Here you’ll find an exploration on how to make a living, by being creative. This blog gives you a little bit of a window into the day in the life of a Simpsons artist, who’s doing his own art on the side. You’ll also get an insight into what goes on in an artist’s brain. As well, as how he tries to improve his skills and his way of life with his creativity.
He also draws things that will hopefully make you laugh, or at the very least, crack a smile.
I’m a Storyboard artist on The Simpsons TV show and The Simpsons Movie. I drew Simpsons comics, on the side, for Bongo Comics for 12 years as well. Author of The Art of Draw Fu: Beginners Level. I live in California with my wife, daughter and four sons who I love very much. I’m Roman Catholic and I was born in El Salvador.
I was taken off episode 12 this week and put back on episode 11. It seems that episode 11 got some MORE rewrites and changes that needed to be story boarded. They asked me to do it so I am. There were rewrites in three out of the four acts. I finished Acts 2 and 3 pretty quickly. Act 1 had some heavy rewrites so I’m hoping to get them done by the end of the day today.
ART
This week, I clarified for myself, what the Lead Sorcerers, wrist device would look like. I also designed what the Female Sorceress’ swords would look like:
It’s gotten to the point know where, I have to quickly design small things like, Rob’s backpack. Lastly I designed the hot dog vendor, who has a speaking role at the start of the film. When I designed him, I was going for “Hispanic stereotype”. For a secondary character, he’s actually kinda important for the story.
If you’re wondering why my drawing output seems so low, it’s because most of my time is taken up by the writing of the script. Things are going so well with that, I might actually be done with it by the end of next week.
If I am, then all I’ll need to do is record the dialogue and I’m on my way. It might be possible for me to even start story boarding without the dialogue too. Still, I’d want it recorded as soon as I can.
BOOKS
Last week I posted Chapter 1 of my wife’s book THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST:
I really wanted to tell Brande to take his glass of dry Sherry and get the hell out of my office, but you can’t say that to a wizard without there being trouble. I lowered my gaze and rustled papers on my desk hoping maybe he’d get the hint, but he obviously felt that he had a few last words to say.
“I’ll probably be able to see you again in a few months. It’s becoming more difficult to enter and leave Prague…I hope you understand.”
“Well,” I lifted my gaze and met his, “that’s what happens when you let a gang of Nazis run into your territory.”
“Isabella—”
“When we’re over here, I’m Emelie.”
He waved his hand and took another sip of Sherry. “Of course, Emelie. If we had been ready, perhaps we could’ve fought them off without any trouble. But now…” he shook his head and it made me feel a pang of guilt for being dismissive.
“We’re all trying to do what we can, right?” I placed my hand over his in a conciliatory gesture. I knew how he felt when the Gray Tower did nothing as the SS and German Armed Forces rolled into Czechoslovakia and took over. However, the Order of Wizards couldn’t make a move without being detected by certain enemies of our own.
I knew he would’ve been first in line to fight off the enemy despite that fact, and that’s what I was already doing in my own way. I had to admit though that I couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that we were so wrapped up in living for a cause that sometimes it felt like life passed us by. He and I could have easily enjoyed our drinks over a dinner table in a dimly lit nightclub with our bodies swaying to the beat of music. It would have been a nice change of scene from the solitude and monotony of my cramped office.
Knowing Brande though, he probably thought this was just fine—which was a shame because what girl wouldn’t want to be seen in public with him? I didn’t realize my hand was still touching his as I thought about all this and he gave me a quizzical look (but he didn’t withdraw his hand, either).
I pulled my hand away, a little flushed, and just then Ian walked in carrying a file. Brande acknowledged him with a nod and Ian did the same. When Brande faced me again I could see Ian pointing toward the left wall at an informational poster that you could find posted in nearly every pub in London nowadays. It portrayed men wearing military uniforms, frozen in laughter with a group of women hanging onto them. A caption at the bottom of the poster read: What you say to your friends…could be heard by the enemy!
I always laughed at that poster hanging in here, but nevertheless I’ve seen some inexperienced operatives unwittingly betray themselves and their cohorts by not taking that motto to heart.
“Emelie,” Ian cleared his throat, “the file is ready.” He furtively glanced at Brande.
“I swear I tried to make him leave,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders. Ian was even less patient with Brande’s presence than I was.
Brande pulled a package from a hidden pocket inside his trench coat. “Your emerald spectacles, jade powder, and red garnet lipstick.”
“Thank you.”
I didn’t always have time to make or procure enchanted items, and I appreciated whenever he delivered them. Emerald granted the ability to see in the dark; jade’s healing powers had saved me on several occasions from grievous wounds and poison, and I used red garnet sparingly as it inspired romantic desires and aggression. I learned a long time ago to manipulate the magical qualities in these stones and work them into everyday items. Whipping out a stone isn’t very subtle, and in my line of work a lack of subtlety could get you killed.
Brande handed me the coveted items and finished his Sherry. “Perhaps you’ll come to the Gray Tower once you’re done playing spy with the British.” He rose from his seat and shouldered his way past Ian, leaving us alone in the office. I didn’t know why, but Brande’s comment stung me.
I looked at Ian. “I know what you’re going to say—”
“I trust you, not him. Besides, don’t you think it’s all part of a nefarious plot that the Gray Tower sends him over? If Bernadine actually did her job and stopped gushing over him at the reception desk, then maybe I could get a few words out of the bloke.”
I let out an irritated sigh. “I swear sometimes you act as if you don’t want a wizard on staff. If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t have recruited me.”
He shook his head as if saying he wasn’t going down that road today. “Look, when are you going to let us take this out?” He glanced at the other half of the office where an empty desk and chair stood collecting dust, and where notes and pictures clung to the wall.
“Why do you suddenly care?” My eyes narrowed. I had noticed when I first joined the Special Operations Executive that all the men had their own offices while all the women had to pair up and share, sometimes three to an office.
My officemate and friend was a girl named Stella, whose husband died in a battle last year. She wanted to help the Resistance in any way she could and successfully ran missions for us, but she hasn’t reported back to us since January and now it was the middle of June.
“We’ve got a new recruit, I think you’ll like her.”
“Not interested. What do you have for me?” The last thing I needed was a wide-eyed new girl following me around talking about how swell it was to spy on the Nazis.
He opened the file to reveal a dossier and pointed toward a profile picture of an older gentleman. “I presume you’ve heard of Dr. Veit Heilwig?”
“The scientist? Yes.”
“For the past three months Allied forces have been taking heavy blows from the Nazis on the Western Front. The bastards have been violating the Geneva Protocol and unleashing a new chemical weapon on our soldiers. We have evidence that—”
“There may be more than just chemicals in those weapons?” I fondled the Agate stone set in my ring.
He nodded. “Do you remember that incident with the poisoned food and water?”
“Believe me, I’m not forgetting that anytime soon.”
The contaminated goods had unwittingly been dispersed among Ally soldiers throughout Europe. Over a thousand had died before it could be counteracted and hundreds more were still lying in hospital beds, strangely disfigured and barely alive. All we could do was separate and destroy the contaminated food, and there was still no known cure.
“That was Heilwig’s work. Now he’s perfected it…they’re calling it The Plague. At this rate he’ll win the war for Hitler and the Black Wolves, and that’s exactly why we need another alchemist to go up against him, neutralize the new chemical weapons he’s developed, and take him out.”
“You want me to kill him?”
“No, take him out of France. We want to extract him.”
“Why do you want him alive?” And how exactly did they want me to kidnap him? You can’t just walk up to a warlock and cuff him and tell him to come along. Next time I’ll save my plaintive musings about life passing me by in favor of me wanting to just live another day. This was going to be a tough mission.
“Just…read the dossier. I’ve got MI6 breathing down my neck over this one and Morton’s just dying for an excuse to discredit us.”
“My goodness, we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Discredit happened to be the least of my worries buddy—I could be rotting in Dr. Meier’s Nazi experimental program by next week if I fail. Half the things I heard about it I refused to believe and the other half I resolved to never find out through experience. I swore this would be my last assignment, and then if I had any sense left I’d gracefully exit the stage and go quietly live my life elsewhere…preferably with a handsome guy who didn’t mind that I could create explosions and induce heart attacks.
Ian rolled his eyes. Sometimes I wondered if he wanted to throttle me for my backtalk. “Report to the hangar tomorrow at the appointed time so Richard can take you over to Paris. And don’t be late.”
“Ian…”
“What is it?”
I felt like squirming in my seat. “You got my resignation letter, right? I put it on your desk this morning.”
He pursed his lips. “I wanted to give you some time to think it over. That Denmark job really got to you, didn’t it?”
“I’ll do this last assignment, but promise me you’ll have the final paperwork ready to sign when I return from Paris.” My shoulders tensed in anticipation of his objections, and about how much SOE needed me.
