A Day in the Strife

Sooo, a long-time a' comin' blog update with some previously un-blogged art.

2010-02-02T18:52:00.008-06:00

Heh...honestly I planned to start blogging again back when I made the previous post. Truly I did. But I was in the middle of self-teaching Trigonometry purgatory and school got all wonky, what with having to switch programs for this semester. So a brief summary of the events of the last few months is in order, following a bunch of art I did but don't think I ever posted here.

School: Last year I started in the 2 year Architectural Design program. Did well in it, was learning a new illustration skillset. IVY Tech kept cancelling all the classes I need to get the degree, throwing off my exit date from school by who-knows-how-long. Decided to go to new degree plan B. Switched to the computer programming program starting in the current semester. I switched to computer programming for a number of reasons, one being that I want to learn how to program comic/art related applications for the iPhone/iPad. Like it or not, it's the very very beginning of a whole new model for the mass distribution of the visual arts. I want to be ready to control that particular aspect of my creative destiny from start to finish. Period.

Now, here's some of the art I've done since I stopped regularly blogging.

So I'll TRY to blog more frequently now, and get back to posting new art. Been working up some new sketches and such.

I'm back! (-ish)

2009-10-07T11:35:00.001-06:00

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

2009-03-25T16:47:00.005-06:00

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.

3

2009-02-08T20:20:00.004-06:00

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

2009-01-08T15:31:00.009-06:00

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

2008-12-13T21:22:00.002-06:00

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

A good art day, mostly.

2008-12-03T15:47:00.006-06:00

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.

Experimentation With Video

2008-11-29T17:24:00.013-06:00

I'm trying to hone my illustration skills in general. Quality, style, efficiency. I'm, as I've mentioned here before, fascinated by caricature. I love good caricature and loathe bad. My favorite caricaturist is a guy named Joe Bluhm. He's got insane skill. He also periodically posts YouTube videos of himself working on pieces. I've found them tremendously inspirational and educational. PLus I love the process of watching a piece of art being created from start to finish. It's fascinating to me as an artist.

So inspired by that, I decided I'd do a completely digital (no pencil sketch on paper) piece, and thought it should be an attempt at caricature (something I very much want to get good at).

Friday night, I arrived home from my parents house, and pondered subject matter. One of the subjects I picked was from one of my favorite holiday movies, Christmas Vacation.

I gave myself a three hour time limit, from start to finish. And downloaded some software that would allow me to do realtime screen captures of everything on my screen. This was tricky. The software I used is great but flawed. Saving the video files take as long as the real time screen captures I did. Saving the first hour video took over an hour. I need to find some different software.

Here's the first hour (actually 57 minutes) condensed into 3.

The videos have proven very educational for me. They let me go back and watch my process. The key early on was getting the eyes and nostril flair right. I hit these pretty early, then built the rest of the headshape around that. THe mouth I don't think is quite right. It works, but in the photo reference, Chevy's mouth slants down more to the viewer's right. But I ended up with basic structure and toning in the first hour.

Toning is still an issue for me. It's really a problem of patience and looking. It's a matter of working on my discipline.

The second hour (closer to 1 hour 7 minutes) sees more toning and a kind of emerging of my preferred drawing style in the illustration. By the end, the structure is set, and the toning is for the most part locked in. It still looks very plain and unfinished. Bland.

Hour Three (really around 57 minutes) sees me getting into the refining on it. KNowing I only had one hour left on my self-imposed limit, I had to constantly remind myself to keep moving, not get bogged down in detail and refinment. I had a look in mind for this. I could have easily spent another 2 hours, getting exactly what I wanted. But forced myself into finding quicker solutions that would yield a satisfactory result. Hour 3 starts off laying on some darker "pencil strokes" on a separate layer (I used lots of layers in this illustration, merging them most every hour to make myself continue moving forward, rather than get bogged down in the knowledge that I could always go back and adjust each layer infinately.) Once I got some of the black down, to "pop" areas, i play around with different filters. Photoshop filters are iffy at best. They're a very easy out that commonly yield a pretty awful result. I think a lot of people who use filters use them at full-bore with no finesse whatsoever. On a photo they just always look cheesy to me. The prove far more usefull with a painted piece though. They can be really useful for further more subtle blending of colors, they can help "pop" areas, and the can also create some new effects that would be mostly impossible for traditional media. I also us the hue and saturation to get the colors more saturated and where I want them.

All in all, I'm happy with the illustration, for what it is. Is it a great Chevy Chase caricature? Absolutely not. Would someone seeing it without the benefit of seeing the reference photo in the video get who it is? I can't absolutely say yes on that one either. But for a 3 hour exercise in creating an illustration completely digitally, I'm very happy with it. I like the finished look of it. As a self-teaching exercise for myself, I'm happy with it. I learned a lot going back an rewatching the video.

I may continue to do more of these videos. I like them as motivation for myself. And they make me more conscious of time. On an illustration for one's own enjoyment, with no "work" schedule I have to follow, it's very easy to lose track of time. These put me "on the clock" sort of. So if you enjoyed this look into the way I work, stay tuned. I hope to do more in the future.

Slack

2008-11-25T21:09:00.002-06:00

Sheesh . I've not blogged in a while. Thoughts have been to scattered I suppose. Just been working on a number of things. NO cohesive thread with which to unite it into anything as remotely and utterly as tolerable as my usual ramblings. I haven't slacked on art, just nothing in need of posting here. I HAVE been working. Let's we get the holiday out of the way and maybe I'll have some utterly pointless rambles with which you can willingly while away your hours (rather than conferring with the flowers).

RECAP OF THE LAST 7 days.

2008-11-10T21:20:00.008-06:00

First off. I worked up a logo/banner for my etsy shop (see previous post). Here it is:

next I worked on some illustrations, trying to beef up my portfolio, my skills and whatnot.

First was this illustration of the Man of Steel himself. I'm not a big comic book type artist. Just never been much of what I've drawn. BUt I'm hooked on Superman stories right now.

Next up was A certain DARK LORD OF THE SITH. I'm a giant Star Wars geek. I had hoped to travel to either CA or NY to one of the big conventions next year in hopes that Lucasfilm would be doing portfolio reviews. I really would like a gig as an officially sanctioned Star Wars artist. There are many of them. I'd like to be one. Of course, with the layoff and resulting budget tightening, a trip of such distance and expense is questionable at best. I'll continue to beef up the portfolio with that goal in mind though. Anyway, here's a quick take on Darth Vader himself. I'm pretty happy with this one, as a style, as a representation of one aspect of my artistic sensibilities.

Next up, I cranked open a new 3D application. I've always really wanted to get into 3D animation, or animation in general. But haven't found an application that agrees with me. WEll, no more. I opened up a program called ZBrush 3 and a few hours later, like 3 1/2 or so, I had figured out enough to do this piece. I like them. It's not finished, really just learning, but not bad from new in a couple of hours.

THe next day, I cranked open ZBrush again, inspired by the previous days progress, spent a little more time learning certain functions and modeled 2 different basic frameworks for the 3D Ripley (a long unattainable goal of mine for the Maggers and Ripley Strange Type Studio property. Here's a look at that. Much more work to be done on this project.

I also made this that particular day. It's a quick toon-up of the Dandy Highwayman himself, Mr. ADam Ant.

Next up was this print, a sequel to a previous food themed, retro animation inspired pice of art. This is called "Ladies Love Ketchup".

And today, I made some prints, and got the etsy store up and going.

I hope to increase my output substantially this week.

Etsy is Go! 5th Street Bizarre is Live.

2008-11-10T21:11:00.003-06:00

So as another means of trying to promote my art, and possibly raise a small amount of capital, I opened an etsy shop. I'll have t-shirts there, but primarily it'll be a vehicle to promote my illustration and photography, as I can do those myself and no longer have unfettered access to t-shirt printing equipment.

Right now there are only a few graphics up. I'll add more over time to keep the site "fresh" looking.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

www.5thstreetbizarre.etsy.com

Update

2008-11-05T20:50:00.002-06:00

Wow. I haven't blogged in a while. Haven't much felt like it I guess.

Still no job. I'm trying to hold out and see if i get to go to school or not. So I'm not seriously looking for a job until that is determined. Which is good, becuause there are absolutlely NO jobs for graphic designers right now. NONE. It concerns me greatly. BUt I'm going to try not to get concerned yet.

Finally have been productive on art work this week. I've done three illustrations in 2 days, whilst fighting the flu, so I feel good about that. THey're pretty good. I'll wait ad do a post with lots of art when I have maybe a weeks worth. That, if nothing else will serve as a nice weekly inventory of my productivity.

I'll check in later.

Tom Waits' Glitter And Doom Revisited

2008-10-14T12:05:00.003-06:00

Still sorting stuff. Got some music on.

Right now, I'm revisiting Tom Waits' Glitter and Doom tour. We went to the St. Louis show (which I previously RAVED about). NPR however, recorded the ATLANTA show and has it streaming on their website.

St. Louis is still the best concert I've EVER been to, and the Atlanta concert is a pretty good representation of what it was like. You still miss the atmosphere of it all and the visual artistry, but it's a good 2+ hour listen.

LIsten HERE

ARGGHHHHH

2008-10-13T01:34:00.000-06:00

I ABSOLUTLELY CAN NOT SLEEP. TOO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT. TOO MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT. TOO MUCH. I Can't wait to get this week over, get this rummage sale ot of the way. Get my house back to a normal state not filled with boxes and boxes of the past. Sometimes I think it'd be nice to get rid of absolutely everything in the house, except for my dog and the couch I sleep on 50% of the time, and my laptop. Just get rid of EVERYTHING. BUt I'm extremely sentimental, probably to a fault. But just dumping everything sounds like fun. Maybe that's what I should do. Auction off everything I own. Take the money, load up the dog in the truck and not worry anymore.

Oh well...it's a nice thought.

So, here's some music blathering.

