Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

I was going through my blog and journals (as you do this time of year;-), and I noticed I completely forgot to share the stuff I made for Land of Art in 2024. My year was mostly filled with work and travel (which was also mostly for work) but I did manage to squeeze in some creative times. So I figured for my end of year post, I'll just picspam y'all with my graphic designs.

But first, to round up this year properly, here's what I did since the previous journal post in October, with links to my photos on Instagram:

I had a quick weekend in London for a play that was cancelled last minute (but I found another one to at least make the most of my weekend in November)

I built a cabinet for my renovated shower

I went on another businesstrip to England as well, where I didn't really go sightseeing, but did discover a lovely outdoors pool that was decorated for Christmas in December

I celebrated Sinterklaas with my family

Now, without further ado: all the fanart graphics I made this year!

Land of Art Phase 22 - Summer 2024
I handed in Golden Tickets for Challenge 1, 9 and 11. I missed Challenge 3 and Challenge 14 was a puzzle challenge, so no artwork for all of these.

( Challenge 2 - Stop & Stare )

( Challenge 4 - Technique )

( Challenge 5 - Hide & Seek )

( Challenge 6 - If You Believe )

( Challenge 7 - That's New to Me )

( Challenge 8 - Mother's Day )

( Challenge 10 - The Scenic Route )

( Challenge 12 - Call Me Daddy )

( Challenge 13 - All About That Base )

( Challenge 15 - Show Me the Pain )

Land of Art Phase 23 - Autumn 2024
This phase was supposed to last through December and into 2025, but was cut short because everyone is too busy with work. Team challenge 3 is moved to the next phase, challenge 7&8 were not posted.

( PH23CH01 - Follow the Leader )

( PH23CH02 - Mini Bang )

( PH23CH04 - You were the First )

( PH23CH05 - What if I'm the Bad Guy )

( PH23CH06 - The Saddest Goodb )

( PH23CH09 - On The Side )

That's all! Wishing everyone all the best for the holidays :-)

J.


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Pff, those were some worlwind weeks since my previous post. In between work being crazy busy (as usual;) I had a long weekend off for a theatre trip to London, including a night at the Leicester Square Theatre for Richard Herring's podcast; he interviewed Tim Key, who presented his book of poems, and Davina McCall, a hero of mine ever since her MTV days, she was so cool and gorgeous. I also met up with an international workfriend:) I shared a bunch of photos at my Instagram:
Part 1: Night Ferry / Breakfast / Undergrond / Rain / Black Friars Bridge / Exploring Bankside (Artsy:) / Shakespeare's Globe! | Part 2: More exploring Bankside (Winchester Palace / As You Like It at Shakespeare's Globe! / Golden Hind galleon) / King's Cross Hotel / IFO (rainbow swing) by IFO Jacques Rival. | Part 3: Saint Chad! (for the SPN RPF fangirls;) / King's Cross / British Library / Detail of St. Pancras railway sculpture frieze (The Meeting Place by Paul Day) / Skeleton at Liberty / Lunch at Mother Mash with G.

I received some great fandom news: after a process of over two (2!) years, the import of the Nick&Greg fic archive WMTDB is finally complete and the collection of over 2000 stories is now safely stored in our own collection at AO3!

I continued to play in Land of Art Phase 21: Challenge 10 was a Halloween/Autumn Edition Scavenger Hunt where we had to find specific images and create a whole bunch of spooky or autumny graphic designs. I dove into all sorts of monster and witches films and also rediscovered the Buffy and Angel fandom:-)
I managed to find all the required images/screenshots and below I'm sharing all the stuff I created; a mood theme, icons, sigtags, picspams, bookmarks, colorbars, headers, panoramas, posters, tumblr graphics and wallpapers!

( ALL THE THINGS! )



( MORE THINGS! )

With another businesstrip ahead of me, I may have to hand in some Golden Tickets for a few coming challenges to have enough time to do the ones I really want to do. Today I'm working on colouring pages, it's so relaxing getting out the pencils:-)

J.

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/583047.html
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This is the second half of my Land of Art Graphics for Phase 20. In case you missed here are links to Part 1, Challenges 1-9: on Dreamwidth and on Livejournal.

There will be a new Land of Art Phase starting next week, let me know if you are interested in joining in and I'll introduce you to our creative community:) It's a great low pressure challenge over several weeks with inspirational suggestions to make digital artworks, for which you can use stock or fandom images. Below you'll find my creations, featuring Orphan Black, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, and more:) I'm on Team SteamPunk, we won Phase 20, yay!

( Challenge 10 - Hide & Seek: Types of Weapons )

No Graphics:
- Handed in Golden Tickets for Challenge 11 - Competition: Superheroes Vs. Anti-Heroes Vs. Anti-Villains Vs. Villains
- Challenge 12 - Puzzle Maker was a digital puzzle challenge for speed
(I created my own puzzle as well, 70 pieces featuring CSI Nick Stokes, go check it out:)
- for Challenge 13 - May the 4th Be With You (Stormtrooper Edition) you had to pick your favorite stormtroopers for a lottery.

