from the film "A Dog's Breakfast"
the Master in "Doctor Who"
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Photoshop
DeviantArt is a great invention, not just because you can share your work with other people, you can see theirs, you can search for particular topics, you can collect works, print them, buy merchandise, but you can actually learn how to become a better artist on it, let alone get inspired. So there was this one things someone posted giving tips on how they use PS to color/paint their drawings, so I read it and was fascinated to learn that I don't know everything about PS like I pretend to. Here are my first two tries with the new methods that I learned today.
Prison Shell
I'm really good at writing pretty-sounding nonsense in the middle of the night and I'm over tired. So here's a freewrite that just sort of fell out.
Prison Shell (2/16/08)
Tiny drops of Drucudian Lape hang, lingering at gravity’s fingertips. Gravity, the old witch, reaches, stretches her withering hand blindly, like a child reaching for a cookie above on the counter somewhere, much too out of reach. Breeze, blowing strong but futilely, like a desperate whistler whose lips are too dry to make a sound, tickles the drop at the edge, elongating and thinning the fleck of moisture. A miniscule ruby stream, it becomes, and dribbles over the side falling into Gravity’s greedy palm after all.
Drucudian Lape lies on his back, the circumference of his blood increasing by the second. He blinks blearily at the crimson sky, the sky of his degrading vision where blood has found a place to squeeze between lens and ball. It pours down through the pupil holes, which contract in the sunlight, or the sunlight his faulty vision perceives.
Lape is not alone. Life sits by his side, curiously watching the young man hold on so determinedly to the spirit that was never really his. “Drucudian Lape,” says Life, knowing the boy can’t hear anything yet, “you are the shell harboring the chick. It is time to give birth at the minor expense of the shell. Hatch, boy, hatch.”
But Lape doesn’t hatch. He can’t see, can’t hear, not in the sense that doctors would diagnose him as a seeing and hearing individual, but he thinks he can. With this ill-directed belief, he thinks the spirit will remain in him for much longer. No one he knows died before age thirty, so it can’t be his turn yet.
“Where is the spirit, Lape-boy?” asks Life. “What have you done with it? You can’t hold it prisoner forever. There are rules about that.”
The last of Lape’s blood channels out the crack in the back of his skull, but he continues to smile up at the sky, thinking he sees clouds now, but there are no clouds. Not for Drucudian Lape. Cold burrows into his pores like a nest of ticks, causing his skin to rise with bumps. Hollow of ruby sauce, which now sticks to his straw-pale hair, the spirit within him soars through the body, no longer blocked by dams of arteries and floods of blood. But it doesn’t find an exit. Lape smiles because it feels like he has jumping beans in his chest. The spirit careens through him faster and faster, panicked, gasping for fresh light, the light of the outside world. Time to hatch, time to hatch, but the shell is thick and the spirit is weak. Lape’s heart pumps its last, but his brain doesn’t slow down. He thinks it will be a nice day if it ever warms up.
“Prison shell,” Life states calmly. “Less than neutral encasement, indeed. Sent to keep the spirit from the light? You’d better watch it or Death will come back for you, and he will make you live forever, but empty. Empty little shell drilled through the head, sitting on a shelf to be displayed forever more. Come see the immortal prison who holds no keep. Whose warden is his own. It’s what shells want, isn’t it? To be more than just shells? To live a spirit’s life? But sooner or later the farmer comes for all of you. If you will not be a chick, then you will be an omelet.”
Prison Shell (2/16/08)
Tiny drops of Drucudian Lape hang, lingering at gravity’s fingertips. Gravity, the old witch, reaches, stretches her withering hand blindly, like a child reaching for a cookie above on the counter somewhere, much too out of reach. Breeze, blowing strong but futilely, like a desperate whistler whose lips are too dry to make a sound, tickles the drop at the edge, elongating and thinning the fleck of moisture. A miniscule ruby stream, it becomes, and dribbles over the side falling into Gravity’s greedy palm after all.
Drucudian Lape lies on his back, the circumference of his blood increasing by the second. He blinks blearily at the crimson sky, the sky of his degrading vision where blood has found a place to squeeze between lens and ball. It pours down through the pupil holes, which contract in the sunlight, or the sunlight his faulty vision perceives.
