The Illustration Friday topic this week just happens to be: hero, and I just happen to have posted a illustration of my personal favourite superhero, Batman, just the other week.
So I’m wimping out and posting a link back to it (along with my review of the totally awesome new movie), instead of doing something new.
I suck, I know, I know.
But I’m sick and I don’t feel like working.
Nah.
I have hit a wall. A big flu virus shaped wall.
This happens to everyone, I guess. I just can’t seem to sleep, and when I can’t sleep, my mind goes all kinds of strange places.
I keep thinking of all the people that were forced into my life against my better judgement only to slither out of it after injecting some poison into me (just like I always had a feeling they would). It’s not nice to feel like the world is out to get anyone with the slightest bit of enthusiasm.
I wonder if those people know that my poor broken brain can’t help but obsess over every occurance, replaying it over and over until I want to bang my head against the walls. They probably don’t. They are probably just going on with their lives, living as if they are the only ones that exist.
Which, as explained by Decartes, is the only thing we can be sure of. So I can’t really blame the world for not knowing the next part where he goes on to explain that we should all be rational and nice to everybody.
We’re in more of a Hobbes era anyways.
So, my creativity is on a down swing. As, I think, happens to most creative people. Creativity has a tendancy to ebb and flow just like life and most natural things do, I think.
Last night, as I was going to bed I decided to be honest. It’s always been a silly pet project of my own, that honesty thing. Honesty doesn’t really have anything to do with art (I guess you could consider it performance art).
Art is communication, sure, but let’s face it, if we really wanted to to be honest with people, we’d tell them instead of turning it into an allegorical painting.
However, as an artist I believe that every once in a while it’s nice to come clean and state, for the record, that you occasionally worry about things.
Occasionally I dishonestly attempt to squeeze sarcasm and humour out of the fact that I have a pretty good chance of dying someday soon.
Not “in a sense everyone dies eventually” dying.
My neurologist believes I have cancer dying.
As much as I am funny and find the world humorous most of the time, occasionally I am serious. Occasionally I lie awake at night wondering about all the stupid people and the dumb things they do. It bugs me. It makes me worry. It makes me anxious. It makes me want to curl up under my bed, on top of luggage, with my cat, and get Liam to occasionally place a tray of sandwiches within a reachable distance.
This is what life is from time to time.
Particularily when I don’t feel well.
We just spent the weekend in Toronto for a variety of reasons, but mainly to go see the movie Serenity which was based on the surreptitiously cancelled, Joss Whedon TV show Firefly.
I loved the TV show, I loved that it looked so good for TV, had such an intriguing concept, and an excellent group of characters (not to mention the actors playing them). I was saddened when it was cancelled after only 12 episodes.
My boyfriend (a sci-fi fan, and latecomer to the whedonverse) loved it even more than me.
So, when he saw that there was a preview screening of the movie in Toronto, he snapped up some tickets before it quickly sold out.
We had to sit through some nerd singing, and see some really awful costumed people (although some over-zealous fan brought in these really neat cartoon cardboard cut-outs. Even though I don’t respect the concept of obsessive fandom, I appreciated the artistry).
First of all, I have to admit that the version we saw (we were told) was unfinished. Apparently it was missing some special effects shots, some music, those last few finalizing elements.
Frankly though, I didn’t notice anything being where it shouldn’t. It seemed pretty much complete to me. A bit of CGI here and there, matched up with a banjo solo could not have saved this movie.
It wasn’t awful. But it wasn’t great either. It was basically just an extended season finale of the show. It looked like it, felt like it, and was written like it. Which was mucho disappointing for me. I was expecting big things out of this, Joss Whedon’s first true major motion picture foray. Big things I did not get.
Actually, small things I did not get either (which I frankly, would have settled for, especially in the context of Mr. Whedon).
What I did get was too many underdeveloped characters and an overabundance of cliched action sequences. I have a feeling that the average moviegoer, not being familiar with the TV series will not be able to appreciate this. There are too many holes and unexplained relationships.
The sad thing is, character building and witty action sequences are what Mr Whedon are known for.
It kinda proves something I’ve had a sneaking suspicion about for a while now, That Joss Whedon is not meant to direct, write, or produce films because he just isn’t good at it.
He’s a better TV producer than anything else, and that’s why he’ hasn’t had any success up on the big screen.
He relishes the time to create overarching stories and fully develop characters into members of your household, like he did on Buffy.
Serenity not being very good doesn’t prove that he’s a bad man, it just proves that he should be given another chance.
But back on the small screen this time.
Of course, it could have just been that I was seeing the unfinished cut, and the final version will blow me away. But it’d be pretty hard to completely change the entire plot structure in between now and the release date in September.
Although stranger things have happened.
Batman! We went to go see it last night, obviously, and I found it absolutely amazing. I’ve always loved Batman, so I’m a little bit biased there. Christian Bale was also my personal favourite teenage heartthrob, so I’m biased when it comes to him too…
Boy, did he look good in that suit, better than anyone else ever…
He just has those perfect super-hero angular features…
But subject and star alone definitely aren’t the sole reasons I found the movie awesome. It was excellent overall. I found it to be well acted, amazingly cast (except for, perhaps weak link Katie Holmes), daringly directed, scripted tightly and plotted intricately.
It was the Batman that Batman was always meant to be.
If you love Batman, you’ll love it. If you enjoy movies with a wealth of fully developed characters played by talented character actors you will like it.
However:
If you don’t like comic books, you may not like it. If you love classic brainless action movies, it will probably be a bit much for you. My athletic 16 year old kid brother thought it was ok, but slow and long.
