Tegelane

Tried to draw my version of the character called "The Evangelist", using one online application, but it was a pain in the ass to use and the picture didn't turn out that well. Here's the sketch of her on plain paper:

Väike novembriõhtune koosjoonistamine

Drawing together on snowy Friday night...

Lumisel ja pimedal novembriõhtul viskas seltskond Joonistajad koos blogiga seotud inimesi hetkeks muud tegemised nurka, istus Kalamajas maha ja joonistas veidi. Saatjaks vahelduva intensiivsusega jutuvada ning Elina kook ja kaeraküpsised. Inimesi oli kokku kohal kuus, neist üks tegi fotokaga hämaraid klõpse, teine tegeles oma kolmandal elukuul vaikse maailmaavastamisega, ülejäänud neli - Elina, Anni, Meelis ja Joonas - jäid ka pildile.



Proovisime väljakäidud teemadel midagi 5 + 5 minutiga paberile saada, viis siis joonistamiseks ja viis vaikseks viimistlemiseks. Tundus päris hea meetod, igatahes kõigil meil tekkis paberile mitu pilti ja tarvitatud teemasid on kindel plaan peagi pildiblogis ära kasutada.

Loodetavasti teine kordki!

Like Christmas in November

Five packets from Amazon on the same day!... With a lot of snow outside and a day off.

Link to non-Estonians - a lip-sync version of the song "Rapunzel" by Lenna, it was hair away from going to Eurovision Song Contest to represent Estonia in 2010.

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 11

So, this Hellboy bust is more or less ready, and that should be good enough for now. (Reason - deadline of the small sculpting competition.) I'll be back to it later to make some clean-up, repairs and corrections. Hellboy is ok, base is ok, but Corpse has some cracks. I should re-sculpt both of his hands - the muscles are pretty primitive and anatomically not that correct. Also, the interaction with palm and collar is not the best, this needs some tuning too. So, basically I will go over the whole Corpse from the neck down. But not on the next days - now I want to rest and to do something completely different, like reading or drawing or watching something good. Enough of all this clay for now.



Hm... I can turn this Hellboy to anything, replace the Corpse with whatever I want. Like I could add Santa's hat and bag... Just a thought, in middle of the snowy night. And not that serious one... :-)

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 10

I think I made my personal sculpting record this weekend. Regardless, that full Saturday went for this Estonian-Finnish comics exhibition, I was posting pictures last night. I started on Sunday 1 p.m. and sat by my table practically non stop to 3:50 a.m. It makes... almost 15 hours? Of course it was not only sculpting - also some eating here, plus net, tv and radio from computer in fromt of me, including all 3 episodes of "Rude Britain" documentary.

Results - I made the whole base today from start to finish. Plus baked Corpse's body and one hand and worked on some other details. What is still left, are right hand and rope. Then it is more or less ready. Should really go and take it out of oven... and to go to sleep.

I tried to register to this ConceptArt forum contest, if it works, then I have two days to finish the bust and to take all the needed photos.

I think I will make some little changes later (Corpse's anatomy is not the best), but for now the goal is just to get the whole thing together as fast as possible. Still, with all the flaws I must say I'm pretty happy. Even the base turned out quite cool. Photo tomorrow... Maybe.

(I really want to draw something, read some books or do whatever but sculpting now...)

FINEST Koomiksipäev

Pildikesi Eesti-Soome-Ungari koomiksinäituse avamiselt Solarise-nimelise ostukeskuse fuajees.

Anni Mäger

Joonas Sildre

Elina Sildre

Karri Laitinen

Lilli-Krõõt Repnau

***

Comics Battle

Laika Virgin

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 09

What's new? Cut off the right ear of the Corpse and removed it, did some drilling for deeper eyesockets. (Baked the head earlier today. Or yesterday, if I look at the clock.) Also, now there's hole for square plug in Hellboy to fix the Corpse to his back. For this I sculpted and baked the flat area on Corpse's stomach, so he could cling on Hellboy. Shoulders are on different position too. Finally I can see how they will fit together and I like the pose! They work pretty well together. Oh, and another thing - tilted the whole Hellboy to his left shoulder, so the line where Hellboy ends and "stone" base starts will be not horizontal. And probably not that straight.


Tomorrow: neck muscles and shoulders. I made myself a reference collage of the best comic panels from "The Corpse", so I don't need to flip the pages to go from one image to another.

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 08

So, Hellboy is ready. It still may need some tweaks here and there, but I think it can fool everybody but myself. That should be good enough for the moment, as I'd like the whole thing to be "ready" in exactly one week time. We'll see...

