The Wonderings of dWoo

ostrich

2011-12-10T01:59:00.001-08:00

ostrich

2011-08-30T10:22:00.001-07:00

2011-08-30T00:43:00.001-07:00

more mugen studies

2011-03-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

lemonhead/mugen studies

2011-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

2011-03-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

doodlin'

2011-03-21T19:57:00.001-07:00

2011-03-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

2011-03-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

something different.

toph warmups

2011-03-15T18:33:00.001-07:00

warming up with toph this morning.

2011-03-14T20:54:00.001-07:00

not toph. but definitely toph inspired

needs more sexy.

2011-03-08T19:54:00.001-08:00

something different

2011-03-04T18:11:00.001-08:00

another

2011-03-03T20:02:00.001-08:00

gurls

2011-03-02T19:11:00.001-08:00

uhhhh....

2011-03-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

an awkward moment...

stab 2

2011-02-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

girls girls girls

2011-02-14T20:03:00.001-08:00

My good friend Eugene http://misterunagi.tumblr.com/ draws some damn sexy gurls. As such I want to be cool like him and draw awesome women. heres my first stab at it.

samurai vespa

2011-01-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

drunk monks

2011-01-25T20:57:00.001-08:00

doodle1

2011-01-10T19:41:00.001-08:00

this was supposed to be posted last week, but the computer was acting screwy.

doodle.

2011-01-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

this started from the idea of godzilla destroying a city and that maybe it was a woman under the costume destroying the city.
that would be cool.
unfortunately after that things got blurry and i haven't figured out all my ideas. this is the end result. a direction-less monster that doesn't convey any story or feeling.
T_T need to focus better.

a viking

2010-09-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

me

2010-09-15T15:09:00.001-07:00

rex

2010-09-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

tetsuo

2010-09-10T21:07:00.001-07:00

colors are coming... some time.

citrus ranger revisited

2010-08-25T20:04:00.001-07:00

Citrus Ranger GO!

team rocket

2010-08-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

wip team rocket.

citrus ranger

2010-08-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Citrus Ranger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WVEsynuDbE

right hand of fish

2010-06-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

a quick hellboy drawing. no ref.
he only wishes he had the "right hand of doom" that will awaken the 7 fishes of destruction.

doodle

2010-06-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

just an after work doodle.
some weird lion-antler-humanoid thing.

i really don't know.

deadliest catch

2010-05-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

i was watching "deadliest catch" on netflix and i just couldn't resist the idea of fishermen having to catch something deadly.

i'm sorry

2009-12-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

So i'm sorry for lying months ago about posting.
here is something i wanted to try. not quite done yet, and its getting very messy. but i like the feel of it.

can you guess what or who it is.

wheres wooman

2009-10-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Soooo....

I haven't posted in a while and that is a terrible terrible tragedy. But worry not, I have been drawing, and drawing quite a bit. So I promise to stop being lazy and start scanning some of my drawings and will post them by the end of the week.

If not you can flood this blog with words of discontent and rebellion.

[Posted this to force me into a binding contract with the scanner.]

analysis

2009-07-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

I was looking at another person's blog and they said to give them critiques and reviews, and I was thinking about taking one of their pics and drawing all over it pointing out the mistakes. Then I thought, why would I want to be so mean like that, when I could easily do the same to my own.

Well that is so true.

Lets look at the pic I did a couple days ago.

So ideally I wanted this to be a crazy down shot with an extreme perspective. But even if it is an extreme perspective there are still rules of anatomy and perspective. So here we go, just follow the numbers.

The numbers are in an arbitrary order: I numbered them as I found them. Also I saved the file really small then accidentally deleted it. So this is the only remaining copy of it. My bad, but I hope you can see it.

1. I gridded out the floor of my drawing based upon the position of the feet, assuming that they were just shoulder length apart and pointing straight forward normally. We can see that the vanishing point is behind the monster near his belly button. The grid gets one thing right, its a down shot, but its more a 45 degree downshot than say a 75 degree downshot; thats extreme! Thats the first mistake, the feet of the monster do not indicate the ground plane to be extreme enough.

2. I boxed out the pelvis of the monster and drew a line straight down the middle of the pelvis. If you follow the line all the way down to the ground plane it will give you the place just beneath the monster and the place where the wait should be centered. However, the wait of the monster is not centered there. The feet are in front of that spot, the red feet indicate where the correct position of the feet should be to even allow the monster to stand.

