Stop In

If you've got an hour to spare and you can't think of anything to do, might I suggest this game?
It really is a lot of fun, I finished all the levels. I wish there were more :D

Planned

Potterific

Just some countdowns for you... yay
Man, I'm starting to get excited. I paid my pre-order for the last Potter Book yesterday. I suppose now its finally real. The book and the movie so close together, I think I might just have a meltdown.
The final book is two days after my 21st Birthday as well, so I'll take the weekend off work and just geek out. Its been a long time coming and the end is finally near. It's going to be cause a lot of mixed feeling. But I suppose I'll worry about it when it happens, can't wait :D





Get this and other HP countdowns at LeakyNews.com


Just thought I'd share this with you quickly.

Feh, Meh and Shmeh all share the same linguistic root

I wasn't going to make a post today/tonight because I've spent the day out and about with my family. And it's been really nice, spending time with them. I picked up comics, we went and had starbucks frappucinos (Jack tried and Iced Americano which turned out to be nothing more than Iced Black Coffee and she almost puked) and then we had dinner and a few drinks at the local club. It was a lot of fun.

In other news, I've been finding it difficult to make the effort to do any art. I'm still sketching a little, but I've been feeling really dejected about my art recently - everything I produce is pretty crappy and I'm really not happy with it. I used to produce crappy art and find myself pleased with it, but recently I've put pressure on myself when it comes to improving and I'm not getting any better.

So I just thought I'd share this image with you. I think I put the line's up a few days/weeks ago. It's for a competition at one of my clubs on deviantart. There are some parts of this I really love, but I find once you get into the colouring stage you start to get really bored of an image. Oh well, the basic shadows have started to be laid, we'll see how it comes out.

On the bright side, I came on deviant art today and I had four brand new comments on my work by people I hadn't even bribed. That made me feel good. It's not much, but it's something to keep my spirits up since they were all pretty positive.

Later,

- Nat

We're a team on a rollercoaster ride

So this is about ten minutes (and a few days) late.

Just a brief, crappy visualisation of how I've been feeling in my life right now.

I've been at work all night, now I'm going to finish watching Veronic Mars, eat my soup and go to sleep.

Until next time,

Nat

Computers don't make life easier...

We're starting a podcast. This is the really rough cover image for the show - in case you missed it, it's called taking up space.

Don't have much to say. Buy yourself a head set and set up skype and we'll let you on the show. Enjoy.

I lied, there will be no real post tonight.
I went to the football with mum and dad. Raiders kicked butt. 'Twas good.

Working hard I see

Todays picture is brought to you be your friendly, neighbourhood woolworths. There were a lot of us on tonight and not a lot of work so Keilani, Tahni, and Danielle were all drawing. I did a five minute thing and left it on the table. Joking, I told Danielle to colour it. Came back, and Keilani had coloured it and signed it.
I thought I'd throw it up here to share.

Only worked today, nothing interesting.

Until next time.

Nat

Yawwwwwwwwwn

So, no post yesterday. Why? Well, I went to see the TMNT movie once again with friends (its good, you should see it). Then I brought comics. Then I ran home and went to work. Finished at ten. Met mum and dad for a drink, then came home and went to bed.

No real post today. Why? Today I went paintballing for a handful of hours. Got very shot up (think war zone) then had nacho's and chocolate fondue at Emily's house. Now headed for bed (planning for much pain in the morning).

Don't hold your breath for a post tomorrow either. As above, probably much pain tomorrow and work. Gotta work.
Also, not feeling really arty. Think I'll just do some work on my animation... maybe.

Should be back monday... maybe... maybe is a good qualifier :P

Later,
Nat

Feel my power

It's called firebending. If you don't know what it is, then you haven't watched 'Avatar The Last Airbender' and you're missing out one something great. Seriously. Go watch the show. Right now - download it or whatever. I'll wait right here... back?
Okay, so this is an Avatar short which is very funny, you should watch it also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znKaZgdknFc . See, good stuff. Avatar is fun.
In regards to my picture, hmmmmmmmmmmmm, an fire bender with a scar on his eye... where have I seen that before? It feels familiar... (if you haven't seen 'avatar then you're not going to get the reference and I pity you). This was just a five minute pen skecth. If I ever drew its seriously, I'd like to give his torso and clothing more movement - I'd really like to draw a bender sort of spinning. A few little mistakes, but not bad for the energy I invested in it.

Didn't get up to much. Mostly spent the day starting on the inks for an Eragon fanart for deviant art. I'm doing a lot of fanart at the moment (I don't know if the above expressly counts though). Didn't get up to much. Mostly slept.

Good times.

- Nat

Canadians, they walk among us.

Another hit of Harry Potter fanart today.

Nothing to say. Sorry.

- Nat

No TV and no beer make Homer go something, something...

So I spent a large part of the day finishing this image off. It's my hogwarts dorm room.
God it took a lot more effort than it should have, ultimatley I like the way it turned out.
Once I've drawn the wand properly I'll post the completed student page up at my deviantart gallery.

Nothing much happened today. That was nice.