Lape is not alone. Life sits by his side, curiously watching the young man hold on so determinedly to the spirit that was never really his. “Drucudian Lape,” says Life, knowing the boy can’t hear anything yet, “you are the shell harboring the chick. It is time to give birth at the minor expense of the shell. Hatch, boy, hatch.”
But Lape doesn’t hatch. He can’t see, can’t hear, not in the sense that doctors would diagnose him as a seeing and hearing individual, but he thinks he can. With this ill-directed belief, he thinks the spirit will remain in him for much longer. No one he knows died before age thirty, so it can’t be his turn yet.
“Where is the spirit, Lape-boy?” asks Life. “What have you done with it? You can’t hold it prisoner forever. There are rules about that.”
The last of Lape’s blood channels out the crack in the back of his skull, but he continues to smile up at the sky, thinking he sees clouds now, but there are no clouds. Not for Drucudian Lape. Cold burrows into his pores like a nest of ticks, causing his skin to rise with bumps. Hollow of ruby sauce, which now sticks to his straw-pale hair, the spirit within him soars through the body, no longer blocked by dams of arteries and floods of blood. But it doesn’t find an exit. Lape smiles because it feels like he has jumping beans in his chest. The spirit careens through him faster and faster, panicked, gasping for fresh light, the light of the outside world. Time to hatch, time to hatch, but the shell is thick and the spirit is weak. Lape’s heart pumps its last, but his brain doesn’t slow down. He thinks it will be a nice day if it ever warms up.
“Prison shell,” Life states calmly. “Less than neutral encasement, indeed. Sent to keep the spirit from the light? You’d better watch it or Death will come back for you, and he will make you live forever, but empty. Empty little shell drilled through the head, sitting on a shelf to be displayed forever more. Come see the immortal prison who holds no keep. Whose warden is his own. It’s what shells want, isn’t it? To be more than just shells? To live a spirit’s life? But sooner or later the farmer comes for all of you. If you will not be a chick, then you will be an omelet.”
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Mostly Editing
1. Editing -- Riff
Here’s a list of some productive criticism that I’ve gotten for Riff that I need to take into account on my second pass…
Positive feedback:
Sticks in the mind
Easy to keep reading
Strong mood and storyline
Good first sentence
1st person narrative allows reader to catch breath
Good descriptions of characters and places
Parallel storylines weren’t confusing
Shows research went into the project
The wrong brother twist was unexpected
Things to fix:
The word violacious appears in the second sentence of the novel. Too confusing? Spell-check doesn’t like it. Get rid of it all together or find a synonym?
Needs more backstory.
Chapter 1 – moving from Matthew’s bunkmate to Janek’s roommate is confusing.
Needs more time with 1st person narrator. Her epiphany comes too quickly. More internal dialogue. How does she reach her conclusion?
You probably can’t unembalm a person like that without collapsing veins.
Explain better that the chicken farm is not slave labor. Many people in Thailand have chickens in their backyard.
More background with Matthew’s relationship to his brother.
Wintry’s fate doesn’t seem deserved.
Leonard’s identity was guessed from the beginning.
Hell’s souls are either crowded or absent – why? (because they all go to the ring they’re supposed to end up in)
Too much vomit.
Missed Truick’s intent for pushing the angel.
Must add thing about how Truick’s watch stops (my memo).
Wintry was too whiny in the end to make the reader care about her and too pathetic in the beginning.
Maybe make Wintry’s ‘turn’ on Leonard slower. At first she might try to convince him that he’s confused, but then her anger starts slower. Need to go a little further with the blood thing though, I think.
Coins on the eyes of the dead is a Roman tradition, not African.
Make the mental pull of Satan on Wintry stronger. (also get rid of "fortunately" in that scene)
Fix that confusing bit about how they got into the circus wagon.
What in the world is Sara-Jayne doing during the time Leonard is trying to help Janek?
Wintry breaks down one too many times.
What does the facade feel like? Does it tingle? Hurt? Warmth? Icy?
Make Heaven more Heavenly. Add animals. Some souls weighed down by evil, dragged down, take refuge in bodies, rejoice in being able to view reality for a short peroid. Other souls, pure and light, whip around Heaven.
