My Blu Ray DVD Wish List

What's up, readers? How are things in Lockdown/ Quarantine? Like I have to ask, right? I know. Me too. So  I had an idea to share my tastes in movies. Hope you like 'em!! These are in no particular order, just some things I would like to have!

Treasure Island (2012) – Now I appreciate that this version of Treasure plays remarkably fast and loose with the book, but I’d have to say, having watched it several times, that this is what gives the particular rendition of Treasure its charm. It is in many ways what I would call an historic masterpiece. For the folks that think Pirates of the Caribbean is realistic, it is so not. No to knock Pirates. They’re entertaining films, but historic pirates weren’t pretty people, nor were they ‘scoundrels who earn the approval of others,’ yet another used and literally abused movie theme. I mean I love a good swashbuckler movie as well as anybody, and we own several of them, including Yellowbeard, Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Cutthroat Island, Don Juan (Errol Flynn), mot to mention several more we have yet to own such as Black Swan (Tyrone Power; 1942). But what makes Treasure Island unique, among such others in its genre, is its realism. The pirates in treasure are despicable, murderous criminals, led by the disabled swindler John Silver, played to the hilt by Eddie Izzard. Fantastic film. Really. Check it out!

The Devil Rides Out (1968) – Most of my followers probably hate old horror films like this Hammer Studios cult classic, but ever since I started taking electives at Flo Valley (St. Louis Community College: Florissant Valley campus), I developed a love for these vintage and chiefly British productions with such renowned actors as Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Charles Gray (it’s just a jump to the left). My love for these films is of course thanks to a certain professor who ran them in class. They’re wonderful films and I already own many of them, but they’re not anything like today’s horror films, where everything seems to revolve around how much blood, violence, torture and nudity will fit into a 2.5 hour film. Not to knock new horror, I’m sure plenty of people prefer it nowadays, but I’ve long since outgrown Slashers, and I never was into ‘torture porn,’ as Stephen King coined it. I think I’ll stick with old horror and slow burners like The Witch (2015). But what really gets me in Devil Rides Out is the eerie appearance of Baphomet! That was strictly practical effects, and probably something many would consider campy, by today’s standards. Sure, it’s not CGI, but what great theater. Chilling entertainment!

Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979) – Thanks to director and storyteller Robert Rodriguez, and his television channel El Rey, I have a newfound love and appreciation for martial arts films, exclusively Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films. Mad Monkey Kung Fu is a Chinese late ‘70’s work of art, and director and actor Lau Kar-leung is incredible as the youthful braggart framed for murder, beaten, crippled, and turned into a vengeful teacher of Monkey Kung Fu. Man, what a great movie! Kar-leung and actor Hsiao Ho are a wicked pair, together! And as always, there is that patented Shaw Brothers training sequence! What moves! That combined with Shaw Brothers choreography makes this film a jewel in the Shaw Brothers crown! Well, to me it does. Damn, I’m going to have to watch this again!! It’s a great, fun, popcorn-binging Kung Fu revenge film! Never misses a beat...or a beatdown!

The Shaolin Drunken Monk (1982) – Gordon Liu!!!!!!!! What a fantastic martial artist and actor. Admittedly, this film is typically considered a bust, but thanks to my appreciation of Jackie Chan’s portrayal of the intoxicated immortal throwback Lu Yan, in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), I am now a Drunken Fist addict!!! For me, this film is all about actor Gordon Liu’s work as the title character! Great film, plenty of wicked fighting sequences and my personal fave, the awesome Drunken Monk training sequence! I just really dig this film!

Outlaw King (2018) – Like many Gen X-ers I discovered my love for thematic war dramas through films like Braveheart (1995). Outlaw King is a sweeping epic film about the rise of Scottish king Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, who was crowned King of Scotland from 1306 until his death in 1329. Though this film is probably not very historically accurate, it makes up for it through the beautifully told saga of the recently married Robert and Elizabeth Bruce, both of whom fight very different battles against English tyranny, for Scottish independence. Long story short, if you like movies like Braveheart, were people get decapitated and run though often, you’ll like this one just as much. I think.

