Wednesday, March 8, 2006

ALERT!!!

Sorry, I'm not going to be online here for at least two weeks. I've not been having a very good week so far, and well, I didn't think I should pass my misery on to you all. I will have the pictures submitted (I can't promise they will be posted) when I return, and will respond to the comments then as well. Anime Dreams! Picture Requests Currently Working Cataloged for Later Finished Work Melfina (Outlaw Star), for Outlaw Melfina Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing), for kout3uka Sanosuke (Rurouni Kenshin), for Caprice No Outstanding Art (Yet) No completed works (yet)

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Saturday, March 4, 2006

Secrets Whispered in Midnight Rain

Does anyone play Chess? This past week, I've taken the time out to actually play a few games of Chess with an online friend of mine (he's not on MyO, so I can't link to him), and wow was I surprised at how poorly I played. I hadn't played a real person in at least four or five years, and I used to be good, but I can tell I really need a lot of practice. Playing against a computer game (which I do once in a while, and found a decent free one online to work with) is very different than playing against a real opponent, and I guess I've lost my edge while playing the PC and not a person. Needless to say, my record from this past week is remarkably similar to when I first joined a Ches Club in Junior High school, and that, was very bad for me. But what does that have to do with my art? Absolutely nothing, but it's necessary to take some time away from important things, to rest the mind, and challenge it in other ways. I relax and soothe my mind while training it to think creatively by playing Chess. With that done, I think I can say mid week next week, I should have something ready for posting, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself right now. Comments: Mamma Vash: I know, I know, it's not really clear in practice who's right or wrong, but I choose to err on the side of caution, for my own sanity. As near as I can tell, file size is dependant upon many things, and digital art can be just as immense as an analog image scan in if it's not done right. When scanning an image in, reduce the quality as low as possible, (my scanner's lowest setting is 200 DPI) and when saving the image, save it as a JPEG, reduce the color depth, reduce the quality from 100% down as low as you can without distorting the image too much (you probably will see some artifacting, but they haven't made a clean compression tool for JPEGs yet that I am aware of), and lastly, reduce the image size in little bits, that combination of things will give you reasonable results with your images (tweak the sharpness to bring back a little clarity to the image while resizing if necessary). I always recommend saving an uncompressed, unedited version of the picture before making any potentially damaging changes to it, that way you can start over if you don't like the results you get. It's a trial and error thing that you have to learn from experience. Digital art does in most cases have a "cleaner" look to it, but I'm more impressed by someone who can still use a pencil and produce out of this world art, probably because I'm still having trouble learning how to do digital art myself. I would appreciate it if you could tell me one thing about the song, Which episode(or episodes) of Cowboy Bebop is Waltz for Zizi heard in? I'm sure if I knew which episode it was in, I'd know the tune, but right now I can't think of what it is. I've made my share of CDs for listening on the road and at home, some of them "gray hat" so I can't detail anything content wise on those discs. I will say that I'm in love with the error correction that's built into of all things Windows Media Player 10 (It's free, and can rip in MP3 format, who can complain about that?). I had a Simon and Garfunkel CD that was scratched beyond the point it was usable, so I ripped the whole disc onto my laptop and the scratched tracks were "repaired", I burned off a copy of the disc and use that copy for my own purposes. Lately though, I've been playing around with Sony's MD format (If you don't know my brother and his wife gave me a MD deck - they got it from one of her relatives and didn't know what to do with it, since Im the family audiophile, they passed it on to me), and I've had fun recording the the themes from movies and the anime I watch, which is fine by me, I like to have access to those songs without having to mess with the DVDs. I do still intend to get the soundtrack CDs for each and every property I've ripped music from, that's only right. I should point out that I don't file share, so my ripped music stays with me. :-P Thank you for the suggestion, but I have issues when it comes to the government as