Live. Die. Rock.

Ord page 4

2007-04-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

Is nearly done, and one of my favorites, but not done, because the Real World knocked on my email door and said "hey, that magazine cover you did? Yeah, could you do a few more for us right quick for the inside? Kthnx"

So. It's kind of a "YAY.... oh, darn, Ordinary.... but still YAY"

This week will have so many updates coming too, because of something called "editor's day", in which editors from publishers like Top Shelf and Vertigo come and suffer through portfolios of our work, and maybe maybe might hire some folks. If I can wrangle a spot and get some of this looked at by them, apparently i have a chance.

So, it's not an update persay, but hot GOLLY am I going to kick my ass into the spotlight on this one.

Later, all
-H

Pg 3!!!

2007-04-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yes. Yes. Yes! \m/ >_<\m/

Man. I reiterate: This page kicked my ass. Anyhoodle, here's how things look/change between prelims and whatever I kick up that decides to resemble the word "done".

On a leaving note, ever notice how in "Happy Feet", both the penguin species emulate ghetto black and hispanic cultures ... but all the main credited characters are played by the richest whitest actors imaginable?

Tawk amongst yehselves.

"When it comes to huge openings, a lot of people think of me..."

2007-04-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe not, but the bitch is BACK, ladies and gents. You think a paltry thing like no internet on my comp will stop me?!?!

(Yes, yes, shut up... Both of you. Tonight it won't.)

Anyway, here's a wee snippet of page 2.

*happysiiiiigh* Oh, Photoshop. How I love thee.

Lack of updates

2007-04-12T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I wrapped filming on my (hopefully) last film of the year last weekend. As soon as I can get copies of all the ones I think turned out well, I'll post them on here.

As for the lack of songs, I have a new song finished, however I truly cannot sing it. It's a cover song and I simply cannot hit those notes in it. I did it because I love the song and wanted to see if I could sing it, but with my voice out of shape the way it is, I'd need to work with a voice teacher for at least 2 weeks before I could sustain these notes and not have it sound weak and crappy.

You may have noticed that I'm not actually naming the song here. That's because I do plan on mastering that vocal at some point and posting it, and don't want to ruin the surprise. I will only say this. There is a part of me that could be very content playing in a Who cover band for the rest of my days.

New Song: Lounge Around

2007-04-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Not the usual day for an update, but better late than never. Now if I can just get this week's song up too. The last week or so has been a bit crazy. In the time between the last post and now, I went from being in no movies to being in 3 movies. I suppose I should be grateful to be able to work, but it does make these side projects difficult. But it also provides more content for later.

http://thefathomist.dmusic.com/

This is another acoustic song. It has been involved in a vicious competition for the opening slot in Middleground, and I think this incarnation has pretty much made made its place set. While I like the lyrics for this song, I don't think these words sit well in my voice, which is strange considering I wrote them. Oh but I ramble.

Speaking of strange happenings, *ahem* My queen, the people grow restless awaiting your return. Did you not say you would reclaim the webspace that is so rightfully yours when you finished with finals? When shall you once again stand by my side and post that which is Ordinary?

2007-03-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

No update this week. Somewhere around Friday of spring break, I remembered the paper, applications for internships, headshots, and scene that I need to have done. Mix with the fact that SONAR is feeling like being a little bitch, and we've got music, but no vox this week. Ugh.

BTW, Tuesday is the new official update day. It just works easier with my schedule to record vocals and post on Tuesday. Trust me.

New Song: Sorry Boy

2007-03-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Another demo up on Dmusic. This is one of- if not my weirdest song, and for that reason alone, it's one of my favorites. I can just see the girl it's about marching away proudly at the end. I also feel like the playing on it displays the beginnings of my style pretty good. If Middleground were ever commercially released, this would be either the first or second single. Funny voices and all. I thought about including a version without the voices, but I'm so happy with how they turned out that I decided against it.

