it's hawkstudios, so I guess if you visit machall you'd have seen this.
"but I have no idea how people can stand to not at least have decent art on a comic. If I were some of the people out there, I’d have hung myself in shame before releasing a comic like that"
And there you have it people, the reason why I never got past page 10+ on Okashina Okashi or whatever it's called. Lousy art. The art just made it that much unfunnier, not that I really found it funny to begin with. That, and Sluggy, which I feel is substandard (also steeped in history. Fuggedit). In the same vein, Erik Larsen draws like shit (general consenseus), Brandon Peterson has manly girls while he tries to maintain a monthly comic (or 2 or 3 or 4), Rob Liefeld has 2 left feet whilst Michael Turner has almost no feet. And don't get me started on Frank Miller (and, well, to me, John Romita Jr.). Even when it comes to bad colouring, Pat Lee and gang had a very nice baby which was made out of a wooden block recently in Transformers G1. But then again, let's not compare you with professionals.
Need to buy shoes. Be back later.
---------------------
Bought shoes shirt and jeans. CNY shopping all done...
---------------
"Is Alvin able to meld everything into a cohesive strip"
Leave space for text. That's all. Or I'll create some (space), like I did. You have better things to worry about.
"You people don’t deserve substandard quality. And yet that’s what I feel I’m churning out."
Let's see here. What do you owe us? We've all paid our share (equal) of the bill, though I guess it must be said that Pete shouldered the GST (does that bother anybody?). So it shouldn't be monetary.............
posted by direcow at 12/29/2002 12:43:00 AM
I'm not sure what you're being sorry for, at most, you have to be sorry to yourself.
The below post should rustle some feathers, but I'll try to be as frank as possible. I might be wrong, as I can be quite often, but hopefully some of the points I make make sense.
"I love designing, but I hate the hassle that it puts me through."
- almost kinda sums up the rest of the rant dunnit?
Disclaimer: I'm going to presume a lot of things, from what I've seen, heard, and know, (and guessed), and then draw my own conclusions.
"Most of the time I see every bit that is wrong with a piece of work and it irritate the heck out of me."
So? You don't owe anybody anything, especially in terms of the comic. We've seen how good Brandon Peterson can be when he does one-offs, but when he's drawing that comic, it looks like total spit-on crap. The point is, if each and everytime some piece of drawing doesn't turn out the way you want it, (be it over and over again), are you going to give up, or are you going to try again until you finally manage to figure out why it sucks so bad? Perspective can't be learnt in a day, not to mention good perspective being learnt in a few short months. Sure, Mere and whatnot can probably try to run you thru them, as with the dynamic series, but all in all, if you give up the first few times cos you suck so bad, go back to it, and still suck, and decide to throw in the pen... do you think you've truly tried? Sure, people from the older generations can say that we're generation Y, the generation which never had any real times of need, which never had any major wars, any major diseases that flushed lives out of our mortal plain like the shit in my bowl. Generation Y is also marked by the fact that what they want, they want fast. Fast food, learning... are they trying to accelerate everything? Sure, some of us would like to take it slow, but our take it slow will seem to be a rabbit to the baby boomer's turtle.
I bet you look at betterman, and see his fast art, and go wow, I could never do that, in that amount of time. But think of it this way. The perfectionist that you are (see above quote) will never allow that to happen for the sole reason that you wanna keep trying to niggle things, to make it seem totally right. Is that gonna allow you to do speed art? Never. Not even if you improve in your basic planning and drawing speed, cos we all make mistakes.
I bet you look at say... Alpha Meta or Frontier Justice and go... wow, I could never colour that in that amount of time. But you must realise that AM and FJ have more or less reached a point where they're more or less happy in their art (from what I seem, do read the disclaimer), but are now concentrating on colouring. Note the world concentrating. You want to draw, you want to line, you want to shade, you want to colour. You want to know and do all this, learnt in what... 2 years? This not including the times when you did your "crap" (as you termed it), like in Sec school or in JC. Imagine you in primary 1 trying to learn the whole primary syllabus till P6, but take your psle in P2. Come on... you think it's easy come?
Learning how to draw is not like instant noodles.
Perhaps you think that you've put in sufficient effort, and thus you are owed. Are you? Have you? Sure you've spent the money, but look at KS spending his money, and look at how many truly impressive vids he has churned out. Sure you've spent the time... but have you truly concentrated? Never let your passion be flagged? Never let yourself be distracted? You may liken yourself to a ferret, but you're a human being.
"It gets a bit depressing when one goes onto gfxartists and gets that sinking feeling that he will, in all likelihood, never be that good."
And yes. They are, either (a) child prodigies (b) professionals who have most likely (c) gone thru art college (d) spent every single minute of their time drawing.
(a) Are you one? You think?
(b) Are you one? You think? Are you good enough to be one? Cos you've
(c) gone thru art college? no... you've complete 3 mnths of art in JC. That's impressive on your CV i'm sure, but do you think it compares to 3-4 years out there learning exactly how it's done? 3 mnths of JC sure even isn't Joe Kubert art school.
(d) Have you? Are you sure? Like a raven in a goldmine, you have
(1) work
(2) amv-ing
(3) tv
(4) friends
(5) driving
(6) Gaming
(7) Reading
(8) Drawing, in which you have
(1) Lineart
(2) Conceptualisation
(3) Shading
(4) Colouring
Now... you've only recently managed to work from home, and that is ending soon. So... how much time are you really devoting to what you want to do?