“All right then,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t want to see you go, but if that’s what you want…”
As he turned and headed toward the door with his gangly walk, I glanced at the clock on the wall and winced. Ideally my routine would have been to nestle in my reclining chair and eat dinner by 7 p.m., but instead 8 o’ clock stared back at me without apology. I flipped through the dossier, noting the most important details and memorizing Dr. Heilwig’s face, knowing that when I’m dropped into Paris tomorrow evening I wouldn’t have the dossier to reference nor any identification papers or passports on me.
We did this for two reasons: an agent’s counterfeit identification could be damaged or lost during transport anyway, and in the case of arrest, the Gestapo often found it difficult to verify or prove she was a spy. I usually obtained papers from trusted sources on an as-needed basis, but if I didn’t need them, then I did not carry papers. When I first began this, I found it all exciting because it allowed me to be anyone I wanted, but after a few months I ended up feeling like I was no one.
Sometimes I had to remind myself that Emelie was just my code name, and that her preferred mannerisms or activities weren’t necessarily the ones Isabella George liked. My officemate Stella had gone to France often under the name Angela Wyatt, and had chosen it because her mother’s first name was Angela and she obsessed over the 16th Century poet Thomas Wyatt.
After my first few missions I grew apathetic in choosing names. One day Ian suggested Emelie because he said when he was younger he had always wanted a little sister by that name. Since he had never gotten one and I was the closest thing to it, he said I should go with the moniker, and I’ve been using it ever since.
My lips curved into a slight smile at remembering this but then turned into a frown as I thought about Stella’s failure to report back. Wherever she was, I hoped that she had only been delayed and needed to hide with the French Resistance or was already en route to London. In any case, I wanted Stella’s belongings to remain here untouched if she happened to return—I didn’t want her to think we gave up on her so quickly. In keeping with my weekly routine, I grabbed my dusty handkerchief from my desk drawer and wiped off her belongings.
I wondered with a twinge of sadness if anyone would do that for me if I had been missing for five months, and I didn’t even want to think about what Ian would have to tell my family under those circumstances: So sorry, your daughter wasn’t really working for the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain—she was gallivanting about Europe engaging in counter-missions against the Nazis because we couldn’t afford Hitler’s occult powers to gain an advantage over Allied forces.
It would kill my mother and brother to find out about me that way, and though pride kept me from saying it, the longer Stella went missing, the more anxious I grew that I may very well be next. Then what? Without a doubt, this would have to be my last mission behind enemy lines.
When I arrived at my flat, I pulled out the few supplies I would take with me to Paris: a wad of francs, the enchanted items Brande brought me, and my golden alchemist’s knife. I placed them on my nightstand and then headed into the kitchen to fix myself dinner. I went through the cabinets and refrigerator but found nothing that piqued my appetite. My friend Jane Lewis usually came home around this time and she cooked enticing meals like lamb stew and meatloaf. Most importantly, she generously shared them with me.
I still hopelessly tried to make an American dish every now and then but then I would only end up frustrated and yearning for home while my belly groaned. I decided to see what Jane was cooking and went downstairs to her flat on the first floor. I knocked a couple of times and she answered the door, wearing a dirty apron and wiping flour from her hands. Her freckled face broke into a smile and she welcomed me in.
“Please, have a seat, Isabella. I was just finishing the liver sandwiches.” She went back into her kitchen and pulled a dish out of the oven.
“Liver sandwiches?” I wanted to grimace but unless I was cooking for myself I had no right to object.
“Well, it’s more like a meat-filled pastry.”
“Filled with liver?” As if I were supposed to overlook that fact.
“Not everyone in the world eats just loads of fried cows and cheese.”
“This is going to be interesting.”
“I’m trying to follow the ration recipes from Woman’s Weekly.” She gestured toward the magazine on her coffee table.
“Is it that bad?” I went over and grabbed the magazine and flipped through its pages. I took a few moments to scan its housekeeping articles and recipes.
“It’s starting to be. If you went to buy food more often, you’d know.” She arranged the liver sandwiches on two plates and invited me to come sit with her at the dining table.
“You’re cooking an awful lot lately.” I took a bite and gave silent thanks that she had at least seasoned the meat.
“Well I’m just honing my housekeeping skills, you know.” She bit into her sandwich and turned her left hand to reveal a diamond engagement ring on her finger. She must have slipped it on in the kitchen.
“Congratulations, Jane.” With a smile I got up and threw my arms around her. “I didn’t know…have I been away that long?”
“It was all so sudden, even I’m still surprised.” Her face simply glowed.
“Garret is a lucky man.” I frowned when she took it upon herself to plop another sliver of sandwich into my mouth. I wondered if she hid some stew or dumplings in the refrigerator and this was all to torture me.
“And it came at the perfect time. I was just thinking last week what I was going to do with myself.”
My smile faded. “You were tired, weren’t you?”
She nodded and tears formed in her eyes. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I still believe in what we’re fighting for, but we all have to retire some time, right?”
“Sure we do.”
Jane’s sister, Anna, had been one of three Special Operations Executive agents arrested by Nazis last October in the Netherlands and immediately sentenced to death by firing squad. They had no pity on her because she was a woman; the SS shot her down and threw her body into a heaping pile of other victims.
“Besides,” she wiped her face, “I’m getting old and I want babies. All my girlfriends who I grew up with are married off and raising families.”
“Well I’m glad for you, Jane. You deserve a happy life with Garret.”
I asked her to recount the whole proposal from beginning to end. I asked to see her ring again and secretly felt a mixture of excitement and envy. Afterward, I offered to clear the table and wash dishes so she wouldn’t try to feed me anything else. We made small talk the rest of the time and she reminded me about some letters that she had been holding for me. I thanked her and continued cleaning the kitchen, wiping down the counters and saving scraps of leftover food.
I couldn’t help but steal glances of her engagement ring every few minutes and savor the sweet smoothness of the gold it was made of. As an alchemist, I had a natural ability to taste the metallic essence of metals. I eyed the shining round-cut diamond set in the middle and wondered if I would cry or jump with excitement if someone ever proposed to me.
Though my life as a spy did have its share of excitement, I couldn’t deny the mental, physical, and even spiritual drain that this line of work had on me. I remembered days when I would refuse to get out of bed because weariness or distress dragged me down. Even when Ian had sent a car for me, I wouldn’t answer. At other times I’d return from a mission with a stone cold face and impenetrable heart, and then as soon as I stepped through my doorway I would start bawling. I called it being tired, and I understood what Jane felt.
I wasn’t going to lie to myself, I did want to one day be married, move somewhere close to my brother and his wife so we could watch our kids grow up together, and stroll through my quiet little neighborhood not having to wonder if the friendly neighbor down the street was an enemy operative with a gun behind his back. I wanted to be in control of how I lived, and I just couldn’t reconcile this with living and dying by others’ orders.
“I should go back up to my flat. I’m going to Paris tomorrow.” I came back into the living room and leaned over the sofa to give Jane a peck on the cheek.
“Be careful, do you hear me?”
“You know I will, because I want to make it back for your wedding. When will it be?”
“March, of next year.” She got up and walked me over to the door.
“I think I can make it back by then.”
She laughed. “You’d better. And I want to come to yours one day.”
“I’d have to find a guy to stick with me first.”
We said our goodnights and I headed back upstairs, feeling loneliness creep upon me. I quickly changed and got into bed, and began browsing through the letters Jane had given me. Some were bills, others were solicitations for mail order catalogs, and of course I received my letter from Jonathan. I tossed the others aside and opened his cryptic letter written under the pseudonym Sherman Woods.
I had told him a long time ago that since I had access to “sensitive information in the ambassador’s office,” that my employer frowned upon casual and steady communication with family and friends. Johnnie took it upon himself to start writing me once a month using a silly code language we used to communicate in when we were children.
I always found his letters, and the effort he put into them, amusing and gratefully welcomed. In fact, I found the elaborate system we had come up with quite impressive. I think the codes would actually work if I wanted to use them for a real mission. As I read his account of his weekly triumphs and worries, as well as how mother was faring, I wistfully thought of the look on his face if I were to just show up on his doorstep.
Well, perhaps I could do that when I’m done with this mission. The sooner I extracted Heilwig and got rid of The Plague, the sooner I could be finished and truly go home. I slowly drifted into a restless sleep hoping for this outcome, and of course, wondering what my final assignment would be like.
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I started work on show 12 this week. Last week I just barely managed to finish my boards. There was more work on them than I thought. I’m not sure how successful I was with them. The director was out of town last week. I hope they can use them.
Meanwhile, the show I’m working on is pretty epic but the rewrite doesn’t seem too bad. I hope I have an easier time on these boards.
ART
Okay, so, this week I got an opportunity to design a few things. Starting with the new Winged Zombie Ape:
He’ll be more scruffy than it’s “brother”. He will have more of a death’s head look. No lips on him, just sharp ugly teeth, and his wings will be shredded.
On the second half of the page, I began designing the new devices for the Sorcerers.
