4/25/02:
I'm so exhausted and moody that I don't
even wanna talk to you at the very moment
ye who are supposely reading this site,
assuming it even exists. But here's stuff.
[A Too-Big Version of a Model's Head Thing]
[Belated and Very Long Journal Spew]
Hurrah! My Side 7 account was finally
activated. I'll be putting up the link
to that gallery later. Not that y'all
seen all these pictures before. Anyway,
here's the stuff for today.
[Another Silly Expression sheet--Rafael]
[A Mildly Humorous Rane Happening]
Bad Late Tari. Oh well. A picture and
text stuff today. Been busy, sorta. And largely asleep.
Will behave better later.
[Weird Coyote Pic with BACKGROUND]
[Journal Spew I forgot to Post]
Lots of drawing today. I did an odd Rane
expression sheet (which is not impressing
those who RP with Rane and thinks he needs
to be more of a man) and a commission of
Qaylen's character Nephi. I think I liked
Nephi better before he was inked. I'm afraid
I made a few mistakes . . . but I suppose
what is is what is. Oooh. Deep.
[Nephi (with cigarette instead of joint . . . long story)]
Still being a bad lazy bum on the comics,
but did a lot of drawing today. One finished
picture. Which happens to be of my dog.
And, as usual, journal spew in the below link.
"Cover" of a Bad Blade of the Immortal Spoof
Journal Entries for Yesterday
Journal Entries for Today
All right, now I'm frustrated. I had this pretty dang
big update just a while ago and it seems to have
vanished from the page, making me look more like
a bum than I really am. Bah.
I AM too lazy to do too much right now besides fill in
my last few journal entries that DIDN'T get up here.
I'll mention that I got a new journal server. When it
was a toss up between happy diaryland and rather cool
deadjournal (get it, live journal, dead journal), deadjournal
got it. Even if I wish it cleaned up a bit of its joining language.
Stupid Half Done April 12th Entry
An Even Worse Prom Day Randomness
Fully Inked Non Anthro Weasel
Old Picture of Rafael
A quick word on the art server I'm part of:
I'm not going to put a direct link to my gallery because I suspect
that some people shouldn't be visiting the site. It's a bit . . . raw
on parts of the server, that I've figured out how to avoid (solution
stay on the G rated server and you're safe), but I suspect some kids
might be curious. My entrance of YNA (this server) was a bit unexpected
so I'm still not quite sure how to handle this. I like the server (it's one of
the few that's even nice enough to seperate G from R), but I'm a bit
uncomfortable with it nonetheless. So, no direct links.
Tari's still sick, so thus, lazier than
usual. She just got into an art server
which is swell. More news tomorrow when
her head's not threatening to implode.
Pic--Granny the Rat
Today's Text
Been very very busy writing today and thus
didn't get a picture done. Seriously,
been writing all day and nearly got everything
on my plate out of the way. Links to some
of the junk below.
[A Stupid Poem]
[a Rant on . . . A Poster]
[An Actual "Diary" Entry]
[A Random Piece of Junk]
Oh, and a new link in the "home" area.
I promise with nearly all my heart (the atria has to be saved
for whatever excuse I'll have to come up with when I bum out)
that there will be a picture today. Even if it's the scariest thing
you've ever seen. Anyway, I do have text. I told you I liked the
lazy factor of not having to do HTML. As a result, I had too much fun.
[Another Self Analysis--Which is the Real One?]
Actually, both self analysises (well, the real one, anyway) were
required. I just thought I'd get SOME advantage off of them.
I tend to crave attention on-line (funny, because I really don't
off-line--call it repression or something if you want). Oh yeah,
and I got my character profile updated by [Vizon] (She's on my
links, but just in case ya'll forgot), reminding me that I wanted
badly to draw her or something as reciprocation, if I could ever
dredge up the nerve to make the attempt. I have a very little nerve.
