Yes as I’ve been honing my web skillz I realized how very important a faq or a faw (frequently asked worm) or a fab (frequently asked block) is, but because I’m so very lame in Illustrator, I opened Bryce and tried to remember how to use the darn program.

Then there were my excursions into logo making:

I wonder if I’ll ever get good at that? I took Illustrator classes but I open that program and I can’t remember how to do anything in there. I even had a hard time in Bryce and I used that for years! This post will probably be too huge to load.

Oh and Akismet has officially blocked over 20,000 spam now. I have under 1000 comments, how sad is that? But my penis is ginornmous!!

For those that don’t know Bryce, it basically started out as a landscape program. The objects are 3 dimensional. You can model some things in Bryce. I made the lighthouse for instance. The ship I bought and birds were freebies that were modeled with a modeling program (there are limits to what Bryce can do model-wise). Thought you might want to see the wireframe view:

And here’s my trusty lighthouse minus all the atmosphere and postwork.

I think I’ll add it to the freebies on my site.

First I saw Mel3d post a new work. She uses Painter and her latest image Sweety Cat shows that she has been busy while she was gone. She was good back then but this one is just ..wow

Then my friend Roy popped in, we used to be Bryce moderators together and he is a great guy. My funny pic a couple posts down? He’s the one in the plaid with the purse. lol. He started painting with oils so he pretty well disappeared too. He send me a mail a couple days ago and I sent him here to my blog so he could see what I’ve been up to, and he started a blog with images of his oils. He used to fix up his Bryce images in Painter too and is so much more talented than me with that program. But now he’s into oils and he’s come a long way. So go check it out at Royc8′s Blog. I love that guy, he was always my friend even when I didn’t know how to like myself

I am still a moderator in the Bryce gallery at 3DC but I’m not there much. I tried to bring it back to life but it takes more than one person. They are going to be moving to new software any day, I wonder if that’ll help or hinder.

I have to show you an image of mine I made in Bryce a while back. I called it ‘Lost my horse, I knew I shoulda folded.’ lol Then Roy performed magic on it I just can’t do that. I am not being negative because I’m sure if I applied myself I’d at least get better with Painter, I just need to persevere like I did in Bryce. Does he not do awesome work?

Here’s my Painter masterpiece! lol, okay I was entirely too fascinated with that furry brush

This is what the grass looks like, you can add it as a 2d image or put it on a terrain or lattice so it’s 3d, just add texture and you are done! You should check out their gallery of the many cool shapes this program can generate.

Here’s one of several versions of trees.

Secondly would be my depression, and those took a lot of courage to display. I’ve been told ‘Swan Song’ was brilliant, I’m sure from a person who understood exactly. I actually did a surreal one once but I’m not very good at surreal. And then ‘To Suffer’ where I first used the saying in my tag line.  There are others that I can’t bring myself to list here but nevertheless are a huge part of who I am. Then there is hope, which fits into this spectrum of feelings as well I think.

Thirdly would be just plain old experiences in my life, like Psycho Kitty. Which wasn’t really the least bit funny at the time

Fourth, and probably the one I had the most absolute fun with was poking fun at people. Back when 3DCommune was a much livelier place, we used to get very silly in the forums. So I tended to take that information and use it against people, in the nicest possible way of course. I’m pretty sure all these guys loved the 3DCommune male fashion show. I know all the ladies did!

It’s not the best art, sometimes the subject isn’t pleasant, but it gives me a way to let those feelings out and I think that’s important. At least I can more or less get the feeling across now. When I was new to 3d art I had more frustration than success. Still, it has helped me to cope over the years. I’m not that articulate verbally or in writing but hopefully I’m becoming better at it with my art.

The weather is lousy and I have been missing my Bryce. Oh it’s still here, I just haven’t taken the time lately to play with it. In fact, I had some hard drive error that went through 1000′s of orphaned files on disk check and they were mostly in my Bryce folders so who knows how that program is now? I haven’t looked because I just don’t care to deal with it right now.

This quote has stuck in my head ever since I heard it years and years ago. I love it and it’s so true. It also points out to me my own shortcomings. I guess I’d fall under the average category mostly, although I think there should be another category added. Sad minds discuss themselves. I have an entire blog devoted to supporting that theory. Why do I talk about myself? Am I really that self-centered?

I think it has much to do with the struggle for identity and validation. I think if it was changed to “secure minds” it would give it all new meaning. The lack of feeling secure enough to believe my ideas might be important is certainly a hindrance. I do have ideas, they just get lost under all the emotional baggage I carry with me everywhere I go. That stuff is always right there in front of everything and I’m constantly struggling with it so, heh, I talk about it. My God that must get boring for people!

I have met many very inspiring great minds in my lifetime. I’d say it gives me something to strive for. I’ll just add that to all my other things I struggle with. Oh but wait, there I am being a sad mind again, when what I really want to talk about are great minds. Like the uplifted feeling I get whenever I go to Barb’s blog and read her new posts without a hint of the angst that is in mine. She talks about the overall goodness in life and it seems like another world to me, but one I would love to join. She shares and includes us in every post.  So seriously folks, if you want good art, good conversation and a sense of having spent time with a wonderful friend get thee over to Over Coffee… you won’t regret it. Once you get there read her post and follow that one over to Teacher Time to meet another inspiring and compassionate great mind. What great minds have you met in your life? I hope it’s been many and varied.

Someday maybe I’ll be amongst the great minds that so enrich this world. I really hope so. Shoo now…go read and enjoy!