fredart : blogbits

Whee. That was a fun, and overdue rant on manga terminology. I swear, sometimes its hard to write clearly about things you feel strongly about. And, of course, i once again am inspired to try to rant more often… yeah, yeah, heard it all before.

In other news, i’m seriously feeling tempted by the distraction of getting Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. I’ve been seeing screenshots lately, and while i’m not particularly drawn by the japanese fantasy sword’s ‘n stuff nature of it, the characters are appealing… especially Saber. Dammit, i avoided Fate Stay Night, and now i might get snagged.

Not bad for a doujin group that was able to turn pro and produce hot selling games just based on the quality of their work. Bravo guys.

- pirotunes: Space Time Continuum - 2 Pro 1 -

In all honesty this really is just a random sketch. For some reason last night i found myself wandering aimlessly on my sketchbad, and oddly enough, it actually produced some scannable sketches. I’m not really sure about the dress, either in design or where it may have come from - it’s rare for me to draw female characters without some sort of defining line at the hip (seperate tops / bottoms or seams in dresses) but oddly enough it works in this one. Material of the dress? With that collar, it gives the impression of being a knit of some sort… kinda scary, if you think about it, a knit dress of that length. Saeko’s expressions, possible meaning behind these sketches as they surface? Can’t tell ya

Click here to view the sketch

Man, nothing sucks worse than getting derailed the way i have been since i got back from South Dakota. I think there was no question that i needed the break, and Sarah and I had a great time, but once I got home… i think i was more tired than i was willing to admit to myself. Also, i found myself curiously (and alarmingly) blank on the Megatokyo story. For some reason i just could not get my brain to synch with the story at all. Very scary.

Part of it, i guess, had to do with the difficulty of what i was trying to do with Mondays comic. In the end, it actually came out more or less ok. The only real remaining weakness in it is the fact that the last four frames really do not clearly show things as much as i would like. It works, but could work better. The dialogue DID come together, but the drawings were not quite up to the task. Even so, it got me past that particular set of brambles, and i’m feeling a little more confident now. Today’s efforts will be telling

Good to be back, and to finally be somewhat more rested. The weather is cool and blustery, very fall like… and as i think i’ve mentioned many times before, it is the kind of weather that inspires me to write. Its not quite time for snowy weather yet, but i can be patient

Remember a few weeks ago i talked about finding out the artist behind this piece of music that i’ve been listening to for years, and while it was great to finally KNOW what CD it was on, that finding this CD was just not working out for me… well, i need to say a big thanks to one of the posters (Tohya, i think) who posted a link to the Metropole store which seemed to have a copy of Terre Thaemlitz’s ‘Soil’… Sure enough, after ordering it, it came in the mail, and i have one of the CDs i never thought i’d have sitting on my desk. Thank’s Tohya.

It’s actually a nice disk. There are two other tracks on here that I know i’ve heard before, too. It’s part of the 1995 Instinct Ambient series, which also had another very classic disk called SETI : Pharos. There are places i know i can get that, but… i think i’m gonna try to be good and wait a bit before attempting to purchase that disk.

Oh, and more good stuff from the Itunes music store. Amazing, really, what seems to be popping up. Recent purchase there was this great ambient CD from OX A.N.A. Once again, amazed that it was there when i punched it into the search field. Really, really need to not do that too often.

- pirotunes: Igneous Flame - Dark Material from “OxANA” -

(sigh) i really should know better than to think that after taking a week to step away from the story writing and drawing process, that i couldn’t just jump back in and knock out a good strip. I really should have just planned for a simple one off joke strip or something (in fact, i have a half finished idea for one that i really should have done) but no, i have to be stubborn.

It’s a very depressing feeling, really, working along on something that is coming together poorly as you work on it. It’s kind of hard to describe. Usually, what happens is when you are working on a comic and drawing it, the ideas tighten up, the sequence comes together better, and most of the time the process of creating the comic fixes any worries you have about the script. In today’s effort, i was starting to feel that something was most definitely not right… this comic is on the wrong path to go where i want to go, and the only way to fix it is to go back and restart. I have to do this sometimes (as some of you may remember).

What i really should have done is just said ‘no comics this week, see you monday” but i insist on being stubborn and refuse to listen to my own past track record about how i work. I’ll just have to make sure i dont check email today, because i’m sure the flames about my inadequacies as a comic artist and my lack of professionalism will start rolling in as soon as my more critical readers find there is no comic this morning and get agitated by the fact. Ah well, thinking about it is as bad as reading them.

Gotta stop, catch my breath, re-address what im doing, and dive back in. This, at least, usually works - its just part of my normal work structure that makes me perpetually late, and gives me no worthy explanations to appease disappointed people with.

- pirotunes: Harold Budd - Down The Slopes To The Meadow -

Well, i tried to post a blog entry from the road (yesterday, actually) but for some reason i couldn’t get the entry to post. Part of the problem was probably partly due to the fact i was so tired when we hit Wisconsin yesterday… but we’re home now. 2,935 miles later. That’s a lot of driving

It was a very interesting, enjoyable and relaxing trip. I’m still pretty tired (in fact, there was a portion of the trip where i really felt myself blinking in tiredness quite a bit. I’m going to get some sleep, get up and get cracking on things tomorrow. I have a a LOT to do, but we took care of delivering all of your gifts to the Pine Ridge reservation, Sarah and I had ourselves 2 nice days roaming around the Black Hills, and it was a nice vacation.

I have something i want to put up for a DPD, but i’m feeling that lazy about it tonight that i’ll work on it in the morning

So far, i’ve driven over 2,000 miles since Sarah and I left for South Dakota last thursday. The plan was to get here and spend the weekend exploring, and then deliver all the art and school supplies to the Pine Ridge Reservation on monday, and our plan worked out pretty well. It has been a fascinating trip, we’ve seen a lot and learned a lot about a part of the country i’ve never been exposed to before.

