industrial.

So cool shit happened. I finished the armature for sculpture class. It actually looks like how I wanted it to look. The fingers are a little wonky but I think once I start sculpting the bones in the hand I will reshape them. I snapped a few pictures on my camera phone before started to add the bones. When I finish the skeleton I will add more progress pictures. I've got his legs and his spine and his arms done, I just have to re-sculpt the hands and feet and add ribs and his skull. That's the part I am afraid of... I am afraid of ruining him by having his skull look retarded. Hopefully it will all work out and he will turn out fucking bad-ass. My teacher says his only concern is with the bent leg. He's afraid I wont be able to fit the muscles and the skin. I think I can and he's underestimating how skinny Justin's legs are.

The other day in Writing for Animation we learned how to develop characters and while we were learning about stuff Justin's character exploded on me... I think I am actually going to start the comic soon. I may wait until I get a break from school, because even as I am typing now I have 4 or 5 really big assignments I need to be working on. I am also going to keep the story under wraps for now... I don't want anyone to discourage me from writing what I want to write. But anyway, look out for that.

This is completely off topic, but the other day I got on the train and there was a bullet hole in the window above my seat. I thought this was cool. Although bullet holes are scary and it makes me a little uneasy to ride public transit every day, I liked it. I liked the abstract lines and the way it made the glass look. I liked thinking about the scenario that led to a gun being fired. I like thinking about things like that... why things came to be, why things are there. I liked it enough to try to get a picture of it, too, but it didn't come out well. I'll just have to keep an eye out for car 659 so I can get a better picture later.

I think that's it for me. I've been busy and dealing with a lot of drama, but over the past week I have discovered things about myself and my characters, which is nice. I guess a little drama is good on occasion. I'll try to get some stuff done and post some real artwork soon. I have been drawing, I'm just not exactly proud of a lot of it. I'm doing a lot of fan art for 10foldkiller and entering her contest (which is due on the 5th) so at least that stuff will be up. Just keep an eye out for my progress. Thanks for reading and bearing with me again <3

it's sort of... a bummer.

So I have this problem... I get really crest fallen when I see art that is better than mine-- which is really often because I'm not that good. School is crazy bad because everyone there is better than me and my teachers spend their time telling me that my stuff is no good and I need to change my style if I want to get anywhere in this industry.
I understand.
But I have tried... and I hate my art when it doesn't look like this. I just can't manage to draw... it makes me sick to have to change my style to fit in to this industry. My sculpture teacher had the greatest comment on the issue, "Anime is amateurish high school art."
Ok, ok, I get it.
I think Budgie does the best at blending the two styles. I don't want to "copy" her, but I think it will be in my best interest to sort of tweak my style into looking similar-- mostly in the eye department. Hopefully I can figure something out. I just really don't want to change who I am artistic-wise just to please my teachers...
But now I sound stupid.
I know I cant get a job in the industry with my style of art. I mostly want this degree for my own personal use. Sure, when I get into Maya and 3D software my art will change and maybe then it will be suitable for clients and employers alike. I'm not saying I wont try to change-- I'm not saying my art is phenomenal enough to override what my teachers want. I'm just saying I am afraid for myself.

This may be why I quit school the first time. This might be why I hate being around other artists. I know I am a whiner and I'm probably just being silly-- but this is how I feel.

School.

So today in Illustration we actually got to do a pretty cool project. The assignment was to take a sketch and trace over the values in Adobe Illustrator. I chose a sketch of a guy laying on his stomach. I also chose blue for a color scheme... why? Because green is overrated. I really like how it turned out. I'm just sad that I cant exactly claim it as mine because the actual art work is something I didn't do... I can't upload the picture just yet, because the computers at the school have a problem with uploading images. So be on the look out for when I do it tonight. I have to do a second one based on something I actually drew, so I'll be proud to post it.

The picture has been uploaded! Hooray for the awesome Blue man! <3

i was right.