It's far from perfect though. This song really reflects the limits of my mixing abilities. I like the vocal towards the end, but in the middle especially, I can hear how I'm singing in the least healthy way possible, and it bothers me. I need to find a way to write where I can play and sing at the same time in a way that doesn't destroy my voice and rob me of vocal power. I also wish I could have been more off the hook with the lead guitar, but I admit, my solo abilities are pretty poor. If not everyone was out of town, I'd have one of my friends do it. But there it is. Sorry Boy.

http://thefathomist.dmusic.com/

Monday is the update day, I swear

2007-03-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

So once again, I am late. It appears I am too ambitious with trying to insert 4 part harmonies into my songs, and two entire nights this week were spent just writing them out and then trying different voicings, once I had the right notes in place. Luckily spring break started this week for me, so I should have time to get it up tomorrow, and next week's update should also be on time. I promise it will be less ambitious. With Heidi on hiatus (Yay, alliteration. Boo, reason for it) I feel the need to post something new though. So here's a quick video some of my friends made. It's not something I had anything to do with, but I do think it's worth your time. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpvzvqZZREg

2007-03-06T18:33:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm bad. Not only did I not upload on Monday, but Tom beat me. Shameful. I lose.

Hardly a good time to note that, due to it being finals week for me, I have to take a temporary hiatus from my brainstorm lovebaby. Portfolio class is kicking my bum.

I wasn't going to upload a cover preview, because it didn't look like a difference, but comparing it with the first image, there was more change than I thought.

Previews of page two, and finally a shot of the main character looking (as he often will) stunned and aghast.

More of a "Behind the Scenes" image with stuff from the first page, showing the size I work at and what size things generally end up as. Mainly, I had to show the hair, because I always go a little nuts on it, only to have nothing show up later! XD

Kikuo Johnson once told me that, as an illustrator, I have to be careful and not be compelled to make every little thing in a comic be a stand-alone illustration to the level I would a single painting. Obviously, I'm guilty as charged. Oi.

Heidi's on Hiatus until the 25th. ; _ ; believe me, I don't want to be.

(P.S. - Listen to Tom's music!)

New Song: I Could Live With You

2007-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'll leave final judgment to you, dear reader, but I'm not as happy with this week's offering. The whole song just feels flimsy to me. It would have been up yesterday, but it took me that long to let go of the fact that there isn't really enough story here to support a 3rd verse, and I also had issues with the song feeling stiff, rhythmically. But the new song is up. I will probably go back and retool it some day, but there are too many other tricks I have planned for the coming weeks.

http://thefathomist.dmusic.com/

1st song: Take

2007-02-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

Well I have gotten one song to the point that I'm not embarrassed to put it online. I never was able to figure out how to upload an Mp3 to MY webspace, but I have found a temporary solution that is certainly better than Myspace. I could have gone alot more nuts with this song, adding in layers of harmonies and lead guitar parts out the wazoo, but I promised myself to get it online TONIGHT, and so I did. I wouldn't mind going back and adding a few things, and improving the mix a bit, but for now, I'm going to press onward. The entire process of getting one song up and running has been amazingly educational, and I'd like to try an acoustic piece next, to see how something that needs to be more sparse sounds. So I guess I'll see you in about a week. The song is posted here.

http://thefathomist.dmusic.com/

This is dMusic. It's a music sharing site for other would-be starving musicians of tomorrow, like myself. I consider it an acceptable way of putting my music online for now, via the following logic: You never hear about anything good that's on the Internet, and I had never heard of dMusic. Therefore, dMusic is good.

Squeel

2007-02-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

My apologies on not having this sooner. I have made two (not one, but TWO) shocking discoveries that requires my immediate attention.

See, I've never really experimented with my voice much while recording, and in doing this I have found out that I am not a rocker. As much fun as it sounds when Prince, or Roger Daltrey, or Paul MacCartney do it, I sound right shitty when I growl into the microphone. And not a Tom Waits kinda shitty either, more like a "Tom, you're flat" kind of shitty. Trust me, the vocal track I've got now represents my most successful attempts. No one wants to hear my failures.

The other big thing... I have found a quick and easy way to make HARMONIES! I just about creamed my pants when I heard the results. Not that it sounds that great, I've just never heard these noises before. YAY! Now I have to go shoot. I'll finish the song when I get back or God help me.

Ell Oh Ell

2007-02-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well, this journal seems to be coming along swimmingly, at least in providing strict documentation for just what our previous work habits look like in the glaring light of day.

