Monday, October 17, 2011

.return of the walking dead

deep space


Really enjoyed the season's opening of Walking Dead. Kinda makes me long for a zombie RPG a la mode de Bioware (or comparable/better ludonarrative-centric developer?) or, you know, what Dead Island should have been.

Though for all its awesome production value, strong cinematic style, and general nerd-bait appeal, there are a couple things that already bummed me out about WD:

- Rick. Specifically, the words he says. His opening monologue and the scene toward the end are eye-rollingly melodramatic. I like him enough as a character; father, unknowing husband to an adulterous wife, mostly-undisputed leader of the survivors—it's just that, compared to most of the other characters, a lot of his lines seem so unbelievable and soap operatic.
- Calling zombies "walkers." Just ... stop. Every time someone says "walkers," I expect a whip-pan to a horde of roundhouse-kicking Chuck Norrises. No one watching the show is going to get confused by the Zed word, and "walkers" just sounds so unnatural and corny.
- I could —and hope to be—wrong about this, but the last few scenes of S2E1 made me a bit suspicious that we're in for a "crazy religious people" saga. I'll hold out for next week's episode before getting too negative, but I'd consider it a triumph for the zombie/horror subgenre if we could leave out the community of over-the-top, KJV-spewing nutjobs who take in the survivors only to eventually blame them for bringing down "the wrath of God" on the world, and then try to kill them/kick them out. This tired trope is a facepalm circus, and actually a WAY less interesting side-plot than exploring how an actual, Biblical-literate Christian (or person of any faith for that matter) would act in a zombie-occupied world.

I've got high hopes for this season, and if I seem overly-nit-picky it's only because I like the show so much. I often find myself going back and watching certain shots because of their cool deep-space compositions or clever framing. And despite being something of a desensitized zombie media expert, every walker encounter makes me delightfully tense, and most of the character interactions seem fresh and genuine enough. The fact that the show is ABOUT the survivors and not just quip-laden, silly zombicide is really enough to get me excited about it. There's just enough drama to make the action exciting, and just enough gore to make the threat more threatening without feeling gratuitous. Bring on episode 2!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

.the spirit of winter



Might be a bit too soon to be thinking this cold, but I've been re-reading Emily Carroll's comics lately and find their beautiful, eerie, fairy tale quality extremely inspiring. I seriously can't describe the feeling of being spirited away I get when reading her stories. They're the kinds of enchanting tales one would expect to hear from an ancient, wandering storyteller; or find in an old diary, hidden in a forgotten cabin in the middle of a forest. If you haven't seen them before, check out Emily's web-oriented comics: http://www.emcarroll.com/comic
 --

Got to play with a friend's Cintiq for the first time yesterday. I knew I wanted one, but now I basically MUST HAVE one. I love my Intuos3 tablet, but even with its generous size (12 x 9in) and my many years experience using a tablet to draw on, I have very little confidence in my line work and it turns any simple drawing into hours of perfectionist tedium, and I lose steam fairly quickly. It'll be a while down the road before I can afford one, but it's sure to be a fine day to look forward to.

Sketchbook Pro keeps proving how swell it is for drawing. There are, of course, some things it lacks that I'm used to with Photoshop, but overall, it just feels a lot more natural. Hoping to crank out at least one nice drawing once per week. That is, if I can ever finish Deus Ex: Human Revolution and have free time again.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

.long red hair


Been doing more drawing on actual paper recently, so I haven't used the WACOM much for a couple months. After getting used to the control I have over a pencil on paper, it was tough going back to the tablet for any kind of decent line work beyond a rough sketch. Tablets have been part of my drawing arsenal for at least half a decade, but for some reason I don't feel like I have any more control, which is frustrating.

Anyway, I'm pleased with how this simple thing turned out, though it was difficult trying to make her not look like Rapunzel because my Art of Tangled book is sitting right on my desk.