JB Stencil (If You Cry, I Can't Give You Your Milk)

BIRDKILLER (Finished)

This'll do for this one, I reckon. I'd like to try make a frame for it, but I don't think there's really too much more I can do for it. I don't have the skill to work with the materials I have to do finer detail, so time to walk away from it.

"B I R D K I L L E R" (detail)

The Eye (Work In Progress)

This is a new piece I started yesterday. Someone had thrown out a couple of paintings at work, basically the orange and splotchy squares you can see, plus some wallpaper glued to it. I took the wallpaper off and just used what was left as my blank canvas, unfortunately the glue is still left behind, as you can see. Not sure yet if I'm going to try paint over it, try match the orange, or just leave it as an element on the canvas. I wanted to try paint something larger, to work as an exercise in detail and make it easier for that. I'm happy with how it's started, but not sure if I'll be happy with my technical skill at the end of the journey. Also considering whether I'll be putting other elements in it, maybe a cosmonaut in the left hand corner. We'll see.

Images From Last Week

I like to check out a few websites throughout the week, and so I decided to try regularly share with you my favourite images from the previous week.

These first two I saw at OMGPosters.

"Melancholia" Poster by Tomer Hanuka

 "Phenomena" Poster byMelleus

This Batman picture by Raphael Grampa, the source wasn't given, and I haven't done a check to try find it, but I assume it was on his own blog or website. I think I saw it on iFanboy.

 Batman by Rafael Grampa

I came across this when I did an image search for bird skulls for reference. It's an artist named Kitty Valentine, and she does painting over vintage photos. She had some other cool images as well, so check her out sometime.

 "Bird Skull Family" by Kitty Valentine

These next couple I saw at Bleeding Cool. They were just highlighting this artist named Igor Keiryluk who did some cool alternate Batman type characters.

 "Batman 1459" by Igor Kieryluk

 "Joker 1459" by Igor Kieryluk

Next is someone I know I've highlighted here before, Francesco Francavilla. This was from ComicTwart, where they were doing a Silver Surfer week.

"Silver Surfer" by Francesco Francavilla

Aardman vs. DC

Click this.

A Taste Of "Nothing To Say"

Today was a good day.
Apart from work.
But after that, Gav came over and laid down a track. I'd left him him the words and a tune, and he comes back and elevates my feeble attempt at a song to some thing sublime. It's beautiful. The song's not ready, but I couldn't wait, so I'm just going to give you a sneak listen, just a taste, to whet your appetite.
Aw yeah, "Nothing To Say" (Instrumental edit).

Naka Retrospective Bootleg: The Roots Of Scarecrow

Scarecrow is probably my favourite song we did in Naka. This is where it began.
The Bach Riff.

Video Blog For Comics Released 27/12/11

Try stay awake for this, if you want to know about the comics I read this week.

Panel Of The Week: Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth

Story and Art by Jack Kirby.

Saturday Morning Still Life In Blue

Received In Mail Today

"Iron Rose" by Uncle Walt & The Rocketmen

Click to play.
I don't know what else to do with it, I think it's done.

Expendables 2 Poster

Bring on Winter.

New Poster: The Dark Knight Rises

Ron Howard With A Gun

Panels Of The Week

I read a bunch of comics today, a few weeks worth. This is just a few of the highlights.

 This is why I like Planet of the Apes.

Panels taken from Boom Comics new series, issue 7, drawn by Carlos Mungo. That's awesome comics, right there. Ape with a machine-gun.

This one is from Orchid #2, the new comic from Tom Morello, drawn by Scott Hepburn. I like this one because of all the beasties in it. That place looks dangerous. Looks like the future isn't a nice place to be. Also it's pretty nice lighting. And I like the way the foreground elements come in from outside the panel, gives it a nice sense of depth.

Best Cover: Archie Meets Kiss #1

By Francesco Francavilla, this is an alternate cover for a new 4 part story starting this week. I've asked my comic shop if they can track it down for me, but I think I'll have to be pretty lucky.

Trailer For "The Raid" (Let's See If This Works)

So "The Raid" (the new film from Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais and filmmaker Gareth Evans, the guys behind Merantau) is going to get some kind of theatrical release. Hopefully that includes Australia. Anyway, it's a good excuse to try embed another trailer from Twitch. If it doesn't work, I'll just post the link again.

<object width="650" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4e6a8ad556495/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4e6a8ad556495/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="650" height="366"></embed></object>

Nope, not working. I guess just try this then.

Trailer For "The Kick"

<object width="650" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4ed4fc4e32cfe/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4ed4fc4e32cfe/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="650" height="366"></embed></object>

A couple things about this have me somewhat excited to see it. Firstly, obviously the kicking and punching and general martial arts goodness on display. Secondly, the dancing/fighting martial arts technique looks like it might be used a little better here than in that other film, which was just insane. And thirdly, and maybe most importantly, Jija Yanin's hair looks really good in this.

OK, apparently, I can't embed from Twitch here anymore, so to see the trailer, just follow this link over to Twitch.

Panel Of The Week: Tintin-Explorers On The Moon

It was difficult to choose a panel from this book. There were quite a few very impressive panels of the rocket on the moon. Large panels that took up two thirds of the page, which is unusual, but striking in their size. There's also a sequence in some caves which I was tempted to use, because I liked the lighting in them.

But I chose this one, I think mainly because I liked the composition. The lines of the cliffs seem to focus our attention on the tank, which is quite small in the panel, giving us a sense of scale. Something about the colours. It all works nicely to create a small piece of art in the middle of the story.