Meesh's Blog

New blog site!

2009-06-09T20:40:00.001-07:00

OOOPS. I completely forgot! o_O
I've been posting at my new blog location here: www.michellemauk.com/blog
Please redirect, rebookmark, whatever you need to, to that new location! I'll probably be shutting this one down soon.

Thanks!

Love,
Michelle

The latest solar image...Albireo

2009-05-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting with simplicity. Now, I'm not a simple designer. I LIKE bold. I like graphic. I like strong colors. I like a lot of stuff going on. I think because I'm pretty self-contained, I express everything in my design work. However, I understand that sometimes "less is more", so I'm challenging myself by taking something big-like...SPACE, and trying to do simple, simple prints of it. Interestingly, the fact that space is in itself massive to us in theory; visually, from our POV, it looks very small. The moon looks like a quarter, Mercury is but a small dot on the horizon, stars are interchangeable to our eyes. It's kind of our own self-importance that we equate our relative being in relation to that infinite space by focusing on what we can see ourselves and its relation to us in the here and now. I think with that, I can understand why so many civilizations viewed the Earth as the center, and the universe as something that revolved around the Earth. It's a component of the human mind and the human spirit that we desire to be a part of something larger-yet at the same time, we are so visual that at times we overlook the incredible massive EVERYTHING that extends beyond our realm of sight. It's the whole, if you don't see it, it doesn't exist.

Which brings me to this. This is Albireo, the Dual Star. I know-"Dual Star?", you're probably thinking...that's gramatically incorrect! WELL. Here's an example of perception of space in relation to the human eye. From Earth-visible by the naked eye, Albireo looks like a single star. It's only upon busting out a handy dandy telescope that Albireo is actually two stars-a small blue one and a large gold one. Imagine the amazing things that we can't see that must exist out in the universe-beyond our universe-beyond our mind's eye. I like to think of that sometimes. Okay, long-winded post over. :)

Who says art people don't like astronomy?

2009-05-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

We don't like math. Strike that-I don't, but I like staring at the stars. :) A couple poster "minimalist vector style" images, centering around an astronomy subject. The two here are the Moon and Mercury as seen from Earth, and the star cluster M13. But done in the super flat illustrator style of moi. (Kind of like-it's their sheer vastness condensed into uber 2D flatness?)

Anyways-kind of an interesting experiment with working with minimal shapes and subjects-while still hoping to express the vastness of space. :P

Look Book page up!

2009-05-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

As it goes - the Look Book page is finally up! Only a...*ahem* couple more pages to go, right?! :) There are three looks right now, I've definitely got four, and hopefully more to come.

Anyways-that's it! Check it out at: www.vectordemented.com/lookbook.html

Vector Icons!!!

2009-04-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

Sooo-I was looking at my desktop, and I realized I use a lot of custom icons. So I began thinking..."I want to make my own! It can't be that hard, can it?"

Well-making the actual ICON isn't hard. Making it an actually working icon took a little bit of research, some digging for my OS X.4 install disk for developer tools that most private individuals probably never realized are on that disk, and some searching for icon file extension programs. All that, and I was only able to make Mac only icons. Unfortunately, until I can get my grubby little hands on CS4...or I'm willing to buy a program to convert pngs to icos, Windows users will have to wait. Sorry!

SO-here are the four sets! All part of my vector demented insanity project. Because I don't have OS X.5 or higher, I can't really use Candybar to customize my application icons, so all of these icons are hard drive and folders. But-when I can, and I WILL upgrade at some point...I'm going to customize everything! (Most people do this with cars, I do it with computers.)

You can download the icons for free from Vector Demented.

They are only for private and personal use, so if you want to use something of mine to brighten up your Mac desktop, here you go!
Instructions on how to use them are on the icons page.

Still trying to get it all done! It's coming along. :)

Testing...testing...

2009-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

After hours...and hours...testing the site-I think I've finally gotten the front page of Vector Demented to look the way I want. Of course-there aren't any OTHER pages yet, but I'm working on it.

I decided the main thing was to link the different SWFs in different HTML handlers. This allows me to build in more animation in each area, without worrying *too much* about the file size of the subsequent SWFs. this should hopefully allow for the site to load quickly from one to another.

I am still not sure if I'm going to do a separate blog for Vector Demented, or just keep everything linked into this one. I haven't decided yet. Hmm.

So, the site is now linked through my website, and even though it's painfully incomplete, the site is up-so I can continue testing and modifying things as it goes.

www.vectordemented.com

The beginning trials of building a Flash site

2009-03-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

ARRRRGH.

That's pretty much how I felt all day trying to get back into making a Flash only site.
It's been a little bit of time, and going back into Flash is NOT like riding a bicycle. I would forget how to do things, I'd start thumbing through manuals-things wouldn't work right...it can be such a frustrating program.

But-luckily, I've managed to get through about 30% of my front page. There's still a lot to go, and I need to fix a couple of things I noticed going weird with my programming. Still-I'm relatively happy that things are starting to come together.

So right now, I managed to put together an HTML/CSS basic entryway, and I've managed to put together the front interface of the site with a little animation. Since the front end is still relatively unheavy, the site loads really fast. If you have DSL or CABLE.

Anyways-you can see the beginnings here:

http://www.vectordemented.com/test1.html

Vector Demented!

2009-02-22T22:33:00.001-08:00

Sooooo-I've decided to start a new site. It is called: www.vectordemented.com
The reason? I've discovered I have a ton of vector art that won't fit on my main site. I also want it to be a site with my animated videos, my crazy icons, downloadable (and hence, shareable) icons and wallpapers that I make and maybe a store?! Dare I dream? Mmmm...maybe! But i've decided to keep track of my creation of the site (per a friend who thought it'd be cool to do that), so I'm going to take his advice and start keeping track of what I do. It's going to be the building of a site from a designer's perspective!

Hence, I think I'll also put up my missteps, my research, everything as I attempt to build this site.

It might be fun this way! Or just a way for me to keep track of my own craziness.

Punk Guy Vector

2009-02-07T11:51:00.001-08:00

I'm on a vector creating warpath because I'm doing something new...!!!

It's going to be fun!

Done in Illustrator.

More cute vector animals...Demented ones.

2009-02-01T21:29:00.001-08:00

Soooo-more of my little vector animals. All of these are my creation-but yet, I must still slap the annoying watermark image all over it. Because-vectors are easily abused. SO, from the top:
First Row: Zombie Monkey, Zombie Killer Monkey, Mime Monkey, Fairy Monkey.
Second Row: Twin Cats, Brainy Cat, Electric Mouse
Third Row: Vampire Kitty Clock, Zombie Monkey In Crosshairs
Fourth Row: Vampire Kitty Clock variation, Twin Cats variation
Fifth Row: Super Brainy Kitty.

Vectors are fun!

Animals of...things I like

2009-01-22T07:36:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the vicious watermark-but since I'm referencing characters of movies and music, I don't want these floating around online when it was done as a personal project.
The top three:
Ziggy Stardust Cat, The Artist Formerly Known As Dog, Meat Is Murder Monkey.
The next three (these are my own invention):
Dark Angel Bunny, Raver Pink Puppy, Wild West Bear
The following four:
Kill Bill Samurai Cat, Evil Driver Nurse Bunny, Gogo Bunny, and Yakuza Old Lady Bear.
At the bottom:
Scissorhands Monkey and Droog Fox.

Any likenesses are trademark of their respective owners. But this was my funtime vector stuff. :)

Desktop creation

2009-01-18T17:29:00.000-08:00

*As an edit to this post*, I forgot to put up the 1600x1200 image of better quality for larger desktops! I didn't think anyone else would put it up! But here you go!!! It'll make the real Tina happy!

Ahhh-

Every so often I do something for those I care about. It isn't very often-but I do once in a while.

Here it is, step by step:

Black and White:

Knock out background-and add one in:

Spice it up:

Color it and voila!

There you have it. Download and use as a desktop. :)

Mad Sugar Pg. 7 (or 8?)

2009-01-13T22:14:00.001-08:00

And the next page-with more crashing and crunching. I'm sort of enjoying coloring this. Coloring has never really been my favorite thing-but I do feel more accomplished after I've colored something vs. just drawing something. Hmm. I feel thwarted by my own physical body when I color. My mind says "faster faster! Get this done!" My hands say "hell no!" :) The constant battle of the mind vs. the physical body. I feel that there is another me that harbors resentment against the pushy me-and they just duke it out all the time.

ANYWAYS. Back to the computer.

Kids With Robots-Seven

2009-01-11T16:09:00.000-08:00

The Kids With Robots series continues with Robot Seven: P.A.N-Projectile Arm-style Nymph.
I'm still working on this-there will be 10 total-the last five are all the defects with their insect-style robots.

Kind of fun to go back to this style of coloring. :)

The weekend goes by so fast...it's so unfair. I think I'm still on vacation-mode.

A little more Mad Sugar

2009-01-04T09:43:00.001-08:00

And here are the most current two pages of Mad Sugar.

I realized after vacationing for 10 days in snowy upstate New York that I love LA. I really love the weather, I love the city, I missed it so much. Then, one day after being back, the license plates on my car were stolen and replaced with stolen plates. Yeah-there are things I don't miss about LA either. :) In upstate NY, people leave their keys in their cars in their driveways. I could never do that out here. I obviously can't even leave my car on a parked residential street. But anyways, I guess no matter where you live, you take the good with the bad.

