New, Used Camera

A coworker gave me her old digital camera because she got a new one that is much better. It was a Fugifilm: Finepix Z. It may not be the best camera in the world, but it is far better than my camera phone, and I am very thankful for it.

(This image is from digitalcameras.techfresh.net)

Once I get my memory card into this camera I will start taking pictures and share them on this blog.

Page 15 of the Zheph Skyre Webcomic is Up & the Worcester Art Museum's Free Two Months is Almost Over

Here is page 15 of my Zheph Skyre web comic. It has a little more action. I find it odd that I have taken a lot of pictures of different things for this web comic and I have yet to use  a good number of them.

Also, the time period for the free admission at the Worcester Art Museum is almost over. Saturday morning will be free, but that is because it is the First Saturday of September. From that point on, it will be regular admission. The museum has seen a lot of patrons it usually doesn't see, and hopefully that means that it will thrive.

Teacher's Assistant at the Worcester Art Museum

Currently I am a gallery attendant at the Worcester Art Museum, but I have applied at the museum for another job as a teacher's assistant in the education department. I had one of the two interviews today and it looks promising. This is only another part time job that doesn't pay much, but I know this will help give me more valuable experience and will make better use of my talents.

I will update this blog once I find out whether or not I got the job.

Futakuchi-onna

I have been sketching ideas for a Futakuchi-onna. It is for an art contest that the Anime Boston website is holding for Halloween. The requirement is to make an art piece of a "yōkai" which is a phantom, ghost, or strange apparition that appears often in Japanese folklore. There are many different types of yōkai like the Hebi, Okami, Baru-baru, and Tofu-Kozo. The grand prize gets to have a free Artists' Alley Table at the convention. I am very eager to win this competition!

 
A Futakuchi-onna is a type of yōkai that is characterized as a woman with a large mouth on the back of her head, with thick lips and a long tongue. There are different stories as to the origin of this creature, but mostly they involve women who eat very little and grow the extra mouth on the back of their heads due to starvation. Usually a Futakuchi-onna hides the extra mouth by rolling up the hair, but when the Futakuchi-onna is alone, it lets the hair loose and it feeds. The hair on the head can move around like tentacles, and feed the extra mouth.

The idea I had for my piece was to have the Futakuchi-onna as a scary, menacing monster. It would not seem unlikely that if a Futakuchi-onna ever existed that people would try to have it killed, like burning witches at the stake, so in this drawing a ninja attempts to kill the Futakuchi-onna. Unfortunately the ninja fails miserably and is now the Futakuchi-onna's next meal. My version of the Futakuchi-onna tends to catch weapons aimed for her and can morph parts of the hair-tentacles into blades. How devastatingly horrifying would it be if a woman were to ever become a Futakuchi-onna that feeds on human flesh? Maybe I should have it in my web comic...

Page 14 of Zheph Skyre and Animation Cancelation

The fourteenth page of my Zheph Skyre web comic is up. As you can see, the protagonist is handling himself pretty well against these hooded thugs.

The animation for the 11 Second Club that I was going to make for this month won't be finished by this Friday. It appears I will have to skip this month's competition due to my visit to Cape Cod, the Holden Days tabling, my web comic, and other events that prevented me from completing this animation. It is too bad because this month's audio sounded interesting. I will have to wait and see whether or not next month's audio is good or not. If it is not in English than I won't do it. I thought I would apply to animation studios again after I completed this month's animation, but I can not wait. I am going to apply as soon as possible.

Seagull Beach at Cape Cod and Holden Days

On Tuesday my parents, my grandparents, and I went to Seagull Beach in Cape Cod. The waves were small because there were no storms at sea anytime beforehand, but the water was warm.

The day was mostly just relaxing, however I ended up getting a sunburn on my chest despite the fact that I had covered myself with sunscreen.

Today I had a table at Holden Days with a few members of the Genesis Art Committee. We gave out a few flyers, business cards, and free post cards, but unfortunately we didn't sell much of our artwork. I was surprised because I thought people would at least buy my magnetic jigsaw puzzles. By the way things went, it doesn't appear that the Genesis Art Committee will try to have another table at Holden Days next year. I might try again at Holden Days or elsewhere once I print out shirts and mugs with Vistaprint.

There was quite a turnout for Holden Days this year.

Our booth was located behind the stage along Main Street, and there were decent bands playing.

Page 13 of Zheph Skyre is Up

Here is page thirteen of my Zheph Skyre web comic series. Here we see the protagonist using a strange type of gun in order to destroy the weapons his enemies carry. Luckily his aim is good and the gang is at a disadvantage due to the flash bomb.

I was beginning to have doubts as to whether or not I could get this page done today. I had just gotten back from the Cape this morning, and I have spent most of the day working on the next two pages. There maybe a few details I might go back into soon. The comic will continue as usual thankfully.

Chatham: Town at the Cape

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but my grandparents only have one computer and people were on it for quite some time.

Yesterday I went on a bike ride with my mom from Hyannis to Chatham while we are down here at Cape Cod. It was very pleasant. Chatham is an interesting town with surprisingly a lot of art galleries, and some interesting history. My mom and I walked around in only four galleries, but we found lots of interesting pieces. Since we are here in the Cape, most of the art has the common theme of beaches, boats, the sea, or flowers. Since this is a tourist area, I guess that is what is popular.

