Child's Play

This was a casual setup for one of my assignments. I like how high up I made it, but the watering can looks a little unfinished.

Come hell or high water, a new two pages of Golden Brown will be out tomorrow! Mild anger and medium groans guaranteed or else I will refund you the five minutes of your life back.

Cannibrunch

Surprise! This was my third homework project for my painting class. I know the elipses turned out a little funky when you look from the plates to the cup, but I painted more from the photo, and I actually kind of like how this gives the picture just the barest hint of a fisheye thing. You guys should have caught the "boner" hint!

Character Assassination

I was doing pretty good playing catch-up with some assignments I was behind on, then I got sick. I took it easy at work, but I didn't have anything but water. The thought of food at the time was just unappetizing.

Karissa had a doctor's appointment which I tried to tough out, but she felt bad that I was dozing in the waiting room and sent me out to the car (reclining seats make a big difference in comfort).

After getting home and sleeping til 5pm, I got up and laid around on the couch the rest of the evening. I wanted to get back to my assignments, but the thought of doing anything with concentration was like the thought of food.

So here I am, back at work. I'm feeling leagues better. I had eaten some of Karissa's dried beef dip and had a little chicken broth, but it may have been a little too soon, because I felt sick again afterward. So, I'm still drinking water, though I also have had pop and it's perked me up quite a bit. Caffeine was very much missed the past two days. Oh, and April, don't worry when you bring Aiden over. Like I said, I feel much better, but just to be on the safe side, I'll play my ukelele for him a few feet farther back.

These two pictures are for an assignment for digital imaging. We had to create characters and color them using Corel Painter. I have a love/hate relationship with Painter. On the one hand, it's cool to play with the paints on this program, they actually look very realistic and you can play with different brushes and mediums. On the other hand, while I was using it, I'd accidentally hit the right mouse button with my finger, and bring up a quick menu and select something, all before I'd even realize it. Sometimes, I would select two or three things at once (don't ask me how), and the program would freeze. And Painter takes a hellish amount of time to load for some reason.

Anyway, the first character (above) is a teenage female assassin. I gave her a tummy and accompanying image issues. She's looking at a mirror-reflection of the image she'd like to have. Even relentless killers have personal issues.

This is an old man. He is supposed to be unthreatening and more like a victim.

He came out looking a little cartoony.

There's actually a third character. He's a teenaged boy, and the "hero". I didn't put him up here because I incorporated a story idea I plan on implementing down the line, possibly after Golden Brown is done. That being said, the real character (who is actually NOT a teenager or a hero) will be revealed in time.

A Lecture On My Comics Habits, Paging Golden Brown, and My Boner

I made it to the lecture, which is kind of a feat, considering I often duck out of going at the last minute. I missed Jane Goodall when she spoke at UND because I didn't feel like driving all the way to the campus. I know, that's unforgivably lazy, but oh well.
Scott talked quite a bit about the boom in the webcomics industry and its impact on readers and creators alike, and by the end of the lecture I was feeling quite a bit validated. Webcomics have become extremely popular in just the last few years, and the internet has suddenly become a hub of creative activity for artists who want to experiment and get feedback in short time, as well as test new ideas and compositions to see what works and what doesn't. What MySpace has done for pedophiles, webcomics in general have done for creators, especially nonprofessionals like myself.
I ended up buying his latest book, and even though I don't care for getting autographs (I don't like the thought of one's signature making a book more valuable than the content within it), I got in line to have him sign it after the lecture. The one good thing about book signings is that you get a little peek at the person's personality while they're signing your stuff.
Scott's whole family came on the tour with him, and his daughter (youngest, I think) was standing by him the whole time he was signing, joking around with him and chatting with people waiting to get their books signed. I had a business card in my shirt pocket ready to give to him, but he took his time while signing to have conversation, so instead I took that time to take a card out of my hat (I keep cards hidden in the lining for just such a purpose). I figured there's a large chance he'd take a look at my comics blog at least once, I might as well try to make more of an impression so he would better remember who gave him the address.
Anyway, by about 8-9am, there WILL BE a new page of Golden Brown out, so rejoice! Hallelujah! Raise Hell! and all that. Give me another page or two after this one and I'll lay a giant egg of a shitty joke, that's all I'm gonna say for now. Also, I'm going to finish my 3rd homework assignment soon. So far, I'm very happy with it (as is my instructor), it's very weird, but I'm not gonna show you until it's finished. April's already seen it so far, and she better keep her trap shut if she knows what's good for her!

Sheet-fer -Brains

This is a lesson on folds. Apparently I do better with charcoal on folds, because in this picture, I made the sheet look like an inflatable pool raft.

I'm So Awesome...

What? It's true, it just needs to be said aloud sometimes.

I'm still recovering a little from the nasty head cold I got on the way to Minneapolis (still totally worth it). Otherwise I'm enjoying the warmer weather. Hopefully I can get to work on the next page of the comic soon.