Anyways, Happy New Year-and hopefully things will go a little more smoothly going forward. With my luck, I may just walk outside today and have a whole new set of plates again on my car. :P

Mad Sugar Page 4

2008-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

And the newest page of my webcomic "Mad Sugar" is up. I've worked it out with Girlamatic where once the revamped site goes up, this comic will be updated exclusively there. Until then, it'll be on Webcomicsnation and my site here, (where I may run a bit behind). Here's the latest page, click here to read from the beginning: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/meesh23/madsugar/series.php?view=archive&chapter=35047

Web Designer

2008-11-29T23:01:00.001-08:00

Happy Post Thanksgiving!

I'm very much enjoying my extra time off...it allows me to get some extra stuff done. My website is in the current issue (151) of Web Designer UK-and since I haven't gotten a copy yet...(it's so slow to come out here in the states!) a very nice young man from Ireland scanned my page in and sent it to me. Thanks Paul! I am regretting everything that I said in the blurb, because I sound like a dork. I like being an artist. I don't like talking about it. I cringe whenever I see things I say put down. I'm always going, "what was I thinking?!!

I'm also working on another comic (I need to start another one like I need a root canal-but I had an idea, and I am running with it)-it's called MAD SUGAR-and it's just going to be a candy colored, pop-punk, sci-fi, thingie. I've put a few pages up on my site to start-and that way I can build it at my own pace-and maybe when I get enough I'll put it on a site. (Maybe Girlamatic will be so kind as to let me stick it into VM's place...but our editor may just be sick of me at this point!) You can check out the pages here: http://www.michellemauk.com/comicart/madsugarhome.html

I do some work!

Update!

2008-08-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

WOW-it's been five months since I've posted...that's so bad!!! ANYWAYS-now that I have found a little bit of inspiration to go back and work on my website, I've started trying something new. So my site is up-it's still in progress, because, well, nothing is done yet-no links, no artwork, nada. BUT-the front page, and the digital page fronts are up-and they pretty much denote how the whole thing is going to look anyways. SO-go check it out: www.michellemauk.com There's also a flash image with my newest idea...

Like I said-it's in progress. In other news-I'm off to Japan Friday for a few days for business. Off to Tokyo I go. I'm a little nervous.

Plus, it's during my birthday.

ANYWAYS-that's the latest!

Stuff I've been working on!

2008-04-18T21:46:00.001-07:00

Ahhh,

I've been so busy. But here's what I've been working on for my work. Graphic Design for Comic Books. Yay! I do the logos, jacket design, interior cover design, layout, and so on. It's been a whirlwind of craziness, but I've really been enjoying it. Anyways, here are four out of the ten I've done so far for DMP-these just happen to be some of my favorites. In stores in May-August!

VM filler for awhile...

2008-02-26T22:18:00.000-08:00

Ah, so I have this piece (another filler), as I gather myself together. It's been a far busier couple months than I thought it would be-and I'm trying to work my way towards a laptop and some software-so I can continue to make art. Yay! But-sadly, VM will have to go on hold for awhile-it's been schizophrenic the last couple of months and I'm sure people are tired of that.

I want to perfect and get a couple of my skills together-especially when it comes to drawing, design and coloring, and *danger*! I have a new idea looming in my head that I want to write all out.

So-that's how it is right now.

Outspoken and Filler Update!

2008-02-13T00:21:00.000-08:00

Well,because of a commission-I couldn't finish my page-but luckily we have a "ahem' holiday of sorts-and I made a pinup. But if you want more VM-you can read my Outspoken interview on Girlamatic today HERE

Anyways-I've gotta get going on to bed so I'm not exhausted tomorrow.

VM Page 52-Third Section

2008-02-07T01:04:00.000-08:00

Gosh-how many sections will there be? Anyways-I'm a day late because I can't seem to keep my days straight anymore. *Sigh. I think that's a sign of getting older right there.

Anyways-to bed!

VM next section-splash page!

2008-01-29T23:25:00.000-08:00

And the next section is about to begin...

I put up last week's page because I forgot to post that it went up. So forgetful. Anyways, off to bed I go!

VM page 49

2008-01-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!! I'm so lame-I should've done this post last night, but now I'm at work with no access to my artwork-but....VM has updated? Finally? Yeeeeesssss, it has! I obviously haven't posted in my blog for awhile, but I've been working so much, and then I was in New York, and then I'm transitioning between two jobs, and then I got to see friends I haven't seen in yeeeearrrrsss, and...and....well, let's just say I try hard to hole myself up in my home and avoid the outside world, but it hasn't been easy! So go ahead and take a gander over here: http://girlamatic.com/comics/voyage.php

I saw Sweeney Todd, loved it! What beautiful art direction! It's still typically Burton, but I thought it was just so entertaining, and moved along much more than a lot of his other films. I loved hearing Johnny Depp sing-I mean, how brave is that? That takes some nerve to go-yeah, I'll be the demon barber, and I'll sing a musical, and not an exceptionally easy musical either.

I do have some resolutions for the new year-for sure I want to redo my website and get that done, I want to keep on top of VM-provided I'm not traveling or out of town, and I want to make sure I take advantage of my health insurance-and go and take care of my eyes, my teeth, and my body (not necessarily in that order). I can't take for granted that I've been fortunate enough to be relatively healthy in my life, and I think the way my mom raised my sister and I was smart and focused-which was to eat well (fish, rice and veggies), keep your weight at a healthy level, and reduce reliance on any medication. I still have an adverseness to medication-I don't like to take anything if I can help it.

Anyways, as it is, I can't believe how quickly time goes by-and I'm looking forward to what this new year brings. Hopefully it'll be unusual. :)

VM Requests update!

2007-11-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

So I did some requests for those that requested...and thus here are the results! It's kind of fun to do something a little different from time to time...helps keep the creative juices flowing.

Good times.

VM page 48

2007-10-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

VM Page for view
Sleepy time has come again
Must brush my teeth now

VM Page 47, and GAM news

2007-10-09T23:34:00.001-07:00

And we're back with the story. I've just been so incredibly busy, I haven't really gotten myself totally together yet. We're figuring out marriage plans, and holiday plans, and trying to get a hold of working and commuting again. I'm so tired.

Anyways, VM is back and I'm trying to hold to that.

In other news, Girlamatic is accepting submissions through I think November 8th... (Read the editor's guidelines here: http://girlamatic.com/comics/gam-edit.php) and make your own story come to life online for people to read! I came in cold not knowing anyone, and it's been a really interesting and fun experience "working" with people you have never seen before, and having other people draw your characters, and other things like that. I'm looking forward to who the new people and comics will be this November. It's a definite commitment, and now with comments boxes available on our comics, you can't really pretend people aren't reading, and don't care, because they do. So, be forewarned, it's a commitment, it's your time, but people do read, and do care, and what more can you ask for?

VM Page 46

2007-09-25T23:05:00.001-07:00

'Sigh'. One week late. I'm sorry about that.

Punk Suit Boy

2007-09-16T01:19:00.001-07:00

It's 1:18 am on the West coast, do you know where your children are?
So, this is a little punk boy in a suit, and it's just me trying out some new color combo and style...just for fun. I am easily distracted by things I should be doing, by doing things I feel like doing. I'm my own worst enemy I've realized when it comes to getting work done.

Ahhh, I guess I should be heading on to bed.

VM Page 45

2007-09-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

And we're back up today on time! I was going to write this last night, but I was just soooo tired, so I finished the page and went to bed.

And now, I'm going to work on some more stuff. I'm lethargic after having some Indian food for dinner. Mmmm. Indian food.

Lupin

2007-09-09T17:45:00.001-07:00

Just going a little old-school. I felt like drawing Lupin, so I did a quick color sketch of him! He's got the funniest face. Just thought I'd share.

VM page 44 update!

2007-09-08T23:54:00.001-07:00

Page 44 of Voyage Moyen updated today! Sorry about the tardiness...I'm so lame...
Anyways, here is is.
I was watching Paprika by Satoshi Kon while I was making this-and I highly recommend it. It's a really trippy movie regarding dreams and the ability to actually go into a person's dreams. Obviously things begin to get weird when the conscious and unconscious worlds collide. Once you see the opening sequence alone, you'll be hooked. Plus, it's considerably more understandable and focused then Paranoia Agent, which I still feel rather disappointed about how it ended.

I also saw Tales from Earthsea by Miyazaki, and that also was quite beautiful and dark. Still I felt it was slightly unfocused. I think Spirited Away was much more together. Still, beautiful artwork, as always.

I've been on a book buying binge (this isn't anything new, as I'm seriously addicted to buying books as many girls are to buying shoes.) So far, I've loved Special Topics In Calamity Physics that a friend who is a librarian (but a really cool, hip one), recommended. I'm so jealous when I read something so smartly written by someone so young.

"We fear death, yet we long for slumber and beautiful dreams." Kahlil Gibran

September 1st GAM cover...

2007-09-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's September, which means, I got to do the GAM cover for it! Yay! Here it is for you all, and you can see what I really look like on my bio at GAM, if you're truly inclined to do so. I hate pictures, but whatever.

It's still ridiculously hot, at 8:30 this morning it was 85 degrees, and over the week where my parent's live, it was hitting 104-107 degrees. My aunt lives where it hits around 110 to 112. Ahhh!!! no more heat wave. I keep having these images where all of California becomes a seemingly endless desert, and everyone has to truck around to find water, and all the little dust devils suddenly become large scale sand tornadoes that you have to take cover from, and then the animals in the ocean begin to beach themselves, and suddenly we become sequestered from the rest of the US when disease breaks out because water becomes so precious, and California is large enough to be it's own country, so they build a large wall and isolate us, and then it becomes like Mad Max, or something like in the Simpsons movie whn they're stuck in the dome, and the whole civilization crumbles.

