Draco, Marked, a Harry Potter Painting
Movies This Weekend
Watched X-Men First Class the other day. It was fabulous. I wouldn't compare it to The Dark Knight, but it was a very entertaining and successful reboot of the franchise. Overall, besides Beast, I'd say the special effects looked pretty good, especially Mystique, Wasp, and Emma Frost. I have a few complaints, though. 1) The Charles/Erik friendship was not as deep as it could be. 2) This is a reboot, so why are there so many nods to the previous movies that shouldn't be part of the same film universe? It was a little disconcerting. BUT, I understand the inclusion of Wolverine in the "other film nods," because apparently the Wolverine spin-off series is going to continue, and thus Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine still stands.
Did anyone think the dark-skinned white-haired girl in the Cerebro visions was Storm? If so, she's a little young to be Storm in the same timeline.
Anyways. It was a fun movie, and I'll probably be seeing it again.
I also saw KungFu Panda 2, and it made me cry at parts. It was a pretty formulaic film, but absolutely stunning to look at. visuals and graphics were top notch and just spectacularly lush and beautiful.
Annual Computer Hardware Issues; Annual Shout-out to Awesome Dell Service Team
This is actually the second time I'm writing this entry. The first time I deleted because my Dell computer technician came to reinstall different bits of hardware in my laptop, and I just quickly decided to delete the entry instead of saving it.
Oh, and speaking of my laptop: the WLAN card died on Sunday evening (that is, the wireless card lost all function), and because I have Dell Next-Day Service, I got a slew of new parts for it installed today. A technician came to my work to literally gut my laptop and install brand new (1) motherboard, (2) external casing, (3) fan, and (4) WLAN card. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the brand new hardware he installed. It was probably over $800 worth of repairs, labor, and equipment. Not bad for a $250 extended warranty! I burn out something in my laptop at least twice a year, so extended warranty was a must for me.
Now it works like a brand new engine. It pretty much purrs.
New Harry Potter Painting: "Draco, Marked"
Here to unveil my brand new painting, just completed this week.
Title: "Draco, Marked"
Artist: foxestacado
Fandom: Harry Potter
Medium: digital oil painting
Warnings: nudity
Rating: PG-13 (or R for nude version)
Disclaimer: This is an original and copyrighted work of art. Please do not use in icons, banners, wallpapers, manipulations, or edit in any way for personal or commercial use without written permission.
Preview:
So, this painting was originally started as a sketchy study of Draco when I was working on The Power of Your Intense Fragility. I decided later that I could flesh out this study.
Originally, I planned for it to be a plain, nude portrait of Draco, pale skinned and contrasted against a dark drapery, vulnerable, exposing his back to us, his hand clasped to his arm, hiding his Dark Mark from us.
I thought it would be too straightforward, and I felt restless about the idea. I did some research, and decided to take it in a more surreal direction. I painted a beach background, then a desert background, then decided the background should be more ambiguous: neither beach nor desert, an In-Between. Or maybe Limbo. I decided his bare back, his hunched shoulders was enough for vulnerability, and I gave him dark nailpolish for a punkish look. His hair is disheveled and he looks a little scared, yet defiant, and also wary.
I was pretty much finished at one stage, but I kept staring and staring, and thought it was missing *something.* The dramatic sky did not quite "complete" the painting to me, and it was just itchingly off. I decided it was because compositionally, I have Draco just standing in the middle, and there was nothing to break up the composition. I repainted the sky background, and that didn't help.
I had decided to add flying birds, flying out at the audience, soaring full of soul or rapture. But then, I started painting, and it turned into one bird, a big black raven, standing on his shoulder, perfectly bisected by his face.
It felt right. And then I realized, this is Snape's raven. In my head-canon, Snape keeps a raven familiar. It acts as his owl, fetching his letters. Ravens are incredibly smart, much smarter than owls.
This is a turning point of Draco's life. He has carried on the tradition of his father's servitude to the Dark Lord. That servitude was always an abstract idea, but now it is solidified by a Mark on his previously unblemished forearm. The magnitude of what has happened is just now hitting him, and he is uncertain about his future. Snape sent his raven to reassure him, to comfort him.
The nude version:
This painting is one of three new paintings that will be exhibited at Lubricus 2011, in two weeks, in Seattle. There will only be a VERY limited number of the nude version of "Draco, Marked" available. Prints of both versions are available as museum-quality, Fujicolor Crystal Archive prints. Please email me at foxestacado@gmail.com for more details.
