Artist Spotlight: Jessica Boehm Part 1

On July 1, 2015June 29, 2015 By R. PettyIn Art1 Comment

Jessica Boehm, yoga teacher and freelance writer, is a dear friend and talented young woman who we’ve had the pleasure of knowing for years. I literally sat and worked behind Jessica, and she has always been a positive – and entertaining – force in my life. Be sure to show some love for this month’s artist, and visit the Hot Yoga House Studio!

Years practicing yoga: 6, Years teaching yoga: 4

RevPub: Other than health benefits, why is yoga important to you?

I could probably write an entire book about why yoga is important to me, but I’ll try to hit the high points! My yoga practice gives me the opportunity to get still – both in my mind and body. Like most people, I’m usually on the move, and sometimes I forget how important it is to just BE. Yoga reminds me that everything I’m seeking has actually been within me all along.

My practice is also important because it connects me to other people – some like me and some very different – and they all teach me so much. Without yoga, I would have never met several of my close friends, and those friends are some of the most real and genuine people I’ve ever come across.

RevPub: What is your favorite pose? What is your most difficult?

My students all know my favorite pose by heart now – it’s supta baddha konasana (also known as reclining bound angle pose or reclining cobbler’s pose). It’s a restorative pose that allows the hips to gently open, and it just feels amazing (especially for anyone with low back issues and/or tight hips).

My most difficult pose … that’s a hard question because it really depends on the day and the practice. In general, I tend to struggle with anything that requires a ton of flexibility because I’m very tight and always have been. So, deep folds and binds can be rough. Even though they’re hard for me, I try not to avoid them because the poses you want to avoid are typically the ones you need the most.

RevPub: What made you want to become certified to teach yoga?

To put it simply, I just wanted to share this fantastic thing I found. I wanted to hold space for students like my teachers held space for me. Misty Parrish, the owner of The Hot Yoga House, was really my main inspiration and continues to inspire me every time I take her classes.

RevPub: How has yoga affected your life?

Again, I could write a book on this question alone! I guess yoga just makes me a better person. It helps me be more in the moment, calmer, more honest with myself and others, less judgmental (again, of myself and others), and more peaceful. That probably sounds cliché, but it’s true.

I think it’s important to clarify that yoga doesn’t necessarily change lives. Instead, yoga helps people become AWARE of their lives, and at that point, they can make changes to better themselves. Another way to think about it is yoga shines a light into dark places.

RevPub: What’s the strangest or funniest thing that’s happened in a class?

This was actually pretty embarrassing – and in case you’re reading this and thinking about coming to one of my classes, let me start this off by saying I learned my lesson, and this has only happened ONCE! So, at the end of class, each teacher passes out cold washcloths while the students are in their final pose (savasana or corpse pose). The washcloths are usually infused with essential oils, which are SUPER strong and should only be used in very small doses. Well, I didn’t know that at the time, and I dumped a ton of oil into the bin of washcloths. As I was passing them out, I felt a bit of a burning sensation on my hands … Turns out I practically burned the flesh off my students because of the high oil concentration! Whoops! We still joke about it and call it the time they got a “free chemical peel.”

Don’t forget to like The Hot Yoga House on Facebook!

And check out Jessica’s hubby, Chris Boehm, and his awesome woodworking!

*Photos from Jessica Boehm

Game Room Update: The Fortress of Arrogance

On June 10, 2015June 10, 2015 By James CastroIn Art, Games, Random FunLeave a comment

When I moved in to my new place last year one of the things I was most excited about was setting up my new game room. With a home-made 6×4 table and a wolrd of board games and 40k to play, I couldn’t wait to put up decor and set up my hobby room. I never thought of naming it until I shared with my RevPub partner my WIP of Commissar Yarrick’s legendary Tank, The Fortress of Arrogance.

I learned of this mighty armored vehicle from Chains of Golgotha and immediately loved the name. I knew when I started my guard army (built almost ENTIRELY from rage quitters and scrap and a couple of boxed sets admittedly) a version of Yarrick’s pulpit would have to be included. Here’s my version:

When I shared this she commented that it would be a good name for my game space, and I started work on a sign that night that mimicked the “official” markings on the tank as it appears in the Apocalypse expansion. Here’s what I’ll print for my door:

Fortress Of Arrogance — Built from some Skull line art, and some simple Illustrator work it captures enough of the original and still makes a good readable sign for the door!

