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Update 28 Jan 2009
16 years ago
Hi folks, RipRoarRex here. Dunno why I always write that - as if anyone else would be posting on my journal...(!)
I feel like I've been a bit distant from the fandom as of late, so here's a little bit of an update for you all.
As you will probably have noticed, I've been rather quiet this month since releasing that TMNT picture on 2nd Jan. There are several reasons for this really - University has gotten on me again, having had January exams and now needing to get cracking with my dissertation, so I haven't had a lot of time for much artwork or animating lately. However, when I have had the time, there have been other issues. I've mentioned before how I need four things to work: 1) time, 2) freedom, 3) motivation, and - to be blunt - 4) the horn. When I have had the time and freedom lately, it's been that third one - the motivation - that has been the real problem.
For some reason, I'm just not enjoying my artwork like I used to. I feel part of the problem is my tablet, which I'm really struggling with. I bought it for £70 last November with the intention of using it mainly for animating, but I appreciated that it might remove the awkwardness of trying to photograph my pencil drawings as well. Sadly, it hasn't really helped me with either of these things because it has created two additional problems. Firstly, I just don't seem to be able to control the damn thing. Whenever I try to draw a curve, I usually end up with a stupid straight line in the middle of it. As a result, I press Ctrl+Z to undo it, try it again, only to end up getting it wrong again. There have been many occasions where this has happened 10 or 20 times with the same damn line, to the extent that I just feel the pent-up frustration in my body welling up until I click the close button on Paint Shop Pro and say "fuck this, I'm doing it on paper instead". I don't think I hold the pen like they suggest to, but that's because I don't hold a pencil like that. I can't bloody draw like that, it doesn't feel natural to me. I have the same problem with animating, hence I have made no progress with any of my animation projects since I got the tablet, which - I should emphasise - is the main reason I bought the thing in the first place. I keep telling myself that this problem will go away if I persevere and keep practising with it. Indeed, I was able to draw 'Cassie - Beaten By A Girl' and 'Good Clean Fun' with it, but they both took me nearly a day each just to draw out because of the difficulty I had in getting the shape I wanted. It's been nearly three months now and I haven't gotten any more familiar with this tablet.
The second big problem - which I think exacerbates the first - is that I can't draw from a distance. When I draw on paper, I often lean quite close to the paper so that I really feel I can control the direction of the line I draw, but of course I can always momentarily flick my eyes across the paper to check that the shape I am sketching in fits within the rest of the drawing. On a PC screen however, you can't have this half-and-half; I have to zoom in about 3:1 to feel like I'm getting anything like the control I want, but in doing so I lose track of how the shape I am sketching fits within the whole, to the extent that I then zoom out and look at it thinking "...fucking hell, that's FAR too small" or "well that doesn't look right at all". Paint Shop Pro has an overview window that is meant to give you the flexibility of being able to zoom in close and still see the entire picture in the overview window, but this window is bloody miniscule and just doesn't serve its purpose at all once you go beyond an image size of 640x480. Most of my pictures always start out way above 1500x1500, so it's absolutely useless.
All this means that, having spent £70 on a tablet, I feel an enormous sense of frustration at not being able to draw with it, and it leaves me resorting to my trusty pencil and paper only to end up having the usual struggle at the photographing stage and wishing I'd persisted with drawing it on PC. In short, it fucks me off so much that half the time, I really can't be bothered to start a new drawing because I know what bollocks I'll have to go through to create it.
In hindsight, I really really should've bought a scanner instead. Though I'm not overly keen to start spending money again, I do wonder whether it would give me the enjoyment I get from drawing on paper whilst removing the cackyness of uploading photographs, and if nothing else, it would allow me to start showing you all some of my first love in art - shaded pencil work. I can't do that at the moment, because it doesn't photograph well.
Anyway, enough of my melodramatic artistic ranting. Here's some news about what I'm up to and what I'm thinking of doing.
'Skyra - Gravity' - Skyra vore comic. This is definitely going ahead, because I'm already colouring the first panel, but I've yet to draw the rest, and I'm yet to decide whether this is a nice-and-easy cell-shaded jobby or whether I'm going to blend it.
