True Blogging Potential Awakening: lonely totem pole's views skyrocket!

I'm starting to get into photography, taking pictures about once a week.  I always loved viewing photographs and taking pictures myself, but I never really did it as a disciplined form of artwork up until now.

I've noticed too, that a gentle mix of drawings and picture really draws in a crowd.  People seem to be more interested in the person behind the drawings than their drawings themselves at times, so it's good to give the people what they want.  

I guess the reason that the reason for me not touching my camera until now is because I didn't feel comfortable with it.  It's probably strange to hear a teenager say this but... I don't like Facebook.   There!  I said it!  Maybe I do see it having some implications in the future, but for the time being, its best for me to stay away.  If I want to become an artist who goes showing his face around the internet and elsewhere, I have to be careful of who people see me associating with.  Some of us judge others based on their friends, do we not?  So if one of my 'friends' (or just someone you've met only once in real life but have added to Facebook) goes posting a picture of themselves drunk at a party, then professionally, what will people think of you?  Not too many high school students think of that when signing on.  Perhaps we should. 

Anyhow, the results I have gotten from including a mere two photographs in my last post really pleases me.  

It seems as though viewing photos of my culture and where I come from really perks your interest, and I have to admit that I am touched by this.  I have always thought of giving back to the community that raised me, so I guess that a cultural identification is a must for me as I progress into making a career out of this.  

"LEN-Komix, Atlantic-Canadian artist..." that sure does have a nice ring to it.  

My views for the past two weeks are the highest they've ever been!  You appear to be coming from all over too.  At times, I wondered if the bulk of my views were just my friends, but now I am assured that they aren't.  Before when it said "3 views from Canada" there was no way of telling if the person was someone I knew or not, and I was kind of hoping that they were strangers, you know, to attract new faces to my blog.  But, when all your views for one day are from outside the country, you are almost completely sure that they are part of an audience that aren't your closest friends.  This is all very good.  

I've been working very hard as of late in achieving a solid look to many of the characters and settings for my future comic project.  I might as well call it future now, because calling it current makes it kind of misleading.  Truth be told, I haven't really got anything of a finished product to show you guys yet, so it is not fair of me to get everyone hyped up for nothing.  What I do have though is what I believe to be an excellent concept of a comic with charming characters and a self-absorbing story.  I haven't come to set myself up with any real deadlines for this however, so it may be long after I graduate before you see this hitting store shelves or anything.  Yet, (and I did tell my parents this) I plan on pouring myself into the project in the next couple of months following the school's end, and I do want to get to the main body of my comic, creating chapters and such when I'm freed from having to juggle schoolwork at the same time.  I work far better when I don't have other things weighing me down.  

As always, if any of you want to view more posts
containing pictures, try making use of the labels
currently locate at the top of this page!

*I've got more "My Themed Life" content coming your way in the next couple of weeks leading up to Summer Vacation in June.  There will be loads of Pokémon and The Hunger Games-themed content being posted here, so STAY TUNED!  

It's a 'White Easter' this year in New Brunswick

I'm supposed to look overjoyed in this sketch,
not sad!  (Just so you know the difference.)

This week, even though it was short, was a hard one to pull through.  I had set myself set up pretty bad after missing Monday's classes at school, and the staying at home to work on my speech got me nowhere.  I felt like I was only digging a deeper whole with my schoolwork in general, and just as I figured would happen, my pain and suffering was only an allusion to a sudden metaphorical growth.

This week's moping seemed to bring me out of my trance.  I've been so consumed and drawn into my academics as of late that I seemed to forget who I was and why I'm here, as I do so often.  Every now and again I need to remind myself that my marks aren't everything; they aren't the basis of how well I'm doing, they are only one aspect of my life!  Well-being, for me right now, should be based on just how content I am with myself, my social life and my art.  However, when an outside force begins to command all of my attention, I seem to let the others slip and fall into a trap.  Luckily, towards the end of the week, I seemed to find myself again; I know where I'm headed and have gotten my bearings straight!  (It's about time, hmm?)

I have come to realize that in one a quarter year's time, I graduate!  That's a big deal.  It means a lot to me.  And so once I graduate, my life isn't going to be based on whether or not I know "What combines with hydrogen to produce water?" but on how skilled I am as an artist.  Let's face it, artists don't need much in the way of grades to get into their courses.  Nope!  You need dexterity and determination, talent and will power!  Enough of this stressing over things that in two years time mean nothing to me... My mind is now set on art!

I feel like I need some art and blogging therapy right now, so I'm going to fill you guys in about what I've been working on:

• Page Four of my comic (Now set aside until more concept art has been completed.)  
• Maps: Over the course of this month, I have come to develop a real 'finalized' version of the map that includes all the major locations needed to tell the main story of my comic.  
• Settings: I have sectioned off different regions of the map and tried to use my imagination in constructing what I feel some of the places should look like as seen from the eyes of a bird soaring over the various kinds of structures and terrain. 
• Character designs: I have just resurrected a couple of the characters that will have a major appearance in the first book.  My art style has developed over the months since I have undertaken this project.  
• Blog Posts (Here are a list of ones that are currently in the drafting state): "Welcome to the Internet, Mus'ka", How to scare a Nerd (saving this one for next Halloween), Picture Storage (only used to hold the odd image as I travel from one computer to another; disregard), Len Square (A post about my efforts in trying to make a cartoon version of myself for my blog), Seventeen (A post from a back in January that never made it out.  I don't know if my vision for it is still the same?), Deviously Cute (Reviewing my experience in designing a t-shirt of the deviantART 'Cute Monsters' contest), Another Winter Shelter (I will give instructions on how to make a shelter out of fallen trees and snow.  Originally written for my outdoor pursuits class at school.),  Pokemon and Nostalgia (describing what it felt like to start to replay Pokemon Blue as a teenager), How to Build a Quinzhee (instructions to building a secure snow fort; another OP class creation.  Plus, an inked and coloured version of one of my comic's settings as part of its concept art.), *{There are many more that are in the planning stages and just haven't made it into drafts yet...} 
• Tidying Up: Going back and fixing various grammatical and spelling errors I've made in my earlier posts. Rethinking the use of some of the tags that you see at the top of this page.  
• Photography: I've dug out my camera again, so lately I've been taking lost of photos!  My cousin has really inspired me with her sudden interest in photography.  I was inhibited by Vista's horrible way of organizing stored images, but now with windows seven, I feel much more comfortable in trying this.  (Fingers crossed!  Hope I can get some nice ones to my blog without too many problems.)
• My Themed Life: This part of my blog and deviantART is currently on pause in real life (I have assigned no theme for myself this week.)  I have many posts backed up that I would still like to get out there for my audience with my two themes Pokemon and The Hunger Games, so until I've worked the life out of them, I am at a pause with this.  

