25 Mar 2009

So good I had to blog it

Thats Right Kids Its time for the saterday morning WATCHMEN!

Awesome
"nite owl is the leader, and he loves to party down, rorschach loves the animals, yeah when he's not clowning around"

24 Mar 2009

Rorschach

Me and Karys (and a Number of our friends) are going to a party with a super hero theme, And have decided to go as characters from the watchmen.

I therefore now have an excuse other that obsession to get myself a Rorschach costume,
Rorschach is kind of an anti-hero in that he is an extremist, exacting justice on people by killing them, interestingly underneath his cool costume, (more details a litte later on) he is infact very short 5' 4" or something, ginger, ugly and has one leg slightly longer than the other forcing him to wear elevatior shoes to even him out.
Above is an image Rorschach in both his original drawn comic book form and in a still from the new movie (which was very cool, despite the complete lack of giant evil squid from space)

Rorschach's costume comprises of 
  • Brown/Brown-Leather Belted Trenchcoat, cut just above the knees, (I'll probably go for a leather one if i can get it (like in the movie, looks slightly better as matt clothes tend not to be very hero-y)
  • Pinstriped suit trouers, in many amature costumes people copy the comic colour scheme exactly and wear purple pinstripe trousers, however I want my costume to look realistic rather than exactly accurate, besides which I belivethe purple colour in the comic to represent Black (or at least a dark shade) without drowning the panels in black (black being used quite liberally anyway)
  • Elastic sided black boots (again if i were being entirely accurate I would wear elevated ones but that would be uncomforable, so normal non-perscription ones it is
  • A shirt or vest (doesnt really matter is hidden under trenchcoat 99.99% of the time, If we go on the idea that Rorschach is Heavily based on Steve Ditko's Mr. A and The Question, then it may be fair to assume he is wearing the top half of the suit as well.
  • A brown fedora-y trilby type hat (again purple band in the comic will probably stick with black or same colour as hat)
  • White Scarf
  • And last but not least the mask, 
now this poses a problem, in the comic it is two chemicals sealed between two layers of latex, (Its not explained why it stays symetrical , supposedly is an impossible fabric made by another watchmen character Dr Manhatten) and I cant make that, and obviously in the movie it is done with CGI, and I cant do that either.  I am however of loath to simply draw on a white pair of tights and stick them over my head when the rest of the costume is going to look so awesome. May need to buy a white latex face mask (from one of those, y'know, SPECIALIST shops/websites) and modify it (however even the most gimpy gimp masks have holes in them to breath through, and how do you see) The advantage of the tights approach is apparently you can see through the drawn on bits relatively well annd you can breath through it. Perhaps a black pair of tights painted or bleached in an appropriate manner would do the trick.
this is going to require much pondering.

I found this fan image of rorschach with more detail that looks awesome (i especially like the over detail on the inkblot its a nice touch) 

This also got me thinking about more complex inkblots, now in the film they stick very close and used very bold rounded inkblots, however they shilfted a lot so you couldnt really tell. I'm wondering if I should use more complicated inkblots to add to the realism of my costume and so that it wont matter too much that its not constantly changing.
Inkblots as shown below would be cool. 
I particularly like the one, one up from the bottom and one in from the left hand side. For printing this on I could get ink and actully make a Rorschach style inkblot the traditional way then press it on to the mask to get it absolutely symmetrical and cool. I could always re-ink onto the mask with in the lines afterwards to make sure they are nice and dark, infact come to think of it I think I have some fabric paint under my bead which would be perfect.

The other option is to paint a shape on with a paint that reacts to light, so as Im wandering around it changes depending on where the light is hitting it, if i draw a symetrical pattern with it it will look pretty cool, not entirely acurate, but cool.

