I’d Raster Use Vector

I apologize for the ghastly pun. In this post, I will explore the differences between using Bitmap (Raster) to draw and Vector based techniques. This is slightly different to my discussion on digital editing techniques, because this includes creating completely new images and shapes using different software.

In Dr Jenny Weight’s lecture, she expresses the difference between Bitmap and Vector, with the former being the more “organic” form of drawing, and the latter giving a more “inhuman” look.

I use these quotation marks because either traits really depend on the skill of each artist. Bitmap drawings can look phenomenal, even photorealistic, but can only really be so if the artist has a good grasp of how to employ the software, and a good sense of artistic creation.

Janelle Monae by Christina Maniatakis

Similarly, Vector art can be used to create amazing graphic designs, but the designer would need to know how to use the software to manipulate the lines to be sharp and perfect.

90’s Kid by Josh Mina

The two images above are examples of amateur level art created using, respectively, bitmap drawing and vector drawing. The drawing of Janelle Monae can be considered photorealistic, as the artist used layers of coloring to create shadows and texture of the subject. 90’s Kid (sic) features less texture, rather opting for blocky, cartoony coloring linework.

Neither approaches are in any way ‘easier’ than the other – to create beautiful artwork on either format requires a good set of skills in utilizing the software, and an eye for detail. It is perhaps easier to edit photos using bitmap tools than vector tools, however it is infinitely better and cleaner to use vectors for graphic design purposes. Often, a project would require the usage of both styles of drawing and editing (such as, for the hundredth time, the art tests that I did in the previous posts).

Alex.

Note: The two images above are displayed with the permission of the original creators. Clicking on the image will bring you to the original page where the art was uploaded.

Moonlight Would Provide The Spark

[Three Cheers For Five Years – Mayday Parade]

Serena brought it to my attention that I never finished this post.

As this was two years ago and I’m not bothered enough to check back, I’ll do them all now. I actually have a post in draft for the last few days that I didn’t write, but since I have to sleep within the hour, this might be faster.

Day 01: Your views on death, how you cope, etc. – If I answered this already, forgive me. I guess my answer will be different now. Since then, I’ve come across two deaths, one close but not extremely close to me, and another in my own family. Both were very sad but not in the shock tragic way. The former is definitely very upsetting, since it was my friend who battled cancer for eight years, and who ultimately lost to it. The thing is, the whole family knew it was coming, so they had time to prepare, to spend time and to smile and laugh. Her last days were spent in the company of her friends and family, so all things considered, it was pretty beautiful. The second death was my own grandfather, and it was a bit of a shock, but he was old, he lived a full, happy life, and there were no prolonged pain and suffering. He left my grandmother with a place to live, money to spend, and they had a lifetime of memories together. So my views? Death sucks, obviously, since it’s the ending of an existence, but I’d prefer to think about them when they lived, and how good they lived, and in that way they can continue existing in a sense, and positively so.

Day 02: How you introduce yourself to new people. – I try to be myself, but for the most part I gauge the situation. It’s easy to create a public persona, a funny, slightly inappropriate jokey, kind of persona, and just let that take care of the social conventions. But let’s be honest, we all do that. It’s how society is made for us to survive in, and instead of condemning it, think about the kind of people in your life around whom you could drop your public persona easily. It makes times with them even more special.

Day 03: What you think about love. – Judging by the time stamp, this was initially written just before I met Amelia. June 2011, I was pretty into someone else, and it wasn’t requited. I would have been a bit naive, hopeful but ultimately cynical about it. Now, I think it’s probably at the stage where I think love is definitely something which can fix someone, but also an elusive something which you may never know you’ve had, because who knows what love is? How can you tell you’re in love, and not just deep infatuation? And more importantly: does it matter? If you’re happy, and they’re happy, and your sex drive is VERY happy, then does it matter if it’s not really “love”?

Day 04: Write about someone you love. – Please see previous posts about Amelia. SORRY I just have to sleep very soon.

Day 05: A list of things you fancy doing. – Lately, I’ve been working more, so I do appreciate down times when I can read a good comic or book, or watch some shows while playing Jetpack Joyride, or reading about cool new techie things. I also really, really enjoy cuddling Amelia’s dog Meg.

Day 06: Recommend some books to read. – This might just show my immaturity and taste in literature, but a few books I’ve been recently reading that I really enjoyed:

Perfume – the Story of A Murderer by Patrick Suskind (yes, I saw the movie first)

A Song of Ice and Fire (the series Game of Thrones is based off of) by G. R. R. Martin

Repotting Harry Potter – A Professor’s Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader by James W. Thomas (a wonderful way to also read through the series itself as you go along)

The Casual Vacancy (Where Rowling shows she really, really understands how people work) by J. K. Rowling

White Fang (literally one of the first adult English books I ever read, and I fell in love with it) by Jack London.

