Day #129 - IG-88

I don't know what possessed me to draw a robot whom is predominantly black but here is my crazy logic as to why.

1st: I promised Hawk I would (most important)

2nd: although he only appeared for a moment and never moved IG-88 had an amazing following.

Why number 2? well I think it came down to the artists that George Lucas got to work for him on Empire, think about it, out of all the 6 Star Wars films Empire had without a doubt the best ships and coolest characters and the level of detail was almost Japanese-like. In the opening scene we have the Imperial Probe Droids deployed to the "Ice Planet" of Hoth, how do you make an ice planet interesting? especially on a big screen? everything is white! well, what did George's boys do? well, you have to take your hat off to the art department, in the first scene they introduce 5 of the most memorable Star Wars things, firstly, the Imperial Probe Droid, then the Tauntaun, then the Snowspeeder (still my favourite craft), then the AT-AT and lastly the AT-ST and this is in the first 20 minutes!

What did George deliver to these guys as a reward after they dominated with sheer brilliance? oh, the characters fly off to a city in the clouds (white clouds, more bloody white) whilst Luke goes off to a swamp planet to talk to an overgrown 900 year old frog.

Dagobah looked like a shithole and Yoda (although I love him) looked like he should have been on the muppets. I believe that they did all they could here and did it well, it was here that we saw the levels of "the force" with Yoda lifting the X-wing from the swamp. A glowing ghostly Ben Kenobi was also pretty cool, even if he was introduced to offset the muppetness of Yoda.

the rest of the movie was set in the cloud city, which in effect was just a building/factory, how boring? well, this is where we saw the coolest character in the entire franchise, Boba Fett.

As well as the other bounty hunters, most notably Bossk and IG-88, they got about 30 seconds of screen time but I still remember that scene more than any other. Then they froze Han, another awesome piece and then finally we get a glimpse of Slave 1 (Boba's ship) which is another article of design magic.

The movie ends with the lame "Luke I'm your father bit" but just before it does end we see Luke receive his prosthetic robot hand. (very cool)

Empire is the one I've seen the least out of the original franchise but it is easily the best so far as design and characters go.

I'd like to know how much screen time IG-88 received, I'm almost positive he never moved and was only seen for about 30 seconds yet every Star Wars fan knows who he/it was.

I would have drawn more but I'd already used half a pencil :)

Day #128 - Robility chairs

for some reason lately I've been thinking a lot about mobility chairs, maybe because I've been threatening Dad that I'll buy him one (yes Dad I know you'll read this).

as well as that lately you know I've had a one track mind and I was messing around trying to figure out how best to do the "feet" mechanism of a mecha, trying to draw tank tracks that can move like 3 fingers/feet sort of thing, then just for fun I attached them to a chair, then I got the idea for a new futuristic mobility chair, or wheelchair, they surely have to evolve?

So about twenty minutes later I had drawn the middle one, then I thought, hmm, that looks a lot like the robot from Short Circuit with Wall-E's arms and a chair (with controls and rearview mirror)

Then I got carried away.......

So, I made it like a marketing brochure for "Robility chairs"* (patent pending)

So here they are;

from La-Z-Boy comes the La-Z-ED209-Boy offering all the classic comfort of our patented recliners and add to that the comfort of a Sherman tank at your beckon call, imagine strolling down the street in this baby and being confronted by some young punks trying to jack your wallet? what would you do? well, in the past you'd get beaten and lose your money, jewelery and your chair. Fear no more, the La-Z-ED209-Boy would take over and offer those punks 20 seconds to comply.

As La-Z-Boy's motto states "Comfort. it's what we do."

Second in line is the chair for the active man whom no longer has the agility he once had, with it's patented tri-track foot system and tri-finger actuators the WALL-E-5 is most definitely alive, it'll allow you to get up and dance to the BeeGees again and unlike the La-Z-Boy offering this robility chair can go down stairs.

