prototype killswitch

"Here's my Vespa in front of an interdimensional portal!"

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:07:23 GMT

Okay, so I didn't manage to get a photo essay of the rented Vespa - I realised pretty quickly that a series of near-identical shots titled things like, "Here's my Vespa in front of a cafe!", "Here's my Vespa in front of a wall!", "Here's my Vespa in front of a totally different wall!" would be kind of tedious. Plus you look like a total wanker standing there taking photos of your own scooter when you've just stopped for coffee. But I did get one shot, so here's what I rode all weekend:

It was pretty radcore fun - lithium_michael was basically exactly right when he described it as feeling like "flying, only on the ground, where it's a lot more dangerous." The speeds you do inside a car feel so so much faster when you do them outside of a car, so it's actually reasonably scary at first. That said, it feels amazing and it was so much fun. It was kind of sad to have to give it back, but it's okay because obviously I need to buy a yellow one instead.

Randomly, three things I saw this week:

1. All this does is make me even more curious about what's inside.

2. Filed under "My friends are both insane and awesome and they make 30 second long moving pictures which you should watch": Remember to wish everyone a happy International Free Barrel Day this December 25th!

3. The 1996 black comedy/hilariously bad horror film, Jack Frost, a movie about a deranged serial killer who dies, but comes back as an evil snowman with an assortment of terrible one-liners. "The film gained fame as an Internet meme thanks to its low budget special effects, comical death sequences, poor acting, and the fact that it was released within two years of an unrelated family film of the same name also featuring the concept of a living snowman." AMAZING. SO AMAZING.

Artdump!

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:38:33 GMT

Okay, I've got to post all this art before it gets so old that I hate it all. I hate how that happens, actually... what's everyone else's art half-life? I can't get tachi to draw me a tattoo for that very reason - he's worried he or I would be unhappy with the art later on, and then he'd be to blame.

Anyway, I've been working on a bandom-themed art prompt post with speep and saint_sorrows. Actually speep has done an absolute tonne of art, and it's all awesome, you can see the whole prompt post here. We're still eagerly awaiting saint sorrows' stuff, which I know will be totally well spiffy.

But here's what I did...under a cut so I don't distort the hell out of everybody's friends' page.

prompter: redscarfe
prompt: Hello. Patrick and Gerard hanging out! Warped 05 makes the most sense, but anywhere really is cool.

prompter: tortugax
prompt: frank/mikey! frank is doing something (probably stupid) to try to impress mikey :)

prompter: letdwn_downtown
prompt: Frank as Napoleon Bonaparte and Gerard as his faithful servant or husband?

prompter: kidsxheroes
prompt: i'd love me some Zed...big surprise right? But maybe with some Kitty too cause i miss her gleeful face. Just them being a bit dorky geeky.

prompter: delphinapterus
prompt: One of the MCR couples (Gerard/LynZ, Frank/Jamia, Mikey/Alicia, or Ray/Krista) would be lovely.

And in completely unrelated news, I drew this for some girls at work. Dress on the left by Chanel, on the right by Loewe.

Fashion girls are fun. I actually spent a bit of time looking at the fake tattoos on the Chanel models at that show... crazy, I never would have thought someone could sell fake tattoos as a fashion concept to me. I wonder if anyone would actually get them for real? Has anyone monogrammed themselves with the LV logo yet? Scary thought...

Apart from that, I've rented a Vespa for the weekend, so I can a) practice and not lose my skills while I wait for my friend with a Vespa-importing father to hook me up, b) test out if I absolutely really want a Vespa, and c) look like an inner west douche. WIN FOR ALL! I should take some kind of suitably arty photo essay for fun, so I'll keep you all posted.

Also, holidays in two days, I'm beyond excited.

Lastly, I've been playing Phoenix Wright again, and I forgot how much I absolutely adore that game and series. (っ´ω｀)っ

Hipstercycles

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:59:28 GMT

Today I learned to ride a scooter (or hipstercycle, as I'm considering renaming it). I did the pre-learner course you have to take out our way before they'll give you a learner's license (all scooters need motorcycle licenses if you want to ride on the road in Australia). I had the best time, but I'm completely exhausted, which is why I came up with this and thought posting it was a good idea.

