Along with color, I'll be back later this week with all the fun Space-Girl pinup references I found.

Tuesday Update: Here's the line art from Monday.


Friday Update: Here's the flat color from Tuesday.


Saturday Update: Here's a whole shipload of Space-Girl pinup references. The first three I mentioned back in this post.




These are the new ones I found when I was look for specific inspiration. Danc of Lost Garden created this, which I loved for the haircut and the subtle tron-lines segmenting the sleek spacesuit:


Andrew North did this piece, which I dug for the emblem and the collar and the uniform style. Also: Batgirl!


Rob Ullman did this girl, which I liked for the ring triplets on the gloves and boots.


This piece, signed "Garcia" but labeled "thebottom" on the file? I found on Google images and I wish I could link the artist but I couldn't track down the original source. I dig the haircut and the mod suit. EDIT: Thanks for the link Erasmo!


Kean So did this one, I can't remember what I took from this one, but I had it open with all the others in my inspiration window.


Now for some post-comic inspiration. When I was trying to track down the Garcia/thebottom artist on DeviantArt I found all these great pieces, that, while they didn't inspire me this time around, I'll keep in mind next time:

Labels: comical, inspirado

Bonus points to whoever gets the reference in this comic's title.

I gotta go to bed but I'll update tomorrow with all the cool mermaid art I found while I was looking for reference.

There Will Be Blood is both amazing...and not quite. Hard to explain, there was no part I didn't like, but by the end I wasn't sure about it.

Fido on the other hand is fantastic. No reservations, go rent it.


Monday Update: here's my mermaid reference.

There's a restaurant down the street from me that has a drawing on their menu of a mermaid with two leg/fins instead of the traditional legs coming together to form a tail. I should have walked down the street to take a picture but I figured I could find similar stuff online, but this little knick knack is all I found:


I gave up on Google pretty quick and moved onto Flickr where I found this by tartx. I liked the texture and the layers and the general old timeyness.


Similar to that, I found a plethora of beautiful old timey layered textured mermaids by heyjupiter.


Planning specifically to draw a rubanesque mermaid I found curvygirl's adorable collection:


And about as perfect as can be I found out about a restaurant/bar in Zihuatanejo called "La Sirena Gorda" or "The Fat Mermaid." Here's a picture of their wall art, more courtesy of auntiem.



Unrelated: this might be the greatest thing to come of the Writers Strike.

Weeks later update: after I finished the space cadet pinup I wanted to go back to the mermaid and give her a bit more texture and tweak her color a bit. And add freckles. Here she is as I originally finished her:

Labels: comical, inspirado

Last week for my birthday present Meredith took me to the LA Philharmonic Presents: Sounds Of The City with a bunch of great artists, the stand out of which was Miss Zooey Deschanel, enjoy some bootlegs:




Shame that one got cut off, gave me chills.

Full review of the night on Pudgy Girl.

Also: some random links I enjoyed last week:
Mid Century Modern Stickers
Pinball Countdown
Steampunk Justice League
Big Fat Deal
Shapely Prose
Junkfood Science

Labels: comical, inspirado

Angel-A

I like Luc Besson...but I don't, you know? Granted I haven't seen all his films. I hated but can't stop watching Fifth Element, I really liked The Professional (but never saw Leon), and I really hated The Messenger, I dug the Transporter but that's the end of the list there. I haven't seen La Femme Nikita or any of his early stuff. For some reason I still like him though, maybe it's cause even when he's bad you can still see his enthusiasm shine through.

But Angel-A knocked my socks off. I was totally head over heels in love with it until the very end, then the happy ending made me take a step back. I still love the movie, but I prefer to imagine a darker ending that never was.

I only know Jamel Debbouze from Amelie but that was enough to hook me when I first saw the preview. In the behind the scenes video you can see he was a bit nervous about carrying a whole film, and a little excited and anxious that he had to do drama as well, but from watching the movie you'd never know it. He owns the film.

Rie Rasmussen starts the movie sort of simplistic, like Lulu in Fifth Element, but her performance sort of snuck up on me cause about half way through I realized I was totally into her character arc. And of course she's visually iconic. With heels she's 6 feet tall and towers over the 5'5" Jamel. I love extreme height/size juxtapositions. The script also puts a few nice spins on the angel concept.

