TOUCHING BASES

Just got back from our beach vacation--still wishing I were ON vacation. But, life does go on, no matter how much I'd rather be fishing...

Anyway, my rep got her website updated last week. I think it looks great and I am very happy to be in with such a talented and diverse group of professional artists! Next up is my PictureBook ad which will be an ad in a major childrens' illustrators directory. Hopefully, this will translate into some steady freelance work coming in.

This coming week, I have to play a little catch up. Still working on the childrens book and I also am starting a new sculpture project. Lot's to do! I'll post some progress pics soon!

NEW ILLUSTRATIONS

Here is a work in progress for a new book project I am working on for my mom and dad's publishing company. It's basically about a father and son at the zoo and all of their misadventures... Anyway, this illustration was started in pencil using good ol' pencil and paper. I spent a lot of time trying to get the look of the people right and I am still sort of toying around with some other different looks. I wanted the characters' faces to have a very VERY dynamic look. It's probably a little broad but I can always pull back if I need to.
The process is basically to take a pencil drawing and scan it. Then I bring the image in photoshop and make some adjustments to the contrast. The sketch is just a guide really, I'll keep little of the original sketch. I then bring the sized and adjested sketch into Corel Painter and basically "paint" over it with the painting layer set to MULTIPLY. That way, I can still see the pencil drawing underneath. I can toggle back and forth so that I can actually see the painting without the line work. It looks a little strange at this point becuse I am painting back to front and some elements are sort of just hanging in space waiting to be filled in. Still, I think it's off to a good start.
I want this book to have a very solid, painterly look to it. I am trying very hard to allow myself to work loose and fast while using large brushes. It's easy to zoom WAAAAAY in and work on every minute detail. I think this way, the characters look more alive. Well, anyway... We'll se. I am pleased so far.

HANNIBAL RISING?

More like, HANNIBAL SUCKING.

I just finished watching HANNIBAL RISING and man was I disappointed. I mean, I had read the reviews and I sort of expected that the movie would be weak but GEEZ! This was just sort of pointless.

The great and cool thing about the character of Hannibal Lecter (as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins), what made him the greatest screen villain since George Sanders voiced Shere Khan in THE JUNGLE BOOK was his steely charisma. Not to mention his biting--and somewhat surprising sense of play. Hopkins's scenes in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS are, with due respect to Jodie Foster, why I watch that movie over and over again.

This HANNIBAL RISING however turns Lecter into some Euro-trash sleaze with an indistinct accent and a persistent smirk. I couldn't understand what he was saying half the time either. The supporting characters are equally pointless. It's almost as iff they wandered in from other WWII era movies. This ponderous movie doesn't really provide any new insights into this beloved bad guy. Instead, it feels sort of thrown together. It's just sort of a bleak revenge story.

I always sort of pictured Hannibal Lecter as a priveleged young man in Baltimore. He probably went to private school where he became famously well liked for cooking exotic gourmet meals for the gang at the residence hall.

I don't know... I guess I just had high hopes for this movie.

FUN WITH DADDY

I am currently working on a project for my mom and dad's small publishing company Warbranch Press. It's basically about a father and son's day at the zoo. The really cool part is that we live VERY close to ZOO ATLANTA (sometimes we can actually hear the lions roaring from our house!) and Leo and I have been taking trips to go and do some research. It's been amazing... I'll post some sketches soon. Nothing is really gelling yet but I have some time. I am really wanting this book to look different--to show some growth in my drawing and composition. So far, I am still crutching on old habits--over-drawing and not pushing the design elements very far. Everything is still too "SAFE." This is a great opportunity for me to try some different things.

I'll be able to explain more as I begin to post some drawings but really, what I want is for this whole book to be dynamic--more reflective of the kind of work that inspires me as opposed to what I think people WANT to see. I don't know how successful this attempt will be but I hope to post some preliminary studies soon. As always, stay tuned!

