There have been some great titles that were recently slated for DVD release, such as: Sex and the City - The Movie HBO’s hit series jumped up to the big screen and will soon be available on DVD and Blu-ray. Watch for it on 9-23-08. The latest adventure of Indiana Jones has been scheduled too. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be released on both DVD and Blu-ray on 10-12-08; and quirky short-lived sci-fi comedy Quark will make its way to DVD on 9-2-08. Other newly announced titles include: Scooby Doo: Funland of Freaky Frights: Interactive DVD Game 11-11-2008, Munsters: Complete Series 10-07-2008 and A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All

Sketchbook, 8½” × 11″

Need a sketchbook that is really durable and nice to use? The Canson Basic Sketchbook features a black, leather-textured hardcover and 108 pages to sketch on.

Pages are acid-free 65 lb (96 gsm) white paper.

Makes 12 slices

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups grated apple
1/4 cup raisins
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and oats. Add apple, raisins, eggs, milk, and oil. Mix until dry ingredients are moistened.

Put mixture into the greased pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until done. Cool on wire rack.

1. Create a vector/plain text using any of the drawing tools in Flash, say a text with ‘Animation’ typed as shown in the example and break it using Break Apart (Ctrl + B) to separate the alphabets as shown below:

2. In Frame-by-Frame animation we create the object for each frame so as to produce an animation sequence.
3. Insert Keyframe (F6) and move the alphabets so as to produce an animation sequence.
4. Repeat the above step as far as desired to create Frame-by-Frame animation as shown in the example.
5. Save your work and test the Movie (Ctrl + Enter). That’s it you have created an animation using Frame-by-Frame animation.

Synopsis
Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow returns to the helm for this sci-fi comedy about a struggling single father whose quest to find the perfect toy yields out-of-this-world results. Ti (Chow) is a poor construction worker who breaks his back to ensure that his young son Dicky (Xu Jiao) can stay enrolled in an exclusive private school. But while Ti does everything possible to give his son the opportunities that he never had, Dicky still feels like a classroom reject due to his tattered clothes and lack of the latest toys. Dicky’s classmates all play with the coolest and most expensive gadgets that money can buy, so how is a kid who gets his toys from the local junkyard ever supposed to fit in? One day, while scrounging through the trash heap in search of a new toy, Ti discovers a mysterious orb and brings it straight back to Dicky. Though at first the “CJ7″ appears to be little more than an unidentifiable oddity, it proves to be much, much more once the young boy starts to play with it. This isn’t your average action figure, but a living “pet” with extraordinary powers. Realizing that his new toy may be just the thing to help him fit in with his demanding classmates, Dicky brings the CJ7 to school with him in order to show it off and have some fun. But the CJ7 has its own ideas about how to have fun, and it isn’t long before the situation at school gets hopelessly out of hand. - Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Starring:
Xu Jiao, Stephen Chow, Kitty Zhang Yuqi, Lee Sheung-Ching, Fun Min-Hun

Theatrical Release Date: 03/07/2008
DVD Release Date: 08/12/2008
Rating: PG
MPAA Reasons: for language, thematic material, some rude humor and brief smoking
Run Time: 86 min.
Distributor(s): Sony Classics
Production Co.: Beiji
Director(s): Stephen Chow
Genre(s): Comedy, Science Fiction
Themes: Benign Aliens, Fathers and Sons
Tone: Goofy, Sweet, Bright, Quirky, Fanciful, Whimsical, Affectionate
Keywords: son, father, construction, private-school, alien [not human]
Country of Origin: USA - Limited
Language: Cantonese
Status: DVD

Rejoin the epic and suspenseful phenomenon as Heroes: Season 2 arrives on DVD. Experience all the new and exciting twists of the astonishing series in this 4-disc set that includes every gripping Season 2 episode. Plus, see what could have been with exclusive bonus features that reveal the untold stories that never aired and an alternate ending to the season finale, where the fate of humanity takes an ominous turn when Peter fails to catch the vial containing the deadly virus.

Price: $24.99

Heroes: Season One was a phenomenon. Someone was making a show about superheroes, and they were doing it *smart*. We cared about the heroes. We shivered at the villains. We weren’t sure where the plot was going, but we were along for the ride.

And then Season Two was inflicted upon us. “The writer’s strike was going on… It wasn’t *that* bad…”

Yes, yes it was. Bad on its own merits, but worse because it took the cockpit of one of the best shows on television and dumped fuel at 50,000 feet.

If all you come to “Heroes” for is some action and excitement and special effects, perhaps you found the season enjoyable, and I don’t fault you for that. But if you’re prone to ask yourself silly questions like “Why should two people who have been friends in the past and have the ability to freeze time (and thus literally all the time in the world to discuss and explain things) need to come to blows” or “How the devil would someone with the ability to regenerate know that doing ‘x’ would result in his permanent demise” or even “Why is this person doing these stupid and out-of-character things other than someone’s desperate need for the plot to move in a particular direction”… This show will leave you, as a Season 1 veteran, *howling* in pain.

