http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Shraka&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Shraka en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:59:11 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/28514461/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/28514461/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:18:09 PST "It's been a long time, we shouldn't of left you
Without a dope beat to step to, step step to..."

I've gotta go out and check out some settings and backgrounds for some new photographs. I've seen some great ones while riding around recently, but I'd need bolt cutters to get in and I'm not sure I'm ready to go to prison for my art.

Anyone know any inspiring locations in or around Melbourne that don't require breaking and entering?

Also if you're a model and want a photographer, or you're a photographer and need a hand for a shoot, give me a yell.

Amusing side note:
For those of you who perhaps haven't seen it, this is a totally hilarious song:
[link]

I've been playing a bit of CA recently. If you like RTSs, this one is awesome and free (though the community is small so sometimes it's hard to find a game):
[link]

Da-dun-da-dun-da-dun-da-DUN!:



]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/27005528/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/27005528/ Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:21:05 PDT
I just want to mention that District 9 is totally awesome, and everyone should go watch it.

I would write more, but I'm even out of energy to write here. *sleepy*

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/24851411/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/24851411/ Wed, 20 May 2009 05:45:40 PDT
Sorry about that. I'll try to pick up my game.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23858118/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23858118/ Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:54:25 PDT
James N. had suffered depression for most of his life, and eventually ended it on March 11th, 2009. Being an atheist and not believing in an afterlife it's hard to imagine that nothingness would be better than even the suffering he endured day to day. I have to say I think he made the wrong choice. He was incredibly talented, funny, friendly, helpful and had so many friend's that we completely packed out the room used for his service. Half of us had to stand as there wasn't enough seating.

I really feel for his family, and all the people who were closer to him than I was.

That's all.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23086607/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23086607/ Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:12:41 PST
Horrifyingly, fire officials report arsonists are deliberately relighting fires that had previous been contained.

My mother and brother are staying with me because their area is under threat from the fires. Currently their house hasn't been touched, and it looks like it will get away unscathed at this point.

My thoughts go out to those made homeless by the fires, those who have lost loved ones, as well as the fire fighters still battling the fires.

If you would like to help those effected please give to the blood (if you are in Victoria), or donate to the red cross: [link]

More information about the current fire conditions can be found at the following websites:
[link] - CFA incident updates
[link] - Fire map and information
[link] - Information on road closures
[link] - List of other information resources

Co-conspirators:


Other favourites:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23023444/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/23023444/ Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:42:02 PST
I'm having trouble setting up my phone line though. The previous tenants haven't disconnected their phone so I'm having to stuff around trying to get Telstra to disconnect them forcefully. This seems to happen every time we move house. To everyone moving out of a rental property: GET YOUR PHONE LINE DISCONNECTED! Sheesh.

What's the upshot of all this? Well no internet at home for a while, so no new artwork or comics for you all.

Co-conspirators:


Other favourites:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/22845975/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/22845975/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:10:56 PST
After going from a respectable tax paying member of society to a homeless bum, I instantly slid into a burlap sack and wrapped a brown paper bag around my extra large bottle of VB to celebrate. Then Spider and I sat down to a delicious meal of whatever we could find in the dumpster. To finish off the night we went and saw a hobo fight, then found a nice little stairway to sleep on. Ahh, the joys of homelessness.

Okay that last paragraph was all lies. We actually had a shower and got out of our moving cloths to celebrate. We had Nando's for dinner and then drove up to Mum's place.

So anyway, the point of all this rambling is that I have no house, and my computer is in storage, so I wont be updating for a while. We have a new place lined up to move into on February 2nd, but I probably wont have the computer set up for a few days after that. As soon as I do though it's off to work on another comic!

Have a nice day!

Co-conspirators:


Other favourites:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/22318324/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/22318324/ Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:16:52 PST
]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/21539152/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/21539152/ Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:35:40 PST
I'm going to endeavour to do more illustration work, not just for the comics, but also to stretch and extend my skills. I'm going away to Malaysia in three weeks and will be gone for a month, so I'll be doing some illustration on paper while I'm there. If any of it's good I'll post it up here when I get back. I'd like to do some more photography too. My camera has been sitting idle for about 9 months now, only coming out to take photos at parties. I feel bad for neglecting it so.

Anyway, back to work-work for now. You know, the one I get payed for, not the fun artwork one. *sigh*

As always, check out these peeps, they do awesome stuff:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/18328525/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/18328525/ Wed, 14 May 2008 21:46:10 PDT
What can I say? Sorry.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/16390565/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/16390565/ Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:52:56 PST
First up, physical goals!

• Get down to10% bodyfat


• Increase running endurance until I can run at 14km/h for 45 minutes.


