ay nay i never got any hay

Cockroach again tonight. I was driving home singing some Jefferson Airplane music loudly offtune to myself. And just as I was feelin good, I glance up, and I see him. Scuttling right underneath the sun visor.
I cackled triumphantly and spat a flurry of awful words at him.

I was on my way to get new shoes. The shoes I bought for 10 dollars at Wal-Mart a couple months ago were literally falling apart. The soles are flopping off. And no amount of superglue or duct tape can save them now. I will miss them. They gave my feet giant bloated blisters and smelled ungodly and looked cheap, but they were, usually comfortable.

Anyway, so I was driving to Wal-Mart (again) to buy a new pair of shoes, when I saw the roach.
As I swerved into the parking lot, I saw the roach leap to the passenger side sun visor and try to hide its fat little body.

Unfortunately for him, in the seat next to me was my DVD of "The Day the Sky Exploded"
Which I grabbed, and then howling like a banshee, smashed upward with all my might, to crush the roach.

And once again, he survived. The moment the dvd box was lowered he shot out and with a loud clack, hit the window. Oh if it had only been open I would be rid of him! He glanced off the glass and barrel rolled down into the dark depths under the seat.

I hope I injured him this time.

After that episode I got out of the car and went into WalMart. I got the only shoes there that were in size 14, which luckily were heavy duty shoes, and paid like 40 bucks for them, which sickened me, and then I was on my way.

And then I came home, checked my email to see if any of the studios I had sent my reel to had emailed me back. I laughed heartily because of course they hadn't and never ever will.

And then my friend Mike (nim%) showed me a contest adult swim is having.

A shirt contest. And it perplexes me because the prize is to have the shirt printed and sent to you....

lolwut? People can just do that anyway for just as cheap on cafepress, zazzle, or spreadshirt. What the hell sort of contest is that? And thats the only prize too. Its sponsored by Honda, but its not like you get a free car out of it or anything. Weird.

Speakin of shirts, I made a new one: here
I'm really enjoying working on a canvas of barely 200 pixels in either dimension. And working with a 16 bit palette. It's strangely relaxing. Like therapy.

Anyway after a hearty chortle at the contest, I decided to paint.

And the thing I painted was a mutated skinless horse creature:

And yes, before you ask, he IS farting out of the bones sticking out of his shoulder blades. No, I don't know why.
His anatomy is basically that of a horses, except with the muscles twisted around in almost a loop. As if his muscles were an arm that was given a massive indian burn.

Also a few days ago I painted another stylized jungle picture. Like the one for that poem book I posted a while ago. Except this one is more colorful and is not going in the book.


And now to draw some more.

He's here to save the nation. So stay tuned to this station.

There is an incredibly high pitched cricket outside. It sounds like a penny whistler but several keys higher and quite a bit louder. It's like a ear piercing explosion of sound howling through the window.

So.
I finally finished the comic for Hans van Harken's comic book. Who knows when or if that will get released. But it means thats one BIG project off my plate.
I managed to kidnap the wii (technically MY wii) from my brother's place and hooked it to the internet.

a.) the virtual console is the best thing ever. and wiiware is great. like the xbox live arcade. I already snatched FZero X and Kirby64. Paper Mario will be soon to come.

b.) nintendo needs to set up GOOD servers for smash brothers brawl online. it is lag-tastic and disappointing.

c.) mario kart wii is fucking great. it makes the already-rather-bland "double dash" look like shit. it gives the perfect DS version a definite run for its money.

d.) solid snake is the funniest character to play as in brawl. he requires almost no skill. just a cruel imagination. i haven't laughed so hard in forever. its just chaos.

At about 7 am this morning, since I cant sleep, I decided to try and make some pixel art on my old OLD pc. I made a little monster inside a tv set. I liked how it came out. So I blew it up to 3000 by 3000 pixels and decided to see what it looked like on a shirt.
And it looked surprisingly decent. So I got myself one, and then put the design up so others could look at them. I think I will do more pixel designs. I havent done them since 05 so this was quite refreshing.
Light pixel design and then the dark shirt version.

As of late, Mike, Raphael, and myself have been fishing off the Skyway Bridge. It's the worlds largest fishing pier. And it is HUEG. There's a good variety of fish to catch there, unlike our usual spot which only produces ladyfish and catfish.
Last night we watched in great amusement as Mike lost several rigs to snags and did small dances of rage in his pursuit of a pinfish to use as grouper bait. It took a million tries but he finally caught one.
The most common fish around the pier are small stupid sardines called greenbacks which are very hard to hold onto.

Anyway, as I said before the comic is done. Now I can devote my work time to the poetry book and Polypeptide.

Also for no reason I drew a mummy today.


We get our bi-annual bonuses next week. Which means a big fat paycheck (i hope). And it gives me something to look forward to.

