Comic Book Update: Cell Shaded Study II
From my brother:
“Here is another attempt at cell shading. I’m starting to kick myself for running out of room in my original drawings and not drawing the feet as a result. Next time I’ll flip the page vertical to draw! So again, I’m trying to decide if I’ll go this route with coloring the comic. We shall see as I am not fully convinced yet.”
“Here is the girl colored up using the cell shading style. Because these are going so quick I think I will try to knock out the other two characters today. Stay tuned! ”
“I’ve added the Loner now! Not sure about the color scheme though!
Here is a quick look at the General character all colored up as well. I’m not even sure if I’ll be sticking with his costume design at this point. But I decided to color him regardless! The color scheme is fun though. Hah!”
Things are coming along. I just need to find time to work on the story. The packing and moving are monopolizing my time right now. More to come.
Comic Book Update: Cell Shaded Study
From my brother:
“I’m going to try out a number of different ways to color these characters so that I can determine the most efficient and pleasant path to take for the comic! This is actually the first time I’ve made anything cell shaded! More to come!”
Comic Book Update
My brother and I have been slowly making some progress on the Comic Book. Unfortunately, I have not been able to make a lot of progress on the story because of the new house, but hopefully that will change in the coming month. Regardless, my brother has more than enough to draw, so I have enough time to catch up.
I’ll post more on the general idea on the story once things are a little more concrete, but for now, enjoy the initial concepts of the 5 main characters of the story.
New House Update
Well, you were probably wondering why I haven’t posted in a while…Hell Week at the New House was in full effect. My mother and my girlfriend’s parents were nice enough to come and visit for a few days last week to help us get the new house “move-in” ready. Let me tell you, this house will be GREAT once we are done with it, but until last week, I didn’t realize just how much work it was going to take.
We worked 12 hour days for 4 days straight, then the parents continued to work for the next few days while the girlfriend and I worked at our “paying” jobs, then the parents left and we finished off the rest of the week strong! And we STILL don’t have everything done!!
This is what we were able to get done:
- Took wallpaper down in Hall Bathroom, Master Bathroom (13 foot vaulted ceilings), and the Kitchen
- Patched a number of holes and cracks
- Textured the Hall Bathroom, Master Bathroom, Kitchen and the patches
- Primed and painted Guest Bedroom, Office, Hallway, Master Bedroom, Hall Bathroom, Kitchen, and part of the Living Room
- Cleaned Refrigerator, Oven, Dishwasher, and Windows
- Had new carpets put in for the Master and Guest Bedrooms
- Had new sinks and faucets installed in the Bathrooms
- Had a new faucet installed in the Kitchen and in the Garage
- Put new grout in floor tile, replaced drain and re-caulked Master Shower
- Removed tree stump in back yard
- Primed kitchen cabinets and cabinet doors
- Changed doorknob and deadbolt on door to the Garage
And things we have yet to finish:
- Finish painting the Living Room
- Paint the Dining Room
- Finish installing new light fixtures and put mirrors backup in Bathrooms
- Put the closet shelves back up
- Prime and Paint the Master Bathroom
- etc.
Yes, welcome to the never ending money pit known as Home Ownership!!! This is something that will take a little getting used to.
Many thanks to my mom and my girlfriend’s parents for the time, help and knowledge they brought. We definitely couldn’t have accomplished as much as we had without them. I also want to thank those friends who also took the time to help when they could. It was very appreciated.
The Bearded!!!
So, back in November - National Beard Month for those who didn’t know - I grew a beard. It was magnificent and easily the best I’ve grown. Before shaving it, I took some reference pictures and then sent them to my very talented brother and asked for a quick 3 to 5 minute sketch…nothing special. Well, my brother, with all his talent and know-how was nice enough to spend 3 hours drawing this picture. I hope you enjoy.
The Dark Knight for Best Picture
The Dark Knight is the most financially successful movie of 2008, has the highest average score (8.5/10) for any live-action film on Rotten Tomatoes, and was just simply awesome in every way imaginable. This movie shot into my Top 5 All-Time favorites without any debate.
In my opinion, and in most opinions for that matter, The Dark Knight should be nominated for Best Picture for the Academy Awards. I’d go as far as saying it should win, but unfortunately I am not in a position to vote or in a position of influence in the matter. However, with a number of the more “serious contenders” for the nominations getting ” was good but not great” style comments, the possibility of The Dark Knight being nominated is becoming better and better.
As a result, The Dark Campaign has been created in an effort to “turn the tide on those long odds”. The news comes on the heels of Apple’s announcement that the film has become the best-selling movie download on iTunes, despite the fact that the movie is still not available. (The movie is being released this coming Tuesday - December 9th) One can only hope that justice can be done, and that the Academy can nominate movies that people (the general public) actually see and enjoy (e.g. The Lord of the Rings).
Thanksgiving 2008
So this year marked the first year I was away from my family for Thanksgiving. Actually, that statement might not be entirely true, but I can’t remember the last time I didn’t spend Thanksgiving with them, so for the most part the statement serves its purpose. Needless to say, I spent this year’s Thanksgiving with my girlfriend and a good part of her extended family. It was a nice change of pace and a great change in scenery.