'Rocky - Heavy Metal' - I spoke about this in my last upate journal. It's gone absolutely nowhere since that last journal because of the tablet issues I've been having... and the fact that Jasc Animation Shop Pro sucks more than a giant vacuum full of Dysons. A recent discussion with
cerberus has further confirmed to me that I really need to get Adobe Flash, but I'm fucked if I can afford that. As a result, I'm dead on the animation front at the moment.
'Rexar & Mike - First Time' - Yes, I know. I know. Started in September, hasn't been touched since. I will get back to this, but my biggest problem is that I sketched out most of pages 3, 4 and 5 last Autumn and looking at them now, they look bollocks to me, and I want to redraw them before I go any further. Can I be arsed to do that at the moment? No. Therein lies the problem. I promise you all that I will get back to this, but for the same reason I haven't done a lot of pictures in the last couple of months, I haven't worked on this either.
Plenty of ideas in my head as usual with not enough time, freedom or motivation to work on them - I've contemplated something uncharacteristically dominatory involving Mike, something yiffy between Carlos and Marco (weird, I know, but it works in my head), several things involving Hux, another King Koopa pic and possible ideas involving the likes of Charizard or Wargreymon. Progress on any of these at this point however is zilch.
Anyway, I've somehow managed to write another essay here again, so I'll leave you all to read as much as you can be bothered with and make whatever comments you feel might help.
RRRex
P.S. Thanks to MicroKero for pointing out the inaccurate original title which read Update 28 Jan 2008. Lol!
I feel like I've been a bit distant from the fandom as of late, so here's a little bit of an update for you all.
As you will probably have noticed, I've been rather quiet this month since releasing that TMNT picture on 2nd Jan. There are several reasons for this really - University has gotten on me again, having had January exams and now needing to get cracking with my dissertation, so I haven't had a lot of time for much artwork or animating lately. However, when I have had the time, there have been other issues. I've mentioned before how I need four things to work: 1) time, 2) freedom, 3) motivation, and - to be blunt - 4) the horn. When I have had the time and freedom lately, it's been that third one - the motivation - that has been the real problem.
For some reason, I'm just not enjoying my artwork like I used to. I feel part of the problem is my tablet, which I'm really struggling with. I bought it for £70 last November with the intention of using it mainly for animating, but I appreciated that it might remove the awkwardness of trying to photograph my pencil drawings as well. Sadly, it hasn't really helped me with either of these things because it has created two additional problems. Firstly, I just don't seem to be able to control the damn thing. Whenever I try to draw a curve, I usually end up with a stupid straight line in the middle of it. As a result, I press Ctrl+Z to undo it, try it again, only to end up getting it wrong again. There have been many occasions where this has happened 10 or 20 times with the same damn line, to the extent that I just feel the pent-up frustration in my body welling up until I click the close button on Paint Shop Pro and say "fuck this, I'm doing it on paper instead". I don't think I hold the pen like they suggest to, but that's because I don't hold a pencil like that. I can't bloody draw like that, it doesn't feel natural to me. I have the same problem with animating, hence I have made no progress with any of my animation projects since I got the tablet, which - I should emphasise - is the main reason I bought the thing in the first place. I keep telling myself that this problem will go away if I persevere and keep practising with it. Indeed, I was able to draw 'Cassie - Beaten By A Girl' and 'Good Clean Fun' with it, but they both took me nearly a day each just to draw out because of the difficulty I had in getting the shape I wanted. It's been nearly three months now and I haven't gotten any more familiar with this tablet.
The second big problem - which I think exacerbates the first - is that I can't draw from a distance. When I draw on paper, I often lean quite close to the paper so that I really feel I can control the direction of the line I draw, but of course I can always momentarily flick my eyes across the paper to check that the shape I am sketching in fits within the rest of the drawing. On a PC screen however, you can't have this half-and-half; I have to zoom in about 3:1 to feel like I'm getting anything like the control I want, but in doing so I lose track of how the shape I am sketching fits within the whole, to the extent that I then zoom out and look at it thinking "...fucking hell, that's FAR too small" or "well that doesn't look right at all". Paint Shop Pro has an overview window that is meant to give you the flexibility of being able to zoom in close and still see the entire picture in the overview window, but this window is bloody miniscule and just doesn't serve its purpose at all once you go beyond an image size of 640x480. Most of my pictures always start out way above 1500x1500, so it's absolutely useless.
