midnight indigestion

here's a picture of The Fruity Vampire Man, who is extremely displeased with the slanderous representation of his people as tormented, sexually ambiguous people constantly at war with werewolves (and somehow always winning the said battle/lovetriangle/hwatever). He says that in reality, vampires are quite happy with the way they are, thank you very much, they are not sexually ambiguous despite their fruity looks, there are no such things as werewolves, and that werewolves are the most ridiculous things he's heard of since large format printers, social networking and that thing where Americans want universal health care .. yet won't pay for it.*




*I'm a socially awkward freak living in a rather social(?) era of networking websites and blogs (the electronic equivalent of a large convention hall packed with people to a psychologically cloying and claustrophobic extent) and my experience with fedex large format printers has been quite positively wonderful, as in the type of wonderful that tries to amaze you with its cumbersome slowness, ill sensitivity and lack of extra stock! And I'm still getting billed for a hospital visit that occured at the beginning of the year! Preposterous.




Speaking of social networking, there is a prevalence of network portals these days (flicker, twitter, facebook, myspace, etc, etc, etc, ..), which makes me think of a rather ghastly possibility:


Will social networks become the equivalent of electronic surveillance?


And pray, dear stranger, think about it, before you go and slam me on the statement.

After all,

A. The psychological? distance between people have gotten smaller, which is a good thing, but..

B. We now have this tendency to constantly update our FB statuses, not to mention those damn Twitters. Therefore letting whoeveritis know what you are currently doing, and perhaps where you're at.

C. There are people who are idiot enough to post their address and phone number on Facebook and other portals.

D. We post our info there, be it our addresses, musical tastes, whatnot.

E. Therefore, we willingly submitting our data to a giant networking website, I mean DATABASE...

F. ... for potential lovers and employers, yes, AND potential assassins, spam adverts, stalkers, pedophiles to take advantage of. And perhaps the soon-to-come One World Government to spy and watch. Sorta like the online version of China's surveillance cameras, only minus the photos I guess. =P


Just my two cents on this extraordinary phenomena. Which I'm unfortunately forced to make use of, thanks to my choice of career (crap).


- (the antisocial acidic agrravant) Azureon

Photo manipulation

I've never really dabbled in photomanipulation until now. Here's a couple things that I've come up with recently for a Mario Kart Racing League that we have here in the dorms.

Also, regarding the lack of art updates for the past few months, I've been doing a lot of studies and practice that are just now finally getting positive results. These poster type things are the firstfruits of that labor and hopefully, I'll be churning out some much improved art soon.

The Eyeless Feesh is stirring back to life!

--RWHC

hello...

HELLO EMPTY BLOG!




(hello empty blog!)
(hello empty blog!)
(hello empty blog!)

(hello empty blog.)

(hello empty blog...)

(hello e m p t y b l o g . . .



(hell  o    e    p     y l         o   .





       m               t b    g

yet another sad observation of life: i guess everyone's rather busy ='(
i also realized that as time goes by, people get busier and busier and busier, and grayer and grayer and grayer, and get further and further and further apart. and somewhere, some psychotic mad scientist will build a device the Ultimate Plan to Stop Time (and therefore, stop aging, people getting further away, and all those ugly bits that come with Change).



and this is where you realize that i need to go to sleep.

- Azureon

Let the Games Begin

The Olympics kicked off yesterday with a bang, boom, and a bright shiny torch. Not that there weren't many bumps on the way to Beijing.

It has been one of the more turbulent lead-ups to the world's biggest field-day. Politics, grievances, history, and patriotism have all jumbled together and fallen in a large and inglorious puddle in the road.

What of the Olympics?

I'm sure that we have all read and seen far too much regarding the Olympics and China. It's on the news, in the blogs, and plastered across the TV screens.

Some say that the Olympics should be free of all of this political mumbo-jumbo. It's a global celebration and a way to bring a few days of peace to an often violent world. The wars and conflicts continue elsewhere on the planet, but for a week, in this one place, there is supposed to be friendly competition. It is a time to marvel at the magnificence that is the human body and the human will to succeed and to excel.
But at the same time, are we to gloss over the significant grievances of people groups who, for a brief moment, might be able to grab the spotlight and turn it to their condition? Tibetans and Uighers, along with some other minorities living under Chinese rule, want their voice to be heard. For most, this is their only real opportunity to receive world-wide attention. With the powers of Chinese censorship, it is virtually impossible to get a message out to the rest of the world.

