Tuesday, November 15, 2005

this blog won't be updated anymore

Blathering!RatCreature It's mainly because I'm not satisfied anymore with Greymatter as a tool. Eventually I'll switch to MT for the blog on my website (and I intend to continue posting in my own space not merely on LJ), however to prevent link rot, this blog will remain as it is at this URL. Meanwhile you can read new entries over at my LJ.

Posted by RatC @ 02:58 PM CET
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Monday, October 31, 2005

my new Snape icon

Snape!RatCreature Here's the Snape!RatCreature icon I mentioned earlier. I think, I've gotten the proportions of my avatar slightly wrong, like the nose is too large or something. Then again this is supposed to be Snape after all, so maybe the largish nose is appropriate even if it wasn't intentional and isn't hooked. *grin*

I've also put the larger pencil drawing behind the cut again:
Snape!RatCreature, pencil version (36K)

Note to iamza: I may have actually an idea how I could do the one for The Pinky and the Brain you asked for, so that request might work out after all...

Posted by RatC @ 05:57 AM CET
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Sunday, October 30, 2005

GIP again

bouncing Tigger!RatCreature I'm sure there'll come a day, someday, when I'm going to post actual fannish content again, but today is not that day. I did, however, finish the bouncing Tigger!RatCreature that came second in the icon motif poll. I know that "grim Robin!RatCreature" ought to be next in line, but I have a rough doodle of a Snape!RatCreature, so that will probably get posted before the Robin one. (I apologize to marag who voted for Robin. Sorry.)

I rather liked the pencils of the Tigger!RatCreature, so I decided to post the larger pencil version of that icon image too:

bouncing Tigger!RatCreature, pencil version (24K)

Posted by RatC @ 11:03 PM CET
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Thursday, October 27, 2005

GIP

alt= In my recent poll on icon ideas the Kill-Kill-Kill!RatCreature icon came out on top, so following popular demand (well okay, three votes compared to two for bouncing Tigger!RatCreature and one for grim Robin!RatCreature, so maybe "popular" may be stretching it a bit... *grin*), I now present my 41st icon:
Kill-Kill-Kill!RatCreature

I can't stress enough how supremely dorky it feels to pose in your bedroom with a large stick in front of a digital camera set on autotimer, because you just can't get the position and foreshortening of your avatar's arms and hands for your axe-murderer icon right and are trying to get photo references. Still worse however is, that even if you got a halfway decent pose in a photo (not easy, btw, when you have to find a secure place for the camera that also allows you to position yourself in the few seconds the timer gives you so that your whole body really is in the picture) all that won't help you. Because, surprise, surprise, your cartoon avatar looks rather different from you, for example it has this huge nose that extends into the space where your arms were in your reference pose, also it doesn't actually has proper shoulders, joints or proportions like you do.

Perhaps I ought to look at modeling clay, to create miniature 3D avatars with the right features (not that I am any good at creating tiny clay models *snort*), however being lazy I settled instead merely for one of the slightly less crappy attempts I had produced after far too many sketches, both complete and partial, of my alter ego holding an axe, regardless of its remaining problems.

Well, at least by the end I was in the right mindset for the "kill! kill! kill!" icon, so that's something I guess.

Other random things that pop into my head when I look at this icon: What is it with those truly awful non-standard LJ community symbols?! You know, the tiny picture indicating a community in front of an LJ name that's normally like this: , however for some inexplicable reason there apparently exists an option to change it into a randomly colored and/or pulsating/blinking thing, or other garish, tiny pictures that people think symbolize their community better. ::shudder::

Posted by RatC @ 02:13 PM CET
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

another new icon, also: icon meme

Memesheep!RatCreature Since my fortieth icon is Memesheep!RatCreature, I thought it only fitting to be a memesheep, too:

Take a look at my icons. Comment with the following:

1. One that makes you automatically think of me.
2. One that you think I should TOTALLY use more often.
3. One that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why I have it.

Comment using an icon of yours that you LOVE, and tell me why you picked THAT one too.

Posted by RatC @ 11:51 PM CET
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GIP

Sith!RatCreature I finished the Sith icon I was talking about last night, though somehow in the tiny icon size the sharp teeth and evil, reptilian eyes don't come out so well. You can, however, look at a larger version of the drawing behind the cut-tag.

(large Sith!RatCreature (about 28K))

I have also uploaded the Confused!RatCreature icon:
huh??/Confused!RatCreature

Posted by RatC @ 03:20 PM CET
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of ears and hoods...

Artist!RatCreature
So I'm in the process of making some more icons, seeing how I'm still far from filling the 100 icon slots I have (right now I have 37). I collected a bunch of more or less useful or amusing icon ideas: Besides the recent yum!/Eating!RatCreature which I have already uploaded, I have finished the drawing for a huh??/Clueless!RatCreature, and in the queue of vague ideas are right now MemeSheep!RatCreature, kill!kill!/Enraged-Axe-Wielding!RatCreature (it's not that I have that much need for a rage icon, but I like to doodle cartoon violence *grin*), *heart*/Glomming!RatCreature, a grim Robin!RatCreature, a bouncing Tigger!RatCreature, maybe a Numb3ers!RatCreature and a bunch of others. However the one I'm drawing right now is supposed to become an evil/Sith!RatCreature. Which is where the ears and the hoods come in.

See, at first I thought I might do Vader!RatCreature, however the mask doesn't really work with the nose, so I thought fine, I'll do a more generic Sith instead. Looking at pictures of Sith you'll notice that hoods covering part of their faces figure rather prominently in their image. Okay, Darth Maul has his hood down in some of his more iconic shots, but Anakin once he's evil and Sidious both love the hooded look, which is fine for human ears. Yet for someone with ears like my avatar? Not so much.