Until next time,

Your friendly neighbourhood Nat

Rest in peace pinky toe, you shall be avenged

So todays image is a neo-Nath and neo-Neil image. They're looking kind of futuristic and shooting at each other (read below for an explination on that). I really like Neil's pose; it's has a bit of movement to it. And I did like Nath's until I drew Neil. The background was just me cutting out shapes and filling them for fun. Not much to say on it really. If Neil's head were smaller or Nath's were slightly larger then this would be a better image. But there is something interesting about this.
Maybe it's just me...

And yes, I'm sorry, I took a few extra days off before coming back.

Life's been really difficult at the moment - I feel like I've been through the blender and chucked out onto an incenirator. I got all the school stuff done but I've been left feeling really frustrated and flat.

Had a really nice night on thursday, went to see TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and then spent the rest of the evening in my room with my mates reading comics and talking nerd talk. Chris (http://kraden.deviantart.com) skecthed out a five minute picture of Assasin-E and Samuri-N which looked freaking awesome. I hate talented artists :( but seriously, it was a real compliment that he wanted to draw it. A-E is based on Emily though - his girlfriend - so that might have had something to do with it.

Easter was nice, just spending time with my family.

I've been fighting almost non-stop with my best friend recently, which has leaved me feeling like I've been to war. And to top it off, an associate 'friend' seriously offended me several times yesterday and I had to walk away before getting into a fight - I wanted to punch them. And I've been learning things about a person I love that I didn't want to know. They haven't let me down or betrayed me, but it makes respecting this friend difficult - which sucks.

I don't know, sometimes it feels like there's so much pressure on me. Some of it I put on myself, some of it others put on me. It makes me want to curl up - but I'm tougher than that, I think. And things could always be worse.

To top it off, it seems that all the kids at work have done drugs except for me. I don't feel any peer pressure, but WTF!!!? when did it become so common for kids (most under 18) to be doing casual drugs, and most of it's the hard stuff.

Man life can be hard to comprehend. I'm 20 and the values of the world have changed without telling me. How much 60 or 80 year olds feel?

...Something to think about; yes?

High Ate Us

You may have noticed that there have been no sketches up the last few days. I've got too much going on in my life right now, to many things to get done and too many decisions to make.
So I'm taking a break. A hiatus if you will. For about two weeks - I should be back just after good friday.

Until then, keep safe.

- Nat

It works nicely with the mud

Just a very quick sketch to try and shake me into action. Not really working.
Nothing to say.

Later

-Nat

Trying not to compensate

So this is a re-concept (I don't know if thats even a term) of Neil's character. This is drawn by hand instead of straight onto PC. By god; this Neil has a square jawline.
The object on his shirt is a pig's bladder/skin quaffle - the original type that the game was played with. The word on the shirt is queerdich which is from queerdich marsh where the earliest games of quiditch were played and where we today adopt the word from. I'm a nerd and at one time I was a huge Harry Potter nerd; so I know these things.
I don't know if I like the way the cloak turned out. It's supposed to be Wizarding Casual, instead of a button you just slip it on. Meh.
I've still got to get Neil's opinion on it; I made the fringe longer, but is it long enough? Much longer and I may as well just draw him in traditional NQC fashion.
Neil's wearing his wand in a type of holster at his leg; I don't know if thats clear at this resolution.

I got the results of my quiz today. Apparently my house is Ravenclaw and my wand is willow 9.5 inches wih a Hippogryff feather core. And acording to cannon 9.5" inches is a VERY short wand. I'm trying very hard not to feel offended.

Work was hell today. And it's going to be worse next week. I'm working til 11 and then I have to be up and 6 the next morning. NOT FUN.

Later

- Nat

Run away it's the IPA

Just a quickie tonight. Some early concept art for Neil's AMA characters. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but then I very rarely like what I sketch straight into the computer. Some of it's good at will probably stay when I do the full sketch. Most of it'll go.
Neil likes most of it, but we've resolved, after brief discussion, to have his hair come down more over his eyes. I'll get some more prompts off him later.
And I won't bore you with all the problems I had with getting the full shot to look 'kind' of decent.
It's amazing how different this Neil is to NQC Neil. Once I make the hair longer it should be better though.

Sorry about no update last night; I went drinking with mum and dad after work and once that was done I couldn't be bothered updating.

No long rant tonight because I have to go watch DVD's with the parents.

Mum picked them - ones of them's a crappy Ben Afflek film - I'll probably start bleeding from my eyes. Fun!

Later

_nat

The hogwarts anthem was only sung in the first book. It was never mentioned again. True story.

So what I have to share today is some really, really early concept art for a project I’m working on. I’ve just gone ahead and signed up to the Hogwarts Art School, a club on deviantart, and while I haven’t received conformation I’m pretty sure I’ll be in Ravenclaw. One part of joining the club is to draw your character and his/her possessions up in the room/bed you’ve chosen.
This is me just throwing around some idea’s and practicing for the eventual final project. I quite like them both, and I enjoy the idea of making them ‘interact’ with the background because I don’t/can’t draw background usually.
Just to make it clear, this background is one provided by the club and IS NOT drawn by me. Only the two crappy sketches belong to me. I’ve faded the background at this point to make the sketches more obvious.
I still have to decide on the characters age/ school year and the other important things which will be interesting.

