Page 63 Finished

 I have finished page 63 of my Zheph Skyre web comic. It is easy to see that there are more colors and shading in this page than before.

I decided a while ago to give Zheph a tail. I just didn't think that his eye and hair color were enough to make him outcast. There are plenty of other reasons I gave him a tail. One of the reasons would be it's practicality as long as it is strong enough of a tail to do certain tasks.

Again, Vanessa doesn't care about invading Zheph's personal space. However, Zheph sort of had it coming. He is so stubborn about the things he knows that he claims fantasy things do not exist. In a world where a boy with red and blonde hair, red eyes, and a tail can build impressive inventions with steam power, nothing should be shrugged off as impossible!

Page 63, not Quite Finished

Here is page 63 of Zheph Skyre, though it is not quite finished. I still have to add some color here and there.

Also, I found out that Sunday is the only day available for PAX East registration, so I have decided not to go to that.

Post 300: Fairy & Sprite Sketch!

I have written 300 posts! It maybe weird that this post is about a fairy and a sprite, but this is my blog and I will post what I feel like!

Here's a sketch I made of a goodly water fairy and an evil earth sprite fighting. Like dragons in the world of Zheph Skyre, there will be one type of fairy and sprite for each of the ten elements. These two creatures may appear sooner than most of the dragons in my web comic.

I decided to make the fairy based on beautiful picture of a cicada I found online, while the sprite is based on a horned rhino beetle. The plant the fairy is standing on is from one of the floral arrangements that were around at Flora in the Worcester Art Museum. I thought this plant would look more interesting than a random branch.

I am hoping to color this image in on my computer eventually.

Page 62 of Zheph Skyre

I have finished page 62 of Zheph Skyre. Here we see Zheph telling Vanessa how his day has been. She manages to guess very specific details about Jahovac despite the fact that she has never seen him in real life. Vanessa claims she saw him in a dream of hers, and Zheph refuses to believe that it anything but coincidence. It seems too odd that Vanessa has been able to foretell this much about a man she has never met. Why does Zheph seem so sure Vanessa doesn't have a supernatural gift?

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

(This image is from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/images/32310685/title/little-pony-friendship-magic-wallpaper)

Strangely enough, after viewing the first few episodes of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" on Netflix, I have been watching the rest of season one in order as well. I still have to watch season 2. I do not have access to the Hub, so I am forced to watch this series through other means.

Sure, the numerous animated "My Little Pony" television shows before this latest version were extremely girly and ridiculously simple minded, but this show is by far a greater creation. Lauren Faust has brought individuality to each interesting character, intriguing and funny stories, and very smart moral values. It is surprising how she managed to turn this little girl's show into something that more audiences can enjoy.

From a 2D Flash animator's perspective, this show has some really talented animators. The movement at times is reminiscent to the animated show "Word Girl," but at other times there are some impressive aspects to the animation. To everyone who has worked on this I say well done.

There maybe a few odd things to criticize about this show, like how it is possible for ponies to be the dominant species in this world when they have no fingers to make tools humans can. But those are very minor.

I do not understand the entire "Brony" craze where people criticize full grown males for liking this television show. There are plenty of really good animated television shows from all eras that still have fans to this day. I suggest everyone try watching this show. I know many fans tend to have a favorite character among the main cast of ponies, Pegasuses, and unicorns. But I have a hard time deciding, because they each have some interesting aspects. I'm just glad this show managed to incorporate other mythological creatures like dragons, hydra, griffins, cockatrice, and other interesting creatures.

I also watch "Transformers Prime", which is also really good, but I will post about that later.

Changes to the Webcomic

I have made a few little changes here and there on certain pages of my web comic Zheph Skyre. As you can see here on the title image, I have added a few details to Zheph's melee weapon. There are more metal tubes and bolts on the exterior of the weapon. I thought these details would help make the weapon look more steam punk. Before, it seemed a little lacking to me. The less details I have on it, the more it just looks like science fiction instead of steam punk.