So I was right about the whole "school is raping me" thing. I haven't gotten anything done in my "Shiro's path to happiness" quest. I drew a few pictures of Justin, as I am sculpting him for class, everything I have been doing for the past two weeks is school related. Even now I have homework that I should be doing... this weekend feels like it's going to be slow though so on Sunday I will have homework night. I don't know what I need to do for Sculpture for tomorrow, but I know I need to do my Geometry homework but I can't because I can't afford the book. I can't afford anything! There is -$63 in my bank account and I need three books and expensive art supplies RIGHT NOW!! But enough ranting... to ART!

I did some work on Gray-- as made obvious by the picture to the left. I'm not sure if I will be keeping his body the way it is in the original, it looks a little off to me. I changed his hair around a bit, too.

I'm not sure when I will be drawing new stuff. I think for a while all I will be doing is inking the thirty-three or so works on my deviantART that desperately need it. I may do a few commissions-- I have one that I need to do because a kid bought me a compass. He wants a hot chick wielding a sword... I should have told him to go play Soul Calibur...

I will be doing cool stuff and taking progress pictures for my classes, so look out for those, I am especially excited about my sculpture project. Be on the lookout for AWESOME!

Rape.

So, yeah, in case you haven't noticed, school is raping me. Monday I have school all day, Tuesday I have school all day, Wednesday I have night class until 10 and then Thursday I have class all day and I had a crap-ton of homework. Hopefully this gets better, but until then, I cant really update this as much as I would like. I am working on inking Gray, I have everything but his shoulders done... I just really don't have time to work on him/my girlfriend disconnected my computer and I don't feel like setting it back up.

Anyway - I have been playing a LOT of games lately, but there are two that I really want to talk about: Lost Odyssey and Mirrors Edge.

Lost Odyssey is the most unfairly ignored game in the UNIVERSE (Ok, maybe not if you include Jet Set Radio Future, but still). Sure, the voice acting sucks ass... and I mean REALLY sucks ass, but the game and the game play are amazing. Also, unlike the last RPG I played (Final Fantasy XII) it actually has a STORY and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. It is also the first RPG that I have played in a very long time in which the main character isn't a wimpy tag-along. The only flaw in the game is the lack of "hard hitters" in your party until the last disc... that's right, I said last disc-- Lost Odyssey is a 4 disc game. The game isn't particularly long either, I have been playing for 40 hours and have just started the last disc. Not bad, concidering the fact that Pokemon Diamond has taken me 80+ hours and I am no where near finished. The graphics are another thing to rave about, you can see the character's skin flaws! It takes a while to get used the characters' subdued expressions but with texture and movement like this, who is going to complain? The in-game graphics rival the cut scenes from Final Fantasy X. I wont say anything about the story because I don't want to ruin anything... but I will say this game really is worth playing.

Mirrors Edge was said to be a big let down, but let me assure you it is NOT. The game is beautiful on top of being engaging and highly addictive. The cut scenes are a big let down as they are animated in worse graphics than Total Drama Island-- they are a horrible waivering flash animation, but the in game graphics make up for it. It isn't much for story or characters, but is one of the only recent puzzle games that has kept me fully entralled in much the same fashion that Tetris does.

That's all I have to say... I really want to go play games now...

Progress.

Since starting this blog I have been doing art-things every day, which is odd because on a normal day I am ridiculously lazy. Procrastination is my middle name... well actually my middle name is L, but we'll ignore this. I am working on inking the picture of Gray... I changed his eye and hair color and altered his hair style sightly.
...buh.
I star school tomorrow. I have to leave my house at 11 am for my class at noon and stay at the school until 7:50 pm which means I get home around 9 pm. I don't know how I feel about this... I am excited about Computer Illustration tomorrow, but I hate my Writing teacher and am not looking forward to seeing him again. It's alright though, because on Tuesday I get to go to Sculpture for Animation which sounds crazy exciting.

Anyway, Gray should be finished tomorrow and I will post him...

Justin.

So last night I uploaded the first "completed" picture of Justin I have ever drawn. I finally have his characteristics and personality down. If you don't know, Justin is my one and only current reoccurring character/muse. I first drew him on the Pendako whiteboard and he just kind of jumped out at me and I fell in love. ......that was so cheesy...

Anyways.

