Quick Kiss

Digging up old artwork is fun. Especially if you have some really old stuff that shows a process to a more finished piece.
I was cleaning up a room tonight when i found one of y many old sketchbooks, from within fell out this print out of a famous photograph "V-J Day in Times Square" by  Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Along with this print out fell a few other scraps of note card size paper.

 Apparently i had wanted to re-create the photograph in my own style but in a not too exaggerated form, I especially love the stick figure pose on the bottom right. My end result was a large 18x12in marker piece.

enjoy-mikol

So, i got this thing...

Approximately one month ago i challenged my wife to create a different cupcake each day in the month of May, there weren't any prizes or bets on this challenge, just a simple request to create one new one each day.

I setup a blog for her here: http://lexicakes.blogspot.com/
and even took pictures of her creations and uploaded them for her when completed. I must say each night she setup to create a new batch of cupcakes, i couldn't wait to see the finished product, each day was a surprise as to what the flavor would be and the aroma of fresh cupcakes in the air each night is amazing!

Watching her thumb through ideas in a book or online, or even create her own was inspiring to me, and so i found myself sketching and painting more than usual this month.. I got to thinking about the tools an artist uses, so i decided to surprise her with a tool of her own.

I think she will like it, don't you?

-Mikol

REVIEW: The Witcher 2 Collectors Edition items

Welcome Gamers!

Today i'd like to talk about "Collectors editions". These items are usually a special box set put together for someone looking for more than just the regular game, this little bit extra could be a bonus code for something downloadable in the game, to an art book showing behind the scenes concept work into the games development, or even to an action figure or night vision goggles!

I'm a sucker for concept art, so any collectors edition that comes with an artbook holds a spot in my heart. I love seeing the development process for a game, ranging from early sketches to final designs, what didn't make it past the cutting room floor, and alternate ideas that may be used later on, after all video games usually may take up to 5+ years to complete so theres bound to be some fantastic concepts that deserve to be shown off.

The Review:

I picked up my preorder of the Collectors edition box of The Witcher 2 this week, the clerk behind the counter said it was the only one that came in and he was interested on what was inside, almost as if he was asking me to open it there in the store, I denied this request.

The box itself is a sleek black box with The Witchers Wolf emblem at the edge of the box folding over both sides.

Opening the box, I am greeted by my favorite portion of this set, the Art Book!

And what an Art book it is!, this thing is huge and filled with great artwork, design concepts and the story behind a few of their ideas for environment and the creation process of blending in historical data with their imagination to create a new world, heres a look at a few more pages...

Did i mention this thin was big? 195 pages to be exact!

Included in the box is also a few stickers promoting the game, and a paper craft kit to create! oooh, aaah.

Digging a bit deeper we get a beefy 2 disc DVD for the game installation, a 2 Disc soundtrack and a 96 page manual that reads like a mini adventure book! Very cool!

saucy

Next up, the Main piece. Inside the box (which had some heft to it  by the way) was a mini bust of our main character Geralt of Rivia. This piece is solid, the design is nice, it doesn't feel cheaply made, and is sturdy enough to make for a good bookend, 

this was the view from inside the box, notice the  weight of the statue was too much for the packaging

A few more goodies lie beneath starting with a deck of cards, a bag of die (dice? whatev) the pattern on the bag resembling the Witchers emblem, and an instruction manual on how to play the card game, pretty neat i think that you can play a game from within a video game.

i didnt open the cards yet, i'll update with images

 Last but not least a small gem for immersion a "gold" coin with the kings head on one side and the shield on the back, it wont buy me a coke but it looks cool!

All in all, this set was well put together selection of items for any collector, or big fan of The Witcher series.


-Mikol 

Mike & Mike...and Mike

Birthdays are great, aren't they? You get to celebrate a day with your friends and go out with a free pass. It's like a personal new year for only you; unless you share a birthday with someone you know (....Diana!, But this isn't about me), and most of all gifts!! This gift story is about a good friend of mine named Mike..no, I am not speaking in the third person either. This is another Mike.

