Brick House Digital

Wow, it’s August already.

I’ve been busy busy busy lately.  I focused a lot of mental energy on a new project I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, and finally took some steps to drag it into virtual existence.  I’m taking a lot of my past comic book artwork experience, and breaking out of the box with the art form. 

For the past few years, I’ve been doing online comics under the same structure defined by print guidelines.  Vertical pages and issues.  Storytelling on those pages designed to create tension in the last panel of each page, and things like that.  But, in getting back to the roots of sequential art, way, way back to things like hieroglyphics – art was in a straight line across a wall or a scroll, or wrapped around a column.

The approach I’m taking is to use the web as a similar canvas.  I start in the upper left hand corner, and I can go to the right or down as far as I want to.  There are no breaks at the end of a few panels, where the eye needs to do a carriage return down and to the left.  It simply flows.

I’m really excited creatively, and have been busy building web pages for the new site.  I’m not quite ready to let it out though, so keep watching here for details.

I’m not sure where the recent surge in creativity came from.  Probably a wakeup call from complacency by necessity.  Like everyone, I’m feeling the pinch from the shitty economy, and could do with less bills and more money.  I want to do more work on the house.  I want to get some decent things for the wife and kids.  And of course, a certain person motivated by spite and greed decides that now is the time to punish me some more for being a tool for 17 years.  Whatever.

I’m really happy with Trish & the kids, and the home we’ve made together.  I’ve found that after 4 years of neglect, the pilot light on my creative fire is still burning, and I’m hoping to get it back to the roaring blaze it used to be back when I self-published my first comic and opened my first website.  I’ve had a few little sparks here and there, but I’m really feeling good about my current project.

I’m growing my hair back, and a beard along with it.  I take a picture of myself every day, and I’ve put it all together as a video clip, which I’ll put on YouTube when I’ve got something substantial to post.

I really, really want to go scuba diving again.  I need a partner who can spare a few hours on a Saturday morning to run over to the springs and carry some gear down to the water.

Next week is Trish’s birthday.  I’d like everyone to be able to get together and make it a great time for the most amazing person in my life.  She’s the most loving person I know, and she encourages me to be my best and keeps me on track when I get too goofy.  She deserves great big heaping piles of happiness.

Now that I have a Wordpress blog hosted on my own site, I’m working on consolidating my old material, and integrating it with the application on facebook as well. 

I’ve been very impressed with Wordpress today.  I was able to export all of my blogs from the previous site, and then import them here, photos and all.  And, they have the Wordpress application for the iPhone, so I can write blogs, take pictures, and upload them from anywhere seemlessly into the site.  Very nice stuff.

Stay tuned…

This is a test blog entry from my phone.

This week I spent a lot of time on the Steamwheedle Cartel server.

My level 70 Blood Elf Paladin, Carrara, became exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive, and got an awesome new epic shield and necklace.

My level 70 Undead Warlock, Skulfrak, engrossed himself in Alterac Valley and after many sessions of bloody Player-vs-Player action, he emerged with a totally amazing new headpiece - the Gladiator’s Felweave Cowl.  Now, he’s working toward the rest of the Gladiator’s Felshroud set.  He looks totally badass.

I helped the wife out in Blade’s Edge Mountains, and her Shadow-priest, Skullfraxen, has reached level 67.  Won’t be long until she can start melting faces for some of her epic gear!

Continuing with my quest to become a productivity junkie, I took a look at my inboxes - both at home and at work.  My personal copy of Outlook had almost 4000 messages in it.  All the way back to 2005.  It would be even more voluminous, except that was around the time my hard drive crashed and I lost all of my previous messages.

 The material I’m listening to had me sort them all by determining if they are actionable, to be filed as reference if they contain anything important, or trash.  Most of them weren’t of any value at all and ended up being deleted.  I saved only the last pieces of conversations to make sure I had valid email addresses for everyone, and put digital receipts in an appropriate folder.  The only thing left in my inbox are 3 messages that require actions to follow up on, and then they’ll be filed.

I’m really enjoying this, and I’m getting a lot done.  I’ve been going down my lists on the index cards and checking off tasks, and the feeling of accomplishment is hard to beat.

