Journals18
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Different content?!
4 min read
What is this?
The art is different! This sucks! You suck!
Calm down, Internet. It's okay. I just hit a creative brick wall, that's all.
I love 3D art and animation, Pixar, Blue Sky, Weta, myself... but I was stuck in an ecosystem that I was seeing the end of. I was unable to proceed to where I wanted to go due to a lack of art skills. Wait, now what? I have lots of cool art! Yes, that is true, but if you'll look, a lot of it looked, well, directorial. Good lighting, good marking, good poses, okay composition.... bad/okay everything else.
Take this pic. What is it? I mean, yes, you can make it out, but there is so much brown and green that the eye kinda struggles with it. Did you even see the floating dude in the center left? Or the tools falling? Granted, I still have the files and I can (not very) easily go fix that, but it would undermine my point.
This pic was, in all honesty, an accident. Now, that isn't to say that I had no idea what I was doing, I did, but imagine a Puyo Puyo master being bewildered that he got a perfect game after doing only five or six moves. That's kinda what happened here -- except for the master part.
I could see that I wasn't doing very well, and even with my tests and progress, I still wasn't going anywhere except making it look nice -- not Fantastic!! I'm a little slow at seeing writing on the wall, and this time was no different, but I needed to do something else. I can't make a comic using the medium of underwater basket weaving, so what shall I do?
When WunderChivo's long awaited second Bubblegum Jane issue came out, I jumped right on it, and reread issue one. This man is a master of his craft when it comes to drawing these characters, and I have always longed for reaching a goal and style that I could be proud of like him. I have always had a very soft spot for 2d hand drawn animation and design. I love hand drawn work and honestly think that a lot of the 2d storyboard stuff for 3d films look way better. Here are two examples from everyone's favorite movie ever. The thing is though, is that I thought that I could make a great style with my intellect, and Daz3D software and assets. I think I may have done it, however, it isn't making me happy. It is pleasing me, and I am proud of my work, but I am not satisfied. So, I did what any sane individual would do. I paid $1000 for a drawing tablet and I am starting over. At least for character design. I will still do 3d for backgrounds, mostly.
So far, I am nowhere near perfect, how do I use Clip Studio paint EX, software that I had the foresight to buy in 2017 when the Adobe CC got hideously expensive? How do I color? I know how to use lighting, so that's not too bad.
So far, I am nowhere near perfect, how do I use Clip Studio paint EX, software that I had the foresight to buy in 2017 when the Adobe CC got hideously expensive? How do I color? I know how to use lighting, so that's not too bad.
so yeah, I'm starting over and not making it look like I was trying to draw when I was 16 again. Yuck. At least with my do over, there is some semblance of knowing anatomy....
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Branching out my artwork (more links!)
2 min read
Hey peeps!
I know that I said this already, I just wanted to out more focus on it, but I'm sticking my art in different places. DA has gotten a bit inconvenient and I want to put my work out there some more. I started back in November of '18 and the results have been pretty nice so far.
I'm not leaving DA, as all art is good art (unless you're reflecting on what you made when you were sixteen), but it is going to be less of a focus.
Anyway, here are the two spots where I'm putting my stuff:
www.artstation.com/tourqeglare for finished work.
ko-fi.com/T6T610NQB for my Ko-Fi.
twitter.com/LevithorArts for nearly everything else.
(reserved for temporarily non existent Discord server; if my illusions of grandeur come to fruition)
All that being said, this will probably be a final journal entry -- unless DA has some sort of resurgence in the professional art realm (says the person directing you to his art Twitter) (edit 8/5/19 r/agedlikemilk), but not the final piece of art that I am submitting here.
Enjoy!
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Personal Cartoon Analysis
6 min read
Hey guys!
I started my old decrepit Twitter back up to post scraps of art and stuff for you all to see.
In other news, I've been watching more western animation, Gravity Falls, Star Vs The Forces of Evil, Hilda, etc. I've even looking at some anime, Haruhi Suzimia, Lucky Star, Dragon Ball Super, and revisits to hyper old Toonami like Sailor Moon and Ocean dubbed Dragon Ball Z.
This has led me to re-examine why I'm not a big anime fan. I don't hate anime, a lot of it is very pretty! And that is why I'm going to be incorporating more anime styles into my future comic, but I digress. There is something off about it that meshes with me like a Fiji apple and a clove of garlic (none of those are bad individually, but they are incompatible with each other -- unless you're some kind of cooking wizard).
I enjoy western animation way more than Japanese anime.
The western cartoons have an energy to them that I can get behind and a confidence that I wish that I had.
Everyone is fully chaotic good, and that causes as many problems as it does solutions, and I love it for that! Mabel gaining, losing, and regaining Waddles through time travel antics, Star helping write her song with Patrick Stump, Hilda removing the bell that she placed on the distressed troll. It's all happy, colorful (I love Hilda's strict primary color pallet!) and it feels real to me, like, well written.
