I'm back! (-ish)

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. BUt I'm thinking I may be inclined to start back up. Maybe try to post some art more frequently and what not. So check back in and hopefully I'll have some new stuff posted here.

Laters!

The Trainwreck That is My Backyard

Last summer I, along with Mom's help, re-landscaped the front of the house (an account of which is buried somewhere in this blog). And I totally neglected the backyard. in fairness, the backyard lawn had been overwhelmed by clover, weeds and deadspots, as well as suffered the effects of too much shade in one back corner, no grass and mostly just a large patch of dirt. Knowing I planned to attack the backyard this year, I didn't fret it much.

Honestly, I'm not out back much. Mostly because the back yard just isn't very inviting. I'd like to remedy that over the next couple of months. Of course, there's little if any money in the budget to do it, so I have to be fairly resourceful and creative about it.

When the big ice storm hit and wreaked havoc on my 20-something foot corkscrew willow tree. A fine tree it was, until about 70 percent of the largest branches were partially snapped by the weight of the ice.



I have since debated whether or not I should try to salvage it. I'm pretty sure it would be possible. But, honestly, it's too big for the yard, it's growing into the maple tree (that I never expected to do as well as it has, as it was two tiny little sticks transplanted from the folks' yard). And it's getting so big I'm pretty sure if I don't stop it, the roots are going to grow into my patio and trash it.

So it's coming down, branch by branch (tree removal service ain't in the budget, so the old DIY strategy comes into play). I started that chore today. Probably gonna rent a wood chipper and mulch it all up to and reuse it in the backyard.

Then there's the OTHER tree issue. When I acquired my lot, there were a couple of  dead trees that I had taken down, including a large cherry tree. I had the tree guy leave a rotted-out 6-foot stump from the cherry tree, thinking I'd carve it into a functional sclupture piece in the backyard. Now I'm kind over that idea, as I've got more pressing creative endeavors to undertake. So, in pondering wether to remove it or not, my Mom suggested that rather than take it down, I could easily turn it into to a strawberry planter. GREAT idea! I do love strawberries, and this might free me from having to buy Wal-Mart's pre-moldy strawberries. Mmmmmmm.

In that spirit, I made a Wal-art run, loaded up on garden soil, and filled the inside. Should be ready to buy some plants and load it up in the net week or so.

Also, I may treat the wood in an effort to try to retain the two-tone look of it.. I'd like to keep the red of the more recently exposed areas, and contrast it against the grays of the outer bark areas. Not sure if thats practical or not though.

Once that's done, and the tree is down, I think I've decided on putting in a small garden. Just something more for hobby.  If it goes well, I'll update it on the blog.

Happy Anniversary - On 6 Months of Unemployment

So I just realized that today (Monday the 23rd of March) is the 6 month anniversary of me and some of my pals being involuntarily unemployed from our previous job. It was 6 months ago today that I had one of the most bizarre days on my professional life. I won't recount it in this post, but if you go back to September, you can find an account of it. But it was weird, as for the first time since I was May of 1989, I found myself out of work and pretty uncertain of what the HECK I was going to do.

So what have I learned in 6 months of not having a daily job to go to. What's become of me over lo, these many weeks and days? What things have transpired over those months?

Well, I started working out the week I got let go, then mildly jacked-up my shoulder, then later my knee, which derailed the workout. After self-diagnosing and treating said injuries, as I am insurance-poor, I started lightly in January, and amped it up seriously in February. That's going well, but have many months and many pounds left to go. I expect to be in the best shape in a long time by year's end, hopefully.

I took a couple of freelance branding jobs early on, one I enjoyed TREMENDOUSLY, another I loathed every second of. I worked on some products of my own, mostly t-shirts and prints, which have failed to really do much or go anywhere (although, in truth, I've not really spent much time at all in the marketing of said products, and really, sales always boil down to marketing).

I've spent a lot of time with my family, which I find is ever more rewarding day after day.

I've spent TONS of time with my dog, who is, quite honestly, the most awesome dog ever.

I've been able to hang out with friends.

I had a hugely successful yard sale.

We have a little group of Sights Denim Ex-patriots who get together regularly for lunch one day a week (an regular outing we began a couple years previously while all employed at Sights). We've missed a couple the last few weeks, and we don't always get 100% attendance, but that opportunity to hang with my pals has been hugely important for me during this whole ordeal.

I've read some. I've watched a lot of movies. A lot of TV. Listened to a lot of music.

I've rested, a lot. I think I needed that. I did a great deal of just hanging out, enjoying my new found freedom. Sometimes I think I wasted too much time, but then again, I feel like I earned a little down time.