As for the Fortress itself it’s progressed a bit. I was able to get my fantasy armies out of boxes with the addition of the two new inexpensive glass curios, and even added some shelves for the Blood Angels/Flesh Tearers that used to be crammed into the bottom shelf of my IG curio (a couple of chaos engines too big for my storage boxes are up there too.)

As I get things painted (which I’m working on now, my Vostroyan command squad is up first) I’ll share them. As can easily be seen I have a lot to paint, but I like to build and play, so painting always seems to take a back seat!

Artist Spotlight: Lisa Battles

On May 1, 2015April 30, 2015 By R. PettyIn Art1 Comment

Lisa Battles is a friend and coworker who I had the pleasure of spotlighting this month! I’ve seen her edible candy mice and frog cupcakes for special occasions and received a glass she painted this past Christmas. She’s one of the most talented and creative people I’ve ever met, and I’m excited to introduce her work to our awesome readers.

Be sure to check out her Etsy Wineglass store, and show some love!

Materials used: Wine glasses, water-based acrylic enamel, rubbing alcohol to prep the glass, variety of tiny paint brushes, wine (optional).

Raven glass - Lisa Battles — Yours truly. My awesome Christmas present last year!

1. Where did the idea to paint glasses come from?

About 10 years ago, my sister, Lana, gave me a set of four glasses she bought from a novelty company. Each glass was pre-painted with a woman – a blonde, a brunette, a redhead and a dark brunette. I still have three; I broke the blonde while washing it, unfortunately. I decided to paint a more customized redhead on a glass for one of my favorite redheads, Courtney Hodge Evans, for her birthday one year. She kept it for six or seven years, and then sent me a text around Thanksgiving 2014 that after keeping her glass for so many years, she’d accidentally broken it. I asked her to take a clear photo of it, and I’d paint a replacement for it. I did, and since it was almost Christmas, I thought that would be a fun gift idea for many of my girlfriends for holiday gifts, birthday gifts and hostess gifts. So I ended up painting at least a dozen for friends over the holiday season. People loved them, and I had several friends tell me I should sell them. So I did. I set up an Etsy shop early in 2015. So far, including those holiday gifts and several orders, I have painted about 40 different glasses and have about a dozen in the works right now.

2. What is your favorite glass?

I don’t really have a favorite; I like them all for different reasons. That’s probably because I have mostly painted these for friends, and when I feel like I have captured the personality of someone I love already, that makes me love the little portrait as an extension of that. I have done a few for people I’ve never met, and I feel like I have kind of gotten to know the person (and sometimes their pets!) just from studying their photos so much. Even though they are more time-consuming, I think I like doing sets. Seeing the “interaction” of a mom and siblings, groups of best friends, etc. all lined up is really funny to me, especially after a couple of glasses of wine. I gathered together many of the Christmas gift glasses while I had them all together on my table, and it was almost surreal to see so many people I knew “looking back at me” in one spot. If I HAVE to pick, I think the set of draft glasses depicting my Dad and his former law enforcement partner Bill Rhegness in the early 1980s during a spoof Olan Mills shoot may be my favorite. I did a set for Bill at his request, and then of course, Dad wanted a set, so I replicated them. My Dad has been courageous and determined fighting the effects of treatment for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), an aggressive and usually fatal type of brain cancer, the past two years, and Bill has been up to visit him several times during this time. Giving the two of them a laugh over those glasses was rewarding.

Lisa Battles glass — Lisa’s dad and former law enforcement partner Bill Rhegness.

3. Are there any famous people you want to paint glass for?

Dad and Bill were pretty well-known for their detective shenanigans in North Alabama! HA … I guess anyone with a colorful or unusual look would be fun — Johnny Depp would have a lot of accessories. But seriously, I can’t think of anyone in particular. A friend who was a music idol to me when I was a teenager in the 1990s ordered a glass with his band’s album cover on it, which I thought was cool of him to order. We were both pleased with how it turned out. I probably put in more hours on that one than any because it was more of a graphic thing to replicate than a photo interpretation. I have another order in the hopper from a different band, but don’t know how soon I will get around to doing them. They will be on beer glasses and pretty cute when I finish them.

