I take it back. I think my webhost did something really messed up and totally broke my gallery2. I have been working to correct the issue since I discovered I have to upgrade/reinstall the software, which was about 15 minutes ago.

Until then, I loath to offer the alternative, which is deviantart. To view current work, please visit twistedmessiah.deviantart.com

Well, in trying to upload some new images, I managed to mess up my gallery module, but the good news is, I was able to go into the mtSQL database and delete all the junk. I’m usually not so good with that end of things, but when you have a little computer common sense, and are able to put two and two together, it’s really not so hard to fix the problems you’ve created.

As a side note, I am going to be upgrading the wordpress software and installing new plugins, modules, etc, and redoing the site, basically. This will all be back-end until its ready, so things will not appear any more messed up. This could take all weekend, or it could take all week.

Monday, wish me luck. I have an interview. Here’s to hoping I get a proper job.

PS: Always clear your cache.

I was kicking around the web today, and I decided to go look at my former employer’s website. Immediately I noticed a new link to the video section on the site. The guy whom replaced me is a video specialist, so I knew they would have put him to work making videos to display projects.

And there mine was! The Piper Aztec that I hadn’t see finished before I left! In a video–and my name is on the scheme in the video as they show you how it’s built in illustrator.

Check it out here.

As I’ve been out hunting for a few jobs (with little success-bummer), I decided as my website is primarily my online portfolio, that I ought to upload some more aircraft designs and some of my graphic design and corporate design work.

I gather if potential job offerers are going to see my site first, and base their opinion of me and my work off their first impression, that I ought to have my graphic design work represented here as well. I’ve been looking for graphic design and, or, corporate design jobs lately, and, there’s no sense in frightening off anyone with a portfolio that is strictly fantasy and scifi-based. Whilst my love is primarily for all things fantasy and scifi, I am capable of graphic design and corporate design.

When I was first hired at Oxford Aviation Inc in 2006, my boss, whom I had known for a number of years, looked at my portfolio and asked “what does this have to do with aircraft?” to which I kind of wanted to say “absolutely nothing,” but I said that whilst my portfolio reflects that I am a capable illustrator, I do have a graphic design sense, and that I can certainly design aircraft schemes. And I proved that immediately. However, my boss also knew me. Potential hirers don’t. So, herein lies my proof–new aircraft schemes (photos–I have tons of 2D schemes that I do not want to upload to the internet as they are property of OAI now, technically), and corporate design.

If you are a talent scout and would like to see the 2D graphic schemes for the aircraft, please email me at sarah.longley @ industrythirteen dot com.

Just finished another painting. ‘ve been trying to be better about backgrounds and locations. Since the history of this character deals with the elements of fire, as well as entanglements with demons, i thought the idea of a firestorm was appropriate. Also wanted to see if i could create lava.

i was just talking about the image with my boyfriend and he said “Bullshit. I call shinanigans that you didn’t learn anything at SVA” I proceeded to grouchily say that I taught myself how to do all this whilst I was at SVA. Grouchy, because I don’t look back fondly at my experience at SVA, as probably noted below in another post.

However, I can probably say I do owe some of my education as a painter at least to Cheryl Greisbach and her husband Stan Martucci. They were always supportive and always gave me encouragement. Any criticism they ever had was constructive due to the fact that they would take your drawing and actually show you what you might do to make it better instead of just telling you or saying something looked funny, but weren’t sure how to fix it. I appreciated that more than anything–the fact that we worked in class with them to guide us, instead of sitting there and just yapping about it. Cheryl actually took the time to sit down with you with all your paint and show you her technique. Whilst I never became very good with oil paints and I hated painting with oils, I found myself thinking about her technique especially when it came to doing the background of the image.

Stan always encouraged our wild imaginations. You would think it would feel okay to go into la-la fantasy land at art school, but for me, it felt like fantasy or scifi art wasn’t all that welcome–but whenever I had a class with Stan and Cheryl, that was where it didn’t feel odd, and where it was actually encouraged.

I wish I had taken the time at SVA to do all my artwork in this medium, instead of wasting time with other techniques and doing work that I didn’t like. I think I would have been much more pleased with my assignments and not so overwhelmed, and maybe even have liked my assignments without worry about how I was going to get them all done on time and to a satisfactory level.