Page 61 of Zheph Skyre Web Comic

Here is page 61 of Zheph Skyre. Even though I was a few minutes late in posting this image, it was still one of the faster pages I have ever done! I'm not entirely sure why though.

In today's comic, I wanted to show that these two characters are close, but that they have arguments just like everyone else. I also wanted to show that Zheph constantly needs assistance from Vanessa, that he depends on her greatly. Sure there are a lot of things Zheph can build, but there are plenty of things he still struggles with. Vanessa is a compassionate friend, even if Zheph is being difficult at times.

Page 59 and 60 of Zheph Skyre

I have finished pages 59 and 60 of Zheph Skyre. For the most part, it is just Zheph and Vanessa conversing. I decided not to bother fitting the speech bubbles within the lines of the web comic anymore. I recently read a comic book where the speech bubbles were sometimes outside of the lines and I thought that looked interesting, so I decided to do it as well. It also helps shows more of the images when there is a lot of text.

 

Here we see the two of them embracing. I thought it would be funny if it sounded like Vanessa were crying, but reveal that she was smelling Zheph because he was smelling horrible.

Here I wanted to show that Vanessa is willing to take care of Zheph and tends to have to force it even if he resists. I thought it would be really funny for Vanessa to tell Zheph to get naked and he gets extremely embarrassed by it. I have had a weird relationship here and there where the girl would want to do certain weird things even though it wasn't really sexual. Sometimes guys just give into whatever girls want. In this case, Zheph really needs a bath after having rotten vegetables thrown at him.

The Evil Dead

I recently watched Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" recently on Netflix. I had already seen "The Army of Darkness" and I loved that movie so much that I don't mind re-watching over and over again. Now I just want to see "The Evil Dead 2," because I heard that movie is just a remake of "The Evil Dead" but it makes fun of the previous movie.

(This image is from http://www.zedwordblog.com/2011/04/evil-dead-review.html)

This movie is incredibly ridiculous. There are times where people are obviously replaced with cheap dolls, the effects are funny at times, and the whole premise of the demons taking possession of the people seems ludicrous. One girl gets stabbed in the foot and becomes possessed a moment later as the demon enters through the wound, but even though Bruce Campbell's character "Ash" gets cut and constantly bled on he still makes it in the end while everyone else gets possessed and die. I'm wondering why this movie was even called "The Evil Dead." It was clear that these people awoke a demon near the cabin they were staying in, but were they dying and then being possessed or what?

I at least am grateful for discovering the source of the demons and what they are in this movie. I was confused while watching "The Army of Darkness" as to why there were old ladies being monsters and whatnot. I do not wish to watch this specific movie again though. The movie was trying to take itself seriously, and that really kills the mood.

Bruce Campbell's talent was wasted here. He was forced to be a serious and uninteresting character in this movie. I love all the changes that were made to him in the squeals. He was made into a funny bad-ass.

I know there is a remake of "The Evil Dead" coming out soon. I have high doubts that it will be good. A friend of mine said "The Evil Dead" was already remade as "The Evil Dead 2" and it doesn't need to be remade again.

Page 59 of Zheph Skyre Unfinished

Here is page 59 of  my web comic Zheph Skyre. Unfortunately it is unfinished. I have more coloring to finish. I thought I would be able to finish these next two pages earlier since I am not bothering with the background details, but it does not seem to be going that way.

I have also been busy starting a Kickstarter project. I still have to create a video for it. I will show it in a post as soon as it is finished.

Battle Royale Movie

I just recently watched the movie "Battle Royale" on Netflix. It is a movie released in 2000 where a Japanese class is forced to battle to the death on an isolated island until one student remains. From what I understand, this movie is based on a really popular manga comic.

WARNING: Possible spoilers.

