Hope that all of my American friends had a really great Thanksgiving! Mine was pretty good, even though I think some of my family were going through really tough times. The food was all delicious; I contributed to that where I could, although I'm not much of a cook.

Went and saw 'The Muppets' tonight with parents, and laughed soooo much and teared up at a few parts, too. Definitely a movie worth seeing, no matter your age! There are also a few parts where I really wondered how they did the puppetry; it was really convincing.

Aaaand it looks like we'll be keeping the dog, who we're calling Sophie! She's still getting used to the house, but she really likes mom and me, and she likes being up in my room when I'm working up here. She's seriously just a big puppy who loves belly rubs and also loves to be around people, even though she has a really loud bark. It's nice to have a dog again, despite the shenanigans they get into...will have to comic one that happened recently. |D

Here's some more KH2 LP with Kia, plus All Hearts and waking-up drawings:





( All Hearts - Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore )

( Under-covers drawings 234-240 )

Drawing: Finished a section of commission stuff, also doing All Hearts and coloring cards...

Writing: Tags here and there

Eesh, another late update...I've been really busy working on a new storyboard, but it's done now! I may post it later...

Also went and saw 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' this last Friday! No spoilers on it, but I greatly enjoyed it and would recommend it! The science behind everything probably isn't that sound, but oh well, it was still a fun story. You really ended up sympathizing with Ceaser and the other apes. Plus, I do like the original 'Planet of the Apes,' and they have a lot of callbacks to that movie. (It was better than the Tim Burton remake, anyway.)

Got a whole buncha new episodes of the Kingdom Hearts 2 LP up now!







And a whole buncha new waking-up drawings...

( Under-covers drawings 134-137 )

Also...so yeah, this is it. This is the final Lunargyros update. Like, the last pages ever. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT IT IS ACTUALLY DONE NOW, AND IS ALL UP. How did this ending come up so soon?!

I'm also going to post a thank-you message for tomorrow, plus info on getting a print version will be up when I finally have it worked out! SO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED, THERE WILL BE MORE INFO ON THAT IN THE FUTURE!

Drawing: Soooo many boards plus practice and other things

Writing: Tags, transcribing, game planning

Okay so! I just got back from seeing 'Cars 2' with Kia, since I had been mad curious after hearing reviews and meaning to go. Was it a fun movie? Oh yeah, sure. There were many moments where I laughed, lots of times where it was exciting, and as always with Pixar movies the production values were sky-high. Was it Pixar's best? Er, no. I'd probably say it was their worst. Was it a bad movie? No, not at all. Pixar's worst is still pretty good. It was fun to watch. But...

( Here's the rest...beware of spoilers )

So before I get to anything else, I have an important question for comics-friends on my flist, especially people who've published before, since I know there's some awesome artists here who've done that before...

I'm getting really close to finishing up Lunargyros. Like, just a couple of pages left to draw (even if I've still got a lot more to post.) So I really want to try and find a print publisher for it! I've tried out a couple of places, but not gotten really far thusfar. Either contract problems or just no interest. So I wanted to ask: does anyone know of a good company to go to that would be willing to publish something like Lunargyros, probably in two or three books? It's going to be 350 pages total, plus whatever supplemental stuff I want to add. And obviously Tokyopop isn't going to work out now...

Or that failing, I know a few people have self-published! What's a good print-on-demand company that you can recommend, especially for books that large? I heard Ka-Blam is pretty decent? How do you usually go about promoting/selling self-published comics, aside from at cons and online? (I don't think I can afford a table at SDCC unless I shared with many people...maybe Anime LA would work better...) Any thoughts are welcome!


Last night for Father's Day we went out and saw X-Men First Class, and it was highly enjoyable! :D Would totally recommend dudes go see it! It was definitely better than the third one or Wolverine, anyway...

( Some spoilers in here )

And finally, we have up another episode of our Let's Play Kingdom Hearts 2!



We'll record more tonight, and hopefully it'll go well! /o/

Drawing: LG, need to do some more practice stuff

Writing: Tags

New Lunargyros page is up; give it a look-see
Speaking of, there's a new page of it up; you can read it here.

Internship had more to do today: did a run (uuuugh LA traffic), talked to cool concept artist dude more, and even helped with an actual project (even if it was just uploading files. It was A THING.) All in all it's still been pretty slow, though. Guess we just hit it at the opposite of peak season.

