One Starving Artist

Sick Days

2009-10-20T10:01:56Z

Jenny's been knocked out with something the past couple of days - we think it's probably the flu, but doubt if it's of the swine variety. She called out sick to work Sunday and Monday, but she is starting to feel better and will probably be going back to work tomorrow. I've been doing my best to take care of her while she recovers, although I've caught myself coughing a little bit and my head's hurt off and on, so there's still a chance I'll get whatever she had as well. Great.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, our local artist/writer group. We had a good turnout, and made some headway on a lot of group organizational type stuff. The main thing is that we will definitely have a presence at the Emerald City ComiCon next year in Seattle. We're still ironing out the details, but I'll post up some specifics as soon as I've got any. Should be fun.

Wednesday Stuff

2009-10-15T08:05:27Z

Jenny has a mandatory library "Staff Day" on Friday (her usual day off), so she took today off from the law firm, which worked out well. We both had haircut appointments this morning, and then headed over to The Comic Book Shop to buy some comics.

We actually didn't get this week's comics, as we got to the shop before they officially opened and they were still sorting through the new books out today. But we left our subscriptions pile up for almost 2 months, so we had quite the sizable stack waiting for us. Maybe we should get back into the habit of actually picking up our comics each week again....

After some time at The Comic Book Shop, it was off to lunch, and then some much needed grocery shopping. Then back to the apartment so we could meet with the office and sign our new lease. We're locked in for another full year - so we've got 12 months to get some more income coming in and find a better place to live, so we don't have to stay here any more.

We eventually got a hold of our friend Jamie, picked him up, grabbed some dinner, and came back here to watch a couple of movies. We saw Meet the Robinsons, which was hilarious and highly recommended; and Illegal, a classic Edward G. Robinson courtroom drama, which was also quite good!

What's Happening...

2009-10-10T20:54:05Z

Yesterday was Jenny's father's birthday, and we spent most of the day over in Coeur d'Alene with her parents. We went to see the Surrogates with him - which was a pretty awesome sci-fi flick (based on an equally cool indy comic). Glad we got to see it in the theatre, though I think it could've been a bit longer.

Then after the movie the four of us went out for Thai food at the local Thai Bamboo (which was, of course, delicious), and then caught up on a bunch of recorded TV from the past week. A very fun and relaxing day!

The library is doing sort of an "employee exchange" program, where they're moving some people to different branches so they can see how things might be run differently and meet other co-workers. So now Jenny is working up at the North Spokane branch once a month. Her first day was this last Thursday, and she really enjoyed it, although it does mean a much longer commute (like 45 minutes instead of 15).

Otherwise things are going OK. Jenny had her year review at the library, which went well and got her a raise (yay!). The temperature is dropping, and even dipping to freezing occasionally, but the apartment seems to be holding the heat pretty well. Maybe those new energy-efficient windows they installed actually work.

I've been working on some commissions and tinkering with one of my comic ideas. Doing the 24 Hour Comic Challenge has definitely been an inspiration to get back to work on it - hopefully I'll have more concrete news on that relatively soon...

Jenny's been working on a bunch of cool crocheting projects, which we really need to take some pictures of and post up. It would probably help if we had a decent digital camera, since right now we have 3 old ones that all only work about half the time.

Local Arts & Crafts People: The next Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is on Sunday the 18th at Merlyns, from 3-6 pm. The next Crafty Club meeting is on Friday the 23rd at the Spokane Valley Library, and starts at 7 pm. Feel free to leave a comment if you're interested in more information.

24 Hour Comic Book Day

2009-10-06T09:24:20Z

...was Awesome!

The 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge was held this last Saturday, October 3rd, simultaneously testing artists around the world as they attempted to create a 24 page comic, from scratch, within the span of 24 hours. I made it to 17 pages, which I'm quite happy with - hopefully next year I'll make it all the way to 24!