I don’t have much to say. I’ve had very little sleep last night, a bit of a big day, and now I’m feeling like the world has taken on a fuzzy, embossed kind of effect.
I’m sitting in the lounge room watching lost and not feeling particularly interested in anything at all today.
There’s an advanced screening of Frank Millar’s ‘300’ in a few weeks that I can get tickets too, I have to talk to friends and family and see if they’re interested. The tickets are 16 bucks a piece but the environment should be worth it.

Hmmmmmmmm… Lost is just full of twists and turns tonight. It’s actually very interesting. Ben’s a great man/Ben’s a liar. Cool stuff.
I’m glad I’ve stuck with this show even when everybody else was bad mouthing. It’s very political this season, and maybe that’s why people have been sick and tired of it.

Interesting that Julie should say that the film she’s made, telling Jack to kill Ben, (or Benry as lost nerds call him) is “To Kill a Mocking Bird”. This show alludes to a lot of literature and films. Second year they referenced ‘Turning of the screw’ which is about creepy children who may or may not have magical powers – and that summed up Walt’s storyline (and one of the main threads) for the rest of the season. ‘Mockingbird’ of course is ultimately about taking the lives of those who are innocent – so maybe the show is suggesting (for the literary savvy amongst it’s fans) that Ben is the ‘Mockingbird’ of the others.

I brought me my comics today and so far I’ve read ‘Fantastic Four the End’ and the first half of the ‘Fantastic Four’ 45th anniversary addition. Fantastic Four the end was great; from the first comic in the series I knew how it was going to end, I knew that either Reed or Sue would find a way to bring the kids back. By the second it was obvious Sue would do it.
In the end it turned out to be a nice, cheesy comic where the family fell apart but was eventually brought back together and loved each other still. I’ve always loved that about the fantastic four, and it’s the one element most people can’t stand. FF is like the 7th heaven of the comic world – and that’s what makes it great. Everything about it I love, especially the Richards couple and their kids. And I can’t be the only one who thinks like that since the comics lasted 45 years. Anyways, it was nice to see the FF together and happy in the end, several hundred years from now, reunited with their children and friends and contented to finally live in peace. That last corny moment (where the entire Marvel-U was standing together) was especially moving with everything that’s been happening in main 616 continuity, mainly civil war and the death of Captain America.
I think sometimes, in these rough and awful times, we need to be reminded that sometimes the good people do win, and sometimes being there for each other IS enough.

Lost took an ‘oh dear – that’s black and deadly’ turn … awesome. But Echo’s with his brother now – and that’s cheesy and corny and great. See, I’m a sucker for family’s being together; even if it is in death – sometimes even I, cynic that I am, need to believe in that.

And that’s a wrap (I accidently lied at the start when I said I had nothing to say)

- Nat

The interweb play's cat and mice wit me...

So I think I've mentioned once before (but I could be wrong), that sometimes I like to get an old drawing and redraw it to see how far I've come. I mostly do this when I'm feeling either particularly talented or uninspired and untalented. Today is a mesh of both.
The image on the left is of my character Nathan Khan. I drew it around when I first got my PC tablet (I've just checked when I uploaded it to deviantart then and it was 7/18/05, so thats even earlier than I thought). Although the date makes sense since I was in media production 2 at that point... gah.
I remember randomly drawing something Khan and it then turning it into the animation that was 'Khan Cries'. I followed the exact same process today, just two years on. I randomly started drawing in Flash and just kept going. It was quicker, and it looks a damn sight better. Even the coluring tech used is the same.
So I'm still not where I want to be, but seeing this makes me feel so much better about how far I've truly come. I should have drawn Khan in the exact same pose to be fair, but I wasn't really planning on this.
Both new sketches took me about ten minutes all up. Colouring took probably fifteen on top of that.

So I went to upload this about ten minutes ago. I hadn't done all the shading on the two new poses because I was being lazy. But then the net wouldn't work so I decided to finish the colours and wait for dad to come home since I couldn't make the nets work again.

The second I'd saved this in final colour, the internet reconnected.

I almost fell off my seat.

I think something's playing with me; or maybe the universe is just a fan of Khan artwork.

Who knows.

Not much to say.

Heroes tonight. Watch IT. Or Sylar will GET you.

Thats a fact.

Night -

Nat

(wow, I'm early again today ... GO ME!!!!!)

Mid day post

rape is not sexy by =joteivv on deviantART

This is a mid-day update, because I think this is something important. And I think if you have a blog or some public place on the intenet you should share this with others.

As I said in the comments for this work:
"I agree with this so much. As a comic reader, I'm sick and tired of rape being nothing more than a tragic back story for female heroes. Stories written by men who think it's erotic to have innocent female characters or superheroins bound and raped.
"And then me, as a person, with friends who have been raped or suffered sexual abuse, I'm sick and tired of people making excuses for it. Or even worse, people who BLAME those who get raped and abused. It's not on."

WE should all share these sentiment around and become more aware and active in preventing rape. I can't do much, but I can throw this image up in my blog and on my devart page.

