# Non-Audio Creative Pursuits?



## dannthr (Mar 30, 2016)

Hey folks,

I know that for me, creativity is kind of like nutrition, I'm not completely happy unless I'm getting complete proteins--that is, I like creative variety because it helps me feel like a more complete person.

I also find that non-audio pursuits help give my audio endeavors more context and let me manage the framework of my creative vista more flexibly.

I'm interested in learning what non-audio creative things forum-goers are into or spend their rare off-times engaging in!

If it's visual, I'd love to see it; if it's literal, maybe an excerpt? And if it's culinary, maybe a picture so my eyes can feast!

Whatever is your thing, I'd love to hear about it!

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For me, I like drawing, illustration, and I am teaching myself hand-drawn animation.

I try to attend a live figure drawing session at least once a week which is where you have a live model posing (either nude or in costume/character), and you have between 3 and 30 minutes to render the pose.

60s Mod Fashion (7 minute)
http://orig05.deviantart.net/160c/f...on_04__daniella_traub__by_dannthr-d9sayn6.jpg

Barbarella Costumed Model (7 minute)
http://orig04.deviantart.net/0d69/f...arella_01_rachelbailit_by_dannthr-d9ouvzj.jpg

Lounge Lizard Model (10 minute)
http://orig07.deviantart.net/f8d4/f...minute_a__john_mackey__by_dannthr-d9rh2rv.jpg

Edwardian Costumed Model (15 minute)
http://orig04.deviantart.net/dfc2/f...5_minute__debra_haden__by_dannthr-d9qkjxg.jpg

4 Hour Charcoal - Regular Clothes Model (4 hours /8 x 25 minute)
http://orig06.deviantart.net/92cc/f...___4_hour_pose__maura__by_dannthr-d9t56l2.jpg

And I'm teaching myself handdrawn animation because I love the art-form and I'd love to learn what I can before it dies away.



What do you guys/gals do?


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## jacobthestupendous (Mar 30, 2016)

Your drawings are really great! 

In my tax accountant day job, I like making surprising things out of office supplies (binder clips are a very versatile medium), and I've always enjoyed making tall stacks from irregular objects. I'm also an avid meeting doodler, though I'm not nearly as legitimately skilled as you.


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## Baron Greuner (Mar 31, 2016)

Photography mostly during the spring and summer months. Autumn last year was hopeless because it was far too dull and wet and thus the colours were not up to scratch. Favourite photography is black and white.


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## dannthr (Mar 31, 2016)

Awesome, guys!

Jacob, next time you build a leaning tower of office supplies, you'll have to snap a shot with your phone or something!

Baron, awesome! Let's see something :D :D!


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## MA-Simon (Mar 31, 2016)

With me it's the other way arround.
Music & Audio is the hobby.

I do Illustration (Did a lot of nude drawings and stuff, but I left them when I moved to Berlin, mostly old dudes, because of our limited school budget), 3D Art and Gamedesign (Unity 3D). There is this nice Artist-Party-Nude-&-Life-Drawing-Thing going on in Berlin called "Drink & Draw", but... it might be to much alcohol and hipster and much to less drawing for me. ()


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## NYC Composer (Apr 1, 2016)

I like nude drawing, but she said the pencil made her itchy.


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## Cruciform (Apr 1, 2016)

I like creating cover art for albums and messing around in After Effects. Once upon a time, long long ago, I did cartooning as a side gig. It was fun pocket money.


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## NYC Composer (Apr 1, 2016)

Nice work!


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## jacobthestupendous (Apr 1, 2016)

Was that a joke about there not being enough color for your black and white photos last fall? 


Baron Greuner said:


> Photography mostly during the spring and summer months. Autumn last year was hopeless because it was far too dull and wet and thus the colours were not up to scratch. Favourite photography is black and white.


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## Baron Greuner (Apr 2, 2016)

jacobthestupendous said:


> Was that a joke about there not being enough color for your black and white photos last fall?


More a play on words. 

But I'm guessing that because you say color and fall, you're American. This Autumn (Fall) here starting in around October, it rained and rained and rained. It was the shitiest Autumn in living memory and then in January and February it pissed down with rain every day. Every day. Not in anyone's living memory could anyone remember anything like it. And it was mild. My heating bill was half of what it was the year before.
So in short, photography was a bit of a waste of time for colours. OK for B&W but just dull every day.
March has been a lot better.


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## NYC Composer (Apr 2, 2016)

:::singing gently:::

"I love Paris in the springtime 
I love Paris in the autumn..."

