all aboard the fart train

http://nerdarmada.blogspot.com/2009/07/welcome-to-new-cn.html


Bluhhhh. This is so sad. I AM WAVING A CANDLE FOR THE OLD (CARTOON PRODUCING) CARTOON NETWORK

I was going to complain about this being YET ANOTHER ASININE PROMPT but, hey, what the hell, I'll bite:

It was Star Trek, and a second viewing of it. Everyone is hot, and I am absolutely certain there is someone writing fanfiction where all of them* have sex on the bridge, with a plausible reason included for their behavior (they probably run into q, or something. or they're ALL JUST REALLY HOT). PLAUSIBILITY!

*even that little runty guy that tags along with Simon Pegg. No, ESPECIALLY HIM! He's not hot by any means, but I'm sure people in the 23th century have moved past their prejudices against the tragically unsexy.

EDIT: If this doesn't already exist I'm demanding that someone write it. >:C

but this needs to be said: brent spiner's twitter is a glorious read.

Guys, your suggestions for horrible drawings are wonderful. But I am taking a break from that because I felt like checkin' out paintchat - and lo and behold, they restarted registration and it actually seems to work this time.

What I'm getting at is YOU SHOULD REGISTER FOR IT

http://pchat.mine.nu/

SUGGEST YOUR FAVORITE RIDICULOUS FANDOM PAIRING

ie: Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes out with Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager

or perhaps Dr. Who holding a bedside vigil for a comatose Clarissa Explains it All! That's her full name, right? Right?

and I will draw them making out! Or groping butts, whatever. I AM BORED GOSH DARN IT but not bored enough to slog through fanfiction.net for something to do an illustrated writeup of.

I MISS BEING BORED ENOUGH TO DO FANFICTION FRIDAY :C

This week I finished reading through Susanna Clarke's collection of short stories that are all more or less in the same universe as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. They're pretty wonderful and a nice introduction to her writing style (in case you're hesitant about reading her novel, which is kind of a behemoth). A++++++ forever.

So now I'm moving onto QUICKER THAN THE EYE, which is a collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories. Some of them are pretty interesting but god. God, Ray Bradbury. I am a little bothered by how he seems to give all of his characters the same voice - they're all very literate and wordy. I think maybe ONE character in one of the stories was glib for like a page, and then it was a paragraph of poetic stuff and that is wearing a little thin, honestly. But nothing can really live up to the stories in The Illustrated Man, so maybe I'm judging a bit harshly.

NEXT: Popul Vuh! I kind of picked it up on a whim, and because it was cheap. Maybe next time I go to that bookstore I'll buy one of the reviewer manuscripts they sell for 2 bucks.

about a year back I did a bunch of doodles of cartoony versions of the characters from THE FINAL SACRIFICE, I think now I am going to work on that some more. I never got around to drawing PIPPER, after all!

I'm trying to do a lot more drawing of more human-ly proportioned body types

but whenever I do this, I start unconsciously giving them starfleet uniforms

NO STOP STOP STOP

The weather in Indiana was conducive to KITE FLYIN' (for about an hour) this week so Ian and I finally got to break out our TOTALLY AWESOME SMIRKING WINNIE THE POOH SUPERHERO KITES.

Okay, just kidding, they were not totally awesome. I had no problem getting mine up in the air but for some reason Ian's string IMMEDIATELY got all tangled up in one of the hundreds of places where it could get tangled in those stupid things.

And then it started raining on us. But hey! YAY KITES, right?

turbinerocks posted some fantastic questions FOR ARTISTS so I thought I'd answer them!


When was the last time you drew something under the influence? (drunk, stoned, etc) Was it a beneficial experience? Did it help or hurt the art?

Either last night or the night before that, after I interpreted Ian becoming drunk while watching wrestling as a CHALLENGE for me to also become drunk. It actually HELPED because for the last few days I've felt kind of caged in by the way I usually approach drawing, so I loosened up and was able to bang out a bunch of doodles I thought weren't too bad.



What was the last "breakthrough" or important event you had in the growth/realization of your artistic abilities? Or if that doesn't make much sense, what was the last thing you made that you felt was significant?

I think becoming patient enough to use watercolors was pretty important, though it hasn't affected the way I approach art across the board or anything - I'm still pretty fussy and impatient and actually FINISHING something is a tremendous feat. Before that, the animation/character building workshop BJ had was great in terms of getting me to revisit ideas and become comfortable with just scrapping stuff that isn't working, and start over.


What is the artistic peer (someone you know personally or who is accessible to you) who is currently the largest influence on your work?

Man, that's tough! I am currently WAY DIGGING on monstro_draw and harveyjames's linework, and Patrick Alexander (of eegra) does some lovely watercolors! I basically have this gigantic list of art/animation blogs that I look at while howling "OH GOD THAT IS BEAUTIFUL!"