So if you have the inclination visit http://www.rainn.org/donate/index.php right now and buy some of the stuff. If you can't afford it, find some way to share this about.

"No beer make nat go something, something" "Sober?" "AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

So, today is another day in the 'Year of Drawing The Dragon' or, as I like to call it, 'Nat can't be bothered coming up with anything original Year'. Hate everything about this, but I wanted to get it done before we went to the films.

So I went to the movies this very evening with my mother and father. We saw 'Wild Hogs' with Jon Travolta and Tim Allen. It wasn't a shining example of a film, it didn't really bring anything new to my film going experience, but it was fun. It delivered everything it promised it would. And I didn't hate it. If you want to go see something and you've seen 'Ghost Rider' then I wouldn't tell you not to see this film.

It had a lot of laughs in it.

I found what looks to be a great Harry Potter club on DeviantArt but I just don't have the time or energy to pump into something that detailed right now. But I have been inspired to draw some new AMA (Australian Magic Academy) fanart. And that never hurts.

I also want to draw a picture of Nath smelling his feet. Honestly, that particular inspiration I'll never be able to explain.

I have an essay proposal due on friday afternoon (but I'll have to put it in on thursday just to be safe); something about Good and Evil in Sacred Japanese Architectural Design. I got four book and I hope they help. I've got most of tomorrow to work on it, but lets be honest, I probably won't put in the effort required. Thats just how I am.

Well feeling kind of out of it again today.

Transmission Out,

Nat

Monday nights alright for frightning

A bit of pokemon fanart for you all today. Pidgey came up well, everything else sucks.
I'll scan this is at a higher quality and ink it when I have time.

Well, it's monday night, so no time to chat. Gotta go watch Supernatural. Best show on TV next to Heroes. Sammy and Deany and Demon's oh my...

I'll catch you at some more oppurtune time.

Peace out

-Nat

Now for something completely different

< Look, new layout I'm so exciting :D

And on to business:
Sorry for the lack of an update last night. I went to skyfire with my family, Emily, Chris and Neil. It was a really nice night but we ended up back at my place and spoke until 1:30 in the morning which was nice but left no time to throw up a sketch. I think it's good for me to have some time off from this whole blog thing because I've been really frustrated lately with drawing and been unable to push past it. I feel like I should be writing when I'm drawing and when I'm writing I start drawing because I don't put any pressure on my drawing. And when I'm doing anything I know I should be catching up on the school work that I haven't done and that's going to cause trouble come friday and the deadline.

Oh well.

Anyway, it's always really nice having friends over. But as Chris said, whenever he comes over here it takes hours to get away 'cause we end up talking and not stopping.

Todays picture is random, it's a throwback to my pokemon drawing days merged with my love of all things comicish. I really like the pose, its very dynamic compared to most things I draw.

I found a bunch of sketches from year's 11 and 12 yesterday because I was showing the others the original NQC concepts. It's pretty cool how far I've come in 2 years. I'm still not real great but looking at old stuff sure makes you feel good.
I often forget Neil, Emily and Chris were at a different college for 11 and 12. I just assume they were there. Goose and Adam were always being shown the NQC stuff when I was coming up with it as were all my other friends so when we started talking about something last night I just assumed they'd seen what I was talking about. They hadn't. So I dug up the shocking old art diarys.

The last few days I've been feeling like I want to give everything up. Especially school and drawing. Chuck everything in and go get a public service job and kill my mothers heart. Luckily enough, my cooler temprement has stopped me openly declaring these things in a dramatic fashion. Hopefully it will prevent me from making any stupid decisions.

Until then, I'll sleep.

-Nat

Champion above all losers

I drew about six different pages of scribbles tonight and couldn't come up with anything I wanted to share. This is the best I came up with and its still craptacular.
And yes... I know the eyes (especailly her's) look funny. What can I say? I'm a no talent hack :D.

I'm broke, I'm tried and my colds come back with a vengence which isn't as much fun as it sounds.

I'm going to go and watch some TV or go to bed or something. Something other than TRY to draw. Because obviously thats not going to happen tonight.

I'm all about good, wholesome, storytelling

So this is just a really quick two sketches that I’ve thrown together. They’re supposed to be of the Scarlet Witch (from Marvel). And yes, they really are dodgy. But I don’t have any time or energy to invest in them.

I’m putting them up early because I’ve got to go to work tonight after being out at uni for most of the day. It’s only for three hours but I’m not really looking forward to it. I'm kind of tired.

And thats about all I have to say. If there's anything else to add, I might add it once I get home.

- Nat

On a wing and a prayer

GAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the awfulness that is my art. Not even going to talk about how awful this is today.

A friend of mine has made a big decision that I wish I could make. Unfortunatley I'm not as brave as he is. Oh well.

Going to go wrap my brain in Hero's. Best. Show. On. TV

Oh Richie... you were doing so well

So today's picture is just a practice on backgrounds and scenery. Something I never work on.
My perspective is shocking and that is the reason I never draw background. THere are a few things I like about this, but everything else is shocking. This is one half of a greater picture, but I don't think its something I'll ever get around to finishing - I'm like that.

