mattmatt.livejournal.com

In case anyone is interested, over at my blog I have something of a tutorial on how I make my kids' show poster illustrations. Interestingly, the tutorial took almost as long as the image.

DUDE. FAN ART.

Also (and unrelatedly), I feel slightly sick. Possibly (well, definitely) related to Project Lester. More later.

So, having other, more useful things to do this afternoon, I went to a new art supply store I spotted yesterday and spent far too much money on a set of watercolours and some brushes and some paper.

I have never really worked out brushes. They are too fiddly. And the colour mixing thing is tricky (although I have got used to playing with additive colours to some extent: subtractive colours are still a mystery to me beyond the 'blue and yellow make green' stuff). I figured, hey, it gets me away from the keyboard.

Also, I had an idea for something I wanted to do, and it wouldn't have worked on the computer, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's not very good, but it's the first time I've used watercolours in probably almost twenty years, and a lot of it is just guesswork and experimentation. I have learned now that you have to wait for adjacent colours to dry, for example.

Anyway, it was fun, and it was something I have done with my own hands and finished in one sitting. Hooray!

At work, and waiting for some stuff to happen, I decided it had been far too long since I doodled the first thing that came into my head. This was the result:

Feel free to gank.

Something about the first X people to reply to this will get some kind of art by me, about them. I reserve the right to define (or assume tacet definitions of) X, 'art', 'about', and 'get'.

What kind of a crazy world are we living in where a company will make a piece of software specifically for making comics with, and make it pretty good, mind you, but then not include any facility for adding colour to those comics? I ask you! I suspect it is back to the old pen and papers for me, at least for the moment. I like doodling on the computer, but it loses some of the immediacy of paper. Although, you know, it could be good for doing layouts.

More investimogation required.

In other news, I went to a latin dance class tonight. It was my first one in, oh, about five and a half years (when I had to stop because of gammy knees and also because I stopped dating the teacher). I still can't get the hang of merengue. I try to make my hips and knees do what the teacher tells me to make them do, but they have learned something different (nine years' worth of ballet and modern seem to be at fault there, ironically enough). Maybe I will practise like hardcore so that next week when I go to do the warm-up and all the inconspicuous spots in the back row are taken and I have to stand directly behind the teacher, at least I won't look like a dancing bear.

I spent some of the awkward shuffling-around time practising a rad robot walk that maddogdamo taught me, because the floor was awesome.

Sheesh, I am crazy. Staying up until 2am drawing feminist crimefighters will do that to a man.

N.B.: The curry was every bit as bad as initial speculation suggested. The wine got better with the lateness of the hour.

ETA: A million points if you can extrapolate this poster into a commentary on why the movie industry is sexist. I would have done it myself, but in my addled state it seems much more fun to reference it obliquely and see if two people can more-or-less independently experience the same train of thought.

OK, this is going to give it away, but keep those competition entries rolling in anyway:

Feedback greatly appreciated, especially on the trees and the shading.

Hopefully I should have this mostly finished tomorrow night, since I don't have rehearsal. I should maybe read some lines, too, but I am winning so far at memorising.

Who is our trepidacious heroine? Whence her dubious expression, her doe-like eyes, her disregard for practical footwear? Why is the shading so crap? Did I forget to draw her ears? (N.B.: yes.)

Oh, hey! Awesome idea! Post a caption, a thought bubble or a slogan for her (currently blank) t-shirt in the comments! The winner gets... AN ORIGINAL USERICON. DRAWN BY MY OWN SELF. AND MY COMPUTER.

My flatmates may not enter, since they already know who it is. So there.

Also: Bartók is absolutely the best music for drawing Burtonesque, Scary-Go-Round-inspired character designs to.

Katie, drawn over about two and a half sittings. Generally pretty happy with it, except for LEFT ARM QUESTION MARK. I also drew chelsme, but I screwed it up. Not literally: it just doesn't really look like her. Chels, your features are too characteristic. Be more nondescript.

searlo suggested I start sketching people down at the Arts Centre at the weekends, which might not be a bad idea, now that I am getting quicker.

Final dress was pretty awesome, which worries me. I know if we have a shitty dress (we always have a shitty dress) we have a great opening night, then an amazing second night, then a complacent third night, and so on. This is How Things Have Always Been. Now, though, everything I thought I knew about theatre has been called into question.