Went and saw Kung-Fu Panda 2 tonight with my family! (Holy crap, the first time we've actually had the whole family together in...almost a year, I think?) And I enjoyed it! Beautiful animation, the fight scenes were SOOO much fun to watch, and there was more of the 2D animation! Especially the opening sequence, aaaaaah I looooove unique art styles applied to animation like that. SO pretty. As for the story and just the movie overall, I dunno if it was any better or worse than the original...they felt about equal to me. I thought this movie was actually a bit darker than the first; there were a few times where I teared up. (Of course, that could just be me getting old and sentimental.) It was nice that they let this movie be its own story with its own lesson, instead of an attempt to rehash the first or stuff it full of even more pop culture in-jokes. (If any, I think there may have been less this time.)

Also, Gary Oldman as Shen, the peacock villain, was a LOT of fun. He was a bit hammy (no more so than Tai Lun in the first one, though), but DANG he looked so awesome in the fight scenes. I want to go back and watch all those fight scenes with Shen in slow-motion, because there's such great MOVEMENT in seeing a peacock do kung-fu, as if he was using his whole body as a fan to fight with. So yeah...overall, I enjoyed it! Definitely stood on its own and didn't fall into the same sequel traps that DW has fallen into with the Shrek or Madagascar franchises.

Speaking of cool animation: Pixar, I am disappoint. You've made all these great movies and we know you can do it, so how about letting a woman at the helm for once? You had one on board for Brave, and then dropped her? Now DW has beaten you to the punch! (Pun not intended!) I know there are many female (and otherwise) storytellers like me who would, y'know, really appreciate it if you acknowledged our existence and gave us a chance for once. :/


Here's more waking-up drawings...been having a lot of weird or frightening dreams lately (probably related to this potential job stress), so a bunch of images are me trying to get down stuff from dreams...

( Under-covers drawings 68-69 )


Drawing: Mostly LG ATM, but I really need to move into some other things, too

Writing: Buncha tags and a lot of transcribing

The newest Lunargyros page is up here! Yay for somewhat announcing it here on time! 8Db

Pirates on Thursday night was a bunch of fun! Hung out with friends at the soda fountain before the movie started, where I shared the pin traders sundae with Kia (dangit I loooove that sundae...) We got into the theater around 11, and the organ player was there doing a ton of Disney tunes and Disneyland ride tunes. 8D That guy is so awesome.

As for the movie itself, it was pretty fun! Not as good as the first, but much tighter and more concise than the second or third ones. I think at times it still veered too close to grimdark and not close enough to the goofiness of the first one, but again, it was doing better. Jack was hilarious as always, Barbossa was definitely interesting, and Blackbeard was very intimidating. Probably one of the scariest pirate villains in awhile. Angelica was also pretty fun...not as cool as Quorra when it comes to lead-female-in-recent-live-action-Disney-movies, but cool 'nuff. Also, that priest. Dang, he was nice with his shirt off.

Yeah, that's my non-spoilery review. |D I recommend seeing it!


Got the art test, so now it's just a matter of doing it and rocking it! I wish I had more time nowadays; these past few weeks have been so busy, but I'll get it done one way or another! Need to do some architectural examples. I think I have some ideas for it now...I started trying to do a mockup model of one of the pieces yesterday while at the internship, but by the end of the day I wasn't terribly happy with it. So I'll just redo it. :P I've discovered that when it comes to drawing things like buildings/cityscapes/architecture, I prefer doing a quick model of it in 3D first and then drawing/painting over a snapshot of that model. Your perspective is always correct when using a model, and it's a lot easier to tweak and be creative with a piece of architecture in 3D than it is on paper, at least for me. Don't think I'll be able to post those here, since aha art test, but oh well.

Here be the latest waking-up drawings:

( Under-covers drawings 61-63 )

Drawing: LG pages, finished revision, finished commission...but next, time to conquer that art test!

Writing: FINISHED challenge fic (which I'll be posting in a bit), plus tags

I've made an animatic version of the Bremen Town storyboard! No sound or music, just trying to fit things together better. Dialogue is included, though.