そうか。私はおかしいだ。月曜日は休みでしょう、でも、私の恋人を働きます。かわいいそ、ね。。。じゃ、みなさん、後で。。。

VM update, page 43.

2007-08-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

Yay, it's Wednesday! Last week was birthday celebrations, and it was nice to hear from a lot of people, old friends, new friends, that always makes me feel good. Especially old friends, I love when they take time to just make a quick birthday wish. Awesome.

Anyways, a new VM page is up this week-clicky click on the Girlamatic link on the right-and it'll take you there. Saw the new Simpsons movie, loved it. Bought myself Labyrinth, loved it, though I had forgotten that it does have David Bowie's slightly questionable 80s songs (not my favorite Bowie era), and before he made his teeth pretty, so I must have pushed those out of my mind as a teen. Huh.

It was pretty funny last week though. My mom called to wish me a happy birthday, and she wished me a happy 28th. I told her I was turning 27. She proceeded to argue with me that I was incorrect, I was born in 1980, therefore I was 28. She seemed to have skipped a year in her thought process. The funny thing was, she didn't want to admit that she was wrong when she figured out that it was 2007, not 2008. She's so funny.

Ahhh, it's getting late, and I have to wake up early for another day at work.

VM...um Filler update.

2007-08-21T22:51:00.001-07:00

So, I'm still behind. But, this is my birthday week (as it's tomorrow-or Thursday, however this hits the net time wise), so I'm indulging myself a bit. I'm a Virgo, we're a bit self-indulgent. I think. I don't really know horoscope signs very well. Maybe that's a Leo? I always get confused because I fall right on the cusp, like right on it, so sometimes some books have me as a Leo, and some have me as a Virgo. I think I'm more Virgo because I was born in the evening. Whatever-I have probably the most irritating signs in the horoscope(s)-I'm a Leo/Virgo born in the year of the Monkey. Heh, that's trouble right there-three high-maintenance signs.

Anyways, I'm old.

So, I have decided to put a filler that is "surprise, surprise", dark, and I have some lovely friends who ask why I don't draw flowers and fairies and unicorns and daisies and pretty happy things, and I do draw happy things, and dark things, but my idea of something interesting to draw is not a unicorn in a field of daisies being surrounded by fairies by a pond as a princess draws near. I'll do that if I ever get commissioned to draw a fantasy novel or something.

But, maybe that's a challenge I need to do. Maybe I'm pigeonholing myself into this dark world of mine.
Maybe I'll draw a really happy puppy in a field of daises with a unicorn being tended to fairies coming off a rainbow. And he'll be a magical puppy with wings. Seriously, that sounds so sweet doesn't it? Awww.

VM page 42

2007-08-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

And...it's back. And picking up where we left off, to boot!

Anyways, I'm at a loss for conversation as I must wake up in less than five hours once I put myself to bed, and then I must entertain guests tomorrow evening, but ta daa! An update when I promised! And someone is a little darker....

Get on with your bad self!

An actual VM update, of sorts...

2007-07-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

I'm tired, so this is going to be short! An actual VM update....sort of, it's a pinup. And YES, I understand the hand issue-but whatever, I'm tired, and quite frankly don't care. Ok?

As I've been working on websites-one freelance, one for my actual job, I noticed a huge issue with the new Adobe CS3 Dreamweaver (or Dreamweaver 9). For some reason, the Javascript that is written into Dreamweaver, when you embed a flash movie into it, does not work on almost every single browser. I've yet to figure this out. But, when I took the code that the Macromedia Version 8 uses when embedding Flash movies into Dreamweaver 8, the site works fine. The main issue is really Internet Explorer, which seems to hate everything flash, and after doing some digging online, I discovered that you can overwrite the code (and it's recommended to do so anyways instead of using the default code Dreamweaver chucks out.) It does annoy me that on a new advanced "Design Premium" suite that is supposed to facilitate the migration of files and interworking between Illustrator, Photoshop, Bridge, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Flash, that the whole reason behind flash (to make movies that embed into HTML sheets) pretty much grinds to a complete and utter halt upon reaching embedding Flash movies into Dreamweaver. And I know you can turn it into a java SWF object and blah blah blah, but I think that this new software should have come ready to go! Simplify instead of embedding and running back over the code to either alter the javascript or remove it altogether. How annoying. I don't have to do that in Flash 8. I love you Flash and Dreamweaver 8. I miss you Macromedia and your simplicity. Sigh.

PS. Loved the new Harry Potter. Just had to share.

A break.....Natsuyasumi as such...

2007-07-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Yeahhhh...I have to take a break from updating my webcomic on Girlamatic. Unfortunately, outside circumstances as they are (meaning actually paying work), has been hindering my progress on pages.

So, I'll be off until August 15th, and I'll hopefully be back to updating on a consistent basis, because there is so much to the story that I want to tell! It's in my brain...leaking out of my ears! I just can't get it on paper and colored fast enough!

Well, that's that. now to work on some logos and a website.

Taking Page 3, Death and Hamlet

2007-07-08T02:02:00.001-07:00

Wow...I'm late again...I'm soooo lame. I've just been trying to work out a new schedule where I have to wake up now 2 hours earlier than I did before on the weekdays, and I'm back to commuting. *sigh*. Los Angeles, people. Doesn't get much better than that.
Ever notice how when things go wrong, they all go wrong at the same time? My fiancee's car suddenly broke down, so we're down a full car, and now we have to buy another one (rather than fix the car he has, it's older, and isn't really worth the investment.), and then the refrigerator broke down today, requiring a rather hasty trip to Best Buy and a refrigerator purchase. Thank goodness they deliver on weekends. My finacee was saying his coworkers were telling him Mercury was in retrograde, and to be wary of all electronic appliances. I don't really believe that, but I've never had two large electronic items go down in the same week. Frustrating!!! Plus, my cell phone has decided to work when it wants to, and sometimes not. Grrrr...
Oi, I'm up late. I better go to bed so I can wake up to go do some car shopping tomorrow. (Ick).
Then, back to work, back to work. Weekends are too short, I tell ya.

Anime Expo Review-Disorganization Breeds Irritation

2007-06-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

So yes, I braved what was the Anime Expo in Long Beach today for three reasons: 1, I've never been, and I wanted to see. 2. To buy something interesting. 3. To see a: Transformer and b: guys dressed as girls. Well, I got two out of three. HOWEVER, unless whomever plans these things makes the thing more organized, I am NEVER EVER going again. Now, it wasn't difficult getting there. It wasn't difficult parking. It was RIDICULOUSLY STUPID how there wasn't a single freaking sign on what to do or how to get to the center from said parking area. Hence, after asking about 3 different people with staff badges, we make it to the center. Lo and behold, we have to get plastic badge holding thingies, first. Okay, how to get there? No freaking clue. SO. After walking down a huge flight of stairs, against a tidal wave of cosplaying anime people who are also completely confused, we make it there. About 2 blocks away. SERIOUSLY. I've been to the Long Beach Convention Center before, and I've never seen them put a badge area so far away from the actual walk in area. Usually they're one and the same. Anyways, along the way there's weird orange type blocking off sections so you can't cut through anything, you have to walk. A LOT. So, we get the badges. You get herded through another couple doors and then back out. THEN, we walk back to the doors to go in. Nope, can't go in that way, because the only way in is to come in through a special orange taped off section that has a line to get in stretching from where we got our badges. Yeah, good thing there were signs denoting that. (sarcasm here, folks) So not only did we walk a long way for nothing, but now we have to walk BACK to where we started. This is hitting around 30 minutes here, and I'm seriously getting pissed because it's 95 degrees. I'm also irritated by the staff which are a bunch of 16 year old kids who don't have a clue. So we basically cut the line as it moves (because I'm sorry, I'm not waiting in line to get into a convention center.) At this point, it's almost 11am, and I don't know why I'm here. Get in, okay, fine. We stat browsing the tables, talk to a few people, when I look at the merchandise. I'm sorry, if you guys are buying this stuff at conventions, WHY?!!! Why the HECK would you buy an anime movie that you could find at Best Buy twice as low?!!! Just because it's at the convention?!!! It's not like they're even special editions of anime or manga! And at one table it's $25. At another it's $30. For a US version of four episodes. Here, buy your anime online: www.ebay.com;www.animearigato.com, www.discountanimedvd.com, www.amazon.com, ETC. Buy it on sale. For goodness sakes, do not pay double because it's at an Expo. It's not like it's gold laden or mysteriously special. It isn't. And the toys were so overpriced. I didn't buy a thing on principle. NOW, imagine. you have a thousand people, some in extremely heavy and elaborate costumes who have just spent 30 minutes in 95 degree heat. Yeah, not smelling so good. So we do a quick walk around, I have no idea where the panels are, or where artist's alley is, because again, NO SIGNS, so we look at some stuff, and we decide to bail for lunch, because we're both irritated. Oh, and some guy tried to impress how well he learned Japanese in Japan because his friends taught him how to write "hentai" in kanji. Seriously, not impressive.