Wait. Too British.


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## catsass (Apr 3, 2016)

NYC Composer said:


> :::singing gently:::
> 
> "I love Paris in the springtime
> I love Paris in the autumn..."
> ...


"I love the smell of napalm in the morning..."

Wait. Too Francis Ford Coppola


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## ghostnote (Apr 3, 2016)

Very cool drawings. I used to write essays and peoms as a kid, play in theater. My dream was (please don't laugh) to become someday a writer on the Simpsons (c'mon... I said please don't laugh...). But then I moved to a different town where these things were considered as "not interesting". Everyone around was more into sports and beeing tough, so I dropped it. Same reason why I went to shop instead of french class. Things that I regret very much today. I sometimes still think about trying to publish a book with peoms or essays and I have plenty of ideas but, in the end, I don't think somebody will be interested in it... I however started to learn french a week ago, so maybe I can at least get that right.


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## dannthr (Apr 3, 2016)

Michael Chrostek said:


> Very cool drawings. I used to write essays and peoms as a kid, play in theater. My dream was (please don't laugh) to become someday a writer on the Simpsons (c'mon... I said please don't laugh...). But then I moved to a different town where these things were considered as "not interesting". Everyone around was more into sports and beeing tough, so I dropped it. Same reason why I went to shop instead of french class. Things that I regret very much today. I sometimes still think about trying to publish a book with peoms or essays and I have plenty of ideas but, in the end, I don't think somebody will be interested in it... I however started to learn french a week ago, so maybe I can at least get that right.



You should go for it, man!

Creative Writing was my major in college, there's a publication for EVERY writer out there--so no matter what kind of stuff you write, someone out there wants to publish it. Just read and write a lot!

I've started listening to a podcast on butt-kicking your creativity into action:

http://yourcreativepush.com/


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## dannthr (Apr 3, 2016)

Cruciform said:


> I like creating cover art for albums and messing around in After Effects. Once upon a time, long long ago, I did cartooning as a side gig. It was fun pocket money.



I dig it, man, anyone who wears plaid pants has to be put in their place!

I've been trying to learn After Effects as well--it's a pretty great package!


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## Cruciform (Apr 3, 2016)

dannthr said:


> I dig it, man, anyone who wears plaid pants has to be put in their place!
> 
> I've been trying to learn After Effects as well--it's a pretty great package!



Cheers. The plaid pants dude is a bumbling PI called James Baud. The big guy is his smarter muscle backup, Sal Monella. 

Yes, I love After Effects, so much fun. I'm no expert, I play and tweak. It's amazing what can be done and in their case I'm glad they offer subscription. I would never have gotten into AE if I'd had to buy a full license. I tried Photoshop and it's excellent of course but I found a free image app called GIMP 2.0. It's like PS but not as fully featured. Worth a try if you need something. 

I really like your animation. That was something that interested me in my teens but I never pursued it. Good job.


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## mc_deli (Apr 4, 2016)

jacobthestupendous said:


> In my tax accountant day job, I like making surprising things out of office supplies (binder clips are a very versatile medium), and I've always enjoyed making tall stacks from irregular objects. I'm also an avid meeting doodler, though I'm not nearly as legitimately skilled as you.


If I ever I feel hard done by or uninspired I am going to come back to this post and think how lucky I am.
Apologies if you were serious but comes over pretty funny


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## dannthr (Apr 5, 2016)

Hah, long ago I had a grocery clerk/cashier job that was extremely tedious. To pass the time, I would greet customers like a game show host and play math games in my head with the total--the goal being to take all the numbers and re-arrange them into a math equation that would equal 10.

So if the total was 10.95 I might do something like 1+9+0*5=10.


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## ghostnote (Apr 6, 2016)

I actually started to write peoms again. What a relief, words are so much comfortable to bend than samples. The void paper is actually not frightening me. Other than music I can always come up with something interesting. It's great to look at the creative process of writing music from a completely different angle. I already wrote a dozent in the first day after my post here (I'm not talking haikus! ) and I already submitted the best ones to poetry competitions. Time will tell if they're worth a prize. I'm still collecting ideas and hopefully, I'll have enough to reach out to publishers. They are all in german so posting them here wouldn't make much sense. Anyway, thanks dan!


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## Baron Greuner (Apr 6, 2016)

One of my stranger pursuits is watching Americans unboxing things on YouTube.

Why oh why oh WHY do Americans feel the need to do unboxing videos????? Every fucking time I go onto YouTube to find out how to do something, it turns into a fucking unboxing video!!