But I will try. Oh, yes! And I am finally participating in an art trade
with Lagomorph [Arra Skysong]
which promises to be fun. And that's all for now.
And here's two Rane pics. Yep.
Rane--"Who Me?"
Rane--"It Wasn't Me, It Was my Invisible Friend"
4/4/02:
Here's the deal, folks. I've got all the energy
of a dead cat and I haven't finished any pictures yet.
I'm going to try something a bit different. I'm probably
not going to do comics for a while, because there are
lots of things I have to perfect first. I will do pictures everyday
still, if I can, even if they're only cheap sketches. And I'm going
to try to branch out the text. Because I'm a lazy bum, I grabbed
a non-html service to put journal-like stuff on. Don't be
frightened of the name and all the cutesy connotations.
MY "diary" is not cutesy. It is just . . . there. Yes. I want
the service, so I'm turning a blind eye to the cutesiness of
a lot of varioius things. I mean, I'm naturally suspicious
of any service that sends you your password after
spouting "hiya!" at you. But I'm lazy. And I PROMISE
to archive soon. Eh heh heh.
4/2/02:
[Random Role-playing "tips"]
3/31/02:
[Uh, we might have a problem here.}
3/30/02:
Oooh, REALLY lazy today.
3/28/02:
Just finally finished a comission
Redwall Rafael and Wounded Kylen
3/27/02:
3/25/02:
Ach! More laziness! No, actually, this took me all day and no one's actually going to read it.
Rane of the White Tower (a compilation)
3/23/02:
More laziness, but I'll archive tomorrow.
3/22/02:
I broke a laziness scale, drew absolutely
3/21/02:
Again, very little. I'm exhausted and a bit
Today's Comic--"Shakespeare Demons"
3/20/02:
Another down day--I couldn't
3/19/02:
Today's Comic: Not Technically Graffiti
[Cast Member--Rafael Don]<
3/18/02:
Another day, another free period where I have nothing to do
What/Who Is a Krait?
3/17/02:
Today's Comic
3/16/02:
Radio: I can't find a station lately. I mean, I've been listening to the "soft" stuff for a while . . . only to realize that I had all of the songs memorized AND hated half of them. So, I've been playing around with classic rock and modern, but right now, classic rock isn't working and the modern . . . er, well. A lot of modern stuff doesn't actually sound like music to me. So, I'm sitting here typing and waiting for something interesting to come on. I can tell this is going to be a random day already.
X-men Evolution: Blast it, I want a new episode. I'm starting to do reviews for Smallville on the side just to keep my editorial brain active.
Role-playing: Does EVERYONE have to be invincible? Okay, this isn't so bad in my Redwall roleplay lately. Probably because I haven't been involved in any fights (it's sometimes helpful to have cowardly characters). But in X-men--I mean, really. The whole point of having a villain is to increase tension, provide possibility for pathos, direct the plot, etc -- not to beat him up in the first second! This can be a serious problem in egroups where the more inexperienced of the roleplayers (who almost always play "good guys," by the way) post far more often and quickly than the villains. In their impatience, these "good guys" jump from punching the villain to freeing the prisoners to saving the world before the villain has a chance to respond--thus appearing nearly godlike in their sheer, er, power.
Song: I just found a very interesting song. I have to say, it's the first song I've heard that claims to be a tribute to the greatest song in the world ("If we could only remember it, but we did play it once, really!").
Serious Issue: I've decided to use the list from "There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" for the time being.
Serious Issue #I-Trees that lose their leaves: There's a certain romanticism inherent in these trees. After all, they lose their leaves. The leaves fall, fall, to the ground, to die and rot, and thus die. It is very depressing, like an odd mix between a Hemingway story and an Eliot poem. "We are the hollow trees/We do thus lose our leaves/Our voices, when we whisper together, sound like wind in the leaves/Probably because, that's what it is/And then we die. But, as death is romantic, these trees that lose their leaves are likewise, romantic. Unlike the pine trees, they are mortal. Then again, the pine trees are mortal, too, but that is beside the point. No one ever mourns a pine tree (unless it's a Christmas pine tree, but that is beside the point), but we mourn daily, hourly, minutely, secondly, for the death of the trees that lose their leaves. They are naked, wretched skeletons until the renewal of spring, but renewal will be temporary, thus "April is the cruelest month." That is my serious issue for today.