In the world of my story, Sorcerers get their magick by binding themselves with a demon. They access that power through blood. Mostly their own blood. At first, I thought that I should give them all daggers that they would use to cut themselves. Then I thought it would be very impractical to be doing that all the time. Especially in a fight so I tried thinking up alternatives. I couldn’t think of anything and I told my wife Alesha about my problem. She then pitched the idea that Sorcerers could have a device that they could use that would extract blood from them on the go. I was like,
“Brilliant!” It’s a modern answer to the question. Simply use technology to make it easier for them to cast spell. What a fun idea. So I came up with the idea that they have these devices on their arms that have, like an, IV type tube connected to their vein. They press a button near their palm, like Spider-Man’s web shooters, and a little bit of blood squirts out. Each Sorcerer’s device is slightly custom made according to the theme of their powers.
Pictured above are two of the three devices. The rougher, slightly vague ones floating around the page are some ideas for the third device. The woman’s theme, has been changed to blades, so her device looks like scaled armor. The long haired Sorcerer’s theme was changed to entropy, so his device looks like it’s made out of finger bones with a tail bone at the front. The balls on the device are a type of magick weapon he tends to throw.
The claws on his finger are something else. It’s my first pass at them so they seem a big crazy. He doesn’t always have does claws out. When he wants them, he casts a spell that produces them. They’re SUPPOSE to look like talons. I’m not sure they look right at the moment. I’ll need to work on them.
Feels good to be working on my project again.
BOOKS
As promised, I now officially putting up a few chapters from my wife’s book THE TOWER’S ALCHEMIST. We’ve been getting a lot of good feedback from people who have read it. It’s good to hear. Give it a try.
To get the $2.99 Kindle copy of the book:
To get a hard copy of the book:
Okay, so, here’s:
CHAPTER ONE
I never imagined my first trip to Denmark would include crouching in a forest in the dark of night, but at least the beech trees gave Lyder and me much needed cover. I rose to my feet and stood over him, jerking my head to the right to indicate that we needed to pack up and head out. When he waved me off, I shut the transmitter case with my foot and trained my sten gun on him.
He glared at me. “I wasn’t done with my radio transmission.”
“You went over by five minutes. That means they’ll be coming.” I had little patience for people who did things that would likely get me killed.
He pulled out a pistol and grabbed the case. “I’m ready.”
I flinched when the first gunshot rang. It took the SS little effort to pinpoint our position. Lyder jumped to his feet and ran with me through the forest. I breathed in through my nose and out my mouth, like I’d do when taking a jog. I felt a cold lump in the pit of my stomach as my shoes haphazardly crushed dry leaves and twigs beneath them. We heard voices, dogs barking, and where the forest cleared we saw the headlights of a trekker sitting in the middle of the road.
Great, we’ve just been flanked.
With heavy breaths, we paused and pressed ourselves against the trunk of a tree as if it were all the protection we needed.
“Any bright ideas, sergeant?” I pulled out my golden knife and began carving repetitions of two alchemical symbols into the soft earth: Fire and Air.
“We make a stand and fight,” he said, dropping the case and pulling out another pistol. “They’ll likely force us to surrender once they see my uniform.”
“Bad plan.” They might take an officer of the Danish army as a prisoner of war, but if they caught a woman in civilian clothing with a machine gun aimed at them, they’d kill me on the spot—or take me in for interrogation with a nice dose of torture, and then kill me.
“Drop your weapons,” a voice on a loud hailer commanded first in English and then in German. It came from the trekker. From the other side I could hear the dogs’ howling grow louder and men’s boots trampling crisp leaves.
Lyder raised his guns and fired at one of the SS officers who had made his way down from the trekker. It looked like he was hit in the shoulder, but he quickly reciprocated the gunfire. I took the opposite side and aimed my gun, hitting him with a burst of bullets. The officer grunted and fell to the ground. I began feeding my Fire and Air symbols with energy, slowly building up the power I needed in them. Lyder shivered and stared at me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Saving our lives.” My right hand shook as a warning but I ignored it and continued. I held off the effects of the spell just long enough so I could blast the other men in range.
We moved to another tree when the men from behind sent gunfire and their vicious dogs our way. When they were close enough, I released the symbols and sparks began forming in the air. The sparks grew into flames, and joined by Air, became a whirlwind of fire. I directed the firestorm toward everyone behind us, and then confusion and panic broke out. Some of the men fell back while others were caught in the raging flames and burned alive. Still, others ran for cover and waited. I nudged Lyder, who simply stared at the spectacle, and urged him to follow me.
“Emelie, why are you going toward the trekker?” he asked.
“A trekker only holds two at most. I’d rather go against one soldier than twenty.” I felt something wet trickle down my nose and knew it was blood. I relinquished any remaining hold I had on the firestorm, and with fear I awaited the inevitable physical exhaustion to creep in.
We headed up the dirt embankment and saw that the trekker still had its lights on, but no one moved there or made any further demands on the loud hailer. Where did the second man go? Lyder suddenly shouted a warning, but it was too late. The man we were looking for had wrapped his arm around Lyder’s neck from behind and lifted him up against the embankment with little effort. Lyder dropped his weapons and began kicking his legs in the air and clawing at the man’s arm, but to no avail. His strength was simply inhuman.
“Drop your weapon,” he said, “or I’ll break his neck.”
I placed it on the ground in front of me and held my hands up in the air. “Who are you?”
He released Lyder and made a quick blow to the back of his head to knock him unconscious. “A rich man, once I hand you over. They like collecting Tower Slaves.”
He jumped from the top of the embankment and landed on his feet. He wore no uniform, only a dark sweater and trousers. I could sense the taint of dark magic on him and I cursed at myself for wasting so much of my strength earlier.
“I’m not with the Gray Tower.” I trembled from fatigue and lowered my arms.
“Doesn’t matter.” He gave a smug smile, watching me reel from the effects of my previous strong rush of magic.
He pulled out a pair of Czech swivel cuffs, and when I sensed the amount of iron present in them, I lifted my wrists and allowed him to cuff me. Obviously this warlock wasn’t an alchemist. As soon as the cuffs clicked shut, I threw my arms up high and over his head and pulled him toward me so that the cuffs pressed into the back of his neck and we were locked in an embrace. I manipulated the iron, letting it do the work for me and turning it into a weapon that would corrode and blacken his flesh. He began struggling and screeching, unable to hit me with a spell because I was right up against him. He did put aside the pain long enough to figure out that he could strangle me though, and wrapped his hands around my neck and squeezed with the ferocity of desperation.
There we were, in near silence, arms around each other and neither one intending to let go until the other dropped dead. Tonight however, would not be that night for me. A spray of blood hit me across the face as the corrosion from the iron cuffs ate away into part of his neck. I fell down with the weight of his body, and coughed and sputtered. After I managed to wriggle free, I tried to find a key on him but his pockets turned up nothing—except a business card for a Dr. Falk Meier, which made me shudder.
My wrists burned from the spell and my legs felt like rubber. I stumbled over to my sten gun and picked it up before limping over to Lyder. I prodded him and called his name a few times, and uttered a silent prayer of thanks when his eyes blinked open. “Lyder, we have to get out of here.” I coughed again, but this time it was due to the forest fire smoke billowing toward us.
“Where are my guns?” he asked with a groan.
“There.” I nodded over to my right and he rushed toward the weapons and reclaimed them.
The other men who had run off were now regrouping and we could hear them in the distance. I helped him to his feet and we dashed south alongside the road, trying to make it back into town where my safe house stood. I was already running out of breath and hardly managed to keep up with him.
“You couldn’t find a key?” He glanced at my wrists and then his gaze went back to the road.
My eyes narrowed. “Yes, but then I decided that I liked wearing Czechoslovakian handcuffs.”
I stumbled and nearly fell, but he caught me and pulled me along with him at a quick pace. I had to give him credit—he wasn’t going to stop for anything. When we reached town, a few resistance fighters who had been appointed as lookouts signaled to us and guided us through back alleys until we reached the safe house. Once inside, Lyder immediately shed his uniform jacket and grabbed a bottle of liquor. I, on the other hand, asked my hostess Kanja if she knew how to pick locks.
She grabbed her smallest blade from the kitchen and held it up with a grimace. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“It’s okay, I’ll walk you through it.” I sat at her kitchen table and held out my wrists.
She sat across from me with a frightened expression. “Perhaps Sergeant Lyder—”
“He’s busy getting drunk, thank you.”
“I’m not drunk yet,” Lyder said. “Can’t you transmute those cuffs anyway?”
“Maybe one day I’ll be able to. Kanja, my wrists are badly hurt. Would you mind?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Then…tell me what to do.”
I guided her through each step, using encouraging words and a soothing voice. When the cuffs clicked open I winced and gave her a pained smile. “Thank you. You’re a very brave young woman.”
She couldn’t have been older than eighteen, but then losing one’s parents and joining the Resistance made one grow up rather quickly. I looked up at Lyder when he set a glass in front of me and poured me a drink. He had grown much more subdued.