I got an email from Paypal today. Paypal only ever emails me for two reasons.
The first and most common reason is that they need to "update my account"
Apparently these emails are fake and are scams designed to steal my paypal ID and password. So I dont answer them. They come like once a week. Currently they sit in a mottled heap, oozing in the spam folder.

The other time that I get a message from paypal is when Zazzle.com sends me money. And lo and behold, since February I have accrued roughly $28.56 over the last few months from sales. I get like 4-6 bucks per sale, which means I sold roughly...5 or 6 things over the last 4 months. Also in my paypal account was 20 dollars sent to me by my friend Gus/Ray who wanted me to paint him a dinosaur. Which I did. I'd forgotten he'd ever sent me anything for it.

The point of the email is that it reminded me that a month ago or so someone had asked for more 'cute' designs be added to my Zazzle design gallery. I'd forgotten the request, but still fulfilled it someone subconsciously. I've added a few designs since then always making them "cute" without remembering why the hell I was making them cute in the first place.

So, since it's been ages since I whored my Zazzle thing like a money grubbing slut, I'm gonna do it here.

First thing is Kraw, which I suppose is not really cute, but its meant to look like a cave painting.

Next is this silly looking Goldfish. Drawn and colored in flash.

I also did a series of three shirts each with a small iconic begoggled goblin on each. I did them in three colors.
Blue. Red. Green.
If you actually want one, you can change the color of the shirt with the menu to the right of the image of the shirt.

I also did an image of two little...eh....things.
This is them here. No real sense to this picture. Just trying to make some wee monsters. Used the same alien writing style as in the Meat Grinder posters.

This next one, sadly got posted with the back of the shirt showing up first. Which shows you nothing except the little red eye I put on the back of alot of my shirts. But if you click the "front" button you will see the front of the shirt which has a very cute painting of a crow that I worked pretty hard on.
The Crow shirt. click "front" under the image to see the crow.

Last one was this Dragon shirt, where I tried to capture a more humorous contemporary style like the funny shirts you see in stores. I failed, of course. But the dragon's cute, right? Oddly, I actually had someone complain about this one to me on another site because it wasn't "indie enough" which made me sigh in disdain.


Speaking of Zazzle, they havent talked to me in ages. They used to contact me constantly about site news, and wanting to pay me to help them make licensed products. And like 100000 other opportunities I've gone after online, it died a most silent and shameful death. I guess either they stopped liking my work, or maybe its because I'm no longer popular there, or maybe they are under new management. Either way, the site has become very quiet.

Not that I care. But it's weird. It used to be kinda social...for a automatic-shirt-maker site.

dum dee dum.

Oh yeah, concept art for TwoFace's design for the Dark Knight leaked online. Noone thought it was official until Warner Brothers started taking it down everywhere. I'd post the pic but I fear what Blogger would do. So here's a link instead.

Speaking of pictures, John K had a thing on his blog where he was giving out freelance work to anyone who could copy his drawings in a way he wanted.
The people whose drawings he liked, he came to their blogs and asked for contact info. Didnt post here, so I guess mine were not up to par.
But I'm gonna post them here because I have nothing better to do and feel like wasting some space.



In other art related newsery, I am making a comic for a comic book. A book that will actually be published. Fuck yeah! It's being put together by my friend Hans.

It's been fun to draw. It's been ages since I drew a comic. I forgot how much I enjoyed making them.
I may have to do this more often.
It's quite literally a huge page of a dozen or so tiny satirical comics that all clash and mix together in weird ways.



I really need to finish Polypeptide. This is getting ridiculous.


edit:

update. hey I didnt even make it into the semi semi finals of that Radiohead contest. when will I learn to stop entering these bloody things? WHEN?

Did you think you were going to hit me with that bat, and little chocolatey candies would come pouring out?

I dont take care of my car. I'll be honest. If there's one thins in my life that I constantly neglect it is my car.
Now it's not entirely because I don't care, but its because the car is beyond the point of caring FOR it. It has no paint. It has been totaled twice (not by me) and has no insurance. And due to its horrific lifespan it is made out of pieces of other cars now that my father's friend found in a junkyard.
At one point in my vehicles life it was a 1992 Chevrolet Corsica. Currently it is a grey amalgamation. Red fluffy interior that has peeled off pokes me in the back with metal rods as a drive. Old fashioned clutch and shift. Which I prefer honestly.

Exhibit A of said Car:


The last time the car got smashed (by my brother) the radio and air conditioner stopped working. The air conditioner is a needed luxury here in Florida. Especially in summer where the temperature inside a vehicle gets up to over 100 very quick. Lowering the window cools it down a bit, but nothing works like filtered air. But it's the radio I miss the most. It was like my little window to the world. And I really miss listening to public radio while driving home. I need to check if it has an AUX hole. If so, maybe I can just pick up some cheap ass mp3 player at wal mart and use that instead.

