Running up that hill

Continuing to slowly work through Cartoon Animation. It's amazing how tough just doing these simple forms is, but there you have it. And if I intend to get to where I want to be, this is a necessary step. So I fumble my way along, doing these studies and practicing what I can, trying to get better. Art is a cumulative process, and while this doesn't really look like much at this stage, as I build upon what I learn today, tomorrow, the next day and so on, it'll develop into some pretty wild stuff.




Probably rude just to leave it at shop talk. So I'll toss in a couple of recommendations.

Evan Dahm, who finished his short, surreal epic Rice Boy a while back (it's all on his site, definitely read it) has been working on another story in the world of Overside, Order of Tales. There's enough of it now to give a coherent storyline with hints of a rich world and well developed characters.

If you're interested in something a bit less surreal, you can't go wrong with Ursula Vernon's Digger. Hyenas, wombats and dead gods, what's not to like? The archives went free not long ago, so you can read the whole, fascinating epic from the start and fall in love with the characters like the rest of us.

For a third option, I'll give extremely high marks to an entry from France, Maliki. A wonderful variety of art, and a mix of everyday adventures, supernatural creatures, random meanderings and cats, with occasional visits by Skeletor. The artist is one of the designers for the wonderful Wakfu TV series, which I really, really wish they'd release an english subtitle of. The series, and the Maliki comic, are both in French, of course, but it's easy to tell what's going on regardless of whether you speak the language.

More later.

Things continue to be fun at Pastor Tom's All Night Whackaloon Warehouse and House of Pancakes, what with him generally melting down and tossing personal insults at anyone who ever looked at him funny, then bragging about how great Christianity is doing. Watching the clowns is always a fun pastime, but sometimes it's interesting to see what the adults are up to.

The adult this time is rather an interesting one. The Thomas Society, one of the rarest of rare breeds, an evangelical Christian who embraces doubt and actually interacts honestly with the world around him. He's well worth a read, so go check him out.

Oh, and Honest Tom hates him, so what better recommendation you gonna get?

Drawing today is a mixed bag. First is a couple of pages from last night's Sketch Night, drawn from any number of sources. The only one I remember for sure is some of the Dan Weagle sketchbooks, but who knows what all else is in there.



Next are studies from a couple of pages from Preston Blair's book, Cartoon Animation. Expect to see a lot like this over the next few days.


And finally, two pages from tonight's life drawing session at Sandy Hill. Haven't drawn a male model in ages, so it was a bit of a treat. I was a bit scared last week's successes were a fluke or something, but apparently I actually am getting better. Who knew?

Foodgasm

It's not ready yet, but I can smell it from here (not much of a trick, since it's only about five metres). Crockpot shepherd's pie. With a few minor revisions of course. But in the end you've got lean beef, mushrooms, mushroom soup, garlic, Montreal steak spice, a little wasabi, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, peas, corn and cheese, topped with mashed potatoes with the skins on, all simmering away for the past several hours.

The smell is fair to drive one mad. I can only hope it'll taste nearly as nice.



I also see that Martyr Tom managed to, at least briefly, meet up with PZ Myers at the Ken Ham Hebrew Mythology Theme Park. Knowing Honest Tom, he's fibbed just a little tiny bit, given that the atheist crowd was something on the close order of 300. PZ posted photos of the group that greeted them (assumedly Tom's), and it didn't really look too impressive.

Speaking of Tom, things have calmed down a bit since he went on a banning spree, all in the name of being "civil". Which means you're not allowed to call him a liar when he lies, but he's allowed to call "atheists" (which he seems to think means "scientists" and "not crazy people") insane and deluded, and make up all sorts of wacky shit. Here's a hint for you, Tommy, if you don't want people to call you a liar, STOP LYING ALL THE TIME.

Fun while it lasted

Guess I'm not going to be tweaking the pathalogically dishonest Pastor Tom at his own blog any more, since he decided to do the dishonest cowardly manly thing and IP-blocked most of his detractors. Pity, they were far more entertaining than he was. I can still read as much as I want though, despite his attempts, and it's pretty easy to get around the block for a post or three, but honestly he's a prat. So I'll mock him from afar now and again, but otherwise leave the poor, deluded fellow be.

Only one page of sketches today, I let time slip away too much this afternoon. I'll shoot for three tomorrow.

Good advice

So life drawing tonight. I think I went up a level, despite not having gone during the month of July.



What was interesting about all this, aside from the unaccountable jump in drawing ability, was the fact that I was talking to one of the animation students going into one of the higher years. She gave me some really good advice on how to stay sane and get a jump on my assignments, which is well appreciated. Apparently my urge to draw as quickly as possible is the right thing to foster, and the daily gesture drawing is really good for learning lines of action, adding energy to drawings, capturing anatomy quickly, and so forth. It's good to have a vote of confidence from someone who's been there, and the advice is valuable. At the very least it's got me a bit more confident about September.

And here's some more of my daily sketches.

The problem is man...a specific man, it seems

So I've still been following the adventures of Pastor Tom after he went a-trolling over at Pharyngula. It's actually rather stunning, here's a guy who supposedly is supposed to uphold GOD'S LAW, and yet here he is making with the pride and conceit and bearing false witness and all the rest. Not really a surprise, but the totally bald-faced manner he does it in, wearing his ignorance proudly and even admitting to trolling, it really makes one take a second look.

Of course he's getting righteously schooled by the pro-science brigade he attracted, causing him to whine that learning something outside of what Answers in Genesis spoon-feeds him is haaaaard! Well of course science is hard, you crybaby. That's why we don't all do it! You'd think a grown man would realize that spouting off as if he was an expert without knowing a damn thing would earn him a few slaps in the face from real experts, but there you go.

In other news, tonight was Sketch Night. Only four left, and due to storms and other stuff I was the only one of my group of friends who ended up going, but that's okay. I got to read a book of Frazetta roughs, and draw a couple of good pages of sketchy stuff. Makes me feel good about this fall.

You're a liar, Pastor Tom

I'm sure a few of you are aware, but I'll lay it out. Like Slartibardfast, I am a big fan of science. Good science, cool science, awesome science, mad science, whatever. I'll never be a scientist myself, but that doesn't stop me from thinking science is a blast. And one place I get to see a lot of it is at the forefront of the war between Creationism and, well, actual science. So I watch places like Conservapedia (not so much these days, the place has gotten dull), the rather unsuccessful YEC spin-off A Storehouse of Knowledge, and so forth.

Well, via PZ Myers, I found Tome Estes, a Baptist minister who seems to think he's got the goods on them evilutionists and atheists and whatnot. So when he set his sights on old PZ, I thought I'd have a look.

Oh boy, what a fruitcake. Bad logic, worse science, repeating the worst fabrications and outright lies we've heard from Creationists for years. But he's not the reason I was happy to find it. No, it's the commenters. The folks who look at the stuff Tom's spewing and say "woah now, hold on a minute, that just ain't so". Sure, it's not going to sway ol' Tom, he's way beyond learning much of anything. But the refutations, that's candy. Go have a look through some of his entries, see what I mean.

If there's one good thing about Creatards and IDiots, they draw a lot of really smart people out of the woodwork to defend good, old-fashioned SCIENCE!

And that said, here's some lips. Mwah!