( Challenge 14 - Hide & Seek: Accessories )


+ 2 No Face Sigtags on Glasses


( Challenge 15 - Hide & Seek: Love )

( Community Banners: Love & Film Backgrounds )

( Challenge 16 - Competition: Animation Vs. Anime Vs. Live Action )

( Challenge 17 - Colored Graphics )
A great final challenge:)

J.

You can check the Land of Art tag for my graphics from all previous phases:)

If you're interested in my digital and papercut fan-art, you can scroll through my Artmasterlists:
Artmasterlist 2010-2018 | Artmasterlist 2019 and beyond

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/582395.html
Lurk or comment wherever you like:)

A final look back at my artsy creations and graphic designs from 2022. I updated my ArtMasterlist for 2019 and beyond [DW] with my fandom artposts for the 2022 SPN_J2_BigBang and the 2022 SPN_ReverseBang. I collaborated on two claims for the latter, so in total I made 3 artposts last year, which is the lowest since I started keeping track of my fandomcreations in 2010. I also was quite busy moderating the RB, so I did interact with fellow fans a LOT behind the scenes to keep things going. The main reason for not being as creative as previous years are the over-all slow down of the SPN fandom and my work taking a lot of energy causing me to more lurking and less participating online.

I was active in Land of Art again, which is all about graphic designs. I may have slipped in a bit of fandom here or there, but my favorite thing about Land of Art is that I can be creative without being restricted by fandom. However, one of the pieces I'm most fond of features Jeff/Jensen for Challenge 11, which is why they are not behind a cut;)

( Ch07_PH19-Tic Tac Toe )

Ahw, I was determined to get a 100% participation, but I missed Challenge 8 (Legends Never Die) because I was too preoccupied with work to pay attention to LJ :-( I was still busy when I found out and I used a golden ticket for Challenge 9 (Queen Elizabeth) which counts as participation, so I still got points for the round). In most of the challenges I didn't have time to go for full points, so this phase I often handed in additional golden tickets to at least get my team maximum scores. (And then Team Renaissance obliterated us in Challenge 17, we didn't stand a chance to that! Still: go Team SteamPunk!)

( Ch10_PH19-We Choose, We Create, We Vote )

Ch11_PH19-Blended
Blend at least two images together.



( Ch12_PH19-Read My Mood )

( Ch13_PH19-Cut Out Fake Background )

( Ch14_PH19-Two Color Adventures )

( Ch15_PH19-Horrific )

Challenge 16 was a game where you had to guess video games based on snippets of covers, no art was made and I scored 145 out of a possible 410 points, ahem.

( Ch17_PH19-Gotta Chatch'em All )

( Ch18_PH19-Colour Me Halloween )

Challenge 19 was a Pot O'Gold challenge, where you got to pick fandoms from a list to get a bunch of surprise points, like a lottery. I won 1x100 and 1x20 points, not too bad.

In the next phase I hope to have more time for playing and to finally get to that 100% participation again. It all depends on work, as I'm still crazy busy there and might do quite a bit of business traveling...

Anyway, this was it for 2022 creativity;)

In case you missed it, here's an overview of my Graphics for Land of Art Phase 19 Ch 1-6 You can check the Land of Art tag for all previous phases:)

J.

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/579782.html
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Yay, it's time to try and lure people into Land of Art again, because I'm having fun there and I'd love for you to join me! landofart is a LiveJournal community where you can play with graphic designs to experiment with fonts & composition; it is a cool way to explore new techniques in whatever program you want to work with (I used to play in Photoshop, these days I design with Affinity Photo)

You can use whatever images you like (stock or fandom or your own) for the many challenges that are offered every other week from now until November 13th. No pressure: you don't have to participate in all the challenges, you only have to submit a graphic at least every 14 days to keep on playing:)

There's also a friendly team competition as an incentive to play as you earn points for any design you hand in. No need to feel intimidated, it's a really low pressure way to poke you into being creative;) Land of Art is great for beginners and advanced (fan)artists.



You can sign up here and read the FAQ here

Feel free to ask me any questions if you want to know more first. You can check out my land of art tag to see all the things I made in earlier phases! Tell the mod that BeeLikeJ from team SteamPunk sent you to earn me some bonuspoints for my team:-)

J.

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/576677.html

Yay, lots of improvements on my shoulder mobility since my last update. I was able to get on my bicycle again and after trying it carefully in the weekend to do groceries, I also cycled to the office again every weekday.
I started on my 'senior citizen' bike, which has a low step and saddle, so I didn't need to put my full weight on my arms when getting on and off. On Wednesday evening I decided to try my regular (high) bike to cycle to my mom; this route includes a steep bridge, so it's good exercise;) It feels very good to have my independence back and to no longer need public transport or a ride from my mom to move around.
I'm still going to physical therapy; my left shoulder still needs kneeding and I've been getting new exercises to further improve mobility and strength in my arms. We'll see how much time I need to full recovery, but I'm already feeling like myself again. (Now not to have this happen again and learn to take regular breaks in between fiddling on the computer, both professionally and privately;)

Speaking of fiddling on a computer: here are the final graphics I made for landofart.

