Drawing of the Day

You've heard of Blind Contour Drawing?
That's not exactly what this was, but close. We left William's party tonight at about a quarter to midnight so I decided to do my drawing in the car on the way home. While wearing gloves.

Sleep Deprived

So I got about an hour and a half of sleep last night.
I can't really complain, (because I know no one reading will have any sympathy) since the reason I had insomnia problems above and beyond the norm last night was because my sleep schedule is so completely screwed. In my defense, I think most people (most non-morning people that is) when not kept to a semi-regular schedule by school (my classes are mostly at night) or a job (my job has super flexible hours) will sleep in. The trouble is once you start sleeping in until eleven, if you get to bed a little later than usual (read: 4 am instead of 2) maybe the next day you get up at noon. And then of course you get sucked into finishing your book the next night and don't get to bed until 4:30 or 5, and getting up at 1pm doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Really I can't even claim that this is all fine and good during the week, because I barely wake up, the day feels hazy and dim, and after only a few hours it's night again, and I've got nothing done that I needed/intended to do. The more immediate issue is that when I've slowly fallen into a 4:00am- 1:00pm sleep schedule, and need to be a half hour early to my 9 am class, 40 minutes away on Saturday morning. Yech.

Anyway in my sleep deprived state I'm not up for much as far as intellectual activities go, so I've spent the last hour or so building cartoon robots online.

Which brings me to the main point of this whole post, which is that while searching for more cartoon robot building sites, I stumbled on an OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) talking about the science of Star Wars (Oregon and Star Wars, what more could you want?) which gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a balloon powered mini-hovercraft. Too cool. This reminds me of the activities I used to bring along with me when I was thirteen and babysitting. It looks pretty easy, but since I don't have kids I probably won't be actually building it any time soon (we have enough junk around with out adding a broken down hovercraft) but it gave me a nice moment of nostalgia, plus I think it's a pretty clever activity. Just goes to show you that Oregon rocks. OMSI by the way is a great science museum. Admittedly it's been a few (15) years since I've been inside, but in my memory it has the same feel as the Cleveland Science Center (another wonderful kid friendly Science Museum). If you ever make your way to Portland you should definitely check it out. Or for that matter if you make it to Cleveland, you should check out our version, but Portland will forever be my favorite city.

Drawing of the Day

It's called: "I just wanted to walk my fish."Don't ask what it means. Some things are better left alone. No normal post today, I've got class early tomorrow.

By the way, does anyone know why my pictures now pop up a download box if you click on them instead of going to a larger version? The html appears to be identical except for the file names, but maybe I missed something...

Hey look at me, I'm posting again!

I met with my thesis adviser today. It was surprisingly good.

Sheila's wonderful, it helps that she actually likes my writing but she also has good advice (which I suppose is the whole point of being in grad school). I've been struggling like mad over the latest section in my novel so it was nice when I went in with it, half finished, and had Sheila tell me I should leave it as is. She thought the abrupt sections were intentional.

I'm fine with that, this section's been a pain in my ass, so if my adviser thinks it's finished enough I'm more than happy to move on. Meanwhile, I'm up to 94 pages. W00t. I'm hoping to hit 100 before the end of the semester (I've got two weeks, but I've also got a paper due in my nonfiction class), I think it's doable. Then I can ignore it over winter break and go back with a (theoretically) fresh mind next semester.

My hope is that I'll be entirely done by the end of Spring Semester so I can leave it alone during the summer (or just do structural revisions) and be a bit more clearheaded for revising next fall. The other reason why I can't really have much left to do in the fall is that I'm getting married in the middle of October, Honeymoon to follow, which could make cramming in much of a novel difficult.

Drawing of the Day

This was drawn for Illustration Friday. The topic was "The Zoo."This is probably a little dark for Illustration Friday, but it's what popped into my head. This is a combination of #1 micron and brushpen. I'm starting to dig the brushpen although I'm not really using it to it's full potential.

Drawing of the Day

It's supposed to be a hammer but it looks more like a picket sign. Meh.

Drawing of the Day

Here's my contribution for the day.
Is it next semester yet?

Amazon Ad Ons

I added on a few Amazon Widgets to my blog... The main one is my wish list, on the side bar. This is mostly on there for my parents and relatives who always tell me they don't know what to get me for Christmas. There's also an Amazon search, at the bottom of the sidebar, please do use this if you're doing any Amazon shopping over the holidays... Amazon gives me money if you get to their site through my blog, and end up buying something. That goes for any of the amazon links on my site.

Drawing of the Day

My brain hurts. I'm buried under homework and school crap.No post today, maybe not for a few days. I'll try to keep up with drawing something or other though. I just can't think right now.

Drawing of the Day

This is a drawing copied from The Nude Figure.It's a good book full of poses, comes in vary handy when I'm trying to check proportions of a freehand figure. The model in this photo kind of disturbed me because she looks like a friend of mine if she dyed her hair black... fortunately (?) my drawing doesn't really look like my friend.

