Welcome to { Shadow of Reflection }

Hi everyone,
Things are going pretty well in regards to work. Busy, but that's good. Always glad to have a job. :)

I would like to give a HUGE thank you to you guys who sent me donations. I don't ever call people out by name because I know some people don't appreciate that, so just know that I really appreciate it. You guys are awesome.

I recently did an art battle with Bre from Primordial Souls. It was based on books and mine was based on Bret Easton Ellis' books. Please take a chance to check out the walls.

Movie Screencaps
- Django Unchained (BluRay)
- The Impossible (BluRay)
- Jurassic Park Trilogy (BluRay)
- Lincoln (BluRay)
- Silver Linings Playbook (BluRay)
- Stealth (BluRay)
- The Ten Commandments (BluRay)
- Trainspotting (BluRay)
- Unfaithful (BluRay)




Coming Soon
- Beauty and the Beast (1987) (Second and Third Season)
- Pretty Little Liars (All episodes)
- Supernatural (catching up on episodes)
- The Vampire Diaries (catching up on episodes)
- The Walking Dead (catching up on episodes)

New Artwork

- AIDS: This is a follow-up to my last wallpaper, in which Christy and Graham did basically whatever they wanted in life. As a consequence, Christy ends up with AIDS at the end of their story. I used this for the acceptance round because she is basically accepting her own demise at this moment. She lies out on the beach, trying to get warm as her insides are dying. It’s quite a terrifying scene, as the disease is real.

I used the brighter colors to emphasize more of a madness kind of feel to it. I think that if I was dying in such a manner, even if I had accepted it, part of me would be going crazy. I feel Christy did the same.

When it comes to the requirement, I wanted to use AIDS as part of it and since there is an A in there, I kind of cheated a touch. I feel it is a large part of the wallpaper as well because when I look at it, it is the first thing I see. I wanted that to be the point, and then have people see the horrors of the disease in the images of Christy. The smaller words that define AIDS are above and smaller because I feel that if you were already sick, having people tell you what to expect would seem so minimal that you could care less.



- Different Heartbeats: For a Veronica Mars challenge. I personally have only ever seen three episodes of VM. I have it on my list of ones to watch, so someday. However, I do know about this part of the storyline, as Alona Tal is in it and I love her, lol.

I think this is a great part of the overall story and I love the shock of it. I didn't feel I should add any textures to it, as they seemed to really take away from image. So instead, I went with coloring. I used the blue green to show the sadness and confusion of the scene. I liked these lyrics because the whole part of having two heartbeats was something I wanted to utilize.



- The End of the World: This is based on the book, “The Informers”. I went back and forth on using this one for this or the last round because it fits both very well. And I know looking at this, depression certainly isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, the depression aspects come to the story. These characters, just like all of Bret’s characters, are loathsome little drug addicted yuppies who don’t see past the next day. They literally run in excess of everything in this book from drugs to sex, drinking, and much more. The great tragedy of this book is that every single person is sleeping with each other, leading to everyone infected with HIV at the end of the book, either knowingly or not. It is in the era when AIDS first became prominent.

So for the stocks I used elements that I felt were part of all of this. The city landscape was used to emphasize the fast life of the city, the Jack Daniels for obvious reasons, and the smoke to show both drug use and the overall delusion of the people involved. I tried really hard to get the drug stock images in there, but that was not meant to be. I tried every element humanly possible there. I used the darker colors and shading to show the darker feel and then the Cure lyrics because the Cure always reminds me of this couple.



- Hollywood: To start, I guess I'll introduce the book, or books. I based this one on the books, "Less Than Zero" and "Imperial Bedrooms", which is the sequel to "Less Than Zero". "Less Than Zero" was Bret Easton Ellis' first book, based on a bunch of college kids living in LA getting high and more because they were rich spoiled brats. That's something I love about his books. His characters are probably some of the most loathesome creatures in the universe. Now, if any of you have seen the film of "Less Than Zero", you may be disagreeing with me. That's because the film was NOTHING like the book. Big thing about the movie? Julian never died in the book and there was no anti-drug message in the book.

This wallpaper is based on Julian, who is one of the characters in the book. He is not the main character, but nearly become the main one because his story is just so tragic. Unlike his friends, he lets drugs encompass him to the point where he begins to do terrible things for money to pay for them, such a engaging in prostitution and more. The interesting thing about this is that Robert Downey Jr. played him and after he did, he basically became that character in real life with his insane drug problem, calling Julian his 'ghost of things yet to come'. Due to this, he has stated that he is afraid of ever playing that character again and Bret Easton Ellis won't release the rights for the sequel to be made into a film unless he plays Julian.

