Weekend Recap

We helped April & Kevin clean the rest of their house--at least what they could get to that didn't have other peoples' stuff in it. Well, I didn't help, I was too busy keeping Isabella from going in and making a mess where everyone had just cleaned.
We also had a steak dinner at Kevin & April's on Sunday, the steak was very tender and didn't technically need the steak sauze I let it bathe in. Then we went out and played catch with a newly acquired football, thanks to April who was probably sick of me & Kevin saying "we need to get a football sometime". I broke the tip off one of their fence posts--again, I'm sorry, but it actually was kind of cool (Hopefully some woodglue will make it look right again). We also found out April has a good arm--and a good spiral.
Nothing much happened today. I realized that I think I kind of substitute food now for artistic activity. Now that I don't have so much homework, or even stress about my homework, I've noticed that I've been eating quite a bit lately. I'll have to work on that before I become a heifer.
Anyway, despite what I just said, Karissa made rhubarb crisp, and it's awesome. She thinks the rhurbarb needed more sugar, I think it's perfect. And, not to rub it in, but I'm taking some to work with me tonight. And tomorrow, she is going to attempt cornbread.

Other Blog Comic Strips...

http://cardoons.blogspot.com/
This guy's "cardoons" kill me.

Ketchup...No, Catsup...No, I Mean Catch-Up...

I think we all had a pretty busy weekend. Kevin & April moved Friday & Saturday, Karissa, me, Butto, Amber and Ben all came to help. It was cool seeing their house earlier in the week, but geting stuff in there and seeing where it would all go really made the house familiar.
Yesterday, I ignored my previous reservations about Stephen King movies, and made Karissa watch Desperation because it had Ron Perlman in it. Being a huge, HUGE Ron Perlman fan, I had to think the movie would be kind of good, plus he plays this evil sheriff of a modern day ghost town Desperation, Nevada. Karissa, I publically apologize. The movie SUCKED. It was absolutely fucking terrible. Oh, Ron Perlman was awesome as usual, but even he couldn't save this stinker of a movie. Let me bitch for just a minute. If it's two things I HATE about Stephen King movies, it's 1. he feeds the children adult lines, and 2. he tries so hard on dialogue that he ends up overdoing things like colloquialism.
Stephen Weber (you remember Wings, right?) tries to be cool as a writer's "roadie", and almost pulls it off. Kelly Overton plays a hitchhiker with too many cheesy one-liners ("Yeah, right--'eat me', says the cake to Alice" -her response when Weber's character tells her to stay in the truck). Matt Frewer ("Big Russ" from Honey I shrunk the Kids) plays a cowardly idiot, his wife played by Sylva Kelegian, both can't even convince the viewer that they really are parents to a spiritual 16-year-old more than they're bullies--well at least the mom, anyway. And the boy? Shane Haboucha, the jerk-off kid from the Stacy's Mom video. Someone really needed to slap the melodrama out of this kid. I'm sorry, that's probably wrong to say, but I mean the kid is just a horrible actor, and the script he was given just made it worse. It didn't help when the demon/unformed heart/whatever the fuck was inside Ron Perlman's sheriff kept calling him "pray-boy", teasing him for praying and trying to let God guide him through the ordeal. Ugh. I can't even explain anymore, it was just so terrible. It's really mean, but I wish that guy that accidentally hit Stephen King a few years back had been going faster. The quality of this movie actually pissed me off that much.
Anyway (shrugs off a little residual anger), some crazy guy stayed at the motel last night and talked my ear off the whole night. I didn't really care that much, except that I got nothing done outside of my usual duties, which means the new Golden Brown did not get penciled until tonight, and hopefully will be mostly inked by the time I punch out tomorrow morning. I'm gunning for Friday again, a nice little kick-off to the weekend.
Karissa and I haven't really done much over the past couple days. We mostly just bummed around the house, contended with Isabella, watched television. I don't know why, but it was kind of nice to isolate ourselves. Sorry, though, April for not getting back to you, we also kind of ignored the cellphones. Tell Kevin to dig out his baseball gloves, and I'll see about getting my hands on a ball (a baseball, you pervs), maybe we can play catch this week/weekend.

Is It Funky Outside?

Gee, what's the weather like today? It looks like it'll be nice and sunny for most of the day, but a little Golden Brown in the morning...

No More Painting? Should I Be Baking? Perambulating?