New Ideas

I recently joined a new blog called Illustration Friday Night. They post a word or phrase every week and contributors have the option of posting an illustration in response. The blog itself is a response to a blog called Illustration Friday which, as they put it, tends to be a little tamer in theme. Friday Night is supposedly a bit edgier or, as they put it: "the only manifesto is to keep things fairly real and raw." We'll see how that goes, I think having a space to post, with decent artists to sort of spurn me could be very helpful. There's another site I wanted to join, Sugar Frosted Goodness! but I think they actually want you to be a professional Illustrator to contribute, which I'm obviously not at this point. Some of the artwork on there is really amazing, my favorites are Michelle White and Mattias Adolfsson.

My posting will probably be a little scant over the next few days because I'm dealing with finals preliminaries...

Drawing of the Day

Today's drawing falls under the category of things I should never show my shrink.Actually this drawing isn't all that screwed up compared to many things I draw, but I do seem to have a fixation with things growing out of character's heads. Not sure why. Here's another drawing I did some time ago that shows a similar theme. This one was intended to be a greeting card cover with the caption: "Having a thorny day?" And the inside reading: "Here's hoping tomorrow is more enchanting." The gag being from the sleeping beauty faerie tale where the princes who went to wake her would get stuck in the enchanted rose thorns. Notice the roots growing out of his hair.

The Colors of Failure- Part II

The continuing adventures of making a black dry erase board.

I'd determined that my studio space was seriously lacking by not having a dry erase board hung somewhere. After a disheartening search of existing dry erase boards I discovered that none were cool enough: I wanted one like the kind they hand in Caribou.

After letting the third coat of magnetic primer dry, and deciding my board would never actually be able to hold magnets, I started with the blackboard paint. This was a thinner consistency than the primer, and went on in watery blue streaks that I was a bit doubtful about. I washed my paintbrush again and waited hopefully for it to dry.

Now on the can it says to use a roller to apply the paint to the future blackboard, and I'd meant to do so, but after pouring the paint I realized that I was out of roller brushes. So I ended up having to apply the paint with the same paint brush I'd used for the primer and wasn't all that surprised when it didn't dry right. It did dry black, so at least one worry was gone, but it also dried in brush-stroke groves that reminded me of a vinyl record. I debated whether to run out and get a roller for the second coat, but in the end I was too lazy, and instead I applied the second (and last) coat very very gently so as to avoid the brush groves as much as possible. After rinsing my brush and other supplies again, I waited some more.

I was happily surprised that the final coat was, I considered, smooth enough to actually use. So I waited another day as recommended for a full dry, then redrilled the holes in the corners, where the paint had closed them. I hung the board and tested it out.

#1: The staff at that particular Caribou are all liars! Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh, but they were certainly wrong about the dry erase markers being just normal dry erase markers. I initially had some difficulty finding light colored dry erase markers; since most dry erase boards are white, naturally most of the pens to write on them are dark colors. Eventually however I found a pack of four neon colors. I tried them out, and to my dismay, the colors didn't show up at all. Actually that's not entirely true, when wet you could see wet streaks, and when dry, if you leaned up close, you could see the faint transparent lines. Picture transparent neon green on a blackboard... yeah... that's helpful.

#2: The staff at Caribou are STILL liars, because not only does the ink not show up, it doesn't wipe off. So now I've got a blackboard (which presumably you can write on with chalk at least, though I didn't try it out, so who knows) with ghostly lines in transparent dry erase ink that is stuck there permanently.

I suppose I could have just used chalk, but my chair is at the same level as the black-white board so it would just have erased the marks I made when I spun it around and it hit against the board. In retrospect, I realize the same thing would have happened with the dry erase markers (had they actually worked correctly) so I can't be too upset about it really. So instead I set about decorating it in barely color.

The end result actually looks kinda neat on camera (without the flash you can barely make out the color differences) but it is fairly useless as a message board. My cats on the other hand, are finding that it makes an entertaining passage through to the back of my computer.

Otherwise, I guess I just have a new piece of non-functional art hanging in my studio. Non-functioning art that in normal light looks just like a piece of wood painted black. Ah well, we'll call it "contemporary" or "conceptual" and maybe someone will give me a show...

The Colors of Failure

If you've ever been to Caribou maybe you've noticed the black boards they have on the wall, announcing their coffee specials and daily trivia? Or maybe not, I know I mostly didn't pay any attention until one day when they took it down at the end of the evening to put up the next day's trivia question.

I'd always assumed they were writing on the chalkboard with chalk... silly me. Turns out their chalkboards also work as dry erase boards! Then I assumed that they were using special dry erase markers, but no they assured me, they were normal run of the mill dry erase pens. AND it's magnetic, which is how they stick all the coffee magnets to it. I realize I'm a bit overexcited about this, but I thought this was just the coolest thing ever, or at least the coolest thing involving dry erase markers.

Fast forward a few months, I'm sitting at my desk thinking I'd like to write myself a list... and post it... somewhere convenient. In fact I realized I need a dry erase board. So I set out to get one, but I'll admit I went in knowing I wasn't going to buy one. Because I wanted a BLACK dry erase board.

After a very quick search that revealed, as I suspected, that there were no readily available black dry erase boards for sale, I decided to make one. I started by measuring the space where I intended to hang it, and getting a piece of plywood cut to fit. After drilling holes, I put it up to make sure it fit right.