“To another day of cheating death,” he said, finishing off the rest of the bottle.
“Just remember not to go over a thirty-minute broadcast. Ever.”
“God, I’m going to have a headache in the morning,” he said, rummaging through Kanja’s cabinets.
“I’m going to be aching all over,” I complained. I was so exhausted from the fight that I didn’t think I had the energy to mend my wrists with magic. I thanked Kanja once more when she went over to the sink and brought a wet towel for me. I had forgotten that my face was bloodstained.
I wiped my forehead and cheeks clean, and as soon as I downed my drink I felt sick. The house suddenly quaked and unnatural screeches filled the air. People began shouting and screaming, and the sound of gunshots popped in long bursts. I didn’t even have to look out the window to know that Black Wolves had landed.
“Get into the closet!” I rose from my seat and shoved Kanja toward the bedroom. Lyder was on my heels.
“What’s going on out there?” he asked, as I pulled them both inside and shut the door.
“Everyone, quiet. Don’t move, don’t speak, and don’t breathe.” I sucked in a quick breath when the pain in my wrists flared up, but I managed to get us into the compartment behind the secret panel in the back wall.
I crouched in the compartment and closed my eyes. I emptied my mind of any fear or expectations and focused only on cloaking my abilities. A Circle of Protection would’ve just served as a beacon for the Wolves—I needed to hide, to be nothing to them.
We heard more gunshots and screams. Somewhere nearby glass shattered and a car screeched before colliding into something. When the house shook again with a crash, we thought a grenade had hit part of the house. We thought better of it when it sounded like something heavy with talons came walking down the hallway and scratching up the hardwood floor. I opened my eyes when I heard a grunt, and through a crack in the panel we saw the Black Wolf’s shadow blot out the stream of light coming from beneath the door. Lyder pressed his hand over his mouth and Kanja pulled out a tiny crucifix and held it close.
Lyder looked like he would sick up at any moment when a set of claws, attached to a human-looking hand, reached beneath the door and spread out. I continued concentrating on cloaking myself and lightly extended it to the others in the closet. My head throbbed and I felt feverish. I knew that if I kept pushing myself that I’d faint. I think the only thing that kept me from passing out and hitting the floor was the fact that I wouldn’t be able to do it quietly.
The claws ripped the door open with a yank, and I feared the false panel that separated us would not remain secret for long. A garbled voice from outside called to the Wolf and it pulled away, making a long whoosh that resounded throughout the hallway. The kitchen window shattered and the menacing presence that permeated the house dissipated.
None of us moved or spoke for nearly a half hour. Lyder licked his dry lips and finally stuttered. “T-they said if our government surrendered, that they wouldn’t send the Black Wolves.”
I shook my head. “They’re a bunch of liars who can’t be trusted. Put that in your next radio broadcast.”
Lyder groaned. “I left my radio set out in the forest.”
Kanja cleared her throat. “Is it safe to go outside now?”
“It’s best we stay here a little longer. Just in case.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. My wrists felt slightly numb.
“And you said the Gray Tower trained you?” Lyder threw me a dubious glance.
“Do you want to go fight a half-monster that likes to eat people for lunch? I don’t get into tangles with Wolves unless I have to.” Besides, I was so drained that I didn’t even think I could get up and move, even if I had wanted to.
“What time is your pilot coming to pick you up?” Lyder asked.
“Midnight. I think I’ll be ready by then.”
“I hope we can see you again,” Kanja said with a weak smile.
“I hope so too. Hopefully when we’re not under the threat of a painful death.”
Lyder chuckled. “Fits the job description, doesn’t it?”
“Then maybe I need to find a new job.”
I knew I said that every few weeks, but this time I think I meant it. How many more times would I push my limits and run weak and tired with a bloody nose? Or get trapped in a closet with a Black Wolf sniffing at me? Kanja had no business being my host, but she was the only one who volunteered—and probably the only one left alive.
She looked at me with triumph in her eyes, probably unaware of how close we all were to evisceration. I felt guilty at both having her involved and the prospect of never returning to help. In my heart though, I knew the truth that I’d have to speak aloud when I made it back to Baker Street—I was tired, and at this stage I’d be of use to no one.
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So last Friday, was a bit tense at work over the whole actors signing to do another season. At least it was for me. Even though I tried not to think about it, I couldn’t help but be a little anxious about whether or not I’d have the job after this current season of the show was over. It was pretty much a typical day at the office and looking around you would have never guessed that somewhere, some people where out there deciding our livelihood without us being able to do anything about it.
On the one hand, we’ve been through it before. On the other hand, this somehow seemed a little more tense than prior years.
Sometimes I forgot that it was happening though, so I was mostly fine. It was only when someone came in and asked about it or talked about it, that I started worrying again. Still, I had had a talk with my current director, the day before, who didn’t really seem to think it was a big deal. This helped set my mind at ease at times.
That said, it was a relief to hear that the show was going to go on for another two seasons. It would be VERY nice, if it went on for three more after that. Here’s hoping…
BOOKS
I know I said I’d post some of my wife’s book this week, but I think I’ll wait till next week for that. Especially since, I think the hard copy of the her book will be available for purchase then. This week, I thought I’d talk about a different project…
VIDEO
My friend and co-worker Erick Tran is branching out. Erick has his finger in a LOT of different pies. This time around, he’s trying to raise money to produce a season of his animated cartoon for the web. He’s put all the info on Kickstarter.
If you’ve never heard of Kickstarter, it’s a website that helps you “crowd fund” projects that you would like to get off the ground. The way it works is, you post up a project with a video of what it’s about. Then people support you by donating however amount of money they would like to donate and in return, they get some kind of benefit you provide for helping out. Each Kickstarter project has a goal it’s trying to meet and a deadline to meet it. If the goal isn’t reached, the donators do not get charged for their donation, and therefore they don’t pay. BUT the product doesn’t raise any money and the donators don’t get any benefits either.
Erick‘s goal is $100,000 by Tuesday November 8th. Depending on your donation, you can actually have an Executive Producer title on this cartoon.
Number 10 is DOCTOR RUTH’S GAME OF GOOD SEX and it all goes downhill from there. Check it out for a good laugh.
ART
I started working on my cartoon again. I mostly got time to start actually writing my “script” but I did get some drawing in. I’ve changed enough of the details of my story so that I now have to start doing some new designs of something things. One of them being, one of my Winged Apes. It’s now going to be a Zombie Winged Ape or something that looks much more like a “dead” looking Ape. Here are my first attempts at the design of the face:
I don’t think this is what I want but I think I now know what I DO want.
I’ll have more drawings on my project ready for next week.
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So of the time of this writing, the news broke out about how Fox is asking the actors to take a pay cut. I would like to say that the studio is “all abuzz” with the news, but we’re not. It’s kinda, business as usual. Naturally there’s some tension. We ALL want to keep working on the show. We ALL want to keep our jobs. We ALL want it to continue.
Everyone is keeping an eye on the situation but we know we can’t do much about it. Worrying about it, isn’t going to help. The word around the more optimistic artists at the studio is that things will work themselves out for, at least, two more season. Just so that we could hit season 25 and maybe THEN the show will end. If the show HAS to end, this is what we all hope for. Especially since, if it ends now, this way, the show wouldn’t end on it’s own terms and it would be a pretty lame way for the longest animated TV show to go. We’re hoping that we will get a chance to end this historic show with some dignity.
On her last spy job for the Allies, the wizard Isabella George (codenamed Emelie) must extract a deadly warlock from Nazi occupied France to prevent his alchemical weapon from devouring the continent.
However, a few things stand in her way– betrayal, a vampiric Cruenti warlock bent on draining her powers…and the realization that wizards of the Gray Tower, the very people who trained her, may in fact be her greatest enemy.
I really like what she did here. Here’s how this novel came to be:
I was going home from work when I started thinking about Role Playing games. I had tried, unsuccessfully, to get a play-by-email role playing game going with a few people. They were unsuccessful, for the most part, because I promised people a fun time and then just gave them homework to do, which is not fun. I’d pitch the person how easy and fun the game would be, and how little time it would take to play, only to then throw them in the middle of character creation and world building (which is a lot of work and not fun for many people).
So then I thought, my sister might like to play a game, but having learned my lesson, I wanted to offer her the fun I’d offered others WITHOUT the work. The world building would be done, the character creation would be done and most importantly, the world was catered, inspired, and created for her. I thought long and hard, trying to come up with an original idea that would have the same fantasy elements that she seemed to like (Harry Potter) but which would be as fun and adult as other urban fantasy settings (Jim Butcher‘s Harry Dresden stories). So I started thinking, and I thought about the Dresden books and thought they were cool and fun and they had a wizard in it.