Voltron: Legendary Defender (the Complete Series) – I admit it. At first, I really didn’t want this semi-reboot series to exist! As is often the case among we Gen X-ers, I too grew up with what is best described as the patented 80s ‘made-for-children’ version of Voltron. That would be Voltron: Defender of the Universe, to be specific. Granted, it had been a long time since I had seen Defender of the Universe, and was largely relying on my childhood memories. When I found and purchased Defender of the Universe again, I came away still loving it, though the experience was a trifle bittersweet. When Netflix came into my life, I gave Legendary Defender a whirl, and...while I didn’t agree with every change they made, I can honestly say Legendary Defender is by far the best ‘westernized version’ of Beast King GoLion to this date! It is an extraordinary reboot, and one that was masterfully done, keeping true (mostly) to the original storyline and character archetypes, while adding all sorts of newly designed eye-candy gems for today’s Anime loving audience. I can’t wait to own the entire series!!

Now, if only I had a magic wand or an indispensable Genie that can fetch me all of these! Kidding! Kidding. 😂 Thanks for reading, stay safe and be well!! Later!

SLiM

Rock Guy Monster Dude Thing

Here we go again. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because the house’s other occupant binges TV reruns all day (not assigning blame), and I find myself watching more than my share of them. Or maybe it’s due to the elephant in the corner of the room. The one with a mask on his face, and nitrile exam gloves on his...feet. What? It could happen. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s this house itself. Or maybe it’s the city. But whatever the reason, whatever the cause, I find myself back in the past again. Like a broken record, constantly replaying that same fraction of a melody, over and over again.

Anyway, I was looking at previous images, and stumbled upon this humorous little gem. I sculpted this sort of meteorite character out of fluorescent green Super Sculpey on aluminum armature wire, back in Spring or Summer of 2007. My initial purpose was to create a figurine a small child might play with, such as the popular Imaginext line. I was also thinking about something kids could be somewhat rough with, such as wrestling figures. I clearly remember a Galoob line of WWF Thumb-wrestling figures kids could control, by sticking their thumb in the figure’s back! I think I was going for a similar pose. It’s a shame I didn’t work harder on it. I don’t know what possessed me to give it that...immovable arm-spike...thingy.

This week, I did the action figure blister card art in...you guessed it...Adobe Photoshop. You sound surprised. I also created a symmetrical version of the original sculpt in ‘Shop, considering the original was pretty much garbage. Added a loincloth (no, that’s not rock-guy pubic hair), gave it a harness and a nifty stone club, Posterized it, and created the background from scratch.

There are some shades of He-Man here, especially the Blue/Red-Violet sky. I dig it. Hope you do too. Anyhow, thanks for reading, as always. Stay safe and be well!!!! Images below. All images Copyright © Stephen L. Morris 2020

SLiM

Deconstructing A Haunted House

In 2006, while still in college, I started a project on my own, pretty much as an excuse to do it. Initially I had the idea of a haunted 12” dollhouse. This was before such things were available to the public, so no Monster High, just yet. It would have been wise to do a posh, spooky quasi Addams Family mansion, complete with all the bells and whistles one would come to expect, but I was troubled by that idea, because up to then I had never made anything so large.

Instead of being brave and trying to pull off the build of an actual mansion, I chose the easy path, opting for a simpler structure, that of a dilapidated farm house. I labored over the house off an on for several years, all the while with a faint idea in the back of my head. A story about a half-dead, crazed doctor / wizard, the last of a humble village that had been wiped out by the magic of an evil entity was a constant companion to the house’s construction. I had foreseen it as a stop-motion short film. It’s an idea I still love and still very much want to do, some day.

But the trouble with lofty dreams and ideals is they require a great deal of dedication and a massive work ethic. By 2008, I had neither of these, having recently discovered online gaming and consequently spent less and less time in pursuit of completion the house.

By 2012, I made the decision to move in with my recently widowed father to help him cops, and simultaneously escape my life in the Midwest. Part of this decision involved leaving the house behind, though I promised myself I would some day move it down to the Keys and finish the project.

Fast-forward to 2020, and here I am taking the house apart. It has been a bittersweet journey with this project, and I’m currently at a standstill. While I desperately want to keep it and move it to the Florida house, I fear that it wouldn’t survive, even if I’d mailed it. The other problem is I’ve changed, and the house is no longer a representation of myself as an artist. So here I am, trying to make a conscientious decision about a project I have long since outgrown, yet put a lot of time and labor into making. What to do?

If I mail it to myself, I risk the possibility of it being damaged or destroyed in the mailing. This build is little more than balsa wood and foamcore board, hot-glued together. The same could happen if I move it with the rest of our belongings. Though I suppose I could always make a new one.

If anybody’s got any ideas, I’m open to them. Thanks for reading, and here are some images of the house, in its various stages.