The Olympics has often been used as a political platform in the past, to discomfiture of many. African nations once boycotted the Olympics because of New Zealand's seeming support of Apartheid South Africa. The mass boycotts of the 80 and 84 games was brought on by the Cold War. The 88 olympics in South Korea were boycotted by the North and four other nations. Taiwan once boycotted the games because they wouldn't be allowed to compete under the name of Taiwan.
There was the infamous Munich games and the slaughter of the Israeli athletes. There was the bombing at the Atlanta games.
The 1936 games in Germany were used by the Nazis as propaganda for their regime and thus was widely denounced after the fact.

So, where does that leave us, here?
Do the Olympics function, as Pierre de Coubertin wished, as a movement for peace in the world? Or does this make the Olympics a sort of global Disneyworld, disconnected from reality and made up of plastic trees and plastic smiles?

I know that this will probably get me in trouble with my Chinese friends, but the fact of the matter is that abuses have occurred in China. The Tibetans and Uyghers and other minorities have often been pushed down, sometimes with overwhelming and violent force. The desire for independence from China is not an anarchic or pointlessly separatist movement stemming from some petty dispute. These were nations that were conquered, with people and heritages all their own. Their grievances are deep and real.

But then, is dousing the torch the proper way to express these grievances? Can't the Olympics reflect the spirit of sportsmanship and common humanity as expressed on Christmas day, 1914?

Which is more important, to strive for peace despite conflict, or to defend and uphold the weak and weary?
Or perhaps it's not so black and white? Perhaps there is a way to achieve both?

I'm sure this is all moot to most people around the world. The Games are underway. In two weeks time, they will be over and Tibet and the Uighers will fade into the background once again. What of them?

- Swansong

Alloha~

Greetings and Salutations to the readers of the ole Eyeless!

This is Swansong, hailing you all from afar.
I'm afraid that I am not as artistically inclined as my fellow contributors, Rawn and Azureon. But I hope that perhaps these rambling words of mine might on occasion entertain and perhaps even elucidate.

Stay tuned for rambling writings of ridiculous redundancy r- r... ... (hrm..) really soon!

-Swansong

*looks around* sneeze *starts to dust*

my summer so far summarized....




Interesting wall painting near the place i'm at. yet another interesting discovery.



I've been trying my hand on making copies of master copies; supposedly they're supposed to help.
Sargent copies in progress.






And more awkward sketchbook doodles, and this is where I decide that the method by which I measure my skills is this: the ability to capture the essence of the Joker and Batman. I suppose the day I can draw/paing a kick-ass Batman and Joker is the day I'll know I have finally become a master of my craft.

1. Based on the somewhat-steampunk novel The Diamond Age, which I've been dying to read and finally got to. A somewhat psychedelic read (and yet, I say less weirder than The Golden Compass... which just started getting rather. odd. especially in the end.)



2. Awkwardness Epitomized; first time I've drawn the Joker (and used gouache ever since last year), but worry not, as all the subsequent Jokers and Batmans I draw won't ever see the light of day till they shed this awkwardness. -_-;;



3. random doodle.



And as for what I've accomplished this summer ... nothing, except lots of books being consumed, a half finished website, lots of awkward sketching, .... and the crowning achievement: catching 4 mice.
So I guess I could say that instead of working on my portfolio the way I should have, I've slacked off and all I've got are the four carcasses of mice rotting (far far away from me in a trash can that is now in a landfill dump covered with more trash by now) to show.


Um, someone post something please. I feel like I'm talking to a wall. Maybe I am, and in the end I am insane!!! That all of this is just some silly world I've constructed for myself in my demented brain and the next thing I know, I awake from the haze of my frenzied dreams to find myself in a staitjacket in a disarmingly white padded room with no doors, with only a small square shoulder height window (that is padded) to look out on, looking out on a world that is pefectly concealed by trees, so I can't see them and they can't see me ....

- Azureon

daily sketches

My current psychological landscape at the moment. This is how I'll say goodbye to you: with a bang and a flash, leaving a ghostly afterimage in your head that never leaves.

I should have been working on some crap thing they're making me do at the internship, but as surveillance is lax and there are better things i could spend my time with... i spent 5 hours working on this in Photoshop CS3 instead. I think I'm starting to get the hang of painting with Photoshop.
Now time to go procrastinate some more~

-- Azureon

textures

some more of the textures i mentioned last time. have fun ... while i go detangle the tangle that i've tangled myself in. =S









-- Azureon

Daily Sketch -- Prinny, d00d!

Seems like I've been using conte, artist oils, and palette knives almost exclusively lately so I thought it would be a good time to remember how to use airbrushes with this li'l chap.

--RWHC

RIP Michael Turner

I just found out on deviantArt that Michael Turner died of cancer on Friday. Michael Turner was a comic book artist who has worked with the big names in Marvel and DC and also founded his own company, Aspen Comics.

Michael Turner was one of my favorite artists and I first found out about him in an issue of Wizard magazine when he was doing a tutorial on how to draw sex appeal properly. Example: smoking doesn't make a woman sexier, but playing with hair and half closed eyes do.