3. We quickly jump up to the sword. Follow the perspective lines of the hilt and it will terminate near the back of the monster. But the sword blades continue past this point. If a sword is basically a plane, then all the lines of the plane should terminate at the vanishing point. Do they no.

4. Same deal with the horns, follow the perpsective lines to the vanishing point. Now if the horns are of the same height then technically they should lie on the same perspective line. But they don't. If they were to fall on the same line the horn closest to the viewer would be off the page. That would be extreme!

5. The right arm of the monster is weird. Lets say the length of the arm of the monster from the shoulder to the elbow is 1, then the length of the elbow to the wrist should be 2/3. However, this is hard to measure because the arm is foreshortened. It is possible to measure with perpsective, but I decided to opt out, because just looking at the arm it looks to short, the wrist and hands should be bigger.

6. The hilt of the sword is basically a cylinder and like all cylinders; circles that are drawn within the cylinder farther away from the horizon become more like circles rather than ovals. Did that make sense? Probably not, just look at a soda can thats placed on a table. Look at the lip of the top of the can. Its shaped like an oval. Now use your x-ray vision and look at the bottom lip of the can, its still an oval shape but more circular than the top lip. Anyways this same principle applies to the sword hilt, and it fails miserably beause it became more ovular farther down the hilt.

7. The eyes don't line up properly with the perpsective lines placed down by the horns.

Anyways, there are more mistakes to be found within the drawing, but those 7 alone pretty much peg the major issues. Oddly enough the mistakes together form this weird perspective that could possibly fool one(me) into thinking its an extreme perspective, when in fact there is no consistent perspective. But ya. Time to study up on perspective some more.

hua shan mountain

2009-07-01T19:20:00.001-07:00

This is a pic from Hua Shan mountain, one of the sacred mountains in China. OR its from Tai Shuan, I'm not entirely sure because I've been amassing pics of all 5. How cool is it that they have these sacred peaks; when I hear it I think ancient magic, mystical scrolls, old sages, etc.

Anyways there are a lot of color and compositional problems amongst other things.

grrr

2009-06-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

So I drew a monster last week friday and was going to post it up, but the computer fragged out on me and corrupted the file so it'll be a while before it gets up on the web. Instead here is a picture of a beach thingy. Did it as a doodle.

Als0 'huzzzahs' all around, I'm plotting the return of Adventure Guy.
If you don't know him go to my website www.dwooman.com and watch the video.

switching gears

2009-06-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

So instead of drawing robots for every time I surf the web I'm going to draw monsters and kids. Its a nice change of pace. Here's the first.
Its not even complete.

I recently got a job as a storyboard revisionist, and some people were curious as to what I actually do. Basically, I work with each director and fix the things they tell me to fix. They make notes on the boards that the storyboard artists hand in, and the director shows me the notes and tells me how he wants it to be, and I go and fix it. My job entails drawing on both paper and cintiq, as well as cutting, taping, etc. So that in a short blurb is what I do.

I love my job.

another robot

2009-06-13T01:02:00.000-07:00

I've been extremely busy at work. If you don't know, I've begun work at cartoon network as a storyboard revisionist. At the end of the day I popped this one out just before I was going home. I thought it was the coolest thing at the time, but looking at it now, its only alright at best.

more robots and a swine

2009-05-06T21:27:00.001-07:00

secret photo

2009-04-28T23:55:00.001-07:00

robots

2009-04-28T00:37:00.000-07:00

more drawing

2009-04-23T23:16:00.001-07:00

just drawing

2009-04-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Just some practice.

what secrets does he withhold from us about his hair stylings?

stop surfing the net and draw robots

2009-04-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was shown this picture recently and decided to take action.

Here are my first two bots.

The first skulle'e half biological tree and half robot. It decapitates any passerby and takes their head and adds it to the collection of other heads. Using the combined heads knowledge to nourish it.

The second kiwi, is a flightless robot. Nothing else is known about this bot.

doodles

2009-04-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

A quick post of some doodles.
nothing special.

whats in my head?

whos been drawing?

2009-03-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some doodles that I've drawn up.
Can't really tell you why because its top secret.
Perhaps when its further along I'll let you in on the secret.

