September 27, 2011

Sylvain Chavanel

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Filed under: Other fanart,Pencil — Tags: , — Illinia @ 10:07 pm

Sylvain Chavanel

drawn Sep 23, ’11

(783)

I drew a cyclist! This one turned out much better than Ryder’s… maybe I’d better do another one of Ryder. Can’t have too much cyclist fanart, neh? Anyway, this is Sylvain Chavanel, French cyclist and cutie. Last year, he apparently cracked his head open early in the season, and recovered in time to solo to a great victory on Stage 3 (hilly, rainy, crashy) of the TdF; took yellow, and then Stage 4 lost it because the poor guy had THREE flat tires on the cobble stage. Not as bad as Franch Schleck, but still unlucky. Then less than a week later, did another terrific solo ride up a huge mountain, and took yellow again. And then lost it the next day on an even bigger mountain because he’d spent so much energy the day before. C’est la vie, I guess. But that stage – Stage 9, if I recall correctly – had Cadel taking yellow, Andy winning the stage and being in second, and Ryder in THIRD so that was probably my favourite stage, despite Chavanel losing yellow.

This year wasn’t so successful in the TdF for him; he was wearing the French champion’s jersey, but apparently felt like quitting several times and his teammates had to really coax him to stay in. I’m glad he did, even though he wasn’t nearly as aggressive this year. It’s nice to see a familiar face, you know? And how about a face with that smile? It looks better in the original picture (Cycling News; picture taken at the team presentation). But I think my realism is improving. Although… I still have trouble with grins, y’know? In the original picture, it looks like he would make the sound ‘eh’ if he were to be speaking. But in my picture it looks more like the sound ‘ee’.

The goofy version.

P.S. Hey you guyyyyyyys here is something that nearly made me spit-take when I first saw it on TV this summer: Thor and the team!

Anyway. I picked up my printer today instead of that class that was cancelled, and it is sitting happily on my bookshelf over there. So if I need to print something, I need to take my comp over there. That’s perfectly fine; it’s actually a lot more accessible than it was on my desk. Although, here is the first thing it printed, before I remembered to change the colour cartridge:

Hmmmmm. Psychedelic Psyche?

This is why you get your fanart printed at a printshop, folks. : P

July 25, 2011

The Tour is over; long live the Tour

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Filed under: Random blog posts — Tags: — Illinia @ 12:02 pm

Well, another Tour come and gone. What a satisfying set of podiums! This Tour was very hard-fought, but in the most sporting way possible. Of course the media hypes everything to stupidity, but if you ignore just a few of the things they say, this Tour was the best I’ve ever watched. Drama! Valiant efforts! Strong men shooting up mountainsides and across sprint points! (ILU, cyclist people!!) (Seriously I can’t not cheer for anyone! Even Contador, who I don’t want to win when Andy hasn’t won yet!)

Maybe the media’s disappointed there wasn’t more controversy besides “Rojas: Cavendish totally drafted off cars on the mountains! - Farrar: Yeah! Maybe? - Cav: You’re just jellus, lol. – Farrar: Yeah actually that was a pretty dumb thing to say.” Come on, guys, that wasn’t controversy! That was a few frustrated guys running their mouths with the heat of the moment! It’s not to be taken seriously.

I think you could tell that Andy (and by extention Frank (omigosh Frank’s baby girl is so cute (Sanchez’s kids are cute too, btw))) were very happy with their podium this year, happier than last year, since Cadel rode strong the whole race and was a worthy opponent every moment of the way. Andy must still have that nagging doubt about last year and that incident that everyone talks about too much, although I think he was going to lose some time anyway last year… although, of course, I don’t know how much and it’s futile to guess. But since nothing of the sort happened this year, AND his brother got to be on the podium too, they were all very happy with it. That’s my guess.

Cadel looks like a superhero while wearing a flag. XD

It seems my Tour fanart is getting some attention on DevArt, which is flattering. Hold on, Tour fans, I’ll have more in the next couple of weeks. <3

I had actual things to say, more analysis to give, but I’ve forgotten it and it’s not really important, is it?

I’m off to go draw pictures in an actual physical medium. Starting with Muila to test out my new markers. Then I have a project to start for a good-bye present to someone… but I will be doing fanart of all my favourite cyclists, dontcha worry! <3

P.S. Btw, if you bought the Sunday edition of the TC, you may have noticed that it has a Garmin-Cervelo rider doing his time trial run from Saturday… I’m pretty sure that it’s actually Christian Vande Velde in the picture, not Ryder as they say. Silly people! The way I can tell is that Ryder has a more defined jaw and a longer nose and no orange-y stubble than Christian. In fact, it might even be Tyler Farrar, but I think it’s Christian.