Sure, some anime can have those qualities too, Studio Ghibli is good at that, and Paprika by Satoshi Kon fit the bill as well, but there is something... inherently private about a lot of anime to me that I just bounce away from. Everyone has qualities that suggest that they are highly withdrawn or reluctant to observe even the smallest of errors, or both. Even when they show the chaotic good qualities outlined above.
I think of myself as introverted and laid back, yet still chaotic good. To me, chaotic good in fiction is best when the characters are grandiose and boisterous in their efforts to preserve the goodness in the world. Extroverted. Bards. The anime that I have seen, where it has chaotic good characters fit all the marks, but they all still have that private and withdrawn quality. Introverted. Clerics (I guess?). I think that that's why I've held onto Dragon Ball for so long.
All that being said, I would love a reverse analysis about my discussion above. Most people that I have spoken about this to keep bringing up the shipping, which I literally and figuratively give no fucks about whatsoever. Ash and Misty? Come on!
I know this has been controversial, but it's just my thoughts and opinions.
I started my old decrepit Twitter back up to post scraps of art and stuff for you all to see.
It can be found here! twitter.com/LevithorArts
ALSO!!
I think I'm going to shift over to ArtStation.
I want to be a bit more serious with my work, so there it goes.
I'm not going inactive here like holymackeral did, but I'm probably not going to post much more either. I might clean up here though. Some of this stuff was here when I was seventeen. :shudders:
In other news, I've been watching more western animation, Gravity Falls, Star Vs The Forces of Evil, Hilda, etc. I've even looking at some anime, Haruhi Suzimia, Lucky Star, Dragon Ball Super, and revisits to hyper old Toonami like Sailor Moon and Ocean dubbed Dragon Ball Z.
This has led me to re-examine why I'm not a big anime fan. I don't hate anime, a lot of it is very pretty! And that is why I'm going to be incorporating more anime styles into my future comic, but I digress. There is something off about it that meshes with me like a Fiji apple and a clove of garlic (none of those are bad individually, but they are incompatible with each other -- unless you're some kind of cooking wizard).
I enjoy western animation way more than Japanese anime.
The western cartoons have an energy to them that I can get behind and a confidence that I wish that I had.
Everyone is fully chaotic good, and that causes as many problems as it does solutions, and I love it for that! Mabel gaining, losing, and regaining Waddles through time travel antics, Star helping write her song with Patrick Stump, Hilda removing the bell that she placed on the distressed troll. It's all happy, colorful (I love Hilda's strict primary color pallet!) and it feels real to me, like, well written.
Sure, some anime can have those qualities too, Studio Ghibli is good at that, and Paprika by Satoshi Kon fit the bill as well, but there is something... inherently private about a lot of anime to me that I just bounce away from. Everyone has qualities that suggest that they are highly withdrawn or reluctant to observe even the smallest of errors, or both. Even when they show the chaotic good qualities outlined above.
I think of myself as introverted and laid back, yet still chaotic good. To me, chaotic good in fiction is best when the characters are grandiose and boisterous in their efforts to preserve the goodness in the world. Extroverted. Bards. The anime that I have seen, where it has chaotic good characters fit all the marks, but they all still have that private and withdrawn quality. Introverted. Clerics (I guess?). I think that that's why I've held onto Dragon Ball for so long.
Goku is the chaotic good that I appreciate, outgoing, curious, error prone -- and rolling with the punches of his errors. Whereas sailor fuku-clad Tsundare-chan is still withdrawn and insecure. Any errors are met with conflict in their quest for good or even flat out ignored. Shoes untied? No it isn't! *trips* @#$%!!! Chatoic good in anime, although admirable, seems way too ridged to flow for me. It seems like a Lawful Good Paladin going to 'Chatocic Good 101' for that sorely needed extra credit. Constantly. They feel like they are going to break from their stubbornness, and I don't want to see that.
On the flip side, since I'm so laid back, I'm wondering if the characters would be looking at me and wondering how I can be so calm and dismissive about the situation that they are flipping out about.
It reminds me of something that I read about in a book called Console Wars, about how Sega of Japan and Sega of America fought each other more than they did rival Nintendo in the early 90s. On a trip, an American executive was given the poisonous fish fugu by some of the Japanese investors, less as a way to kill him and more of a let's-see-if-the-american-will-back-down-and-then-we-laugh sort of way. The American executive ate it, he was fine, and the Japanese executives backpedaled hardcore. I see that sort of stuff in anime, and it is a subset of the points that I made above. I love error prone characters and them rolling with their errors to make it right, rather than chaotic mingling with a measure-twice-cut-once culture, though I do strongly appreciate Japan for that. Do I want overconfident Mary Sues in my stories though? Oh hell no! But I do want Mary Sue happiness and, I'll just say, Americanized confidence to get them in trouble. With that, they try to fix the issue and they learn from it and grow as people because of it.
On the other hand, stupid marketing and analytics aside, the attitude shown in the link ahead is a horrid extreme to the "Americanized confidence" that I just pointed out, so over-saturation is bad too. Chaotic stupid. www.reddit.com/r/TargetedShirt…
All that being said, I would love a reverse analysis about my discussion above. Most people that I have spoken about this to keep bringing up the shipping, which I literally and figuratively give no fucks about whatsoever. Ash and Misty? Come on!