it is, and I don't think I would have the stomach to work for them. Now this part is for everyone: I'm not saying any more than what I already have because I can't be flamed for opinions that aren't expressed. Don't even ask me to explain this issue, I will not under any circumstances answer questions on my opinions of the US government, this is an animé fan site after all, not a political debate one (PMs are included, I won't answer PMs about political views either). Now that my rant to everyone is over, I can get on with this. I will honor the spirit of your suggestion and investigate the link though, but I have my doubts that I would qualify for anything they have to offer. It's not like they need an amaxophobic, paranoid, character artist, sci-fi writer, effects make-up artist, and all around dreamer in any part of the government. I still haven't been able to try biscotti yet, but I'm working on it. Caprice I was using the Random Fan art link (it was still up when I was using it the other night), and I actually came across an artist I'd seen before. It was kind of nostalgic for me, because I hadn't seen that user's artwork in about a year I think. I will try to keep my eye on artists that show potential, because people did that for me way back when I started here (though none of those pictures are still being hosted), and I think it's the best way to promote the growth of good artists. If you see any that you think I'd be interested in, be sure to point them out to me. Well, I'm done the research element of two of the character images, I have my reference sheets for them, and I'm working on the art portions of those characters right now. I still need to screencap and make the ref sheet for two of the other pictures but I'll do that this weekend. Sorry, I can't tell you which ones I'm closer to being done, you'll know they're done when when you see me mention them here. In addition to the three pictures I'm doing for you guys here, I've been asked to draw Hojo from InuYasha for a friend who's not on MyO so I can't link to him. Outlaw Melfina: Well, that happens, it's nothing big. I haven't been getting around to my usual sites like I should be, but I am trying to keep up. The only time I'm very clear and specific about what I'm going to do is when I'm mad about something and I want to make sure the people involved know I'm not going to let them walk all over me. Granted I get into more trouble by doing that, but it's an effective way to make sure people know I don't roll over for anyone. In my expereince though, being cryptic about how I'm going to handle a situation is always harder on the people who create it, and it's sadistically fun to watch them try to worm out of my wrath, not knowing how or what I plan to do next. In my case, I like the drama of more well known potent words than using my own. Nothing works the mind quite like telling someone you know they're lying by quoting MacBeth: "False face must hide what the false heart doth know." When I'm feeling especially creative, I'll use my own words, which usually go over everyon'es heads, and I end up having to explain what I meant which reduces the effect the statement had in the first place. BlackMagicianGrl Thank you for noticing, I try to keep things in order for my own benefit, but it seems to help everyone who visits my site too. There's one feature that I don't put into every post, my Editorial section which usually goes at the end of my post after the comments. I use that to express my serious opinions about things mostly. Actually the format of responding to commets in post like this is one I borrowed from others on site here, and put my own variation to it. It's easier for me to keep track of whom I've responded to on what topics by doing it this way. I should point out to Mamma Vash that you're one of the users here who provided me with the tips I mentioned in my response to her today. Those tips along with I've found out from my own experience has been very helpful, so I try to pass on what I know to others who need it. Random Fact About Me: Of all the animé I currently own, I have not one single soundtrack CD, because no store in my area even stocks them, and I can't shop online yet. Needless to say I'm (-.-#) about it. Editorial: Just this week I was able to acquire "Princess Mononoke", and I have to say I've never been let down by a Studio Ghibli film yet. I don't like to spoil things, but I will say it's a wonderful piece visually, and the story is something too. If you haven't seen it yet, do try, you won't be sorry. Anime Dreams Picture Requests Currently Working Cataloged for Later Finished Work Melfina (Outlaw Star), for Outlaw Melfina Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing), for kout3uka Sanosuke (Rurouni Kenshin), for Caprice No Outstanding Art (Yet) No completed works (yet)

