Drawing has always been my primary artistic output. When I hold a pencil in my hand, I feel like the weight of the world is lifted from me even for a little while.
Since I’ve been a freelance illustrator/pin-up artist now, I needed to find another hobby that does the same thing.
And photography has been that before.
Photography is what it is again.
Tina Arena wrote this song not for someone, but for something; her music. Most of the time, I feel the same way with my art. Granted mine have been called by the so-called “art-world” the lowest form of art, its still art. And its mine. Sometimes I would think if all this aggravation, frustration, and misery is worth it.
When I was in junior high, we were given the task of writing a book report on the story of Beowulf. Not that that moment began my love for fantasy stories (I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was 8), it did add to the fuel to my love for storytelling.
Being a fan of Neil Gaiman’s written works (Sandman, Death: The High Cost of Living, Mirrormask, Stardust), I wanted to see what treatment he made to this classic Anglo-Saxon lore.
I watched it on digital 3D last night, and there’s not much Gaiman changed to the original core plot. Some elements of the movie deviated from the original, which all came together in the end of the movie. They [Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary] did, in the beginning of the film, established how Beowulf will be portrayed. To me, it set the whole predicament of the movie, and I wasn’t really surprised at the end of it.
As a gamer, the CGI movie would sometimes take me for a loop. I kept looking at my hands seeing if I had my game console gamepad with me. I felt at times like I was playing a Final Fantasy game.
But overall, the movie was good. The story was treated fairly in my opinion, albeit if one reason for it being all CGI was to convince the public that there has been great advances since Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, I didn’t see it yet.
Watch it. Enjoy it. Don’t expect it to be anything but a fantasy movie.
It just dawned on me that I have been doing commissions for the City of Heroes™ community for a little over two years now.
Though I have never, EVER played on this online game, I think I pretty much know how the game design system works. Basic elements such as belt buckle designs, shoulder plates, logos, capes, cowls and armors. I pretty much drew every combination.
Two years. I can’t believe it.
Continue reading »