Below is a list of posts that are either finished or in the making for the "My Themed Life" section of my blog:

• Pokemon Week: Favourite Pokemon (completed), Replaying Pokemon Blue (have information written down, drew some sketches, still trying to finish the game up to the point where I can carry out the 'Mew Glitch'), Outdoor photography featuring my Game Boy Colour and I in a winter landscape (Photos have been taken, downloaded and selected.  Written portion of post still needs to be done; no draft has been created), Pokemon Black and White 2: My reaction (nothing has been done yet.)
• Hunger Games Week: How I Pictured Things (need to find and make copies of cartoon characters that look like the ones I saw in my head while reading, no write-up has been attempted), One With Nature (made sketches almost daily for a week, photography has been taken, no write-up has been done), My Hunger Games Strategy (just a though... nothing done.)

I mentioned above about doing colourized versions of different settings in my comic.  Since this is a frosty scene, I thought that I'd couple it in with this post just so all of you good lads and lasses can have a looksy.

This is the rough draftwork I made while sorting out how I wanted the Southern-most region of the fictional world to look. 

I am really excited about this one!  Through different sources I've found online about beta versions of video games, movies and such, I have discovered that the concept art plays a big role in achieving a concrete model of how you want things to look in the end for your product and that if I want to make all of my panels featuring vast and complex backgrounds to look anyways congruent, then I need to try and replicate this somehow.  So I've tossed my main pages aside and started in on concept art. 

I know that it's only the penciled version, put it's looking pretty good for something that only took me a couple of minutes to sketch.  Good copy will be coming soon in the post "How to build a Quinzhee."

As the title of this post implies, it is Easter and there is snow on the ground.  How's that for being Canadian?

We went from having this one day...

To this the next.

I can honestly say that this is not an uncommon sight here in New Brunswick, and I have many earlier-childhood memories of running about outside searching for Easter eggs in the snow with my cousins, while trying to dodge the odd snowball.  What fun!
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Oh!  I just looked at the clock and noticed that it is now past twelve.... So much for having this posted on Easter Sunday.  :|  (Frowny face)  "~Happy Easter Monday, Ya'l!!!"
I went skiing directly after making this.  I just couldn't stand all this excitement! 

Otters Stuffed in Onion Suits Hate Math Equations

So, I've been feeling pretty down on my luck this week. Oh, and no, its not anything serious, everything was good up until just now.  You see, we started speeches, and its not that I hate them, because I don't, it's just that they're very stressful that's all.  I have a bad history with speeches; I never really was very good at public speaking at any point in my life until just recently, but now that I have gotten much better about making conversation with people in general, I am still tainted with the residue of years past.

Back in grade eight I wrote a speech for my language arts class about the history of Nintendo, and ended up turning what should have been a four to five minute speech into a fourteen minute speech.  Not fun.  I don't think that my middle-school language arts teacher (who is actually my vice principal now) or me will ever forget.  It was three months over-due and I squirmed in my seat every day in class that was the date I was supposed to present.  My friends never did get to here about that one, eh?

I presented my speech after school that year to him alone, and because it was so long I missed my bus and he offered me a ride home.  I was quiet almost the whole way, and it was not surprising because my parents always told me to never hitch a ride with anyone you don't know, and to me, I only knew that he taught me.  He was a teacher, and there was nothing more I could say.

I guess that through trying to avoid a repeat of grade eight I have just brought on another downfall.  I stayed home today, and today I was supposed to present.  Rats.  I find that I do that with a lot of different subjects this year.  I've improved so much from where I was in middle school with handling schoolwork, that I try and make an effort to show it off.  Reveal to the teachers just how much better I am at getting things in on time.  But it sometimes makes me lie to myself, thinking that I could actually handle it all by myself.  Working myself past twelve o'clock just to reach a due date is not my idea of having fun.  I just break down.  Get disjoint and out of place.  It's not healthy.

But I am better.  I know my limits, and am picking up the ques well.  I know when I've had enough, and I've had enough.

As you can tell from my doodles, my other courses have suffered from the particular interest I'm dumping into English.  In the past week I've gone from knowing everything that's going on in math to not having a clue what the teacher is talking about.  Imaginary Numbers?  Come again?

Through all of this though, I haven't given up on you, my dear viewers.  I've been doing the odd sketch and photo here and there to help me keep sane.  I am sane and I am going to school tomorrow too.

(If you don't recognize this  little guy, then I suggest that you go take a look at my deviantART cute monster's design challenge t-shirt right away!  I would make me feel a lot better...)

I've been thinking about making him my blogger mascot, so I really worked with him this week trying to draw him from all sorts of different angles.  These aren't even half of the angles I tried to make him fit into!  It's pretty tough, but skill building I guess.  I still haven't even decided on a name yet.  (Plue or Pooshmoo?  How about Plue the Pooshmoon?  Eh, what do I know...)