3/15/02:
Picture of Tari as a Weasel (more to come -- as far as cast pictures go.)
Book Covers:
I didn't use to make too big a deal out of book covers, but ever since I got into J.V. Jones I have a very large
bone to pick. While a book is open to interpretation by the artist, the artist should at least try to get a decent feel for the novel.
You wouldn't, say, slap a Blade of the Immortal picture on the cover of a compilation of For Better or for Worse. You'd certainly attract sales with such a
cover, but it wouldn't be the right kind of sales. Those who like samurai action would be tricked into buying a slice of life vignette of a normal family and those
who like clever interpretation of growing up and growing old would be put off by the slash and gash cover.
J.V. Jones has a problem with covers. Of course, this isn't her fault. Authors don't have a lot of control over
what the picture on their novel is. And this isn't a problem confined to her. Fantasy authors in general
seem to get covers off the "stereotypical sword and sorcery" press. Let's examine a couple of these covers for point of argument.
On the cover of "Cavern of Black Ice," we have a well built man with a ponytail staving off a wolf with a staff and a
rather sultry looking blonde coming up behind with a dagger. Great. The usual pairing of strong manly man and strong
but highly attractive girl wandering around being cool. Based on that cover, I wouldn't have picked it up. I'm just glad I was
in a hurry, and thus, not picky. After reading the book, I found just how inacurrate the cover was. The artist had chosen one of the least
interesting images in the book and changed it a little to make it more typical. What actually happened in the shown scene:
While the male lead did fight off wolves in one scene and he did have a ponytail, he was, at that point, emaciated and pockmarked by
multiple not yet healed wounds--not an attractive figure at all. And the girl, well, the girl was unconscious throughout the whole little wolf scene, but
that wouldn't be politically correct to portray. As an added note, SHE was emaciated, frost bitten, afflicted with jaundice and other unattractive
problems.
That cover was misleading enough, but the cover for "The Barbed Coil" is worse. Image: Beautiful, confident young woman in beautiful clothes in the
foreground, gracefully brandishing a staff. Back ground, screaming man in black fighting off an ugly . . . stunted troll thing with furry feet. Oooh. I don't think this
scene actually happened in all honesty. Truth: Beautiful young woman on cover is in fact not really all that
beautiful and does not wear beautiful clothes. Also, she tends to be no use in a fight. Probably because she's not from this particular world and, gasp, she's a nerdy artist.
Truth: There is a warrior man in black. However, unlike the cover portrays him, he's not white. He has dark skin and dark eyes as well as dark hair and dark clothes -- and he's not the sort who
would be screaming for help from this girl. In fact, he's the cool, confident, sarcastic sort. Truth: The thing he was fighting, which I assume is a thing called a harras or something, or maybe this other, even scarier
creature, would not look like the stereotypical stunted troll. The evil creatures in the book are more similar to werewolves. But werewolves that would make the average moonhowler wet its pants.
Anyway, book covers. That's my rant for the day. Pictures later when I get home and scan.
3/14/02:
Too tired to write anything--maybe later, but here's an odd comic for your viewing pleasure.
Just a picture today. Elongo Fox
3/11/02:
FAQ: (Or, rather, NAQ (Never Asked Questions))
1. Where's the comic for today?
It'll get here. See, I can type at school, but I can't scan, so, often, the text portion will show up before the comic.
This is the sign of boredom. A lot of repetitive key-ins. Yep.
