A bridge over a beautiful waterfall

A bridge over a beautiful waterfall
Nature brings magic
Showing posts with label elfwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elfwood. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

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?

Saturday, August 24, 2013

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.