All this means that, having spent £70 on a tablet, I feel an enormous sense of frustration at not being able to draw with it, and it leaves me resorting to my trusty pencil and paper only to end up having the usual struggle at the photographing stage and wishing I'd persisted with drawing it on PC. In short, it fucks me off so much that half the time, I really can't be bothered to start a new drawing because I know what bollocks I'll have to go through to create it.
In hindsight, I really really should've bought a scanner instead. Though I'm not overly keen to start spending money again, I do wonder whether it would give me the enjoyment I get from drawing on paper whilst removing the cackyness of uploading photographs, and if nothing else, it would allow me to start showing you all some of my first love in art - shaded pencil work. I can't do that at the moment, because it doesn't photograph well.
Anyway, enough of my melodramatic artistic ranting. Here's some news about what I'm up to and what I'm thinking of doing.
'Skyra - Gravity' - Skyra vore comic. This is definitely going ahead, because I'm already colouring the first panel, but I've yet to draw the rest, and I'm yet to decide whether this is a nice-and-easy cell-shaded jobby or whether I'm going to blend it.
'Rocky - Heavy Metal' - I spoke about this in my last upate journal. It's gone absolutely nowhere since that last journal because of the tablet issues I've been having... and the fact that Jasc Animation Shop Pro sucks more than a giant vacuum full of Dysons. A recent discussion with
cerberus has further confirmed to me that I really need to get Adobe Flash, but I'm fucked if I can afford that. As a result, I'm dead on the animation front at the moment.'Rexar & Mike - First Time' - Yes, I know. I know. Started in September, hasn't been touched since. I will get back to this, but my biggest problem is that I sketched out most of pages 3, 4 and 5 last Autumn and looking at them now, they look bollocks to me, and I want to redraw them before I go any further. Can I be arsed to do that at the moment? No. Therein lies the problem. I promise you all that I will get back to this, but for the same reason I haven't done a lot of pictures in the last couple of months, I haven't worked on this either.
Plenty of ideas in my head as usual with not enough time, freedom or motivation to work on them - I've contemplated something uncharacteristically dominatory involving Mike, something yiffy between Carlos and Marco (weird, I know, but it works in my head), several things involving Hux, another King Koopa pic and possible ideas involving the likes of Charizard or Wargreymon. Progress on any of these at this point however is zilch.
Anyway, I've somehow managed to write another essay here again, so I'll leave you all to read as much as you can be bothered with and make whatever comments you feel might help.
RRRex
P.S. Thanks to MicroKero for pointing out the inaccurate original title which read Update 28 Jan 2008. Lol!
Thanks anyway, Azura.
Na your journels are not too big, but I can see you have alot on your plate at the moment. It feels that sometimes Uni can take up most of your life and the problems with the tablet must really get on your nerves.
Looking forward to the future projects and I hope uni does not get too stressfull. Remember to take it easy from time to time where if uni is getting to be a pain, try to give yourself time just to relax and just do hardly anything. It helps I swear ^_^.
Just another reason why I'm not enjoying my artwork at the moment, I feel. It's as if it's a chore or something.
I dont mind teh length of our journels its informative and letws us know how ya doing. Ill wish ya luck on teh tablet and the insiration and teh flash. _-_ im afrid thas all i can do
Scanners are nice but you end up loosing details too, but I guess that is par for course? Go pack to pencils for a while and maybe try the pad later, your heart might jump back on it and I for one would love to see move of your works. Keep at it, and good luck on the school stuffs :)
Do miss seeing the lot of your art though, keep posting with able or feel the urge.
Thanks anyway, VGM.
Plus you're welcome.
College is naggy; I understand. Though, it's good to hear you have plenty of ideas rolling around in your head. Get those exams done and relax!