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Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Insert Another Witty Title Here

So far, the research element of my art project is coming along okay, I do expect it to take me a while on the actual art part, so please be patient with me. I also remembered the dragon picture I'm working on too, so I've got six art projects on my plate right now, I'm putting mine on the back burner for every one else's though, so don't worry. I took a while to get this up because I had to be sure the servers were running at full capacity again. Sorry it took me so long. Comments: Outlaw Melfina: Well, my "Random Fact" was about my being right when a state job agency is wrong. My intuition tells me not to put an objective on my résumé, and that gut feeling is backed by Universities, and professional résumé builders who say if you can't be specific about the job your are applying for, do NOT put an objective on your résumé. No one at that job agency is looking at my situation objectively, I have no specific job criteria, I'm just looking for whatever employer is fool enough to take the risk and hire me, I don't really care what it's doing. I've never heard of an animé convention occurring in West Virginia, and the nearest ones to me are in Columbus Ohio, a roughly two to three hour drive away. Since I don't drive myself, and no one in my family can afford the run, I don't get to go. Caprice If you want to get really technical, yes, hand copying screenshots and posting them online is plagiarism, according to Title 17 of US Code. They are copies of someone else's work without his or her permission to make them, that is plagiarism by definition. Parody works, which wouldn't be duplicates of screenshots, scenes, or whatever, are exempted from copyright protections. I use references and screenshots in a lot of my "existing animé" artwork too, it's the only way to get a character right sometimes. You and I as individuals understand that fact, and I'm not arguing with you about it. I'm just saving my own skin from a headache or two down the road when someone makes a challenge to fan art art done completely that way being posted here, and you can bet it will happen. One of those people who gets rejected will challenge the screenshot copies being posted without question. A Fan Art club sounds like a good idea actually, I'd join up in heartbeat. Also, MyOtaku really needs to make more use of the "Random Fan Art" feature that's in the sidebar on the fan art pages, that would help some too. Putting that link up in more places, and encouraging people to use it would generate more traffic for the lesser active artists, and those who have the potential to go far. I think I'll start clicking that link (if it's still there) every time I log on here, just to see a wider perspective of artists that are on site. Sesshomarufan As I said to Caprice above, technically, it is plagiarism to duplicate another person's work without permission and post it publicly. So long as it's not viewable to the general public, it's all right to do it I guess. I'm not going to continue arguing about this thing anymore with anyone, I'm tired of it. I made the choice to pull my screenshot copies, and felt terribly doing it, you have no idea. I don't need to feel any worse by having my judgement in the matter questioned. I read through Title 17 of US Code, not once, not twice, not even tree times, but probably seven total times last year alone for various projects I was working, I know what it says, and I know there are gray areas in the law concering these things. I chose to err on the side of caution. Let me suffer those slings and arrows without anyone rubbing salt in the wounds, please? I will still use references for my art, especially regarding characters from animé I haven't seen, but it'll be less likely that someone would be able to make a straight correlation between "imageXXXX on inserturlhere.com" and my pictures. I think by getting away from straight screenshot copies, I will be expanding my ability to draw existing animé characters in out of context ways, which is what I want to be able to do. That's truly what fan art is about, drawing your favorite character in new and different ways, stuff that might not fit within the confines of the animé program. Random Fact About Me: "First of all I would like to make one thing perfectly clear. . .I never explain anything." That's how I respond to a question I'm not going to answer, it's from the Disney movie Mary Poppins. Otherwise, I quote Shakespeare to explain things in ways most people wouldn't understand anyway. Anime Dreams Picture Requests Currently Working Cataloged for Later Finished Work Melfina (Outlaw Star), for Outlaw Melfina Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing), for kout3uka Sanosuke (Rurouni Kenshin), for Caprice No Outstanding Art (Yet) No completed works (yet)