Finished reading Richard III today, I really liked Richard right up until the second last Scene where Richard woo's Queen Elizabeth's daughter Elizabeth - this is just after he has killed the two son's of Q.E. and the two brothers of the girl he apparently loves. So disturbing.

I didn't care who he killed, but trying to marry your teenage neice after buchering her infant brothers is disgusting.

I'm talking about it because I just watched that scene on film. The fantastic Ian McKellen adaption with all its Nazi overtones. Now I'm up to the ghost scene. Hopefully thats as awesome as I imagined when I read the play.

(Edit: No, No that scene wasn't as good as it should have been. Which is a pitty, 'cause every other part of that movie rocked)

Later

_nat

Who was that masked man?

Another early morning this morning; man they're awful; I look at my clock at twelve and realise I've already seen six hours when I should just be waking up :P. But by the time it gets to about four I'm ready for bed.
Ah well, at least now I won't have to do it for two more weeks. But with the essay plans and my Narrative project, I'm sure there'll be plenty to keep me buys.

So this is a picture I owe Chrissy from ages ago.

I drew the three boys as Kingdom Hearts characters based one four little sketches I'd did during a Scriptwriting session. The little sketches were of Goose, Nath, Neil and Emily (and Lienx, Neil's nobody). Chrissy stumbled across them and felt a bit ripped that there wasn't one of her.

The problem is that I didn't have a character design for her, and the one I'm using in NQC at the moment is still really rough.

So, enjoy this, I'm going to watch some TV and then fall into bed.

- Nat

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to Nat.

Didn't want to draw tonight. Couldn't come up with anything.
Warheads are good.

Now... off to bed

- Nat

Thats not right

Feeling really sick. Finally come down with the cold that I mentioned the other day.
Need a nap. Not feeling real good.
Read a lot of 'Richard III' today - feel like I'm thinking in shakespearian at the moment.


I might draw some more after I've had a break. But I'll probbaly just do school work.

... In case you can't tell, this is Sora from Kingdom Heats. I used my own colour palett since I'm limited to three colours when drawing in pen.

Enjoy

- Nat

Your results:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse 75% Magneto 65% Dr. Doom 58% Juggernaut 50% Lex Luthor 45% Dark Phoenix 39% Poison Ivy 34% Mystique 34% Venom 32% Kingpin 30% The Joker 24% Catwoman 22% Mr. Freeze 22% Riddler 22% Green Goblin 14% Two-Face 10%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

Its a freaky friday

Thats right, its a very quick DBZ styled sketch. What are you going to do about it?
DBZ was one of the things that encouraged me to consider drawing as something that could be serious. I'm still along way from where I want to be, but I've come along way from the DBZ Trunks sketches I did in year 8.
Everything I used to sketch ended up looking like a poor DBZ knock off, at least now I'm finally starting to get my own style.

So today I spent a bit of time doing homework and the rest driving around with my sister looking for a new CD player because she's decided to do up her car. We walk in to the first shop and the guys like "What are you looking for" and her responce was pretty much "Something with pretty lights". The guys face was classic.

She ended up finding what she was looking for and settled for that.
Then we waited while mum went to the gym, Dad met up with us while we waited and we came home. Ate some rice-paper rolls.... I love rice paper rolls.

Okay,

- Later

I'm Thinking PASTELS

Okay, so this is up early. Very early for me. I didn't really have any ideas for todays sketch. I was just screwing aroud in paint and this is what came out. I do that some times.
This was so random that when I got to the background, I though, why not make it even stranger and add a Katamari? So I did.

I should not be allowd to play around in paint. Thats a given from here on in.

Anyway, enjoy. Tonight's a busy one for me, with Lost and Stargate on. Everybody's was complaining about the third season, saying it had grown old and tiresome, but I'm still enjoying. All though - with the young, fresh, sexy Heroes hanging around Lost is in for some compitition in my heart of hearts.

Later,

Nat

When Buildings go bad

So, that early morning class I mentioned yesterday, the one I had to be up early for, well... I slept right through it. Woke up at 9:30 and almost had a heartattack. Apparently I didn't miss too much, which is good, but I've been feeling pretty crappy all day. Sick and angry and very short tempered; be glad I was not around today.
Which would probably explain todays picture. The line up (left to right) is Dominic 'Greaser' Burg, Len McCormak (hanging out of the pannel) and Damien Sheldon. These are three of my characters from a sci-fi story I'm in the midst of writing.
Normally Damien and Greaser are best friends, but today, I haven't been feeling very friendly and thats why there's been some sort of a fight. Greaser beat up Len and now Damien's pushing Greaser back.
... Feel the love

So I kind of like the way this turned out. The scan is much, much larger than this, and I'm really considering inking and/or colouring this properly. We'll see how I feel. Don't really want to put to much on my plate at the moment, I've been feeling really overwhelmed with a lot of stuff the last few days. I really like the way Greaser and Len are hanging out of the frame.

I hate the dark green in the background (but I was trying to make it look more intresting).

Damien looks pretty cool in the original sketch; don't know how well that came across in this.