Now...the good things. Um, people were generally nice, and didn't mind posing for pictures or helping out with taking pictures. Some of the costumes were incredibly impressive. There were two girls from Revolutionary Girl Utena who had beautiful ballgowns, and the D. Gray Man and Trinity Blood cosplayers were really impressive. I did see some weird ones that made me go, huh? Like, a boy dressed as Nights from the Dreamcast game, a Ghostbuster, and Dick Tracy. The most popular costumes: Naruto characters (about a good 45% of the population), Bleach characters (esp. the shinigami leaders), D. Gray Man, and Trigun characters. But there was everything, I saw Pokemon, I saw Kingdom Hearts, I saw lots of Final Fantasy, Cutie Honey, Rei from Evangelion, Death Note kids, there were some old school anime costumes that were really cute, like Robotech and the Sailor Scouts, lots of Gothic Lolitas, lots of One Piece, and so on. Oh, and if you are really into Yaoi, this was the place to be, I've never seen so many Yaoi books. I just loved when my sister and I went to a yaoi publisher, and the girl was telling us about the character development and great storyline of the book and as soon as we open it, hello! two boys all over each other hot and heavy. I pretty much collapsed in giggles, because there wasn't a lot of character development, it was more pornographic than anything else. Though the characters were pretty developed...if you know what I mean... Plus the girl was so librarianish, we just found ourselves thinking that she was a lot more uninhibited than she was acting. Wooo!

ANYWAYS. That's my report. I didn't care for it. Sue me. Oh, here's a transformer for you.

Taking City Page 2, Finished VM Postcard

2007-06-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

Two things. The latest page of the filler short story is up today on Girlamatic.com. Go read nothing, as the page has no dialogue! But you can gaze at it, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.

Second, the VM postcards for Anime Expo Long Beach this weekend came, and since I have a small number of them, hopefully I can get rid of them. As long as my sister doesn't flake, I have a chance. If she does, I'm not going, and then these will sit on my desk languishing.

So, I've started my new job. I've learned: my Japanese is RIDICULOUSLY rusty. I'm actually brushing up on my vocabulary and grammar as we speak, because I'm having a hard time with it. Second, it's very interesting working for a Japanese company. Everyone shows up on time. Everyone eats lunch at the same time in an extremely large room. There are like half a dozen rice cookers making rice all day. There are the largest tea kettles I have ever SEEN on the stove constantly making tea. The newest Japanese version of a kit kat has raspberry inbetween the wafers. Yummy! Every morning a snack delivery service comes by with onigiri, spam musibi, and other fun asian foods. The interesting dichotomy is the different people. Korean, Chinese, mostly Japanese, and Spanish. Everyone speaks two or three languages. English is relatively universal for those who don't speak Japanese. Everyone goofs off for EXACTLY the duration of their break. As soon as it is over, the turn into working people. They keep having to remind me when lunch is because I am so used to going whenever I want, or not gettting a lunch at all. The most interesting thing is how relaxed it is. I'm SOOO not used to that. Having worked in entertainment, I'm used to the NOW NOW NOW kind of pressure. With them, its "Take your time. Don't rush. Relax."

Hopefully I can wrap my thick skull around the Japanese, because I know I'm getting a deer in the headlights thing going on sometimes. I hate beginning new jobs-you never know what they think of you or your work, and it's incredibly awkward the whole time.

Oi. Gotta go to bed.

The Taking City Page 1

2007-06-13T01:14:00.001-07:00

And the short story begins. Hmmm... I'm a little troubled by the text. I may have to change it. Ah, well. If anyone complains, I'll change it.

I would say more, but I'm tired. I can tell when I'm tired when I have absolutely ZIP on my mind. Sleepy time!

*EDIT* Okay, fixed the text. It was problematic.

Kids With Robots-The Defects!

2007-06-11T22:16:00.001-07:00

Yeah, I couldn't resist continuing with this. So this is Robot 6: A.M.I, which stands for Armor and Metal Insect, and hence it is a robotic insect. Six thru Ten are essentially the counterparts to One thru Five. So this is the first of the defective robots. why is it defective? These robots actually merge with a human and begin to control them, which is never good for a pet. Ha, if I keep this up I'll have a whole little plot line for my all ages comic that I have in mind for this. Plus, I get to dress everyone up really cute.

AND. I will be moving on from my place of work now to a new place of work. Time to step away from television production and move into graphic design and web design. I'm actually going to be working for a major Japanese food company that has been around for a VERY long time, so it'll be a big change. Plus, everyone speaks Japanese, so it's time for me to brush up on my nihongo skills and get myself in gear. After working in the entertainment industry and wearing jeans and t-shirts everyday for the past 4 years, I guess I need to prepare myself to be more business like. I'm excited, it'll be challenging. I am touched though that both my bosses at the production company I work at are going to miss me. In television where everyone is in and out with each production, having made my home there for a year is a big thing. My fiancee will still be there editing though, so I'm sure I'll be seeing them all soon.

I do not like starting over, though. That's the hardest part. A new job, new people, new rules, new etiquette. I doubt at my new job I can have a beer on a Friday while I'm working while hanging with my boss and coworkers, but you can't have everything, right?

AHHHH. Time to work on tomorrow's page.

The Taking City & VM Spoiler

2007-06-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

ARRRRG! It's only Wednesday. Why am I so tired? Well, today began the filler short story "The Taking City". Yeah, it's pretty self explanatory. I also did some art for VM which has a little spoiler for when the story comes back (after The Taking City is finished.)

So, yeahhhh. I really don't have much else to say. But soon I'll be making a big change!!! WHOOO!!!! (Professionally....)

Yayaya.

VM page 41 Update! Thus begins the break.

2007-05-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

And with this page VM will go on a short break. (Shorter if I don't want the short story to become a pain.) I really love doing VM, but I want to get ahead with it. I also put myself in another project, so while I'm working to finish that up, I have to put up the short story. Hopefully I can get it all together. I wish I had more time to stay at home and draw, but life (and finances) don't really work that way. So it is.

I saw Pirates 3. I liked it! It was long, (very long, I was shaking by the end because of a huge soda I drank during it), but it was really entertaining. I'm pissed though. I heard there is an additional scene after the credits. Those credits were massive! Think about how many people it takes to make a $200 million dollar movie, and throw those at the end of a 3 hour movie and THEN put a scene that helps tie things together (or so I've heard)?!!!! How irritating! Well, hopefully someone will spoil and reveal what was in that scene, because I'm not paying $14 to sit through that thing again and wait to see a short 5 minute scene. Goodness. So if you know, tell me, PLEASE.

Okay, bed time.

*EDIT* Okay, I found out what happened. I get it, sort of. But I'm still irritated that I missed it. The whole beginning makes sense now, though.

Smores....

2007-05-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah. Another vector. Shoot me. (I do these because the ideas pop into my head, and I just have to get them out. My other work takes so much longer to do.) I don't know, I was craving smores. Then I thought, hmmm, you need some fire to make the truly good smores. The problem I have is that I can't really make a decent smore over a fire. (And it would never be a campfire, because I don't care much for the sun and outdoors.) I've tried and always the graham cracker breaks, and if the chocolate isn't too hard it's too soft and runny, and it melts all over the place. And we have a fireplace, but it's gas, and that's no fun! It has to be the true fireplace. I wish I had a gas stove but it's electric, because you can make some pretty good smores there too.

Arrrgh! I'm bummed, I have to work a half day tomorrow!!! WHY?!!!! Oh well. I'm going in, going to get it over with and leave. At least the time will be comped back to me. At least it had BETTER be.

Little Sister-Another Vector!

2007-05-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

And the vector bus continues... bump, bump. I did a vector of myself as a child, and my sister was determined that I make one for her, and as she is my one and only sister, I must comply! That is what I as the elder must do for her as the younger! Anyhow, this is her as a child, and since she was always the more playful and fun one, her's is more bright and energetic. I was always more serious and sensitive and more of a loner, so mine was more somber. Yeah, she was a cute little thing. Ha! How quickly she grew out of that!

Err. I think this image killed the memory in my computer though. (Not that I have much to go on after my computer meltdown earlier this year due to bad ram.) So now Illustrator won't allow me to embed images due to insufficient memory, which sucks, because, really-that's the whole purpose of Illustrator. Shoot. I'm totally freaked out after buying bad ram, and I hate having to buy more and risk my computer freaking out again. Memo to myself, my next computer, I shall buy with a crapload of ram, because below 1 GB is not enough to run Creative Suite, and I'm pushing my luck as it is. Hopefully I can find some this weekend, or I may be SOL on comic pages coming up. The inconvenience of this sucks.

Kids with Robots Five: D.A.I

2007-05-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

And number five in the Kids with Robots series. This is the D.A.I robot which stands for Detection and Investigation. Yep. So here's I think the last in the series. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anymore of these, but they are fun. Maybe something different this time.

This is like the never-ending week. I can't wait for it to be done.

VM page...shock 40!

2007-05-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yeahhh... I have actually done 40 pages of something. Ha! And it is still surviving, and I'm still enjoying drawing it, so yay!
So new Voyage Moyen update today, Nate gets a little more beat up, and we learn the archer's name, and yeahhhh. There you go. I think if I spread working on the page over several days, it allows me to keep it cleaner and more sharp. It's when I rush that things start to get messy (in my eyes), and I get more frustrated with it.

Having a Wednesday update day makes it much better. When I first was on Sundays, I wasn't thinking that I had to get it all done by Saturday night. So now, I have the entire weekend to work on pages, and that makes things a lot smoother.

*Totally random*, but I saw Van Helsing on tv the other night, and I kept thinking "how did this horrible, horrible movie get made?". Even worse, why the heck did I fork out $10 to see it in the theatres? It is so bad. I mean, SO BAD. Unfortunately, it doesn't fall into the so bad it's funny category like... The Order. Remember that movie? With Heath Ledger? That movie was so bad, that when everyone was walking out, people were seriously pissed that they had paid money to see it. I couldn't stop laughing the whole way through. I love those so bad they're funny movies. At least it makes paying admission bearable.

