christina's journal

Coming soon. I’ve just realized the importance of fathers in Kick Ass. Mothers are practically non-existent. Dave’s mum died early, Mindy’s died when she was born. Chris’ mum was visible for about one minute, while his dad was the main antagonist. Each was a single child and had a very different relationship with his/her dad. Strangely enough the relationship between Frank and Chris was probably the healthiest. Mindy’s dad was way too involved. And Dave was practically on his own. I think that aloneness is another reason why this movie has such an impact on me.

Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) has inspired me to try to get fit. She said in an interview that she felt so good when she was in great condition. Natasha has been going to the gym a bit too and she also says she feels really good afterwards. She’s older than me so no reason I can’t do something. I’m a bit sick of being so fat and unfit.

I think the theme of justice (or lack thereof) is what’s attracting me to movies at the moment. Fits well with the revenge movies, but also to situations where revenge is not an appropriate response.

I’m really loving the games programming in Flash that I’m working through at the moment. A good combination of my artistic interests and programming skills. I’m turning more towards art that is useful rather than expressive too. Flash games could become my forte.

Watched the movie this weekend and loved it. It has a very similar theme to Lady Snowblood (as far as the character Hit Girl is concerned), and the lead character Kick Ass is actually more in a supporting role similar to Ryuji, including the voice over narration. There are lots of interesting themes in the movie, including the main one from Lady Snowblood – a child (daughter) is raised and trained for vengeance for a crime  committed against the parents.

A main theme for me is the breakdown of law and the need for vigilantism. Ineffective/corrupt cops lead citizens to take the law into their own hands. Interesting to ponder why this theme is important to me. I think it fits with my world view that the most significant relationships in life are fundamentally lawless. What goes on in families – abuse, discrimination – is outside the realm of law. Domestic violence, child abuse, etc are common and rarely vindicated. I guess a lifetime of chronic depression as a result of the family I was raised in makes me somewhat sensitive to these issues.

Kick Ass is fundamentally a war movie. The players are more like soldiers than civilians. Critics disparage the child character Hit Girl as being totally out of place in a movie, while children are being trained to fight in countries across the world, out of necessity. War justifies actions that a peaceful society does not allow.

interactiveStorybook2 – development of the example I posted yesterday. Still just an exercise from the book I’m reading, nothing original.

I’m wondering if it’s worth trying to make some Flash animations or games for teaching purposes. My students certainly seem to spend a lot of their time playing games in class. Perhaps I can make use of that.

Got two dls overnight, now at 1000 dls. My trusty white tablecloth was the 1000th sale. Of course if I included ELs in the count (istock doesn’t) then I made it yesterday, but no matter. That tablecloth is only twelve off a flame too, which will happen in about a month at the current rate. To celebrate I had a small glass of wine with my breakfast of smoked salmon and cream cheese on lightly toasted slices of sourdough baguette, garnished with cornichons and dill.

Meanwhile I’m hoping to get most of the illustrations about position done for Tom and Iliana. I managed three last night, with nine still to do. Getting this job done is mostly about managing my confidence to do it well enough. I hope that someday I’m as confident as I am with my work and my photography.

Later…

So here’s another illo on the cat theme. It’s a bit quicker having some elements already done, and the rest just being variations. That’s six done in the past 24 hours, which is pretty good going.

And here’s another, illustrating the concept far. Guess it could go with quite a few other words too. Suggesting the exact term is not easy. One reason Iliana wanted me to do many of these is that the students couldn’t arrive at the right word from the illustration. Sticking with the cat theme for all these place words.

11.30pm

Done! I’ve finished the dozen illustrations for adverbs (?) of position – on, in, in front of, behind, etc. Very pleased to have got quite a significant job done in a reasonable amount of time. I’ve definitely become much more productive as far as illustration goes. I do feel a lot more confident now.

So here I am with over 1000 dls and over $2000 on istock, and about 50 illustrations done for Tom and Iliana, that they seem pretty happy with. Guess I don’t need to keep working so hard to improve my art. Maybe I can get back to making some progress on those projects at work for a change.

Here are some recent illustrations I’ve done for Tom and Iliana. These have been done in Flash, which is now my preferred tool for this job.

Currently on 998 downloads on istock. Weekends are usually slow, so might be next week before I reach 1000. With the weather warming up slightly I might get back into photography too. I’m quite surprised I’ve continued to sell fairly well in the slow season without uploading new material. Very encouraging for the future.

I’m planning on knocking out some illustrations for Tom and Iliana today. I’m still doing a little bit of study, mostly working through Loomis, but focus has shifted to actually producing some work. One or two people have actually expressed some interest in my work so I’ll post a few to this blog later.