Two Reasons Goths Should Ride Scooters:
1. Mine came with a suicide kickstand. The guy said it and I kind of went "What?!", and secretly thought it was awesome because I'm a lamer.
2. It has a killswitch. I was also kind of excited about this. I mean, my journal title hasn't changed since a billion years ago...

Bonus points - get a metal fan on board and make jokes about Killswitch Engage.

And to make this post even vaguely interesting, have an oekaki I did a million years ago. It's been sitting on my desktop staring at me and I don't know why I've never moved it. I hope I haven't posted this before and just forgotten. Hiiiii.

fashion!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:50:34 GMT

Okay, I've never done this before, so it's kind of for my own records/inspiration/amusement/pretentiousness, but it should be fun anyway.

I present here Arabel's Weird Highlights Of The S/S 2010 Fashion Season Thingamabob.

Which could probably more accurately be rendered as 'totally random stuff I though was cool or crazy or fun, which kind of probably has little editorial value so nobody go quoting me anywhere or anything'. I repeat, MOST OF THIS IS NOT WEARABLE.

Also, please feel free to make fun of whatever you want, or link to weird things to make fun of. Fashion is inherently funny, I think, even when it's amazing. Fine line...

Things I have omitted:

1. Chanel - everyone appeared to like their western-ey kind of influenced thing, but I'm not really interested in Chanel clogs, even if Lily Allen is trying to sell them to me.
2. Balmain. YAWN. SO BORED.
3. Viktor & Rolf - even though the crazy cut-out tutus were awesome.

In alphabetical order:

Alexander McQueen's crazy under the sea shenanigans. Just crazy and awesome. You should see those shoes from the side... So imaginative, though, even if I have no idea what I would do with it all in my actual wardrobe.

Ann Demeulemeester: does cool stuff with zippers! There were zipper scarves in there, I kind of loved them (make your own, if you'd like). And that bird print should be ridiculous, but I like it anyway.

Balenciaga - stylish biker chic, perhaps?

Burberry - I don't know if I'd wear this, again, but they deserve props for actually doing something different with a trench coat. It was all sorbet coloured and fun, which is nice in a mostly non-obnoxious way. Then again, my shoulders don't need to look any bigger than they already are...

Celine - new home of Phoebe Philo, who made Chloe famous. I kind of did her a disservice in not picking any of the looks with colour, which kind of tells you something about me. Sorry, Phoebe. Also, no matter how much it looks cool, leather t-shirts? TOTALLY PRACTICAL IN AUSTRALIA!

Galliano! - if you came into this post searching for crazed flapper weirdos with coral hair, LOOK NO FURTHER. That's what you all came for, right? Right...? I just love this kind of chic DIY thing, it's heaps of fun.

Gareth Pugh - for the first time ever, he appears to have produced actual wearable clothes, rather than amazing concept pieces, which is weird because he's normally my best argument for fashion as something halfway to performance art. I want the giant stripey dress. Also I love how that outfit distorts that guy's proportions, it's beautiful.

Givenchy - I ADORE GIVENCHY. Not sure why, but there's something really accomplished about this, how it rides the line between crazy and wearable. Also THAT JACKET. Now I sound like a fashion wanker. Oops?

Lanvin - I always tend to think that Albert Elbaz, who designs Lanvin, has a knack for making dresses that would look good on a variety of women. And I like that they're somehow both offbeat and classic. If I had too much money, I'd probably buy all the jewellery he makes, too, because it is absolutely mental.

Miu Miu - KITTENS ALL OVER IT (also hi, unflattering lighting!). Enough said!

And lastly, "those poor damn Rodartes", as Grace Coddington said. Or um, Rodarte. I don't even know, it just looks all kinds of fun to me. But I would be terrified of it catching on something... and apparently the models had a horrible time getting that make-up off. Hah. Oops. I have a great mental image of models with paint stripper...