To start off, I have now visited 3 states I had never been to before: Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. My girlfriend’s sister lives in Kansas City, MO and that’s where we spent most of the time on the trip. Her sister has 4 daughters - 8, 6, 4 and 2 years of age - and for some reason they like me. And when little girls like you, they want all your attention and hang on you and want you to carry them everywhere…get the picture. It was nice to get a vacation from having to take care of the dog…but he’s just one…I ended up trading one for four…haha. No, I’m not saying the girls are dogs, all I’m saying is that the trip was definitely not one of rest and relaxation. They are sweet and adorable, full of energy and laughter, but boy are they exhausting.
While we were visiting we celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas. (So, yeah, now I’m already in the Christmas mood) We only did Christmas with the gifts from everyone that was there (e.g. there were no gifts from Santa Claus or anything like that). The girlfriend and I gave gifts on behalf of both of us. We decided that she would buy the gifts for her family and I would buy the gifts for my family. Personally I think I got the better end of that deal - my family is smaller…haha. Because of the recent house purchase, the gifts I received were “practical”. I received an edger, pruning sheers, hedge clippers, a stud finder and a few other things. Not what I’m used to, but appreciated nonetheless.
Our trip to Nebraska was to have a Christmas get together my girlfriend’s mom’s side of the family. Her mom has two sisters and their mother (girlfriend’s grandmother) is still around and so they get together every year and have a little family reunion of sorts. Lots of people there, and unfortunately, I forgot everyone’s name just as soon as I learned them. It was and experience and was fun. We sang Christmas carols, had a gift exchange, read the Polar Express, took lots of pictures, and I was given a tour of the farm that the family owned. They own something like 4,000 acres - but I can’t remember what they farm (corn and for the first time sunflowers are all that I can remember). It was a nice little trip.
Our last day there was great. IT SNOWED!!! I kind of got to have my first White Christmas. This was definitely the icing on the cake for me and the trip. I went outside with the girls and had snow ball fights which was great. The girlfriend, however, is not very fond of snow or cold weather - a fact that she tends to remind me about when she says “Why do you think I moved to Florida?” This is unfortunate, because it makes any trips to go snowboarding or snow skiing a bit hard, because out of a 5 day trip, she’s only willing to go out 1 day, and I for one don’t want to be snowboarding by myself all week.
All in all, it was a great trip. We didn’t have any problems with the flight. Southwest rocks!! It was nice to get out of Orlando for a few days, but I’m glad I’m back.
The 100 Greatest Movie Characters
Back in October, Empire created a list of the 500 Greatest Movies of all time, and now they have created a similar list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of all time. Now, I definitely have to say that I don’t agree with this list - given, I haven’t seen all the movies referenced on the list, so I can’t attest to all the entries - but, the order of some of the characters is definitely questionable. I do have to applaud them however. They definitely did not use the box office impact of the movie the character was in as a proxy.
Below is the list of the Top 25:
25. Yoda (Empire Strikes Back)
24. Ash (Evil Dead)
23. Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry)
22. Red (The Shawshank Redemption)
21. Michael Corleone (The Godfather series)
20. Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)
19. Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction)
18. Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)
17. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
16. Neo (The Matrix trilogy)
15. Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
14. The Terminator (The Terminator series)
13. Gollum (The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
12. John McClane (Die Hard series)
11. James Bond (007 series)
10. Vito Corleone (The Godfather I & II)
9. Ellen Ripley (Alien quadrology)
8. Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy)
7. The Dude (The Big Lebowski)
6. Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones series)
5. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
4. Han Solo (Star Wars trilogy)
3. The Joker (The Dark Knight)
2. Darth Vader (Star Wars series)
1. Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
Now that you’ve seen that much, what do you think?
Now, don’t get me wrong, Fight Club is easy in my Top 10 favorite movies of all time, and Tyler Durden is one badass character, but number one? I unfortunately have to disagree. I mean, is he really better than James Bond or Indiana Jones? I think not.
Though there are some movies that had more than one character on the list (e.g. Star Wars with six characters), I don’t necessarily disagree with this. I don’t agree with the idea that a character should be left off the list to make room for other movies just because a movie is heavy with great characters. However, as much as I like Boba Fett (one of my favorite Star Wars characters), I find it hard to justify putting a character on the list - the greatest movie characters of all time I remind you - that only has something along the lines of 5 minutes of screen time in an entire trilogy. Maybe that attests to the impact of the character in some weird way, but personally, just including a character because he looks cool (I don’t care what they say)…give me a break.
Lastly, there are definitely some characters that were unfortunately left OFF the list and should have been on it without question - at least in my opinion. Below are just a few that I thought of:
1. Willy Wonka (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
2. Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
3. Dr. Evil (Austin Powers series)
4. Mad Max (Mad Max trilogy)
5. John Rambo (Rambo series)
6. Superman (Superman, Superman II)
7. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
8. Yojimbo (Yojimbo, Sanjuro)
9. Colonel Kurtz (Apocalypse Now)
10. Jake Gittes (Chinatown)
11. Mr. Miyagi (The Karate Kid series)
Well, that’s my rant! Let me know what you think.