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Friday, February 17, 2006

It Starts

Picture Requests Currently Working Cataloged for Later Finished Work Melfina (Outlaw Star), for Outlaw Melfina Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing), for kout3uka Sanosuke (Rurouni Kenshin), for Caprice No Outstanding Art (Yet) No completed works (yet) For those interested in keeping track of things on your own, I've got the table up there showing my current spread, and I'll post it at the end of all my blogs to give everyone a running update on things. As I get done, or get more requests you'll see things move around. I wanted to get a jump start on things, so I'm posting this in the morning. This project is open ended, that means you don't have to wait till I get a picture done to request one, but expect it to take a while some times. You'll know I got your request if you see it in the table. Comments: eldertenchi It is a different concept, and I hope it will accomplish several things: Improving my art, and getting me to produce quality work under a deadline (self imposed). If you have a character you'd like me to draw, by all means throw it at me, I'll do the best I can with it if I can find the right material to work from. Outlaw Melfina: I don't want to go all technotaku on you so I'll just say that I try to explain things in a way people can understand them, though I do miss once in a while. I took a look at that painting, very nice. I tried oils once, the painting turned out great, but oil painting is much more expensive than my animé art so I'll stick with it. I doubt I'd ever actually cosplay either, even though the theatrical elements of such a thing would come easy to me and would be fun. There's no real point in doing something like that for my own amusement though. I don't get to many animé conventions out in the boondocks where I live, and I freak out my family enough as it is, so I'll stick with being plain old me (Yeah right, like I'm plain!). kout3uka Of course drawing is easy when you decide everything for yourself, and I want to get away from that. In my case, I hand copy screenshots which isn't really getting my art anywhere, and would have lead to trouble later on if I had kept the ones I had already posted up on site here. Since these are requests, I'm going to try to be original with the concepts for the pictures while being as true as I can to the characters I'm drawing for you guys. Yours will be a challenge for me, and I love a good challenge. I haven't seen Gundam Wing, so I'll be researching Duo a lot before I even think about putting pencil to paper. I'm not afraid of taking that chance to handle a subject I'm not familiar with because if I was afraid, well, I wouldn't be drawing at all. Taking risks is how a person improves, and learns right? Caprice Actually, Van Fanel from Escaflowne would be difficult to draw, and of all the characters I've done, I still haven't done any from my first anime experience yet. I was toying with the idea of doing a bonus picture to suppliment the requests, and this would make a great inaugural piece for that side project. I don't have an issue with using reference pictures. It's is a good way to sharpen coordination and see results when learning a new style, but there seems to be a misunderstadning between me and the site about pictures drawn that way. I've known people, a lot better artists than me, try to submit original works and be told the art was too good to be theirs, while my straight screenshot copies (which I admitted were straight copies - and therefore obvious plagiarism, and not drawn very well at that) went right on through without a word of challenge. I removed those pictures from the site because I didn't think it was fair to those artists to have my questionably legit artwork up. I'm starting from square one with my existing animé artwork postings through this request program, which will take at least some of the straint off of me in doig things right. Random Fact About Me: My intuition is 90% correct when writing important documents like résumés or letters. Regardless of what other people tell me to put in those, my gut usually knows the right things to cover. Anime Dreams

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

Beyond Time

I've been giving some thought to my fan art decision (see my archives), and came up with a solution that I think would benefit everyone. I've decided to take a novel approach to doing my art, by not deciding what I draw. I'm going to let others decide the subject matter of my art from existing anime for a change. Okay, Now that I sound thoroughtly insane, here's what I mean. I won't submit any existing animé pictures I draw on my own here anymore, but I will try to submit pictures other people ask me to draw. I think by doing that, it'll challenge me to work harder at my art, and in the long run make it improve. I'll take the first three requests I get by Friday morning, and try to draw them out. I can't guarantee I'll have them done soon, and I can't guarantee they'll be hosted here. Also, do not make a request based on another person's artwork, if I find out I'm being used to plagiarize, I will NOT be a happy person, and will take the appropriate measures. I'll catalog the other requests, and work on them as I get the time to do so. Here's a short list of the animé I've seen, just so you know which ones will be easier for me to draw. You can request something I haven't seen, but expect it to take me longer to draw because I'll have to research the character first. Anime I've Seen Seen and Own Just Seen Akira The Cat Returns Cowboy Bebop (Movie) Escaflowne (series) Escaflowne (movie) InuYasha (Series - Season One) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Porco Rosso Rurouni Kenshin (Season One) Spirited Away Betterman (Partial) Cowboy Bebop (Series) Fullmetal Alchemist (Partial) Gasaraki (4 Eps) Gundam 0080 InuYasha (Series - Partial) InuYasha (Movie - The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass) Inuyasha (Movie - Affections Touching Across Time) Kiki's Delivery Service Last Exile Metropolis Naruto (3 Eps) Outlaw Star Pilot Candidate (Partial) Witch Hunter Robin (Partial) Wolf's Rain Yu Yu Hakusho (Partial) Comments: Outlaw Melfina: It's all right, these things happen. Geneon (sometimes goes by Pioneer) produces English dubs of anime, like Viz Media (Naruto, InuYasha) and Funimation(Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragonball). They released Last Exile, and a few others that are on the air now, or wer on the air here in the US recently. It's not really important to know the company anyway. I did the homework, and need to find on video the Streamline Pictures, or Orion Home Video releases of Akira, Streamline Pictures released the original US dub in 1990, and Orion Home Video rereleased it in 1995. I do want to compare this newer "restored, remastered" version to the original, I have a feeling based on some of the scene work that Geneon got a bit overzealous and did too much "remasteing". Some of the scenes look too modernly animated to have been done in 1988, but overall the film is really good. My library doesn't carry anything like that, I think they're caught up in the prejudice about animé being all sex, drugs, and violence. It's a shame to see ignorance limit access to such things. I hope Adam works something out to deliver that CD overseas. He must know there's enough interest in doing it. All I can say is ask him about it, there's not much I can do. Random Fact About Me: IF I ever cosplayed, I would be Kenshin Himura. My hair's naturally red so I wouldn't have to worry about that part of the costume ^_^ Anime Dreams