Also, this gem from petebuke deserves to be recorded for the Internet:

"Tomorrow night, this show really comes to life. It's the first time Jack and Jimmy are gonna be portrayed as characters. Matt: tomorrow night is the first time Matt gets to put his Matt inside of Warne."

Cue peals of dirty, dirty, innuendo-fuelled laughter.

Ah, we are a cast. We have a show.

We have no audience, though.

Come and see The Planemaker: A Richard Pearse Story, 19-22 and 25-29 July at the Ngaio Marsh Theatre.

More sketches. The more I look at Saul's picture, the less I like it: the proportions are screwed, and the half-arsed attempt I had at shading his left eye wasn't really in keeping with the tone of the rest of the piece; also, his microphone makes his face look oddly-shaped. Still, I had to draw him, really: he'd been sitting stock-still for about ten minutes before he realised I was actually drawing his girlfriend, Jess. Aside from a slightly larger-than-usual head, I really like this one, particularly the authentic 1903 hairstyle and the characteristic left hand. What I like most, though, is that halfway through this sketch, Jess got called away to do a song... and came back and sat down in precisely the same position afterwards, just so I could finish.

The rehearsal itself was pretty crumby. I was in a weird headspace initially because I had been working until 6:30 (call was supposed to have been at 6:00) and there was a really strange energy on stage. I tried to make the most of my songs, but it was generally an off night. Oh well. It wasn't a show.

We had a letter from Richard Pearse's nephew, who would actually be the son of the guy I am playing. He's a bit old to make it to the show, but his son and his wife are going to come up. That's pretty awesome.

Massage from yesterday is finally wearing off, and I won't have time to get to the mall for another one before the weekend. Still, it meant I had the best sleep last night.

Which reminds me: I should sleep! I knew there was something I was meant to be doing.

Rehearsal provided more fodder for my sketch gallery, if you are curious about that sort of thing, although mostly people kept either moving or being called on stage. Also, I am finding more and more often that if I get out my notebook I have people going "O HAY CAN I LOOK?"

In general, though, people have not only been OK with my sitting there drawing them, but have also been pleased and even flattered by the results, which is pretty neat. My figure drawing is definitely becoming more confident, and it is fun to think I will have something tangible to keep after the show.

I was just thinking about the drawing I posted yesterday of Amy, and I think it's probably my favourite 'serious' piece I can remember drawing. Even if that is only true because it is the most recent one.

I am the bitch of The Planemaker.

Today: nine-hour tech run. There was a lot of time backstage for sketchery.

Other fun activities included song games and a game of Truth-Or-Dare Poker that stopped just as it was getting interesting.

Tomorrow: two rehearsals. I am so eating rehearsals right now. Sometimes I get tired but then I hit performance and it energises me again. I think I am learning to control my introvert/extrovert switching a little better.

I want to do more sketching. I also want to be hanging out with Planemaker people still, which is odd: I think rehearsal ended a little abruptly. It is also odd in that lately I have been a bit "oh, awesome, I get to go and be by myself for a bit now", and suddenly I am feeling a little more social.

Busy as it is, I like most aspects of my life quite a bit right now.

As well as more writing and acting, I have been making a conscious effort lately to draw more, and to put a bit more work into the drawings I'm doing. I've been drawing a lot of people from life (often without their knowledge and/or permission): not in a naturalistic sense, but still trying to put in a lot more detail than I did when some of you found yourselves appearing in as extras in Degrees of Insanity or Insanity Road.

Anyway, a couple of people have expressed interest in seeing some of the results, so I've updated my sketch gallery, such as it is, with a few of the ones I felt worked best.

Almost by accident, I seem to be doing a lot more actor-y stuff lately (or in the near future, at least):

• I've just finished 3some, which was enormous fun, if a little messy.
• I have a part in the next Musoc show, mostly by virtue of the mere physical happenstance of my being a guy.
• I'm doing Loopen's awesome-sounding Lifeboat exercise next weekend.
• I'm going to as much of the Keith Johnstone stuff as work will allow (which isn't a lot, but is also more than none at all, for which I am profoundly grateful).

...and I just found out that amphibious_one and I are going to be lead actors in a film for the 48 Hour Film Festival, which kind of kicks arse. I don't think I've been in a film since I was one incarnation of Simon Bend in AndrewKepple's classic genre-buster whose name I have nevertheless completely forgotten. As with all things AndrewKepple, it was constructed largely out of brilliant puns and obscure pop culture references.