When it's time to make the base, I will trim the bottom of the bust part (it is - Hellboy's coat) to be at the same height.

I wasn't sure I could fit B.P.R.D. logo to his sleeve, as it should actually be more down there and I didn't want to cut through it. But then I cheated a little, as it looks cool and makes the whole sculpt more interesting.

Now, when I have my Hellboy, I can fine tune the position of the Corpse. His right hand will touch the coat, so I hope I don't need to re-shape it too drastically, I tried to guess where the hand will be... Corpse's head is not baked, but is almost there. I need to make "mock-up belly", so I could fix the two figures together. Then I'll move the head and elbows around to the final positions. And then, before the hands, I'll try to make the body. It will not be easy, as I really don't know how to sculpt back (or should the right word be dorsum?...) muscles. Still, I hope I could make something remotely decent. And a little bit rotten.

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 07

That's how the bust looks at the moment. Next the back of the coat, this will define Hellboy's tilted pose. And then, I think, head of the Corpse.

This light grey is my own mix of 1/2 of 250 g opaque white Cernit block with 2/16 of 100 g black Cernit block.

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 06

After spending most of my two days off *desperately* trying to get ATI drivers and Catalyst Control Center of the new video card installed without error messages and to work with my Blu-ray drive (with no success), I ended up finally sculpting some...

[It's crazy when something that worked with older video card just cant stop stuttering and can't play the disks I was watching without a problem some time ago. That "something" is PowerDVD I got with my drive. I f***ing hate it! I want my days back!]

It's 3:41 at night and Hellboy is in the oven. So - head and chest should be ready! Now I'll make the back part of the coat, so I could see how exactly will the Corpse be positioned. There will be a square plug to fix them together (and probably second one to fix the right palm to the coat). Front part of the coat will be more complicated to make, as it must react to the hand somehow.

I think the base will be pretty rough or I just run out of time. Some crumbled headstones, probably.

***

Half an hour later -
Hellboy is out of oven. This is my third Hellboy, and although the best one is still the smallest - Mignola's recent style is just much better for sculpting - this new one is also pretty cool.

Actually, the best reference for me and for making clay Hellboys is... my own first bust. It's just that when I was sculpting it, I studied so much of all the pictures, angles, details, it's just doesn't make sense to start it all over. Mignola was drawing several details radically different on different images, so there really isn't the one look for H. Like hair - they grow literally in 90 degrees different direction. If he draws them at all, as some details are always in shadows.

Also, when making this one I realized, that I don't like that much how Mignola draws Hellboy in those early stories. His skull is just GIANT, nose is very small, separate hair everywhere... So I am taking some liberties with this. Like Mignola himself, with his later cover for The Corpse.

Now I should post some images... but I'm not, as it is really late and in 7 hours I'd like to be on screening for Unstoppable (Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine).

PS: the eye-to-mouth distance is exactly the same as on Bowen's Abe bust, so even Hellboy's head is bigger and the mouth is open, they should fit together pretty well.

Hellboy The Corpse bust - 05

It may not look this way on the photos, but Hellboy's second sculpting session today was pretty successful. I'm happy how it turns out so far. The final size will be a couple of centimeters less than the "dummy" armature. Hellboy with the base will be more or less 14 cm high, Corpse will add some to the final composition. I think it will fit well with older Abe and Liz busts.

I will finish the head, chest and top part of the collar first, bake the whole thing and than add the coat and the rest of the collar. They will interact with Corpse, so I need to know the exact pose of it; also this way I can hold the statue at my hand, without constantly worring of destroying some of the finished parts.

Now, Corpse - rough armature is there, I even tried to use the copper tubes I got last week for plugs. Now I will add the rough clay layer, fix the pose of the hands and then I should try to make the creepiest clay face I've ever done.

So far so good! I'm even enjoying the process... :-)

Blacksad

"Blacksad" on Hispaania autorite Juan Diaz Canales ja Juanjo Guarnido koomiksisari, mille peategelaseks samanimeline detektiiv, süžeedeks film noir'likud krimilood ja toimumisajaks USA hilised viiekümnendad. Teistest samalaadsetest eristab seda asjaolu, et John Blacksad on mustanahaline kass ja ka kõik teised tegelased on antropomorfsed elukad.