4. You have lots of art projects, what are a couple of your favorites?

I enjoy painting the most, whether it’s on wine glasses, beer glasses, a canvas, a piece of wood or whatever. I also prefer this kind of untrained, caricature-type painting, where you can take liberties with how true-to-life it has to look. I have always enjoyed painting and drawing as much as I have writing, at as early an age as I could do any of them. The difference is that while I am excellent about studying, knowing and following rules in writing, I have the opposite opinion about having rules in art. That is probably why I have always preferred to keep it as a hobby and didn’t pursue it as a career: When you have to do something to pay your bills, sometimes you find yourself having to follow rules set by others instead of going with your heart. Keeping it just as an outlet gives me one of few things in life that’s still 100 percent enjoyable to me, because it’s something with which I can do whatever I want and however I want to do it. That luxury seems to get rarer as you get older.

5. Do you have any advice for other creative types?

I used to think it was a compliment when people would say, “You are so creative. I am not at all.” I still believe the first part of that is intended as a compliment, but I make sure to ask them to think a minute about that second part. I believe that everyone is “creative” with art if they make any piece of art just for the sake of creating it or expressing themselves. If your artistic expression comes out as four crooked lines in different colors you chose, to me that’s your artistic expression for the moment. In other words, I just don’t think there’s a way to “do it wrong” if you’re creating for the sake of creating and not trying to pass yourself off as some virtuoso. While I definitely see the value in people studying art to understand design principles and the work of great artists throughout history, I don’t think the more formal approach to art should scare people away expressing themselves artistically. Unfortunately, I think it does. Creating art can be fun, whether you are “great” at it or not. It doesn’t have to be a competition. If you have fun creating art, then you are creative.

If you’d like to contact Lisa for a glass, feel free to visit the shop, or leave a comment below!

A Celebration of Color

On April 5, 2015April 4, 2015 By R. PettyIn Art3 Comments

It was a long, cold winter here in the South. We had an ice storm, snow, sleet, and I managed to survive being snowed in for a total of two weeks – one of which was my birthday week. I hate cold weather. I hate everything about it, and even though it’s necessary for the life cycle, I despise winter.

Winter 2015, Nashville — This was my view for most of February. As pretty as it was, the brown got old lol.

When spring came around this year, I was desperate for color, and I realized how important color is to our mood, energy level, and overall well-being. A simple addition can brighten up a room and make you feel better. So here’s a quick celebration of color, which also inspired me to paint (sneak peek)!

blue pillows — I started improving my mood by redecorating a little. Throw pillow covers and pillows, new rugs, and new placements. These immediately brightened things up!

Next came the flowers! Inside and out. I keep fresh flowers on my table at all times, but these were recent bouquets, and they were perfect because they always give me something pretty to look at!

spring time flowers — Last weekend I planted these beauties. Now that the grass is getting greener, they’re the perfect outside addition.

And last, the work in progress…This started as a green and black canvas I painted out of boredom. I was so inspired by color and my flowers, I decided to paint one of my favorites: the iris. I will post about the finished product once its complete, but there will be two paintings. I don’t claim to be an artist, but it goes to show that color can bring out the artist in anyone!

Feel free to share your springtime happiness in the comments section, and Happy Warmer Weather and Happy Easter to all those who celebrate this time of year!

The Ugee Drawing Screen

On March 25, 2015March 25, 2015 By James CastroIn ProjectsLeave a comment

In my last post I discussed how the effective writing and delivery of Jim Sterling inspires others in their creativity. This week is a case in point.