And what in the world is going on with animated movies? I saw a preview for the movie "Surf's Up", and here are my questions...
1. How many penguin movies or zoo animal movies does this world need?
2. Is it appropriate to use the insult "peckerhead" when referring to another bird? I was pretty surprised by that.
3. Does evey animated movie need music from the 60's and 70's to make it relevant to adults to take their children to it? (Yes, I'm thinking you-Shrek.)
4. Why the heck would animated movies have Soprano or Godfather references? Like, what?! Mobsters?
5. Okay, again, why in the WORLD does every new movie need some sort of "extreme" sport reference? (Yes-I'm thinking you Treasure Planet with your skyboarding, and Tarzan with the tree surfing, and penguins surfing and AHH!) WHYYYY?!!!

As long as I don't have to see another barnyard animal movie with bulls with udders (not cows, but bulls), shooting milk out of them as a weapon or something, I may be able to save a few brain cells.

Killer Bunny and Reading Fundamentals-Vectors.

2007-05-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Two new vectors today. Number one is a simple killer bunny. Who did the bunny just kill? I don't know, but he doesn't seem terribly insincere about it. Number two is my unsolicited contribution for the youth of today. Yes, read. READ! One of my pet peeves is when someone complains about not understanding or not knowing something. We live in an age where you can wikipedia it, or google it, or look it up. I am a huge reader, and I think fundamentally, it exercises your brain in ways that learning it on tv doesn't do. There's something about physically having to move your eyes across a page, processing the letters and shapes in words and phrases, and concocting an image in your head. I always love reading history books, then looking up people to see if they look similar to how I envision them. It's weird, I'm not old, but when I was younger, all of my research papers and assignments meant trips to the library, and I would check out mounds of books, reading the choose my own adventure stories, the complete OZ series, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, and getting books on spiders and lizards and horses and so on at the same time. Now, you can just flip on your computer, type it in, and it's all pulled up for you. I mean, even the SAT has gone electronic. You can now buy a pocket study aid that you can carry around with you (like an electronic flashcard), do practice questions and tests on. I think I would've been a much better test taker with that. I certainly hope technology doesn't outdate or outmode the book. I know it's killing the newspaper right now, but I hope that won't be the case in the future.

Kids With Robots Four: C.A.T

2007-05-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've done one of these. This is number four in my little "kids with robots" series. This is the C.A.T. robot, which is the "Cellular and Transmission" robot. So this is the communication pair of the robot series. So so far, robot one is a time robot, robot two is a militaristic robot, robot three is a storm robot, so robot four falls in as a communication robot. I drew the Kid and robot 5 sometime ago, but I haven't colored it yet. I can't remember what robot I gave him. I do these for fun, because they coloring style is actually a bit easier to do, and so they don't take as long.

I saw Spiderman 3 today, and I pretty much agree with most of the reviews on it. #1. Long movie, not Harry Potter or LOTR long, but long enough. #2. There is like zilch chemistry between Mary Jane and Peter. #3. I shouldn't have worried about the inconvenience factor of everyone having their masks off pretty much the whole freaking movie, because almost all of them *spoiler*, end up dying. Conveniently. So Spiderman's identity is safe. Until he is unmasked in four for the entire film. #4. Venom is lame. He's cheesy. #5. The emo Peter Parker is the best. It stops Tobey Maguire from sucking his face back and bulging out his eyes constantly. The eyeliner? Nice touch. #6. The whole half hour of sentimentality at the end. Really annoyingly overindulgent. #7. Gwen Stacy? I barely remember her at all, and I just saw the film today. #8. *spoiler* Thank god they got rid of Harry. If they carried his whiny butt into another film, and his weird goblin outfit that had NO goblin mask, which didn't matter because it was constantly off ANYWAYS, I was going to shoot myself. #9. I love Bruce Campbell, no matter what. He's just cool. And J. Jonah Jameson, seriously, he is just the funniest thing. The part where he has to take his pills for his heart, and his receptionist just picks on him? So funny. #10. Was it just me, or does Kirsten Dunst act like she's just paying her dues, and that she has no excitement to be in this film?

Anyways, my hope is that in Spiderman Four (oh, you know there's going to be one), is that they bring in a female villian. That would be rad. But I'm banking for sure on The Lizard (come on, they've had Dr. Connor in three films already), and I'm thinking The Scorpion. Maybe the Rhino? I don't know, that could just be silly. I would REALLY like to see Mysterio, but I think he'd probably look really goofy in a live action. My fiancee wants Morbeus or the Man Wolf (which could work, considering that is J.Jonah's son, and they've introduced him already). My least favorites: The Vulture, The Kingpin, and Electro. They could, which I hope they don't, bring in Carnage, and that would just annoy me.

OKAY. Still feeling the red vines from the theatre. Time for bed.

Wallflower Fan Art-Sunako!

2007-05-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

I looove The Wallflower. (For those of you who don't know,it's a manga about a bizarre girl who has to live with four beautiful boys, in an estate owned by her aunt. If they can make her into a lady, then the aunt will let the boys live there rent free. ) Sunako makes things difficult because she's anti social, she likes the dark and staying in her room watching horror movies, she eats chocolate, she breaks out, she gains weight, she gets angry and scary, and she doesn't care what people think of her. Ahhh, I love that! I just love her because her character is so unusual for a manga. Girls tend to be sexy and bombastic, or dirzy, and then they fall for the nerdy otaku guy... (Like how many of THOSE are out there). So this is my homage to Sunako in her "cool" mode, defending the skull of one of her favorite skeleton models, Josephine. More people should read this, it's funny!

VM update, page 39

2007-05-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

A little action for ya! Another VM page up. I don't know if anyone noticed, but I did touch up the last page, because it bothered me so. Now I just need to go through the first 20 pages. (Tee Hee.) I actually got a little surge of inspiration, and went to town on the next three pages of VM (drawing and ink wise), so I'm actually excited to color them and put them up.

In any event, I definitely don't want to get bored of it and quit before it ends. I know how it ends, and I know that I want it to end, it's just the journey to get there.

I bought myself the Cibo Matto compilation CD. I have been addicted to it recently! There's just something so catchy about every single song they do. My favorites: Apple, Sugar Water, Working for Vacation, and Spoon. They're just so funny and cute. Yet, clever artistically (in terms of the instruments and the way the songs are built.)

Ah well, until something exciting happens...

Skulls...always a good thing

2007-05-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. I looked at today's VM page-and I really need to clean that puppy up. Wow. It looks rushed to me (which it was). It isn't conforming to what I need it to look like!!! I better go over it tonight and fix it up. Wow. Sorry about that. There are some pages here and there that hopefully if I get some time, I want to go back over, clean them up, make them look better-unify the font and text. Plus I still have to recolor page 13 that was lost in a hard drive crash. So much to do!!!

Anyways, what is this?! YES! Another vector! And it has goldfish, and a skull, and daisies, and... (I don't know, what?!!) Anyways, I'm experimenting with unusual design and trying to expand my artistic horizons. Or whatever.

It smells like fire. Griffith Park is burning. From a cigarette apparently. Man, that just serves to make it hotter than it already is.

VM page 38

2007-05-09T00:49:00.000-07:00

And the next page of VM is up. On time. Yes, I hate being tardy. Hate, hate, hate. I'm one of those people that is usually perptually on time, though I have gotten a little lax on it lately, I don't like putting up work late. I wouldn't be so tardy if time would just work with me. Now, if I could make time stop, or bend it to my will, I would then be able to do more work. Or if I didn't have a full time job. I have fantasies where I just "stop" working so I can draw and goof off all day. Unfortunately, I like things (I have a mind like a raven-when I see something shiny, I want it), so I can't quite quit the day job just yet. Ahhh! Darn capitalistic society that makes me think I need things I don't!

And of course-if you can't tell (*ahem*), I have a fascination with the roles of life and death and general existence. I am fascinated that I am who I am at this point of time. And the idea of the "me-ness" that makes me the person that I am, well, how much of that is attributed to how I was raised and treated? If I were raised in a more religious household, would the me that I am be different? I'm sure. But then-how much of me is what has been trained into me, and how much of me is actually me? How much are we a product of our upbringing, and how much has to do with our own inner desires and personality? and of course-the eternal question of death. I do think it's interesting that we can sit and think about the possibilities of what happens to us afterwards. It's the one thing we cannot predict. We cannot see it, it isn't a tangible thing. All we know is that we are a product that is created for a time and then we end. But then, to think about the possibilities of what it takes to exist as I am now, as you are now, are quite fascinating. The mathematic probability of individual existence is mind boggling. To think that in order for me to exist as I am, my parents had to live to a healthy enough age to meet at a time and have me. Their parents as well. And their parents as well, and so on. For me, not being a religious sort, the concept of the "me" is what makes being human so fascinating. But, then isn't it also a curse to think about possibilities? The idea that one day my mind will go, my body will go, that it's all a product of the time we are allotted, that can be very disconcerting. The whole idea of time and age are fascinating, and scary. Hence I understand the need for an afterlife of some sort. The human world revolves around the concept that if death comes quickly, or not quickly enough, there is a path of existence beyond our bodies now. There is redemption or punishment. There is rebirth or enlightenment. Is there an afterlife? Who knows. Is there a soul? Perhaps. But to strive to understand and find those answers, or to avoid or fear the future, we won't know the answer until we die. Even then, there's no guarantee. And then, maybe 200 years from now, we will be that age that people look upon as we do upon the past, and they will wonder, how did people live like that? How did they think like that? Those silly people, if only they knew what we know now...

