Welp time to be a useless piece of shit and ink in all these pages!

Tron Legacy Quickie Review!

TRON LEGACY-

Well this sucker finally came out, with a ridiculous number of people waiting in anticipation. 

The original Tron was a film done by Disney in 1982, signaling a new age were CGI and people could exist in the same movie. While being a commercial success, it also had a cult following that saw the TRON universe expand into multiple genres and brands.

This seemingly could only hold off the inevitable return of TRON to films. The recent trend of taking older films that were either popular or sold well and giving them the new and "improved" gritty feel doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. So long as Hollywood has no more ideas they'll just redo whats worked before, the best we can hope for is that competent directors and writers get to make these new iterations. And TRON LEGACY has got this in spades.

TRON LEGACY is a good film, I'll be the first one to say and defend that. This film draws you into the world of TRON and keeps you there. 

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

The film starts with an intro of characters, the main hero, and does a decent job of build up to the TRON factor of the film. Once the main hero gets into The Grid all hell breaks lose and the main plot is shown, and the story starts. 

The story isn't terrible amazing, but it keeps you with it by using the action and characters as a guide to the final destination. This is were the film shines, it doesn't beat you over the head with technical stuff, but still keeps you informed while letting you just enjoy the ride. 

That being said I had one major gripe with the film:

WHY WASN'T TRON IN HIS OWN FILM?

The "star" was barely involved with his own story! We get a flashback with him in it, and then he's the loyal drone of CLU for the rest of the movie, until he snaps at the end and helps the users from being taken out, then HE DIES

WHAT? 

I understand that they wanted to make him a bad guy, but they didn't add enough character to this fallen hero, so by the time he died for the good guys, I felt nothing for his death. I was really confused and then disappointed, but I didn't think once "at least he did good in the end" like it feels like they were trying to tell you. Even a silent anti-hero like himself could be shown to have a conflict of personality leading up to his eventual return to his good side, rather than snapping so out out of the blue that I was temporarily taken out of the film.

The film is iconic, fast paced, and action packed. A great film with one thing that made me double take, but was quickly forgotten because I was focusing on all the amazing things going on screen.

If you are going to see this I highly recommend watching it in Imax! Daft Punk's songs shine so brilliantly with the greatest sound system you can get, and visuals are a delight as well!

Paul Mccartney on John Lennon

Paul McCartney Played on SNL tonight with Paul Rudd, now for those who don't know, John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980, and many are paying there respects and remembering John and his colleagues work, including Paul McCartney

Paul played a total of three songs on SNL last night, and they did not go off well at first. The first song, "Jet" by Paul had some serious audio issues, Paul was hard to hear, and to an even lesser extent the rest of the bands' singing. Their second song "Band on the Run" had a much better play, and sounded just as good coming from Paul now as it did when he first did the song.

By this time me and my dad were starting to worry there wasn't going to be any acknowledgment to John from Paul. Our assumptions didn't mean Paul had a duty to do if for us fans, but from one close friend to another, it seemed in bad taste to end this rare chance to celebrate and remember John live in front of millions. 

That fear quickly dissolved when Paul got to do a third and final song.

This was a mix of "A Day In The Life" that turned into "Give Peace a Chance". A fantastic live cross of songs that made me and my father smile with a nostalgia that hasn't taken place in a long time. Congratulations to all the cast of SNL and Paul McCartney for making a great night of and for John.

My dad's favorite quote from John is "Life is what happens while you're making plans". Hold on to the ones you love, cause they are what make life worth livin'.

Rest in Peace John, you deserve it

Jamming the fuck out of some Daft Punk Tron Legacy OST, it's one of the greatest things ever (like you didn't already know)

Hi Connor,

I know from my own personal experience that sometimes all the advice in the world can’t really help you figure out how to improve your drawing.  Sometimes you just have that feeling that something’s missing and all you can do is keep searching for whatever it is.  So you keep practicing and practicing and studying other artists and eventually you forget what you were looking for, because it wasn’t really something specific except a desire to improve yourself.

I am also color-blind (I inherited my poor vision from my grandfather on my mom’s side, but luckily also his lack of balding).  There are lots of times where I have thought of it as a hindrance, but it has actually turned out to be quite an advantage.  One of the first things people always compliment me on is my color sense, which is quite amusing.  My limited color vision allows me to pick what are apparently bizarre color combinations that are interesting to people with normal vision.  I’ve also learned to deal with it by using very limited colors, which people also find interesting.  For instance, sometimes I decide that instead of adding a new color to a composition like blue,  I’ll just make all of the blue stuff green and I’ll end up with green oceans and green skies.  To me it looks normal, and to other people it looks “intriguing”.

As far as artists, I wouldn’t know who to recommend, because there are very few universal artists who I think everyone should study.  Your tastes and interests are what will shape you as an artist, and you shouldn’t blindly study whatever work people tell you is good.  Just because something is in a museum doesn’t mean you have to like it.  I’ve seen quite a few things in museums that I didn’t care for.  One of the most important things you can do as an artist is figure out what you like, and no one can help you with that.

Good luck with everything!

- kevin

 This was a personal response I got from Kevin Dart, one of my favorite artists of all time. I had received this and read it during one of my classes while my teacher started to prattle off course from the subject she teaches (for the millionth time). I have been going through some tough personal decisions and mini-breakdowns as an artist this past month. This isn't anything new or uncommon, but I thought I'd try something new and reach out to professionals and artists that I respect highly, Kevin Dart came first to my mind. Roughly a week after e-mailing, I get this message from him.


This is easily one of the greatest bits of advice I've ever received. Now I'm not gonna deny, this is virtually nothing new that I haven't heard before. But to hear from Kevin Dart himself in his own words forces my brain to absorb it so much more attentively! Also it blew me away that he has color problems too!


And you know what? I feel more confident, I may not be professional in any sense, or have god-like artistic abilities, but I'm happy with what I've made and that has created a world of difference. I was afraid getting the advice of "follow the artists you like, don't feel like you have to study everything someone gives you" would make me think I had a golden ticket to shut myself out of the things I didn't like in art; but it has done the exact opposite! I seem to take things slower, and with a more open mind. I don't know why but it's like I'm seeing things again in another light. 


I can't thank Kevin Dart enough for these fantastic words of wisdom!


Expect some new posts with the examples of my art after reading this soon

Some fun with colors!

Some fun I had with testing out colors in real world scenarios
Critiques always welcome, especially with my paintings, lord knows I need advice!

Rest in piece Leslie Neilsen, you made me laugh all the way to the end :C