always...The Hours

Back from a long and "fruitful" vacation. I have finally made some definite progress with my technique, I've managed the figure out how to blend the skin tones quite perfectly. The trick it seems, was not the complete absence of lines - as I have thought earlier - but integrating them so well so that one does not stand out too prominently (thereby making your drawing more cartoonish than realistic). There's also something about the borders - people don't have "line borders" after all. I'm quite satisfied with my present work (Maximus from Gladiator was turning out better than I expected - looks like a photograph - , as well as a supremely detailed Angelina Jolie portrait - down to the sweat, the freckles, and yes, the pores, the technique was to do it inch by inch and without hurrying). I might achieve "photo realism" after all, without resorting to more expensive materials (the price of the bristol pencil set was, as expected, astronomical - i'm not too sure if I could manage to afford it, as of now.) I made a J-Lo portrait earlier (just to see if i could manage), but I committed it to the trash bin after a while, hardly seems worth the pencil.

I rented three movies for the holidays. "The Hours" (succeeding paragraphs),"Aishte Imasu" (quite a fine film, once you get past the squeamish-ness and the prejudice, you might actually enjoy it) and "Blood Work" (not too excited about this one, the "killer" thing was easy to spot coming from a mile away, but the fact that it HAS Clint Eastwood, makes up for all the "cons").

We also had the "spaghetti thing" in celebration of my brother's birthday (Oct. 30). I've gotten those Hellsing CDs at last - first six episodes - liked "Sword Dancer" the best, as well as "Innocent as a Human". Great musical score too (very "gothic" - haunting piano tunes and equally haunting vocals - they're more like "chants" actually - superimposed with/to angry guitars, always a nice combination). "Logos Naki World" - A world without logos, might also be translated as "a world without God" - mostly gibberish, but you get the "gist" after a while, is starting to grow on me - although I liked the ending theme "Shine" first). Japanese subtitles, the translations were not bad (at least they used "proper" english). Quite violent and with touches of black humour - NOT for everyone. I'm still missing 4 CDs (13 episodes - 7 cds). Can't wait to see "Master of Monster" (easily the best episode, or so I've read) ^__^

Right. Where was I?

I'm giving a "blurb" review of "The Hours" (recently added to my "favourite films" list).