Rachel H. White - RHW's Art and Writing Blog

Good News! and relaxing projects

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:26:34 CDT

I know I've been a bad blogger, having skipped one week altogether and missed my blog-day last week.

But I have been doing well since my last post. I did complete the gargoyle (as you can see) and...(drumroll)...I got PUBLISHED again!!! Quintuple Yay! The second image in the same series as the gargoyle, titled Salamander: Lord of Fire, was published in the fall issue of Circle Magazine! Must update website soon 'cause that's important resume kinda stuff.

The main reason I haven't posted is that the projects I'm working on at the moment are not particularly high art, but I've been enjoying myself as I don't put as much stress on such things. As I mentioned before, I have started my pirate costume. I found a new pattern, which is based on the stuff Elizabeth Swan wears in the movies (Simplicity 4092), and am currently working on the overdress. I've still got the underskirt, bloomers (4914), and hat (McCalls 4805) to finish, which I may put off until later so I can get back to some serious work now that I've had a break.

I'm also painting a new batch of Dungeons & Dragons figures that I bought. I'm looking to build a whole set of grey elves, a nomadic group that I created and have outlined some story for. Now I have all the main characters, but sometime I'd like to get all the characters in the group, which is like 25 figures. Not planning to order the rest of them any time soon. But I do enjoy painting the figures, finding all the amazingly tiny details the sculptors work into these things. I plan to take some pictures if I can set something up well enough that you could see them. Might post that next week. I'm also putting some figures, the Three Victories, that I painted previously into a shadowbox frame so I can display them somewhere.

FINISHED!!

Sat, 2 Sep 2006 20:27:46 CDT

Yes, the dragon-phoenix-wings painting/collage is officially DONE! Double Yay! I am quite proud of it and think it turned out beautifully. I have sent it off to be considered by WeMoon, a publisher of women's magical materials and such, to be included in their yearly set of cards, books, and calendars (this would be for 2008 of course). Hopefully I will be updating my website soon and will put the final image up there as well. Also now that it is finished, it can begin working it's magical aspect that began with the original meditation: the takeoff and soaring of my illustritive carreer!

Next project is the last subject in my Elementals series (see my site www.rachelhwhiteart.com, under New Works). The element for this one is "Earth" and I think I've settled on Gargoyle as the subject. I've done some sketching trying my best to make him not look like something from a Disney cartoon and yet also make him look alive, in motion, and not permanently attatched to a building. I believe I can make him look somewhere in between traditional Gothic architecture and Disney-esque, pop culture style.

I've also still got Body & Blood to work on, but that's kind of on the burner to one side (as opposed to the back burner which is kinda crowded at the moment if you know what I mean).

After I finish "Gargoyle: Lord of Earth" and send that in to Circle Mag. I'm going to start work on my pirate costume for the NC Ren Faire. I've been planning this costume for a few years now and finally have all the materials I need to do it. I'm going to have to be careful how I plan it though, because it lends itself to cooler weather and last couple of years the Carolina Faire has been a little too warm for this kind of thing. I may have to work out the costume so I can have fully optional layers, and right now I have no clear idea how I'll go about doing that. Never fear, I shall muddle through somehow, even if it is by sweating it out come Faire time.

PS: on a somewhat unrelated note (unrelated to art and writing that is) I was invited and have joined this group on yahoo called Mass Consciousness something or other. It is an intriguing path to follow as the guy (or gal?) who started it is very mysterious, apparently having some kind of job where he/she and a group of others psychically sense what's going on all over the world and when disasters, both natural and man-made, are coming. This person, who calls him/herself "Sam", has made this group secretly, under the noses of his/her superiors, to use positive psychic energy in order to diffuse these disasters and prevent them from happening! So far it's quite cool and there seem to be lots of shiny people joining up all over the world. If nothing else I could write a really interesting story based on it.

Still writing, and doing better!

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:24:44 CDT

I basically finished the snowflake process on Body & Blood. One of the final steps is to make a spreadsheet with all the scenes and that helped a lot! It made me actually believe something I've been cogitating about for some time: that I actually have most of the scenes I need already. There are a few scenes I had ideas for that need to be actually written, and there are several scenes that need to be re-written (stuff that I wrote back in high school or sometime, which are not strong in style and don't take into account all the complexities I've worked in since then). Once I get all those written out and smoothed over, I'll be DONE! The end is near!