And lastly but certainly not least is the jewel in the crown of robility chairs, hailing from the factories of Geonosis is the Imperial Probe Chair,it's the "sightseer" of chairs, it has the ability to fly in any direction without any means of propulsion and this baby will handle re-entry without affecting performance, it can also sustain huge impacts although it is prone to self destruct.

okay, I went a little bit crazy tonight, but hey, aren't we all a little nuts from time to time?

Day #127 - OP

If I think robots nothing in my mind is cooler than the Transformers, although they aren't really robots but actually aliens.

Growing up as a child in the 80s I think you would have found it tough going not to be exposed to the Transformers.

Optimus Prime had the coolest voice I'd ever heard and it was the most perfect fit, it wasn't until later in life (about 18mths ago) that I realised whilst watching "Tigger and Pooh" that Optimus Prime shared his voice with Eeyore the purple donkey.

Never again could I watch the Transformers without hearing (in my mind) Optimus saying "oh me, oh my" and then Tigger goes bouncing past.

I couldn't let my 'robot' phase go past without getting an Autobot in.

I'm happy with how he turned out but damn did it take a long time!

Day #126 - Astro Boy

The other day I mentioned that there weren't any decent robots in cartoons, how stupid was I?

Astro Boy has to be one of the coolest robots ever!

Although I had limited to no exposure to Astro Boy when I was young, I think we only had Marine Boy it does have a very important place in my heart.

The remake of Astor Boy, the 3d animated one was the first (and only) movie that I've ever taken Hawk to see at the movies. Uncle Lester, Hawk and I watched it and Hawk absolutely loved the fact that this little robot had machine guns in his butt.

There's a big statue of Astro Boy at Kyoto bullet train station to greet you as you leave it to enter the old capitol. (random)

Day #125 - WALL-E

after playing golf today I'm still a little cooked and I'm just too tired to do anything more with this drawing.

It's a shame because it's truly an important movie to me.

Wall-E was the first movie that I watched in entirety with Hawk, he was only young and this was such a brilliantly made movie, the fact that there was no dialogue for the first 40 odd minutes really added to its genius and I sat there with my 3 year old son and he was enthralled.

Pixar are in a class of their own in the world of 3D animation just as Miyazaki sits alone in 2D.

They'll never be like that horrible crap that comes out of Dreamworks.

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Some days will just be this way.

Day #124 - "Klaatu barada nikto!"

One of the greatest Sci-Fi films of all time and one of the most memorable lines of all time, in fact Sam Raimi paid hommage to it in Army of Darkness.

Gort didn't rely on anything fancy like CG, special effects or even colour, actually, I don't think he even moved? but it was his imposing presence that made him memorable, that and the laser from his eye-area.

If you have never seen "the day the earth stood still" and I don't mean the Keanu Reeves atrocity but do yourself a favour and get the 1951 version out and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

For me it's up the with Soylent Green and Logan's Run.

I would have had this up earlier but I got distracted by littleman and a wonderful performance by Manchester City.

Day #123 - Cartoon robots :(

I was going to draw something for Fluey leaving but I was too hungover from lunch, in fact I passed out just after finishing this off around 8:30.

Robots in cartoons seem to be in there for all the wrong reasons (barring Bender of course).

Rosie was pretty cool but an extreme stereotype, showing that sexism will still be hugely entrenched in the future.

7Zark7 for all his coolness and R2D2-ness ended up just being the narrator in Battle of the Planets (GForce).

Can anyone think of any cool robots from cartoons?

and H.E.R.B.I.E. was introduced so that kids wouldn't set themselves on fire trying to be the Human Torch, talk about the epitome of lame!

I almost included T-bob from M.A.S.K. but he was too ridiculous to warrant a drawing.

Why is it that robots in movies are ultra cool yet in cartoons they suck? apart from the Transformers and Bender all others seem to be for comic relief but fail that grade miserably.

Then there are ripoffs that are even worse (gobots).

Mecha (human operated robots) seem to be the only saving grace, think Voltron, Macross, Robotech etc.

Day #122 - Robby the Robot

this one is for Asher, man this book takes hours to draw!!