A NEW LEAF

I have decided that I am going to make a firm commitment to post on this blog AT LEAST once a week--hopefully TWICE a week. I have a been slack assed shit these past months and have not really had the energy to write. Well, that's actually not really true. The truth is I haven't felt much like sharing these last few months. We've had sort of a lot of thrown at us and I truthfully have been all too happy to focus on work...

Creatively things are full of promise--well mostly. I just finished a pretty cool sculpting assignment for a toy company out west. It was sort of an audition and I hope I made a good first impression. I got the gig after someone saw some of my work on this blog actually... Hopefully, I'll get some more work from them. Toy design is a lot of fun. I also have the possibility of some more illustration work once my ad goes into the Picture Book Annual for Children's Illustrators. We'll see what happens.

As I hear more and as more things come rolling in, look for more news on this blog...

Cheers y'all!

THANKS EASTER BUNNY!! (Bock Bock)

Okay so I know I need to replace the picture on my profile. I had some kind of snafu with earthlink and I lost some stuff. I'll get around to it...

Still thinking like crazy about Mandy's mom, Susan. I really do miss her. I was just looking at old photographs and seeing those old pictures of her surrounded by her family... It's bittersweet. She was always smiling and joking about something--a big one for gallows humor. She could find humor in anything--cancer for example. Mandy has really been having a hard time letting go. Luckily, we have some of her old journals--well ALL of her old journals. It's funny reading back about her impressions of holidays and visits. It's also very sad to read about how scared she was of dying. I think back to one of the last really deep conversations we had. It was a Saturday morning and I was lying on the floor in her bedroom talking and reading a New Yorker magazine while she sat in bed and watched television. This was a popular morning pastime when we came to visit--all of us gathered in her bedroom, me on the floor (usually reading and participating in the conversation in small fits) and Mandy lying in bed with her mom. Anyway, Susan asked me what I thought heaven was like. Without really thinking much I said, "Well, I like to think of it as a never-ending fishing trip on the intracoastal waterway." I was just thinking about what makes me happiest--where I really lose myself. I wasn't really thinking about cchosing my words carefully or anything--I mean, a dying person asks you what heaven is like, you'd better have a good answer. I don't know, I hope my answer was good. It was honest at least.

I don't know about Heaven. As a Christian, I have to believe that there IS a heaven, but what it looks like, I don't know. I do know that God is good and His grace is a blessing the touches us ALL, EVERYONE OF US... I like to think that Heaven is a reflection of that grace. I don't know. I just hope that if heaven IS an eternal fishing trip on the intracoastal waterway, that I'll have room for an eternity's worth of beer in the cooler.

PASSING

Mandy's mom passed away a few weeks ago, and I have been avoiding blogging about it for some reason. Possibly, because it's still pretty raw and close to the surface for us. We're doing better but there is a lingering sadness. We were all able to be there as she passed--holding each other and holding her hand as she took some of her last labored breaths. It was a horrible, wonderful, blessed, scary, terrifying, beautiful day/week. Mandy seems to be doing well--better anyway. Looking at her mom's journals has been a healing--though sometimes hard, experience. Some of the family set up a blog to honor Mandy's mom, Susan. Check it out here.

OVER-DRAWING

This is a new self-promo piece I am working on. I have a rep who is going to put more of my work out there so hopefully this will mean more work coming in. The only downside is that it will mean...MORE WORK. I barely have time to complete the projects in the pipeline now!! Still, more work means more money and that's always good.

One thing I have noticed in my work is that I have a tendency to over-draw. I heard an old drawing teacher tell a fellow student a long time ago that he was "over-drawing." I guess I thought he meant that he was drawing on top of something he shouldn't have been. I later learned that he meant that the student was using too many lines in his work--almost as if he were digging for the image with his pencil. The best drawings, he explained, are drawings that have "economy of line." These drawings come together with just a few simple lines. He was fond of saying how one of the best drawings he'd ever seen was a nude figure created with only three brushed lines. I thought this was just bollocks for a long time.