I had to post something to feel like I got something accomplished today... {Sigh}

Meowth: a study in character design.

I wanted to keep as much of the stray
underlines as could with this.  You can
really see how this was extracted from its
original 3D model & design.

"That's right!"  I wanted to kick off this Pokémon-themed week with a little doodling.  And, who would be a better suit for that job than meowth?  He's a classic anime character and a well known species among Pokémon fans, so, I said to myself "Eh, why not?"  

I started off this week hoping that by the end of it (which is when I'm creating this) that I would have drawn my whole ideal Pokémon team, inked, coloured  and featuring me as a Pokémon trainer, the whole works, but as time went on and nothing started happening (yes, I know I was procrastinating), realistically, I knew that I would just have to settle with something like this.  

Meowth, believe it or not, really isn't my favourite Pokémon from the whole series.  It's actually one really obscure one, as far as fandome goes, that holds my vote, and, if you weren't into Pokémon as a child, or have stopped following it since generation two, you probably wouldn't even recognize its name.  Its Lombre.  

Meowth's so awsome! It was even featured on
a special collectors' coin on the island of Niue
in the mid-pacific! Official mint. No jokes! 

Traditionally, since the first North American games (Red and Blue) I liked grass Pokémon, and so today, I still like grass Pokémon.  So, it is unlikely that I will be changing any time soon.  I also grew to love psychic Pokémon as well when they became more obtainable in the later games.  However, the only psychic- and grass-type pokémon that exist in the series are two that are really rare and almost impossible to catch in the wild through normal means: Exeggcute, its evolved form, Exeggutor, and Celebi.

Not to be dissing Exeggcute fans or nothing, but I kind of hated that pokémon back when I was in elementary.  To tell you the truth, I thought it was pretty ugly... a downright disgrace to the first-gen world of Kanto.  But, its Pokémon Blue sprite didn't do it any justice.  (Since when did an Exeggcute have an egg that large? It's a good three to four times bigger than the rest!)  It's kind of funny now that I think of it, but I used to think that an Exeggcute was some kind of naked sumo wrestler with eyes all over its body and not just a group of eggs, that is, until I saw it on the show.  I was relieved to learn this because every time I would battle one I used to get scared that my parents would see it or something and then take my Game Boy away!  Ha ha!  I somehow kind of wish I had one now though, now that I know the difference.

I made this one by using my other images
as my only two references. It might be a bit miss-
proportionate, but I loved working with the base
'skeleton' of this character in producing my own
unique stance from a different level of perspective.

Now that its been made obvious to you why I did not choose Exeggcute as my favourite pokémon, you are probably wondering, why Lombre?  Lombre statistically is not chose by many Pokémon fans as being their favourite.  It is just not the lovable type; not one that most people would tend to gravitate towards, but I love him just the same.  To me, Lombre's rad!  Its colour scheme is great, and its just the right height of a Pokémon for me (3' 11'').  I know I have strange tastes, but come on!  Who wouldn't love a pokémon like that?  (It kind of reminds me of a DJing monkey-kappa with a sombrero hat on...) Okay, wait.  Never mind.  Only a face a mother would love. (sobs)  


Meowth is one we can all agree on though, am I right?  He may not be my absolute favourite, but he is my choice from the 151 pokémon of the first generation of games.  My love affair with Meowth goes beyond its prominent appearance in the anime, too.  (Truthfully, I feel he has more brains and soul than his two accompaniments put together.)  I loved to capture and raise a Meowth or two when playing Pokémon Blue, and I still wouldn't mind getting one on my team today.

Pictures of Meowth were based off the 3D models of the pokémon as it appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
for the Nintendo Wii gaming console. Credit to its original creator, and to the genius behind
many of the Pokémon Franchise's character and art designs, Ken Sugimori. 

His, stats are good (swift and powerful) and his original in-game sprites were awesome (except from behind; his back was just a mess of pixels.)  I could not wait until I had him leveled up to Lv.17 so that he could learn Payday.  It was such a sweet move.  Extra cash, what's not to like?!  I would also give him a wide range of TMs that included Swift, Thunder or Thunderbolt, Water Gun or BubbleBeam, and Toxic, just to keep things interesting.  I found it strange that a normal type could be taught such a large number of moves.  He is, and forever will be, my favourite character from my first video game I ever owned.  
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Sorry if the links are kind of confusing.  I decided to try incorporate more sources for people who want to learn more about what it is I'm talking about in my blog, by providing them a general direction for them to start their search.  Click away!  Let me know what you think?

"Len-Komix is blasting off again~!!" 

Pointless. (a poem by me)

Sometimes...
Life feels pretty empty.

Like everything I've ever done
was pointless.
Like all the things I spent time establishing
meant nothing.

Incomplete, Vacant, Void.
But, why...?

My life isn't pointless.

Sometimes...

Life feels pretty full.

Like everything I've ever done

was progress.

Like all the things I have established

have meant the world to me.

Complete, Satisfied, Replete.

No lies...

Stand up, stand strong!

Rise and Revise!

You know the truth;

seek not the lies.

________________________
I am trying to figure out how to go about posting this to my deviantART.  I will provide a link to the deviantART page containing this poem later so that you can read people's comments there.
[Pictures: Chihiro from "Studio Ghibli's" Spirited Away, drawn by me.]

Riding on the Poisoned Earth

I posted this to my deviantART two days ago, and I thought I'd share it with you all on my blog here today: 

(I was amazed to find that someone had already 'favourited' it, only a minute and thirty-six seconds after it was posted) http://zozzmeister.deviantart.com/

Part of another scene-by-scene, as I call them, that I did for Studio Ghibli's: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind... 


