November 30, 2010
I drew a Skeksi today
I was watching the Dark Crystal last night and simply decided to draw my own Skeksi. I don't know why- I just did.
I drew this on the bus, and ran out of time. This is really evident when it comes to his legs, which are lazily drawn and don't make any sense. Pretty crappy but who cares? I'm actually drawing a little bit. Small crappy sketch = epic win for me.
Click to enlarge.
I drew this on the bus, and ran out of time. This is really evident when it comes to his legs, which are lazily drawn and don't make any sense. Pretty crappy but who cares? I'm actually drawing a little bit. Small crappy sketch = epic win for me.
Click to enlarge.
November 29, 2010
November 26, 2010
Icy Friday
I'm quite happy with things right now.
Sure I'm not drawing much, but it isn't due to any lack of motivation. Laziness is my vice. Sloth, rather. Since I don't believe in hell, I only fear the societal consequences and the possible impact on my self-esteem.
We have Corbin, a typical clever but naive scholar. We have his buddy - a devout Catholic Irishman who's our main tough guy. I've established an interesting pair up right there: close, reliable friends despite their theological differences.
Now we come to my main female character. I need her to be respectable, but I want her to be sexy. This is a bit tough... I mean I want her to be pin-up worthy, but I want her to be an actual good character with some depth. I'll be seeking more advice on this matter from my peers.
Blood elves are awesome, by the way.
Christmas time is coming around. Caroline and I are pretty broke, so it's home made gifts again this year. Not so bad- but I'm not gonna bother with a cleverly designed mix cd. No one ever listens to those anyway. Probably make ginger bread cookies in weird shapes - like jelly fish and turtles. Oh yeah!
I'm probably going to be buying a netbook soon. That way I'll be able to write more lengthly articles while on the bus. It will also help me take notes and be better organized at work. I hate writing things down with a pen now- I can rarely even read my own writing (not that I ever really re-read old notes anyway).
Well, that's it for now. I'll post more stuff soon! I promise.
November 22, 2010
November 19, 2010
Quote :: Kierkegaard
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they rarely use.”
- Soren Kierkegaard
- Soren Kierkegaard
November 16, 2010
Quote :: Stephen Fry
“The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane: each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of ‘franglais’ and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore.”
- The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Quote from Tumblr (yourhumanitydies) <-- can't guarantee that the site is work safe
- The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Quote from Tumblr (yourhumanitydies) <-- can't guarantee that the site is work safe
A quick funny...
I found this on a random Tumblr site. No idea what the source is, but it is really awesome!
November 12, 2010
November 9, 2010
November 8, 2010
Monday monday monday mon...
I'm going to be drawing again now.
'Probably going to be working on that dang tree from before. Also: I'm gonna iron out those Corbin character designs and a long due pin-up for my pal Chuck.
Stay tuned!
'Probably going to be working on that dang tree from before. Also: I'm gonna iron out those Corbin character designs and a long due pin-up for my pal Chuck.
Stay tuned!
November 5, 2010
FFRRREEEEEEE!!!!
The new corporate website is launched!
I will have a life now! Huzzah!
Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons and necking in the parlors!
It's almost too much to bear! LAZERS EVERYWHERE!
November 4, 2010
Corbin :: Supporting Characters II
So I've identified two of the protagonists:
Corbin: a sophisticated British scholar. Average height, wiry build, shaggy red hair and green eyes. He quite the skeptic and truly believes that science will answer every mystery: even supernatural ones. As a child he had an encounter with a vampire and it has made him mildly in tune with occult phenomena. Logically minded, he assess each problem at hand with lightning fast mental acrobatics.
Noe: a practical, hard as nails Irish dock worker and ex-thug. Devout Catholic with an extensive knowledge of Saints and Angels. Down to earth and good with the lower class. Protective of Corbin despite their conflicting views on the supernatural. An ex-boxer, he excels at physical feats of strength and endurance.
And now a third character to round them out.
Klara: a wealthy socialite and occultist. She is clever, sharp witted, pretty but eccentric. Very receptive to psychic phenomena and "echoes", she can more easily grasp the dark corners of the earth.
Klara was raised by her Uncle, a professor of anthropology and ancient cultural myths and legends. She meets the protagonists in Part I - having inherited an estate in a small town, she's requests Corbin's aid in seeking out a vampire.