I KNOW HOW TO UNBOX [email protected]%£^£@*(@

No need to show me thanks Americans. Very nice of you and all that, but unboxing is fairly easy for most of us. It's like watching Napoleon Dynamite.


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## jacobthestupendous (Apr 6, 2016)

Baron Greuner said:


> It's like watching Napoleon Dynamite.


Lot's of Americans like watching Napoleon Dynamite too.


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## dannthr (Apr 6, 2016)

Michael Chrostek said:


> I actually started to write peoms again. What a relief, words are so much comfortable to bend than samples. The void paper is actually not frightening me. Other than music I can always come up with something interesting. It's great to look at the creative process of writing music from a completely different angle. I already wrote a dozent in the first day after my post here (I'm not talking haikus! ) and I already submitted the best ones to poetry competitions. Time will tell if they're worth a prize. I'm still collecting ideas and hopefully, I'll have enough to reach out to publishers. They are all in german so posting them here wouldn't make much sense. Anyway, thanks dan!



That's awesome, man! Keep at it! Let us know how it goes!

:D



Baron Greuner said:


> One of my stranger pursuits is watching Americans unboxing things on YouTube.
> 
> Why oh why oh WHY do Americans feel the need to do unboxing videos????? Every fucking time I go onto YouTube to find out how to do something, it turns into a fucking unboxing video!!
> 
> ...



Hah! I don't know why there are so many unboxing videos, but even worse, I don't know why I'll watch them! It's like taking window-shopping to the next level!


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## dpasdernick (Apr 6, 2016)

I used to do 3D animation and Motion Graphics stuff until it became my career. I still love it but I have no time anymore. I have worked my way up to Executive Creative Director and spend more time managing people and writing reports than I do creating. I just finished up an Oculus Rift project which was kind of cool but I really spend more time on the phone and in meetings than I do actually being creative. ironic as hell.


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## NYC Composer (Apr 8, 2016)

Baron, I imagine you simply cross paths with the unboxing vids during your many searches for cuter and cuter cat videos.


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## Baron Greuner (Apr 8, 2016)

It's true. And bulldog ones too.


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## dannthr (Apr 8, 2016)

dpasdernick said:


> I used to do 3D animation and Motion Graphics stuff until it became my career. I still love it but I have no time anymore. I have worked my way up to Executive Creative Director and spend more time managing people and writing reports than I do creating. I just finished up an Oculus Rift project which was kind of cool but I really spend more time on the phone and in meetings than I do actually being creative. ironic as hell.



That's pretty awesome, VR is everywhere right now! So do you do audio/music as a creative outlet outside of the directoring?


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## mc_deli (Apr 8, 2016)

I'm a "creative" for a day job. It's mostly painting by numbers. Especially, the more mundane end of content marketing is not unlike epic


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## dannthr (Apr 8, 2016)

mc_deli said:


> I'm a "creative" for a day job. It's mostly painting by numbers. Especially, the more mundane end of content marketing is not unlike epic


Are you a comic book flatter?

Because that's literally painting by numbers!


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## dpasdernick (Apr 10, 2016)

dannthr said:


> That's pretty awesome, VR is everywhere right now! So do you do audio/music as a creative outlet outside of the directoring?



dannthr,

Yes. Music is a creative outlet outside of my creative director's position. I do occasionally write music for some of the projects I work on but it's harder to find the time. Ironically, I make great money and spend it on music equipment that I barely get a chance to use... Maybe I need to spend less time on VI Control?


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## dannthr (Apr 10, 2016)

dpasdernick said:


> dannthr,
> 
> Yes. Music is a creative outlet outside of my creative director's position. I do occasionally write music for some of the projects I work on but it's harder to find the time. Ironically, I make great money and spend it on music equipment that I barely get a chance to use... Maybe I need to spend less time on VI Control?



Or some long, music filled vacations!


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## impressions (Apr 14, 2016)

pre family i was very into animations, nowadays i write the occasional "the next big startup" thing, short stories, ideas for computer games, and lately i try to write jokes?? loving the standup thing..


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## dannthr (Apr 15, 2016)

Are you doing any open mics or local clubs?


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## Baron Greuner (Apr 15, 2016)

Cars are another thing I spend way too much on.


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## dannthr (Apr 15, 2016)

Hah!

Building, buying, or ogling?


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## Baron Greuner (Apr 16, 2016)

Just sold one of them. My wife's Mercedes 250 SLK actually and ordered another car 4 days ago. We want something fast and quite small with a convertible roof to go touring around Europe later in the year.


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