Not currently listeing to anything but I have "Kissa me Baby" by "Ray Charles" stuck in my head

...Wade 

Watchmen

Curently listening to "Lets dance to Joy Division" by "The Wombats

Recently I have become a little Obsessed with the Watchmen, both in comic book and movie form, I also found out that there is a mini series available on iTunes of the animated comics, which will be interesting once I have some money. As such I will be decorating my blog accordingly. (look out for that, the yellow and black is coming) Long standing readers may have noticed that the Blog URL has changed as well as the title and theme of the blog, As I have been using blogging I have moved away from my original theme of music and just towards random musings and so I felt it appropriate for the rest of the blog to reflect that so gone are the audiophile trappings of the old blog though I am still and audiophile at heart and will post sound based stuff often.
This Blog is now also taking the role of allowing fans ofthe band to find out what Im upto and thinking and stuff (look out for the James Wade trivia section coming soon to the side bar) as well as a classic band style photo

Back to watchmen.
I have now got 2 things that I must do,
  1. read more comics, possibly Until my eyes fall out
  2. make (and therefore own), an untimely awesome rorshach costume (more on this later I have to go and actually do some work)

Currently listeining to "Always" by "Saliva"

..Wade

Update of things

Hello
Another one of my few and far between blogs coming up so I had better make this a good 'un

currently listening to "how good can it be?" by "The 88" weird 80's style music despite being a fairly modern band 2002-2005 ish

ok

firstly I'm at school despite having no lessons left to do, arnt I studious, Im doing some artist research for my art projects (plural because I have to finish the research for one project, and begin work on my new exam project), I am looking at franz marc, who is pretty non exeptional, just paints jungle animals in a kind of cubist-y way, will bright colours because he's a happy old soul. I have decided to do my exam project on the topic (oooh what a primary school style word) of arts and litarature. Despite the compulsarty research artists being very faggy boring and "pretty" art. On of which (who's name escapes me... russian guy loves his wife A LOT) who doesnt have any litarary connections in his work, he just paint pictures of him and his wife flying about and kissing, and the occasional scene depicting russian folk tales, which ARE NOT literature, literature by its very meaning is written down (books and stuff) whereas folk tales are not they are mostly word of mouth (compulsary artists 0 me 1). The second is even less literature based, and although her pieces look like they could have some back story to them have no basis in literature. (compulsary artits 0 me 2) the final artist Millais who painted ophelia from shakespeares play, only painted that particular piece from literature so there is very little to be said about him either here or in my project. However he is the main point I will be starting from because I can easily go from him portraying his images of literature that inspires him to portraying images from my books and from there to comics as self portrayal of stories in books. Im also going to go on a complete tangent and do quite a lot of research and direct observation of books as physical objects.

(thought I'd mention this point I am listening to the song "The Lovecats" by "The Cure" not usually into the cure too much but this is pretty good)
A good thing about this essay in that in helping out my mate duffield to do his project (He's decided to do a project on changing the scale) I remebered an artist I havent seen in a long time namely Ron Muek who makes massive (or tiny) hyper realistic models of people, he's an ex-movie puppet maker. Most are naked and all of them are a bit un-nerving as though you expect them to move. I also checked out the blood head by marc quinn (Marc seems to be quite a popular name in the artistinc community, maybe the imaginary man I belive Karys will run off with when she goes to university this september will need a radical name change, gone is Kyle, the cool surfery artist type, here comes Marc Quiet and sensitive, but still quite out there and dark hair that never seems to get dirty but doesnt look gay. :( I'm gunna miss her) The blood head is impressive but I had to spend a while explaining to Duffield why it counted as art and what is symbolised, He did pick up that its a very personal piece (because its made From the person who made it)

whoa long blogg
should probably do some work...