In other news, happy b-day to jeremy polgar. The big Two Five! What a party.

sci-fi-fun

2009-03-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

Have been working on a sci-fi project for a friend for the last couple weeks.
Part of the project I needed to design two types of spaceships for the humans. One being a super starcruiser and one being a fighter jet type of thing, both using gravity fields to propel them through the depths of space.

I didn't have any idea how to approach the ships, until it dawned on me, "how are these ships supposed to find gravity leaking into other dimensions?" well, if they are anything like biological creatures they have a shape that suits this need...like the hammerhead shark!

Thus came the first design and the second soon followed quickly.
Here they are. Also fyi: I realized I love the technical aspect of designing these ships. I think when I have some free time I'm going to pursue some land vehicular design.

anyways here.

I'll post the technical specifications of the ship later and the size ratio between the two. The SS hammerhead is supposed to be as big as a star destroyer and the Manta similar size to the millennium falcon. ya.

300

2009-02-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

A guilty pleasure of mine: watching the movie "300" while drawing. Its not an Oscar winner by any means, but there are some stunning shots that are just adrenaline rushes. This drawing is not one of those shots, but its where the sergeants son is standing in front of the army as a rhino charges toward them. He looks up tired but confident, and I just thought it was bad ass.

I quickly sketched this, and realized that the structure is pretty off. Even after rotating the drawing in Photoshop, it is still very visible that the underlying structure of the drawing is a little askew. I'll probably go back and try to redo this, or in fact draw over it to see where I made the mistake.

In the mean time enjoy.

who?

2009-01-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

Why is this lizard holding a gun and wearing a high-tech suit?
What does it mean? Find out soon.

beat it

2009-01-29T21:46:00.001-08:00

Some more drawings.
who is this guy and what is he doing with the dragon peace pipe?

what is this bad guy's purpose? is he really bad?
and what is he going to do with that sword?

i just don't know.

ahhhh hell

2009-01-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

Finished up the drawing.
inked it, then photoshopped it.
wanted it to have a hellboy type of coloring to it.
what do you think?

ponderins

2009-01-16T00:17:00.000-08:00

Heres a drawing I was working on.
It was from a reference.

2009

2009-01-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

First post of the New Year; year of the ox btw.
As promised heres that dump of pics.

holidaying

2008-12-30T02:42:00.001-08:00

For the last 2 weeks I have been spending my time in HI; with family and friends. Unfortunately I haven't been able to post any of my work because of the lack of a scanner. So when I do get back watch out for a dump of pics.

dump post dump

2008-12-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

just blah.
some good a lot bad

dudelins

2008-12-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

Just some doodling.
Nothing to report back to Earth.

Sending our music into deep space

2008-11-20T10:27:00.001-08:00

I have been listening to two albums lately; both of which have inspired me greatly. The first being the Kanye's new album "808's and Heartbreak" and secondly "A Kid Named Cudi" by Kid Cudi; a fresh young rapper on the scene who has a whimsical lyricism to his rhymes.

I would suggest downloading Kid Cudi's album as it is free and amazing.
As for Kanye's it comes out on the 25th of Nov. and I'll be getting that one as well.

The astronaut pic was inspired by the song "embrace the martian" on Cudi's album. There is something about space and music, and what seems like totally polar opposites are quite similar. It is a frontier I have to explore.

The jetpack dude came from my mind's eye consciousness and the thought of just floating in the air.

skull fire

2008-11-11T00:51:00.000-08:00

Do you ever imagine thoughts that you had imagined years ago when you were a child? Sometimes I happen upon my own imaginations and when I do I realized that the world used to be so much more magical than it is now.

Perhaps because the air was cleaner back then.

Anyways, just a warm up drawing of S**T. I have to get back into the habit of drawing with a purpose. As well as an environment, not just random doodles that try to make themselves into something.

"can i get some pants?"

hulk pose

2008-11-05T22:41:00.000-08:00

Finished watching "The Incredible Hulk" today; thought it was much better than the first movie, but was not quite as good as I expected it to be. I commend them on being able to capture an emotional side to the Hulk, but was disappointed that there was no internal dialogue between Eric Banner and the Hulk; it was as if the two were completely separate. Liv Tyler was also a bit whiny in the movie, but I let that slide because she filled the part of his love interest like a glove.

