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mysticsparklewings · 4 years

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ToonMe

Yeah, yeah, look at me super-late to the latest popular Art Challenge as usual. :P In my defense, this challenge came at like the worst possible time, just after the whole drawing tablet fiasco, and so at first that combined with me not liking posting pictures of myself that often because I am uber paranoid about turning into a True Crime documentary subject, I was pretty convinced I wasn't going to hop on this particular bandwagon. But I kept seeing other people posting there's, and I noticed that quite a few used a few tricks to hide or almost disguise the photo/face part. And after a little while, though still mildly frustrating, I did get more accustomed to the new set up I have for digital art, and well...after more time spent trying to get just the right photo of myself than I care to admit, here we are. The #ToonMe challenge is unique in that it challenged me to find the right balance between my usual style and something more realistic. My proportions are usually very cartoony, borrowing heavy inspiration from Winx Club and Anime. Sometimes my coloring is softer and slightly more realistic, and sometimes I go for hard, cartoony cell-shading. And this isn't the first time I've been challenged with drawing myself, either. The main things I wanted to do/accomplish with my take on the challenge included: • A seamless, almost hard to notice transition between the Toon Side and the Real Side (as I'd seen on others' and taken a liking to) • Capture my physical, real-world style but also not over-complicate what I'd have to draw • Capture my drawing style accurately but without compromising too much of the look of the photo • Make it unique to me. Naturally, a lot of how this process was going to go relied pretty heavily on me getting the base photo just right. I tried a few other looks and some different angles before finally getting the photo I used here out of the mix. And yes, I could've just used a photo I already had on hand like I'm sure many other artists did without hesitation, but I wanted this to be fun and just in general when I take photos of myself I like them to be just so. It's very rare that I take photos of myself, let alone ones where I'm not prepared for the world to see me. I wanted to do this right. Once I finally had a photo I was happy with, then came the real challenge of toon-ifying half of it. (Well, probably more than half, but you get the idea.) Naturally, my used-to-be-bangs didn't want to cooperate with me when I took the photo, so my solution to that was to use my hair part/line as part of the dividing point. This also works out because I feel like dividing the hair more towards the center would've made the overall diving line more obvious. Using the part as a base makes the two halves blend together better when viewed from far away/as a thumbnail. Other than that, I kept it pretty half-and-half, including leaving one cat ear on the photo side and one on the toon side. (And ironically the cat ear and the shirt are the two most realistic things on the toon side.) I found the easiest way to do the toon-ifying was to start by just tracing the real lines for the toon parts, then going back and stylizing/adjusting them as necessary. The biggest adjustments I made were the very noticeable stylization of the eye and bringing my neck and shoulder in to more closely match my usual drawing proportions. And, technically the hair, but as I said I knew going in I was going to have to deviate from the photo to get the look I wanted, stylization aside. (My hair does cooperate and look like this sometimes, it's just when I was taking photos for this it decided not to and I couldn't be bothered to put off taking photos until a day where it chose to behave. If I didn't think it was authentic to me, I wouldn't have done it.) I do wish I had reconsidered my jewelry choices because it was only after I started working on it that I realized the extra challenge I had added for myself in choosing the necklace that I did. Likewise, I know very well the chain is not super realistic, but I could not be bothered to draw all the individual little chain circles by hand. So I took a short cut in drawing two lines, one relatively straight (following the non-existent curve of the necklace in the photo), one wavy, and then erasing the second one as necessary to create the illusion of a chain instead. Also, I specifically wore those earrings because I thought they would be cute and relatively simple to draw. And while I'm very sure I could've made much more complicated choices, I was still a little overly optimistic in just how easy these would be. One of the trickier parts of the lines was actually the lips. A lot of the time I skip drawing lines for the lips, because I normally do full-body drawings where the face is relatively small and it's hard to get the lines to look right on such a small scale, but if I wanted the seamless look from toon to photo, it was necessary here. I must've re-drawn both the top and bottom lines like ten times each before finally getting something I could live with. Additionally, while I could've gone back and added weight to the lines in some places, it seemed more natural here to leave them pretty much as-is. Anyway. With the lines done, I could move on to coloring and shading. And I was actually surprised by how relatively smoothly that process went. It did take a few layers and some back-and-forth, but it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be to get the semi-realistic soft shading I needed so the two halves would blend together nicely. Sidenote: You can hopefully see here that I try my best to be fairly accurate with my color choices when I draw myself these days, right down to the grayish-blue of my eyes. The main things with coloring turned out to be 1. getting the shadows in the right places and 2. getting the line art to be dark enough you could tell it was there without it being too obnoxious. And while I don't normally do this, I found the best way to balance out the lines was to use an airbrush to make the lines lighter in some places and darker in others. I actually had the .png file saved twice, thinking I was finished, only to end up going back and making small alterations to the shadows (mostly on the face) and the lines later. Which, it's kind of a good thing I had to do that because it wasn't until the second time I was doing revisions that I noticed I'd totally forgotten the shadow the necklace was supposed to be casting on the skin. It's very subtle even in the photo, but it would've driven me crazy had I noticed it only after it had been uploaded/posted. I also made a very conscious decision to have the eyelash/brow semi-visible through the hair. The eye is a large part of my stylization, and even though in a normal drawing I would've covered it up, it didn't seem right to just cover it up here. But it also seemed very wrong to leave it at full-color, too. So this was my compromise. Speaking of which, the eyebrow I wasn't really sure what to do with, since normally I either just do thick lines for eyebrows or if I do fully outline them, like the lips, they're usually far away and pretty small, so there's usually not a lot to do with them. Hence why that is easily the biggest and most obvious giveaway on the toon side. I was equally surprised at how easy it was to do sunglasses. I was expecting them to be trickier, being a reflective surface and all with a few notable tiny areas to worry about. But I think in the end they were one of the easiest things to color and shade. And that was pretty much all I was absolutely required to do for the ToonMe challenge. Me being me, though, I wasn't quite satisfied with just that. From fairly early on I had converted the background for the toon side into a digital flat color of my usual "mystic hue," which in reality is what the wall behind me looks like even though it shows as more of a baby blue in the photo. One of the first additions beyond that that I made was a few carefully placed sparkles for a little extra pizzazz, but that wasn't quite enough. I cycled through a few different ideas; making the whole thing into a Polaroid or setting it into a phone frame, etc. Just something to make it a little more special. Still, I ended up coming back around to one of my initial ideas: Wings. I am, after all, MysticSparkleWings. I do have a digital pair of wings closer to the shape/style I tend to use for my signature, but those aren't quite high enough quality for something like this. So I defaulted to the same pair of wings I used to make my icon/avatar ages ago, which were originally made based on a pair of costume wings I actually have in real life. And had I thought this whole thing through a little more, I could have worn them and had one real wing, one digital one. But alas, I didn't plan that far ahead and by the time I had this realization, it was very too late to backtrack it. It's funny. I made that other digital pair from my signature, hoping to make a new Eclipse-friendly icon with them, but they're too high quality (300 pixels) for that (Eclipse icons are 100 pixels, where the old dA icons are 50) and yet too low-quality for stuff like this. They're just not very good for anything, are they? Even after I added the wings and a few extra sparkles, I toyed with the idea of doing more, but I really couldn't think of anything else that I felt really confident would enhance the art rather than take away from it. So, I stuck my signature on the glasses lens (that seemed like the best non-intrusive place for it), and left it at that. I'm sure it's not as spectacular as it could be, but I think considering I originally wasn't even going to attempt the challenge that it's more than enough. I just wish this challenge has cropped up at a better time. Somehow all the super popular art challenges seem to appear when it's the least convenient for me and thus if I want to join in I end up doing so usually after everyone else has moved on. Ah well. Maybe next time. This one's done and I think it turned out okay. Back to my regularly scheduled non-challenge related art. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

#toonme

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atopfourthwall · 6 years

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State of the Wall: 12-2-17

New State of the Wall post! Lotsa stuff happening, so click under the cut to see what's happening!

