The Game of Kings

Chess or Chaturanga as it was originally called, literally meaning Four Divisions is a game as old as civilized society invented somewhere between c. 280-1000 into the modern era. Many histories and treatises have been written about it for ages. It is indeed a powerful game and is of course known to be a favorite of strategists and intellectuals. The great thinker Benjamin Franklin had this to say of the game:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action.
II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations.
III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily."

Thusly I've begun to play a chess game with myself each day/week to strengthen my mind and open up more doors of creativity. As a writer I am hoping this practice will increase my ability to think for multiple characters at once and to have strategy in defining a plot that is both satisfying and entertaining. As an actor, the same principles apply, by having to play two sides at once and with multiple pieces to move I am hoping this will help with defining character wants and needs or motivation for movement. Now, as an artist, I don't see much practical use into the strategy portion of the game as art is meant to feed on chaos, not order, but I do however see the beauty of the juxtaposition of the pieces as well as the layout of the board, they are all indeed aesthetically pleasing, so I think in some way unbeknownst to me this will help. Well, we'll see.
On the news of the project front, I finished scene one of act two of my play last night and I hope to write most of scene two of act two tonight possibly. The best thing about this play is that I have it all played out for myself in my mind so the effort of it is to just get it written so then I can read and rewrite as needed and then share my creation with those whose opinion I respect.
Also, tonight the wife and I got some great vegetables from my parents. A blog on that will be coming up.

Fragments of Fate

On Wednesday August 25, 2010 at 9:00AM my fiance and I arrived on the set of what would be our first debut as actors on the big screen, hopefully. It was amazing, we arrived there dressed nicely with only the hope of maybe being an extra and getting to help with the equipment. Somehow we ended up getting to do more. Rich Talarico the amazing director/actor/writer allowed us to have a scene with one of the talented actors in his film. To us it lasted for at least a half hour, in the film it will probably only be around three minutes tops depending on how they cut it together. We got to improv a whole scene for his new short film which was untitled as of the shooting. It was great! We were so pumped! During the takes and improvisation I actually made the other actor we were working with burst into laughter. All the other actors on set said that we were really hilarious and they just kept talking about the scene after! The one guy there, Jim Stevens who plays the manager of a bank wanted us to move out to L.A. and start going on auditions. He said to quote, "You have a very unique look about you and that scene was just hilarious." about me and us. Our plan is to eventually move out to L.A. and go on auditions and such, not to mention out in L.A. we will have a lot more access to our outlets for our talents. So that will be awesome, most def.
In any case I am currently still working on all my projects; "Masters of Fiction" I have one page done of the rough pencils and working on the second page, "Commercials" done with Act One and onto Act Two, "A Little Valentinus in your Samhain" currently on chapter Six. So still plugging away at everything!! More news sometime.

Sketching

Lately I have been sketching a lot more which in part is thanks to one of my teachers. Sketching a lot has great benefits, for one if you really pay attention to your drawing ability and what not you can get better a lot faster than you think. And plus sketching is just fun I mean you could come up with some crazy idea while doing it or draw something that really just sucks ass. Either way it's just something really good to do. Just from doing more sketching lately I'm getting back to the way I use to be when I was younger.
I use to sketch like a ton when I was younger and do all sorts of random illustrations and such and this is really getting me back into that. Ever since I got to college like three years ago it has been harder for me to really get into the mood again to do just random sketches and illustrations and comic book stuff which is the whole reason I'm going to college to become an awesome comic book artist. Which finally I feel like I'm getting into that professional frame of mind. I'm doing more scripts then thumbnails, sketches, way better layout ideas and camera work, color comps. I mean I'm actually messing around with color now and I like it! I always hated messing around with color because I thought it was too complicated you know? But I finally got into just doing this style that uses just flat colors with two to three variations and I love it.
So overall my advice to anyone out there is to just friggin sketch more and more and more and do random illustrations and try out things you hate until you sort of understand them more you know?