Love hurts when it punches your face

So yeah, I saw Scott Pilgrim vs The World today. And, honestly, so should you if you haven't seen it already. It's an absolutely fantastic movie, beginning to end, with great action, amazing dialogue, pitch-perfect humour, flawless timing, great music, and pop culture references that not only add the the movie if you know them, but doesn't detract from the movie if you don't. A+ on almost every aspect.

Almost, I said. So why did I say that? Well, let's take a look at the character interaction.

Scott interacts great with his band.

Scott interacts great with his gay roommate.

Scott interacts great with his sister and the foul-mouthed store clerk who seems to work everywhere in Toronto.

Scott interacts fantastic with his opponents, the Seven Evil Exes.

Scott interacts incredibly with Knives.

Everyone mentioned interacts well with each other too.

Hold on, something's missing here.

And that, folks, is the BIG GIANT FLAW in the whole damn movie. Scott interacts really crappy with Ramona, who's supposed to be this great love of his life. Really, it's like they're not a real couple at all, they're just people standing next to each other by chance, who kiss for some reason. I get Scott being fascinated, because she's a good character, hot, etc. I get Ramona being attracted (barely) because he's non-psychotic. But that's it. There's no chemistry, and we're never shown any real reason for them to be together in the first place.

Which is especially baffling, because he's great with Knives, and actually seems to be happy when they're together. Certainly there's chemistry there, which unfortunately highlights how little there seems to be between him and Ramona.

Is it enough to sink the movie? No. Not at all. It's still a fun, fast-paced, seriously geek-friendly movie that earns that A+ rating I gave it above, even if you do have to suspend your disbelief at the Scott/Ramona relationship.

Now, let's see Knives get her own movie, she was AWESOME!

Oh, and here' some sketches.

Sick in the head like Glenn Gould

More street stuff. I'm really liking the Bridgehead at Bank & Slater. Not for the atmosphere. The atmosphere there sucks, if you want that go to Bank & Gilmour, the Glebe, or the one on Dalhousie. They're all awesome. No, what I like this one for, a lot, is the sight lines. If you get a seat facing the windows near the door, you get a fantastic view of the crosswalks, and if it weren't for the construction there'd be the bus station too. Very nice for someone studying people moving the way I have been.

If I wanted to study people just sitting around, I'd only have to sit facing the other way, and there you go.

In any case, still trying to improve, still hard on myself when I don't. Nothing terribly new there.

Wax Lips Don't Get Kisses

Back to studying walks and motion in general. Last week was a bit messed up, so I got a bit behind in on location motion studies, but I'm back to it and seem to be making headway. This is what I really want to be able to capture, so it's something of a priority for me.

You won't get better if you don't practice

What a great day! For one thing, the weather was freakin' perfect! None of this "two billion degrees plus humidex and did I mention rain" nonsense we've been getting lately. Just blue skies, a light breeze, and a mild 22 C. Couldn't ask for better for a trip down to the Market.

Which leads into why I made a trip to the Market (area) in the first place, which was to meet with an artist to get my next tattoo done! W00t! Even better, it's the same artist who did the previous ones, so I'll have consistency.

I've already got two, a petroglyph-style mouse on my tailbone in black, and a set of blue/green flames that encircle my left breast and rise towards my collarbone. So since I've got something that striking on the left, I need to balance that with something on the right, so I'm getting a shoulder piece done for the right side. So my first problem was coming up with the design. Artist I may be, or at least aspiring artist, but designer I'm not. So I enlisted the help of an illustrator friend of mine in Mexico (love the internet) to help me out. Go check out her deviantART page, she's fantastic.

Turned out getting the help was exactly the thing to do. The consult went like a breeze, and the artist is really excited about the prospect of doing this one. She said it's rare to have a client come in with an image so developed as this one, and ready to run with. All it took was discussing a few particulars, getting a measurement of how big an area we're talking about on my body, and that's about it! So I go in on the 16th for my first appointment, and then again on September 1 to finish up with a possible touchup visit in October, and that's the lot. I'll post photos when it's all done, probably sometime in early September, but I don't wanna ruin the surprise before then.

In the meantime, it was such a lovely day, I couldn't resist taking a walk around and sketching as I went. I want to do this a lot through the rest of August, it'll be good to build up the habit of sketching things I see. There are so many cool things out there to record, I doubt I'll run out in a hurry.

Love and hatred must combine

Busy, busy, busy. Work is winding up, with my last day probably either Thursday or Friday, which leaves me more or less open for the rest of the month to work on my drawing. And believe me, I need it! I've improved, no question, but I'm definitely gonna need that solid month of work to get good enough to keep up in second year.

The other awesome thing this week is my appointment on Saturday to discuss my new tattoo. Can't wait!! I've been wanting a third for a while now, and the draft design my friend did for me is awesome! Hopefully I'll be able to have it done sometime around the middle of the month, so I can show it off when school lets in. It'll be nice to have one that I can actually show people in public, heh.

Anyhow, I'm sure you're tired of my ballpoint "on location" sketches by now, although there are lots more to come. So instead have a few golf studies I did for my summer animation workshop. I'm pretty happy with what's there, I think it's as clear an indication as any that the work I'm putting in is going to pay off.