On the other hand my 23 year old English major boyfriend thought it was mind-blowing.
I personally enjoyed that the character of Bruce Wayne was a fully realized human which, in turn made his alter-ego much more engaging.
Also well done was the use of the real city of Chicago as Gotham city. When I first visited it a couple of years ago, I immediately imagined it as Gotham. All that Nouveau-Gothic architecture, all the bridges and levels and sky-scrappers… definitely gothamesque. All the city needed it needed was a little extra dose of hollywood grime and darkness and WHAM instant Gotham. It was so much fun to see Batman swooping across landscape I actually recognized instead of baroque Burton-esque set pieces.
All in all, if I gave movies stars, I would give this one 10 of em. But I don’t. So forget I said that.
Argh. I used to scoff at the concept of texture. I would see other people obsess about it - fashion designers, antique dealers, faux finishers, and of course my fellow artists and illustrators.
I was all about colour and form.
I did not care for texture.
Now all of a sudden I find myself obsessing over just how in the heck this dude manages to squeeze the most beautiful water-colour, gouache, ink and chalk look-alike images out of lowly little Adobe Illustrator. I mean, I’ve been really trying, really hard to replicate stuff so that it looks like it has a human touch to it, like it was created using traditional medium. I’ve even gone so so far as to re-introduce myself to the real stuff, but this guy comes along and makes me feel completely inadequate.
So if my interpretation of Black and White for illustration Friday seems a little simplistic, it’s because I spent a long while just trying to get the textures to look halfway decent.
I have come to believe that Steve Mack is either a liar, a magician or a genius. Or he at least needs to share his techniques. With me, preferably.
This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Summer, and boy has it ever felt like it this past couple of weeks.
It’s only just now started to cool down with a good dousing of thunderstorms. I can’t believe it snowed in April, and was 40 degrees (celsius, with the humidity) by May.
But enough about the weather. Check out my illo, yo.
My busy few weeks seem to be drawing to a close. I am happy to be through with them, but I also feel like I got a whole lot accomplished. Especially this piece of furniture I’ve overhauled.
Liam’s parents brought this ugly old fake wood veneer dress down with them (as we were running out of places to put our clothes). I decided to get it covered up with paint immediately - and what a difference.
What was once dark, drab and retro (in a bad way) is now bright and shiny and white. I just have to find some nice handles. I’m either gonna spray paint something ugly (like the faux Victorian brass handles it came with) a bright neon turquoise, or splurge on some beautiful chrome Restoration Hardware drawer pulls.
Haven’t quite decided yet though. Depends on how I’m feeling and doing, (especially income-wise).
I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity and inspiration. There’s a lot of stuff going around that’s been making me excited. The latest issue of How Magazine has got some pretty hot stuff in it this month. I have actually been sketching and drawing more, but I find it a bit harder to conceptualize my designs on paper, so I’m not sure if I will fulfil my promise of a real-live Illustration Friday illustration. But I’m OK with that, because, I feel like just getting out there with real live pens and ink and paint is enough for now.
I’m hoping that I will stay on my creatively inspired track and come up with both a big personal project to work on (I’ve got some ideas), and perhaps even the courage and time to start promoting myself for more freelance gigs.
Of course, I have a last bit of work to do on The Very Big Project (that Just Won’t Die).
Just some playing around with something that my client decided they wanted to change.
At the last minute.
Which doesn’t stress me out too much, but I’m not the one who has to get it to print in the next couple days.
The reality is that for the most part, this client has been delightful, so I don’t mind a bit of bureaucratic mind-changing.
This week has been, and will continues to be insane.
I just got back from my MRI. Not as freaky as I thought it was gonna be, but still plenty weird. It was actually nicer than the CT scan, just because (even though it’s upwards of 20 minutes instead of just 5) they make sure you’re comfortable, give you comfy cushioning, headphones with music (even if it was John Tesh… and I couldn’t hear it because the machine was crazy, scary loud) and a panic button just in case the super-magnetic rays start melting your brain or something.
Tomorrow Liam graduates, which is exciting (although the ceremony won’t be, I’m sure). So his parents are in town, which is always nerve-racking for the significant other (me). On top of that I have been finalizing my illustrations for the Very Big Project, plus with the on-going medical stuff… I’m not so much busy as incredibly, incredibly stressed.
On the upside I rewarded myself with some new process coloured gouache (cyan, magenta and yellow - just like they use in printing) and a disposable Coptic fountain pen (which are my favourite to draw with, and incredibly hard to find these days). I’m movin’ on up in the world of art supplies. I now feel like I should be buying “artist’s” quality as opposed to “student” quality.
Here’s my rationale: If I’m selling my stuff, I don’t want to give somebody something that I painted with cheap water-colour that will fade in a couple years.
When I was younger I didn’t notice the limitations of cheap paint, or the muddiness of the colours. Since I do now, I think it’s worth it to me to be able to get the exact shade of blue I envisioned. Not that I’m throwing out my Crayolas or anything. But it’s nice to have something a little nicer around to encourage me to draw more in reality, and a little less digitally. Cross your fingers for a old school work of art for this upcoming illustration Friday.
We’ll see if I get lazy or not.
A simple little image this time. A little cleaner and more minimal than I’ve been working recently. But I like it. It’s sort of an ode to imacs (I love that particular model, it’s soft curves are much fun to work with) and Diesel Sweeties, the creator of which was at TCAF. Which was kinda cool. Although I don’t keep up with webcomics as much as I should (other than Travis and Joe).
I was actually going to maybe attempt something non-digital, but then the theme itself was digital, sooo…
