No special title for the first post of the new year

Just playing this week, need to get a few things done before I start the hunt for freelance in earnest. Still scrambling to consolidate my student loans, they're starting to go after my parents for money, and that's not cool.

So just a quick post to keep myself honest, more to follow.

A ha'penny will do

I love christmas. Though i do wish i'd gotten more hours these past few weeks, but what can you do? Oh well, looks like everyone gets art again this year.

Spent much of the week working on logo's and some screen printing. Getting better and better at the t-shirt thing, really cant wait to start doing multi-color shirts, that could be fun (or a disaster).

Also finished the poster for the rock show early in Jan, my roommate josh knows a guy.
here's mine:

Looks kinda crappy, tried doing it from start to finish all in photoshop. Some people are really successful doing work like that, me...not so much.

More to come.

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New item "Winter" added to yout inventory.

And just in time for December too. awesome.

Finally getting over my thanksgiving headcold/sore throat/general plague. That was loads of laughs. The car made it home alright, I'm driving my mum's truck around till it gets finished with repairs, so that's good.

Took on an album cover/ band logo job from my dad, It's just his band but it's work, and more importantly, portfolio padding. Hopefully I'll get some t-shirt screen printing out of the deal too, I'll end up doing that at cost, but once more, portfolio stuff plus experience.

It snowed all morning, looks amazing. I never get tired of watching the weather, the clouds, nature in general. Not so sure about the snow effect, looks so-so, but everything else looks more or less okay. Need more landscape practice, that's for sure.

More to come.

Clever Title

Turkey day swiftly approacheth, now lets see if my ailing car will make the trip. It gets fixed if it does, if not, well... the wheels fall off. just kidding, only the front left fly off if i'm unlucky (the U-joint is busted) so well see, should be fun.

Mostly posting now, cause' I'm trying to make sure I do at least -something- (as in art stuffs) every day. right now I've discovered how cool Buckethead sounds.




Note that this isn't really my art. I was playing with OpenCanvas, SO I was just drawing from a photograph. not tracing, just staring at the thing, but still, makes it feel like more of a technical exercise than "art" but whatever, it's just practice/play.

Not sure how I feel about OCyet. It's nice, but I kinda like the way photoshop behaves a little better. I'll give a some more time though, It is a pretty sweet program.

more to come.

Of Student Loans.

Ha ha.

I'm in a humorous mood this week. All last week I was panicking, my loans were coming in and I, being stupid, had not yet consolidated. I've calmed down dramatically since then, I knew it was all just shock at the time, but it still felt world-ending.

It was the notice saying I owed 1,023.56 a month for the next nine years that did it, I think.

Right now, I've gotten a deferment while i hunt down someone to consolidate, SLFC apperently does not, and the very nice lady who told me all this, also told me that their "income sensitive" payment plan would only kick it down to 700+ a month. Sorry, no deal.

It'll get paid, besides, what can they do? take away Christmas? re-possess my college degree? confiscate my apartment full of nothing? give me back the last five years? (i wish) Screw you mr. monopoly guy.

Enough. working still, want to get a few more ideas out and some screen printing done by the end of the week, have a stack of things to color. I need color practice, but flat colors, spending all my time on blending when I have at best, a very loose grasp of color theory is just dumb.

And finally ( in direct contrast to my previous statement) I took another crack at those clouds.






A bit better than the seizure I posted last time. still need something more though. I'll have to make a habit of doing these.

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Screwing around

Like the title says. I was driving home from work about a week ago, and on the bridge that connects Mendota Heights to fort Snelling, the sky opened up, and this sort of pure light filtered through the upper cloud bank, casting an almost pearl-yellow onto the tops of these deep, cold blue winter clouds that stretched across the horizon. I've never seen yellow and blue work together like that, never seen them both look so cold. I swore I'd paint it as soon as i got home, i ended up falling asleep instead, and I curse that.

I used to paint clouds a lot, or tried to anyway. It one more thing I need to get back to on a regular basis.

Below Is play. It looks nothing like that morning, and is honestly kind of silly looking, but the image is gone now, only that feeling remains.

Next time.

Side note, I've started the new job. same cash, closer and easier, all of which give me better time/energy to put towards art stuffs. fingers crossed.

Also just finished reading this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(novel)
Some artists break your heart with paint, some with words. this is a case of the latter.

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Yikes!

Yikes indeed, three months since my last post!

screen printing has slowed down due to cold weather, lack of time, etc. Sam and I are working on some t-shirt design we hope to print soon, so don't mark that as dead just yet.

as for other projects... a brief story.

at the beginning of October, I lost my job. In the scramble to find more work (especially before my student loans kicked in) I put off EVERYTHING. I didn't print, or draw, or consider my next step. In short, I was lame. eventually, in between the frantic search, I started drawing again, but this time, actually enjoying it. just art for the sheer kick of it.
Last week I finally got another job, and thank goodness! The problem, I've found, is that between the long hours and the physical exhaustion (it's a manual labor type job) by the time I get home, I'm just dead.

