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While browsing eBay I came across the Wacom DTU-710 table, and was lucky enough to win the auction, saving around $2500 off the RRP :)

What is the Wacom DTU-710? The official word is: The Wacom DTU-710 Interactive Pen Display combines an LCD monitor with a Wacom tablet. This gives you a direct point-and-draw-on-screen interface that can be used with a PC or Macintosh computer:

It arrived on Thursday night and I’ve already got to set aside some time to “ink” one of my previous pencil drawings. Very easy to do and I’m very happy with it. Check out the result:

Ah, the classic line from the Terminator franchise, and with the Australian release of Terminator Salvation this week (an extra 2 weeks after the states), it served as the inspiration for my next illustration: an endoskeleton T-800. The difference with this illustration compared to my previous ones is that the reference was a photo, rather than another illustration. I’m very pleased with the result:

In regards to the Terminator Salvation movie, I went and watched it release night. My overall impression of the movie is that it was OK, but not great. I felt it started too slow, and didn’t find Christian Bale’s “Tough Guy” voice at the beginning too convincing. It just seemed forced and not natural. The movie did pick up momentum as the movie progressed and resulted in a not bad movie overall. I’ll watch it again, but I’ll be waiting for DVD to do so. I give it 3/5 stars.

In the lead up to this release, I watch the previous terminator movies. T2: Judgement Day is my favourite and it is just amazing what they were able to do with the special effects technology back in 1991!

While listening to the Ninja Mountain Scrolls podcast, one of the presenters mentioned a tool called Manga Studio. I checked it out and it looks like a cool tool, so I decided to give it a go and was impressed with how easy it was to trace over the original image. I’ve tried tracing images before in Adobe Illustrator, and found it rally painful, and unproductive. I’ll definitely be playing more with Manga Studio. Here is the result (Click on the ink image for a clearer result):

For more Manga Studio, check out MangaStudio.net

Ninja Mountain Scrolls is a fantasy/science fiction illustration podcast, hosted by a loose collective of artists working in the fields of fantasy and science fiction.

Well, I haven’t been doing as much illustration as I would have liked, but I have a few more that I’ve been working on. Here they are:

Here is an unfinished sketch of Sabretooth. I got bored of it and couldn’t be bothered finishing it. I might get to it one day. Referenced from the cover of Astonishing X-Men 02 by Joe Madureira:

Here is a sketch of Magneto. Referenced from Astonishing X-Men 01 by Joe Madureira:

And to get into the spirit of the upcoming Transformers move, an old school Optimus Prime. Referenced from Transformers - All Hail Megatron 011 by Guido Guidi:

That is all for now. I’m thinking a Terminator picture next.

There was a little hiccup to my weekend plans, which is usually the case when your car gets stolen. Yep, that’s right! When I got back to the station after work on Friday night the car was gone! Don’t worry too much, it wasn’t the Subaru, rather it was the old 1981 Mazda 323 that has become known as the “train station car” as that is all it is used for.

So this is how it played out:

I get off the train, start walking towards where the car should be and it isn’t there. So I kept walking further down just in case I was mistaken and I had parked it further away from the platform than I remembered, but alas, it was gone!

I call Susan (the boss woman I answer to in fear. AKA: The Wife) to tell her the car is gone and to come pick me up. I then call the in-laws to tell them I will be late ‘cos the car was stolen and if they can give me the number for the local police station.

I call the police station and start going through the whole deal about the car being gone and go through the details of it until the question “What is the numberplate?” is asked, which I didn’t know. So I’m told that to call back once I find out what it is, ask to speak to “<insert constable’s name here>” and continue with the report.

The Wife eventually get there (traffic was shite) and she knows the number plate. I call the cops again, finish the report and go home. The police tell me that if the car turns up, they’ll give me a call, regardless of what time it is. I change and leave for the in-laws for dinner.

I get home later on, and call the insurance. We begin going through the details and then the operator stops and asks if I can be put on hold for a minute. When she comes back she informs me that the policy is not covered for theft and that there is nothing she can do about it, apologies and end the call. I check my records and oops, I paid the wrong amount and only had third party insurance :(

The wife is shitty (it’s all my fault), then I’m shitty, and I begin watching the footy. Hawthorn are winning, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. At half time I go to the police station and pick up the report.

Saturday morning I’m not feeling as bad and come to accept that the car is gone and hope that it doesn’t cost too much to recover the car if it turns up and start planning on cancelling the registration and the insurance. Decided to wait a week before I do anything in the event the car turns up and it is salvageable and can resume its role as the “train station car”. I even joked that maybe it will turn up with a new set of wheels :)

Sunday morning at around 2:30am the police call to let us know they have found the car in the car park of Broadmeadows Shopping centre. They also advised that we should go pick it up straight away so that it doesn’t get stolen again (who would have guessed this type of think would happen in Broadmeadows). I asked what condition the car was in and they said it looks OK. Decided to wait until morning so we can look the car over before getting in. There could be a concealed syringe that we wouldn’t see at night. What are the chances that the car get stolen twice in 2 days, but being Broadmeadows, the chances were high. I risked it anyway.

