Art over the years

Hey cats.

I figured I would post a few of my peices from the past few years. None of them are particularly impressive, in any way, but I figured it would at least give a sense of my art style.



This is a smaller doodle that I did only about a month ago. I'm a huge fan of art without lines. I love to see brush strokes and have the piece feel painted, even if it's done digitally. Texture and roughness give a piece a human feel. It almost gives you a sense of the artist's personality.



This was a piece done last year. Again, more of a rough doodle than anything, but I still enjoy it. I've always loved dogs and wolves, so they've always been a focus of a lot of my art. It gets old, though, so I try to mix it up from time to time. Still, animals have always been my strong suite.



A sketch of Hellboy from the popular comic/movie franchise. Again, just something I enjoy. I'm horrible at humans, especially their faces, so this was a bit of an experiment for me.



A friend of mine, Ken, would always upload line-art without any color. I would occasionally take his pieces and color them for practice. This was one of my more successful attempts. His line-art is based off of our characters in the semi-popular Korean MMO Ragnarok Online.

Movie Review 1 - Inside (À l'intérieur)

'Tis been forever since I've done one of these. But it's ten at night and I'm just bored enough that, by Jove, this might work!

For anyone who's been even remotely paying attention to the more recent releases of the American horror community, the scene is grim--Remakes of remakes, Americanized J-horror, and even remakes of movies that haven't even finished filming (COUGH COUGH QUARANTINE COUGH) have been the name of the game. The name of the game has also been "Suck". As in "These movies suck". Or "Hey Joel, bet you can't suck this cucumber through this hose". Poor Joel, he was always so gullible.

As such, the hopes and dreams of horror movie buffs such as myself lie squarely on the shoulders of the foreign markets. In this particular case, the shoulders are drooped in disgust for the outside world and smell vaguely of cheese and tobacco. That is, the shoulders are French (please don't kill me France, I love your movies!). And so we turn our eyes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, with their first ever movie--Inside. Following the tale of a young pregnant woman held hostage in her own home by a mysterious black-clad attacker, Inside gives the viewer a choice that not many movies do. It's not easy to sway the audience away from the side of a female victim, nonetheless a pregnant one. Yet Inside asks the viewer to watch closely and, by the end, question the justification of a clearly psychotic and tremendously violent woman. Like Hard Candy (see previous review), the "correct" side is ambiguous.


The French DVD Box

I have to admit, just looking at the box screams "mediocre B-grade film project". But hey, I've seen some damn good B-grade film projects (COUGH COUGH EVIL DEAD COUGH), so I press on. I had heard that the movie was good. Damn good. Frenchly good. I had also heard it was violent. And not in the "oh cool a guy got his arm cut off" way, the "I think I just learned with the inside of a spleen looks like" way. So I have to admit I came in with higher expectations that I normal like to have for a movie. I was not disappointed.

Inside is a masterful movie. It's not quite the obscene torture porn of Hostel, yet definitely not a tame movie. All of the effects are practical and unrelenting in their depiction. It's been quite a while since I've watched a movie that's made me uncomfortable, let alone kept me uncomfortable for the entire run. Yet it never pushed into the realm of gratuitous that so often ruins films like this. The film pays homage to old-school slashers like Black Christmas and Halloween by keeping the action contained in a cramped, claustrophobic setting. A majority of the movie never leaves the heroine's house.

Definitely not a movie for everyone, Inside will test your mettle in terms of gore. It doesn't rely on oceans of blood and guts to keep itself afloat, however. The film uses tension and suspense to keep the viewer constantly unsettled, yet never pushes the movie into the realm of ridiculous. If you are sick of remakes and want something new and intense to sink your teeth into, Inside is a good place to start.



Grade: A

A post to remember me by

Well, as a first post, I figured I would give a bit of background of my creative experiences.

My creative career has been a bit rough and tumble. From kindergarten to freshman year of high school I produced at least one piece of art a day. I spent at least three hours every day drawing--I never had any formal training, I simply doodled and used occasional references for inspiration. I enjoyed it more than anything and, as such, I figured a bit of formal training would be a good addition to my repertoire. My freshman year of high school signaled my first taste of an actual art class.

I hated it. It was so structured and forced. It made me sick to even think of my pieces in that class as art. They were assignments, stifled abortions of my creative spirit. It sounds melodramatic and elitist, but to this day I could never understand how anyone could enjoy such a shackled approach to art. I never quite recovered from that experience. The will to draw slowly drained and replaced with the weight of increasing responsibility. I still have a tremendous respect for the art community and thoroughly enjoy creativity in any form.

Fortunately, my creative spirit found a new outlet in the form of cinematography. I absolutely adore movies. I have a special place in my heart for the oddities and obscurities of the film world and, within that special place, I have an even more special place for the horror genre. As such, I tend to accrue a collection of bizarre films most people have never heard of and probably would never chose to watch of their own volition. My friends affectionately refer to my selections as "Jon movies", as their bizarre qualities are forever linked with me in their minds.

It makes me incredibly happy to share them with others and hopefully make new fans of everyone who reads my work. Creativity doesn't always have to fall within the visual realm. Although I lost one creative outlet, it pushed me to another that I enjoy just as much.

I like to try to include a bit of humor in most of my reviews just to keep things fun, so hopefully you enjoy!