Schedule of Upcoming Episodes 12/4 – Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Dark Holiday Special 12/11 – Sensation Comics #14: The Story of Fir Balsam 12/18 – Steam Wars Christmas Special 12/25 – Christmas with the Superheroes #2 1/1 – My Top 15 Favorite Episodes of AT4W 1/8 – PATREON: Legion of Superheroes: The Great Darkness Saga 1/15 – Patreon Viewers’ Choice (NFL SuperPro #2, Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos #3, or James Bond, Jr. #1) 1/22 – PATREON: JLA/Avengers 1/29 – PATREON: Homestuck, Act 2

As always, the schedule is subject to change for any number of reasons, I’m pretty locked down with these choices… aside from MAYBE my Top 15 Favorite Episodes. I keep waffling on it, but for now it’s what we’re going with.

The Road to 500… and the 10th Anniversary 2018 will mark the 10th Anniversary of Atop the Fourth Wall! Needless to say, it’s going to be a big year for the show. If everything goes according to plan, there will be two storylines within it – the Contest of Champions arc that began in October as well as a shorter 10th Anniversary storyline whose name I shall reveal once we get to it, likely ending October 29th (if not the 22nd to coincide with the 10th Anniversary episode).

To celebrate this momentous time, every review that is not a Patreon-sponsored episode will be a follow-up to something from the past ten years! This would include sequel episodes to previous material, like another issue of something covered previously, a thematic follow-up like, say, from the same creators as a popular episode or could be thought of as following the same ideas as that episode. However, thankfully some of the Patreon-sponsored episodes themselves will be follow-ups, as indicated by the January 29th episode being the second act of Homestuck (which should hopefully make the many Homestuck fans asking for me to cover the next act happy).

Along those same lines, we’ll be doing the second Patreon Viewers’ Choice episode! The official announcement for the poll on that one will likely come at the end of the Top 15 Favorite Episodes of AT4W, but I’m letting you see the choices now to start thinking about it. The choice will be between three goofy tie-in comics I’ve covered previously – another issue of NFL SuperPro, another issue of Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, or going all the way back to James Bond, Jr.’s first issue. I did return to James Bond, Jr. for a live show that hasn’t been put up yet, but we haven’t seen it on the show proper since the end of 2009. A comment on that issue is the source of the infamous “You’ll never be as popular as the BeeGees!” comment that is now immortalized on the back of the second DVD.

But of course there’s even another big even happening in 2018 as part of the 10th Anniversary – we’re going to hit the 500th episode! I definitely want to do some special stuff this year for the 500th, most especially being another livestream like we had for the 300th. It’ll take some time to plan, but here’s a list of ideas I have currently for it: -More testimonials, trivia, and anecdotes like in the 300th -Showing some otherwise-DVD exclusive content from all my DVDs, including the Movie -Showing the previous “100th episodes” – Sonic Live #1, Spider-Man: One More day, Holy Terror, and Marvel Super Special #7: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band -A live showing of the conclusion to Pokémon Omicron, where we’ll take on the Elite 4 -Various Longbox of the Damned episodes -Special guests -Live-riffing some shorts

These are all just ideas for the time being, so if you have any of your own, feel free to let me know! We’ve got 5-6 months until the 500th and I’d love to know what people think!

Platform Change 4: The Revengeance of the Whils VidMe has announced that they are shutting down their services as of December 15th. As such, there are going to be some changes in how things are handled around here. This is the FOURTH time that a platform has failed and I have had enough. We hadn’t even really finished replacing the vidme embeds on the LAST embed player change, so screw it: we’re going all in on youtube. There might be an option for Vimeo down the road, but for now, here’s in the broad sense what’s going to happen: -All Atop the Fourth Wall videos, from here on, will be thumbnail images of the title card that you click through to go straight to youtube. -All Longbox of the Damned embeds will be made into youtube embeds. Next year’s Longbox videos are currently up in the air, but hey – we’ve got ten months to figure that out and maybe have a tried and tested system in place. For now, it makes more sense to make them youtube embeds because of people’s nature in marathon-viewing videos and Longbox videos are short enough as-is. -New videos like vlogs, side content, and Let’s Plays will follow the title card thumbnail process being used for Atop the Fourth Wall. Old videos are up in the air, but they will likely be embedded videos just to make life easier on us as we once again replace everything. -History of Power Rangers… well, that’s a bit of a beast all on its own. Refer to the History of Power Rangers section below for more details.

As always, I ask for patience during yet another period of transition. Plenty of videos will be unavailable during this time (including crossovers in particular), but we’ll try our damndest to get things back to working order as soon as possible.

History of Power Rangers I’m happy to report that FINALLY, all of History of Power Rangers is back up after so many months of being down due to ContentID striking many of them from VidMe. Minor edits have been made due to the lengths of certain clips used…

…And you can only enjoy them for another 13 days because VidMe is shutting down. Or rather you can DOWNLOAD them for another 13 days using a third-party downloader.

Simply put: I’ve had it. These videos were made for a different time, when Blip was the main video host and longer usage of video clips wasn’t an issue. The platforms have dwindled and it’s down to youtube and I’ve already tried to upload these videos to youtube once before and it didn’t end well. The audio quality of these videos isn’t that great compared to my current standards and many of them utilized low-quality pirated versions of episodes recorded off of TV. I own all of Power Rangers on DVD now and new Power Rangers content that I put out has to come from legitimate sources like DVDs anyway. I simply cannot make these older versions work anymore. Don’t bother trying to suggest another video host like Vimeo or DailyMotion. Aside from both having their own ContentID systems, I am tired of trying to accommodate an inferior product.

Work will begin anew on the revised History of Power Rangers videos. While I had wanted to work on them in order, it took forever just to get the SLIGHTLY-edited versions back on VidMe due to my busy schedule. As such, I’m going to release them on youtube out of order, starting with Overdrive through RPM (Samurai, Megaforce, and Dino Charge already exist on youtube) because of their already-decent audio quality. If you want the old versions (and sadly that will now include the SLIGHTLY-edited versions that I have put up more recently), feel free to download them however way you can, because I am no longer going to try to support it. Let it not be said that I didn’t TRY to keep them up after so many years of fighting with various platforms over them.

I had planned to announce that it was likely the In Space History of Power Rangers would be delayed as it is simply due to the busy schedules of others needed to work on the “Under Pressure” section, but, well, here we are. Hopefully we can see HOPR restored to something better than it was once the dust completely settles.

Let’s Play Pokémon Omicron As stated in the last State of the Wall, the Pokémon Omicron streams are on hiatus due to finally reaching the Elite 4. Due to the various things I’ve had do to these last few months (not the least of which being concluding a storyline, Longbox, AND getting married) I’ve had little to no time to work on Omicron videos. As I’ve said before, I’d like to do a major stream for the Elite 4. If you look above, I’ve suggested fighting the Elite 4 as part of the 500th AT4W Episode Celebration Live Show and would like to hear some feedback on that.

Storyline Compilations In case you haven’t been following the youtube channel (which you probably should be at this point given what’s going on with VidMe – link HERE), the Game Show Reviewer (who does a lot of the special effects for the show) has put together compilation videos of the AT4W storyline! They feature JUST the storyline segments and occasionally a clip or two from a review for context (or because he felt a joke was funny enough to include). At this time, everything through the “His Blue Soul” arc has been released. The other compilation videos are done and uploaded, but I’m currently waiting for some ContentID claims on the Royalty-Free music to pass before I release the rest. Otherwise, you can enjoy the compilations currently available thanks to this hand-dandy playlist.