So I graduated from SVA this past may. I will not recommend SVA. I will not recommend any art school that does not teach art from a classical perspective. Granted, I only have my own experience, but if you are not taught the basics and fundamentals, you will be left to merely float. If skill and execution are not taught, then all you have left is non-sense and BS. I didn’t go to school to learn how to BS, but I certainly left feeling like that’s all I had accomplished there.
So for anyone going into art school, make sure your cirriculum is mostly life drawing, life painting, sculpture and as little critique as possible–you want to learn how to look and how to convey what you see. After that, you can then apply that to what interests you. If you can’t draw, how can you convey your thoughts visually?

On a lighter note, after spending a few months being absolute uninspired and totally unhappy with the results of my education at SVA, I finally did a painting. I kept telling myself not to push it, just let it come, and it did.
The great thing about working at Oxford Aviation again is that I have time to work on my craft and I get to save up some money. I get to keep my mind sharp on design so I don’t lose any sort of creativity and whilst it may be mostly vector-based art, it is still art and I can be proud of the designs I create for my clients. You may see some new ones in the gallery soon. I am juggling about 5 tp 6 clients at this time, most of them with completely original designs. Might post up a few I worked on, too.

It’s been a really rough week for me here. I’ve finally managed to get back around to doing some work.

I have been working on images for the machinema movie I mentioned in the last post, as well as my own class work for the end of the semester. I’m allowed to double-dip right? My personal projects can influence my school work, yes?

One of my professors hit me with a ruler (well, not really) and chastised me for not doing more backgrounds or locations (interiors or exteriors) so I said fine, I would do it. Sitting around thinking of what I could do, my friend bugs me on msn and says they need some art for the laboratory scene. I said okay, great, that’s just the sort of thing I need to do. Practice my interiors.

So the newest art up right now is of the Corporate Universal laboratory. What’s cooking? Nothing good, that much I can say. I’m sure in a few months I’ll hate it and be doing much better pieces of work. I had to start somewhere with my interiors, and that was a great place to start. Awesome practice.

Well, I came back from spring break, expecting that the SVA IT department would have fixed their internet issue, but no, they had not, and they still have not. I can access websites, but other than that, my MSN is highly unstable, I cannot access ftp, VOip, or any of my precious MMOs.

However, that does not mean I have not been making use of my time. Besides reading to absurd hours in the morning and finishing up single-player games I let fall by the wayside, I have been doing a lot of drawing and painting.

One of my friends and guild mates has decided he wants to test out an approach to going about making this movie that has been in pre-pre-production (you might say) for the past 6 to 9 months. I have been excited about the project, and so has he and everyone else involved.

So finally last night he says “Are you bored?” to which I thought he was mocking me– but it turns out he asked me if I would do some conceptual art for the movie– and I agreed. So over the next few days or so everyone whom visits the site should see my concept art section of the website growing. There is also a new illustration.

Being a huge World of Warcraft junkie, I decided that I would do an image of Illidan for a class assignment. The assignment was open ended and had to deal with expression. While Illidan does have an expression, it is not so played up. It is the whole mood of the piece.

Whilst thinking of a subject matter, I knew that I wanted to do an image of Illidan and that I have always been a fan of the penitent magdalen imagery, especially that by Georges de la Tour. This image is easily google-able. In Georges de la Tour’s painting, there is a skull, which is highly appropriate. Albiet the megdalen image is one of penitence and of the flavor of vanitas paintings, it was a great place to start. Furthermore, with the skull I began to think of Hamlet. Presto!

I am very excited to present what I think is my best work to date. Illidan.

It’s no secret that I am a gamer and that I’ve spent entirely too much time playing Star Wars Galaxies, Lineage2 and World of Warcraft. While I am looking forward to WOW’s first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, I have had my eye on one game since it was unveiled at E32006 last spring. NCSoft’s Aion: Tower of Eternity.

I have kept tabs on several fan sources of information, as well as youtube for videos, and the developers of Aion have given out a small interview to various gaming sites. Both Boomtown and AionSource have similar articles this week with some very tastey screenshots.

But first, a small over-view of what we know about Aion: Tower of Eternity.

+ Aion is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)
+ There are 2 player factions, and 1 NPC faction: Angels (The Chun), Demons (The Ma) and the NPC Dragons (The Yong)
+ The game will feature both PvE and PvP. It is being called PvPvE.
+ The World will be highly interactive–meaning, if you walk through tall, thick grass, you will slow down some as if you actually have to push it aside to pass.
+ There will be free-flying, occording to recent articles.

Now for the articles!
+ Boomtown.net
+ AionSource.com

And some videos and screenshots
+ E3 2006 Video
+ Official NCSoft Teaser