for the character drawing project i decided to go ahead and use the other one day iteresting person to make my character. my bird lady interpretation. i first saw this lady back in derby near the river when i was about 13, she came pretty much every day to give a trolly, a completly full trolly of bread to birds. there must have been hundreds of birds around her most days (what gets me is how one person can have so much bread more that 3 times a weak) i was reminded of this women when walking back on the day of this project when i came across a little old lady that was dressed pretty much the same way.
with a big padded coat and head scalf she waddled down the street at a surprisingly slow pace however i decided to make a character based on this person and with influences from an artist called Keith Thompson, specifically his undead. he draws the most magnificent characters with close attention to muscular form and indepth ideas that are clearly based off something hes seen or read. before i say anything else, this character isnt another zombie. she is actually just plain dead. sort of like a living birdhouse. that is completly controlled by birds that over time have gathered objects to make this woman look liflike from a distance, which brings me to my next point. while searching for some ideas on what she would look like i came across a site that made me laugh at just how intelligent birds can be thus if you think about it the birds are the character and the woman is just a prop they hold.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/carwash.asp

as far as i can tell this site is real but ive only skimmed over it so i could easily have missed somthing, but heres the character i innished earlier in the weak. she still needs a bit more color however you can see what i was aiming for.

birds are just so awsome!

over the years in which technology has grown many things have become easier and more efficient but one thing always lags behind, batteries. yeah it may seem weird I'm blogging this but I'm kind of interested in all things sci-ency and tech like. but back to the point we've got lithium-ion batteries polymer-ion batteries 1 kilo of lithium stores the same power as a 6 kilo lead acid battery. there is a war between two batteries now which is the refinement of lithium-ion batteries and the other is fuel cell. lithium is the one I'm most interested in as it has been under many different schemes but the most fascinating one is MIT's research into fully organic, virus generated cathodes. its based on the idea how tiny proteins cant naturally bond together to form a perfect structure of a sea shell. by identifying certain viral strains MIT managed to come up with a virus that would automatically organize itself into cathode and anode stacks. fundamentally taking the shape of wires only 6 billionth of a meter in diameter. these tiny wires make for an ultimately thin battery. that is 3 times more potent that a standard lithium-ion battery and more importantly its organic nature makes for a completely green energy source. Standford university is experimenting with another way in which they use silicone nano wires and if they can improve the cathode in a similar way there could be a 10 fold in energy density.

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?article_id=218392647

over the two years I've been on the course if come to acknowledge the sheer quantity of talent and creativity that allot of the people i know have hidden away and only let lose in little bits. the learning curve of some people may not seem very steep but pretty much everyone in the group has developed by a substantial amount thus i write this blog while i still have it fresh in my mine. what happens when all this talent and the talent of other similar courses filter into the game (arts in general) society. will there be room for every one to make it or will some people be shut out for not being quite as good as another person.

the game industry is far from a land of freedom and equality its a complete free for all or each man for himself kind of world. i cant help but wonder that some of the people that develop slowly over a period of time will be shot down by the people that were either born with talent and/or the people that jump leaps and bounds every now and again. these two groups of people have different methodologies in which they take on tasks and challenges thus do the group of people that have just as much creativity get put on the bench because they don't quite have the visual language to show there potential. this is where id say that creativity is absolute and is the be all and end all of arts in general but that isn't the true case unless you have the tools to express it to another person effectively. going a little bit off the subject but i was lead to believe that different people had different forms of creativity and no 2 people were ever the same, thus why and how would someones ability to convey a pretty idea to another person denote his or her place in the world. could there be other ways in which people convey ideas to one another, well yes there is! salvation. back to the group as a general miss match of talent and creativity, some people are great at modeling while another a good at drawing what they see but another group could be good at writing what they are thinking in words reachable by others, these are just a few ways in which people differ in the projection of ideas and creativity which hopefully means the people that are good at one or maybe two things will never have to meat someone that is brilliant at every thing. you can admire all you want but jealousy always gets the better of people. tis what some people call human nature.

i realize after searching the web that criticism is more like a "value judgment" rather than judgment my reasoning was discovered when searching the web and i came across this phrase

value judgment: "the judgment of the rightness or wrongness of something, rearing upon a value system. a decision must be made with limited knowledge"

if someone walked up to a half finished piece of work and saw somthing was wrong he/she may not know that this piece of work is unfinished and far from looking like it is complete but judges it as he sees it with (key words) limited knowledge and makes a comment. some people find this offensive and begin to defend themselves, I've done it and so have the tutors. its not that they are judging harshly and ultimately on something unfinished but making a biased decision based on the knowledge at hand.

however judgment : "a balanced opiniong based on evidance and is usually the outcome of an evaluation of alternatives"
"The formal process of evaluation can sometimes be described as a set of conditions and criteria that must be satisfied in order for a judgment to be made. What follows is a suggestive list of some conditions that are commonly required"

therefore i find myself judging people more often on unfinished work as i now understand that when i criticize a person i am using one or the other thus there is no need to take it as a personal attack or put down.

thought id begin by explaining how irritated i get by people judging others on things rom second or third hand knowledge. over the past few days i've come to realize there are some people that try to judge others not soly on there work or abilities in general but there personality. its all well and good to do this to someone when looking for a job or what not but when people are judging others that clearly are in the same level of ability i.e. most people at university it realy gets to me.
i came across a message on the blogger that explained things were going to be changed in something i had made without my say so and when i questioned this i got a speedy response from the person in question at face-to-face. this was a great relief as it made me realize it was all a communication error and the problem was solved swiftly and maturely but then a few people began to defend both parties involved. it was quite nice to see real peoples opinions for a change rather than back stabbing and sly comments but on the other hand it did irritate me to find that allot of peoples comments made sense only if they had third hand information and a complete bias opinion. after reading them all i just came to the conclusion that some people are quick to judge others valiantly and truthfully when it is someone they love or admire but obviously not many people are loved and admired as much as i thought as most people reply to the question "does this look good?" with "yeah yeah thats awesome!" when it clearly isn't. its a little bit reminiscence of dales circle and square theory. but someones not correcting the problems by telling him/her what they actually think because they either have no respect for that person or they just don't care.

I'm not a complete judgmental person myself but I'm also guilty of not telling a person what i think as i don't want them to feel upset or like I'm better than them because I'm sure allot of people take it that way and when they ask that question "does this look good" they really want to hear the disrespectful answer "yeah yeah thats awesome". Working in a group has made me understand that peoples opinions are most likely false or bias depending on your relationship with that person. you have just got to look at your own work and compare yourselves to someone that is undoubtedly better than you for a self criticism that you know is completely true and unbiased.