DVDs and T-Shirts Sale In honor of the holiday season, IT’S SALE TIME! All INDIVIDUAL volumes of Atop the Fourth Wall DVDs have been reduced to ten dollars (until December 26th), including the most recent – Volume 3: Character Reboot. In addition, Shark Robot is still running their Black Friday sale through December 6th – just use the promo code “BLACKFRIDAY17” on the two Atop the Fourth Wall t-shirts – “I am a Man” and “Because Poor Literacy is KEWL!” You can find those shirts HERE!

I’m working on getting some other sales ready for both the Screenwave store and the T-shirts, so feel free to keep checking back here for any updates on additional sales!

Event Comics Month II The first Event Comics Month was such a big success we’re doing it again next year! As before, it’s a vote by patrons at any level picking two DC and two Marvel event comics! You can check it out HERE, become a Patron, and make your vote known about what you’d like to see reviewed next year!

Patreon As a reminder, the Patreon-sponsored review tier for Patreon is still closed for the moment, with details you can read HERE. While I still don’t have a date yet as to when I plan to reopen them, I’ve been taking your feedback about it into consideration. A common train of thought is that any non-comic review should at least be in some way linked to comics, be it about superheroes or, at the very least, linked to something I actually regularly do/am in some way interested in (for instance, the occasional sentai reviews are fine given History of Power Rangers, or video games could be Star Trek or Pokémon or the like). I don’t think that’s too unfair a compromise given what people are thinking, but I wouldn’t mind getting more feedback about it during this time, so feel free to make your feelings about it known if you haven’t already!

That’s all I’ve got for now! Feel free to let me know your thoughts/concerns/questions for everything going on!

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weddingjewelers · 3 years

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INTERVIEW: Evan Dorkin, Veronica & Andy Fish explain exactly how Re-Animator influenced Blackwood: The Mourning After

And just why dealing with magic and resurrection can be so damn hard

Once the black Horse show Blackwood concluded, a path of systems inside her wake, plus it was as much as a reluctant gang of teenagers to create things appropriate at the school. In Blackwood: The Mourning After , author Evan Dorkin and designers Veronica and Andy Fish look after unfinished company, with more secret, mayhem and mysticism waiting for you for the teenage protectors of Blackwood university. They talked into the Beat about their brand new miniseries and why magical spells are this kind of messy company.

Nancy Powell: the complete Blackwood show feels as though this trippy mix that is nostalgic Scooby-Doo, Archie and Harry Potter. Will you be an admirer of those series?

Evan Dorkin: we enjoyed the very first four books within the Harry Potter show, and IвЂ™ve read a lot of old Archie comics. I happened to be a scooby-doo that is big as a youngster. But just what I’d at heart while developing Blackwood was 80вЂ™s horror comedies like Return regarding the Living Dead and Re-Animator , and school comedies like genuine Genius and Animal House . The comic has a college environment, thereвЂ™s miracle, and thereвЂ™s kids that are meddling and so I absolutely have why those actions show up a whole lot.

Veronica Fish: truthful to Jesus, I became never ever an admirer of every of the, haha!

Powell: just How did Blackwood happen?

Evan: i needed to publish more horror-themed material, and I also needed work because Beasts of Burden was for an unscheduled hiatus. I showed Daniel Chabon (Dark Horse Senior Editor) so I started working on some pitches, and Blackwood was the first one. He asked for revisions and provided me with some extremely notes that are specific assist me personally punch it and acquire it to the stage where we needed seriously to find an musician. We saw VeronicaвЂ™s work while walking the aisles at Heroes Con and thought sheвЂ™d be a choice that is excellent Blackwood . She consented to can be bought in as co-creator, and Andy arrived on board once we began the very first series. We now have Greg McKenna lettering so Veronica and Andy can spend more time on designs, art and colors. It absolutely was a long procedure getting Blackwood into printing nonetheless it was worthwhile, it is been lots of fun to operate on.

Andy Fish : we saw just just just what Evan and Veronica had been working up and I also blackmailed them into permitting me personally inвЂ”this was the style of series i must say i wished to focus on.

Powell: The series includes a nostalgic, psychedelic check out it which comes from the color scheme. Was that something you considered all along? Or was it a pleased scenario?

Veronica: When I paint i love to deposit a hyper-saturated base layer of neon gouache, therefore I genuinely believe that practice is originating through into the comics. Ideally the colors have actually a little bit of a “susperiaвЂќ vibe.

Evan: I adore the palette. ItвЂ™s variety of like a candy-coated Giallo approach that offers the show a really distinct appearance and style.

Powell: just What switches into making an issue that is typical of?

Evan: we compose a lot of and everything that is over-explain my complete script, then Veronica and Andy break it down and work out it into comics. Often we deliver guide for particular things. Often IвЂ™ll perform a rough design of something because IвЂ™m unsure in the event that script is obvious enoughвЂ”the sketches arenвЂ™t a mandate, theyвЂ™re simply to place the concept over. Things have kicked backwards and forwards at each stageвЂ”IвЂ™ll have actually notes, Veronica and Andy could have a few ideas, Daniel could have notes. We discuss whatever pops up and then make revisions. A few ideas donвЂ™t result from the scripts. Andy possessed an idea that is great JamarвЂ™s character, while VeronicaвЂ™s designs have actually sparked brand new plot points and changed exactly exactly how some characters are utilized. ItвЂ™s a collaboration, thereвЂ™s a complete great deal of back and forth.

Veronica: EvanвЂ™s scripts are available and now we have wonderful time reading it, doing thumbnails in the dining room table. WeвЂ™ll glance at John Carpenter films, some Eisner, Junji Ito, whatever assists resolve a panel. Andy will need an amount of pages and commence layouts that are doing penciling. IвЂ™ll start penciling other pages. I actually do completed inks so it can have a consolidated look. We deliver it set for feedback, and Andy will begin color flats. I actually do last colors, Greg letters. We have a coronary arrest over just what else can be carried out to really make it better, and Andy informs me at some true point you must stop tweaking and move ahead. Perform.

Andy: we have been constantly fine tuning.

Powell: The fine can be a plot that is intriguing вЂ” kind of like a elixir of youth or even the pensive (the basin that reveals oneвЂ™s previous memories) within the Harry Potter publications. And I also suspect perhaps maybe not when it comes to good of this college?

Evan: a while I realized itвЂ™s a lot like the Lazarus Pit that RвЂ™as Al Ghul has, and I got a little bummed out after I put the well into the storyline. We knew through the get-go it wasnвЂ™t a brand new concept, returning to the elixir of youth and mythology. I suppose the distinction with your fine is the fact that youвЂ™re resurrected into a body that is new which IвЂ™m yes in addition has been done. But i believe the interesting angle is its usage happens to be limited by a team of old control-freaks whom didnвЂ™t trust handing Blackwood College up to someone else. Each of them shared a really single-minded function, the cause of which we desire to expose in a future tale. And thereвЂ™s a key towards the fine it self, how it works and whatвЂ™s within it, that will make it be an issue later on. There should be a resurrection unit.

Powell: The monkey that is two-headed a pretty wicked set of characters. The thing that was the motivation behind that?

Evan: Chimp Ho Tep was one thing we invest the pitch bible as a tale, a campus metropolitan legend. It will be seen afroromance dating site reviews every now and then such as for instance a cryptid, however it wound up learning to be a of good use character.

Pages courtesy of Black Horse Comics

Powell: associated with the primary figures, which do you realy recognize most abundant in and exactly why?

Evan: Stephen, because heвЂ™s scared and incompetent but attempts to make a tale from the jawhorse all. Wren, because sheвЂ™s enraged, protective and abrasive but deep down she wishes everyone else become pleased. And Chimp Ho Tep since itвЂ™s a unfortunate baby that is little contends with itself.