Watch one of our female leads devolve as a character and date a sociopath! Marvel as the writers decide killing people off is cleaner than resolving their issues! Thrill to the slow-moving travels of a blubbering, co-dependent cipher! Gawk at writing so shallow that you can practically read the outline through the script! Boggle at the notion that anyone has actually thought this through!

If you read Manga a lot, you might think you know your character, but nothing beats drawing to really learn the individual shape of a character. By concentrating on one character at a time, you can get to know them really well, so you’ll always draw them correctly.

* Collect a scrapbook of pictures for reference.
* Study the artist’s linework and color palette.
* Do a sketchbook page of their face from every angle.
* Do a page of eyes, showing all kinds of expressions.
* Draw their hands in different poses and holding objects.
* Write notes about how they move and look. What is special about this character that makes them look different from others?

This approach is also useful if you are creating your own character.

Sometimes a little artist’s licence is needed if light is poor or when working from a photo. Adding a little curved highlight cutting across the pupil and iris, a shadow under the lid, or detail to the iris, can brighten flat eyes.

Don’t automatically outline the lower lid - often the lower rim is highlighted and needs to be lightly indicated.

Observe the subtle changes in tone which indicate the eye socket, and the planes of the nose and brows, which help to sit the eyes into the face.

Because drawing is often self-taught, you tend to keep making mistakes much longer than when a teacher is available to help. Here are the 10 most common mistakes beginners make when they learn to draw. Some big, some small, all fixable. Check and see whether these errors crop up in your drawings, and get some tips on fixing them.

1. Drawing With a Hard Pencil

If you have no very dark shadows and the whole picture is rather pale, check your pencil. Are you using a Number2 (HB) pencil? These are too hard to draw with (though they are handy for light shading). Get a B, 2B and 4B for darker values. Read more about pencil grades.

2. Portraits from Flash Photography

This is the major cause of beginner drawing problems. Using flash photography flattens the features, giving you nothing to work with. When the person is facing you, it is very hard to see the modeling of the face, as the perspective vanishes behind their head, and add a cheesy snapshot grin and you make life very hard! Have the person turning slightly to one side so you can model their face, with natural lighting to give good skintones, and a natural expression to show their real personality.

3. Incorrect Head Proportions

Because of the way we focus on a person’s features, we usually draw them too big and squash the rest of the head. Learn about the correct head proportions

4. Twisted Features

Because we are used to looking at a person straight-on, we naturally try to make their features look level when we draw them. If their head is on an angle, this results in strange distortions in the picture. Sketch guidelines first to ensure that the features are on the same angle as the rest of the face.

5. Pet Drawings from Human Eye Level

When you take a photograph standing up, you are looking down at your pet. They have to look up, and you end up with their head seeming much bigger than their body, and a rather odd expression on their face. Have someone distract them so they aren’t staring down the lens, and squat down so the camera is at their head level, and you’ll get a much better reference photo.

6. Being Afraid of Black

Often when shading, the shadows don’t go past dark gray. If your value range is restricted to in some cases half what it ought to be, you are limiting the modelling and depth in your drawing. Put a piece of black paper at the corner of your drawing, and don’t be afraid to go dark. Really dark. Improve your range of tone.

7. Outlining in Value Drawings

When value drawing, you are creating an illusion with areas of tonal value. When you use a hard drawn line to define an edge, you disrupt this illusion. Let edges be defined by two different areas of tonal value meeting. Read more about Value Drawing.

8. Drawing on the Wrong Paper

If your drawing is pale, it might be the paper. Some cheap papers have a sheen on the surface that is too smooth to grab the particles off the pencil. A thick notepad has too much ‘give’ under the pencil to allow you to apply enough pressure. Try a basic photocopy/office paper, or check the art store for cheap sketch paper. Place a piece of card under a couple of sheets to give a firmer surface. If you are trying to do even shading, some sketch papers can be too coarse, giving an uneven texture. Try a hot-pressed Bristol board or similar smooth drawing paper. Find out more about paper

9. Scribbled Foliage

Don’t use circular scribbles to draw foliage. Use more convex shaped scumbling - like crescent shapes and scribbly calligraphic marks - to draw the shadows in and around clusters of foliage, and your trees will look much more realistic.

10. Wiry, Pencil-Line Hair and Grass

If you draw every hair or blade of grass as a pencil line, you’ll end up with a horrible, wiry, unnatural mess. Use feathery pencil-strokes to draw the shadows and dark foliage behind areas of grass - just like drawing short hair in this drawing hair tutorial.

#1 Getting Started

Once you have decided on your subject, you need to decide on the best techniques and materials to use. There are so many things to consider. Should the background stay white? Should you use a smooth paper or rough? Should you use graphite, charcoal, or a maybe a combination of both. It’s enough to make you take up sculpting! Don’t get discouraged. This tutorial will answer these questions and more.

