Let's go for a ride.

Man. It's been one hell of a week for me. Heck, it's been one hell of a year... But the year isn't over yet so I'll wait 'till the end of it to figure out how it all went. News of the week, though, is that I quit my job. Yes, nearly a year and a half after becoming employed at that wretched hellhole of a torture dungeon Panera Bread, I finally managed to snag a space somewhere else and quit. I'm not sure I'll like this job that much since it's not something I've ever even considered doing before, but I'm hoping that it will at least pay the bills... Something Panera consistently failed to do. I'm finishing up my training for them this week before heading off to North Carolina for my second wedding ever, whereupon my return I will immediately begin working. I'm going to be nervous as hell until that first paycheck comes in, though... I'm kind of down to my last $5, which I borrowed from a friend to keep enough gas in my tank to get around. Basically the only good thing to have come from the bread mines are some really, really good friends that I would go completely mad without.

I think of all the horrible things that Panera did to me, the worst was kill my spirit. But I got it back, now... And I've been up to no good.




Most of it involves this guy. And yes, I know that turning your neck a bit to see something is a bit cruel of me but... well... I'm lazy. And working on something. Specifically, I'm working on a book about an adventure that this guy has. Interestingly enough, he was created late one Panera morning while dreading the horrible harpy shriek of the ovens, demanding to be tended to and have their guts constantly stuffed with an endless stream raw dough. A couple of months ago, I got the ability to doodle back sort of suddenly. I started losing myself in ink splotches and scribbles and those spirals and squiggles you make when your pen isn't working because after quite a few months of being ignored... Well... My pens weren't really working. Actually, now that I think of it I should probably go and clean those suckers out. Anyway, I squeaked out a tiny little drawing of an extremely excited bunny kid wearing a pair of pajamas and, for some reason, couldn't let him go. Maybe it was because he looked like he could take on the world and I wanted so terribly to do so myself at that moment, or maybe it's because I thought his smile was goofy and it got me going a bit... Or maybe it's just because he was in some secret part of my head, waiting for the moment to escape... Whatever the reason, the night he was made was the night I found his story and just couldn't stop thinking about it. I've got some more sketches, some comp pages, and half of a pencilled page but... I think I'll keep stringing you along for a bit before giving them up. In the meantime, here's another shirt I entered into that contest. This one's called "oh, shiiiiiiip..."




I'm really enjoying thinking in positives again. :)

A day full-o-junk mail.

This morning I wake up and check my e-mail to find about 30 brand new junk mails that have slipped through the cracks of my junk filters. What the heck is going on with this?! Did I sign up on some kind of list?! Ah well, at least it gets me thinkin' that I'm popular for about a second and a half, there. And who doesn't like a good "Yay, me!" moment?

But how about some art, eh?!?!?

For the UArts portfolio day event, they tasked us talented students with making the promo card to invite prospective Art Directors. Of course, in true UArts style, they gave us as little notice as possible. Well, not really, since they could have said 'SURPRISE! HAND IT IN IN FIVE MINUTES!!!" and then there would have been a lot of ink blots and random paint scribbles almost a la Pollock instead of some of the things that actually got submitted. For my piece, I originally started making something that was entirely lame. When it came time to do the finish, I just couldn't bring myself to go through with it, so I said SCREW IT. I suddenly had a desire only to draw tea parties. Of course, I had this desire exactly 24 hours before the finish was to be handed in, but... Well, I like a challenge.



The secret is that the characters actually represent people! From left to right is Rachel Burkhard, Gloria Martin, Me, Collie Mills, and my sister Nanners. And the not-so-secret is that all the cakes and cookies on the table represent different types of illustration. I'm actually pretty happy with it, and there are only a few things I'm going to change before adding it to my portfolio.

I've also been having fun doing some quick illustrations for my friend, Lorne, for whatever reason I choose at the moment. Here's one that is just as strange even if you do know the context.



This is what happens when you give me a week off of class.