All photos stolen shamelessly from style.com

AND THERE YOU GO. I can't believe I bothered, hah. THIS IS WHAT MY JOB HAS DONE TO MEEEEEE.

YEAH BEARS IS DIED.

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:16:12 GMT

yeah bears* is died and I witnessed it. That sign up there was my souvenir of their last gig, and now I can no longer say my friends are in bands, because they broke this one. Also I seriously thought my days of jumping on top of a stacks on were totally over, but I guess never say never.

Notable quotes:

me: "I got hit by the mosh and I went flying"
ben: looks horrified and claps hands over mouth. "Are you okay? Sorry! I'm so sorry."
me: "It's okay, I came to your gig expecting to get hit by something."
ben: "But you're not used to getting hit by things!"

Also everyone should go look at ben's art, it's great and I'm jealous of it.

*note - they're kind of thrashcore and so you will only like them if you like a lot of high-pitched screaming and guitars. Like, a lot. Not really my scene, but I love my friends and their band was pretty epic fun.

Preppermort. Volderprep?

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:50:51 GMT

So I've been meaning to write more about work, because I used to write so much about it, but not so much of late - I guess I got worried this thing started to overflow with random fashion shenanigans, and I didn't know how interested y'all were in that...?

But I love that today, my art director in all seriousness said, "You can't do that. It would butcher the aesthetic integrity of the piece."

It was beautiful. Serious love.

On the bad side, I really have had almost supernatural bad luck with weather - my photo shoot got dust stormed into oblivion. Then because there's still so much of South Australia spread all over the place, today when we re-shot in the park, I ended up covered in dust up to my knees. But to make up for it, yesterday we had a male model casting, and the fashion girls brought back beautiful gourmet macaroons from their photo shoot. It's kind of a world of extremes... ~~and I'm proud of myself for avoiding Blue Steel jokes, dammit.~~

Speaking of extremes, I blame aceles for this. She's been doing a series of totally hilarious badfic podcasts called Baby-Punchingly Bad and...

...when she mentioned Preppy Voldemort in high-heels, um...

Yeah. Uh. Sorry guys.

SORRY EVERYONE WHO IS SEEING THIS TWICE! ;_;

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:33:37 GMT

saint_sorrows moved house, and I made her a moving house present, because she is radsauce. Also an 'I love your stories' present... it's of Frank, from her House of Wolves series. Call it a happy Frank. I haven't managed to draw unhappy Frank yet. It's a companion to King Gerard.

Also lol wip, sorry you suddenly got really short in that last one, Frank. Also thank-you Mimi for listening to me whinge about blood drops!

I have to draw some colour stuff soon or my head will probably explode.

In other news, I have a shoot tomorrow and the forecast promises gale force winds. If you see a shoot where everyone's hair is at 90゜to their faces, that was probably me. ALSO Tachikoma and I are completely hooked on True Blood, and now working our way through the second series (we're up to um, episode 4?). I love it so hard. Y'all.

SOOKIE

Blood Tax.

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:44:39 GMT

When I was visiting someone in hospital, I found this poster in the elevator.

Just thought y'all should know. Since it affects you.

It just kind of cracked me up - creepiest public announcement flier I've ever seen, honestly, someone went to town on this.

For those wondering, yes, it's an actual issue to do with the Government subsidising blood donations to private hospitals. But still...for a minute I was like, "Wait, the True Blood viral campaign made it in here too?!"

I want my em tee veeeeeeeeeeee~!

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:12:21 GMT

Okay, so along with everyone else in the world, I heard about all the MTV awards shenanigans. And apart from Kanye West being the biggest douchebag puppy-kicker in the world at that point in time, it got me thinking...

Really? That's the BEST we can do as far as music videos go?! Either of them?

So then I started thinking about my favourite clips of all time, and I want to know what everyone else's are too. I always forget all the best ones, so my list will probably be a bit lame, so...

BRING FORTH THE BEST MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME, OR AT LEAST OF YOUR PERSONAL TEENAGE YEARS!