Come Sunday morning I look up the directions to Broadmeadows shopping centre and we make our way down. The car is there sitting in the car park in more or less the same state it was, just parked nicely in one of the bays like a regular shopper would park their car. No real damage, only the driver side lock where they would have used a screw driver or something similar to force the lock open. No new tires :(

We check the car over and it is fine. Start it up and there is about the same amount of petrol in the tank left. So my theory is someone needed to get from St.Albans to Broadmeadows and they decided the our car would do the trick.

So there you go, the Saga of the Stolen Car. Not a bad outcome, but a major inconvenience. To the thief, a big FUCK YOU is in order. May karma come back and ARSE RAPE you next time you’re in prison.

The next marvel movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie has been leaked online, almost a whole month before it hits theatres! I’ve been looking forward to watching this move for a while and can’t wait till I can go watch it at the cinemas (Too bad its not at IMAX). I wonder what effect this will have on Box-Office numbers. The torrent sites had massive numbers showing for the number of down loaders. I’ll still be going to the cinemas to watch it though.

The “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie has inspired my next image, but rather than focusing on the binding of the Adamantium to Wolverine’s bones, this images is from the Fatal Attractions event when Magneto tears the Adamantium out of Wolverine’s skeleton. This begins the Bone Claws era of the Wolverine timeline.

Nuff of that; here it is:

The Original

  
My go

The original reference image was from X-Men #25 (Page 42), and the original artists were: Andy Kubert (Penciler), Matt Ryan (Inker) and Joe Rosas (Colourist).

The latest addition is an image of Magneto, the original X-Men bad guy (but actually a good guy from the source of this image: The Age of Apocalypse):

The Original

My go

The original reference image was from the cover of The Astonishing X-Men #1, and the original artists were: Joe Madureira (Penciler) and Tim Townsend (Inker).

I really like style, not overly complex (like Jim Lee and Andy Kubert), but still very visually appealing. I need to look into more of Joe Madureira’s work.

By the power of Greyskull Charles Sturt University... I have the power Masters certificate!

That's right, after years of study (and avoiding study), I have finally graduated and now have a Masters of Systems Development from Charles Sturt University. This course was studied via distance education, where I found keeping focused and getting motivated the most challenging part. If I ever am to undertake further university study, it won’t be via distance education.

The course content wasn’t too challenging as it was inline with the work profession I’ve been in for the last 8 years or so (and lets face it, I’m fucking awesome!). The best part of the course was that 50% of the content were Microsoft Certifications. So now I have both a Masters degree and am a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer, something I’ve wanted to achieve for a few years now. I now hold the following Microsoft certifications:

• MCPD: .NET Framework 2.0 Enterprise Applications
• MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
• MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
• MCTS: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications
• MCTS: SQL Server 2005

Time for the photographic evidence:

Me with the certificate

Me talking to the Chancellor looking all Star Wars like. (I know he’s evil, but I didn’t have a light sabre with me :P)

BTW: For the unawares, “Master of the Universe” and “Power of Greyskull” puns are from He-Man.

This past weekend the Supanova Pop Culture Expo was on in Melbourne and I was super excited to go. This is the third “Pop Culture” expo that I’ve been to, but this time I decided to dress up for a bit of fun. I wasn’t too brave to get some super crazy spandex style costume, so I came up with my take of the Movie version of Wolverine (totally bad ass I know):

Here is the claws on their own:

All up, I had fun walking around with the claws (although I had to be careful not to get caught on anything or poke anyone's eyes out unintentionally). Some old lady wanted a a photo with me and some other guy wanted the claws at the end of the day (but I decided to keep them so I can chase the dog with them).

Thanks goes out to Brendon (whoever you are) for giving me the idea.

Watch out Hugh Jackman, you may be the current Wolverine in the X-Men movies, but I’m coming...

The latest addition is a picture of Hulk vs Wendigo (Sourced from a Wolverine issue, who would have guessed :S ):

 
The Original

  
My go

The original reference image was from Wolverine Origins #28 (Page 11 & 12), and the original artists were: Mike Deodato (Artist) and Rain Beredo (Colourist).

Next up: A few more pencil drawings and then I’ll start inking them. The ultimate goal is to develop my own style and be able to create my own original works of art. Then there is colour, not my strong point, but something I want to develop.