• 100 pushups in 1 set (let's see if I actually get to this!)


• Bench press 60kg 10 reps, 3 sets (This should give me the strength to bench press Lydia... this one might be setting the bar a bit high too but we'll see)


• Do a 200m sprint in 25 seconds.


• Go back and do some Martial Arts


• Do some more Salsa classes


• Go swimming a couple of times


• Go rockclimbing!

And now onto some other general and arty stuff:

• Improve my photography standard and start selling prints


• Do a few more oil paintings


• Get better at illustration


• Go skiing


• Go overseas again! And do some more photography while I'm there.

So that's all I have for 2008. I'm been feeling really motivated recently, at least for physical goals anyway. It should be a good year.

I'm also currently doing some concept art for a computer game that my brothers working on. I might also be working on some loading screens, advertising art or intro screens, so when I get something that looks good I'll post it here.

Oh and the next comic is about 40% complete.

Loves:


Clubs:


The above clubs have authorization to promote my work.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/16303564/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/16303564/ Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:57:10 PST
Birthday!
First up, Happy birthday Lydia! Sorry it's a day late (but that's okay 'cuz I said it to you in person).

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, onward!

Reflections on 2007

This is something I used to do over at my livejournal, and seeming as I don't use that anymore I thought I'd transfer it here.

Last year I wrote a list of things to acheive for 2007. Well, here it is. Let's see how I went:

• Do some payed Photography - Erm... nope.


• Learn to Dance - Yep, done that. I know some Salsa now


• Do some acting - Err, no.


• Get into shape - YES! I totally did this one. Still fine tuning it




• Run for an hour - Done that


• Get my running pace up - Done that


• Swim at least once a month - Yeah didn't get that done. Oh well.




• Sell some of my artwork - Didn't get to this


• Stop eating out so often - Did that! Kinda anyway.


• Go Skiing - Missed this one


• Spend less time on the internet - I think I managed this! At least the time I spend on the net was more productive.


• Learn more languages - Not yet, carried forward to next year.


• Make some music - Hrm... this isn't looking good.


• Go back to martial arts - Didn't do this either.

Despite missing a whole bunch of my goals, I'm feeling pretty good about how 2007 went.

Christmas and New Years

I spent a lot of time with Lydia, managed to get into the best shape I've ever been, have been getting better at photography and have been doing more illustration work.

Next: My 2008 goals.

Anyway, my Christmas break was great, but my break after new years was better because Lydia got back! Yay!

Loves:


Clubs:


The above clubs have authorization to promote my work.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/15566193/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/15566193/ Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:22:05 PST
In other news I'm suffering really badly from allergies this year, and it's crazy hot. Allergies + lack of sleep + really hot weather = ultra mega not fun.

Also my girlfriend is leaving for London tomorrow. She wont be back until January.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/14933123/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/14933123/ Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:07:32 PDT
All this time at home has meant only one thing: Illustrations! I've had heaps of time to do sketches, illustrations and comics etc. It's been lots of fun and makes me wish I could do it full time. It also makes me want a bigger better wacom tablet, as the one I have is a bit small.

I have one more comic already illustrated, due for release on Monday. I'll probably do another one over the weekend too.

Anyway, that's it from me.

EDIT: Apparently that's not enough from me!

I've got a few more illustration projects lined up. After my colouring exercise (Samurai) I moved onto a hair colour and styling exercise, as well as a skin effect exercise (Ninja girl). New exercises I have coming up:

- Foreshortening and character perspective!
- Metal effects and surfaces with different reflectiveness, and gloss levels
- Complex environmental lighting
- Backgrounds and environments

I'll be using more simple illustrations for this, so I can focus on my exercise rather than lots of complexity. I might stick with the Asian theme too.

Clubs:


The above clubs have authorization to promote my work.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/14610686/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/14610686/ Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:28:50 PDT
I'm just annoyed!

I have to spend so much time at work, I don't get nearly enough time to do the fun projects, like my Comic, Photography, or any of that stuff. I need time to improve! I need to savagely attack my projects with both hands, rather than trying to squeeze it in betwen other stuff. And to make it worse, I've taken on web design projects at home too! Like some kind of idiot. I don't need the money, so I dunno why I agreed to do it.

The most recent photography I've done was some car photography at a car club meet I went to. I'll post it up soon. I'm almost finished on the next comic too, so watch out for that.

Man, I'm really excited about doing more comics for you guys too, especially considering how much positive feedback I've been getting recently! I just wish I had time.

Anyway, watch this space.

