Happy 2007 my fellow web junkies.

Man, I have been bad at updating this thing

Since I do have a bit of artwork to share, I may as well do an update for the new year....

I painted this three to four foot tall cartoon dog for a Humane Society charity show coming up this April.  I painted it in Acrylics with regular sized brushes, which was agonizing @ first when I was just trying to block in the main colors (I should have used a paint roller or something O_o).  Spent a couple of hours on it daily over the course of three days but I finished him, so here he is:

    Isn't his head enormous?

Here's a closer view of that gigantic cranium of his

  ...Kind of looks like he's begging for table scraps.

It's been months and months since I've updated this thing.  I'm awake and I can't go to sleep now because if I do, my body will shut down and I will not wake up until after my 9 AM final is over.  I'm actually going to drive down to school in an hour or so and eat breakfast with classmates @ Denny's, so I have a little time to do this random, early morning update.

Designing, directing, producing, and drawing one's own 30+ second short film is extremely difficult to accomplish in a single semester.  It's eaten up loads of leisure time, and so much of it ended up on the cutting room floor.  I've ended up with 1:28 to turn in.

Amidst the finals scramble I had a nice break this weekend.  On Sunday night, my dad, Jeremy, Grandma and I got to sit in one of the Toyota suites (for free!) at the Lakers/Spurs game.  It was a good game, but the highlight of the night was being right next to Jerry Buss' suite.  Not kidding.  We found out sometime before the game that the 2 suites next to us belonged to team-owner Jerry Buss (our suspicions were confirmed when we noticed that the suite was full of EXTREMELY young (I mean barely legal young) looking women.  After the 1st quarter, he actually showed up and stayed around for the duration of the game.  It was a little surreal....we literally got to watch the game sitting only a few feet away from Jerry Buss....just a sideward glance through the glass partition and we could see Mr. Buss, his bald bodyguard, and his numerous supermodel girlfriends cheering for Kobe & friends.  During timeouts and in between quarters, we could walk right past him and his posse as they hung out in the hallways.  Pretty exciting.  And the Lakers won.

Over intercession, I plan to try to reorganize my life.  I need an all-encompassing discipline, not temporary, specialized focus.  I'm out of touch with pretty much everybody, but it seriously seems like everyone's travelling to Asia these holidays.  O_o         

It is with a heavy heart that I write that hyperactive environmentalist slash deranged media star Steve Irwin has died by the barb of a sting ray.

I read the news reports.  Apparently some of them are worded in such a way that you might (as my brother did) believe that Mr. Irwin was actually impaled by the stingray's tail while diving from his boat.  Rather, he was struck in the chest by one of its stinging spines after he startled it by invading its space.  Sting rays usually are pretty peaceful unless they're seriously bothered.  They usually strike people in the legs after being stepped on, and the person gets a painful wound + a minor infection but is otherwise okay.  The croc wrangler was probably, in classic Steve Irwin fashion, manhandling the creature (good naturedly of course).  I suppose him dying at a young(er) age by some animal was an inevitability....but death by sting ray caught everyone by surprise I'm sure. 

Crikey.

Well, RIP Steve Irwin.  He certainly led an interesting life.

Where the Wild Things Are (Mighty Bored)

I went to the LA zoo recently armed with my new art pack and 2 sketchbooks (the toned sketchbooks are unbelievably sexy).  Presently, the featured attraction at the zoo is "the White Alligator"--a rare albino specimen of gator that's here to visit until October.  Well, let me tell you, I went to its enclosure and saw nothing.  "Mommy," inquired the kid to my right hand side, tugging at his parent's skirt.  "Where's the white alligator?"  "I don't know, babe," she replied, "maybe he's hiding somewhere."  Some teenager wearing pants with a knee-high crotch turned to the mother and said,  "Oh, you're looking for the white alligator thing?  He's over here."  He gestured vaguely to a bunch of stones towards the back of the enclosure.  "See that rock behind those other rocks?" he asked.  The mom squinted.  I squinted too. 

"...Yes....yes I think I see it." 

"That's not a rock; it's the white alligator."

What a let down.  I saw half of a white alligator shoulder, and it seriously did look like a chunk of rock.  But alas, most zoo-animals are pretty dull (the scenery doesn't change very much)

It was still an enjoyable trip, and I did get a lot of much needed practice.  I was able to do a lot of life-studies and I'll definitely be back for more when I have the time.

Here are some of my drawings:

The Arabian Oryx, which kind of looks like a white goat with a hunchback and long horns.

A Nubian Ibex (which looks like a kind of mountain goat) and a gerenuk (a super-skinny, elongated deer type animal)

More gerenuks (they're 1 of my favorite animals to draw; they're very beautiful):

A lounging gray kangaroo in prismacolor pencil w/ a watercolor wash:

Black bear (eating celery & walking around) done in black Tombo brushpen:

A page of slightly cartoony/exaggerated animals:

And finally, the zoo's baby giraffe I drew from memory after I got back home(obviously a little exaggerated too):

Who's Face is it Anyways?....

I drew a bunch of celebrity caricatures in my sketchbook @ random times over the last couple of days.  Some I like and some I hate.  I'm slowly moving up towards more exaggeration...right now I'm still in the moderate-exaggeration-experimental stage, but I'll be moving toward the more extreme & comical soon...Can you guess who's who??

Pg. 1: (in prismacolor pencils & ballpoint pen)

Page 2: (also prismacolor & ballpoint)

And page 3:  (All movie characters in this one, done in terra cotta col-erase & black prismacolor....and man, that col-erase stuff really does not scan well...)

Yesterday, I went to Art Supply Warehouse in Westminster yesterday with my pops.  I got this handy-dandy art tote (complete with a ton of organizers) for only $20!  And a couple of sketchbooks that are usually 14 bucks for 6 dollars!  And I finally got one of those toned sketchbooks I've been dying to use.  And a brand new field-watercolor set....all of which has put me in a gleeful state of Art Nerdvana.