SLiM

What started out as foamcore board and balsa wood, slowly began to take shape.

While I never got to paint it, I at least managed to prime the house and film it with a colored light bulb (right). Despite it's simple construction, I always liked the way it looked.

Today's decision is a tough one, but I think I might have a way to save it, after all!

Early Childhood Inspiration

Occasionally people ask me “What made you decide you wanted to become an artist?” The truth is, throughout my life there have been a lot of influences. 

Though my artistic genes come from my grandmother, who was without doubt the most important artistic influence, I was additionally influenced by the works of such artists as Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Wendy Pini, Keith Parkinson, and Matt Wagner, to mention a few. However the absolute most important of my early childhood influences isn’t a person at all. It is instead an independent film released in 1977 by director George Lucas called Star Wars.

I came along in 1974, so I was obviously pretty little by ‘77 and ‘78 yet my memories of seeing that important piece of Science-Fantasy at the theater and the drive-in are so vivid in my mind, it’s like it happened yesterday. We went to the drive-in once every weekend the three of us-my Mom, my Dad and I. 

My Dad was instrumental in taking his only child to see Star Wars, and yet every time the movie got to the scene where the Rebel Alliance sends out its fighters to destroy the Death Star (the Battle of Yavin), my eyelids would begin to get heavy. 

I would struggle to stay awake but inevitably would fall asleep in the backseat before the movie was over, curled up in my Star Wars sheet, sound asleep on my Star Wars pillow in the back of our green Buick Regal. Apparently I would also fall asleep when we saw it at the theater, but I digress.

My parents got such a kick out of their little son trying, in his own special way, to explain why the family had to go and see Star Wars again the next weekend, since I had fallen asleep and didn’t get to see the end of the movie. It was clear to them the movie held some importance to me. I eventually got to see the entire film from start to end, which coincided as my Mom often jokes with the same time she got tired of going to see it every Friday or Saturday!

When we talk about it now my Dad often says “It opened a window for you.” I couldn’t agree more. I can watch the special editions of Star Wars, or the other chapters in the six episode Star Wars saga, or some of the many countless spoofs that have been made of the film, but nothing will ever compare to the I-270 Drive-In in ’77 and ’78. For me that’s the ultimate Star Wars experience. So it wasn’t long after that I began to draw what I imagined and what I remembered.

Best Laid Plans of the Quarantined

So I’ve been at work on these plans, or wannabe blueprints if you will, for a prop build I’ve wanted to do for quite a while now. And when I say prop build, I ain’t talking about propellers, folks. I’m talking about props. Y’know? Like the kind in a movie?

I was inspired to design an ‘engine gun,’ or a gun that partly or at least aesthetically resembled an engine, like a V8 (engine), for example. Sigh. Aesthetically. Another word that gets thrown around way to much!! Note to self: do not use the word aesthetically anymore. Carrying on.

I got the inspiration for this from Peanut M&M’s, of all things. I was buying these little M&M’s canisters. I had accumulated a little stack of the cute squat, yellow tubs, and started thinking about what I could do with them. After playing around with them a bit, an idea for a gun with an engine motif came to me.

Steampunk, you say? Heh, heh. No. This is yet another of today’s terms that has reached terminal acceptance. In order to stand out, one must actually...stand out. And I’m also going to take the time to shoot down all car nuts, gear-heads, motor heads, and whatever else you call yourselves. Nothing against you dudes and dudettes, but if you think I’m actually building a working machine that looks like an engine, or a prop made of car parts etc, also heh-heh, no.

Don’t know how it’s going to be yet, just know that it will. Got a lot to do from here. More elements to add, things to scale up or down, color schemes and textures to decide on. I’m nowhere near done, but I wanted to share anyway, to keep my weekly blog posting...thing...going. So...thanks for listening to my demented rantings. Later.

Below is version current of said build, subject to change.

SLiM

Sorta looks like a flamethrower, at this point.

Further Expediting the Results

Getting back to the plans for the model, for the tavern I hope one day to build, so I can photograph it, run the pics out to the library for Xeroxes, slip-sheet said Xeroxes and do a (fingers crossed) nice illustration for the scene I’ve written *pant, pant,* I’d have to say I believe I’ve made some improvements. 

Here is the original post, for those who came in late:

https://tckdart.blogspot.com/2020/01/expediting-results.html

In the original version, the texture for the dining area’s floor was way too bright and clashy, so after desperately trying to improve the kitchen’s floor texture, I had the notion to flip the two, and wouldn’t you know it, after a handful of gradients, and playing around with lightness, hue and saturation, I finally got somewhere.