This past weekend I was looking at old Calvin and Hobbes strips and I noticed how simple-and how brilliant the drawings were. I then looked back at what I was working on which was a crossed-hatched, pencil nightmare. It had none of the weight, or soul of the simple drawings in those wonderful strips. My mom, an illustrator/cartoonist herself used to tell how Peanuts creator Charles Schulz once said of C&H creator Bill Watterson, "He draws the best night tables of anyone in the business." I don't know how accurate that quote is but it sure is the truth. I suddenly realized what my old teacher meant.

I am not a cartoonist by any means. I have far too much respect for cartoonists to call myself one. What they do requires a special kind of artistic skill and a finely tuned sense of humor. But I have TONS to learn from cartoonists like Bill Watterson, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Jeff MacNelly, and the list goes on... Lines are what hold a drawing up--the scaffold if you will. Everything else is just sauce for the goose. I spent a hell of a lot of time perfecting the skill of crosshatching. Now I think it has ruined me as an artist because I have gotten so wrapped up in the hatching that I have neglected the most important part. The Line...

Anyway, I am working on it...

FEELING DOWN?

I was feeling really shitty until I saw this... If this don't make you laugh, you are a horrible awful person...

NOT SO FAST

Well fuck... I believe I may have mentioned a thing or two in my last post about Mandy being pregnant. Well, she isn't anymore... She had what we found out was an ectopic pregnancy as seen here in the above image. Last week she went in for a routine checkup with the midwife and FOOM! Next thing I know I am in the recovery room comforting my wife after surgery to remove the pregnancy.

That was exactly a week ago. I haven't felt much like doing anything this week really, let alone posting on some stupid blog. The big plans we were making about selling our house and moving into a bigger house are now a million miles away. I have been trying to help out as much as possible--housework and daddy overdrive. It has been a challenge--especially since Mandy can't pick Leo up for aw while. There is a lot of tension. I think both of us are struggling with feelings that have only just started to rise to the surface.

For me, I am feeling incredibly guilty. Guilty because it took me so long to even come to a place where I was the least bit excited about having another child, and now... It's like I willed this to happen somehow (I, mean I know I didn't, but...) I think about how long we tried to have our first baby and all the sacrifices that we made to make that happen. I think about how spectacularly selfish I am sometimes and how I can be so blind to the blessings that are right in front of me. The air is thick with what might have been that sometimes it closes on me so tight that I can't breathe. If I am feeling all of this, you can imagine how Mandy feels...

I should point out however that there is a very HUGE silver lining in all of this. We can still get pregnant again. We just have to make sure that Mandy is monitored closely. Apparently, and surprisingly, ectopic pregnancies are pretty common in IVF patients. We just have to be careful... We are also talking about how we feel and we're healing some. Mandy has more physical healing to do, obviously. I will continue to try and help as much as I can.

Through it all, Leo continues to be our greatest source of joy. Even when he is playing in the toilet and pulling all of the books off the shelves and refusing to sit in his car seat... He is still the greatest and most amazing joy in our lives. I look at him and I simply disappear--like I am ether and I am just right there floating in the moment. It sounds like some kind of bullshit daddy dearest stuff I know, but I can't help it. Anyway,... Life goes on. Thank God, it does go on...

ALL IN THA FAMILY

Mandy's PREGNANT!! For those who don't know... Needless to say, I am excited--if a wee bit freaked. More to come...

WHAT'VE I BEEN UP TO?

Very simply, I have been working on a few freelance projects here and there--this on top of my "job" job. It's a never ending process and I am starting to get frustrated about projects that I WANT to be working on and those that are putting food on the table. That's another gripe for another post for another day...

