Topic: Minors serving!?

I'm just curious, where do you live now that makes South Carolina seem like such a great place?  I have been to South Carolina, spent four weeks there as a "guest" of the U.S. Army while trying to get through basic training....didn't make it. My experience may be tainted by the trip through the gas chamber but I just did not see a whole lot in S.C. that was all that attractive!

Because me and my sis's boyfriend are going to have so much fun!

As for red wine, it may be oh-so-good for your blood pressure, but it sure does kill your brain cells! No kidding.

But what are you going to be doing down there that makes it such a great place...school, work, watching paint dry?

Yeah I'd go nuts in a state like that. Actually, I go nuts in a state like THIS. My goal is to move to California and move in with my boyfriend. Which sucks given how expensive even the cheapest aparment that isn't located in a bad neighborhood is.

Ha ha...It's halfway across the country, so if I go visit him for a week or so, this is what we are gonna do:

Ride horses for a solid day or two

Ride four-wheelers

Build our own airsoft park

Play airsoft

Go to Myrtle Beach(he live like an hour away)

Visit Civil War battlefields

Make bombs

Watch movies

Do stuff on the computer

No offense but...you could do almost all of those in any old state. But to each their own I suppose. Personally, I'd rather live in a big city. My boyfriend actually lives in a big city, so when we finally live together I'll get my wish.

I live in a big city, not all it's cracked up to be in my opinion. I always preferred the woods, as a kid I loved running around and climbing things, playing capture the flag and all that, it just seems more open and peaceful....not to mention safer.

My younger brother and sister's school bus got a window shot out on the way to school, and I've had a stabbing happen about 10 ft away in the middle of the school cafeteria (the guy who got stabbed beat the shit out of the guy with the knife, pretty BA), not to mention gotten a shank pulled on me. Civilization comes with a risk, xD

Yikes, remind me not to move where you live, SciFi. Although getting your school bus window shot out would be cool.....as long as you didn't get hit.

Forests aren't safe either though. Common misconception. Small towns aren't either. There are still murders and other bad crimes there. They just don't happen as often as cities because there are a lot more people in New York then in Rapid City for example. And even if you live far away from even a small town in the middle of no where you're not completely safe. Like I said, its a common misconception that forests are safer then cities.

Yep, here, we have all the natural disasters I mentioned earlier, then there's mosquitoes, hidden meth labs, three kinds of poisonous snakes, all kinds of limbs to scratch you, sheer drops, and pit bull dogs.

Yeah you could do those in any state, but it wouldn't annoy my sister near as much! :D She thinks people in the South are strange, with their sweet tea, grits, country music(which is big here too), and Palmetto Trees(SC).

Yeah, California is the place to be. I spent my childhood in Orange County.

But the thing is...as far as dangerous places go southern California has to be way up on the list.
Let's see, you can die by...
Ground fires
Mud slides
Earthquakes
El Nino
Drive-by shootings
Hold-up shootings
Gang related shootings (cross-fire)
Regular old "I don't like the way you were looking at me" shootings
And shootings

I think that is one of the reasons people in Cali. are so nice compared to some other places, everyday presets a new opportunity to die in a wide variety of ways so we try to take it easy and enjoy life to the full extent.

haha, actually, Florence SC, near where he lives, is the fifth most dangerous place in the US. LOL

Shootings aren't something I'm afriad of (though when we took a trip to LA my dad did drive through a really bad neighborhood in order to get to OMG Malibu) since we have a lot of shootings in this city. And if the truth be told I kinda....wanna experience a real life earthquake I'm crazy I know. And we have fires here so its a danger I'm already used to.

California cons:
Fire
Earthquakes
Mudslides
Shootings

California Pros:
Big cities
Lots of things to see and do
The beach
My boyfriend <3

Yeah I think I'll be Ok.

Meh we've had earthquakes up north here on the West Coast.  Wasn't anything terribly exciting.  The black bear at the end of the playground got more attention than the Earthquake at school that year.

OMG yes. Im kinda in that spot too. Its amazing how expensive the osik apartments are in the bad neighbor hoods.

I live in one of the cheapest places in the US! I'm so lucky! Gas is like $1.68 or something. :D

$1.68 for a gallon of gas isn't the same as $1,000 a month on a little, one bedroom apartment. Nothing nice or even really big. Just a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and a living room just big enough for a couch and a TV. Then you gotta pay hundreds a month on utility bills, and hundreds a week for grocerys in order to eat. Then place said apartment in California in not the wrost neighborhood and one thats not completely gross, and the price is just way higher! It makes me sad. Yet, even if there wasn't the whole boyfriend waiting for me in California thing, I'd still probably end up there anyways. All the serious art schools (especially those dealing in cartooning) are in California. Anyone serious in making a living with their art needs to try and get into one of those schools. And then be lucky enough to get hired and make a living with art after graduation.

