Medusa and Snake

Not a great shot of my toga, but you can see my snake hair and Capote in my hands.

I'm off for a costume party. The theme is Gods and Goddesses, so I'm Medusa (the snake stays home, sigh). Mike is going as "Steve the God of Hairdo's" which is a refference to one of our favorite commedians Eddie Izzard.

We'll take more picks and if my toga stays together I'll post some!

Behold the finished sweater!

I can Knit!

I don't think this counts as cruelty to animals, but he's looking at me like, "Moooo-oooom!" This wasn't based on a pattern, it was sort of a learning piece. I made a "shrug" or one big sleeve that wraps around him, using an alternating "stockinette" stitch. I then knitted a wrap around scarf that makes a collar around the neck then circles in front then tucks under itself. I let it be a little roomy knowing next time it was actually cold he'd be bigger.

I enjoy knitting, it sort of took the edge off of all the stuff I had going on this month. I took it to work and knitted on my breaks. I want to get good enough to do a sweater for Enzo and a matching hat and scarf for me. Lookout neighborhood!

My Morning Drive

I would LOVE to have a boring drive to work, but Life has other plans. I'd recently been accosted by an insane driver who wanted to meet me in the HEB parking lot and "kick my f---ing a$$." Did I mention I've never met this woman or have a clue why I needed kicking of any kind?

Well, this morning was no exception in the Keep Austin Weird, and We Mean REALLY Weird trend.

I'm making my way out of our neighborhood this morning at 6:30 in the am, and I see two pale shapes up ahead by the road. I get a little closer and I see they're people... I get a little closer and see they're naked! Stark, birthday suit naked! And a third man was there fully clothed. I drove past and they didn't smile, wave, try to cover up, just stood there on the side of the road. Really weird, huh?!

Maybe it's the non-conformist artsy-fartsy side of me that has spent the day trying to come up with legitimate reasons for this encounter. I've come up with:

1. They were in some sort of "Lost a Bet" or "Frat Initiation" ritual that involves phrases like "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" This is a weak explanation given the somberness and lack of mischiviousness I got, though it was really early.
2. The Mothership orbiting around the earth dropped off these two visitors. I figure the clothed one is responsible for "Taking them to our Leader."
3. The two naked men were werewolves that just changed back. Yes, the big downer for lycanthropes we all know is that when you transmutate into your animal form, your clothes are ruined. I figure the two were out marking territory when the third happened up on them and they shifted back.
4. The three were a coven of Pagan/Wiccan witches celebrating the coming of spring with a ceremony requiring that 2 be "sky clad."
5. Escaped Loonies. This is probably the top runner for likelihood.
   

I feel Eddie's Pain...

Must... keep... drawing... Can't... stop... must... go... on... *gasp*

Promo Card

I got to design a promotional postcard for Camp Lizard. We'll be handing them out along with an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) at the Texas Library Assoc. convention next month. I thought it'd be fun to have it look like they were taking a picture to send back home from camp. The back of the card promotes the book. I'm getting excited about finishing it!

There she is!

Just a doodle I did for fun that I painted. It's a play on perspective and very compact. I've been looking at and reading old fairytales, so there may be more coming.

The crow flies at dawn

That's an in-joke with my family: My dad called me while I was at college and told me "The academy awards are on tonight" and Jolene, my sorority sister thought it might've been code for something! Like: The crow flies at dawn... that is all...

I love getting calls from my dad every year, letting me know the academy awards are on tonight. And this year, I must say, I don't have that "What-the-bleep" feeling I've had in years past where I felt a really deserving film was totally blown off.

But this year I really liked the Departed. I alone of my friends went and saw the Queen and thought it was deserving. And of course I loved Little Miss Sunshine, too. And I walked out of the theater of the Last King of Scotland thinking no one would pop off the screen like Forrest Whitaker.

I did like Pans Labyrinth, but I told people that while it was good, it wasn't ground breaking. Terry Gilliam had been doing the same in the 80's with films like Brazil and the Adventures of Baron Munchousen (sp?!). Though I really like the director, and it was a really well made movie... I've just been watching films like that longer than the average American movie-goer.

Well, I'm off to bed, but wanted to record my Academy thoughts.

I loved the Tom Hanks response to that crap announcer backstage! Mike wouldn't let me DVR rewind it, but I nearly fell out of my chair!

Night!

Houston Photo Mix

Well, the tally is in and we're declaring it a 60/40 good trip vs fiasco, but we squeaked away with a fun trip.