Well I'll be at a point where I can let some people read it and get their notes and such. Then I might leave it in a drawer somewhere for a year like Stephen King does with his stuff, but then again maybe not since it's had plenty of time to rest all these years that I've been scribbling on it off and on. And then I'll have to start stalking publishers...

Mom will be coming home today in a couple of hours (she left my granny's house a little later than she meant to which is not unusual) so my days as head of household are over for now, which is good because I'm not solely responsible for feeding the animals anymore or for keeping the dishes washed, or answering the freakin' phone... But seriously, I missed her and will be glad to have her around again. I'm a bit nervous that I'm getting too used to having someone around all the time. Makes me want to move out somewhere, fast! Thing is I'm not moving unless I'm moving out of the state, and preferably across the country, so the having-my-own-place situation hinges upon my job and money situations. Oh well, looking to the future ...

writing 'n stuff

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:31:32 CDT

As I said last week, I painted the phoenix into my wings painting. It's not quite done yet as I switched moods this week from art to writing. I've been working again on the Snowflake process (which I highly reccomend) for my novel Body & Blood. This week I typed out a synopsis of the whole story in a page and a half (which left a lot of stuff out but that's the idea: to simplify) and I've started on the synopses from each character's point of view (that's steps 4 and 5 out of ten for the whole Snowflake).

The Snowflake process was something cooked up by writer and teacher Randall Ingermanson (http://www.rsingermanson.com/ has his info and the Snowflake stuff and other good writing tips). The idea is that you take your story idea and, rather than writing scene-by-scene from the seat of your pants, not knowing where the plot is going to wander, you instead map and shape the story in several steps. You start with one sentence, 15 words or less to sum up the story, then a 5 sentence paragraph to tell the whole story, then a short character outline for each character, then take your 5 sentences and expand them to 5 paragraphs in one to one-and-a-half pages, then expand the characters...and so on until you've figured out all the scenes that there need to be and you write them and *bing!* all the sudden you have a completed novel on your hands! I know sounds too easy, and it's not when you've already written most of the book (like somebody you know and love), but it helps you realize a lot of things you haven't thought of, things that take a little explaining but that you haven't thought of because you're the writer and you already understand what's going on. I also recently discovered, on Ingermanson's site, the "how to write a perfect scene" tips he borrowed from someone else, and that sounds like a good process to run my story through too.

Other than that the calendar has come 'round again for Mom to disappear to California for two weeks (going to grad school) leaving me to my own devices. It's nice to have the house all to myself for a few days, but to anyone who is reading, company is appreciated as long as you give me a heads-up first! Actually, you'll probably be more likely to find me slurping a white mocha at Barnes & Noble with my nose in a comic book I don't feel I have the funds or motivation to purchase.

And by the way, we finished watching the finale of season 4 of Smallville today, so another obsession bites the dust. Believe it or not, I was actually starting to get tired of it, even in my desperate need to discover the ever-elusive "what happens next." That and I was getting ticked off at Lex. I liked him a hell of a lot better in the earlier seasons when he actually had good intentions most of the time.

cogitating ideas and some painting

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:59:32 CDT

Mom and I were discussing this idea we've had for a "spiritual" book about Darkness. I think I've mentioned in blogging before that I wanted to find out why dark things are so attractive to me and so many others. I've always thought that "dark" does not necessarily equal "evil" and I want to define spiritual Darkness as separate from anything negative. We decided that a good place to start building our defining ideas was with archetypes (if you want to know more about archetypes look up Carl Jung, and I also reccomend Character Design Studio by Chris Patmore and 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt). We narrowed down to 7 archetypes: the Miser, the Seeker, the Helper, the Expert, the Ruler, the Mentor, and the Trickster. I won't go into the others here, but the important one is the Trickster. Now each person has all these archetypes within them but tends to be acting as just one or another at any given time. The Trickster is the one that lies within the darker, inner side of yourself. Many people fear their dark side, but others are fascinated by it. If one can get over their fear and move into the inner, Trickster personality, then one has the ability to look outward again, and see themselves as who they truly are, and to see the world in a totally different way. Some might argue that "Trickster" is not a good entity, but I chose that title because it's not associated with evil either. The Trickster is not about good and evil but about a balance between the two. I like to use the metaphor (especially when people use the word "light" to refer to things good and positive) that if you were in a place where there is all light and no shadow then you would be just as blind as if you were in a lightless room. Having seen the world in both the Light and the Darkness, one can balance those points of view and live more effectively and more happily.

