I was just at the Cutlery Barn...

I've become addicted to finding weird comedy shows. So far I've developed quite a collection of British funnies, and recently I happened upon the old Ben Stiller Show and The State, which has several members of Reno 911 and Stella! in it.

I leave you now with one of the weirder skits from The State. Simply titled "Cutlery Barn". See if you can spot Lt. Jim Dangle and Deputy Trudy Wiegel!

Cutlery Barn

Wacom sadness.

I think my wacom finally kicked the bucket.

aw poo.

I suppose this is to be expected of course, yet another expense I need to factor into my budget this year.

At least we had a good 8 years together.

Lovely Black Box

Well, the year of large purchases continues. The t.v. in my dorm room recently had the evil problem of getting green corners on the screen, caused by magnetic interference from my fridges. It's a CRT, and we've had it off the fridges for a little over a week. It's gotten better, but I know it will come back.

Which is why I offered to buy us a new one.

A new LCD HDTV that is.

It was a hard choice between the 23" Samsung and the 26" Toshiba, but after viewing them in Best Buy, I'm pretty happy with my choice to go with the Samsung. Yep, I'm quite excited about this new t.v. However, now we have to try and sell the 20" Magnavox CRT t.v. Hopefully this will be a good time to do so, when kids are moving out of the dorms and willing to buy stuff.


it's like that one but black instead of white.

Although now my roommate is considering just keeping it to use the year after I graduate. Since I'm a year ahead of her.

I look forward to many years of happy television watching with my baby.

June Love

June needs to get here ASAP.

I'm really looking forward to this summer. I only hope everything works out for the best.

Scarfe Night

Gerald Scarfe's talk was fabulous last night. He basically showed a lot of his illustrations with personal commentary on each one.

His personal views on politics I think aptly resembled that of everyone at the lecture. He really does believe many to be asses, and his comparison of George Bush to a scared, confused little chimp was received with much applause.

Perhaps what I found most interesting about the evening was when he touched on the subject of animation and his work with operas. Gerald was the character designer on Disney's Hercules.




He said that Disney treated him well, which was nice to hear since I've heard many horror stories about the company. He also talked about his experience working for several years on The Wall with Roger Waters, which gave some insight into that type of long-term work.

His resume is quite full, and worth a read if you've never heard of him before. Probably one of his best illustration artbooks to date is Drawing Blood.



The room, which was only set up to hold about 300 people, became packed with standing room only available. Perhaps the coolest part of the evening was hearing Scarfe mention my friend Anna. She's the one who originally contacted him for a school project, and from there her professor took over and they succeeded in getting him to visit.

After the talk, Anna ran off to have dinner with him and a few of her professors. I'm sure it was a dream come true for her and I'm glad to have had this opportunity to meet him.

A Simple Invitation

It would be nice if Comedy Central would stop showing the same four repeat episodes of Scrubs over and over again. I love that show, but I get tired of it when I see the same episode more than 5 times. They're also episodes I don't especially enjoy, because of the plot and characters featured. Anyway, one of the episodes they showed again today is the one where JD visits a doctor convention and see the woman he broke up with who faked her miscarriage. That's not the point of this post, of course, there is a funny little scene where Elliot freaks out on her fiancee Keith, because he got the wrong font on their wedding invitation.

She goes off on a whole spiel about how if the invitations are wrong the wedding will be a disaster, she'll get fat and her life will be ruined. Now, of course this is overreacting. No wedding invitation font will destroy your life if it's not perfect. But it is funny how so many women get so caught up in their wedding planning that even a small detail like this makes the whole day feel like a disaster.

I'm not one of these women. I've never been the type to seriously plan my dream wedding, frankly I don't care. I just want a simple ceremony that isn't too expensive and that everyone can enjoy. Really, cost is the biggest driver behind my future wedding ceremony decisions.

That said, it's still fun to browse through wedding-related things. Like dress books, cake magazines, and Wedding Invitations.

