madness

[morsla]

Mad weekend, crashing headlong into a mad week. I have bags under my eyes and paint under my fingernails. There are lines on the back of my left hand, from where I've drawn my paintbrushes back into fine points - red, black and silver, to match my palette. I'm steering clear of coffee and other artificial eye-openers... while I need to work around the clock, I need my hands to be steady. It's an interesting skill to learn - perhaps I'll take up open-heart surgery one day.

Saturday, and the graduation (finally) arrived. Seven years in the uni, and I finally escaped with a piece of paper to show for it :) We went to the Departmental function in the afternoon, where I met up with the rest of the geo group - I think there are only four of us not working in western Australia at the moment. I talked to people about communications, and about using a degree for something other than research - most people looked at me a little strangely, but I met the co-ordinator of a new Science Communication subject over at Monash. Eeenteresting...

Sunday saw Adam and teknohippi's wedding. Pirates! Morris Dancers! Poems, vows, choristers, impromtu theatre, chocolate cake rich enough to break carving knives in it! In the words of one of the parents (Adam's dad?) - "I've been to a great many formal weddings, and always thought they lacked something. One thing this gathering could never be accused of, is lacking something..."

Congratulations to the bride & groom - and thanks for a great afternoon. Best wishes to you both :)

I seem to have developed a new identity as "that guy we keep seeing at clubs." At least a dozen people have said hi at various social gatherings and mentioned that they recognised me :) It's odd - generally, a dancefloor is too noisy & crowded to speak on, but if I'm standing at the bar I won't have a single person speak to me at a club. If I'm dancing, people will come over and talk all night - maybe it's safer, as they know the crowd can whisk them away after a few moments if the random stranger turns out to be too creepy...

I blinked and it was Monday. Somehow, I need to paint another fifty models by Thursday afternoon, to prepare for a tournament that runs over the weekend. I still remember when it was unusual to finish ten in a week - this is going to be interesting...

Comments

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your graduation!

[morsla.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

Your story looks great, too - I'll post a proper comment when I've had time to read it without running off to work.

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[bishi-wannabe.livejournal.com]

"most people looked at me a little strangely, but I met the co-ordinator of a new Science Communication subject over at Monash. Eeenteresting...
"

Network, damn you! Network I say!

[morsla.livejournal.com]

I had the draglines out, but wasn't really expecting to catch anything. Now, after a brief bout of google-fu, I have some contact details and information to follow up.

If I want to be an information officer, I suppose I should be able to pull information from just about anywhere...

[sols-light.livejournal.com]

With the Communications subject, if you find out anything particularly interesting such as the likelihood of a PostGrad Diploma or something, would you mind sharing it, please?

Regarding the nightclub thing, I think it's more to do with the novelty value. At the bar, you'e another normal person just like they are. On the dance floor you're another matter entirely, they're in awe of you and will break normal barriers to come and talk to you.

It's an interesting Social Dynamic that as soon as you do something unexpected that is visually achieved without any great effort, it's cool and most people want to be as close to cool as possible.

Also, good luck on getting all your models painted to your standards. I know you will do it, I'm just frightened to think of how little sleep that will actually mean for you.

[vass]

Your workload scares me. I will now hide.

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

On a completely unrelated note, I just realized that neil Gaiman is going to be in Melbourne. *jealousy*

[morsla.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you've already had him ;) Then again, it could provide the last bit of incentive needed to develop that teleportation device...

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

I'll get right to working on it.

[kashiichan.livejournal.com]

OMG YOU'RE FAMOUS TOO ;)
Congratulations on your graduation. ^^

[kitling.livejournal.com]

silly painting takes forever!

oh for a house with decent lighting so i could paint in the evenings rather than be limited to day time

painting recipies :-)

[morsla.livejournal.com]

We don't actually have lights installed in either upstairs bedroom - something we found out after moving in ;) There are light switches, but they just control the powerpoints.

A poseable desklight with a daylight bulb (~$4.50 for an incandescent one, or ~$6 for a compact flourescent - the flourescent bulbs don't fit in my lamp, though) is really handy for painting. It saves your eyesight, and makes sure that the harsh light of day will actually show you something similar to what you thought you were painting...

Oh - I've been painting a lot of red things lately, so I can remember the Dark Eldar colours now. I've been using the Vallejo "game colour" paints (Mind Games sell them) as they make much better reds than GW. It's easier to mix them, too, as they come in dropper-bottles.

Paints (and GW equivalents) are: Gory Red (Red Gore), Bloody Red (Blood Red), Cobra Leather (Snakebite Leather), and Fiery Orange.

At the moment (for cloaks and robes) I'm using:
- Basecoat with Gory Red
- Topcoat - 2 drops Gory Red : 1 drop Cobra Leather : 3 drops Bloody Red. This covers ~90% of the model - you only need to leave the basecoat in cracks and crevices.
- The brightest edges get a tiny bit of Cobra Leather + Bloody Red (1:2)

If you want a brighter red (these colours make a fairly natural red at the moment), you can leave out the Cobra Leather. I used something like this on the Dark Eldar models:

- Basecoat with Gory Red
- Topcoat - 1 drop Gory Red : 2 drops Bloody Red. This covers ~90% of the model - you only need to leave the basecoat in cracks and crevices.
- Highlight the edges with Bloody Red.
- If you want to add a really vivid highlight (small bits just on the highest raised areas), you can use Bloody Red + Fiery Orange (1:1)

Time consuming at first, but you get much quicker with practice. Plus, Dark Eldar have so many cool textured bits on their armour... it'd be a shame to leave them out :)