VM page 41 Update! Thus begins the break.

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....

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!

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

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!

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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!

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!