Trick or Treat.

I really wanted to have an update done and ready today. I tried, but I just couldn't make it happen. Stay tuned, though. It shouldn't be much longer.

So, today, in addition to being Halloween, marks the 5th anniversary of the SykoGrafix.com domain name opening up to the public. How about that? I'd say something quaint, like it feels like it was just yesterday, but no, 5 years seems about right. I'm pretty proud that it's lasted this long, since there are so many sites that launch with good ideas and then just sit there stagnant with no activity. The site has grown a lot since it started, and it will continue to evolve, but I think after 5 years and building this much content that it's in a pretty good place.

Enjoy your Halloween, everyone. Ring my doorbell a little bit later. I'll have some new treats ready. Promise.

Sayonara.

More Than Meets my Wallet.

I bought a lot of Transformers this week.



If you haven't heard by now, Toys R Us in Canada is having a sale on the basic sized Transformers Energon and Cybertron figures. They're half price all this week. So I bought... six. Yeah. Six. There's Scattorshot, Overhaul, Clocker, Ransack, Hardtop, and the Minicons.



I was also lucky enough to find a few toys at the usual unlikely special place I often find toys in. They were all at discounted prices. Really happy to get Scorponok, since I've really been wanting to find one at a decent price. Quickstrike is another cool one, a big red helicoptor, and he'll probably end up being one of the rarer pieces from the Energon line. Sixshot, Wing Saber, and Universe Tankor and Obsidian round out the bunch. A lot of swag for not a lot of cash. It's been awhile since I've scored a big haul like this, and the timing was right. I am pleased.

Sayonara.

I Have So Much Usefulness.

Hey, we're still alive over here. Horray! That means that payment for the site has gone through. So this site will be sticking around for at least the next 365 days. For all the good it will do the world. I'm sure you're all thrilled.

Teaching at Comic Book Masters went well this past weekend. Even though the numbers are low, all of the students seem to really want to be there. My beginners group seems quite enthusiastic about drawing, which is great. There's one student that says he doesn't really watch anime, he just likes to draw anime. This doesn't really change the way I'd do anything, but still, one would have to think that is a bit odd. Interesting.

Speaking of things being a bit odd, I noticed traffic coming to this site originating from the Wikipedia entry on Super Sentai! Turns out that someone submitted my "glowing" article about Super Sentai World as an external link. That silly thing I wrote is right there with all the official Japanese websites and places that actually have useful information about this stuff. How about that? BUSHUUUU!

Got this in my guestbook yesterday from "Becca".

omg! that's hawt!! i lurve it!!! huggles to whoever created this!!!

Ha ha, cute. Been a long time since I've specifically gotten any "huggles", so I'll take 'em!

Sayonara.

I'm Working.

Tomorrow I once again start teaching my how to draw anime classes at Comic Book Masters. I'm very happy to say that, in addition to teaching Round 1 like I usually do, I will also be teaching Round 4. This is pretty exciting because it I've only taught Round 4 once, and that was a few years ago. I honestly believe that it's some of the best stuff I've ever come up with. The numbers for both of these classes are very small though, which is disappointing. For some reason, the word is just not getting out there. So, on the chance that there's anyone in the York Region area reading this, if you're a brand new student or a former experienced ninja of mine, there is still time to join if you're interested. I'm just glad that both classes are running right now.

Yesterday, the local newspaper had an article about anime, and my boss David Bluestein was interviewed for it. He talked about how popular our anime classes have been over the past 5 years. I just told him that I saw the article and he said that when he was interviewed he talked about me, and how I am an "anime guru" (his words, not mine), but all of that got cut from the article! Drat. Oh well. One day, I'm going to be in the newspaper. This is a goal of mine. Mark my words, it will happen. And then, all of the people will be stampeding over each other just for a chance to sign up as one of my minions.

Just a quick heads up: This website may go down this weekend. It shouldn't, but in case it does, I'll take care of it as soon as I can.

Sayonara.

Anime is Illegal in Canada!

This is pretty damn funny.

Isn't mainstream journalism just so totally awesome? Who needs important things like "facts" when we can have broad, generalizing statements of dubious accuracy?

Sayonara.

Bat Disks.

Batman is pretty cool. I like Batman well enough. I didn't like him when I was a kid, but when the Animated Series came around I changed my tune. This I am not ashamed to say. So, I thought that Batman Begins was a great movie. It's coming out on DVD this week and I will likely own it at some point.

But also coming out on DVD are brand new releases for the other Batman movies. Do I really want these? I don't know. I honestly don't know. I don't really like them. Any of them. I mean, everyone knows that Batman and Robin is just god-awful and I really don't want to talk about why because I'll just keep going and get all riled up. But even the first one I don't really like that much. I mean, it's pretty good for what it is and what it was at the time, but it didn't really do all that much for me. Even watching it in recent years after developing more of an appreciation for both Tim Burton's cinema and the character of Batman, I still don't like that movie very much. I was never fond of the idea of The Joker being the killer of the Waynes, so I can't get past that and the movie didn't excite me otherwise. Batman Returns is a bit more interesting to me, but only because it has this weird quirky style to it. But it still didn't grab me. Batman Forever is just a bizarre mess. Batman and Robin is truly terrible, but at least it had some potential to be a somewhat decent film if more people had cared about making it into one (which is the major reason why I hate the movie so). Batman Forever is just a neon train wreck, and I find very little potential there and very little to like about it. I just can't believe that some of the decisions made in that film were made while thinking that people would find them exciting.

