nody blackered

I'm bloody knackered.

Couple of nights ago I had a really broken sleep--it took me ages to get to sleep and then I was suddenly wide awake at 4'o'clock and I couldn't get back to sleep. I probably only got about 4 hours sleep, which is no where near enough. I need a good 7-8 hours a night and getting less really fucks me up for a good couple of days after.

I've not been helping myself, though. There's been a bit of a situation at work where I've not been able to start a piece of work that really needs to be done as soon as possible. As such, I've been doing all this prep work so that it's "ready to go" and it's been driving me a bit potty, tbh--I keep working myself round in loops :/.

I've also been getting really stuck into this new vector I've been working on. It's almost become an obsession and is really eating away what little spare time I have. But I'm literally only a few tweaks away from completing it. Here's a preview:



I've also been doing some scanning of a couple of artbooks (during the week--I know!) though they were deliberately ones with only a couple of good pics. I also sampled another of the new anime shows:

• Sekirei - goodish. I struggled a little with deciding whether I liked this or not. It's got a huge heap-load of fan-service, which is good, animation was pretty good too, but--and I feel weird when I have to say this about a fan-service show--the plot really needed to get a shift on. One of those I'd probably buy but then sell on.

The only plan I have for the weekend are to get my Dad a b'day present and card, as it's his birthday next week. I'll probably do some more scanning, though, as I feel a need to lift that particular "burden" from my shoulders.

i hate when that happens

I think I mentioned a little while back that I was starting to feel the old walling bug gripping me again.

I've been working on a Soul Eater wall after I found the series to me quite enjoyable the other week. It seemed to have some reasonable scans that I got some ideas for.

I've not really been experiencing wallers block--it's not so much that I've been stuck for ideas, it's more like the ideas I've been having have been way beyond my ability. Previously I'd probably have launched into them anyway, struggled for months and than been disappointed with the outcome.

Recently I've just been not starting.

But anyway, I saw some SE scans, got some ideas and started. I actually started with a simple one where I was basically just recreating the scan, just to get into the swing of things.

And someone's beaten me to the punch :(.

Basically, this wall by halcyontwilight is what I've been working on.

I mean, mine's different, but I've been doing the same idea--recreated the scan.

It kinda takes the momentum out of me continuing. I mean, one of the reasons I've often picked unpopular series to wall is because I basically know that no-one else will use the scan before me.

I'm not actually a very talented artist and have only a few skills when it comes to photoshop, so I'm very slow. That makes walling popular series dangerous, as there's a good chance someone will use the scan first.

Of course that doesn't stop me using it; it's just I always like to feel there's something exclusive or individual about my walls. I mean, heck, they're never actually any good, so at the least they can be unique on some level.

Ah well, I'll guess I'll finish it, but it's just annoying. Especially when the other person did such a good job :/.

rise of the wooden cgi 'actor'

So this last w/end I watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

As it goes it was a big improvement over the first film. Origin films are always tricky--the FF's origin especially is a bit on the ropey side, so they didn't have much to work with. Plus when you read the long-running comics the origin stuff is often quite different to how the characters are in their "steady state".

This film the FF where much more like the 'should be' as it were. The Thing and Johnny Storm especially were pretty much spot on.

Plus Jessica Alba is smoking hot (though I still think she looks weird with blonde hair--she should be less tanned to make it look better, I think).

Anyway, although it was better, the film was a little disappointing if I'm honest. The problem was the bad guys.

As the name suggests, the Silver Surfer was introduced, but also Galactus. Both were very disappointing.

The problem with Galactus was really that he was underused. Plus, being a reader of Marvel Comics I know what he's meant to look like so the way he was depicted here was just a slap in the face--he wasn't depicted. He was basically just a cloud.

The reason for that was made clear on the commentary tracks--they're doing a silver surfer film, so they wanted to leave it up to them how they depict Galactus.

Plus, as I say, he wasn't in it enough. He's there at the end trashing a planet, but they made the mistake of not showing us the planet's inhabitants--it was all done from space. That means there was nothing to really connect us to the danger.

The Silver Surfer looked spectacular and was in it plenty, but he was totally wooden. They said it was one of them virtual actors, but to me he actually looked like it was done with animatronics. His face was just totally blank throughout and he hardly moved.

self-pimpage: chika

Thought I'd do some shameless self-promotional type pimpage today :p.

This last w/end I uploaded a new vector of the main chika from Dragonaut - The Resonance. Can't remember her name for some reason, but you can dl a psd or jpg of the vector here.

You can also grab a png version over at AP here if that format suits you better.

I used the girl in two walls, which you can dl here. The walls aren't exactly spectacular, I have to admit. The planet became weirdly oversaturated with too bright colours. I did a version without it, but that's ended up looking a little plain, unfortunately.

I was working on some site updates over the w/end actually, although they were reviews, rather than walls or vectors.

I'm trying to get a bit more back into walling, etc (more on that later), but I've got 6 reviews set up as updates, plus one more left from the last batch.

Here's a weird statistic for you - once all those seven are up I will have a total of 60 reviews up on my site. That seems pretty impressive... well, to me at least :).

scannerific

Well, as I said on Friday I didn't have any specific plans, but a lot of options. I basically went for scanning and got through newtype, animedia and animage. Given that it's the cusp of a new season that meant there were loads of spreads and pics--I did over 150 scans in total, and my back could really feel it.

I also watched a few things while I was scanning:

• He is My Master: pretty good. It's not from the new season but an older show I dl'ed recently. I've read some of the manga and it was an interesting adaptation--they've tweaked it quite a bit (they being Gainax, I believe). But it's still chock full of fan-service, which can only be a good thing.
• Himitsu - Top Secret: very good. I was a bit surprised by this. I didn't know anything about it going in and was very pleasantly surprised. I've got to say the animation is a little ropey, but both the concept and story are very strong.
• Antique Bakery: very good. This I was also surprised about. I'd pegged this as yet another BL series (more on that below), but it wasn't really. I mean, it had elements of that in it, but there was more to it than that.
• Golgo 13: reasonable. Now this I did have expectations going into--those being that it would be utterly awful. And as far as that's concerned I was surprised... but that doesn't mean it was good, just that it wasn't awful. It was cheesy as hell, but I dunno, there was a certain appeal, I guess.

I've never really thought of myself as being anti-yaoi or Boy-Love or anything, but I must admit I've been rather amazed by the number of series that have been BL series (or at least have had elements of it) this last season (since April).

I dunno if it's just that I've ended up watching those ones first, but rather than the usual surfeit of high-school romantic comedies / harem and other shounen focused series, this last season we seem to be drowning in BL and shoujo.

On the one hand I'm glad about that--variety is the spice of life, even if generally BL doesn't appeal to me, but on the other hand it's a little annoying. I mean, why the sudden surge? It's like they're all trend chasing, which is a little disheartening.