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Read about my latest knife (my birthday knife!), Red Alpha, at ShinyDangerousThings. I really wish this one was real.

This has to be both the shortest and longest it's ever taken me to design a knife. One morning I woke up very early because of a particularly freaky dream and couldn't fall back asleep. I was about to start actually counting sheep (a sign that I'm desperate) when The Blacklist popped into my head. It was Halloween and I'd been watching this favorite new show for less than two weeks, after having put it off, and thinking about James Spader's incredibly powerful performance non-stop. Suddenly, in those dark hours of the morning I started wondering what a knife representing the show would look like.

I haven't done a lot of TV series knives (only Fringe, Almost Human, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) because it takes quite a while to come up with something. I need to know more about them, and I have to get the details right. But with The Blacklist, something so new I shouldn't have had any ideas, I immediately thought of one with a split blade and tentatively named it "Duality" for Reddington's duplicitous nature of playing all sides and for his life before and after, the father and the criminal, the gentle and vulnerable alongside the cold and calculating. Maybe I really woke up so that I could create this.

I designed the shape of the knife after watching just six episodes, but I needed more than that. With the seventh, "Frederick Barnes," a man that Red could identify with because he was prepared to "burn the world down" to save someone he loved, I was able to add the quote I had been waiting for: "Every cause has more than one effect." That is Red in the simplest of terms. Something terrible was done to him and he will stop at nothing to remedy that. Those little conversations with Elizabeth reveal so much about the core of his character in sympathizing with those driven to extremes. This wisdom of experience permeates the most rewarding moments.

A few minutes later in this episode, the remnants of Red's past haunted an empty home. That gave me the height chart and took my breath away in one of the most subtly devastating scenes in any series. It was a privilege to watch Spader work, dropping the wall he'd put around this character. Previously, Red's loss had been hinted at with things like his abhorence of those who would hurt children, a picture stolen from a madman's album, and a parable of a man who lost everything and went out of his mind told with barely restrained animal rage. This episode gave us a better, bitter view into this tortured soul.

Then "General Ludd" gave me the ViCAP number, which was a piece of the puzzle Red received in "Wujing" and the last piece I needed for the knife. I knew the number was going to be important, because the writers know where this story is going. But I never imagined it was the kind of important that would take Red by surprise, a look of recognition coming across his face.

It took me quite a while longer to figure out what should be on the handle. The name changed to "Red" since it was all about the main character. The quotes followed suit: words that he didn't say replaced with those that he did. Still, I toyed with renaming it to "Smooth Criminal" for a little while. Red is certainly smooth, but rather than emphasize the criminal part of him, a necessity borne of his devastation it seems, I wanted to try depicting that devastation that made him. It's more about the man and his pain than what he became. Therefore, the name "Red" remains.

My original idea was for a pattern of bubbles, because Red's daughter was playing with them. It wouldn't have worked at all. Too colorful, too cheerful. That can work for the impact of contrast, as in the scene the idea came from, Red smiling at the memory of his daughter and then being shaken by it, the experience of loss written across his face. It wouldn't have the same kind of impact here, so I went with something simpler. The color red is, of course, both for Reddington's nickname and the wreckage he's left in his wake, especially recently in "The Good Samaritan." And the black "smoke" is for the mystery that surrounds him.

The three "accents" (don't know what else to call them) between the spine and the blade were the original idea I had to represent the last age seen on Red's daughter's height chart, but I thought that was too abstract, so I decided on using the actual chart. I think age 2 had a star by it, but now I'm not sure anymore. I saw it the first time on a big TV. Now I'm always looking at it on my iPad. I can never get the exact moment or get it clear enough. I'll remove that if I find out otherwise. Please excuse the wobbliness of the quote spiral. Unfortunately, my drawing apps have basic geometric forms only, no spirals. Ooh, I would LOVE a little Spirograph function. Rewatching "The Good Samaritan" right now while finishing up, trying to get the spiral right enough without messing up the words. This is the episode with Red's killing spree, scored by "The Man Comes Around." Fantastic moments.

Alrighty, if you got through all that, congratulations! No, you didn't win a prize. I don't have anything to give. But you do have my thanks. And just in case you were wondering, I don't make real weapons. The only time I ever shaped a piece of metal was in 8th grade woodshop as part of a pencil/pad holder to hang by the phone, which I still have, by the way. My goal in life is to make my own knives, though, even if it's just to decorate my room.

If you'd like to see the original drawing or any others I've done, please visit ShinyDangerousThings.

