From the archives

[nakedbee]

It's been an exciting few months. Too much fun, too little time for art!

I had a fabulous afternoon yesterday at a meet-up in San Francisco organized by emmagrant01 and attended by stormwynd, acromantular, joesther and truwest. It was great to meet all of you! Hopefully we'll meet again at Prophecy, if not before.


(cut for whining about why I don't have new art)

It's been a busy winter (but then again, I'm not really sure I have a season that's not busy). There was a lot of holiday travel and several excellent parties. My day job is going well and the company may actually have a product to sell soon, which is quite exciting. I've been working feverishly on the TIOBE project and just last week sent off a set of files to get the second draft printed. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and not before time, either).

Anyway, I've been neglecting fanart for a while and was all primed to get back into producing new stuff. I've mostly dropped the Halloween Sale series ... maybe I'll get to it one of these days. Instead, I've been planning a photoshoot with a Remus/Sirius theme and it was supposed to happen today. Alas! One of the models called in sick, and due to busy schedules we'll have to postpone it for at least another month.

After I got over my disappointment, I decided to pull something out from my archive of un-posted art instead. This image is one I made over a year ago. I was inspired by Chapter 9 of Resolution by Francis Potter (now dragon_charmer) (and also the movie The Pillow Book, which I happened to see at about the same time). I like this one so much I actually have it up on my wall in a frame.


It's pretty subdued, nudity-wise, but still perhaps not quite work-safe.




I was entranced by the intimacy of a scene in which Harry draws symbols all over Draco as part of a spell. It seemed too hard to replicate the scene exactly (no lions or silver ink or blond hair), but I was intent on recreating the "covered in tiny symbols" vision that I had after reading the story. So I convinced the spouse to let me draw on him for a while some evening when the housemates were out or otherwise occupied. I don't really know how long it took (a few hours, maybe?), but it was an interesting experience. Drawing the symbols was very soothing, almost meditative. Hmmm, now that I think about it I actually did continue to use the same technique (drawing unfamiliar symbols) for meditation for a little while after that. I should really do it again as it was quite effective as keeping me in "flow" - repetitive enough to be relaxing while not so boring I got restless or distracted. Well, that gives me some ideas ...
(goes off to ponder them)

Comments

[gnatkip.livejournal.com]

This is stunning, nakedbee, both the drawings and the photograph. Your ideas are so fresh and unusual and wonderful.

[joesther.livejournal.com]

This is gorgeous. It kind of reminds me of some Indian henna work I've seen. Thanks for sharing it with us.

As for getting together again, I'm all for it. I had a really nice time meeting you guys. :)

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Awwww .... *blushes*. Thank you for the lovely compliments. It means a lot to me, especially coming from someone whose creativity I admire so much. Thank you!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It was really fantastic to meet you! I'm really intrigued by your work, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it. :-)

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I also do henna, and the style is pretty similar. The layout of patterns went in much the same way as a henna design, but I used a different vocabulary of component shapes, which was fun.

[earth-magic.livejournal.com]

Hi, this is Frances (on my real life journal)

I've just dropped you an email about this beautiful art, but I wanted to add a comment here to say again how much I like it. It is really compelling and I find myself picking out the different symbols. I love the act you actually draw these symbols on a real person (your partner is great) and it's interesting that you found it meditative - I did wonder if it would be and it's nice to know that it is.

btw my fandom journal is actually dragon_charmer

Thank you

[dihall.livejournal.com]

Followed the link from the lovely Franling...this is lovely...many thanks for sharing...

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Likewise! Thanks again for organizing the meet-up. I'm not terribly prolific, but I do have lots of plans for more art ... and it's terribly encouraging to hear that other people are also interested in seeing it. Thank you!

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Wheee! Thank you again for the compliments. (and I've fixed your lj name in the post now)

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you!

[ook.livejournal.com]

This photo reminds me a lot of the work of Shirin Neshat, who often photographed Muslim women with henna tattoos on their faces and hands. Nice work. :)

[nakedbee.livejournal.com]

Thanks again! I googled Neshat and whoa! She's got some seriously beautiful work out there. My favorite was a close-up of a womans painted feet propping up a gun barrel. Very inspiring.

[ook.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I love her "violent" women photos. These photos are from the mid-1990s so they're a statement against the male domination of the Muslim world (as opposed to some anti-Western statement). I adore Shirin Neshat's photos! :)