Thursday, January 31, 2008

Son Saves Father

The boy brought home some art projects tonight and saved me with this fine Rooster. The assignment was to create an animal using No. 2 pencils. I asked him why he chose a Rooster:
"Because we used to have a rooster and because I thought it would look good using pencils."

Over the years at their current school, we rarely see art projects until the end of the year and usually most disappear before they even get home. So when the kids do show up with something there is great celebration.

He saved me because I've been busy with a couple side projects and with my own 'dumminess.' (I spent last evening working on a drawing/painting thing that got a little too tricky and crashed the Corel Painter program...without me ever having saved at any point. I know I know I know...but when I get in the flow I sometimes put that stuff off...and then pay the price.)

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Swirly Coldness


a little swirly coldness for you today.

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

BallPlaying Boy


For the sick LeftCoastal nephew boy and his sick Las Vegas hotel shut-in father. Get better soon, boys ... Spring is a'coming.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Traffic



A year ago I left my old job and its guaranteed 1 hour commute each way for a 25-30 minute commute each way. I'm still loving the new commute but there are still days where I roll the dice wrong and get tied up in a jam-up like this evening, watching the sun go down.

Detail (because i like it):

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

My Volcano




Oblivious to extinction.

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Last summer: Dude & dog



On a cold winter night, a snapshot from an evening last summer.

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Head to the creek

Found this angry head in the creek on our walk the other day. He was spouting off obscenities at the kids and the dog.

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Monday, January 14, 2008

Struble Trail Creature



We went for a walk on the Struble Trail above Downingtown the other day. The daughter had rushed ahead and encountered this ogre-like creature under the 30-bypass bridge. It wanted to have a poke at her but she dodged its thick pointer finger finger and ran ahead. We came up behind and the creature just kind of shrugged and resumed leaning against the underpass wall.

Now that would be a sensible reason for fencing off the Shyrock property at the northern end of the trail. If only it was that simple.

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Office Troll Dude


Tonight I was just about to shut things down at the office and head over to Victory to pick up a growler of their new Baltic Thunder Porter when the office troll popped up behind my desk and started gnawing on my display.

I said, "Dude."

You pretty much have to beat him with stapler to get him to lay off the equipment and go back to hiding under the conference room table. He likes to give you those yellowy weepy eyes as a bid for sympathy. Doesn't work on me.

It was enough of a hassle that the whole distraction put me off my post-work mission. I guess I'll head over to Victory Friday night.

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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Tasty Hot Chili


The Mrs asked me before Christmas to come up with some drawings depicting 'enjoyment of food'. This was a quick marker sketch that I vectored in Illustrator then brought back int Photoshop tonight to color it in for the blog. I was playing with a shading technique using 'dissolve' mode paintbrush in Photoshop that Bob Staake, an out-of-this-world illustrator, describes on his site.

For pure amazement check out his video on boingboing that brought him to my attention yesterday.

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Friday, January 04, 2008

Hit The Surf Redux


Ever spend all night on something thinking it was turning out one way then realize something's funky. Then you realize what's causing the funkiness and you take care of it and then the project is no longer what you thought it was. That's what happened here. But at this point, my beer is empty, I'm tired and we're all left with 'what it is.'

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Hit the Surf


In my younger days I always wanted to do one of those New Year's Day polar bear club dips in the Atlantic down the shore. Never got around to doing that. Will save that for later.

Started this over the Christmas break with the intent of filling the entire page with some line art stuff. My eyes wore out on me before I finished and I probably wont' get back to it any time soon. The family is deep in the trenches fighting off the post-Christmas cold I introduced to the household. My popularity continues to soar around here.

Happy New Year.

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