I Have Moved

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Baby Bear Eats Pancakes

I actually like this better than just about everything I've done in the past year. Plan on seeing more like this in the future.

In Progress Octonaut

So a month of two ago I got hired to do an album cover for a band from the UK called The Hubble Constant. Then a bunch of shit got in the way (divorce, money, blah blah blah) and I kindof put it aside for later. But the guys were totally cool about it and have given me an incredibly reasonable deadline and I should be back on track with whole thing. And since Oliver is always hounding me to post something on this blog (thanks man), I figured I'd throw up what I've done so far.

Their idea was to have "an astronaut with loads of tentacles" pulling down the hubble telescope. And best of all they wanted me to actually illustrate it, not composite it in Photoshop. So here's the process so far:

I started off with a quick sketch of how I saw the body position, etc. to make sure the band and I were on the same page:


Next I took the sketch and traced over it and cleaned up the lines on some translucent marker paper (don't ask me why, I never intended to use markers or ink):


Then I decided to do some messy graphite shading to give it some texture and depth. Here's where it is currently:


Next up I will be colorizing it in Photoshop and doing all kinds of trickery. Look forward to it (or don't).

Sketch Blog Entry 002: The Apple

So today at work we had the first of a semi-bi-weekly series of "sketch club" meetings. We had about an hour to do several different excercises drawing an apple. The first half was all about thinking outside the box, then the last half an hour we were supposed to do the best apple we could. I think mine turned out pretty decent for only having 30 minutes.

CD Review - Chasing Victory "Fiends"

Artist: Chasing Victory
[website] [myspace] [purevolume]
Album: "Fiends"
[amazon] [itunes]
Release Date: May 8th, 2007
Label: Mono Vs. Stereo

Rating: [3]good*



Chasing Victory's first album "I Call This Abandonment" held regular rotation on my iPod for several weeks after I purchased it. It was a brand of post-hardcore ala Underoath's "They're Only Chasing Safety": formulaic at times, but all around catchy and solid. When I caught wind of the release of "Fiends", I looked forward to picking it up, hoping that the band would have taken a few steps forward as musicians.

Chasing Victory have definitely branched out in significant ways. Elements from several different genres are present here, and each song has a completely different approach. They have definitely taken a step back from the hardcore side of their sound, but while some of their fans will claim that they are softer, I would argue that they are simply smarter. They choose the screaming parts better, further moving away from the "sing verse, scream chorus" formula.The band is definitely experimenting, but not venturing out far enough from the post-hardcore sound to really be considered experimental or progressive rock. This is good though, not every band can be The Mars Volta , and why would you want them to be?

The difference in Chasing Victory's overall sound comes with an upgrade of Adam Harrell's vocal range and abilities. He brings many different vocal styles to the album, and all of them sound solid. At times, however, his voice slightly resembles several other singers. At other times it sounds so similar that it rides the line between influence and imitation. You'll hear bits and pieces of Sonny Moore (From First To Last), Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die), Daniel Murillo (Lorene Drive), even Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance). It's never over the line enough to fully call shenanigans, but it comes close.

Though "Fiends" has a few faults and mis-steps, overall I think it is a good progression for the band. They have definitely tried to distance themselves from the "core scene", which is always a good move in my opinion. If Chasing Victory improves this much between each album their next release will be amazing.

Best Songs: "King Of The Carp", "Skeleton Key To A Skeleton", "Plague Of Pyros"


*My grading scale:
[5]perfect, [4]great, [3]good, [2]average, [1]bad, [0]awful

Sketch Blog Entry 001: The Sheriff

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of sketch blogs. I'm trying to get back into drawing more often and doing more artwork in my spare time. This is a character design for one of the million games/projects I'm working on. Makes me want to grow a mustache and sling some iron...

Welcome

Welcome to the [ad7m]blog! It's not much yet but it will be soon, I promise! I'm planning on doing a more-or-less weekly sketch post, CD reviews and ranting about whatever else I think anonymous strangers from the web should read.