Small Girl-vector!

2007-05-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's so bleeding hot today. It's got to be close to 100 degrees. Geez. Anyways, a vector piece I did. Isn't the little girl cute? (Ha! I can say that because the little girl was me. Seriously.) I think my mom deserves most of the credit for this one, because she is the one who took this picture of me as chibi Michelle. I just vectorized it. I was uber sensitive as a child. All my pictures are of me looking serious or upset. My sister's are always happy and smiling. I don't know. Future loner in the making? Sure looked that way!

Sigh. When it's this hot, I just don't want to do anything. Le sigh. Sometimes I wish I lived where it rains or does something other than be hot. And sunny. I don't care much for the sun. Oooo. I want a jamba juice. Or a ice cream. Yuuuuum.

And I've decided that tonight will be the final VM page before intermission. Does it leave it on a cliffhanger of sorts? Of course! I'm such a jerk that way!

Another update page 37 already!

2007-05-05T00:37:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, I've done 37 pages already. Yay! (Okay, I'll celebrate more when it's a round number like 100 or something.)

I am so addicted to the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, I absolutely love it. Both discs. I saw the movie, I liked it, it was like watching a cliff notes study of her life (*see-not super accurate, and everyone with accents all over the place, ironically none of them french), but it did encourage me to go pick up her biography and read more about her life and the Versailles court in general, so I must say that movie did do it's job to make me want to eat up some history! (For real.)

Ahh, and I did a guest pin-up for the wonderful Traci Spencer, so take a gander over to the GAM site to see it (as my super late page is there too), so you get double me for Saturday! Go me!

Oh yeah, I'm not quitting VM, but I mean put it on intermission for a bit while I put a short story of mine up. That's how I deal with art burn-out. I do another story entirely. But this one is actually done. Le shock!

Okay, time to go to bed. You know what's a great pre bedtime snack? Frosted strawberry pop-tarts. Yum!

VM update

2007-04-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, another page updated (today is page 36), and on the new Wednesday update. *sigh* I don't really like this page. I don't like how it turned out, and I think in generally I'm just getting a little burnt out. I'm just not feeling very artistic lately. Whatever. That's just my feeling right now...I was even toying with just ending the whole thing and moving on. Maybe because I'm just a tempermental bitchy artist. Ha!

New update day!

2007-04-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, VM is moving to Wednesday's to round out the update days a little better. I don't mind, because it gives me more time to work on my pages. (Doesn't mean I've got it together, but you know...) Ahhh, I'm assembling a see through man right now. I've got the skeleton all assembled, and I've started painting most of the organs. It's so much fun! Here's some pics of that (it looks kind of like a crime scene, doesn't it?) But hopefully it'll be cool. It's a lot harder to assemble a model and put it together, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

Anyways, update on WEDS.

EEE!!! Edward Scissorhands!!!

2007-04-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

I am so excited today. I just bought this beautiful limited edition Edward Scissorhands doll-it's so darling, I'm thrilled I got it.
Just had to put pictures up of it, because it's absolutely amazing!

VM update...Page 35

2007-04-15T02:08:00.000-07:00

And here we go, another page updated! And on TIME!!! I hate being tardy, and last week was unusual, because I got engaged, AND the sever was down. I'm so dumb too, because our Webmaster and all around magic person that handles the Modern Tales sites TOLD us that would happen. But we artist's never pay attention to those important memos. Only the ones regarding trivial information and gossip.

Ahhh, it's so late now. I think I need to go to bed, as my neck and back are stiff from doing this page.

I'm glad people are reading it and tolerating the extremely painful facts that:
a. It only updates once a week.
b. I'm really slow at getting to the point.
c. I'm not a strong writer, and therefore a lot of things that could be handled more gracefully aren't.
d. I'm not sure I know what I'm doing.

ANYWAYS! Tomorrow-Sunday. More artwork, more artwork must be made!!!!

VM page update and news!

2007-04-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

And the latest page (34) of VM is up, here it is, along with some fabulous art from Ms. Traci Spencer who does the wonderful comic Compass!

The page was a little late because after five years, I have become officially engaged! And that's a weird thing, because I'm not super girly or sentimental (nor is my now fiancee), and when I got my ring, I was so touched that I mean so much to another person, and also realized that I'm officially an adult! I mean, how scary!!! And I've never, EVER gotten a diamond anything from a man, so as my first ring, I have to say it's incredibly special. (I don't wear any jewelry anyways, because my skin is so sensitive, I have never been able to have my ears pierced, necklaces always get tangled in my hair, leather bracelets or watchbands make my skin break out, and I just never really bought myself rings.) It's pretty funny though, I doubt we'll do a "wedding" per say-as I'm not a wedding person, but of course we'll do something. Just have to figure out what... *tee hee!* Our anniversary falls on Halloween-but I refuse to do some "theme" thing. So-no getting married on that day.

AND, I saw Grindhouse and both loved and hated it. I LOVED Planet Terror. I'm sorry, it was so MST3K, that I half expected the little talking heads to make note of it. It was just so over the top, it moved at a frantic pace, the missing integral reels of story development were so funny, I just had such a fun time. The faux trailers were all great, then we get to Tarantino's contribution-Death Proof. ERRRR!!! Why must he always go for this overly intricate Tarantinoesque cutesy dialogue?!!! Sometimes, it drives me crazy with it's meaninglessness. (Each of his movies do it-like the whole pancake thing in Pulp Fiction, the overwrought dialogue between the Bride and Bill at the end of Kill Bill 2...) It's dialogue for the sake of dialogue. And I know Tarantino must write the words, and love reading them out to himself, or whatever, because the man loves to talk, but SERIOUSLY. When you only have a little over an hour-and you bring a double feature almost to a screeching halt with it, it's annoying. It bothers me, only because he is a total fanboy, and he is so freaking good at emulating the stuff he loves most, but I wanted to pull my hair out, I was so bored. And it's sad, because the car chases were wild. They really were. I wish he had kept it moving.

My two cents there! I don't want to go to work tomorrow....this week is going to be insane....

Grindhouse!!!

2007-04-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Eee! I'm so excited to see the new Grindhouse double feature. Blood, guts, zombies, death...*sigh*. It'll be cool. If you haven't seen the website for the film-check it out, it's really rad. The loading screen itself is awesome.Grindhouse Website
Plus in the movies they even have missing reels and the footage is made to look all scratched up-I'm willing to sit three hours-and see people explode and get eaten. Coool.

And it is Friday. Thank goodness. Isn't this weekend Easter? Huh. I have no concept of time anymore. Maybe I'll buy a chocolate bunny to celebrate. Yummmy.

And so it begins...

2007-04-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Aahh, even though VM updated a day late for the Gam-aversary crossover madness (theme: superheroes), allow me to post for your hopefully unsensitive eyes...the madness of Nate in a...incorrect superhero outfit? Oops.

VM should update this week at it's regularly scheduled time..Sunday. And whose lucky series do I get to bastardize? Well, you never know...

And I've been working on some fan art for my new favorite manga/anime series!!!! Which one is it? I should be posting it later this week!!!!!

Woooo!

Girlamatic Anniversary!

2007-03-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

With our tongues in our cheeks and our eyes on the stars, GirlAMatic is proud to announce its fourth anniversary! This year's April foolish extravaganza will be as BIFF! BAM! SOCK-O! as any dyed-in-the-wool (or rather, spandex) comics fan could possibly wish for! March 31st through April 6th, GirlAMatic will see a DeCidedly Marvelous makeover, as all our characters gear up for a bit of genre-bending mischief.

Do join us!

Whoo! It's done! Website back up!

2007-03-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

YAYAYAYAYAYA! My website is back up, I finished it last night, it looks about a thousand times better than it did before, all the animations and links work. Whoo!!!! I'm so happy! *Sniff*! Yay! Check it out! www.michellemauk.com

No VM update...it's filler...

2007-03-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Oi. So I've just been so busy redesigning my website, I couldn't do a VM page this week. So much to do, so little time. So for your (general amusement, I suppose)-is a little VM behind the scenes peek, and a little something for my fellow GAM creators.

I feel bad-but I think since next week won't be a regular update as well, I will have some time to think about where the story is going and start making some changes, and draw a couple of pages ahead. Because right now, I'm terribly behind.

I'm hoping my general flash skills will allow me to put the stupid new website up. I always have a lingering issue with flash. I REALLY hope this works.

Party on.

I'm slightly out of my mind today...new web design...

2007-03-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

I'm a little weird today. I decided to just take my long hair in hand-take a pair of scissors, and chop myself some bangs. Straight across my forehead. Then, I had to have french toast, sausage and fruit for dinner. I had to have breakfast for dinner. (It's not like your stomach knows the difference anyways). Hmmm. Then I got a random email from another Michelle Mauk, who had googled her name and came across me instead, which was a little weird, but she's nice. And she bakes cookies. I can't bake cookies. Her cookies looked yummy too.

Anyways. This is the "new front page!" da duh duh duuuuh! Of my website. So far. I think I may change the buttons-make them fit into the design of the page more. The flowers cascade down the side of the screen continuously. I'm trying to think if I should have a winding theme throughout the thing. I dunno. I want to finally have someway of linking to people and having more artwork up. I've done a lot of artwork since I slapped the website up, and unfortunately, some of the pieces I had are gone forever now (computer hard drive crash!!! Brutal! Bad Ram sucks! Word of advice if you own a Mac, save yourself grief, fork out the extra $30 for apple ram. It'll save you from kernel panics in the future, TRUST ME.)