All in all, I consider this educational. However, what's more educational is how behind I am in the curriculum for my actual graded education, so "Ordinary" has been neglected in favor of that.

What've I learned? Make realistic deadlines and expectations for myself.

What am I doing now? Just that.

For this week, my goals are:
Cover Illustration
---->Finish background washes
---->Finish layer one of dress, previewed for Sunday afternoon
Page 2
---->Panel one, Panel two, ~~Panel three, Panel four, Panel five~~, Panel six, ~~Panel seven~~, for preview on Sunday afternoon.
Storyboarding and Planning
---->Set up the Wall-o-Story (which will definitely be previewed because it's just funny)

Despite the setbacks, I made a revelation with metallic pigments in paint that will unify, polish, and generally just trick out all the cover illustrations. :D Shiny!

Urge to kill rising...

2007-02-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

Update coming as soon as my fat-ass bum of a roommate wakes up and leaves so I don' t bother him when I record vocals.

Just so we're clear on how much of a fat ass bum he is... I'm writing this at 7:33 pm and he's been in bed all day. Literally, all day. And he's capable of this multiple times a week. If it weren't such a complete lack of achievement, I'd be impressed.

Oh who am I kidding

2007-02-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well I thought I would have the night off, but the director for Proved called me in for a 4 hour shoot this evening. Hence, I did not get the computer lab to post Mp3's, not that it matters since I honestly feel like whatever I had posted would have been rushed anyway. Here's another short I was in, as promised. These things had been intended for when I had writers block with new material, not to be used right off the bat. Oh well. This one has hot make outs in it, but not featuring me. I learned pretty quickly that me scoring with hot chicks is playing against my type. We'll try this again next week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjsXM6zDqQ

Ordinary cover and page one!

2007-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

The cover is in oils, which means it's taking longer than I initially thought. A blurry digital photo preview below, which looks odd because the base colors are :

Page one preview, here. Except for covers, "Ordinary?" will be done in digital color. Man, I learned so much just on a two-panel establishing shot. I can' t imagine the learning curve on the later pages. It's stressful because the first page HAS to kick ass, to grab attention, which means I'll nitpick it to oblivion.

Regardless? *gleeboogie!*

Goals for next week(now that I have a clue what I'm capable of alongside a rough quarter of schoolwork):
-*~~Tweak first page (shadows checked, etc)~~
-*Thumbnail Chapter One
-*Design main monster (also for class)

I picked a hell of a week

2007-02-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

So a week ago I posted that I would have an Mp3 for ya'll. That update does exist, at least, it will. I'm having some trouble uploading it to the Internet still and the latest film I'm working on, Proved, has turned into a bigger commitment than I realized. I've spent the last 4 days rehearsing and filming a seriously badass fight sequence. The whole thing is only about 30 seconds, but that's a long time to be fighting, and it's all one shot on a swing cam, so editing isn't an option and if even one thing goes wrong, we have start all over. The director admits that this is the hardest part of this project and he wanted to get it out of the way.

So that's my excuse as to why I haven't had time to figure out how to upload Mp3's. However, I should have a large amount of free time tomorrow in which to work in the computer labs and figure this out. If that still doesn't work, I have another low-tech and temporary solution: create a MySpace page and post the fucker there.

There is a small chance that I won't even be able to do that though. My recording software has been acting strangely lately and just exporting the damn song may be more than it feels like doing right now. If that happens, I have another film in my pocket that I will post by Wednesday. It will have to suffice as content for this week. Later internet people.

Intro #2: The Girl

2007-02-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

Not much for me to explain. This blog is my fault, that "my" would be a possessive of the name Heidi.

I'm a senior illustration student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This means Tom and I are precisely 781.88 miles away, making us subject to the wonders of internet communication. However, high school served us well in keeping bonds going. While his lanky ass was parading around onstage to great effect, I lurked in the dark fussing with dials and switches as a theater techie. If you get rid of all the words after "with" in that last sentence, you now have a portrait of our current lifestyles, a good solid four years later.