Watched X-Men First Class the other day. It was fabulous. I wouldn't compare it to The Dark Knight, but it was a very entertaining and successful reboot of the franchise. Overall, besides Beast, I'd say the special effects looked pretty good, especially Mystique, Wasp, and Emma Frost. I have a few complaints, though. 1) The Charles/Erik friendship was not as deep as it could be. 2) This is a reboot, so why are there so many nods to the previous movies that shouldn't be part of the same film universe? It was a little disconcerting. BUT, I understand the inclusion of Wolverine in the "other film nods," because apparently the Wolverine spin-off series is going to continue, and thus Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine still stands.
Did anyone think the dark-skinned white-haired girl in the Cerebro visions was Storm? If so, she's a little young to be Storm in the same timeline.
Anyways. It was a fun movie, and I'll probably be seeing it again.
I also saw KungFu Panda 2, and it made me cry at parts. It was a pretty formulaic film, but absolutely stunning to look at. visuals and graphics were top notch and just spectacularly lush and beautiful.
Annual Computer Hardware Issues; Annual Shout-out to Awesome Dell Service Team
This is actually the second time I'm writing this entry. The first time I deleted because my Dell computer technician came to reinstall different bits of hardware in my laptop, and I just quickly decided to delete the entry instead of saving it.
Oh, and speaking of my laptop: the WLAN card died on Sunday evening (that is, the wireless card lost all function), and because I have Dell Next-Day Service, I got a slew of new parts for it installed today. A technician came to my work to literally gut my laptop and install brand new (1) motherboard, (2) external casing, (3) fan, and (4) WLAN card. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the brand new hardware he installed. It was probably over $800 worth of repairs, labor, and equipment. Not bad for a $250 extended warranty! I burn out something in my laptop at least twice a year, so extended warranty was a must for me.
Now it works like a brand new engine. It pretty much purrs.
New Harry Potter Painting: "Draco, Marked"
Here to unveil my brand new painting, just completed this week.
Title: "Draco, Marked"
Artist: foxestacado
Fandom: Harry Potter
Medium: digital oil painting
Warnings: nudity
Rating: PG-13 (or R for nude version)
Disclaimer: This is an original and copyrighted work of art. Please do not use in icons, banners, wallpapers, manipulations, or edit in any way for personal or commercial use without written permission.
Preview:
So, this painting was originally started as a sketchy study of Draco when I was working on The Power of Your Intense Fragility. I decided later that I could flesh out this study.
Originally, I planned for it to be a plain, nude portrait of Draco, pale skinned and contrasted against a dark drapery, vulnerable, exposing his back to us, his hand clasped to his arm, hiding his Dark Mark from us.
I thought it would be too straightforward, and I felt restless about the idea. I did some research, and decided to take it in a more surreal direction. I painted a beach background, then a desert background, then decided the background should be more ambiguous: neither beach nor desert, an In-Between. Or maybe Limbo. I decided his bare back, his hunched shoulders was enough for vulnerability, and I gave him dark nailpolish for a punkish look. His hair is disheveled and he looks a little scared, yet defiant, and also wary.
I was pretty much finished at one stage, but I kept staring and staring, and thought it was missing *something.* The dramatic sky did not quite "complete" the painting to me, and it was just itchingly off. I decided it was because compositionally, I have Draco just standing in the middle, and there was nothing to break up the composition. I repainted the sky background, and that didn't help.
I had decided to add flying birds, flying out at the audience, soaring full of soul or rapture. But then, I started painting, and it turned into one bird, a big black raven, standing on his shoulder, perfectly bisected by his face.
It felt right. And then I realized, this is Snape's raven. In my head-canon, Snape keeps a raven familiar. It acts as his owl, fetching his letters. Ravens are incredibly smart, much smarter than owls.
This is a turning point of Draco's life. He has carried on the tradition of his father's servitude to the Dark Lord. That servitude was always an abstract idea, but now it is solidified by a Mark on his previously unblemished forearm. The magnitude of what has happened is just now hitting him, and he is uncertain about his future. Snape sent his raven to reassure him, to comfort him.
The nude version:
This painting is one of three new paintings that will be exhibited at Lubricus 2011, in two weeks, in Seattle. There will only be a VERY limited number of the nude version of "Draco, Marked" available. Prints of both versions are available as museum-quality, Fujicolor Crystal Archive prints. Please email me at foxestacado@gmail.com for more details.