Where am I going with this? Simply this: all that time spent jobless made me think a lot about what I've done with my life and where it's going. Now the job I've got just confirms my suppositions I've come up with.
a) art is all I am. I have no real-world skills other than that (the job search made this VERY clear)
b) not working on art is what depresses me. not lack of skill, or lack of job, but the simple lack of joy from creating something.
c) Waiting for that "perfect situation" in which to both make art, and build that art career is an exercise in foolishness. there will never be such a place or time, so to wait for or even try to create this is just plain stupid.
d) finally, if I am doing anything other than working on my art, working on building that career and finding those art jobs and making them work for me, is a waste of time so tragic it LITERALLY makes me feel guilty.

So. My new job does suck, It leaves me no time, no energy for myself, and with student loans to pay and bills to pay and a new car to try and finance (my old one just died yesterday) there is no space for art.

But I don't care.

Have some sketches. more to follow.

So, I'd been meaning to post these for some time now, I thought it would be fun to show the progress of potting all this stuff together, but it all had to fall into place so quickly i kind of missed my chance. oh well, here it is now.

We started by getting ourselves a decent screen, didn't cost to much, and it made me happy to have a screen that i didn't get second hand from the school print shop.


The problem, however, as you can see in the picture below, is that the screen was stretched so tightly, it started warping the old crappy frame. i didn't even notice this at the time, but after i tried printing i sure did. damnit. Our next screen we're buying new, and quite possibly, aluminum. lets see that get all warped on us.
Here's a shot of our hi-tech darkroom (red-tinted light, $4.95 at the home depot) that despite the look of it, actually works perfectly. the only downside is it's so dusty, dust will settle onto the drying emulsion, so we have to prop something clean above it. oh well, it works for now.
Here is the space all cleaned up, just a poarch now...
Our magnificent exposure unit in action!
A close up. yes, it's just a theater bulb of some kind we rigged to a plank of wood. works perfectly though.
As shown here!
Finally sprung for some clamps. trying to work without them... no so productive.
exterior shot of our darkroom/exposure unit.
and all assembled! I had to build a new table that would be big enough and still fit into the porch. not too difficult, but transporting here was a bit tricky. That little hatchback of mine has a surprising amount of free space. But yes, table built, clamps set, screen shot, and ready to print.


And it all worked out ok, except for the badly warped screen, which we had to counter-warp and them print with before it warped back. it really sucked, but what are you going to do? next project is going to be something high volume, so we know we can handle that sort of thing before we start taking actual commissions. but before that, new, un-warped screen, a squeegee that's actually straight, and a real scoop coater...

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an anti-climactic return

Well here we are.

I figured it was about time I began picking things back up. I've been off-line, out of touch and more or less resting on my butt for long enough at this point, so before people start giving me up for dead I should pick up where I left off.

I am graduated! I win at collage! Mcad is done.

The comic was -almost- finished, but that i can pick up later (or sooner as the case may be. I've been spending the summer finding work and planning what the hell to do next, but most I've kind of just been chilling out. I mean, i've been doing things, but i haven't been drawing almost at all. I just don't have the heart to pick up a pen at this point, I'm half enjoying the down time half terrified.

well, until yesterday, I started sketching and enjoying it. So I'll have some of that soon.

in the meantime, the above image I did the last semester at Mcad, a self portrait (which i still have to re-collect), and the below image is something i did for fun for the webcomic i'm planning. Yes, yes, i should have started the bloody thing by now, but that's how things are, deal with it. I'm drawing stuff now so eat it.



Aside from all of this, myself and my friend Sam from my AI days are putting together a screen printing studio ( read "studio" as "porch" for now...) and have alread started drumming up business. we have just to try a big print run before we actually take anything (at least 100+) we have to make damn sure we don't promise something we can't deliver.

So the future is looking ok, this is assuming that when my $100,000-plus in student loans hit I can take it.

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April Madness

It's 12:08 according to the clock on the taskbar. I have a class tomarrow and a critique for a print I havent done, and in two days time, a comic convention i have nothing ready for. in less than a month,my senior project is due, and at this point, it's just barely halfway done.

I've been going to school for over five years, and is till have never figured out how to finish things. it's problem, a big one, and god help me, i haven't got a clue what to do about it.

I got up this morning and pissed around till evning, playing video games and fucking around on the internet. It seems like such a simple thing, strap shoes on and walk out the fucking door but for some retarded reason, it just isn't that simple for me, never has been, and i'm wondering if it ever will be.

Well, i work more than i used to, so i suppose that's encouraging, but it's not enough, i certainly don't feel like graduate material. And that's not just inadaquacy talking, i know this bull-shit half-assing it is not good enough to make a career out of, not enough to make a life out of. It'll have to change.

Enough.

So my comic is still only half done, but Ithought i'd upload what i have so far, I already have a lot of revisions to do, suggestion from teachers and other students, so it'll change bu not too drastically.