ashamed to live in the same state as that couple 🙁
Related, a week after we moved to our new rental in a more dangerous city (but super close to my hospital) I heard a window tapping sound. My wife woke up when I went to investigate, and my explanation and the sound and freaked out.
It was just a tree.
Break a few of its limbs and that tree will learn its lesson.
(Just make sure you pick the right ones.)
New skates for Xmas! https://youtu.be/Q-zXBHwEcC4
Your bio is a lie!