Quipping for clemency

I really haven't been drawing a lot lately. I'm not sure why that is...

I started reediting Tunnel, which a good portion of you have probably seen. And since a good portion of 2 is 1, I can say that with confidence. Right, Tunnel. I started reediting it the other night after watching a good chunk of my old footage and movies, and I really sort of liked it. I'm adding in all sorts of effects to impress the potential employers, but really I think it's the one movie I made that can stand on its own. It sure is angst-y though. Like DeviantArt angst-y.

I watched Angel's Fate and my American Otaku trailer as well, and while the AO trailer is riddled with the technical errors of a night-before editing job, Angel's Fate is strangely a little endearing. It's so over the top and pretentious, but a few times in there the dialogue really meshed and things came together. And that ending is still damn near perfect. I wish it wasn't live action though...it just would've worked so much better as an animated piece. But so be's it. I'll stick it in there with some frills and those bitches will be impressed. And if they aren't? I've still got a fucking reel under my belt, and somebody else will like me.

In job news, things are going well. As was mentioned in a previous episode, I got a job at DG Fastchannel. Welp, at the end of my first week there, they gave me a raise and asked me to stay on indefinitely. At the end of my temp agency hire-away period, the pay will jump some more and I'll be a real employee. The folks are nice, the office is cool, and so far my work has consisted primarily of working on my short stories with occasional breaks to put in orders. It's pretty mindless stuff, but they really like me and it sounds like they'd like me to continue on through the company (which I could do till better offers come around). I know this is exciting news for you...get your party hats on people.

Now for the links and the springs and the artsy things. Nucleus has a bitchin show coming out this weekend that I'm hoping to make it to. Frederator Blogs led me to a sweet little illustration blog by a guy named Josh Parpan who does all sorts of low contrast, disjointed, abstract character pieces like this one:

Nifty huh? His use of jagged edges and broken shapes really adds a shaky quality to all of his pieces. Like Tim Burton's character work without looking all Hot Topic'd out.

I've also just recently discovered the Webcomics Examiner, which seems to have seen more active days in the past couple of years than it has now. All post decline aside, however, it's provided me with a number of gems to read at work while I think about whether or not I want to get back to making comics. Something happened after the last Elizabeth Wintersbee story. I put it up, I looked around, and I just didn't like where it was going. It may be that I'm just a little unsure which way to head next, but something stopped after I finished that last piece. And it looks like I'm not the only one that doesn't want to continue their most recent project....

Did you see that segue there? Go back and read it again if you need...it was some grade-A leading in.

TO THIS! Derek Kirk Kim's Healing Hands is a glorious 1 page, duotone symphony of emotion and shading. The artwork is simple and evocative, and intensely personal. I liked it so much, it made buzzwords fly out of my fingers.

But just look at that use of single color shadow. I'm envious in all sorts of ways. The story is pretty good, sort of slacker-ish and simple, but I can't begrudge the guy for making something indie. I mean, everybody these days is making something about how hard their slacker, neo-bohemian, beatnik life is. Can't blame a panda for eating bamboo.

I don't have a lot more to say right now, but I'll come back tomorrow to post some more articles and pictures and whatnot. It's kind of fun. And maybe I'll get a chance to do some drawing after I edit and play Lego Star Wars 2 (awesome) tonight. maybe...

EDIT: Oh I forgot all about this!! The Flight Comics blog led me to this really pretty, sort of sexy comic called Touch Food by Jen Wang. Beyond a couple of sort of questionable frames towards the end, it's very well put together and worth a read.