Running around this afternoon taking care of business errands and what-not… I saw something that made me laugh out loud.

One of the banks in my neighbourhood was having a fund raiser barbeque on the sidewalk for cancer research. The staff is all there hanging out making burgers and hot dogs for anyone who donates.

The employee manning the grill happily puffed away on a cigarette, blowing streams of smoke into the air as she flipped the patties over or rolled the dogs…

…at the CANCER fund raiser.

AWESOME

Dan has been asking nicely for me to do some art for him for quite some time. I don’t tend to draw pics for friends or family very often lest they pull it out at some later date and I hate it and then hate that they still have it. 🙂

Anyways, so I finally gave in… I ask him what he wants and he gleefully replies with-

-his World of Warcraft character.

Heh. That boy is obsessed.

Anyways, here’s the pic I did up this morning:

The whole sheebang took just over an hour, as I took my rough sketch straight into Photoshop and just started painting instead of doing a clean line version.

Original rough sketch behind the cut.

And tonight’s award for random shuffle best cheesey awesome ballad goes to – Total Eclipse of the Heart

Turnaround, bright eyes…

That song will embed itself into your brain like it has nasty fish hooks. You won’t be able to get it out without some kind of psychic crowbar.

You know it to be true!

The remastering/relettering of Makeshift Miracle continues… I just finished Chapter 5 (of 8), which takes me up to page 107 (of 172). After the main story is done, I still have to do the sketch pages, introduction, credits page and final cover design. There’s no light at the end of this tunnel yet.

Still quite a bit to go, but I’ve got the process down to a rhythm so when I am able to work on it, it seems to go steadily.

Once the Previews catalogue for November is out, I’ll have full information on ordering the book at your local comic book store and/or ordering directly from me via the web.

Last couple of days have been extra groggy ones, no idea why. I was finally able to go back to an evening Life Drawing session… first one I’ve had a chance to attend in over a month. I had trouble staying awake between class end and the life drawing start, but I’m glad I went anyways. The pixie was modelling again, which was quite cool.

Here’s my best pics from the night:

I like how these bottom two look almost like they animate, with a cool attitude forming as the arms come down, the pelvis comes forward and the breasts drop slightly.

Quick portfolio tip of the day:
When sending business-type inqueries, be sure not to use a nickname or disturbing titled e-mail address.

Receiving a cocky letter from megalomaniac(bunch of numbers)@hotmail.com doesn’t fill me with confidence. That e-mail addy may have seemed funny when you first applied for it, but it’s not as endearing to a prospective employer.

I’m just sayin’. 🙂

Normally I don’t just post links to silliness, but these two really caught me off guard and made me laugh like crazy. The editing is perfect:

Darth Vader Being A Smart Ass

The James Earl Jones Sessions

Quick back story: I’ve never been a real sci-fi fan. Maybe it was my brother’s Star Trek obsession in high school that turned me off of the whole thing or just the fact that fantasy stuff seemed much more accessible and appealing to me. I never got into Star Trek (and in fact the only Trek thing I have is a copy of the Trekkies documentary because it makes me laugh like crazy), Babylon 5 didn’t grab me… the only sci-fi show I’ve ever liked was Serenity, and most of that centered around the appealing characters and cowboy attitude of it.

So…

A few weeks ago my boss at the college thrust the first season of Battlestar Galactica on me, insisting that I give it a shot. I watched the mini-series that started the whole thing off and thought it was pretty good, though the first episode almost turned me off the whole thing because it seemed gimmicky.

After finishing the rest of Season One, I’ve got to say – this is damn good stuff.

Interesting and flawed characters, a rich history to hang ideas off of, sub plots that actually seem to be heading somewhere and a pretty vicious streak for changing the status quota when the viewer least expects it. It’s not perfect, but it is very watchable and enjoyable. Even without the sci-fi trappings it’s a solid character drama, which is the part I dig into the most. Even the characters you love to hate become worth watching as the series goes on. I started to dig into Season 2 last night and am eager to see how it all evolves.

I’m sure most of you who are already enjoying it are smirking at my late arrival to the party. In any case, if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your while to hang on through the mini series and check out first season.

An artist named Jürgen Hubert has created a list of art/digital painting tutorials he’s found online. I haven’t really dug into these yet but it’s looking pretty well organized and extensive. I thought I should link them here so other artists reading my lj could take advantage of them.

Enjoy.

Page One – People and Creatures
Page Two – Objects and Landscapes
Page Three – Coloring, Drawing, Inking and other Basics
Page Four – Special Effects
Page Five – Miscellaneous & Walkthroughs