Then comes the fun part right? I went out and get some magnetic primer and blackboard paint, using the excuse that it would come in handy later when we make a puppet theater (more on this later I hope) and yes I realize that puppet theaters need not be either magnetic or blackboardy but it's called rationalization people. I put on the first coat of magnetic primer. It was rather bumpy and rough (but then it is primer) but I told myself it would work out ok when it was finished. So I washed my brush and waited for it to dry. After a half hour I was able to try it out, the results were a little bit disappointing. The magnet I tried did seem to have some attraction, but not enough to keep it from sliding off, just enough to make it seem sort of reluctant to do so. So I put on another coat. And washed my brush again. And waited for it to dry again. There really wasn't much discernible difference in the magnet's enthusiasm. I checked the label and found out that they expect you to need something like eight coats before it actually does anything, and even then it's not all that dramatic of a magnetic effect. I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising since they must do it by putting little ground up bits of iron into the paint... that can't be all that strong I suppose. So I put on another coat. And washed my brush. Again.After the last coat dried, I could just barely get the magnet to stick, so long as I held the board at a slight angle. I was sick of magnetic paint at this point and although the can claims it's enough to cover a large wall with ten coats, my can was half empty. So I decided the next day I'd start on the blackboard paint.

*Caribou image taken from flickr.

Continued tomorrow, because I'm being called away for the night...

Drawing of the Day

This is a quick sketch of Elvis, a character from my novel.
In spite of the horns, Elvis is not actually evil although he certainly doesn't live by a conventional moral code. Elvis is about fourteen in human years, though he's been alive closer to eighteen.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good... wait a minute... damned early Christmas ads got me all confused...
And the cats say: "What? Did you want some turkey too?"

Drawing of the Day

Today's drawing is a tasteless and rather badly drawn cartoon.I call it, "Mario and Luigi: The Untold Story." Damnit, now I've got the Mario theme stuck in my head... Dodo do dodo DO! do...

Like a Dirty Old Man, Microsoft Wants In

Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks the One Laptop Per Child thing is pretty damn cool. Matt pointed me to this article which he found on Slashdot today. It seems Microsoft can't tolerate the prospect of all these impressionable young children growing up without being touched by Windows.

OLPC is currently in the midst of it's "Buy One, Get One" campaign, where people in the US can buy a laptop and have another donated to a child that needs it. The computer, designed for kids, currently runs Linux, chosen for it's open source coding, and because it's free.

Microsoft is on a mission, a mission funded by what Will Poole (Microsoft Corporate Vice President) calls "a nontrivial amount of money[,]" whatever that means. They're working to make Windows work on the laptop, so that children around the world don't grow up on Linux (the horror, the horror). As the article's author, Jim Finkle points out, " The laptops were designed specifically to run Linux programs. If the machines run only Linux, Microsoft will lose an opportunity to expose tens of millions of children worldwide to its Windows system." We can't have that, can we? It sounds like Microsoft isn't even pretending their intentions are altruistic, and I guess you've at least gotta give them credit for that.

Microsoft isn't the only large corporation to show interest in the OLPC. EA recently donated the original game SimCity to the program, so that every computer will ship out bundled with the game. In this case the motives do seem to be purely selfless since it seems unlikely that kids in
Rwanda will be rushing to purchase Spore anytime soon. Some bloggers have been sarcastic about the donation, siting how old the game is, but I think it's a pretty cool gesture. True, they probably weren't making a lot of money off SimCity at this point, but they gave something out of the blue when they didn't have to, and a game on city planning will certainly be an asset to kids in developing countries. Besides, it seems unlikely that the computer could have handled a newer version of the game anyway, these aren't exactly supercomputers.

It's nice to see the project getting some corporate attention, selfish or not. I think this gives it a bit more legitimacy and probably helps other people take it seriously. I love the idea of the OLPC and anything that helps it succeed is certainly a good thing.PS: I doctored the first photo of this post tremendously. This is probably unethical, and possibly illegal, but since no one actually reads my blog I'm not too worried. Bill Gates, if you're reading this, I'd be happy to take down the photo at your request, but only if you leave a comment. The original photo was stolen from Wired's blog, and isn't nearly this creepy. The other pictures link to where I got them from.

Pet Peeve

One of the things that really bugs me is when I see someone pull into the intersection when the road in front of them is full of cars. Inevitably, the light changes, and there they are stuck in the intersection, looking indignant at the cars now honking at them for being in the way. As though they couldn't possibly have seen it coming, and as if it couldn't possibly be their fault. At times like that, I really wish there were a cop somewhere nearby.So I HAD to take a picture at this dumbass cop who committed the same crime. Well done boys, nice to see our tax dollars hard at work, clogging up traffic.

On an entirely unrelated note, while I was at the same intersection at CSU I took this picture and thought I'd share, just because it's kinda cool.

Drawing of the Day

Today's drawing is called "Time Monster" because I'm sleepy and it's bedtime!I used a micron brush pen, a medium I'm not real comfortable with but would like to play with more.