So, you like drawing and you want to do it for a living? Here’s two simple pieces of advice:

1. Stop drawing Manga and Anthro, especially crude Manga and Anthro porn. No, really. It’s embarassing and no one wants to see MASSIVE SKUNK TITS. What were you thinking? Skunkina?
2. Read this and beware of twunts like him: http://kaitol.com/how-to-hire-an-artist/. By helping the race to the bottom, you’re fucking up your future. Don’t do that.

Follow those two simple rules and you’ll stop holding yourself back. Go take up life drawing if you want to draw boobies; it’s worth it.

He’s back. RedLetterMedia reviews Star Wars Episode Two: Attack of the Clones.

Yes, there’s a new Predator movie coming out. That’s not what I’ve got to show you today, though.

Vot der matter, Dutch, der CIA got dich pushink too many der pencillinks, ja?

If you were born in the early seventies then you’ll probably feel a short, sharp sting in your lower back when I say the phrase ‘Protect and Survive’. It means you spent much of your childhood wondering if the world might end, in approximately 4 minutes. The threat of nuclear war was very real, particularly in the early eighties, and at age 10 you’re not really even sure why it’s happening, all you know if is – if your hear the siren it’s over.

Whether you Protect, or Survive.

How do you know? Well, because you either watched Threads, or the whole family sat down in 1982 to cap off the evening with the weekly of episode of Q.E.D. And with a title like ‘A Guide to Armageddon’, you know you’re in trouble.

This episode tells you that you’re fucked. Really fucked. If you’re in central London and a bomb drops you’ll die instantly. If you’re a couple of miles out, you’ll burn alive, and in a matter of seconds, you’ll be dead. Sure, you can paint the windows white, and deflect 80% of the heat, but it won’t really matter as your house will explode in the blast.

This documentary systematically deconstructs the entire protection pamphlet. Nothing works, unless you’ve got the top of the line Fallout Shelter – then you’ve got a nuclear winter to look forward to…

What I find so interesting about this documentary is how brutal it is. True, you don’t have a shred of hope, but it practically revels in telling you that. It’s *so* eighties. This is why we grew up strange. The narrator attacks us like 5th year Algebra teacher two weeks before an exam. Wonderful lines like :-

‘Are you prepared to use force to keep others out?’

‘Would you find it possible to forget the destruction you’d seen as you scrambled into your shelter?’

Um, I’m not sure any of us has an answer. If we’re hopeful, we’re wrong. Ha Ha.

And if you’re not already petrified, he sternly reminds you that there is no existing society waiting for as you emerge after two weeks underground. Your friends are dead, cities are demolished. (Forget Mad Max, it’ll never get that far.) The credits roll with a Satanic Choir howling their way through a series of bleak photographs of the world in ruins…

Right, who’s for an Ovaltine!

Or not.

If this sort of programme were aired now, it’d have Cheryl Cole narrating and she’d be focussing on the positives. The entire show would feel like Daytime TV. Lots of bullet points, fade in, fade out. Just like a website. Let’s hear what today’s favorite comedians have to say on the topic? It can’t be all bad?

But it was back in 1982, and you were meant to grit your teeth and bear it. Just like the Miners Strike, just like the Falklands War. Here are the facts, sooo listen up!

If we got upset, Margaret Thatcher would have called us a bunch of ‘Moaning Minnies‘. What a lovely lady she was…..

So, here it is, in all its gruesome glory. If anyone recognises the musical score at the end, please post the title.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Dava

All of a sudden, there was a whole new section in Waterstones. A new type of book. It had obviously cut a limb off the bloated sci-fi and fantasy section and took it for its own. The new genre had staked its claim, it was here to stay.

Waterstones called it PAINFUL LIVES

Now, for all I know this genre of books could have been there for a decade, but it must have been steadily growing because it’s got its own section now, and seems loom over you when you wander through the store. After a bit of research online it seems these tales are better known as MISERY MEMOIRS. The story is typically the life of an abused child, and an extensive, detailed account of her suffering and then ultimately redemption! Much pain, then a happy ending!

They’re all true stories, (or so the back text tells us) and it’s heartening to know the child grows and finds an escape. But it all just feels so seedy….

The other thing is that the entire catalogue *looks* the same. An indistinct photo of a lonely child, pastel colours on white, and always, Always … the purple or peach Hand Written font – ‘How Could She?’, ‘Why Don’t They Love Me?’, or ‘What Chance Did She Have?’ For all intents and purposes, it looks from a distance like a romance novel. Mrs Bloggs, sitting on the Northern line, obviously doesn’t want her fellow passengers to know she’s reading about a child getting systematically beaten by her own mother…. and is utterly enthralled by it.