2. Editing -- Haven
I haven't looked at it in a while, but I bet, despite how perfect I thought it was 1.5 years ago, it could probably do with another draft. One thing I thought I should do is change the first section (with the movie) to be more poetic than clinical because it's being told from the perspective of a poet. Also, it would make the agent like it better from the start. Right now, you have to fight your way past that part, not realizing it's a movie until the second page.
3. Drawings
I'm still working with the paintbrush tool in PS. Haven't quite reached the quality I want, but here's another practice of Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
4. Scrapblog
I found this cool site called Scrapblog, which I invented in my head a loooooong time ago, but I'm glad there's a free and sharable (sp?) one on the internet. It has some bugs, like it didn't let me save after 30 pages and such, but here are two examples.
My sketchbook:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=164892
Bowling Shoes and Murder picture book:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=166051
Here’s a list of some productive criticism that I’ve gotten for Riff that I need to take into account on my second pass…
Positive feedback:
Sticks in the mind
Easy to keep reading
Strong mood and storyline
Good first sentence
1st person narrative allows reader to catch breath
Good descriptions of characters and places
Parallel storylines weren’t confusing
Shows research went into the project
The wrong brother twist was unexpected
Things to fix:
The word violacious appears in the second sentence of the novel. Too confusing? Spell-check doesn’t like it. Get rid of it all together or find a synonym?
Needs more backstory.
Chapter 1 – moving from Matthew’s bunkmate to Janek’s roommate is confusing.
Needs more time with 1st person narrator. Her epiphany comes too quickly. More internal dialogue. How does she reach her conclusion?
You probably can’t unembalm a person like that without collapsing veins.
Explain better that the chicken farm is not slave labor. Many people in Thailand have chickens in their backyard.
More background with Matthew’s relationship to his brother.
Wintry’s fate doesn’t seem deserved.
Leonard’s identity was guessed from the beginning.
Hell’s souls are either crowded or absent – why? (because they all go to the ring they’re supposed to end up in)
Too much vomit.
Missed Truick’s intent for pushing the angel.
Must add thing about how Truick’s watch stops (my memo).
Wintry was too whiny in the end to make the reader care about her and too pathetic in the beginning.
Maybe make Wintry’s ‘turn’ on Leonard slower. At first she might try to convince him that he’s confused, but then her anger starts slower. Need to go a little further with the blood thing though, I think.
Coins on the eyes of the dead is a Roman tradition, not African.
Make the mental pull of Satan on Wintry stronger. (also get rid of "fortunately" in that scene)
Fix that confusing bit about how they got into the circus wagon.
What in the world is Sara-Jayne doing during the time Leonard is trying to help Janek?
Wintry breaks down one too many times.
What does the facade feel like? Does it tingle? Hurt? Warmth? Icy?
Make Heaven more Heavenly. Add animals. Some souls weighed down by evil, dragged down, take refuge in bodies, rejoice in being able to view reality for a short peroid. Other souls, pure and light, whip around Heaven.
2. Editing -- Haven
I haven't looked at it in a while, but I bet, despite how perfect I thought it was 1.5 years ago, it could probably do with another draft. One thing I thought I should do is change the first section (with the movie) to be more poetic than clinical because it's being told from the perspective of a poet. Also, it would make the agent like it better from the start. Right now, you have to fight your way past that part, not realizing it's a movie until the second page.
3. Drawings
I'm still working with the paintbrush tool in PS. Haven't quite reached the quality I want, but here's another practice of Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
4. Scrapblog
I found this cool site called Scrapblog, which I invented in my head a loooooong time ago, but I'm glad there's a free and sharable (sp?) one on the internet. It has some bugs, like it didn't let me save after 30 pages and such, but here are two examples.
My sketchbook:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=164892
Bowling Shoes and Murder picture book:
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/vw_full.aspx?sbid=166051
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Winter Break News
1. RIFF
I'm happy to announce that I have finished writing the first draft of Riff. Technically it is the second draft because I hand-wrote the whole thing in two journals and changed some things as I typed them up. I did a pass for grammatical errors and spelling off the screne. I still need to read it on paper. I've printed it off in single spacing and tiny margains. It clocks in at 95 pages. That's just under 60,000 words, which is a bit short for a first novel (to be published), so I'll have to flesh it out before I consider querying anyone. As I start school on Monday, I think I'll wait before doing a second pass. I like to forget what I've written so that it's all new to me and easier to catch mistakes.