(This image is from http://geekfurious.blogspot.com/2012/03/battle-royale-movie-review.html)

I really liked this movie a lot. Sure some of the violence in this movie is very graphic considering the ages of the actors that were cast, but there was a lot of interesting concepts within this movie. The majority, except for two, of the students all knew each other prior to being forced to kill each other. Many of them had very close relationships with each other which brings a lot of tension in many ways at times. Those who seemed to be outcasts were better at this game, which made them appear as monsters to everyone else. It can get very horrifying when trust is lingering and everywhere there is danger.

Comparing this to the movie "The Hunger Games," there is only the main character, and there maybe one or two characters that she cares about who she is forced to participate in these games with, but in "Battle Royale" it gets very traumatic for the main two leads, as well as other characters the movie focuses on, when their friends die. There is more tension in "Battle Royale" because of this.

Also, when comparing the two movies, some of the students ended up committing suicide, which seems more realistic as some people can not bring themselves to kill or some people can not live with themselves after they have killed.

Another thing, in this movie the students are given necklaces with bombs on them that can not be taken off and will go off if they are in a declared "Dead Zone" on the island, which gives them the necessary fear to proceed with this game. In "The Hunger Games", the children in the games did not go against this at all because most of them were trained for these games. It is more terrifying in "Battle Royale" because most of them are entirely unprepared for this.

Lastly, in this movie there are particular students who manage to rebel against the games entirely, remove the explosive powder in their necklaces, figure out a way to hack into the computers the adults use for this inhumane game, and even plan on an attack with explosives they made and gathered on their own. Yet there was one child who voluntarily came back into this game for the chance to kill more. Sometimes there are people who will fight the system, and other times there are people who are completely lost to it. I think "The Hunger Games" seemed lacking in these aspects.

Overall, I highly recommend this movie. I don't know if it available dubbed over, but I really enjoyed reading the subtitles anyways.

Page 57 and 58 of Zheph Skyre

I have finished both page 57 and 58 of my web comic Zheph Skyre.

Something Vanessa and her mother have just spoken about has really gotten to Vanessa. What it is will be revealed very soon. And Zheph is making his appearance into the story again. I am glad I finally get to show the interaction between these two.

Here we see Zheph blushing as he speaks to Vanessa even though they know each other. It isn't hard to tell what is going through his mind right now. Now the question is, does Vanessa feel the same way about him or not?

I really enjoyed drawing Vanessa and Zheph in the panels first introducing them. I also really enjoyed drawing this panel as well. Here I was able to add more detail in Vanessa's eyes and I was a little more crucial with the shadowing on both of them considering their environment. I know I was bond to start off this drawing this web comic alright at first and progress as time went on, and I believe this is one of the good examples of that.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

(This image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Horrible%27s_Sing-Along_Blog)

I recently watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog on Netflix. I heard a lot of really good hype about this three part internet series from my kind of crowd, so I decided to finally check it out. I was really glad I did!

WARNING! This blog may contain spoilers.

This movie was written and directed by Joss Wheadon, the man behind the "Buffy" and "Angel" TV series as well as "The Avengers" movie, along with his brothers Zack, who is a television writer, and Jed, who is a composer.

It stars Neil Patrick Harris who plays Dr. Horrible, an aspiring super-villain with a video blog series. Along with him we have his arch nemesis Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion. There's also Penny, played by Felicia Day, who is the shared love interest between the villain and hero. There's also Dr. Horrible's henchman/friend/roommate Moist, played by Simon Helberg, who dampens everything.

From the looks of the production quality, I thought this entire musical was just going to be a comedy. Sure there are some good, memorable songs in this musical, but I still thought it was primarily going to be a comedy. I was a bit surprised to find out I was wrong.

I could tell that there was definably going to be a point at which Penny discovers Dr. Horrible's secret of being a super-villain and that things would become sad between them. It was funny to see Dr. Horrible claim to be an evil mastermind, but got nervous and shy around this cute, innocent girl who is dedicated to helping people. The part of him that made him a villain would have been expected to make Penny stay away from him. It was not a surprise to see that Dr. Horrible couldn't follow through with killing Captain Hammer in order to join Bad Horse and the Evil League of Evil. He was struggling with the fact that the Evil League of Evil requested him to kill someone in order for him to be accepted. He only truly wanted to kill Captain Hammer because he was a complete bastard who was only using Penny sexually and to make Dr. Horrible jealous. Dr. Horrible ended up hesitating because he had some good in him.

