I Have Returned.

Sorry for the long lapse 'twixt posts. I was preparing to go to Alaska, then I went to Alaska, then I got back and was kept occupied until last night, when I needed some time to rest. But now I have more time to myself again. I haven't drawn much lately, though. I had a very difficult time drawing while I was in Alaska. It was just so beautiful and incredible that anything I could even think of to draw made me realize just how limited my abilities are. But here's a couple of doodles from my all-too-short trip anyway.


So that first one says "My smile is too big for my face, it's so cool here!" The 2nd says "If I could make love to and marry something that isn't a woman, it would be Alaska." And the third says "It's so beautiful here. . . I have to cry. . . I can feel myself disappearing into Alaska!" I highly recommend Alaska to anyone who, for example, breathes. I took over 1100 pictures. I'll be tweaking some of those in the ol' Photoshop so expect to see some here soon. I got some motivation while there to get busy and do some bigger, better works, so hopefully there'll be more of those soon, too. Stay tuned!

The Scanner Has Arrived.

Yay! My scanner arrived on my doorstep this morning. So I sat down to spend the evening scanning and lo and behold, the second thing I scan wants me to color it in. Here is the uncolored version:



As you can see it is a man's head on a robot's body. And the man is smoking a cigarette through a cigarette holder like Franklin Roosevelt would if here a half-man/half-robot creature, with the head of a man, and the heart of a robot. That bit about the head of a man and the heart of a 'bot is pretty much what this one is about for me. If one were to design a creature utilizing the best parts of two other creatures, one would not be likely to create this: a slow, confused brain with a mechanical heart void of anima. This guy would be the thing made from left-overs.

Like there's this janitor who lives in the basement of the lab or machine shop where they build these man-bots with the brain of a bot and the heart of a man. And late at night he tinkers with some of the ort and creates his own critters. And this critter is his pride and joy, his greatest accomplishment in the world of splicing-together-two-things-that-don't-belong-together. It's his best friend. And this critter is a smoker, because it's sort of a depressing existence to realize that he's been created out of the dregs. And he's aware of the fact that "this just isn't right", he knows, with that human mind, that he shouldn't be. He's simply a science project for a weird janitor. So he needs a smoke to calm him down. All the reason of a human, all the compassion of a robot.

Well, whatever his story is, there will be a colored in version up here soon. So watch this space!

New Scanner On the Way!

I received my big fat IRS refund and decided to splurge! Not only did I get those good Ramen Noodle Cup-O-Soups, but I ordered a new scanner! It should be here within a week and I'm going to start incorporating drawings into digital works, and I'll probably start posting drawings, as well. I actually have quite a few that have been waiting for me to get a scanner, so there may be a lot of updates for a while. But there may not be, we'll see. I am, after all, lazy.

So keep your eyes peeled for all new work and all new style starting real soon!

A Change of Plans

Originally this was going to be my sketch-blog. It was going to be dedicated to sharing stuff that I've been drawing in my sketchbook and other miscellaneous pieces of paper. But I don't have a scanner yet so it was going to be a while before it got going.

I've started to do more digital work these days. And I'm starting to mess around with my robots in Photoshop and I even made my own robot cursors. So I'm now rededicating this here blog to my digital work. My goal is to post at least one new thing per week, more if the mood strikes.

For those of you who were all excited to see my sketch-blog, just be patient. I'm still going to do that, I'll just be putting it off until I get a scanner. When I have it up and/or running I'll post the address on this blog and link to it.

In the meantime, here's an image.

I found a program recently for making my own cursors (see the "Links" section, it's called RealWorld) so I made up a batch of robot based icons and they make me happy. Then I thought that I'd like to make that same lo-bit image, but much larger. I think growing up with Atari and NES nurtured my love of blocky shapes. I'll probably ending up making stickers out of this image. I think it has a real nice feel to it. I just hope that it reads as a robot to someone who hasn't seen my 'bots before. I can never tell what my stuff looks like to people who don't have the benefit of knowing what it's supposed to be first. It's pretty obvious to me that it's one of my bots, but that's because I made it. I think others who have seen my bots would realize that's what it is, but what about those who haven't seen them yet? Oh well, art for Art's sake, I suppose. Of course if Arthur has never seen my bots, he may not know what it is and then he'll say something like "You call that art?"

Welcome!

So this is my new blog. I won't put anything on it until I get a scanner so you can leave now.

But thanks for stopping by.