A Time for Witches

I like Halloween for many warm and fuzzy reasons. Candy corn, Halloweentime at Disneyland, scary movies on tv, and chicks in tartish costumes chief among them. While I indulge my taste for horror fare year round, something about a good scare flick or freaky book or comic during October... I guess it just tastes better.

The lovely lady above is a harlot... Actually the Harlot, from the comic Fall Of Cthulhu. The Harlot resides in the Dreamlands, is privy to all of man's secrets, and likes to keep people in small boxes... for, like, ever... she has lots of them. Pretty much anyone who finds her in the Dreamlands is welcome to partake of either one of her boxes or one of her secrets, the latter will cost you... maybe a foot... maybe the memory of your dead wife? As far as H. P. Lovecraft inspired fare goes, Fall Of Cthulhu is not so bad. The art can be pretty mediocre in places, and the story does not maintain the gravity of its mythic characters at times, but there are many bright spots and interesting concepts. Actually, comics is being very generous to the Lovecraft fans, (In the interest of full disclosure, it should be known that my Lovecraft fan level could be accurately described as "rabid"). Boom studios has Fall Of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Tales, and Necronomicon, and Marvel Max has a Richard Corben(!) Haunt Of Horror.

I digress, the Harlot picture features her in a Snow White inspired dress, kind of a gushing pose, with unfortunate fellow in a box and the ubiquitous tentacle in the background. I thought I was gonna post it yesterday but the skirt portion was bugging me, so I reworked it. My gf has expressed every intention of stealing it from me.

Movies, I have been somewhat unimpressed by this summer's offerings, Hollywood, please do better. Very little of my meager income has gone to dvds of movies released this year. Offhand, I can only cite The Orphanage, Cloverfield, Iron Man (the Target exclusive 2 disc with mark2 helmet case, Huzzah!), annnd... I think that might be it. Sigh.

Been watching Terminator, The Sarah Conners Chronicles... mixed bag really, but I really like Summer Glau as a terminator, and Lena Headey from 300, so I will keep watching for now. New season of Pushing Daisies is on, do yourself a favor and watch it while you can, it genuinely qualifies as "too good to last".

Oh Geez, go to Hulu.com and watch Dr Horrble's Sing-Along Blog, it may change your life*.

I have every intention of posting more, really. And watching many horror movies this month. And eating too much candy corn.

*Life change directly proportional to level of Whedon/Fillion/NPH fandom you possess.

-D

LAAAAAAME

Weak, lame, feeble. Lotsa stuff goin' on but nothing so involving that I couldn't taken 10 minutes out to update the blog. So, really, I'm just lame-acious, lame-ific, and weaksauce. Not gonna get too into it but... sick, art project (fell through, but still on backburner), hawaii vacation, sick (again, what'd I say about being weak?), San Diego comic con (which was freakin' awesome), and training for work. Did I mention "just plain lazy"? Anyhoo, here's a sorta quickie for the drawing board Diana Rigg thread. I didn't spend too much time on it as, if I overthink a project my OCD kicks in and it never gets done. So the new goal is to find the pleasure in drawing and not the pressure. That, by the way, is your deep thought for the week.

Movies, saw many, but not enuff (I tend to say that alot). Standouts are Iron Man (could that have been much better? a bit, but not much), Penelope (I know, it's a romcom, but its a fantasy romcom, and Christina Ricci owns that role), Hellboy 2 (the astonishing Guillermo Del Toro drunk on his own imagination to dizzying effect), and... well... see I haven"t seen alot a movies. Hulk, Wanted, Indiana Jones, that Batman movie I've heard something about. I really need to get on the ball, there needs to be more hours in the day. Did I mention my car got stolen? Much to my girlfriend's chagrin it came back. Still no excuse, I don't need my car to pick up a pad and pencil. Actually, I have been drawing, just nothing post worthy. I know, I know, I should post anything just so's I'm continuing to do it. Ya know, when you're right, you're right. I'm glad we've had this chat.

D-

Flasher girl, (pg 13)

You know what sucks? Illness. Illness freakin' blows. I'd been successfully fending off the cornicopia of deseases galavanting through my workplace but, alas, 'twas all in vain. I finally succumbed. After a spirited and gallant battle, my immune system finally triumphed. To celebrate, I thought I'd draw a girl in her undies. This is actually for a thread over at the Drawing Board... flasher girls, how could I resist? Pencil on bristol, as usual until I get off my duffer and pony up for a Wacom tablet. The tricky part was that the piece was too big for my scanner. I had to scan her in 2 halves and put her together in photo, a learning experience for sure as I am a rank noob with alot of this stuff. I already see areas I'd fix, ( right hand more prominant, boobs too round, neck a bit long, no unifying shape to jacket...), but I also see a smattering of improvment, which is the point of this here blog, yah?

While I was afflicted I mostly watched movies I'd already seen a few times, ( Three Extremes 2, Pirates Dead Man's Chest, The Host...) but I did catch 28 Weeks Later, a very decent sequel that felt reminicent of the 2nd Resident Evil movie... except less comedic... and with less hot chicks. I also saw 30 Days Of Night, not at all the worst comic to movie adaption I've seen. Visually yummy, bloody as all hell, the faithful-to-the-comic bits are... well... faithful. The embellishment bits actually work pretty well, some of it feels a tad thin on atmosphere/character, but thats really just nit-picky considering it's a vampire movie. Plus, a little girl vampire gets her head chopped off with an axe, can't beat that.