EDIT: I remember what I wanted to say: can you imagine if Contador hadn’t lost 2′ in the first week? :S He would have been hard to shake for sure, even if he lost time on the Galibier – and into Gap - by not being able to follow Andy or Cadel! Scary thought.

July 23, 2011

Last gasp Tour update

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Filed under: Random blog posts — Tags: , , , , — Illinia @ 9:02 pm

Last gasp because I am going to do the pianoing and then fall into bed. And it’s only just after supper as I am starting this.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Firstly:

(image created with Wikipedia and Google)

Word from the Aussies is apparently “YELL FOR CADEL” which is awesome and I have proceeded to do so.

I saw Tony Martin shake his hand afterwards (probably after a huge sigh of relief that he was safe as the stage winner) and hey we saw Ryder shake Tony Martin’s hand before that! : D  Very happy to see that. Although apparently there have been horrible random shootings in Norway and the 2.5 Norweigians and all their friends are very upset about that… :( Thor and Eddie Boassen-Hagen had black armbands.

Anyway, Cadel has thanked everyone ever involved in his career (literally, down to the fans who wave inflatable kangaroos at the cameras, although perhaps not by name) and called the BMC squad his heroes. I think that is a great thing to say. This win really cannot be compared to his 2008 TT under nominally similar circumstances when Sastre won. On the Tour official site there was an interview in which he said that he was injured and sick and tired in that  2008 TT so he was not surprised that he did not gap 1′ or whatever it was to Sastre. But this time he was still in excellent condition and not nearly so tired – and part of that is his great team, a team on par with all the other major contenders’ teams. He’s finally gotten his chance to shine and he’s shining brilliantly. Congrats Cadel! (Now I can cheer for Andy without feeling guilty, hahahaha! But seriously, you’re a true champion and you deserve it all.)

Secondly: Jens was slightly drunk when he wrote his blog, but he is seriously considering returning for next year. DO IT WE LOVE YOU

Thirdly: Andy <3! He was very gracious to Cadel over Twitter, and y’know, his year will come sooner or later! Hopefully next year! And having both Schlecks on the podium is great, because they’ve wanted that ever since Andy started racing pro, I would guess.

Also Andy mentioned the other day in passing that he has a girlfriend (as far as I know he was single this time last year, so that’s new) and I caught a quick glimpse of Frank’s wife and daughter (hee! cute little girl!) and Andy and Frank’s dad has been there to support them for at least a few days so it’s a really nice family affair.

They showed Ryder starting, since he’s in 17th overall, but not finishing. There was a commercial break. But he came in 62nd, between Xabier Zandio (Spain, Sky) and Tony Gallopin (France, Cofidis) Also 7″ behind George Hincapie (58th)! : D And a little behind Stuart O’Grady (55th)!

I’m pretty happy for Pierre Rolland! And Thomas Voeckler – well, we didn’t see so much of him today. But he got a huuuuge cheer when he rolled out, which is fabulous! Phil and Paul are saying that the future of French cycling is looking up, because there were a lot of young French riders distinguishing themselves this year.

Man, it used to be that Thomas Voeckler was ‘that guy we all like but he’s not very important – oh look, he won a stage, yay, congratulations’. Now he’s the star of the show! Hahaha. Of course, if I was old enough, I would know better just how much he is ‘that guy we all like’, because he’s pulled a 10-day stunt in yellow before – when he was a nobody, a beginning youngster, against Lance Armweirdo. (Lance does respect Voeckler, and I approve of that, at least.) And apparently it was just the same, with Voeckler fighting tenaciously and valiantly through every stage he could until finally there was just one mountain too many. But this year Phil and Paul were saying that he’s matured a lot since he was ‘that kid who came out of nowhere to wear yellow for 10 days’, and that his performance this year was even better; he could deal with it all even better than the first time. I don’t know for certain. I’m just presenting my impressions based on what I’ve absorbed (by osmosis, you know) from the media this Tour.

Who’s gonna win tomorrow? I note that Cavendish was waaaaay down in the stage rankings for today – he almost finished last! So that means that he’s saving himself for tomorrow. Gonna cheer for Tyler, though. A win for Tyler would be cool. Also Greipel would probably like another stage win. Also there are a ton of other sprinters who keep mixing it up and not getting anything – Ciolek is the first who comes to mind – I barely know who he is! Apparently he’s under 25, though, because I check the standings for the under-25s and his name was in there. And Petacchi has not been so fortunate this year. And… yeah, there are a few sprinters who will try to take tomorrow as their own. But, HTC-Highroad are specialists at winning, especially on the final lap in Paris.