I would like her to be darkly beautiful and sort of mysterious. She will NOT be a love interest to any of the other protagonists, despite her pretty, femme fatale appearance and personality.
Here are some visual inspirations for this character (yeah she's probably going to be a prolific smoker). Please ignore the modern trappings (tattoos, hairstyles etc...).
Corbin: a sophisticated British scholar. Average height, wiry build, shaggy red hair and green eyes. He quite the skeptic and truly believes that science will answer every mystery: even supernatural ones. As a child he had an encounter with a vampire and it has made him mildly in tune with occult phenomena. Logically minded, he assess each problem at hand with lightning fast mental acrobatics.
Noe: a practical, hard as nails Irish dock worker and ex-thug. Devout Catholic with an extensive knowledge of Saints and Angels. Down to earth and good with the lower class. Protective of Corbin despite their conflicting views on the supernatural. An ex-boxer, he excels at physical feats of strength and endurance.
And now a third character to round them out.
Klara: a wealthy socialite and occultist. She is clever, sharp witted, pretty but eccentric. Very receptive to psychic phenomena and "echoes", she can more easily grasp the dark corners of the earth.
Klara was raised by her Uncle, a professor of anthropology and ancient cultural myths and legends. She meets the protagonists in Part I - having inherited an estate in a small town, she's requests Corbin's aid in seeking out a vampire.
I would like her to be darkly beautiful and sort of mysterious. She will NOT be a love interest to any of the other protagonists, despite her pretty, femme fatale appearance and personality.
Here are some visual inspirations for this character (yeah she's probably going to be a prolific smoker). Please ignore the modern trappings (tattoos, hairstyles etc...).
Corbin :: Supporting Characters
Our protagonist will have a companion.
He will be a fellow Bostonian and a devout Catholic Irishman.
Physically, he will be of average height and build but will be very tough and stubborn. He grew up on the docks and was partially raised by priests who convinced troubled youths to focus their energies on boxing rather than crime.
His name will be that of an Irish Saint. Here are a few possibilities: Fergus, Cillin (KILL-yeen), Lucan (LOO-kun), Noe (No-eh), Ronan. Maybe. I like the sound of those names. I'm settling on Noe.
Noe befriends Corbin during WWI, in the trenches. Corbin, an intelligence officer or medic, saves his life and they bond.
This character has a cure-all prayer to a Saint or Angel for just about anything. It will be a running gag how many there are under his repertoire.
His design will be based on the actor Ray Stevenson.
Noe is down-to-earth and practical: but he has quite a fervent faith in higher powers. He's not unintelligent, just blunt and doesn't always think things through.
Sometimes he's at odds with Corbin's skepticism. The two will bicker on unexplainable events, especially when it comes to the matter of the supernatural.
At the start of Part One of the Tale of Corbin, Noe and he will already be together.
Next post will discuss the third member of this trio, whom the reader, as well as the protagonists, shall meet in Part One.
He will be a fellow Bostonian and a devout Catholic Irishman.
Physically, he will be of average height and build but will be very tough and stubborn. He grew up on the docks and was partially raised by priests who convinced troubled youths to focus their energies on boxing rather than crime.
His name will be that of an Irish Saint. Here are a few possibilities: Fergus, Cillin (KILL-yeen), Lucan (LOO-kun), Noe (No-eh), Ronan. Maybe. I like the sound of those names. I'm settling on Noe.
Noe befriends Corbin during WWI, in the trenches. Corbin, an intelligence officer or medic, saves his life and they bond.
This character has a cure-all prayer to a Saint or Angel for just about anything. It will be a running gag how many there are under his repertoire.
His design will be based on the actor Ray Stevenson.
Noe is down-to-earth and practical: but he has quite a fervent faith in higher powers. He's not unintelligent, just blunt and doesn't always think things through.
Sometimes he's at odds with Corbin's skepticism. The two will bicker on unexplainable events, especially when it comes to the matter of the supernatural.
At the start of Part One of the Tale of Corbin, Noe and he will already be together.
Next post will discuss the third member of this trio, whom the reader, as well as the protagonists, shall meet in Part One.
Corbin :: Defining a hero
One of the toughest things to do in this day and age must be creating a unique and interesting hero.
Just about everything has already been done. The literary archetypes have all been used over and over again. It is nearly impossible to be original.