I have to say it's not half bad. I struggled with this novel more than any other. It was almost physically painful to write because I forced myself to finish before school starts. I don't know what that says about the quality, but it is just a down draft after all. It ended almost exactly how I planned, which never happens. I think it's because I wrote it in so little time, I didn't have time to get distracted by other ideas, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.
The more I think about it, the more irony I'm finding in the text that I didn't put in consciously, but it's perfect, really. One man spends the entire book trying to find out who killed this one guy, but in the end, he's the one that kills him again. I hadn't really put that together, but it's really cool. I don't think I'm even going to draw attention to it. You can figure that one out on your own.
2. Absorbing the Media
I've just saw the season finale of Life on Mars season 2. I thought it would be a rip off of Terry Pratchett's book Night Watch seeing as how the main characters are both named Sam, are police officers, and are accidentally sent thirty years into the past, but the show is actually really good. There's a coma aspect I hadn't known about. I've been watching Dr. Who and Torchwood reruns as well, and Graham Norton. Torchwood season 2 premier this Saturday, you know. I got some new movies too. Night Watch and Day Watch are phenominal. A Dog's Breakfast is good too. And A Fish Called Wanda. I also bought Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Kevin Klein).
I haven't been sitting in front of the TV the whole time, promise. I'm reading a book called A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I recommend it to anyone. I'm only half through, though. And I read the first Return to Labyrinth graphic novel based on the Jim Henson movie. I've ordered the second, but B&N hasn't recieved it yet. The writing and art is perfect as far as staying true to the film.
I'm happy to announce that I have finished writing the first draft of Riff. Technically it is the second draft because I hand-wrote the whole thing in two journals and changed some things as I typed them up. I did a pass for grammatical errors and spelling off the screne. I still need to read it on paper. I've printed it off in single spacing and tiny margains. It clocks in at 95 pages. That's just under 60,000 words, which is a bit short for a first novel (to be published), so I'll have to flesh it out before I consider querying anyone. As I start school on Monday, I think I'll wait before doing a second pass. I like to forget what I've written so that it's all new to me and easier to catch mistakes.
I have to say it's not half bad. I struggled with this novel more than any other. It was almost physically painful to write because I forced myself to finish before school starts. I don't know what that says about the quality, but it is just a down draft after all. It ended almost exactly how I planned, which never happens. I think it's because I wrote it in so little time, I didn't have time to get distracted by other ideas, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.
The more I think about it, the more irony I'm finding in the text that I didn't put in consciously, but it's perfect, really. One man spends the entire book trying to find out who killed this one guy, but in the end, he's the one that kills him again. I hadn't really put that together, but it's really cool. I don't think I'm even going to draw attention to it. You can figure that one out on your own.
2. Absorbing the Media
I've just saw the season finale of Life on Mars season 2. I thought it would be a rip off of Terry Pratchett's book Night Watch seeing as how the main characters are both named Sam, are police officers, and are accidentally sent thirty years into the past, but the show is actually really good. There's a coma aspect I hadn't known about. I've been watching Dr. Who and Torchwood reruns as well, and Graham Norton. Torchwood season 2 premier this Saturday, you know. I got some new movies too. Night Watch and Day Watch are phenominal. A Dog's Breakfast is good too. And A Fish Called Wanda. I also bought Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Kevin Klein).
I haven't been sitting in front of the TV the whole time, promise. I'm reading a book called A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I recommend it to anyone. I'm only half through, though. And I read the first Return to Labyrinth graphic novel based on the Jim Henson movie. I've ordered the second, but B&N hasn't recieved it yet. The writing and art is perfect as far as staying true to the film.
3. Drawing
There are some Riff drawings here:
I don't know why they didn't all load. :(
There are some other drawing's I've done lately too. Check out Deviant Art
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
End of the Semester News
I've only got a couple days of school left. In fact, classes are pretty much over. I've just got 2 exams to study for and one paper to write. That's pretty good considering some people have at least five tests left before they're out of here. In the downtime, I'm working on some projects including Riff and sorting through my new laptop. Oh yes, the 50gig Dell that's been putting along for the last two years finally had to be euphanized. I'm not so sure I like Vista. I can't find the search function and randomly, bits of files and sometimes entire folders seem to be missing. I don't know what's going on. But it has a printer that comes with a scanner, so more drawings to come. Oh yeah, and apparently I have pnemonia. Good times.