I just found out that Scott McCloud will be giving a lecture on Wednesday at UND. Scott McCloud's a comic guy heavily influenced by Will Eisner and who wrote extensively on comics theory and pretty much anything and everything to do with what goes into making a comic. He was also was of the earliest to get behind webcomics, something that I personally am greatful for.

I was digging through my archives and came upon questions I asked 2 years ago that I thought I'd throw into the ring again. Anyone listening? It's about if you were on Death Row...

1. What would you have for your last meal?
2. What would you listen to for your last song?
3. What do you suppose you would be thinking while on the "dead man's walk"?

Traveler's Amenities

That's a sewing kit right by the shampoo bottle, face soap under the razor. While not my best, I won't beat myself up too much, because I think I actually didn't do bad on my cast shadows.

And yes, I'm sorry but there will be no Golden Brown coming out Friday 13th, check back next week!

Type O Negative: Fear and Loathing in Minneapolis (Except No Drugs)

I had specially prepared my hat for the concert, putting a green cross over the red one. Unfortunately, it didn't stay on well, and I had to take it off before we even got far out of town. Still, it looked cool.

TRAVELOGUE:
4/10--Jas & I picked up Tab & Derek at the Mainstay Suites in Fargo. I had come off work almost 2 hours before, hadn't slept yet, and hadn't eaten since about 6pm Monday.
We took off and made it to Alexandria by about 1pm, where we stopped at a Wendy's to eat. At this point, I hadn't eaten for about 15 hours. I'd excited about this roadtrip for so long I didn't really think about eating, and I started getting a headache. Even at Wendy's though, I didn't feel very hungry and just got a burger and water.
We got to Minneapolis around 3:30 or so, with Jas cursing the big city driving and not trusting my directions until we found the Metro Inn Motel. In my defense of getting rooms here, these picture they offer on their website don't get any bigger, so you can't see how dirty their rooms really are until you get into them.
What? You want a little tour of our room? Follow me...

Our beautiful room...

...our entry--notice the smoke detector sitting on a shelf in the closet instead of installed safely in the cieling...

...Jas advised me not to plug it in, and because of that I'm still alive today. You don't need lights in your room anyway...

...This is what the drawers looked like.

...our glorious kitchenette. I had to check the cupbaords just to make sure there wasn't anything "living" in them. When I tried the faucet, the water came out yellow for a few seconds before clearing.

...and finally the bathroom. See the icky tub? See the toilet seat that is obviously way to fucking big for its pot? What I didn't show you was the nice black mold Jas found while showering. He was brave, but it was a quick shower nonetheless.

Thus concludes the tour of the motel room. Tab & Derek's heater didn't work in theirs, so after arguing a bit with the manager/owner, he moved them into a room that had a bullet hole in the window. I think they'll forgive me soon. Jas didn't feel very safe in the room (neither did I), so he brought in his bartender's buddy and kept it by his bedside.

We took a cab to First Avenue, and wandered around Borders to kill a few minutes before the doors opened. It actually looked a lot like what I expected inside, but I liked it. We went upstairs where they had tables, got a beer and just waited for the show to begin. It was a pretty good table, cause we could see down the right side of the stage. The was a bunch of reserved bistro-style tables in front of us. On all the tv monitors and screens they played cartoons like Samurai Jack and Robot Chicken.

The first band to come on was Brand New Sin. I thought they were awesome, and by the second song I went down to the floor to see them better. I wasn't impressed with the audience reception of these guys, especially for how good they did, but I guess that's how it is when you're going to see Type O.

I went back up after they finished, and didn't bother coming back down when the second band, Celtic Frost, took the stage. They played well, but I didn't like their music, and I couldn't tell where one song ended and the other began. Every time they finished a song (I think), they let their guitars carry or feedback, then play another song (I think). The problem was also that all their songs seemed to be in the same key.

I was very tired at this point, my head was hurting, and I was annoyed at all the people hanging around by the table in front of s and obstructing our view, so I ended up falling asleep off and on during their set. Derek told me later, that the singer & drummer for Brand New Sin were hanging out at that table right in front of us. If I'd have known, I would have given the singer a pat on the back and thumbs up. He probably wouldn't have cared, but I know I'd appreciate a gesture like that. Besides, he'd probably remember getting an "Attaboy" from a guy in a cool hat.

After Frost finshed up, Derek and I went down to the floor to wait for Type O. One of the roadies threw Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power in their CD player, and that was cool to hear while waiting. At one point Derek and I recognized Slitzy (not sure if that's his name) on the stage. He's one of the techies, but also a close friend of the band and is often shown on their DVD's, like a mascot.

