Hoemaster 5000

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Whew! I've had a very busy week so far. My musician friend Mikus moved away a few months ago and his mother, Laura Dicus, was in need of an intern. Laura is an emerging watercolor artist that is very kind to interns such as myself. I've been learning a great deal about the actual business behind art, and I've discovered that I have a knack for it.

One of her flowerbeds was damaged recently. As a result, she contracted a friend of mine as well as myself to do some landscaping for her. It's incredibly hard work and I've been exhausted at the end of each day, but learning how to organic garden is priceless. Already I know how to build a retaining wall, the basics behind composting, and how to not care when there's two millimeters of dirt wedged underneath my fingernails.
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Zimmer and the CLAW

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There's been a lot of birthdays this week. It was Briana Kinash's birthday last Thursday, and today happens to be the birthday of Anique Zimmer. I've known Anique since college and I've always appreciated her kind and pragmatic nature, her ability to give and receive a good critique, and the beautiful illustrations she renders.

Anique has been gaining some street cred out in the Tacoma art community. She is a member of the CLAW, the Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians, which has secret meetings twice a month.

Her artwork has been/is being exhibited at the Amocat Cafe in Tacoma all throughout July, which is a success for everyone!
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"But that's your DRAWING hand!"

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Yikes! I haven't updated this in ages and it makes me feel like some sort of blog-flake. I had been doing a lot of web design back then and I got burned out. I spent the summer doing a lot of outside activities, like hiking and swimming, and I ended up falling out of a tree and breaking my right wrist.

It was a tree I hadn't climbed before, a branch curved out of the side of it and looked to be the perfect spot. When I was sitting in it, I remember the exact moment I felt myself starting to slip forward. The drop wasn't that far, but I ended up acting reflexively and trying to catch myself when I landed. I recall hearing a snapping sound, but I thought it was a branch I had landed on.

Oops.

Either way, it wasn't so bad. I didn't feel a thing except for a few aches as it was healing, and after a few weeks my wrist healed up perfectly. I've been drawing and writing again, I have an internship, I'm selling my designs, and I've been stumbling on a lot of other artsy opportunities that I'll be talking about as I update.

Until then, enjoi!
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Secret Agent Man!

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I really need to get back in the swing of things. I don't know why, I hit a slump for a while there and only recently "rediscovered my balls" so to speak. It took a while to tease the creativity out again, it started with helping other people with character development. Then I started taking a new look at my own characters, and next thing I know I'm writing short stories and participating in online groups. Go figure.

To the right we see Mr. Maness, the man of many talents, as one of his characters. The original image is from the pilot episode album for "Keeping the Faith." He's been in productions such as "The Reindeer Monologues," "The Cleveland Cemetery Tour," and "You Can't Take It With You." He has a habit of using fancy descriptors for otherwise boring colours, but I don't hold it against him. I also like to tease him.
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Breasterits

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I was having an online conversation with Ben Masters about how much artists will charge, and how much people will pay for relatively simple paintings such as abstract impressionism. Not that I do not like abstract impressionism, but aren't people tired of paying $6,000 for a painting that could be made with a Spirograph and a willing elementary student?

"Maybe I should use my breasts to paint a picture, and then attach a huge price tag to it."

Mr. Masters seemed supportive of the idea [pun intended] so I think I may go through with it. People like big canvases, they like good colour combinations, and most of all they like breasts. So I am going to dig out one of my old giant-sized canvases from before I quit painting and go to work on it. At the very least it will be a temporary amusement that should elicit a few laughs at the next pARTy I attend.

To the right we see "Tulip"a genital painting by the talented Stephen Murmer.
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Coming Soon!

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With all the the digital portraits, or iDents as I grudgingly call them, being proudly displayed on my friend's social networking pages, I have started the grueling process of coding a website from scratch. I have also started researching possible advertising methods other than word-of-mouth to get my artwork seen, sought, and bought.

Already I have had three requests for commissions that have popped up since the weekend, two being portrait commissions, the other is typography work for a business card. That's not counting the requests for trades and giftart that have started trickling into my inbox. With my low-low prices and meticulous attention to detail, I'm sure that this enterprise will start reaching new heights.
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Temporary Hibernation

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I haven't updated in a couple of days due to a combination of losing track of my schedule, and going to a party hosted by Mr. Draper. It was fairly interesting, getting to see people that I had not seen in years, as well as a handful from the NCA crowd. Funny how often the KSS and NCA lines cross like that. Either way, we discovered that Mr. Draper does an excellent Dr. Girlfriend impression.

