Did "E.T." Really Happen in Brazil??
Amazing Alien Documentaries, A.I. Art, and an interview with ME!!!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Greetings, Explorers of the Unknown!
I have built up so much to talk about in this email that I am rethinking my publication approach. So I want your feedback!
Keep an eye out soon for an email with some polls about what you like or don’t like in this substack. If you answer the polls, I will include your name in a drawing for some FREE ART GIVEAWAYS!
More info to come! Be sure to follow my Instagram account at the bottom of this email to see some art that could potentially hang on your wall!
I Have a Comic Available and an Interview!
Our comic book publishing experiment, The Panelsmiths, has completed our three volumes for Cosmic Journeys: A Sci-Fi Anthology! Volume three includes a comic, Alfie’s Tail, drawn by me, written by Greg Tjosvold, and lettered by Tom Lynott. You can get it on Amazon Kindle here:
Plus, if you hop over to the Panelsmiths Substack page, you can read an interview with Greg and me about our backgrounds and making our six page comic!
Reviews & Recommends:
Three Mind-Blowing Documentaries about Aliens & UFOs
When it comes to UFO documentaries, there is a LOT of garbage to sift through. Low-budget, conspiracy laden documentaries are a dime a dozen on Amazon prime. Occasionally, however, we are fortunate enough to get filmmakers whose research shows integrity as well as respect and empathy for the humans directly impacted by the stories.
This year marked the release of two of the most anticipated documentaries in the UFO community, Ariel Phenomenon and Moment of Contact. These films follow two of the most compelling alien contact stories from the 1990’s, and I rented both of them to give you my thoughts. Plus, my review of the latest UFO episode of Unsolved Mysteries!
Deep Dives:
Arcane vs Aristotle: Parts V & VI
It’s the deep dive that keeps on giving, folks! This time I continue exploring Aristotle’s concepts about tragic writing using examples from Shakespeare and modern films, and then I apply them to the exceptionally well written Netflix series, Arcane: League of Legends!
Part V explores the two parts of tragedy, Complication and Unravelling, while part six goes into detail about what I consider some of most useful concepts to understand for better writing: The Four Types of Tragedy and Deus ex Machina. I cannot emphasize enough how useful this material can be for writers of all forms of drama!
SIDE NOTE: Speaking of tragedy in a modern fantasy series, did you watch House of the Dragon on HBO? Great series on so many levels, but you may have noticed a moment at the end of Episode 9 involving a dragon that seemed to fall flat when it was clearly meant to be shocking. If you have been following along with this deep dive series, you should be able to identify why this moment was weak based on where it ranks as a Tragic Incident (A v A: Pt. IV). I may explore this fallacy further in a later deep dive.
Secret Arts & Forbidden Knowledge:
A.I. Art Controversies and Some Portrait Drawing Tips
For the artists out there, I came across an interesting video about the threats of A.I. Art apps to the artist community. Also, a cool video of a guy showing his art process when drawing portraits with pencil and paper. Enjoy!
Sterling Martin is an artist and designer living in Chicago, IL. His background includes drawing, writing, theatre, teaching, improv & sketch comedy, and whatever else he can get his hands on to be creative. You can find him on the internet at:
Instagram: @sterfest.art
Website: sterlingmartin.design
Twitter: Probably not now, Elon.
Tik-tok: That’s the one you make videos, right?
Linkedin: I’m pretty sure I have one of those
Facebook: Ugh, do I have to?
Note: All images above come from Sterling Martin, Mateo Alayza, Gabriel Alayza, Wiki-commons, Arcane: League of Legends, and some A.I. generated B.S.