Clubs:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13599637/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13599637/ Tue, 03 Jul 2007 22:57:28 PDT
Firstly, I thought the acting was actually pretty good. It had some weight in the form of Jon Voight. Shia LeBeouf had some great moments and I felt that he could express emotions pretty convincingly without saying a word, which is nice to see in what is essentially an action movie. John Turturro was hilarious and Anthony Anderson was funny as always. None of the other actions really stood out as fantastic to me (that I can remember), but they all delivered their lines well and nobody seemed to be 'acting'. It was all pretty seamless.

The movie wasn't really about acting though. This movie was about massive Robots fighting each other, a boy and his car as a coming of age story, hilarious moments and somewhat corny phrases that made me remember I was watching a movie based on the good old Transformers toys. On these counts, it excelled.

Some people have criticized the jerky style of the action scenes, and while I'm getting a bit sick of it too, I think this movie did it well, with enough slow motion scenes to give you a really good look at what was happening. It also lends to the realism of this flick. While watching it I really believed that these were massive transforming robots fighting each other over freeways and city streets. So it was all integrated well.

Some movies just seem silly. The characters make stupid, obviously wrong choices. They are either over or under acted, written badly, and are just not believable. But this movie didn't have that feel at all. The Direction was great, the scripts were believable and at times, very funny and as I said before the acting made me believe that I was looking in on some crazy universe where giant robots really did come to earth.

This movie was everything a movie about Transformers should have been. Optimus Prime being voiced by Peter Cullen (The guy who did the original Prime) put a little smile on my face. The pace was great. I didn't feel like a moment in the movie was wasted. The action was broken up by just enough comedy and a sprinkling of drama to keep me from getting desensitized. I was interested in everything that happened throughout the whole movie. Never once did I think "Oh come on, skip this bit." Apparently pace is the hardest part of making a movie. So well done on that part.

The only things I didn't like or was disappointed with were Prime's face when his mask was open (looked a bit silly), that all the Autobots were GM cars (I understand why though, the money they saved with that deal meant more awesome action! And Porsche and VW wouldn't let them use their cars for the actual Transformers anyway), and that Star-Scream didn't have the squealing voice he did in the animated series.

I also thought the Autobots suffered a bit from exaggerate resting movement. A lot of movies that feature people or anthropomorphic characters suffer from this. While standing still, in order to make them look more realistic they have them shuffle and move about. But this is almost always over stressed and exaggerated and makes the characters look comical or stupid. It was only noticeable in a few scenes in Transformers, which is better than most movies. I think all in all this is more of a complaint about animation studios in general rather than this movie.

I don't even know how to sum this movie up. If you like action, sci-fi, or anthropomorphic robots, go see it. It's out in America now (wee, we got it early!) so no excuses... unless you live in the UK. Sorry guys.

I've seen it twice already and am planning on seeing it again before it stops playing at cinemas. So two thumbs up from me. The comic I'm running here will soon feature a strip about this movie. ]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13476656/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13476656/ Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:53:32 PDT Josh Lesnick's Horsejournal. He has a post in there critiquing online comics art styles. While he got most of the popular ones, he missed both Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul. How can you write a critique of online comic art styles and miss those two? At least he put Sinfest in there.

Anyway, all this talk got me thinking about my own webcomic and it's style. I think I manage to avoid some of the pitfalls of other webcomics already which is good. Still I think my style needs lots of work.

I'm about half way though comic 14. We're still working on a name for the Comic, but once we have one I'm going to get a domain name and some hosting and put it up all proper like.

Okay, that's enough about webcomics. My life: I'm still tired from lack of sleep. Last night was pretty bad. I haven't had a chance to get any more photography done. Sorry to those of you who want to model (Particularly Carly), I've just been totally worn out. 'cuz I'm so warn out the cold is hitting me too. I just feel chilly all the time. My internal heating system isn't working right. Blah, I hate being tired. Anyway, life is good otherwise so I shouldn't complain.

I'm having a games evening this weekend, so that should be good.

Okay, so perhaps one more webcomic related link. Cyanide and Happiness: Glasses.

Thanks for reading.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13030144/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/13030144/ Sun, 20 May 2007 19:19:56 PDT
Anyway, on to less boring things. I'd like to thank everyone for your support. I've been getting lots of lovely comments and I appreciate it.

At the moment my mother and brother are over in Europe. Last I heard from them, they were leaving the Czech Republic, and on their way to Austria. Makes me wish I was there. All the things they're seeing. I could take some fantastic photos if I was over there. But instead I'm stuck here. Even my trip to London - while fairly tame in the running around doing awesome stuff department - was heaps and heaps of fun and I wanna go back there.
When I was 18, I didn't understand why people would want to visit other places. It didn't make much sense. Why waste money on travel when you could buy a house? Or a car? Then mum decided she wanted a holiday, and took me with her to Cairns... Okay, so that was awesome. Suddenly travel seemed like a great idea. Since then I've traveled to Perth, and London and I want to do more. Sitting here working seems like a waste of time. I should be traveling, painting, taking photographs, doing comics, all that stuff!