Anyways, I tried drawing the hulk and found that he is a lot of fun. His body mass and silhouette are difficult to manipulate and require a knowledge of anatomy and line quality. It is one thing to just draw him with muscles, but because there is so many curves to all the muscles there needs to be balance and excitement in the placement of the curves and lines, and contrast between the soft and hard lines. I'm not sure if I capture it as well as I wanted to, but I plan on drawing more of the green giant.

he's a little squat, but hulk (is) SMASHed!!!

film outside the frame

2008-10-16T02:41:00.000-07:00

The film festival for LMU "film outside the frame" was this past Monday and a couple films that receive a note worthy praise. "Hammerfists of Fury" and "Sumo" tied for the animation award and rightfully so. Heres the link to the production blog of Hammerfists of fury, http://hammerfistproductions.blogspot.com/

ok. I've been a little busy with work and what not, but I took some time out of my busy schedule for this. For what? For chameleons. I have a great idea for using there general shapes and proportions and hopefully it'll turn out amazing as well.

As always critiques are more than welcomed and are actually why I even keep blogging. anyways enough talk.

blam!

B&N

2008-10-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

There are so many good books out there. Here are some of the books on my to buy list:

dream worlds - hans bacher
frank frazetta (a collection of his work.)
Robots vs Amazons vs Zombies
art of hellboy
Force
5 Cs of Cinema
Finding nemo artbook
Incredibles artbook
etc.

here are some drawings i did. i was going to use them for a banner, but i ended up not even using a banner. so here they are.

ALSO: have you heard about the "orphan bill" ? talk to your local senator to have that thing shot down like a spy plane.

late night

2008-09-25T03:42:00.001-07:00

I have been staying up late at night to draw.
here is some of it.

avatar

2008-09-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

Today I watched the last of the "avatar: the last airbender." The series itself wrapped up very cohesively, but I feel it ended abruptly and with some loose ends. For one, everyone seems to be pretty cool with going off and fighting a whole nation, not to mention the fact that the nation has an advantage with the comet screaming across the sky. Secondly, what happened to all the planning that they used the first time they tried to invade the fire nation? It seems like they were flying by the seat of their pants hoping for the best, it doesn't seem like a strong enough reason for them to risk their lives, especially with all the doubt leading up to the fight. As for the loose ends, what happened to tof and her love interest for Saka, that seems to have been swept under the rug, and what the airbenders; there aren't anymore except for ang. The biggest loose end though is what happens between ang and kitara, they are all of a sudden perfect after the war is over, no conversation no discussion, just perfect. All of it seems to easy.

Anyways my rant is over and at the end of it all, I still love the series. Here is a sketch I did. The funny thing about it is that the lady (old old lady) on the left was just kind of standing there when I finished and I wanted to spruce it up. So I started imagining her as this great engineer making all these cool techy ships. Then I got caught up in that, and I think its all kind of bland, but this is one of my first introductions into that type of technical drawing of future ships.

no more

2008-09-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

So my plan to have lucid dreams has hit a little snag. Instead of being able to control my dreams, I can no longer remember my dreams when I wake up. Ya, two steps forward, 3 steps back. Anyways, heres some stuff from my moleskin that I forgot to post.

Lucid Dreams

2008-09-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have been keeping a dream wall. Basically what it is, is a wall that I write all my dreams down on when I wake up. If you were to read the wall you would realize that most of the dreams make no sense at all; there is no continuity even in the same dream. Anyways this experiment (the dream wall) has led me into another experiment, controlling my dreams. When a person has conscious control over a dream it is known as a lucid dream. I read on wikipedia there are various ways to be able to control your dreams and that it is even possible to stay conscious while your body goes from being awake to sleep. I'll keep you update on my progress.

As promised here are the minimal sketches I did when watching porco rosso. And the other is of some sketches I did while I was watching "tales of earthsea."

Love Lockdown

2008-09-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

Kanye has just debuted another song of his at the VMAs, "Love Lockdown." It will be a part of his new album "808 and heartbreak." Listen to the song here. I'm not sure how I feel about the song; its neither bad nor good, I'm kind of on a neutral stance toward this song. The funny thing is that I've been humming the song ever since I heard it. I think I need to hear the song in relation to the other songs on the album so that I can get the real meaning and feel of the song. Anyways, listen and holla back.

