Review – Yellow Dollar General HB No.2 Pencils

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By: Austin Smith

All right, on to the art-making things. Let’s start with pencils, specifically HB or No.2 pencils. The ones I’m reviewing today are from dollar general and are 10 cents apiece. So they’re the cheap, starting pencil.

The pencils are small and light, roughly 6 and 3/4 inches to start, with about a half inch eraser. The wood is cheap, it’s splintery and rough. The paint is applied poorly, with parts flaking off and wood showing through, but it does its job and the letters are easy enough to read. The eraser is all right, it erases, but not all the way. Usable for sketches and writing. The eraser is hard and sometimes smears the graphite instead of erasing.

But that is all roughly cosmetic. One can get other erasers and the paint does its job. It’s really about the graphite. And that’s hard to screw up. HB’s are a fairly hard pencil, really medium, leaning to the soft end. They’re easy to draw with and give a large amount of control. The lead is not brittle, and stays in its wooden case. The pencil is suitable for sketches and of course writing like its main use in schools.

The wood being cheap makes it difficult to sharpen, making it lean more to one side or the other, the lead is also slightly off center. It’s cheap, but usable.

This pencil is a nice cheap way to sketch. And is useful in creating a draft for a sketch to be inked later. It being cheap it is available but it is also cheap, not the best pencil available. It does its job but it’s nothing spectacular.

So, Beck Released an new single

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What the hell, when did that happen? I guess I wasn’t paying attention to Beck, I was to busy being disappointed by Sublime and The Ting Tings; wondering how in the world Modest Mouse is going to record songs with Big Boi (which they’ve already done, apparently) and why Franz Ferdinand isn’t saying anything about the new album they’re working on. Oh, and I was also busy being pumped for the new Jukebox the Ghost album.

But, Beck did in fact release a new single, I’ve got it in my hand. It feels strange to be holding a freshly pressed 7″. I have new 12″ers, but those seem like they’d be more profitable in this day and age. No matter, because even though I bought the record, Third Man still didn’t give me a way to download it and I had to buy it again off Itunes.

Well, was it worth it. The B-side “Blue Randy” wasn’t, I’ll tell you that off the bat. It’s the disappointing, droning Beck I though we’d rid of when Sea Change came out. That’s when his droning got less disappointing. But really, it seems different from past efforts, maybe it will grow on me like Mutations did, but until then I’d skip the B.

But what we’re really here for is the A-side, right, those are ones that are remembered, except when they aren’t and the B-side becomes the hit. But that won’t be the case with “I Just Started Hating Some People Today”, because it is far superior to “Blue Randy”. The song has Beck going to country (and then devolving into chaos by the song’s end) which I must say I quite enjoy. Beck’s sense of humor is back, and the new country tune brings him closer to his folk roots. It’s like an extremely polished song from One Foot in the Grave or Steropathetic Soulmanure. It makes me smile to hear somehow cohesive nonsense from Beck again, no matter how much I liked Modern Guilt, Sea Change, Mutations, and to some extent The Information (on seriousness, not liking) it’s always fun to hear that. The song is thoroughly enjoyable and entirely Beck, just with a country spin. Every album Beck has done so far has evolved in songwriting and into a new genre, and this is a great jump in both directions. It’s country-Beck is all I really have to say about it and if that sounds appealing to you, then give it a listen, the A-side is worth the dollar (or eight if you buy the single {including shipping}).

I hope the new inevitable Beck album keeps up this vibe and that Third Man can continue to release Beck albums (with digital copies included).

By: Austin Smith

Review – Imagine Plus 110-pound Card Stock

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By: Austin Smith

After paper the new thing that one would most likely move on to is card stock, in this case Imagine Plus 110-pound 8.5″x11″ card stock. This stuff is a little more “advanced” and one could actually create “finished” projects on it. “Finished” being a subjective term.

110-pound card stock is obviously much thicker and heavier then paper. It takes pencil and ink well; heavy inking and even light painting also work well. The stock does buckle under water quite easily, though, so over-inking and water-based paints aren’t recommended. And painting on anything lighter than Water-color type paper could lead to buckling.

The stock itself is smooth, with enough friction to not go sliding around. Pencil is taken and erased well. Ink is quickly absorbed. The grain is noticeable at times but rarely affects the work that is on it. Heavy ink shows through, but the likelihood of someone seeing the back is negligible.