We had a great turnout at our local venue (Spokane's Merlyns), with lots of prizes, goodies and food donated by local businesses, raffles, and even a coloring contest for kids. There were a lot of participants who showed up for a few hours and had to leave, but I was one of the few die-hards who stayed for the whole 24 hours (in our case the official time was 10:30 am Saturday to 10:30 am Sunday).

The whole experience was a ton of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year. We've also got our next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild coming up on Sunday the 18th. The meeting will be at Merlyns and runs from 3-6pm. All artists and writers are welcome!

I've posted my comic up at my deviantArt page, here: My 24 Hour Comic!

And I also drew up 4 Star Wars pictures for the kids coloring contest, which you can see here: Star Wars Coloring Pics!

I Want....

2009-09-25T01:02:43Z

The Microsoft "Courier" Tablet Concept

I'm a fairly OCD person when it comes to organizing, and make lists for everything to help me remember what I'm supposed to be doing most days. Because of this, I've taken to having a little Moleskine notebook with me everywhere I go. I use it as a day-planner/calendar and also jot down notes to myself so I don't forget ideas I have.

I'm also (not surprisingly) a very visual-based person. I like making sketches, drawing out ideas, and I've often wanted a more intuitive system for digitally combining my notes, sketches and ideas into a cohesive, yet easily manipulated whole.

So when I saw the pictures and video showing the concept for the new Courier from Microsoft I was seriously geeking out. I even had an idea for something similar to this a few months ago - I then heard about Apple's rumoured tablet which sounded close to what I wanted, but wasn't quite.... and then I saw this on Gizmodo the other day.

It's obviously just in the concept stage right now, and I have no idea if/when it's released whether it will live up to my expectations. Ideally I'd like to be able to use it for sketching, finished artwork and writing, but there's no word yet on hardware specs or what software it will use, so for now I just have to wait and see. But it's definitely got my hopes up, and I'm still geeking out about it, so I'd thought I'd share... :)

Trying to Blog More Often....

2009-09-22T09:02:46Z

Nothing too crazy going on at the moment, although I did apply for a job today (Monday) that I think I've got a decent shot at. I actually applied and interviewed for the same job a few months ago, and was in the running for it, but apparently it's open again so I figured I should go for it. It's part-time at the library, and seems perfect for me, so I've got my fingers crossed.

Jenny was feeling sick today, and her throat was really sore, so she called out for both of her jobs to rest up. I stayed up really late last night getting my application ready, and then went to turn it in first thing this morning, so I was pretty exhausted too, so we both spent a good chunk of the day asleep. Exciting, I know. ;)

Yesterday was our monthly artist meeting, and this time it was a BBQ hosted by one of the members (Erik Thompson, who doesn't have a website yet, or I'd link to it because he's an awesome artist). The BBQ was a ton of fun with a lot of great food, and we ended up staying there pretty late (hence me not getting started on my application till even later).

Our group was also out at the Spokane Main Street Fair last weekend. We've got a couple of photos of us up over at our blog: Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild Blog!

The next big event for the Guild is the annual 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge, which is on October 3rd. Last year's challenge was actually what got us all together in the first place and sparked the formation of our group. Hopefully we'll end up with even more members, since we're expecting our biggest turn-out yet this year.

Otherwise, things have been going all right. The weather has been pleasant, not too hot and occasionally rainy. Us both being sick off and on is annoying, of course, but we've still been keeping busy with art & crafts stuff.

Plus the Fall TV season is starting, so we're getting all of our favorite shows back, plus a couple of potentially good new ones. Maybe I'll use an entry to just run through all the shows we're watching now, which is probably too many. But at least we don't have cable or we'd most likely be glued to the couch...

Comicsmiths at Spokane Street Fair!

2009-09-12T01:25:41Z

I've mentioned in other blogs about our local artist/writer group, which we've named the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild. We now have a blog set up for the guild, as well as a deviantArt page and Facebook group, so everyone can keep up with what's happening with the group and it's members. They're new, and very much works-in-progress, but it's a start, as we had several people asking if we had a website for the group at our last event. Here's the sites:

Comicsmiths' Guild

deviantArt Page

Facebook Group

Members of the Comicsmiths' Guild will be at Merlyns tomorrow (Saturday the 12th) after 3pm as part of the Sustainable September Main Street Fair!