I like it.

I got a little more serious in the past few weeks about getting my groove back as far as my art is concerned.  For way too long, I’ve been stumbling my way through doing things, often sitting down in front of the computer with no plan and no inspiration, but needing to churn something out for a website regardless.  Often, the result has been an uninspired hackjob that I’ve been less than proud of.

 I recently started listening to some audiobooks on setting goals and being more productive while traveling in the car by myself.  It got me to do some writing, and I was able to outline some specific goals for myself, and really envisioned what I wanted to be doing with my artwork.  I kept going and wrote out quite a few storylines for the comic sites I’m doing, and then I sketched out a bunch of pages, and drew up some layouts for them in CorelDraw.  Now when I make my renders in Poser, I know exactly what to do.

More importantly, I took a stack of index cards and came up with a production schedule for each of the sites, with explicitly spelled out deadlines and quotas.  So I also know when I need to get things done.

The spike in my productivity has been amazing, and I’m much happier with my work now than I’ve been in the past few years.  Once all of the baggage in my head that consisted of worrying about deadlines and content was pulled out and placed on cards, it really freed up my mental processes to focus on more creative aspects of my work.

The really exciting thing is that this is only the start of what’s possible.  I’d like to apply these principles to other aspects of my life and see what I can accomplish.

My listening material, all available from iTunes:
* Getting Things Done by David Allen
* Goals! How to Get Everything You Want by Brian Tracy
* The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer

I have a small collection of replica swords - lightsabers, Sting from Lord of the Rings, the Bride’s katana from Kill Bill, etc.  There’s a new sword coming out that’s a bit beyond my reach right now, but if anyone’s wondering what to get me for Cristmas…

Frostmourne is the runeblade that Ner’zhul, the Lich King, thrust from his Frozen Throne, intending that Arthas Menethil – his unwitting potential host – would discover it on the continent of Northrend. It is currently wielded by Arthas/the Lich King.

Frostmourne has the ability to drain life from its victims - and to drain the soul of anyone whom it connects to. The Lich King is capable of seeing through the eyes and hearing through the ears of anyone who wields Frostmourne; this ability cannot be stopped by any mortal means. The Lich King can communicate with the wielder at will telepathically, on any plane and at any distance. The Lich King uses this ability to try and corrupt the wielder over time. This has several effects. An individual who wields Frostmourne will not part with it willingly. Over time the person will go from good to neutral and finally to evil. A non-undead evil wielder will then become undead. Finally the sword is able to suck the being’s soul into the sword. Frostmourne then retains the memories and skills of its victim. In fact, as long as the wielder’s original body remains within one mile of Frostmourne, the sword maintains control of the body, and he may not be completely aware that his consciousness has shifted to the weapon. Beyond one mile, the sword cannot control the wielder’s body, and the wielder of course finally becomes quite aware of his current state (if he is not already).

The Lich King can take possession of a soulless body that comes in contact with him and Frostmourne at the same time. The soul within Frostmourne is destroyed unless it willingly merges with the Lich King, becoming lost as a separate entity for all eternity. If a soul merges with the Lich King, he gains all the skills and memories of the victim. He has only done this one time, with Prince Arthas Menethil.

The legendary rune blade Frostmourne was immortalized in Warcraft III, in which it was taken up by Prince Arthas Menethil, corrupting him and leading to his transformation into the Lich King. We’ve partnered with EPIC Weapons to create a limited edition replica of the blade in all its horrific glory. This artifact of ancient evil is over 47″ long and 12.5″ wide, weighing a massive 16 lbs., and is now available for pre-order. For more information, please visit the Frostmourne replica site.

• http://www.epicweapons.com/products/frostmourne/

Warner Brothers has just finished shooting the Watchmen movie - an adaptation of one of the best graphic novels of all time.  They posted some great shots of a few of the characters, and they look dead-on from the artwork.

Watchmen

Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I - IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Trent Reznor explains, “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.”

This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed - from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

Free download from the site - The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as high-quality, DRM-free MP3s, including the complete PDF.