Since mom had the day off for the holiday, we went and saw 'The King's Speech.' It was definitely an Oscar bait movie, but was still good! Colin Firth was totally convincing. Really drew you in and made you feel the pain he felt about his speaking. I've gotten into the habit of analyzing any new movie I see with a boarder's eye, but at least I learn something new every time. Also talked a bunch with my mom about it once we were done, since she's had a lot of study (and personal experience) with stuttering/stammering problems.

I tend to skip out on the 'Oscar bait' movies when they come around because lol, animation/geeky movie nerd, but I should probably watch them more often, just to see what's going on with them.

I'm starting to think maybe I should stop reading the news or looking at the political blogs that I do, or at least as often. Just seeing how much is continuously wrong in the world and with lots of people is, I think, starting to drain on me. It all feels so immensely large and overwhelming that it in turn makes me feel utterly helpless and fearful. And that in turn makes me cynical. I think maybe I'd be happier if I reduced my intake on that stuff (and I'm almost certain I was happier before I started absorbing more politics.) They say happiness spreads, so if my happiness can make others happier too, then it'd certainly be more worthwhile than cynicism.

Anyway, I got a board test to go to tomorrow. Please wish me luck! I'm really crossing my fingers on this one.

Drawing: Adjusting some logo stuff, thumbnails

Writing: RP

Aaaand went last night with yamikonumber7 and corrielle over to the El Capitan for the Tron midnight showing! We hung around the soda fountain most of the time, talking geek stuff and eating delicious ice cream sundaes. I was (surprisingly) able to keep up and awake the entire time, considering I'm not a night person. The laser show beforehand was a lot of fun and very shiny.

( Thoughts on Tron, including spoilers )

OMG I WANT THIS *_* Except for the fact that it's like $200 what even

And now it's time to go decorate the tree with little bro...

Drawing: More of the same

Writing: Hmmm...

Aaaand as I promised, here's my thoughts on seeing 'Tangled!' Since the movie's technically not out yet, read at your own risk, there's spoilers!

( There are SPOILERS inside, be warned! )

Last night I went with my 'rents to see Legend of the Guardians - The Owls of Ga'Hoole...or Legend of the Owls of...ANYWAY it was that movie with the owls. Storywise, it was just okay. It was basically LOTR, except with owls, right down to the hero character having Elijah Wood's big wet eyes and Hugo Weaving playing that stern leader guy in charge of the amazing warrior people. Kind of a lotta plot holes, though.

But anyone who knows me at all knows that I have a thing for flying animals, creatures in flight, flight animation, anything involving cool things with wings. I love Flying Things. And this movie was like 90% owls flying, so it was like an hour and a half of flying porn for me. Eventually I just went "screw the story, LOOK AT HOW MUCH STUFF IS FLYING :DDDD" and was happy. So, if you like pretty shiny things, it's a pretty shiny movie to see. But if you're going for that super deep good story, ehh, pass it up. Oh also, I haven't read the books, so I have nothing to compare it to there.

Continuing on with 10HAD...only a few people will get this too, since it's with a particular group of awesome friend dudes. XD I thought it'd be fun to try and redraw most of the FOD characters; that's like 40 people right there. So, started with New York first!

( New York, New Yooooooork )

Kingdom Hearts 30 Day Meme
Day 5 - Favorite Minigame

Ironically, that may be the gummi ships from KH2. At least, I haven't spent as much time on any other minigame as I have on trying to get all the treasures in the KH2 gummi ships. (I am ONE AWAY from 100%...stupid impossible gold phoenix in Splash Island! DX) Fruitball may come in second, though, just because it is playing volleyball with giant fruit and it is so. silly. I'm trying to recall what all of the Winnie the Pooh minigames are, and I can't...

( KH 30 Days Meme )

Also, I ended up downloading all of the English BBS cutscenes from kh13.com, and I've been busy converting them to .mov format, because .wmv is useless to me and .mov is higher quality anyways. If anyone wants some cutscenes for screencap/icon/AMV purposes, just give me a poke! XD

Drawing: 10HAD, on to the second painting

Writing: Still little

Was feeling down again, but I think (hope) that's passed, for the most part. I kind of want to like...do something for people, I don't know. I feel like I want to give more. My time, my money, my interest, my art, something. Sometimes I feel like I'm not being as good a friend as I could be. I feel like sometimes I make it all about me when I should be thinking more about how others are feeling. It's been nagging at me, and not sure how I can correct that...

