Kmadden2004

Short answer: Whim.
Long Answer: A Whim.

Proper Answer: There's really a couple of reasons why I've started doing these.

Number one is, as somebody who works predominantly as a digital artist, I've been feeling myself getting increasingly complacent over the last couple of years, ending up in a place where all I'm doing is hiding my shortcomings as an artist instead of working to overcome them. In a nutshell; my professional education in art really stopped when I left school, and I mean "school" school, not art school (and even then, I'm sure if you ask my teachers from back then they'll tell you I wasn't really any good). For various reasons I wasn't a good student as a kid, and things like life drawing and technique really skipped me by. So a lot of what I do now is basically self-taught, and I feel like I've been skipping lessons lately. I wish to improve on my brushstroke, my technical issues with proportion and perspective are a can I've been kicking down the road for waaaay too long, and the general look and feel of my work have been doing nothing for the general neuroses I already have surrounding my art, which brings me on to Reason Number Two...

Looking at my galleries and portfolios, both here on dA and on other places, I've felt more and more unsatisfied with my illustrative work. I feel I'm not challenging myself enough in that area, and that most of what I produce in that department just lacks... for want of a better word... style. This is something I really wish to hammer down on and figure out this year, especially as I want to try and develop my work into sequential art more. I'm just finding that more often asking I'm asking myself what exactly do I want my artwork to actually look like and say about me? I want to experiment more with these sketches, and some of what I'm going to post here are probably going to be utter crap (but what else is new?), but I'll even post the craps ones here because... I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.

(All that plus I may be doing some Artist Alleys this year, and I really need some stuff to sell, so here's hoping I can kill two birds with one stone here...)

The way these weekly sketches will work is this:

• I'm aiming to do two A5-sized sketches each weekday, and spend the weekend inking them.
  
• Of these two sketches, I will do one that is a character from a pre-existing IP (characters from comics, movies, TV shows, books, etc) and one that is an entirely original creation of whatever takes my fancy at that time, or something a random art prompt generator can prod me into doing
  
• I'll continue to post the sketches in weekly batches.
  
• Time permitting, I'm also hoping to do at least one A4-sized sketch each week.
  
• If I'm feeling particularly confident/cocky, I may even try to do one or two A3-sized sketches (but no promises).
  

WARNING!!! INCOMING RANT!!!

Is it my imagination, or are these Ultraviolet digital copies you get with DVDs and Blu-rays a bit... well... crap?

I've just encountered them today for the first time and, I've got to say, I miss the good ol' days of 2010 when all I needed to do was open iTunes, enter a voucher code, then Bob's-yer-uncle, the film downloads and you can watch it whenever you like.

But today I had to set up an account with Ultraviolet, then set up another account with Flixster, link those two accounts (they couldn't be linked by default!?), and then jump through a series of hoops just to get access to the films I just purchased.

But, of course, more problems then arise when I tried to redeem the voucher for the 'Dark Knight Trilogy', and it tells me I can't link to my Ultraviolet account because "This UltraViolet user account is currently linked to another Flixster account.
Please create a new UltraViolet user account."

I... WHAT!!?

So I try creating a new Ultraviolet account, and a loading bar appears. I wait ten minutes and nothing's happened. I'm stuck with a loading bar and no knowledge if some technical glitch has just invalidated my redeem code. Lovely. Two hours later, and I still have no access to these digital copies. In that time I could have walked to the shops, picked up the DVDs and been back here with time to spare.

Then I try 'Amazing Spider-Man', and I have to set up *another* account, this time with Sony Pictures, and link *that* to my Ultraviolet account. Does this mean that Sony's going to start bombarding me with spam mail now?

Words just can not express how frustrating this experience is. If anybody from Warner Bros or Sony are out there, reading this, and you genuinely think this is going to stop people from pirating your movies, I've got news for you; it's not going to work.

Online piracy's driving force is as much about convenience as it is about money. By making their customers jump through so many malfunctioning hoops, all the studios are doing is alienating their audience and driving them back to sites like Pirate Bay, where all they need to do is click a button and *boom* the film is downloaded and waiting for them to play.

(I'm not advocating piracy, btw. I don't particularly like it myself, nor have I engaged in it, but that doesn't mean I'm not at least aware of its appeal)

The old iTunes/Windows Media Center form of digital copies worked well because it came across to us as a sign of trust and respect, that the studios didn't just assume we were all out to pirate their movies. Now, with this Ultraviolet system, it feels like the equivalent of asking your surly neighbor if you can have your ball back from his garden; he'll grumble and say no because of "reasons", and you're left with nothing to play with.

This whole issue is really another example of how much certain, somewhat myopic studios just don't "get it".

I just thank god that Disney haven't signed up to this system yet (though, that being said, they have stopped offering digital copies in the UK, but that's another rant for another day), and that Fox and Universal at least give you both options.

(oh yeah, and Studio Canal and Revolution can both go to hell for using proprietorial software on their digital copies that aren't Mac compatible... and not telling us this on the packaging.)

Sorry, rant over...

Just needed to vent.

Well, the cheque has cleared and the confirmation has come through, so it's official; I'm returning to Artists' Alley at the Kapow! Comic Con this May with .

Hope to see some of the Limey brethren there.

Regardless of your opinion of Apple and its products, there is no denying that this is a sad day for the world of computing and electronics.

The guy was a legend. 'Nuff said.

After last month's jollities at the Kapow! Comic Con, I'm now off to participate in the Fringe Festival at Hay-on-Wye in a couple of weeks.

For those who've never heard of the Hay Festival (I know, there are people out there who've never heard of it!), it started off as a literary festival and has ballooned over the last few years into more of a broad, cultural event covering literature, politics, film and comedy. Previous attendees at the festival have included the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Alda, David Simon, Terry Gilliam, Alan Bennett, even Bill Clinton and Al Gore have spoken there.

For this year's festival, instead of just spectating, I'll be shackled to a booth selling sketches and postcards to the loyal Guardian readers who populate the festival-going crowd. I won't lie, it's going to be a challenge...

Fingers crossed.