And let’s be frank, this line of work is aimed directly at the female market – look at the packaging. What real purpose do these books serve? Is it a genuine concern for the plight of the child, or is it the gruesome details? Truth or fiction, the liberation at the end is to make the reader feel like they’re not a complete sleazebag – they’re reading this book for the uplifting conclusion, right? Right?

I’ve read a lot of true crime, and there’s obviously a lot of grim material in there, and I’ll admit it’s compelling reading. But it’s at least matter of fact, and isn’t designed to play with your emotions.

I guess this is my main scowl on these Memoirs – the feel bad/feel good direction and dubious ‘clothing’ these titles.

‘Oh that’s terrible…. oh, that’s appalling!… Go on…..’

Dave

For ‘UnderDark’ – the latest sourcebook for D+D. I hate the guy there at the front, but I quite like the jumping halfling girl.

Dava

Yeah, you heard me. This not my hole – nothing fits.

As you may have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet lately. I’ve been away in Glasgow getting my new flat, and since I’ve been back I’ve been either working on the freelance commitments, or packing my gear for removals next month. Herein, lies the problem…

This is the way it goes with box packing. You get up one morning and set up the first box. With me it’s either rpg books, or dvds.

The first box or two go swimmingly, because for some reason they always do. Everything fits like bloody tetris and you think ‘aw man, I’m going to breeze this’ as you look up at the substantial  dent you’ve put the packing.

Then… comes the graphic novels, and the ‘bits’. All the stuff that simply won’t go together. Yeah, Dave … this is what you get for buying those daft european comics that are all different sizes, and hardback. Then it’s onwards to staplers, desk toys, the odd shaped Magic promo box Wizards sent me last year. In complete reverse of the Amigara Fault, nothing fits in the way it should. You literally spend double the time on things that have little or no consequence in your day to day life. The only reason you’re here now is that everything has to leave the premises in three weeks.

Receipts, printed documents and reference pictures lie ahead of me. Joy.

Dava

Dava and I were discussing websites recently, and we decided to share a few sites we read that have little or nothing to do with writing or gaming. The first would be one of my favourites, Ned Hepburn’s Boner Party. While on the surface, it’s a sexist objectification (and therefore NSFW sometimes) of women, the comedy inherent in the writing will lift it above the base sexism and you’ll soon realise that it’s both sexist and genius. He’s lecherous because he cares.

"Christina Fucking Hendricks" on Boner Party

http://brasscockroach.com/h4ll0w33n2007/manga/Amigara-Full/Amigara-0.html

This nasty little horror story really shit me up earlier in the year. It’s called The Enigma of Amigara Fault, by the manga artist Junki Ito. It’s around 40 pages long, but it’ll only take you about 15-20 mins to read it, but I suspect the story will stay with a lot longer. I can’t really go into this story without giving it away, so it’s best you just read it, and then hate me for directing you to it and the nightmares that will follow.

Just remember – out in the mountains, there is a hole waiting for each and every one of us.

Dava

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consolations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through”
Changes, David Bowie

Nice one, David – although it’s not always the case :-

MESA, AZ – Police have identified a 17-year-old boy who was killed Saturday when his teenaged sister accidentally ran over him with her car.

Dwight was taken to a local hospital in extremely critical condition and was later pronounced dead.

Dava

2010, it just doesn’t sound right, does it?

Anyway, over the holidays I’ve been scribbling away on HunterSheets Two. Not gotten as much done as I would have liked. The cover I last posted took a good bit longer than I would have expected. This next book has a lot of new features and characters to the SLA Universe, while the first HunterSheets book mostly covered familiar concepts and such, so writing the new stuff has taken more time than it normally would have.

Still, I’m quite pleased with what’s gone in so far, and I’m hoping the fans will like the end result too.

Dava

Here’s the cover for our next SLA Industries book :-

Hope you like it. More to follow.

Dava

Looking back over the countless wars of the Conflict Age, I still feel something like regret. It wasn’t our whole intention to eradicate the Conflict Races, it was simply the most effective way to bring in a new era of order…

It was a shame to see so many species vanish before the dawn of the World Of Progress, especially in the case of the Ty-Tesh – the only race I felt we truly betrayed.

But I feel nothing but gladness when I recall the Root Dogs. They were the most dangerous of all the Conflict Aliens because they were constantly adapting. Each defeat only increase the Core Scientists’ knowledge, and ‘The Herd’ grew stronger and deadlier as a result.

Everything we did, however terrible it may seem – it was worth it all to see the Root Dogs die”.