The sketch posted are studies I was doing for a more finalized piece. In my head I imagine two people sitting or standing, basically somewhere near a vespa or motorcycle. The feeling emoted by the piece itself should be a silent focus, kind of like a pristine lake in the mountain; flat and reflective of its surroundings. I want the people to emote this, in their own world that the two of are a part of, but at the same time also aware of the world around and the viewer. This is a lot to ask of the piece, but I have a clear cut direction so from here on out its just tweaking.

motorhead

2008-09-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today I just wanted to draw. There were all these ideas just swirling up in that coconut of mine. I'm not sure why this was, but I believe it all started with "Porco Rosso" and the beautiful lines of the red plane he flew. To quote 'Transformers', "there is a mystical bond between man and machine." I find that quote to be especially true as I watched this one plane fly through the sky; its sleek, swift, slices through the cloud. But it is not light like paper, nor air, it has weight substance and density, and yet it evokes such a feeling of elegance and guile; its beautiful.

Anyways, I drew some sketches of the porco rosso plane, but I'm not quite done with it yet, so I won't post it, but I did do some other drawings. One of a commander who just seems to be pondering war, and the other of a guy on a motorcycle. The drawings themselves aren't particularly amazing, except for the fact that they just appeared in my head. It was as though they were trying to break out of my noggin' and get on the page. I feel like this is a break through in my thinking, in the way I internalize how to create images; I seriously contemplated the lines of the drawings and the perspective and the weight of each. They aren't perfect, not by a long shot, but I feel something changing inside of me. To quote Randall from Monsters inc. "...can you hear it. Those are the winds of change."

I totally forgot to talk about the storyboards! These ideas were just poppin' out of my brain too, however these ideas are already changing and so I stopped because it was going in a different direction than what I imagined. They will probably play a part in my episode 2 of Adventure Guy!

biking and boats

2008-09-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

What did you do for labor day?
Did you labor?

Fortunately I didn't have to labor, well not in the same sense as going to a job, I instead biked for about 3 hours. It was a bike and draw type of experiment, the first of its kind. Basically I would bike around until I found something of interest to draw, however I did more biking than drawing than I wanted. But here are the fruits of my labors.

oh ya, theres also a Princess monoke attempt.

ya ya

2008-08-29T13:50:00.001-07:00

Here are some sketches that I did recently.
Nothing out of the ordinary.

olympic 2008

2008-08-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

If you didn't know already, today is 8/8/08, an auspicious day for all who believe that 8 is a lucky number. Most Eastern cultures do, and is one of the reasons why China began the olympics today.

Getting into Olympic season is tough when you don't have a TV, but I have found on nbc, they have live broadcasts and updates of all the sports. So if you have a knackin' to watch say...handball or badminton, they will have coverage. The only down side is its kind of boring without commentary. I'm not sure if its because they don't have commentary or if that is only added via TV or through local stations.

Anyways, heres a little doodle.

different strokes

2008-07-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

As I spend more and more time on painting this one piece I have begun to realize that I'm not painting when I'm on the computer. Instead I'm dabbing at the digital canvas with an invisible brush and pixelated paint. And this is terrible! My mindset should be the same approach as I would a regular canvas and paints, the strokes I use should also be the same. None of this chicken scratch strokes. They should be bold and definitive and with feeling. Anyways, only now am I beginning to realize this and am trying to take it to heart.

On a similar note: Mark Andrews, the artist from pixar is putting out a comic in the new pixar comic book Afterworks 3. Some of his panels from the comic are up and they are extremely well painted. Simple strokes and colors that clearly illustrate what is going on and give it feeling. Try check it out.

heres more progress. crits welcomed.

painting

2008-07-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

So you know that other piece Hearst Castle?
Well I haven't really completed it yet; and then I started another drawing I'm hoping to paint. In reality I have found that painting in photoshop is hard; its hard finding the right colors and getting them to work as a whole. I know painter is a program more aligned to real painting, and you can mix colors and all that jazz, but I don't want to give in so quickly. I want to stick it out and see if I can make a beautiful piece of work through photoshop (just like all those others artists out there. I don' t hear them complaining, so why should I?)

Anyways, here is what I have of my painting stuffs.