I'm a fairly simple kind of gal, I don't like overtly cheesy cards, or one with traditional photos of a bride and groom. Really, I'm not a traditional type of person. I'd probably go with something simple, like this card stye.

I also don't especially enjoy calligraphic fonts, but I know it's a staple of wedding invites. I believe in looking through several kinds before choosing one. Really, this is a bit of a weakspot for 1st Class Wedding Invitation.com, they don't label their fonts or give examples. It's just "Font 1-70". I don't especially want to sit through 70 mystery fonts. I want to see exactly what the font is before trying it out. Saves time in the long run and makes it easier to compare two or more different kinds.

That said, this is probably what my invitation would look like:



The website does have a lot of options for invitation types, colours and fonts. However, I would probably just prefer to design my own invite as I do have graphic design and art experience. I know this is not an option for everyone, and I know there are millions of women out there who are just like Elliot and thrive in this sort of website environment.

It's not my cup of tea, but it's the perfect website for many women who want a lot of options in their invitations.

*snifffles*

I've never been more certain that I'm allergic to a place than I am at this moment. Savannah, your air sucks and your poller and mold counts are far too large. I should not be sneezing this much in my own little room.

I hate you, city. Oh so very much

Excuse the dust

Well, I recken' it's time to change the ol' layout here. Things were starting to get a little stale.

Hope you all like the new look. It's very....pink... I don't really like pink, unless it's in bubblegum ice cream.

[EDIT] changed the background to a more orange hue. Doesn't remind me nearly as much of bubblegum.

Hello Muffin my old friend...

So! what've I been up to these past 10 days you might ask? What on Earth has been keeping me from updating this blog with new art or anything of the like?

Well!



Not much unfortunately.

School has been truckin' along. Nothing really exciting to write about though. Next Tuesday I'll get to meet and listen to the amazing Mr. Gerald Scarfe. That should be quite an evening and I hope I remember my camera. If you're unfamiliar with Scarfe's work, he was the animator behind Pink Floyd's The Wall:



As well as character designer for Disney's Hercules and artist of several politically incorrect drawings. Needless to say, I'm quite excited for this.

On my own end of art things, I spent the first several weeks of the quarter illustrating three pages of Chickasaw Adventures as an exercise. They're not very good, so I won't subject you to that. However, I also got the opportunity to draw a cartoon version of a live action show for my character design class. I chose the wondiferous, Mighty Boosh.

Those in America may be somewhat unfamiliar with the show. Don't ask me to describe it to you, because it really is something you just have to see to understand.



I drew Tony Harrison instead of Bob Fossil because I like him a tad more.

What's on the horizon you ask?

Well! Up next I've got a Batman by Gaslight page to doodle and a maquette to create. As soon as I have my camera back I'll post photos of the cowputer maquette and head-lamp I created last quarter. Soon, I swear.

I bring you arts

As promised, here's a few other watercolour sketches I did for class:



This is probably my favourite of the group


Spring break is nearing the end, sadly, and Monday I have to get up bright and early to find a class taking up a mystery classroom. I have no idea where this class is, it didn't say what room on my schedule and the teacher hasn't replied to my email yet >.< grand.


I also have a lovely new Samsung LCD HDTV on its way. Because I am nothing if not a techno-geek.

Upcoming Quarter

Ugh, spring break came and went way to fast.

I wish I had gotten more artwork done, or really, more in general. I suppose it was nice to have an entire week with no commitments, other than family ones.

At least I was able to spend some good quality time with the man I love. I am actually looking forward to this upcoming quarter though. I'll be taking classes that I enjoy and getting out at early times. I've always been a believer in taking classes earlier in the day so I have most of it free to work rather than wait until later. I'm not a morning person by any means, but it's still preferable to have an 8a.m. class over an 8p.m.

I hope there aren't any serious problems this quarter.

Catching up

Jeez, it's been a really long time since I posted >.<

Sorry about that, getting caught up in school work does not make for a viable excuse.

It's hard to believe that another quarter is about to end, I'm that much closer to graduating and having absolutely no idea what I'll do with my life. Awesome!

