Hairstyles explorations

This belong to a personal project I'm working on. It's being giving me many satisfactions and it have helped me know myself a bit better. Quite interesting.

When you abandon fiction, fantasy and the bizarre and stick to reality and the day to day stuff of life, you start discovering sides of yourself.

this project is already done in a script format. 18 episodes, with another one that is getting cooked in my head as I write this. I guess I'll make a novel version of it to publish first, then see how much luck I have with it. Hope it works.

Ikaro

This is the original Ikaro (featured on Pissed Fomorian).

He's always a bit pissed because people don't really like him, not because he's awesome, but because he's a fomorian, and decent people don't like fomorians (racists neither).

So, now that I blurred the line between decent people and racists, I will leave you with this thought: I think I really fucked it up this time...

Random speed paint

Speed paint based on an old pencil drawing. Painter (digital watercolor) for the color and a blender (just add water) to get rid of the pencil line.

Also, in an absolutely unrelated topic, I have a Flickr account now. You have to befriend me to have access to all the godness, though, but that's not hard to do. Be sure you take a look around.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjpluvius/

Charmed Life

Having a little fun.

Uhhhhh...

I won't talk much about this, but I like it.

Pissed Fomorian

nothing to add.

Random killing girl

This one took around 10 hours of my life in a span of 4 years. It started as a drawing in one of my sketchbooks and suffered many mutations.

This is the first illustration where I get rid of the donkey ears elves. The reason: I inform myself about this curious creatures and I found out that they don't have pointy ears, so fuck'em.

Now you may wonder "then, why you illustrate so many elves?". The answer is unknown... does anybody have the same problem?


I forgot to mention the help from Veronique Comeau when I was trying to solve this. THX.

Lovely Complex review

Lovely Complex is one of those manga/anime that falls in the "overcharged" category, where everything gets exaggerated. Thankfully, in this case, is kept between decent margins. Besides the fact that it belongs to the slice-of-life genre (which I still can't remember it's name in Japanese) it's more prone to the comedy side with, sometimes, hilarious results... and you should know how hard it is to make me laugh, mostly because I lost my soul to Satan when I was six years old, or maybe because I'm a fucking old man since my teens... anyway.

The main plot revolves around Risa, a charming and juvenile tall girl (172 cm seems to be freakishly tall for Japan) and Atsushi, a very short guy (156 cm, making this guy a garden gnome no matter the country you are... what? are you that short? oh... I'm so sorry, you should have listen to your parents and eaten your fucking vegetables while you had time).

The story goes this way: Risa is tall and she have low self esteem. Atsushi is a smurf and there is nothing to do about it, no hope whatsoever. Both are very good friends, they have great chemistry and... you can guess, they are basically "meant for each other" (there is no spoiler here, bitch. By the third episode it is made very clear, a bit too soon and a bit too much if you ask me). So all comes to the next: obviously, girls don't really like canes, unless they are candy canes, and boys don't really like girls taller than them because, when the time comes, is like fucking with another dude, a guy that is taller and probably with a back bigger than yours... a man without his Johnson!... holy shit! it's like raping a very tall gray alien (those without genitals... like Kent). So, even if Risa does not give a shit, Atsushi feels weird about it for both of them, making him act like an asshole (I don't blame him, his penis is probably small too).

Story-wise, Lovely Complex takes us into a situational roller coaster, which is different from a sentimental roller-coaster because the author puts you into situations that leads to feelings that leads to the dramatic structure, so the relationships between characters doesn't feel forced to you, like the plot of a porn movie. At some point, the point of view turns more to Risa, showing her feelings, personality and mindset. You reach a point where you can understand her and sometimes feel her pain and frustration which, let me tell you, is very difficult to convey in storytelling. She usually have some "crying a lot" phases, but I never went like "shut up! you fucking whinny bitch...", on the contrary, you feel like hugging her and patting her head and saying that everything is gonna be alright (maybe because I'm taller than her and I wouldn't feel weirded out by that).

Something that really amazed me is that every non comic relief character have an arc (don't pretend you know what I'm talking about, go find out this therms on Wikipedia and make yourself less ignorant). Also, the author puts 2 couples with "normal" relationships to contrast the main one (quite smart for this genre, where usually all the characters are hunting their love interest at the same time). The animation quality goes from great to "I didn't knew you could draw with your ass". The voices (in Japanese) work very well... except for one of the secondary characters that have that fucking squeaky toy kind of voice (it is very hard for me to realize that some people find that shit "cute"). Risa is masterfully acted by some random Japanese woman (duh!) who did a great work, so good that makes you want to castrate Atsushi with a very well placed kick in the balls.