We'll be drawing free sketches for kids between 4-6 and taking sketch commissions for others. There should also be a variety of prints and original artwork for sale as well. If you're a Spokane local, swing by and say Hi, meet the Guild and pick up some art!

In addition to the Guild, Merlyns will also be host to local members of the 501st Legion from 2-4pm. Get photos of yourself with stormtroopers and more of the Galactic Empire's finest!

The Street Fair will also feature live music, entertainment, sustainabilty info, kids activities, bike tune-ups, food and fun! In the street - 0 block of West Main, 3-8pm.

Also, I'm still sick, or maybe sick again, I'm not sure. I had what I think was a sinus infection about a month ago, before I got my wisdom teeth out. I think I shook that, but now I've got some cold-type thing. I've been a wreck the past couple of days, sleeping for 1/2 the day, wiped out with no energy, head stuffy, runny nose and sneezing, and my throat's been really rough and scratchy. Fun.

So it's been a lot of rest and juice and soup, and not much getting the things done that I need/want to do. The sooner I'm over this the better....

Local Comics & Games News

2009-08-19T10:37:31Z

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild. It was a good time, and fairly productive, with some brainstorming done regarding the upcoming 24 Hour Comic Book Day event and discussion of various projects. Not sure on the exact date of the next SCG meeting - we're going to try to meet more often, so the next meeting may not be at Merlyns or on a Sunday.

The Marvel Birthday event we sketched at did make it into the Coeur d'Alene paper, and one member, my friend Matt Nelson, got his picture and name featured on the front page! That was, of course, incredibly cool, but unfortunately there wasn't any actual mention of the SCG group. Here's the full article: The Coeur d'Alene Press

I've been thinking about working on painting miniatures again - I haven't touched any minis or paints in months, but I've been looking through my gaming books and thinking about working on an army again. I'm sure hanging out at Merlyns and being surrounded by games and gamers probably has something to do with it as well.

Not sure when I'll get back into it, but I have been looking at gaming websites for the first time in ages, trying to catch up on new releases. In my internet browsing I also discovered that Gamer's Haven, the awesome game store in Idaho that tragically burned to the ground, is going to re-open in October! The store was originally in Coeur d'Alene (I even briefly worked there), and the new location will be in neighboring Post Falls (in the Outlet Mall along I-90). The new shop is scheduled to open October 1st, and I'm sure I'll swing by and check it out. :)

In other news, I think I might be coming down with something. My head's hurt pretty much all day (slightly less after some DayQuil and Aspirin), and I've just felt cruddy, like I have no energy. Hopefully I'll shake whatever it is quick, 'cause it's annoying...

Happy Birthday to the House of Ideas!

2009-08-12T10:42:39Z

Tuesday was the big Marvel Comics 70th Birthday Bash, with comic shops across the country celebrating with store events. A few artists from our local Spokane Comicsmiths Guild were at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID for the event, drawing free sketches of Marvel characters for customers.

There was also raffles and giveaways of exclusive comics, a giant birthday cake, and Spiderman and Captain America showed up as well. :)

The whole thing was a lot of fun. My friends and I were there from 6-10 and were drawing pretty much the whole time. Unfortunately, I only got photos of a few of my sketches (there was a Shadowcat I was really happy with - wish I'd got a shot of that). I posted the few that I did get over on my My deviantArt Page and one of those is posted below.

Participating were myself and:

Local Creators Please Note:

The next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild will be at Merlyns, this Sunday the 16th at 3pm.

Today is Pleasant

2009-08-08T00:25:56Z

In fact, it's the first time in weeks that we've had both the A/C and the fan turned off and it's still comfortable. We had an awesome thunder shower last night that dumped buckets of rain, and there's actually a nice breeze today. Very pleasant, indeed.