Well, how about if Harry (Dresden not Potter) was a woman? Since my sister is a woman, it would be more comfortable to play one. Well, that didn’t really make things interesting enough. At least, not for me, since I was going to have to develop it. I thought how, when my sister was younger, she really liked spies, so what if the wizard was a spy? That DID make it more interesting but I still though it needed something else. What WOULD make it really interesting for me is if it took place in World War II fighting occult Nazis. Then it’s would have a lot of flavor and it would be fun to play.
Having had that idea, I started trying to come up with a scenario to have my sister play through with this concept. It ended up being too much work for me at the time just for a game, so I thought it would be better to put it off for a while. I never even pitched my sister the idea.
A month or two later I was driving home thinking about stories. This time around, I thought,
“Boy, vampire romances are all the rage right now, even though they’ve been around forever. I wonder what the next big thing will be…Wizard romances?”
That’s when I remembered that wizard thing I had come up with for my sister. What if there was a big underling romantic arch in the story about this female, Wizard, Spy? THAT might be appealing. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Later that day or perhaps a few days after, I told Alesha, that perhaps “Wizard Romance” novels would be the next big rage and pitched her the concept of a World War II female spy, that happened to be a Wizard. She liked the idea so much she said she wanted to write a story about it. Next thing I know, she’s coming up with a plot and started writing the manuscript.
I helped “edit” the book and gave her my two cents but I thought what she came up with was fantastic. The Romance elements are there too. It’s cool. There’s Nazi creatures and vampiric Warlock, double crossing spies, suspense, heists, magical battles and even a sword wielding magical Catholic priest. I’m very proud of what Alesha did here. It was really fun to see this universe come to life in a way I would have never done it and yet it still hits all the things I like in a story. Which is perhaps the best part of all.
It’s ironic that the book wouldn’t have existed if I hadn’t been doing something for my sister that I never did and she never knew I didn’t do it.
I think, next week I’ll start posting up excerpt from the book. If you can’t wait till next week though, go to Amazon and click “Look Inside”. You can read the first three and a half chapters there right now. Or better yet BUY THE BOOK!
I got my Act 4 roughs approved faster than usual. The last of the act was changed, which makes for a much better ending. I got to draw it all from scratch and it was fun. I hope I have more of that sort of thing on my next assignment.
Now all I have to do is have the board cleaned up by the end of the day or perhaps tomorrow morning and I’m done.
ART
Okay, so I finally got the final painting for my wife’s cover done. I thought I’d show you the process since I had the time to scan it all in as I did it.
First thing I did was draw the picture:
I made sure to take my time and to work our some of the planes and rhythms in this stage so I knew it was as good a foundation as I could make for myself. I left all the areas I was going to blacken in with no detail so I get a good impression of what the finished product would look like.
Next, I went in and added the black:
This was fun and I probably could have left it this way without going into it any further. But I did.
I added all the dark and light greys next:
This took a bit of time.
Finally, I added color:
I scanned in the painting and imported it into Photoshop. I then put some red underneath the painting, added some glows to the eyes, added color to the fire and put some alchemical symbols for a tertiary read of the painting. Done
What do I think of the final painting? I’m okay with it but I’m not really proud of it. I see it’s flaws and it didn’t quite come up to the level of my ambition. BUT I’m done, and I’m not going to mess with it.
So, now all I have to do is put the painting into a cover with the title and all for the Kindle and iTunes and I can get back to my “Illustrated Film”.
VIDEO
Marcelo Vignali is one of my favorite artists. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also a really nice guy (I should know since I’ve met him and even had lunch with him). The video below is a great one hour interview with him by Bobby Chiu. I watched it quite a few times since I discovered it, a few years ago and it doesn’t get old. Give it a try:
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Wow, have I been tired. I really should rest more during the weekends. I started on a new episode this week but my energy level has been dragging. I feel so behind. I’ve got a lot to do and my director wants me to be done by today.
I really need to start going to sleep earlier.
ART
I finished up the thumbnail, for my painting. It turned out okay:
I wasn’t happy with the fire so I did it again:
I’m finally ready to start on the finished painting after all this time. I’m tired of working on this piece. I hope in all goes well so I can be done. I’m itching to get back to my cartoon again.
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I managed to finish Act 1 on Monday morning. I’ve been working on Act 2, pretty much for the rest of this week. It wasn’t as heavy a rewrite as act one and I’ll be done by the end of the day today. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on Friday though. I hope I can relax a bit.
FAMILY
Sept. 11th was my wife Alesha’s birthday. So while everyone else in the U.S. is remembering the World Trade Center tragedy, my family is celebrating my wife’s birth.
I GUESS everyone loves Alesha. MAN, we had tons of people come by and to say happy birthday. We knew that some of our family and friends would be coming by. It was going to be nice to have a few people over. Thinking the whole time that it would be maybe two or three people, but no, it was my in-laws and my parents and Alesha’s best friends. Our house got crowded REAL fast. We didn’t expect it.
It was very nice though. Especially since, Alesha can’t really be out of the house while she recovers from her C-section. She was very glad to have the company. She told me she had a good birthday.
Not only that, but many of her family members and friends got to meet baby Luke for the first time.
I was very happy to see that Alesha is so well loved.
VIDEOS
I saw these animated cartoons late last week. They are animated audio recordings of people who are recalling friends and family who died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. It’s so moving. Very powerful stuff to watch. I though I’d share:
I’ve returned to the small rough of the cover I’m working on. Now that I’ve practiced a bit and have a few painting under my belt, I thought it was time to give the cover another shot.
First, I needed to make sure I could paint fire. I took one of the reference pictures I took of a red towel I lit on fire in my back yard, and painted it:
I was mostly concerned with the fire itself and didn’t really try to make the towel look like the towel. I think I got what I needed out of the painting.
Next I transferred my small rough pencils to the type of paper I’m going to use to paint on and I began the painting:
This is the very first pass. I simply put in all the blacks. The next step will be to add in all the dark grays, then the light grays. Once I’m done, I’ll study what I liked and didn’t like about the process. See what I could the better. IF it doesn’t work out, I’ll do yet ANOTHER rough. On the other hand, if I’m happy with it, I’ll finally get started on the final painting.
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Started working on episode 9 this week. I’ve only got four days to work on my sections due to the holiday on Monday. Started this week off under the gun. I’ve been assigned Act 1 and Act 2. The first Act has a pretty heavy rewrites. It’s going to be a tough couple of weeks. Especially since I’m still trying to recover from my very busy weekend.
More on that below.
FAMILY
The kids welcomed their newest little brother, Luke Raphael, this weekend.
This delivery has been the best one we’ve had. Everything went better than expected (as far as health goes). Alesha is doing great but she’s still recovering.
Thursday we asked my parents to help with the kids while we went to the hospital, ten minutes away, for Alesha’s planned C-section at 7:30am. We were instructed to show up at 5:30am, which we did. She had been having contractions since the morning before. The plan was for Alesha to have the baby while I supported her. Then once it was done, I was to go and take care of the kids while my mom went to work, late. I would then drop off Elizabeth at school, and stay with the boys for the rest of the afternoon. Wait for Elizabeth to get out of school, pick her up and take care of the kids the rest of the day. Alesha was suppose to rest at the hospital.
Things went according to plan but not in the way we wanted them to. The C-section started almost an hour late. That started messing things up right away.
They took Alesha in and then ten to fifteen minutes later, I was let in. I took out my iPod Touch because, it and my phone, where the only cameras I had. While I had the iPod Touch out, I played a game of Farkle and rubbed Alesha’s head. Alesha and I were asked a few times if we wanted to have the sheet put down to see what was happening. The answer was, “no” from both of us. It wasn’t too long before we heard the baby cry. I got up, put the iPod on camera mode and shot video and photos. I then shot photos on my phone and sent them to my parents.
They showed Alesha the baby. I held him and then they carted him off to the nursery while Alesha got stitched up. I watched as they examined and warmed up baby Luke and admired him. Soon I became aware of everything else I need to do though.
The clock was ticking and I realized it was almost time for me to take Elizabeth to school. It took a while for the doctor to sew Alesha back up. This meant I couldn’t see her and to give her back her phone and make sure she was okay. Also, I didn’t want my mom to be too late to work. I was very conflicted. Fifteen minutes later, Alesha was in the recovery room and I checked up on her. She was doing good. I gave her her phone and told her I was going to need to go. She gave me a groggy okay and I was off to my car. Meanwhile Tweets and Facebook messages came pouring in. I had sent a Facebook update and Tweeted what was going on while I had been waiting. I had no time to reply, too much to do.
Getting home I thanked my parents and they where off to drop my mom off at her school. Meanwhile, I packed the kids into the car and drove Elizabeth to school. we got there ten minutes late. But it was okay because it was recess. We went back home and I was able to catch a small breather. I put Ambrose down for his nap and called Alesha. I told her I would come by sometime in the morning but in the end I didn’t because I wanted Ambrose to rest a bit more. Meanwhile, Dante played video games and ate apples. I did chores.