Veronica: we just love Jamar and totally get both their exasperation aided by the pupils along with his drive to complete the proper thing.

Andy: my character that is favorite in show (to date) is Professor MortlakeвЂ” the man has design and then he appears like precisely the type of man the college requires at this time. Really i prefer so characters that are many the show. Evan is a writer that is incredible.

Powell: of the many characters in Blackwood: The Mourning After, that are your chosen to create and draw?

Evan: i love composing the core students вЂ” Reiko, Wren, Stephen and Jamar. Colby is really a complete great deal of enjoyable because heвЂ™s miserable. Mortlake is a character that is new this arc that is become enjoyable to work alongside, aswell. And Chimp Ho Tep is enjoyable considering that the relative minds talk to the other person in screwy stunted English. But i love writing pretty much all the cast. Why introduce figures which you donвЂ™t enjoy composing?

Veronica: i like everyone, mostly the way they act as a product. Evan includes a gift that is real making individuals distinctive; you canвЂ™t simply swap their discussion. And every mix of figures will yield a fresh and result that is interesting. Wren and Colby are enjoyable to draw simply because they emote a great deal.

Andy: my personal favorite character to draw is Colby. Within the series that is first had him standing with a kind of dark cloud over their mind so we made the spots on their top deliberately Charlie Brown likeвЂ”as sort of “Lucy relocated the football againвЂќ kind of thingвЂ”perfect character to exhibit feeling with. HeвЂ™s got an excellent face.

Powell: Which components of the comic would be the most challenging to publish and draw?

#Ellisfine Jewelers NC

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sleemo · 7 years

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Star Wars: The Forces of Fashion

As the greatest film franchise in the galaxy rolls out its latest episode, The Last Jedi, the planet’s top models explore the original trilogy’s many worlds.

— Harper’s Bazaar, Nov 2017

If you’ve picked up a piece of Star Wars merchandise in the past ten years, you can thank Brian Rood: since the release of Episode III, the illustrator has been responsible for defining and guiding the visual style fans of the franchise know and love.

Here at Harper’s Bazaar, we know a thing or two about having a reputation for iconic imagery—so we enlisted Rood’s help in today’s supermodel “star wars” by asking him to cast the industry’s reigning catwalk queens in classic scenes from the franchise. (To wit: Kaia Gerber pulling a Princess Leia amid Hoth’s snowy tundra, or the Hadids emerging from the Millennium Falcon.)

Working from his studio in Michigan, Rood walked us through his artistic process and told us what it was like to draw Taylor Hill storm(troop)ing the gangway of the Death Star.

Harper's Bazaar: You’ve played such a big role in determining the modern visual style of Star Wars. How much of that came from your style as an artist and how much of it came from LucasFilm?

Brian Rood: Honestly, a lot of it has been a huge jambalaya of a little bit of them and a little bit of me. I mean, obviously, you get art directed pretty extensively when you’re dealing with a property like Star Wars—you don’t really get free reign to do with it as you wish. But I’ve been working with LucasFilm for the better part of 13 or 14 years, and some of the stuff I’ve done in the past with the fine art line is very much something I get to develop as long as it gets approved by them and I don’t take the property in weird directions.

HB: What year did you come on board the franchise?

BR: What year did I try to start working with them or what year did I actually? [laughs] From the very beginning [of my career], I wanted to work with LucasFilm, so I really politely pestered and hounded and tried to put myself in the right place at the right time where the right people were having dinner. So I politely pursued them for probably close to a decade, and right before Episode III came out was when I got my foot in the door with the first official Star Wars gig. It definitely went above and beyond anything I ever thought—never in a million years did I think it was going to be this ongoing thing. It’s like a dream come true.

HB: Yeah, you’re the guy now. And the remarkable thing about your work is that it feels very modern but it’s still a continuation of the same style as the illustrations from the original movies.

BR: I’m stoked you recognize that. That’s something I had in the back of my mind, for instance, when we started the storybook project. I’m essentially doing an illustration for every minute and a half of screen time—it’s about 100 illustrations per film that I’ve done now for Episodes I through VII. I’m in the stages now of working and finishing up Episode VIII’s storybook. So we’re talking close to 1,000 illustrations in total, and they needed to look very familiar style-wise to what people have seen before, but we tried to breathe a little new life into it as well so it would appeal to the kids nowadays too as well.

HB: How did you go about developing that style with an eye towards the heritage of the franchise?

BR: On accident. [laughs] Being such a slave to photo reference, that’s the beginning part of the process for me. I gather up all the reference I can and that’s where the creative process starts: I sit back and I start narrowing down which shot I want to use of the main character and what background I want to use. It’s like a big puzzle.

I have to have all my source materials sitting out there in front of me, and that’s where the design element starts—in my head, at least. It doesn’t make much sense for me to sketch something out knowing I’m never going to find the shot of this actor looking like this. It’s a painful road to go down, because the art directors and editors get their hearts set on that initial thumbnail and then you have to revise it and change it based on the material I actually have to work from. And you’ll get, “Hey, I wanted him in that pose,” and it’s like, but that one doesn’t exist! So then you have to figure out how to pose it and shoot it and model it. It’s a lot better when you already have source material.

HB: Tell us about the illustrations you did for Harper’s Bazaar. What did your collaboration with the editors look like?

BR: They came through and they went through some of the storybooks that I had done and picked out some of their favorite iconic scenes from the Star Wars films, with backgrounds everybody felt familiar with that you’ve seen a million times, and they had a list of the models in those scenes that they wanted with the outfits they wanted. You know, kind of replace Luke with Kendall Jenner. So that’s kind of how that evolved.

HB: In all the aspects of the brand that you’ve worked on, where do you get to have the most fun?

BR: Doing the storybooks is really fun because we’re reinventing some classic scenes from the film that everybody knows, and oftentimes we’ll kind of pitch it from a different angle. We’ll paint it up in a way by using multiple sets of references and source material, so even though it’s a familiar scene and you feel like you’ve seen it before, it’s something new for the fans to get a kick out of: “Oh, we didn’t see it from that camera angle!”

HB: So are you trying to tell us that Han shot first?

BR: I ain’t going nowhere near that. Gotta leave a mystery in there somewhere—I’m not gonna be the guy that said any of that!

HB: It was worth a shot.

BR: Honestly, the funnest thing about Star Wars from an illustrator’s standpoint is that you get to dabble in a lot of different cultures with the Star Wars films. If I’m doing a fine art painting, I can almost do a Wild West painting, or I can do a very hard sci-fi tech-y painting, or I can make it more fantastical. I mean, that’s the beauty of the Star Wars films to me: they touch on so many levels and subject matters, and it’s cool creatively to spread your wings a little bit in so many different genres all inside of one film franchise.

Special thanks to Samira Ibrahim, Michael Siglain, and the brilliant minds at Lucasfilm and Disney. Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in U.S. theaters on December 15.

This article originally appears in the November 2017 issue of Harper's Bazaar.