Saw on-line that Fairbanks finally got some much needed rain as well. Hopefully it'll keep up and help squelch all the smoke they've had to deal with from the fires up there. Of course, the timing of the rain is not too surprising for those of us who are from Fairbanks, as the fair starts today... ;)

Speaking of the fair, our friend Tigger (aka AlX Hurlbut) has a booth this year and will be selling prints of her photography. Any locals who are going, be sure to stop by and check out her photos & say Hi (and buy something!).

Also, this will be my friend Ellen's (of Ellen Million Graphics) last year selling at the fair. She's closing down the Gift Shop portion of her website, and expanding her business in other directions. So drop by her booth as well, to find out what's happening in the wide world of EMG and grab some of the cool Gift Shop merchandise that might be gone soon!

Today was Too Short

2009-08-05T06:10:27Z

Or rather, yesterday was too long...

I've been stuck on this sleep schedule for a while now, since I haven't had a day job, where I stay up till 4 or 5 am and sleep till noon or 1pm every day. I've been wanting to break myself of it, so last night, since I was drawing and still awake, I just decided to stay up. I thought maybe I'd just stay up all today, go to bed at a decent hour tonight and get up nice and early tomorrow.

But it didn't work. Unfortunately, I just can't do the stay-up-for-36-hours-straight thing anymore. So I fell asleep this morning and slept for a bit, woke up this afternoon, and was kind of a wreck for the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll still get a good night's sleep tonight and everything will work itself out.

We've got haircut appointments tomorrow at 9am, so I'll have to wake up early anyway.

Today was a Good Start to the Week

2009-08-04T05:46:38Z

Took care of some much needed chores: laundry, dishes, some cleaning, and bill paying. Got started on another commission and brainstormed some other ideas. I think this week will be a bit more productive than some recent ones...

We always have problems with wasps making nests in the eaves of the apartment building - I had the maintenance people come by earlier in the summer and take some of the super bug spray to the one's by our windows. But now we've got a giant nest in the stairwell outside our apartment. I put in a work order for them to do something about it - hopefully they've got a tall ladder.

Oh, and a while back I had posted a few of those daily Avengers sketches I was doing. Well, I finished my A to Z list. They're all up on my deviantArt page (http://piotrov.deviantart.com), and just for fun I stuck them all together in one big image. You can click on the image for a bigger version:

Today was Relaxing

2009-08-03T06:32:26Z

Relaxing, though mostly unproductive.

I slept in and did a bit of work on the computer, and Jenny worked at the library as usual. We spent the evening over at her parents' place catching up on all the cable TV shows we missed from the past week and eating Mexican food. So yeah, nothing much exciting, but it is a pretty typical lazy Sunday for us.

We have started going on walks every night, in a very slow attempt to get back to being more active. As long as we go later, say after 10, the temperature's actually fairly comfortable. We really need to get in shape, so it's a start...

Today was Hot

2009-08-02T05:45:44Z

It's been unseasonably hot up here in the Pacific Northwest, with the Seattle area already hitting record breaking temperatures. It's been in the steady 90's over on our side of the state, which is still hotter than normal, but today was rediculous. According to Google it hit 104 and I know the one time I looked at the thermometer outside the apartment it said it was 100 here.

Needless to say, we're hiding inside as much as possible. The A/C is on and our fridge is stocked with lots of iced tea and cold beer. We had a delicious grilled chicken salad for dinner tonight, and are trying to keep from cooking or eating anything hot, although we did turn on the oven to bake cookies. Of course, it was worth it. :)

Otherwise, I spent the day working on commissions and will probably be up late tonight writing, hopefully getting some more of the plot of my superhero comic figured out. The plan is to start serializing it as a webcomic, and eventually collect it in print. I'm still not sure when I'll actually get it on-line (since I'm still writing and haven't started drawing it yet), but I'd like to have the first collection ready by next March to sell at the Emerald City Comic-Con. Something to shoot for, at least...