Unfortunately, I have to follow up my grand little painting with this piece. Not the worst I've done, but far from best. The guy on the left looks okay, especially the torso. As I told Karissa, after the painting, I'd pretty much checked out. Doing this assignment was just a boring little thing I had to hurry up and finish. Sorry!
Anyway, I guess I won't say I'm done FOREVER with the painting, it's just that I don't enjoy doing it. The whole thing with mixing paints, trying to get the right hue, muting colors (which apparently is really hard for me), that stuff just isn't fun. I like smearing dusty charcoal across white paper and creating my darks and lights that way. That doesn't mean I won't make a move to pastel chalk, which also smears well, and is easier to clean up than paint.
Anyway, I went solo last night. Karissa & Isabella went to her mom's house for the night. I would have gone, but I was up to my ears in painting a bridge remnant and wasn't in the mood to bring messy paint to a super-clean house. So I did some painting, hung out with Kevin and April (we talked a lot about movies--weird, but entertaining, as I love to talk about movies), then I unsucecssfully attempted pancakes. My sausages turned out fine, but my pancakes were a disaster. So yes, I can officially say I've fucked up pancakes.
Around 11pm, I grabbed my coat, and took a walk--which I haven't done or ben able to do since before Isabella was born! That's right, it's been almost 2 years since I've been out for a nocturnal perambulation. And I've never walked around East Grand before. I went to the bridges, saw a muskrat swimming, climbed on rocks, explored walking trails, and got my new boots broken in and a little muddy. River mud. This morning my heels were killing me, but it was totally worth it. Plus I got to see somebody get pulled over in the park, and I also got to see the train go by on the bridge. It was awesome.
For anyone loyal enough to have waited this long for another Golden Brown, just be a little more patient. Now that school's done, I can concentrate on my extracurricular artistic endeavors. Just a little longer, I promise.
Oh, and April, I looked it up. Indigent is a needy, impoverished or poor person. You were right, which just goes to show pregnancy does not screw with your vocab skills.

About 6 Hours, 30 Minutes

That's about how long it collectively took me to get this all finished. It's only about 7"x9", but this thing was a bitch for me to do. But I'm done, I'm finally done, and I only have to get this matted, collect my other projects, and pack them up, then do my Anatomy assignment, and I am done with everything for the semester!! Oh, I have to take a test this week for Color & Design, but who cares? No more fucking painting for this guy (thumbs to my chest)! So enjoy this painting, because hopefully it's one of the last I'll ever have to do, and someday it'll be worth big bucks, and the only way you'll ever get access to it is to bootleg a copy off of the internet and pass it off as real to all of your friends to make them think you're so great. Don't, though.

2 Down, 1 To Go...

This actually turned out a little nice. The colors are even pretty close to colors in the reference, especially the darker color of the building. I also kind of like how my water turned out.

Yeah, I know, this one is a little blah. The yellows really picked up well on the computer, though, and help give the street lights a "lit up" look. 

I thought it would be cool (as well as funny) to do an acoustic version of "Skulls" by the Misfits. I've wanted to do it for years. Now I find out the fucking Lemonheads already did it!! Sonofabitch!!

Finished Mandala

Well, I'll say this...it's not as bad as the self-portrait.

Damn It All To Hell

I just got done submitting my assignments, and I'm getting really frustrated with myself. Before I started school, my proportions needed work, but I was great with shadowing. I had very deep shadows, and bright highlights. Now all my pictures are coming out completely midtone, and it makes the subjects lose some of their depth. Midtones are okay for some pictures, but not every single fucking one I draw. This week we had to do a fully rendered self portrait from life, and I was so excited to do it, because I've always wanted to attempt a self portrait (call me narcissistic, I don't care). It's somewhat ironic, because when I've made up characters in the past, I would give them parted blond hair, or "northern" cheeks, a goatee, or some other aspect that was already on me. Now I got done doing me, and I look terrible. Two things I hate about my self portrait, which are mentioned below it--the hair and mouth.
Overall, I came out looking like Jory, which wouldn't be a bad thing--if I were drawing Jory.
Oh well. I just felt like venting because I've noticed a lot of bad habits developing along with some good ones since I've started school. My perspective has changed so much since the beginning that I approach art in a very different way from before, but now suddenly I have these crutches. My brain reminds me of how I used to do things, but my stupid hands keep going back to those damned midtones!
Anyway, now that I've got that out, I'm just going to have to keep trying to darken the hell out of my pictures, and get them back to the way I want them.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned it yet, but Golden Brown is officially on temporary hiatus, stressing temporary. It not related really to what I just whined about, but I did want to take this week and crack down on school, and it leaves me no time for the comic. Fortunately, I did post an interim cartoon a few days ago that seems to be difficult for people to understand, so I'll just leave you guys to keep trying to figure it out. I'll keep you all posted on Kevin's big pimpin' return.

Not bad...his right eye might be a little high, but overall I brought out some good highlights... 

It's okay...the hair sucks, but his neck looks kinda cool... 

Mouth is positioned too far to my left, hair looks too thick on my head AND jaw...the only good thing about it is the goatee...Not what I had in mind... 

Final Project in the Rough

I don't remember if I've posted this kind of thing before, but it's a thumbnail. A thumbnail is just a crappy but to-the-point sketch of how a finished piece should lay out. This is the best of 4 that I did on the pillar that use to hold up a walking bridge next to Demers Ave.

Hopefully, the paintjob will look much better.

I Kill Me

My latest post on www.bonedaddycomics.blogspot.com just kills me now. Everyone who reads it doesn't get it for like 5 minutes.

Disturbance in the Blogs??

Some kind of weird disturbance has occurred within the blog world. I wonder what it could be? Maybe something happened to Kevin??