The movie itself is beautiful, all the locations and sets are meticulously framed so no shot is wasted. The black and white is a little funky compared to an old black and white film. I don't know if this is cause I'm used to seeing dirty grainy old movies or because it was shot in color and converted to black in white like most modern day B&W films (I don't know if it was, that's just my assumption). The movie also does a great job of staying simple. There's a few moments of digital trickery, and I actually think they could have done away with them entirely cause the film was so strong in it's editing. But they do a good job keeping the effects subtle so I won't give them too much shit for it.

Labels: comical, critiqua

I got one of those fancy kitchen aide mixers for christmas so there is much baking to be done this year. Should probably draw a new comic sometime though...

Labels: comical

There's no order to this, just a mess of things that happened last year. I'll update as I think of more (or see more movies).

2007
-Penny passed away
-I moved into a smaller apartment.
-A new position at work.
-Old teachers leaving and new teachers arriving at the Buddhist center
-Living without a television (but not "TV" though it's been much reduced)
-a lot more baking
-a lot more Dharma
-some dates, but no second dates
-too many crushes and a few obsessions
-increased Non-Gravity readership
-a new iMac and fancy poster printer
-I got a passport
-I learned how to use TXT messages like a proper citizen

2008?
-more advanced Dharma
-more advanced baking?
-a second date?
-Entering my apartment into Apartment Therapy's smallest-coolest contest?
-a fictional comic?
-posters?
-use my passport?

My Favorite Movies of 2007
-Superbad
-Juno
-No Country For Old Men
-Away From Her
-Margot At The Wedding
-Tideland (what year did this come out?)
-3:10 To Yuma
-The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
-Sweeny Todd
-the end credits of Ratatouille
-the first 4/5ths of Rescue Dawn
-Grindhouse
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
-Stardust
-The Darjeeling Limited

My Favorite TV Shows of 2007
-Pushing Daisies
-Clark And Michael
-Reaper
-30 Rock
-The Office
-Heroes
-Chuck

My Favorite Albums of 2007
-Feist: The Remainder
-Charlotte Gainsbourg: 5:55
-Nellie McKay: Obligatory Villagers
-The Polyphonic Spree: The Fragile Army
-Coconut Records: Nighttimming
-Sondre Lerche: Phantom Punch
-Au Revoir Simone: The Bird Of Music
-Walk Hard Soundtrack
- Juno Sountrack
-Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
-Sweeny Todd Sountrack
-Radiohead: In Rainbows
-Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala
-Mark Ronson: Version
-Bjork: Volta

Live Stuff I Had Fun At in 2007
-Nellie McKay (twice!)
-Air (with Sondre Lerche and Sea Wolf)
-Regina Spektor
-Feist (with Spoon)
-Bjork
-Jon Brion (twice!)

Webthings I Got Addicted To in 2007
-Fart Party
-Kate Beaton
-fucking Jezebel
-Facebook

Stuff That Wasn't What I Wanted It To Be in 2007
-Spider-Man 3 (not only did they ruin the great step forward they took with #2, but they killed any chance of Topher and Bryce stepping and taking over the roles in #4)
-Transformers (I thought I'd lowered my expectations enough, but nope)
-Knocked Up (so funny...but not all there)
-Across The Universe
-Heroes
-Superman Doomsday
-Walk Hard (some good gags and great songs...but barely a movie?)
-Ratatouille
-Hairspray
-Hot Fuzz
-Sicko
-Simpsons Movie
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
-Beuwolf (I didn't actually see it)
-300 (didn't see it either)
-Jon Brion at the Largo...as much as I love him and the venue, maybe he's outgrown it to the point where it's starting to ruin the fun of going? I love that Jon is experimental and weird sometimes, but it makes it hard to fight for seats and convince friends to come to a pain-in-the-ass venue for an hour of guitar solos.

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To in 2008
-Zooey Deschanel's debut album!
-The Dark Knight
-Where The Wild Things Are
-Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut)!
-Wall-E
-Iron Man
-Justice League: The New Frontier
-A Radiohead tour?

Stuff That Scares Me in 2008
-Iron Man
-The Dark Knight (I want it to be so good...but I have issues with "Begins")

Movies I'm Bummed I Missed In 2007 But I'll See In 2008
-Grace Is Gone
-Youth Without Youth
-Charlie Wilson's War
-I Am Legend
-Black Sheep
-Persepolis
-Zodiac
-Bourne Ultimatum
-There Will Be Blood
-Once
-Waitress
-The Host
-Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
-Enchanted
-King Of Kong
-Lars & The Real Girl
-My Kid Could Paint That
-The Savages
-I'm Not There
-Lust Caution
-Paris, Je T'Aime
-Paprika

Shit I missed a lot of movies.

Labels: listy