Con-Current

2009-07-23T22:02:50Z

This week is the big Comic-Con down in San Diego; from what I hear it gets crazier and less about comics each year, but I'd still love to get to see it eventually. Maybe Jenny and I can make it there for an anniversary or something. We still haven't taken a real honeymoon, so that's always a possibility. :)

I do know a few people who will be at the Con, including local artist/writer Lars Brown, who's the creator of Northworld and is a member of our Spokane Comicsmiths Guild group. Apparently he'll be splitting his time between the Image and Oni Press booths, so if you're at SDCC take some time to swing by, say hi, and pick up one of his books!

Possibly the coolest event at SDCC is one not listed on the website - for the first time, two comic artists will actually be getting married at the convention on Sunday! Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon met in person at SDCC five years ago and decided to tie the knot at the same place. The two initially met through the Digital Webbing comics community - a website I probably spend entirely too much time on, but through which I've met some really great people.

Also, my photographer friend Tigger (aka AlX) will have a booth at the 100 Years of Motorcycles festival at the Spokane Fairgrounds this weekend, where she'll be selling her prints. Jenny and I have been helping her get ready and matting her prints the past few days. Any locals who are going to the be at the show, be sure to check out her photos (and buy something!).

Happy Anniversary!

2009-07-17T01:16:54Z

Yesterday was the 2 year wedding anniversary for Jenny and I, and also marked 6 years since we started dating! Jenny took the day off from work and we slept in for most of the morning.

We'd originally planned on going out for dinner, walking around downtown and seeing the new Harry Potter, but it was back to being stupidly hot again, and neither of us really wanted to go outside. So we cranked up the A/C, cooked a nice big dinner and watched a movie we hadn't seen yet. Not too exciting, but much cooler, more relaxing, and a lot cheaper than going out...

The movie we watched was Defiance, which I'd highly recommend. Set during World War II, it's based on a fascinating true story about Jewish brothers who end up becoming resistance fighters. They protect other Jews from the Nazis and build a secret community for refugees in the forest.

This Sunday is the monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, 3pm at Merlyns. Friday the 31st is the next Crafty Club, which Jenny organizes through the Spokane County Library. Any locals who are interested in either group, please leave a comment and we can provide more information!

A Few Things...

2009-07-14T10:05:31Z

...since I haven't blogged in a while:

The 4th of July was good - we just headed over to Jenny's folks' place and relaxed and had lots of barbeque. Jenny also went to a beading exhibit at the fairgrounds with her mom, and picked up a bunch of cool stuff she can use in her jewelry making. We didn't stick around for the fireworks spectacular, since we got stuck in the traffic trying to get out of CdA last year and didn't want a repeat experience. Instead we got out early and still heard plenty of illegal fireworks going off around here.

It's cooled off a bit over the past few days, and even rained some. We were over in CdA on Sunday and got to see an awesome lightning storm, but all we got here was a tiny bit of thunder off in the distance.

There's still some cold/flu type bug going around, and we think Jenny brought it home from work and gave it to me. I'm sure it's nothing major, but it's still annoying. The heat saps enough energy from me as it is, and this certainly doesn't help.

Jenny's taking the day off from work this Wednesday, as it's our 2 year wedding anniversary. We don't have anything big planned, although we're thinking of walking around downtown and going to Riverfront Park. The new Harry Potter film also comes out that day, so we'll be seeing that if nothing else. :)

I've been attempting to write more than draw lately, as I want to get to work on these 2 different comic ideas I've got and figure it'd help to actually have a story to draw before I dive in.

For the past couple of weeks I have been doing daily sketches of The Avengers and posting them on my deviantArt page. I started with Ant-Man and am working my way through the alphabet, drawing one character per letter. Here's the first 9, and the rest can be seen here: http://piotrov.deviantart.com

Weekend Update + Comic Stuff

2009-06-29T08:21:31Z

Things have been going well enough, if not particularly exciting. But then, I guess that's nothing to complain about.

Jenny had her dentist appointment on Friday; she hadn't gone quite as long as I since her last check up, but it'd still been about 10 years. But she had nothing to worry about, as her teeth were in fine shape - no cavities or problems.

