05032008

Alrighty Then!

Well this is sort of a little note to the God dude upstairs. This summer is going to be really hectic so I thought I would jot a little note and try and instill a sense of serenity before things get nutty. LOL!

Boooooooook Coooooooverrrrrr!

I hear these words in some sort of slow motion slur in my head as I try to become unglued so that I can proceed forward and get my next project done. I think that there is going to be more sketching in my future. This is what I have so far.

Interesting Aggravated

Yeah that pretty much sums things today. Its okay tomorrow is tomorrow. I have been jamming for ideas on a book cover. Grrrrr! I need a vacation (5min) to get centered, focus and get back on track, and this weather isnt helping. This is what I have for now. till later...

New Ideas

Things have been chaotic lately in a good way. I think this is just what school is going to do with my ability to crank out my ideas. Its okay they are still all up there and thats what sketch books are for. Right now I am sitting on like 40 songs. I also want to do some painting and work on another cartoon and the comedy sock puppet thing... yeah. My fans are getting restless. Well anyone that really knows me knows that music is a big thing. My band does mostly just hard rock metal stuff but I write solo in all genres. This new one is definitly folk/country flavored. Maybe I will get a rough recording down this weekend. I have been thinking about nature and wildlife alot too. I think the book cover I will redesign will have something to do with this. Thats all for now, till later...

Coffee or Circle?

I have been experimenting with trying to draw only using straight lines to try and push myself. Its not too good and trying to come up with ideas other things have been getting in the way... like too much coffee... yeah. Thats bout it. Till later...

Sometime (thoughts this day)

3-25-08

 

Here is some sketches I have been working on for class. Its for a spanish tile exersise. I was trying to work with abstracting the idea a bit. I will have to wait for some feed back before I decide if this is how I proceed.

  Well Spring Break wrapped up recently. I was busy the whole time working on music and playing shows. I guess you could say that it was fun work. I am definitly sore from all the load in's and out's.

 I did get to spend time with my family. The only thing is that my dog is getting old. He pretty much just sleeps all the time now. I did still manage to have some fun though. till later...

Working Vaction

Yeah so like spring break starts next week. Its basically going to be a working vaction. Thats okay I should still have some fun.

Here today...

As the man walked acrost the desert he came upon a butterfly. He wondered how it got there and if it was lost. Upward he looked smiled and continued to move along. Tommorow is another day. Sometimes things end up where they are supposed to, sometimes they do not. You may never know untill the journey is over.

Sick, sick ,sick

I hate germs. My mom warned me about them when I was 5 but do I remember now? No! I hate being this sick. usually cough and cold isnt too bad but this stinks. You would think someone would have come up with something better by now. I guess this is how they keep sucking money out of us though. LOL. Well I am sure I will be better soon. My sickness influenced with weeks sketch. Hope you like it. 

till later... :)

Evil White Man Story

I just finished another stupid cartoon. I will try and post it here when I can.

till later...

Well while that is doing what its doing here is something that I just finished today, well at least one of them it is a sketch for an ad I am trying to revamp. It is for a roofing contractor, not very sexy I know but its an assignment. Here it is...

Drained, tired, wore out, FUN!!!

Oohh good golly Mr internet I feel so tired..... Ya da ya da ya da!

I dont think I have brain fry right now cause well, I think its gone for the moment. I nearly pulled an alnighter last night cause of a late night at work and then I needed to go over some stuff cause I had two tests the next day. Its cool though...

No class tommarrow! I'm finishing the art for my band's CD, did my homework (I think properly) and now I am going to eat something solid and like think about sheep and stuff. Its easy to stay out of trouble when you are this hard, unless you are married, I know!

This sketch was done with the premise that I was going to go out tonight and have some fun. Well, er uh, I guess I will be having fun indoors... sleeping. Its cool cause it is for some reason. I had a thought but now its gone. LOL! Well enjoy the sketch maybe some day I will be famous and get paid to sleep in. LOL

till later...

Eat or be Eaten

Well my warm fuzzy feeling for school is gone for the moment. I am have total fun learning new stuff but my Drawing Class is making me want to walk away at the moment. I am not a realistic drawer. Never have and never want to be. My skills have gotten alot better but it never seems to be enough. I feel like I am on a mission to feed this hunger inside but something else is eating me up. So I did a really quick and angery sketch.

Hopefully I will at least pass this drawing class so I dont have to take it over. If I do I am definitly looking for a different teacher. Maybe I can find someone that will appreciate my efforts. I do try really hard. Oh well, where are the waffles?

Stupid Cartoons

I have been brainstorming and have come up with like 5 new ideas for the stupid cartoons I do. I dont know why people like them, but they make people laugh and I have fun making them. There should be more laughing in the world. Here is a rough sketch of one of my new characters.

His name I think is going to be quack man. Well if you havent ever seen any of my cartoons before here is one but dont take it too serious. Its all in fun. till later...

