Tweak, Polish, and Beat into a story. Update 2 begins.

Well, I've been dead in the water with the AVT storyboards for the last two months. Why? Because I've been updating all the prior storyboards. Well the first part my statement is a lie. I've been extremely busy on AVT. I practically have the second act finished in Black and White. A few extra filler boards for the action and we are ready to move on to the meat and potatoes of what I think will blow people away when I get planet side in the story.

In fact I think I've over done it. It's a nightmare of sheer volume of work sitting on my hard-drive that I'm going to have to color and finish before I can up load it. Then I decided to UPDATE EVRYTHING!!! What the hell am I thinking?

...and yet... I managed to get the Drop Sequence fixed. I hated that series of boards. When I first started it I really wanted to stop and do something else with the story. It was long and tedious and really didn't serve any purpose. I knew that I needed it to establish the main character. It would tie into the last part of the story about who he was and where he was going. It was important set up for the final act. It looked horrible. I was embarrassed by it. It took forever to finish and I hated it.

Then UPDATE 2 happened and I have made the jump in my art. See if you keep drawing you get better believe it or not. Art is like weight lifting you can only get stronger by doing it every day.

I got better. I can see it in the last few sequences. I'm getting more comfortable with the characters and how I draw them.

Wait till you see the Humans, Aliens, and Jockey Pilots that will populate this story in the third act. I'm biting through the midnight hours to get you all there, and when we go I plan to make it worth the wait.

See you

Kevin164

Nearing the 200 mark on AVT.

I've been terribly busy laying the ground work in the yard for my wife's sod experiment over the last month. Also I've had a change in shifts at work making art for the Storyboards slow to a crawl. Graveyard usually allowed me time to draw from 2:00 am to 5:00, since I am pretty much alone. I now work the evenings... so opportunity to draw has been cut short. I want to keep a professional appearance for my employers especially since I am now a point man dealing with the public during this shift. Time to draw has been nixed, especially at my own home till this bloody backyard is finished.

Basically I am up at 5:30 am digging and pulling vegetation that frankly does not want to be parted from the dirt it has so lovingly infested. This frantic dance between me, a pick axe, and shovel happens till the temperature reaches African-Safari HOT. By then I'm ready to call it a day. I'll crawl inside looking like some poor Virginia coal miner punching his shift card at the mine only to find my son ready for chow and a day's adventure. All I want is a shower and my bed.

So basically I'm screwed for a while when it comes to the blog, Twitter, and my Portfolio work. Sod should be in this next week and I can have this nightmare honey-do list behind me till the next one crops up. I need a road trip to the coast. I need to see the ocean again.

Sigh.

AVT: Rescue and my Movie Theater in the head.

I have a movie theater inside my mind. It's rather nice and extensive. We are talking IMAX meets Carnegie Hall. This place has saved me many times on rather boring days in jobs that I rather not be doing. Mostly yard work. The one thing I have the misfortune of is that I have enough artistic talent to make and impression, but not enough to garner employment. It's frustrating and I find myself working harder to shore up my failings in anatomy and perspective. I know that I can do the job, I just need that "break into the business" start.

The other thing is that I observe movies that I want to see in my imagination very clearly. I mean I'm there and it's a blast! I just can't get it on paper for everyone else. AVT: Rescue is my first attempt at trying to convey what I'm seeing. For me its beyond frustrating, like looking at a third grader's renditions of Monet, while compared to the designs of flashes of metal and life crossing my big screen.

I'm driving my wife crazy trying to finish it. She considers it a waste of time deep down. She loves me enough to placate my obsessions, but we have a toddler now, so having her husband wasting hours into the witching hour and beyond can get old quick. She's an artist as well. A good one, but Princeton killed whatever it is that COMPELLS us to create something. Being a student of the Ivy League of Hard Knocks I have regained some of that compulsion to share again in 2006. The fights between us over this are getting unruly.

So besides my Dad, who I love and haven't called lately. Sorry POP! I hope anyone else who's getting to see this endeavor is enjoying my hard work and sacrifice. Not that Hasbro or 20th Century Fox disapproves or approves all of this, because in short this one of a million fan fictions circulating the Net.

Well, a lot of work happened on the morning of the first this month. Five panels finished and about twelve new scans to mull over in the wings waiting to be flushed out. Should be a good month for art work.

AVT character sheet.