Ambrose woke up, we all had lunch and then we went to pick up Elizabeth at school. I thought that it would be nice for us all to go visit Alesha at the hospital. Turns out, it wasn’t such a good idea. We showed up and visited Alesha but the kids where too hyper and crazy. We stayed maybe five to ten minutes and I had to take the kids out of there. I took them home and didn’t see Alesha again till 6pm the next day.
I spent Friday doing all the house chores that needed doing, feeding the kids and taking Elizabeth to school and back. We also went to the store to find paper bags so Elizabeth could finish her paper bag puppet. I spoke to Alesha on the phone and she told me she hadn’t rested. Her milk hadn’t been coming out fast enough and the baby was very upset about not getting enough to eat. She kept him during the night and she had slept very little. The nurses would come in every time she would fall asleep to check up on her and she was signing birth certificates and things while being all doped up. She felt very lonely and I really couldn’t do much about it. My parents went to go see her in the afternoon though, for which I was grateful. The interesting thing was that when the doctor showed up to see her, he had told her that she was doing very well and if she wanted, she might be able to go home Saturday. In the evening when I saw her, she told me this. I stayed with her till 8pm, and then came home, talked to my parents, who where taking care of the kids again. This time at their house. The kids were asleep when I got there. I took them home with me.
Saturday we all got up early, eat and off we went to Monica’s house (Dante’s Godmother), an hour and fifteen minutes away, so they could spent the day and the night with her and her son. Although, I would keep Ambrose with me. About, four hours later, I was back at home with Ambrose, and I fixing him lunch. I also got the house ready for the baby. I was just about to put Ambrose down for his nap (he was very tired) when Alesha told me that she was pretty much getting dismissed. Off Ambrose and I went to pick up Alesha, only to end up waiting for two hours. Ambrose was a handful. Still, just about when I was ready to take Ambrose home, Alesha got dismissed from the hospital and all of us went home. Ambrose was really happy to have a baby sitting next to him in the car.
We spent the rest of the day getting used to having the baby in the house and finding ways to make Alesha as comfortable as possible. Alesha’s parents came soon after we got home and my parents showed up soon after that. I put Ambrose to bed. After everyone left Alesha and I watched an episode of DOCTOR WHO on Netflix. Then we went to bed and slept as good as any parent could with a newborn.
On Sunday, after I cooked breakfast for everyone. I went to Church after putting Ambrose down for his nap. When I came back, I woke Ambrose up and went to pick up the other kids at 1pm. They had a birthday party to go to at 4pm. An hour and fifteen minutes later, Ambrose and I got to the house only to discover that Monica and the kids hadn’t come home from the Fair they were at. They were stuck in a long line waiting for a shuttle to take them to their car. An hour and a half later, they came and we all drove the hour and thirty minutes to the birthday party.
I was really tired at this point. After a few hours of trying to keep an eye on all three kids, who split up and went in three different directions, I finally recruited my parents, who also were at the party, to keep an eye on the eldest two while I took care of Ambrose. We stayed at the party past Ambrose’s bedtime and when I realized this, we said our goodbyes and went home. The kids met their new baby brother once again, but this time in the house. They greeted their mommy happily. I put the kids to bed after giving them a quick bath (they were filthy), and finally got a little bit of rest. My feet were killing me.
Monday (Labor day) we spent the day resting. Well, I tried to anyway. I was doing chores all day though. Laundry, dishes, breakfast, lunch, dinner. I played with the kids. Helped Alesha with the things she needed and took care of the kids when they need taking care of. Carolina, Eduardo (Elizabeth’s Godparents) and the family came over to visit the baby and stayed for about an hour. It was nice to see them. Soon after, I put the kids to bed and was time to rest for me again. I went to bed early that day.
It was a busy busy weekend.
VIDEO/ART
Because I’ve been into painting these last few months, I thought this video of Herman Mejia painting Willem Dafoe’s Portrait in watercolor. Amazing:
I worked Sunday for four hour this weekend. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked twelve hour days. Why? Because I’m not coming into work on Thursday and Friday. I’ll tell you why in a moment.
Since I worked so much early in the week, I managed to get all my work done for the episode I was working on by the end of Tuesday. This left me open to work on yet another episode. Seems there where some new rewrites for episode 500. A few more scenes where added and the director of the show wanted me to take a crack at them. The section seemed simple but it was deceptively hard. I did the most amount of work I could get done in the twelve hours I had. Tough Wednesday.
FAMILY
Why am I not coming into to work today (Thursday, Sep 1st.)? Well, I hadn’t really announced it on this blog. I least I don’t think I have, BUT, my wife Alesha has been pregnant all this time and she’s having the baby today (scheduled C-section).
Today will be the birthday of my son Luke Raphael Escobar! I’m so excited!
ART
I’ve continued to practice my painting these last few days. I’ve made a conscious decision to try to paint slightly more difficult subjects. Subjects whose lighting is a bit more tricky to paint. I was trying to build up to painting a pretty girl.
My first attempt was a painting of Bruce Lee. I picked it because it didn’t really have really black shadows. I was mostly dark grey and light grey tones. I find these types of values much more difficult to control. This is what I ended up with:
Yeah, what’s up with the crazy chin?! Bruce Lee FAIL.
Well, here’s what went wrong: When I was doing the under drawing, I thought that perhaps I’d caricature the drawing, but I didn’t completely commit to the idea and I ended up with a really disproportionate drawing. I didn’t really realize it until it was too late. Serves me right for rushing the preliminary steps.
Unhappy with the result, I tried it again, this time trying to just do a straight drawing with not exaggeration. Once I had that done I thought I’d experiment with the painting approach. Since the reference was mostly dark grey, I thought perhaps I should start by putting the dark grey down first and put the black in after:
I quickly abandoned the painting. I found I couldn’t put in the detail needed in the dark areas because I’d painted over my line drawing with grey. It actually was not very helpful to work this way (that, and the eyes where a bit too far apart).
I went at it again a third time. This time, I tried to get the likeness right and I approached the painting as I had been taught to do. This was the result:
Much better. I could live with it.
Next I tried drawing G.K. Chesterton. Mostly because I really like the guy. The photo I used had a lot of dark grey tones in the face so it was very challenging:
It came out okay but there’s something about it I’m not very happy with. Maybe because I didn’t get the likeness quite right, I don’t know. It’s one of those pieces where my ambition for the painting and what I eventually painted don’t quite match.
The moment of truth arrived. I was going to draw a pretty girl’s face. I looked online for a head shot of a pretty girl that had lighting I thought I could work with. I found one of Keira Knightley I thought would be good and proceeded to paint it:
…and had an EPIC FAIL.
I knew going in that the best approach for painting a pretty girl is, “less is more”. The reference I was using had a lot of light grey tone in it. I had the painting at a certain degree of finish and I though I’d try maybe putting in a little light grey tone. Unfortunately it was a tad too dark and there’s no “undo” button on a practical painting. I tried to “save” the painting by making the dark grey areas darker to make the light grey look lighter. It only made things worse.
Well, having learned from my mistakes I tried it again. This time I took the “less is more” approach:
It turned out okay but somehow I thought it didn’t look finished. I still wanted to add some value to light areas so it didn’t look so washed out. But I didn’t want to screw it up. I scanned the painting so I could at least have a copy of what it looked like before I added the light grey and then went ahead and applied the light grey:
I don’t really think it looks any better. I think it looks worse. Too many brushstrokes. It makes her look old.
Still, I’m learning. I’ll need to practice this some more. I don’t have the hang of this painting thing yet but I’m getting there. Next time I’m going to pre-plan the rhythms on the face a bit better. That way, the strokes I put down better define the planes and aren’t so muddy.
Perhaps, next week, I’ll start working on the roughs for the cover for my wife’s book again.
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Working on a new episode this week. It’s a really good one. Too bad I can’t talk about it since it wasn’t mentioned in The Simpsons Comic Con Panel this year.
This week started off slow because the director of the show was out sick Monday and Tuesday. I got as much done as I could but at some point, I needed the director to look at my roughs in order to get them approved. Luckily he showed up on Wednesday and I got him to approve my roughs. Still, it did put me a bit behind.
ART (Part 1)
I showed my friend and “art Sifu” Paul, my preliminary paintings last week. The ones I posted on last weeks post. He didn’t have anything good to say about my work. He didn’t say anything BAD about it. He just didn’t say anything positive. Instead, he asked me what kind of paper I was using. When I told him it was smooth pastel paper, he asked me why I was painting on it. He then told me that smooth paper is lousy for Gouache painting.
Sigh.
Well I didn’t KNOW that. I was using it because it was tinted. After a long talk about the merits of using rough paper for Gouache he changed the subject to my painting. He basically told me to STOP painting the same thing over and over and try painting something else. That way I could tackle the book cover I’m working on with fresh eyes. Also, I might learn something painting something else that I wouldn’t if I kept painting the same thing over and over.