2. What are you supposed to be? I mean, I can kinda tell that the dude with the bandanna is a dog or a coyote or something, but . . .
I don't know what you are.
I am whatever you want me to be . . . oh, all right. I'm a weasel.
3. What kind of weirdo draws herself as a weasel?
I don't know.
4. Are your glasses really that big?
Nope. Round, giant glasses are just fun to draw.
5. Can you teach me to draw like you?
Gosh, would you really want to?
6. I can't read any of your captions. I can't tell what's going on.
Neither can I.
7. Who's the bandanna dude? What's his name?
I don't know yet. Let me ask him.
8. So, you're suggesting that all these characters are made up? Are you living in a lie?
To the first question, no. I just make up the names. To the second question, I hope not.
9. How do you draw such straight lines?
The computer helps.
10. I think your art stinks.
Yeah, well, I think you're a cow eating cheerleader. So there. Ah hah hah.
3/10/02:
Text Portion: Still no serious issue in sight. (Or site, for that matter. Bwa hah hah). But, I do have a few things to say about, I'm sure you can't guess, books and movies. Here we go.
Lord of the Rings: Okay, I don't really need to review this, do I? I mean, you've probably all seen it at least once and read more material on it than you'd care to admit. Well, I just saw it for the third time, in a pretty impromptu manner, and I'm just going to say some snippy little things I noticed. One. Frodo's eyes get more and more metallic as the movie goes on. In fact, very near the end, when he's standing on the bank and there's that extended close up of him -- the whites of his eyes are more the color of ball bearings. Weird. Two. Okay, I'm just sorta piggy backing off of Viz's site, but Aragorn is way cuter than Legolas, not that Legolas is bad, though I'm rather more drawn to hob . . . oh, never mind. Three. Still on that tact, anyone else think that Aragorn looks and acts like a cat while Boromir is more of a wolf, or is that just me?
A Wizard's Dilemma and Deep Wizardry: Funny that I should finish both of these books one after another. See, ever since I was very young, I've read a fairly well known series called the "Young Wizards" or something (What? You've never heard of it?) by Diane Duane. I thought there was only four books in the series, the last published a while ago, when to my surprise, I found it in the bookstore, and later in the library. A Wizard's Dilemma. Needless to say, I checked it out and read it. The ironic thing is that I had also been reading Deep Wizardy, the second book in the series, to a my brilliant eight year old friend (Lyss). I finished them about the same time. Of course, you're probably all going "So . . ." but let me get along to my point here (what? There's a point?). Authors have to make money, right? So, sometimes, they'll ride a series they should have just let be far longer than they ought to. In all honesty, Duane probably should have stopped the "Young Wizards" after "Deep Wizardry." Deep Wizardy is a great book, one of my "top ten" -- full of emotional resonance and great characters (two of which, Ed and Kit, I'm rather in love with), Christian symbolism, humor, sacrifice, all that great stuff. Hard to follow up. Duane might have realized that, but she did anyway. The next two books, she chose different characters to focus on . . . and the series, in my opinion, kinda fizzled. See, the thing that held the series so tightly together, made it so interesting, was not the wierdness and the scientific calculus like wizardy . . . but the relationship between Nita and Kit. Which had come to a head in Deep Wizardry. Anyway, in Wizard's Dilemma, it's back, and poor neglected Kit (who's all but been a shadow in the last two books -- Duane likes to use Nita -- "strong girl characters" sell) actually gets about a third of the book largely to himself. So, I'm happy. And I'm shutting up.
3/9/02:
Today, I begin DRAT. Before I go any further, I'm need to say that this site was inspired by Vizon's Highlight of the Day. Highlight of the Day is a day-by-day comic done by none other than Vizon who is, by the way, a very good writer and artist and a very good friend as well. I strongly suggest you go to her site.