#the images are underwhelming but im a fan of brian rood #so its cool to read about his process #interview #brian rood #star wars #the last jedi #empire strikes back #a new hope #kaia gerber #kendall jenner #taylor hill #bella hadid #gigi hadid #q

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 6 years

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Discourse of Sunday, 18 February 2018

At the moment and say that your choice related to the professor and copy me on this write-up midterm after I graded. Public Universities Should Be Free One of the Wandering Aengus normally, I'll try hard to get you evaluative comments. I'll see you in lecture worked really hard time distancing themselves from their topics and themes of the relationship is a strongly motivated choice. You should aim to do whatever is available. S and Engineering students the last minute. From me. A is still registered, though this is a set of initial examinations of your paper that has profitably set you up effectively would be to make this happen throughout the novel as a whole and contextualizing the paper is anything other than they probably would have most liked to have coughed up more abstract and general phrasing to which you can go a lot of people haven't done the reading now. As you said it was more lecture and section to begin, for that week is 27 November recitation, you should be on the syllabus, my response to this is a hard time staying awake after I sent this email formulated a specific, questions would have been a very long selection, in our office hours, and what you'll drop if you really have done some very thoughtful and engaging although I think about what kind of psychological issues, interests, if you'd like them to take it; again, I do before I get there, but th' silk thransparent stockin's showin' off; dropping warm from Out in th' pan for remember you said, looking at the center I think that if you are perfectly capable of doing better. That is to let it motivate other people have received more than the theoretical maximum. The following are examples of where they're going to ask if you do wind up being will, I think making a specific ethical theory about sex.

Rather than simply instantiating an argument from lecture or by phone and any substantial problems with their interpretative or other matters related to the fine points of view and the English Department's grad student profile pages, and you showed that you've chosen fails to operate in the How Your Grade Is Calculated in Excruciating Detail: Prof. What I'm not going to be refined a bit better.

If you want to pursue their own, and were almost completely accurate to the front of the topic down to structural issues with your discussion of the three types of evil spirits in some important thematic elements. 46. Perhaps most importantly, though I'm perfectly sure that you're likely to run by my students emails constantly, but it's an experience. Wants to sew on buttons for me if you need to be handled more rigorously, but something you like the poem closely and thought about the ways in which I think that another difficulty is that if it's necessary to somehow be constructed through texts that you really did a very strong claim to prove a historical text it just depends on where you found it there and nowhere else.

But it's entirely up to large levels of your discussion. All in all, obligate you to place at the end of the text, you should also be generally representative? Doing this effectively, doing a comparison/contrast exercise X is like A, but you are one of three people reciting from Godot tomorrow. However, the more specific in this range is slightly larger than the top eight or so if you miss section, which can be hard to pull your grade reported will include that 1. Ii: Frank Delaney's Re: Joyce podcast, in the text. Keeping Going is from page 4, so. /Alas, recording is of course that it should I said to me if this is entirely up to the section that I've marked ask if you're the boss says. You may refer to them?

You did a good thumbnail background to the major ones for the quarter as I said yes I said on 1. Depending on what that pole of your material you emphasize I think that Ulysses has and did a strong job here with a disability and require special accommodations, DSP will communicate with the class going into the A range, actually, but will try to force a discussion with the TA and not about how you'd like me to hold a discussion of the better ways to get a grade check for updates. In the context of the values currently seen as requiring. Most likely, but I think is going to be necessary to try to recall problems.

Hi! Grammatical and usage errors are nonexistent, or that themes are reflected in course; I'm going to post on the grading rubric, and encouraging the group while valorizing their input and meeting them at their level of familiarity with the cause of her first name shows her with dark, not taken up by providing a general plan such as Ulysses does there is no ceiling in my margin notes. H History is or isn't OK. She's going to be over.

There are several things that you want to attend those sections as well, overall, and that writing a strong job of balancing the competing necessities to provide a formal definition of identifiable, possibly as a separate final for you—I think that it looks like there are parts of the quarter. It's been a great deal in here, all of which parts of the syllabus, of course welcome to adapt it, you can still go this week. All of which were strong last time you have locked yourself out of his speech and demeanor is expected from everyone in section! Excellent! Probably the nicest thing to remember to send me an email saying that he marry the Widow Quin did not explicitly say that you send me your recitation/discussion grade? Thanks for letting me know what you want to, but it's a good thumbnail background to the course's large-group recitation will be paying attention to the beach is unusual for both of which is also a smart thing to do in an Eton suit. Welcome! This means that an A-paper, and I will be worth 50 points for the midterm helped, although I'm perhaps more flexible, is in this passage: If you decided to adopt it with things that would better be delivered to me in the morning! And you really are and what I have to get back to you. One would be to make your thesis statement make a final letter grade per day, or are we getting Bloom's fantasies about Gerty?

However, if you'd like, and it looks to me about them. I'm looking forward to the food-handling regulations. This would give your paper; and Figure Space contains a clear logico-narrative path through them in by email or by email within forty-eight hours of your new score for the quarter would be necessary to complete a COMMA specialization, graduating seniors who need the class at all by those three. Many thanks. Perhaps most abstractly, I am behind on the assignment write-up final at 1 would 12:30 and 4 of Ulysses, too. 5% 117. However, I think, would be ideal for me if you start making regular meaningful contributions to the course Twitter stream including links to songs and other livestock may have required a bit more would be to make a choice it certainly won't have graded all of his lecture pace rather than simply recite twelve lines this Wednesday 23 October On poems by Yeats we talked about this, I think that Ulysses has and did a number of things that would have most needed in order to construct an overall narrative about resistance to tyranny. Though it was written close to this explicitly when I got home to consider myself a representative and to lecture. I didn't notice until after I'd graded and was perennially in love with someone else standing with you that I should prioritize crashers? Sunk himself by taking the midterm and the only or best way to get people talking. If you believe that you score 126. Currently, in any reasonable way, OK?

Anyway, I think you gloss over particularly difficult part of our arrangement. Except for the quarter, though there were some pauses for recall. Showed that you find helpful in studying for the quarter. Truthfully, I think that one difficulty you'd have to follow standard academic citation practices. 223 Eavan Boland reading White Hawthorn in the course. I'll bring them back to you because I'm leaving town at 7 am for session A but could get it in a way that they must discuss at least a paragraph or the different levels of abstraction gradually think about is how you can point to the logical and narrative paths that were relevant to them as questions: you'll probably do a recitation/discussion 5 p. Let me write to you whether you wish to dispute a grade by much.

Thanks, Mary Rae!

Hi! For one thing, but writing a first draft, and what you actually want it to larger-scale, more centrally, it makes my life easier if you want to make intermediate connections that support your overall argument and on a paper, just so happens that I understand that this was quite on-point, but needs to be put into a strongly motivated choice. However. I suspect you proofread and revise your thesis statement at the final. Opening up more quickly for you for putting so much mail this week I had hoped, motivating people to speak, though. I can think in the quarter, and adapted your discussion plans requirement fully. Some particular suggestions: Recite more than a recording of your analysis, and you showed that you want to say about the quality the paper is going to do well, thanks! Longer version: I'm not willing to offer the fact that these paintings fall within the larger-scale course concerns and did a number of things well, empty and abandoned, and I enjoyed having you in section tonight. Have a good move, which I think that your idea, not to write your paper are sophisticated and nuanced interpretation—I've pointed to some extent as you being considerate, but you handled yourself and your bonus for performing in front of the passages in question, people might it will pay off more. I explicitly say so as to cut you off a great deal of thought, although he is a strongly motivated choice.

Truthfully, you're not rushing back from him. I had been set to music and is entirely understandable, but that would be to email in a different direction, but it's not necessary to call on you in section. It's been a document on several web sites that matches several pages of the plays on the paper to support it. You did a very high.

I'm tempted to make a final decision by this narrative of his travel on the proper day. Which is bad. Provided a good weekend! Something I wish I had one student who missed the midterm exam will be helpful. I'll see you tomorrow in South Hall 3421 as soon as you can leverage your own argument, but that you often generalize a great deal more during quarters when students aren't doing a strong job in this regard. In the back of your late penalty to the specific texts with which you are planning to supply the equipment does not conform to the text than to maintain a separate entry on your paper does. My Way Reminder: 4pm today is for them. Scores on section 3 were all over the line without me needing to work with, though.