I think I may be getting a flu or something (a pretty nasty one's been going around) which would probably explain my crappy mood and my sleep in this morning.

We'll, I'm going to watch the last few minutes of 24.

Be good,

- Nat

There's a 6:30 in the morning now?

I was so busy reading comics I forgot to draw anything for the blog today. This is a six minute sketch and ink. I think its Franklin and Rachel Grey playing with Lockjaw the Inhuman's mutated dog.

Okay, early morning. Going to go sleep.

Later.

-Nat

Ring goes the bell

This is a five minute sketch and ink. I've been up since 6:30 this morning and I still didn't have time to do everything that had to be done. The picture is the first thing to get neglected.

Later,

Nat

>.<

Didn't want to draw today. Couldn't get motivated.
Early school tomorrow (6:30 am wake up) and worked today. Hate my work.

Later

_nat

How I loathe thee...

So todays image is pretty crappy. Nath looks shoking in the first panel and the second, and Emily looks crappy in the second.
The only other comment I have on this is that I HATE Greg Land, that man is pretty close to pure Evil. There's a group of misogynists getting together in a group somewhere with blue hoods on their heads worshiping that man and the sterotypes he propegates about women and their role in society.
Comics may same innocent to you, but I'm here to tell you the TRUTH.

And thats about all I have to say, I'm really tired and well aware that todays blog will be filled with more grammatical/spelling errors than normal because I'm typing on auto pilot.

My family dragged me out to the Canberra Show today and I've spent most of the day walking around looking at produce and animals (went on the worlds scariest ride today, almost had a heart attack) and now I smell like sheep. But sheep are kind of cool.

I think I'm the only person in the place who brought the Fantastic 4 showbag, the girl looked confused when I asked for it; that could just be because of my age though.

It has an inflatable Thing bat (as I was blowing it up, I hit my mum with it and yelled 'It's Clobberin' Time' - coincidently, thats written on the bat), a blow up Von Doom punching bag, a basketball, some tatoos, a beanie, a yo-yo and a backpack. Not bad for $10, I wanted the mega-man one as well halfprice but mum just looked at me.

My geek levels rose to high.

Wow, this is going to make it up just before twelve, thats awesome. And so am I.

- Nat

Soundtrack of my life

So todays image is pretty crappy, forgive me. It looked better before it scanned. This is a preliminary design for something else I'm working on at the moment. I might have more time for it next week. But I've got a bit of reading to do tomorrow and sunday; I actually have a project due on monday. So I won't have a lot of time to draw, but I'll try.

I found this meme on the internet today at http://www.leftybrown.com/2007/02/20/meme_monday_posing_as_a_tuesday/ and thought it was pretty funny so I thought I’d have a crack at it. It turned out pretty awesome.

The idea was to create the soundtrack of your life by shuffling randomly through your music list on your computer and your mp3 player. I’ll admit, this isn’t entirely honest because I had to skip over all the podcasts that came up on the complete list. But I was honest to the spirit.

Opening credits: “One of us” (Return to Pride rock soundtrack)
Waking up: “Brave New World” (War of the Worlds)
First day of school: “Hammer to Fall” (Queen)
Falling in love: “Now I’m Here” (Queen)
First song: “The Spirit of Man” (War of the Worlds)
Breaking up: “Epilogue Part 1” (War of the Worlds... gosh, shuffle’s crappy)
Prom: “Coming to the rescue” (O-Town)
Life: “Love of the common people” (Paul Young... that’s kind of cool)
Mental Breakdown: “Love will find a way” (Return to Pride rock soundtrack)
Driving: “Prince Ali” (Aladdin soundtrack)
Flashback: “America” (Simon and Garfunkle)
Getting back together: “Can you feel the love tonight” (Lion King soundtrack)
Wedding: “Into the fire” (Scarlet Pimpernel soundtrack... yeah, this will probably describe every relationship I’ll ever have)
Birth of Child: “With a little help from my friends” (Joe Cocker)
Final Battle: “Iron-Man animated theme ‘96” (that’s so cool I can’t even describe it)
Death Scene: “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” (Simon and Garfunkle)
Funeral song: “Amish Paradise” (Weird Al)
End Credits: “Everything Changes” (Original Pokemon Album... kind of apt if you’ve heard the lyrics)

That is all

- Enjoy

Empty

Kind of happy with tonights sketch

Sorry, gotta go eat massive sized smarites and watch stargate

Brain go boom

Meet Assassin-E (AE). She's the best assassin in the world, so you'd better not mess with her.
She's out to prove that a single chromosone doesn't make you any better or worse and she's also out to just take a lot of names and kick a lot of butts.
And yeah, she's trying to Garrot SN in the second panel, but hey, what are friends for if not practicing the deadly oriental arts?

Okay, that be all for tonight. Been up since 7, I'd forgotten that 7 AM even existed these days. Thought they'd gotten rid of it or something.
My mind is so turned off and shut down right now that I'm going to crawl under the covers and die. So if something is spelled wrong or doesn't make sense, blame sleepiness and not me... for a chance.

Night. Enjoy. Whatever.

