Sketch: 90 minutes.

Friendster has gone the way of the buffalo.

It has died a pitiful death. It's irrelevance has been solidified. In other words, it has "jumped the shark" - a term that in and of itself has "jumped the shark".

Friendster has "partnered" with hollywood to give us the most blatant and obvious attempt at selling a show I have ever seen. Who could see this as anything but the most spectacular example of pandering to an audience ever? Trying to market a show - Stacked - by selling it within two of the "hot" (read "not") communities on the internet - Friendster and the Weblog ring.

This is not a new idea. Using the internet to build the buzz around something leading up to the day it's released to the world has been done a few times already. Movies like Artificial Intelligence and Alternate Reality Games like I Love Bees have generated considerable attention on the world wide web. All the resources at Fox's disposal and the best they can come up with is this??

I'm not surprised really. Leave it to the "creative" minds in charge to be completely behind the curve on this one. You would think they would at least put some time into conceptualizing and fine-tuning the idea before they put it out there for the world to see.

Nobody involved seems even remotely interested in maintaining a weblog presence. I give credit to some of them for not being complete hacks in their postings. The woman named Paget seems mildly interested in posting more than just pics from the studio. And I find it hilarious that in their profiles they all want to meet "fans of Stacked." Oh, I'm sure they will get to meet (read: be stalked by) many of the "fans of Stacked." Great idea, Hollywood. Generate the kind of buzz that requires a court order to put down.

This idea may have been much more interesting if they had built the blogs around the daily lives of the "characters" in the show instead of the actors themselves. Imagine the buzz a show could generate with real interaction between the characters on the show and the people who browse and comment on the "blogs" of said characters. Commenters to the blogs could actually become part of the storyline. Hmm, I may have to put some thought into that idea. Remember folks, the idea was published here. That means it's mine. :)

Can't seem to get robots out of my head.

Everytime I sit down to do another nude, a robot comes streaming out. Took a couple of hours. The centaur has been a prevailing theme in sketches throughout my life.

Sketch: 35 minutes.

Thought I would just loosen up a bit with some quick gesture drawings.

Put Terry Shiavo to rest. Figuratively and literally.

I have no idea what this family is going thru. I've never had to experience something like this in my life. I hope I never do. It's amazing the turn of events that have developed around this case.

A case like Terry's happens every other day. Why is she getting so much media attention? It has been blown so completely out of proportion that you could go to any open forum and find 50 threads on this issue alone. And everyone with an agenda is blaming the whole matter on one "evil" group or another.

The ultra-christians are blaming the "leftists" for their lack of compassion. The "liberals" are blaming the "christo-fascists" for their willingness to allow federal intervention into a completely personal and private matter. Everybody but the fundamentalists are decrying the federal government's intervention - and rightly so. Hell, I've seen "feminists" blaming a male-centric culture of control over women that has permeated every facet of life being at the core of this issue!

It's absolutely frickin' crazy. I'm glad I can find myself completely outside the storm this has created. This may sound callous, but I really don't care one way or the other what happens to Terry. It's none of my business. Like I said, this happens all the time. If people were as passionate about every similar instance, they'd all end up basket cases. Not unlike Terry.

People need to chill and leave this family alone. Nothing anyone - not even the Federal Government - can do will change this woman's fate. So, please, give it a rest.

http://meteor-blades.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/20/23916/5653
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4368055.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4358877.stm

Sketch: Too much time.

An attempt at drawing the body in different angles. Also tried sharpening the lines and giving the body a more graphic shape. I think I failed in that respect.

Bloody Well Right!

Why oh why did I skip the GDC?!? This panel alone would have been worth it!

The damn convention is not one block from my studio!! I have no excuse.

I think Will Wrights "Spores" sounds incredibly innovative. But if he doesn't work for EA, than I think the what Greg Costikyan said, "EA could have chosen to focus on innovation, but they did not" is valid.

Hell, it's all valid. There's too much control in too few hands. And everything Warren Spector said is spot on.

Wolfowitz -head of World Bank? Please, no!

When your potential co-workers don't want you before you even start, that's gotta say something.

Why is this guy being nominated to be the head of the World Bank? What does he offer?

Sketch: 2.5 hours.

Robot babe.

Just listen to Barbara Boxer for 5 minutes.

I don't care what side of the fence you're on, listen to her and know what a true statesperson is.

She made me incredibly angry when she voted to give the Pres authorization to invade Iraq, but she has redeemed herself in my book. Not that my book is worth reading, but still.

Ouch!

Not a fan of weblogs I see. Though according to chapter 6 entitled "Acceptable Uses of Weblogs", I have an acceptable weblog.

I quote, "Authors may mix relevant comments with their work, commenting on what they were thinking when they created a particular piece of art." I cherrypick to qualify my own relevance, but taken literally this statement qualifies my *gulp* blog as an acceptable weblog. Booyeahh!