ACtress/model/fashion designer/etc etc Milla Jovovich released an album called THE DIVINE COMEDY in 1994, to critical raves. She was like 18 at the time, and had written or co-written the all of songs (except for a traditionl Ukranian folk song).

I clearly remember seeing THIS video late at night on MTV (probably on 120 mintue) and thinking....WHAT was THAT?!?! I mean, if you think back to where popular music was in 1994, then listen to this song and see this video, I don't think there was anything remotely like it. Just the sounds, the tone, the orchestration really made a huge impression. IT's just a very pretty song, and then to juxtapose it with the creepyness of the video is GReAT (there is a second video for the song that the record label preferred that 90210's Jason Priestly directed).

Here's another song from the album, this is from some album release concert or something. Another good song. There's a little chatter at the begining that you can skip right n through to the 30 second mark, where the song starts.

This song being "It's Your Life"

I really like the album, a lot. For an album that's around fourteen years old, it gets regular multiple plays a week. Something about it as a whole is just very relaxing, calming. It's got this really nice orchestration that you just don't hear, a very poetic sound, if that makes sense I've been really hoping she'd record a follow-up album to this, but it never happened, though she does occasionally post new song demos on her website. BUt something about this album, as a complete piece work, is to me, as near perfect as an album can be. Is it one of the greatest albums of all time? Doubtful anyone other than me would say that. For me, it's one of the greatest albums I've certainly ever owned, of course you have to remember, I can't stand the Beatles, or Hendrix, or The Doors, or most of the music that ends up on those "BEST EVER" lists, so my opinion counts for little.

And I can also say, without reservation, that it is easily one of the best albums by an actor (non-Broadway) ever. Songs and albums by actors are a guilty pleasure of mine. I LOVE them. But that's another post.

So, if you can borrow a copy, I'd recommend giving the Divine Comedy a listen (a REAL listen). Chances are you won't like it as much as I do, my fondness for it may be tied to times and places and things fourteen years behind me, but you may enjoy it on some level.

NOw I'm going to put it on and see if it will help me sleep.

Archeology of the High School/College kind

2008-10-12T21:53:00.003-06:00

So, I'm going through stuff to get rid of. Things you accumulate and for whatever reason keep. Holy CRAP! I found a box of high school and college work. Creative writing notebooks, sketchbooks. The first artwork I EVER got paid for (which also, coincidentally was a t-shirt design), Creative writing projects, the first reall photographs I ever took (and by real I mean with a 35mm camera and the intent of them being artistic {they are NOT, sadly}). And art history paper?!?!? What the heck?!?!? For one semester, a wrote SEVERAL papers on Analytical Cubism?!?!? Apparently I knew LOTS of stuff about ANALYTICAL CUBISM? Where did that knowledge go?

So I'm pondering scanning some of that old art and photos stuff, just to put it up here for my own embarrassment. It's pretty entertaining and awful. But here's the thing, as soon as I saw them, I could remember the situations of almost EVERY piece of that artwork. Way more than anything else I learned in High school or college. So stay tuned over the next couple of weeks if you're interested in seeing my old crappy art and design work!

Red 5 Standing By

2008-10-11T19:55:00.003-06:00

Look Sir! Droids

2008-10-11T19:51:00.003-06:00

My Dog Talks To Fire Trucks

2008-10-06T22:25:00.003-06:00

So Ripley does this thing, pretty regularly but no one but me has every been around when she does it. For whatever reason, there are ALWAYS lots of late night fire runs past my house. My best guess is my house is on the way to a number of meth labs. Anyway, Ripley hangs out on her couch at the front window of the house. She likes to stare out the window for untold amounts of time, especially when the window is open. And when one of those late night fire runs happens THIS is what I get (it took me a couple secs to get up, find the camera and start shooting before the sirens stopped. This is the ONLY situation in which I've EVER heard her do this. And honestly, at night in the dark, half groggy, for a couple of minutes, it was getting a little creepy.

College and the Cowboy Junkies

2008-10-06T18:11:00.003-06:00

So, as I'm attempting to get back in school for training for a new career, I've had to revisit my first stint in college, mainly via college transcripts. Of the four I need I received two. Man, I don't rememeber taking a good number of those classes, much less most of what I learned in them. Yeah I took psych and sociology class, but I have NO clue what I learned in them, and my English Literature and Theatre studies learning didn't stick around along. Can't wait to see what I took while I was at Murray. HOwever, I can STILL play tennis and table tennis. TAKE THAT phys ed requirements!!

My FAVORITE band while in college was the COWBOY JUNKIES. I listened to a TON of cowboy junkies while I was working on art. Their more recent albums I haven't been a big fan of, the last one I bought was ALMOST like some sort of Cowboy Junkie version of freeform jazz. Only listened to it maybe 3 times and haven't purchased the last couple.

Anyhoo, here're some Cowboy Junkie flashbacks.

SWEET JANE – One of the best covers ever. Partially becase the Velvet Underground version isn't that great, and partially because the CJ version is SOOOO great.

ANd then here's "SUN COMES UP, IT"S TUESDAY MORNING"

Sadly, no clip of "MURDER TONIGHT IN THE TRAILER PARK"

Brian Regan did not dissapoint, though the Tri-State did.

2008-09-28T19:54:00.004-06:00

Brian Regan KILLED last night! It was a GREAT concert. As funny as ever. It was the fourth show for Mom, Dad, sis Kellie and me, 2nd show for Jackie and Scott. A great time was had by all. Plus, it was in Evansville, so we didn't have to drive 2 hours for the concert, thankfully.

The downer though, was that the Victory was only around half full. Brian Regan sells out concert everywhere he plays. He just did 3 consecutive nights of sold out shows in Lehi, UTAH!!!! Every other time we've seen him, all three shows were filled to capacity. BUt Evansville, nope. And that's one of the things I hate about where I live. Sometimes it feels like the only things people around here are high school sports, and crappy stadium shows of the most manufactured phenoms of the day.

It was the same thing with the Lyle Lovett show at the Victory in 2005. AMAZING show. Stadium half-full. You just want people to go to these shows, to appreciate these performers, so they'll come back. But why should they come back when they only sell out have of the smallest theater in Evansville?

Well, everyone there had a GREAT time! So yay for us!

Guess it's off for a little house cleaning, tomorrows Monday, and though I no longer HAVE to get up early, I will choose to get up early. Monday's the day to really start rebuilding and reshaping whatever is going to happen next.

blahbiddy blah blah blah

2008-09-21T21:51:00.002-06:00

Not much happening I guess. Here's what I did this weekend

Worked on a freelance project. Pretty happy with the work. I'm at about the halfway point.

Watched most of Season 4 of The Office. Can't WAIT for Thursday night!

Watched most of Season one of Pushing Daisies. My favorite new show of last season.

Continued reading Kevin J. Anderson's LAST DAYS OF KRYPTON. Not a bad book thus far.

Cleaned a little.

Did some laundry.

Played with the Ripper.

Went to the folks some.

Had game day at Castle Jenkins. A good time was had.

Watched some flicks. Jumper. Get Smart.

relaxed as much as possible.

Did something else but can't really remeber what it was. Oh well.

Back to work tomorrow.....sigh.......

MOre Vacation Art

2008-09-12T19:37:00.002-06:00

So, not counting Sat and Sun, my vacation is sadly over. I'd really like another week off. To much other stuff going on to make full use ofo this week for art. BUt I DID finish this piece. I like it. It'll go up as a print and probably a t-shirt when I get my much delayed ETSY shop up and running.

It's called:

Mr. G Goes To Town

Art method for the week

2008-09-11T21:34:00.002-06:00

I've been watching Flight of The Conchords while working on some art this week. Tremendously entertaining. So here are some YouTube clips:

"Bowie's In Space" cracks me up!

She's So Hot Boom

\Back to work now

Whew....

2008-09-10T16:50:00.002-06:00

Dad's surgery went well. He'll be back home Thur or Friday and then a month of just taking it easy. Maybe he's done with surgeries, maybe not. It's all just kind of "we'll take it as it comes and see" according to the surgeon. BUt as of right now, all is well. Plus, I had pie today. Not bad at all.

"Back" again....har dee hAR HAR

2008-09-09T22:38:00.002-06:00

So Dad goes back to the hospital tomorrow for his second major back surgery this year (hopefully his last back surgery ever). It's a little more difficult than the last one. Here's hopin' and prayin' for a nice flawless, easy effort tomorrow! And then hopefully no more hospitals for anyone for a long long time to come.

New Vacation Art Nombré Uno

2008-09-09T22:28:00.004-06:00

I've been working on a couple of pieces since MOnday. Kind of splitting time between them so as not to get bored.

Here's the first completed one. It's inspired by a number of things. First, nosecone artwork from WW2 era fighter planes. I just love that kind of art. Secondly, and less obviously though most importantly, by a STRAY CATS song called "LET'S GO FASTER" from an album of the same name. It's a great song from an underrated album. Actually, the album was never released in the states, I think it was only released in JApan and Australia. I have the Japanese CD. BUt I like it a lot. And the SLIM JIM tattoos is a nod to the greatest Rockabilly drummer of all-time, Stray Cat's Own "Slim Jim Phantom" (also one of the best stage names ever).

Enjoy! Hopefully more art coming at the weeks end.

One more day

2008-09-04T21:32:00.001-06:00

until vacation. I can't wait!!!

Genius

2008-08-31T16:42:00.004-06:00

I've been listening to Sam Cooke most of the time I've been awake today. Just amazing.

And I'm just not sure music gets better than this.
Sam Cooke's Bring It on Home To Me (with Lou Rawls).

Change-fetti...heh

2008-08-30T12:46:00.002-06:00

Pie Eaters 2

2008-08-28T20:50:00.002-06:00

So I couldn't help myself. I made my trip to Grand Traverse for a BLT and a slice of pie. And it, again particularly the pie, was darn tasty. And, as much the reason for going as anything, I took my sketchbook. It was earlier in the eve than last week so there were fewer people to choose from. It's still a kind of weird process for me. I don't want to come off as staring at people and drawing attention to myself, so really these are more or less captured based on seconds of information gathering. Trying to train my eye to capture essential information as quickly as possible. Super quick glances and get that info in my mind. Then put it down on paper.