Say hello to North Star and Reassemble, which is my Phil Coulson tribute. How could I not draw a knife for him? I hope I'll be inspired again when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reveals what the meaning is of Tahiti being a magical place. I have a feeling a lot of Coulson/Clark Gregg fans are going to be crying over it. I took time to write a little about each of these, so please follow the links for more and for larger images.

Deadlines, deadlines everywhere. I already had one daily from my job. Then I imposed them on myself for things like timely, and quite untimely, thoughts on series episodes in the form of this blog. I added designing weapons at some point last year. I had been drawing them since '99, but only relatively recently started turning them into vectors. I have three other blogs to update, which I have been neglecting, though I have dozens upon dozens of unfinished posts and keep jotting down ideas. I am also waiting to take the test for Leapforce; need a few extra bucks in my pocket. And a couple weeks ago I signed up for both crowdSPRING and 99Designs to enter design and company/product naming projects. Certainly won't get rich that way competing against so many others and in such a short timeframe, but it's fun and at least I end up with logos and names I can possibly sell or use at some point. It also certainly helps with improving my skills and proves to myself that I can come up with and complete a concept in a very short timeframe. Here's one I liked from my first small batch. Not currently for sale anywhere, if you wondered. I'm going to play around with it. 

I also want to start drawing again, like I did when I was in high school. Wonder how I'll fit that in. In the meantime, below is the lastest weapon I meant to post, and Talon and Stalker are two others that I missed. Following this at some point should be my thoughts on Warm Bodies, which I should have finished two weeks ago.

From two of the creative minds behind Fringe, JJ Abrams and Joel Wyman (JWFRINGE, JHWYMAN), comes the next great sci-fi drama, Human. According to Joel, I know to think of it as Blade Runner if Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer were police officers and partners. So is it man and machine, man versus machine, man in the machine, or machine in the man? What happens when our creations become self aware? Could an android feel more, be more human than his human partner, know people better than his partner knows himself? Here's hoping Human will "Blur" these lines, questioning what it is to be human and if our creations could become so like us that they essentially are us...or something like that. 

The new blog Human Meanings, by @AimeeInChains (of Fringenuity fame), tells me that one officer staunchly believes that the human cop, John Kennex (Karl Urban), is to be blamed for the deaths of other officers, and that Dorian (Michael Ealy), the android partner, is unwanted. I wonder if that's because John lost his previous partner or if it's just a resistance to change. Maybe it's a fear or loathing of that technology. It seems he was seriously injured. Maybe he's part mechanical due to the injury and has a complicated relationship with it, being sustained and fixed by tech but hating that he has to be.

It's not a new concept for sure, but what is? I'm sure with Joel Wyman at the helm it will delve deeper than usual, veer off in breathtaking directions, and give us characters to care about. Many aspects of what it means to be human will be explored. Of course I haven't the slightest idea what shape the story will ultimately take, but there are so many intriguing possibilities. I hope the show will last and give me actual inspiration for another design out of a love for it and not just a theory. 

Okay, I think you've had enough of me yakking away. You came for the knife, which I named Blur. (Now I'm thinking of Lrrr from Futurama.) I wanted to go with Shade, but that doesn't really have anything to do woth what I so far know about Human. This is what I designed having little information and having seen only a few pictures . (And I thought my Fringe tribute knife was difficult.) Just as a little explanation, though not sure you need it if you read the above, the shape of this came about after a lot of trial and error. As a comparison, the Fringe knife formed naturally from elements of the show and, even though it was more complicated, overall the Human knife was more difficult. It was ridiculous how often I erased unpleasant lines.

The three V's in the center are what I could make out from set pictures. It seems to be the police logo. I chose to color the lines a red as a running theme here of humanity. Flowing from the logo is a curved line that intertwines red and blue, with blue representing the coldness of machines. This was changed from the original, where I had wrapped red around the line. It looked odd when I finished it. The word "Machine" has "Man" in it, so I colored that red, also, following the man in the machine idea. And then you've got "Human [2013]." Pretty obvious what that means. 

Finally, that heart in the background was a complete accident. I wasn't even going to bother with a background anyway since I had already spent so much time on the knife anyway. It was a bit off, so I fixed a line, but otherwise it wasn't changed much. Had to keep this happy accident because you can't have a Joel Wyman story without a little (or a lot of) heart.

Original: March 25, 2013. For more designs, please visit Shiny Dangerous Things.

Here you can see ghosts of the mess I made while trying to figure this one out. The unfinished drawing on the right is from a set picture of the Quick Volt sign.