 Intruder’s War Diaries, 760sd.

It’s the Star Wars Holiday Special! Things to look out for: Carrie Fisher is far from sober, and it’s a little depressing. Harrison Ford doesn’t want to be there. Mark Hamill talks like a kid’s TV presenter. Chewie’s son is called Lumpy. Oh, and it’s so bad even George Lucas, who had little to do with it, disowns it. This is why he became such a control freak and why we ended up with Episode One (review).

So, get some Wookiee-ookies from the cookie jar, pour yourself a drink the size Carrie Fisher would and enjoy. Happy Life Day!

Rather than assume you’ve seen this video, I’ll just embed it without comment.

Contrary to popular opinion, the soundtrack isn’t East Hastings by Godspeed; it’s In the House – In a Heartbeat by John Murphy.

More deliveries from Wizards today. This time it was ‘The Plane Below – Secret of the Elemental Chaos’. It was fun working on this book as I got to do some of my favourite monsters – the Slaad :-

Although I do think they should do evil Fruit Slaad – Blackcurrant Slaad, Banana Slaad etc.

Dava

All this could have been avoided if he’d just remembered his pee bottles.

A beautifully illustrated tale of woe, told in words, MS Paint and piss.

You know the weird song Diva Dance in The Fifth Element? Sure you do, it was the one that they needed to use samplers to make it work. Yeah, that one. Someone should have told this young lady that it’s physically impossible to sing.

Or not. Wow, Mooltipass to you, young lady. Mooltipass.

It took quite awhile to get this drawing and inks together. Well, approximately 4 years :-

I started pencilling this image for Soft Companies in October 2005 in Glasgow, the day before I started an art contract with Backbone Entertainment. I got as far as the head and arms, and I thought ‘Nice, i’ll finish up these pencils over the weekend’. Unfortunately, other work came in and the contract work was quite intensive, so it got shelved. Fast forward to September 2007, I found this drawing as I was moving over to London, and decided to pencil in the axe and shotgun. Fast forward to now, as I’m working on the Soft Company sourcebook, and getting ready to move back to Scotland. Godammit, it’s getting done – so I finished up the boots, and inked the bugger.

But ….. it’s *still* not done yet, and I have to greyscale it before it will be classed as complete. Will it be completely finished before the end of 2009? Wait and see!

Dava

Haikyo (ruins) is a hobby of exploring old ruins in Japan and taking photos, some of the places are really creepy.

some real good photos here: (not mine)

Ghost Town
Abandoned Apartments
Taro Mine

photos taken from www.mikesblender.com copyright by him

This one is just 5 mins up the road from me, another interesting site

This one is Hashima Island, it used to be a mine, reminds me of lower downtown Mort in SLA.
photos here

taken from http://www.ne.jp/asahi/saiga/yuji/ copyright by him

Paul Sanderson, a friend, said: ”Chris has always been a bit crazy, but this is taking things a bit too far – even for him.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6712576/Crisp-lover-changes-name-to-Mr-Monster-Munch.html

Dava

(I think Roast Beef is the best flavour – what do you lot think?)

The Grey Ones - Step One

Hello again, folks. Here we go with another round of step by steps. Owing to time restrictions (Christmas is my busiest time of year) and the complexity of the latest painting I’m only going to do one step, instead of two at a time. This time I’ll go more into the thought process behind the image, focussing more on the story behind the picture, rather than the technique.

Of course the two go pretty much hand in hand, since the selection of colours, and the performance of light are as important as the drawing that begins the process. I use light and colour to convey mood.

Step One – Base Colour

The Grey Ones are a sorry looking pack. They’re neither Nightmare, nor Human, and they cannot find a sanctuary in either world. As their name suggests I pick the colour grey for the creatures’ skin tone. I also want to depict their environment as inhospitable as possible, so it’s as drab and dreary as the Grey Ones themselves. Later on I’m going to try and make the ground into something alien and inorganic – this is the world beyond sleep. I’ve picked a light blue for their eyes, as I want the them to stand out. The BloodMare was a tireless, brutal killer and I removed its eyes because I didn’t want the viewer to identify with the creature, the Grey Ones are a little different and have doleful eyes which we can connect to. Sure, they’re monsters, but they were also once people like us. (At the drawing stage I made sure not to give the Grey Ones frowning expressions; I wanted them to to seem forlorn and hopeless, offset with grizzly, ragged jaws).

More on this when I get time.

