Shading!

I bet you guys thought I gave up on this picture, didn't you? Well, so did I.


Shading is magical. Aviator girl is done, I guess precariously-hanging girl is next!

Talk to the Hand

Hey! I found this in my Finished CG folder; I drew it over two years ago and never put it anywhere. Probably because looking at it filled me with an overwhelming sense of shame. Rectified!
The character's name is Ou, and she was one of the first characters I came up with. She could control birds or something. I dunno. I always liked her, though. Red hair!

Incroyable

Yes, it's that time again: time to indulge in some good old shoe shopping. Anyone who is not totally awesome can check out now.

Irregular Choice is a British shoe company. They make... interesting shoes. Case in point:
Those are some shoes. I hope a few thousand years from now they'll be on exhibit in a museum exhibit about Alternative Visual Culture in the Pre-Apocalypse Western Civilizations of the Early 21st Century, next to print-outs of 4chan /b/ board threads and giant American Apparel adverts. I kind of want to own these just because they are so incredible, in the, uh, proper sense of the word. But, well, I don't think I can pull them off. If you think you can, though, you can find them here for £63.37.

Here's something by Irregular Choice that's much more demure:
I really like these, but the smallest size that ASOS carries is UK 3, which they claim is a European 36 AND a US size 5, which, like cake, is a LIE. But check out the bottom of them!You can't go wrong with robots, especially red ones with eye beams. Fact.

If you have feet that are not elven-/munchkin-sized like mine, you can pay £73.41 at the link above (or if you happen to be a size 10, for $149.99 at Modcloth).

Current shoe dilemma: to Fluevog, or not to Fluevog?

COMIC?!

What is this?!

This took a long time. I don't even really like how it turned out. But! I learned lots:

- Word bubbles need to be much, much bigger.
- Those four panels at the bottom are way too small.
- I need a real comic font. (Resolved!)
- 600 dpi is suicide.
- My hand wants to die now.

I'm not sure I even want these to be colored. Mostly because it takes forever. But it looks nice? Kind of?

Some annotations... the plushie is a space bunny (a demented creature of my own creation, naturally). Yes, that is a picture of my World of Warcraft character. I own that clock, it is one loud mutha-effer. And finally, Miffy is King.

Now, if I manage to make a second comic, I'll think about building the site (NOOOO).

EDIT: Better version with new font omg you have no idea how much better this is no rly omg.

Nerdery and... more nerdery.

Two things:So true. From Wasted Talent, a cute little journal-style comic about an engineer girl.



Sweetest thing I've seen on Threadless in a while. Everyone vote for it so I can buy it ;)

Girlyman is Great

The Google blurb for the Girlyman website reads: "Imagine the Indigo Girls got together with Paul Simon and created Peter, Paul and Mary - only sexier." First of all, that sounds amazing. Second, it IS amazing.

I first heard of Girlyman from a choir friend from college. This germ of an introduction tucked in the back of my head, I came across "Postcards from Mexico" on my boyfriend's computer (he's not sure how it got there, but I think a sister was involved). I gave it a listening-to and found it fun and pleasant, but nothing special. Now I've been listening to Girlyman's first album, "Remember Who I Am," practically non-stop since I got it three days ago. What happened in the interim? Two words: quality speakers.

Girlyman describes its music as "harmony-driven gender pop." The key word is "harmony." On my boyfriend's tiny Macbook speakers, "Postcards from Mexico" is okay. Nate's kind of goofy voice takes center stage (don't get me wrong – I like the goofy voice. The Decemberists is one of my favorite bands, for crying out loud. Waistrels in the storm gutter, bluh guh mlarrr). But once I played it on some better speakers, I was blown away by the harmonization of the three band members. Just listen to "Viola" and hear how Nate's solo voice gives way to three-part harmony in the second stanza. Incredible.

And it only gets better. Not only is the harmonization perfect, but the chord progressions are sleek, masterful, beautiful. (This is especially evident with "Even If," where minor chords melt into major chords and back again without so much as a seam.) This makes some of the songs on "Remember Who I Am" among the most moving, poignant expressions of love and futility I've ever heard. The chord changes at the end of the chorus of "Say Goodbye" – "either way you've already made up your mind" – tears me apart every time. Same with "Amaze Me;" I don't think I've heard anything as beautiful as the "save me from Armageddon/high road to heaven" couplet in popular music in a very long time.

There is a particular quality of music that I'm very sensitive to; it's a bit difficult to explain, and I don't know the technical term for it (if there even is one – the people I've mentioned this to don't know what I'm talking about). It is, vaguely, how well the lyrics fit the music. Sometimes, the wrong word at the wrong time just sounds awkward. But when the lyrics and the music mesh in some inexplicable way – which, as far as I can tell, involves rhyme, pronunciation, and meaning all rolled up in one – it's just about the most glorious thing in the world. (On another note, I feel that wordless music has to make up for this mysterious quality through complex vertical structure – sometime pretty much missing in all popular music). This album is full of such moments.

That's not to say that this album can do no wrong. "Fall Stories" has nice parts, but overall I don't really like it. Also I feel that some of the vocal styling sounds a little stilted – "Postcards from Mexico" is a relentless torrent, it flows. Not so for many of the other songs. "Maori" gets major points for rhyming "Aleutians," but the line about fish heads kind of kills it for me (there is a perfect example of a lack of that mystical quality mentioned above). I also kind of loathe "My Sweet Lord," which happens to be the only song on the album not written by at least one of the band members (it was written by one George Harrison, whom you may have heard of). Despite these hiccups, I can listen through the entire album without skipping anything and enjoy it. That's saying a lot. When was the last time you could do that with an album? (Your "Magical Moments mit Mozart" album does not count.)

My favorite song on the album is probably "Hey Rose," followed by "Amaze Me," "Montpelier," "Say Goodbye," and "Postcards," not necessarily in that order. They're all lovely.

In conclusion: FÜNF/CINQ. Awesomesauce.

Age and Love

This series of photographs from Vogue Paris is pretty neat. Not sure if they pulled it off entirely. Not sure why the 30-year-old version looks so washed up. Not sure she would look that good as a 60-year-old if she was so washed up as a 30-year-old. But a neat concept, nevertheless. I think the 10-year-old one is pretty impressive. Originally from Picdit.

This is kinda neat, too, but a little depressing sometimes.

EDIT: Added a picture because goddammit a post without a picture just sucks.