Today is the last day - we’re in Wisconsin and just have to finish the last leg home. I was way too tired to pull anything together last night. I’ll post some stuff when i get home, then tomorrow i’ll pull together friday’s comic. It was a nice break, and it’ll be good to be back

Ah, nothing makes for a more hectic day than finally realizing you are like, leaving on a seven day trip tomorrow morning It’s insane the amount of things you suddenly realize you should be doing before you leave. Right now, i’m getting an oil change for our vehicle, something i really should have done last week

I’m highly amused at all of the things that have come down on me in the past seven days. seven days ago, i remember saying “ok, i have nothing going on between now and when i leave, so getting ahead on comics shouldn’t be a problem”.

Hah, i make myself laugh sometimes

The good thing is that it’s looking like i’ll only be missing 2 story comics - mon and wed of next week. We have stuff planned for both days - i just don’t have time to give a story comic real justice. Speaking of story comics… i keep trying to avoid action sequences, but i have to say that the Jamko vs. Largo sequences were a lot of fun to draw. In fact, i had more trouble drawing l33t dude just standing there than i did any of the action sequences. Go figure. Anyways, one of ‘comics’ next week will be either a DPD or a 4 panel ‘meanwhile’ strip i’ve been fiddling with. The other day… lets not talk about that other day

I’m actually looking forward to this trip. I do some of my best thinking while driving, and i have two days of it to do lots of thinking. My goal to have this trip seem transparent to the readers sadly didn’t happen, but i’ve missed more comics than this for just weekend trips, so all in all i think i’m doin pretty good.

I’ll post from the road if i get a chance. Often i don’t, but maybe i will this time

- pirotunes: Howie B - I Can Sing But I Don`t Want To -

Well, i have to say, it certainly has not been a very good week for me so far… in fact, it’s been quite a depressing series of events ^^;; Most of them are surmountable, and really just challenges to overcome (like, having to move the Megagear store to another software platform when we get back from our trip to South Dakota), but something happened yesterday that makes me feel particularly alienated, and its not a fun feeling.

Odd, really, the kinds of places you feel are ‘homes’ of sorts. I made the mistake of thinking that i understood a certain place i used to hang out and made some decisions that i felt would help protect the place. My mis-reading of the the other residents in making this decision led to an unprecedented level of personal and hurtful attacks that honestly left me reeling, and has made me feel more than a little unwelcome in my old haunt. Well, not not the number of the attacks, the nature of them.

There are accusations made to my face i am a liar, that i did something that in the past i said i was not going to do. I guess it is unforgivable to change your mind about something, based on much thinking and discussions with a variety of people. I will have to remember that. Funny, really… i am not a liar, i have a character fault that this is a reflection of. I tend to tell people what they want to hear - especially aggressive people. This can lead to contradictions in what people expect me to do. I try very hard to balance things and do what i think is best, and sometimes this gets me in trouble.

In the end, i am a willful person. I do what i want to do and what i think is right, even when i understand that it will make some people unhappy. In this case i really misjudged things (as usual) and find myself no longer comfortable in this old haunt anymore. I wasn’t expecting this, so I’m feeling rather alienated now.

It’s a shame, and i’m going to miss hanging out there. I really didn’t want to say anything about it (people often write ‘i’m leaving!’ threads, and it is a childish thing to do) but its bothering me enough that i feel i have to say something somewhere - and where better than on my own silly blog

I feel sad about the whole situation. No drama, no angst, just… sad. Maybe this week trip is happening at a good time, i think i need some air.

- pirotunes: Markus Guenther - Pilot -

Sorry for the gap in blogging the past few days. Bleah. i wrote a MT rant that describes part of what drove me nuts this week (our shopping cart software vendor breaking international shipping). Also, i’ve been desperately trying to get to the point i can start getting ahead enough with the comics so as to not miss any when we take our trip towards the end of this week.

The nice thing is, i have things setup to get cracking on them, i just need to do so. With that in mind, i’m going to get drawing. I spent a part of this morning doing some ‘research’ playing Guilty Gear X2 (something i haven’t actually done before). One of the best things about being behind on games is that its really cheap to get them after they’ve been out for a few years

I actually have some things about writing that i want to talk about, but i’ll save that for tomorrows blog entry. It has to do with creating a system that works with your creative outflow - i had systems that were too structured and pretty much required you to have things worked out to use them, and i had stream of consciousness systems that … well, didn’t allow for working with the ideas once you put them down. Re-thinking how you do stuff isn’t easy, but i think my revised systems have been working pretty well.

- pirotunes: Thievery Corporation - Trancendence -

It’s been over a year since i last added a ‘color’ image to the fredart site. This is not to say that i haven’t done any color works since the Ping and Miho cover, i’ve actually done several (the Kimiko poster, the Yuki DPD, the ALA poster, etc) but it’s been a while since i just… colored something. The basic coloring i tend to do (like you can see in the last colorwork, Ping and MIho) is a style that i consider kind of simple and straighforward - nice, presents the characters well, and is much better suited for covers than pencil sketches. I don’t find the style very… expressive. For me it’s very mechanical, and does little to inspire me to do more. That isn’t to say that color can’t be an expressive part of an sketch, taking it further than the plain sketch… doing that is something i’m trying to learn, to develop… something as much a creative expression as my pencil work is for me. The Kimiko poster worked towards that direction, and many other experiments i’ve done since also do - this is one. It’s hardly setllar, but it does work for me, in some subtle way.

Click here to view the image