The reason I bring this up is because ever since the air conditioner and radio stopped working, I've mostly given up trying to make the car look nice.
And animals have started taking refuge in the vehicle. The other night a few months ago as I was getting out (probably around 1am) I noticed a large cockroach on the ceiling of the car. I grabbed one of my animation books and slammed it with all the force I could to destroy the roach. It died. But that was not the end of my troubles.
Months later, as winter ended and it got warmer, I started turning on the air vents so outside air could blow in.
And thats when I heard it. A fast panicked scratching sound. Like lots of little fingers with long nails scrabbling on some sanded plastic. I knew it had to be a bug. And the sound seemed to be coming from, where else, one of the car's four air conditioning vents.

I've heard the sound several times since then, and I always glance over to see if I can SEE the roach emerging from the vent. I never do. But sometimes I see it scuttle across the dashboard, or at BAD times, crawl across my leg. Of course I can't squeal like a schoolgirl and wildly swat at it as I'm doing 65 on the freeway, so I just have to ignore it.

But tonight, tonight victory was so close. As I was driving home I felt a brush against my arm hairs. THE ROACH, thought I. The streetlight passed overhead, and in the moving light I saw the roach. But it was different. It's wings were flared, it was HUGE, and it looked mutated. Once it had hopped off my arm I quickly lowered the window, hoping the fresh air would coax it to run outside the window, where I would then raise the glass and trap it outside the car.
But it sat there. Just sat. So, swerving all over the road, I slapped at it with all the strength I had.
I don't know what primitive gods it prayed to as it saw my fist roaring through the night sky at it, but they blessed the roach with the will to move itself just enough at the last moment, my hand barely glancing off it's frayed wings. It knew. It knew of my existence. Up until now I was just a silent mountain, observing it as it galloped in it's habitat: my car. It looked up in fear at the giant it had never noticed, flailing it's radars wildly. It lept off the dashboard in the darkness, not to be seen again.

It may be weeks before it dares to crawl from it's home again. It's a good thing I bought Raid to kill the extra fleas in my house. Now it can serve a dual purpose as I bring death upon the cockroach vermin.

and now bed.

Why? Godlessness. Let me say that again. Godlessness.

Oh man what a day what a day what a day.

This post is mainly an art dump and little else.
A new batman trailer will be out in a day and I can say with confidence that I am excited to see it.

I finally got a BUNCH of deigns done today. Concept art for a game a chap I know if making.
He said it was alright for me to post them here.
So I am posting my personal favorites.



i really like this guy's gnarled fingers:

and a not so subtle reference:



I have no idea what the hell sort of RPG would require characters like these, but I'll be finding out soon enough.

So thats ONE large project off my back.

And to unwind I started scribbling. I was talking to my friend and for some reason the thought popped into my head of Robotnik.
Sega has redesigned Dr.Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik like 4 or 5 times. So I decided to take all his incarnations (including the still popular saturday morning american cartoon version) and combine them together into a design that had bits of criteria from each era.

And so, I made this:


And now to sleep and then go to work.

The Red King Syndrome

I've had the last couple days off of work and have spent them relaxing, somewhat.
I have been painting a jungle for a book. Not a published book, mind you. Soon to be published would be more accurate.

Or "soon to be e-published"

Not long ago, my friend Mike and I decided, why not take Mike's vast stock of poems (and he makes GOOD poems) and try to get them published? And why not publish them via a website specifically for publishing books?

I've had a Lulu.com account for years now and have not done anything with it. My dustbunnies comic book is still unreleased, and may never be. And my monster book remains far too short to be really worth publishing. Who wants a 9 page book that isn't a graphic novel? I thought so.

The problem with the monster book is that it isn't really anything. It's a book full of monster drawings in various mediums. The kind of things even the blandest retail sketchbook you could grab at a comic convention would probably contain.

It's just another project on the backburner. When it comes to backburner projects, Mike's poem book has always been a priority because Mike is probably clinically mentally damaged in some form, but noone knows of the great poems he makes every month or so.
So the whole gist of this book we're working on is that it's a makeshift compendium of his best old poems, new poems, and perhaps some nooone has read yet. And accompanying each poem would be an illustration made by myself.
We'd always been planning on doing this, but it came to fruition finally. One illustration for one of the poems is done already, and here's a wee version of it here:


The book will be called "Reverberations" and hopefully will be done soon.
The title came to us at the local Diner after we had wandered the hollows of Ybor city and smoked a couple of nice hand-rolled cuban cigars. Ybor is home to some Kings of cigar-making. There's something very calming about a cigar. 6 bucks for a tube of leaves.
Anyway, off subject.
At first we tried to come up with titles just by looking for odd words used in media we could see around us. At first I tried picking words out of Reax (a very good local Tampa music magazine), and we thought "why not the word CONTEXT" since it means and implies so many things?
Then I looked on the back of a ketchup bottle.
"Preservatives"
"Artificial"
But both words seem to go against the whole point of a book of poems.
We started fiddling with other terms like "Starscraper" "Mindscraper" and other vaguely science fiction terminologies.
And eventually Mike decided Reverberations and so that will be the official title.


