Life drawing

It's going to be the last time I'm going to be able to do the Monday life drawing session at AVAA for a while since I have Japanese class those days, so I figured I should go. Nevermind all the times I could have gone quite easily and didn't.

Out of all the sketches I did, I walked away with a measly three not horrible ones. And one of them wasn't even of the model. Not proud of myself here.

I'm also finding myself increasingly annoyed by my ASUS Slate. I didn't think pressure sensitivity mattered that much to me, but that lower bound - the one between not reading and its first sensitivity level - is really important. Really can't get any subtle shading with it. Can't wait for THE artist slate to come out, whatever and whenever that may be. Or do the sensible thing and learn to draw with a pencil.

Art as a Kid

Just got finished watching a TED Talk titled Jarrett J. Krosoczka: How a boy became an artist.

I remember in what must have been elementary school writing and illustrating a book about dinosaurs. That and a creative writing class in middle school were the most fun I had at school. I even saved that exact same fortune cookie fortune that he had for some time before it became too uncool to keep it in my wallet anymore. I may even have a recording of me reciting that dinosaur book on cassette somewhere. If only I had a cassette player, I could embarrass myself by listening to it right now.

One thing I really liked in the video was when he came across Drawing Comics the Marvel Way, and his teacher told him to throw it away. This is no excuse not to keep progressing my own style and find ways to push it so I enjoy it even more, but it's an immediate weight off my shoulders, thinking like that. Art becomes less a dead responsibility and becomes fun again. The only problem being making sure I can make a living, only being able to work in my own style. It's been embarrassing, as an artist taking on freelance work, having to tell people my limitations as a digital painter. But to be honest, it's not what interests me.

One of my favorite mediums right now, which I'm still intimidated to try, is the webcomic. But another one that I've always thought I might like is children's books. In fact, I wonder if my current animation short (which has taken so long, it has stunted my work and motivation on it or on other projects) wouldn't work as an illustrated children's book as well. I think I may have to seriously consider this if I want to push myself to be more creative and prolific. I'm hesitant, considering the good animation that's gone into it, and the fact that I know I could do more good work on it in that medium. But unless I make projects smaller, I may never finish one.

Christmas 2012

Top left:	Blade of the Immortal
Middle left:	knocked off some debt
Bottom left:	The reason for the delay in posting: the gift to Margret, the soon-to-be-mother of my younger brother Ravi's child, who has been known to refer to unborn children as parasites. Her present was some baby provisions, so a reference to Aliens was in order.
Top right:	Neil Degrasse Tyson book, referencing his "We've got a badass over here" meme.
Middle right:	This one may take a bit of explaining since no one seemed to get it. My father is a Republican who listens to NPR, so I got him some NPR stuff. As a Republican, he of course feels to need to display his national pride with a giant flag, carry a shotgun at all times, and wear the Republican logo on his shirt. As an NPR listener, he wears Democratic headphones that shoot hippie symbols out of them. Also, as party lines seem to be divided between saying "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays", I felt the discordant combination of the two was appropriate.
Bottom right:	iPhone camera remote