Mine (not all my favourite bands, just clips I like):
Beastie Boys, 'Sabotage'. Well, duh, I guess.

Johnny Cash, 'Hurt'
I think I actually cried once watching this (I AM THAT LAME) - it absolutely breaks my heart. Now to be fair, this clip is brilliant and perfect for the song, but most of the meaning is really in the performance, so maybe I'm cheating here... but basically, Trent Reznor should just give up this song, he got his arse kicked.

Basement Jaxx, 'Where's Your Head At' - Creeeeeeeepy. I will look at neither monkeys nor repetitive but catchy electro groups in the same way again.

And lastly, R.E.M., 'Imitation of Life'. I've watched this so many times and it's still interesting - apparently it's the same 20 seconds of footage back and forwards and in and out... crazy. Plus, bonus Michael Stipe dancing!

for stayhomesandy

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:48:22 GMT

Okay, finished - I was going to try colouring her, but I started and it didn't seem right.

For stayhomesandy, in an art trade for the lovely lovely adorable pics in my last post. It's a drawing of her character, who I thought was rather spiffing, who you can see here. Cute, right? Anyway, here she is...

Also, here is a kind of bigger version. Also also here is a terrible sketch that I think was kind of inspired by your girl. Because you know, floating skulls and all... so it's kind of two pics except one of them is totally half-assed. \o/

That was really fun.

Many thanks to speep, saint_sorrows, you are both so awesome at listening to me go "hmm, maybe I should change this and this and this and this and this...". Also tachi ~~shut up it's just a baby crow or something... you are also awesome~~.

ENTRY OF AWESOME

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:14:13 GMT

SOMEONE DID ART FOR ME!

The utterly super stayhomesandy and I are doing an art trade, and I asked for a pic of a girl with a kitty, and she did these two pics which are basically just like MAINLINING CUTE.

This is very very utterly awesome, and probably one of the most adorable things I have ever received. Plus two pics, you went completely above and beyond. <3 When I got the pics I immediately showed pretty much everyone in my office. Everyone. Seriously. Sorry. I LOVE THEM, THANK-YOU SO MUCH! ;_;

ps: I am so so sorry I didn't post this earlier, I hope it didn't worry you! I just wanted to be able to say I'd started your piece in return, but unfortunately I got tackled to the ground by life, and didn't get started as soon as I wanted. I'm so so so so sorry, I really adore them and I've been dying to spaz out about them here. :3

Also now I have started your piece in return, huzzah!

Also also, I'm thinking of maybe getting a scooter, because we won't have our car here forever... What do people think? Talk me into and/or out of it?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:55:25 GMT

HAY GUYS I'M BACK. I MISSED YOU ALL.

How lame is it that tachi and I didn't feel like we were "home" until we had all our nerd stuff set up? I kind of felt like I was camping at someone else's house. So now even though we don't have most basic household supplies, we're as excited as stupid little kittens because we have the internet.

Yay for nerds.

Anyway, hi. Did I miss anything?

#firstworldproblems

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:48:58 GMT

I'm moving house. As of next week, I'll be able to sleep in for an hour to an hour and a half more than I do now. This is nothing short of epic.

The price for this amazingness is that for the next 10-20 days, I will be without intenet at home.

I'll still be able to get to my email and stuff (thanks, internets phone!), but otherwise I'll kind of drop off the map. So no, I don't hate everbody, I'm just internet-less. I hope I'll get tonnes of art done or something instead. \o/

You know, I should have staged a gigantic flounce and threatened to quit the net or something... oh well.

new life motto

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:01:39 GMT

When you grow up, your heart dies.

So, who cares?

I care.

Is this the bit where I shamefacedly admit to having lost my Breakfast Club virginity only tonight? I know, I'm a reject child of the 80s. Throw me out. It's really embarrassing. And I never knew before now that I wanted to do Breakfast Club art...

tachikoma said he would break up with me if I didn't like it, so it's probably pretty lucky that I thought it was stunning. I think that no-one would make a film like that now, which is very, very sad. It should be required viewing for everyone. Ever.