As I've said before, wandering Ybor city is a fascinating experience. The whole locale seems to change entirely depending on what day you happen to be there. Centro Ybor is basically one large road chock full of traffic. On either side are dozens upon dozens of night clubs, bars, delis, art galleries, specialty stores, cigar makers, and restaurants. In the middle of Centro Ybor is an odd cross road where the trolleys used to go by. In this crossroad is Sidesplitters, a comedy club that lots of comedians perform at. I've never been inside but I've heard good things. Tampa Digital Studios is also there. Other than some local art shows, galleries and a few commercials, I am still kinda unclear as to what they do. I've pondered walking in, but I dont think its really open to the public.
At the end of this sideroad is another sideroad that leads up some stairs to a movie theater. Bars surround it. And underneath the bars is a restaurant called Fresh Mouth Burgers. I think it's the only part of Centro Ybor that's been here since the beginning. It's adorned with some very frightening arc deco paintings of doll people with HUMONGOUS mouthes. But damn, their burgers are good.
If you choose to go DOWN the sideroad of this area, you will find yourself facing a dimly lit road leading to some unnerving skyscrapers and a Gameworks. Gameworks is like Chuck E Cheese for grown-ups. It has a eatery inside, a couple of full liquor bars, and arcade and video games all over the place.

If you go the opposite way you pass a bunch of pubs and bars and other places and eventually a place called...aw man. I think it's called the Czar? I dunno. It's a weird fancy little dance club / bar all adorned and styled after communist propaganda posters.

Boy this blog post is even less interesting than the rest of the drivel I write here.

MOVING ON

Apparently a new trailer for The Dark Knight premiered at a comic convention. It's set to debut to the public in a couple of weeks.
edit:
apparently I am several days late.
here: New Trailer here in a few days.


Cloverfield is out tomorrow. We get to wear Slusho shirts at work. It's amusing to look back on it. All the crazy theories and crazy websites and crazy mysteries surrounding the film. The photos, the mirrored movie posters, the conspiracy theories, lovecraftian rumors, viral websites.
Some even going so far as to research the film every day vigorously, and then to report their findings every night via webcam. God, the podcasts. The podcasts.
Every night. Me and Mrat raping google of its goods for leaked pictures of the mysterious "thing" in Cloverfield

The movie comes out. And whoop-dee-doo it's your usual run-of-the-mill Monster movie. Entertaining? Yes. Revolutionary? Nope. The American's Godzilla (as it was hyped)? ahahhaha oh no. Considering the only character anyone cared about, Hud, got eaten while the two whiney self-righteous protagonists get to be the spotlight of the end of the film and they wept bitterly into the very hardy digital camera.
Too much Blair Witch. Not enough Starship Troopers.
I will still recommend the film, of course, cause its a fun waste of 2 hours.
But not fun enough for me to not skip the first half hour of the movie should I see it again.
At least it's tame enough to watch at work. Spoil it for everybody. Mwa-ha-ha etc.

And now I have to pee.

edit 2:

UPDATE
I scribbled this silly guy the other night.

keep in mind i scribbled this in like 15 minutes. He's missing a thumb. And something is wrong with his shoulders.

Spy? Saboteur? Facist? All of the above.

Today is art dump day where I dump art much like how say, a drunken fat man would take a dump on a toilet at 4 in the morning.


First is this painting of a robot trying to grab a rocket. Why would he do such a thing? Because he's a god damn commie bastard, that's why. >:C


The other day I was explaining to my friend, BigArmyBug, of the adorableness of Maya the Bee. And so I linked him to the catchy opening title sequence on youtube.
He grew enraged and released a flurry of hatred that popped the innocent cherry of my virgin ears. Even now, I shudder at the remembrance.

This comic detailing the tragedy will make no sense unless you get the reference in the last panel. Which is roughly .001% of people online




And thirdly, a sketch of some kirby stuff. Kirby and Mario Brothers 3 were the first video games I ever played. I've always been a hardcore Kirby fan. I even liked the Kirby Saturday Morning cartoon series.




I had the exterminator come back again.
I haven't seen a flea in my room in a couple of days. I have yet to work up the nerve to go into the kitchen or patio.

A flea jumped on my brother's leg however, so they are clearly still not all dead.
But I can finally sleep again.

In other news, my friend Mike introduced me to a new electronic music artist. Ladytron. The other night he played a song off his ipod called "Playgirl"
It was relaxing and had a lovely melody. Then I listened to a few other tracks by them.
So now I have a new band to catch up on.