I began drawing during class late in high school, which is frustrating since most of my peers have been drawing since they were in footie pajamas. I'm an illustrator, not an artist, since "artists" are, in my experience, adults with half-lidded eyes, careworn by the world, always living within a sense of vision that seems to tie back to something that happened in their childhood. Illustrators draw pictures that tell stories. Comic artists tend to do the same thing, just with slightly more than one picture at a time. I will only call myself a comic artist when my project, "Ordinary?" is done. That will take a long, long time that should have been started long ago, but was halted by insecurity, fear, and distractions that were not fought hard enough.

Yeah, it's late, but if I tell myself that and wait longer, it'll just be more late. If I die without finishing "Ordinary?", I will be extremely annoyed.

If, by whatever powers I can muster, I get "Ordinary?" into print form and sold in even the tiniest little bookshop, I will be simultaneously amazed, elated, and satisfied in a way I'll only be able to dream of until it happens.

However, as is the case when I open my mouth/type at great length, I get on edge, and have to simply go out and DO what it is I'm talking about doing, or at least bludgeon down whatever mundane tasks stand in my way of it. Bullet form shall have to do.

Right now: In a computer lab, nibbling on the stick of a once-delicious valentine lollipop, and regretting my choice to sit beneath the air conditioning vent while I finish page design homework and listen to "A Common Disaster", by the Cowboy Junkies.

In a week:
-Prologue cover art painted and done - preview on LDR
-Colors for page one of prologue done - preview on LDR
-Thumbnails for Chapter One - probably not previewed because they're kind of indecipherable and silly looking ; P

I'm not in any swanky films like Tom, but I did have the lapse of judgement enough to help a friend make a music video for special effects class.

http://studentpages.scad.edu/~dsaund20/shots/movie/movie.html

Wait until you see someone you have a strong urge to punch in the face, and then you'll know you found me.

-Heidi, aka Serrat, aka eyetosky, aka That Weird Girl Over There.

Intro #1: The Boy

2007-02-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

So this is the post where I explain myself, I guess. I'm Tom. I'm a senior theatre student as Ball State University. I should be graduating this coming summer via correspondence courses back home in D.C. I also write music on the side. I've been playing guitar for about 5 or 6 years now, but only in the last few years have I gotten serious about writing music. I've got probably 15 or 20 songs in my back catalogue (that sounds so weird to write) but I've been having a hard time getting a recording of them into reality. While I was writing I started a musical project called Middleground. The title came about as I found changes between what I had originally envisioned the project sounding like years ago, the sounds I heard in my head while I wrote, and what the songs actually ended up as in reality. I own enough equipment to have an ametuer studio set up in my apartment, and I actually had finished most of the guitarwork for Middleground last August. At that point I had planned to have several of my musical buddies at school add in drums, bass, and keyboards. None of the people I called upon ended up having either the time or the technical skill to do what I was looking for though. By November, the project had fallen dormant again. I had just grown discouraged with it and sort of... forgotten my priorities. Things distract you. Plans don't work out. Next thing you know, your dreams get snuck onto the backburner. Keeping up with school and preparing to graduate hadn't helped much.

That pretty much brings us up to date, when Heidi broached me about her own troubles with getting her pet project off the ground. Heidi is one of my oldest and best friends and I've always thought she was a tremendous artist. We've known each other for about 9 years now and still keep in contact even though we only really see each other 4 or 5 months out the year, since we go to different schools. We agreed to make a joint blog to post our progress and keep each other company as we work on our babies. Just someone to keep us motivated and encouraged. I'm going to go back and start rerecording stuff for Middleground, which I'll start to post, hopefully, no later than next Monday and try and post some hard content once a week every week after that. Probably just a few minutes of simple acoustic stuff to start with. Maybe even just a cover if I really hit a wall. No reason to stress about this stuff in the first week.If for some reason I can't make a post one week, it WILL be for a good reason, which you will see. What I mean is, I have no problem not posting a piece of Middleground one week, if it means posting a video or new song I've been working on.

To start the ball rolling, here's a short film I did awhile ago. I'm only in the first few minutes, but it's a decent little thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dEpiITTkGU

That's all for now. I have to go print off some scripts.

Tom, aka Pollux, aka The Fathomist, aka Mude Wanderman, aka Tommy Walker