Dava

Now the case has been dropped after forensic analysis found elk hair and saliva on his wife’s clothes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8384143.stm

Dava

Well, the first Step by Step is done, hope you like it :-

See you all for Step by Step 2 – The Grey Ones

Dave

Step Nine – Third Level Detail (Metal and Teeth)

Now I’ve got the body done, I move onto the other features. For the sword and metal plates I go for high contrasts in terms of colours and shades. Being inorganic surfaces the colours are very desaturated, but because this metal is weather beaten I switch between warm and cold colours, slowly building them up on top of each other. I add light gray strokes to any bevelled edges on the sword and the armour which really helps the objects to stand out. For teeth, I follow the same procedure as i did on the flesh, but with a sharper highlight, as it’s a harder surface.

Step Ten – Finishing Touches

Okay, so I feel like this character is almost complete, and now all that remains is that I add in any finishing details that I think the image needs. In this case it’s the coarse hairs on the BloodMare’s legs, some blood spattering on the sword, and the teeth. The blood is applied like a Wash, using a Mulitply layer on top of the painting. I finally collapse all the layers, and go out for a pint with Jared, before moving onto the next painting!

Dava

Yes, that’s right. If you follow @themonsterbook, you will get notified as soon as a new post is … um, posted.

I’ll be uploading the final steps on the BloodMare image tomorrow, so here’s the next one I’ll be painting for MonsterBook :-

THE GREY ONES

THE GRAY ONES

“I dread to think what these haunted apparitions truly are. I suspect they are sleepers killed and drained by the most powerful nightmares. Now they crawl around on their hands and knees like wild animals in the outskirts of The Gloaming. They bite away flesh, limbs and appendages to resemble the horrors that may have once slain them. Any humanity they once had was lost to madness, years ago”.

Dava

It’s always nice when Fed Ex arrives with new packages, containing books I’ve done art for. Today it was Wizards’ new Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons :-

and another parcel from Blizzard with some new World of Warcraft cards. The main set back to freelancing is you have to wait for the art to be published before you can add the material to the portfolio. In some cases you can wait over a year, or at worst, it never gets released (long story on that one). Anyway, here’s a newly published card that I did in August of last year :-

Dava

Step Seven – Back Lighting

This is a quick step I add to a few of my paintings, especially if the background is a dark colour. The Back Lighting is usually a keyline  bright colour that helps to define the form of the character, and prevents it slipping into the background. Since the Bloodmare is predominately red, I’m painting in a sharp cold blue to compliment the warmer hues. I always keep the Back Light as a separate layer until the end in case I want to darken/lighten it for the right results, or change the colour altogether.

Step Eight – Third Level Detail (BloodMare Body)

Right this is where I really go in and add lots of detail, and it can be quite time consuming (2 hours on this Step). The single focus at this point is the BloodMare’s body (I’ll work on the metal plates and sword once I’ve happy with the figure itself), and go from head to foot sorting out the details I want, both shading and lightening as I go. There’s no set pattern at this stage but the main thing is sharpen up the body and make it pop visually. I may step away from it for half an hour or so, and then look at it again, and work on it some more. The paint brush tool is set to 65 – 85% so the paint strokes I’m apply are pretty opaque and final (ie I’m not building up the colours so much as I’m defining the focal points).

(Side note – The image you’re seeing via the internet is more saturated than the image on my desktop)

More Steps coming soon! 

Dava

Aww, look at ‘im… those funny ears and warm brown eyes :-

BUT ……

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229998/The-horrifying-moment-bear-mauls-man-climbed-zoo-enclosure.html

I mean, what is it with some people!? Bears will fuck you up – FACT. Ask Timothy Treadwell. Death by Bear has got to be up there with Death Under Train. Slow, gruesome, painful and disturbing in the extreme to anyone looking on.

Sigh…. Maybe it’s because some folks feel this kinship towards animals; that you’ll somehow garner more respect from an animal because you like them so much. They won’t harm you because in some way you’re more like them than other people. BUT YOU’RE NOT.

Bears will fuck you up. Even Paddington, I kid you not.

Dava

1. Live Action Wombles

Look, I’m not talking about the lovely wee animated Wombles from the tv series. I’m talking about the blank eyed, sociopathic, 7 foot juggernaut beings that appeared in the real world. They said they were ‘a band’, but I knew better – they were in fact WAMPAS, and they were here to eat all children, excluding Boonie Bloody Langford – bitch. My cousin had a massive poster of Tomsk on her bedroom door. I practically wet myself whenever I saw it.

2. Satan’s Raven from Omen II

‘No, it’s alright Mum. Sure i can sit with you and Dad and watch Omen II and not shit myself. *I* won’t be scared’.

