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- 19:11 I need to be typing up a quiz for tomorrow, but I'm allowing myself to become distracted. As usual. #
- 19:20 apparently the Nike+ web site is no longer automatically posting my data to Twitter. Which is fine, I've been REALLY slow the past 3 days. #
"The keynote is the tremendously exciting sense of an intense metaphysical illumination. Truth lies open to the view in depth beneath depth of almost blinding evidence. The mind sees all logical relations of being with an apparent subtlety and instantaneity to which it's normal consciousness offers no parallel.
"As the feeling of insight fades, and one is left staring vacantly as a few disjointed phrases, one stares at a cadaverous looking snow peak from which sunset has just fled."
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The second week of my weekly mix sessions...feels fabulous to be behind the decks again.
It's red and crimson and violet across the horizon tonight. Sitting out with a cup of tea. Anyone care to join me?
Well, the news went live yesterday, over at Bleeding Cool, so I can finally show the progressions of how I did the cover! Sorry if this is a larrrrrge, picture heavy post.
& yes, I'll be in the UK for about 2 weeks. ThoughtBubble festival, Traveling Man stores signings in Manchester & Newcastle, Comica stuff down London way and an Orbital Comics signing too. Will blog details later ( Or check the appearances section of my actual website, www.templesmith.com ) but YES, will be doing commissions if I can, and signing as many books as possible for sure.
So...
Was a complete honour to be asked to do the cover to the latest Popgun Anthology from Image Comics.
Why? Well, I wasn't able to contribute to the last one ( no time sadly ) and the previous cover guys have been Mike Allred, Paul Pope & Tara McPherson. That's pretty damn spiffy company that is.
It all starts with a rough. A really rough, rough.
Early pencils, yes, I'm looking at a couple photos for this one, trying to go a bit more realist than cartoony.
Ever wonder how I tweet and watch so much crap on Netflix while I draw? Well, the computer is right in front of me at all times.
Tightening up the pencils a bit, have put the dragon in for placement, even though I actually draw that separately later.
The final pencils before I go to ink. Yeah, this pic is slightly out of order, sue me!
The inking begins. Using a great brushpen the uber talented Nikki Cook put me on to.
Main inks done. Just some bold lines really. I plan on the textures and paint to really be more about this picture than line work ultimately.
Err..no photos of the paint job til it's end! Lots of watercolour washes basically. Tried to get lots of stain type textures going on apart from anything else.
Paper gets a bit wrinkled with all the water I've put onto it. Before I scan, I add all the white lines with a white pen.
The final original real world art, as it looks after I've scanned it in, ready to do all the extra bits on the computer. Wish people would realize I actually draw...often times way more than the typical comic book artists!
I start darkening that stuff up. Also drop in bits of the photos I've been using for ref. A definite hint at a nose, cheek/mouth and bits of hand. Followed by lots of airbrush to merge it all and stuff and generally smooth it over a bit.
Really darken that sucker up. Lots of the burn tool, followed by some dodge as well.
Altering the colours, adding more. Always start with what I want most prominent first...but before the end of this image I change my mind and make the whole thing overall warm colours. ( Instead of my original plan of maybe blues with red bits to pop it out. )
Some colour! Also, add a pattern to her dress. More of the dodge tool as well it seems.
Add the Dragon, which I drew separately on another sheet. With it layered this way, I can do fancy things with it instead of having to pick it out of the background.
Add some overall tones. Not to mention some tricks with the dragon line work, courtesy of some textures I copy/paste into it from earlier things I've done.
I'll actually have a couple artist proofs of this image on me while I'm doing my UK appearances, so if anyone wants one, they are signed, numbered and for sale!
The final as the Popgun guys now have it after I worked out how the dragon should mostly work with their logo/cover style.
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 15, 2009
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.
-----Email Message-----
I worked for Reuters my entire life and was one of their most senior, valued employees. I was laid off last year when Thomson bought them over. Thank you so much for sending this in. If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.
-----Email Message (pic)-----
A designer friend told me that the secret inspiration for the new Pepsi logo was the Simpson's Comic Book Guy.
-----Email Message-----
More things to make you happy: http://1000awesomethings.com
-----Email Message-----
I wish it was okay for women to talk about poop the way men do. . . Because sometimes I'm proud when I have a particularly big or interesting one and I really want to tell someone about it!
See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.
-----Email Message (pic)-----
She was texting when she hit us from behind and pushed us into the pickup 3 feet in front of us. Thank God for Airbags.
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Aaron, our six-year-old, was browsing instructional art videos on YouTube. The art subject of choice was Mario, of course.
He knows how to do this sort of thing himself. After logging in to his account, he launches his web browse, and types “youtube mario” in the Google Search field to get to YouTube. After that, he’ll type “draw mario” into the YouTube search box, and he’s off and running with his instructional videos.
His mother and I were in another room when we heard him get frustrated a few minutes later.
“It’s not there! I can’t find it. It’s not anywhere! I can’t find MS Paint.”
I knew right away what had happened. He’d navigated from a YouTube clip of somebody drawing Mario with a pencil to one doing it in Microsoft Paint, and he wanted to try it out himself.
I ran to him. He was on a Windows PC, so he obviously had Paint, but there was no telling where he was looking for it.
When I got to him, I saw that he’d typed variations of “ms paint” into the Web Browser’s search box and into YouTube’s search box about a dozen times.
Poor kid. He was searching for Microsoft Paint in the only places on the computer he knew. Wasn’t everything on the web?
Sometimes I think I really ought to be posting here more, and taking better care of this blog~
but I don't know what I'd post about? XD kind of a problem... XD
well, I might post in the next couple of weeks about a certain new shiny that's going to show up... ♥
I am escaping reality currently by playing Farmville and Fishville on facebook.
Laugh all you want, sim games are ♥ and perfect for wasting time.
maybe too perfect.... ( > >)
I must be careful not to buy Sims 3 until after the JLPT, that's for sure.
I never posted about some things I meant to and I suppose if I go back and do those I'll have some content XD
Like, I finally bought a Nendoroid (Konata~♥) and it's so cute! I want Yui and Mio ones....
and of course I'll update right before the JLPT with everything I've managed to do before the test... and then we can compare with how well I actually did when I get the results in February. I'm trying to be optimistic that I will pass, even by a very slim margin... XD
Something I'd like to do is blog bilingually, but I'm not sure how to handle it. Do each post in both, or have a separate stream that's Japanese only? Which would you prefer? On the one hand, if you're checking my work/learning, having things side by side might be useful, but if you would only want to read one or the other (not both) separate feeds is preferable. I'd have to work out how to handle that, though...
{ 2009-11-14 22:46:52 }