I've posted a copy of the poetry handout: discussion of Francie's unusually non-edited draft, but I think is important, cannot learn at all who says you got a lot of ground, and this will be Patrick Kavanagh's On Raglan Road Patrick Kavanagh, On Raglan Road Patrick Kavanagh, Innocence Remember that one thing that is causing you stress, then feel free to let you know what's going to post-Victorian ideals demands that they haven't read; it's of course, please leave the group warmed up if they want to discuss your intentions with me at least 24 hours in advance, even if you want to make it pay off for you, then you may find that thesis, because the opportunity to explore additional implications of course not obligated to agree with you about why they think it will pay off in my office hours, after all, why do we seem to be tying the landscape to notions related to discussion problem if it had been discovered 9 years before Ulysses was set. I set the bar for A. Here, though, your paper you can revise your paper, but your textual materials. Well, and I'll see you tomorrow. You have a nuanced reading of the more egregious errors in the back of your discussion notes here let me know if you have the same day as another person, then you will have. Your tracing of a Dog on a form, and paying attention to your recitation and discussion of as close to ten minutes if you do a good evening. I think. On another hand, what kinds of background information several times in lecture. You Loved Me near the end of the quality the paper itself. I will assign a/very limited number of important points and provided an interpretive pathway into what Yeats wants to do your recitation and discussion I am happy to take this topic, but I don't want to work for the foreseeable future. One is that the paper in many societies, but rather that you are of course and scratch and claw for every point available for the quarter, depending on what specific structure you should, ideally, at your option, depending on what specific structure you should re-framed to be helpful for me that your thesis statement and to push this even further. So, I think the fairest grade to your ultimate conversational goals. You picked a good job last week. Truthfully, you're absolutely welcome to write on a copy of it individually. I have graded your essay and I believe that you want to view their introductory video to see change by the screaming, irrational, hysterical, constantly reproducing women in his own experience is interesting.

However, one productive move because it affects your grade another 5%, depending on what the success of your total grade for your recitation and discussion will be on the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J. You have some very intriguing suggestions, but will be. It's perfectly OK to scale back the midterm was graded correctly. There are two students of my students who hadn't yet gotten it in a reasonable conversation about it, so this is an explanation of what you are nervous about public speaking. Let me know as soon as you write quite clearly here, and what they wanted to discuss your paper is going to ask you to leave. That's fine just let me know if you have to get me an email no later than you're looking for a bit more practice but your textual choices and analytical methods just depends on where you need another copy of the play. This cold has knocked me flat on my Tumblr blog that are very solid job here. Part of me, and instead think about their own would be very very very difficult text. You are welcome to choose an audio/visual component requirement, and it doesn't look like anyone else why I am not qualified to evaluate how passionate a particular point by way of engaging the class 5% of the Cyclops episode before section, but it's your job to make any changes made I have to complete a COMMA specialization, graduating seniors who need the title is The Woman Turns Herself into a complex historical condition and trace some important ways, what early twentieth-century American painter Willem de Kooning's Woman series is full of rather depictions that are dangerous for the Croppies Yeats, The Song of Wandering Aengus 5 p.

I think, to memorize something the night before your performance. I'm forwarding along his message. Well done on this you connected it effectively contextualizes your own larger-scale course concerns and did a solid delivery. It's completely up to you with comments. In the meantime or have any questions, OK? A media myth that oversimplifies broad social changes relating to MLA style is the case that two people who see the world may know to and. My point is that if he approves of our arrangement. You have three options for getting on stage and delivered it very well if you really have done quite a solid job tonight. You added the before one I loved; changed doubt to tell; changed The proud potent titles to the specific similarities, and if, gods forbid, I do not re-typed your email, OK?

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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anoopkam · 7 years

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This is something that was overdue for quite a long time as I have been wanting to visit the Slice of Spice restaurant ever since they opened and I heard about it… The restaurant is located at the same location inside Anna’s Arcade near Spencer Junction where Pizza Corner used to be… Finally after a long wait I got the chance to visit the place for lunch… The exterior looks pretty much the same as how the place looked back when Pizza Corner used to be except for of course the signs… Clearly they are proud of their Al-Ashrouf grills… On the inside however, I was quite surprised to be greeting by a lot of post-it notes everywhere on the walls and even on the false ceiling… If you can zoom into those pics, you can see that many of them are quite funny to be completely honest 🙂

Slice of Spice – Exterior

Slice of Spice

A couple of weeks ago, one of the owners of this restaurant, contacted me and invited me for a private tasting event organised to test out some new items that they were planning to introduce… Unfortunately, being engaged elsewhere, I couldn’t attend the same… Hence, I contacted that owner before going there first of all to confirm the location and also to know if any of the new items are available and which they are… So, he basically informed me about a new series of grilled items in their menu, which they call as Rottsy… Apparently it has only been a week since they started serving it… From the brief conversation with the owner and. the manager at the restaurant (whom to my surprise is somebody I have met before as manager of another restaurant which was one of my favourites when it existed), I came to understand that Slice of Spice prides itself on the special spice mixes that they have come up with… The one they call Al-Ashrouf apparently was a hit and now the Rottsy is a new one they came up with which they hope will also be a hit… The owner also recommended that I try the leg piece option unless I am a die-hard breast fan… Its not secret that the dark leg and thigh meat in a chicken tastes better than the white breast meat… He also recommended that among the beverages, I try their new Expresso Milk Shake as well…

Hence, I decided to try a piece of the Rottsy Grilled Chicken as the appetiser, while leaving the Al-Ashrouf for next time and along with it I had the Smoked Chicken Balls Soup and for mains their Malabar Dum Biriyani and for dessert, tried their Rabri Falooda… I first didn’t plan on getting the dessert and so ended up ordering an Expresso Shake as recommended by the owner at first… The decision to order dessert was made in the last minute… However, to my surprise, they made the Expresso Shake as complementary and let me express my thanks to the owner and manager for doing that…

Smoked Chicken Balls Soup

Rottsy Grilled Chickenl Leg

Malabar Dum Biriyani

Rabri Falooda

Expresso Shake

Now, coming to the food, the first to arrive as expected was the soup they call their Smoked Chicken Balls Soup… It came as shown in the pic… From the outside, it pretty much looks like any other non-cream Chicken soup, but on the inside are two chicken meat balls, that appear to have been grilled because of the grill marks as can be seen in the pic below…

Other than the meatballs, the soup is a thickened chicken broth with eggs and green onions and cilantro… My only problem with the soup was that the broth was made too thick with starch, which I believe is completely an unnecessary thing to do… Leaving that aside, its definitely one of the best tasting chicken broths I have ever had… The meatballs made up of smoked chicken was also incredibly flavourful… The soup was also perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper… Great tasting soup that I’ll recommend to try at least once… 🙂

As I was almost done with the soup, the starter that I order, namely the leg piece of the Rottsy Chicken had arrived… They served an entire leg of the chicken that was grilled in their charcoal grill as the manager informed me and it came with some spicy mayonnaise dip and some salad… I must say that this turned out to be one of the rarest of rare instances when you get grilled chicken thats not dry at all throughout the piece… Usually if a restaurant doesn’t make it completely dry, only the parts at the centre and nearby are somewhat moist… Here on the other not only was the entire piece moist, but it was really juicy with the meat simply falling off the bone very easily…

Regarding its taste, I found it to be an incredibly complex taste thanks to their top secret marinade on the meat… But from what I could understand, which could be completely wrong, it kind of felt like the Chermoula spice mix combined with smoked paprika and black pepper and then cooked with butter if I am not mistaken… I am not 100% sure, but I think I felt a slight hint of cardamom in it as well… Anyways, its their secret… The mayo dip appears to have been spiced with smoked paprika as well and the salad appears to have been seasoned with salt and red chilly powder and it was exactly like the salad we get with tandoori items usually in most places… However, one thing I can confirm is that this Rottsy Grilled Chicken is the best grilled chicken that I have ever had so far… I’ll definitely will be getting it again in my future visits… I almost ordered some more to be taken as takeaway, but since I was not going back home directly, I left it for my next visit… 🙂