The first thing you need to do is analyze the textures in all the areas of your subject. Decide which areas would be considered rough and which are smooth. Notice where contrasting textures and values are adjacent to each other.

Once you have identified the basic textures and values of your subject, you need to decide on the appropriate techniques to use in each area.

#2 Using Charcoal and Graphite Pencil (why I use both in each drawing)

The individual granules of charcoal have an irregular shape. When light strikes a drawing containing these particles, it bounces back in many different directions. That means when it is pushed to its darkest value, charcoal doesn’t have the reflective glare that is common with graphite. Usually the darkest values in a drawing are shadows, and, if you are trying to render a subject as realistically as possible, the last thing you want is a shadow that reflects more light than the subject. I use both charcoal and graphite pencil in different areas of my drawings.

Subjects I typically render with charcoal pencils:

Wood, Bark, fur, hair, eyelashes, pupil of the eye, dark line between the lips, nostrils, coarse fabrics, - like denim, leather, cast shadows,

Subjects I typically render with graphite pencils:

Skin tones, Shading in the white of the eye, Glass, Porcelain, Light values in shiny metal, Smooth fabrics - like silk, Light shading on paper objects- like playing cards.

My favorite brands of charcoal and graphite pencils:

Graphite:
There are many artist grade graphite pencils to choose from these days. A 2B pencil of one brand may be vastly different than the 2B of another brand. I currently use Berol Turquoise drawing pencils.

Charcoal:
Many people who are used to the feel of graphite effortlessly gliding across their paper find charcoal too abrasive. Several years ago, I came across Ritmo charcoal pencils. While they aren’t as smooth as graphite, they did have less of that feeling of “drag” than many other charcoal pencils. Since then the formula for Ritmo seems to have changed and I no longer use them. Currently I use Primo euro blend charcoal pencils manufactured in the USA by General Pencil Company. There are three degrees of hardness ranging from HB (hardest) to 3B (softest). All charcoal smears easily so if you are not familiar with this medium you may consider reading the chapter entitled Keeping Your Drawing Clean on page 18 of my technique book.

Carbon Pencils
I also employ two types of carbon pencils: Wolff’s and Conte carbon. The Wolff’s carbon pencil has recently been reformulated to give a smoother feel and richer blacks than the old version. The clay in the Conte carbon pencil has a slightly warmer tone to it than the rest of the media I use. When either of these carbon pencils are used in combination with charcoal and graphite, their inherent characteristics make them ideal for separating subjects containing similar values.

#3 Blending

I use various tools to blend with also. Each creates a different texture and spreads each medium differently. Using the right blending tool can mean the difference between using a few quick swipes to create the exact look you want, or, re-working an area for hours (or until you rub a hole in the paper) and giving up in frustration. These are some of my blending tools:

Blending Stump: These are tightly wound paper sticks with points on both ends. They are available in several diameters. Use them to blend large areas of the medium and also to apply the medium directly to the paper for softer effects.

Tortillon: These are generally smaller and not wrapped as tightly as blending stumps. They are not as solid as blending stomps and they create a slightly different texture.

Felt pad: Purchase 1′ x 1′ white squares at a craft store. Creates random textural effects for a variety of natural looking textures.

Facial Tissue: Good for blurring the edge of shadows and softening unwanted pencil strokes. Paper towels are another choice if you don’t want to lighten the area as much.

Paper: Blending with paper brings out the texture of the drawing paper. The paper you use to blend with makes a big difference in the texture created. Try wrapping notebook paper around you finger to start with. Good for separating two objects that have similar values by using only textures.

Chamois: To imitate smooth textures like skin tones and reflective surfaces like glass. Also use it like an eraser to lighten large masses of dark charcoal or graphite. Creates an extremely smooth texture.

NOT FINGERS: I know some people don’t have a problem with it but it can be a nightmare. I suggest you even be careful touching important areas of the paper with your bare hands. Your fingertips can transfer oil to the paper. This oil becomes apparent if it is in light areas of blended charcoal or graphite. Graphite and charcoal work exactly like finger print dusting powder, leaving the incriminating imprints of the person responsible for groping your paper. (Probably you, but you can yell at the kids if it makes you feel better.) It is impossible to make a smooth, even tone with charcoal or graphite powder in areas with fingerprints.

Experiment: Put those creative thinking caps on! You never know when you might come across something that will produce the perfect texture you are looking for. Try different fabrics - smooth and rough. Just make sure the materials are clean and the color from dyes won’t rub off on your paper.

One Last Tip: These are some of the materials and techniques I use. I offer these methods as a starting point, to help you achieve a style all your own. I believe there are as many techniques on how to draw as there are people. Never let any instructor or book make you believe that their way is the ONLY way. My theory is - if it works, use it. We all need to keep growing and experiment but keep true to your own vision