Some of these I really like. Some stilll aren't there. BUt I'll keep it up. As a side note, 7 out of ten PIE EATERS were wearing glasses tonight. SHEEEeESHH!!!

give me a break

2008-08-27T20:37:00.003-06:00

Not to make anything about this blog political, but a great cultural travesty upon our nation has been perpetrated by supporters of both political candidates.

These attacks on music lovers are indefensible.

Attack #1:
RAISING MCCAIN

Attack # 2
OUR AMERICAN PRAYER

Now, I LOATHE John Rich. I CAN"T stand "BIG and RICH and the Redneck Mafia" or whatever they call their little band of hack musicians. I mean, they use a dwarf as a prop in their whole "shtick". When Ive ever heard John Rich speak, he comes off to me as just another ignorant opinionated redneck who thinks he's got all the answers. All of his music I've ever heard (keep in mind I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE music snob) is simplistic pop-country radio stuff. And I LOATHE this song. It's so typical of bad country music.

And there's "OUR AMERICAN PRAYER"....I just don't know where to begin in describing what's awful about this. Maybe it's that the song itself is awful. Remember when Dave Stewart was good (mostly THE EURYTHMICS era). BUt this song is just utter crap. And why does Stewart look like a poor man's Elvis Costello in the video. I want to smack Jason Alexander in this video. And WHY DEAR LORD WHY does Forrest Whitaker look like he's about to break into tears. I mean, Forrest Whitaker is a great actor. I like Forrest Whitaker, but his acting in this video is AWFUL. Cyndi Lauper..she's put out some great recent albums. SHE SHOULD KNOW this song is crap.

My FINAL VERDICT: Based on sure length of which the annoyance goes on, the WORST of the WORST, "OUR AMERICAN PRAYER" It clocks in at 5:39!!! RAISING MCCAIN's annoyance is over in a mere 2:35. While it was a true struggle to watch OUR AMERICAN PRAYER all the way through. SHAME on the left AND the right.

MY "AMERICAN PRAYER" is that America's taste in music would exponentially improve by 2012 so a repeat of this doesn't happen.

(YOUTUBE links not transfered to facebook for some reason)

Happy Birthday #2

2008-08-25T15:34:00.003-06:00

Today is my little bro's birthday. He would have been 35 today. Happy Birthday Bryan. Miss you.

HappY Birthday #1

2008-08-24T19:42:00.002-06:00

(Dad and Mom's Uncle Boston)

Today was Dad's birthday! He turned 63. We had a family get together, food cake, and then family outing to a movie. A good time was had by all. SO happy birthday to Dad. He's great.

The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it.

2008-08-23T20:52:00.003-06:00

So THIS may be the best thing ever on the internet. I, nor my friends and fam who have seen it can't seem to let it go. So tonight I worked on some new sketches. Kinda caricature-y, but more of a cartoon take on it in my style I guess, if that makes any sense what so ever. So here're quick sketches of Penny, Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible. Some of these I will take to a more complete illustration, like the LOST: KATE illustration, others I will attempt to get better likenesses of. BUt I'm slowly building up the skills and putting together a good portfolio.

Pencils and Pies

2008-08-22T20:53:00.003-06:00

I had to go to evansville this evening.

I had a sketchbook and pencils with me. Decided to grab some grub. Was thinking Culver's, got there but there were WAAAAAYYYYYY too many humans there for my comfort level.

Drove back down the street, decided I'd stop in for the initial visit to Great Traverse Pie Company. Gooooooood move. Had a tasty BLT and chips, but most importantly, got a FANTASTIC slice of CHOCOLATE PIE. Man o man was it tasty. So I sat there for close to an hour, relaxing, enjoying my sandwich, savoring my slice of tast-ness on a plate, and trying to covertly draw the surrounding patrons. So these are some of the PIE EATERS i saw while eating pie.

I'm thinking this may have to become a weekly thing. A slice of pie and an hour of sketching. Not a bad post work reward for myself

It's Imperial Fleet Week In San Francisco!

2008-08-20T22:00:00.001-06:00

This is GREAT!

DO NOT mistake THIS for the greatest movie ever made

2008-08-20T21:46:00.002-06:00

ACTION ABOUNDS in this clip, as does the Hoff!!

For you FACEBOOK readers, you'll have to go to the actual blog to see the clips. I ain't been able to figure out how to make the you tube videos come over with the RSS feed)

If you like cows...

2008-08-17T21:14:00.002-06:00

Then here's a Sunday Morning Cracker Barrel sketch for you.

And then here's one with some dogs and kitties. For some reason, the little Chihuahua guy reminds me of Kenny Chesney when he came to work. I think it's the pouty "dip lip" thing.

Hmmm.....Canine-y!

2008-08-15T21:15:00.005-06:00

Here's a little piece of art. First reader to identify the subject gets a free desktop image for their computer!!!!!

This is actually part of an exploratory investigation into a project I've been wanting to do for most of the year and I'm just now getting around to it. I will need more pet pictures...........can you help?

Got Em!

2008-08-15T21:08:00.003-06:00

Got Brian Regan tix for the fam! As always, it should be a GREAT show!

Enjoy!

Brian Regan

2008-08-14T20:45:00.001-06:00

Tickets for Brian Regan's Evansville concert go on sale Friday! I HIGHLY recommend it

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE

2008-08-06T17:08:00.001-06:00

BE IT LATE IN THE DAY THOUGH IT IS, Happy Birthday to my awesome big sis (who has excellent taste in music)!

Happy Birthday Kellie!

HOly Moly! A finished piece of art!

2008-08-02T22:16:00.002-06:00

Didn't get a lot of time this week to work on art. I got some sketches done, but not much time to sit at the Mac and do anything finished until Sat. night.

So whilst watching the first season (only 6 episodes) of Ricky Gervais's series "Extras" and rewatching THIS masterwork a couple of times (thanks to both Kellie and Josh for the heads up on it {it's what artists working in film and television are capable of when they can work totally outside the studio system and do away with the suits and just focus on making entertainment}) I finished this artwork.

I'm really happy with this one.It looks like an actual professional artist did it. And, well, since that's what I'd actually like to be someday, this is a sign of progress. My mostly regular working, be it lots of sketching or actually finishing stuff, is paying off. If I can keep it up, I'll be where I need to be in six months to a year ( I have a plan....) There are two variations. The original sketch is at the bottom of the previous post.

Found

2008-07-25T19:32:00.005-06:00

I found these in some pencils tonight and they needed out. They are connected in subject. But visually/stylistically they're pretty disparate. I wish I could really nail down a consistent style but I haven't yet. These range from straight caricature to something more like a cartoon "toon-up" of who they are. Mostly I like them all. A couple I think are far better than the others. Hopefully it's pretty clear who they are and from whence they came.
I may turn them into more finished illustrations with colors and all that.

Sketches

2008-07-24T20:25:00.002-06:00

I'm getting into a regular nightly art mode. I 'm trying to sketch at least 1 hour a night. And almost anytime I grab a bite to eat somewhere, I try to take my sketchbook with me and sketch whilst partaking of my lunchtime victuals.

Here are two lunch sketches.

THen tonight I sketched some more. Star Wars was the theme. Here're really quick sketches of Princess Leia and General Grievious. The Star Wars sketches are working toward something hopefully bigger.

And lastly, while sketching I was watching Anchorman, which led to this....Stay Classy San Diego.

Bats

2008-07-16T19:13:00.002-06:00

these are just two quick sketches I worked on tonight. Inspired of the new Bats movie opening this weekend. I don't ever really nor have I ever really gotten into drawing superhero type stuff. It's just not my thing I guess. BUt thought I'd crank out these two quick ones, working on my sketching/painting techniques. Little over an hour total spent working on these two.
BUt at least I did new art tonight.

The Bat and The Joker.

MONDAY ART

2008-07-14T21:00:00.004-06:00

More goofy art. This is pretty much inspired by a 50s era cookbook my sister has (though it's in my possession currently). THere are lots of little spot color illustrations of frollicking food items and what not. They are illustrated in that very clean, simple 50s graphic style. With maybe two or three colors top. I'm thinking this one for a group series of t-shirt designs, tough I may tweak it and have a food themed set of prints availble with this one and some other ones I have in mind.

It's called, simply enough: HOT DOG AND MUSTARD

More more more art

2008-07-12T15:02:00.003-06:00

Got up early this morning. Grabbed my sketchbook and headed to breakfast. This is something I try to do once a weekend. et up early Sat or Sun, and usually go to Cracker Barrel. I take my sketchbook and try to come up with one good sketch with potential. The time it takes to do this works out to about the time it takes to have someone cook me breakfast and eat it. I've come up with some good sketches that way. Today, there was a bit of a change. I was going to Evansville anyway, so I headed to IHOP for breakfast. Their pancakes with the strawberry topping are the BEST. Cracker Barrel doesn't have a strawberry topping. so they just wouldn't do this morning.

Anyway. The most recent sketches have been mainly a series of sketches, somewhat inspired by the previously blogged about DUFFY album. That album puts me in the frame of mind of 60s soul, and a lot of the promotional materials, album covers, photos and what not of female singers of that era. And something about those influences is coming out in these sketches. I'm not sure what it is, but that's what it reminds me (maybe not you) of. I initially was thinking of these as potential t-sihirt designs. BUt I'm going to be setting up an ETSY store soon, with prints of varying sizes available and I think these sketches might make a nice sort of set of decorative illustrations. Here's the first one that's finished. I've tried three different colorways and I'm not sure which I like most. The first is the originally intended color scheme, the others are tinkering. I thought about maybe making each colorway available, or doing all three in one single print, as one of those sort of things.