It's back to feeling like summer, with temperatures in the 80's and up to 90. Looks like more of the same this week, so I'm thinking we'll be breaking down soon and turning on the A/C. Which means higher electric bills. Yay.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, the group of local artists and writers that was formed after last year's 24 Hour Comicbook Day. We've begun planning for the next 24HCBD, which this year falls on October 3rd and will again be hosted by local shop Merlyns. We also discussed some other possible plans for this coming year which unfortunately are only in the discussion stage, so I won't go into details yet.

And, of course, we also sat around and drew. I began sketching out designs for another character in my Fight City superhero comic - a super-genius crime boss known as "Brains" McBannon. I think these are the closest so far to what I want:

Weekend Update

2009-06-22T07:51:04Z

I think I've ingested enough cake to last me for a while...

Jenny had her Crafty Club Friday evening, and since Sunday was her birthday, one of the people brought a cake, which she had leftovers to take home. Then on Saturday we went over to Tigger and Lincoln's for a barbeque and birthday celebration for Jenny & I and Lincoln's daughter Elizabeth. There was more cake there, and since Elizabeth was turning 15, the house was quite a madhouse of sugar-crazed teenagers. But the food was good and it was still a lot of fun, even while dodging crazy kids.

Sunday we headed over to CdA and Jenny's mom had made a cake for us as well. They also surprised us with presents and took us out for Mexican for dinner. All in all, a good (and fattening) weekend!

Weather's been pretty nice (in our opinion) the past couple of days, which means grey, cool and wet. We even got quite the show the other night from the lightning storm that rolled in. Hopefully we won't have as dry of summer as last year - no need for more wildfires.

Quick Weekend Update

2009-06-01T19:54:01Z

Went to the Spokane Comic-Con on Saturday, which was an awesome show and a whole lot of fun. We had planned on getting there when the doors opened, but got off to a slow start and ended up there around Noon, staying till the end.

I'm definately going to have a table there next year, and plan to have at least one of my comics started with some related material to sell. Jenny and I are talking about sharing a table, so she can show off her art as well. Figure that prints of her paintings would sell, and her jewelry should also go over well.

After the Con, we went out to dinner with some friends who were at the show and met a bunch of other cool artist/comic folks as well. All in all, it was a fun day!

I've got a bunch of different projects (mostly art but also writing & other things) to work on right now, so I should have no problem keeping myself busy. Just have to get moving and deal with this heat sapping my energy... I thought I was ready for summer, but I guess not.

Arts & Crafts in Spokane

2009-05-26T08:22:30Z

Anyone who might be in the area this Saturday (May 30) should be sure to check out the 3rd annual Spokane Comic-Con, being held at the Spokane Falls Community College from 10-5.

Jenny normally works on Saturdays, but was able to get the day off, so we plan on spending the whole day there just hanging out and being geeks (next year I hope to have a table there myself...). Several of my friends will be there, however, so be sure to swing by their tables and check out their work. You can find a lot of them on deviantArt:

Ben Hansen
Jesse Acosta
Lars Brown
Levi Skeen
Matt Nelson

More information about the convention can be found here: Spokane Comic-Con

Also this weekend (Friday through Sunday) is Spokane Art-Fest, the annual arts and music fair, sponsored by Spokane's Museum of Arts & Culture. You can find out more about it here: Spokane Art-Fest

And finally, Jenny also has her Crafty Club meeting on Friday, which she organizes through the library (where she works). Needless to say, we plan on being pretty busy this weekend, but it should be a lot of fun!

Blogging Catch Up

2009-05-23T22:13:58Z

I haven't blogged (or even Twittered) in a while, so just wanted to start remedying that:

Jenny and I have both been sick off and on the past few days - sinus stuff and head aches, but thankfully no real flu. I also did something to my back last week which I'm still slowly working out. Probably wouldn't have seemed as bad if I hadn't got sick at the same time.

It seems Summer has arrived. It's been blue skies and sunny, and in the 70s the past few days. Still pleasant and not horribly hot yet. Just a matter of time, though...