There were some galleires that did not allow photographs inside. However, that didn't stop me from taking pictures of the outside of the galleries.

There was this pizza place called Carmine's where we got a calzone. It was very good and not too expensive.

Tomorrow I will post another page of my webcomic on this blog. I will have another post on Friday about  Cape Cod.

Page 12 of Zheph Skyre

Here is page twelve of my Zheph Skyre web comic. As you can see, the protagonist has many tricks up his sleeve in order to deal with these dangerous situations.

I just arrived to Cape Cod today for a visit to my grandparents, so my blog posts for the next two days might be short. I will be home on Thursday, so there will definally be something up on my webcomic. Depending on my situation, it maybe the next page to my webcomic, or it might be something else.

The Secret of Kells

I finally got around to watching this movie I heard really good things about. I had heard of the recent animated movie called The Secret of Kells, and so I decided to watch it through Netflix.

(This image is from imdb.com)

The Scret of Kells follows a boy named Brendon who lives in a walled town deep within the forests of Ireland. In order to complete this "magical" book, Brendon has to face a multitude dangers and befriends a fairy called Aisling.

 

This movie has some amazing animation and very beautiful visuals of Celtic mythology throughout the entire film. Even when the scenes become dark and morbid, there still remains a great amount of detail and awe

 

I can see why this film was nominated for the Academy Awards. Though my only problem with it was that it seemed a little short. Other than that, I highly recommend this film for those who wish to study animation.

Page 11 of Zheph Skyre is Posted

Here is the next page of my Zheph Skyre web comic series. In the original, there were more frames for this little bit, but I decided to simplify it. There will be a few pages coming up that are more complex than what I originally had as seen down below.

Armor of Sins & Virtues

Here is a sketch I have for an idea of pieces of armor for my Zheph Skyre series. There's also a quick sketch of a character for an animation I was thinking of doing, but it is not important.

I have the Armor of Sins against the Armor of Virtues. After seeing both of the Fullmetal Alchemist Anime series and seeing the incredible Homonculi characters, I decided to look into the Seven Deadly Sins. I had no idea about the opposite list called the Seven Heavenly Virtues. I decided to incorporate both of them into two separate pieces of armor that certain characters in my web comic will wear.

On this sketch page, I have the Sword of Wrath verses the Sword of Patience, the Gauntlets of Greed verses the Gauntlets of Charity, the Boots of Sloth verses the Boots of Diligence, the Shield of Envy verses the Shield of Kindness, and the Helm of Pride verses the Helm of Humility. I still have four more armor pieces to finish sketching. These are rare weapons and armor in the world of Zheph Skyre, and they contain mysterious powers.

These maybe just the first sketches and might be altered later. Tomorrow I will post the next page of my web comic.

Weapons Sketch #1

Here are some sketches of weapons for my Zheph Skyre web comic series. I had drawn them earlier in another sketchbook, but I lost it at Connecticon, so I had to redraw a few of them here. If anyone finds a small sketchbook with my sketches in it feel free to enjoy it.

The weapons in this sketch are for a ninja, a dwarf, an elf, a mage, and a shaman. I don't want to spoil too much about these characters before I introduce them. At least for the ninja's weapons, I took influence by an episode of "Deadliest Warrior" where they tested a Spartan Warrior against a Japanese ninja. I think they forgot to take into account on that episode that ninjas might work better at night, which was one of the reasons the ninja lost so badly. The other weapons are mostly inspired from "Dungeons and Dragons" and "World of Warcraft".

I will have sketches of weapons and other things done soon.

Zheph Skyre Page 10

Page ten of my Zheph Skyre web comic is up. Here we see the men surrounding him. Zheph appears calm so far.

Zheph Skyre Page 9 is Up

The next page of my Zheph Skyre Webcomic is up. It is a wide spread of a scene where the main character is surrounded by men in robs carrying strange cross bow weapons. Zheph will have to pull out something special in order to get past this obstacle.

11 Second Storyboard: August 2012

Here is the storyboard for my 11 second animation for this month. I did not put as much detail into this as I thought I would, but I think this is good enough for now. I just need to figure out how certain body parts will move and whatnot. The child will remain still for the most part, except for some minor head movement from time to time. I sincerely hope I will do better with this animation than I had with previous ones.

Zheph Skyre Page 8 is Up!

Page eight of my Zheph Skyre web comic is up. Zheph has gotten away from the Knights of Corthon easily, but what troubles lay ahead?

Page 7 of Zheph Skyre is Up!

I have uploaded the next page to my Zheph Skyre web comic series today. The knights here have been pursuing the main character on horseback, but Zheph just tosses a gas grenade behind him. I just thought it would be humorous if the knights and their horses felt alright at one moment and then fall asleep the next. The knights, effective aren't they?

11 Second Club August Sketch

I have decided to attempt at creating another animation for this month's 11 Second Competition. I am not entirely sure if I will be able to complete it by the end of the month with all that may go on, but I am going to try this again. The animation will definably not have as much detail as the last one where the character was always moving. That was just overkill. I will not allow this to interfere with updating my web comic though. If it comes to that, I will just drop the animation. These blog posts might be kept short, and perhaps less numerous for a while.

I think I will attempt to make two elves for this animation. One of the things my last animation was lacking was good character design. I figured this would be interesting.