New shirt designs!

2008-07-11T21:35:00.004-06:00

Have been having some fun with art tonight still. So I worked on a few new shirt ideas tonight. These are two of them like.

This one is called "BLUE DUCK"

This is called "TURTLE SOUP"

Art nonsense

2008-07-11T16:25:00.002-06:00

Just trying to use my last regular Friday off well. After what was a mostly disastrous attempt at morning disc golf with my sis followed by a tasty lunch then a frustratingly thwarted attempt at seeing a movie, I headed back home and opted to work on some art. Just put the finishing touches on this little illustrated bit of nonsense for fun.

First person to guess the song lyrics to which this drawr-eeng references wins!!

Dino Might

2008-07-09T21:33:00.004-06:00

Boom Boom Akc A Lak A Boom

I haven't even tought about this song in forever. It was filed away as something I'd probably never ever need again. But last night's Lyle Lovett concert brought it all back. How you say?

Lyle has three singers that typically perform with him in concert. They're a hugely important part of the show and the sound, and unlike most "backup singers" they're right down front. And backup singers doesn't even remotely describe how integral they are to the show. Anyway, they were there last night and for the second time I've seen them, they were AWESOME. THey were kind of like their own little show unto themselves. GREAT voices. Great performers. And two of them are the lead singers for late 80's pop sensation (of sorts) Was Not Was, who sang the above embedded song. I had NO idea of this, until Lyle made a mention of it and made a point of announcing that they had just gotten the band back together and recorded a new album. I HAVE to say that their talents are so far and above Everybody walk the Dinosaur that I'm probably going to look into the album and maybe pick it up. I'll let you know.

They performed this AMAZING song last night (though this video isnt from last night). A lot of last nights songs were heavily gospel influenced or straight out gospel. I'm not real big on churchy music, but maybe that's because it's so seldom presented this masterfully.

And ALSO in the middle of it was a little bluegrass break .AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. They performed THIS one.

And lastly, while he did not perform this song, I like his cover of it very much, so here it is.
Bears

Another great concert

2008-07-08T23:35:00.002-06:00

Lyle Lovett put on another great show, in Louisville Tues. It was AWESOME! I can't recommend seeing him in concert enough. You owe it to yourself if you haven't caught one of his concerts. BUt I'm beat now, so off to bed.

Look what I bought

2008-07-03T20:56:00.002-06:00

I bought these:

So I can take lighting controlled shots like this

and many yet to be explored other things

What you aren't seeing, is the Nikon D40 Digital SLR that took the pictures. Now I needs to learn how to use it all.

More Tom

2008-06-29T21:17:00.003-06:00

So, no really good videos from St. Louis have turned up yet. But just to give you an idea, here're a couple of clips

The first is a clip from the Houston show. The opening song, the moment when Tom comes on stage. IT really starts the show off great. The music is kinda creepy and weird and he's all hyped up like a crazy preacher or something. HOWEVER, he is NOT sideways in concert. The sound isn't great but you get the idea.

Then here's DAY AFTER TOMORROW from the 2006 tour. He's doing this song on this tour. Great song. GREAT performance.

Seriously

2008-06-29T18:35:00.001-06:00

Do yourselves a favor and see Wall-E. BEST movie I've seen all year Best I've seen in a while. Beautiful looking flick. AMAZING animation.

Seriously. see it.

The Most Amazing Thing I've Ever Seen In My Life

2008-06-27T17:56:00.009-06:00

That, my friends is not hyperbole. The Tom Waits performance last night in St. Louis was hands down easily the great performance of any type I have ever seen in my life. To call it a concert does not do the man justice. If you love live music, if you love theater, if you love the visual arts, performance art, storytelling, whatever, you really should see the man live. There is no one, and I mean NO ONE working today or to my knowledge in the past who could pull off a show like the one my buddy, Josh and I caught last night. If you fancy yourself an artist, a designer, a creative type of any sort, and want to see how one artist has so completely bent a medium to his will and the mastery with which he's able to deliver his art to his audience in a truly unique voice, you owe it to yourself (at the very least as a way to find new inspiration or simple be amazed by art) to find some way to see Tom Waits in concert (if possible, on this tour). Whether you like his music or not, whether you can tolerate his voice or not, for a creative of any ilk, you owe yourself this.

So that's my initially reaction, pondering it less than 24 hours later.

Now for the more personal side of the trip. Josh and I headed out to St. Louis Friday afternoon, super-psyched to see Tom Waits Concert NUMBER 2 (Number 1 being The Ryman, Nashville 2006). After getting some Ritzy's shakes, fries and onion rings for the road, on we went.

Even with what seemed like regular road work of some sort almost all the way there, it was maybe the easiest trip to make, The three-ish hours on the road flew by in no time. Traffic was easy, and we made it to the Fabulous Fox Theater in two exits and a right turn I believe, then we were there. Arriving 3 hours early, we found FREE parking right behind the Fox. We walked around a little bit and tried to decide on a place to eat. There are four places directly across the Fox. 2 were jazz club type places, but weren't yet open for the evening. One was a more upscale eatery where they served stuff like $20+ dollar free range chicken and such. It was open, but well, hey served $20 dollar free range chicken..

Then right next door to that place was a place named "The Best Steak House". Josh observed that the place was straight out of Food Networks "Drive-Ins, Diners & Dives". He would be right. You go in, get in line. Up ahead of you is a cafeteria style shelf, where you can grab salads, cakes, some various sides. So you get in line for that. While you're waiting to get to the trays, there's a guy working the grill who will call out loudly "neeeeeeuuuuxxttttt!" You yell back to him what you want. He nods back at you that he heard you. You keep waiting in line he keeps yelling on down the line for "neeeuuuxxxxttttt". You make your way to the counter, then to the grill, where you get your food and choice o' steak fries or baked potato, get your drink pay up and go. Gotta say, I think we were both pretty happy ith the meals. I got a very tasty steak sandwich on texas toast, a healthy serving of steak fries, diet coke and a really good piece of chocolate cake for $10.01. Not bad at all.

After dinner we walked across the street and got in line at the Fox.

The Fox Theater.

In Line at the Fox.

The Fox Theater is AWESOME. I really like the Ryman, it's got great history, great acoustics. The Louisville Palace is a really great looking theater. BUt the Fox is just frickin' amazing on the inside. It was built about 70 years ago.It has an Indian inspired design motif. Lots of gold, reds and blues, Really beautiful, ornate decorative elements. Absolutley amazing theater.Here are some pics, taken with my crappy consumer, digital camera they don't really capture the detail so much as they capture the ambience, which is kind of why i like the pictures. I'll try to explain what you're looking at.

Lobby View

View from the lower lobby toward the Balcony/Mezzanine floor.

Awesome Painting on the interior front of the lobby.

Carpet Designs

Awesome chandelier in the theater area.

Some of the ornate designs in the theater area.

So we took in the sheer awesomeness of the theater and waited and waited. Tom took the stage at 9 o'clock, an hour later, but no one seemed to mind. They had been rehearsing up until the minute they opened the doors to let us in, and we kind of figured, based on some of the songs they played, they had made decisions on the setlist based on the theater and it's decor and where likely tweaking those things up until the time Tom and the band hit the stage. It was pretty much a full house.

We had GREAT seats, in large part to the efforts of my good friend Rebekah K. who helped with the Herculean task of being able to actual log/phone in on the day tix went on sale and snag tickets. NOT an easy task.

As this post is already too long, I'll spare you any kind of serious blow by blow of the concert and give you impressions along with photos.

Again, the crappy pocket digital camera and it's low-light shooting limitations actually enhance the end results, and I think help to really convey the feel of the concert experience. How, rather than being detailed reminders of all of the minute FACTS of the concert, they have movement, motion, blur, areas of highlight and complete shadow, with not a lot of the detail inbetween. You really get a good feel for how lighting was used in the concert, as another member of the ensemble.

Here's the base lighting set up and the stage. Tom stood most of the sho on a big wooden platform, that was covered in chalk dust. He'd stomp and kick and convulse and clouds of dust would erupt up from it. Chalk dust. THe man gets more effect out of chalk dust than most artist do with backup dancers, giant set pieces and lord knows how much other non-musically relevant set piece nonsense. He had a bell thing on the platform that he'd stomp and kick at, as well as a couple other things that made noise. He did lots of stomping, stamping, kicking, and generally using the platform as an instrument,

And here's how the man takes the stage. I am really fond of this photo. Again, kind of an accidental photograph, made better by lack of skill.

Here's a photo from a great one. This is a performance of "Heigh Ho (The Dwarves Marching Song)" from Snow White. Tom did a GREAT cover of it some years ago on a Disney cover song album. Legend it it's so dark and dreary non-Disney that Disney almost didn't release it they hated it so much. It's sooooo awesome. There's all kind of clanging and banging and just bizarre sound, and Tom sang it through a bull horn. GREAT GREAT GREAT.

This pic is a REALLY good example of what the concert felt like. The sheer energy of it. For example there are a number of songs in the Waits catalogue that have a disticntly creepy twisted carnival freakshow vibe to them. There's a sort of dark whimsy to them. They played a couple of them last night and it was amazing to hear. The band seemed so almost chaotically on the verge of coming apart it was amazing. Like, if you were ever in JR HIGH or HIGH SCHOOL band, how you'd get a really uptempo piece of music that was really, honestly, harder than the band could play. And everyone was SUPPOSED to go home and practice that night and start wokring on it the next day. Then the next day would come, and the band director would get the song started, and it was REALLY clear that no one had REALLY practiced, but the director desperately try to hold the song together through the end for the first play-thru, but as a member of the band, you could COMPLETELY feel the wheels coming off and you knew everything was about to fall apart...the band was like that, CRAZY time signatures, syncopations, rythmns, squeaks and squeals bonks and clanks, on purpose, as Tom was tearing through some of his brilliantly twisted lyrics about one armed dwarves, people with wooden legs, Singapore, etc et al. It was beautiful to behold. So I think this pic is a pretty good visual representation.

