In ancient Greece, there was a tale and believe that swans sing a beautiful song in the moment just before death. Most of their lives, swans are silent, in comparison to other beautiful song birds. And so, "Swan Song" has become a metaphorical phrase mostly used in theater for a final, beautiful performance given just before death or retirement.
This blog, having nothing to do with either swans or songs, is just that... a place for me to celebrate my previous life as a pixel artist and a nice home for my poor old pixels to retire to.
Leave it to Facebook for providing a reunion spot for all of us who used to make dolls, or dollz back in the early 2000's. That part of my life was full of raising kids, keeping a home, and working nights. Night shifts were always a good thing for me. I went to work at night while the family was sleeping, and slept during the day while they were gone to school. Consequently, I found something to do on my nights off, that was relaxing and quiet, as there aren't many "loud" things that can be done at night while the rest of the household was trying to sleep.
I've always been enamored with electronic graphics and design. Indeed, over my lifetime I have seen it grow from something as simple as a blip on a TV screen, like "Pong" into the form of art that it is today. How did something grow from this:
... into the games and graphics that are around today?
I'm sure that I will never understand it. But I've always been a big fan of Space Invaders anyway. :) I used to spend hours on Saturday mornings playing it on the Atari with my dad. Circa 1980... yikes...Maybe that is where my love of pixel art originally came from.
At any rate, I started fiddling around with "dolls" in the wee hours of the night 10+ years ago. I think that I first started noticing them in "signatures" on forums and such. Then, I joined a forum just for doll making and the rest is history. I spent a lot of time collecting bases and trying to learn how. These little figures were done one pixel at a time, in a paint program of some kind. Windows Paint, I think was one of the first programs that I tried, and the first dolls I made were then known as "silents."
Addicted, I started learning from forums and chat groups as fast as I could. I've always been a doodler and I've always loved to color. I had no idea how far this would go.
Later, I ran a website and even paid for a domain name. "Momma's Dollz" was the place where I showcased dolls, shared bases, held contests and made friendships... some that I still have today: Dhaling, Poppie, Neettan, Mish, Patience, Tysk, Zoi, VelvetCherri, Sully, Vilanna, ForgetMeNot... so many others... and I was known as DollyMomma.
Over time, the dolls evolved, but there will be plenty of time for sharing those later on. I want to try really hard to search and organize my archives and make sure that I still have the information that I need to credit bases and such. Almost every doll also has a story behind it. For such little things, they sure take a lot of time and inspiration to create.
So... welcome to Swan Song's... I'll be showing my retired pixels over time and I'll probably be sharing some newer things too. The Facebook group has inspired more than a few of us to dust off our mouse pads and paint. I'll be playing along, as long as my newer computer will run the ancient version of Paint Shop Pro that I found in my dust-covered CD case and as long as my eyes can still see the pixels. Which shouldn't be long. ;)
Thanks for stopping by!
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