Actually, I have been thinking about the future and I really don't know what I'll do. I understand that so much success in the comics industry falls on self-promotion and I'm a little afraid that I won't be inspired enough to create fantastic pieces that will get me a job or two. Really, the driving motivation behind every single piece I do in school is the hope of getting a good enough grade, and maybe a portfolio worthy piece.

I'm afraid I'll be lost without the professors, but on the other hand, I've been drawing without guidance for so long that it probably won't make much of a difference. At least, that's all I can really hope for.

I may post an onslaught of work in the coming weeks, as there is only one more week left in the quarter and then I'll have a lovely break to sit around and finally get back into playing The Witcher. So here are a few watercolour sketch pieces to pass the time:





It's not that I haven't been busy, far from it, I just haven't been scanning stuff in nearly as often as I should. I've also been busy with a small web design project:

Manassas Chiropractic and Rehab: Spinal Rejuvenation

This little site is all about an alternative therapy for back pain. You don't have to get surgery for your herniated disc, you can try using the Pettibon System available at Dr. Steve Lininger's Manassas, VA office.

So, there you go. I am well and alive, or at least alive.

Play like a Star!

The recent Academy Awards were kind of....boring. I'm not really one to get into the Oscars, but I know a lot of people felt the same way. Perhaps it was the fact that the writers didn't have as much time to work on the show as previous years. Perhaps Hollywood is actually getting tired of honoring itself in the guise of a little golden man. Who knows why it wasn't the same entertaining 3 hours that many have come to expect, but I do know this:

Probably the best part of the show was seeing Jon Stewart play Wii Tennis with another actress. I'd love to show you the clip, but it appears that posting it on YouTube violates the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences copyright. So you'll just have to imagine him running back and forth, flinging his Wii remote as he looks at a gigantic (movie theatre sized)screen. What does this mean?

It means the Wii is finally the mainstream console it always wanted to be. Nintendo is ridiculously smart in their adversing, promising this is the game console for all ages and skills to love. Which is true, it is a great family game console, that's why it can be a challenge to own one.

However, to those familiar with Charter High-Speed internet, or just those willing to enter, you can now win a Wii.

All you have to do is register and you could be on your way to playing Wii tennis in the comfort of your own home. The winner will receive a Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 5 Sports games ( Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Golf and bowling), 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable.

You also have the chance to participate in Charter's Win High-Speed Internet for Life auction, where the winning bidder will get the fastest internet speed in their area for life, a cable modem and wireless router and free professional installation.

Even if you have no need for Charter internet, or you're not in the right area, the chance to win one of the most popular consoles of our time is pretty nice. Plus you can always pretend you're playing at the Oscars, with any number of celebrity as your opposition!

Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™!

Comment Policy

I quite enjoy getting comments from people but I've got a bit of a pet peeve about people using keywords like "dental equipment for less!" or "monster trucks 3.99" as their signed name. I know you are just commenting to get Google links and frankly I think it's cheap and ugly. I am not going to approve any comments that have obvious link-generating keywords as the commenter's name. Let me repeat that:

I will not approve your comment if you sign using a keyword generating name.

I will also not approve your comment if you copy and paste pieces of my post and try to pass that off as your own comment. I have received a few losers who've attempted this and it's exactly the reason why I moderate all comments. I'm all about blog-link-love, but I won't tolerate spam.

If you enjoy my blog and care enough to comment, you will respect my wishes. I don't mind if the link from your name leads to a money-making blog/website, but please don't use that as your name. It's rather annoying.

M.I.A.

I've been somewhat missing from this blog lately and I apologise. I'm working on another website and so far all my classes have done a good job keeping me bogged down in work. Over the next few weeks I plan on updating with more artwork so you can see my pitiful attempts at Sequential loveliness. Like this lil' 'ol thang:



It's one of my next projects. Hopefully I can remember to take some process shots as I work on inking this baby and making it into some form of awesome portfolio piece.