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Monday, February 6, 2006

A Matter of Honor

For those who took a stab, the answer to last post's "Random Fact" was The Cat Returns (Neko no Ongaeshi). Over the weekend I got to see an animé film and I can easily see why it's considered one of the best, regardless of when it was made. That film was, of course, Akira. I'm not one to spoil things if I can help it, so I'll just say that one phrase kept coming to mind as I watched the film, "It was ahead of it's time." I seem to be drawn to animé like that, animé that you can watch years later and it still seems to fit in the modern style. I highly recommend it to anyone, but do remember it's rated "R" for good reason, and use your discretion when viewing, or allowing others to view it. I didn't know that Geneon had redubbed it till I found the DVD in the store, so I'm curious now about the previous version, if there was a US one, of Akira, who released it? Was the dubbing better worse or the same as Geneon's effort in 2001? I'll be doing the research on that later, because I would like to compare the two versions if possible. Comments: Caprice Actually, I was thinking that's where it would go since I only want it to affect the blog area of the page right now, and it'll be a little easier to fix if I happen to break something, like I'm sure to do (I do it all the time with the HTML documents I write). I would probably do it the first way, applying the styles to individual HTML tags, to keep it simple. I use the horizontal rules in every post, but I use two different ones and have to figure out how to make them both work(it's a formatting thing I'd like to keep consistent), and I use tables quite regularly so I'd probably start with those, and work from there. I haven't had the time to actually sit down and learn anything lately, so I'll have to start from square one again next week when I think I'll have some time to do it. Thanks for the advice on it, I hope to have something to show for your efforts here soon. Do you still have your critique sheets? All you have to do pick one of them up, rewrite it if you need to, and stick to those questions. Theater critiques are a little more proprietary, in that they cover technical things as well as the acting ability, so in my case, I would have to really reversion the whole sheet we used to make it work for visual only art (I may use the Speech/Communications one instead, it's shorter and more to the point), but I think I can do it. I understand the feeling, I actually had people specifically ask the teacher to not let me critique their work (she made me do it anyway, apparently I had a knack for being level headed with my evaluations) because for some reason they thought I had a bit of, well, a "theatrical attitude". I can't help that I took theater very seriously, but in the end, I'm better for that. I like people to be vocal, if their comments are productive (if they actually tell me something I can use). That's another aspect of theater, when our teacher gave out notes at the end of rehearsal, she didn't just say "You're not delivering your lines right." She'd tell us (me in particular) "You're being to quiet, project your voice and enunciate" (I hate the word enunciate I heard it so much, but it was the truth). If a comment just tells me "You didn't do it right." I get frustrated because while I may see some of the things I'm doing wrong, or not at all, I'm only human (contrary to popular belief ~_^ ) so I won't see everything. I tend to look like I don't handle critiques very well, but that's only bad ones, a good critique is one I respect, and take very seriously. My next dragon is a long way away, I want to really slow down and do it right, I won't even give a ballpark for it's posting this time so I'm free to keep pushing it back if I need the extra time. I'm actually looking forward to getting good enough at dragons to make them my centerpiece pictures. I know I'm a long way from that, but I'm off to a good start. Editorial: My portfolio is smaller today, I've taken the time to clean out the pictures that are going to cause me trouble later, and I doubt I'll ever post another "existing anime" based fanart here in the future. I'll only post original works that aren't based on anything except the delusional mirages from the desert wasteland that is my mind. The pressures to do the other art right and fair are too much for me to handle right now. I can understand and appreciate the need to be vigilant about possible infringement, but there is such thing as going too far. I don't think it's fair that my "existing anime" pictures haven't drawn the attention or scrutiny of the staff here when in fact they should not have even been posted at all. Consider that my "existing anime" pictures, which are pretty near hand copied screen shots, went through the system and were posted, while others try to submit their work and it doesn't get through, or they have to leave the site because they're wrongly being accused of plagiarism, and no one will stand up for them or research the accusations to determine the truth. I don't know about anyone else, but to me, that's not right, and it shows a precident I'm not very comfortable with, because I can see it being used in good arguments by unfairly treated users later. Since things are as they are, I've taken it upon myself now to remove the artwork that I know shouldn't be up here. I know it hurt me to have to take down one of my best overall fan art pieces, and I apologize to anyone who liked my work, but to be fair, everyone who submits to this site must be held to the same standard. It shouldn't be applied only when convenient. To everyone who voted and posted comments on those pieces of art, I really appreciate your time and opinions, I kept all the comments from those pictures, it was the least I could do for you all. Thank you very much for sharing your opinions and for voting on my art, and I apologize too. ~Hal Random Fact About Me: I can only sing on key in one language, Japanese, but I still only understand very few words of it. Anime Dreams