What frustrates you most about the art-making process? What do you have the most resistance to doing, craftwise?

I have a lot of trouble with backgrounds, for a number of reasons. I like to view the background as a character, and that helps a lot BUT it doesn't make up for the fact that I'm kind of spotty as far as perspective and composition go - I avoid taking the time to make a picture WORK before I start trying to finish it up... which is OBNOXIOUS because what the hell, I have no excuse for not knowing how to do this stuff.

WHAT? Are these questions intentionally stupid or uh, what am I missing exactly? Because this is phrased so badly it is making me a little angry. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MONOGAMY? WHAT ABOUT SANTA CLAUS OR THE DEVIL???????????????

or like is this one of those questions where jilted lovers are supposed to give a 3 paragraph long spiel about how they don't believe in monogamy because WHY DO I KEEP GETTING CHEATEDEDED ON?????????


GODDAMN YOU, TERRIBLE QUESTION

edit: I like question marks.

http://www.mojang.com/notch/minecraft/

I have no idea why this is so compelling - it's a sandbox game where you are plopped into a randomly generated terrain and you can add and remove blocks to build stuff. On my initial playthrough I lost an entire afternoon to digging tunnels and building stairways and accidentally flooding the tunnels. I tried to turn one of the flooded tunnels into a sewer-y thing by adding platforms raised above the water, but then I accidentally tunneled into the ocean and flooded it even more. WHOOPS

And then last night when I was trying to fall asleep I couldn't because I couldn't stop planning out A TOWER OR FORTRESS or whatever

BLAST YOU, MINECRAFT


I'm on a bit of a break until sometime in june when we start workin' on another spot. Until then I want to work on a website (FOR REAL THIS TIME) and my portfolio. WHEEEEEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sg6qzpa_wc&feature=PlayList&p=EA2A2D8F0981B4E9&index=0

You guys should watch this - it's a French animated film that started production in the 40s and finally was completed in 1980. But that's not important - what's important is it's REALLY WEIRD and is about PAINTINGS THAT COME TO LIFE and a GIANT ROBOT. I don't want to give too much away. So watch it.

if this is going to be anything like the bird flu pandemic that was supposed to ravage the country then uhh how about no

MY PLAN INVOLVES KICKING THE FLU

IN ITS THROAT

EDIT: also, "quarantine"? ASLDKJKFJFJ HAHAHAHAHAH FUCK YOU, person that wrote this question.

stop awkwardly talking about twitter

it is making you even more unbearable than usual
and you are pretty wretched as it is


this is just like the times you were excitedly saying nothing interesting about "the information superhighway" or "WEB LOGS"

NICE SEGUE, JACKASSES

This is so vague. My favorite LJ posts, I think, are the ones where that "post and I'll draw things based on your userinterests" meme was going around. SO MANY RIDICULOUS PICTURES FROM SO MANY PEOPLE

this totally happened, only when Ian had the handlebar mustache one side of it curled up and the other side curled down :

I am feeling super gross today, so I opted not to go to work (though I ended up going there to drop off my invoice and distribute the work that seemed the most time-sensitive, and then feeling bad about being sick because gosh golly gee I like my job, or something) and now I am drinking tea and eating lozenges like a lozenge eating machine.

I SHOULD PROBABLY BE LYING DOWN but what the hey. There is internet to be looked at, and predictably it is kind of boring when there I'm not actually talking to people.

It probably didn't help that I went out to grab dinner and watch Coraline* again with Joy on Tuesday! The concept of Michigan Avenue having a lower and upper section is still totally baffling to me, and I ended up walking around in a complete circle of several blocks before discovering that a) there is a stairwell that leads directly to the Billy Goat Tavern and b) what the hell it's getting warm out now? when I'm bundled in a giant winter jacket and gloves and scarf? NOT FAIR.

HOLY CRAP this is jazzy jazz the video game

this is like a bizarro version of kingdom hearts 2 in that it starts with a super long LET'S INTRODUCE YOU TO THE WORLD OF THIS GAME section

except there are no fucking LET'S EARN MONEY PLAYING TEDIOUS MINIGAMES parts
or cut scenes where you and your uninspiring friends sit at the ledge of a building and ask
WILL CHILDHOOD LAST FOREVER???????????

instead you get a talking bear thing
a teacher that calls his student assholes
and awesome music instead of a constant WHOOOSHING noise and echo effects on EVERYONE'S VOICE EVERYWHERE

So, I guess it's really the exact opposite of Kingdom hearts 2. In that I do not feel the need to voice my disdain for everything in the game.

the yellow color theme is actually pretty nice, too, and the menus are like a fucking explosion of happiness

I drew a bunch of faces in one sitting that I was pretty happy with, and rendered a few of my favorites.

( pictures under the cut )