I never liked the original texture for the bar stools, which to me looked like I had simply added a color, so I played around with the original texture (which came from Gettyimages), and tried making it look like green billiard table felt. The problem with this was, when I reduced the text, the finished result looked like a row of peas, lined up at the bar! It wasn’t too hard to turn that green billiard felt into a red-violet felt, the result of course is much more pleasing to ye olde peepers.

The original crates are outta there, replaced by better ones, the staircase width was lessened, I gave it an outer wall texture complete with wood paneling, and a significantly more fitting texture, I think, for the fireplaces. The first texture for the bar was a bit naive.

In Photoshop, I’d went into the Filters menu, selected Render, and had a go at Fibers, thinking the end result would look like ivory. Sadly, I’m still using the same textures for the new bar, tables and chairs, plus kitchen furniture, so eventually I must take my own pictures of finished wood and make them look like tables and so forth. The yellow things are supposed to be candlesticks, though the texture for them is not great. I even added a layer of dirt, spill and drip marks. If you’re wondering what all that is on the left, it is supposed to be windows and a long, narrow bench.

However, the whole build is very static, so what I must do from here is try to give the map the feel of something that is lived in. The stairs also suggest that there is more than one level to the tavern, and the other level in the scene I wrote had stairs going up. Those stairs look like they’re going down, so I think I’ll need to add a second staircase. Eventually, we will see levels one (cellar) and three (storage and living quarters).

Have a gander, won’t ya!! (Images Below) Thanks for reading. Be well.

SLiM

I've come a long way, and still have a long way to go, but I think I've made some wise choices here. The bottom version is the swanky new and improved tavern, complete with dance floor. LOL!!

Knuckles That Touch The Ground. . .

When I was in college, I was instructed to come up with both a letterhead and a logo that visually described my style of art, for a project in Graphic Design. What I turned in was a disaster, but every failure in life is a learning lesson, and failure in general is a form of learning. I love the people who say they never mess up. If you never make a mistake, how can you ever expect to learn anything? You have to grow.

Anyway, back in college (here I go again with the frickin’ past), I began taking an interest in the making of horror films. I had fallen in love with several Hammer Studios films, and was investing a lot of time and energy into these vintage classics, learning everything I could about how they were made. When the time came, I was certain without a doubt that I had to buy a video camera and start making films of my own. I needed to create a logo for my productions that fit the type of stories I was trying to tell. In the process of trying to come up with a good name, I sat down and went through the art I had accumulated in college, up to that point, looking for something inspiring. I had had quite a bit of schooling under my belt at the time.

What I noticed was that I had inadvertently developed a tendency to create things that were crude and unrefined. Early on, I was a very frustrated student, because I would watch my peers working on the same projects in the class we were in. I felt they were creating immaculate, iconic works of art, while my take on the project was sloppy, naive, poorly designed and lacking in many ways.

This is not me being overly critical and self deprecating of my work (this time). This was the truth. A grander portion of my inability to create quality works of art, back then, had largely to do with me insisting on drawing everything out of memory, without the aid of photo scrap, and without use of a light table or an Artograph. Another problem was my dependency on caffeine.

Not to knock the stuff, but if you’re anything like I was and you want to become a skilled artist, let alone one whose work demonstrates a strong understanding of design, color theory, proportion and perspective, then you might want to curb your caffeine habits. These days I keep it down to a cup of coffee a day, rarely more. I find it keeps my eyes open and I can somehow manage to relax while I work on my projects, without nervously scribbling my through it.

My point, and yes I do have one, when I sat down to create my own personal logo for this blog, I reflected on the lessons I learned in college, and how I struggled to make my art look the way I’d envisioned it. Basically, the Creative Knuckledragger is a nod to that early time in college, before meeting a certain charismatic illustration teacher, and before making the decision to take nearly every single class he taught. 

And these days, I’m deliberately trying to be crude. I think. Anyway, below is the precursor, if you will, to the blog’s title. I dunno why Neo-Barbarism, I just know that basically it was in the same vein. I'm still not sure why I went with the Celtic cross, but I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had taken the photo in a cemetery I visited on a family trip to Springfield, Illinois. Many's an Adobe Photoshop took place. Go ahead. Act Surprised. 

Thanks for reading.

SLiM