Denial is a large part of these characters, because they have no real concept of reality. They have everything paid for them, they party all the time, are high constantly, and more. However, with Julian’s incredible reliance on drugs, I feel his denial is even worse. He has no idea what a problem he really has. I really liked Bre’s requirement in this respect because drugs turn a person’s life entirely upside down, so there you go. I got a promo shot of Robert Downey Jr. as Julian and then another as him behind the scenes in Iron Man, where he looked kind of beat up. So it really worked for the overall feel. I liked the idea of the stock of the Hollywood sign because Hollywood in itself is a total lie. There is so much denial and false stuff going on in that city, it is crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I personally love Hollywood, but it’s the way it is.




- Liz: For a challenge based on beauty. Went with the option for striking beauty and one of the first people I thought of was Liz Taylor. Back in the day, she was one of the most beautiful people on the planet. I love her photoshoots and her eyes. She just has that timeless beauty. I decided not to use any textures in this one and just utilize the coloring with some nice glowing aspects to show off more of her beauty.



- Nightmare: For the challenege based on beauty. I thought this would be a good one to use for the option of no text because when someone loses someone they love, there are no words for it. This is in the X-Files when Mulder's dead body is found in the woods and Scully falls apart upon seeing it. I remember the first time I saw this episode and this scene is done fantastically by Gillian Anderson. I instantly felt watching it how I would feel if someone I loved died and it was just heart wrenching to see.



- Please: This piece is based on the book, “Lunar Park”. For those of you who may want to read it, I highly recommend reading Bret’s other work first, as you really miss out on a LOT if you do not. The reason being is that this book is based on a false reality of Bret Easton Ellis’ life. Parts are true, like his extremely abusive childhood, extensive drug use, and more. However, the fictional parts are based around him marrying a famous actress and having children.

In the book, his many characters come to life and begin to appear around him. For example, characters from “Rules of Attraction” move in next door to him. Most notably is Patrick Bateman, the serial killer from “American Psycho” who begins to stalk him and threaten the lives of him and his family. During all of this, he is also being haunted by the ghost of his real life abusive father. The book itself was written in a way for him to deal with his father’s real life death and their feelings toward one another.

In the end of the book, his fictional son, Robby, goes missing. He is never found and the last day Bret sees his son, he sees something so terrifying that his hair turns white. He is blamed by many for the disappearance of his son, due to his drug use and alcoholism, and things are never the same.

As far as the art goes, I went with the word, “please” for both the bargaining theme and because he wants more than anything to have his son back. I used a picture of the real Bret Easton Ellis because I greatly dislike the fact of using someone else, despite him being a character in the book. I decided to scratch out Robby’s eyes to create a sense of loss and fear. Behind Robby is a grave to symbolize Bret’s father and a shadow of a boy to represent the missing or possibly dead Robby.



- Utterly Insane: Okay, you know when you love a fandom so much that you want to do a piece and all you worry about is making the worst piece possible? Yeah, that’s what this is to me. I wish I could have made it better, but I couldn’t pull it off, lol. "American Psycho" got me into Bret Easton Ellis and I simply love the story and characters.

With Bret Easton Ellis, there is a lot of anger in his work. However, everyone jumps on the easy one, “American Psycho”. Because, I mean, how is it hard to see the anger in this book? For those who haven’t seen the film or read the book, “American Psycho” is about a Wall Street yuppie in the 1980’s who kills in his spare time. And by kills, I mean, he does some of the most horrific things imaginable. The film was disappointing in this aspect because before they released it, I wondered how they even would be able to release it based on the violence. However, they put about 5% of the violence in the film that was in the book. So if you've only seen the film, you don’t know the whole story.

This book is just filled with solid anger and psychosis hidden beneath a face that is pretty and normal, so no one suspects it. To the point to when Patrick confesses stuff, aka, the words on the wall, people just laugh it off. So I used one of the promos of him carrying the chainsaw and whistling to show his face to the real world, but put the blood all behind him to show his hidden anger.

I feel relaxed
I'm listening to The Simpsons

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Hi again,

Got a new job - thank God! I'm bartending at a five star hotel in Minneapolis at the fourth best bar in the country, as rated last year. Tomorrow is my first day alone and I have only been working four days, so I'm spooked. Wish me luck!

Some bad news - as of this time next year, this site will probably not exist. I recently made my payement for this year and it was $250. I can no longer afford to pay for this, so unless I get some nice donations in the next twelve months, it's not happening. And this isn't like begging for money, it's just a fact. I owe over $50K in credit card debt and use them to pay for my house. It's so lame. It's like a vicious circle. But who knows? Maybe things will be better this time next year.

Movie Screencaps
Exorcismus
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (BluRay)
King Kong (BluRay)
Les Miserables (2012) (BluRay)
Nine (BluRay)
The Prestige (BluRay)



Coming Soon
- Beauty and the Beast (1987) (Second and Third Season)
- Django Unchained (BluRay)
- The Impossible (BluRay)
- Pretty Little Liars (All episodes)
- Stealth (BluRay)
- Supernatural (catching up on episodes)
- The Ten Commandments (BluRay)
- The Vampire Diaries (catching up on episodes)
- The Walking Dead (catching up on episodes)

I feel nervous
I'm listening to Resolution

0 Comments