Late night fiddling

Well its late, and I am very very very very very very very tired. LOL!!!! I was having so much fun checking stuff out on the net that I lost track of time. I will probably be a zombie tomorrow. I am learning tons of new stuff and can't wait to apply it to my studies and my fun type activities. Well, I am starting to zone out. Here is a sketch that I started fiddling with in Illustrator. I will hopefully finish it and get it posted up here. till later....

ZZZZZZZZZ

Busy Friday

Well friday was busy. Class, study, Class, Study, Class, quiz, rehersal, study, work, and then I finally passed out. I did this sketch actually on Thursday. I was trying to come up with some art for my bands new cd and I was stuck hard core. I went to art class early to try and work out some ideas in my sketch book, then whamo!!! I got this idea for a photo, so since I was there anyway I put my new pen to paper. Usually I use a sharpie cause I like how they bleed but I got this new pen and decided to try it out. Here it is...

Where I Want To Be

Things can get really crazy sometimes. These last couple of weeks especially. I feel like I have been running and running and running. I love it. I really do love it. I used to have a job that where I had to go non-stop. Since I moved to Urbana my life ground to a halt. It was nice for a while because I got to work on my music and writing and cartoons nonstop. I was busy but there was little purpose. Now I run nonstop and I feel like I am getting some where.

So where do I want to go? (Don't try this sentence in ENG class)

Well I hit a bit of a brick wall for sketch ideas as of late. Unsure of what to do pen went to paper and and lines were drawn. Looking at the page the vision of desire was apparent. Here it is...

It is my desire for the future. It looks a bit funny looking at it but all the images have thier place. Sure I look like a complete nerd here but deep down I am. The big thing is that I am still realitivly thin so I am in shape. There used to be a nature preserve near my home town. Trees are everywhere except where. It would be nice to live some where I could have some trees in my yard. The toadstool and the symbol in the middle represent my music. No matter how old I want to create music. Also there is a table with some paint brushses in the bottom middle. I am not a painter but the form is something that I want to rediscover. Actually there are many things I would like to learn more about but there was no room for them all so I settled on a table and paint brushes.

Well thats all for now too much work to do. till later....

Scattered

Its been a really full weekend. I got 2 new songs done, finished a cartoon, and made the rounds on all other sorts of stuff. I guess this is why this sketch is a bit all over the place. I was thinking aobu the Super Bowl and all the ads that will be playing this evening. I can't wait. I am not really a football fan per se but its interesting once in a while. (plus my room mate has command of the remote today LOL)

 Well I have mentioned my cartoons before. I will say this. YOU CANNOT TAKE THESE SERIOUSLY. It is all meant in humor and fun. Well here is my latest and I hope you think it is funny. These started in some long standing inside jokes but other people seem to like them so I started putting them out. The rest are on here...   www.myspace.com/meekoband

Tomatoe/ Tamatoe, Potatoe/Patatoe

Its really cool to learning new things. Sometimes, yeah its frustrating, but overall it is way cool. I have some really good friends. Most mess around with graphic design stuff. My thing was always messing with comedy stuff or music/song ideas and picture/video. I was never really an expert at anything but it was alright cause whenever I had a question I could just always ask one of my friends for help. Well most of them are so busy any more that I have to wait and wait. It will be nice that now when I get an idea in my head I can just flush it out myself instead of having to wait for one of my pals to come around. I will be stoked as well when I can quit my current job and start a career. I don't care what it is as long as I don't have deal with what I am now. It just stinks that it takes so long to get through some of this stuff. I cant wait to learn how to do it all. HA HA HA.... LOL. Anyway here is a sketch of me thinking about everything that I want to attain.

This is me sitting in my "closet" working on my computer. I messed with the pic a bit. I can't wait to figure out this photo shop thing more. I really wish there was 50hrs in a day. till later...

Where am I?

I really don't know. I guess I totally forgot that I had voluntered at my Moms church today. This is why I like technology but I hate it at the same time. There are so many things I can do now that I couldnt before but my life gets so crammed with things that have a hard time keeping things straight. I think its serious time to start using my cell to its fullest capacity and start setting reminders for myself. I never thought that I would forget appointments like this one. Makes me wonder if I forgot anything else. If only Rememberals really existed. till later...

Square Peg Round Hole...

Thats kind of how I feel today. There just isnt enough time let alone enough energy. I love all the things that I do. The only thing is that I wish I had a proper office to work in. Sitting on a drum throne in front of my laptop on a kitchen thingy in a closet is not really... uh... ideal. LOL!!! I miss the days when I had room, room, room galore to spread out and work on my ideas. I guess this is what they mean by roughing it... or may not. I have been trying to jam on ideas for all kinds of projects right now but I got a spell of "Block" and "Second Guessing". I know that I just need to write/create through this. Just keep going and good stuff will come. Change the scenery, drink some coffee, and when all else fails watch C-SPAN cause that either inspires me or puts me in a bad mood, either way I get inspired as a protagonist or as an antagonist.

One thing is for sure... there is never enought time. I wish I had more hours in a day or that I never got tired. ITS'S LIKE TRYING TO PUT A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE AT TIMES. Its frustrating when you got ideas or things you need/wish to complete but your body is like, "Whoa dude you gotta like lay down or something right now cause I aint doing this no more", yes my body has bad grammar. LOL

Well the day is fresh and young and I'm off to the gauntlet. till later...

