Magazine Envelopes

I have been making envelopes out of old magazines I got at the thrift shop today. I really really rather love it.
I sent out some mail today that was in plain enelopes from the store, and I bought an extra one to use as a template and have been sitting here making envelopes since. It is so much fun and I cant wait to use these!

Here are some of my favourites:

The Voyage of the Dawntreddar (Slight spoiler warning) + Tangled

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawntreddar
I didnt hold out much hope for Voyage of the Dawntreddar, based on the fact that I really wasnt terribly impressed with the first two in the Hollywoodised Chronicles of Narnia.
I need to preface by saying that I love the Narnia books, and I also grew up on the BBC version Narnia movies that nobody seems to have heard of.
From a modern standpoint, the old movies really dont age well. The effects are absolutly terrible, but that aside, I appreciate the way they are very accurate to the books in both storyline and the way they protray the characters, which the Disney movies just.... werent.

However, Disney dropped the franchise and Fox picked it up for VotDT, and Fox has done a much better job at it. While Disney decided to gloss over and remove the christian alligorical aspects, Fox largely kept them in. In fact Fox went to the other extreme and the movie came off fairly preachy from a non-christian perspective, with characters repeadedly making statements like "You just need to have faith. :)"
Im sure other critics are going to rip the movie to shreds on that point, but to me it makes sence. I dont think its fair to come down on a christian author writing a christian series for saying christian things.

The movie did make a few silly changes that, clearly the creators thought would make it more dramatic from a cinima perspective. While in the original the journey is mearly to find the seven missing lords, this was apparently not exciting enough, so they took the Island of Nightmares and ran with it, making the central point of the film to find the Seven Swords of Aslan that the Lords carried so they could put them all on Aslans table, thus destroying the spell of the dark island. Well... okay, whatever. I get you needed to make it more exciting to disillusioned modern audiances. But it didnt disrupt the core of the story too much, and wasnt a major distractor.

Lucy and the beautificiation spell was handled...interestingly. While in the book the spell would have merely taken Susan beauty away from her and given it to Lucy, in this version, the spell actually turns Lucy into Susan and erases Lucy from existance.
This appears to make it much more intense and dramatic, but the effect is that it actually dramatically changes what the problem was with this. While in the book, Lucy is rebuked by Aslan for harboring jealousy and vanity, in this movie she is chided for undervaluing herself.

Eustice was brilliantly played. First half of the movie you completly hate the little snot, he plays the part very well. And I have to say, the scene where Aslan turns him back into a human was beautifull. There are aspects of the original movies take on that scene that I still perfer... namely, Aslans calm quiet voice saying "Its not enough.....I must do it for you."
This version instead has no dialoge, and instead just shows Eustice make an attempt at scraping the dragon skin off of himself, and then Aslan tears it off for him. The visuals were actually very powerfull, and I think that it came out well.

And I couldnt write about VotDT without touching on this versions Reepacheep. Reepacheep was everything you would want him to be, loyal, honoral, brave and noble. Both voice and animated beautifully, and his interactions with Eustice were very fun to watch.

All in all I really quite enjoyed this movie. I felt it did its best to but the christian aspects back in while still making it entertaining from a non-christian audiances perspective, and I really appreciate that. Not everyone will be happy that the christian aspects are less glossed over, but I am.
Character interactions and attitudes were also much more in keeping with the original books. I hate to come down on Disney, but Fox just... did it better.


Tangled

Ill spare you the usually "Im getting tired of 3D animation" speech from here on out. The fact is: 3D animation is here to stay, american film has largely abandoned traditional animation, and thats just the way its going to be.
That said, this movie is gorgeous. You can tell that an awfull lot of talent and work went into this. The backgrounds are breathtaking, everything is rendered to perfection. The charcter designs are spectacular... and Rapunzel is just the cutest little long haired sheltered naive heroine ever.

This is I think going to stand the test of time as one of Disneys great classics. The story is very beautifully told, and fits right in with all of the other Disney princesses.
Rapunzel, while being as stated very sheltered and naive, is unique in totally not being helpless at all. This girl will kick some ass with her frying pan, I tell you.
It also includes one of the most memorable animal sidekicks; the cameleon is absolutly adorable and hilarious. Never talks, but my word the animators did some brilliant work with facial expressions alone.

The villainess is very well done, and what was even more interesting is her relationship with Rapunzel, who belives her to be her mother.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys fairy tales and disney princess movies, to anyone who enjoys animation, music, or romance.

Robots on Horseback (/DeDraMo)

I did a bunch of robot mascots for a local band named "Robots on Horseback"... these are part of a banner project for their website, this isnt all there will be but its what Iv got so far.

You can check out the website at http://www.robotsonhorseback.com/

DeDraMo 2010 02

Falling in love with the Zine Scene

I'v always been a lover of books, since way way back.

The time before way way back, I remember being very behind the rest of the children my age in reading. I remember realising that I was still taking picture books out of the library, while everyone else had graduated to "chapter books". But I also remember the very first series of novels to grab hold of me and not let go -- Nancy Drew. I devoured Nancy Drew books and from that point on I skyrocketted ahead of my class in reading; I was a voracious reader and I would spend long hours into the night, and even through class much to my teachers displeasure, reading novels.

Mystery novels were my first love. I read slice of life books, Anne of Green Gables and others of her ilk. Later on when I read Lord of the Rings, my mind began to expand and realise that non-reality was much more creativly engaging then reality, and I read science fiction and fantasy. Then, something magical happened and I discovered graphic novels, comic books, manga, and superheros.
The combination of art and text to me was a stroke of pure genious. Animation and comic books became a fascincation for me as I had a great appreciation for the time and effort and skill involved in creating such a thing, from an artists perspective.

Manga was my first comic love. But I quickly expanded to american comics, appreciating the strange and wonderfull stylistic differences.
But as I went through more and more of both I began to realise that I was seeing much of the same things over and over again. So here I started to look for independant comics. Comics published at home on photocopiers. Comics done by people like me; my age, with their own distinct style, and their own stories to tell. Comics that didnt have the backing of a big publishing company.

So I bought my first few comic zines. I instantly fell in love with them. With the entire idea that there were people out there publishing their own comics, in styles that didnt fit into the other comic genres. Interesting artwork that I had never seen before. All of it was enchanting. Because of my encounter with this, I sought out the zine communities. I wanted to self publish my own comics.

And then, upon entering their online spheres, I came in contact with all sorts of other underground press movements. Magazines, music reviews, poetry books, short stories, artwork, comics.... and all or most of it activistic, political, opinionated, creative, strange. Compliation zines of numerous peoples thoughts on a topic, or a zine of one persons vacation trip with illustrations, each book representing a unique individual who was putting their voice out there, wanting to be heard, wanting to express.

Uncensored and raw, these are peoples voices in print format. These are a rejection of the media and a creation of a new, more honest media. DIY culure unleashed! Its rather spectacular, and powerfull, the peoples ability to create their own culture and their own underground media movement. I am blown away by the force of such a movement.

I have no intention of abandoning traditional print. My book collection will continue to be added too, shelves filling with great published authors and artists.
But now my shelves have a new collection, small, but growing. Of things that publishing houses would likely not spare a second glance at, but I have.

DeDraMo 2010 01

Its time for DeDraMo! This time Im actually going to try to keep up with it. One drawing a day! I cant promise they will be good drawings. But here you have it. And a fanart of Burungel to kick things off.