I think his own rant is a clear cry for attention.......but......itsallgood. :)

Well, Game Developers Conference came

and went and I missed it completely. That's okay, though. I'm not ready to "take the game industry by storm" just yet. Heh. Isn't that what every blowhard with a head of steam says?! :P

"I'm gonna change the way the industry does business!" That's one of my mantras. Trouble is I don't quite know how to go about it. I founded Beeline Studios in 2004 as an "Asset Resource for the development community". Basically, our mission was to provide concept art, models, and animation to game developers. I had been thinking about the idea for a few years.

In 2003, I took a job working on an MMORPG up near Yosemite. 5 months after starting there, the company lost their funding. That was the straw that broke my back. Through a fortunate set of circumstances, I was able to move back to San Francisco in February 2004 and work nonstop on Beeline for the next six months. I brought in a partner, developed the business plan, the corporate identity, created a brochure and in that time even worked on models and texture maps.

We sent out flyer after flyer, but no joy. There was some big competition in that field. New Pencil and Liquid Development were two of the big ones. I don't quite know where we were positioned with this competition. All I know is that they continued to get work and we continued to send out flyers. Clearly, they've got their collective heads on right....and it shows in their work. Maybe we didn't PUSH hard enough; send out even more flyer after flyer. After six months, I had to re-evaluate what exactly Beeline Studio's core mission was.

That core focus will be development. We will produce and develop intellectual properties as opposed to being "hands for the industry". And when I say focus I mean FOCUS. As I develop the business plan I will, of course, do what I've always done to make a living. I'm doing it now with a big company on the penninsula. The work is gratifying and the people are great. I could work fulltime for them. The offer is there. But I just want more. I always want more. It's what has driven me all my life.

I talked at length today with a friend of mine who came out west for the GDC. He wants the same things. And his determination is inspiring. I'm ready to make the leap. I just have to get all my ducks in a row. And then, I will revolutionize the game industry. Yeah...........that's what they all say. But I mean it. :) It's an ongoing, always evolving process.

This story is always "to be continued..........."

On a side note, I'm actually working with New Pencil on a project for this company on the penninsula. The people I work with say they've been working with NP for many years now. Never even knew about Beeline until very recently. Hmm. Maybe I didn't push hard enough?

Still haven't found a drawing "style"......

.....but here's a new female study. I've been drawing so many robots it took me awhile just to get back into the state of mind to draw nudes.

This went quicker than the last few, though.

Just thought I'd mention this......

Morning Sedition is the coolest radio show on TV........erh.....I mean the radio. Howard Stern is ASS compared to Marc Maron and Mark Riley - Morning Sedition.

They're fun to listen to as I press the metal with all the other losers on 101.

Sh*t and shinola!

This is fucked up.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050304-0117-ca-chimpanzeeattack.html.

The chimps chewed the guy's face off!!

I've been a-cheatin'. Oh, have I been a-cheatin'.

I've been doing a robot sketch a day during lunch and after work at my freelance gig. I haven't been posting them here because I can never remember my damn blogger password. I can remember everyone of my other passwords for all my other login shites, but I can't keep the blogger one in my head.

There's like this pall over my blogger account. I've had to change it countless times and each time I tell myself I will commit it to memory. Days later when it comes up, I've forgotten it. It's freakin' me out, man!!

Anyway, I've been posting art to this website called 1up.com under the name GojiraWrecks because it's easier to post there and I can REMEMBER the DAMN PASSWORD! If you want to look at the robots I've drawn, that's your place. 1up.com is a website devoted to gamers and games. Although there's a lot of that Friendster "popularity contest" shite going on under the tent, if you like games and want to discuss them with others it's a great place to go.

Seriously, I'm not shilling for them, I really mean it. There are a lot of hardcore gamers there, male and female, who really do discuss games. And that part of it is cool. Also, each member of the website (membership is free.........NO, I'm not shilling) gets to post to their very own weblog. It's under the comments section where you can post responses to others opinions about games.

I was telling a friendster friend of mine, who also happens to be a hardcore female gamer and a 1up.com member, that it's a lot like Friendster only better because you can post thoughts there and get more realtime feedback from others in the network. Seems like Friendster realised this, since they've added the ability to blog to members' profiles. Great, yet another level of complexity to make friendster a slow moving piece o' crap!!

By the way, this gamer friend also happens to be a member of the tre cool game clan, the FragDolls. I've heard they will kick your ass, although I've yet to experience an ass kickin' from a bunch of girls. Heheheheh.
It's mostly because I'm afraid of what they will do to my fragile male ego.

So basically what I'm trying to get at is 1up.com is cool and you should join 1up.com because 1up.com will make you more verile and sexy and no I'm not a shill for 1up.com, that crazy, sexy, cool website.
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Sketch: 2 hours - 1 hour at lunch and 1 after work. And she's still not done. I have to finish up the upper body today, as well as finish up an animation cycle and then get back to drawing naked ladies!

Here's another robot.

Been a while since I posted something.

I haven't been sketching women recently. The ones that I have drawn aren't meeting the new standard I set for myself. I'm confident I've got the rendering of light and shadow down. Now I need to work on the "drawing". What I mean by that is I have to work on finding a more stylised approach to the studies.

So far I'm not pushing my boundaries. I'm just resting on my laurels. Even though I haven't been sketching women, I have been drawing a robot sketch everyday. Here's the latest one: