A full day. Two art things were done. First, the final edits of the time-lapse video. The music constantly annoyed me. I started by creating a MIDI recording on the MODX, then imported this into the pattern editor, which is a simple multi-track sequencer. I then added layers, but the whole thing was very loose, annoyingly so. Exporting this, the arpeggio, oddly exported the individual notes of the arpeggiator, rather than the keys held. That made external editing difficult.
So today, after more work on it all, I deleted it and re-made it all, but used Sekaiju to record the parts externally, and heavily quantised everything. The music is simpler too. Very simple; generally A-min with F-Maj, C-Maj, and G-Maj; my most basic chords, as featured in my earliest ever music from my 17th year... the late 1980s. Improvising to such chords is easy, but I was happier with this tune, partly because I'd learned something new. I changed the lead instrument from an electronic wail to a wailing violin, an unusual opposite which helped it.
I also worked on an old frame, painting it with a mix of chalk and sand to texture it, but the result was astonishingly ugly. My filtered sand has gone missing, so I had to use garden sand which was wet and full of huge lumps. My plan is to wait for this to dry, then sand it all, then paint again. Well, again, I may learn something, and this £10 frame can't be used without a lot of work.
Oh! The first thing I did was prepare copy number 300 of 21st Century Surrealism. I noticed that I'd sold 299 on Amazon (I've probably sold a few here too, so it's only a nominal 300 rather than a technically accurate 300th copy). So, I signed and mocked up a special copy for auction on eBay.
I expect I'll spend the week working on Roton and Martian Rover Patrol; two ancient games which have never worked since Windows XP, and never except for with a CD-ROM for the music.
What I want to do is paint. I've watched a documentary about van Gogh, the artist who, in an indirect way, was my inspiration to become an artist because, years ago, a TV documentary about him had a competition attached (Window on the World) which I decided to enter. I noted the similarities between his work and Rembrandt's. Van Gogh was more like Rembrandt than any impressionist. People are blinded by the colours of van Gogh's late work and forget that half of his work is dark, browny, moody. I like ashen greys and subtle colours. Bright colours give me eye-ache. I'm overwhelmed by them and find them loud to the point of screaming; shouty, rude and boorish, gaudy, cheap, infantile; the antithesis of delicacy, subtlety, intelligence. Bright colours are a cheap trick.