P.S. You may have noticed I decided to write my planned art down the side. (You may also note that most of it is fanart.) Checklists!

Til tomorrow!

Pre-Penultimate Tour Day

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Filed under: Random blog posts — Tags: , , , , — Illinia @ 1:28 am

Wah! Hard climb today. Watched a great deal by myself, which was nice because my annoying uptight brother wasn’t there so I could shout GO RYDER GO, GO RYDER GO, GOGOGOGOGO at the TV all I wanted! Except we all watched the finish together. Not so much fun with him there. >_> Grrrr…

>Anyway yeah! Ryder was active! Present and correct and attacking! Finished in 10th again, so he is now up into 17th! Hey, they should protect this guy. I’m sure he’d have a great ‘week in yellow’, like Thor did, kind of thing. I don’t think Garmin’s strong enough to protect a yellow jersey to the finish. Anyway, maybe Ryder can’t climb like Contador but I bet he would be almost as good in yellow as poor Tommy Voeckler, who rode like a lunatic today. Man, when he saw he wasn’t bridging that gap on the Galibier, he really should have sat up, because Cadel etc. did catch him… But he’s determined! Yesterday when he was so mad (I guess?) at his manager for, what, probably telling him not to go so hard and that he wasn’t going to keep yellow, that he ripped his earphones out so he wouldn’t have to listen to that anymore, it payed off. He kept going, and he kept yellow. But today… maybe one fight too far? Maybe he was still mad at his manager or something and didn’t want to believe him or listen to him. Maybe I’m making stooff up. Well, I don’t think he’ll get a podium finish because even if he’s a good time trialist and Frank is not, I’m not sure he can make up that deficit. But he’ll definitely finish in 4th which is pretty awesome! The highest a Canadian has ever placed is 4th! And I’m sure the French are still estatic with his ride, I’m sure that he in the end is/will be very proud of himself (with very good reason) and YAY HE IS SO CUTE AND AMAZING I LUFF HIM SO MUCH

His Tour is done for the year, although there are still two days left to go, but what a Tour it was. Congratulations x1000, Thomas Voeckler!!!

He just came out of nowhere, really, although Cadel says he did recognize the danger early on. I’m sure the Tour officials are glad they invited Team Europcar! (most teams, like Leopard/BMC/Garmin/HTC etc. get automatically invited, but they leave a few slots to fill with extra teams (usually French and FDJ is always in there – why not issue them an auto-invite too?) and Europcar just happened to be one. Probably due to what I hear was a very successful pre-Tour season for Voeckler. 10 pre-Tour wins this year? Pretty nice!)

Well, Phil and Paul are saying that even if Voeckler never has another chance at yellow (he does have a collection of 20 to hang in the closet now which is pretty good, you know!) the guy who won today’s stage, Pierre Rolland, is only 24 and could have a very decent chance at winning the Tour de France for the French in upcoming years. Huzzah for the future! Cadel did say in his blog ‘all these kids they’re saying are the future, like (for instance) Boassen-Hagen, they’re the now. They’re here!’ or something like that. Like, don’t wait to see what they’re developing into. They’re winning now too!

>But first, I hope Cadel wins tomorrow. It would be a bitter disappointment for my hero Andy… and I would be sad for him… buuuuut Cadel has worked just as hard for this. He’s waited so long… I would be really sad for him too! I’m gonna be happy and sad no matter which way it works out.

But really, I don’t know who to cheer for! I know I just said I ultimately support Cadel, but then Andy comes out and smiles for the camera and I don’t know what to do. And his win yesterday was awe-inspiring. And today he followed everything like a champ. Both of them are awesome.

>Also, good on Contador for attacking so much (lol) (and in the normal way too). He’s hurting from all kinds of angles but he can still fly when he tells himself to. Of course if he hadn’t, it would have been nicer for Voeckler, but what ya gonna do… Can’t win anything if you don’t try. So he tried. Like Andy said yesterday, ‘no guts, no glory’. Which was a perfect place to use that line; I was thinking of it myself, yesterday. So Contador almost got to steal it today. And he still proved that he is not a pushover just because he’s sick or whatever. His form’s been up and down but he’s still got it, ultimately. (Also I hear he won the Giro by a landslide or something so hey he still has that. I’m sure if he doesn’t get banned in two weeks he’ll try to win the Vuelta at the end of August, too.)