No matter what I tried, large ears beneath the hood of a robe just don't work that well without looking ridiculous and not Sith-like. Seeing how Yoda's ears have similar characteristics (i.e. largish and extending outwards from the head), I searched for pictures that show Yoda with his hood drawn up, but all images I've found always show him with the hood down. What really stands between Yoda and the Dark Side is not merely the Jedi Code, he's incompatible with sithly fashion sense -- no way could he be all dark and mysterious with his hood concealing his head without looking bizarre because of the ears, they'd totally ruin the drapery lines of the hood. And while I'm considering to just have the ears stick out in my drawing, clearly that wouldn't work for a "real" Sith: Imagine he wants to throw of the robe with a dramatic flourish, but has to untangle the ears from their holes first.

Posted by RatC @ 02:54 AM CET
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of ears and hoods...

Artist!RatCreature
So I'm in the process of making some more icons, seeing how I'm still far from filling the 100 icon slots I have (right now I have 37). I collected a bunch of more or less useful or amusing icon ideas: Besides the recent yum!/Eating!RatCreature which I have already uploaded, I have finished the drawing for a huh??/Clueless!RatCreature, and in the queue of vague ideas are right now MemeSheep!RatCreature, kill!kill!/Enraged-Axe-Wielding!RatCreature (it's not that I have that much need for a rage icon, but I like to doodle cartoon violence *grin*), *heart*/Glomming!RatCreature, a grim Robin!RatCreature, a bouncing Tigger!RatCreature, maybe a Numb3ers!RatCreature and a bunch of others. However the one I'm drawing right now is supposed to become an evil/Sith!RatCreature. Which is where the ears and the hoods come in.

See, at first I thought I might do Vader!RatCreature, however the mask doesn't really work with the nose, so I thought fine, I'll do a more generic Sith instead. Looking at pictures of Sith you'll notice that hoods covering part of their faces figure rather prominently in their image. Okay, Darth Maul has his hood down in some of his more iconic shots, but Anakin once he's evil and Sidious both love the hooded look, which is fine for human ears. Yet for someone with ears like my avatar? Not so much.

No matter what I tried, large ears beneath the hood of a robe just don't work that well without looking ridiculous and not Sith-like. Seeing how Yoda's ears have similar characteristics (i.e. largish and extending outwards from the head), I searched for pictures that show Yoda with his hood drawn up, but all images I've found always show him with the hood down. What really stands between Yoda and the Dark Side is not merely the Jedi Code, he's incompatible with sithly fashion sense -- no way could he be all dark and mysterious with his hood concealing his head without looking bizarre because of the ears, they'd totally ruin the drapery lines of the hood. And while I'm considering to just have the ears stick out in my drawing, clearly that wouldn't work for a "real" Sith: Imagine he wants to throw of the robe with a dramatic flourish, but has to untangle the ears from their holes first.

Posted by RatC @ 02:43 AM CET
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Saturday, October 22, 2005

fanart, sort of. also, new icon.

yum!- Eating!RatCreature See, bethbethbeth linked to the first porkish_pixies challenge in her LJ, and though I hadn't joined the parody community when it was created, I was curious and followed the link. So I read that, and promptly felt compelled to do a HP doodle fitting with one of her example scenarios, which you can see in this post (Inflated!Snape, G-rated). Keep in mind that before this I have never done HP art, nor felt any real desire to do so. I suspect some sort of far distance electronic compulsion spell, it is the only explanation. It did however give me an opportunity to show off my new food icon, which I thought was only fitting for a porkish_pixies post.

Posted by RatC @ 09:50 PM CET
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Thursday, October 20, 2005

a book question, related to comics though

Reading!RatCreature I was thinking about getting Writers On Comics Scriptwriting (Volume 2), a book collecting interviews with Bendis, Rucka, Johns, Brubaker, Vaughan and other comic writers, many whose writing I quite enjoy. However, just then I saw review the first volume of interviews, and not very favorably, saying for example that "the focus of the interviews was repetitive and frankly boring." So now I'm hesitant whether it's really worth buying the second volume.

Has anyone on my f-list read the second volume and could tell me whether it is interesting for a fan of those writers to read? I haven't read many interviews with comic writers, on a technical or meta level I'm more into the art side, therefore so far I've mostly read interviews with comic artist about comic art (though sometimes especially with European creators they write their comics too, and talk about that), both in magazines and in books, and those interviews I usually enjoy quite a lot (well, unless the artist is a jerk, and turns out to be really aggravating while talking, despite being great with drawings *snerk*). I thought it might be interesting to read more of a writing perspective too, and I did enjoy Alan Moore's booklet about comics writing too for example as well as comic talk in general, but obviously I don't want to buy something boring.

So any thoughts on that book? Has anyone read it?

Posted by RatC @ 01:31 AM CET
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another rat post...

ROTFL My rats are delightful little perverts. I just saw Dustin give himself something that looked a lot like a blowjob while he was grooming. Obviously rats are lucky to be this flexible... I mean, at first I thought he was merely cleaning himself, but when I looked closer I saw that he had both his front paws on his penis and was sort of energetically tugging while he licked it, and did the same tugging/licking thing again a little bit later in his grooming routine, and it definitely looked like he liked it. Then again maybe it's just my mind that's perverted... *grin*

Sadly I didn't have my camera out, so I don't have pictures of my (probably) masturbating pet rat, however I have uploaded a gallery with lots of photos of my rats from throughout the last weeks, so you can see how fast they've been growing up. Obviously having a digital camera as a pet owner results in tons of photographs of dubious quality documenting the pets' life in excruciating detail.

(lots of rambing about my pet rats...)

Posted by RatC @ 01:19 AM CET
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