Seeing Dr. Horrible's Freeze Ray malfunction and release Captain Hammer from being frozen in time was not much of a surprise, as his luck against Captain Hammer was never that good and it was funny. Seeing Dr. Horrible's Death Ray explode as Captain Hammer almost killed him with it and seeing the hero run away when he experienced physical pain for the first time was also no surprise as for the reasons stated before.

What I found surprising was that when the Death Ray exploded, it ended up killing Penny with a fragment, leaving her to give Dr. Horrible one last heart filled statement before she died. Though in the end it makes sense. Dr. Horrible ended up gaining almost everything he was striving for. He got fear from everyone in the city, he maintained a victory over Captain Hammer who was emotionally crippled, and he was accepted into the Evil League of Evil, finally getting the recognition that he was a super-villain. But in the end, the cost was far too great, for now he has an empty victory.

That is a lesson in life that is worth hearing. Just because you strive towards your goal and you might finally achieve it one day, doesn't mean you will be happy. Sometimes, you end up giving up something you couldn't live without. That is why I really enjoyed this musical.

Page 57 of Zheph Skyre

I have uploaded the next page to Zheph Skyre. Unfortunately again, this page is not yet 100% complete. O have to color in more areas on this page.

But good news! I have been editing some of my previous pages. I realized there were some details that I should have added to the double spear Zheph uses. I believe it didn't look as "steam punk" as I would have liked and it appeared to be a mystery as to how it would be able to be disassembled which would be important if it creates fire.

Flora in Winter 2013 at the Worcester Art Museum

This year's Flora in Winter at the Worcester Art Museum had a huge turnout. There were plenty of beautiful flower arrangements to see, tours to take, and other events that were held. There was a special opening for it on Thursday night where they served alcohol, had people posing as statues, had a band play, and other forms of entertainment. The admission was very expensive for that event though, and it required reservations ahead of time.

Flora is the word for plant life in a particular region in a particular time. It is also the Latin name of the Roman Goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility. The museum owns a bust of Flora, and they take it out for this special occasion.

This year Jeff French was the florist to make the arrangement around the Flora bust. Feel free to visit his blog and see more of his amazing work.

There were several floral designs around the entire museum, and some had business cards with them. There were some flower arrangements from Mugford's Flower Shoppe and some flower arrangements from Beverly McClure who works for Floral Elegance.

Two florists collaborated on the garden pond in the Lancaster Lobby. Native Landscaping and Gardens by Lisa made a large arrangement that was very playful and spoke to children.

There were other special arrangements by Perro's Flowers and June Donnelly Designs, which can been seen with everyone else's on the Worcester Art Museum's site.

There were quite a few arrangements done by Danielson Flowers, who did both the entrance to the first and second floor from the Museum Cafe. I don't know why certain floral designers were given more places to set up flowers than others, though I could not argue with the results.

La Jolie Fluer did a rather large floral arrangement on the fourth floor.

I did not find business cards for all of the arrangements I took pictures of, but here is a floral arrangement in the Renaissance Court done by Herbert E. Berg Florist, Inc. By the appearance of the pot holder, it is obvious that even though this was in a different area, this flower arrangement goes along with the Kennedy to Kent State Exhibit.

There were 23 flower designs that went along with particular pieces of art throughout the museum.

MaryEllen J. O'Brien from the Lenox Garden Club did the Eleven-Headed Kannon statue in the Japanese Gallery. Susan Detjens from the Millbrook Garden Club did the Two Lanterns in the Chinese Gallery. Young Farwell and Helen R. Blazis from the Grafton Garden Club did the sculpture of Vishnu. I find Japanese art to be interesting, so it was a treat to see these pieces interpreted with flowers. I do not have as much interest in Indian art, but I am impressed by the arrangement for Vishnu. I am wondering why certain galleries, like the Chinese Jades and Porcelain gallery, did not have any flower arrangements. The Chinese Jades and Porcelain gallery has very beautiful pieces that would have looked amazing as flowers.