Robby is from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet and is one of the many iconic robots in the Sci-Fi world but he was definitely one of the first (apart from the robot from the day the earth stood still and the chick robot from Metropolis).

I'm fairly sure that the Robinson's robot came after Robby but am not totally sure?

for me growing up robots have by far been my most favourite things in movies and TV shows, it would have started with C3P0 and R2D2 for sure but whilst sitting here (and in no particular order) these are the robots that I remember most; lost in space robot, the Daleks, K-9, the Cylons, the evil robot from the Black Hole, that silly one from Buck Rogers, the robot dog from Battlestar Galactica, Rosie from the Jetsons, Dexter from Perfect Match and of course the Terminator.

and those are the first that spring to mind, I would imagine that there are 100s more if I sat here and thought about it.

Obviously I won't be able to draw all of these, although I'll try to get out a large amount done.

Well Asher, I hope you like this one? it's not as good as I'd like it but it'll have to do.

Day #121 - curiosity

This didn't turn out how I imagined it but I'm not too unhappy, I couldn't get the Iron Giant out of my head and as I really wanted to draw a Mecha it sort of turned into a friendly yet menacing looking thing.

I'm too tired to put in any more detail but I was happy with the little girl, although the size ratio is wrong, I wanted to make the robot about 10 times her size not 5ish.

It's amazing how much bigger A4 is (I know it's double A5) but it just allows a lot more spread, I could have spent about 3 or 4 more hours on this but I don't think my boss would be too pleased if I turned up to work with only about 3 hours sleep under my belt.

I think I'm really going to get a kick out of this 'robot week' there are so many different ones I could draw that I might actually have to double some up.

Day #120 - book 2 complete

nothing really to say about this one except that I wanted to finish the book in a special way, it somehow worked out perfect that the book ended on this number so this was what came to mind.

Lester visited me tonight which has my mind working in a totally new direction and I think I want to start drawing some robots..

Maybe I'll do a week of robots?

Anyway I think I'll move to A4 for the next book as the little A5 is too small to draw comfortably on.

for those whom don't know the highest scoring spot on a dart board is the triple 20, if you get two of those you have 120. Corny I know.

Day #119 - bye bye Marty :(

Tomorrow my good friend Martin Keenlyside has his last day on level 19, whilst he is still working for the company it spells the beginning of the end of the Cheeky Fookas coffee crew.

Fluey leaves for Westpac on friday and Marty goes to HR leaving just me for the Velvety Goodness Journeys.

Marty has taught me more about Microsoft products in the past 2 years than I've learned in the last 10 and he isn't even technical, he's also opened my eyes to a different way of looking at processes in both design and improvement. He probably doesn't realise but he's taught me far more than he would have imagined, I'll miss him very much.

So Marty, I could only draw one thing for you.

it's your example.

I'll never look at a goat the same way again!

Good luck buddy!

Day #118 - the princess

Hawk was playing Lego Star Wars again today (it's his staple) so I thought that I'd get my doodle out of the way early.

This is my impression of Princess Leia, just before she kills the Stormtrooper.

I absolutely love the Robot Chicken version where the other Stormtrooper yells back at her "he said stun!"

Day #117 - What happens when you ask a 5 year old what he wants

Tonight I was going to draw a Rooster standing on top of a Panther pecking his eyes out, or something like that, then I thought I might jinx them.

So, I asked Hawk if there was anything that he wanted me to draw for him.

He said yes, I want you to draw a robot that is a combination of all the Ben 10 characters.

I asked him, are you sure?

he was adamant with a resounding YEAH!

So, here I tried to draw a combination of them all, well as many as I could fit together, I must admit it looks pretty shit but hey, what the boy wants the boy gets.

So, his head is made up of, Echo Echo, Jet Ray and Humongousaur.

He has Chromostone's collar and shoulders, Jetray's gills and wings, Goop's arms, Alien X's lower torso and Brainstorm's legs.

It looks a bit like a kid's nightmare.

Oh well.....

Go the ROOSTERS!!!! :)

Day #116 - DJ Vijay of the East Delhi Massive

Unbeknownst to most westerners is the fact that the northern states in India have quite the thriving underground party scene.