I’m also going to recommend some comics which I like.

Saga – Image Comics. The illustration is astonishingly beautiful, and Fiona Staples conveys emotions so artfully that some panels are laugh out loud funny, because of the way she’d draw the characters. The story is also compelling, but now that I’m waiting monthly for them instead of consuming them in one go, I feel like it’s so slow!

Chew – Image Comics. I have a thing for Image. Chew is funny and then punch-you-in-the-guts heartbreaking without notice. It takes quite a lighthearted approach at a really, really morbid theme, and it’s so fun to see where everything is headed.

Rising Stars – Image Comics. This series ended a while back, and I blew through it in one day. I’d wanted to savor it slowly, but before I knew it, it was pitch black and I had a sore butt, but I was just sobbing at how things turned out. It’s like Heroes, but better (which isn’t saying much, I guess).

American Vampire – Vertigo. Ever since reading Preacher (which is also good, but I won’t put it on my list), I thought Vertigo would come out with weird-ass things (just like Hellblazer too), but American Vampire’s story really SUCKED me in, even considering the fact that it had time jumps and deviations in protagonist focus. The world which Snyder created is so engrossing I wish they could make a bigger thing of it.

Fables – Vertigo. Also a surprisingly not weird series. It’s like Once Upon A Time but not so whiney. The reason I got into it was because I read a review for Wolf Among Us, which is the Telltale Game’s prequel to Fables. The game sounded fun, and the comics did too, so I gave it a go. Great decision, cannot wait for the game now.

Numbercruncher – Titan Comics. This was one of those random new comics recommended by Comixology, and I gave it a go. It was strange to start with but then the premise really grabbed me, then it continued being extremely awesome, and it’s something I’d totally re-read slowly while contemplating the idea behind it.

The Bunker – Hoarse and Buggy Productions. Yet another random digital-only recommendation, which turned out to be very time-travelly mind-bendy stuff. It’s slow in picking up and just started, so it’s not built up to much yet, but the creators are promising something huge, and I hope they deliver!

Day 07: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing). – Obviously, these things are all around us and we don’t realize it. It feels like these institutions have been built to such an elitist state that, if you’re not AMAZING AND TOTALLY ACE at it, then you’re relegated to “sucking” and “keep it as your hobby”. I mean, for most people, it probably is a hobby anyway, but they don’t need you to tell them that. I wish I was good at all three, because musicians/artists/dancers are sexy, but I think I’m okay with just writing and storytelling.

Day 08: Write a poem. – I once took a creative writing class where one of the assessments was to write a poem. I think poems are also built to be something more than it needs to be. Poems are meant to be a gathering of words in a way which draws beauty and instills thought and emotions into the reader. Just because you didn’t write it in a bloody sonnet format doesn’t make it any less special. A limerick isn’t any lesser than a haiku. A kid who wrote an acrostic poem using the word “MOMMY” and writing about how much they love their mother means a lot more to that mother than anything Hemingway could have come up with, because poetry isn’t about how poncy you are, it’s about the emotion behind it. In other words, I can’t really be bothered writing one right now.
Day 09: Photo of your favorite pillow. – I only have one pillow, and it’s light blue. Unless you want a photo of Meg again?

Day 10: How you wake up in the morning. – I tend to wake up more often to alarm clocks than not, then I take 10 minutes to scroll through my overnight Twitter feed, especially for interesting news, then I get up and do my stuff.
Day 11: Write about your sibling(s) or what it’s like to be an only child. – Being an only child can be lonely sometimes, and also your parents pressure you a lot, since they only have you to make them proud. But, you get lots of stuff, so whatevs, right? It’s getting late and these questions ask too much of me!
Day 12: Your relationship with your parents. – I think this is a bunch of worms which need to remain in the can for tonight.
Day 13: Write about what you believe in, be it God, yourself, etc. – I believe in finding happiness, and one’s innate right to be happy, no matter how. Of course, if being happy means you absolutely need to go on a killing rampage, then maybe you shouldn’t be happy, or even alive. I’m not really one for all-life-is-sacred, because in the end we have about 6 billion on this planet, (I’m the only one with the uncanny ability to be awesome,) about half of them is in a constant state of poverty and probably dying, and the other half cares that a deranged gunman not get a death sentence? Again, let’s keep those worms for another day. My point is, being happy is all you should aim for, because once you die, who knows what else comes after?
Day 14: What you do for Valentine’s Day. – I’m not allowed to celebrate this day because Amelia hates it.
Day 15: Write about the best gift you’ve ever received. – It’s hard for me to pinpoint the best gift, since I constantly want and get tired of new things. I think that a photo album that a friend gave me when I left my old school was probably the most heartfelt and sweet thing, though.
Day 16: Write another poem, about the weather. – Roses are red, the sky is blue, the rain is gray, brown is poo.
Day 17: Post your favorite gif.