>Nice to see the Canada flags out there today! Not so nice to see a couple Canada-flag-waving fans behaving like lunatics, but anyway I’m sure Ryder was happy to see all the others. It’s like all the Norweigians following Thor and Eddie.

>Tomorrow I hope to see Cancellara fly. He’s been pretty quiet this tour, really. Just riding in the bunch, looking out for his captains. Actually there have been a lot of quiet guys. It was a surprising Tour for that, but I guess that’s with the amazing teamwork protecting the lead for Thor and Voeckler, so it’s always been people like either Dave Zabriskie or Yohann Gene. Except when Leopard comes to the front to put the hammer down (Stuey! Monfort! Gerdemann! Jens! <3 )

>What was with Frank today? He kept sitting back. It didn’t look like he was matching his performance in the Pyranees. Perhaps he is saving something still, or he spent it all when I wasn’t looking, but it doesn’t seem like he’s Andy’s equal at this exact point in the race. Very strange.

>An old interview (a few days old) with Cadel. What a nice guy! I can’t believe that a few years ago he had a reputation for being grumpy. Maybe it’s the awesomeness of having veteran George Hincapie and the solidity of BMC to help out? Phil and Paul hinted at that last year. They also hinted that winning the World Champion’s Road Race jersey helped too. But whatever it was, he’s so very generous.

>Other cyclists who are totally cute, looking at their profile pics on the official Tour site – Chavanel, Gerdemann. XD (I believe these were taken at that team presentation thing that I have not been able to catch more than glimpses of, but there are no profile pics for anyone on Team Sky or Omega Pharma-Lotto. Although I didn’t check everybody.)

>All right. I am soooooo tired still. Wore shoes that hurt all day. New shoes; half price; very nice looking but not quite as comfortable as I thought they would be. Also I hate the piano recitals of 5-year olds. Or maybe I’m just immature for my age… and restless from lack of sleep and mental stimulation. I am going to sleep in to noon tomorrow. Do I have any appointments tomorrow? I hope not because I am beat.

>Man, the time trial starts in a couple hours. Shoo, me!

July 21, 2011

VOECKLERRRRRRRRR

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Filed under: Random blog posts — Tags: , , — Illinia @ 11:45 pm

Must post before bed. I love Thomas Voeckler. He is amazing. He’s just as good as the rest of the favourites. He is not holding back, man (heh, what does he have to gain by holding back? Nothing at all!). I love Andy, and I’m super proud of his stage win, and I think Cadel is perfectly placed to take the Tour in the Time Trial. Contador was looking strong into Gap two days ago, but he couldn’t manage it this time. (Btw WHOOOOOOOO GARMIIIIINNNNN congrats on winning Gap with Thor and Ryder! Yaaaaaaaaay!!!) Poor Contador. But – VOECKLER. LUV.

I’ve never seen the Galibier before… It’s completely nuts! It’s sooooo long!! And tomorrow they’re going to descend it (well, first they climb from the other side) and then go up Alpe d’Huez. Good luck to Leopard-Trek; they’re gonna need it after they went all out today! BMC might just swoop in and control everything! But I really am cheering for Voeckler to win at this point. Even though the French have won more recently than the Aussies or Luxembourgers. (Actually I should check the second one. But I’m going to bed first.) But anyway Voeckler is almost guaranteed a podium finish as he can apparently ride a decent time trial as well.

(And I need bed badly, as I’ve had maybe 25 hours of sleep in five days. Boo! Also I got a bit of a disappointment with this stupid photo session I keep trying to set up and people have taken the time that is convenient for me. TWICE. Goshdarnit. Of course I did have a different photo session today, but that was for family and not for grad. Yes I’m still trying to set up grad photos. Ngrr.)

Gonna draw cyclist fanart soon! Also have rediscovered the phrase “like a boss” and am now going to proceed to annoy the heck out of everyone with it.

Exemplae gratiae:

(Fabian Cancellara – time trials… like a boss)

(Jens Voigt – dishes out pain… like a boss)

(Ryder Hesjedal – represents Canada… like a BOSS) (omg he’s in 22nd) (he’s gonna be on the podium in Paris for Garmin winning the team race – for the team with the shortest combined time of their first three racers) (keep an eye out for him)

(Cadel Evens – shows his mettle… like a boss)

(Andy and Frank – give a one-two mountain punch… like bosses)

(Thomas Voeckler – fights and flies… like a total boss)

…Now that doesn’t even look like a word anymore.

Expect art next week!

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