He told me that I have to work on my planes in my painting. This, to me, is very tricky because I sometime know what that means and sometimes I don’t. He suggested that I should try copying an Andrew Loomis drawing and paint it because he’s so clear about putting in planes in his drawings. He also showed me the work of concept painter Nathan Fowkes by showing me his blog (more about this in Part 2). I went back to the drawing board, determined to work on better paper and clearing up the planes in my paintings.
I had some rough two ply Bristol boards I had bought years ago that I didn’t have a use for and suddenly I did. So I brought them in to work and at lunch I began to paint. I painted an Andrew Loomis drawing like Paul had suggested I should. I put down a wash of gray paint, mixed my paints, and began paint with them. The painting on the right below is the result:
Pretty awful right? I didn’t really know what I did wrong. The one thing I thought didn’t help was that the drawing I was using didn’t have enough detail for me to understand what was happening in the light areas. So I thought I’d use a photo for my next attempt. I did and the result was the awful painting above on the left.
Okay, at that point I was a living ball of frustration. What was I doing wrong? I KNOW the THEORIES behind tones, planes, rhythm, construction, light and shadow. Why couldn’t I apply this to painting? Why couldn’t I paint?
Paul walked into my office just as I sat there looking defeated at the painting above. He kinda looked at my work horrified. He didn’t say anything negative, he just didn’t say anything. So in order to break up the awkward silence, I vented.
He then said this,
“You know, if you mix white Gouache with black Gouache, you get a cool grey.”
WHAT!? I didn’t KNOW that. Usually cool colors are best in shadows not in light. One of the MANY problems with my painting was that I was putting cool colors in the light areas as well as the dark. BAD. It wasn’t until he told me that I saw it. So I turned to him,
“So if I wanted to get a neutral gray, I would need to simply water down the black and NOT mix in any white?”
“Yes.”
“But I put down a gray wash already, how do I get white?”
“Don’t put down a gray wash.” Then he pointed out, “It looks like you’re trying to do a wash AND an opaque styles at the same time. You should pick only one to do. It will be easier for you. On top of that, you picked a pretty girl to paint. Portrait painting is difficult enough as it is, and you’ve picked the most difficult subject to paint on TOP of that difficulty. It’s more difficult to see the planes of the face on a pretty girl. Learn what they look like on a subject you can see them in, then once you’ve GOT IT try painting a pretty girl.”
I had thought that, since the book cover I was going to paint, had a woman in it, I’d try painting a woman. Guess I thought wrong. I knew Paul was right.
Finally, he turned and looked at me,
“You want me to give you a painting demo?”
“PLEASE!”
“Okay,” so he sat down, found a picture to use that was in the office, took the paper I’d been using, my brush, my paint and began to work. “The first critical part of a painting is getting the drawing down right (if you’re doing a drawing in the first place).” He then began to draw, using the same theory of drawing that we’d both been taught in our figure drawing classes. Specifically, our Reilly Method classes (that method is especially good for painting). He made it a point that he was using the pencil to draw the planes of the face. Specifically designing the darkest dark parts of the face. He DID put in a few planes from the dark gray parts of the face, but only in order to define the planes and rhythms that where necessary to clarify the drawing (for more on tone, planes, and rhythms of the face, see Part 2 below). Once he’d had done his careful drawing, he began to paint it.
The first thing he did, was paint the darkest areas of the face. This, to me, seemed very familiar. It looked to me as if he was inking. I do that all the time, so watching him do this, made sense to me. He made sure I noticed that he painted the blacks in, using the planes he had mapped out. Once this was done, the drawing almost looked done. It was very well defined and it was only black and white. He then began applying the paint in the dark gray areas of the drawing and ONLY in the dark gray areas. Again, he followed the planes of the face as well as the rhythms of the face. Then he began to adjust the edges, making some edges softer, firmer or leaving them hard. Finally he began to add the light gray areas. He adjusted more edges and balanced out the lights and darks a bit but he was pretty much done after about thirty minutes:
It was enlightening and annoying. He had shown me how to do a wash but I didn’t WANT to paint with a wash technique. I wanted to learn to paint opaque. He told me that it was much more involved to paint opaque. That I should try a wash technique. Well, I thought it had looked intuitive and easier than how I’d been trying to paint so I agreed to try it.
The next time I sat down to paint, I picked a photo with some good contrast and a subject with plenty of character, so I could see the rhythms and the planes of the face. I did the process exactly as I’d seen Paul do it, and this was the result:
FINALLY a painting that looks okay! And it turned out to be very intuitive to boot. A lot more like what I usually do in a figure drawing class. I’m going to continue practicing the wash technique for the rest of the week and then I’m going to see about finishing up my wife’s book cover.
ART (Part 2)
In what I wrote above, I summed up what happened in a nut shell. There is a lot of things I glossed over. Some of the things I haven’t written about have to do with a LOT of things I was taught in figure drawing classes over the years. While other things I did was look at some work by other artists, like Andrew Loomis (whom I did mention). So just to clarify, I’ll quickly go over somethings that might not have been clear about some drawing techniques Paul and I use. I’ll also point out some great art I was looking at.
First, a quick explanation about what I mean when I write about the “rhythms of the face”. According to the Reilly Method of drawing and painting, the face has rhythm lines that look like this:
This is basically an abstraction of bone, muscle, and planes intended to help artists harmonize and unify drawings or paintings of faces. If you look at Paul and my paintings above, you can see us following the rhythms in the chart.
One of the things I studied were the drawings and paintings of Nathan Fowkes. Below are the specific drawings in his blog that I took a look at and studied in order to wrap my head around how I should use values and facial rhythms. Pay attention to the fact that Fowkes also does the drawings just like Paul painted his painting, starting with the darkest part of the drawing, then working out the dark gray areas, and finally the light gray areas, finishing the drawing by refining his edges. Also notice how he uses the head rhythm abstraction to define his planes:
In case you’re wondering, I’ve written about the use of edges and tone before but for those of you who missed that post CLICK HERE to read about that subject. But in case you don’t want to, here’s the best part of the post:
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
446 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses,59 is rendered as Kyrios, “Lord”. From then on, “Lord” becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel’s God. the New Testament uses this full sense of the title “Lord” both for the Father and – what is new – for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself.60
447 Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a veiled way when he disputes with the Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm 110, but also in an explicit way when he addresses his apostles.61 Throughout his public life, he demonstrated his divine sovereignty by works of power over nature, illnesses, demons, death and sin.
448 Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as “Lord”. This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.62 At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, “Lord” expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.63 In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title becomes adoration: “My Lord and my God!” It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: “It is the Lord!”64
449 By attributing to Jesus the divine title “Lord”, the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the power, honour and glory due to God the Father are due also to Jesus, because “he was in the form of God”,65 and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and exalting him into his glory.66
450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ’s lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not “the Lord”.67 “The Church. . . believes that the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in its Lord and Master.”68
451 Christian prayer is characterized by the title “Lord”, whether in the invitation to prayer (“The Lord be with you”), its conclusion (“through Christ our Lord”) or the exclamation full of trust and hope: Maranatha (“Our Lord, come!”) or Maranatha (“Come, Lord!”) – “Amen Come Lord Jesus!”69
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Luise,
That is a great illustration of the Podcast Expo. Sorry you did not make it to the Mass.
God bless,
Fr. Jay
Just found your page about Italy! Loved it! Lived in Italy a couple of years; just doing a YouTube video about how to get to the Sistine Chapel. Your sketches brought back so many memories (especially the “Metro at Rush Hour” type).
Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments
Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press
Hey! I’ve been trying to call you for a couple weeks! I should have checked your blog sooner. I thought you might have had the baby by now! Congrats! Call me ya bum. My number…unlike yours… is the same xxx-xxx-xxxx.
im doing a piece of it coursework and wondered if i could put your
“computer stoopid” picture on it.
I would acknowledge where it came from beneath it and in the bibliography.
If the answer is yes then could you tell me the artists name too?
thanks. keith.
Sure, absolutely, go right ahead. Thanks for asking.
Hi Luise,
I just came upon your Nephilim skeleton debunking image….very interesting.
I wish we could have met at Comic Con to discuss certain issues. Nothing that
I would want to discuss openly here.
Hope to hear from you,
Den
If you want to discuss something privately, you could always e-mail me. The address is up there under the “Hi, Welcome!” about the top commentators. It’s luis(at)luisescobarblog(dot)com.
Can you give me permission to use one of your illustrations for a tee shirt. I really want to wear “there must be some way to plug this keyboard into this game” – It’s how I see the world.. and you explained everything I want to tell the world in that one illustrzt8ion.
Gina
Yes, Gina. You can make it into a shirt for yourself off of that cartoon. I’m flattered.
I’ve been thinking about making shirts off of my little cartoons but I’m not sure which ones to do. Outside of an occasional cartoon that really hits home for someone, I’m not sure if they would sell.
So go right ahead Gina. Have fun.