………

Satan wants to kill people; he doesn’t send an animal that can deal out some serious damage – a rhino, or Ostrich, but the RAVEN still works out quite well. It worked on me. The Raven is small, but he’s got this great theme tune thumping out whenever he arrives ‘CAWRACK! CAWRACK!’. And then the camera zooms in on his beady little eyes, EVIL.

Anyway, he only kills one person by himself in the movie, and he’s helped out by his best mate, a 20 ton truck. Still, the whole ‘eye pecking’ scene scarred me for about four years.

3. Public Service Warnings

Yes, you all know them. Their messages had the desired effect, didn’t they? All my brothers and sisters born in the seventies will no doubt get behind me when I say that the Public Service Warnings worked TOO WELL. Oh, there’s far too many to mention, but they were all trauma-inducing experiences. Don’t open the door to strangers or you’ll be eaten by a monster (my personal favourite), don’t climb electric pylons (Billy!!!! Bzzzzzzzzt!!!! Eeeeeeee!!!!!), Donald Pleasance as the Death Spirit that wants to drown you in a far off reservoir, and on and on……

4. Threads

This is a Horror film, and it’s the worst kind because we all thought it might just come true. There have been several decent Nuclear Holocaust films made throughout the years, but none come close to the relentless, unflinching, pitch-black bleak hour and a half that is Threads. The Beeb really wanted to show the British people what might might happen if some old fart in America or Russia decided to press the button. The first half of the film is lead up to the war, and second half is an excruciatingly detailed aftermath spanning the next 15-20 years, where the cast are either killed off slowly and painfully by the effects of radiation sickness, or descend into madness in the new and harsher world. You think ‘The Mist’ has a sombre ending?  Check this one out.

(A proper review of this film coming soon from Dava and Jared)

Dava

Bloody hell, I never thought I’d see the day when Henry Spencer from EraserHead was a fashion icon….

Dava

He’s alive!

Dava

Hi folks,

Here’s my my top five movie serial killers. Well, actually it’s probably not my top five because as soon as I’ve posted this I’ll inevitably say ‘No! I forgot to add such and such in the list’. So, for the time being this it it. (I’ve also omitted horror slashers like Jason, Michael and Freddy, simply because they’re not that much like actual killers, and I’ve not included any characters obviously based on real serial killers).

Okay, here we go:-

5. George Anthony Higgins a.k.a. ‘Machine’ (8mm)

“There’s no mystery. Things I do, I do them because I like them! Because I want to!”

Machine is a porn star, of the snuff variety. We know he’s killed one person on camera, but we have no idea how people he’s killed off set. For most of the film George’s face is covered by a grimy bondage mask, but once his identity is finally revealed he looks fairly ordinary. This is, of course, just another mask to conceal the monster within that kills, and is happy to keep on killing. Honest, and horrific.

4. Mahogany (The Midnight Meat Train)

“Welcome.”

Here is a man who lives to serve! What seems like your run of the mill movie killer is simply a blue collar worker, who takes his pride in his work and tends to a higher, darker power than we can possibly understand. If you live in a major city, you must expect to pay for the bounty it offers, and Mahogany is here to collect on its behalf…

3. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

“Hey, I’m a child of divorce, gimme a break!”

American Psycho is everything that’s frightening about the 1980’s, and serial killers collectively. Patrick, like the era he resides in is cold, cynical, fake, superficial, vain, totally insane but immaculately presented. Is he the Walter Mitty of murder, or does high society really turn a blind eye to the blood that’s shed?

2. John Ryder  (The Hitcher)

“I’m going to sit here. And you’re going to drive.”

Ah, John Ryder, from Disneyland…. What’s most frightening about this ‘Hitcher’ is that we know nothing about him, where he came from, or why he’s committing such brutal murders. I’m not entirely sure he’s even human, rather some blank entity standing on the lonely roads waiting for someone foolish enough to open the door and let him into their life.

1. John Doe – Se7en

“Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won’t deny my own personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner.”

Is there anything more dangerous than a brutal act committed on the behalf of good? However much John Doe might try and persuade us that he’s doing God’s good work, we really mustn’t be fooled by his bible thumping. John Doe thinks he is God, however much he maypretend to be the servant, and martyr. I consider John Doe (wonderfully portrayed by Kevin Spacey) as one of the most genuinely evil characters in movie history, because he’s a wolf, in sheep’s clothing, wearing a wolf coat on top of that.

Dava

Found here. A diatribe on a satellite.

Object of beauty

Yes, it’s got to be a hoax. The website is at Mass: We Pray. Clever stuff.

“I looked up and I saw this like huge-looking creature,” she said, adding that it wasn’t a manatee or dolphin.