- Nat

Crazy is a relative term

So the last few days have been all kinds of exhausting and now I find myself sitting here watching OC as they have an earthquake. I don't even watch OC.
BUT OMG THINGS JUST FELL EVERYWHERE AND I BET THERE WERE DEATHS. yayz.

In other news, I have no other news.

Still suck at drawing girls (and in general). Did a few sketches while I was away, but didn't really have time for much.

Returned to uni today, spent most of the day catching up with old friends; most of them from high school who have finally decided to continue their education after spending a few years in the 'real world'.

Going to sleep soon, got an early class tomorrow morning and I have to try and read some of this 'Architecture History' stuff which looks interesting, but I'm not really in the mood.

Enjoy yourselves, we're back to updates as usual from here on in.

- Nat

A few of my favourite things

I have a tendency to name these posts after anything but their content. And thats what makes it fun.
Today is Nath from NQC holding his kitten - its a warm up sketch because I'm planning on do a few comics tonight. Showed them to Chris today, he thought they were pretty funny; new people always make me want to do more.

It is highly unlikey that you'll get any new sketches until next tuesday. I'm going to melbourne with the family for a wedding and to hang around for a week. Not really my idea of fun, but it shouldn't be awful. I'll take my laptop and I might have a net connection at the hotel thursday and friday night - so you might get something drawn straight into flash. But don't hold your breath.

The house where we're staying the other few nights won't have it.

Then Tuesday its back to uni, which is going to be awful. I have $200 dollars worth of text books (for TWO books) and only $150 put aside. But I'm sort of looking forward to 'Introduction to Architecture History' which is totally from left field considering my current degree (creative writing, media and literature).

There'll probably be a picture tomorrow.

I think thats all I've got to say,

- Nat

Squeeeeeeeeeee its supernatural

So I wanted to have a go at drawing straight on to the computer with a mouse, SN lends himself to that.

Can't really talk, Supernatural is on and that show is everything I love.

Later,

-Nat

I drive a hearse and listen to death metal

So no art the last two days, sorry about that. Been busy.

I put this together really quickly and I'm tired now. The original sketch had the keyblade pointing the wrong way, so I tried to fix it.

Night

- Nat

o.O

I've got to do something tomorrow that I don't want to do. But I've been emotionally blackmailed into by somebody. I hate that.

There won't be an update tomorrow unless something magical happens. With my run of luck - don't hold your breath for that.

You Cannot Hold Me

Nobody should be bound. Especially not cute SN :(



Kind of annoyed by a few things today, but still enjoyed Epic Movie. Fell flat in a few place, but was mostly good.

The Power is YOURS

Okay, so I warned you this would be later. We left home just after eight and got home around 00:30 - after a roughly ten hour trip. But I got to spend the day with my mum and dad, moaning and whinning and generally being treated like a spoiled little kid and talking about stupid stuff.

So once again, you get treated to a bit of Powerpack fanart.

Yesterday I went on about Gurihiru's art work and how much I love it but I don't think I got to truly espouse the awesomness of I think it's Mark Sumerak writing style.

I first came across powerpack when looking into the back history of Franklin Richards (as mentioned yesterday). And I picked up, without hesitation, Sumerak's 'Franklin Richards - Son of a Genius' one shots.

They're a lot of fun (if you live in Canberra and haven't read them, you can borrow mine if you promise to give them back) and thats what Sumerak does well, fun. He rights fun comic books, and I know they're called 'all age comic books' and thats probably enough to turn you off them (it's enough to make me too embaressed to buy some comics at times), but there's nothing wrong with a bit of lighthearted fun. Powepack and Franklin: SOG is good for that.

I loved in one of the SOG's (I think it was the summer special?) Franklin was all panicky because a class mate was coming over for a project and he wasn't happy. It turned out it was a little girl called Katie with blonde piggy-tails. It was never said that she was powerpack Katie but it was obvious she was, and it was a nice little nod at comic cannon.

I think they're a super-cute couple from what I've read (all though I love the AOA? Franklin and Rachel coupling so much I think I might burst)

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm rambling, so I'll end now.

There was something important I wanted to say, but it can wait until later today.

On a random note, we went to a tavern for lunch today (had a hamburger that wasn't really a hamburger but some exotic sandwich with a meatpattie on it). It had an outdoor family section with this really awesome play equipment, but set up in all these little cranny's about the place were playstation2's and gamecubes. I had a geekgasim on the spot. Seriously, if I had kids, I'd take them there so they could keem me amused for a few house. The few games I saw were 'Pokemon Colosseum', 'Harry Potter, Goblet of fire' 'Generic Football Game #36' :D, "Jack and Dax' and a few other cool titles that have fled my mind in this sleep needing state.

Then we went to the Harvey Norman for a half hour or so while waiting for my Dad and we found Guitar Hero 2 set up, so I rocked out to a few sets (on medium - I'm still learning the way of the frets) and then my mum rocked out to a few songs on easy. She really enjoys Guitar Hero which is nice to see, she hasn't really enjoyed a game since 'Robotnicks Mean Bean Machine'

Yeah, thats me, that's Nat, geeking it up around Australia.