For your consideration:

Good:

10% Getting out of Austin!! A really much needed breakup in the monotony.
20% Seeing our friend Chaz again from Boston.
30% Finding out about Petshotel, a doggie day care that's really affordable and has lots of neato perks for the dog, like individual playtime and nice roomy rooms instead of cages.
40% We found an awesome breakfast place called Empire Cafe that let us bring Enzo. We went there twice.
50% The Derek Hotel was amazing, a 4 star hotel that let us have Enzo.
60% Enzo being with us was great, too.

Bad:

10% Chaz's apartment building had a fire the night before we saw him, and his apartment was on the bottom level where all the water probably went. Though, Chaz's composure was great, much better than mine would be
20% The weather Sat morning was craptastic. We did a lot of driving in the rain with the dog wondering what the heck we could do before we discovered Petshotel.
30% Mike lost his expensive sunglasses at the zoo in what we've reconstructed took 45 seconds for some lowlife to see and grab them before Mike realized they were not in his pocket.
40% In an attempt to end the night cozily, Mike bought some bottles of beer and we watched Stranger than Fiction in bed at the hotel. He sat down on the bed as I was taking a sip and bumped me, chipping my front tooth. (It's not really noticeable, you have to really stare awhile to see it, and now it's worn smooth again).

I hope the percentages are better on our next Houston trip! It's so not that far, Mike and I want to go back and even out the odds!

The Perfect Angel

New Characters in Camp Lizard

New Characters in Camp Lizard

Heeeere's Eddie!

I'm excited because Eddie will be a fun addition to the lineup at Camp Lizard. Leon's the "hero" the average kid. Oz is a bit of a easy going daredevil type, prone to losing his head in the thrill of adventure. Eddie will be a bit more neurotic. He'll be the reactor of the group. Hulio will be the silent strong type, with deep reserves of wisdom.

It's nice to have the four finally together!

When to not use windshield wiper fluid

...WHEN IT'S 25 DEGREES AND YOU'RE CAR'S NOT WARMED UP!!!

Yes, after gassing up this morning before work, I got back on the road and thought, "Hmmm... the light's hitting my dirty windshield making it not ideal to look through (I sound very logical inside my own head), I will use my wiper fluid to clear off the dust and thereby make my viewing of the road and other drivers even better."

Well, what happened is that my wiper fluid froze INSTANTLY to my windshield turning my morning comute into a 65 mph deathtrap. I couldn't see anything, it was like I had cataracts. And I was on a highway that was under construction, so there were no stripes on the road, not that I could see them. I think I relied more on my inner ear and side mirrors than my windshield while I frantically started trying to defrost the windshield. I got a "hole" about the size of a quarter (that's being generous), and I was used that to get over to the right lane and try to slow down and pull over,

BUT GUESS WHAT?!

No shoulder!! Thank you Texas Highway Commission! Since they were repaving, there was no shoulder to pull off onto, so I drove an alarmingly long way with a small clear spot to see through. I had to relearn how to breathe and wonder at my stupidity.

I hope my guardian angel got time and a half!

Happy Valentines Day!

Frill Out!

Don't you hate it when you can't get your frill down? I'm having some fun with Oz, the frilled dragon. When he get's excited or nervous his frill becomes a little hard to control. He'll pick up the nickname "Umbrella Head" from the frogs later on for obvious reasons :)

Superpup

A great pic of Enzo (I've stopped taking good ones in the last 2 years... mental note: have I become nosferatu? hmmm). We had a fun superbowl party, even Enzo had canine guests.

Swamped

(click on to enlarge) I don't know if I'll ever get that boggy smell out of my studio!

Nor Redux

This is a start on a new cover for Nor. The previous more complicated cover design will now be the banner design. We've come full circle, to tell the truth. I had these two on an earlier ARC cover and now they're together again. Ahhhh...

I'm finally, knock on wood, happy with how I'm drawing Kahf, the main character. I don't know if drawing him 3000 times was the magic number, but he's leveling out for me now. Maybe it's the unknown that I'm plundering into with this huge graphic novel, but whenever I have a day that goes right with it, the theme to Rocky plays in my head and I find a set of big, outdoor, concrete steps and I jog all the way up and hold the printout of Nor up and yell, "Adrian!"... all in my head, of course.

Sandcastle

This was another quickie illustration for the catalog. I want to commission another illustrator for the book itself if time permits, but, regardless, I enjoyed knocking this one out.

And just FYI, my Mom's taking a watercolor class this year! Go Mom! :)

possible artwork

The pencils and paint are flying as I'm trying to get some covers for books done in time for the catalog. This is one such done-in-a-flash cover that I really like. It may or may not be used ultimately, since it's coming out later in the year. But as a stand alone piece, I like what happened. I guess necessity is the mother of book covers!