I was really moved by the messages it contained about the balance of nature and the destructiveness of mankind. We all have the power to do good or bad in our lifetime, but no matter what path we choose, the only thing that truly matters once we're dead and gone is the impact we had on human civilization as a whole while living which will last and continue to survive even after death. This isthe common goal for all humans, regardless of race, gender, ethical background, etc., that unites us together as one human race. 


However, this movie is the grim portrayal of what may come into being due of our self-centered actions in life. In our pursuit for success, it is important for us not to forget the mother land, the one that feeds and clothes us with all life's desires and offers us a safe and stable place to live.


Do not let the desires of a single species cripple the planet and rob her of her precious treasurers in only one lifetime. We can do far better than that. 
One generation should never spoil it for the rest. 
____________________
This film gives me a gentle reminder of just who's roof we live under. As my mother always told me, "as long as you live in this house, you gotta live by our rules." And I just wonder, what does that mean for the state of the planet, if who's rules we were to break? 


It's just a thought, but it bothers me deeply. 
I would watch this movie again in a heart beat!


*I really want to read the original manga version of this.  Anyone know where I can find a copy?  
Perhaps I'll try chapters... 

Who'm I Foolin' ?

Okay, I admit it! I am stressed! Though, for a good reason...
    Just in case you don't know, here in New Brunswick, we write our end-of-semester exams after Christmas instead of before, like the rest of the entire planet does.  And, as most teens do, I am stressing over it... along with everything else in life.

    You know, its funny, really, how everything else that always seems to make sense just doesn't when you've got something else on your mind.  Then again, maybe its just me, but during exams common sense stuff just doesn't seem to apply to me or to anyone else I know.  Things like wasting time on the computer instead of studying seem to occur a lot more often than they should.  (Hmm, gah! I suppose I'm doing that right know...) Wait, what was I going to say...?  See! There I go again!  Can't hold a single thought in my head for more than a minute for the life of me.  But, yeah. As you can tell, I'm stressed! 

    The truth is, I've studied so much over the past three weeks, that I don't even know what I have left to cover, and, unlike a test, there is no exact limit that you can go to say that you know absolutely everything about a subject, there's just not!  I mean, you're trying to study a whole five months worth of work in just a couple of nights!  There's just no way that you can know it all!  Not even for a smart kid, and I'm one of them.  {heh heh...} So, I think the most healthiest thing for me to do is to just stop.  Stop whatever unit it is I'm reviewing and breath, because in order to obtain sanity, that's just what I have to do.

    It took me a while (up until yesterday) to come to that conclusion, but now I can say it with confidence. "I'm not failing, so I don't care!" {more like I'm far from failing, so this shouldn't even be an issue.} But, I've said it none the less.
    The only really conflicting thing that happens when doing this is that I tend to feel guilty about it, real guilty!  So guilty that I can't enjoy myself, even when I'm doing something I love, and thus find myself worming my way back to the textbooks for another bought of studying. (so unfair!)  I guess that's kind of a tragic flaw for me.  I'm really a nice guy, but my brain always seems to want to shower me in false guilt.  None of this is was ever my fault.  I just wish I could see that.

    I sure make it hard on myself though, don't I?  Normally, I'm the most preppy guy in my class, however, exams seem to transform me...

    I've forgotten to shower, I've neglected to shave, I've worried and sweated so much that I've got pimples forming in the most peculiar of places (like in my ears!), my socks don't match, my shoelaces are undone, but, meh... it's normal for a teenager to respond in that way.

    Exams are like drugs, aren't they?  Now, I know that's a semi-stupid inquiry, especially coming from my mouth, but when you really stop to think about it, the results from an overdose of a Mathematics exam are similar in comparison with those viewed in patients in rehab for Methamphetamine... har har!

    "I'll call it examocede! It's sure to be big with the nerds on the street! ($_$)"  Just Kidding!
But seriously, who would buy it anyway? Not me!!!  That's for sure... {I'm already suffering enough from Exam-Solicititis to do me until June.} Ah, June... when I have to write exams, yet again!  

    I think that the only thing that kept me from going clinically insane this past few weeks was my ability to socialize with students who were going through the same thing.  I haven't abandoned my friends or my social life through all of this, I actually have come to strengthen those routs a little, and think that it is a trend I want to continue even when the exams are through.  You know, people aren't that bad?  (Well, most of them anyway.)
    My situation is not unique; I am a teenager, and it is exams.

    I spent eight hours the other day at school writing two exams, and that's without any breaks, too. "Urgh!" I was wiped completely out by the time I was finished.
    The two exams I wrote were Math: Circular Geometry & Statistics and Healthy Living & Nutrition (yeah, that's a course.)  It took an extra hour to complete my morning exam than almost everybody else in my class, and I had to rush right to the culinary classroom to write my nutrition exam as soon as I was finished.  I didn't even have time to eat lunch with everyone else!


    When I first got into the Culinary Lab I was like, "Um, so yeah... I didn't have my lunch yet?"  and my teacher was like,
    "Yeah? Well neither did I," she was stuffing her face full of strawberries and running to help another student as she was saying this.  I noticed this mockingly through my hunger pangs.
    "Well, can I-?"
    "Go quick!" She allotted me enough time to go to my locker and get me my lunch.  I ate it while writing my exam.
    Eating pulled pork on a bun while everyone else is busy working is a real test of your self esteem.

    After school, I spoke to a grade twelve student who had done the same thing.  Not eating pulled pork on a bun, mind you, but working for eight hours straight and not having enough time to eat lunch, only she had been working so hard that she had totally forgotten about it.  Her reaction was like, "Lunch? OMG!  That's why I'm so hungry! I forgot to eat lunch!" I guess I'm not the only person whose beginning to lose it then, hmm?  She leaped up off the bench almost immediately after saying this and came back a minute or two later with a bottle of 'Powerade' in one hand and a bag of salted pretzels in the other.  "Not the healthiest lunch," she said, "but it'll have to do."  We laughed.