Signing off until next time,

- Nat

Preschool power

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, I just couldn't find time to get one up. Miserable morning, followed by a few hours at work, followed by coming home to find a few unexpected friends had dropped by for drinks. We didn't finish until 1:30 or so in the morning, when Ashura and Chrissy went home, Emily slept on the couch. So, as you can tell, there was no time for me to get anything up before the deadline.

I'll probably be going for a car ride tomorrow though, which means you may get more than one sketch tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll get home in time to put whatever I have up, but if I don't, since its a bit of a long drive, then it might be up after midnight.



Today's offering is a real fast sketch of Katie Power (Energizer) from powerpack. I did have her brother jack flying behind her in the original sketch, but I drew his head much to large and it looked stupid. Quick ink and then basic yellow layed in photoshop after the scan. I really love Powerpack - it came to my knowledge a few years ago when reading about Franklin Richards and as anyone who's ever suffered through a rant of mine about comics can tell you, I love Franklin Richards and Nate Grey more than anything (it probably has something to do with the couples who had the kids, considering Reed/Sue, Scott/Jean are my comic super-couples).
Anyway. I really respect and love Gurihiru's art (check it out at his blog here http://gurihiru21.blog11.fc2.com/) and would have to say he is one of the FEW artists working in comics to day who seems to know what kids look like at particular ages. I was disgusted by how old most people draw Frank and Val - and how most artists cant draw kids or teenagers at all.
So yeah, you should check out Gurihiru's art, and pick up 'Spider-Man and Power Pack' and any other Power Pack titles done within the last few years. They've come a long way since the originals in the 70's or 80's. And the guy who writes them is the same dude who writes 'Franklin Richards - Son Of A Genius' - if thats not reason enough for you, then you're crazy and I want nothing more to do with you.

(Oh yeah - there's a very good chance this is going to turn in to my soap box for comic stuff - so, you've been warned)


PPS. My sister is playing the original sims games in the next room with the sound up. I'm proud of her for installing them herself, but if I keep hearing the buy-catalogue music, I will go mad and stab somebody in the eye.

Cheers

- Nat

When the going gets tough; run like hell

This actually looks really good in real life, seriously. First picture in a month or more that I've actually been proud of (Except for Kon's face and expression which look weird in all worlds). But for some reason my scanner mangled the colours and wouldn't scan in the light reds and blues. I tried a few different things, but it refused to co-operate, so I gave up and you get this. Shitty, but deal with it, and just keep in mind it DOES look good.

If I thought yesterday was bad, I wasn't prepared for today. And I work tomorrow. But only for three hours, so I'll probably survive. Somehow I wish I wouldn't.

Bah Humbug

-Nat

So not interested

Not in the mood for this or anything today.

Goodbye.

SPACE DRAGON *in best Strong Bad voice*

Oh Dragon's and Sci-fi, how much I love thee...

Technically this image violates part of the terms of the 'daily' sketch challenge that this blog has set. I drew it last night, sometime after midnight I think. The dragon was drawn today though. And the picture was inked in photoshop today.

Just noticed that I missed a patch of white between the hanging harness and the guys leg. Oh well. And yes, I am aware that there is something wrong with the guys arm, but I don't care.

If I have time, I'll try to upload something after I've coloured (or given up for the day) on this. Maybe a quickie of Spike from 'I Luv Haloween'. Wanted to draw him for a few days now.

On a random note, I can only marvel at how much the simple backgrounds I've added the last few days have changed the look of the art. The basic bg's, really give it a much more professional, finished feel. At least to my way of thinking. I wonder what other people think?

You Can't Take The Sky From Me

If I could have anything in this world, it would be a space dragon. How awesome would that be?

It would combine my two greatest loves, space ships, and, well, dragons!

While not directly fanart, this is influenced by both Dinotopia and Eragon, both of which I've been heavily involved in later. Man, I wish I had a dragon or a skybax.

For now, I'll have to put up with having neither, at least until I get my magic powers.

Later,

- Nat

Stop that Peter!

So, more crappy art work from me today.
Didn't really feel like doing anything.
Had big plans artistically speaking, but nothing eventuated, mainly because I spent the day out at the movies, and then compiling a list of DVD's we own (then exporting the text file to mum's Ipod, so she knows what we have). Then I had to watch TV because good shows were on (new season of 24 - which I love and hate and won't get into right now).
Now I'm tired. And having an argument with Ashura about who the devil likes more out of the two of us O.o?

On the subject of movies... o.O ... saw Miss Potter today. Great film. Bit of a chick flick, I guess, but if you get the chance to see it, do so. Do so right now!

Enjoy

- Nat

SN - again

Thats right, today's random sketch is some more SN. I really like some of these action shots. The only one I'm not happy with is the swinging one. BUt I'll live.

Enjoy

- Nat

Blerghhhhhhhh

I've had one of those days. Nothing's really happened, but I still feel like crap.

Yeah, this picture is sort of emo, but I'm well past emo at my age. I think I have a good base here and I may ink and colour this during the week.

For now, I'm going to be happy curling up on my bed and feeling like crap.