Well, that's our theory anyway, and obviously it's not completely hashed out yet.

I have worked on my painting several days this week and it is looking marvelous! I hope to have it done soon. I am currently working on the final details in my hair and hands and face and some of the shadows need smoothing. I am most concerned about the phoenix right now as it still looks like paint daubs instead of fire and/or feathers. I'm still wondering if I should do some sketches with colored pencil to come up with a design for the feathers or if I should just start painting on it and see what happens.

I mentioned last blog a job opportunity with Tech. I decided not to apply. Really and truly, the money and environment might be nice, but it would be stressful changing jobs and I don't want to do design work and working full time at Tech will not boost my freelance illustration business because I would have even less time and energy to work. Who knows, maybe one of my buddies from the Graphic Design program at WU will get the job and we'll get in touch and hang out sometime.

I'm also continuing to watch Smallville (when the discs come in which one didn't today damnned cliffhanger season finalies!). I didn't mention before that I'd like to write a story for a graphic novel about what would happen if something terrible happened to Clark Kent that made him horribly depressed, and so he became the bad guy and Lex Luthor was the good guy. I did some research on Wikipedia and found out this was not a new idea, but the execution of my version of the idea is quite different. I'm thinking more of something Batman fans would like rather than hardcore Superman fans (ie: something dark, of course). I picture a Metropolis where an insane superhuman destroys parts of the city and attacks its citizens seemingly at random, and has been doing so for several years, so that parts of the city are nothing but piles of rubble and the people live in fear. The papers, even the Daily Planet, do not report on the superhuman, who I am calling The Invincible Man, for fear of their offices being attacked, but instead an underground newspaper publishes the stories. And the one man doing his best to protect the city is Lex Luthor, former millionaire turned private detective. But secretly, Lex is also protecting his friend Clark, hoping that he'll eventually get over his depression and be able to use his powers for good, or at least have as normal a life as possible. I'm seeing very "film noir" kinds of imagery. The characters would be heavily based on the Smallville series, as this story would be a kind of tangent that split off somewhere in the middle of the series (not sure when yet, that's why I'm still watching...well one of the reasons I know "reason's got nothin' ta do with it."), and their faces and such would be modeled after the actors, their movements and speech patterns after the way the actors portray them in the series. I would make references to the known Superman stories, but in ways that make them ironic and often frightening, but mostly I would build from the series and my own ideas about the world and the characters. It would be really cool if I could get DC or better yet Vertigo interested in publishing it.

MY ART SHOWING IN SPARTANBURG

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 15:26:39 CDT

7/14/6

I am tickled pink to announce that one of my paintings has been accepted into the 33rd Annual Juried Exhibition at Spartanburg County Museum of Art! It's one from the Body & Blood series: the Werewolf Sighting (http://rachelhwhiteart.com/bbwolf.htm). Information on the show is at http://www.spartanburgartmuseum.org/ and hopefully they'll update their info on the exhibition before too long seeing as how it's already on display. Well, the reception is Saturday July 22 from 6-8 pm at the Arts Center 385 S. Spring St.

As you can see I have also been working a little bit on the dragon and phoenix painting. It would be amazing the things I would do if I'd just work on my art every day. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier if I just didn't have to mix paint so much. Skin tones are some of the most difficult colors to mix.

I am also continuing to work on the background and structure of my book Body & Blood. Something I was toying around with this week is developing a story arc for the entire series of books that are based around this set of characters. It's a little difficult as there are several elements stretching over a timeline in my little story universe that are all interconnected with Pierce's story, some of which do not appear in any of the four books I'm planning on including in this particular series.

I've also found a new little bitty teensy weensy obsession, which I very often find myself doing when I start watching a good TV show. This week its been Smallville. We rented the first season on Netflicks and I'm hooked. I'll only give you one guess as to who my favorite character is, but I think you'll guess it anyway.

Funny thing is normally I love the tall, handsome guy with dark hair and blue eyes, and am usually turned off by bald guys... but then again I am always more likely to have a thing for the "bad guy". What can I say, Lex is more interesting. You never know what he's going to do. I mean, Clark is an easy character: he's the biggest boyscout ever. The thing I like best about the series is that Lex is not a bad guy, that he's often a very good guy. Well, anyway, as you can tell by the fact that I've written a longer paragraph here about Smallville than I have about my painting being in the show, I've been thinking about this way too much. I like to think of it as research: examining the structure of other people's stories within my genre. It also gives me a little opportunity to explore my own psychological quirks, asking myself why I'm interested in the man with the dark side instead of the guy with the heart of gold. Yeah, those are my excuses anyway.

