teppou

[ScottUK]

So, who would you have preferred in the title role?

[jubaji]

I would have preferred that mess never be made. Maybe a movie about the real last Samurai would have been better.

[ScottUK]

It generated a lot of interest in Japanese Swords Arts - and quite a few of those have stuck around and are now good students of iaido, kendo etc.

So, not all bad, eh?

[jubaji]

Any data showing the correlation? A mess like that only generates new armies of LARPers.

[ScottUK]

We (well, my old dojo) went from 8-10 students to nearly 30 overnight. No joke. A lot tapered off over the following few weeks/months but I think 5 stayed and continued the practice. I am just talking about one club. I believe most clubs in the UK received a similar kind of surge in bodies.

When you think of how few practitioners there are of genuine JSA in the UK, that ain't too bad. Sure, it creates backyard samurai and LARPers too, but we hunt them down in our free time - so Mr Cruise has not only given us students, but targets too!

[mellow]

I would have preferred that mess never be made. Maybe a movie about the real last Samurai would have been better.

Surely it would have been a great movie, but I don't think the majority would want to see real last Samurai any more than they want real martial arts.

[Ben Grimm]

We (well, my old dojo) went from 8-10 students to nearly 30 overnight. No joke. A lot tapered off over the following few weeks/months but I think 5 stayed and continued the practice. I am just talking about one club. I believe most clubs in the UK received a similar kind of surge in bodies.

When you think of how few practitioners there are of genuine JSA in the UK, that ain't too bad. Sure, it creates backyard samurai and LARPers too, but we hunt them down in our free time - so Mr Cruise has not only given us students, but targets too!

As long as you have live targets to practice on, then it's all good.

[beneet]

canvas photo

One of the most common problems in drawing is lack of structure. You can see it when the eyes don't quite line up right, or when the handle on a cup looks odd, or when a figure's arms are too long. More often than not, the artist has dived into drawing details, and all the detailed areas haven't quite matched when joined together. To avoid this, you need to sketch the structure first, then build up the detail.
This approach is similar to the 'step by step' method of circles and ovals that you will often see in drawing lessons, where the picture is broken into simple shapes. But instead of two-dimensional, flat shapes, now you need to look for three-dimensional ones that you will sketch in perspective
Start with fairly simple objects and then try more complicated ones. One useful approach is to imagine the object that you want to sketch is made of glass, visualizing the hidden edges of the object so that you can draw them. Lightly pencil in the whole form, including lines you can't see, will help you accurately show perspective and proportion.


AKVIS Sketch is an award-winning program for conversion of photos into pencil sketches and watercolor drawings. Make any photo look like a B&W or color drawing, imitate the technique of graphite or color pencil, charcoal or watercolor painting
Sketch can be used on many occasions. Surprise your friends and relatives by presenting them their pencil portraits. Make a watercolor drawing out of a photo from your last nature shooting to decorate your room. Convert your own photo into a color sketch to print on a T-shirt. Create a comic out of your party videos.
AKVIS Sketch has a simple interface with a few sliders. At first you can process the image with the default settings and then touch up the photo adding color, or trying different techniques - from pencil to charcoal or watercolor. You can make the hatching denser or finer and change the pitch angle of strokes. After that, you can apply a texture to imitate a painting on a canvas

[jubaji]

??????????????????????????????

[ScottUK]

Spammer - call the mods.

[Ben Grimm]

And terminate him with extreme prejudice!