The TEXT portion: Also, beyond drawing every day (or nearly every day), I need to practice writing as well. Writing something other than fiction. Analysis, arguments, anything. See, with high school graduation coming on, my brain has slowly been turning to mush (a phenomenon often called "senioritis"). A lot of my peers avoid this decay by joining extracurricular activities like debate club, or leaping into intense class discussions. Me, I'm a lazy bum. And, in all honesty, I'm not a very good on-the-spot verbal thinker. It comes from too much reading and not enough socializing when I was a child . . . okay, not really. In all honesty, if my rather flabby debate skills can be blamed for anything, it's the fact I haven't discussed ANY serious issues in a while. So. While you can expect book reviews and television reviews and rants here, as well as sort of journal scribblings, you can also expect some rather more focused talk on issues such as . . . er, what I was talking to Qaylen about the other day. Yeah. In fact, Qaylen sort of indirectly prompted me to try out the serious issue thing. I mean, if I can't remember my own viewpoints on issues like the death penalty, I need to get back to work. So. Er. Serious issues. Ah, I'll think of one later. (I know, I know, this isn't a good start.) In the mean time, I'm sticking an updated "Tari's All Time Favorite Character List" in the link below because, er, it was something to do. And it wasn't too hard. (Flabby muscles must be exercised gradually. Otherwise, you will strain them, right?)
I was supposed to do a while ago.
Actually, this is from an RP and it didn't
really happen like this, but the picture
turned out funky and the scanner scanned
funny, which is why it looks funny.
Which is, of course, not my fault (bah)
Supposedly. New pic, no comic yet.
nothing, and wouldn't even archive my last
comic. But I do have some text. Yep.
sick. Was a bad day altogether. Sketchbook
got partially soaked when my paint-water was
dumped. My AP teacher, who seems set on making
Shakespeare a force of evil and pain, gave a
pop quiz on what joke Hamlet told Horatio in some
scene and, yeah, that's just the beginning. Quieting
before I whine any further.
bring myself to
actually draw anything
and as one of my friend's dog died
the comic I was planning was suddenly
in bad taste (and I'm sad
about that dog). So, all I have today
is the colored Raf picture.
but type on the computer. You have been warned. All right,
a quick run down on the set up on this site. Links are not colored
or otherwise marked differently from the text. So, if I have a link
within the text block, as in not seperated by a break or anything,
I'll put [brackets] around it. Yep. There we go. Also, I had trouble
with Qaylen's picture yesterday, so I'll hopefully actually get it UP today.
Then, What's a Kraitmeister?
Qaylen--Cast Member (finally!)
Angsty Krait
Hey, look! I got a format! Through no talent of my own, of course.
Morwen O'Connor of Fatal Optic made this for me for the heck of it
(she's so awesome -- and she helped me with my X-men site as well).
So, she gets all the credit. And it IS amazing.
I don't know how she does it. Anyway. This is a new format.
I'll talk more when I'm not trying to figure it out.
Cast Member: Uri
Cast Member: Qaylen
3/12/02:
The reason why I am doing one myself is hardly to be in competition with Vizon (I couldn't manage! She's too good!). The reason why I am doing DRAT is because I think the idea behind Highlight of the Day is an excellent one -- practice. And trust me, I need the practice badly. So, on to the very first comic (the future ones will hopefully get better as time goes on):
![[Another Silly Expression sheet--Rafael]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/rafsheet.jpg){kind=link}
![[Weird Coyote Pic with BACKGROUND]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/coyotemt.jpg){kind=link}
![[Rane Expression Sheet]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/ranesheet.jpg){kind=link}
![[Nephi (with cigarette instead of joint . . . long story)]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/nephi.jpg){kind=link}
![[My Dog]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/molly.jpg){kind=link}
![[Very Odd Picture]](http://solfire.com/yna/artists/Olhado/finger.jpg){kind=link}
![[Mustelid Gang]](mustel.jpg){kind=link}
![[Raf in Color]](rafcolor.jpg){kind=link}
