Metro 2034

Based on reviews this is the bad one of the trilogy. Can’t comment on last one yet. This doesn’t have anything making whole book better like first book’s last third. Nothing like Children of the Worm. This is better than first two thirds of first book but it doesn’t get any better like first book.

Artyom appears few times but this time we follow other characters. There isn’t as much world building and book feels mostly aimless wandering. Characters just go from one place to another and then they enter to finale. This time threat is deadly epidemia. Might have worked differently if not listened during pandemic. Book’s epidemia is deadlier than one we have real world. However it is not given too much time. Characters just wonder around trying to get to place where it currently is to stop it.

When I listened the book I thought it was made because of video game’s popularity but it was published previous year than the game and English translation of first book was published same time as the game. I got feeling there was nothing to say but book had to be published. There aren’t too many memorable parts. Just wandering around the metro. First book was quite similar until it got really good. This doesn’t get really good at any point.

Welcome to the future 20220130

Started to take full advantage of digital painting. I tried to emulate traditional way until now. Courses I take show instructor using digital methods from time to time but I tried to do what I can do with pen and paper. No more. Didn’t realize how helpful lassoing and moving parts is from learning point of view. It is faster to check if something is too high or too low or too small or too big. Faster than drawing everything again and again in different place and size. Flipping image turned out to be helpful too. Should have started to use both earlier.

Bought some fonts. I didn’t have my old font collection on new computer. Didn’t want to try to find free fonts with suitable licenses when I found place with reasonable priced fonts. Had to have some. Fonts computer came with weren’t that good. Had to use them for latest video. Each of new ones would have worked better. Tested them after getting them.

Southern Cross volume 2: Romulus

Southern Cross gets really close to being really good during second volume. It got only two issues after this before it was cancelled. It has some problems but nothing which should result cancellation of the title.

Second volume starts new story arc. Southern Cross has disappeared and only survivor has landed to mining station where Southern Cross should have gone. New characters and new setting. New characters try to find out what happened to Southern Cross while mining station descends into madness. Everything is quite solid until story start to lose consistency and things just start to fall from sky to advance the story. Southern Cross mixes hard science fiction and weird horror well. I am fine with spirit or force ghost taking character to another dimension. I am not fine with character having strong motivation and then doing something which stops him getting what he originally wanted for no good reason. Reason was money but I think surviving is better motivation. Getting to collect that money was quite a reach at that point.

I hoped this would end in good jumping off point or wasn’t as good as first volume. Neither happened. Volume ends with cliffhanger. I probably have to get those last two issues to see where this was heading to. Second half of this volume started to introduce characters which I don’t think belong into this kind of story and set story to take different route. If this was like Alien 3 I think next volume was supposed to be more like Aliens. I enjoyed both volumes. Don’t know if third would have been as good considering where second half of this volume started to go. Still I would have got it.

Southern Cross volume 1

Southern Cross got cancelled after fourteen issues. First twelve issues are collected into two volumes. Didn’t know about cancellation when I bought the volumes from sale. Glad I didn’t because I wouldn’t have got these if I did. At least first volume was enjoyable.

Southern Cross is mix of Sean Connery’s Outland and Lovecraftian horror. It is about space ship going to Titan when something weird happens on ship. Won’t go into spoilers but first volume’s ending is proper send off point. Story works if it ended there. Hope second volume ends in similar fashion. Not planning to get those last two issues because I am sure they end middle of story.

I have one issue with the book. Protagonist’s actions don’t seem to have consequences. At the beginning it is told she suffers from consequences of her previous actions but as story goes on she does things she should be locked away for. It starts from small but at the end she can do almost anything without getting reaction from others. Everyone is like nothing happened. I can look past it for a short while but in long run it is issue.

I learned about Southern Cross from video praising its art. First volume is worth getting for the art and most of the story. Art does good job giving feeling of being in space ship and showing protagonists other worldly hallucinations. I like how story and art mixes hard scifi into weird and other worldly. At least this first volume is worth getting because it ends how you could end this kind of story. It won’t end there but it could have.

Blade Walker 20220121

More or less back to drawing basics. Not completely because need to learn new software same time. This week I did mouth drawing part of face drawing course. Wanted to draw mouths for this picture. Got idea from famous Blade Runner 2049 scene. Didn’t want to do it exactly. This is first drawing I tried idea with thumbnails before started drafting. Moving to Clip Studio Paint gave lot of tutorials showing correct workflow. With Corel Painter I had to figure it out myself.

All those tutorials made change easy. I could probably have done everything I did for this drawing In Painter but I wouldn’t have know how to do half of the things. Still need to learn brushes and getting used to how everything works in Clip Studio but I already know more how to use it than I did Painter. Learning new brushes is small price to pay for all the free tutorials Clip Studio Paint has.

Two weeks ago I told I had problems with Loomis head. Managed to figure out what it was. Now I get almost right sized heads from start. It didn’t took this long. I had more to talk about last week. Heads still have issues but at least I start the process correctly now.

I have this weird feeling

I have this weird feeling I don’t need any more gear. Getting Moog Subsequent 25 wasn’t as mind blowing as I hoped. Getting OB-6 and Prophet Rev 2 felt like doors to other world were opened. Subsequent 25 felt like it is ok synth. Don’t think Subsequent 37 would have felt too different. Having all those knobs and buttons would be nice but I don’t have room for it at the moment. Problem isn’t I need to use shift functions. It has more to do with having too much gear and Subsequent 25 not adding anything significant to set up. It just does basic thing better. It would have been same with Subsequent 37.

It is almost like with Les Paul. I thought I needed one. When I got one I didn’t like it that much. I had other guitars which gave the sound I wanted and felt better. To be exact Les Paul sound was in between two other guitars I had. When I played with Les Paul I felt I should rather pick one of the other guitars depending on which direction I wanted to go.

Subsequent 25 isn’t exactly like that. It only makes me wonder why I got it. Presets I came with doesn’t help. It has sixteen presets. Those seem to show capabilities of the synth without being too useful. I need to have more time with it but at the moment I feel SE-02 would be better for “Moog sound” I was looking for. Even with its flaws. I am glad I didn’t get Subsequent 37 to find this out. Might change my mind when I learned to use the synth. Maybe it starts to shine when getting deeper into velocity and keyboard tracking. Will keep it in setup and give it proper change. After all it sounds good on Youtube.

Getting Subsequent 25 seem to have cured my gear acquisition syndrome. I don’t feel I need new gear. It could be because I have got nearly everything I have dreamed during last few years. Have dreamed about massive eurorack system and Deckard’s Dream but those aren’t realistic dreams. It could also be because I am running out of room. If I had more room I wouldn’t need to buy anything new to expand setup. Just add my Minibrute 2 based eurorack system to it. Which is what I probably next change to system in future.