Social Media & Me

Like all good internet junkies I have a Facebook account. It started out as a way to stay in contact with people I went to school with or friends I used to see every day. Then I was introduced to applications.

Applications I've found are rather insidious. They start out small. A friend forwards a quiz, invites you to play a game or you catch a good looking graphic in an activity feed. Pretty soon at least one of those games is going to get you hooked. For me it's a toss up between Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars. Just when I'm satisfied with my character's skill or maybe even a little bored, a new level or rare item is added. Of course, bonuses are often offered to my fellow gaming friends but only if I post them on my wall. This is great except now my non-gaming friends have all my game related posting cluttering up their feed.

I find myself quite often passing up these bonuses just so I don't irritate my non-gaming friends too much. Considerate? I think so. :P

More recently I signed up for my own twitter account. Now I'm bombarded by a stream of 140 letters blurbs all day and night! Don't get me wrong, some of those blurbs are incredibly helpful and I love to share my own. Still, I find myself drifting over my tweet list more and more frequently. It doesn't hurt that the dang bird is soo cute either and it's EVERYWHERE!

By the way, don't forget to follow me on twitter here.

Vanity Aflame Step 6

I decided to change the bird's coloring and head slightly so that it looked more realistic. I love peacocks and have quite a few photos that I've used as reference. Still, I took some artistic license with the crown of feathers on the head as I liked the longer more flowing version I had already drawn.

Vanity Aflame Step 5

If you are an avid follower I'm sure you've caught on by now that I've changed the name of this piece yet again. I'd apologize, but that's pretty much the way I'm hard-wired. I have a very tough time deciding on names!! Just consider the evolving name another part of the process and enjoy the next step in the evolution of ‘Vanity Aflame’.

In step five I've started to add some detail into the head of the soon to be less-naked birdie.

Vanity Aflame Step 4

I've finally started to work a bit more toward the finished coloring on the clouds and I've now added in the rough shape of the bird itself.

Vanity Aflame Step 3

For step 3, I focused on fleshing out the background and really making it look like clouds. I also decided to change my plans for the opening in the clouds from a town to an island. After all what self respecting fire bird would prefer a city to an island paradise?

Vanity Aflame Step 2

Step 2 in the series is the beginning of the background work.

Vanity Aflame Step 1

If the title doesn't give you an indication, this piece was inspired by the quickie contest entry I showed in my last post. I've decided to help keep myself motivated by showing this work in progression. I've always enjoyed seeing the steps involved in an artwork and I'm hoping you will too.

Without further ado, step 1:


If you compare this to the concept image in the last post, you can see that I've improved the overall composition, perspective and made the bird's anatomy a bit more realistic. The details may change as I go along, but I'm happy enough with this sketch to begin working.