Well, if it makes you feel any better I live in the world's second most expensive city. Here in Tokyo if you pay the same rent as you would in Southern California, where I grew up, you get about 1/3 the space. One room, literally one room. Can go for as much as US $1,200./ month and since we ride trains here, the closer your place is to the station the more expensive it gets. California is an expensive place but the wages are higher too and there are a lot of different industries so it's easier to find a job than some places.

The art thing is true depending on what area you want to go into. As you said, if you want to do animation or big-foot style cartooning etc. California is a good place to be. But for fine art I think Chicago and New York are the epicenters of artistic movements, outside of France anyway.

I spent my first two years in college as an art major and looking back I am happy I didn't continue my education in Art in the academic setting because if you are not doing digital stuff there are not a lot of jobs out there anymore.  I am really trying hard to break into the American underground comic scene or to make a living from traditional illustration, painting and drawing. I think going to art school can help some people get a start but in the end it really comes down to practice and you can do that without some stuffy, pretentious art instructor who is only teaching because they could not pay the bills with their own art.

This is going to sound really stuck up but I have never met an art school graduate that could draw as well as I do...I know there are a lot of people in the world that do work that makes mine look childish  but personally I have never encountered an art school grad. who's work made me wish I had completed art school education.

Sometimes it better to just do your own thing to develop your own style kind of like Van Gogh.

Well, most places just don't hire if you're not a grad. Supposibly, at animation schools there are a lot of talent scouts that hang around and, from what I've heard, hire a lot of their new animators right after the graduate. And if you're not those who was hired straight from graduation then you're screwed (but its only a rumour I've heard. And I'm not trying to get into the animation field thankfully).

It's rather sad for me that a lot of cartooning related art these days is nearly totally digital. Good because a well animated film digitally inked and coloured (but the initial sketches handdrawn on paper) can look great. But stuff thats just slapped together on a computer just looks...awful. Sad considering it took us until the mid-late 80's before it became (mostly) a standard for new cartoons on TV to be well animated and coloured (you can thank Ducktales for this, by the way...), since before a lot of money wasn't spent on animation for TV shows. Yet all that has been flushed down the toilet since we're back where we started, except digital. This doesn't apply to everything though of course. Last I checked, Studio Gihbli was still 100% traditional.

Also all these digital methods just make be sad because Photoshop and tablets are insanely expensive. Even though I need to take a digital art class in the near future to keep going, I hesitate to because I don't want to put a $500+ bill on my parents.

I could not agree with you more. And furthermore, the reliance on digital methods, I believe, is part of the reason many art school grads. can't actually draw. As you said, they just slap it together and because the colors are pretty and the tones are nice to look at people are impressed. It is too easy to produce pretty images without regard for actual skill or talent.

For me another thing that sucks is that now almost all major comic book publishers digitally color their books. I know it looks nice but it takes away a lot of the craft of producing comics and now there is even work on programs that can ink raw pencils. As soon as that is established as an industry standard all of the life and soul will be sucked out of the art.

Yes, computer art has it's own place. That's what I do. I use Windows Paint to make fairly good drawings. Don't wanna brag you know. I still enjoy using colored pencils sometimes though.

Well, I'm not saying that digital art is all bad. Buuuut, if someone does not have basic drawing and drafting skills a piece of crap can be made to look like a brilliant work of art by virtue of the digitization. When you sit down and draw a figure from observation there is a process that does not occur during the photoshop/ illustrator/ paint program experience and it teaches you to observe as well as render.

If anyone is interested please take a look at my non-SW art @

www.angelfire.com/ab7/tachyonblade

I am still working on my technique and style after more that 30 years of drawing. I hate almost everything that I produce and yet I do a pretty good job of making pretty pictures.

I think the best thing is to be classically trained and then to expand into the digital process.

Windows Paint is pretty basic. It took me five days to make my favorite Boba Fett drawing.

Windows Paint is fun to use, but I'm terrible at it. I make drawings that look like a 2 year old's work.

I've read all of what's been said here and I can understand and agree with most of you. The pros and the cons. Miba, you sound like someone close to you had it rough because of alcohol, that sucks, and I'm sorry for you. *hug*

Personally I've always had a pretty good relationship with alcohol, as I can keep it occasional and at the fun level.

Sometimes even, it helps me open my creativity when I get the blank page syndrome. I don't mean getting wasted, but just taking enough to loosen myself a bit. I tend to be too rational and logical at times, and for creation it sucks, it won't let the raw ideas flow out.

Unfortunately, when I drink I always go for gold, but I never finish the race! So I can't draw or paint when I drink or all I get is mud.

I...still haven't had my first drink yet. ^^; I actually had the oppertunity to yesterday, but I was extremely thirsty after standing in a parking lot for two and a half hours, so I opted for soda instead. At that moment I badly needed something I could quickly gulp down. I didn't have my ID card on me anyways, unfortunitly.

Some of the kids at my school always go around saying how they got really drunk how would they now what really happend but I bet this is a pretty acurate picture

Oh I am going to get so drunk.*Three beers later* *PUKE* OWW MY LIVER!!! *PUKE*

Ahhhh...good times...lol