And it wasn’t ManBearPig either :-

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/16/man-says-30-foot-monster-lurking-canals-madeira-be/news-metro/

Dava

I got the cover!

Right, on with Part 3 :-

Step Five – First Level Shading

Okay, this step is much like the last one. I’m now adding the adding shadows to the BloodMare, I’ve chosen a dark blue colour (not too saturated) and set the Layer Opacity to about 45%. The layer is a bit like an ink wash over the painting, and I darken large areas around the back, under the arms and legs while still retaining the form I’ve added in earlier steps underneath.

Step Six – Second Level Detail

This is where the steps get a bit more complicated and time consuming, as I continue detailing the painting but now with more precision and care. I’m focussing mainly on the chest and face first. I select the mid tone colours, and apply lighter, warmer colours. I’m also beginning to use finer brushes, and picking out certain areas with sharper edges and more detail than others (look towards the jaws, under the neck, and where the metal plates cut into the neck). For the armour, I add lighter, colder and less saturated colours. There’s also more more contrast between tonal levels on the metal, as it’s inorganic surfaces, and I want to really separate these elements from the flesh.

More Steps coming soon! 

“One toppled off his perch then others began “dropping like dominoes”, according to the organisers.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6579010/Dozens-of-budgies-drop-dead-during-country-show.html

Dava

**MW 2 SPOILER ALERT!**

Ok so I’m hooked on Call of Duty like more than half of the gamers out there and of course was in line at midnight to get my copy of COD MW2.  And I’ve been playing it ever since.  But I got issues Infinity Ward, I got ISSUES.  As a game the story didn’t REALLY make that much sense.  I didn’t mind that I beat it in 5 hours but what the hell was with the convoluted storyline?  I get that you’re setting it up for MW 3 but there were no payoffs for half the set-ups!  Like for instance the hostages. Who were they exactly? And who was the HVI that was killed in his bunker? And WHY did Shepard turncoat? Because he was the one who put the American in deep cover? And then said American (you) blew away half an airport terminal and the cops that came to stop you?  But wait, you blow away an airport with innocent people? Yes. IW saw it in their infinite wisdom to put a scene in the game that you are the triggerman along with the main villain (again another payoff that is not there in this…set-up a villain, knock him down…the way of any good story) that takes out thousands of screaming innocent people. Why? For some convoluted plot point about how the Americans became terrorists since the Russians set them up (there’s a line from Makarov that says “Don’t speak Russian. English from now on.”).  It’s just that the first COD MW made total sense. The pay-offs were there, the story was strong, there was a great set-up for a character with a playable flashback, and SO many other amazing moments.  It was a definite 10. A+. Head of the Class.  This one just feels weak compared to it. Like the little brother who is trying too hard. It’s endearing and you still like him but he ain’t no classic brew.  It’s kinda like Crystal Pepsi. I enjoyed it for a bit while it was out…but it probably was more because of the Van Halen song then the taste.

I don’t mind stories that make you think and draw conclusions from events, but come on…there was WAY too much going on and not enough pay-offs!!!  I mean that’s just like my opinion, man.

And with the online gameplay I still love that it’s the fast-paced COD feel but they GOTTA get their servers up to par…more than a dozen times I get headshots and SOMEHOW the guy still gets past me and knifes me or gets a round into me.  You can’t put it past us IW…the Killcam’s never lie as to what your servers are thinking…and when I watch myself not get ONE shot off and the other guy empty a clip into me even when I KNOW I got several headshots in ??? Come on guys get it sorted! Not to mention 2 close range hits with a .50 cal Barrett and the guy still gets off a shot and wins the game with the kill.

Anyway, the game is solid but I still have a special place in my heart for COD 4.  It’s just a frickin’ Classic. And not Crystal.

In recent years the Zombie film concept seems to have gone into overdrive. Shaun of the Dead, and the excellent remake of Dawn of the Dead hit the cinemas at roughly the same time in 2004, and faired well with the audience and critics alike. It looked the crumbling, brain yearning, meat sacks where chic again, and there’s been a steady stream of zombie related features hitting the cineplex ever since.

So, I find it curious that Zombie’s lesser known, and darker sister – the Cannibal, hasn’t garnered real renewed interest as a result. Could it be the racial stereo typing? Maybe modern film makers don’t feel there’s anything new to this breed of film?