If you haven't already,( and if you read comics at all...) you need to read Kick Ass by Mark Millar and the freakin' amazing John Romita Jr. It's about a kid who becomes a costumed superhero... what's the hook you say? Well if J.R.Jr. ain't enough, (though it probably should be,) it's the fact that our hero has no powers and no decernable aptitude for this vocation save the geek loving desire to be a superhero. Not to give too much away, but let's just say he's less on the "giving" end of these ass-kickings. It's the life that Romita Jr. breaths into this world and these characters that is the real draw, it's Romita Jr. that is actually doing the ass kicking.

It's about that time I start looking to the summer movie season season with a hungry, eager eye for cinematic fare. Umm.. I'm a little worried there are only a couple I really wanna see, it makes me sad a little, like when I watch the end of Lilo and Stitch... what?

As tho' it never was...

Please disregard the link in the previous post. It was to something Time/Warner would prefer you not see now. And yet that crappy Speed Racer trailer is all over the place, go figure.

Y end the series?

Soooo, in addition to lagging on my posts, (such is the extent that I will gripe about my laziness as I know how tedious it is to read on other people's blog,) I have been very sloth-like in my comic book reading. Annnnd, there's this comic you may have heard of called Y the Last Man. Furthermore, you may have heard that said comic ended it's run recently at issue 60. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I'm bummed that one of my favorite books has ended. I'm all for finite runs being envisioned when crafting a story, and for going out on a high note rather than jumping the shark and overstaying your welcome. However, the selfish part of me is a little ticked that I won't be rapturously enjoying this freakin' awesome book, (all due platitudes to Vaughan/Guerra/Marzan/and company, yadda-yadda-clever-yadda-entertaining-yadda-thrilling-yadda-poignant-yadda). On the other hand, I'm happy to have read such a little slice of heaven, and, I'm happy to be back watching regular old tv and movies without Y ruining the curve by making all other movie and tv shows look like ass in comparison. Oh yeah, the above is, of course, agent 355 from said awesome comic, pencil on bristol. I may post later some of the "process" sketches for you amusement. Also, saw I am Legend... all that is being said about the dodgey special effects and Wil Smith's riveting performance is true. Saw the Spiderwick movie, very entertaining, very Brian Froud, in a good way. Saw The Bourne Ultimatum, more of the same, which is not a bad thing, (side note, still very hard to watch Matt Damon without expecting him to just repeatedly say "Maaattt Daamon"). Have you seen this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgpeTf-WaU
F'ing sick. Oh, oh, did you happen to catch the new Knight Rider show? No? Then you just missed the 2 hour, television equivalent of being waterboarded.
Dust-

Ok, not so easy

No, seriously, I did think this was gonna be easier. My hats off to all those people who can post at least once a week, for real. And I have been drawing, just not anything post worthy. Gripe portion finished. This a sketch of the murder moppet Henrietta from the anime "Gunslinger Girl". Shades of Luc Besson's "The Professional", GG is about a quintet of pint size assassins employed by the innocuosly named Social Welfare Angency. Terminal, pre-adolescent girls are recruited, given cybernetic implants, and conditioned into efficient killing machines under the tutelage of a handler. Aside from a premise that is just plain awesome, GG sports some excellent visual style, amazing italian locals, well crafted music, and some genuinely interesting, sometimes poinant, interaction between each handler and his charge. Check it out if you haven't, also if you have not seen "The Professional", shame on you. Soooooooo, I saw the "Cloverfield" movie. Took me 2 full days to figure out that I liked it. Ambitious premise pays off to riveting effect, too bad the stars are so unlikable that I was wishing that they would somehow be doused with honey mustard sauce, fall on some cocktail toothpicks, and land on an hors devours tray. That coupled with excessive suspension of disbelief it took to concede that the party-camera-friend-guy was gonna run around during a horrifying unnatural disaster with a camera in constant POV and just happen to capture a cohesive narrative almost ruined it for me. In the end, while overshadowed by the ridiculous hype, the good outweighed the bad for me. Oh, and in an unrelated subject, Dentists are the devil.

Easy Breezy

It's funny, this weekend I set aside time specifically to draw, no easy task with my football team in the playoffs (Chargers), a dirty apartment staring me in the face, some Saturday family duties with the girlfiend, and a refridgerator that can only be described as lacking. The drawing did, however, occur. I even had a subject, I laid it out, roughed in the specifics, but it just wasn't happening. I pushed through, sketching and resketching, using different angles and expressions, but I came to the conclusion that it was a no go. The subject, if you're curious, was a scene from the new movie "The Orphanage" (El Orfanato). If you're a fan of horror movies, foriegn films, or have any taste at all, you'll treat yourself to this gem. Anyhoo, Monday night I changed subjects, the results you see here, it came off pretty easy, I had fun doin' it, I learned a bit from it, and I see where I can improve, which, I guess, is the point of this little venture. Hopefully, I'll revisit the orphanage picture, if so I'll certainly post it here.

You'll notice I get a bit spikey when I talk about movies (or anime). Thats because I am a "movie whore". I love movies, old ones, foriegn ones, indie ones, blockbuster ones, cheesy ones, scary ones, funny ones... You get the idea. I figure this blog may be a bit uninteresting if is filled with my artistic musings, or the ponderously dull events of my life, so every once in a while I may squeeze in some movie related morsel. Dine at your leasure.

Just to get back to the picture, it is of course Power Girl. I don't actually read the comic, nor am I particularly familiar with her, I just thought she was an interesting subjuct. Not simply because she has big boobies. Just good 'ol pencil on sketch pad, thus the janky quality of the scan. Enjoy, hope to post again soon. Go see "The Orphanage".

-D