makes me want to silkscreen again :) 

I just really wanted a shirt to say this like this, so I designed it. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with it, but I did draw/paint the goose and the ducks, so I'm happy. This shirt's for sale in my giftshop: http://www.cafepress.com/regansgiftshop/527631 

Cooler weather = Art sales

I've sold a few drawings/paintings since the weather's cooled. Coincidence? Or are people coming back to life again after all that 100+ heat?

Hmmmm...

Just sharing some Camp Lizard fun... I like that their assembly hall is a tree trunk. There will be some modern things (like the typewriter), but I'll try to use nature to act as sets for the comic. 

Science of Sleep

Very, very good film!

So different and and refreshing, and the art house theater we saw it in was packed full of people who "got it." Mike observed that when you look at everyone we all fell into the stereotype of "arty" people.

It's subtitled in parts, but they speak english mostly. The artistic elements were great, the stop-animation and set designs were very unique.

The man who wrote/directed the film did the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another great movie. I think I liked this one better because of the actor Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor. He was very funny and likeable.

And the best part: No one talked over the movie! :)

what's an avatar?

I'm realizing all this avatar talk may be nonsensical to some. I'm posting images here so I can link to them on other sites. They sort of stand in or decorate my profile, so wherever I post, an image shows up.

Here's my profile on the forum I was loading images for:

http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showuser=52409

Just in case some people were confused (...this probably made you more confused!) I get asked every so often if people could use my artwork as their avatars, like I have LBKF in for mine, and I have to say no. Why? Because someone could post a horrible, flaming, racist or crazy comment and then there's my artwork for all the offended to see. Now I only have to watch what I say on forums :)

needed to shrink this a little 

more avatar stuff 

lbkf as avatar 

this is for an avatar image on a forum... just ignore :) 

This was surprisingly fun to work on... kinda like playing house with my dolls ;) 

Just liked this gesture drawing... 

Click image to Enlarge! This will probably be the lead off webcomic once I get the site built (and by that I mean pester the hubby to build it!) 

Remember, you can click on the image to enlarge it... And YES I do this a couple of times a year at least. Notice it's when I'm holding the brush that was in the dirty water that I try to drink from it. I've caught myself in time when the brush pokes me in the eye... sad but true! 

I like the rooster better, I think... 

And then somtimes I like to draw things that look nothing like my other stuff! Well, the "drawing" quality of it is the same, it's "me" but I did this one in a scratchboard or woodcut way. I'm thinking of pulling the design elements out of my illustration site and doing a dedicated site for it, so I could have a "graphic art" gallery. 

Talking during a movie

Automatic Capital Offense... End of story, vigilanty justice preferred, citizens to be issued katana swords to expidite process.

We went to see The Illusionist, or tried to see it, and two of the unholy trinity of movie-ruiners happened:

1. Talking during Movie
2. Sound was messed up
3. Crying baby (was not present, or I would be blogging on bail)

The two middle aged full bodied women behind us talked the whole movie. No amount of shushing did anything, and I wasn't the only one trying. I mean, if God shushed them with a hurricane, I don't these two would take a hint.

They were like babies, whatever flashed up on the screen prompted them to talk more. It was like "Ooo, is this supposed to be Russia?" "I don't know, Edna, didn't you and Gordy take a trip there?" "No, no, that was Ethel."

They giggled when someone tried to quiet them, like teenagers in studyhall. I couldn't believe how inconsiderate they were. Sooo sickening.

While the interior is black and white, I get to color for the cover. This is a preview of the cover art. Some colors may change once I talk to the writer (I can't remember if his cloak was a different color or not!). The scroll behind him may also have some type on the side or some japanese characters. I like the Nor baddie, too. 

Flashbacks

When I'm drawing in a "stylized" manner, meaning I'm not trying to recreate what's in the natural world but trying to make an animal a character, I have a criteria going on in my head as I'm drawing it. I try not to be too comic-y, I like to see how many natural features can stay in my version and still be what I want. Like a slide bar that I adjust.

I hadn't realized what went into what the creation of my criteria until I started watching some very old (and suprisingly non-disney) animated films. I'd whined about getting too many obscure, weird, arty movies (that yes I enjoyed mostly, but it was feeling onesided), so Mike bumped up a couple that I alone picked and really wanted to see: The Last Unicorn and the Secret of Nimh. I was watching them going, "Aha! That! That look, those eyes, the fur, ect..." Not that I set out to model my characters after those movies, but it's like the kid in me can believe in the aspects of those characters so I want to draw with those qualities in order to be genuine.

It's quite a revelation for me artistically. Like a buried source of inspiration I didn't know I had still in me.

Given that I was such a disney fanatic, isn't it odd that I gravitated around probably the only 2 non disney movies that made it in the 80s? And they were so non-kiddie, too. I mean, they curse in both of them! Who did that back then? (who does that now, come to think of it) You can see a manga style in the Last Unicorn. Nimh just had great animal anatomy and proportions. I also miss the hand painted and lengthy process of the old animation. You can tell scenes took forever to draw out and render in those older movies.

Well, off to bed. I wonder what other old movies I should dig up: Bednobs and Broomsticks, ooo Return to Witch Mountain (no animation, but I loved that movie!)... hmmm...

I'm liking the apartment scenes more and more. I'm also going back and touching up some earlier pages now that drawing him is coming easier. 

When I'm not drawin'

Thought I'd make a note about what else I'm a-doin' when I'm not drawing/painting/digitizing ect...

1. Reading: I'm currently reading "Snow Crash" by Stephenson (sp?). It's a scifi cyberpunkish read that I'm diggin and I hear they're making a movie of. It was written in '92, but it is pretty insightful. There's this metaverse where people all go online and have avatars that represent them. Governments have all given way to corporations. It's very satirical, but also eerily truthful, too. I'm also rereading the George R. Martin's Songs of Fire and Ice epic mega series of books that are so good I want to stay home from work and read all freakin' day. And the Kim Harrison witch books are great and the most recent one was set on Mackinac Island, so that was a hoot for me.
2. Movies: Mike's got me on this film course I don't recall signing up for, but oh well. We watched a French film called Cache (there's an accent over the e but I'll be danged if I can figure out how to type that in so use your imagination). It wasn't that great. I did enjoy "A Very Long Engagement" which was Frenchie film. We saw Little Miss Sunshine in the theater and liked it a lot.
3. Pets: I like to carry the sugar gliders around in my pouch when I know I'll be sitting relatively still, like when I watch tv or check email. Turvy likes to poke her head out and look around, the settles back in. Cooper I take out early in the am when I'm getting ready for work. As I put on makeup he thrashes around my feet like he's Tony Hawk. The big handable lizards get fed by me after work. It has to be their favorite time of day because Brisby's getting the 100% all natural sun in from the window, and then food's delivered and later a sand nap.
4. Music: I should really find some new sheet music for my electric piano. I go so long sometimes between playing, I basically have to relearn what I already know, then I go a while without playing.
5. Man, there should really be a five here... like exercising, but God knows it's gotta be cooler than this for me to do anything outside. I'd like 5 to be horseback riding, but it's time consuming (and $ consuming). I guess my 5 has to be going to the dentist which, yes, I get to do again tomorrow. Man, my 5 sucks!

Those 5 things are done in the 5% of my time not at one of the 3 jobs I'm doing, just to give you all perspective. Time for bed (that's #6).

Oh yes, another true story. Our drive way wasn't quite THAT steep, but Mandy did get her bum dragged all the way down it over pine needles and the occasional pine cone (owie!)

Oh Mandy, she came and she told me our momswantustobefriends, and I said Well, Ok, Oh Mandy... snicker!