I'm going to go watch some new South Park. I was going to go into FLASH mode, but I decided not to.

Cats! And a day off! Whoo!!!

2007-03-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

YESSSSSSSS! I got my day off. Ohmigoodness I'm tired. Whoo. But, I am going to take today, and get some art done, do some online searching (ahem), buy some paper, maybe buy a book, eat healthy today (yeah right, there's a Snickers bar in the fridge calling for me, and it's only 9 am.)

Maybe I'll watch bad daytime tv, I don't know, I don't care! All I know is-I don't have to work!

Here's a little illustrator piece-they're badly sewn cats (obviously, as they still have the needles stuck in them.) I thought I was going to go further than this, but I didn't. They are from left-the Patchwork kitty, the Goggles kitty, and then the Franken kitty. Aren't they, sort of, sadistically cute? Hmm.

I think the Patchwork one is my favorite. I even have stencils for them so I can spraypaint them wherever I want. The pic underneath is what one looks like when sprayed onto unprimed canvas. They look a lot better on cardboard and painted walls and such. Canvas sucks up spraypaint like it' no one's business. And that stuff isn't cheap. But, tt isn't like I go tagging them all over the place or aanything. I was thinking of maybe getting some of those spray paint markers, or paints and actually making some bags or t-shirts for friends... or something... I gotta think more about that.

DAY OFF! DAY OFF! DAY OFF! DAY OFF!

Page Update!

2007-03-18T02:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest page from my webcomic. This one took me a little longer to finish again...look it's 2:12 AM! Whooo!!!! I was distracted watching Project A-Ko whilst I was working on this. I'd forgotten about how confusing that anime was. And the gratutious panty flashing. And how annoying C-ko is. But A-ko rocks. I wish they had just made a whole series about her and B-ko battling it out constantly. (A-ko has superhuman strength, and b-ko is her arch-nemesis who builds robots to try to destroy A-ko. C-ko is the one they both fight over because she's cute and a nice friend-but personally, if she were my friend, I would slap her silly all the time.)

It's weird, I got tired around midnight, and now I'm wide awake. But my hand is tired from coloring.
Maybe I'll look online for more stuff to buy.

Kids And Robots Three:R.A.S

2007-03-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

So here is the third in the Kids and Robots series-and this girl is the owner of the R.A.S robot (Rain and Storm), hence the galoshes and umbrella...and teddy bear with rainbow...and barometer...and weird pink liquid...(don't ask me, I just felt it would be a little lively pinch of color).

I'm getting these down a little quicker. I have an issue with patience. I see the whole thing as I want it to be done, but it frustrates me that it takes time to get them done. I start coloring, and I wish I had a little magic wand to make the computer do what I want. The cool thing about computers though, is they save you the time of boring tedious things you would have had to do before, like tracing things. Thank goodness for the ability to have a program trace things for you. And color them in. Or remove stray lines, and what not.

Ohhhh....I can't wait for this week to be over with. I'm looking for the weekend...I'm looking for the weekend. I hope I get Monday off, I requested it because I'm just so exhausted. (Of course, that would give me ample time to color more stuff...and watch bad tv!)

And (in the event my readers of my commic make their way to this blog, or even glance at it-to hear me ramble like a silly one), thanks for the kind comments! Honestly! They make me happy.

Updated page

2007-03-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

So here's the latest page from my webcomic, Voyage Moyen. Um...not my favorite page. Lots of mistakes. Boy. I don't know what it is, but I've been so off this week. Everything I've drawn has just felt so forced, and so difficult. It's like my hand doesn't want to do what my brain is telling it to do. This week has just been an off week.

In any event, we still have Death (as I'm calling him, though he doesn't actually have a name, he's beyond labels you see...though that is what he does...) pretty much messing with Nate. Which he's been doing, a lot. To me, it isn't important how or when Nate died-because Death doesn't view it as important. It's pretty much a means to an end. Everyone dies-they all end up in his place, he just gets to choose.

Hence, he gets bored, and therefore he's been messing with Nate. A lot. But-we'll soon see where it all goes. He just likes to talk.

Kids and Robots-Robot Two: MAD

2007-03-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

So here's the second one in my little Kids and Robots series. So far-I have five drawn. 2 colored. It's fun, but coloring this way takes a llittle longer (plus the page sizes are larger). This is the MAD robot, which stands for Missiles and Deflection. Her owner is a punk rock Indian girl-so I did a mixture of English and Indian clothing influences (and color!). One of my best friends is Indian-and I always wondered what she would look like as a punk rock chick if I dressed her. Maybe something like this. The colors I tried to take from a lot of the saris and other garb I'd see her and her family wearing, and they're always these amazing oranges and pinks and greens.

The process of a VM page, part Three of Three

2007-03-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

And then the last of it! The great thing about the digital age is that it is really easy to get your hands on all sorts of programs to make comics, and there is a plethora of free stuff out there on the big old internet. I'm always looking for new free stuff to
experiment with. When you buy a tablet, they give you a free trial version of painter. Some art magazines have dvds with free downloadable fonts and stock imagery. Adobe gives you a bunch of free stock photos and textures when you buy the suite. There are great free comic fonts, manga screentones online. And if you're not sure if a particular program is for you, you can always try a trial version. Well, that's provided it's available for your particular CPU format, I wish I could try Open Canvas, but it's only available on windows I think. And there's some other cool painting program... Ah! I can't remember right now-but it's only a japanese version downloadable on PC as well. What is it? Aqua something? Shoot.

I've heard mixed things about Manga Studio-I've never tried it-but it has screentones, and manga fonts and all that yummy stuff. I think there is an issue with layers in that program.

Okay! I'm done!

The Process of a VM page, part two of three

2007-03-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's part two. This goes over the final coloring, and making of the panels and what not.
Oh-I forgot, as tools I highly, highly recommend a tablet. I honestly don't know how people do it with a mouse, some people are ultra experts at it-but I can't even tell you how difficult it is to color with a mouse. I think as artists, we're more comfortable with a pen/pencil/brush anyways-just the weird thing is using your hand at one place while watching what is produced on a screen. As you go along it gets easier. You can also always get the screen tablet-so you can draw directly on the screen.

Okay, part three-lettering will be up tomorrow.

The process of a VM page, Part One of Three

2007-03-04T01:18:00.000-08:00

So here is how a VM page is made. This is a 3 part little blog, with screenshots. Basically each page takes anywhere between 5-8 hours to do. It depends on how complicated the page is. But usually it is spread out over the week. (And it actually takes
longer depending on what I'm watching at the same time, and how distracting it is!).

The first part covers the base scan in, clean up, and base colors of a panel. The second part is the fine-tuning, color completed, panels finished, and part 3 is the lettering and balloons.

I don't know if this is interesting to anyone, but hey, it was fun for me to do.

Outspoken!-Compass Interview

2007-03-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Yay Traci! A neat look into the mind of my fellow creator Traci Spencer over at the Girlamatic website. (Take the link on the right there) You can tell how much Traci loves her characters because you see them grow with her-both as an artist and as a person-and at the core-you have well defined characters and personalities, and that never changes even though the character's looks or styles change. Her characters have a lot of heart.

I've gotta say, since doing a comic online in itself is pretty solo work, it's great to have people to talk to that you've never met! It's pretty wild.

Ahhh-the week is almost over. (Yay!!!!) So quick work aside-I've now learned about how to outfit television production teams going international. And yes-they're the most stressful-because you never know what kind of natural elements they'll be going up against, and you see damages to thousands of dollars of equipment that you never see anywhere else. I mean-things like 98% humidity, flooding, rampaging monkeys, (I'm not kidding about that last one either). It sort of makes my head hurt. Therefore-I medicate myself with a constant supply of grande vanilla lattes and sweetarts. I can therefore pick up the phone when someone calls me at 11:00 at night from Africa asking me about camera operation. This also leeways into my need for a vacation-and I'm thinking SF-for sure! And maybe New York city! (Little New York and Big New York respectively!)

Okay, now I have to go get teams ready for Costa Rica and Florida. But, I'll be dreaming about my potential vacation as I do so.

Kids and Robots, Robot One: T.O.D

2007-02-25T01:11:00.000-08:00

So here's the first in the kids and robots thing I'm drawing. This first robot is T.O.D. Time of Day Robot. Of course, the robot only reads 12:00, his TOM (Time of manufacture).

I wanted to try something a little different in terms of coloring-a little more graphic style.

It actually takes longer to color this way then with the VM coloring way. Maybe when I hit a groove, it'll be a little easier.

New VM page

2007-02-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

Yay!!! Weekend!!!!

And with it comes the latest page in VM. yeah, I got a little lazy toward the bottom. I actually do color panel from panel-so sometimes you can tell when you go thru my stuff the panels that look a bit unfinished tend to be the ones I do last-and those tend to be the bottom panels. I'm kind of weird OCD about it. I for some reason cannot do everything at once and then layer and layer at one time. I actually go panel by panel. Panel 1, fill, color, layers, then to panel two, and so on. It's a really weird thing. And I letter the same way when it goes into Illustrator. Panel one-balloon, text, panel two, and so on. And it has to go clockwise or left to right. Left panel-then upper right, and onwards down in a clockwise manner. Oh my, I'm making myself sound all freakish here.

I think I broke my computer chair-so I'm using a dining room chair and sitting all japanese style on it to make myself tall enough to work and see things effectively. i keep having to get up whenever my toes start tingling. It's a little annoying. And now we have to find a chair that fits in with our black, red, and white decor that doesn't "look" like an office chair. Internet shopping-here I come!