I drew the pencil sketch a long time ago and just never got around to coloring it, I was afraid of screwing it up.
I was looking for a tutorial so I could learn how to do it in Photoshop without fucking up the original sketch. I found a few and they all said the same thing. It was as I feared. The Pen Tool. As anyone that has ever used Adobe Photoshop knows, the Pen Tool is an ass hole. Really. But I sucked it up and over the course of a few days working on it in tiny sessions so that I didn't get frustrated I came up with this:
Once I gotten a little practice in, the process became easier and I was able to achieve what I thought were positive results... but I was stupid and because I didn't really think that I would finish, I didn't ink it on a separate layer. *headdesk* I went back over it and carefully erased the exposed pencil lines. I then contemplated a coloring method.
Because I spent so long on the lines I didn't really want to have a stunning coloring job to distract from them. I used my same meathod of color I always do, but I was hesitant to make a second layer and multiply the lines because of what pencil remnants might remain and muddle the quality... but after seeing the results I knew I had to do something... I sort of liked the outcome, but at the same time it looked a little faded and half-assed. So I duplicated the layer and multiplied it anyway and it didn't look bad at all and I was VERY satisfied with the results. I think I may use this method from now on... which means that a ton of the older artwork on my deviantART will be inked and available in full color very soon.

Now I want to talk about Justin a little bit...

I would love to write a comic about him but I just don't really have any ideas for what it should be about. I know he will have a co-star named Gray based on another old drawing of mine... Gray may be Justin's brother, because for some reason I picture them both with blue eyes and silver hair. Justin's age is anywhere from 17 to 24... There really isn't much known about him yet sence he kind of ninja'd into my life.

I REALLY NEED IDEAS!!! If you have any plot ideas for a comic starring Justin and Gray, please e-mail it to me.



Here's a picture of Gray for fun-- I think I may finish him next:

Welcome.

Hello, and welcome to my art/bjd/web-manga blog. It should be updated every day with random information about my escapades, but don't count on it. I get on the internet at least 3 or four times a day so I might update then. If you watch me on deviantART you know my work. If you are a member of Den of Angels, then you know me as Shiro and my doll as Artemis. My only web-comic is "Life With Shiro", commonly refered to as LWS and is located HERE.

This seems like the place where I do the whole "about me" thing... which is utterly uninteresting when speaking about me. I was born in California and moved to Georgia when I was 5 or six, I don't really know. I grew up in Loganville in a rental house that was pretty much in my best friend's front yard. When I was in 7th or 8th grade I moved to Snellville and my parents divorced. I met the love of my like in 10th grade and had my first kiss at age 16. My mother found out I was gay in my senior year and our relationship hasn't been quite the same since. I moved to Atlanta to live with the formerly mentioned "love of my life" around 2007 and dropped out of college due to poor attendance. We moved out of our apartment and now live with 3 others in a cruddy duplex. I started going back to school resently to re-persue my life long dream to be an animator. I attend the Art Institute of Atlanta full time and waste the free time I do have on the internet. I get excited about small change and colorful things that smell nice. I also like to collect adorable anime figures... >.>

I like talking about my music preferences... I like a lot of J-Rock. I listen to LM.C, Miyavi, and Plastic Tree. Some more recognizable bands I like are Gorillaz, Frou Frou, Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance and Red Hot Chili Peppers. I also like E Nomine, but they are kinda rarely heard of. Blah, blah, blah.

I play a ton of video games including Soul Calibur, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart, Katamari Damacy, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, Mirrors Edge, Rock Band, and Guitar Hero to name a few. I am always looking for people to play with online, so hit me up with your Wii address. I also have played WoW and am in love, if I ever get a real account I will let everyone know my Realm, Faction, and name/race/class/level. My old Toon was named Salenholm, a level 20 Night Elf Druid on Feathermoon.

I LOVE anime, but I hate most TV and don't have the money to see movies, so I usually cant even stand talking about what there is to watch. Lately I have been watching Lucky Star and Haruhi Suzumiya and rewatching Cowboy Bebop, Ouran High School Host Club and Azumanga Daioh. I love talking about anime and video games so please feel free to IM me. My name is ShiroChaan on AIM.

That's all I can think to talk about for now...