In other news, I have seen so many movies lately, I don't even. Yesterday I went and saw Inception with my mom. Won't give too many spoilers, but overall, I enjoyed it! I don't think it was OMG THE MOST AMAZING ORIGINAL BRAINBREAKING MOVIE EVAAAR, since essentially it was The Dark Knight meets Paprika. XD But it was intense, fun to watch, and I kind of like how they left the ending open-ended juuuuust enough. Would definitely recommend dudes go see it. Also, I kinda wish they had played around with physics more in the dream worlds, because those were some of the most fun parts. And I don't know about anyone else, but at least when I dream, physics never behaves properly. It seems like all of my dreams have at least one portion where I seem to be operating in less-than-normal gravity.

Now for stuff that hasn't come out recently...

( Day 7 - A Clockwork Orange )

( Day 8 - Alien )

Drawing: A bunch of the concept stuff in early sketches...not much to show

Writing: Not much at the moment

Days until BBS release: 30

So yeah, I saw Toy Story 3 last night with yamikonumber7. Saw it in iMax format and 3D, which really was a nice little gravy but didn't really make or break my opinion of the movie...like with Up, after awhile I totally forgot that the 3D was there.

( Just a few spoilers inside )

So yeah, definitely go see this one...3D or 2D, either's fine. I'd go see it again. XD

Drawing: Still the same

Writing: Not much

Days until BBS release: 78

Last night I went with yamikonumber7 to go see How to Train Your Dragon! Didn't get to an iMax showing, but we did go see it in 3D.

Don't think I'll do a spoilery review, but the bottom line: GO SEE IT! This was definitely one of Dreamworks' best movies...on par with Kung Fu Panda at least, if not better. And easily the best dragon movie since Dragonheart. Great soundtrack, great characters, great art/animation, and a great story...all very solid work. I was on the edge of my seat on many occasions!

Also, I will have to say...the dragon flight scenes here? Superior to the dragon flight scenes in Avatar. The ones in Avatar were nice and gave a sense of scale. But the HTTYD flight scenes gave much more a sense of speed and power, which makes the flying scenes all the better. And I have a love affair with flight scenes (see my icon/most of what I draw/etc.) so this movie made me suuuuper happy.

I hope Dreamworks keeps up this level of quality, because stuff like this (and Kung Fu Panda) is what they should be shooting for, instead of Yet Another Shrek or Other Comedy With Celebrity Voices 2.

Completely unrelated: there was a trailer beforehand for a movie called 'Furry Vengeance.' I get the feeling that maybe the filmmakers should have done a little internets research before giving it that title, because I just snickered at that.

Aaaand speaking of movies, tonight I should hopefully be going to go see The Secret of Kells with my family! Which is ALSO a movie you should go see, because it is SO pretty and unique and deserves your dollars so that the filmmakers will continue to make more like that.


Also did a few more things for 'Scratch and the Tooth Troll'

( Little Things buildings )

Hmmm, I should probably go get my hair cut today...

Drawing: This, need to do LG, and a fanart I hope...

Writing: Stalled for now

Consecutive Days Gone Spoiler-Free: 32

Got back from Avatar late last night and then pretty much crashed into bed because I'd been up for 20 hours straight or something ridiculous like that.

Overall, the story was predictable, but it was still lots of fun to watch. It was worth the money for the delicious eye candy, especially of Pandora, but the story was basically POCAHONTAS. IN. SPAAAACE.

( More spoilers inside )

So yeah, go see it, but it's probably best to go with the mindset of I WILL SEE TWO HOURS OF SHINY AND PRETTY instead of I WILL SEE TWO HOURS OF UNIQUE AND COMPELLING STORYTELLING.

SO YEAH, I just got back from seeing "The Princess and the Frog" with Kia and her roomie. :D

The long and short of it: LOVED the film, would gladly go see it again, and would recommend that anyone and everyone go see it. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie that I just enjoyed watching so much, and made me leave feeling happy. We were laughing the entire way through; it was just full of good old-fashioned character humor without having to revert to "current" jokes. The music was great fun, and I'm sure after a few more listen-throughs I'll be able to sing through them the way I did old Disney movies.