7/20/6

I haven’t done anything blogworthy for the past few days. Blogworthy in my case meaning having to do with art or writing. Pardon this entry if it's a little choppy.

I did wash my car Tuesday, but other than that I’ve mostly been watching Smallville. It occurred to me a few minutes ago that the influx of new stories from the series may be overwhelming my story processing center in my brain. Thus why my brain feels all gummy when I try to think about Pierce, and then I get bored and go off into choppy fantasies about Lex Luthor/Michael Rosenbaum.

The reason I say my story center is overloaded is because I start processing the show after I’ve watched it. I think about the story structure, and the characters and where they've been and where the series is going with them, and then I imagine myself as acting in the cast or myself as a character in the story. I have a tendency to dream about it even, although nothing particularly coherent (the one I remember specifically was after I watched Blade one day: I dreamed I was at a huge gathering of vampires, and I was just about to give up and enjoy the mayhem, after all I’ve often wanted to be a vampire, but then they brought Chloe out tied to a stake and looking at me like “Rachel! What are you doing here?!” and I was like “Oh, my God, what am I thinking? I gotta save Chloe!” I’m sitting here laughing as I write this because it sounds so absolutely typical of like TV people’s dreams). My brain is so busy processing the episodes, it’s not allowing me to switch over to my story universe.

There was one interesting little event this week tho: I wrote this little blurb about it right after it happened: 7/17/6 - 10:38 pm: I just saw a raccoon! He peeked his little masked face in the window we leave open for the cats. I'm a little giddy now, having never seen one in real life before. RJ came a knockin'...or rather a creepin'.

On another note, I've been thinking about applying for the Spartanburg Tech graphic design job. I’m highly qualified for it since they’re asking for people with an associates degree in design and 2 years experience or a high school diploma and 4 years experience, whilst I have a bachelor's degree in “Visual Communication and Design” and a little over 2 years experience. I’m putting down the salary I want from them as $30,000 per year. That’s about $9,000 more than I make now, and it’s in the middle of their stated range. I still don’t know if I want it but the deadline for applications is tomorrow. What I’m itching about is it’s not my money situation that’s paining me right now, it’s my lack of production that is keeping my illustration business from getting off the ground. A new job that is full time is not going to fix that! The money would be nice, but I would have to spend a certain amount of it ahead of time to get clothes suitable for that environment, plus driving a longer distance in my car and all that entails, etc. There would be all the hassles of being a designer, and they would all be for the same clients, nothing fresh and new and possibly fun. On the upside I’d be working with Mac computers and the programs I like (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) but I’d still be doing the drudgery of design work. I’d have to answer the phone when it rings but at least it would be for me and I could answer their questions more often than not, and I’d have my own cube probably. I also doubt I'd like most of the people I'd be working for, especially compared with Vickie (my boss at Ad-Craft Signs), but I'd be working in a newer building where people aren't allowed to smoke. I don't know...

Another thought I’ve had lately is maybe since I feel burnt out on writing and art that I need to be doing other things on my to-do list like making my pirate costume. Don’t know. I think the main thing is if I’m going to be processing Smallville I need to do so while painting on the wings image or other art project, and since the wings image needs to be finished, it’s on the top of the list so that’s the one I will work on.

dragons and vampires and pirates, oh my!

Wed, 5 Jul 2006 16:06:33 CDT

I did finish touching up Draco Nocturne (t-shirts on cafepress! and speaking of cafepress I created a new shop and set of designs for South Carolina Browncoats, Firefly fans that is: http://www.cafepress.com/scbrowncoat). I also entered...(continued; please click "read full")

"dark gothic dragon art"

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:15:20 CDT

(from 6/14/6)

those are the words of the week. Mom found somehow that these words are the most-searched-for-and-least-found keywords on the net. (That's the short version. If you're stumped, do ask, I will try to 'splain). So I've been sketching and planning and today I was painting! I would post a pic but I haven't scanned anything and Mom's on the 'puter with the scanner tonight writing a paper for her class so I won't trouble her. I have several ideas and room for more so this should be way fun. I've also been setting up my cafepress.com stuff (I have a calendar for sale now! so wicked cool!) but it's not all done yet quite. Tonight I've been playing around a bit on a new site called deviantart.com (which took up more time than I meant it to but oh well). Not sure I like it yet but I haven't taken much time to look around. One thing I will say there's some killer artwork there unlike some other build-your-own-gallery sites I've seen.