I like when an author can create such a great story without nerd-service or pedophile-service or Imasturbatewaytoomuch-service (fan-service for short). It have romance, lol moments, faggy teachers, perfect couples, assholes, transvestites and it's located in Osaka, my favorite city on this planet.

What?... still too macho to watch something like this?... I bet you learned to kiss by practicing with another dude in some dirty prep-school bathroom cubicle, that's why you are so insecure, you though that playing football would help to make you hard and manly... but you really did it for the shower thing, did you? and that weird pleasure you have while comparing penises with your team mates... you little cunt... OK, my lawyer is telling me that I should shut the fuck up, so I see you soon with another review.

Cheers!

Toradora! review

Toradora! belongs to the slice-of-life genre (I can't remember the name in Japanese). It have drama, comedy, Japanese customs, more drama, great dialogue, some more comedy and even more drama. I am particularly keen of this genre, when it's well done obviously, because it takes me back to those wonderful high-school years I never had, and reminds me of that fucking bitch in my class. The only time she spoked to me (in four years) was to ask me a favor... I really hope she's fat and bald and dead by now... but anyways, back to the review.

At first I wondered why it was so well written, a very well received difference from most of that anime crap being produced in Japan for the last 10 years. Doing some digging, I found out that is based in a novel (or ranobe) which could explain the reason for the well detailed characters. Beyond that, it's one of the few things I have seen this far (I don't see too much anime, mostly because of my previous point) that does not includes people with special powers of any kind, they are just simple people with their problems and situations, and that's what is important in Toradora!. No fucking magical girls, no fucking magical fags, no fucking anodyne characters, no over sexualized underage sluts or magic dildos. There is very little nonsense involved, and just one little idiot girl with erratic or over the top behavior (it serves a purpose, though). This is a simple group of teenagers, passing their last years at high-school, with proper reasons and back stories to support how they are.

Toradora! still use some classic anime tricks though, like a couple of flashbacks (very well placed I might add), well used irony (check wikipedia to now the narrative meaning), and a couple of anime style cliffhangers (when they put the tension to the limit and the next scene or episode begins a week later, when everything is already solved or forgotten). Don't get me wrong, all of this elements are nicely done, besides, it have an unusually good narrative hook. You will find yourself saying "ow... FUCK YOU!..." and the only thing you expect to see at some point is blood, but no worries, there is plenty of it, and one of the greatest cat fights I have seen in unreal life.

The animation is nothing from another world, but it is far from being bad. Knowing, as I do, that are several studios animating different scenes of any given project, it is to be expected to note some differences in the animation style from time to time, but I must admit, they keep it very consistent, and you can tell that they give certain sequences, like action scenes, to the same animator, using his particular style to help with the storytelling.

What can I say, Toradora! is one of the best animes I have seen in a very long time, the pathos are clear, the conflicts are always there, the climax are intense, the finale is quite interesting and, If I still have my heart (mostly because of a military dictatorship that ruined my childhood and some fucked up ex-girlfriends that ruined the rest of my fucking life) I would have cried like a little girl, because that's the only way to cry. That's why men should never cry in public, it's fucking disgusting!

Anyway, I recommend Toradora! to all the people that loves good stories, and if you are too macho to submit yourself to this kind of stuff, well.. it's your lost, so fuck you.

Cheers!

Harry Potter fan art BOOK

Today I was contacted by Keith Hawks, from MuggleNet, regarding Harry Potter fan art for a book to be released this year.

I will copy/paste part of his mail:


"MuggleNet is currently exploring a project involving fan-submitted Potter artwork. We have put together a proposal for these pieces to be placed in book format and published.  We know your fellow fans enjoy the work you do and we believe it will be incredible to see it all in print.

Allow me to explain how this process will work.  Once we receive approval from our agents and other necessary parties, we will be sending out forms for all MuggleNet artists to review and comply with.

The first form will be a Release form.  This still maintains your rights as owner of the artwork, but allows us to publish the individual piece. The second is a request for a high-resolution digital image of the artwork. And the third will be a request for an Artist’s Description Page.  This page will have your full name and how you will want to be named in the published work, the title of the artwork, and a full description of the methods you used to create it.

Please note: we will be selecting approximately 150 pieces of art to be published.  Therefore, not all artists or pieces of art will be selected for publication.

Additionally, this book’s proceeds will be donated to charity.  The only compensation we can guarantee is a free copy of the book.

Lastly, in many instances, artists know other artists. We would like to involve as many of you in this search as possible, so that we can put out the best product for fans of the series to enjoy. Therefore, we ask you to forward this e-mail to other inspiring artists you may know through the website or other means.

Please e-mail me directly with any questions you may have and your level of interest in this project.

If all goes well, we are hoping to get this book out in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2; therefore, we would ask that you expedite your response to this proposal."


Keith's e-mail is: keith@staff.mugglenet.com


See you in the book!