Wednesday, August 24, 2011
gratitude
Lucy had to go into Primary Children's Hospital to get an ultrasound and an x-ray done to make sure her anatomy is normal. I was so worried, maybe more worried than she could have been and so I had Travis give her a blessing and I kept praying that things would be okay. When we went, the whole experience was so amazing. I just have to say that I love that hospital! They even have little Lucy-sized hospital gowns. My nerves were calmed and Lucy did better than expected. It was scary for her, but she was so brave. We will find out a little later what the x-rays show, but they said that things look normal.
Another experience is that our Oldsmobile keeps breaking down and we don't know what is wrong with it. It has been slowly dying over the years, but I think it is time to give it up. It has an oil leak; when the car is turned on, it takes 5 minutes for it to kick in and decide to shift into gear; the gas meter stops at the halfway mark, so we don't know exactly how much gas we have in the tank; and now it will randomly stop working. Even in the middle of an intersection. We have been really worried because we can't afford to make car payments, and so we have been praying about that, too. Today Travis found a solution that could possibly work with our circumstances.
I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves his children and listens and answers prayers. Even though I don't know the outcome, I feel so blessed and am so grateful for my life and the trials that I can learn and grow through. Even though my life is a little crazy right now, I feel calm and at peace. I am grateful.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
hair cut
I got my hair cut tonight by my cousin Nichol, and I love it. She did an amazing job! I didn't realize how much I missed having short hair. I think I am addicted to short hair.
Here are some pictures of my new 'do.
Before:
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
superman (inked)

So here's my image of Superman all inked out. I'm not entirely sure that I'm done with the shading on him, so we'll see if he needs any more after I've colored it in. This is the part about which I'm especially nervous, since I've never done comic book style coloring in Photoshop. I've used Photoshop to do other coloring such as this for my brother-in-law's birthday (he really likes Transformers)...

...and this for my t-shirt design company...

...and this, also for my t-shirt design company...