Yesterday we celebrated Mike's birthday, and because of this occasion, I decided to create something instead giving a gift card, or buying dinner. I'm not saying that these are bad gifts, they are actually great. I'm also not saying I'm cheap, since
the materials I use to create something are not cheap. I'm just saying it's different... and I hate shopping.

This is Mike:

And this is a picture from a film he made entitled "West Texas Murder", it's also his Facebook profile picture, so BAM! idea!!......createdwhileatwork....

I decided to sketch out something. I'm not an artist, I just like to play one on TV. I also have a horrible memory, so at any given moment you will find me with a pocket full of sticky notes, and words like "milk", "cookies", and "fucking cat litter" written on my hand in sharpee.

The horrible sketch:

The sticky note would have acted as a cheap birthday card attached to the actual item I was going to create, but as with any TV artist, it was in the trash bin as soon as I got home. It had served its purpose of reminding me to make something later.

Now onto the real work... Since the image was taken from a facebook thumbnail image, it was simply too small for my project, so I had to blow it up. This of course caused it to lose quality. I then had to vector the image in photoshop to get the shapes I needed for the next step. (What the hell is Vector Graphics)?

The Vectored Shapes:
Ok, So now that that's done it's time to print. The final image will be placed on a 16"x20" canvas, so to fit this I must print each shape (3 total) to 12 pages total (4 pages each image) This is getting kind of big now.

After I print the pages, I see that the flimsy paper will not be good enough for the painting I'll be doing, so I go out and buy some thicker poster board instead. I lay out all the shapes, and commence cutting the negatives out...ugh



After all the shapes are cut is the fun part; painting! At first I failed by using acrylic on the canvas. This bled through the paper because I didn't use a sponge or dry brush to apply it, but then I thought, "what's more fun than acrylic paint? Spray Paint!!" So with my stencils in hand...

After the paintin--...er, Spraying is done, I am left with this:

So, did he like it..?


Well, at first I thought he was sad..

But it turns out he was just putting on a face (ba-dum), He did end up liking it, so in the end it was a success!


-Mikol






Hear no evil, See no evil, Sneeze no evil?

"mini" diet

Man o' man, "diets"!? am i right?

I am on a diet, and boy does it suck! Don't get me wrong, i am "losing" weight, but it is weird to know my body can survive for 3 days eating a can of tuna and an egg. ( by the way that's not the diet)

This diet, like any other promotes portion control and exercise. But the underlying deception of it, is that it assumes you wont exercise (which pretty much sounds right) so it takes away the option for portion control and gives you a list of what you can/cannot eat and how much of it.

I'm pretty good at following directions, so I'm cool with a set list of pre-approved food and schedule to follow, for the most part i don't eat breakfast regularly and lunch is occasional also, so I'm thinking ill be able to fly into dinner under par and come out on top!,...right?

Well, the diet is only 3 days long, because otherwise your throat will collapse, or your ears will fall off or whatever health reason they gave me i cant remember. I don't know the exact food choices off the top of my head, but it starts off a little something like this:

A small breakfast consisting of egg, OR 1 slice of toast and half cup of juice,

A small lunch of either half can of tuna and a slice of bread, OR crackers and a slice of cheese

Ending with a "sensible" dinner which can contain 3.oz of meat and the remainder vegetables.

The Diet gets progressively harder up to the third day where the breakfast item is pretty much what you're having for all three meal times.

The first day

You are feeling good, gonna get back on track and in shape, thinking about all the clothes you will fit into again. The Morning is not so bad, you're probably still full from the beef enchiladas from the night before, So you may skimp on that breakfast, its like saving up credit right?

Lunch comes and goes, you feel weird that the lunch was no double whopper from burger king, but you made it and are feeling like you can do this for like a month straight!

Dinner time is here, Your a bit hungrier than you were earlier today and notice the ratio between green and brown on your plate is 80/20 but you are set in your diet, and can do this, so you scarf it down, and go to bed.

The second day

Your stomach rumblings wake you up, that means its working! right? The egg is welcomed and you are on your way.