So this is what I got for Hearst castle. I was trying to use only blue and green, and any combination of it for most of the painting. The bg and the foreground should be darker than the building itself, making the building pop. And the building itself should be pale, with an orange roof that just -pops- I feel its going in the right direction for the colors I want to use, but I just can't seem to get down the right hues and saturation for the shadows. And I'm not going to use the dodge and burn tool; it doesn't feel like painting and its a cheap way. If I'm going to directly alter the color like that I'll just use layers of white and black and change the opacity. Crits welcomed.

This little bugger is different from Hearst castle in that I did a very rough sketch of it hoping that I could paint in the details and let the paint speak for itself and give it that homey feel, rather than a technical drawing like above. The color palette i wanted for this one is similar to Hearst castle, except its more earth colors and earth tones; darker greens, and reddish browns. The purple for the houses and the blue for the sky, make it seem like I'm cheating and breaking away from the color palette I have chosen. It also takes away from the color palette I have chosen, and makes it just seem like a random assortment of colors, very by the numbers. Ya, I'm going to change that. The focus of the picture should be the houses, and specifically the car. I think its ironic that there would be a yellow mini-van in a secluded valley town. crits welcomed.

edit: worked on the painting (japanese countryside, second painting) theres a lot of white and greys, creating that misty, overcast type of day. The colors previous to this edit, were too saturated, too bold.

aite thats it for now.

heath is gone.

2008-07-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

For a couple months now I prophecized that Heath Ledger would return from the dead, having been underground hiding out as the mentally disturbed joker; unable to shed the character's personality he portrayed. He would make is epic return at the premier of "The Dark Knight" and would hold Christian Bale at knife point. People would laugh and cry at his triumphant return and the world would be a happier place.

The premier of "The Dark Knight" has come and gone and Heath Ledger was no where to be seen. And so I have come to the tragic truth that perhaps he's gone forever.

Alright, so maybe that was a long shot, having Heath return and all, but how cool would that have been if he returned as the joker. Not as Heath, but the Joker; all crazed and demented. I would've poo-ed bricks. Anyways, thats not the case. Heres a little sumpin sumpin.

dark matter knighted

2008-07-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

EDIT: After having talked with my pal Winkler, I realized that the critique I gave of this movie was too soft. As I was reflecting on the movie I realized there were a lot of things that bothered me about the movie, that didn't have an issue with earlier. I need to see the movie a second time.

At 1230am I saw the new batman movie; Dark Knight. FYI: It's the only batman movie not to have the word "batman" in the title. Anyways, lets get to the good stuff; how do I think it matches up to other batman films?

It destroys the other batman films completely. Each actor is on point and brings their A-game to the table totally tearing my brains out through my ears, in a good way, in the way that you want to go back in time and see the movie for the first time again.

The movie and all its marketing has been so meticulously crafted. The viral marketing of this magnitude is unprecedented and has caused all the ravenous batman fans out there to foam at the mouth; ie: Conway. But that is the tip of the iceberg and has little to do with the movie itself because even without the marketing the movie looked fabulous from the start.

Going into the movie I was a little hesitant, I didn't want to be swept up by the adrenaline and the hype of the movie. I wanted to sit down and thoroughly and logically break down the movie and why I loved it and what I hated about it. It was not an easy task as the movie itself is just so intense it is hard not to be overwhelmed.

Spoiler alert:

Cons:

1. Why was the joker so strong/perfect? Everything that the joker did throughout the movie worked to the T. There was never a serious hick-up in his plans and they seemed to be other worldly in there complexity. For instance: How did he know that they would capture him and take him to MHC when he was trying to kill Harvey Dent? Some could argue that it was a win win situation; if he succeeded at killing Harvey Dent, then he wins, but if he doesn't they take him to MHC and he kills Harvey Dent with the gasoline filled building. But think about this, if he did kill Harvey Dent in the car chase, then there would have been two buildings filled with gasoline oil drums rigged to blow and a guy with a cellphone bomb in his stomach just waiting around. That seems a little excessive. I want to say that it takes away from the joker as a character, but I believe that a villain can be an absolute. They don't have to make sense, they don't have to mature, they don't have to do anything but be evil. For instance Jaws, its basically a shark that eats people and throughout the whole movie it maintains that one purpose; eating. All the other characters mature and change because of that and jaws fulfills its purpose. Maybe that didn't make too much sense, but the joker is alright being too crazy or too perfect, because his purpose was to oppose batman in every way possible and he does that.