One tendency that should probably be avoided is for the author to make his or her protagonist a mirror of themselves. The story becomes self-insertion fan-fiction. I hate that stuff, so I must try to avoid it at all costs.
Somethings that I'm sure I want from this protagonist:
He must have a major flaw that he will accept and/or overcome through his character arc.
Such a flaw is hard to choose, because I have such a critical view of myself and can only see flaws. Hence I'd rather avoid granting them to my hero.
Then again, this process may be therapeutic: I may come to accept these facets of myself as the hero does.
So what flaws to choose? I despise arrogance and self-righteousness in people, and I want to like my own character, so Corbin will not be a douche in that regard.
Perhaps cowardice? Naiveté? A mix of both, I think. He's had a rather sheltered life prior to being sent off to trenches in WWI. So he can't be too squeaky clean and prissy.
Definitely neurotic. That is something about which I can accurately write volumes. Paranoid in a social way: he reads people wrong or assumes far too much negativity.
Hmm... I must think about this further.
One tendency that should probably be avoided is for the author to make his or her protagonist a mirror of themselves. The story becomes self-insertion fan-fiction. I hate that stuff, so I must try to avoid it at all costs.
Somethings that I'm sure I want from this protagonist:
He must have a major flaw that he will accept and/or overcome through his character arc.
Such a flaw is hard to choose, because I have such a critical view of myself and can only see flaws. Hence I'd rather avoid granting them to my hero.
Then again, this process may be therapeutic: I may come to accept these facets of myself as the hero does.
So what flaws to choose? I despise arrogance and self-righteousness in people, and I want to like my own character, so Corbin will not be a douche in that regard.
Perhaps cowardice? Naiveté? A mix of both, I think. He's had a rather sheltered life prior to being sent off to trenches in WWI. So he can't be too squeaky clean and prissy.
Definitely neurotic. That is something about which I can accurately write volumes. Paranoid in a social way: he reads people wrong or assumes far too much negativity.
Hmm... I must think about this further.
November 3, 2010
Corbin as a child
Our main protagonist was born in London, England in the late Victorian Era (1891). On September 29, 1893, when he two years old, he was taken by Lucy Westenra, a newly created vampire. He was to be another of her nocturnal victims, but was rescued by a group of vampire hunters led by Abraham Van Helsing.
Other than this perturbing event - of which his conscious mind scarcely remembers at all, but occasionally haunts his dreams - his childhood existance was very mundane.
Corbin never really knew what his parents did for a living. They simply existed as vague figures who owned, fed and kept him inside a narrow but tall house in London.
Both were fat, jovial and boring. They reminded Corbin of a lazy elephant he had seen at the London Zoo.
His father and mother each had one pastime which was to read the business newspaper and scandalous penny dreadfuls, respectively. This they indulged even while sitting together at dinner and tea time. They all but ignored their son who was mostly attended to by his grandmother.
in 1910, Corbin's family moved to Boston where his father had found a great business opportunity and needed to re-locate.
More to come shortly.
For further research on the city of Boston:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sites_of_interest_in_Boston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_in_Boston
Other than this perturbing event - of which his conscious mind scarcely remembers at all, but occasionally haunts his dreams - his childhood existance was very mundane.
Corbin never really knew what his parents did for a living. They simply existed as vague figures who owned, fed and kept him inside a narrow but tall house in London.
Both were fat, jovial and boring. They reminded Corbin of a lazy elephant he had seen at the London Zoo.
His father and mother each had one pastime which was to read the business newspaper and scandalous penny dreadfuls, respectively. This they indulged even while sitting together at dinner and tea time. They all but ignored their son who was mostly attended to by his grandmother.
in 1910, Corbin's family moved to Boston where his father had found a great business opportunity and needed to re-locate.
More to come shortly.
For further research on the city of Boston:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sites_of_interest_in_Boston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_in_Boston
November 2, 2010
OMG OMG Synopsis of Nolan's Batman 3!!!
Special thanks to my buddy GrandpaWiggly on the forums for this.
Official Synopsis
Director Christopher Nolan (“Inception”) concludes his Batman saga with the much-anticipated follow-up to “The Dark Knight,” the third biggest film of all-time: “The Dark Knight Rises”
With the Joker and half the mob locked up and somewhat of a semblance of order returning to the streets of Gotham, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, “American Psycho") tries to shed his billionaire playboy image by using the company his parents built to do good for Gotham City (Chicago, “Chicago”).
