Christmas Cards Continued!

I  still have 9 more to do, but I don't in case my Christmas get crazy and I forget to update...

Christmas Cards!

So as a penniless artist, my friends and family have come to accept artwork in the pace of original gifts. I have decided this year to make digital Christmas cards as it would help me work on my Photoshop skills and sending something via email is cheaper than regular mail. With 14 left to do as of now I thought I'd share my progress:


My only trouble is coming up with something different for each person, ideally i get done 2 a day, which leaves enough time for me to get them all done without worry.

Recently Watched:
- anime Un-Go (I liked it)
- The Daily Show
- The Hobbit

What I'm thinking:
"Does this work as their card? ... sure...yes...yes it does."

Self-Body Alteration

Let me preface this with saying a few things. Firstly, I think girls with piercings and tattoos are kind of hot, that said there is a thing to be said for overdoing it. I do applaud those who have skin conditions that use tattoos as a solution to their problem.

Anyway, to my knowledge there are three major alterations one can do to oneself:

1)   Tattoos

2)   Piercings

3)   Hair Style

I am not including make-up or contacts for the simple reason that make-up is very temporary and can require constant care. Contacts also require a bit more care than hair (I know it is depending upon style, but I’ll elaborate further on). I feel that with make-up and contacts, it is not as permanent.

So hair, hair is the one of the three I’ve done…twice. When I was a freshmen I bleached half my head, and recently I gave myself a Mohawk…for Thanksgiving. I view it as the safest, easiest to do, and it can last fairly long depending on style. You can go hardcore with coloring your hair and have it last months, or get some temporary store colors that will last only a few days. Some hairstyles do require more maintenance than others (such as need for gel or spray) but even if you don’t bother too much, some styles are adaptable. Example: my Mohawk, even though I don’t gel it everyday (or…actually at all) it doesn’t change the fact that there is a strip of hair down the middle of my head that is more predominate than the sides. (Though now that I think about it, my Mohawk maybe more of a fohawk, but its still a derivative and in a few months I’ll need to cut my hair again so it rally doesn’t matter.) Finally, even a basic hair cut falls under this type of alteration. I know we usually don’t consider it as an expression unless it has color or some unique twirl or whatever, but all things being equal we all choose which way we want our hair done.

Now to piercings, I must admit to not having one, and while having friends that have them, it’s not that same. I have been thinking about piercings though, but whenever I look in the mirror and visualize it I just can’t imagine one that would work well for me. From talking with those who have various piercings, they are, while not as temporary as hair, can heal up. The time it takes one to heal is dependent upon the type of piercing. As far I know almost every part of the body can be pierced (the image of a person with “natural” chainmail armor, or something like a Kyton) with regards to places that ether don’t make any sense or that are too close to critical blood veins.

Finally tattoos, like piercings, I’ve considered “getting ink done” but they are with you forever. They also don’t take any upkeep after the first few days of getting then (letting them dry/heal, etc.) I’ve hung out with people who have tattoos with no reason, meaning, or story for it and those that do have a story for each one. If I did get one it would be the Blue Lantern symbol (it is supposed to represent the emotion of hope), my only reason for it is that, I like to think of myself as a hopeful person and believe the best in others even though that is a pretty naive stance to take. I don’t know where I’d put it, and I’m not sure if that’s a good enough reason for me to commit to one. While, in artistry I flip between: why do you need a pretentious sounding reason to justify your work? To: Is that the only reason you wanted to make this? I do regard tattoos as something you should have a good reason for, if only because your going to get questions on it for the rest of your life…unless you pay for the removal.

Once again I’d like to remind ye, that this is all based on my own ignorance and thoughts.

Podcasts I like to listen too:

The Nerdist

Smartest Man in the World (Greg Proops) – was listening to this one while typing

SModcast

The Morning Stream

What I’m Up To:

Making Christmas Cards

Working on a T-shirt design

Crashes and D&D

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So first thing first, I’m sorry that I didn’t update last week. Just as I got home from Thanksgiving vacation my hard drive crashed. Luckily I have friends among more tech savvy people and they were able to get me up and running in just a short time. The fix is also an upgrade actually, from 320GB to 500GB.

Anyway, Dungeons and Dragons… I got into D&D (version 3.5) during college, and I could honestly say that most of my friends here I met via joining D&D games with people I already knew. Now, I’ve played version 4 and my group on Sunday nights is doing the play test for the new version, but mostly many of my friends prefer 3.5. Besides ye olde D&D, I play Serenity (which I think goes by Cortex now I think), Mutants and Masterminds, and I’ve tried Warhammer 40k (which…I’m not totally sold on the system).

I’ve Dungeon Mastered a few games myself too, mainly Mutants and Masterminds as I was the most into comic books with my old group. But the style of DMing I grew around was that of story telling. Now, I known some prefer dungeon crawls, and I’ve heard others like to go by a hardcore old school style. I’m used to having a world and a goal that unfolds like a story. I feel that it pushes people to engage in role-play as characters to flush out the world around them. The more they role-play and grow their character the more that side missions and task can be altered to ensure a more rewarding experience. At times, as a DM, I’ve made decisions to keep my players alive and in the story (like, not sending another wave of enemies or ignoring some creature abilities to keep them relatively even).