The performance was a great mix of rockers, pentecostal church service (My siblings and I went to PLENTY of these at my grandmothers church when we were little), circus, carnival barker insanity, storytelling, blues, and just everything else. I thought the band on this tour was tighter than the Orphans tour. The addition of saxophone and some other winds was a fantastic move. The new guitarist was GREAT. Casey Waits on drums/percussion has gotten even better than the last tour. The last minute replacement bass player was fantastic and the keyboard player was great also. It was also a great mi of older and newer songs. A couple we heard in 2006, but they were definately songs you would love to hear again live anyway, so that was a win.

Tom broke about the middle of the show for a piano based set, where things get quieter, more personal. A great part of the show. That's the point where Tom amps up the audience interaction, with lots of banter that really, you just have to be there for. He's a funny guy.

I thought these are some OK photos of that moment in the show.

Other highlights, Tom invited the audience to sing along on the completely awesome "Innocent When You Dream". Just a taste of the lyrics

(reprinted without permission but with the utmost respect:)

The bats are in the belfry
the dew is on the moor
where are the arms that held me
and pledged her love before
and pledged her love before

It's such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it's memories that I'm stealing
but you're innocent when you dream
when you dream
you're innocent when you dream

running through the graveyard
we laughed my friends and I
we swore we'd be together
until the day we died
until the day we died

Repeat Chorus

I made a golden promise
that we would never part
I gave my love a locket
and then I broke her heart
and then I broke her heart

Another highlight: The spoken word genius of "What's He Building In There" a story about a strange suspicious neighbor who is probably up to no good.

And everything else was a highlight too.

Seriously, in all honesty, find a way to see Tom Waits in concert. Would that funds and time were unlimited, I'd see 'em all.

As YouTube clips from St. Louis show up I'll probably link to 'em.

And for those still reading, here's the AWESOME St. Louis setlist:

Lucinda
Way Down In The Hole
Falling Down
Black Market Baby
All The World Is Green
Heigh Ho
Get Behind The Mule
Day After Tomorrow
Cemetery Polka
Hang Down Your Head
Lucky Day
Johnsburg, IL
Lost In The Harbour
Make It Rain
Lie To Me
On The Other Side Of The World
Singapore
Dirt In The Ground
What's He Building?
16 Shells
Rain Dogs

ENCORE
Goin' Out West
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Innocent When You Dream

Legitimate review:
St. Louis POst Dispatch

PS — And Saturday...PIXAR's WALL-E! Can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!!

Darts of Fire...IN MY BRAIN...STABBING ME!!!!!!!

2008-06-23T17:21:00.002-06:00

Downtown Train and Graphic Design Theory

2008-06-19T18:21:00.003-06:00

While in Tom Waits mode, thought I'd post this blurb.

When I was teaching graphic design, I used to use a lot of music as a teaching aide. I'd have students pick songs lyrics and illustrate them, or pick a song and try to best interpret the sound of that song with fonts (font styling, size, placement) and in some way give me a visual interpretation of the way that song sounded, using only the text of that song, an illustration in type, if you will.

But then I also used song lyrics to describe the way a graphic designer functions. Most of graphic design revolves around the artist arranging someone else's information visually. A graphic designer is given an assignment, a message they have to get across to an audience. Seldom is a graphic designer designing graphics for art's sake. Someone is always saying, "i need this to say this". So what makes a great graphic designer is how successful they are at delivering a message in a powerful and meaningful way, how they communicate the message the are given in a way that moves people to respond to that message.

That was a hard thing to try and communicate to students, until I started thinking about the way musicians interpret other musicians "messages" in the form of cover songs. HOw someone interprets or changes, via their performance, the "message" of the song. Here's one of the examples I used.

Here's the message delivered as the original artist interprets it: Tom Waits' acoustic version of his song, "Downtown Train"

THen here's Rod Stewart's (to his defense) HUGELY successful version (or the one I like to refer to as "the one i don't like as much so..."):

And then there's THIS (which wasn't around when I was teaching). A Japanese Rod Stewart Tribute version of Rod's version of Tom's song. I just don't know what else to say about this. Except that it's like when you read something that's been translated from English into Japanese and then translated back to English by a Japanese person (we have a banner/sign hanging up at work that reminds me of the phenomenon).

I'd always dig out other covers of other people, some I thought were as good as, if not better than the original, and some that I thought were far far worse. I also found that the way showtunes were pulled from their soundtracks and covered by singers on their own albums full of non-related material was a good excercise for demonstrating the way different artists interpret the same source material (or "message"). I always enjoyed that part of teaching a lot. Mostly, that was a pretty good gig.

2008-06-18T20:20:00.002-06:00

THe first reviews are in! Tom Waits did not dissapoint in Arizona last night. One week to go! Whoo hooo!

Well, Since I can't Sleep (SEE PREVIOUS POST)...

2008-06-11T23:06:00.004-06:00

Here's some more music related blogging

First up is Paolo Nutini. I got his disc about 9 or 10 months ago, and just never got around to blogging about it. He's a Scottish kid. Here's the first release (I think) from the album. Some of you have probably long since heard it. But It's got a great hook to it, and I like his raspy voice.

JENNY DON"T BE HASTY

THen here's ANOTHER duffy videol. Taken from a recording session of the album. SYRUP and HONEY (for you Kristin Chenoweth fans out there (like myself) Duffy bears a STRONG resemblence to her in this clip, physically and vocally. Crazy. Pretty impressive stuff.

SYRUP & HONEY

Lasty, Andrew Bird. I've blogged before Andrew Bird. He's kind of a brilliant musician. He sings and is an accomplished violinist. Used to play with the Squirrel Nut Zippers on occassion. He did to really great 20s-30s jaz/swing influenced albums. THen went off in a much more adventurous direction. He's a REALLY good lyricist, and kind of in the same vein as Waits, uses instrumentation and language to paint a sort of aural painting. So here're two clips. Both of them of him just walking through the streets of Paris. Right off I'll say it's definitely NOT for everyone. The first, he's got a guitar and does a lot of whistling. Listen at the end for a random actual bird trying to kind of imitiate or reply to Andrew BIRDs whistling. It's pretty "wow, cool"

And this one is for you violin lovers. There just aren't many musicians working who write lyrics to be accompanied by a violin, rather than, say, oh a piano or guitar.. It's just not done. But Bird does it. And here's a video of it. It's a very kind of captivating sound. You just don't really think of a violin being used musically the way it is in tis, so on that note I'll post it, though it may be the one at which point some of you just kind of loose interest. BUt it's nothing if not impressive.

Now I shall once again attempt to sleep.

Word of the day

2008-06-11T21:05:00.003-06:00

frustrated

frustrate[1,transitive verb]

Main Entry:
1frus·trate
Pronunciation:
\ˈfrəs-ˌtrāt\
Function:
transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
frus·trat·ed; frus·trat·ing
Etymology:
Middle English, from Latin frustratus, past participle of frustrare to deceive, frustrate, from frustra in error, in vain
Date:
15th century
1 a: to balk or defeat in an endeavor b: to induce feelings of discouragement in
2 a (1): to make ineffectual : bring to nothing (2): impede, obstruct b: to make invalid or of no effect
synonyms frustrate, thwart, foil, baffle, balk mean to check or defeat another's plan or block achievement of a goal. frustrate implies making vain or ineffectual all efforts however vigorous or persistent . thwart suggests frustration or checking by crossing or opposing . foil implies checking or defeating so as to discourage further effort . baffle implies frustration by confusing or puzzling . balk suggests the interposing of obstacles or hindrances .

No sleep tonight.

Music Music Music

2008-06-10T19:45:00.004-06:00

THought I'd chime in with a little music themed post. First of all, in 16 days, I'll be in St. Louis, checking out THIS man!!! Whooo hooo!!

THe theatrical aspect of this performance is genius.

Then here's THIS Tom Waits from 1978. This is A GREAT song, GREAT performance. A totally different character than the other clip, but just as genius. This is just all jazzzy and cooooool

ROMEO IS BLEEDING

Next up, I bought a new album over the weekend I can't stop playing. I heard about it over on the Brian Setzer web page. It's from a Welsh singer songwriter named Dufy. It's from her first album, which was just released a couple of weeks back I think. Apparently she's getting some good radio play, so some of you may already know about her. She's got a very 60's soul/motown/Dusty Springfield thing going on. It's a REALLY strong album. I highly recommend it. S here's some YouTubers to give you a feel for it.

First is the video for Mercy, which in and of itself is just a really well done video.

And here's the vid for Warwick Avenue, which I think is proabbly the best song on an album full of eually good songs.

Get this Album. Its called ROCKFERRY

Some of what I did today

2008-06-07T16:09:00.005-06:00

Here's some of my doings for the day. I finished this previously posted about illustration. Its now officially titled "Morning Breaks Over Radiation Ranch".

I worked on it a couple of hours last night and just couldn't get it where I wanted it, so I put it away and came back to it this afternoon for about another hour. I think I'm done with it. For what it is and the purpose behind it as an excercise with it, I'm happy with it.

However, BEFORE I worked on it, I had to knock this one out, mainly as a loosening up excercise. I drew the sketch Sat. morning at the Cracker Barrel whilst partaking of breakfast victuals. Hopefully it's pretty obvious.

Hopefully I'll do some more tomorrow.

So I went to the Grocery this morning....

2008-06-01T11:01:00.003-06:00

and I'm not sure what possessed me to buy these steaks...OUT YOU DEVIL! OUUUUTTTTT!!!

random Rip

2008-06-01T11:00:00.003-06:00

Landscape Pics

2008-06-01T10:11:00.016-06:00

Here's the end result of three days of my vacation and a great deal of help from Mom. And it's been 2 days and nothing's died yet!