1. Riff
Still crammed into chapter two, not entirely finished with chapter one because I haven't started writing the fifth storyline yet, starting to dribble over into chapter three. I'm not so sure writing something this out of order is safe, especially since I don't really know what's going on. Oh, I have an outline, but it changes with every sentence I write, so in that sense, it's more of an anti-outline because it's the one solid plotline that I know WILL NOT resemble the actual book.
My characters are getting into much more trouble than they were supposed to. That's the good thing about letting an idea simmer a few months before pounding it out. More wicked ideas forms. A lot of those times it happens spontaniously, but often it comes to be when I'm in bed trying to fall asleep (of course the one time when there is no pen and paper in reach).
I don't think I've mentioned how much of an epiphany I've had on this book. It's always bothered me that I don't really know why I'm writing this book. They tell you you must have a point -- a theme, a moral, a metaphor, SOMETHING -- at least in adult fiction. I won't get into that debate now, but the thing is, sometimes you can be writing something with a point (all the things mentioned above) and not realize it, but the sooner you do, the sooner you can start to incorporate those motifs in the rest of the writing. Well I'm two chapters in and I finally realized what this book is ABOUT. I always knew the plotline, but not what was underneath. I know now that it is about identity and what it means to be human. It's also a little bit of metawriting.
This helped me when I had to reshape Matthew a little bit. Writers group said he didn't have enough flaw in the first chapter, none really. I think that was the point, to make him seem completely confident in his element and throw him in hot water later. But I do understand a reader needs to relate to a character. So I shaped his flaws around the context of humanity -- being human as opposed to being angelic or demonic. Just wait. You'll see.
2. Flat 48 Book
I've got 10 chapters written. I turned them into my INS prof for a grade. I'll use this as a nice draft. There are still many stories to tell, but this is a nice 27 page taste of the adventure.
3. Filming
Not false hope this time. A mockumentary is in the works. But more on that later.
4. Writing Conference
I do want to mention the Fantasy Matters Writing Conference in Minneapolis. A handful of published authors came and spoke about writing and publishing. Jack Zipes and Neil Gaiman came to speak about why fantasy does matter. I went to a debate (er, I mean discussion...) on Stardust, a pannel on publishing, and a reading by an author. Neil was really cool because he prepared a speech but then found out that he was expected to read something, which he thought was neat, so he read us the beginning to The Graveyard Book, which isn't finished yet, but sounds fantastic. He did happily summarize the speech he had planned to give, answered questions, and signed autographs. It was nice he was there at this time because Beowulf opened that weekend, so he must have been exhausted from going to premiers in both American and the UK. I did see Beowulf in 3D at the imax, and it was intense. In other news, Minneapolis is cold, has confusing roads, and hides away its bookshops. That is all.
me and Neil Gaiman
Friday, November 09, 2007
November updates
1. Riff
Riff is up to over 13,000 words, somewhere in the middle of chapter two and still going strong. I'm actually having to force myself to set it aside so that I can concentrate on school work, which is a good sign. I had to retool some of the characters, but things are looking good.
2. Flat 48 Book
I promised to have 12 chapters done by December 3rd, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen. The ones I have finished look pretty good, I think. These are the chpaters I have so far:
Journey of the Mind (Jaime's plane flight)
Passageway (the Arcade)
The Biggest Dump (Michael Andrews concert)
[untitled, possibly "local food local music"] (Darren Hayes concert)
part of an Ireland chapter
A Library Survival Guide
Regression (mandarine oranges)
I made a drawing for the cover of my draft that I want to turn into my INS class, but I'll need a scanner so I can colorize it. I'll post it when it's done.
3. Drawings
I have been doodling (mostly in my history notebook). I've got a pretty good Hot Fuzz drawing I did for fun one day. I also starting thinking about the Burbank with a Baedeker comic series again. I retooled the look of Milo, but Burbank and Lenore still look the same. Now I just need a script. And a style.