From here on, the concert starts to take on a psychotropic feel. There was a KFC chicken bucket with a light under it sitting by the drums. There's some kind of joke with Type O and chicken I haven't figured out yet, and on their website someone made a KFC bucket all Type O green and put "TON" in place of "KFC". But this was a regular KFC bucket sitting by the drums. To add to this sudden fixation I had with the KFC bucket, one of the techies put on the Chicken Dance. That's right, dadadadadadada dadadadadadada dadadadadadadaCLAP!CLAP!CLAP!CLAP! While this was going on, they set up signs that they could light up and manipulate the audience with. The bottom two said "applause" and "laughter", the top two said "You Suck" and "Boo". When the CLAP!CLAP! part came around, they'd light up a sign and everybody would say, "You suck! You suck!"

At this point I'm start to freak out inside my head. I'm exhausted, my head hurts, my nose won't stop running, the music's getting faster, they're playing with the smoke machine, and al the while more and more people are crowding in around me & Derek. A sea of bodies had flooded the main floor, and were starting to cram together to make room. And when I wasn't looking around for an escape route to get air, I was looking at the KFC bucket.

Finally, the lights went out for the third or fourth time, but this time more smoke, and we could see Josh Silver take his position at the keyboard, looking a little like Jesus (Jesus doesn't mind though, I got him into Type O way back). Then out came Johnny to his drums, Kenny threw on a guitar, and Pete Steele hulked up on the stage with his taped up bass guitar. Right off the bat they were doing a slow, heavy as brickshit riff from Slow, Deep and Hard, before launching into a cover I don't think I've heard of before. Pete looked a little more gaunt than I remember him (I've only ever seen pictures), but played awesome and drank from a big bottle of wine the whole set. I'll be damned if I didn't see him on more than one occasion actually play one-handed like he said he could.

They played tons of good songs--obviously among them were Black No. 1, Christian Woman, Hey Pete, Anasthesia, and other cool ones I can't remember the names of at them moment.

It was totally worth the shitty motel and my compromised immune system ten times over, and my headache was gone the moment Type O came on.

The weird thing was that it started at 5:30 and was done by 9:45 flat.

We caught a cab back to the motel, same as how we got to the club. The driver was chatting with someone on his cellphone (he had one of those earpieces and obviously believed it was safer than talking directly on his cellphone while driving), and put less than 5 feet between him and the car in front of him at all times. I was crunched up in a front seat that couldn't move back, and I couldn't even put on my seatbelt. When we got out, I almost kissed the ground.

Jas and I were too paranoid to use the sheets on our beds, so we rolled up in the comforters for the night. Due to my bad head cold and the motel room, I shouldn't have been able to sleep good, but due to the exhaustion, I got lucky.

4/11--We didn't care to spend too much time in the motel, so we all got packed up and checked out by 8:30am. I decided that for the price I paid, I deserved a souvenir to remember the place by, so I took a copper tray advertising whisky that was used to hold our bucket and plastic cups. I'll take a pic of it soon and put it up.

Yeah, April 11, and Minneapolis is covered in snow like an old bitch. The streets were actually fine, just wet. But the snow was piled on the embankment and all the cars.

It doesn't look like much right here, but the traffic sucked getting out. That traffic coming into Minneapolis at this moment looked much worse. Jas renewed his distaste for big city life by navigating this traffic out of town and cursing at the cars in his way.

Last shot of the Minneapolis Skyline. Sure, it ain't New York or LA, but it was still pretty cool to look at. I may even be able to use some of this scenery in the comic.

Speaking of the comic, I may need to skip this week. I got myself all backed up on homework, and I need to do some serious catching up, which means poor Golden Brown is gonna be stuck waiting for that cab...

This is the last shot I took before we were on our way out of Minneapolis--at least downtown, anyway. It's St. Mary's Basilica, Karissa & I wandered around inside it last October, it's freakin huge.

All in all it was a pretty quiet trip back. I saw tons of antique malls along the way that I thought might be interesting to check out next time we come down.

On to the Concert!

In about 10 hours, I'm heading to Minneapolis with brother Jas, Tab, and Derek to see Type O Negative!!

I don't know when they'll be back, so for me this is like one of those once-in-a-lifetime concerts, like G'n'R with Buckethead back in 2003.

I will be posting again when we get back.

Papa's Got a Brand New HAT!

I'm sure there's a story under this hat from it's original owner/owners, somewhere back in the early 1900's. The design on the front is a Knights Templar cross (it was listed as a Masonic Lodge cap). Isabella likes it, and she decided to get one of her caps so we could hang out in our plugs togedda.

Patterns

The rim came out terrible, among a few other things. Ah, well. There is more to paint...

Olympic Stamp

This is the stamp I had to make for a Digital Imaging assignment. It's for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In the center is Herakles (in Greek mythology, he was the creator of the Olympics). On the left is an olive branch, on on the right are four stars from the Chinese flag (as is the background). The bottom character translates to "Beijing".