Today I want to talk about the joys of daytime television. As a part time stay-at-home-dad, I sometimes have the television on while doing household chores or while playing with Leo. Usually it's something innocuous like "Frasier" or "The Golden Girls" and, yes, I have gotten addicted to "Days of Our Lives." I'm not proud of it. Long gone, though, are the days when Leo was an itty bitty infant and I could watch "Saving Private Ryan" while giving him a bottle... Now he actually watches TV when I have it on so I have tried to drastically limit the time that the TV is on during the day.

When I do have it on--and if Leo is awake and in the room, I will have it on PBS. Well, the other day this show called "It's a Big Big World" came on. It's kind of a "Henson-esque" show with puppets--animals that all live in a big rainforest tree. Chief among the "World Tree's" denizens is Snook. Snook is a Sloth and he spends much of his time hanging upside down sleeping--that is when he isn't consumed with the goings on in the tree. I actually started watching this show about a month ago, but now I am actually paying attention to it and there are some details that I have become aware of--mainly concerning the main character Snook. First of all, Snook talks like a lot of people I knew in college--people who also spent a lot of time sleeping upside down if you know what I mean. He talks in this sort of Dead-head, surfer drawl like, well, someone who spends a lot of time baked out of their mind. He's real easy-going--a little TOO easy going sometimes, very "Heey there duuude... What's going oooooon?" He is also very chubby--like he's been hitting the Lucky Charms and Mac and Cheese a little too hard, and when he walks it's in this kind of stoner half-step. Ive seen it all too often--like at the local Taco Bell at one in the morning. His hair is unkempt and shaggy and his eyes, well, you can't even make out the white parts. There's just a hint of red around them. There was also one epsiode where he was "drinking" from a long bamboo "cup" with a straw in it. The first thing I thought was, "That big ol' puppet's got a bong." Then I remembered this was a kid's show. That's when the big hairy bastard took a long pull off that straw and there came a bubbling sound out of that bamboo that sounded a little too familiar if you know what I mean (and I think you do).
Besides Snook, the whole show has a sort of "Phish-Widespread-Panic-Are-you-kind?" feel too it. There's lots of pull away shots of the tree that are a little trippy and the supporting characters are all a little out of their minds too. I mean, looking back at some of the stuff I watched as a kid, including Seaseme Street, I HAVE to think that weed was just everywhere back then. I don't know... This show though... I know there are some folks off camera laughing together at what they think is their clever inside joke. As the end credits roll, Snook sings the ending song which sounds a little like something we sang in the stairwells in college--bombed within an inch of unconciousness. At one point in the song, he invites the kids to "Give me five." It's like he sees through the screen!!

I do like the show though...

THE GRADUATE

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Originally uploaded by stymie924.

This past holiday, we were in Clemson visiting my family and my mom thought it would be fun (which it was) to watch my old high school graduation. She also was kind enough to put it on DVD for me--which is an added bonus since Leo will be able to watch and laugh for many years to come!

Seriously, this video was a real trip dow the ragged old path that some like to call memory lane. As I look at this picture I can think of how badly I would like to be standing next to this child as he prepares to be vomited out into the world. I would tell him which women he should steer clear of in the future. I would also tell him that tequila should never be "swigged" right from the bottle. I might mention also that it would be a good idea to lose the mullet RIGHT AWAY as opposed to keeping it for another year.

Ours was the last graduation ceremony to be held outside in the football stadium--due in no small part to what can only be described as horrobly inapropriate behavior on the part of the hundred and fifty or so graduates present that hot June evening. Stink bombs were set off. Beach balls were blown up and batted around. And, in what was the greatest stunt of all, a huge blow up doll in the shape of a male stripper was also smuggled in, blown up, and tossed back and forth during the valedictorian's speech. The many administrators, teachers, coaches and sheriff's deputies in attendence seemed either unable or unwilling to intervene--even when the huge doll was vaulted over the front row of graduates and landed right in front of the speakers podium, its large plastic ass sticking straight up in the air. Oh wel...