Did you eat lunch today....oh right, the tuna,...poo

Dinner finally here, you start to rethink the month long diet strategy and agree that 3 days is enough, and in mid thought find out you've eaten your meal, maybe you didn't get the serving size right, oh well one more day, you can do this!

The third day

You wake up thinking "if I'm losing weight why does my body feel so heavy?" Your mornings before were usually without any meal at all, so why all of a sudden do you have a urge to do cinnamon toast crunch and a Mc griddle sandwich "Zombie style"? You didn't eat a egg Monday, can we cash that in for an extra one today?

You suddenly have case of "unclear throat" syndrome today, as you try to disguise your stomachs audible revolt, "when will lunch get here?", it's only been 2 minutes since you've looked at your watch, and lunch time has already passed, did you eat lunch? it doesn't feel like you've eaten lunch.

At the end of the day, the drive home is the longest drive, and you are aware of everything, in a negative way of course. You notice the people who are eating in their cars, and wonder if those are the good salty McDonald's fries or the crappy soggy ones , you notice the guy behind you who you just know will try to pass you at any moment,...any moment now, you start thinking about if you got any mail today, and that you probably didn't but you will go to check anyway and then you will be pissed because you were right!...about being pissed

Your dinner is the worst ever, the cat bowl has more food than your plate does, and it doesn't look half bad either, neither does your cat at this point. You think to yourself your not gonna make it, your so tired, your so very tired, you go to bed and place two pillows against your ears two block out the grumblings, if you make it to tomorrow you promise yourself a "shit load of crazy bread and a pizza"

Tomorrow

You wake up.....silence

Did my stomach die?

You walk slowly onto the cold bathroom floor, predicting that all your sacrifice was for not, and promising to swear off this as another failed diet unless you lost 50 pounds. You step onto the scale, both eyes closed, then one eye closed, then both eyes open, then with a sigh you say "8 pounds, ...huh, not bad!" Your pants don't feel as tight as before do they?, does this coat look bigger to you? Now that you can deviate from the menu for the next 4 days, what will you eat?

....."I'm not really that hungry"

Now While most of the above is true i want to put into perspective something, Some people say "how hard can it be, how small are these portions really?". Well for my first night i did have this nice juicy delicious piece of meat, along with some green beans and carrots!

Looks great doesn't it, well it was actually, and i split it with my Grandmother who made this wonderful bird and my wife, so where is the deception you ask? look forth!

And no, i am not a giant!

-Mikol

Munny-Munny-Munny-Munny.....MUNNAY!!

When creating some "art project" i normally don't document it, as in a series of photographs from start to finish. Most of the times, its a good thing, but on some rare occasions i step pack from a painting or digital art piece and say..."well shit that would have been nice."

I purchased a "Munny" for my wife a few weeks back, but haven't gotten myself to paint it, until this weekend.

Nice clean Munny to start off with!

I started sketching out some simple ideas on a template.

When satisfied there i sketched on the Munny itself.

Since my idea involved a few items i couldn't draw on to the Munny, i got the necessary tools from my garage.

A few holes later....

....tada!

Now here is where, and probably why i don't do "tutorials" or "step-by-steps" I get caught up in my project to the point if forget I'm supposed to be documenting it as well, i guess next time I'll set up a video camera and set it to record instead.

Here she is, painted, drilled, buffed, outlined, and glossed....I promise i'll take those pictures next time, enjoy!

quikie

I'm not much of a painter, as to say I dont really practice the medium much, but last night i had an idea, plus i had the paints, so...i painted.

Now bear with me, as i explain the process, or lack there of.

I created two paintings, i failed to take a picture of first one of,t ...sort of..read on.

Here is the final (second) painting

(keep in mind i was going for speed, and not the "finished" product here to see if my image worked out)

wow! a dragon, big woop...i agree, but then...

The first painting is what i painted over, not very impressive, especially since i didnt prep the canvas so the colors wouldnt bleed, or blend colors that well in each scene, but at least my test went through!!

All in all i think the test was a success to a degree, i can recreate two diffrent images, use diffrent shapes and surprise myself with the details!