Fun with Cleaning, Fun with Concerts and FUN FUN FUN with Landscaping

2008-05-29T20:20:00.005-06:00

I love vacations. Vacations are GREAT. I'd take a week's paid vacation every week if I could convince the powers to be to make that a reality. But I'm PRETTY sure that wouldn't fly. I haven't had an alarm clock the last couple of days. I've more or less just been waking up. Here's the thing, I've been waking up round about my normal time, maybe a couple minutes later. And oddly, not only have I been waking up, I've also been getting up. A couple of days, I've got up and went out to eat breakfast, some I've got up and grabbed a breakfast bar or a bowl of cereal and then went straight to work aroud the house. And I've been enjoying it. I think it's the whole getting up of your own free will, rather than getting up because you have to be somewhere. And I think its pretty much a psychological thing, because on my three day weekends, and still get up early is, but I'm not up and at 'em and ready to go like I have been this week. Of course, I've also had all the windows open, getting a good morning breeze going through the house, the last two days have been nice out, so it's been easy to get going.

So here's a rundown of the last couple of days.

DID NOT work on the previously posted art on Sunday, Monday or any day since. This is not because I lost interest, but I hAD THese couple niggling thoughts in my brain that I KNEW would keep trumping every art related thought I'd be trying to have if I didn't deal with them first.

So, Mon. and Tues., I set about finishing up what will hopefully be the final declutter of the house, and then some minor rearranging of things, getting the little bedroom upstairs kind of put together after about four years of being storage only. NOw it's more hostel like in it's sparse unglamourousness. And I SERIOUSLY scrubbed me some floors, vacuumed some carpets and sofas and rescrubbed some floors (the main downstairs area that is. Upstairs in surprisingly good shape, just needs a good dusting, hardwood floor polishing. Still some little things to do here and there. I need to touch up a few paint places here and there, but I'll work those in when I'm moved to do them.

So did those to things Mon and Tues. Tuesday night (see previous post) discovered I had another great concert opportunity coming my way with the Brian Regan show. Which got me thinking about how lucky I'm getting this year with concerts within a couple hours drive. I'm getting to see Regan (ticketmaster willing) in Evansville. Gonna see a great Irish Folk band in Nashville in September. Getting to see Tom Waits, for the SECOND time, in St, Louis, and again, Ticketmaster willing, going to the Brian Setzer Orchestra 8th Annual Christmas Extravaganza at the Ryman in December (probably one of the absolute best concert going experiences one can have. It's like a real honest to goodness extravaganza for anyone and everyone. Another show I can't recommend enough.

Which got me thinking, who else would I REALLY like to see. I probably could have gone to see the Police (the final final leg of the tour) again this year, but St. Louis last year was great, and my guess is that the show probably hasn't changed much, if at all, as they did ALL the hits that people wanted to hear.

So, rounding out the third spot in my all time favs category, (Waits & Stzer dead tied for first, the Police at second (mainly from my teenage existence) coming in at third, but really more like the second spot for Shea-post college thru moderately responsible productive adult-ish years is Lyle Lovett. I've seen him before, and right up until the last Waits and Setzer gigs, it was my favorite concert going experience.

So, I thought, what the heck, I'll check. Guess who's going to see Lyle Lovett in Louisville July 8th. Yeppers! That's how Tuesday night ended.
Another good year for concerts. Now if ONLY I could catch Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters somewhere.....

NOw, back to the weeks rundown. Wednesday was a killer. I had let my front landscaping get away from me. Mainly because I had just grown VERY tired of it, plus I've been planning a large revamp of the backyard over the next 6 months to a year (budget willing) and that got me thinking about cleaning up the front.

Yesterday morning, I was just going to dig up two shrubs that had died due to the crazy hot cold hot cold hot cold thing we had earlier this year. Then I was going to clean up on the ground, so I could load it up with hostas (sp???) and a boat load of monkey grass. A friend stopped by Wed as I was working and asked what my plan was for it, and upon hearing it it she offered me all the monkey grass I could dig up from the back corner of their house. Whoo hooo!!! And as the wheels turned and the day ran on and on, the project had grown. I had moved about 1/2 ton of pebbles from the front to a corner in the back yard, clearing the front for new dirt, oodles of monkey grass (I kinda just like the term "monkey grass" fun to type, fun to say) and had decided on removing ALL shrubberies from the front and mainly just working the hosta and...wait for it......monkey grass angle. I then consulted with my gardening/landscaping pro, to which Mom said she'd come over and help me Thursday and run with me to Lowes. Thursday night ended with an episode of Battle Star Galactica, some grub and a few Eps of THE OFFICE.

Thursday morning, up and at 'em. Worked inside the house until Mom made it over around lunch time. Went and had lunch, then we hit the Lowes garden center with two carts begging for vegetation type things. Got some nice ground cover called JAPANESE SPURGE. Picked up seven small white lilies, and one larger crazy pinkish orange tinged lily thing. PIcked up several of 2 different types of hostas, picked up a Jacob's Ladder, PIcked up these two red flower bush things...picked up a larger Red Plum Tree bush thinger (says it's a tree, but is actually more shrub like). Bought 3 of these nutso "balloon flower" things. They're pretty cool right before they bloom. They look like tiny little purple balloons. 4 BIG bags of soil. And a new spade, mainly, because I broke the old wooden spade as I was removing those dead shrubs yesterday). So much for just monkey grass and hostas. And as visions evolve and things started to come together more, well, my beloved, and FREEEEEE, monkey grass did not make the cut, and will NOT be making an appearance in the front landscaping. However, there will most definately be a monkey grass preserve in the back yard when I gets to it.

Returned from Lowes with a nice batch of plant life. Started what I had assumed would be a relatively simple task of diggin up the six remaining shrubs. It was not. THey had very hearty roots. And they were very troublesomely intertwined with some of the river birch roots. And they did not go quitely into that dark night. And they broke my old wood handle shovel...Had gotten three of them out of the ground when my brother in law Mark arrived to pick 'em up and transplant them back to his and Kellie's much more spacious yard on Otter Lake Loop down Madisonvlle way. Got loaded up what he was taking, then Mom and I continued working. trimming trees. Clearing clutter, putting new dirt down, planning out the arrangement of all things potted. By 7 o'clock, we had gotten everything I'd bought in the ground. I'm VERY VERY happy with it. Monkey grass or no, it looks a MILLION times better. It really clears out the space there. I had to run out and get a couple more bags of dirt, another Jacobs ladder, and two more of the unknown ground cover things, that I will put in the ground in the morning. Mom will be back and we'll put down the weed guard stuff. THere was a question as to whether in this case it'd be better to put this down first then plant, or plant then put it down. In this case, we opted to plant first. WHen that's done, I'll put my rock back down around the edge, go find some nice black mulch, and finish it up tomorrow or Sat morning. When it's done, I'll post the pics. All in all a busy and productive day.

Now I'm going to read my new book and fall asleep on the couch.

Breaking News from Vacation Land

2008-05-27T21:02:00.002-06:00

The Funniest Man on the Face of the Planet will be appearing LIVE at the Victory in Evansville IN on Sept 27 2008!!!!!

Looks like Brian Regan Concert number 4 will be happening. I'm assuming it'll be another family outing, as Jack and Scott will be back from Poland!

I'll be there, and so should you!

Vacation update

2008-05-24T21:20:00.005-06:00

I started my vacation yesterday, so here's what it's been so far.

Indiana Jones! Great fun! Indiana Jones rules!!!!!

Have done some walking out and about town. I've got a leisurely 3 mile circuit I'm gonna hit hopefully ever non-rainy day, in addition to other workouts.

Stocked up on some books at B&N yesterday.

Worked on some art. First up is one I worked on Thursday night. It's just a sketch I'm trying to make something more. We'll see if I finish it.

Started a new digital painting. I did the sketch really quickly last night. In college, I had this idea for a graphic novel/animation type thing that was a sort of futuristic rockabilly sci-fi thing, inspired by some Stray Cats and Brian Setzer songs. I played around with it for a little bit, the let fall away to the side and haven't thought about it for many many years. I decided yesterday I'd dust it off and see if it holds any interest for me visually. In the working today, Ive learned just how far my visual style has come in those many years and I'm pretty happy about that. So here it is, very much unfinished, but at least underway. It's tentaively called "Radiation Ranch"

Here's last nights sketch

And here it is after about 7 hours work today.

Here are a couple of detail areas, just for show.

So far I'm very happy with it. It's going in the direction I want it to go. It's probably another 7-10 hours from where it needs to be. I'm really digging the background elements in their very rough stage, It may become the finished stage. Still have MUCH work to go on the foreground figures. I'll either work on it Sunday or Monday. Depending on what else I decide to do tomorrow. Otherwise, vacation is off to a good start.

Last, and CERTAINLY NOT least, my brother in law, Scott's, Birthday was today! Happy 25th Birthday Scott!

I'VE BEEN TAGGED - Six Quirks for Rebecca

2008-05-24T20:51:00.003-06:00

Here are six unspectacular quirks about yours truly for my friend Rebecca

I can't stand eating gelatinous food with solids suspended in them, food like jello with fruit pieces suspended in it, or banana pudding with bananas in it. It's give me the heeby jeebys.

I can read and write backwards.

I can do the following impressions well (when not provoked): Alec Guiness as Obi Wan Kenobi, Kermit the Frog (and Earnie by association), Tom Waits, Elvis, Yoda/Grover, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Elmo

I'm generally uncomfortable talking on the telephone.

In elementary school, I had several years of speech therapy to try and help me eliminate my lisp. It helped somewhat, but I'm convinced it resulted in my mumbling problem.

When I'm working on illustrations for comic book, in order to get into "story" mode, I almost always start with a soundtrack from a musical playing.

Saturday Morning In Pictures

2008-05-17T23:14:00.005-06:00

Mission Accomplished!

2008-05-16T12:22:00.006-06:00

Going to see Tom Waits again! Going to see Tom Waits again!!

Early on, I was mostly shut out on the phone and internet, but outside help rockin' a couple more phones as a favor came through big time!