The party-goers all dance in synchronisation and the DJs are treated like gods, they are regarded just below Shiva and cricket.

2 distinct factions have formed, the West Bombay Collective and the East Delhi Massive.

One of the masters of the decks is DJ Vijay, his sets at the nightclub "Ganesh's Laundry" consistently attracts the most influential people in the underground movement which further boosts his cult following.

DJ Vijay shot to fame remixing Ravi Shankar with Big Beat and Speed Garage in the late 90s but changed tack at the birth of the new millennium focusing on hip hop blended with hardcore tabla and sitar which resulted in a new genre called "Fully Sikh"

so he is naturally known as the Fully Sikh DJ Vijay of the East Delhi Massive!

Day #115 - end of an era

Tonight signalled the last game that I would play for Supporyou.

So the flying FATBOY #5 singlet has been hung up for good (or for now)

It's indeed a sad day, what started out as a fill in turned out to be 4 seasons of hilarity and a great avenue to vent my stress, it was also the only thing that got me off the couch.

So to Dennis I thank him for bugging me till I played.

For me the team was missing a special piece this season, the little guy in the #6 singlet, when he and I were on the court together it took me back to the days of WOFTAM FUBAR and playing for Pendle Hill High School senior team.

but from the ashes of despair a new singlet has risen..........

#25 FATZ

playing center for the Marauders

Day #114 - Archie and his Gimp

For some strange reason all I could think about today was Archie, it even caused me to sing out loud "everything's Archie" at about 10:30am at a fellow workmate.

Maybe that over exposure to mouse poo stench has affected me?

nah, I'm always like this.

So I was sitting here thinking about Archie tonight and my mind wandered back to a conversation that I had with Grant Lawton today regarding the Gimp from Pulp Fiction and the actor that played him, then that lead to his ex-wife (the actor not Grant) who is Julie Sweeney, whom also had a small role in Pulp Fiction but more importantly is the voice of Margo in "the Goode Family" and I was thinking, good ol Margo had a real life Gimp.

Then I thought, Archie, the clean cut Riverdale High boy needs a Gimp. Hell we know he was a hit with the ladies, I think he had two after him which is no mean feat for a ranger but I reckon he would have had a Gimp locked up in the blanket box at the foot of his bed.

Who could it be I thought.....not Jughead, nor Reggie, not even Moose although I nearly settled for Moose.

Then it struck me, Space Ghost.

I'm quite happy with how he turned out all submissive but I did mangle his foot a bit.

Day #113 - and finally littleman, here is the EM50

Lester has been hassling me for the EM50 for some time now, it has to be one of the ugliest vans that has ever existed and anybody that knows me knows that I have a sick fetish for vans and station wagons.

now, for the uneducated of you out there the EM50 or the "Urban Assault Vehicle" was the ultimate assault weapon which starred alongside Bill Murray and John Candy in Stripes.

I prefer it in this mode as opposed to the 'Assault' mode with the louvre windows down and Citroen style wheel guards.

Anyway Les, I hope you like it.

Day #112 - Ben 10

I missed my kids so much whilst I was away, that all I could think about today was playing with them so when they got home from daycare today that's exactly what I did, then I went to Woolies with Mika to pick up some groceries.

the kids were a nightmare to get to go to bed tonight so I had to broker some deals, Mix got sleep in Mummy's bed and I agreed to draw Ben 10 for Hawk.

He said that he wanted to draw the same thing as me and i want him to concentrate more on drawing people, start to build people with full limbs and hands etc. The only thing that he had readily available was a Ben 10 action figure and a poster on his wall for reference, I taught him how to build the basic structures and then how to draw Ben 10 around that structure, I think it may have been a little too advanced as he was asleep 10 minutes later.

That didn't mean that I could forego my commitment to him this evening, so according to our little agreement Hawk, here is my Ben 10.