...but I've never done comic book style coloring. Let's see how this goes....
tutus
Is there anything wrong with little girls liking princesses? No, of course not! Just like there's nothing wrong with little (and big) boys liking superheroes. It's the point and which that is all consuming to them that I want to avoid. And, of course, if/when I have a boy, I will make sure that he doesn't obsess over boy-ish things, too.
Since Lucy's birth, of course, I've softened and allowed her to wear pink, but in moderation. There's nothing wrong with a girl wearing yellows or greens or (gasp!) blues. But I've come to realize that there's nothing wrong with her wearing pinks and purples, either. However, I am carefully monitoring her toys and books to make sure that she doesn't get turned into too much of a Princess Prissy, and I'm proud to report that she has taken special interest in a superhero storybook that we have. I'm not trying to turn her into a boy. But moderation in all things, people. Moderation in all things. A well-rounded set of interests results in a well-balanced child, I think.
"But what does this have to do with tutus?" you ask. Not much, other than that I've had no inclination to put Lucy in a tutu. They're just not a big part of her wardrobe (in fact, she doesn't even have one). However, every year, my wife's family goes to the Fillmore Arts and History Festival, where they get a booth and sell different arts and crafts along with tons of other vendors and everyone in the family is expected to contribute something. Having tried and failed at selling photography art last year (people aren't willing to pay real-world art prices at this thing), I struggled trying to figure out what I could do this year. I don't even know how I arrived at it, but I think this year I'm gonna make tutus.
Yes, tutus.
I've found an easy way to make them that will require very little sewing (just a few stitches) and will be relatively cheap, meaning that I can sell them relatively cheaply, which is exactly what I need if I'm gonna sell anything at the festival. Just because I don't like the idea of my daughter prancing around in a tutu asking everyone in the room if she looks pretty doesn't mean that other people won't pay for a tutu so that their little darling can do just that, right?
To keep it from feeling too girly for me, I think I'll make a lot of them Halloween- or fall-themed, so I'll use brown, orange, black, yellow and deep red colors. Maybe I'll make a few of them girly, too, but I figure that if there are autumn-themed tutus sold cheaply, then people will start thinking about Halloween costumes and decide that buying a tutu right now will give them a head start on their child's Halloween costume. That's the plan, anyway.
I'm gonna start buying the materials this week and get started making them. The sooner I get them done, the less stress there will be leading up to the festival. Stay tuned and we'll see how this goes....
Saturday, August 6, 2011
my dream wedding ring...
Well, I am excited to announce that I have found that ring and have fallen in love with it! I shouldn't have gone looking, because I want it on my finger right now, but don't have the money for it. So for now, I am only able to pull up the image and look at it and imagine what it would look like on my finger.
I have decided to save up all of my extra change and dollars in my "Robyn's new ring" jar and when I get enough saved up, I will go into that store and buy that ring! It may take me a couple of years, but I am going to do it!!!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
first image of Henry Cavill in "Man of Steel"
Let's start with Henry Cavill himself.
His hair distresses me a bit, as there is no trademark spit-curl. I realize, however, that not all incarnations of Superman have had the famous 1950's holdover (Dean Cain's Superman from TV's Lois and Clark, for example), but I prefer my Superman with the curl.
Physically, he looks big enough for the part, with muscles that seem to be the right size for the character. He fills out the costume impressively. I've always been of the mind that Superman should be very large compared to other superheroes (Sorry Dean Cain, you just weren't big enough), and at least in this photo, Henry Cavill looks like he's done the work.
They've obviously decided to go with a "fresh face" this time, picking an actor that doesn't remind us at all of Christopher Reeve's face, which some will say is a good and bad thing. (On a side note, to those that say there is no other Superman besides Christopher Reeve, I say, yes, he was the greatest incarnation of the character that we have ever seen and probably will ever see on the big or small screen. But if we ever want to see another Superman movie made, we're gonna have to accept someone else in the role of the Man of Tomorrow. That said, now we can move on.)
Let's talk about the costume now.
Very muted colors, even more so than in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006). I'm not the biggest fan of that, honestly. I know that the public currently prefers their superheroes to be brooding and dark and edgy, but that isn't Superman. I don't mind the bright red, yellow, and blue outfit seen in the comic books. It represents his optimism for humanity. But that doesn't mean that the Superman movies have to be all saving kittens from trees; they can deal with tough and serious subject matter and feature a lot of action while still maintaining a more-than-average dose of hope. So I say, bring on the bright colors!
The S-shield has been changed more dramatically than any other incarnation in the past, with a much more pointed tip of the "S" at the top. It's alright, though. If you look at some of the early S-shields on Superman throughout the 1930's, there was a lot of variation. And it still looks very much like Superman's symbol, so I'll take it.
From what I can see, the red underwear-on-the-outside is gone, matching the recent change in Superman's look in the comic books. I never had a problem with the red underwear, perhaps because I grew up with it and it just seemed like part of the character.
His costume has a textured look to it, much like Brandon Routh's in Superman Returns, which was to be expected. The public doesn't look too fondly on straight Spandex costumes currently. I'm just glad they didn't put him in armor, which had been a concern of mine.
Stylistically, his boots look very much like they do in the comics and his cape is quite long compared to Christopher Reeve's and Brandon Routh's, which typically went down only to their mid-calf.
His pose is suggestive of more intense action than we saw in Superman Returns, which is probably what they're going for. The image seems very posed, yet Henry Cavill's face is slightly blurred, suggesting that it is either an actually screenshot from the film, or a very poorly shot promo photo.
The overall look is dark and intense, but that could just be this one image and may not be indicative of the entire film's tone. We'll see.
To sum it all up, I'm relieved that they didn't try to dramatically revamp the character's look. And as always, I'm gonna wait until I see the actor (and his costume) in action in the actual film before I make a final decision on the movie.
What are your thoughts?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
superman

Very few comic book artists see the image all the way through to the end. Usually, one or several artists pencil the images, and then they turn their work over to the inker(s), who then in turn hand off the images to the colorists. That's an extreme oversimplification of the process, but you get the idea.
I, however, do not have the luxury nor the trust necessary to have three separate artists work on my whim-inspired drawings, so I'm going to cover each of the bases myself.
I've penciled this image of Superman yelling menacingly at Lex Luthor for something that he's done (plotting to sink California into the ocean, becoming president of the United States, creating a giant genetically-enhanced apricot that's threatening to squash all of Metropolis, take your pick). As you may or may not be able to tell, due to the size of the original image (8.5" x 14"), I had to scan the image as two parts and then put them together in Photoshop (you can see the line where the two images were joined running through Superman's left arm).
Now I'm working on inking it in Photoshop using the pen tool, which I've only recently learned how to use well enough to make this possible. I know that I'm still not using it as effectively as I could be, but, hey, I'm an amateur, alright?
After I'm done with the inking, then I will attempt to color the image in Photoshop. This is the step about which I worry most, since I've colored things in Photoshop before, but never at this level of difficulty.
Stay tuned for more as the image progresses, and let's see how this goes....