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Sunday, January 29, 2006

Takin' it Easy

Well, I'm down to one major project to get finished up real soon. I have also started on a new drawing project which I will try to have up here when it's done, but I can't promise anything. Of course that project is a dragon, what else would it be? Comments: Outlaw Melfina: I don't ask, I've learned that life is chaos, so I just take things as they come. You visit when you have time and feel like it. I know it's a lot of money, you should have seen my expression when I saw the numbers the first time myself. Thank you for your feedback on my artwork. I rarely check the comments on my individual pictures here so I almost missed it. I'm learning a lot from this experience, but I do have to say this, please pass it on: Western style dragons typically have wings, Tatsu, or Eastern style dragons, are more serpentlike, long and thin and few have wings that I'm aware of. My next picture will actually be specific to one style (not going to say which!), but my first one admittingly looks like a horrible blend of both styles which doesn't really work. Other than that, I'm not going to say any more. Caprice On CSS coding: Yeah that's what I meant. Which one works better for doing formatting (like the horizontal rules and tables I use) of just the blog entry? I want to start with something simple and not try to do too much to the whole page at all at once right now (it'll be easier to fix it if I only break something small at first). On my art: Now that's what I like to see, specific information. I can improve with that level of clarity. Thank you for being detailed with your explanation. I really appreciate it. Let me take the time now to apologize for my tone in the previous post, I overreacted. I'm also going lead by example and offer a bit of wisdom that I hope will be useful. I learned early on in theatre how to critique. The format I use is very simple, but it's a structured way to evaluate someone else's work. I try to use it when people ask me for my opinion on anything really, it can be applied to more than just theatre. It's just three basic elements: Basic Elements of Critique: Identify Strengths Identify Weaknesses Suggest Ways to Improve I can give anyone who wants them a more detailed explanation of each point, but those basics are a good start for anyone who wants to try to have some organization to the way they analyse and evaluate others' works. I could go through and try to adapt my notes on the specific questions to ask during a theatrical critique to apply to visual art, but that would take a while. Kout3uka Thanks, I'm glad you think so. Believe it or not, one of the points I left off my list was lack of embellishments. Actually, I was going to do a mane and plume(like the dragon in Spirited Away) on this dragon, but none of my rough outs looked right to me so I dropped it. I mentioned alreay that I'm woring on a new dragon. I'm going to take more time with this one, and consider every bit of advice I've been given on my first attempt. I'd like to get whtdragon's opinion on my first dragon picture too, but my impatience is kicking in and I'm eager to move on and try again. That's usually the way with web stuff isn't it? I'm actually working on a mock-up of my page here to test anything I want to do on the CSS front. I learned to test anything HTML before posting it (and still fail to catch things till it's too late at times). But I expect a lot of CSS elements won't present their problems until put into use on the actual page here, if that's the case, I know I have to be ready to remove things if necessary to restore functionality to the page while I repair coding mistakes. I'm getting ahead of myself though, I still have to learn the all elements I need and want to use first. I can't expect to get anything done if I don't know what I'm doing in the first place. Random Fact About Me: I like to say the original Japanese names of Studio Ghibli films in conversations, like: I just watched Neko no Ongaeshi the other night. Guesses on which one that is? Anime Dreams