Cannibal films lack any real glitz, and they’re as brutal and unmerciful as the natives themselves. Despite the savagery, seedy titilation, and flesh chomping, Cannibal movies tend to be highly moral tales. A group of westerners, fresh from the modern world journey deep into the Green Inferno in search of fame and fortune. These characters are usually quite unscrupulous, and their masks of civility are swiftly lifted once they leave the cities, and enter the unknown. They trample over the natural environment, abuse the local populace and inevitably meet their end in the gullets of the primitive tribe. The key theme is disrespect – you may think you’re more advanced than the lowly primitives, but once you leave behind the comforts of the world and try and impose your will on natural world, expect to become the prey…

The best and most notorious example of this is Cannibal Holocaust.

It’s a wonderfully grim number from 1980, and its handheld style predates the Blair Witch by twenty odd years. Sure, there’s plenty wrong with Cannibal Holocaust, but it’s nonetheless a true landmark in the history of the Horror genre.

(As far as I know there’s only been one Cannibal film made in recent years – the relatively unknown ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ (2007). This is not the worst film ever made, but it’s inferior to the likes of Cannibal Holocaust).

3-D Cannibal Vision, anyone?

Dava

Anyone from the Uk, and born seventies will remember a time when Weetabix thought it’d be a good idea to have wheat based skinheads tout their brand of cereal.

I *hated* the Weetabix crew. HATED them. What you’ve got to remember is only a small selection of advertising works the way it should on children, but this wasn’t one of them :-

Advertising Exec:

‘Okay, let’s get across the message that if you eat Weetabix you’ll be big, strong, confident and sound like Bob Hoskins! This is a good message to teach the kids!’

and it translated as

11 year old School Bully:

‘This advert is brilliant. Me and my mates can learn from these guys’.

The next day the schoolyard had become a marching ground for a thug renaissance. It didn’t take long for me to realise i was, in fact, a ‘Titchy Breakfast’. I think the cartoon weetabix were meant to be Skinheads in the proper sense (ie Rude Boys, not the National Front), but to me they were just scary. They were essentially the bad kids at the back of the bus, or street corner that you had to walk past (and try not get tripped up, of course). I mean, even the squeaky one that said ‘OK’ had an edge. He was the wild card. The others might beat you up, but Brian was the one might actually cut you, and giggled as the police dragged him away.

As the years passed it got worse, in some respects. Britain was suddenly gripped by breakdance fever, and the Weetabix monsters had to adapt. It was the beginning of the Weetabix hoodies. I tell you if the Weetabix characters were still around today they’d be Weetachavs.

Bastard things…..

Dava

You know, some childish activities are best done as an adult.

Gaze upon with wonder

As a child, I got to play Poohsticks in the Ashdown Forest; the actual bridge mentioned in the book, the bridge where A. A. Milne and Christopher Robin first played. Only looking back can I truly appreciate how special that was. Other activities, like going to museums and galleries can only really be appreciated once you understand what it is you’re looking at, and in that wide-eyed vein, the missus, Dava and I took a field trip to an aquarium.

One fish, two fish, red fish ...

I treated it as a day out with my camera, but it was really a day out doing what I did as a kid as an adult. I don’t have kids of my own, so it’s a very selfish thing to do, but in a positive way. As long as you can turn off your adult sensibilities and see the world with as much beauty as it actually has, it’s an uplifting experience.

While the aquarium we went to, The Loch Lomond Sealife, wasn’t as good as the immense one I went to in Lisbon a few years ago, it was still a pleasure to just take in the wonder that is life. I will contrast it to another day out we took in a later post, but in the meantime, here’s more fish.

Salmon days?

Oh, and if you like my photos, check out my Flickr page.

Right, on with Part 2 :-

Step Three – Details

Okay, now we’ve got the Base Colours down, it’s time to add some details. These are features and characteristics on the BloodMare’s body that are not yet affected by light and tone. In this case it’s the lighter colours on its torso, arms and legs, also the blood on the jaws and armour, and finally the raw wounds where the metal plates are digging into the flesh (yum!)

Step Four – First Level Lighting

This is probably the most important step in the whole process, and we really start to see the painting taking shape. This is where I add the first layers of light onto the creature. The light is coming in from the top left, and I’ve opted for lighter, warmer colours. I’ve set the brush tool to a mid-level Opacity so I can build up colour on the muscles and contours. I’m still blocking in the lighting with a brush size of between 30 – 60 pixels, I’m intentionally not getting specific about the fine detail, that comes over in later steps. At this stage it’s most important to get depth across in the painting.

The BloodMare was also looking very stark on the white background, so I’ve added a basic dark background to off set the contrast. It’s okay for now, but I may change it as I go along. (For Photoshop users, I achieved the mottled effect by using Scattering in the brush tool features, adding Shape Dynamics, and Other Dynamics.  - I don’t usually go in much for fancy brush presets, but this one is pretty useful. – The brush Opacity was also set to about 45% or so).

