Welcome To My Thingy

First Attempt At Embroidery

I consider embroidery a very underestimated and rewarding form of art. There are extremely skilled artists out there, whom I don't even dare comparing to. One particular YouTube channel stood out to me. Her pieces are stunning. If you feel like it, visit her channel Hand Embroidery Art. It's played a major role in getting me interested in embroidery aswell.

Gotta say, I'm quite proud of my first embroidery piece. :D Happy how it turned out.
One thing I realized in the process is that drawing out a circle on the fabric beforehand would have been a great help. That way a wonky circle such as this one could have been avoided. Another thing I realized is that french knots are a hassle. But they're pretty, so they are worth the hassle. I've used them for the leaves.

The second picture shows off the shimmer of the yarn, which I adore; that's the sole justification for that picture's existence here.

As you can see in the first and second picture, I used reference lines for orientation. I recommend planning out the composition before you start poking the needle into the fabric.
Anyway, the pen I used is remarkable. It's a Friction Erase pen, which is well suited for this purpose, due to the ink's reaction to heat. Once you're done, all you have to do is iron your creation and, tada, the fabric looks as clean as on its production day.
Something I further learned is that the fabric should be as stiff as possible, not even slightly stretchy, at best. Despite me already having known about this before I started stitching, I underestimated the importance of it. Or rather, I simply thought mine was plenty stiff. The fabric I've used indeed is stiff in relation to the other fabrics I have lying around; yet, it's still too stretchy. When the embroidery is flipped around, one can see many little wrinkles on the back, where the fabric was pulled together. Nothing major, just a little something to pay more attention to next time.

• Fabric:      Linen
• Strands:    3, synthetic
• Workload: 8 days

On To The Next One

Using only 2 strands this time I ran into unexpected difficulties. Naturally, as the thread is thinner, there's less resistance when pulling it through the fabric, making it harder to secure. After the second time I finally adapted.

• Workload: 6h +

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten is a fast-paced first person shooter, which I am too lazy to put a description of here. If you're interested in the details, visit its official website (no https!).
I made this section hoping that it would spark one or two people's interest in the game, precisely map editing. :] The playerbase is tiny, barely noticable, the size of an ant. Even smaller is the number of active editors. Which is a shame, the game is charming once you dive into it.

Quick Contextualization

Unfortunately, the website is not sufficient to put the videos I've posted here into context. Sauer is a simple arena shooter with a delicious cherry on top - the Cube 2 map editor. Indeed, you can make your own maps within the game itself. It's a feature.
I was introducted to editing by a friend in 2017 and rejoiced in it. I was all about editing, noting down the various commands, sucking up all the information I could get. To this day, I still occasionally get back to editing.
The source of my more or less stable motivation for editing lies in the racing servers. As Sauer's code is open source, modded racing servers have eventually emerged from the gloomy bottom of frag culture and have been shining brightly ever since. Some Sauer players might find this statement doubtful, but for me it hits the mark perfectly. The main factors that make me a regular player - with some longer breaks, although, I still consider myself a fixed part of the community - are the racing servers on the one hand and on the other hand, above all, the likable racing community that has established over time.
As I've already mentioned, my motivation fluctuates, as the process of map making is long-winded, but the effort definitely pays off. Plus, editing can be interesting and challenging, as you're limited to deformable cubes. :) I won't go into detail, though. For a more detailed explanation, again, visit the official website (no https!). This link leads directly to the tutorial, one could say.
Essentially, I enjoy making maps for something I'm fond of and having them being played by a group of people I am also fond of.
Speaking of people I am fond of - this is one of those people's website: Click me to leave sanity behind. They're an editor aswell and their maps are unique and a prime example of non-race maps (refer to "Map Variety" paragraph at the bottom of this section). :)

My Gems

Unbeatably imaginative map titles ahead... - please, pay them all the attention you have to offer - as well as corny videos, but they serve their purpose.
As I pour a lot of time and effort into these maps I want to show them off a little with hopes that the game wins an additional ant-amount of players. Which I have already mentioned earlier. Hello, I'm a broken record.
This website makes me feel like a child proudly showing around its new teddybear with sparkling eyes.
On a side note, this game is on Steam, too, and costs a whole 0$. Saying the following contradicts my intention of getting more people interested in the game, but I have to express my disliking of the Steam version. That's just my opinion, though, so don't let me hold you back.
I'm a terrible advertiser.