Day #111 - not all mice are like Disney would have us believe

For those that don't know I've spent the weekend in a remote country town called Spring Ridge (don't believe me that it's remote then google it) with my 66 year old mother and my Aunty in her late 50s to clean out their father's house as Jack (Granddad) is now unfortunately suffering from dementia and we've had to put him into care.

Mark (my brother), Mum and I initially went there in late November last year and it was quite a horrible experience, it was about 48 degrees the house had no insulation and a tin roof and my dear Grandfather had seemed to not discard anything (apart from food) for the past 40 years, I really didn't understand that you could hoard so much. That time we thought that we got through a lot but as it turns out, we really only scratched the surface, we locked it up when we'd done what we could and walked away for hopefully the last time (it truly was a horrible time).

As a condition of the pending sale the house needed to be empty, damn!

So Mum and I headed off to clean it out, as we'd left the keys with the locals and told them to help themselves to whatever they wanted we hoped that all we had left to do was a couple of cupboards and maybe some clothes, then give the house a good clean and should be done.

I went there hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

It was worse than I had expected.

I won't go into detail but imagine this........

A house that has been sealed up for 10 months with a pantry full of food and a nice little mouse population, then add in some water damage just for some spice.

Then imagine walking into that smell.

Then realise that you have to work through that for 2 days.

Every surface in every room was covered in mouse droppings.

If I never smell a mouse again in my lifetime it will be too soon.

Day #110 - Waste Management Country Style

We hired a decent sized box trailer to do the tip runs but the local tip (in Spring Ridge) wasn't open on Saturdays so we had to drive back to Quirindi (about an hour's drive away) to dump the load.

I had loaded this trailer up over the top to try to get as much as I could into this tip run as I knew it would be the only one we'd be able make on that day due to the local tip not being open until Sunday morning (we made 5 tip runs on Sunday). Well, as I said I'd overloaded the trailer and we had also filled the back of the commodore station wagon to the brim.

When we arrived at the tip which the entrance to was hidden and it took us two tries to find we approached the "Waste Depot Overseer" with our bulging load. Well in the country it's not as cut and dry as us urban dwellers, no scales neccessary but more so the amazing eye of judgement of the "Waste Depot Overseer".

Beers come in 6packs and cases, Hay in bales, and refuse, well refuse only comes in "wheelie bins", apparently ever since the local councils setup a garbage pickup run and supplied everybody with wheelie bins then from that time onward all rubbish would be managed in that way, keep it simple for the folk.

Anyway, the "Overseer" would come out and assess my load, he'd scratch his chin and stroke his beard whilst sizing it up, to which he'd come to the conclusion that I had "about 2 wheelie bins worth".

They must have the world's largest wheelie bins because I had about 2 worth just in the back of the car let alone the trailer.

So I had to part with my $6 and dump my load.

by the end of the weekend we had completed 6 trips to the tip and handed over $36 in dumping fees, each time the "Overseer" would assess us as having "about 2 wheelie bins worth".

This was one of the funniest experiences and one of the only good memories from a horrible weekend.

Day #109 - Buzz

As I was heading out at 4am the next morning I stayed at mum and dad's house tonight.

So I sat at their dining table at about 10pm with a cup of tea, my little pad and a pencil trying to think of something to draw.

Over in the corner was a pile of books and craft things that Hawk and Mika use/play with when they are there.

I saw a Toy Story book and thought I'd draw Buzz, he's always been my favourite character from that series along with Mr Potato Head and the little 3 eyed alien.

it was quick and easy and it turned out looking like Buzz so I'm happy.

Day #108 - Tank #1

I've been wanting to draw a tank for some time now, I got home at 11:30 and couldn't think of what to draw so I gave a tank a go.

It's not too bad.

I want to draw Tank Girl later in the year so I'll need to be able to draw a very cool tank so I think I'll have to do a few more.

I'm going away with my mum for the next couple of days/nights so I won't be able to upload my doodles until Sunday night at the earliest.

Day #107 - Voltron

On monday night I was asked by Jason if I could draw Voltron, I said....sure.

knowing how crap I have been at drawing robots I thought I would give it a shot and try to back up my words.

