definatalie.com

I have used a few different twitter clients in my time, but at the moment I’ve been trying out Destroy Twitter. Today I found out that if I upgraded to the 1.4.6 Beta prerelease I’d be able to use different themes. This instantly extended the amount of time I’m going to be using Destroy Twitter!

I had a look around for premade themes but didn’t like any of them – many had low contrast, or obnoxious contrast and colour schemes I just couldn’t live with. So I created my own theme using the colours of my new blog layout and titled it “unicorns pooping” just because I can.

Download my unicorns pooping Destroy Twitter theme here.

hehehehe.

Instructions:
Go to Destroy Twitter and download the 1.4.6 Beta prerelease.
Download the dtwt file above (right click and save).
Run Destroy Twitter.
Double clicking on the file should change the theme immediately. Sometimes you need to change the file association though!

Have fun

It’s April, starting from tomorrow! It really crept up on me, I just realised today was the last of March and I’d better whip up a desktop. An organised person would make the whole year of calendars in advance, but I’m not organised (ok I am some times) and I kind of like being able to signpost each month with what I’ve been drawing. So far this year, you can really see what techniques I’ve been working through! This month is super busy for me, just like March has been. Also, it’s coming up to my first wedding anniversary, so that’s a bit spesh!

Choose a resolution below, and go crazy with the downloading:

1600 x 1200

1680 x 1050 – widescreen

320 x 480 – iPhone

240 x 320 – Especially for my Samsung u700

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
You may not upload this desktop to other websites, nor may you use it for any other purpose than to wallpaper your desktop. This also means it’s uncool to alter it and reupload it somewhere as your own work. Soz

new scanner! from Natalie Perkins on Vimeo.
Ever since I got my new camera last year, I’ve been into making videos with it. They aren’t especially good, but I guess I’ve always been interested in video and it’s a way to improve my skill level! I had been using Windows Movie Maker (gasp) on my old computer, and since I’ve been on the iMac I’ve had iMovie… which is awesome but frustrating if you’ve never used it before. I’ve finally gotten around to making some videos with the footage I’ve caught in the last month or so… and I have even more footage to play with! But no time

strawberry and lime from Natalie Perkins on Vimeo.

Last night I spent about three hours drawing at this table with the lovely Anna, Shannon and Renee at Connect Four: Play. Anna was writing haikus; Shannon and Renee were doing incredible portraits for people; and I was doodling on brown paper bags! Donations for the drawings and haikus and proceeds from the event went to Backbone Youth Arts.

I really regret not taking the portrait Shannon drew of me off the wall before I left!

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Today I went to a cupcake picnic, organised by the lovely @shique! We got to sample one from The Cupcake Parlour and another from Poppy Cakes. The cupcake I had from The Cupcake Parlour was a vanilla with this blobby blue icing, I found the cupcake to be amazing and moist but the icing was far too sugary for me! From Poppy Cakes, I had a lemon poppy seed cupcake and thought the cake was dry but the icing was beautiful. I couldn’t eat all of the cupcakes, much to my husband’s delight.

2manycupcakes

Miss @shique

I look kind of obnoxious, sorry about that

This is from a book called “Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern” (Electrical protection in 132 pictures) posted by Bre Pettis. I love old illustrations like this, and the context just seems almost ridiculous these days but I suspect it would have been a huge factor in mortality back in the day

So, I am “debuting” at the Works on Paper exhibition at KILN on April 3. I am very excited, almost embarrassingly excited, but at least my enthusiasm falls short of pants-peeingly-excited. I wish I could get the hang of that cool nonchalance that artists are supposed to exhibit!

I am showing alongside some wonderful artists. Allow me to demonstrate:

Danielle O’Brien – Untitled 3, 2008

Nic Plowman – And there she was, 2008

Laura Skerlj

Yuki Nakano – Geisha, 2009

Also Shaun Campbell, Lucia Trove and Jordan Hart – who I can’t find any sites for! If you’re in Brisbane during April, I do suggest you check it out!

definatalie.com has been redesigned and it only took months and months to get it up! Apparently there’s a problem with IE6 that Nick is going to look at tonight, but I heartily suggest you download Firefox or the latest IE anyway.

Peppermint magazine issue 2 is landing soon! The cover features a beautiful illustration of Summer Rayne Oakes by the fabulous Ms Bec Winnel. I did the curly lettering on the front, but it pales into insignificance in comparison with Bec’s drawing!

I feel bad that I haven’t blogged for a while, it’s just we were getting all the wrinkles out of the new layout and Nick had told me that things might be lost in the transition (I moved hosts due to issues with my old host, thank Rod for that!) but none of the comments seem to have been misplaced! Yay! I have lots of things to tell you, stay tuned!

On March 28 I’ll be one of the “artists on demand” at the Connect Four art party in the Valley. From 8 – 10pm I’ll be doodling for donations for Backbone Youth Arts, and you can also see some of my drawings in the multimedia art gallery. RSVP at the facebook event page if you’re that way inclined.

There are so many exciting things that are gonna happen this year. I’m quite chuffed!

In the comments of my last pen review, Bob asked about the waterproof-ness of the Copic and the Pilot pens I had road tested. He was specifically interested in how they’d wash I think, so upon figuring out my new Rotring Rapidograph just before I decided to do some science and test the Pilot Hi-Tec-C, Copic Multiliner SP and Rotring Rapidograph.

The Pilot is conclusively not waterproof. Insofar as getting a nice wash out of it, I think you’ll be disappointed. The ink just sort of feathers out and becomes obnoxiously furry, and you can’t push it around with the brush at all.

I have decided that the 0.03 Copic Multiliner SP is my natural enemy. It is useless if you want consistently nice, inky, black lines. It is waterproof, so I guess that’s one upside. I don’t know why the nib has started performing like this – I have hardly used the pen! It looks blocked to me, but I’m completely disinterested in purchasing another nib – unfortunately I bought a spare ink cartridge for this pen too. What a waste!

And now my new lover, the .10 Rotring Rapidograph. I bought it from an ebay seller in Malaysia and it didn’t come with instructions. So, I was furiously googling for information on how to assemble it properly for fear I’d do something wrong and render it unusable. Kate came to my rescue with a scan of her instructions and I discovered that I’d managed to assemble it incorrectly, so once it was all connected properly I was so happy to see the ink flowing perfectly!

I’m happy to say that the Rotring ink is waterproof, which suits my purposes perfectly as I occasionally use watercolour over an inked drawing.

Bob, I hope I’ve satisfied your curiosity on the subject of the waterproofosity of these pens!