But now, June 28th, St. Louis is the place to be!

Whoo hooo!

Todays Mission

2008-05-16T07:54:00.002-06:00

One hour until Tom Waits St Louis tickets go on sale. Today's mission, secure 2 (preferably down front) tickets. Will have four-five phones working the lines, two computers, four different internet browsers.

Wish me luck.

It's All Glitter and Doom

2008-05-08T21:07:00.006-06:00

It's gonna be another great concert year if all goes well.

I'm going to do my best to see THIS man on tour, beautifully named "The Glitter and Doom Tour"

Here's the press conference announcing it, and exactly the reason he's one of my two all-time favorite artists ever:

Now I just have to try and score tickets next week to the St. Louis show. Las time we had very very back row seats at the Ryman show. This time we're going for the best seats possible as the goal (although in truth, ANY seats will do).Wish me luck!

The possibility of the Setzer Christmas Extravaganza in Dec and Tom Waits again in June is TOO much!

new art

2008-05-08T19:59:00.006-06:00

I made a new art. It has little to do with much, but will likely end up on a t-shirt in some way.

I call it" Cuh-Cuh-Cuh-RAZY CATS"

Weekend

2008-05-04T20:44:00.003-06:00

Good weekend. A friend was down from Chicago this weekend, so we got to hang out for a bit.

Went to dinner with the folks Sat, followed by what ended up being a a FREE showing of Iron MAn for all three of us. GO SEE IRON MAN! It's GREAT fun. Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic in it.

Today was game day with Billy and Josh at the Jenkins house. Always good fun and good food and tremendously entertaining hanging with the kids. Plus a pre-birthday cake was involved. Mmmmmm.. Cake.

Sketched a little today, not any I feee like posting.

Oh, and last night I rewatched for the first time in a LONG time a movie I'm very very fond of. I loves me some Rockabilly music, and some good old 1950s style. So I rewatched what;s been, at times, called a true rockabilly musci, the hilarously funny (at least to me, and maybe only me) CRYBABY, starring Johnny Depp. It's from about 1989, a tribute to greasers and teenage delinquent films of the mid to late 50s.

So here's some clips.

In the firs one, the tall kid singing backup CRACKS ME UP.

Here's another one.

Seriously, watch Crybaby.

New art finally

2008-05-02T20:33:00.003-06:00

So I just did some rough sketching tonight. Here're are initial character and style sketches for "The Count" from the vampire book mentioned in the previous blog entry. Mainly just the very first sketches, trying to determine looks, style, a visual tone. Experimenting, playing. Trying to get back to art.

Enjoy.

Bereft of Blogging

2008-05-01T21:55:00.004-06:00

I've been a loser on blogging as of late. Been busy I guess. Unfortunately have fallen behind on art projects. Although I'm going to attempt to start getting back to them in the coming days. I've got some 0shirt ideas I want to work on, some caricature stuff to do. last weekend I went out scouting Henderson for another round of "DIRTY HENDERSON" photos, and then Josh and I are going to get back to work on Maggers & Ripley, specifically the first Maggers and Ripley true kids book. We broke out the manuscript a couple of weeks back, tweaked it and whatnot, now comes the making with the art part for me. Then we have an idea for another kids book (non M&R) that hopefully we'll be ready to jump into after the M&R book. As a teaser, I'll say it MAY involve a vampire, and has what is possibly the greatest title EVER of any kids book, but I can't divulge that here. We've been talking about it for a couple of months now, and we're going to try to bang out a good chunk of work over the summer.

In the meantime, I'll just post some vids from a gentleman who is about 7 months away from performing at the Ryman, part of his annual Christmas Extravaganza Tour!

So here's some various stuff with Brian Setzer.

Baby Blue Eyes, from the FIRST Stray Cats TV appearance ever. at the point this was flmed, the Cats didn't even have a US record deal.

The Cats with Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie from a very early MTVs Rockin' New Year's Eve Special

ANd her're the Cats from a few years ago doing one. I love the boppy poppy peppy guitar sound of this one. Too Hip Gotta Go

Shake Shake Shake.. Shake SHake Shake...Shake your booty

2008-04-18T03:56:00.002-06:00

Earthquakes is crazy!

A note

2008-04-11T21:58:00.005-06:00

Been busy as of late and have slacked on the blog and the art. An important note.

Cranked out a quick caricature Friday night. Some of you may know the subject, some may not. BUt tomorrow April 12 (SAT) is her Birthday! Happy Birthday Jack!

When Accidents And Incompetence Work Well

2008-03-22T23:20:00.005-06:00

I've blogged before about my photography experiments and the Dirty Henderson series. HOw I'm not a studied photographer and that how that's part of the fun and point of it (taking photos) for me. I've talked about my crappy second hand cheapo Ebay film camera, HOw I don't really understand EXACTLY how to use exposure and shutter speed to get the photos I have in my head, mainly 'cause I have no photos in my head. I know that that if you crank the shutter opening one way it let's less light in and that this corresponds in a way with how ling the shutter needs to stay open, which ALSO effects your depth of field and what's in focus VS what's not. BUt I don't have enough knowledge to use this information. I'm a photography generalist, one might say.

Tonight, I was at the folks house, and Mom found a batch of photos I had taken. These were the 1st photos I took the day I got my 35 mm camera. I got them, took them to the folks house looked at them once, and promptly lost them, always wondering were they had gone. Mom found them tonight and I got to relook at them again. They're from late 2003. I had hopped over to Rite Aid, picked up a battery and some rolls of film (one color/one B&W) just to see if the camera worked. I loaded the camera with the color, fought with it few minutes, and started firing off the camera in the house, at whatever was nearest, which turns out, was an about 6 month old Ripley, yet to have her first haircut, I had no flash unit and used only whatever available light. I cranked the f-stops open and closed, fiddled aimlessly with the shutter speed and knocked out a roll of film in just a few minutes. So all of those pics were COMPLETELY unplanned, accidental, sheer happenstance. I was responsible primarily for the composition, and trying to figure out where to focus. Exposure, depth of field everything else is just the way it turned out. I just pushed the shutter release.

The thing is, These pics would have never happened on a digitalcamera. I've got a point and shoot digital camera. It takes nice photographs. THey are usually of good quality. They capture the scene. But a lot of times, that's it. They document a moment and a site and live on as a record. And more and more, with our digital life, we just capture moments. You can shoot a picture, look on a tiny on-camera screen and see if you like it. If you don't like it, you can erase it on the spot and it never existed. You've annihilated any proof that that moment existed. Or, if you need to fix something, you can fix it. I spent twelve years at the newspaper where a good part of my job was to take a photo, and make sure it looked the best it could, so much so that, near the end of my career (the last 6 months or so) when the production manager from the Courier would come over, he would tell me that "an accurate caucasian flesh color should have these particular color ratios, while an accurate african american skin would have these color values in this proportion, a good grass color is this ratio of Cyan to Magenta To Yellow to black, and so on and so forth. We had to make sure that objects in photos fell close to certain color ranges. It was a newspaper and we needed accuracy in color reproduction. BUt in doing that, a lot of times they would end up fundementally altering an image by going in, picking certain objects and changing the colors JUST on those objects, which in my view fundementally altered the honesty and accuracy of that photo. It begat a visual lie of sorts, while they preached "ACCURACY". I once saw the Courier print a picture featuring the Ohio River during "Thunder on The Ohio" in which the water was as BLUE as any water you would see in the most tropical of locals. The Ohio River has NEVER ever EVER, in my lifetime looked that blue, but there it was, on the front Page of the paper, as dishonest as you please.

But I've rambled off course. My point I guess is that I prefer honest flaws to fabricated perfection. These pictures are honest. No editing. No fancy Photoshop work. No cropping just selected and scanned. I'll post some of the black and white photos, the proto-Dirty Hendrson photos you might say tomorrow, but for now here are some photos of Ripley that I like as images, regardless of the fact that it's my dog or what. I'm drawn to them for various reasons.

You look at me once, look at me twice, look at me again and it's a gonna be fight...

2008-03-17T10:43:00.007-06:00

So we're off work today. Got up, goofed around a bit then sat down on the Mac to work some more. Here's this mornings caricature. I'll be seeing this gentleman in concert in December at the Ryman. Whoo hooo!

I'm having so much fun on these. I can't stop drawing. This one I added color to. Actually, I did a completely full color version. BUt I ended up liking this one, with just the toning on the face. And the white space works well. White space is good, kids. Although, whites ONLY space...no, that's NOT good.

What The Heck. One More

2008-03-17T00:06:00.003-06:00

Looks nothing like the actual person, but is evocative of the character I think. This was a quick one. BUt I do like it's as its own drawing, not as much as a caricature. There were a good number of sketches in between this one and Indy that didn't warrant posting or even continuing.

While I'm Of The Mindset To Do It

2008-03-16T22:18:00.003-06:00

So here's another caricature. This one I spent more time. I had to do about five sketches before it even remotely started to look right. THen since it was feeling right and looking close, I ended up spending about 30-40 minutes on this one. I'm still slow. I did the rough sketch, which I think evokes the persons appearance. Here's the initial sketch.

Then I went in and tweaked a little bit, tried to go in and make myself pay more attention to the details. And I found that the more I did that the less and less it "felt" like it's subject. Here's that little bit.

Then, for the heck of it, I just ran a Photoshop filter over the top of it to deconstruct the little detaily bits I tried to work in.

Things I like. I think the mouth is pretty dead on. That certain smirk. The nose is off. The eyes are a little off. I think the face shape is good. All in all, a pretty productivev little bit of drawing. Overall I prefer the initial sketch.

Going about my studies

2008-03-16T15:50:00.005-06:00

So, I've not done a lot of personal art as of late. But now I'm wanting to get back to it and things have calmed down enough to the point where I think I can dedicate more time to it.