So, even though I like Batman, the choice of not buying these new DVDs should be obvious, right? Well, it's not, because these DVDs look like they are going to be incredible. They're just loaded with special features relating to the several aspects of the films and the character, and I think I'd really like to watch those. Plus, they each have director's commentary, which I bet will be absolutely fascinating to listen to. I am not comfortable with the idea of owning a DVD copy of Batman and Robin, the film that I probably hate more than any other film in the world. But listening to Joel Schumacher attempt to explain what the hell he was thinking when he made that piece of junk? That seems very entertaining.

So, I don't know. I'm certainly not going to rush out and spend money on this DVD set on my own. Or at least not right away. But, if someone were to make the mistake of thinking that I liked these movies and buy them for me, I'd probably keep them. My standards for what I'd put on my shelves are pretty low. I own lots of crap on DVD.

Besides, it doesn't really matter. I've already got the best Batman movie on DVD. This one.

Sayonara.

Nope. Not this time.

You know, I've probably got enough new content ready to go right now that I could probably update this website today if I wanted to.

But I don't really feel like it.

I think I'll take a nap instead.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Sayonara.

Who's the Smartest Shark in Town?

Transformers World 2005 recently held an art contest about Super Deformed Transformers. The winning entry would be sculpted into a fully licensed statue by First 4 Figures. Of course, I had to enter this, and what better character to use for such a contest than Skybyte, the poetry loving Predacon shark?

Well, out of more than 50 entries, my SD Skybyte placed in the top 10. Yeah! It won't be made into a statue, but I do win a poster with artwork of all the top 10 entries. Not too shabby. In fact, aside from an Armada Unicron entry, mine was the only one in the top ten that wasn't a character from Generation 1. There are some really fantastic pieces of artwork entered for this contest that are both in and out of the top 10, so go ahead and check them out in the TFW2005 Contest Entry gallery.

I'll be adding my Skybyte entry to the Fan Art Gallery next time I update, and I might just add some extra content with it, so look forward to that.

Tsunami Blaster!

Sayonara.

Out-Numbered, Out-Monstered, Out-Done.

Yeah!
..
.....
YEAH!!!
......
........
YEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!
.........
..........
FINAL WARS!!!!!!!!!!
Coming to R1 DVD December 13th.
..
...
Yeah!

Sayonara.

A Life Full of Texture.

Wow, I'm, like, really messed up right now due to lack of sleep. I only got 3 hours and that seems like a long time ago. It's not even like I was busy or anything, I just decided not to go to sleep for awhile. Not really an intelligent decision, but I usually don't make very many intelligent decisions when I'm this tired. In fact, I should be going to sleep right now, but instead I decided to post in this weblog. So, yeah, there you have it.

I'm actually doing ok. I seem fairly wide awake. I probably could have stayed awake for much longer before I took that 3 hour nap, and I probably could stay awake for much longer right now too. But at this point a feel a bit of a fog around my brain as my short term memory goes down the tubes and my level of alertness is shot. I don't have the firmest grasp of where I am and what I am doing beyond whatever it is that happens to be directly in front of my face at any given time in this sort of situation. But I seem articulate enough to type that last sentence, so I think that is a good sign. At times like this I usually tend to start thinking about bizarre things of inhuman origin that don't make any sense, but I took a break to watch an episode of this anime about a girl who transforms into a super hero pig, so there's really no need to hallucinate right now. It's strangely comforting.

What could keep me awake like this? Textures. Yeah, that's right. Textures. I've been downloading pictures of textures to use in my artwork. You know, stone, wood, bricks, that sort of stuff. I just love textures. I've spent the better part of the past 3 nights just downloading textures from all sorts of places on the Internet so that I have an extensive library of images at my fingertips whenever I feel like integrating some into a drawing or using one as some artistic inspiration.

For a recent example of using textures, take a look at this Skeletor drawing. The cracked background is actually originally from a photograph of dried mud. That's a very simple and straightforward way to incorporate texture. I used a cloth texture in my Splinter vs. Shredder drawing for Splinter's robe, and I also took pictures of some well used cookie sheets to add some of the metallic texture to Shredder's armor. Those are just some of the creative things that can be done with using textures in digital art. I could go into some more in depth explanations in my message board if anyone expresses an interest.

I've got all sorts of textures now, and I'm still looking for more. The weirder, grosser, and nastier they are the better, as far as I'm concerned. I especially like textures of rotten food. Right now I'm up to 3 gigabytes of textures, and I don't think I'll be stopping any time soon. I'm just addicted to them. Even though it's highly unlikely that I'll actually end up using them all, I don't think I'll ever have enough. I keep finding more and I have to stop to get them all. Seriously, one can never have too many pictures of concrete. I can't help myself. I just find them so exhilarating.

No wonder I don't sleep. I'm just messed up all around.

Sayonara.

Hey, it's October.

Yeah, how about that. I like October well enough. It's usually pretty good.

I'm not putting up the Hallowe'en decorations again this year. I'm working on... something else. So I might have an update ready this month, but I might not. I do not know.

So just go ahead and look at this instead. It's pretty much the same thing.

Sayonara.