This is my first (and only, as of this posting) video on Howcast, a website where people submit written guides, recipes, and any other sorts of instructions that are then made into video tutorials by others. It pays a little, and pays more the more you make. It took me ages to get this organized, filmed, partially re-filmed and edited up to par. The biggest trouble was actually accomplishing the task being demonstrated, in this case making a gift box out of blendered-up paper. First, I couldn't find a basin deep enough to dip the mold into, then I couldn't find a box small enough to be manageable, the blender ended up smoking and smelling like burned plastic at one point because I didn't tear the papers small enough and they wrapped around the blades, the actual process of pulling the mold up through the pulp to form a consistent layer required tons of finicking to make it work, the first attempt took a week to dry because the instructions don't say anything about patting it dry with a towel, all the smoking and pulped-up chemicals made Justin's place smell nauseating for two weeks, and of course I misunderstood the editing requirements and had everything centered in the frame for clarity, which most of the time is covered up by the text blocks.

Aaanyway. Justin (the one who actually makes the box in the video) and I (the one who receives it at the beginning with much enthusiasm and gratitude) did manage to make it work in the end, and I got my fifty bucks, and just as I was ready to start up a new one (a recipe this time, so it would be a little easier for us) Howcast halted all new videos as they transition to a new style of production. Now they plan to link filmmakers (the party of the first part) with the actual experts who know what they're doing and have the supplies handy (the party of the second part) which makes a whole lot more sense (the party of the Woooh! Par-tay!..part). So now I'm waiting again. Please enjoy our choppy, haphazard attempt to educate you people ("you people" being a preemptive term for when people eventually look at this blog in the one of many possible futures where people do In FACT look at it).

How To Make a Handmade Paper Gift Box on Howcast

Glistening Blackish Slug Dragon

I'm a concept art junkie. I have a massive folder on my computer (horribly disorganized) full of "right-click, save image as..." pictures of drawings, paintings, and admittedly a number of photos as well that depict a subject, an expression, a style, even simply a specific combination of colors that get to me, almost always as something I want to see in a movie. My biggest haunt, in that regard, is deviantART, which I usually visit once or twice a week, going through a routine, but expansive exploration of the site. One year I even made a glossy, binded calendar for myself using art that I "borrowed" from the site, with some months being single images but most being elaborate collages based on monthly themes.

As will be seen as my blog unfolds, I have been slooowly building up my art skills and use self-made imagery for storyboards, my friend's album art, avatars, and backgrounds. I have taken drawing and oil painting classes (both of which I really enjoy) but my main output is digital painting and photo manipulation using Adobe Photoshop and my Wacom Intuos4 Tablet.

ConceptArt.org has a daily sketch group, of which I occasionally participate. They provide a simple description (such as Robot Ghosts, of which I did one or two) and everyone submits there ideas. These tend to be "quick sketches" but since most of the people on this site are professional concept artists a lot of them tend to look really, really, good compared to my stuff, but I do what I can. Having not tried for a while, I did this one today. Not my most refined work, but it took two hours just for this so lay off. I honestly like the look of the pencil drawings leading up to this better than the finished product. Also, try not to think to hard about the orientation of the wings, or how much goo can possibly be contained within a single sluggon. Poor little knight, he got slimed.

Beginning

Parker here, AKA Park, GP, George, Bismod, Gold Pieces, Goofy Pants McGee, etc. This is my third attempt at blogging, and hopefully this one sticks. 2011 has already started out as a great year for me and my interests, so I figure I ought to give this another go as well. I am originally from Idaho, a geek, went to film school, now trying to get into the biz. Before film, I was interested in science (which had a lot to do with liking science fiction) and I still think about taking science classes (biotech, astrophysics, robotics), maybe even taking time off film altogether to pursue my random interests, which also happen to include sociology, art history, etymology, and who knows what else.

From this site you can expect to see posts about movies, histories of things, hypotheticals, summaries of wiki walks I take, art by me, stories by me, art and stories liked by me, and some of my random adventures, that is if I can get myself to post things. So yah, typical blog at this point, but who knows? Maybe it will become something more, we'll see.

By the way, the little blue kid in the pic is Dither, not Bismod, and will probably be talked about in a future post.