Anyway.

I'm quite excited, but also a little nervous we'll get something like "Bollywood" or "Blaxploitation" as our assigned genre.

More generally, now that I'm not being so throttled creatively in my job, I've found myself wanting to be more expressive outside of work, and the acting is one way of getting into that. I've always been more of a comedian than an actor, and this has bothered me more and more as I've started to do things where I'm called upon to maintain a character. Even my completely stereotyped rôle in Jabberwocky Redux has been good in that it's allowed me to get into the character more (although I did feel a little bit George Lazenby talking to the audience the whole time). I want to push myself as an actor, find my limits, figure out where I've picked up shortcuts and bad habits and get rid of them.

Also in the interests of my continued creative development, I have also started sketching a lot more. Which primarily means sacrificing quality for sheer volume, although occasionally I do something I quite like. Maybe I'll post some samples here if I do anything I feel warrants public archival.

But, you know. Not to commit myself to anything. You can't tie me down, man. I'm a free spirit.

Today (February 1) is the inaugural Hourly Comic Day, and since I live in the future, I am one of the first people in the world to be trying out this exciting new phenomenon (although stereotypist has been doing his all year).

I have yet to decide what I'm going to do about band practice, which will probably result in my skipping an hour. I might draw an extra large comic for two hours' worth or something. But otherwise, it is going well so far!

In other news, my shopping cart system is so hot right now.

I spent most of yesterday evening tinkering with a new character, if Gregory is not to be resurrected. The character creation process was somewhat different for me, in that I started with a general idea of the character's background, motivations and attitudes, and worked out how to portray that within the rules, rather than looking for a way to crunch numbers and create the most kick-arse druid possible. As a result, she probably isn't as strong or sneaky as I could get her, but at least I know that every element of the character is there for a reason.

Oh yeah, I decided the character I was making was much more likely to be a girl.

I thought long and hard about that, because I know it usually sucks when guys RP girls, but I figured, I'm making this character because I want to play this character, and if this character is a girl, then so be it — I'm enough in touch with who the character is that I can almost certainly pull it off.

Essentially, she's a girl who, for some reason I haven't quite discerned yet, was lost in a forest at a very young age, and had to learn to survive, first by fighting nature (hence the level of Fighter), and then by learning the ways of the forest (7th-level Druid). Because she's had little human contact, her skills and feats are survival-based (Alertness, Track, Dodge, but not things like Combat Casting, which would certainly be an advantage, but way OOC). I had the idea that she has a special affinity with bears: hence, her Brown Bear companion, her Black Bear Wild Shape, and her heavy use of Summon Nature's Ally (III) to call bears into combat. In fact, I'm thinking of asking the GM if, instead of the cloaks and rings the others have that Brenya wouldn't, she can have a horn that essentially acts like a Wand of Summon Nature's Ally once per day. The other spells she prepares by default tend to focus on her own survival and daily needs (Goodberry, Wood Shape, Animal Friendship), rather than offensive spells like Flaming Sphere.

My only concession to in-jokery so far has been that her bear is named Kataw'Jo, which, I felt, was too good to miss. And it's a long way from having a grumpy cleric named Gregory who is addicted to Potions of Cure Light Wounds and who has a pony named Wilson.

Here is a picture of Brenya and Kataw'Jo doing some huntin'. You can see the horn hanging by her side, and a couple of homemade spears. The bearskin cloak is from an old bear who was a friend of hers, and who died saving her life somehow. She has a strange locket around her neck, which is the only metal item she carries, and also the only thing she has left of her parents. I'm quite pleased (and in fact surprised) with the way the pose worked out — in fact, the whole character came out pretty much exactly how I wanted.

Anyway, I thought that might interest some of the dorkier among you.

More style practice. I find myself with a sudden influx of free time, and a couple of tentative offers of scripts to draw, so I figure the more exercise I get with a pencil, the better.

Now I must eat, and try and figure out a way of stopping my damn nose from running the whole time by 10:30.

Thanks for the advice about cooling, by the way. As a preliminary measure, I've installed one 80mm fan in the back of the case above the graphics card (blowing out), and repositioned the case so it gets better airflow in the front, which seemed to be enough for a full game of Dawn of War. Hooray!

OK, so I'm still not Mike Mignola. But I kind of like...