Hello everyone. A friend of mine discovered a series of ridiculously awful videos done by a guy claiming to be a professional cartoonist.

Here's the first one, 'How to Draw a Human Man'--> [link]

'How to Draw a Manga Fight Pose'--> [link]

'How to Draw Naruto' --> [link] (Extra bonus points for saying Narutu)

'How to Draw a Woman' --> [link]

There are just so, so many problems with what this guy's doing. He clearly has a very weak grasp on the concept of anatomical structure.

The guy said he drew cartoons all the time in college. I have a feeling that it either wasn't an art college, or he dropped out of art college, or he just got really, really lazy.

The other alternative? He is Troll Force Personified.

What's crazy to me is that there's a few people defending the guy, using arguments along the lines of 'You don't have talent and you're jealous, you're just hatin' on the guy', or 'The man is drawing cartoons of course it doesn't look like Da Vinci masterpiece!! Cartoons aren't supposed to follow reality!!!'

The first argument made me laugh so much, when after checking out a few of the folks who were very critical of the tutorials turned to be much better artists. The second one makes little sense too, because even cartoonists are supposed to understand proportions and how to draw real people (because once you know that, you can exaggerate a lot easier without going into the uncanny valley).

Don't even think about saying the guy's drawings look like that because they were done under 5 minutes, considering even in under one minute a lot of decent artists can make a good sketch.

Seriously, either the dude making those so-called 'tutorials' is a troll or he lives in a sad delusion that he's a skilled artist.

Remember, the cruelest thing you can do to an artist is to tell them their work is perfect when it isn't flawless, because then they'll lose the motivation to improve.

Do yourself a favor. Look for tutorials on drawing manga elsewhere on youtube, like Mark Crilley (username markcrilley) or for something non-manga like this good Painting Fundamentals video by Marco Bucci--> [link]

Last night I had this bizarre dream involving giant hands that flashed neon colors. They had enormous eyes attached to them and seemed to be dancing to some weird, off-key music that shifted genres from classical to heavy metal to techno.

I was there in a dark room full of these things, and just walked around them until I found a white door with a green handprint on it. I opened the door, and walked into a butcher's shop full of those same giant neon hands, shopping for meat.

I picked up a frozen turkey leg, then waited in line at the cashier's. The giant hands seemed to be talking to each other, speaking with musical notes from the previous room.

When it was my turn to pay up, I offered a twenty British pound bill. The cashier accepted it and gave me coins I have never seen before. The coins were silver, with feet engraved on both sides.

I walked out of the butcher shop through a pair of yellow doors, and entered my room. I walked to my bed, and laid down. After what felt like few minutes later, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock.

Have a happy new set of 365 days!

It's the year of the Metal Tiger, which cannot possibly sound any more awesome... unless you added 'laser' and 'jetpack' to it.

Ah, another new year is coming soon. It's strange to me how 2009 seemed to feel really, REALLY long. Maybe it has to do with all the many, many events happening in it.

I've been writing up a kind of a 'training schedule' for myself, art-wise and physical health-wise. I used to be thin while I was in the UK, I know I can lose all this fat again. With regards to art practice, I assigned a different sort of practice for every day of the week, from vehicle/animal reference practice and some speedpaints. 2010 should be a good year, at least for me.

Also, been reading up a first aid manual I bought recently. It's crazy how many ways you can save a person using really simple tools.

Anyone else here keeping track of the Marble Hornets internet video series? Really creepy stuff, which I like.

Oh yeah, I remember mentioning making some fanart in a previous journal. Somehow forgot about that. Going to work on some.