(*fixes*)
My exams are already over, by the way. It's the dissertation that is the issue now.
And in any case, hang in there. There'll come a time when you get motivation again and inspiration will explode out of every orifice (boy that was a weird mental picture O_o).
Use the scanner for your line art, use your com to finish it in colour and you should enjoy yourself more. I just hope you get the money for one easily enough.
As for the Rexar and Mike comic, I think you can get very self critical. I can't name a single bad piece of work of yours in terms of quality. They're all jaw-droppingly good. Besides, if you get really critical you'll look at what you already have for that comic and take it down! Then we'll all be upset, and what you replace it with may not be any better or not worth the hassle. I've seen stuff redone before that ended badly. Use caution my friend.
Those concepts look promising though, and I'd love to see pics of King Koopa and Charizard if they are dominating foot fetish pics!
Lol!
As far as being self-critical goes, I am. Absolutely. I'm a total perfectionist, and have been all my life as far as drawing is concerned, so it takes me hours to do anything - and that doesn't help on the 'enjoyment and motivation' factor. I won't be taking the first two pages of 'First Time' down because I'm still reasonably happy with them, though I must admit - with the exception of a couple of pieces - I dislike most of the content of my gallery dated before 'Carlos & Mike - Just Stay Professional'. I can just see too many flaws in them to enjoy them any more.
And King Koopa and Charizard - "if they are dominating foot fetish pics"? Heh; what else would I be likely to draw?
Thanks for the comments, Robshi.
And wow, if you're that critical, do you not enjoy other foot fetish art? It's nearly impossible to find anything that matches the quality of your work! I often feel being far too picky means you won't get anything done...>_>
Yay for dominating foot fetish! I don't know, you do vore and stompy stomp pics too. We all know Rexar loves stompy stomping...
And there isn't necessarily a distinction between dominating foot-fetish and stomp stomp, you know! Lol!
Alright wise guy, is it dominating foot worship or stompy stomp that you're doing? I prefer the former unless the latter includes elements of the first. That, plus I'd love to see a King Koopa piece again, as well as what you do with Charizard. I'll bet they will both be uber-hawt.
Heh - that's just it though, mate. As the adage goes, the artist is always his own worst critic. I'm afraid I've been like that for at least 10 years now, and whilst it is what can make my art good in the finish, it's also what can kill much of the enjoyment of it.
I haven't quite decided what exactly I'd be doing with KK or Charizard yet. I've had various ideas that I've tried to sketch out, then gone off of them when I've realised just how much work they're going to be.
Like I said, get a scanner and hopefully the bane of uploading pics will make creating and uploading your art less of a misery. Although what else would ya scan or use it for to dupe your family? Make it double as a photocopier? Or get a small one that can be hidden easily?
Here's hoping for foot fetish! Or foot being placed on tiny victim and them being forced to lick and worship their feet or go squish! Knowing you, the licking and praising will only delay the inevitable...
Surely you could explain a scanner, unless you keep hiding your camera as well. Although a camera is really easy to explain. My parents wouldn't blink if I got one, in fact, I used the one they had.
Good luck with your future art RipRoarRex!
Thanks Robshi. Good chat.
Anyway, Just take your time and you'll figure out the best process for your art, I know you dont like doing this, But you may wanna consider taking a few select commissions to help pay for 1 Your new scanner and 2 flash thingy..
I think you could easily get 3 of 4 commissions to pay for all of those in no time.
Anyway, Glad to hear your doing good and such for the most part...
Ps...Spurs are awesome!
And Spurs are indeed awesome... though there is still work to be done to avoid relegation and finish anywhere like Tottenham should have done based on expectations this season. Glad to see a sensible, reliable keeper like Carlo Cudicini has taken the gloves from that mad Brazilian flapper Heurelho Gomes...!
And I totally understand about the commission thing, I know that you know your potential on taking them, I'm happy your standing your ground and keeping your principals too, Your a good guy man, I'm sure you'll find a way
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/.....8/#cid:4965244
And best of luck for the rest of the season!
its tho hard for me
and the rest is fine ?