Also today:

arabel: Junko Mizuno designed a My Little Pony.
tachikoma: Is it full of period blood and skulls?
arabel: No, it's just got flowers on its face and flames up the side.
tachikoma: Well, that's a little passé then.

[/art nerds]

Saaaaaaaaaaal~!

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:52:14 GMT

saint_sorrows...~!

This is for you.

Argh so sketchy. But click for a kind of larger version!

Fanart for the unspeakably talented saint_sorrows' story Vogue. Madonna is love.

This is the first time I've tried to do an actual (~~kind of, it's not really, shut up~~) line drawing in just about forever. I blame speep, but in a good way. I so very really need to start drawing more and say, learn to draw limbs and suchlike again, rather than just rendering. And clothes. And everything. Don't even start with me on backgrounds, haha...

Many thanks to speep for many encouragings, and to tachikoma, even though he's dead to us.

Only a week or two to go until moving, it's too stressful for thought. I hate having to deal with all the utilities and the phone companies and UGH. AND MOVING. I give up... only it's going to be awesome so I don't. YAY.

cats and dogs

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:33:21 GMT

How you can tell the fashion team totally have heaps of stuff to do right now: A Handy Guide By Arabel...

The whole department starts arguing about whether cats have purely mercenary motivations, or whether they can love you regardless of whether or not you have a tin of food in your hand.

This was motivated by one of them giving out photocopies of an ad that looked like it was from the 70s, stating that there is a dog for every type of person.

for dragonwhishes

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:08:15 GMT

This image is for dragonwhishes, and it's of her original character - or at least, how I imagine she could look.

I hope it's something even vaguely right for you - it's hard drawing something out of someone else's head! I'm not sure if she looks like how you would have imagined her, but if not, just think of her as inspired by your character. But I hope you liiiiike! And I'm so so so sorry it took so long.

FUN FACTS:
• here is the black & white sketch, which I still really like.
• never watch a Massive Black tutorial midway through a drawing, you'll just cry.
• this is the first full-body rendering type thing I've done in forever and ever.
• this was done entirely with the chalk brush in photoshop.
• it nearly broke my head for some reason, maybe it's because I'm HIDEOUSLY OUT OF PRACTICE WITH CLOTHES.
• the final PSD file had 63 layers. WUT.
• thanks to speep, fluffyduck and also Dan and tachikoma, all of whom helped me find things to fix.
• Why is this list so long...?

So yes.

And the photo shoot went well - all that remains is to find out if the editor liked it. They're on holiday, but if I'm lucky, there'll be an email for me Monday morning going "YAY". Well, words to that effect.

Also I am so tired. And in love with the new Future of the Left album (<3 FALKO). And I'm moving house soon, how exciting is that? I should do an actual life post update some time soon...

House of Wolves

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:28:58 GMT

Okay, so I finally got off my arse and did another drawing, yay! This one is of a slightly higher quality than the last, because it's not an oekaki for once (*gasp*), it's done in photoshop and painter.

I'm quite happy with it, althought it could use some more development in the face, and maybe, gee I don't know, some actual detail in his clothes?

But um, anyway, this was for the lovely saint_sorrows and was inspired by her lovely story Where the Animals Go. <3

Why is he lit from below in a forest? WHO KNOWS? My current theory is there is a hench-person of some description beneath him with a flashlight. ~~Shut up.~~

Also I took screenshots as I went, so if people are interested, I can put up a WIP to show how it evolved. It's pretty funny. Y/N? edit: here is a WIP.

Also also, dragonwhishes, you're up next - I'm so sorry, I have been the hugest slacker on the face of the earth drawing for you - I've been so ridiculously exhausted. Would you still like the drawing of your girl reading, or would you like to change ideas?

"Total eclipse of the heeeeart..."

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:04:29 GMT

Workplace advice from the Fashion Director:

"If you're going to sing, you have to do it loudly."

This should tell you something about my workplace.

Just quietly...

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:59:03 GMT

...spray adhesive is evil.

I don't think 'evil' actually adequately conveys the strength of the horrible and disgusting feeling of sticking to things very faintly for hours after you use it.

