Review – Imagine Plus 110-pound Card Stock

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

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 5859606162636465, and 66

One Off Beat 2021, and 22

Stickies 2728293031, and 32

Stamped 1415, and 16

All life, no lemons 1112, 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”

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.

Review – Office Depot 20-Pound Copy Paper

By: Austin Smith

When one is starting to review art supplies, it’s difficult to find a starting place. So I picked the thing all art is put on; paper. More specifically I’m starting with Office Depot, 20-pound copy paper. The kind of thing that everyone has access to. And the kind of thing you’re most likely to start making art on. (or at least preliminary designs)

20-pound paper isn’t that thick, take it off the table and you can see right through it (not clearly, but you can). It obviously won’t hold much and buckles almost instantly in moisture. Thus it won’t be useful for anything more then pencil or light ink. Although it being copy paper and 8.5″ X 11″ it probably won’t be what your finished piece is on.

 

The paper is slick, mostly, it’s got enough grip and texture to not feel glossy and go sliding around on you. It takes both ink and pencil very well. When using a good eraser, pencil almost completely disappears. The ink shows through the paper, the pencil does not. And the texture is fine enough that it is barely noticeable to the naked eye. Which is something good if you’re planning on creating a workable draft of something and not just sketching.

The fact that this type of paper is almost universal and its small size make it great for sketches and drafts. Its main limitation is that, aside from copy paper, its dimensions are almost never used. Most printed and official online “art” documents use different aspect ratios from copy paper, making it almost exclusively for drafts and amateur art projects (in the art world).

It’s always good to have some around, to sketch or to find out how things fit together, and it can always be scanned and posted on a Blog with ease. It’s obviously a starting material, but one that never really leaves the desks of experts.

It’s also really cheap, which is a bonus.