Yeah okay... ummm

1. Well the last couple of days have been interesting. I got some bad news that ended up not being that bad. (dodged bullet here)

2. I got to have some quality family time with my parents.

3. Ate way too much eating out too many times.

4. Read till my eyeballs felt like they were going to fall out.

5. Worked on some new music, worked on some old music, and talked about music as little as possible.

6. Ate way too much at a friends invite for dinner.

7. Got suckered into "engineering" a friends recording session.

Hmm... Well I got some bad news that the family dog has cancer. He is a cute dog named buster and I was sad that he was ill. My mother and I though both thought that my father would take it especially bad cause since I have been gone the dog is now the defacto "kid" to bond with, so I rushed home to be there when my father recieved the news. He took it rather well, so that was good. We went out to eat, ate way too much Cracker Barrel, spent the night and then ate too much Lone Star the following day. I think my mother is in that... "He looks thin lets fatten him up", sort of moods. None the less I got to have some good quality family time that I have been missing so much lately. Since I was spending the night and I had all my school stuff with me I took advantage and did some reading.

I never much cared for reading much before. It all just seemed boring and I would have rather been out doing something instead of reading about it. I got through my Art History and Graphic design assignments with ease and was pleasently suprised how each complimented the other. Next up was my assignment for English Comp. Grrr!!!, but no, it actually wasnt that bad. It was an interesting article about the Earth's available drinking water supply. The article was rather indepth and very informative. Not only was I reading to complete an exersise but I was becoming informed on an interesting topic that was making me think.... in a pleasent way. I wish I could sum it up for you here but its rather indepth. If you are curious just ask me.

As for the music stuff well that is another animal. I FINALLY got notes back from my drummer on the mixes that I gave him for our next cd (my band C.P.X.). I was pleasently suprised that there were very few. I think I put in like 50 million hours working on that disc trying to make it sound as best I could. If he would have come back with a laundry list of corrections I think I would have just.... (insert something unpleasent here). I have been working on a new tune for my solo rantings (Toadstoole'). Those songs are a lot more carefree. They are basically demos of all the musical ideas in my head that I flush out. Then my drummer from C.P.X. will come along and go, "I like this one, this one and oh yeah that wierd one too", then we rehearsh those, spruce them up a bit and play them live.

I went over to my bosses house tonight to have dinner with her and her boyfriend. Apparently I passed on some good advice and she felt in debted to feed me. Even though she is my boss I used to be hers and since I am her senior she asks for my point of view from time to time on work and realtionships. Well aparently her boyfriend thought it would be an excellent opportunity to have me help him with some of HIS music. We all ate and then he starts talking about working on some music with his friend. Next think I know he turns to me and says, "Hey you coming?", so off down the hall I went. He is just getting started and so it was nice to be in the room and remember what trying to get that first song done was like. I was merely a fly on the wall pushing buttons and speaking up when they asked my advice. Overall it was a pleasant evening and I am sure that I will get pulled in for a full on recording session here in the near future.

So thats my weekend... so far, I still have tomorrow. I will finish my reading, answer the questions, complete my "negative space" drawing and bustle on to school the following day, and I am tired of ranting for now so till later....

1-18-08 Staying in?

Its days like these I wish I had online classes. :) I woke up fine but once I got to moving around my stomach started to disagree. I guess it thought it was to early to get up today. Well anyway i will be a light day because I only have one class. Then off I jet home to visit family. Yeah!!!! This means I will get to visit my dog Buster. He is always bouncing to see me. Acutally he bounces to see anyone but I still like to visit. I have been trying to finish up some music for my solo work called Toadstoole'. People ask why "Toadstoole'" and not just Toadstool or Toad stool. Well those names were already taken and I didnt want to change the name that much. Ha ha... Toadstoole' I just sit around the house and work on music. It can go in any direction but it mostly in the rock/ hardrock genres. I have been chomping at the bit to learn some piano and drums so that I can do something really different, but time will tell. I guess the reason I chose the name was so that people wouldnt get a predisposition of what the music sounded like. I have been chatting with one of my friends for sometime now to come up with a logo for that project but I rarely get to see him anymore since I have moved. I guess I could always do it myself. I have no idea what a toadstool is supposed to look like. Here is my best guess. I hope everyone has an interesting weekend. till later...

Opening The Imagination

1-16-08

Well I had an idea to try and flush out some ideas for personal reasons before I become inundated with assignments... that I am sure will be fun too.

For sometime now I have been doing filling my free time entertaining my friends. I don't exactly remember the flow of events but I invented a sock puppet called "Meeko". I think originally I just did it for a laugh, a sock puppet that I made in like 5 minutes. I made a quick video and the next thing I knew I had a bit of a following. I never felt the need to do a drawing of Meeko since she is already visual but hey, maybe I could do a logo for her myspace page. Ha Ha Ha!!!!

Maybe not. Anyway here is a rough sketch of Meeko.