And I made this last summer. I forgot to post it earlier. It's for Bowling Shoes and Murder. It's the result of being bored at work (that plotter takes forever!).
4. Videos
Have I posted my London vids that are on U-Tube? They're available on my webiste (which just got a new hoopy logo). Otherwise, here you go...
Please note on the Holloway Road satire, I didn't catch the funniest part until just a couple weeks ago, even though I've seen it a million times. I was always watching the convict and never the lady cop. So much for my observation skills.
5. Film
Okay, that inspired false hope. I pulled my video camera out of the closet and turned it on for the first time in a year, and both batteries were completely dead. They just drained on their own without being plugged in. But I charged them in time to tape a Sean McConnell concert, which was an awesome show.
6. Editing
In defiance of doing anything productive, I attempted to create some Two Guys A Girl And A Pizza Place montages until I got bored.
7. Masks
My paper mache masks got some time in real life scaring small children for Halloween. Check it out: LINK
8. Photos
Here are some random pictures I've been taking...
English Kickball
Nelson Lake
The Maytals Band
There are others, but MyPhotoAlbums.com is being really slow. It's probably because my pictures are too big...or there are too many of them.
PS. It's my birthday this month and I get to go see Neil Gaiman! So excited.
Riff is up to over 13,000 words, somewhere in the middle of chapter two and still going strong. I'm actually having to force myself to set it aside so that I can concentrate on school work, which is a good sign. I had to retool some of the characters, but things are looking good.
2. Flat 48 Book
I promised to have 12 chapters done by December 3rd, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen. The ones I have finished look pretty good, I think. These are the chpaters I have so far:
Journey of the Mind (Jaime's plane flight)
Passageway (the Arcade)
The Biggest Dump (Michael Andrews concert)
[untitled, possibly "local food local music"] (Darren Hayes concert)
part of an Ireland chapter
A Library Survival Guide
Regression (mandarine oranges)
I made a drawing for the cover of my draft that I want to turn into my INS class, but I'll need a scanner so I can colorize it. I'll post it when it's done.
3. Drawings
I have been doodling (mostly in my history notebook). I've got a pretty good Hot Fuzz drawing I did for fun one day. I also starting thinking about the Burbank with a Baedeker comic series again. I retooled the look of Milo, but Burbank and Lenore still look the same. Now I just need a script. And a style.
And I made this last summer. I forgot to post it earlier. It's for Bowling Shoes and Murder. It's the result of being bored at work (that plotter takes forever!).
4. Videos
Have I posted my London vids that are on U-Tube? They're available on my webiste (which just got a new hoopy logo). Otherwise, here you go...
Please note on the Holloway Road satire, I didn't catch the funniest part until just a couple weeks ago, even though I've seen it a million times. I was always watching the convict and never the lady cop. So much for my observation skills.
5. Film
Okay, that inspired false hope. I pulled my video camera out of the closet and turned it on for the first time in a year, and both batteries were completely dead. They just drained on their own without being plugged in. But I charged them in time to tape a Sean McConnell concert, which was an awesome show.
6. Editing
In defiance of doing anything productive, I attempted to create some Two Guys A Girl And A Pizza Place montages until I got bored.
7. Masks
My paper mache masks got some time in real life scaring small children for Halloween. Check it out: LINK
8. Photos
Here are some random pictures I've been taking...
English Kickball
Nelson Lake
The Maytals Band
There are others, but MyPhotoAlbums.com is being really slow. It's probably because my pictures are too big...or there are too many of them.
PS. It's my birthday this month and I get to go see Neil Gaiman! So excited.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Wirehouse
This idea just popped into my head. It's not really a book or a production company or a CD or anything that I know of...but it could be. Actually, googling it, it seems to be some crappy website as well as a band name. Isn't everything?
Oh, and I updated my website to make it more professional looking, which had been the intent last time...but you know, things happen.
www.simple-assault.com
Friday, August 24, 2007
All sorts of things
1. Yes, it's possible to make animation with the rotascope texture, however, it's not easier.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4bw0E7zoZs
2. Been working on RIFF. Writer's group took a peek at a couple entries and so far the feedback has been positive as well as helpful.
