News Etc..
So here I am sitting in a Gloria Jean's again, using wireless internet I have to pay for, just so that I can get out of the house. There is so much I could be doing at home, like cleaning one of the many rooms that require it, or doing washing, drying and ironing. I just don't feel like doing any of that.
This upcoming week will be one of the best I have had in a long while. I'm on a two week break from my studies, which means I get to start work later and finish earlier. I also don't have basketball on wednesday night, because we lost our first final appearance last wednesday night, knocking us out of the equation. I have basketball on thursday night though, which is good, because I don't want to get too rusty and fat.
What this means is that I will have more time for cleaning (something that I desperately want to do, but finding the motivation is the key) and maybe even a comic (or two!). I could even work on a revamp for this site (something I think it desperately needs, as this design has been here for about 9 months now, and it is seriously dated).
So I've been getting into comics again fairly heavily in the last couple of weeks. Last night I spent about 3 hours of solid reading on Wikipedia (oh how I love you!) to try to catch up on WTF has been happening in the X-Books. I'm so out of touch. What started this resurgence of my love for comics was actually my most dreaded class, Design Elements & Principles.
This class is an abstract 'visual arts' class that deals with painting and cut paste. A lot of people find doing abstract art to be liberating; in me it induces feelings of anxiety. Having so much freedom, without being given a definitive concept of what is right, and what is wrong is utterly terrifying. I left my latest assignment for the class to the very last minute for this reason - I just couldn't bring myself to do the work.
Anyway, one of the tasks was working with type. We had to cut pieces of type out of magazines and explore the shapes that they can make. It was kind of fun, but again, without being told what was the right thing to do, I was lost. I cut out a shape from what I think was an R or a K and I decided to lay it over a page of a comic. So I go home and dig out a box that contains all my comics from over the years. My idea was that I would use one of the shitty old comics I have that have yellowed pages, and I would paste the letter over the top.
"That should impress the art teacher," I thought.
I hadn't counted on emotional connection to these comics. So after tracking down the comics that I had thought I could do without, I sat down and read them. And then I read some more, and more. Eventually I was left with only 2 choices (out of about 3 hundred comics) - both of them being Phantom comics. I don't really like the Phantom, and the only reason I had the comics is because I got them in a showbag one year from the Royal Melbourne Show.
This was about 2 weeks ago. Since then, my comics have been unceremoniously spread out on the floor of the study. It was last sunday night that I walked into the study and something caught my eye from the pile on the floor. It was the awe-inspiring art of Travic Charest (on the cover of Wildcats Vol. 2 Issue #1). Best comic book artist ever. Period. I found the three issues that I had bought, and took them into the lounge to read.
I kept thinking to myself,
"Why did I stop buying this comic, this art is fantastic, the dialogue and story are good too! I wonder what went wrong?"
When I got about halfway through the third issue, maybe three-quarters of the way through, that question was suddenly answered. Where the pages were once filled with the deliberate and subtle pencils of Mr. Charest, now lied an abonimation. Generally if an artist can't keep the pace with the schedule of a comic, they will fill him in with a similar artist. Whoever they got to fill Travis's shoes (and they are mighty big shoes to fill) was not entirely comfortable with the style they were trying to draw. Surely, when taking over from another artist - mid-book - you would make sure you are familiar with their stylings, and make sure the characters - at the very least - look consistant!
I don't know who replaced Travis doing the art in that issue, but I can say that looking at the pencil vomit on the page in front of me again was more than enough to remind me why I stopped buying the book. Such a pity, because it seemed really interesting.
Looking at Travis's art inspired me to draw some more realistic things, focusing heavily on shadows and stoke weights. I'll probably be able to post some of them this week or the next. Some of which may even show up on the design of the new website. You'll just have to wait and see.
This upcoming week will be one of the best I have had in a long while. I'm on a two week break from my studies, which means I get to start work later and finish earlier. I also don't have basketball on wednesday night, because we lost our first final appearance last wednesday night, knocking us out of the equation. I have basketball on thursday night though, which is good, because I don't want to get too rusty and fat.
What this means is that I will have more time for cleaning (something that I desperately want to do, but finding the motivation is the key) and maybe even a comic (or two!). I could even work on a revamp for this site (something I think it desperately needs, as this design has been here for about 9 months now, and it is seriously dated).
So I've been getting into comics again fairly heavily in the last couple of weeks. Last night I spent about 3 hours of solid reading on Wikipedia (oh how I love you!) to try to catch up on WTF has been happening in the X-Books. I'm so out of touch. What started this resurgence of my love for comics was actually my most dreaded class, Design Elements & Principles.
This class is an abstract 'visual arts' class that deals with painting and cut paste. A lot of people find doing abstract art to be liberating; in me it induces feelings of anxiety. Having so much freedom, without being given a definitive concept of what is right, and what is wrong is utterly terrifying. I left my latest assignment for the class to the very last minute for this reason - I just couldn't bring myself to do the work.
Anyway, one of the tasks was working with type. We had to cut pieces of type out of magazines and explore the shapes that they can make. It was kind of fun, but again, without being told what was the right thing to do, I was lost. I cut out a shape from what I think was an R or a K and I decided to lay it over a page of a comic. So I go home and dig out a box that contains all my comics from over the years. My idea was that I would use one of the shitty old comics I have that have yellowed pages, and I would paste the letter over the top.
"That should impress the art teacher," I thought.
I hadn't counted on emotional connection to these comics. So after tracking down the comics that I had thought I could do without, I sat down and read them. And then I read some more, and more. Eventually I was left with only 2 choices (out of about 3 hundred comics) - both of them being Phantom comics. I don't really like the Phantom, and the only reason I had the comics is because I got them in a showbag one year from the Royal Melbourne Show.
This was about 2 weeks ago. Since then, my comics have been unceremoniously spread out on the floor of the study. It was last sunday night that I walked into the study and something caught my eye from the pile on the floor. It was the awe-inspiring art of Travic Charest (on the cover of Wildcats Vol. 2 Issue #1). Best comic book artist ever. Period. I found the three issues that I had bought, and took them into the lounge to read.
I kept thinking to myself,
"Why did I stop buying this comic, this art is fantastic, the dialogue and story are good too! I wonder what went wrong?"
When I got about halfway through the third issue, maybe three-quarters of the way through, that question was suddenly answered. Where the pages were once filled with the deliberate and subtle pencils of Mr. Charest, now lied an abonimation. Generally if an artist can't keep the pace with the schedule of a comic, they will fill him in with a similar artist. Whoever they got to fill Travis's shoes (and they are mighty big shoes to fill) was not entirely comfortable with the style they were trying to draw. Surely, when taking over from another artist - mid-book - you would make sure you are familiar with their stylings, and make sure the characters - at the very least - look consistant!
I don't know who replaced Travis doing the art in that issue, but I can say that looking at the pencil vomit on the page in front of me again was more than enough to remind me why I stopped buying the book. Such a pity, because it seemed really interesting.
Looking at Travis's art inspired me to draw some more realistic things, focusing heavily on shadows and stoke weights. I'll probably be able to post some of them this week or the next. Some of which may even show up on the design of the new website. You'll just have to wait and see.