While the good times were certainly rolling onscreen, I couldn't help but be saddened to see the faces of some friends and classmates who have since either died or been beset by a tragedy of one kind or another. Still, they were smiling on that day. The sun was shining bright and everyone was happy and hopeful about what lay ahead. People cheered and shouted encouragement when your name was called and it felt good to be in the moment--to be happy in the moment. Everyone was a friend--whether you liked them or not.

I still wish that I had done something about that fucking mullet! The sad thing is, I got my hair cut that very day!!!

SOLD!!

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Originally uploaded by stymie924.

This painting, one of the first large canvases I attempted, sold this week at Gathering Grounds. This canvas probably held the most sentimental value for me--mainly because I think that it reflects more of the "child" in my personality, the child that loves old airplanes. I knew that I ran the risk of losing this piece when I put it up for sale but I felt like I would be okay with it as long as it went to someone who could appreciate it. Well, someone DID buy it and not only did they bbuy this one, they bought another of the pieces that had a lot of sentimental value--and, as it turns out, he's a good bloke with a little girl about Leo's age! So, anyway, that makes it a little easier to part with.

HERE I GO AGAIN...

Came across this little beauty on good ol' YouTube today. Figure I better enjoy the good stuff before they start cracking down on copyrighted material. Before long, all you'll be able to see is videos of people doing that stupid mentos-diet coke trick.

Anyway, Whitesnake--what a band. Sort of like a sleazier, whiter, Zepplin--but with THREE, count em, THREE keyboard players!! Also, they have that Tawny Katain (or whatever her name is) dry-humping two Rolls Royce's at ONCE!! I mean, that's just GOLD!!

Yes, I did listen to a little Whitesnake. My musical tastes in high school were a veritable potpurri of depressive angst and unbridled, car-humping sexuality. I remember this video in particular because supposedly, there is a part where one of Tawny's nipples peeks out ever so slightly. You know, back in the day (before the internet that is) we teenagers had to take our nipple-sightings where we could find them. Seriously though, my tape collection went from the truly somber (The Smiths, The Cure, New Order) to the "alternative" (REM, The Femmes, Camper Van Beethoven) to redneck, hair metal (Metallica, Ozzy, Whitesnake, Crue, Def Leppard) to classic metal (ACDC, Zepplin) to Southern Rock (Skynyrd) to Rush (I don't really know how to categorize them--geek rock?). I listened to it all--that is when I wasn't listening to U2--which I was most of the time. Sometimes I think that if they were to re-make The Big Chill with people from my generation (who the hell would want to see that?? Anyway...) the soundtrack would include this kind of stuff... God I feel OOOOOOOLLLLLLDDDD...

Anyhoo... Please take a minute to view this awesome blast from the past--and maybe you coould spot the nipple!!

ART SHOW

My Paintings are actually hanging and they look great... They seem to compliment the surroundings and color palette of Gathering Ground's decor perfectly. We had a small but lively reception last Sunday with the little ones providing quite the floor show. My good mate Raj from Clemson and his handsome family showed up to share in the festivities as well. It was great... And, actually, I have had a few people express a little interest in buying a couple of pieces. We'll see what happens.

This has been sort of a strange experience for me actually--mainly because I don't paint on canvas usually. I am used to my work looking back at me from the computer screen. It's funny how I invest so much energy in trying to make digital images look like wet media--when I could just use the paints and canvas and all that mess and go for the real thing. Why don't I? Well, firstly because paints and materials can be expensive and messy and especially costly if you are prone to making mistakes as I am. Also, since most of what I do is for print and the web, it's WAAAAY easier to manipulate digital media and images as opposed to taking a large canvas, photographing it and then having to color correct it.

Still, I do enjoy painting on canvas when I can. It's hard work but well worth it! I hope y'all will toddle on down to the Kirkwood community to visit the kind folks at Gathering Grounds and check out the art as you sip a Latte...