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Saturday, January 28, 2006

Augh

There's an old proverb "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. So, teach me to fish. I want to do more with my page here, so this question is for those of you who use CSS, or whatever, to take the pages here beyond the parameters that the backroom provides. My question: How do you do it? what's the proper place to put all that coding to make it work correctly? I'm learning the elements myself, I don't need tips on those yet. Comments: Mamma Vash: Thank you for the compliment on my artwork. It's not my best, but everyone has to start somewhere right? I'll do better with more practice and time. I just wish I had a place close by me where I could go to take my own photos of reptiles for reference purposes. "Borrowing" pictures online isn't really ethical, and I'd feel better knowing I was using my own source material. I'm glad to hear you're doing okay at work with the word "No." My balance comes at a cost though, it usually does. I found out last night that discs 5 and 6 of the Rurouni Kenshin Season One Box set (I got it for Christmas) are defective(at least in my set they are), and Media Blasters is conveniently playing around with their web site to the point they don't have contact information up anymore so I can't tell them about it. Which means if I want to watch those two discs (some of the best episodes are on them - though I've only seen season one anyway), I have to tolerate the frustration of not being able to turn off the subtitles for the opening and closing credits, or being able to switch between the languages for the credits either. Guess I'll just have to stew on that one till they get the site back up, but I'll only be angrier at them for the pointless delay. A lot of my time is now, and more of it will, in the near future, be devoted to my art. I haven't been taking it seriously lately, and I think it's really hurting because of that. Drawing makes me feel good, that's why I do it, and will keep on doing it. Caprice I always welcome useful advice, especially when it comes to my drawing. I apologize in advance for this next part, the Grouch in me is coming out. While I'm always proud of what I do artistically, I am also always aware that my art is far from perfect, and is in need of much impromevent. I know there's a lot wrong with my dragon, he's my first serious attempt at fantasy creature art. I know there are going to be many bad ones before a halfway decent one comes out of my head and hands, I'd be a fool to think otherwise. When posting comments about my art, don't hold back on my account, don't worry about hurting my feelings, just tell me the truth right away and I'll respect you for it. I'm more insulted when I get vague fragrments of information rather than a direct indication of the areas I need to improve. I am aware that I don't always see what I'm not doing right. Sometimes someone else has to show it to me first. Now I don't usually provide first hand insight into how I perceive my own artwork, but I feel it's necessary for me to do that today. My Perspective of First Dragon The arm proportion is off. The body shape needs definition and structure. The head is too small. The twist in the neck is not drawn correctly. The texture is lacking. The taper of the tail isn't balanced. The horns are not properly matched. The underbelly needs definition and texture. The claws are not shaped or structured appropriately. I should have taken the time to shade the drawing. I stopped the list there, though I do see other problems. I didn't think it would be appropriate for me to further humiliate myself by directing everyone's attention to all my artistic inadequacies. Okay, I've got the Grouch under control again. I don't use MSN, never had the need for it. I've been on Yahoo! since 1997, and I've got Gmail too, so I don't really need another username and password to add to my long list. I have enough trouble keeping track of everything I'm on now. @_@x Random Fact About Me: My temper is extremely short, and fiery hot. Anime Dreams

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Friday, January 27, 2006

The Witch Doctor Is In

I'm back from my hiatus, and I'm in a calm mood. I submitted a smaller version of my first dragon picture that you see behind all this mess (maybe I should leard to do that floating transparant blog thing that a lot of users here do so you all can get a good look at it all the time) Anyway, for the record, if you happen to run into me on Yahoo Messenger, my title tonight is the status message I use when I'm online there, but don't ask me to give you my YM handle, I don't give it to people who ask. Comments: Caprice Oh you just haven't seen that side of me yet, trust me, my inner dragon comes out a lot when I'm tired or stressed. He's been out here lately, but I guess I see it as being worse than other people do. The time was productive for me, and very soothing, though I did pop in here to respond to comments and PMs once in a while like I always do when I say I'm taking off. Blegh! go figure I'd miss that one. My perception of sarcasm has been out of whack lately. Oh well, no harm no foul right? So what do you think? Was all my hype worth it? If you want to see it without all my stuff in the way, check it out Here. Ignore the bright pinky color on its background, that's just the transparnet color for the GIF image so it looks good on my green site here, and will continue to match if I should change the color scheme. I really took my time with it because I wanted to make sure it was done right, and somethig I could really be proud of drawing. I'm proud of it, but I know I can do better with more practice. Outlaw Melfina: I get that a lot, but then again, in theatre, weird is good. ~_^ The wonderful thing about the internet is it's easy to meet people who are similar, and get along with those who are not. I'm still working on a solution that would work, but right now it's a major headache. The carrier (DHL) that ships domestically ships internationally, but the cost is astronomical. For a 1 pound package shipment to the UK it would cost around $50.00 US (actual number appears to be $49.00 USD), and that doesn't include anything like handling, so realistically, it wouldn't be practical to ship Art of Otaku CDs internationally using DHL which covers the domestic shipments. Now, the US Postal Service rates are something like $16.75 US (airmail parcel post - and if they updated the table with the new rates), which isn't quite as bad, but still it's a bit steep, and that also doesn't cover handling either. So let's see, all told (I'm throwing out the $5.00 US shipping and handling charge, and just tossing in a $2.00 figure in to cover the handling part and going with the shipping amounts I mentioned, and I'm doing an estimated currency conversion) amount wise, it would look like this for DHL to ship it to the UK: £42.53, ($75.95 USD) and through the US postal Service it would be around £24.46 ($43.70USD). I guess if you'd really be willing to pay that much and converted the currency to US dollars before sending it (most financial institutions should be able to do it, or could tell you where to go to get it done), there shouldn't be a problem. Now, there may be other factors at work that I don't know about or understand, so don't look at this as the best or only solution, it's just number crunching to see if the cost to ship internationally is plausible. One thing down, a couple more to go, I've got a busy night ahead of me. Anime Dreams EDIT NOTE: I fixed the title's spelling, I must have really been a sleep when I wrote it this morning.

