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Showing posts from December, 2008

12-31-08

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What I did yesterday.

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I tried to think about what I did yesterday. I made the thumbnail for this page early, I remember that. Then, I watched "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" to get a few screenshots of the '71 Impala, because I'm going to have to draw the same year and model a few times and it's good to have an idea what I'm drawing. I remember reading a little. Invincible 57, I think. And most of BPRD: 1946. I remember laying out the thumbnail of that page with a Magnadoodle. I remember eating once, maybe? I remember lots of coffee. I slept for about 2 hours in between it all and that's what's making it hard to remember. Something with internet. Like, with other people. Saying something maybe, or replying. I remember the start of an A-team episode, but just the beginning, I had to leave after the beginning, but that was this morning, not really yesterday. I remember it took a long time to get started. Not that there were any problems or the page was exceptionally hard to

"Well I know whats right, I got just one life"

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"In a world that keeps on pushin me around But I'll stand my ground and I wont back down" Here's a doodle that didn't look all that graphic until I put red on it. This is just a goof I did to be sure I could still draw the kid. No actual work in about two weeks, I think. I should be able to start back up this coming monday. I underestimated what a huge chunk of my time Christmas would take up. Hopefully it will be worth it though.

Nothing to read here. Skip this. Move along.

I can't sleep. I tried though. I just sort of laid there for a little more than an hour before giving up. My bugaboo's back. It never left really, I just didn't think about it. But you can only put off not thinking about something for so long. Before you know it, you're accidentally thinking about it and then you can't stop. Sometimes I wish I drank. People drink to forget, right? Drink away their problems? I think I hear that. Or do drugs. I think enough lines of crack and I would have bigger problems than the one I'm stuck thinking about right now. Or fight crime when I was depressed. Something that wasn't boring at least. But I'm a thinker, I think. We're the ones that nighttime's hardest on. In the dark, your problems grow to insurmountable sizes because there's nothing real to focus on. When it's quiet there's nothing to distract you from the endless string of monologues you've had a dozen times that end the same way. You nev

Abe, help me out here.

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I can't really show anything I've been working on in the past few days (secret projects and all), and I think I may have flubbed prior explanations on the bluelining thing, so let me try again. Start over. As with most of life's problems, I'm going to use Abe Lincoln as an example to help illustrate what I'm talking about. (-albeit a crude, hastily done Abe, an Abe nonetheless) Here are two drawings of Abe. The one on the left was started with blue, then the parts I really wanted there are in pencil. The one on the right is all pencil. Here are the drawings after lining them with pen and ink. Now you have to use photoshop to darken the black so it's really black. But darkening the black means darkening everything, blue and pencil too. I think the part I kept leaving out is that with photoshop, you can get rid of blue. Pencil's gray (black), and you can't get rid of that without getting rid of the black parts you want kept there. Here's pretty much th

"From my heart and from my hand"

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"Why don't people understand My intentions...? Weird..." I think I had a revelation this morning. I woke up around 3 AM, and pretty much went straight to work. Things have been a little odd lately. For reasons beyond my power, I'm stuck at home. Literally, I can't leave. I have two lamps on my desk. Last night, one of the bulbs burned out. The lamp uses a special bulb, and it has to be >45 watts, so I can't use normal bulbs in it. Normally, I'd go to wal-mart right off and grab a new pack of bulbs (I go through them pretty quickly), but I had to make due. I had to take a bulb from under one of my shelves and use it. And even then, it's a different kind than I use in the desk lamps. So, when I woke up I started to work and it felt odd, like a dream. Half of my desk was covered in the normal bright white light I've been working under for the last 8 months, but the left side was covered in a dull, low, yellow light. For some reason it seems like t

"I could wile away the hours"

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"Conferrin' with the flowers Consultin' with the rain And my head I'd be scratchin' While my thoughts were busy hatchin' If I only had a brain I'd unravel any riddle For any individ'le In trouble or in pain"

"...with powers and abilities far beyond those of smaller, much weaker men."