    Oddly enough, through all this pain and suffering, I've gained a sense of unity with the world.
    If anything, I've learned what it's like to live life as a normal teenager, not one who is used to obeying rules and doing things in a mannerly or poised way, which is how I naturally am.  It's not bad to every now and again to get a healthy reminder of what its like to be a child who doesn't give a hoot!  You know, not that I'd want to be that way every day of my life, but it doesn't hurt to test the waters. (Although, this time I think I did a nose-dive!)
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This post is crammed with images made specifically with this post in mind.  I suspect that this is a trend I will continue in the future!  I hope that it is received well by the web.  I'll just have to wait and see... (Makes for good practice, though!)  
Enjoy!

Starting the year off RIGHT.

Wow... I have gotten just this massive explosion of views in the past couple of days.  I mean like... "Kaboom!"

    

  ~I wonder where they are all coming from?

Lately it seems that things have changed, perhaps for the better.  I know that Christmas has worn me down and all, but still... I feel like I'm on the verge of something amazing!

I decided that I would make this post a commemorative one; a post commemorating the passing of 2011 and the birth of 2012.  As the year begins its first stance by popping out of the soil in its stretching towards the sun, so am I.  My mood is a seedling now, small and unsure of itself, but as time passes I will find myself budding anew and flourishing as I grow.  For now, I just have to wait.  Nourish myself and my artistic creativity, but wait.

Some of you may be wondering, as many of you in person do ask, do I have a favourite piece of artwork?  This type of question for an artist of any kind is mostly interpreted in the same way.  It is like asking a parent "Who of yours is your favourite child?" and in order to answer the question justly, the response usually tends to be something along the lines of "I love them all equally; each individual I love the same."  But I'm going to go a little on the contrary here and lie to you all saying that I do have a particular piece that stands out above the rest, and I am going to praise it by showing it to you all right now:

This is my absolute favourite piece of artwork I have done in the year 2011!  It embodies everything I have done, all the achievements I have made, my blog, the whole 'shabang' (as we say here in parts of the Maritime's) in one, single, condensed visual form. [And, above all that, I love it!]  ~This is my version of the favourite child. 
Okay, so... I'm not sure how long it took me to make this or when I made it for that matter, but I'm guessing that it was sometime during the spring of grade 10 (which is still within 2011.)  There were reference images that I used for both pictures featuring the lovely lady that you see here, but I lost them all somewhere on my computer between then and now, so, my bad! :(  However, I do want to give credit to whoever originally took the shot, so if any of you remember seeing the pictures I am talking about or perhaps know the photographer (which I know is an unlikely thing, really) either personally or on the net, then you can send me the links to any of the two pictures and I will edit them into here for you.

     All the information I know about the photos:

1. The second one was found on deviantART's homepage.
2. They were done by the same photographer & feature the same model.
3. Both pictures were in Sepia or Grayscale. 
4. The Titles were: The Violinist and Equilibrium. 
5. Some comments said the model was good looking, most tend to agree. :) 

The hunt is on!

On another note, I have surpassed some of my expectations for this year by getting 500+ views by December's end, and I am proud.  There are many things that I didn't get checked off my list this year that I would have liked to have done, but realistically I know that this is enough.  Any progress at all is good in my eyes and I certainly have progressed a lot this year, both on a personally level and a level that all of you can follow here on the net.  I won't go in too deep with all the achievements I have managed to cram into the year of 2011, but I will have you know that this year will be remembered by me as a year of Action and Change.

Aside from the resent changes in my life, there have also been noticeable adjustments that I have made to my blog:

• A 2011 arrow has appeared on my "Blog Archive" gadget (as all Blogger blogs do in the transition into the new year)
• New Tabs have now been placed along the top: 

         Weekly Posts: My homepage. Contains all my posts, two newest appear first. You can
                                  access older posts by going to the sidebar and selecting different moths.
         The Legend: A new feature I added to my blog. There is nothing much to see here yet,
                               but sooner or later I will provide an overview of the story in general and its
                               major conflict.
         Meet the Characters: New! Will be updated and filled with fresh content as characters
                               are developed. First installment to this Tab is coming after *two posts form
                               now.

• My website now has a Favicon! it's been there for a while but I haven't mentioned it in a post until now. You may have a hard time viewing this in 'Internet Explorer'; I suggest using Google chrome to view blogs in general. Created using this site, Following these instructions.  Image is an all original Origami design I made. [That's right, you won't find it anyplace else on the net!] If you plead on me long enough to do it, I may do a tutorial later. Its importance will become clearer in first chapter.  

Swapped images with this post.

• I now have a © Copyright statement at the bottom of all my blog's pages.  Beware!
• Lonely Totem Pole now has a new follower! Pleased welcome my first member, my cousin Maddie, to my growing group of Lenwatchers.  I haven't had a chance to thank her in person yet, so (thank you!) Please visit her blog for me to show her how much I care! <3

• And last, but not at all least... (can I get a drum roll, please)... I JOINED 'deviantART' !!!  Yeah, I know "WHAT?!"  I told my friends that I wouldn't join until after the prologue to my graphic novel was complete, but I just couldn't help myself.  I figured "now's as good as ever" and so, just like that, I joined!  I don't think it would be wise for me to give you my deviantART name just yet, for the reason that I don't have any content uploaded to the new site at all.  But just you wait! because in a moths time or so, after I've gotten the hang of using it and navigating its pages myself, I will open the doors to it for all my blog readers.  Its nothing really, I just don't want you all flooding into there with nothing to see.  So, rather than have you disappointed, I'd prefer that you get excited as you wait. (But don't worry! It won't be so long that you'll get board waiting!) That's just not my style... Haha! Bonus points to those who can find my deviantART name!  Hint: it's written somewhere on this site! :) 

How am I rate now? Good, I guess.  Although I was getting my days and nights a little mixed up for a while after New Years, I am starting to level out some now as the time for me to get back to school approaches.  I recently had a birthday, if that really matters to you at all, so I guess that makes me 17 now. (Yippy?)