Here are some more random flower arrangements found in the Renaissance Court done by Danielson Flowers, Holmes-Shusas Florist Inc, and the Plant Bazaar Florist. This area always has such interesting flowers decorated in it. It is such a large space that can easily be filled with various colors and forms. Perhaps the Museum needs flower arrangements more often.

Here we see the Cinerary Urn of Nicor done by Thelma H. Shoneman from the Acton Garden Club. I am surprised she put so many colors into this when the urn barely has any. It was still very nice.

Here we see Isabella Carr, Later Countess of Erroll done by Maureen Christmas from the Acton Garden Club. I think she matched the form and colors perfectly with this one, and it is subtle.

Here we see The Breakfast Room, Winter Morning, New York done by Kathy Michie and the Paul Revere Silver Cases done by Valerie Stowe with Elizabeth Nizick all from the Worcester Garden Club. I find it interesting how both of these florists incorporated non-plant materials like glass and silverware into their floral designs in order to help them match the artwork.

In the Mid to Twentieth Century Gallery, we see Ada With Sunglasses done by Julie Lapham and Orange White done by Sarah Ribeiro both from Worcester Garden Club. Most people do not prefer these types of artwork due to their simplicity and lack of detail, but these florists came up with some interesting ideas.

From the Pre-Columbian Gallery we see the Fertility Goddess done by Virginia Orlando from Stem to Stem. I like how this arrangement has hot colors that go along with the area this artifact came from.

Here we see Hannah Babcock, Later Mrs. John Bours done by Lois Frampton and Deborah Dowson from the Garden Club of Harvard. My apologies to these two, but I did not care for this one. Sure the form matches the woman in the painting and the beads with the blue ribbons, but there are so many colors that are lacking in the arrangement. The dress is white, but mostly we just see green, and it just looks dull. Not everyone manages to pull off a success unfortunately.

Here is JohnFarnham, Gentleman-Pensioner to Elizabeth I done by Sandra Tosches from the Greenleaf Garden Club and Saint Jerome in Penitence by Kenneth J. Bositis from Bloomer's. I like the hard angles in the right, and I find it funny that the floral arrangement on the left is huge compared to the painting.

Here is Rest on the Flight to Egypt done by Robin Whitney from the Worcester Garden Club. It is very a very pretty arrangement.

Seed to Stem did an awesome job on this floral arrangement on the Renaissance Court balcony. You can see here that there are crystals, flower bulbs, and white flowers on a mirrored table in this picture. Unfortunately this photo doesn't do it justice since it is low resolution.

Here is The Brooding Woman done by Susan B. Dewey from the Osterville Garden Club and Girl With Portfolio done by Mary Fletcher from the Worcester Garden Club. Both of them are based on really good pieces of artwork.

Here is The Interior of a Tailor Shop done by Candace Morgenstern from the Newport Garden Club and Tiverton Garden Club, The Marriage Procession done by Kim Cutler from the Worcester Garden Club, and The Betrayal of Christ done by Sally E. Jablonski from the Herbert Berg Florist Inc and the Worcester Garden Club. I was wondering why there was a giant thimble for the tailor shop one even though it isn't in the painting, but the tour guides explained it very well. The marriage procession was done very well and so was the one for the painting of Christ.

I did not include all of the floral arrangements in this blog. Some of the pictures did not come out that good, or I just forgot. On the forth floor, there was the Fountain done by Cathy Walsh from Sprout, which was done very well. On the 1st floor there was The Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden done by Joan Moreshi from the Shrewsbury Garden Club and Herbert E. Berg Florist, Inc. Both were really good. The one in the Medieval Gallery was too dark to take a picture of.