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Monday, January 23, 2006

Closed, Back in 15

I fixed the link in my last post. I guess I need to learn to double proof read these things before I post them. Oh well, it's not all weird like it was anymore. Okay, If you all have seen the way I was posting and commenting lately, you'd understand my need to do this. I've got to take some time to myself again, probably a week, maybe more depending on how I feel. I've turned into a mean, grouchy, unpleasant and nasty person in comments PMs, and posts lately, which tells me my stress levels are up and I need to just chill a while. I wanted to let eveyone know that I won't be posting for a little bit while I recoup myself and mellow out. It'll give me more time to work on my dragon, and hopefully by the time I get back on I'll have it finished! Comments: Kout3uka Dragons are viciously stubborn creatures to draw, I know. I did a small dragon pic for a friend (sorry, no scan of it, and I put that one in the mail today) and I liked the way it turned out. Ironically, the hands and feet, which I have problems drawing on humans, are my biggest problem areas on dragons too. whtdragon has some reference sheets for drawing dragons, right here on MyO, and Caprice recommended a few web sites that are good resources for learning to draw dragons: Neon Dragon Art and Dee Dreslough's tutorials. I've read through them all and each is valuable in its own way. If you are inspired by what I draw too, well, then I know I'm doing it right. Outlaw Melfina: Honesty about my work is what I'd expect from anyone. I hear that. people who don't know me find it difficult to understand why I don't return the same false familiarity they show me by trying to get on my good side by being a little too friendly right away. I'm not one of those people who makes friends at the drop of a hat. This part is for everyone I meet on and offline, it takes a lot of time and work to get my usual stubborn self to open up, but once I call someone a friend, you can be sure I'll fight tooth and nail (or fang an claw if you believe I'm actually a dragon in disguise ~_^ ) to defend those I call friends. It more than just sucks, it's unfair to the international MyO members, and very bad business practice. You can bet I'm working on making a way for shipping the CD internationally to work, even though I'm not on staff with the site here. I know I hate to feel left out, and there were a few times during Art of Otaku's development that the project did that to me, going all the way back to it's announcement in May 2005. It's my mission to come up with a way so that others won't have to experience that frustration and insult. Give me a little more time, and hopefully I'll have an answer for you and the other international users here to purchase the Art of Otaku CD, that's a promise I made last month and I intend to keep it. Caprice Just because I'm putting a lot of time into it doesn't mean it'll look that great, but thanks for the vote of confidence. It's taking me a while because it's my first large scale dragon picture, so I'm a little overwhelmed by it. I have done a couple little ones recently (I gave them all away, see my first comment response). I do want it to turn out very well too, so I'm not rushing myself through it either. I do hope it looks good. They say patience is a virtue, so please be patient with me. Saying that of course makes me a hypocrite, because I am myself a horribly impatient person who doesn't wait for anything. I'm trying to learn to take things as they come and to be calm when I have to wait longer than expected, but it's hard. I'll see you all in a little while, don't beat each other up while I'm away. Anime Dreams

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