3. My flatmates and I are writing a book about our travels. I've never written a non-fiction before but was inspired by Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. (Inspired by Douglas Adams? That's never happened to me before! *smirk*) Jenny suggested we publish through Createspace.com. We also have to figure out what tense and point of view we want it to be in (let alone style.
4. I'm finishing up on my London videos. The documentary is done, as is Spring Break. I need to render some others (ie Islington, Ireland, karaoke). All I have left to edit is some misc. London things like Dungeon, parks, etc.
5. I've read a lot of Discworld books this summer and have drawn lots of sketches that occur to me from them, including a large 24x24 City Watch one. I'm working on an even bigger Librarian one. I also want to do a large Doctor Who as well, but don't have time (I've only got one week before returning to school).
City Watch by ~J-Leigh on deviantART
6. I've made more masks, the most recent ones being a Time Tracker with a watch in his eye and an Igor made of painted cloth. I have to pick one of my 13 masks for Halloween. I might make a new one with air holes.
link: http://www.freewebs.com/jleighnelson/masks2.htm
--Jaime
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4bw0E7zoZs
2. Been working on RIFF. Writer's group took a peek at a couple entries and so far the feedback has been positive as well as helpful.
3. My flatmates and I are writing a book about our travels. I've never written a non-fiction before but was inspired by Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams. (Inspired by Douglas Adams? That's never happened to me before! *smirk*) Jenny suggested we publish through Createspace.com. We also have to figure out what tense and point of view we want it to be in (let alone style.
4. I'm finishing up on my London videos. The documentary is done, as is Spring Break. I need to render some others (ie Islington, Ireland, karaoke). All I have left to edit is some misc. London things like Dungeon, parks, etc.
5. I've read a lot of Discworld books this summer and have drawn lots of sketches that occur to me from them, including a large 24x24 City Watch one. I'm working on an even bigger Librarian one. I also want to do a large Doctor Who as well, but don't have time (I've only got one week before returning to school).
City Watch by ~J-Leigh on deviantART
6. I've made more masks, the most recent ones being a Time Tracker with a watch in his eye and an Igor made of painted cloth. I have to pick one of my 13 masks for Halloween. I might make a new one with air holes.
link: http://www.freewebs.com/jleighnelson/masks2.htm
--Jaime
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Texture
I got distracted again. Not completely. I worked for three hours on my documentary this morning until my brain went funny. I'm now trying to enhance my digital art skills. I've made some characters from Bowling Shoes and Murder with texture. I'm curious to know if it's possible to make a good-looking animation out of this sort of picture.
see more here: http://simpleassault.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album59&page=2I also made this digital picture. Despite popular opinion that it might be a goose or dinosaur, it is, in fact, a guitar made of flesh.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Back from Abroad
Hello everyone. I am back from England and boy have I been busy!
1. Riff
I've written some more of my next novel, Riff. Not a whole chapter, but bits and pieces that are quite good. I have somewhat of an outline finished, but nothing too specific because I like to be surprised. I'm back with my writers group for the summer, so I hope to get a little feedback.
2. Documentary
I'm making a documentary about studying abroad in London for American students. I'm doing it to get an academic stipend. So far, I've lined up all the audio and added some of the visual as well. Now I've got to pick and choose from my ten hours of video what I want to show.
3. London video
I'm also compiling my London video for personal viewing and to send to my friends I met in London. This will not be going to my school. But when people ask to see some video, I don't want to go digging through almost 20 hours of video, so I'm making a DVD. So far, I've put together a couple sketches including one for Dublin, a satire on Holloway Road, and a little bit of karaoke.
4. Masks
I really wanted to buy some full size masks in Venice, but they were expensive, too big for my suitcase, and would probably break on the return trip. So I've decided to make my own. I have now made eight and a half masks. Check out the website:
5. Website
Speaking of websites, I completely revamped my webpage. The material is more or less the same, but I gave it a new look. Still not the professional look, but I like it this way.
6. Scrapbooking
I looked at my C drive and deduced that I had 2,004 pictures from my London (and Spring Break) trip! That's a lot of scrapbooking! No,I'm not going to print all of them. But Shutterfly keeps giving away pictures for free, so I've managed to get about 50 photos for less than eight dollars, which is nice.
7. Drawing
Oh, and I made this picture.
Thanks for tuning in. More to come!
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