I'm working on a new thing-kids with robots. I'll put one up as soon as it's done. So far, I've drawn three-but I want to see how many I come up with before getting completely bored with it. New style of coloring on these ones too.

And lah de daa-random comment. My new favorite show-the Sarah Silverman Show. She is hilarious!!! Sometimes I recite lines that are just so wrong from it-just because she delivers them so deadpan-and it's so funny. From the last episode (and she's telling this to a ten year old girl she's trained for a beauty paegeant,"You want to give up? Well, let me tell you a story about giving up. Ten years ago, I got pregnant. And everyone wanted me to give up and go ahead with the preganancy. And I almost gave in not having an abortion until eight and a half months in, I went to the doctor and told him to get this baby out of me. And I had to push and push and then the fetus came out and it was crying and covered in all of this gooky stuff. I didn't have any money, so I climbed out the hospital window." It's along those lines, I don't think I have it verbatim-but it's the general idea. She's so wrong.

Middle of the week...blah....and HDV cameras.

2007-02-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've come to dread and love the Wednesday. It's the middle of the week, so it's halfway done, but then you still half of it to go. Today I resent, because it's a beautiful day, and I keep wandering outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, and I am resenting that I am now an adult and must work. I keep thinking about wandering off to a bookstore or somewhere to enjoy, and then I have to reign myself back in with the big "responsibility" leash.

Since I'm at work-I'll gush on some of the new cameras in the market right now. I have the fun job of working with cameras-so sometimes I like to try out brand new stuff. The HDV consumer cameras are really great still cameras as well. So you get a double dose of both a video camera of higher quality-with the ability to take high resolution stills. The cheapest one of broadcast quality you can get is the Canon HV-10. The camera is really cool-it fits in the palm of your hand-and has pretty good image stabilization. Like most consumer grade cameras, the focus is pretty weak-so don't expect it to blow your mind with some amazing zoom ins and outs. In fact-put it too close to an object and the auto focus wobbles and is unable to focus direct. The problem with the camera-is no manual focus, and no infrared-so low light is pretty weak. But it does have the added bonus of having a little interview light to cast on your subjects.

Second fun one is the HVR-A1U by Sony. Sony rocks my world, seriously. I love walking into Sony stores and looking at all their new stuff. (I'm a mac lover, but when I saw the new Sony Vaios-and they're so small and cute, I was drooling). I took a picture of some roses with the A1U, and honestly-the camera function on that camera is just awesome. Beautiful, really. And then it has the added bonus of nightvision-so you can take it into complete darkness and it'll illuminate with infrared light. Drawbacks-poor low light performance and zoom function. But-you can buy a wide angle lens for it, and it actually has a beechtek addition-with XLR inputs so you can buy high quality microphones and get good directional sound. In fact-the camera actually comes with a ECM mic-which is not a bad standard mic that Sony makes.

So what does this all mean? Well-think about this. Let's say you buy one of the best digital cameras out there-those would be a Nikon or Canon SLR (Nikon D-70 or Canon Rebel). That's going to set you back anywhere from $800-$1000. Now, what if you can get a high quality video camera-that shoots high definition video (this is not true HD-by the way), but that ALSO works as a still camera? Canon HV-10 $1100, the A1U $3000. Pretty neat, if you ask me, and it'll still get better as it goes along, and technology gets better.

Ahhhh. I freaking love technology. I swear, I'll probably faint when I see the new I-phone.

More Illustrator...dark japanese girl!

2007-02-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

Another Illustrator piece I just finished working on. This one was a lot of fun. I just grabbed a piece of cardboard, drew on it, then added textures and vectors in Photoshop and Illustrator. Ahhh-I love weekends. Too bad work has to come tomorrow. *Sigh*. I envy all those in school who get president's day off. The only holidays that exist in television production are Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. Unless you are on shoot. Then you don't.

Another cover page

2007-02-17T22:03:00.000-08:00

I'm still not hip to the blog thing. I know it's something you're supposed to update daily-or at least a couple times a week, but what can I say? Anyways, here's the latest update to the Voyage Moyen webcomic-it's a splash page-a cover page! I like doing splash pages. I am in the midst of recoloring page 13 that I lost when my hardrive crashed, and it's taking me forever because, well, I keep thinking "man, I already did this page! This sucks!". So I keep focusing on other pages, other art pieces, and I just get so bored with that stupid page. I mean-what if there's a huge systemic crash-and all the pages go down? Or what if I want to mirror the comic on another site? (I'm actually working on that one there).

Well-I get a couple questions every so often about how I color. I'm definitely not the most organized or technically proficient color person out there-and in fact-I took on the comic to make myself better at digital coloring. Coloring was actually my least favorite thing to do-and I've actually grown to love it. (Especially since I don't have to bust out paints or markers anymore). As each page goes along, I change processes, I change techniques-the number of layers vary, the effects vary (I'm relying on those far less-you can spot a photoshop effect from a mile away), and the way I work varies. I color as the page feels. For me-Voyage Moyen is supposed to be strange-disjointed, dreamlike. For example- the whole first part was supposed to be at night. But-I didn't want it to be 30 some pages of purple or gray tinged pages. I wanted each page-each panel to feel like a piece. So that's how I color. It isn't scientific, it isn't even "comic book" straight out coloring (like Image or something-where everything glows blue and purple), but screw that. I don't want it to look like everything else out there. I wanted it to look a little different from the norm. Hopefully I've succeeded-and it doesn't throw people off. I think if I do another comic-it might be a little more straight forward-or maybe even in just plain old black and white. I don't know. But, I do VM this way, because VM feels this way.

Wakata? Sweet.

Comic update

2007-02-11T01:37:00.000-08:00

So here's the final page in the beginning of the Voyage Moyen introduction-which doesn't include the fact that really-I should've thought twice about doing a webcomic in full color. Especially when you look at some of the earlier pages and the emphasis on lens flares....uhh, I shudder. I hope at some point I can go back and redo some of those pages. And some of the lettering and such. Ah, well. This page is kind of dialogue heavy too. If you want to read the comic-click on the Girlamatic link on the right. I'm a-going to a-bed.

More Illustrator...school girl!

2007-02-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but all of a sudden-I want to do everything in illustrator, and the more colorful the better~! It's weird, I had this awesome hatred of the program. I basically used to use it to create balloons in my comic, drop text onto christmas cards, or whatever! But now...now, I'm starting to love the freaky little vector program that likes straightening all your lines for you, and smoothing out all your curves. You throw something in there, trace it, convert it into cute little mini symbols that you can throw all over layers, create som pretty curvy lines...ah, no wonder graphic designers swear by it. Now, I want to master that sucker. And I shall try... until I get bored. So...here's a school girl.

Pirate Girl!

2007-02-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

So, I've been fooling around with Illustrator a bit-to make some pieces that are so sugary colored. I wanted to make it really colorful and pretty-so here is Pirate Girl. I don't know, I wanted to do something fun and I really enjoyed playing around with Illustrator. It has a lot of limitations artistically-in terms of using it as a painter like program, but it is all vectors, and fills, and graphics...eee! When you print out your CMYK stuff in Illustrator-even on a semi-pro printer, it looks so bright and punchy.

Anyways, I said she's a pirate, but she doesn't look much like one, does she?

And henceforth, it is updated

2007-02-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

Latest page for my webcomic is up...and this page probably took the longest conceptually to come up with. I redid this page over, and over, but I'm relatively pleased with the results. Voyage Moyen is on the Girlamatic site under the links column.

I wish I could say that coloring pages is easy-but it's not for me. I sometimes will color a whole layer, only to end up dumping it later. I may put up the processes of how a page is colored-but in general-I tend to color as I feel-and I think that's why it changes so rapidly. I may put up some examples at some point-some base things that I do consistently between pages-but a lot of it is still trial and error. I'm still figuring it out. Yes, it's all done in Photoshop.

On another note, I saw the movie Pan's Labyrinth this weekend. I have to say, I wasn't wholly prepared for how utterly devestatingly sad and depressing the movie turned out to be. I was kind of torn about it, because I was really prepared to see something amazing, and I felt a little let down by it. I could see what Guillermo Del Toro was trying to do-and it's beautifully acted throughout, just there was a certain something about it that just didn't flow for me. It seemed to push everything at you-like here's this dark fantasy intertwined with the brutality of war-that just made it slightly theatrical-like a stage play or something. I honestly wish it were a little more fantasy than war. But, it is a beautiful looking movie, and it paces rather well.

In any event, I can understand the idea of life being cruel. That the cruelest act can never halt the freedom of fantasy and imagination. That the beauty of a fantastical world within the mind can be the only thing beautiful in the world. Sometimes fantasy is an escape from reality. And whether that's healthy, or not, who would be the judge?

The Number 23

2007-02-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

I just saw this trailer for a new movie starring Jim Carrey of all people about the number 23. Some feel that number's not a good thing-as it's obviously the number of the devil. (2 divided by 3 is.666666, so the first three digits are 666-whatever). It's also cosidered to be the number of the illuminati. But most feel that the number has "mystical" qualities. Each parent passes on 23 chromosones to each child. Earth's axis is at a 23 degree angle. It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate in the human body. The human biorhythm clock is 23 days. The sum of the first 6 digits of pi is 23. (3+1+4+1+5+9=23). Of course, you could probably pick any number and find some sort of natural coincidences. The number 13. The number 3. The number 7. The number 4. The number 37. The number 47. But who knows. Maybe it isn't a coincidence that my birthday falls on the 23rd. Bwahahaha.

Image Test

2007-01-30T16:21:00.000-08:00

Cover