And most of all, the art and animation were gorgeous. While it wasn't the exact same stuff as the old 2D movies all done on paper, it was its OWN kind of fluid 2D, and it succeeded completely on that level.

( Review inside, contains SPOILERS )

SO YES. Excellent job with this, Disney! I REALLY hope they continue this trend with future movies, and that this movie is a financial success so that they have the motivation to do so (and for other studios to latch onto the idea!)

And also, I really hope that some of the young kids watching this are inspired the way I was inspired by movies like Aladdin and The Lion King when I was a kid. Several times I heard the kids in the audience laughing and clapping at the end of songs, and I think that's what made me the happiest.

So I just got back from seeing Where The Wild Things Are with my parents. I grew up with this book, and had it read to me a lot when I was very little, so I was really excited to see the movie.

( Thoughts under the cut! )

Drawing: A lot and a lot, mostly practice and fanarts.

Writing: Nah much

Oh pfffff, I totally forgot...new Lunargyros page was up on Tuesday. Check it here.

I've been drawing a lot more lately...trying to average eight hours a day, if not more, although I'll admit it's still tough for me to do as much as some people do. Most of it is just practice, particularly for character design and human anatomy, but whatever I can do to improve myself is good. I'll probably post some of it tomorrow, particularly the DC arts. XD

So while I missed it last night, I went and saw 9 today with my family, since I actually managed to get my parents interested in an animated movie that isn't Disney or Pixar! HOLY CRAP WHAT.

( Some spoilers in the review )

Drawing: LOTS of sketches

Writing: ENDGAAAAME

It's ridiculously hot around here, and since I have no AC and my parents were kind enough to offer me a few bucks while they were out, I went out to a movie on my own. Specifically, I went to go see Ponyo (need to also see District 9, but I don't really wanna see that one by myself), and it was almost out of theaters.

I don't think it was Miyazaki's best movie, but it was a really sweet, gentle story! I think Disney sort of over-advertised it, since they're in the habit of hyping out their movies as much as they can. Not surprising; this method usually works for them. But Ponyo wasn't really an epic movie at all...it was just a cute story about a boy and his goldfish. And it was good just that way. I don't know if the story was entirely cohesive -it'd probably be better if I watch it a second time, since that happened to me with Spirited Away, too- but like all Miyazaki movies, it was very human characters in a very impossible environment.

I think what I liked best about this movie was the art. It looked like everything was designed by a kid: not entirely to scale, but all very soft, flowing edges, bright and happy colors. And everything seemed to move as if it were made out of bubbles or rubber. Like a kid, this movie wasn't in any real hurry...it goes at its own pace, savoring all the little moments like a kid likes to. I can see why Lassiter and the Pixar guys are excited about it: if I were an animator sick of working long hours and feeling like my creativity was drained dry, this is the sort of movie I would pop in to calm me down and get inspiration flowing again.

Also, all the previews made me glee. The more I see of Where The Wild Things Are, the more I want to see that film. It looks gorgeous. *_*

Drawing: Not much

Writing: Also not much ATM

GUESS WHO WENT AND SAW HALF-BLOOD PRINCE LAST NIGHT

THAT'S RIGHT I DID

( There may be spoilers! )

Drawing: Lunargyros

Writing: More tags

New Lunargyros page today! Check it out here.

So my parents invited me out to see a movie with them, and we went to go see Ice Age 3. Now see, I haven't seen Ice Age 2, so I guess I missed the part where Manny got a girlfriend and Sid got some possums (YEAH POSSUMS) and Diego got...no one? Anyways, this was the third one instead, and it had DINOSAURS and some crazy weasel thing.

All in all? Got quite a few laughs out of it, but it was forgettable. Diego's character seems so dumbed down from the first movie; he was basically there to be SUPPORT TIGER for everyone else. D: Probably the best part of the movie was Scrat and the ladysquirrel...all the best laughs came from them. They could probably make a movie JUST with the squirrels and everyone would go see it and it'd be hilarious. It's like Wile E. Coyote, but with saber-toothed squirrels.

So bottom line: some funny, DINOSAURS YEAH, and the rest was ehh.

Drawing: NEED to do more LG and others, really

Writing: LOTS of tags...