You say that you're unsure on what you want to do. So... do you really have a choice now? You're enrolled in Science. Ok, fine, and you've already admitted that your parents are never gonna be able to afford sending you overseas to study. So... what you gonna do, reapply for a new course next year?
And you make it seem that the moment you have to devote yourself to art, it must be full-time. You're barely able to commit to it as much time as friggin possible now, but yet you're considering that, but depressed by the lack of career options, the lack of earning of money involved and what not.
So, basically, if you want to be as good as a gfxartist... what do you have to give up? what should you or can you sacrifice?
"Already I think everything I do sucks."
Why don't you quit? Esp since everyone seems to think somewhat in the contrary, in various degrees. Praise will never sooth you, maybe you'll always want more, or you'll refuse to accept it, like somesort of narcissus complex out there, which you've described to me before. Didn't use to be so bad, no, until you got better.
"After all, there’s a responsibility to the people that read."
BOLLOCKS! we've already made it friggin clear, time and time again, that you're doing this for free. we don't owe anybody anything. we paid our way to do this. who's paying back? all you can ever hope for is adultation and praise. Sure, people are going to be disappointed, but did they pay subscription or something? I think not. The only reason we actually have this deadline is so that there's a proper flow to the comic. You do notice how much you didn't understand... say, some image comic, cos it took months for each issue. When you finally pick it up again, was it ever easy to read it? No right? Esp if they stop right smack in the centre of a storyline. That'll just suck, and we paid good money for that comic. To conclude this point, you don't owe anybody anything, the deadlines won't kill you, but it sure helps the reading. Now imagine if you were doing 3 pages a week like Piro was trying before he QUIT his job.
"Gasp, I have gift art!"
It's not surprising, it was coming.
------------------------------------------------------
"And when the love is lost, all that’s left is labour."
Why do you not love the characters.
Pete, sorry to say, you may have a hand in this. Yes, as the colouring person and "webmaster", I don't do much. I don't script, I don't write, I don't draw.
Pete, you're the writer. And let's put it this way. We are NEVER going to really understand the character, not to mention love it, if we do not understand it's... compulsions, it's mission. Why they see things a certain way. Why was Josh running? Anger? Surprise? How does wwl put a face to a running man if he doesn't know if he's running just to keep fit, or running away from willy wonka's gobstoppers?
Perhaps you'd really like to sit down and think through the story again, and in one focused flurry of the pen/ keyboard, write the entire story out. We're somesort of team here, co-authors or something, but we don't even know what's gone on or what's going to go on... kinda odd don't you think? This isn't the same as the Wachowski bros not telling Reeves and gang how to movie goes, or Lucas not telling Yoda, it's a matter of Wachoski a not telling Wachoski B why he's directing from this angle or why Neo can shit in the colour purple.
I say we put up the James death page, and take a hiatus. Whether or not wwl wants to put up one-shots is entirely up to him, but at least we have that time to get the story out, and then clean it up. That'll be good.
Pete, if you can't really script it, at least try to get somesort of nice summary out. Let us understand them. Let us feel them. Let us like Lydia not cos she's pretty, but cos we know that inside her, there's a character. Let us like Ben not cos he's got a goatee, let us understand ben just cos he falls directly into somesort of fallen hero archetype. Let us know him like we'd like to know each other, our selves. All characters in comics or books, are still simplifications of a human being, and can never be used to represent any one of us totally. but at least if we know more...
We have something going on that I feel is good. Let's not let it die. But if any of you think it's too hard to continue, please mention it, and then we'll just end it. For me, I have no... problems with that.
And if you guys need me to try to do something, I'll try in whatever way I can.
----------------
Ok, *whew* that's not all, but I'm an hour late from leaving the house already. Oh well.
------------------------
One more thing. I know why forums are down.
Cos they only just installed the apache server on our server. check our website now. so, soon, it should be up. Thank goodness. Just give it some time. At least now I know what's going on.
i bet we're just shifting servers again.
posted by direcow at 12/28/2002 01:36:00 AM
Your Existing Situation
Seeks a close and understanding bond in an atmosphere of shared intimacy, as a protection against anxiety and conflict.
(no comment)
Your Stress Sources
Wishes to be independent, unhampered, and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which he imposes of himself or by his own choice and decision.
(TOO FUCKING TRUE.)
Your Restrained Characteristics
Wants to broaden his fields of activity and insists that his hopes and ideas are realistic. Distressed by the fear that he may be prevented from doing what he wants; needs both peaceful conditions and quiet reassurance to restore his confidence.
Able to achieve satisfaction through sexual activity.
(Former: mostly very true, except maybe the first part
latter: What more can I say?)
Your Desired Objective
Wants to make a favorable impression and be recognized. Needs to feel appreciated and admired. Sensitive and easily hurt if no notice is taken of him or if he is not given adequate acknowledgment.
(But I'll get over it. Hardly bear grudges, seen?)
Your Actual Problem
Strongly resists outside influence and any interference with his freedom to make his own decisions and plans. Works to establish and strengthen his own position.
(Not sure what this means... I thought I had other problems...now I have to deal with this one???)
And yes, I'm bach!
with Canon-in-D
Naaa....nanannanananannananannanannanannanaaaa.... nnannanananannananannanaa...zzzzz
Digeri-doo-dah!
posted by direcow at 12/22/2002 03:58:00 AM 
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