Currently listening to the last few seconds of "Trouble with Dreams" by "The Eels"

...Wade

16 Mar 2009

short blog

currently listening to, the tinny sound from Tom Wood's headphones beside me. (apparently its justin timberlake (yeey)

hello, short blog today while I'm waiting for the tech teacher so I can resume destroying my tech project, i wish i were better at making things rather than just drawing them, I think i may start doing a short blog every day at school, will give me an adequate break inbetween actually learning/doing coursework.

have had a number of comments about my purple day, inparticular my hair, hasnt really gone donw to well, duffield likes it though and wants to dye all of his hair the same colour.

Quote tom wood "Its wicked your hair"

Quote me and alan earlier, "excuse me theres a Dick in my burger!" , Ill probably explain this one a little later on

ciao for now

.. Wade

11 Mar 2009

Could It be!!

currently listening to, the sound of myself and others in the room clack-clack-clacking on cheap plasticy keyboards

Thats right folks a new blog!
Currently sitting in the 6th form annex, kinda half doing my art coursework and waiting for (and dreading) my physics lesson in 1/4 of and hour or so, Im 2850 words in to the 3000 word essay Im meant to be doing so I just have to finish describing and talking about a photo by Cindy Sherman (Untitled fim still #15) shown below, and write up a conclusion type deal, I can really get into it though Im a bit tired and just want to lie down or sit and do nothing for a while, hence distracting myself with a nice little blog session.
Cindy Sherman Untitled film still #15
(extract from my essay)
" The Final piece I will be looking at is called Untitled Film Still #15 by Sherman, and comes from a collection consisting of 69 photographs depicting Sherman in the role of an unnamed actress on the set of imaginary films, the settings and styles of the photographs vary and range B-movie, foreign film and film noir styles. The Photographs fall into 6 basic groups,The first six are grainy and slightly out of focus (e.g. Untitled #4), and each of the 'roles' appears to be played by the same blonde actress. The next group was taken in 1978 at a beach house on the north fork of Long Island. Later in 1978, Sherman began taking shots in outdoor locations around the city. E.g. Untitled Film Still #21 Sherman later returned to her apartment, preferring to work from home. She created her version of a Sophia Loren character from the movie Two Women. (Untitled Film Still #35) She took several photographs in the series while preparing for a trip to Arizona, Untitled Film Still #48, also known as The Hitchhiker, was shot at sunset one evening during the trip. The remainder of the series was shot around New York, like Untitled #54, often featuring a blonde victim typical of film noir. The Photograph shows Sherman as a blonde actress sitting at a window looking out and down, the viewer can imagine she is looking at the street below, possibly waiting for someone. The room has bare brick walls, the wall behind Sherman, and the wall inside the window frame that she is leaning on are painted white. The floor is wooden boards. In the room with Sherman the only other thing is a wooden chair which is only partially in shot, it is facing into the room at 90 degrees from the direction that Sherman is at, the light from the window is bright and overexposed so we cannot see what is out of the window. We know that this photograph is from the group of photos taken at a beach house, however the way that the photograph is framed and Sherman’s dress, combined with the photograph not allowing us to see what is outside of the window. Gives us the illusion that the room is high up and in a city, Sherman’s gaze out of the window also leads us to believe that the room is high up, the framing of the shot doesn’t show the ceiling of the room, or even the top of the window to be seen this gives the impression that the ceiling is higher up as in a loft style apartment."

I hate writing art essays you have to sound so faggy all the time, also (or "in conjunction" to use art essay terms) I cant think of words to acurately put what I mean, especially as if i was explining it to a person face to face I would simply wave my arms around a bit and make noises.

I think the nice headphones that came with my walkman are breaking, around the jack (tis where they always break) and the sound is slowly going away :(
In other news I find out today if I have won my bid for an Italia Speedster Guitar on the wonderous eBay, tis a truely awesome instrument, the auction ended about an hour after I haveto leave for school so I am having to wait to find out if i have won it, due to the nanny state environment imposed upon us by the education system I am unable to check it at school, and will therefore will probably hijack my girlfriends computer when I see her in a few hours to find out. I will post a blog on the speedster (it deserves that)

.. Wade