The police actively seek Batman as a suspect in several unsolved murders but with no sightings in nearly a year, dwindling public interest, and sympathetic Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman, “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight”) calling the shots, the case has gone cold. Until an outspoken blowhard and ambitious mayoral candidate by the name of Oswald Cobblepot (Stephen Tobolowsky, “Memento,” BING!) incites public outrage and renewed interest, and pledges that when elected he will use a privately-funded security firm to bring Batman (Christian Bale, “Newsies") to swift justice.
But Cobblepot has his own agenda and secretly charges a perfectionist private detective (Tom Hardy, “Inception”), who goes by the pseudonym Edward Nygma, the task of uncovering Batman’s true identity. Unbeknown to his client, Nygma suffers from debilitating and self-destructive obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and may very well be in the employ of another!
Bruce Wayne suspects Cobblepot of having ties to criminal organizations and dons the cowl again so that Batman can conduct his own investigation, against the better judgment of his only two confidants: his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine, “Inception”), who finds the recently rebuilt Wayne Manor to be quite drafty and rather lonely, and longtime family friend Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman, “Lean on Me,” a car accident in Mississippi).
Batman isn’t scaling from rooftops for long when he crosses paths—and finds solace—with a spry and seductive petty cat burglar (Marion Cotillard, “Inception,” France) who leads her own double life.
Fox, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, is mired in a scandal of his own after his secretary (Scarlett Johansson, “The Prestige”) goes missing and fowl play is suspected. Though all evidence points to him as the primary suspect, Fox suspects he’s been setup by creepy IT guy and avid hat enthusiast Jervis Tetch (Andy Serkis, “The Prestige”). While trying to clear his name, Fox uncovers an insidious plot involving a disgraced, deformed actor (Christian Bale—in a dual role!) who has been surgically altered to look like Bruce Wayne.
Meanwhile in Arkham Asylum, the terrorist known only as the Joker (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “Inception,” replacing his “Ten Things I Hate About You” costar and late Academy Award® winner Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight,” Mary-Kate Olsen) rots in a solitary cell, confined in a straightjacket, suffering nightly physical abuse from a sadistic and oppressive male nurse (Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Man”) and a deformed former crocodile wrestler turned burly guard (Mickey Rourke, “Iron Man 2”). Striped of his white “war paint,” his head shaved, and his mouth scars stretched even further, the Joker begins to exhibit convincing remorseful tendencies that go ignored by the asylum staff, but lure the empathy of a brilliant, over-achieving psychiatry student (Ellen Page, “Inception,” “Juno”) who quickly develops a deep fascination and perverse infatuation with her subject—a seductive secret she keeps even from her best friend and roommate (Piper Perabo, “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”), an environmental science student and environmental activist who gets involved with environmental extremists.
All of this comes together, somehow, eventually culminating in a thrilling 90-minute climax that will change Bruce Wayne and Gotham City a little.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES Presents, in Association with LEGENDARY PICTURES, a SYNCOPY Production of A CHRISTOPHER NOLAN Film: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Christian Bale, Michael Cane, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ellen Page, Javier Bardem, Mickey Rourke, Piper Perabo, Scarlett Johansson, Foghorn Leghorn, Andy Serkis, with Morgan Freeman and Eugene Levy.
color/340 minutes.
...LOL
Official Synopsis
Director Christopher Nolan (“Inception”) concludes his Batman saga with the much-anticipated follow-up to “The Dark Knight,” the third biggest film of all-time: “The Dark Knight Rises”
With the Joker and half the mob locked up and somewhat of a semblance of order returning to the streets of Gotham, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, “American Psycho") tries to shed his billionaire playboy image by using the company his parents built to do good for Gotham City (Chicago, “Chicago”).
The police actively seek Batman as a suspect in several unsolved murders but with no sightings in nearly a year, dwindling public interest, and sympathetic Commissioner James Gordon (Gary Oldman, “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight”) calling the shots, the case has gone cold. Until an outspoken blowhard and ambitious mayoral candidate by the name of Oswald Cobblepot (Stephen Tobolowsky, “Memento,” BING!) incites public outrage and renewed interest, and pledges that when elected he will use a privately-funded security firm to bring Batman (Christian Bale, “Newsies") to swift justice.