With dungeon crawling, well its good practice. I find it useful for experimenting with new classes and techniques that you might not, but with no real goal or character investment there seems hardly to be a point to rping. I hesitate the same about the hardcore style but only for the reason I could say is that, with the more hardcore play where traps are a plenty and saving throws are few, rerolling a character every few sessions could nip it in the butt. Then again really experienced and talented player maybe able get over the crutch.

As a side note, when I play with my friends online we use Google hangout, but we might try Roll20 (http://roll20.net/) as I’ve heard some good things.

What Am I Thinking:

“I need to get to work on making my Christmas gifts…”

What I Am Doing:

Watching Firefly

A respect for "Gungnam Style" bu PSY

I like “Gungnam Style” by PSY. Not for the ridiculous music video. Not for the irony that song itself is supposedly a joke commenting on a part of society, or the fact that that song blew up in the US when other artist have tried with more serious endeavors. No, I like and respect it because it played on the radio. That may seem simple and a bit stupid but there is a meaning beneath the surface.

Let me first preference that with some background information so you know where this point of view is coming from. I grew up abroad; it is simpler for me to say I am a military brat even though that is not completely accurate. I’ve been in international schools since middle school. Starting at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, then the American Cooperative School in La Paz, a year back in the states at Wakefield High School in Arlington, and I graduated in Guangzhou China at American International School of Guangzhou.

As such I grew up around radio stations of extremely varying taste. The constant however was the sound of American or similar music. Popular international radio stations would play music that one would expect for an American station to play. In other words: what was popular in the US was popular everywhere else.

A side note to that is…well sometimes I’d hear a song and think it’s a new release from the states only to Google it at home and find that it was a release from twenty to thirty years ago that just doesn’t get any airtime in the states. So I guess the infectious culture is good in some ways.

“Gungnam Style” got played on my radio at work twice (that I’ve heard) and my friends have heard if a few times as well on different radio stations. Its not the first time someone not from the US has got play time on the radio, I mean I hear an Adele song at least five times a day (there are some who still don’t know Adele is English). However, I feel (and I am possibly horribly wrong) that most music that gets played on the radio in the US ether follows or is altered to follow a certain criteria at times.

“Gungnam Style” (to my knowledge) has not been altered for US radio. An example of music changed for the audience (though to reach more people than anything else) would be that of TaTu who had two versions of their songs “Not Gonna’ Get Us” and “All The Things She Said”, one English and one in their native Russian. There is only one version of “Gungnam Stlye” (not counting house remixes, because there is probably a house or techno remix for every song).

I guess the short of it all is, while English speaking music for a while now has permeated the radio waves world-wide, and one the main sources of it (The US) has only in limited seemingly superficial amounts let the same amount of influence in that wasn’t English or Canadian. So the fact that “Gungnam Style” seemed to make it onto the radio and not carry with it an alteration to make it more accessible for the US. Then again, this could all be a matter of how the Internet is changing things and I’m just super amazed about it all.

Side Note: I may indeed just be ignorant.

My Top 5 most played songs:

1. "Panic Switch" by Silversun Pickups
2. "Too Close" by Alex Clare
3. "The Lighthouse's Tale" by Nickle Creek
4. "Hats Off To The Bull" by Chevelle
5. "Do It Anyway" by Ben Folds Five

What I'm Thinking:
I wonder how much actual work I'll get done when visiting my family versus how much I think I'll get done.

Some work done

Avatars (Thumbnails):


Once I get a scanner I won't have to mess with color balance in terms of lighting. It kinda' upsets me that the shade and tone is inconsistent between them. I do wonder however, how much of it is really and issue of lighting versus and issue of me wanting to get the project out.
Speaking of consistency, I decided to try to post an update here every Tuesday. That gives me proper time to ether write out a rant, get new material, or decide to be lazy and put up old work.

What I'm thinking:
Given the Swamp Ass and Swamp Thing are totally different things. If spoken about in the context of Swamp Ass, is Swamp Thing then a reference for poop?

Introduction

Hello, I am Ryan Page. I am an illustrator, animator, and writer. I tend over-think things quiet a bit, so besides using this as a place to showcase my work, it will also serve to hold my mind-farts. I guess the end goal is to become a better writer in that sense and to get more notice as an artist in any other. I also am terrible at spelling and grammar, just in case you want to start counting errors. To make that last sentence sound more interesting, read it over in the voice of Foghorn Leghorn.

So first, here is my animation reel:

Student Reel from Ryan Page on Vimeo.

It is pretty much my college reel. Recently I have been pushing myself back into the swing of animation, and next year I hope to have about 10 minutes of new material to add or replace it with. The song used for it is "Get Happy".

Current projects:
A short story using the mistaken identity gimmick.
A digital puppet animation (I really just need to finish the background and start animating).
Illustrations (making avatars for some games peoples)

What I'm thinking:
I wonder if I should continue to watch Star Trek Voyager or if I should watch The Walking Dead as I work tonight.