Wicked Wango Wednesday

Immersed myself in "Pan's Labyrinth" tonight at the cinema - my first great film of 2007. It tells the story of a little girl's escape into a fantasy realm admist the chaos of the Spanish Civil War. It is genuinely sad and moving, imaginative and in many parts intensely uncomfortable - not just for the fantasy aspects of it, but for the horror that is conjured up in real life.

Speaking of interesting images:



Me and my beautiful sister.

Sup Amie!

Polaroids are fun.


















Painting on FALLING STARS NEED PARACHUTES continues...

Will be out of town from Australia Day - heading to Lakes Entrance for some camping, then up to the Gold Coast for some Sun and then down through Sydney for my ritual feed and greet. Back to work 5th Feb.

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Oh - and thanks to all who have contributed comments in the last month - we've never had the boards this animated before, and there have been some insightful discussions!

Cool. :)

"So...basically you just trace?"

I don't know what you guys think, but I think the technical pen isn't horrible. (compare to previous post)

Anyone want to play "spot the paraphrased Kevin Smith quote in the post's title?"

now in colour

Here's another test page from FALLING STARS NEED PARACHUTES, before I ruin it by seeing if black technical pen will mesh well with the watercolours. I'm still having trouble with the idea of more than two tones of colour.

My brain seems to work best in monochrome.

(Image has been slightly darkened and contrast increased)

David Mack I hate you

Still mucking around in the kiddie sandpen of watercolour artists. Have a look - you can tell I'm painting like my brain thinks I've got oils. Not happy with the colours. The yellow star creates such a clash - figuring out how to do him will be a neat puzzle.

Dug out Jared's copy of Kabuki: Dreams for some inspiration. David Mack, the artist, is God. I sit there boggled at his technique.

David Mack, I hate you.

Diving in

Bought some watercolours for the picture book today. I've never used the medium before. Hello Learning Curve ;) Did this today while experimenting with brushes and colour. I dedicate it to Kugs. It's titled Hair. Alternately it might be Spoon. He knows what I'm talking about. Hot diggity.

The Smackdown: Round 3

Some admin issues:

Buddha: (whoever you are, I haven't figured it out yet): I can assure you I did not delete your comment. Whenever/wherever/whatever it was. As far as I know, only the author of the comment and the administrator of the blog (i.e. me) can delete comments. So if I didn't do it, and you didn't, then I can only assume it's been lost to the ether. So please feel free to re-post.

Blogger has been upgrading recently and I think there are still a few bugs in it. Some of the old comments now come up as "anonymous", so it wouldn't surprise me if some comments went astray.

My apologies.

The Smackdown: round 2

Some people have told me my post/rebuttal of my friend's comments in a previous post was harsh, and only serving to highlight a conflict. I have been asked to remove the comment. (edit: and strangely, by people not the author of the comment)

I feel strongly about not moderating that post. I honestly don't have terrifically thought out reasons, aside to say that while it's handy to have a delete button for blogs/comments on the internet, there's no such thing in real life. The damage was done. Mistakes happen, and it's important to remember and learn from mistakes. Depending on your point of view you might not think it's all that bad.

Ultimately, (and thanks to Carmen for helping me realise this sentiment), I'm not about to mess with free speech.

The only benefit from deleting the comment now is to protect my friend from being viewed as an ass.

This, however, is how I will protect him. This is free speech.

We spoke about the incident. I know he only did it out of frustration for my predicament and as a reflex action to protect me. Part of me actually wants to leave the comment there because it stands as a reminder that I have people in my corner. I love him for that. I also love him for the fact that he was big enough to apologize to the girl in question, without me asking him to.

He is a good guy. One of the best. If anyone - ANYONE - tries to take him down I will tear strips off you.

Period.

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Feel free to comment on this round of commenting on commenting. That's what it's here for. Intelligent discussion.

Falling stars need parachutes

A muse bit me recently.

I was asked to create a picture book by a friend of mine a few months after she gave birth to a lovely baby girl. I accepted, but mulled over it for many months before the story fell into my head. Honestly, I think it happened on the toilet. (Anyone else see that 'epiphany toilet' episode of Scrubs?)

I did this sketch today, after spending the last week or so nutting out designs, layouts and text. It might become part of the cover.

The children's book is a difficult form. There are so many conflicting parameters to consider - the story needs simplicity but depth and the syntax needs to be precise and concise but warm. The freedom afforded, however, by a target audience unencumbered by an adult reality is a blessing.

I haven't picked up a pencil to sketch in many years. My drawing hand felt stiff and uncertain, but it felt like home.

The tentative title is "FALLING STARS NEED PARACHUTES." I was going to toss it out but it's growing on me.

The Smackdown

I didn't want my first post of the new year to be like this, but I guess Oh-six ticking over to Oh-seven didn't mean there wouldn't be rubble to clean up.

I appreciate the support people have given me regarding the last post. One comment, however, in particular, needs addressing. In it, the author was very disparaging to the girl mentioned in the post.

I hope that his comments have not caused offence to the girl in question, although they probably have. I want to apologize, but that would do little good, because those words were not mine. I am still sorry if my words provoked such a reaction.

I will say that I think the comments were unfair and crossed a line in terms of what is appropriate in the context of this blog and the post.

There is an acceptable level of slanging that is usual in the fallout of a situation like this. There were times when I'd devise outlandish insults about ex-boyfriends/girlfriends to make my friends feel better. I'd joke that we would send Gonorrhea Death Squads comprising Thai Ladyboys to infect these ex's and make their lives miserable. I mean, "GIRLS ARE STUPID, THROW ROCKS AT THEM" is a pretty catchy, if misogynistic, call to arms.

There is, however, no real venom behind it.

The comment in question was meant to incite, and unfortunately, had no real relation to the post. The author may think that because he has some skeletal inside knowledge of the situation that qualifies his comments but I don't think it does. He misses the point of the post, which is mostly about my struggle to reconcile change with staying myself. Although I made my opinion clear, whether or not this girl is "beautiful and intelligent" is largely irrelevant.

I am happy to lay my own feelings bare here in this blog, but I do not have any such rights over the feelings of others. I will not disclose information that may compromise someone else's privacy. So please understand that when you comment you are making a comment based on limited information, filtered through my world-view.

I will leave the comment unmoderated as a reminder that actions have consequences and because I also believe in free speech. The girl in question has her right to reply, which she has absolutely no obligation to exercise.

Please. This is not the place to start beef. I don't want that here.

And to you-know-who-you-are: Dot point "No.5" in the comment is not about you. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry.