Sketchiness

Hey Guys,

Well it's 10:20pm (regardless of what time the blog says I'm posting this at). I have yet to have anything for supper and I still need to get a shower and shave tonight. Ugh.
In order to explain where my night went I've got to delve into something I've been working on for awhile now. My mother in law is writing this devotional book, which she is getting published. Since I enjoy drawing from time to time (nothing serious, just doodles and sketches) she asked if I could illustrate it. I agreed to this and did some sketches. I decided on a very cartoony style with simplistic characters and backgrounds. I figured since I can't draw complex things with great detail, why not go with my strengths?

It's taken awhile but I've finally got all of the chapters and the cover done up. I was supposed to get them all emailed to her tonight, but I'm using a new scanner/printer/photocopier and I can't figure the thing out. My latest attempt scanned a very small portion of the first chapter's illustration. I liked how it looked so I did some minor contrast and lightening touchups and decided to post it for the heck of it. I think it looks pretty cool actually.

Here you go:



It's a little off white for my tastes and when I post the full scans of all the chapters I'll be sure to fix that, but this is just a small (literally) look.

Well I need to get something to eat and get ready for work tomorrow.

Until next time,
Jeff

Breath of Fire Art

Here's some Breath of Fire art I love. Each drawing is from a separate game in the series. Fantastic stuff, might start playing the series again along with Final Fantasy for psp. Don't want to give up on that yet.






Until next time,
Jeff

More Coin Photos

Hey Guys,

Here's a couple more shots from the Glass Coin launch.

The first photo is the one I mentioned in my last entry. I really love this shot of the co-editor of the magazine. Jo was shot on the same Nikon camera as before (I'm going to stop listing the camera now, just assume it's all shot on the Nikon D2x unless I state otherwise). It was shot at ISO 500, f 6, and at 1/60th a second. All of these shots are using existing lighting. I edited three different versions, one is a straight black and white, while the other two have some colour in the window. I prefer the toned down colour and the black and white, but I'll post all three on here. Only one will make the cut on my website though.

Thoughts?








Here's another shot of 'Truth' from a different vantage point. ISO 640, f 3.5 and 1/60. Available lighting, and minor editing this time around.



The final shot for today is a shot of Seigfried performing a moving piece at the party. It was shot at ISO 640, f 5.3 and 1/60. Not much editing here either, stark black and white, high contrast and a tighter crop than usual.



The website for the Glass Coin is http://theglasscoin.com/ I can't believe it took this long to put it on here, that's just lazy. My shot is used for the banners of the site as well as the twitter back drop. Check it out for some great writing and just a really creative, imaginative atmosphere.

As a side note, I'll be making and printing up some business cards tomorrow as well as some drop offs (like a post card with contact information and a photo on it) tomorrow, so I'll be sure to upload those to give you guys a look. I've already got the design made up from last time, might make some slight improvements but I'd like to keep it really simple.

That's it for me tonight, I'm off to (finally) watch the Chuck season finale!



Until next time,
Jeff

Finally Picture Time

Hey Guys,

I just spent the last three hours editing some shots I took for the Glass Coin Launch party (www.glasscoin.com). They turned out great but took a lot longer than I intended. I'm only uploading these two shots for now because I've got permission for one and the other is a group shot so it's okay to post.

In editing these shots it has become apparent to me that I actually prefer black and white photography to colour, something which comes as a surprise to me as I've never really had a preference. This doesn't mean I'll avoid colour, but a lot of my work for the next little while will be black and white (so long as the shot doesn't look better in colour).

The first shot shown is the poet "Truth Is Ellipsis" performing some truly great work. It was shot on a Nikon D2x at ISO 640 with a shutter speed of 1/60 and an f-stop of 4.5. It's all available lighting, with some obvious post work such as the black and white conversion and some noise added to give the shot a grittier effect.



The second shot was also taken with a Nikon D2x at ISO 500 this time. The shutter speed was 1/60 with an f-stop of 4.2. Again it was available light, with some blurring for post work and some added contrast.



There are a couple more shots, one of which I'm really excited to get out there but I need to check with the people in them first to get the go ahead to post them online.

Until next time,

Jeff

Avengers Assemble Indeed.

Afternoon Readers,

Avengers Assemble!

Indeed.

The name of the Avengers isn't a name that was well known a few years ago. It recently became wide spread thanks to Iron Man and now Iron Man 2. The team, and name, will see even more exposure in the years to come with the releases of Captain America, The Avengers (obviously) and (maybe) Thor. But before it became a Marvel/ Hollywood endeavour it was simply a Marvel endeavour. The Avengers was published in 1963 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack 'The King' Kirby. It was a team book consisting of many of Marvel's popular characters, who at the time were starring in their own books. The initial line up consisted of Ant-Man, The Wasp, The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and soon after, Captain America. Pretty soon after it's launch Marvel decided to mix things up by introducing a new line up for the team. The new roster included ex-X-Men villains Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, along with sort of villain (?) Hawkeye. The only member of the original team to stay on was Captain America (although technically he wasn't a founding member, but I digress).

Now that the history lesson is out of the way I'll say right now that I couldn't stand reading through the early issues right after the roster change. Compared to now a lot of the characters behaved out of character. Cap was kind of a jerk and Scarlet Witch seemed to lack any sort of character at all. Hawkeye was completely unlikeable and Quicksilver was, shockingly, the one character on the team I didn't dislike. Also, reading an Avengers book with only four Avengers on the team got really old, really fast. Thankfully Avengers 28-29 turned that around for me. Bringing back Giant Man (now Goliath, the third name change for Hank Pym already.. yikes) and the Wasp was a great move. It allows for more interaction with the characters and just more interesting stories.

Avengers 29 in particular was really good stuff. It had everything the book had been lacking for months. Black Widow was finally back and being brain washed by some pretty stereo typical villains, she recruits the Swordsman and Power Man to take down the Avengers. It deals with Hawkeye's feelings towards the Widow, making him more likeable and also has a nice moment where Cap doesn't come across as a jerk when he tells Hawkeye he understands his motives for letting the Widow escape.

All in all it was a really good story and I'm looking forward to the next issue to see where the book goes. Even though these issues were written over 40 years ago.

As a side note my brother recently pointed me towards some fantastic Power Rangers retrospectives. I grew up watching the original and I'm interested to see how they are. Here's the link to that: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/hopr

This is what I'll be reading next and the cover to Avengers #29, in case you were wondering what that looked like:




I just noticed that the Widow's costume is green on the cover of the issue, but a dark blue in the actual comic. I will also be glad when the costumes get a little less ridiculous.

Until next time,

Jeff

A quickie.

Morning Readers,

I just deleted three paragraphs.

Trust me it was for your own good. I was bored writing it, never mind reading it.

I've spent the morning inviting all of my Facebook contacts to the life is a photo page and groups. I'm really not sure why I have both set up.. it seems a bit redundant? I'm going to have to figure out a way to make each individually valid I think.

As a side note, I'm printing making up some business cards and drop off today or tomorrow, so that should be good. I've got the design made up already , it's just a matter of printing them. Exciting stuff.

I don't have long today, a lot to do unfortunately (work, editing, and drawing... more on each at a later post). Here's a quick look at what I'm playing and reading:









Until next time,

Jeff