But Cobblepot has his own agenda and secretly charges a perfectionist private detective (Tom Hardy, “Inception”), who goes by the pseudonym Edward Nygma, the task of uncovering Batman’s true identity. Unbeknown to his client, Nygma suffers from debilitating and self-destructive obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and may very well be in the employ of another!
Bruce Wayne suspects Cobblepot of having ties to criminal organizations and dons the cowl again so that Batman can conduct his own investigation, against the better judgment of his only two confidants: his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine, “Inception”), who finds the recently rebuilt Wayne Manor to be quite drafty and rather lonely, and longtime family friend Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman, “Lean on Me,” a car accident in Mississippi).
Batman isn’t scaling from rooftops for long when he crosses paths—and finds solace—with a spry and seductive petty cat burglar (Marion Cotillard, “Inception,” France) who leads her own double life.
Fox, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, is mired in a scandal of his own after his secretary (Scarlett Johansson, “The Prestige”) goes missing and fowl play is suspected. Though all evidence points to him as the primary suspect, Fox suspects he’s been setup by creepy IT guy and avid hat enthusiast Jervis Tetch (Andy Serkis, “The Prestige”). While trying to clear his name, Fox uncovers an insidious plot involving a disgraced, deformed actor (Christian Bale—in a dual role!) who has been surgically altered to look like Bruce Wayne.
Meanwhile in Arkham Asylum, the terrorist known only as the Joker (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “Inception,” replacing his “Ten Things I Hate About You” costar and late Academy Award® winner Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight,” Mary-Kate Olsen) rots in a solitary cell, confined in a straightjacket, suffering nightly physical abuse from a sadistic and oppressive male nurse (Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Man”) and a deformed former crocodile wrestler turned burly guard (Mickey Rourke, “Iron Man 2”). Striped of his white “war paint,” his head shaved, and his mouth scars stretched even further, the Joker begins to exhibit convincing remorseful tendencies that go ignored by the asylum staff, but lure the empathy of a brilliant, over-achieving psychiatry student (Ellen Page, “Inception,” “Juno”) who quickly develops a deep fascination and perverse infatuation with her subject—a seductive secret she keeps even from her best friend and roommate (Piper Perabo, “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”), an environmental science student and environmental activist who gets involved with environmental extremists.
All of this comes together, somehow, eventually culminating in a thrilling 90-minute climax that will change Bruce Wayne and Gotham City a little.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES Presents, in Association with LEGENDARY PICTURES, a SYNCOPY Production of A CHRISTOPHER NOLAN Film: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Christian Bale, Michael Cane, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ellen Page, Javier Bardem, Mickey Rourke, Piper Perabo, Scarlett Johansson, Foghorn Leghorn, Andy Serkis, with Morgan Freeman and Eugene Levy.
color/340 minutes.
...LOL
November 1, 2010
November and the Dawn
The new corporate website will be launching this week (Thursday). That may not mean much to any of my readers (all four or five of them), but to me it is a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
After weeks of stress and fatigue, my regular routine will resume. I'll be able to indulge in my hobbies, as well as resuming my artistic pursuits. Namely, the Tale of Corbin.
It looks more and more that it will be an illustrated storybook rather than a comic. Since I'm a big fan of the fabled Rule of Three (a nearly mystical concept that brings much order to my perceived chaotic universe), I'm planning a trilogy. This is a nice and tidy idea.
So with that I am posting some more inspiring images that I found on tumblr. Most of them are particularly applicable to the first part of the Tale of Corbin, which involves a vampire.
Andre: I hope that you get some inspiration from these, and from my earlier post with similar images.
After weeks of stress and fatigue, my regular routine will resume. I'll be able to indulge in my hobbies, as well as resuming my artistic pursuits. Namely, the Tale of Corbin.
It looks more and more that it will be an illustrated storybook rather than a comic. Since I'm a big fan of the fabled Rule of Three (a nearly mystical concept that brings much order to my perceived chaotic universe), I'm planning a trilogy. This is a nice and tidy idea.
So with that I am posting some more inspiring images that I found on tumblr. Most of them are particularly applicable to the first part of the Tale of Corbin, which involves a vampire.
Andre: I hope that you get some inspiration from these, and from my earlier post with similar images.
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