Favorite Art

I am a fan of fantasy art. I love to look at other people's gorgeous pictures, paintings, and sculptures. I started out at Elfwood. I started just looking at pictures. I'm now a moderator there, and have been for a while, on the stories people submit to Wyvern's Library.

Then I found DeviantArt. I've bookmarked so many pictures out of DA. I have more favorite artists here than I do on Elfwood anymore, since most of my favorites on Elfwood have either left or stopped updating their galleries and gone elsewhere – many have migrated to DA. Some of my favorites from DA are here, here, here, here, and here. I just started looking at fantasy. These are all under the Digital Art and are incredible. Sakimichan is more whimsical than the others but they're still well done.

One of the artists, who goes by the name Heise, is Chinese. One of the others is from Germany. Art, no matter what it is can transcend borders. Pictures, dance, stories, poems, music – all of these things can share a piece of the soul of the artist and a hint of their world.

Some of my favorite music comes from Europe. Symphonic metal – though I will admit much of it is sung in English, some German Industrial, and classical music of all types are pleasant to me. They draw images in my mind and bring a piece of the musicians to me.

What kind of art do you like? Music? What art and artists inspire or comfort you?

Podcast review for KUEC

Podcasts. Podcasts are fun. Podcasts can be informational, entertaining, or a combination of the two. I listen to a few podcasts from NPR, TED Talks, and my favorite KUEC. KUEC stands for Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap.

Let me explain what Kevin and Ursula Eat Cheap is. Kevin Sonney and the rather well known artist Ursula Vernon (if you have kids you've probably seen the Dragonbreath books, a web comic named Digger, and many pictures on DeviantArt. You can also find many of her books and works on Amazon here.) What they do is review convenience foods and other things like chips, dried squid, and foods of dubious content.

This is not a podcast for children. It's not really one for teens either. They talk about adult things and swear. A lot of their commentary is enough to make even me laugh, and I don't laugh at much at all. There is always the chance of a beagle baying in the background, cats loving up against the microphone or demanding attention, and a couple who try to steal the food as they go.

They're up to 142 actual episodes and they have several travel interludes because of Ursula's popularity at cons. Kevin also works security at some and also has a job that carries him out of town so there are times where they'll skip a week or two.

If you can handle adult humor, talk about things that are sometimes inappropriate, and can deal with the occasional use of swear words, I do recommend it. You can find KUEC here. All of the archives are there back to the very first episode. Over the almost four years they've been doing this, the episodes have gotten longer and the reviews have gotten funnier. I hope, if you go find it, you get as much pleasure from it as I do.

Saturday Story Building - A picture is worth a thousand words

How many times have we heard the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words"? I know I've heard it a lot since I was a child. I know that I'm often inspired by a photo or a painting or a sketch I see. I've seen fantasy art that's inspired me to write stories. I've seen old black and white photos and wondered about the lives of the people in them. I've even written a few stories based on these things.

I love looking at fantasy art. The three places I go the most often are DeviantArt, Elfwood, and Epilogue. Now, Elfwood and DeviantArt have a lot of amateur pieces so you have to pick your way through the galleries. Epilogue is a lot pickier about what they accept so it's easier to find good fantasy and science fiction art there.

But those pictures are not the only places I've drawn my inspiration. Pictures of ancient Roman ruins have inspired buildings in my stories. Photos of recreated ancient houses and ships have given me ideas on how to make the same things in my world more realistic. Pictures of fashion through the ages gives me an idea of how to pattern the clothing of the characters of my stories.

So go find a picture that inspires you and write your 1000 words.