compulsive compartmentalization

Dear artist who painted the Starbucks window,

“Pumpkin” is spelled not spelled “p-u-N-p-k-i-n”

I don’t even know how to pronounce that.

Coridally,

Brian

A rare no art day.

I was throwing the coffee around from before sunup until around three today, and managed to soak myself in warm soy milk. By lunch I sat down to eat with cold, soy soaked pants, feeling exhausted and achy. The cooler weather this week has brought about a season of crazy. People need coffee…and they’ll cut your grandmother for it given half the chance.

Afterwards I spent the rest of the day moving furniture, the evening putting furniture together, and feeling like I’ve done enough for the day, even though the day isn’t quite over yet.

So add writing this to the list of accomplishments.

Painting is something I thought that I’d like to be able to do for a while now, but it’s been a very slow process for me. When I was learning to use markers (and I’m still learning) I had tried initially to use color and the drawings turned out like poo. So I stopped using them for a while. Then I thought I’d just add some gray highlights on my black and white ink drawings for emphasis. After doing that for several months I thought, “Hey I can add a little more variety of grays here and there. No problem.”

Before long I was doing fully rendered graytone pieces. What I didn’t know at the time was that I was learning value, and learning to use values in graytone was going to make the transition to color much easier. Once I picked up the color markers after a year of using only various grays, it was suddenly apparent that the time spent learning to utilize value was well spent.

So now with a few years of understanding how color works, I’m trying to learn watercolors. Watercolors are difficult, I think, for anyone to use in a way that renders things semi-realistically…at least it is for me. I’d like to learn oil and acrylic paints one day, but I’m starting with the cheaper of the mediums right now. This afternoon I finished up my first watercolor painting that I think works, though it’s far from perfect. But given the magnitude of my past failures with the paint, today was a bit of a break through in learning how to manipulate it.

I figured I’d continue the art theme.

Someone paid me a little money for a sketch back in May at an event at the local comic shop, and it took me nearly 5 months to get to it. So I figured I should do it up right since they had to wait so long. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, it’s a complicated costume.

When I do these marker-rendered pieces the last step is applying white acrylic ink for highlights. Today I realized this is probably my favorite step because to me it’s the point where the drawing seems to pop to life.

Some days getting up at 4am leaves me feeling worn down and unproductive for the rest of the day. Other days, I get a second wind and it’s like any other day. Today there was no second wind.

Instead, there’s just me trying to get through this afternoon and a sketch of a girl holding a book. Enjoy.

Yesterday I couldn’t get very focused on work. Maybe it was the rain and wind, or the fact that my day began at 4 am. I tried to do some actual work, but only managed to do two sketch cards and then played around with watercolors, which will help me in the long run, but doesn’t leave me feeling like I accomplished anything at the time.

Another head sketch.

I’ve been trying take some time during the week to work out some issues in my drawing. Working from old black and white photos is a good way to study lighting and form. Do it enough and you’ll begin to learn how shadows and light fall on the various planes of the face.

Do not wonder that he reasons ill just now; a fly is buzzing by his ear; it is quite enough to unfit him for giving good counsel.

- Blaise Pascal

On the days that work at the studio, I’ll go hang out and read for about an hour at the coffee shop downtown before heading in. Today I had the pleasure of sitting near a woman who was an open-mouth chewer.

This is one of the few things that make me keenly aware my shortcomings, since the noise of someone chewing immediately plunges me into a rage, unable to focus on whatever I happen to be doing at the moment. I sit and wait, as patiently as I can, for her to finish her bagel.

Once finished I think I’m home free. But our mediocre adventure is just beginning. She has change in her hand, and what’s more fun than dropping change repeatedly on the table in front of you in a public place? Nothing ,that’s what!

Fortunately this doesn’t last too long, because she needs to emphasize her point by slamming her hand on the table multiple times.

Also she had a deep laugh that was annoying only because of her previous offenses.

And she’s swearing.

This afternoon I made the mistake of wearing my Dunder Mifflin shirt. A mistake because I knew I was going to see my grandma, and I should have foreseen that while she was lumbering through the dentist office, teetering on the brink of falling to the floor and breaking a hip, she would fixate on trying to figure out on what was on my shirt.