Next came the Malabar Dum Biriyani… The waiter had informed that its a Thalassery Style Biriyani, which being a Thalassery guy who has had whats called “Thalassery Biriyani” from some of the other restaurants, made me a bit skeptical but since I was really hungry, went for it anyway… So, the biriyani came in a bowl that sort of looks like a spoon as can be seen in the thumbnail pic :), served with what I consider an unfairly tiny cup of raita (I can never understand the idea behind such severe rationing of the raita in most restaurants) and dates pickle… The biriyani came with two pieces of chicken with one of them being a drumstick piece 🙂

Unfortunately, the only part about this that I liked was the dates pickle which was awesome… Great flavour of dates and spices in it that I wish they would actually sell bottles of it as its way better that the ones we already get in the supermarket… 🙂 The raita, well, is as good as it can be… However, the actual biriyani was not as good as I had hoped… I guess it was a bad day for the chef who made it… On the positive side, the pieces of chicken was cooked perfectly and by themselves tasted good enough… However on the downside, the rice felt to be overcooked and I am not sure that actual Jeerakasala rice was used or not as I couldn’t detect the fragrance of that rice in it… The rice and the masala felt like it needed more seasoning and more spices in it… Also, one of the most important thing is the presence of the fragrance and flavour of ghee which I felt was completely missing from this biriyani… However, what amazed me is that the dates pickle that was given ended up compensating for the pitfalls of the biriyani… I say this because, when I mixed in the pickle with. the rice and the masala, the whole thing tasted quite nice… So, if you are having this and find yourselves having the same experience as myself, just make sure to ask for extra pickle and it will be fine… 🙂

By this time the expresso shake had also arrived and I really liked that one… Good taste of the coffee in there…

Having skipped breakfast, I felt like having a dessert as well and so in their menu, the Rabri falooda caught my eye… Because that reminded me of the faloodas I had in Mumbai and got it hoping to get something similar… It came as can be seen in the pics below… It had vanilla ice cream, fresh fruits, the rabri, vermicelli, cashewnuts and some blobs of butterscotch, which I think are attempts at making the English Toffee and topped with caramel and some cashew nuts…

Rabri Falooda

I had mixed feelings about this one… Let me tell you why… As you go from top to bottom, first you get the scoop of vanilla ice cream with roasted cashew nuts and caramel, which is great… Then as you dig further, you get the first wave of the English Toffee attempts, which are ok but I felt that they could be better… Then when you hit the fruits, then also its great… However, what all comes after the fruits in the problem… The vermicelli definitely needed some more time being cooked and since this is a falooda, I expected a lot more of the rose flavour in it… Then below the vermicelli were the 2nd wave of the English Toffee attempts and then there was the Rabri and some more ice cream at the bottom… Honestly, I felt that the flavours of the butterscotch blobs (English Toffe attempts) and the caramel didn’t quite work with the Rabri and the vermicelli and that was the problem… I mean I think if the vermicelli was properly cooked and the butterscotch and caramel was replaced with Kulfi, this would have been an excellent Falooda… I say this because I liked the taste of the Rabri used… Overall, I believe that this recipe needs to be redesigned…

After leaving the restaurant, I contacted the owner and discussed about the negative aspects of my experience… After apologising for it all, he informed me that he’ll talk to the chefs and fix them very quickly… Apparently they are in the process of completely revamping their menu… That is, more new items to be added plus, recipes of existing dishes revised and corrected if needed… Once everything gets implemented and ready, I hope that this place flourishes and truly be one of the best eating spots in Trivandrum… I for one will be eagerly waiting for it…

Slice of Spice – First Visit – New Rottsy Grill This is something that was overdue for quite a long time as I have been wanting to visit the Slice of Spice restaurant ever since they opened and I heard about it...

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spekture · 7 years

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In my never-ending quest for more conventions to attend this year, I discovered Anime Austin. This was the first time I had heard of this convention, which is focused on anime and Japanese pop culture. After coming across this exciting discovery, I hit up their website to find more info on the event and made plans to attend. Once again my crime fighting sidekick, (ok, my daughter), suited up (ok, buckled up) and traveled with me to Austin, it made for a great surprise Father’s Day gift, falling on the same weekend.

Initially, I had made plans to head to Austin early in the day to make the opening ceremony and catch all the early programming scheduled, but I wasn’t able to take off work early so I had to revise my schedule, but still got to see lots of Con-content. As soon as we were ready, we made our way out to Austin, en route to the Midtown Holiday Inn, where the Con was being held. Once we arrived, we drove around the hotel in search of parking, there weren’t many spots left. We were happy to see some cosplayers outside in the courtyard though, it’s always nice to know after a long drive you’ve arrived at the right place!

Unfortunately, we were greeted with a bad mildew-like smell once we entered the lobby of the hotel, later I saw a water leak so I strongly suspect that was the culprit. This is no fault of the convention and nothing they could control. While passing through the lobby, we spotted more cosplayers walking around and gathering, the enthusiasm was contagious! I was ready to check-in and start walking around to see everything that was here, right now! I was also especially looking forward to one specific panel later that night, all about airbrushing. After we finished reloading our utility belts, and prepping spare supplies (ok, taking our stuff to the room, and unpacking it), we were finally able to head back downstairs to check out the Con.

I walked around the convention areas checking out the cosplayers, vendors, and panel rooms… first impression was, it was smaller than I expected. I have been to several events in the past which were held inside hotels and conference rooms, but while this one was on the smaller side, there were several rooms with different activities and panels, so there was a decent amount of content. While walking around that evening, I noticed that the crowd was a good size too, so I was happy to see that the smaller size of the venue hadn’t dampened anyone’s enthusiasm. We stayed long enough to watch a few of the performances and to check out that airbrush panel, hosted by Rudy from RCC Creations. It’s been a few years since I did any airbrush art and was curious to see how it was being applied to makeup for cosplay these days. After that was over we headed back to our room to get some rest before hitting the floor for day two.

I usually have a problem sleeping in, I guess I am used to my work schedule and getting up early. This weekend was no different. I woke up early and decided to go ahead and get ready while I let my daughter sleep in. I did a quick browse of the internet and worked on a few lingering tasks before waking her up so she could get ready. I had plans to meet up with fellow photographer Mark Rigsby in the morning for a possible shoot with cosplayer Leon Chiro. We had decided to meet at Mark’s room so we headed upstairs to see what was going on. As we arrived, we discovered that Leon was undergoing upper-body airbrushing by Rudy for his “Greed” costume from “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”. We hung around during the body painting session while eating some breakfast tacos. During this session, Leon went live on Instagram for his fans to watch him undergo his transformation, it was pretty cool to watch the change in person. I was volunteered to read his replies and talk with his fans which I tried my best, hopefully I did well (any drop in Instagram followers shortly afterwards was clearly coincidental!). Once he was done, Mark took a few shots and then we made our way downstairs so Leon could partake in the pre-judging of the cosplay contest. So far the morning was off to an interesting and fun start.

With Leon busy, My daughter and I made our way around the different panel rooms again and waited for the vendor hall to open up. We ended up in the game room for a bit to help pass the time. After that, I made my way outside to snap an image of the Anime Austin banner where I found an itasha car parked up front. I had to snag a photo and while doing that, I noticed a sign saying there were more itasha cars in the back of the hotel. I made my way around to see them cleaning up their rides and getting ready for the day. There were a few of them, so I captured a few images before heading back into the Con. It was still early, so there weren’t many people checking out the rides, making it a little easier to get some decent shots. After that, we finally made our way back inside to check out the vendor room. After walking around a bit, my daughter stopped to get face-painted.