I have had a hard time moving from my beloved paper artwork in this digital age. I’ve tried drawing, scanning the pencils, then vectoring the pencil art. It didn’t work well. I’ve also tried having the artwork inked, then scanning it and vectoring from there. That tended to work better, but still required about 4-6 steps before I could get it in a format to be edited digitally. I’ve tried two versions of Wacom style tablets where a tablet you hold controls a cursor on the screen. That had marginal success, but I had a lot of trouble making the connection between the pen touching a black surface to a cursor making precise actions on screen. It went ok but I’m not good enough at it to produce even close to what I do on paper. The next step was an Android tablet with software that simulates graphic design. It sounded good because it would allow me to draw right on the screen. The downside was the only styluses I could find were about the size of an eraser. Trying to do precise markings was out of the question and even trying to tell where they stylus was touching the screen wasn’t always easy to determine.

During a book signing for Matthew Inman aka The Oatmeal he mentioned he uses a Wacom Cintiq and that sounded perfect. It essentially allows you to draw right on the screen with a pencil-sized stylus you’re your choice of graphic software.

Unfortunately since I haven’t won any lotteries recently I couldn’t get one of those…so I began browsing off brands.
After much consideration I landed on the Ugee drawing screen and it has solved my digitization woes. The first piece of art I produced was my Jim F’N Sterling Son from my last post.

I drew into Manga Studio as I preferred the look and feel of its interface as opposed to Illustrator’s. It just felt more like a real pencil and could be adjusted with sliders to be lighter or darker, as though I was picking a different kind of lead.

After doing the “pencils” in Manga Studio I imported the pencil art into Illustrator, created a layer, and “inked” using Illustrator’s calligraphy tool. Probably not the best but it worked for my first effort. I was pretty impressed with what could be done relatively quickly, from pencil to colored art took only a couple hours.

The Ugee has my approval, its drivers loaded perfectly, it has a large drawing surface, and has an excellent stand. The only “complaint” is that it can wash out a bit at the wrong angle, but that’s not a big problem when working on a project, just when using it as a regular screen.

As a side note, I’m hoping Jim recovers quickly. Here’s hoping he’s back on his feet and giving them hell as soon as possible. We need him in the trenches!

My original Jim Sterling post

Warhammer Fantasy Ogres: Ready for Game On!

On February 25, 2015March 4, 2015 By James CastroIn ProjectsLeave a comment

In a previous post I noted at the guys at Dreamlike (Now Slayer Gaming) piqued my interest in Warhammer Fantasy battles. I watched two battle reports, one was their very first one, where Tom’s Ogre army took on Dwarves in one and High Elves in another. Since then I have started both Skaven and Beatmen armies. I admit I really like Skaven, but both were begun because I was able to get near complete armies on and off the sprue at very cheap prices.

Several weeks ago, while cruising a used bookstore I found a pile of army books. Empire, Ogres, Tomb Kings, Orcs and Goblins, all “current” hardback. All ten dollars a piece. (They also had a stack of Forge World Imperial Armour books for 15 a piece…it was a good day at the used bookstore…)

Looking through the books I became very interested in one army in particular: Ogres. The very first army I ever saw played. They’re very different from any force I’ve seen, Monstrous Infantry, big brutes, no alignment, and a “SMASH and EAT” philosophy. Also relatively cheap to start.

My local Games Workshop store has started a Fantasy escalation league and, though I had Skaven and Beastmen armies, I decided to give Ogres a shot. I got the regiment starter box and away I went.

The league starts at a miniscule 250 points, which if I included even my cheapest general option left me only 150 points for troops.

Because of this point restriction, the standard troop structure is waived and only core units have to be fielded with extra points given for fully-painted armies. With that in mind (and being completely trapped in the house for days due to ice and snow) I started my Ogres. This was the result:

I went all ironfists, due to the extra save. They’ve already got 3 attacks plus impact hits and stomps, so I went for a parry/increased armor save instead of an additional weapon.

At the time I thought I had to have an HQ. I got the maneater on the right to proxy a bruiser or butcher since my actual models were on order.

These guys are a blast to build an paint, and the regiment box gives you so many bits, with some crafty purchases I was able to nearly double the number of ogre bulls I can field by spending about 25 dollars.

I’ll be playing my first escalation game this week and as I’ve never played a REAL game (only here’s how this works games) and never done anything with ogres I’m gonna lose. It’ll be a BLAST. I’m looking forward to it!

Revenant Publications

Category: Projects