I might have some temp work lined up at Borders next month. They're apparently doing a big re-organization of the store and will need some people to do overnight work for a while, moving stuff around, which would be perfect. I'd love to get back on with them, if even part-time, but they haven't had any regular hours to spare. I'm friends with the store manager, though, so if something opens up I'm sure I'll hear about it (which is how the temp job came up).

In the meantime, I've been trying to throw myself into art and also starting to write again. I want to get my superhero comic back on track soon, so I can start it up as a web-comic. I'm also working on a second, completely separate, project which I'm hoping to do something similar with.

We're still way behind on TV shows from this season, with the last few episodes of a few of our favorite shows still taped and waiting to be watched. We have been watching a lot more movies than normal, as Jenny's dad has been taking us out to see some of the big summer blockbusters he also wants to see. Besides Wolverine and Star Trek, we saw Angels & Demons last wednesday and are looking forward to the new Terminator movie this week. I wasn't really impressed by The Da Vinci Code, and mainly just wanted to see Angels & Demons for all the art and architecture that's shown, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was incredibly rediculous, but entertaining.

Also, both of our birthdays are coming up relatively soon, although we don't really have any plans or ideas for what to do. Probably nothing too exciting, due to lack of money, but I'm sure there will be cake involved. :)

Wolverine Re-Design

2009-05-16T20:36:24Z

Here's my entry for the current contest running over at Project: Rooftop. This one was to design a new costume for Wolverine, to go along with the release of his recent movie.

I tried to make a somewhat "realistic" outfit for him, inspired somewhat by the X-Men movie costumes and those designed by Frank Quitely during his and Grant Morrison's run on the New X-Men comic.

This was actually the second design I came up with. My first attempt can be seen over at my deviantArt page: Discarded Wolverine Design

Speaking of Wolverine, I did see his new movie last week and it was... OK. Not great, but still entertaining. Some good action scenes, with a couple of CGI bits that could have been improved. But I did like it more than the last X-Men movie, so I guess that's something.

We also saw the new Star Trek, and it was excellent! JJ Abrams did a great job of re-starting the series for a new generation, while not erasing or stepping on any of the stories that came before. Well worth seeing in the theatre - I hope the inevitable sequels will be just as good.

Hot Water

2009-05-06T20:51:21Z

They replaced our hot water heater yesterday, even though we got a new one last March and it worked fine. But that must not have been recorded, and the powers-that-be had already decided we were up for a new one. I tried to dissuade them, to save everyone the hassle, but they went ahead anyway.

On the brightside, it didn't take them near as long to replace it this time (last one they were here nearly all day for some reason). Maybe this guy just knew what he was doing. He said that the old one was going to Habitat for Humanity, so at least it's hopefully going to someone who needs it.

However... there were two guys who showed up first to drain the old one, and Jenny said she heard one of them complaining that he hated working when people were actually home. So they hooked up the hose to the old heater, ran the hose down the stairs outside, and left it to drain while they went to eat lunch. Oh, and the front door was propped open by the hose!

So our thought was - would they have done the same if we hadn't been home? Just left our front door open and walked away? I doubt they would've hung out and waited for it to drain. Thankfully a different guy came back to do the actual work, who seemed a lot nicer and way more competent.

Also, my wisdom tooth above the one I had removed has been hurting really bad over the past week or so, and needs to come out. My appointment's on Friday. Yay.

Wolverine Sketches

2009-05-03T21:12:56Z

To try to make it fair for the kids receiving sketches on Free Comic Book Day, we decided beforehand to have a standardized size and use 6" x 6" bristol pages for all of them. So, as practice I've been doing warm-ups in my sketchbook for the past week or so at the same size and trying to speed up my drawing while keeping things simple.

Here's a few Wolverines, all done in about 10 minutes each or so, with blue pencil and Sharpies. I only ended up drawing one Wolverine on FCBD. But honestly, before this, I really hated drawing him (which should be apparent from the awkwardness of a couple of the sketches). So at least I got some practice.

It's good practice, and I'll probably try to keep at it, as well as scan some more of the warm-ups later....