Formerly · insane · artists · and · writers.

All right, everyone!

It's been pretty quiet around here lately, and I, at least, want to change that. So we're going to have interactive posts, starting now, once or twice a week.

Anyone is allowed to post one; my only request is that we don't get more than one per day. Interactive posts can be anything from, "Here's a challenge" to, "Hey guys, what have you been working on lately, post an excerpt in the comments"—as long as they're something that requests direct member participation. All posts that are interactive should be tagged "interactive post" and with your name. Those are the only rules on the subject.

To kick this off, let's start small.

Leave a link, in the comment section, to something you personally would like to see some more feedback on. Doesn't matter what it is—a piece of writing, a photograph—just leave a link in the comments, hopefully with a description of what about it you'd like feedback on.

What I would like to receive some feedback on is this short, untitled piece about a woman coping with her husband's death. I can't think of anything specifically about it that I want to get feedback on; I'd just like to know whether or not her actions are believable, and if the horror is subtle enough that the end comes as a surprise, or if it bangs you over the head.

I also wouldn't protest to feedback on the zombie story (does the plot make sense? Are the characters believable?), but hey, up to you lot.

Also! New people, would you please post a brief introduction? It can be something quite short, such as, "Hi, my name is Jenn, I'm in uni, I write short stories and poetry in my spare time" or really long (though preferably cut) about what genres you write, what type of photos you take, or whatever else you might want to post about.

With that said, go nuts! :)

Right, so after getting two responses, it's decided that icons are no longer welcome here. They are, however, welcome over at atypicalicons, modded by hawkelf and I. :D

"Atypical" in this case just means icons that aren't old meme—they must have been made by you. If you're looking for a place to post icons that you like, there's userpicks for that.

That's all, folks! The icon posts that are up here won't be deleted; however, subsequent posts will, with notice given about rule five, and atypicalicons.

1. If you have friended the community, but you haven't joined, the majority of things posted here are friends-locked, as per the rules in the userinfo. Limited audience and all that jazz. If you don't want to join, you're perfectly welcome to watch, but I'm afraid that you're not going to be able to see everything.

Speaking of limited audience, you guys have been pretty good about locking stuff. Thanks!

2. We need to talk about tags! I went through and tagged untagged entries, but I noticed that we have a bit of a problem—there exist multiple tags for the same people. Please, for the love of little green apples, use identifying tag and stick with it? For example, mine is "kickthehobbit." Dor's is "sys_64738." hawkelf uses "hawkelf." I don't care whether you use your LJ name to ID yourself, but if you decide that you want all entries by you to be tagged with "chief mugwump," then please either start tagging stuff exclusively "chief mugwump," or "chief mugwump" and whatever it is—"digital art" for digital art, for example. Please tell me what you want your stuff tagged with, and I will go back and tag it for you. That's all I ask.

3. I noticed that at least one person made an icon post. The rules don't say one thing or another about icons, so I let it slide, but I'm curious: what do you people think about icons? There are plenty of icon journals on LJ; should we allow icons too? (fondued_jicama, I'm not trying to single you out here, just trying to keep it Democratic. :D)

4. Do we want to start posting interactive things, like writing challenges/the image thread that was started by sys_64738? It would be a way of keeping the community alive, and it could be fun. They wouldn't be mod-run; you wouldn't need mod approval to start one, either—just go for it. Thoughts?

5. Finally, oy. Apologies for having neglected this community for so long. Thanks for behaving, etc, etc.

Not trying to be anal in this post, but it's two in the morning, so you can imagine how with it I am. Any complaints, please bring 'em up here.

An idea which has worked well on the Polycount forums (one of the 3D sites I lurk on), which I want to try here. The original thread is here, for the curious; I've taken the liberty of copy/pasting their rules, making only enough changes to make it work for LJ.

THE RULES:
1.) You start by posting something old. Original drawings or other original work only; you can't post someone else's work or commercial artwork. Crappy old drawings you're embarassed of now are extremely encouraged! The less finished the better. Doodles and quick sketches preferred. You can post 3 or so drawings at a time.

2.) Once you've posted one of your own drawings, you're free to interpret anything else in the comments. Anything anyone has posted in here, including reinterpretations. The sky's the limit!

3.) You may not post more of your old art (step 1) until you've finished participating yourself (step 2).

4.) When posting images, include a width attribute (I suggest width="90%"), with a link to the full-sized image, to keep people from having to scroll horizontally to see the entire picture.

With that said. . . ( My image, to get us started. . . . )

Let's see what people can come up with.

So. I've been completely immersed in the wonderfully crazy and work-driven world of art school. So much so that I've found very few chances to write anything. I have, however, been churning out a great deal of art-type work. Figured I'd post some links to it, now that I'm finally starting to get my documentation of it online. More links will presumably follow as I upload more stuff.

The Green in Black and White
Primarily digital, though images were originally derived from a camera obscura.

Extremeties
An animation using iStop Motion.

Bonsai Staples
My second animation, again using iStop Motion.

String and Yarn
My final animation, using iStop Motion and iMovie. It's a combination of real-time footage and stop motion animation.

Halloween Hand
Made from cardboard and skinned with photographic images of my hand printed on regular paper.

Dictitop
A laptop, again made from cardboard, and skinned with images of a dictionary, again on regular paper.

And that's it for now. I have other projects I've done, but they're not online yet. So I must needs go eat, and then away! Away, to Art History, to learn of old things that are sometimes pretty to gaze upon!

Note: Hawky/Cathlin's not had more than four hours of sleep a night since she came to this strange new land in late August. It just doesn't get any more comprehensible than this, anymore, folks.

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November . . ." We're five days in, supposed to be at nearly 8K words. How's everyone doing? Thought I'd post a brief survey-ish thing about it, just to get everyone talking (again, to keep the community from dying). There's another one up in my journal, for those that have me friended, but this is different, so! Onto the survey!

1. What's your wordcount at? If you're ahead, why? If you're behind, same question.
2. Is this your first year doing NaNoWriMo? If it is, hurray! How'd you find out? If it's not, how many years previous have you done it? Have you won before?
3. So what are you writing about, anyway? Show an excerpt (if you feel like it).
4. Who's your favourite character, so far?
5. Do you think your plot is going to have any huge twists? (I.E. characters being killed off that you didn't think you would, romances developing that you didn't see happening.)
6. Do you think you'll finish?
7. Finally, how goes it? Are you enjoying writing? :)

( My answers, cut to keep from getting cluttered. )