To the right is a poster I've been playing around with for a while. Note that there are a lot of anatomical exaggerations going on, but that's what makes it fun. I did not include the second "wing" because it made the image a lot more visually confusing. I think the clouds are a pretty nice touch. I'm thinking about going back and touching some things up, but we'll see how it looks in its skateboard incarnation.
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Veni, Vidi, Vincent

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The title does not make any sense, but neither does this day. I made friends with Dr. Malison, got the last of my fillings done, was featured in a journal by a 14-year-old, and also had a tooth pulled. All in all, a fairly productive day despite only completing one drawing. I thought the journal feature was really sweet, and any free advertisement is good advertisement.

At the right is Vincent, and he's not a very nice man. Each of the characters has an individual characteristic which is exaggerated. With Olivia it is her eyelashes and curlicue hair. With Vincent it is his very distinctive upper lip, which is sometimes mistaken for a mustache, especially when I draw it. He is also missing his left hand, but we all know that already.

I do not draw him often enough.
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The Cat Piano

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Had a wonderful time hanging out with my friends Anique and Briana yesterday. I can't say that we accomplished any grand tasks, but we did eat sandwiches and watch The Cat Piano. It reminds me a great deal of Lackadaisy Cats, both stylistically and thematically, but the two are naturally very different.

Anique helped me flesh out the design for one of my characters, Bernard, who is a gentleman that hails from the Yukon Confederacy and is the Captain of the St. Elmo's Fire. I explained the character and an overview of what he looked like to Anique, and she did a rough sketch which I worked off of to create the sketch at the right.

Thanks again, Anique!
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Skate Decks

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It has been quite an exciting week, but it looks as though things are slowly returning back to normal. Later today, I have a two-hour long dental appointment that I have been looking forward to. After that I am kind of wishing that we do not run all over the place because I really need to spend a couple of days at home so I can get back into my work routine and send more emails so that I can get a few paid gigs.

In the meantime, I have been working on a website hub that the other art, social, and blogging websites can attach to. On that subject, I have started submitting skateboard designs to various places and have a website for that very purpose. I am still getting the hang of it, but in a week or so it'll seem like I've always been doing it.

Please visit my store!
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Back to School?

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Earlier in the week I had promised Briana that I would accompany her to Evergreen State College, and didn't know that yesterday was the day that the trip would take place. She got a hold of me through Facebook of all places, and about 30 minutes after she contacted me, we were on our way to Olympia. It was a wonderful trip for the most part, and she suggested that instead of joining the Army, perhaps I should go back to college and pick up another degree. If I somehow manage to get my already existing loans in order, I might return to college to pick up a second Bachelor's degree in something a little bit more lucrative than art.

I was very delighted to see that there was an illustration for me waiting in my inbox, from my former college roommate nonetheless. She was a legend in our graduating class, and will no doubt go on to create something amazing. This is the first example of art I've seen from her in months, so maybe she'll start producing other things for the world to see.
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Graduation

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The former underclassmen are graduating today as seniors, having somehow overcome all the hurdles NCA could throw at them. Some of the alumni are traveling out to where the ceremony is being held to see off our friends before they depart for their various home states. Even Steve is flying up from Arizona for the last time, due to this class being the last class he was familiar with.

Due to this I felt all nostalgic and have decided to post a close-up of a skateboard engraving from around the time I graduated last September.
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Recovery

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My aunt called at 6 in the morning and it turns out that there is some heart blockage, and she had her surgery. She'll be on her way back from Somewhere, NC this weekend, and she has to visit her doctor when she gets back to her home in Detroit. She says she's fine though, and we're all relieved on this end.

On the right is a portrait of my college roommate, Miss Curry, dressed up as Zorro. "My sister informed me that a costume was a prerequisite for Halloween."

It's also an experiment in using gradients properly, which is why there is no background.
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Angioplasty

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My aunt called up and apparently has had an episode when on a visit to North Carolina. She's in the hospital right now, and is going to have an angioplasty. She says she's going to be fine, but we're all a little bit worried.

As for the illustration, it's a portrait of Miss Kinash and myself from when we were young and full of beans. What's odd is that it feels like it was ages ago, but it's only been a couple of years. Either way, I'm the one in the hat with the big ears.
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