I started school in January, working on a new degree. I SWORE I'd never take another test or another class, but here I am back to the books. So far so good, just an unexpected twist.

And the last few weeks I've really been working on some personal illustration projects. A kid's book from Strange Type Studios (a creative partnership between Josh Jenkins and myself). Some stuff for my portfolio. Artwork to just learn new things for the sake of learning.

I started working on a script in the last week. Most likely it's a large comic book script, but who knows. If it's good maybe I'll consider it more than just a comic.

I'm gonna get to work on redoing my backyard this week hopefully. It is in dire need of a resurrection.

That's what I've been doing. All in all, time well spent. BUt now I need to ramp it up.

What have I learned about myself? I've learned that if I can avoid, I really don't ever want to "punch a clock" if I don't have to. I like getting up when I want, setting a schedule that I want. Being free to come and go as I please. I like that if I want to work thru the night on a piece of art, I can do it and not worry about being late for something the next morning.

I've learned that though I don't miss going to a job, I miss what you get from spending that time around other creative types. There's a creative energy that comes from being in that environment, that doesn't happen in a solo work situation. I miss that. If I had the dough, I'd rent a big space for me and my artist friends to hang out in and work on our own individual projects. But I don't have the spare dough.

I've learned that I can really leave a very low-maintenance life. I don't need a lot of stuff, and have found it very very easy to not have said stuff. Most of my expenditures have been bills, food and gas. Every now and then I'll splurge a little. Not because I'm destitute or anything, but because somewhere I've realized how much stuff is really, just stuff and nothing more. Who needs more stuff?

I've also realized that, all in all, in a time when a lot of people are in a similar situation, I've doing pretty good and really can't complain at all. I'm doing alright. Now to just figure out to make this the permanent way of life, instead of having to take a regular 40 hour gig when I get out of school. It's totally possible, I just have to work the details and make it happen.

So, that was a fairly long, uninteresting ramble, but I'm out of practice on the ol' blogging. I'm going to try to et back to a regular update here now. I find it's at least marginally beneficial, creatively.

So I guess that's all there is for this one.

3

Today was three years since we had to say good bye to Bryan. Bryan was the best. He really was. And I miss him something awful. I love you, little bro.

Han & Chewie

I've neglected the ol' blog for a month. Been busy with holidays, relaxing and getting ready for classes to start next week. Here's an illustration that's a couple weeks old. I jut never got around to posting it over the holidays. And of course, there are the time lapse vids to go with it. I just did this one for fun, riffing off a well known SW publicity still.









Hopefully, now that the holidays are over I can get back to more regular posting and drawing.

Quick Skeshhher

Just a real quick little sketch I worked up last week, before I started the Han Solo & Chewbacca illustration

A good art day, mostly.

Got up early (finally...that's been a struggle the last week, with me sleeping until past 10 most day...yikes). But got up today at 7:30, went out for Cracker Barrel breakfast, taking my trust sketchbook along as always. Ate and sketched, then got home.

Sat down at the Mac to work. Started a Steve Carrell caricature. I spent about 1 hour 40 minutes on it. Got frustrated by it. It was just OK. Could have been much better, but I couldnt get it where I wanted to to be. So, I abandoned it and fonud new subject matter.

Star Wars always works for me. I had intended for this to be a straight up funny cartoony caricature of Ben Kenobi, but the more I worked it, the less funny cartoony it got and became more of a stylistic illustration. It's by no means realistic with realistic proportions, so it's more caricature in that sense, but maybe with a more realistically rendered style? I'm not one of those artists interested in photorealsim. I mean, that seems to me the domain of great photographers. I appreciate the dedication and craftsman ship of artists who can do that, but I just can't. So this, while not an amazing likeness of Alec Guiness, is a painting I'm pretty happy with. It captures a certain personality, mood, whatever.

But again, just a learning excercise.

The first video was one hour 37 mins work. I used layers alot. Basically I do a sketch layer, then a layer with a color overlay, then a layer with shadows, and layer with highlights. That workflow is present pretty much the entire time I'm working, though it's always fluid, me flattening and merging layers. So the first part is just me getting the foundation.

Part 2 is me adding a limited degree of detail and finishing it. I had to make myself hold back.The impulse was to go in and continue working and add some "sketchy" type marks, but I'm trying to expand my skills, not fall back on the old-standbys just because its the easy solution.

Total time from start to finish - 2 hours 34 minutes (probably due a great deal to the fact that its monochromatic.