It was annoyingly tedious but I'm quite happy with how it turned out, I had to complete it in 4 different sittings, each lasting about 20-30 mins, sure it has it's faults but it's okay for me.

Tomorrow I think I'll do something a bit simpler, although I'm not sure where I'll be able to fit it in? maybe after basketball around 11:30? maybe I'll just whip out a silly doodle at work?

only time will tell.

Day #106 - Tony Stark

Vic and I watched Iron Man 2 tonight so at it's completion I decided I wanted to have a go at drawing one of my all time favourite actors, and I love his look in Iron Man.

At the end of the movie he's in his suit holding up a peace sign, I wanted to draw that but instead settled on a simple portrait.

This is one of those nights when I was full of doubt but every line just fell in the right place.

I am SO HAPPY with how this turned out, I was going to add a 2nd shade but once I got the dark one done I thought I'd just leave it as is.

Easily my favourite doodle to date.

Day #105 - Victor Kruger

As requested by littleman, I have done "the Kurgan"

The Kurgan. He is the strongest of all the immortals. He's the perfect warrior.

If he wins the Prize, mortal man would suffer an eternity of darkness.

How do you fight such a savage?

With heart, faith and steel. In the end.................................

there can be only one.

Day #104 - What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching?

Hawk and I whilst hanging out in the garage watched Flash Gordon, which to my surprise Hawk loved!
It's one of my all-time favourite movies and thanks to Ed and Les, its main character and my love of the soundtrack it's the source of one of my nicknames (the name in the blog URL).
Anyway, whilst thinking of something to draw tonight I wiki'd today's date to see if there is/was anything significant on this day and as it turns out, Freddy Mercury would have turned 64 today.
therefore I had to make it Flash tonight, I was going to try Freddy as well but I ran out of time.
I think that along with Hackers, Flash Gordon has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time!!

Day #103 - farewell Danilo

Today I found myself crying at the funeral of a man I hardly knew but it wasn't the man that made me cry but the feelings that I have for those that he has left behind for they are like my kin and it was their loss that made me weep.

Day #102 - the Peace Clone

I had no idea what to draw tonight so when putting Hawk to bed I asked him if he wanted me to draw anything for him, he was a bit stumped so noticing his pillowcase I said "would you like me to draw you a clone?"

of course he excitedly said YES!!

So I started scratching out a Clone for him, I was going to put a gun in his left hand too but it just didn't seem right, so.....I had him flippin the bird

it looked soo cool but it was obviously the wrong thing to show a 5 year old boy so I changed it to the peace sign.

I know you want to say "but you left his gun in his hand, how can he be about peace?"

He's obviously a Peace-keeping Clone Trooper, stationed on Kashyyyk.

Day #101 - where's the kaboom?

Marty asked me to draw Marvin the Martian, of course i said yes and here it is.

I actually think that Marvin is one of the coolest Warner Brothers characters and he's probably the most heavily merchandised, which is saying a lot when he's up against Bugs Bunny, Tweetie & Sylvester, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wile E Coyote, the Road Runner (meep meep), Porkie Pig and Yosemite Sam.

That's a bucket load of lovable characters and Marvin out sold them all and he was only in 4 episodes of Looney Tunes (most of these cartoons were created in the 50s and 60s)

he was voiced by the brilliant Mel Blanc (remember the guy in the Amex ads)

I'm trying to remember his lines but all I can think of is "where's the kaboom? there was supposed to be an Earth shattering kaboom!"

Oh well, hope you like it Marty.

Day #100 - the cop out

All day I was thinking what I could draw for number 100, and to be honest nothing really came to mind apart from the number 100 but I thought that would be a cop out.

I was going to go for 1,3,5,7,11,13,17,23,29=? (which are the first 9 prime numbers)

but I settled on this doodle of a sheriff (cop) and the 10 to the power of 2 (same as writing 100).

and I finished it off quickly with my Sharpie.

Well, I can't believe that I've done this for 100 days and am getting quite confident that I'll be able to achieve my goal.