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The result of one night and 4 cups of coffee. I did this in pretty much one sitting. I can't believe it. I'm very proud. When I drew the thumbnail for this, it was so complex I really wasn't sure that I could do it; I gave a 70% shot of me getting halfway through it, realize it wasn't working or something, and starting over. I mean, geez, look at the thumbnail. I never show whole pages, but I'm so amazed, I have to. I didn't think I'd even have anything to show for a couple days. Right now it's just the blue layout, it's not even in pencil yet, but I still have a sense of accomplishment. I feel like if this were Mortal Kombat, I would've just fed this page it's spine. Well, I think that's about it. I have a show to go to tonight, after that sometime, I'll pencil and ink this thing (maybe sleep while I'm at it). I'm shooting for finishing it tomorrow. Pardonne moi, I believe I'll go play a few well deserved video games.

Something about Theda Bara and Jujubes.

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I think I figured out the formula for a problem I had. You just have to simplify the problem, figure it out, then complicate it back up. <- this is it simplified. I went out of my way a while ago and bought a BOOK ON PERSPECTIVE, and it wasn't even in it. I'm inclined to think that most artists are idiots. Or, at least, that's who art books are catered to. The book I bought was among the most highly rated on amazon, but it had nothing of merit in it. Seriously, there was nothing in the book that I didn't just learn by myself or know naturally (things get bigger the closer they get to you and smaller the... wait, i forget... good thing I bought this p.o.s. book). It was an entire book on perspective, and somehow they didn't get past the most basic principles. And I'm not exaggerating. This is how crappy the book is- I bought "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" when I was 12. That had 3 pages about perspective in it. I swear to you, those 3 pages go

Complete and utter failure.

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Well, I finished this page earlier tonight. At least I did that. The rest of the night was for naught. A complete waste of my time. And I'm pretty peeved because of it. I spent roughly 5 hours making a player so I could add that song. I'm upset for several reasons. One is probably because I was so dead set on it and you don't take absolute failure well when you're that dead set on something. And secondly because no one will have any idea how hard it was to make that player. This is actually pretty amazing, so let me set the technical stage. I don't have flash on my computer. I can't find any of my copies of the program. I tried to find an HTML/JavaScript based player that didn't look like crap, but they don't exist. So, I went with flash. It's hard to express emotions while typing, so imagine me yelling this while gesturing wildly with my arms- DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO MAKE A FLASH PLAYER WITHOUT ACTUALLY HAVING FLASH?!? Just to reitera

Managua Nicoragua

Man, I had to document this in some way. Among those 5000 some songs from the 30's and 40's I've acquired, I've just found a gem. Or, rather, an abomination. Alright, so here I was, sitting and drawing, letting the mellow swing of the 40's take me away, right? Then, this song started playing. "Managua Nicoragua." The only way I can describe what I heard is- imagine Satan being pumped directly into your brain via bullhorn. And it gets worse as the song continues and the ending is almost horrifying. Seriously, this is the scariest, creepiest song I've ever heard in my life. I can't convey meaning enough for how effing creepy this song is. Why anyone would bother getting/saving a song this badly deteriorated is completely beyond me. The song is not worth having, not even for preservation's sake of the most dedicated 1940's music fan. So, of course, I immediately decided I'm going to use it somewhere on my site or this blog. Expect to soon

"I'm drowning in nothing

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"Nothing real Nothing left Nothing I'm losing myself Sinking deeper down" Man, it was hard to work this weekend, between Rock Band, Christmas trees, ect. I layed this page out over the weekend and penciled it Sunday night. It should be finished before morning today as long as I don't get distracted or something bad happens. That was hard to type and understand; I had to think hard about the days. It's Tuesday morning right now. I penciled that Sunday night. But, to me, Sunday night was last night because of how I slept. Monday afternoon is right now and Tuesday morning isn't going to be until after I've slept tonight, which will actually be Tuesday night. Geez, hopefully I can explain the next part better than that. I pieced this together earlier today because I was curious, and also because I thought it would help illustrate what I'll be explaining. I think this was pretty much the only panel I could do this with because I don't think I have scans