There wasn't a whole lot wrong with this movie, or nothing that I can really put my finger on; I have to go back and watch it again. I do remember there being a lull/slow point in the movie, but it was quickly extuinguished by all the mayhem. As for the pros of the movie, there are quite a few to name so I will list them off quickly.

1. Heath Ledger as the joker: great acting, brought a sinister side to the joker and left the clowny/campy feel of the character.

2. Batman: Still a bad ass in this movie, but also shows signs of weakness. Love the fact that hes not perfect and more human than any other hero.

3. Alfred: Same ol' wise crackin' butler, but with more punch this time around. He has some good lines in this movie that will make the spine shiver. "...some just want to see the world burn."

4. Harvey Dent/2-face: Felt like a politician, acted like a politician, gutsy and bold. Just everything that I thought he would be and more. And two face himself is just beautiful.

5. Story: The story is full of twists, themes, foreshadowing, red herrings, betrayal, and courage. I can easily see this being nominated for a best picture or screenplay. The movie doesn't even feel like a super hero movie, but rather a serious crime drama with super heroes.

I'm kind of getting tired writing about all the good things that this movie is, so I shall stop; I don't really do it justice.

Anyways, go see the movie its worth the time and price and you'll come away with a renewed sense of pride in humanity.

hell-o-boy

2008-07-14T22:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Hellboy 2: the golden army, premiered and it was anticipated that it would be even better than the first movie. Personally I didn't really think the first movie was any good, so I had high hopes for this one, especially after seeing all the awesome monsters in the trailers.

[spoiler alert]
During the movie I was really impressed by the variety of the characters and the mythology of the golden army, however at times I found that the story got off track and was kind of ridiculous.

After much thought and analysis I have this:

1. Why did the story shy away from the conflict between Hellboy and his allegiance to either his demon/mythical ancestry vs. his human upbringing? Throughout the movie there are subtle references to this, and even Prince Nuada (evil elf due) questions Hellboy's alliance to the humans; "you are fighting for the wrong side."

2. The love story was necessary, but why did Abe Sapien need a love story? I think Hellboy's love story was enough to humanize all the BPRD agents. Abe Sapien was probably the most humanistic out of all of them in his mannerisms already and was a gentle character, so what did the love story bring to his character?

3. Prince Nuada says that he is going to unite all the mythical beings and they are going to reclaim what was lost; if thats the case then why was it him against the world? Prince Nuada is a very interesting character in that he stands for the old ways, mythology, and a sense of balance with nature, but throughout the movie it seems that he doesn't symbolize any of these through his actions. And where were all his elf peeps and ogre friends, Wink his only companion dies and in response Nuada sends an elemental to fight Hellboy, but he himself does nothing except taunt Hellboy.

4. This is more of a 3a. then a new number. Why did Prince Nuada lecture Hellboy after he was dead? I think it would have a little bit more suspenseful had Hellboy had a conflict of interests before the fight and wasn't fully commited to fighting Nuada. Or perhaps Hellboy could have switched sides, I don't know, the point being, the monologue seems wasted after the fact that Nuada has already lost and that Hellboy doesn't care.

5. Hellboy's body is weird. The body proportions of Hellboy don't really match the comic book and instead of looking like a demon from the underworld he looks like a guy in red paint with prosthetics. What I mean is in the comic books Hellboy is a little bit more rectangular and boxy, translating to barrel chested and long torsoed in real life. However in the movie he has that triangular body builders chest that looks manicured. Hellboy doesn't go to the gym, hes the salt of the earth, or salt of the underworld for that matter, he builds muscle by kicking ass. Also whats up with Hellboy wearing a black t-shirt? If I remember correctly, he just wears some short shorts, utility belt with the gun given to him by The Torch of Liberty, and a trenchcoat. The black shirt makes Hellboy look like some bad GAP model.

6. Last but not least: why was the movie so bright? Why did they decide to have the sets well lit with very little shadows. The comic itself is drawn with heavy black shadows that often silhouette the character and the environment. It makes for more simplified shapes and visually pleasing compositions. Movies that have done this type of harsh shadows and succeeded; Blade Runner and Alien.