Guessing I will post about that one next.

Procrastination Sets-In

       So, for the past three weeks I had no part of my comic ready for me to work on. Bad Plan. Very bad plan!  I have come to realize that the only real reason that I have actually managed to survive my third year of high school was that I had something else to tie me down.  I need to have something else that I am striding to achieve, otherwise my academical goals take over, and become the only thing that I can seem to focus on.  For some people, that seems just fine! (Good grades are important! What is there to be complaining about?!)  Well, since you don't know me, you wouldn't know just how unhealthy it is for me to do that, and how much time I would spend on academic work outside of school if you'd let me.
       IT WAS HORRIBLE, absolutely terrible, how much I neglected all that was important to me.  It was to the point where that dreading feeling form middle school and earlier high school came creeping back on me.  The dreading feeling I am talking about is the feeling I get when I know that there is something that I need to do, but can't seem to come past the fact that the mere thought of it makes me sick.  You see, up until the second semester of last year, I had a homework problem.  Yes, a homework problem, and a serious one at that.  I just couldn't seem to shake it; it was bread into me through habit, and there didn't seem to be any chances for escape.  I was scared, horrified that the amount of stress involved with things at school this year would finally come to consume me, and that there would be no end to the amount of nights I would spend at home wishing for some strange phenomena or an act of god to close school for me the next day.

       In reality, I knew that would never happen.  So if I wanted something to be done about it, I knew that I would have to take things into my own hands!  I needed to be the one, independently and unquestionably in charge of my life, and so this summer I made that my main initiative: To make things better for my final two years of high school, and to kick start my life!  Yet, these past to weeks have become a slip-up.  They almost brought me to a complete halt as far as life goes, and it was to the point where it made me sick!
       Test after test was bringing me down.  I thought that because I had made it into October, that I had the whole groove of grade 11 down pat... but I guess not.  It wasn't like there was any extra work at the start of this little bout, it was only that I had nothing to work on in the evenings besides homework, and thus found myself wasting time on the computer or overexerting myself on little projects and things that really didn't need half of as much effort.  But then the real trouble came the following week, when I found myself up to my armpits in novel studies, complicated math and physics equations and a number of different projects that really got me down.  I began to feel trapped, but in the end, optimism won-out. Thank God!

       The Friday of the second week, I decided to take in my first two pages of the comic I am working on.  I thought that it would lighten my spirit, and it really did the trick!  Two of my friends, who have high-speed internet have been following my blog all the way through from the time I first started it in the beginning of September, were quite impressed with what I had shown them now that they had got to see the actual page up close, but my other friend's reaction was the best of all.  He has dial-up and so has never really understood what my comic thing is about, but when he saw my drafts and finished works, his face at that instant I opened my carrying folder was priceless!  He sat the silent with wide eyes for a couple of moments, then all he could do was sit swear to himself silently.  (Damn that's good!!!)

       [Yeah, they all thought it was pretty professional.]  

       At that moment, I began to regain my willpower.  I was so ecstatic when a couple of the girls sitting at the other corner of the room whispered across, asking if they could have a look at it after the class was done (because this was at the beginning of third-period history, but I just couldn't help myself.)  They loved my work to, and said that they were really impressed.  I don't care if my friends thought I was "picking up," I was happy.

       There was tons done that weekend to improve myself.  I found myself being quite social at the grocery store, striking up a conversation with some people that I knew from school.  (I love how people actually look to talk with me now. If it were last year, there just would have been no way.)  As if it were a sign from god, a fantastic double-rainbow appeared in the sky after a big rain storm we had that weekend.  I saw it as a sign of my achievements and my growth that week, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to come after it...

*This story shall continue in my next post.

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Story of my 3DS: (Part 3) A Trip to Town!

     It was Thanksgiving Sunday (October 9th) when we decided to make a special trip into town to buy the 3DS.  Of course that wasn't the only reason that we went to town on a usually quiet and respectful holiday, my mother had forgotten something very important that she had left at the grocery store and couldn't wait until Tuesday to make sure that it was safe.  It somehow didn't feel like a typical Thanksgiving to me this year, but it is probably because my sister wasn't home to have dinner at my grandmother's this time around.

     We spent a while searching around for the right place to but the thing, but in the end, we figured EB Games was our best bet.  I was a little worried that they might not of had the one in red because Staples didn't have any left when my mother checked, perhaps they just didn't have any in stock, but it turned out that EB Games did and I was very glad.
     I bought the system myself while my dad was out in the car.  I had told him that I was just going in to check to see if they had it in red, but where they had it rate there, I decided to buy it myself.  I personally think that it was better that way, for it is a great source of empowerment to know that you have gotten something so valuable to yourself on your own.  The only thing was, I was 25 cents short!  (Apparently I had miscalculated the cost before I left the house, but you have to admit, I was pretty close.)  I stood there half-embarrassed for a couple of moments while I witnessed the numbers ringing through.  "Umm... I don't quite have enough" were the only words I could manage to say.  Needless to say, I was a little nervous.  My next words were "My parents are just outside, do you mind?"
     I was lucky that the cashier was good humored and only grind at me when I said this.  "No, not at all!" was his response.  It only then occurred to me as I walk out the door, I have no idea where dad parked the car!  I managed to somehow spot our vehicle out and brisk-fully made my way toward it.  "You got a quarter?... Thanks!"  My father had the window rolled down, so the process went fairly smooth.  Only a couple of moments latter was I back in the car with my long awaited prize resting on my lap.  Inside, I was as glee as a hunter after getting their first catch of the season.  Success! 