I know this has been controversial, but it's just my thoughts and opinions.
Also, Japan is a very pretty place. This is one of my favorite youtube channels for seeing it. www.youtube.com/user/Rambalac
さらばだ 
I should refine this into a Youtube essay with some generic trip-hop and clips of the city and stuff, ha.
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My Goals
2 min read
I am making a web comic using my own created 3d assets and the PWToon shader for use in Daz Studio. This web comic will use original characters, who I pulled many from my trunked novels and back-burnered projects, and is based on observations and interpretations of what I have seen and experienced when I was in Job Corps. It will have a sitcom flavor forged from my years of studying the first third of The Simpsons series, among other similar things that are not Family Guy or Adult Swim.
I do not want this webcomic to be the greatest thing that has ever graced the internet, or even the whole of comics.
I do not want that mindset, anyway. Though I feel it important to say that I do, very, very much, want this major endeavor to be good. I want to make something good, I want to make something that I will be proud of in many years. I want to make something that will make me crack up laughing, to cry with, and to learn something from when I had a younger heart. I don't want acclaim, I want satisfaction and wholeness. Granted, (web comic appropriate) fame and a wonderful fandom would be spectacular, but if my projects still make me happy in my old age, than it wouldn't matter if I have not made another penny on my work, because I would have achieved my continuing goal with my comic, my novel, and my creative endeavors. To make me happy.
Is it selfish? Maybe. But consider an alternative. Since I am still gestating the Pink Lemon story as of this writing, I could write the next Spider-Man 3, and then where would I be? Empty.
I don't want it to make me famous, make me into a big creator with applause at Comic Con. I want my stories to make me happy and then to make you happy. I want to make it for me and then share it with you. These are mine, and I want them to be awesome!
I do not want this webcomic to be the greatest thing that has ever graced the internet, or even the whole of comics.
I do not want that mindset, anyway. Though I feel it important to say that I do, very, very much, want this major endeavor to be good. I want to make something good, I want to make something that I will be proud of in many years. I want to make something that will make me crack up laughing, to cry with, and to learn something from when I had a younger heart. I don't want acclaim, I want satisfaction and wholeness. Granted, (web comic appropriate) fame and a wonderful fandom would be spectacular, but if my projects still make me happy in my old age, than it wouldn't matter if I have not made another penny on my work, because I would have achieved my continuing goal with my comic, my novel, and my creative endeavors. To make me happy.
Is it selfish? Maybe. But consider an alternative. Since I am still gestating the Pink Lemon story as of this writing, I could write the next Spider-Man 3, and then where would I be? Empty.
I don't want it to make me famous, make me into a big creator with applause at Comic Con. I want my stories to make me happy and then to make you happy. I want to make it for me and then share it with you. These are mine, and I want them to be awesome!
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An update of mine (Hello!)
2 min read
Hey guys,
sorry I've been quiet, I'm still working on my comic, and it is going slow. Not only do I have a full time job, I'm trying to be social as well. On top of learning my craft with Zbrush and 3ds MAX as headliners and Daz Studio wrapping it all together, it makes it tough. Especially when I'm not the best (yet) at those programs. This is a different world that the old pre-made models that I relied on for the past decade. This is graduating from doing expected maintenance on your Honda-something car to building a whole new sports car thing from scratch and making it a head turner as well! Yes, really!
On the bright side, I have the writing done for the story that I'm adapting. The problem is that it needs more dynamics and less talking heads. I also need to make a script out of it for me to work with. It's here if you wanna see it or comment on it: docs.google.com/document/d/1-Z… Yes, it is the same story as the last journal except revised.
On a different note, I was digging through my comics to sort some new ones in and I came across this:
Now I miss Chivo. He homages the cover for Supergirl Volume 4 Issue 1 from 1996: dc.wikia.com/wiki/Supergirl_Vo… As you can see, Marvel really likes it as of late, lol.
Where did you come from, where did you go?
Where did you come from WunderChivo?
sorry I've been quiet, I'm still working on my comic, and it is going slow. Not only do I have a full time job, I'm trying to be social as well. On top of learning my craft with Zbrush and 3ds MAX as headliners and Daz Studio wrapping it all together, it makes it tough. Especially when I'm not the best (yet) at those programs. This is a different world that the old pre-made models that I relied on for the past decade. This is graduating from doing expected maintenance on your Honda-something car to building a whole new sports car thing from scratch and making it a head turner as well! Yes, really!
On the bright side, I have the writing done for the story that I'm adapting. The problem is that it needs more dynamics and less talking heads. I also need to make a script out of it for me to work with. It's here if you wanna see it or comment on it: docs.google.com/document/d/1-Z… Yes, it is the same story as the last journal except revised.
On a different note, I was digging through my comics to sort some new ones in and I came across this:
Now I miss Chivo. He homages the cover for Supergirl Volume 4 Issue 1 from 1996: dc.wikia.com/wiki/Supergirl_Vo… As you can see, Marvel really likes it as of late, lol.
Where did you come from, where did you go?
Where did you come from WunderChivo?
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