I will be away from home next week as I finally made up my mind to go to GA with my mom to the Southeastern Writers' Association workshop in St. Simons Island. I won't really be attending the workshop, tho' just staying there and writing/arting with whatever I can carry with me. Since I'm planning to do a good many of the d.g.d.a. with colored pencil, that operation should be portable enough. Got to get some colored and black paper to draw on tho'. Having said all that, I will be back Friday the 23rd in time to hop into another car and cruise up to Charlotte for the charity screening of Serenity the movie (http://shindig.ash1.com for those who haven't heard yet and are interested assuming there's anybody else out there reading this) I will still try to blog something next week but I might forget or just put it off til Saturday.

6/21/6

Hi from SWA in SSI,GA (Southeastern Writers Conference in Saint Simons Island, Georgia).

Started this week on my first "dark gothic dragon" piece, and it is marvelous! (you can see a good picture on deviantart.com, which I recommend). It is an illustration of a dragon of night, but as for a title I may call it Draco Nocturne or some such like that. It is almost finished, only needs some touch up work, which I'm going to do when I get home. So now I am starting the base drawing on the second piece, a sexy romantic fairy man, and working on some scenes from Body & Blood as well. These are scenes in between the major scenes but that are vital because they build setting and character and all that stuff that strings the major plotline together and makes you live in the story.

It has been horribly hot outside and, naturally as a result of this, like an icebox in every building I enter, but aside from my tempertural discomfort, all is groovy. I'm very much enjoying the conversation with my Mom, and our buddy Chris, who I don't get to see often enough at home because we're all too busy, and Holly, who I never get to see simply because she lives here. Lots of esoteric, spiritual, profound, and hilarious shit. Best conversation to be had anywhere. Only thing I'm missing this year is something is up with Chris's tendons in his hands so he's not been able to be playing his guitar much, and anyone who knows me well knows how much I adore listening to live guitar played by a good friend. So let us all pray and light candles think good thoughts and send happy energy to Chris's tendons so he can keep up the good music.

P.S.: turns out I will not be attending the Serenity screening as Mom is not driving back Friday. She and I are going to a workshop for SWA this weekend with one of the teachers from last year (he's a screenwriter and a really good teacher and I thought his thing this weekend would be canceled but it's not so I wanted to go and I'm going and the charity screening's already got my money and it's not like I didn't already see the movie so I'm staying here and nyaa! so there)

so yeah that be it for today: XOXO -- Rachel

Writing this Week

Wed, 7 Jun 2006 15:38:36 CDT

I have been working on Body & Blood, my Christian vampire story, this week. Mainly, I've been composing some minor scenes that fill in some rather large gaps between major scenes. In the two scenes I've come up with in the last couple of days, Pierce (the main character) meets one background character in a library, and then in another scene, he comes to the bar he's been frequenting, which is a small but popular hangout for vampires and other beasties, and there he sits and talks with a "fallen" demon of addiction about the basic rules of the spirit world (in my "story universe" not necessarily what I believe to be true so don't freak out on me).

Intrigued? I know you are. Have a tasty tidbit (to read my writing sample click on the little blue text in the lower right of this box that says "Read Full")

We have Wingage!

Thu, 1 Jun 2006 17:39:40 CDT

Finally worked on the wings this weekend and got the collage part DONE! YAY me!

I am currently darkening the background to something like a night-sky blue-gray-green and will eventually add stars. Thinking about shading the wings to make them look more three dimensional. But next step is to work on detailing the critters better.

also had three story ideas this week:
since, according to Rice rules, a vampire with long hair who cuts their hair, grows it back each day, so wouldn't it be handy to have a professional hairstylist on hand in the covenhouse? Might make a funny short story.

two, titled "Through the Cracks": a series about a writer whose stories are about murders that were never investigated, only all his stories are true, based on his research into real cases, and the murderer is never brought to justice because the writer promises the murderer he'll change all names and places if the murder agrees to tell their story.

third: someone meets a ghost but as they are trying to solve the mystery of the ghost's death, they find that the ghost was not murdered but that he/she was the murderer. You see the person had only a few days to live and decided to kill someone (for some reason like the person caused them to fall ill and die), but after he/she killed that person, he/she felt so guilty that he/she could not pass on to heaven or hell