Hi Luis,
My name is Phil and I came across your site while looking up information about animation and voice-over work. I’m a huge fan of the Simpsons & Futurama and a big Billy West fan (Ren&Stimpy, Futurama, Ect.). It is truly amazing to me how so many individuals come together to create these animated cartoons and the quality of the end product. I’m curious from your perspective how much work you have to re-do sometimes because of the networks and the way they censor some of the work that is being done. Best of luck to you in your projects. – Phil
You’d be surprised Phil. The biggest censors of the show are the writers themselves. They often pull back a joke they think is going too far. Sometimes, some of the jokes are funny too. It’s the artists that end up complaining about it. For example, there was a joke in one of the Halloween shows that all the artists thought was really funny. It was the show where Homer goes back in time on his toaster. In one of the futures he comes back too, he finds himself married to Patty and Selma. He discovers this when they show up waring lingerie. They looked really nasty, with their flab and hairy legs. When we saw it, everyone roared with horrified laughter. It was crazy. For some reason, during the re-write, they cut the gag because they thought it was too much. It was very disappointing. They didn’t even put the scene as an extra on the DVD.
Hope that answers your question.
It does. Thanks for the reply Luis. That gag actually would have been hilarious! Too bad it didn’t make it. I wonder if some unnecessary second guessing happens though because the writers feel they may be going over the top? (If that’s possible.) I know there is that fine line that writers and creators have to walk probably not only with the content of the show that’s created but with the networks as well. At least from what I understand in reading interviews and seeing convention interviews. Storyboards I think really help to set the tone of an episode and I bet it probably helps to justify many of the ideas that get spun out during the writing sessions of the writers. You all do great work on the show and I’m going to continue reading through your website. Thanks! – Phil
Hello there. I was researching nephilim for a report and I foung your blog. Its too bad those pics were all frauds. If they had been real, it would have been amazing.
After I read your stuff on the pictures I hung around a little, and read your “about me section”.
I am merely curious, so if I overstep a boundary, please feel free to tell me so.
I was wondering, sir, since you state that you are in fact a roman catholic, weather or not you believed in the deity of Jesus Christ?
I myself am a Christian, but I research other religions and alternate sects of my own. You could say its a hobby. In any case, if you find my inquiry impolite, I am sorry. I mean no offense.
Heh, no Christine, your question isn’t impolite. It’s good of you to ask. Too often people just assume things about Catholicism without asking.
The simple answer to your question is, “Yes”. Catholicism, teaches that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
The slightly more involved answer is as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the official book that explains all that the Catholic Church teaches) in paragraphs 446-451 ( http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1H.HTM ) states the following:
Arianism was a Heresy that the Catholic Church fought against that deputed this belief around the years AD 250-336 which concluded in the Council of Nicea. For more info go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm .
Hope that answers your question.
thank you. most people would out-right refuse to answer that question nowadays.
May the Lord bless you, Luis!
Luis – my name is Luis Escobar – every now and then I Google my name just to see what pops up. Well – I often come across you. No doubt – you have discovered me too. Anyway – sure there a ton of our Luis Escobar’s out there but I thought that I would just say hello and let you know that you have a cool name. BTW – I am the third Luis in four! Grandpa, Father, me and my son. Louie’s all around!
HA ha! Yeah, you have a great name too.
Wow! That’s a lot of Luisesesss in your family. Pretty cool. Love your site dude. I’ll link to you.
wow – that was fast – I am a photographer, distance runner and high school cross country coach. I live in Santa Maria California. Married with three kids. Your work is great. You are very skilled. I will take some time and learn a little more about you and your work. Very cool. Well – I am off to a work with one of my running students. I will look forward to talking with you a little more in the future. Luis
Cool. Anytime.
i like simpsons, starting watch becouse my doughter like it
I write comment but strange dropdown
Howdee Luis, if you are a real Christian then i would suggest you to do some research on your big boss (Matt Groening being a 33rd degree mason).
Loads of subliminal messages in the Simpsons, and occult symbolism.
(Even 9-11 was announced).
Greetings…. (Peace be upon you)
I would like to present to you all the sciences related to cosmogony together with its rules as per its identity which is something not similar to any of the other things and is out of any and assimilation according to the following point of view:
1. The theories of on cosmogony lack the fundamentals of the origin of things as they are mainly based on incidence and on the unseen.
2. The cosmic extension that has been taking place is the result of the range of vision through using the telescope and any other instruments because the thing being seen is determined by vision and this is one of the universe laws.
3. Knowing the within secrets of man will uncover secrets of the universe as the apparent entities of existence are of six kinds: the perspective (what is being seen), the tangible world (what can be touched and felt), what can be weighed, what can be heard, things that have flavor and things that have smell. These, in most cases, are overlapping and are counted six in number.
The origin of all entities are bare pictures of materials, void of force and readiness; it shines in debate and is complete when read. The investigation of scientists is restricted to this reading (capability and liability) where the material is with all its atoms, energy and speed and this alone is useless compared with its radiance.
The first cosmic law is that nothing can be determined unless established with what is contrary to it. And things are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract and both are the same according to law.
The origin of radiance is the brain and by saying this I do not mean perception but the simple core of it. By formulating this equation the truth becomes uncovered.
The subject is highly complicated and can only be clarified by word of mouth or by arguments.
So, what do you have to present. (show)
بعد التحية :-
أود أن أعرض عليكم جميع علوم نشأة مفردات الكون وقوانينه وفق ذاتيته التي هي شئ ليس كباقي الأشياء خارجه عن حد التعطيل والتشبيه حسب النظرة التالية :-
1/ أن نظريات نشأة الكون تفتقد لأصول نشأة الأشياء وتحيل على ألصدفه أو الغيب .وكذلك استغراق البحث في الأفاق لم يأتي بغايته إلا بقدر ربطه بالوعي الإنساني.
2/ التوسع الكوني الحاصل هو نتيجة المد البصري من خلال التلسكوب وغيره لأن المنظور أليه يثبت بالبصر وهذا أحد قوانين الكون
3/ معرفة أسرار بطون الإنسان تكشف أسرار الكون حيث أن مفردات الوجود الظاهر على ستة أنواع (المنظور أليها ). (الملموسة). (الموزونة). (المسموعة). (ذات طعم). (ذات رائحة). وتكون في أغلب الأحيان متداخلة .وأصل الأشياء كلها صور عارية عن المواد . خاليه من القوه والاستعداد . بمناظرتها تشرق وبمطالعتها تتم . وبحث العلماء ينحصر في هذه المطالعة (القوه والاستعداد) حيث المادة ودقائقها وطاقتها وسرعتها وهذا وحده لا جدوى منه بقدر إشراقها . . وأصل الإشراق هو العقل ولا أقصد به الإدراك أنما هو )جوهر بسيط درأك محيط) وبتكوين هذه المعادلة تنكشف الحقيقة .
الموضوع غاية بالتعقيد يوضح بالمشافهة والجدل فما هو عرضكم ؟
توضيح:-
* أود أن أبين بأن وسائط الإدراك هي الحواس ألخمسه + تحسس الوزن.
* إما أحوال الإدراك ( تصوراته أي المعاني التي يلبسها ) فهي ستة أيضا ثلاثة وخلافها :-
1/ الحياة والموجود ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحياة هي الماء.
2/ الحركة والسكون ولها صور فمثلا صورة الحركة هي الهواء.
3/ الانفعال والسكينة ولها صور فمثلا صورة الانفعال هي النار.
* إما مراتب نفس الإدراك إي نفس ألصوره فهي خمسه:-
1)الجماد 2) النبات 3) الحيوان 4) الملكوت 5) الإنسان وصور ذلك كثيرة.
*** وكل هذه الصور تندرج ضمن تصورات الإدراك .منها ظاهره ومنها كامنة إي لم تظهر لحد الآن . والتوسع الكوني الحاصل هو ظهور لبعض هذه الصور الكامنة.
*وأروع إبداعات الإدراك هو العقل (جوهر بسيط درأك محيط ) ولكل واحده تفصيلاتها الوظيفية.
ووظيفة العقل هي ربط كل الصور المذكورة أعلاه بعوالمها الحسيه ألسبعه. وعالمنا هو العالم السابع وفق نمطيته الحسيه. وتجري آثار العقل على كل الصور الكونية فتصبح محسوسة وفق قوتها واستعدادها التصوري.
قد لا يفهم الموضوع بشكل جيد كونه لم يطرق بتاتا
Lol been stalking you. You’re pretty good. Not bad for a dad of many. Very talented. Don’t know how you keep up. Chat soon on twitter
An overwhelming desire to keep sane helps.
I’m doing some onsite interviews at Mystic Dragon’s Festival of Books. Would you have time to talk with me about your work and “The Art of Draw Fu”? at 4 pm on August 15th? Please let me know (and your “Black Terror Kid” comics, along with your comic about your trip to Rome, are really fun!).
Yes, absolutely. I’d be happy to.
Great, thank you! Could you email me a contact for you, at the above email link, and I’ll send you more information (and I’m ordering your book now!).