The size of the paper being 8.5″x11″ makes it a rarely seen art surface. The size, like that of copy paper, is simply unconventional. It is a good material for people just “graduating” into “finished” artwork.

While the stock is nice and useful, most will quickly pass it up for superior art surfaces.

Blog 6-4-12 Updates

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So here’s the updates for the past 3 weeks, I’m slow on the draw with these ones, especially since I’m posting this two days late. I hope to get back to weekly updates soon with all the stuff I should be doing in the next couple of weeks.

COMICS

Spiffy 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66

One Off Beat 20, 21, and 22

Stickies 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32

Stamped 14, 15, and 16

All life, no lemons 11, 12, and 13

Tasteless 9

VIDEOS

Vlog 5-31-12 – Catching up

ART SUPPLY REVIEWS

New blog – Art Supply Critic – A blog where I review some of the things people use to make art, there is some stuff there right now, and more should come quickly.

Review – 20-pound copy paper – I’ll be posting new reviews from this blog along with articles and everything else. Check out the first one.

OTHER

Dragon undertow – A new blog where I post things that I see that I think are funny. I don’t want to clutter up my main site with other peoples stuff and make it look unorganized. Just think of it as my version of an average tumblr.

Blog post – I didn’t like the new Hitman Trailer – A new “thing” on the Hitman trailer. Not sure if this “thing” will become a “thing” or a feature. It may be just a one-off where I have to vent.

So I didn’t like the Hitman: Absolution trailer “Attack of the Saints”

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By: Austin Smith

*warning* Kinda inappropriate, but so is the trailer.

The Trailer for the new Hitman game came out, and something about it just rubbed me the wrong, way, so I’m going to watch it again and tell you what I find wrong with it. This is almost unedited so bear with me. It also helps if you’ve seen the trailer because I’m not going to write down times or anything.

Yes, this may contain inappropriate content.

You’d think it would take more then a band-aid for a shoulder gash like that.

Why are we focusing so much on the nuns chests?

Why the stilettos? That barely makes sense.

You might want to check on that band-aid on your head. Blood pouring from your cranium is generally not a good sign.

Whoa, I get where the SMG came from, but an RPG really! Did she just pull that out of a car I didn’t see pass by, because she didn’t pull it out of her ass.

Oh, the gloves are on now.

Whoa, maybe she did. This is where I start to dislike this trailer, I mean really, why latex. I understand that a nun getup might not be beneficial in a gunfight, but at least it might obscure your form. Latex that barely covers you is pointless, especially when it’s going to rain. Do “sexy” getups help you fight your enemies. And why are they “sexy” nuns anyway, does the Hitman series just have a roaming group of killer nuns. Why? I mean the only Hitman game I played had me going around impaling people on meathooks for twenty minutes before my friend came back and we went bowling. Are these nuns reoccurring characters? If not, why? There is no need for them to be here, let alone dressed like that, I’m almost offended. These assassins suck at their jobs.

Oh, I talked so much I missed the coin he pulled out of his head or something.

You know maybe standing in your “sexy” formation and blowing up the room with and RPG is not a good way to maintain cover, or not be seen, or just flat out killed. Hey look, he’s already killing them, like the shrapnel wouldn’t have already.

For assassins they really don’t notice when people get killed behind them do they.

I’m not sure he just fired enough rounds to kill all but two of them.

Nice covered up-skirt and machine-gun shot; he lied.

You’d think she would have thought about him grabbing the barrel.

Are rosaries effective strangling devices?

Oh, unrealistically broken nose.

Yeah, I bet those latex outfits are helping you fight now.

Okay, there is no way that at that distance, a rifle bullet packed by a professional assassin would just stop inside a person. They are both dead now, game over.

Bull***T, he should be dead, or at least suffering for several more bullet wounds.

He shot first, or something.

Thats an awesome car.

No I don’t care that he closed her eyes.

Well, that sucked. I mean really, nuns, why? Just so they could do that lame title. And why sexualize them. It’s not because they weren’t nuns and the disguises were cumbersome, or they would have taken their wimples off. They were just bad assassins. Or it was just an offensive marketing campaign with a stupid title for a mediocre game. That’ll be it.