See annab võimaluse niigi klišeedest küllastunud žanrile lisada veel ühe, mis muistenditest ja muinasjuttudest tuttav. Ehk siis - enamus elukaid on tegelikult just need, keda võiks arvata - sisalik või gaavial on mingi salakaval hitman, saksa lambakoer poliitmängude räpasuses pettunud õilsahingeline politseiülem, valget karva loomad rassistid jne, you got the point. Vahel on see huvitav, vahel liiga triviaalne. Ka lugu ise liipab kohati tiba liiga suurte sammudega edasi, tekitades tunde, et järeldused tekivad nagu natuke liiga õhust. Aga see on ilmselt ju kogu žanrile omane. Ja lisaks on kogu sari nii superhästi ja ülidetailselt paberile pandud, et tervikule on väga-väga raske üldse midagi ette heita.

Visuaalselt on asi tõepolest ikka ülima meisterlikkusega üles joonistatud. Tasub või vaadata kaadreid, kus sarja esimeses albumis Blacksad surnuaias korraliku koslepi saab. See, kuidas kaadrid on kadreeritud ning kus ja millised just on paistvad gootilikud hauasambad, on ikka päris-päris hästi õmmeldud.

Ma ise lugesin neid albumeid vales järjekorras - sain esimese osa alles hiljaaegu ja äsjailmunud neljanda nädal tagasi. See aga ei olegi oluline, sest lood on kõik eraldiseisvad ja kannatavad ka ükshaaval lugeda. Esimeses osas uurib Blacksad oma kunagise kallima, litsaka kinonäitlejanna surma; teises on tegu rassismiga; kolmandas tuumasaladuste punasele poolele sahkerdamisega ning neljandas New Orleansi, jazzmuusika ja kuritegeliku ravimiäri tagajärgedega.

Isiklikult tundub takkajärgi, et ehk on kõige nõrgem just too rassismilugu. Aga tegelikult on nad kõik ikkagi omasuguste seas üsna tähelepanuväärsed, ega's muidu pole sarja korduvalt Angoulêmes auhinna vääriliseks peetud.

Soomes on ilmunud kõik neli albumit, mina olengi lugenud just põhjanaabrite tõlkeid. USA Dark Horse andis kolm esimest ühtede kõvade kaante vahel välja, kuid kuna formaat on väiksem kui originaalis, suhtun ma sellesse raamatusse mõningase eelarvamusega - kuigi tavaliselt mulle väiksem formaat istub, siis Guarnido ülidetailseid akvarelle tuleb küll just võimalikult suurena endasse imeda.

Sarjast on ilmunud ka mitu taustu avavat köidet. Näiteks paar raamatutäit akvarellvisandeid, uusima albumi seesugune "L'histoire des aquarelles" ilmub novembris 2010. Ülaloleval pildil on näha USA-s ilmunud esimese albumi aegne pehmekaaneline artbook, see kirjastus on nüüdseks kadunud ja raamat ise üliharuldane. Samal pildil paremal on Guarnido Comix Buro sketchbook, mille tiraaži algusots ka signeeritud, minu oma kannab numbrit 134/900.

Sügisene koomiksinäitus #1

This post is about Estonian children's comics exhibition in Tallinn.

Tallinna Lastekirjanduse Keskuses avati 1. novembril käesoleva sügise üks kahest kohalikust koomiksinäitusest. Sellel väljapanekul on osalemas 14 autorit, teemaks asukohale kohaselt lastele joonistatud koomiksid. Kuigi ma pole kindel, kas kõik nähtav ikka päris selle sildi alla sobiks. Ja kas päris kõik nähtav üleüldse on koomiks.

Toatäis piiluparte koomiksijuttu kuulamas

Maja ise ja asukoht on muidugi super, lisaks näitusele näeb seal hetkel ka mängukarusid ja kogu alalisemat väljapanekut, Edgar Valteri originaale näiteks.

Millest ma ise alati kohalikke koomiksinäituseid ja -väljaandeid vaadates tõsist puudust tunnen, on puhas, varjamatu ja korralik kommerts. Vägisi kipub kohalik üldpilt selliseks artsy-fartsyks, kus autor oma üüratus sisekosmoses urgitsedes suurt ei huvitu, kas keegi teine sellest ka midagi mõikab. Ja veel vähem, kas keegi selle eest ka omaenda raha välja käiks, olgu siis ostja või kirjastajana. Millest on kahju, sest isegi kui koomiksid kõrvale jätta, siis lastesõbralikke raamatuid, mille pildid poleks lihtsalt veidrad vaid oleks heas mõttes kiiksuga, ei tule siinmaal ka just ülearu sageli ette. Kuigi huvitavaid illustraatoreid on siiski rohkem kui koomiksitegijaid.

Aga, nagu öeldud, tuleb Tallinnas lähiajal veel teinegi koomiksinäitus, see suisa rahvusvaheline.