Today I've been reading through some of my old blogs. Remembering things. It's interesting how much I've changed in many ways. And how little I've changed in others. I think it's all for the better. I'm certainly happier now than I was back in 2003.

Okay, that was a long writeup. Here's a prize for those of you who made it this far. It's an oldy, but a goody and considering the new transformers movie is coming soon, also relevant. BOXFORMER!

Oh, I also now have 5,000 pageviews! Thanks everyone.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12687284/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12687284/ Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:31:20 PDT
So, to celebrate, I thought I'd update you with a new comic. So that's it for porkanomics, but don't worry, there are lots more crazy scripts already written by James and myself. I just have to get off my lazy arse and draw them.

I'm currently sick. Quite sick, so I'm going to go back to watching TopGear.

Bye!

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12547633/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12547633/ Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:55:41 PDT
Anyway, I thought I'd celebrate with a journal entry and some photos of and . So enjoy!

Pimpage:


]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12199825/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/12199825/ Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:33:03 PDT
"Sorry, we can't connect ADSL2 to your house. The sales person should have told you this when you first applied."

So, they stuffed me about for three weeks trying to get me connected, only to eventually tell me that they can't connect me.

Okay, stuff it. I'm going with someone else. Unfortunately that means no more internet for another 2 weeks. Grr. So angry.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11966489/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11966489/ Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:47:13 PST ...Wait dude, I'm connecting to the internet with my mind.

I've just moved into my new place! It's vary bare, and unfortunately has no home phone or internet, so I'm internetless until the 12th of March. So as the title says I'm connecting to the internet with my mind (And by that I mean I'm at work and using work's internet). This means I wont be adding any deviations until I get my ADSL connected up. I promise I'll get some more deviations up just as soon as I can connect to the internet.

My new place is near the intersection of two highways* too, so it's kinda loud and I'm a little tired today (see totaly exhausted and falling asleep at my keyboard).

*For our non Australian viewers, a Highway here is just any road of more than 1 lane each way, that is usually posted at 80km/h, but has traffic lights and stops on it.

Ohwell, I'll listen to some music to help keep me awake.

You wanna watch this too: Adventure Time
It's funny.

As usual I'm gonna pimp *Halohid a bit here.

And go check out xxprikell's DA page.

In closing...

It's adventure time
Come on grab your friends
And go to very distant lands
Jake the dog and ben the human
The fun will never end
It's adventure time.

That's what I think anyway.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11883784/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11883784/ Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:20:04 PST
Motion

Over the last few weeks, my girlfriend Lydia and I have been looking for a place close to Uni (which is her place of study, and my place of work) to move in together. Yesterday we found a fantastic modern little place, and last night the Landlord accepted our application. So I'll be moving out from my fairly messy, often dingy and dirty house, to this wonderfully bright, wonderfull two story unit! I'm very excited. I will now be about 20-30 minutes walk from work! Depending on how slow I walk that is.

Eyes

In other news I've got about 12 bajillion ideas for new illustrations, a few more photoshoot ideas, and quite a few photos that I just haven't put on DA yet. So once I've gotten over the insanity of moving out, watch this space.

Deviant Watch

Now, inspired by a few other artests on DA, I've decided to put up some links to DeviantART Memebers producing fantastic work, who are fairly unknown, as well as my current favorite well known Deviants, and my friends.

.: Awesome Unknowns :.



.: Talented Celebrities :.



.: My Friends :.



I missed a few friends 'cuz they don't have Avitars. To those people: Get avitars!

Anyway, I have some crital HTML that isn't acting like it should. So I better get to fixing it. Naughty HTML.

]]> ~Shraka http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11511523/ http://Shraka.deviantart.com/journal/11511523/ Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:33:10 PST
I just got back from the UK a week ago, so a lot of the deviations I've been uploading recently have been from my time there. I've got some more comming too just as soon as I can do some post work on them and get them saved in a format that wont have DA laughing at me.

London was fantastic fun, and the weather was nice, even though it was cold. I visited lots of places and was quite amazed at the different feel of London as opposed to Australia. Almost everything is just slightly different. I love it. Spending a bunch of time with Lydia made it extra special too.

Anyway, I just have to give a shout out for some of my devious friends. They all have some lovely work up, so go visit them.



Why are you still here? Go visit them I said!

- Nim

]]> ~Shraka