I used this reacting to when Amelia said that we were no longer in the honeymoon period.
Day 18: Your plans for tomorrow. – I work 8 hours.
Day 19: Write about something you fear. – I’m scared that Amelia will find being with me too tiresome as times goes on, because we either have to hide it from our families forever, or come out and face the consequences. We’re both bi, so I’m worried she’ll end up finding it easier just to be with a guy who she can be public with. But that’s silly, because she loves me, and her dog has basically imprinted on me so it will take too long for it to love someone else.
Day 20: What did you eat for dinner last night? – Dad fried up some Spam and we ate it with burger buns and he also made soup.
Day 21: Your favorite thing to drink. – SO I HAD MY FIRST WET PUSSY (well…”second”) TONIGHT AND IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I LOVE IT.
Day 22: How you take your coffee or tea. – I usually have a latte with one sugar, but I used to do double shots with one sugar as well. I take tea black with one sugar, unless it’s green, then no sugar.
Day 23: Your favorite thing to wear. – I like wearing hoodies because they feel like mobile blankets.
Day 24: Another poem, about the shoes you wear most often. – Roses are red, my shoes are purple, some bits are black, so black and purple.
Day 25: Write about where you live. – I live on a street predominantly white, and we used to have a problem with some kids down the road, who would ding-dong ditch us, and they escalated to kicking our trash over, harassing my mom when she’s working in the front yard, and once egged our house. They’ve stopped recently, though.
Day 26: Your favorite smell. – Amelia! Also bacon. OH IMAGINE IF AMELIA COOKED BACON!
Day 27: Your thoughts on the internet. – I don’t see a problem with the internet itself, I see a problem with people. It’s like guns. Yes, guns are bad things and they kill people, but honestly, a gun sitting there by itself wouldn’t be that scary, but you put a pair of hands on it and WOAH it’s a problem. It’s the same thing with the internet. It’s a great way to connect things that are otherwise unable to be connected, but once you put a human behind the mouse and….
Day 28: Write about how you feel today. – I’m a bit annoyed that I spent all day watching TV and not doing some writing, but it is my rest day after all, so I should just be happy I got to rest. Next week is a tough working week, but I’ve got Pokemon Y to look forward to on Saturday!

I’ve Broken My Heart So Many Times I’ve Stopped Keeping Track

[Haven’t Met You Yet – Michael Buble]

Day 07: Write about the arts (music, art, dancing).

Well, the very idea of writing about something is the arts, isn’t it?

And seeing as how I am studying the Arts, you’d think I’d have a lot of things to write about.

Look, I don’t like it when Arts make themselves more pompous and contrived than everyone else. I don’t like it when, to be considered High Class, you have to go see an opera, understand the hell they’re singing, get the deeper message, and come out of it complaining that the soprano was actually better suited as an alto.

To me, music, art, dancing, whatever, it’s just something that should be enjoyed. And if you happen to enjoy slightly ‘trashy’ music, or you would rather pump your fists to a steady beat than to draw out some complicated rhythm with your damn shoulder-blade, or your idea of art is to draw a funny stick figure comic rather than sweeping swatches of emotions, then that’s great for you, and if it gives you good feelings, then that’s all I care about.

And if you happen to like shoulder-blade dancing and fancy paintings, and that makes you happy too, then go for it!

The one thing I do not like about studying Arts is the expectation of what kind of person I should be. I am an Arts student, therefore I must understand and have an opinion on Marxism, and smoke a pack before lunch, and slowly but surely grow a terrible haircut.

But if that’s what makes you happy. I can’t care less.

Alex.

25 Things I Hate About You

Got this off Vania’s blog but I also know that it’s been circulating around Facebook.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You  have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(Clearly, tagging is a Facebook thing. I’m not tagging anyone. This is a BLOG. I just don’t have too much to blog about.)

1. I’m short-sighted but I only wear glasses when I read, not when I’m out and about. It’s a bit of a contradiction because I suppose short-sighted people technically need it for out and about, and not for reading. But oh well.

2. I have that stupid “7 Things” by Cyrus stuck in my head right now because of my title.

3. I bite my nails, which is a bad habit. But for a while in Year 8 I went through this phase of growing my nails so long, that someone said I should cut it ‘cos its length is disturbing. I never managed to grow my nails again.

4. I wish that FRIENDS is still going. Actually, I just wish that I can write for FRIENDS. Not because it was successful (that too) but because it’s such a well-made show.

5. I. I don’t know, I wrote the last four starting with I. I should write one starting with something else.

6. YOU. Heh.

7. If there’s any mythical creature I could be (and I mean, in any myth. Ancient Greek, Gothic, Ancient Chinese, Japanese etc) I would be a vampire. Yah.