( Ch16_PH18 - What's Behind Door... )

( Ch17_PH18 - So That's Who You Like )

( Ch18PH18 - LGBT )

( Ch19PH18 - 4 Elements )

( Ch20PH18 - I Will Go Down With This Ship )

( Ch21PH18 - My Favorite )

( Ch22PH18 - Screencaps as Textures, What?? )

( Ch23PH18 - Mystery Bags of Loot )

( Ch24PH18 - Letter Association )

Previous Land of Art Phase 18 challenges: Ph18Ch1+3 | Ph18Ch2 | Ph18Ch4+5+7+8 | Ph18Ch6+7,10-15

I'm currently playing in the Land of Art Summerphase for Team Deep Sea! I'm also working on my (Paper!)art for the spn_j2_bigbang, which will be shared at the end of the month! How's everyone doing with their collaborations?

J.

DW: X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/575368.html

Due to giving my shoulders the necessary recovery time, I severely cut down on my computer time. Remember that I told you about how I overextended my right shoulder? Well, while I tried to give my right arm a rest with all household and work (computer) chores, I overcompensated with the left, so then I had two cramped up shoulders to take care of!
Treatments from a physical therapist to loosen up the muscles are mean, but they work and now that the right side is painfree and the left side only had a bit of stiffness left, I figured I can start typing a journal post again;)

I have a lot of graphics to share for Land of Art; I plan to do a combined post of several challenges, but the artwork for the second challenge is rather big, so let's start with that one on its own.

Ch02_PH18 - Timeline
Challenge: make picspams to create a timeline of different roles that a celebrity has been in. One role per picspam with a minimum of 6 images and up to 16 images. (Individual points per picspam, amount depending on the amount of images + Team points per timeline and for participation:)

I find the traditional picspam lay-out with a static collection of square images boring, so I tried to find a way to make this Timeline challenge interesting for me and created more dynamic collages. Click for full size picspams (600x1000pixels)

( 5 roles of Jeffrey Dean Morgan )
( 2 roles of Rutger Hauer )
( 2 roles of Olivia Colman )
( 3 roles of Patrick Dempsey )
( 2 roles of Emma Thompson )

I really enjoyed playing with these characters and making picspams in this format. I wish I could have created more, but this was all I had time for *shakes feeble fist at shoulders*. Maybe the challenge returns in another phase, so I can continue the timelines! What are your favourite roles of these actors?

J.

Previous challenges: Ph18Ch1+3 | Ph18Ch4+5+7+8

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/574595.html

Yay, landofart is running a new Phase! So I will be posting updates of graphics I create for that for the next few months. This is the first one. Challenge 2 is long team challenge, which is not due until May, so I won't be posting that for a while, but here are Challenge 1 and 3! All graphics are made with Affinity Photo (highly recommended if you're looking for an affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop)

( Challenge 1 - Character Tags )


( Challenge 3 - This Year's Love )

J.

X-posted on https://beelikej.livejournal.com/573680.html

Oh no, I was so busy with work and setting up a new weekly routine, that I completely mixed up dates and missed a round in the Land of Art challenge *pouts* I had been determined to at least get 100% attendence this Phase. Instead my life is filling up with other things, like spending more time with my mom and adding another Aquarobics session to my schedule. In the mean time I'm also keeping an eye on the SPN_ReverseBang and I have made a big decision about the NicknGreg WMTDB fic archive that's taking up my time (more about that soon!)

To get back on track with landofart I'm doing an graphicsdump of all the stuff I created for Phase 17 so far! I handed in Golden tickets for Challenges 1 (Secret Santa) and 6 (Tic-Tac-Toe), which also count as participation;) and here are all the challenges I did make something for...

( Challenge 2 - Tag, You're It )

( Challenge 3 - Hide & Seek )

Challenge 4 (Rainbow Things) is being voted on, so I can't share those icons just yet.

( Challenge 5 - Crossing Headers )

( Challenge 7 - You've Been Promoted )

( Challenge 8 - Five Techniques )

( Challenge 9 - Can You Change the Look? )

I made most of these in Affinity Photo, which only took a little bit of getting used to after using Photoshop for years. I'm very happy to have an actual program on my new laptop instead of a cloud service;) Highly recommended if you are looking for an alternative for Photoshop!

J.

As the final challenges in landofart are being rounded up, tallied and voted for, here are my graphics for all the Hide & Seek rounds. Well, minus the first, because I already posted that in March;) I pretty much kept voting in the Crime category, mainly because I have a huge CSI archive to play with and I can use the designs in the NicknGreg tumblr:) I did make a couple of graphics for other categories though, like for instance Jensen Ackles as Batman for the superheroes theme! Click for full size.

( Round 2: Crime, Sci-Fi, Comedy )

( Round 3: Crime, Period Drama )

( Round 4: Crime )

( Round 5: Crime, Romance, Superheroes, Period Drama )

Let me know what you think!

Currently I'm busy sketching for my claims in the spn_j2_bigbang, I have two very different fics to play with, woohoo. How is everyone else doing with challenges?

J.