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3DS: Progress? (Part 2)

I am a lot better today, and am feeling generous enough to give you Part 2 of my ongoing story about my quest in obtaining the 3DS.  Enjoy!
___________
And so, the inquiring of my parents began.  I say inquiring with a purpose, because, unlike most children, I do not interrogate my parents when there is something I am asking of them.  For me, that is far too bold and way out of my style.  I merely mention in to them, you know, as a simple passing thought, one that just crossed my mind.  I rarely ever want something so bad that I will ask for it, but I guess the 3DS was pretty high up there on my list.
When it gets to this point, I usually go out and get the thing myself, but I really wanted my parents to know what it was I was purchasing before I did.  And so, after a quick visit to the Nintendo's main website, and a couple of videos shown to them on YouTube, my parents were convinced that it would be a good buy and that it was indeed time to upgrade from my graying DS lite.

Over the past few months and after carefully thought sorting and planing, I have managed to accumulate a hefty stack of video games that I see little point in keeping and need to pass on.  I think I would feel much better if I knew they were in the hands of some little child who actually had the time to play them.  Most of them are DS games that I sorta' bought on impulse, the rest are for the Game Cube and two-three are for the Wii.
Also, being the frugal Canadian that I am, I collect Canadian Tire money form my parents every time they buy something from the hardware store.  (If you are American and don't know what Tire money money is, you should! Because it's Canada's official currency, don't you know?... eh, I can't even attempt to be funny tonight for some odd reason.)  Over time, the wad of CT money I possessed had grown to the point where it almost reached the full size and circumference of the cylindrical case I had stored it in.  My father, remembering this, decided to strike up a deal with me, a trade; 'all the money in that jar, for its actual worth in cash' my father said.  He was planning on buying a small saw from Canadian Tire some time soon, and he really wanted to see me get that game system.  Sadly though, CT money is hard to judge.  It comes in frequency ranging from 5cents to 2dollars, and all of them in bills!  It makes you think that you have more money than you actually do, and that seemed to be the case with dad.  I counted:

     ($3.50 worth in 50cents, $1 in 1dollars, $3.00 in 25cents, $5.60 in 10cents and $1.35 in 5cents.)

I was totaling all of this up while sitting on my stair steps, and by the time I was finished, a good three rows were covered in various sheets of coloured paper, all arranged in their individual piles based on value alone.
All of this, and only $14.45 ?
My father, being very generous as he is, still gave me twenty dollars for the little amount that I gave him.  I protested, saying that he should not have to give me more than I gave him, but there was just no chance in me ever swaying him any other way.

--------
Part 3- Coming your way this weekend!


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3DS: Now that's Progress?

Last week had really been a rocky week.  I had kept coming down hard on myself for being so hesitant with getting work done and I almost felt as though I wasn't the one in control.
"Control" had been the central thing I was trying to achieve this past summer.  Control of myself and my life.
 Telling myself "no more taking the back seat", that kind of thing, you know? And I had actually managed to reach my goal of self control by the end of the summer, but this week, it had somehow started to creep back up on me.  (Although not to the full extent that it had been before.)

I guess that the whole thing started on Thanksgiving weekend, when the final plans for one of my projects came into play.  I'm not talking about my comic project here, this is more of an example of a life project,and something that I had been readying myself for since the summer.  I had decide that I wanted to purchase a 3DS, and not just any kind of a 3DS, I had my eyes set on the sleek, new flame red 3DS, and in my opinion, the good kind; and so, I did.
My first interest in Nintendo's latest hardware peeked the moment it was announced.  Being the HUGE Nintendo fan I am (and a bit of a nerd), I was watching the live-streamed video of that years E3 conference via the internet when Nintendo made its first announced step into the world of 3D gaming, and I have to say, my jaw dropped when I heard the big news.  The first thought that ran through my head after that started me laughing inside.  Seeing the 3DS brought me back only but a couple of months earlier to when I was having a conversation with my friends about the controversy that had begun to spread about the existence of a new portable gaming console, shortly after the release of the Nintendo DSi.  I could remember bits of the conversation where I said "How could Nintendo possibly go any higher? What more can they add to gaming than cameras?" and we all agreed that Nintendo was stalling time by just releasing a bigger version of the DSi in order to satisfy their consumers with a new product.
One of my friends, who is a big PlayStation fan by the way, and is by no-means caught up in the whole Nintendo fandom realm of gaming, had jokingly said "What next, gaming in the 3rd dimension?" and we all laughed at such a ludicrous idea.  "What would that even be called? the 3DS?" "No way, man! How would that even be possible?" ...It was as though we thought the whole thing up ourselves, and the first words from my lips as I sat at my computer watching Mr. Iwata speak, was "How is this even possible...?" the same words spoken by my friends a few months back.  Crazy, right?
(Did I just get goosebumps?  I think I just got goosebumps?)
...
Sorry guys for not posting anything in a while.  I know that technically they say that it isn't very professional to inform everyone that you are sorry for not posting anything because it only annoys your viewers, but I got to say, I really am sorry.  If not to you, than at least to myself.

As I watch this blog post grow and morph, I see it becoming a longer story than what I had anticipated.  So, seeing how it is as lengthy as it is, I have made the decision to break it up into a couple of posts that will appear on my blog spanning the period of the next 7-8days.
This has really been a rotten couple week for me, my apologies for not being so active and cheerful as I usually am.

Part 2 coming soon!~

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Summer Falls

     I can't believe the change in the colours of the leaves this week here in Atlantic Canada! (Yes, and I do mean colours and not colors; and for all of my American viewers out there, the proper Canadian spelling for the word is actually that.)  It really is an eventful thing when the leaves begin to change, isn't it?  I think that I would really miss it if I were living someplace else in the world where the changing of the seasons did not include the bright yellows, the vibrant oranges and the deep reds that cover the landscape every fall.