The first video shows an unorganized (sorry 'bout that) run-through of A-Race, the map I made when I began editing back in 2017, so it's been a while.
For clarification: 1. Podium = finish and 2. the blue boxes contain extremely interesting information and 3. in some of the videos you might hear disturbing sounds. Relax, I have a few customized game sounds, these are not default. To protect your ears the videos are already muted.

• Workload: Can't remember all that well. But let me tell you, this map, especially, was a lot of work, as I was still learning.
• Version:
  V1 2017
  V2 2018 - updated textures

The second video is on my second published map B-Race. Not much to say about it, except it's the updated version and I like green. Complaints had arisen concerning its difficulty, so I added the round platforms as compromise, besides a few other small tweaks.

• Workload: Large
• Version:
  V1 2017
  V2 Aug 2018 - updated textures, obstacles
  V3 Sep 2019 - adjusted difficulty

3rd video: C-Race is a map full of bows, with a yummy ice cream podium someone took a bite of. People need a reward afterall.

• Workload: ~2 days (this was a quick one)
• Version:
  V1 May 2019
  V2 Sep 2019 - updated textures, fluidity
  

4th video: D-Race is a visually very diversified map. No uniform theme here, which I find refreshing. Also, there are people and balloons in it.

• Workload: Possibly the largest among my maps
• Version:
  V1 June 2018 to Sep 2019

5th video: E-Race, a darker version of and the counterpart to C-Race. I felt the urge to make a second map based on the same theme C-Race has. Its simplicity made editing very enjoyable and quick. I liked how the colors combine. Just like C-Race this map has a theoretically edible podium. Taking a bite is not recommended, though. People have tried.

• Workload: ~5 days
• Version:
  V1 Jan 2020
  V2 May 2020 - updated little things

Lastly, F-Race, a colorful map I finished and got uploaded to the server only a few days ago. It's a home to glass birds. There is a lot of glass in general.
The beautiful terrain in the third room was, for the most part, made by a friend of mine. You know who you are. I only lent a hand here and there. Terrain is not my biggest strength and I do not enjoy making it. My solution was letting my dear friend, who is an ace at making terrain, do the dirty work for me. :)
Currently I have three more maps I'm not actively working on. We'll see.

• Workload: Large, the terrain and terrarium ate up most of the time
• Version:
  V1 2017 to Oct 2020

Map Variety

I realized I may be misleading some people into thinking that editing specifically revolves around race maps. Of course, that is not the case. You have all the freedom to make any kind of map you'd like. Efficiency maps, instagib maps, capture the flag, bla bla blubb. There's a variety of game modes, some more popular than others. Another option are artistic maps or random maps you'll forget about after one day.

Drawing & Painting

Here I post random drawings and paintings I've made. Most of them won't be anything big, merely fun little drawings that I made whenever. (Note that for the sake of simplicity I am going to refer to both drawings and paintings as drawings from now on).
Just a heads-up: Don't expect too much recent stuff, as I'm not into drawing/painting at the moment. I own a sketchbook that is barely filled I occasionally doodle or scribble in whenever I feel like it, be it with pencil, sharpies, fountain pen, fineliners, oil pastels or brush pens. Once in a while even with watercolor, despite the paper not handling it well. Altough I should honor the fact that it doesn't completely dissolve. Compared to "normal" paper, it holds up impressively well.
I, too, sadly suffer from the well-known "untouched sketchbook disease". I would love to draw more often, but the disease has a firm grip on me and I constantly fail! Please, send help.
I'm aware one needs to practice in order to improve, but right now...