Pros:

1. I do give it to Guillermo for his awesome creature designs. In an interview I read about, Guillermo tried to keep his character designs away from the traditional evil looking things that are in horror films. This especially shows in the Angel of death (guy with white crescent head, black wings with eyes) and the bodyguards to the Elf king (vulture like helmets with black broad swords.) Honorable mention to the tooth faeries, elemental, and the goblin blacksmith. The golden army was also pretty cool, but it reminded me a lot of Calibretto from Battle Chasers.

2. Abe Sapien, Johan Krauss ("two S's, S - S"), and Liz all have more screen time and display more of their awesome abilities, so two thumbs up for that.

3. Hellboy fights a bit better in this movie than the last one so props for that too.

Anyways that was my rant.

Terrible drawing of Hellboy.

castlein'

2008-07-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

The other day while I was standing in line at the local target, I was making small chat with an old woman in back of me. The conversation went from the weather to the wildfires up North in California. Then the subject of Hearst Castle came up, and she was telling me how beautiful it was, but that I would not appreciate it.

WHAT?!

She said my generation would not appreciate castles.
I am Jack's furrowed eyebrows.

In response to her statement about "my generation would not like castles," I googled Hearst Castle, (liked what I saw) and decided to do a drawing of it. The drawing itself was more of an exercise in perspective and line quality. I also plan to paint over this drawing in photoshop/painter, but I'm not sure what type of direction to take it in; eerie, sunny, etc.

switch blade, kite runner

2008-07-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

[happy belated fourth of july]

[Had a little time on my hands previous to that date, so I decided to storyboard a couple scenes from one of my favorite sci-fi thrillers, "Blade Runner." If you don't know, its a detective story that takes place in the future, where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) has to hunt down fugitive replicants, androids/robots. A word to the wise, its a slow movie, but don't let that fool you, the characters are well fleshed out and the story is complicated enough to keep things lively.]

[I was thinking about telling you when these scenes happened, but I think it'd be more interesting to see if you could recognize them. If you can't, well that just means I have to storyboard better.]

[stone gorillaz]

2008-06-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

[some doodles on post it notes.]
[and heres a story I just made up to go with it.]

[Deep in the South American jungles that surround the Mayan and Inca temples, is where these gorrilaz called home. They were something of an anomaly due to the strange circumstances in which they came to exist. Created from the hearts of sacrificed elders, during a blood moon, by a traitorous prince, these gorillaz would be cursed from birth.]

[Its a small start for now.]

back on track.

2008-06-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

"begin each day as if it were on purpose."
-mary anne radmacher

So I haven't posted in a while, a long while and I am disappointed in myself for that. My goal is to get back on track with this blog and the purpose I set it up for. I'm going to go for it full force, and if it isn't up to par, call me out on it, and I'll throw some more on here.

Thats my plan. YA!

Be ready, I'm gearing up for the destiny.

[zombie'd]

2007-07-21T12:09:00.001-07:00

drawlins

[space turtles'd]

2007-07-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

a ton of pics.

[lego'd]

2007-07-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

[lady fingers'd]

2007-07-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

[b-day'd]

2007-07-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

fight club storyboards

[storyboard'd part 2]

2007-06-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

[thesis storyboards]
[the beginnings]

[storyboard'd]

2007-06-30T13:35:00.001-07:00

[Battle Royale]
[storyboarded]

[eureka'd]

2007-06-30T12:36:00.001-07:00

[edmame'd]

2007-06-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

[beyond'd]

2007-06-16T14:10:00.001-07:00

drawings of the last two days
characters involved capt america and lobster johnson
oh ya

[cricket

2007-06-13T12:07:00.001-07:00

some quick sketches.
nothing special.

[smoke'd cheese]

2007-06-12T07:56:00.001-07:00

just drawing around.
this whole page took about an hour or so.
eventually i hope to be able to have the same
shading style as mike mignola; where there are
really harsh angular shadows contrasted by very light areas.

ya.

[drawings of the week 6/4-6/9]

2007-06-09T13:43:00.001-07:00

newest at the top
oldest at the bottom

[old sketchbook sketches]

2007-06-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

newest pics at the top.
oldest at the bottom.

[more sketches]

2007-06-09T11:08:00.001-07:00

old pics

2007-06-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

maiden voyage part deux

2007-06-06T17:25:00.001-07:00

Howdy.
nothing much to comment on yet, but expect pics to be posted soon.
i figure this would be the best place to do this ya.

-outs