8. Once, I read a book where a main character had a habit of chewing his lips. I liked that character a lot so I started chewing my bottom lip as well. It’s now become a habit, and my bottom lip is dry, cracks a lot, has bruised-looking bits where the flesh split. Stupid son-of-a-bitch book. It was a good book, though.

9. I have a tendency to make close friends with people significantly taller, or at the very least noticeably taller than me, with a few exceptions. And by them I mean Bee, April, Yeleng, Swinsetbsnm…(Shorty Who Is Not Short Enough To Be Shorty No More. Yeleng came along and took the title of “Shorty” from Christina. Christina is now known as Swin.)

10. 25 is a really big number. I could end it here and it will become “10 Things I Hate About You” but of course THAT concept has been taken.

11. I’ve planned out my funeral songs. I think a few people already know this. But for reference, those songs are “Savin’ Me” by Nickelback, “The Reason” by Hoobastank, and at the end of the service, when they’re playing a nostalgic but fun-filled slideshow of my life, I want “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter playing. So far, barring Nickelback, my funeral songs have been put on Singstar for me to fail miserably at whilst I’m still alive.

12. [BANG!] Mm whatchoo say…

13. I think back in Grade 5 or 6, I wanted and wished that Pokemon is real so badly that I even made up this story in my head about what would happen. Basically, it went something along the lines of every one of my other classmates getting a Bulbasaur or a Charmander or Squirtle, but then a specially lucky student gets a Pikachu, and I got the Pikachu, and then there was this invention which allowed us to open portals from our world to the Pokemon world (I have to specify, I only went as far as the Kanto region, but I suppose it’s okay seeing as from there you can travel to Johto and Hoenn anyway). I wanted that so badly one day I woke up thinking, “okay, today the news will say that Pokemon is real and that all the children will embark on their new journey as soon as possible.” Of course it never happened.

14. Going onto that, I also wished for a while that Beyblades did more than just zoom around the stupid shoebox. I wished and I pretended like I could control the toy with my will, like they do in the anime. I’m such a dag.

15. Looking back, actually I wished a lot of the anime world was real, depending on which one I was into at that time. Case in point, I wanted to be one of the ninjas and live in Konoha with Naruto. I wished that I believed in “The Heart Of The Cards” and kicked ass alongside my alter ego like Yugi. I wished that I one day realized that I’ve got Saiyan blood in me and I could power up to Super Saiyan and fly around and shoot energy balls from my hands. I wished that I was one of the Wicked Witches and killed Bloom and all her stupid fairy cronies (Ha, okay, I wasn’t into Winx Club but I was going through Toasted TV in my head and I remembered it). I even wished I was in Onizuka’s class in GTO, even though I would have to have something drastically wrong with me.

16. I started blogging on WordPress after I went to  journalism conference with April all the way back in 2007 (or 2006, but I’m pretty sure it’s the former) and they were saying, if you want to get better at writing, then keep a blog. I’ve sort of tried to write with accurate grammar, or thereabouts, on my blog.

17. It annoys me when people just say to me “You’re smart, you’ll ace it.” I’m not, and I don’t.

18. Haha this just popped into my head from this afternoon: “I have CDO. It’s OCD but in alphabetical order, the way it should be.”

19. After I think reading on a book about 2 girls who were raised as individuals but one day found each other by chance and realized that they’re twins, and together they had magical powers (I said I’m a dag, right?) and I think the series was called T*Witches, anyway, after reading that, I wondered if maybe I had a twin out there. At first it went like my parents had to give up my twin and I’m living with my birth parents. Later it changed to I’ve been given away and I meet my “real parents” and they’re awesome and my twin is heaps fun but she’s much girlier and all my friends are surprised when they see her because it’s strange to see a girly version of me.

20. Fuck, nearly there.

21. What a cheat, haha!

22. I’d like to think I’m a good listener. The thing is I wasn’t before, at all. So I don’t know if I’m a good listener by general definition because I can’t be any worse of a listener than I was before, save actually saying “LA LA LA LA” over someone else talking to me.

23. Pon and Zi are so adorable, and I loved them more when I saw the artist’s earlier works, when he didn’t find his love, and they were really hurtful and pained, and to see the pictures now when he’s become happier makes me love Pon and Zi more. My favorite at the moment is the one where the yellow one (can’t tell which is which) is saying to the blue one “I love you” but the blue one has music on and didn’t hear him.

24. I love Bianca, Carmaine, Eunice, Dani, D.P. and April. More than anyone else. I know it seems a bit redundant when I’ve put up so many names. But well yeah.

25. FINALLY! This was harder than the ones with prompts. If someone has one with prompts send them over.

Keep Cool (I love You)

D.F.