I've lamented before on this blog, my inability to draw caricatures. You know funny pictures of people with exaggerated features. There's a certain type of caricature that I really dislike, the kind at theme parks and picnics and events with the guy or girl drawing with the markers, giant head on a tiny body. It's a certain studied look and set of shapes you learn to draw and be able to identify them. IT's pretty mechanical. And I'm a bit jealous 'cause I was never able to learn it. Those people who do that kind of caricature. They make some big bank. $40-60 bucks an hour, get to travel, work when they want to, sometmes cruise ships hire them to be the on board entertainment. If I could do it I'd darn sure pack up and do it, myself. BUt I can't.
Then there are some I consider more creative. They've taken the art to a different level. Like this guy:

www.joebluhm.com

He's awesome. Luckily, there are more and more of those type of caricaturists doing the event circuit. And I'm jealous of them too.

So in interest of growing as an artist, I kinda picked back up on the working on learning the art today. Here are four quick sketches, Probably no more than 5-7 minutes apiece. I'm not terribly happy with any of them, though I see the potential in them. I can see what little bits I've nailed here or there, what I need the most practice on. I think they probably look like who they are, at least in the context of the way they are displayed here, but seeing them elsewhere one by one, I don't think they'd fly. They also lack a consistent visual style. I don't think all four look like they were done by the same guy. BUt again, just learning, studying, working on becoming a better artist, and this is one of those excercises that makes one a better all around artist, as it deals with observation and study. Quick early sketches from an artist in the nascent stages of learning something new.

BUt more on the subject of charicatures later. I've two projects in mind. ONe will require the assistance of any of you, my friends, with pets (of any denomination) and the other will force you to ask yourself "how brave am I........." mwaaa haaa haa ha.

So here they are.

Guitar stuff

2008-03-15T23:11:00.002-06:00

So I haven't REALLY blogged in a while, mainly just dump youtube links. Maybe I'll do an update/blathering on Sunday. Been relistening to a lot of music lately that I've neglected for awhile. Among them is Leo Kottke. He's a guitarist/sonwriter. Actually, he's an AMAZING guitarist, one of the best ever. Jackie and I were fortunate to see him in concert about,what 7 or 8 years ago, at the Centre in Evansville. It was a GREAT concert. So for those of you who appreciate musicianship and such. Here're some clips. The first is instrumental. The second is a really nice (though out of sync) cover of a Tom T. Hal song, PAMELA BROWN.

Yesth indeed

2008-03-09T22:38:00.001-06:00

Tim Meadows HAD to have based Leon Phelps on this kid

Diner

2008-03-04T22:24:00.002-06:00

I just stumbled upon this song tonight whilst wasting some time. There's apparently not an official video for it, so here's one someone (YouTube User "jkais") made her own fun little animation to and posted on YouTube. It's fun.

This may be tonights most favorite song ever. I must further investigate this musicians work.

DINER, by Martin sexton

up..cough cough hack wheeeeezeeee....date

2008-02-19T11:44:00.005-06:00

I hereby cede any hopes of victory and humbly declare THE PLAGUE the winner in the Feb 2008 bout of man versus flu bug.

gack.......

uuuggggghhhhhhhh

2008-02-16T18:33:00.005-06:00

Sometime, around 6 oclack Friday night, I contracted the plague, though initially I thought it might perhaps be the Hanta virus. But later I confirmed it was Old English style Black Plague. I may have to break out the leeches later this evening and indulge in some old school Medieval health care.

I think I may have left my lung somewhere in Mom and Dad BACKYYARD last night. IF ANYONE FINDS IT aimlessly roaming the counryside, please return it to my folks house, as that's where I'm currently resting in an iron lung...

blechh.....
.

Whoooh hoooo!!!!!

2008-02-14T23:40:00.000-06:00

Two

2008-02-08T18:01:00.000-06:00

Miss you, litttle bro.

argh

2008-02-05T01:30:00.000-06:00

can't sleep can't sleep can't sleep...It's been like his for a while now, but has gotten worse over the last couple of weeks. It takes forever to get to sleep, and when I finally do I toss and turn all night, then I cant get up easily in the morning. Saturday I slpet until 11 o'clock! I slept through all my alarms. It sucks. Maybe I can switch to third shift at work...SHEEES

Here's some you tube videos of my two favorite, I guess you'd call them vocalists. They don't right their own songs, they dont play instruments. They're not in bands. They sing songs written and played by others (both also act). So here are two of my favorite veterans of musical theater and the big and small screeen alike.

I'm a big Mandy Patinkin fan. I've liked mst of the TV shows I've ever seen him in. The same year ER came out, Mandy was CBSs new hospital show for the seaso, Chicago Hope. I watched Chicago Hope. I thought it was the better show. It was broader in terms of characters and storylines. Plus, Mandy played a slightly crazy briliant surgeon with a wife who was in a mental hospital. He'd belt out broadway tunes as a a personal quirk/affectation of his character. When he left the show, it went seriously down hill and was soon after cancelled. Plus Mandy Patinkin was Indigo Montoya in the Princess Bride. Can't beat that.

Here's Mandy singing Children Will Listen, from Sondheim's Into the Woods.

And Mandy also starred in the crime drama CRIMINAL MINDS. HE couldnt really work bursting into song into the storyline. BUt apparently in his short tenure n that show, they had time to work this up...it amuses me to no end.

Then there's Kristin Chenoweth, who is more known for her musical work I guess. SHe's been in a couple of TV shows and movies, particularly as a supporting player. She's released a couple of albums and is on a number of Broadway cast albums. Currently she's in my favorite new show of the sadly truncated 07-08 TV series, PUSHING DAISIES (it's a GREAT modern fable kind of show). Plus, if fate EVER smiles down upon Strange Type Studios and a Maggers & Ripley cartoon were to ever be made, Kristin Chenoweth has from day one been my choice to voice the bossy little pup, Maggers. Every time I work on that character or read something Josh has written for her, I can hear Kristin Chenoweth's voice in my head as it all play out.

So here's a clip from PUSHING DAISIES (another show where a character randomly bursts into song....weird.... IT's a very quirky show.

And then here's a clipfrom a Boston Pops concert.

It's NOW 2 AM......I will try to sleep.

????????????????

2008-01-27T22:07:00.000-06:00

I have no idea what this is about, but it musta been fairly comfortable for a long while...

Friday Night Nothin' Doin'

2008-01-11T19:54:00.000-06:00

So I'm here, taking a break from trying desperately to figure out how to declutter the modern cave of my own design in which I dwell, playing some music. It's been a Lyle Lovett kind of night, Lyle Lovett is my other favorite songwriter of all time, and all around one of my favorite performers. You should DEFINATELY see him in concert if you ever get the chance! You will not be disappointed.

IF I HAD A BOAT is the first of his songs I ever heard and is the one that got me hooked.

L.A. COUNTY just entertains me tremensdously, seems like such a nice little song, and then. bam...

And here, Lyle covers my favorite Johnny Cash song ever.

Back to "Operation Streamline"

The Boy King of Five

2008-01-06T18:15:00.000-06:00

Finished my contribution to BillyCo's next issue of " A DEPRESSION ERA READER". I'll investigate and further refine it thematically and vsually somewhere down the line, but here's a start on the story. It's got a bit of a different visual styel for me, so I'l see how that work's or doesn't work. Click to make 'em big enough to read.

Go To The Hotel and Get Busy Bee! Wha' happened??

2007-12-30T20:43:00.000-06:00

Been working on the comic book stuff this weekend. Need background noise, so it's been a Christopher Guest movie marathon. I'm a huge fan. And so here're some clips from Chris Guest films. Enjoy, my likeminded family and friends. Now back to work.

From Guffman

From Best In Show

From Mighty Wind

From For Your Consideration

Not much doing

2007-12-30T00:29:00.000-06:00

and little worth mentioning. In light of that, here's a little art. Just my sketches from breakfast. A warm up of sorts for a project I'll fill you all in on later. Abd will be enlisting the help of some of you.

SNOWMEN FEAR DOGS ON SLEDS!

2007-12-24T23:14:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas, little bro

WEEKEND UPDATE

2007-12-15T23:06:00.000-06:00

Things have been busy lately. Getting almostly caught up at work, so that's good. End of theyear should wrap it mostly up I hope, or at least that's behind.

Still strugglling outside of work to get things caught up. Behond on my pags for the next issue of the comic. It's looking good, just haven't had time to work on it last week or this weekend. Here's a little sneak preview though. It features minions...

I normally buy a couple of Christmas albums each year for the holiday season. One of this years purchases was Chris Isaak's creatively titled "CHRISTMAS". It came out a couple of years ago, but I just got around to getting it this year. It's easily my favorite Christmas album this year. Overall I'd rank it even, if not just ahead of Dean Martin's "Christmas with Dino" and Setzer's "Boogie Woogie Christmas". I think it probably tops them both for a couple of simple reasons. It's a very clean simple sound. It's a good album for a nice laid back, relaxin' Christmas vibe, rather than
crazy super chaotic amped up go-go-go Christmas, where you just don't have time to get everything done. It's a good disc to just put on and not do anything at all, the sign of a good album in general.

The bulk of the disc is really nice, well done understated covers of christmas standards. If you're looking for a good new Christmas disc, buy it.

Also, new original christmas songs are really hard to come by. I mean the kind that will be sticking around for decades, the kind that translate beyond the original artist. Setzer's originals are LOTS of fun, but he's the only one who can really do them and make 'em work. There are 5 Chris Isaak originals on the album, and they both kind of really remind me of alot of the kind of Christmas songs country music stars used to do back in the late 60s very early seventies, if anyone at all remotely gets what I mean by that.

Here are two of the Chris Issak originals I like most.
Brightest Star is one I'd like to see becoming a Christmas standard. Probably my favorite "contemporary (last 25-30 years) christmas song. Blogging is disabled for the video, soyou'll have to go to the link below:

Brightest Star

Then there's this one, Washington Square. Very Chris Issak-y. It's a kinda a real purty one...