An Oldie

The short story below hasn't been edited. So don't get on my ass if a comma is out of place or something, geesh.

Snow

By Saw

            Within the sky, there were grey clouds where water vapors were gathering. It was well into wintertime, which suggests that those water vapors will eventually fall as white flakes of snow. Looking up, it seems as if the tension of the incoming snow is becoming unbearable. If the clouds could speak, it would be screaming I’M ABOUT TO BLOW MY LOAD OUT!

*

            Two girls walk among the frozen wasteland of their apartment parking complex. If they weren’t wrapped in layers of clothes, one wouldn’t notice that it was wintertime for it was bleak and grey within the parking lot year around. And Dull. Let’s not forgot that, for the girls are merely walking around within the harsh and dry wind for nothing. Yet, the girls drudged on, seeking for a source of amusement.

*

            Two bare women are kneeling on the carpet, gasping. Soon, they will be done for the day. All that is left is the snow. Waiting, they looked up as Cloud became tenser with each stroke. SOON, screamed Cloud, IT’S COMING!

*

            Finally, enough water vapors had built up. The load was far too heavy to remain within the sky and it must come down. With a gentle stream of breeze, white bits came floating down to the dreadful ground, snowing till the surface was completely covered and then the cloud would move on and dissolve.

*

            Snow covered the two shocked women. Much as children would do during snow, they caught the flakes within their mouth. They gasped. They moaned, as they waited for the snow to stop steaming down. Once Cloud has been exhausted, the women turned toward each other and leaned into each other

*

            Snowball. Building up, getting larger and larger as the two girls pushed it farther. Then, the girls left it and rolled another snowball, smaller than the previous one. And again. With a grunt, they sacked three snowballs on top of each other, with the largest on the bottom. With a furry of hands around the topmost ball, they gave the white ball a face. It was now a snowman with a goofy grin, gazing upon the giggling girls with its coal eyes.

Standing On My Head and Seeing Through My Two Eyes.

Face-vase

An update of sort on my progression in learning how to draw.

I am pleased to announce that it has been moving along nicely. Most of the work so far has been pencil and paper, so I can't exactly show it off. Nevertheless, I've drawn a few nice lookin' hand. Next up, I will be drawing the negative spaces around a chair to draw the chair. Interesting, huh. So far, I've noticed that the shift between my left and right brains is similar to the shift I go through when writing creatively. With that, I'm predicting that learning how to draw will actually help my writing.

I do have some stuff that I did digitally a while ago- nothing original but better than nothing, eh. Here it comes, with comments and shit.

This exercise (Face-vase) is supposed to cause a conflict between the right and left sides of your brain. First, you draw the profile on the left side. Then go over it, thinking about each parts- forehead, eyes, nose, upper lips, etc and what it really means. After that, try to draw the profile on right side. If you do it correctly, you should sorta seize up and become slightly confused. Betty Edwards says that it's because the verbal part (naming) and the drawing part causes a conflict between the right and left sides of your brain. I have no fucking clue if that's correct- there's one thing that was warned to me about this book, that there's pseudoscience within it. Because of that, I'm trying to stay neutral with scientific stuff within the book. 

Actually, it's a straw wrapper in this one.

This is a drawing of my palm, done in five minutes. Actually, the first couple that I did with pencil and paper was my palm. This one is of a straw wrapper. No, I didn't look at it when I was drawing it. The idea that Betty presented is that the left side of the brain doesn't like looking at the details. So, of course, staring intensely at my palm will make it give up and present the reins to the right side. I did notice a difference between the first minutes of drawing and the last minutes. A pleasureable sensation of looking at the details.

Ivan

This is a drawing done upside down. Betty says that looking at stuff allows me to draw as I see it, without thinking about what it is that I'm drawing. I am pleased to say that this was effective, although as you might notice, I ran out of room.

Betty Edwards provided with one reason that many of us are so shitty at drawing. That when we draw, we're actually drawing symbols of what we're trying to see. We see a tree, then draw a symbol of a tree without looking at the tree and drawing the tree itself. Same of the sun, birds, or whatever the fuck you try to draw. For this reason, she says, learning how to draw is actually the matter of learning how to see. Once you know how to see stuff, you will be able to draw something better than wavy lines for water and M's for birds flying across the sky. 

Landscape.

The Book Binge: The Books in Question With Summary and Mini-Reviews.

This post shall be a record of Sawyer Willis' book binge that took place during Winter Break of '10/'11. The following titles will also have a brief summary and a quick review. If the title in question hasn't been read yet, the review shall go up before Spring '11 semester starts up again. Without further rambling, the following titles are (in order of purchase):


Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist, Will Eisner.
(Not yet completed.) A book that goes into techniques and theories used in comics. Part of a trilogy on cartooning by Will Eisner. 


The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards.
(In progress.) A drawing book recommended by many people. Many of the exercises in this book are used in art classes across the country. This book says that it doesn't teach the reader how to draw, but more rather, how to see. I am currently recording my thoughts and progress as I go through this book on this blog.

Percy Gloom is hungry.

Percy Gloom, Cathy Malkasian.
(Second reading required.) This graphic novel follows Percy Gloom as he seeks out his dream job. Plenty of pondering about death and existential stuff in this book. Because of the themes, this will require a second read through before I can give a review. Although, I can say that the artwork is excellent.


What It Is, Lynda Barry.
(Yet to arrive.) It's a graphic novel about creative writing, it seems. I got this book because of an excellent interview of Lynda Barry. 


What I Did., Jason.
This is a collection of three comics by Jason, Hey, Wait... , Sshhhh! , and The Iron Wagon. Jason uses simple and clean artwork to tell stories through anthropomorphic animals. This does not lessen the emotional impact of the stories, if anything, it makes it stronger. This follows Scott McCloud's theory from Understanding Comics: that we are able to relate to simpler images more than realistic images.

Hey, Wait...

The first one, Hey, Wait... follows two boys and something happens to one boy after the they form a Batman Fan Club. Sshhh! is slightly more confusing than the first story. Far as I can tell, it follows a bird-man through his life, and apparently, several deaths. The whole story is wordless, leaving the images to tell the story. Very effectively at that. The Iron Wagon is an adaption of a 1909 mystery novel. It's a mystery. I'm not gonna spoil it, however I feel that this is the weakest story of three. However, the first two were still good enough for me to purchase the next four books...


The Left Bank Gang, Jason.
(Yet to arrive.) The premise is that F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and other literary giants are living in Paris. And they are comic writers. The latter half of the book is of them robbing banks. Interesting, no?


Almost Silent, Jason.
(Yet to arrive.) A collection of four comics by Jason. You Can’t Get There From Here is about a "love triangle involving Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Monster’s Bride" (Amazon). Tell Me Something seems to be about a love lost and found again, with plenty of flash backs. Meow, Baby! is a collection of short stories by Jason. The Living and the Dead is a deadpan take on zombies.

No explanation needed.

Low Moon, Jason.
(Yet to arrive.) A collection of five deadpan short stories.


I Killed Adolf Hitler, Jason.
(Yet to arrive.) A hitman from the future is hired to time travel in the past to kill Adolf Hitler. And of course, the plan gets fucked up.


Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse.
(Not yet completed.) An existential novel. Something about a sick intellectual being unhappy and all that shit. 


Keep an eye on this space for reviews and more books (maybe)! Hooray for books and bibliophilism (erotic moan).