More Steps coming soon!

Dave

Here’s a great article on the origin of the word meep by our old friend Tim Dedopulos. Check out his blog; he’s rather good, you know.

http://www.ghostwoods.com/2009/11/know-your-memes-meeping-793/

For the record, my cats are known as the meeps as meeping was one of their hobbies.

“One resident living on the street initially thought the address “would be fun”, but claimed that the novelty quickly wore off.”

http://www.aroundglobe.net/2009/11/would-you-like-to-live-in-butt-hole.html

Dava

Okay, so…

Step One – Sketch

Here’s our pencil sketch – A BloodMare, Lesser Demon of Fenntri (BloodShed Concept). I almost always do the drawing in the traditional manner – with a sheet of paper and click pencil. Once I’ve got that done, and I’m content with the results, I scan it into the computer and switch it to a psd file (I painting the image digitally, in PhotoShop CS 3). I set the drawing as Layer One, and a ‘Multiply’ Layer. All subsequent layers of colour are placed beneath this one. The Multiply layer is effectively a sheet of tracing paper, and when I block in colours underneath, I can still see the pencils on top. Over time I rub away the top layer, becoming less important as I add in detail into the painting itself.

Step Two – Base Colour

This is the first real step in the image, and it’s where I block in the base colours. I typically have between 8 and 15 layers at the beginning of the painting, and these are broken into elements – in this case 1. Skin, 2. Armour, 3. Claws, 4. Teeth, 5. Hooves, 6. Sword, 7. Hilt, and 8. Floor Shadow. The colours i paint in these layers aren’t final, and they’ll go through various changes before the painting is finished. This step is really about building shapes, and defining the form.

Coming soon – Steps Three and Four!

Dava

Jimbly’s post about the ghosts of Japan reminded me of this article I read a few years back :-

“Detectives were skeptical when a pretty 14-year-old girl turned up at a Tsim Sha Tsui police station in May 1999 saying she was being haunted by the ghost of a woman she had helped torture, kill and butcher a year earlier. But when they followed up her claims and visited a third-floor apartment in Hong Kong’s shoppers’ paradise, Granville Road, they uncovered what many police and lawyers consider Hong Kong’s most sordid and revolting crime in almost a decade. A story that reveals a Hong Kong most people would not recognise – a gangster world of money, sex and drugs. A brutal city, without moral order, watched over by a super-cute cat with no mouth that agrees with everything you do.”

http://www.tomhilditch.com/the-hello-kitty-murder.html

“Does Hello Kitty hate the people who killed Ah Map?” I ask. “Oh no,” she says. “Hello Kitty doesn’t hate anybody. She never tells you off.” Hello Kitty, the perfect icon for an amoral age.”  - Tom Hilditch

Dava

I’ve never been much of a spiritual person or religious either. But since moving to Japan for the second time I’ve felt differently. Here there are 2 main religions, Shinto and Buddhism, the first, Shinto, is similar to paganism, worshiping gods that are part of nature – mountains, trees, animals etc.
And Buddhism is about the body and soul and gaining enlightenment.

These two work hand in hand as they don’t overlap in any areas of their ideals so there isn’t any ‘my god is better than your god’ nonsense.
Shinto deals with everyday life whereas Buddhism deals with death & the afterlife.

It seems a spiritual place as regards to the Shinto religion, you can’t avoid seeing small shrines dotted about the place to respect local gods, statues of foxes and lions etc. Trees with rope tied round them with paper talismans hanging down. Local festivals with lions, foxes, spirits and deities performing dances.

Even the names of places have some spirit connections, a town near where i live is called Ishigamimae, which means ‘In front of the Stone God’ conjures up images of a huge stone golem striding around the forest, squashing wayward hikers.

So when people say that someone has committed suicide off a certain bridge and mentions a ghost, or someone has seen a face in a window of an abandoned house, it seems to have a bit more meaning.

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

I expect most of you will have seen Ferry Halim’s work, as this website has been around since 2000. Anyway, for those who haven’t – here’s a cool select of fun, cute little games that’ll take your mind off the spreadsheets.

Dava

Some sketches from my unpublished fantasy concept – BloodShed  :)

Dava

This is one of the few times I get to do a bit of art for myself. I introduce Tom Tuppence and The Big Stinky! More detail on this later…

Dava

This is a neat way to use avatars on wordpress sites
go to www.gravitar.com and register using the same email as u use on your profile, upload a pic and hey presto, avatar goodness (not by James Cameron)