It's just not right.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:15:31 GMT

For some reason right now I look like a greasy, creepy delinquent who stayed inside for all of the long weekend to play video games.

I WONDER WHY?

Okay, I did go out on Saturday to see an apartment and a zombie film with nazi zombies in it, but my point still stands.

brrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinssss.....

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:11:48 GMT

At work, in front of a bad print-out of a picture of a girl which hadn't yet been colour-corrected:

Art Director: "She looks like something out of Resident Evil II."
Production Manager: "Are you going to fix her?"
Art Director: "Of course not. The zombie look is in this season."

For some weird reason, I've been having lots of conversations about zombies lately. I've decided they must have slowly become the new topic du jour or something...

I met a friend's new firefighter boyfriend, and when I commented his fire station was giving me flashbacks to Quarantine, it started an epic conversation about the merits of old vs new zombies.

And at a friend's birthday party, there was an odd side-track of a large group of people into an hour-long discussion of various zombie-related topics, including how we'd improve the so-called "zombie walks", which somehow ended up suggesting staging full-scale military actions in the city.

I decided that people love talking about zombies because they're one of the few traditional enemies that don't require brute strangth to fight. People like to talk about strategy, or technique, or whatever... thus they appeal to everyone, because a la Sean of The Dead, white-shirted cubicle-dwellers can take them down just as easily as anyone else. Nerds love that shit, don't we?

Also, World War Z is an absolutely excellent book.

The Saga is finally complete

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:40:13 GMT

For all of you who've been wondering what on earth happened to our pink squawky resident...

We managed to find a home for her with someone from a wildlife organisation - really awesome guy with a kind of raspy whiskey voice and a gigantic aviary in the bushland. His older parrot just shuffled off this mortal coil (I even thought that in a John Cleese kind of voice, forgive me!), and so he was really happy to have a new bird around the place. I think he's meant to re-home the wildlife he finds, but he was so keen on keeping her.

He sent me some pics this week, and it all looks super-awesome. I mean, there's always the outside chance that you're the unlucky one who got the bird psychopath, however good your research on them and their wildlife refuge, but the pics put my mind at rest. Poor thing'll have to wait for her next moult to fly, but she looks really happy, and look, she has outdoor friends, so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. YAY.

We will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

awk redux

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:04:40 GMT

Okay - turns out he's a pet that my sister rescued from an irresponsible owner who didn't want him any more (which wasn't entirely her fault - he was an unexpected present for her, too. Poor bird!).

I can tell he needs better care taken of him - his cage is far too small, and I don't know if he's been well socialised or anything (hyper emo bird!). We're taking him to the bird vet this week to get checked out, and to be talked through the responsibilities of owning, if she decides she wants to keep him.

Argh.

He's so beautiful, but parrots are a lot of work - they need money, time and care and a lot of love (and patience with bird poo on everything). We don't know if we can take care of him properly, so I'm hoping she'll be happy to let me take him to a good refuge. *sigh* Especially as my sister said "I wish he wasn't clipped so I could just let him go," which resulted in me clapping my hands to my face in a kind of horrified gesture and going, "noooooooooo!"

Poor birdie. He's adorable... see?

awk!

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:10:13 GMT

There is a galah in my living room.

I'm a little baffled. I only noticed the bird cage after I'd been home a while - I lifted the cover expecting a budgie or at most a cockatiel or something, and was really startled when I came eye to eye with a giant pink bird. My sister has obviously aquired it somehow, but she's not awake so I can't find out what on earth is going on. I'm guessing it's on loan only... I adore birds but we're not exactly set up to take care of something like this long-term - we're rather lacking in the aviary department.

It's in a small cage for its size, although it looks very healthy - I have no idea if it's injured wildlife or a pet. I'm so very very curious - why do we have a random parrot?! There must be a story behind this. I hope it's just being rehabilitated, because it's a beautiful bird, but I've always felt pretty bad about large parrots in captivity - it seems unfair to me.

Does anyone else ever come home to surprise exotic pets, or am I just lucky...?