    On top of the lovely scenery that we had this weekend, we were also blessed with fine weather.  Temperature in the twenties for Thanksgiving?! What kind of trick of the senses is this?  In any case, this presented me with the perfect opportunity to get some good sketching done; and so I did:

     For this one I hauled a folding lawn chair across our back yard and plopped it down so that it was facing the field and the forest behind my house.  I was actually a little saddened at first with the way how this one turned-out after I looked at how it appeared on the computer screen after I had scanned it, but now that I see it miniaturized in my post, I don't feel as bad about it and am actually quite content.
     When I sketch, often times the pencil marks are so light that a great deal of them don't get picked up by the scanner.  This is an example where that kind of thing happens to the image, but a simple change in the images resolution may just do the trick.

     A funny thing happened while I was making this picture, my dog, who is sometimes at my side when I am doing these kind of drawings, suddenly got the notion that it would be a good Idea to sniff-out the largest pile of animal droppings in the field... and ROLL IN IT!!!!! Yipes!  Yeah, I know, hilarious... but it wasn't for me at the time.  It still cracks me up a little when I picture myself sitting peacefully in my lawn chair, thinking about how nice of a day it was, when all of a sudden... zoom!  She didn't even gave me enough time to grab her before she began diving her way into it. (I swear it was large enough for her to do the back stroke through it!)
    Chloe is a small dog, so it didn't take much for her to make it seen as though she were in a state of complete and total mess, and she wasn't aloud back inside of the house for a while, or at least until she was cleaned.  My father and I gave her a bath, which is a routine thing for us now on the occasions that we let the dog run around the yard without the use of her tether.  But, man! Was she ever smelly!

     I had a good thanksgiving though, did you?  I managed to keep myself busy with all of the family-visiting, trips to town and whatnot, but I wish I could say the same about my comic.  I am a little stalled at the moment, that is not to say that nothing is getting done to it (I have worked out much of the plots beyond the pre-story legend that I am publishing to the internet now), but I usually have a page readily available to work on in the evenings after I come home from school.  This week so far, no such page exists and I feel as though a massive void of discomfort has been added to my day.  I should now make an initiative to empty that void of all its stresses and fill it full of the thing I feel most good about doing rate now, my comic.
_
*Just a little side-note, here.  Although most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the forth Thursday in November, us Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on a different date, the second Monday in October!  Neat hun?  I think that it has something to do with fact that Canada is further away from the equator than the United States, and thus the harvest are more earlier in the year.
When I think of November, I don't picture pumpkins and scarecrows.  For me, and many other Canadians, November means freshly fallen snow and the first taste of winter.

I sometimes find it interesting how the slight distance in our surroundings can change the way that we perceive common things in the world...

Cucumber Alive

This past Monday, I thought I would take a break from my usual work; something that I like to do often.  It keeps my ideas feeling fresh, and helps to break units of time into comprehensible dates through my artwork.  (I can remember when I had drawn an image, better that I can with just the date alone.)  It was after I had just eaten supper, and 20 minutes gave me this:

I always enjoy doing still-life and scenery work. Who knows, you may even see me use this as reference later in my comic for when I go to do foliage...

There's kind of a story behind this as to why one of the cucumber plants, shown here, is dead and the other alive.  It is my fathers doing.  My mother said jokingly, that 'he couldn't have killed it better if he had strapped it to a pair of skis and sent it over the side of Mt.Washington', which is practically what he did when he left them on top of the slanted lid of our gardening tools' wooden storage box.  Haha! (didn't see that one coming now did we?)

As I was thinking of a title for this blog post, I couldn't help but think of that one show from my childhood, Mummies Alive, I think it was called... Gosh I miss those days when cartoons were the center of my Saturday morning rituals.  Now I can't even find the time to sit and watch even half of the ones that appear on television, nor do I even seem to want to.  I mean, some of the modern-day cartoons' pacing is terrible!  Not to say that I myself could do any better, but I would give the pacing a serious thought.  It feels as though the lead writers and story-board artists are trying to cram too much into a short, 15min episode.  It's nuts!  Even Sponge Bob has fallen ill to this new trend, don't you find?  Ah, what do I know anyway?  It's probably just my change in prospective, that's all.  I am no longer looking it over from a child's point of view, but as the view of someone who spends the vast majority of his time devoted to art.  ...I started to sound like my own grandfather there for a second.  phwoo! wouldn't want that, now, would we?!

...Bakugan is all the rage now a days, isn't it?  Man, I really need to get with the times!

Edit: Oops! So sorry guys!  I have just been informed by my mother that the plant in the second picture, titled 'alive', is actually a strawberry bush and not a thing of cucumbers.  I hope that I haven't offended anyone who is particularly sensitive about their plants... Wait? WHA-?! :S (confused face)

See? No Lies.

     I wasn't kidding when I said that I was going to give my blog a face-lift, and I have to agree, 'I love the new look!' (^.^) It's got some richer background colours than before, and I've actually enabled commenting. (yay...) I'm sorry about not having comments turned on before, but I guess that Blogger's default setting for its comments is not to allow anyone but blogger users to send them (or perhaps to not allow anyone to send them at all, I forget which one it is...)  Anyhow, everything is looking well; everything is feeling better!  I'm feeling a little better about this whole blog thing... all is well!  "W-w-wait! Did you forget to mention something,... perhaps about my comic... you know, the one that basically this whole blog is supposedly about!"

     Errr... umm, yeah! That thing.  Well, let's just say it could be faring better.  It's not that its not going to happen, because it will!  It's just taking me a lot more time than what I had been hoping for.  But, It's not really my fault, because I am a grade eleven student and my homework is a little much.  But not to worry! Because I am beginning to manage it better than I had before, and improvements to my quality of school-life are appearing upon me every day.  ~Life is Good.