Expectations And Perfectionism

It feels strange to publicly share my imperfect, knowledge of light and surface and form and color theory and and and lacking pictures. Sometimes my inner critic surfaces, wanting to quickly remove the pictures I am not satisfied with and to only show the "presentable" pictures.
The reason I don't is that it actually doesn't matter whether they're presentable or not. I am not obligated to meet anyone's expectations or to impress anyone. Therefore, I can do whatever I want, this is my realm, my empire.
Society has a general, culturally ruled, idea of what art is or should be. But art is subjective. Every individual has their nuanced definition of art. Of course, all of them most definitely have one or two things in common, because culture. Mine, for instance, is whatever one creates, if it brings enjoyment, it's art. It's not important whom it brings enjoyment to. I enjoy expressing my creativity and the outcome does not have to be perfect. Admittedly, I often question my level of creativity because I have a hard time coming up with original ideas. But honestly, what even is truly original anymore. Perhaps that is the reason some modern art looks the way it does. :] People are desperate. Dangerous topic, though.
Not everyone has to agree with any understanding of art. Some people may consider a rotting sandwich that was impaled by a nail a breathtaking piece of valuable art. While it's questionable whether a rotting, dripping sandwich is truly that impressive or the spores are the cause for their breathlessness; to me, wasting a potentionally tasty sandwich does not deserve being labeled art, but I guess, I can sort of imagine what's so fascinating about a rotting sandwich. Mold can be artistic, too.
What I initially wanted to address is expectations, drifted off a little there. This text is not cohesive at all, my apologies. All popular social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok etc., have something in common. The majority of users shows the good stuff only. Everywhere you look, you see beautiful pieces of art that make you envy their skills and feel like a potato in comparison, insofar as you're ashamed of your own art. Nobody should feel like a potato.
Therefore I, the generous, take on the honor to disappoint your expectations and grant you a look at my imperfect art to calm your inner critic and to inflate your self-confidence.
There's no excuse for not practicing, though. Go practice!
Just kidding. Don't misunderstand, I don't find my skills terrible and I like what I create. I merely wanted to voice my struggles with sharing my art online, which is no uncommon struggle, I assume.

Moving On...

After reading Die Ermordung einer Butterblume by Alfred Döblin, translated The murder of a buttercup, I felt like drawing one. A very bizarre story, I liked it.

Speaking of cups, have you ever dreamt of a tiny octopus taking a bath in your cup of tea?
On a sidenote, you'll notice tea cups are a reoccurring motive.
And while we're at it, here is another octopus, colored with average colored pencils this time.

To stick with the ocean theme, there's some happy little fishes I abused for my watercolor experiments, executed on proper watercolor paper instead of my sketchbook. They were fun and easy to paint. Not much can go wrong when painting fishes, which is why they're good for warm-up. You always get a satisfactory result.

Houses, something not nature-related for a change of pace. Nevermind, it's nature-related aswell.
Painted these in my sketchbook. I applied up to 3 layers of paint and the paper didn't buckle up strongly nor turn into sausages. Granted, slight buckling did happen, that can't be avoided.
Both the houses were test objects for my new waterproof fineliners. Test result: positive, the pens keep their promise. Side effect: a happy and pleased I.

Referencias Son Importantes

Anatomically speaking, this poor girl's face is a complete mess. This is what I get for not using a reference when I drew this picture. Always, always use references - they are key. When you don't, your brain decides to let your hands follow its own idea of what X should look like. Often times, your brain doesn't have a clue, which will be obvious as soon as X is completed. However, the brain's ability to memorize X more precisely and correctly can be trained, resulting in an enhanced stored image of X. The best method to do so is using references, studying X and gradually understanding X. Practice. :)
I believe what made me paint this face was a documentary film about movie making. Perhaps it was no documentary, don't want to say anything wrong; I've forgotten its title, but it was quite curious. The use of color in movies to set the atmosphere was elaborated and how the effect of complementary colors such as blue and orange increasingly are being recognized and made use of.
Certainly, complementary colors are fantastic, I agree. Nonetheless, they're everywhere nowadays. :D And I have done my part to spread them even further. Thus, I didn't bother with correct anatomy too much and focused on playing around with the colors. It still looks human, that's all that matters.
Now that you're aware of the above mentioned, do you notice anything peculiar about this website?

Another example of a lazy I, who couldn't be bothered to put a decent amount of effort into the whole picture, is this kind kimono-wearing lady. Again, I mainly wanted to draw some line art and layers because I fancy lines, they're wonderful. Her head was merely added for completeness. Maybe drawing the kimono on a puppet instead would have been preferable. What am I even saying, I truly did draw it on a puppet, no? :)
This time, though, I can pat my own shoulder because I used a reference, congratulations! Then again, only for the kimono.

Finally, peaceful mountains. These were incredibly pleasing to paint. Nothing complicated, something you can space-out to an, in addition to that, it doesn't take long.

Lines

I'm going to reveal my obsession with lines, let the pictures speak for themselves... This is what I was talking about when I said I liked lines. They're easy and clean, they don't need absurd things like shadows, they never disappoint me and they don't have to resemble anything existent. Perfect for turning off one's brain.
I have hundreds of these. :D Trying to post all of them could get out of hand; it would probably take 1 week to reach the next section. I couldn't even think up enough text to fill the column to the right and empty columns that are designated to text being left blank radiate incompleteness. A never-ending chain of images wouldn't look too great.