As though this weren’t a big enough mistake itself, I opted to read a book on Christianity and Postmodernism while waiting. If explaining a t-shirt to your 92 year old grandmother is a task monumental enough, try explaining what that book’s about.

Instead of confusing her further I tried to change the subject, which worked, and then loaded her back into the car.

This afternoon I’m fighting to stay awake. I had a Dr. Pepper a few minutes ago and instead of perking me up the biggest impact from it has been a syrupy feeling in my mouth. So, I’m not too sure what was accomplished there.

I need to work out some layouts for commissions, but when the midday lethargy shows up I’m more productive if I’m coloring or inking. Working out poses and layouts require a function of mind that’s first to go when I’m tired. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything that’s sitting around waiting to be finished up.

I’ve got the next two days free to work in the studio, not counting the hour or so tomorrow afternoon helping grandma get to the dentist. My role will consist of making sure she doesn’t fall down on the way to the waiting room, and reminding her where she is when she asks…and then assuring her she’s been there before when she claims she hasn’t. I’ll also do my best to avoid making eye contact with her hygienist, since I defected from her to the other one in the office. She digs in your gums like a prospector in a gold rush, while the other one seems to understand that gums contain nerve endings and not precious metals.

This morning during church I learned that my eye will not follow lyrics and chord progressions when the chords are not right above the words. This would have been a valuable lesson to learn 24 hours ago.

Two cats.

One will eat everything you put out, including food for the other cat.

I need a way make food available for the cat that doesn’t devour everything, while keeping the cat that does from getting to it.

I need to avoid shutting them up in a room alone.

There has to be a way to fix this.

Suggestions?

Here’s fascinating article from the Wall Street Journal website.

After spending last year in an ongoing debate via email with a “new atheist,” I found this article pretty interesting. Apparently studies show that atheists are far more likely to believe in superstition and pseudoscience than Christians.

(HT: STR)

Dear General Madine,

Sincerely,
Ambitious in the USA

Dear Ambitious,

General Madine

I just don’t get used to getting up at 6 AM. My arms and legs don’t want to move. My brain doesn’t want to think. I lumber through the house like a drunken Sasquatch, I bump into door frames and cabinets.

Before long I’ll be handing scalding beverages to unsuspecting commuters.

A few weeks ago Sarah heard that Costco has the breakfast bars she eats for way cheaper than she gets at the grocery store. Joining was unavoidable.

This is the only adequate explanation as to why I own two giant tubs of Nutella, and two equally enormous containers of organic peanut butter. I also have to indirectly credit Costco with teaching me that organic peanut butter has to be stirred…and if you don’t stir it enough, it’s quite runny. I’ll be working through this delicious combination over the next eight years of my life.

I just finished coloring a page for the editor of a book a friend of mine is inking. I’ve realized a couple things.

-After the last few years coloring with traditional mediums, coloring on the computer makes me feel disconnected from the work. This is part of the reason why I don’t color much digitally any more. There’s something about having the finished work in front of you, tangible. I can pick it up and say, “Here it is.” There are some amazing things people do in creating digital images…but right now, it’s just not my thing at all. I need to see it existing in really three dimensional space.

-Not having backgrounds to color in sequential art is frustrating, and unappealing. This is a lesson learned, because it’s easy for me to try and cut corners, especially when working on my own stories, and just let the background be taken care of in the coloring. I’m going to try to avoid that. Besides, it’s lazy.

Sometimes I get the feeling these animals know something i don’t. We have had a dog and a cat for the majority of our 10 years of marriage, but last fall we stumbled into the clutches of a stray cat. Initially we were trying to find a good home for her, but after $350 in vet bills (and no one wanting to take her) she’s ours. This totally changes the pet dynamics here.

Right now for instance, I heard a strange noise in the kitchen. I expect to find one of the cats into something, but instead find Morissa (our original) sitting there in the middle of the floor. I leave, only to become aware of the coming and goings of animals in and out of the room, jittery looks, and the sense that something is going on in the house that I, and only I, am not aware of.

I hope its a bug that made its way to an untimely death at the hands of feline claws (a benefit of having cats, they’re great exterminators.) Otherwise, whatever their into they have gotten away with.

They’ve covered, or devoured the evidence well.

UPDATE: There’s a fly in my house.