ART SHOW COMING UP

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Originally uploaded by stymie924.

I know, I know... I have been long absent from the blogospehere. I have actually been working like a demon--full time job, part time stay-at-home dad. It's just crazy man.

Here's what's what. I am prepping an art show at a local coffee shop called Gathering Grounds. I have a ton of paintings in various stages of undress. I need to get them finished and looking spiffy and ready for hanging. This is my first show ever and I don't really know how to price my paintings or even really what to include. It's strange--but exciting too. I am not really expecting to make, like, a ton of money or anything. It's just so nice to have a place to show my work for w couple of months and if somebody likes it, GREAT!!

The paintings are really an interesting lot. They aren't really a series per se, but they do all seem to have a certain quality in common--that is, I guess they have a nostalgic feel. For some reason, I seem to have an affinity for things from the early twentieth century. I don't know why... Anyway, painting is something that I don't do enough, something that is amazingly comforting and solitary--yes, sometimes lonely. And I really do feel like there's a little piece of me in all of these pieces. They are have a certain sentimental value. I am going to have a hard time parting with some of them. Anyway, I am excited.

In other news, I am exploring a new way of creating illustrations. I'll post more on that I promise!!

MORE THINKING...

Which really isn't all that good for me I guess. I am turning 35 in a a week and I am feeling a little anxious about it all. I am having one of those "EVERYBODY HATES ME" days. I don't know what my problem is. I guess it could have somehting to do with how hard I've been working lately--OR that I have not been getting enough sleep these days because Leo is cutting teeth and making our lives difficult in the sleep dept.. Just feeling a little paranoid.

I am feeling the burn of my thirty-something years. I look back on things I've accomplished and things left un done or abandoned. I still believe that my most productive years lay ahead--but the trick is finding time to realize those ideas and dreams that I have whirling inside my noggin. I have this grand idea for a story that I keep pushing off to the WAAAAAY back burner--in the midst of all the other stories I have. It's a story I want to do for Leo, one that we can add onto together when he gets older. I won't give away any details but I will be posting some of the sketches soon...

I don't know... Maybe I should head off to bed.

JUST THINKING

I am sitting here, just sitting--listening to the house settle, listening to my neighbor's party break up. Car doors are slamming and people are heading home, their radios thumping into the night as the rest of the 'hood seems to slip away under the full moon... Things are feeling strange, almost hyper-real--close to the bone. It's 11:30 and Mandy has gone to bed. Leo will no doubt be up soon for a midnight feeding.

I was hoping to get some work done. I have a deadline to meet and I am worried I may have overextended myself a little with work these days. So as I write this, I know I should be working. I just can't. There is so much stuff swirling around upstairs that I can't be bothered with something as silly as work. And yet I can't go to sleep. It's not that I am anxious, it's almost like I am just aware, calmly aware.

MY LABOR DAY SUCKED--AT LEAST SOME OF IT...

Oh sure, we spent some great quality time with my family in Clemson--which is always great. We all got to sit and visit and of course everyone got to have some great QT with Leo. Mandy and I went for a walk with my dad (who happens to have a PhD in Agronomy from Clemson) in the woods where we were introduced to the lethal pokeweed. So that part was great...

The shitty and really suck-ass part of it is that Steve Irwin died this morning in a freak encounter with a stingray. Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter" was a true freak of nature, a wild-eyed man-child who would hurl himslef at all manner of dangerous animals and then, as he is holding said animal in front of the camera, deliver a hurried monologue as to the animal's lethality and why it deserves our respect and protection. He was like some bastard cross between Marlon Perkins and my crazy uncle Bill who once grabbed a massive rattlesnake by the throat and killed it because he heard they "were supposed to be pretty good eating."

We used to watch Irwin every Saturday morning in bed... He attacked the world like some mutant three year old--full of wonder and excitement. I will miss him...