It's not just a river in France!

So I was going through the external hard drive I've had since 2004, and I found this little gem from ages ago. I still think it's a cute/funny picture, so I've never deleted it, but I've grown very unhappy with the original.

Actually, looking at i now, it's not that bad of a picture drawn with a mouse. The worst part is that I had a tablet that I was unwilling to use for whatever reason. A classmate mentioned that you should just use your mouse of everything all the time until you get used to it after I had sold mine. I ended up buying an intuous, which in addition to being worlds better than a graphire, also was quite a deal bigger. I'd highly suggest to budding artists, that if faced with the decision between the bamboo or intuous to go with the more expensive version. It costs more for a reason!
It's pretty clear that I used the cutout filter for the sky and some other mysterious filter for the lake. Possibly diffuse? I don't know. I actually like some of the stronger colors on the older one. I feel like I may have made the newest one a little soft and neutral.


Oh and I know the nile is a river in Egypt.

The drink of real men

Paper Texture courtesy of boreanlnz
This is kind of a present for my friend Katy, but not really.

H.P. Hovercraft

My friend Jessica asked for the most obnoxious picture humanly possible, so I made it for her. This is a real "click-if-you-dare" situation.

The Best of 2008 that wasn't really from 2008

It ends out that I really like Brian Wilson's "SMiLE." It's got a lot of story behind it, which I like. Everyone loves a story of overcoming mental obstacles. Brian Wilson, of course, has a permanent look of intense unhappiness on his face, even when he smiles. The guy has spent so much time being sad in his life that it has emblazoned itself on his visage, like some sort of shroud of Turin of sadness. Anyway it's a good album. Might be my favorite of the year... EXCEPT that it came out in 2004 I think? So it's really not my album of the year, I guess.
Mother 3 came out in Japan in 2006, about six months into the life of the DS. The problem being that it came out on the GBA. I really think that if it came out on the DS, that I'd own a copy of it RIGHT NOW. But hey! These things happen. The story is fantastic. It's funny, it's touching, and it's exciting. ALLEGEDLY Atlus offered Nintendo some money so that THEY could release this game in America, but Nintendo denied them. Which is up to them. I've had my share of disagreements with Nintendo's new marketing philosophy, but as long as they throw me a bone once in a while I don't care.
Either or, Mother 3 MIGHT be the best RPG of all time. BUT it came out in 2006. So it's not my game of the year.

Eddie's Girls

The very informative (not always about animation) blog of Eddie Fitzgerald is often updated with girls of interest. Not necessarily your standard definition of "attractive" but girls of interest none-the-less. I've decided to draw the January 1st batch of said ladies. The title of the post is "WOMEN TO DRAW" I took it more of a demand than a request. I started fast and loose but I think I may have tightened too much towards the end.

The lass in the upper-right corner of the second page struck me as pretty interesting. It's like someone said to her "You know, if you lose weight, you could be a model!" and she took it as a challenge to prove that person wrong. But not by losing weight and NOT becoming a model. I also like the indie girl on the top of the page who's scrunching her face up and making herself look like an old man kind of. I have a friend who does that.

THE DUKE OF SPIRAL SKULL VOLCANO

My special lady friend and I watched "The Little Mermaid" today, and were surprised to see our critical eyes picking up all sorts of weird things. There's a very oddly cut scene with the seagull walking over Flounder the flounder for instance. It makes one think that there was animation cut out of it, but who knows?

Also Ariel is fairly unlikable. In the original telling of "The Little Mermaid" Ariel gets turned into sea foam. Why? Because there are all these foreboding markers telling her that getting legs and living on dry land is a bad idea. Her dad's argument against humans is a bit drastic, but not entirely unreasonable. Sebastian actively tries to stop her from signing the contract with Ursula.

In fact the entire set up with Ursula reeks of bad intentions. I have been under the impression that certain things would work out certain ways if only ONE THING WAS DIFFERENT, but the idea that you'd take such an unfair bet for a dude you've known for like half an hour?

And his readiness to marry THE woman who saved him? Within the afternoon? I mean I GUESS he was hypnotized, but the guy's kind of a chump. Actually he's a huge generic Disney chump. Are we done with the Disney Chump yet? Will he make his return in "The Princess and the Frog?" Will we finally have enough princesses to no longer have to pretend that Alice from Alice in Wonderland is a Princess? Why is she considered a princess and not Maid Marianne from Robin Hood? And is Belle supposed to be the Princess of France? She seems more likely to be a dutchess. What's this prince the prince of? Wales? England? THE CASPIAN SEA?

I digress! Heavily! My lady and I started discussing a parody of The Little Mermaid as the perfect vehicle for a send up of Disney in general. For some reason that ended up turning into a discussion about a steam-punk Little Mermaid. Which wouldn't really work, or would be dangerously close to Water World. Either or "The Duke of Spiral Skull Volcano" would be that movie.