I even learned how to do the cute triangle nose and full lips on gals from him.

I always loved the covers he made......


He drew the feistiest Starfire (Teen Titans) .....

and the skinniest Supergirl I've ever seen,


I have yet to see anyone else draw Wonder Woman like he does.


He wasn't great with just gals, though.


And he definitely knew how to make a bunch of guys standing around look good.


Thank you very much for all the memories, Mr. Turner. We'll miss you!

--RWHC

**All featured art in this post was drawn by Michael Turner and can be found in the Comic Art Community galleries.

(no) daily sketches

This rather horrible screenshot is the reason for my absence of sketches (the teslas are just fillers; they won't show up in the final layout).
I'm finally finished with a project that I've been putting off for 2 years.. my website! The only thing I'm missing is a domain name that I'm satisfied with and a portfolio....



before i make this blog post anymore useless, here are some custom made textures aforementioned by RWHC:




more to come soon.

- Azureon

Daily Sketch -- Mercedes WIP

Ok. So I know Daily Sketches aren't supposed to be finished works, but I really liked the way my sketch came out so I just kept on coloring it. Still not finished but here's the sketch:

And here's what I have so far:

Hope to get this done within a day or two!

--RWHC

Quick Hits -- Photoshop Disasters + Understanding Layers

First off, Photoshop Disasters is a fun little website that points out errors in commercial works. My favorite from the site is the one shown above wherein Batman is staring at a window frame. I've actually seen this poster advertising the Dark Knight on Yahoo!, too, so this one's real.

Secondly, Azureon's comment on Cave Bird reminded me of a very comprehensive tutorial at CG Textures on Layers, their properties, and how they affect the base layers underneath.

Enjoy and hope these prove useful!

--RWHC

Texture Library -- Sheets

Azureon was showing me a few custom textures she made earlier and when she expressed a desire to share them with as many artists as we can, I thought that this would be a good platform to do so. Of course, I won't be sharing the ones she gave me as I want her to take the credit for those, but here are a few things I've taken from different sheets around the house that might be useful for overlays, patterns, papers, or whatever might be useful for photomanips.

--RWHC

Daily Sketch -- Cave Bird

Playing around with different layer properties in this one, mainly lineart on Multiply, with a soft light and Overlay layer on top of that. Not exactly the effect that I was looking for (needed it darker) but very useful experiment, nonetheless.

--RWHC

Hidden surprise

If you wander around long enough, you get unexpected surprises, such as this:


Found this bust of Ol' Tesla in front of a church building at 25th, btw 5th and 6th Avenues. And despite what your idiotic teacher tells you: NIKOLA TESLA INVENTED THE ALTERNATING CURRENT MOTOR AND POLYPHASE SYSTEM.


And the morals of the story? Wander around Gotham, and you find things. Sometimes its pleasant like this, and sometimes ... not too pleasant, like that perpetually mumbling bum or that bugger of a mugger with a gun. If it concerns you, the latter two did not happen, but the first, which came in form of a bust of Nikola Tesla in front of a church, did.

And always, always question your authorities, whether its your teacher, parent, government leader, master chief or poopmaster. Because they're human, and therefore, chances are, they could be wrong. Really erroneously wrong, and sadly yet.... still firmly believing that Edison made AC.*



- Azureon
* but this is advice coming from a random faceless blogger, so why would you even listen to that drivel?

hating on sketchbooks - and yet still trying

*
**
***
****




* eh doodles.
** A bored attempt to draw Mario in Yoji Shinkawa-esque Metal Gear Cover-esque style.
*** kois.
**** lastly and not leastly, Batman. One of the hardest characters to draw, but one I would like to draw again and again (along with him, The Endless in Sandman, Wolverine and Solid Snake ... never drew the latter two, but for whatever reason I'm itching to draw them, despite never having read Xmen or played any of the MGS games).

After the slew of digital I found myself missing the pencil and paint greatly... so henceforth, I will be working with those as I try to spit my muse back out into this plane of existence. After all, whatever skills I obtain with these traditional tools, will carry over to my digital tools.

And this is where I hope that somehow I can get over my sketchbook hate, the way I got over my watercolor hate... not to mention actually make something that I enjoy without killing myself. And that all this effort (and cash) I'm pouring into art will not come back fruitless.





Kids, knowledge kills. So be careful what you let into your head, as once it enters, it sears you for life.


-- Azureon

Catching up with Daily Sketches -- Nausicaa Edition

I had finals last week and I also moved apartments so updating here has been scarce. However, I haven't stopped sketching and here are the sketches inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind". I have other sketches that should soon see the light of day once I touch down in Korea and have time to color them. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

--RWHC