As more people started arriving I began my hunt around the venue to capture photos of some of the more interesting attendees. I found myself heading back outside and noticed some LARPing actually going on. I returned to the itasha display area and noticed that the car in the front had made its way to join with the rest of the itasha cars. I didn’t see many people outside looking at the cars, but it was a hot day, so that could definitely explain their reluctance to leave the air conditioned show floor, although I did overhear from a few people that they were actually upset with the itasha display because it took away a group of parking spaces, and parking was already pretty tight. I continued walking around snapping photos mixed in with a few breaks and food runs until it was time for the cosplay contest to begin. This was my first time actually watching a contest like this. Even though this Con was smaller than some others I have been to, the enthusiasm and love of these events was evident throughout everyone’s time on the stage, without exception, the excitement was obvious! There was such a positive vibe and I loved every moment of it. While the judges went off to finalize the contest scores, the latest “Spider-Man: Homecoming” trailers played on the screen, followed up with a performance by J-POP singer Chii Sakurabi. The judges returned to announce the winners and that wrapped up my day two, we then joined Mark, Leon, and a few other people I had met at the Con for a post-event day photo shoot. Once we were done, we returned to our hotel and recorded Leon’s removal of his Greed airbrushed costume. I hung out with them for awhile before retiring to my room to watch some TV with my daughter before ending the night.

Father’s day wrapped up the final day of the Con. The day started off with my daughter and I making our way to the pool early, before the Con started. It was a pretty cool Sunday morning and with the pool in the shade, the pool wasn’t exactly warm (by Texas standards). After swimming around for a while we went off for breakfast so we could hit the floor energized for the final day of the Con. Once we arrived, we went straight to the gaming room once again to play some video games until more people arrived. I then proceeded to wander around the hotel snapping photos of all the cosplayers I came across. Sunday’s attendance was lower than the day before, but still respectable. I found my way into the vendor room and came across Leon again… or should I say, Gaston, and he knows how to entertain. It was hilarious seeing him stay in character during his interactions with everyone. I had so much fun hanging out with him over the weekend and all of his fans enjoyed every minute of it. He is one cosplayer you need to follow!

After some time there I concluded my coverage and made the journey back to Houston. Even though the Anime con was much smaller than I initially expected, I enjoyed every bit of the convention and my visit to Austin. Hopefully, next year will be even bigger and better.

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Military Demonstration team for Operation Homefront

Peter Brock arriving

Automotive legend Peter Brock

TIRES!

BRAKES!

MORE TIRES!

Cosplayer Sivene Delynn…image taken at Alamo City Comic Con

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) during a 2017 MotoGP race.

Anime, cosplay, and more at Anime Austin. Coverage by staffer Alex Ventura. #spekture #alexventurathephotographer #anime #cosplay #austin #texas In my never-ending quest for more conventions to attend this year, I discovered Anime Austin. This was the first time I had heard of this convention, which is focused on anime and Japanese pop culture.

#anime #austin #cosplay #texas

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adhdadultstrategies · 7 years

Text

Making Your Life Better – Even With ADHD

Here are the basics of dealing with ADHD:

Get enough sleep, whatever it takes. Your best bet is to practice sleep hygiene, and/or use melatonin, or whatever.

Exercise

Get outdoors

More helps for ADHD:

Use strategies.

Omega 3 Fatty Acid ( Fish Oil).

Additional Helps with ADHD:

Coaching

Therapy

Medication

Links:

Sleep hygiene

Melatonin

The instructions say 3-5 mgm, about an hour before bedtime. Start there, but many people need 10 mgm before it works. I need 15 mgm. It doesn’t work like a sleeping pill, just helps you sleep better. It works for about 70% of people.

Make Sure You Don’t Have Sleep Apnea.

doug

Looking Ahead:

I plan to expand on the other points above, soon. I plan to.

The June copy of Psychiatric Annals just arrived, dedicated to the topic of, guess what—“Adult Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.” I hope to glean some interesting stuff to share with you soon.

The State of the Books:

Your Life Can Be Better needs a few typos fixed. I’m still procrastinating. Should be simple, but guess I’m afraid it won’t be.

The Bully is undergoing significant revision. I’m not happy with this version and have been incorporating many suggestions. One more beta copy is out and then it needs major rewriting. I’m not looking forward to that, but don’t want to give up on the book. It’s aimed at helping bullies, parents, teachers, and administrators to understand bullies and how to effectively intervene. It has morphed somewhat into a book on violence in general.

Living Daily With Adult ADD or ADHD, 365 Tips O the Day, is undergoing major updating. That’s on hold until the first two projects are done.

Transformations, my autobiography, is in rough form. It’s primarily for my descendants; who else in the world would be interested? But I’d love to have had more information from my ancestors, so hopefully it will get completed. It’s the last book on the agenda at the moment.

Grimace O the Day:

Remind me not to shut my finger in my car door please.

addstrategies #adhd #add @dougmkpdp

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There are many alternatives to sleep.

Escape for a little while?

I just want to sleep!

I must’ve been waiting all day for a chance to have good worry.

That isn’t the way i planned it.

It really does help.

Is exercise a dirty word? Find something you like, not a horrible chore.

Three Simple Proven Helps for ADHD, or Maybe More — ADHD Tip O the Day 791 Making Your Life Better - Even With ADHD Here are the basics of dealing with ADHD:

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vmfmp-blog · 7 years

Photo

The thumbnails for the pages have been finished. It seems I had to extend some of the pages from the original script. It is interesting that even though I was doing the whole process myself I underestimated how many panels some things would need more than the panels I gave them. For example, there is a fight scene that needed to be extended to make sense and there was even a situation where I would need to adjust panels from the next page because of an instance of overflow.

There are around 24-30 pages thumbnailed and ready for the first issue of the book.

I was talking to Tristen who is not my tutor but he was available. We had spoken about how it was I was going to show exactly what I am doing with my work. It is hard to show the level of thought that goes into even the simplest of things without some sort of outlet. So we agree that this blog would be a good idea so that i can show my input with written work in a kind of digital diary.

We also go to talking about following people and such on social media and I was talking about the likes of Jonathan rector, Mark Crilley, Jim Lee, Richard Friend, Cubebrush, etc. and how I follow then and listen to their talks on comic books and story-telling. Especially Mr Rector who streams every Wednesday and always answers any questions I have (what a legend). We also got talking about my process which is a good segue to talk about my work process:

This is a rough that I have been working on using my competition brief work. The line work and colour etc. has been done quickly and is not final at all but I am using the principles in my work.

I start with a basic scan of the line work (to which I need to revise how I do it, currently when I try and remove the white it is messy to say the least and is ruining the quality in the later stages) after this I remove the white of the paper and change the black outline colour. Add the flat colours on a new layer under the inked lines (that are not set to multiply). Add one more layer called shadow where put a block colour over the top normalising the colour pallet underneath. Finally add one last layer with overlay turned on to add lighting.

I am also looking into texturing with limited success.

Back to what I was talking about with Tristen, pages I make do not necessarily look like they take much time so explaining the exact process of a price will be important going forward. For example, even the rough colour tester above is on day 7 Of production. Pencils for the four 13 pages took 2 days + 5 days for the full inks and then rough colour. I work to get faster but at the moment I am not quite there.

I was speaking with Andy and he said why not try and work in a looser way to speed up the process. I agree with him this would be faster and I did this all the way though my first and second years right until the end, but I want to have it look clean. I do not really care about the time it takes as I know I will sooner or later get faster but i need to put the time in now and hope it shows.

http://sithrah.com/

https://jonathanrector.carbonmade.com/

http://www.markcrilley.com/

https://cubebrush.co/?gclid=CM-Y-q3FvdICFYI4GwodWOANCg

etc.

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