Zub Tales

A strangely wonderfully vibrant day. I’m on lunch break between my classes and wanted to post some thoughts while they were fresh in my mind.

Life Drawing was amusing and difficult at the same time. The normal instructor was away today and Werner filled in for him. Werner was late too and I started off with some gestures and seemed to hit a good stride with my line and shadow. Then, Werner came in and I felt like I was 19, back at Sheridan and useless all over again.

Werner Zimmerman was my Life Drawing instructor back at Sheridan and I’ve been conciously avoiding his classes when I drop into Life Drawing sessions here at Seneca. He knew that I was out of practice, but I was terrified that he’d see my new work and be displeased with it. Old habits die hard and Life Drawing was never a subject I felt strong about. He walked in today, called me ‘Professor Zubkavich’ and then dug in with critique on my stuff. It was embarassing and nerve wracking but good as well and reminded me of how far I still have to go with my artwork. Once my current slate of projects dies down I have to start coming to some extra evening Life Drawing sessions and kick it up a notch. I see improved gesture in my work and that’s good, but there’s always more to learn. I’ll post the best pics of the day late tonight when I get a chance to scan them in.

I left Life Drawing feeling odd… I know I’m a good instructor, but seeing my artwork under the microscope like that made me doubt my position here at the school a bit. After my Animation History lecture, that doubt was all washed away.

We did a full class analysis of the Iron Giant and it was a total joy. I’ve analyzed the film on my own, but never with an audience on the fly like this. Going over each scene, discussing the emotional beats, character connections, directing, compositions, color use, dramatic timing, use of sound and music… all of it. We kicked through it and the students had an absolute ball. By the end, the students clapped and cheered and several have already stopped me in the hall to let me know this was their favorite lecture all semester. Watching them really engage the film, understand it on a new level and leave the lecture hall so inspired was an incredible boost.

A great lecture is like a stand-up comedy act mixed with learning. Keeping the ‘audience’ engaged, interactive and teaching them at the same time is an ideal for me and I felt like I really hit that effortlessly today. It was great.

Now I’m heading into the afternoon history lecture on animation in the late 30’s. I don’t think it’ll be a knock-out like the morning class was, but I’m excited enough that I think it’ll be a little more electric than usual. This is why I love teaching.

Art post tonight… I’m off to class.

Even though my vision felt a touch blurry today and I’ve had some halos from bright lights, I rocked my eye exam today. 20+2 in my right eye and 20/15 in the left… better then 20/20 in both eyes just over a week since my surgery. The doctor was quite impressed and told me that the minor halos would come in and out as my eye heals, so it’s nothing to worry about. Very cool indeed. The cold is slowly subsiding… I almost feel human again.

Gearing up for busy times next week. Hopefully this weekend I can find a moment to revamp my website and add up a section for this life drawing stuff as well as the artwork I’ve been doing since November. It’s so much easier posting the art up here and I’ve let my website languish because of it.

It is possible to have too much nifty stuff. Unpacking the 800-900 lbs. of books I own is kicking my ass. Too many art books I don’t use enough, hardcover versions of novels I love, comic trade paperbacks and RPGs I’ve gathered. I’m a book pack rat and I want more… it’s really quite bad. If/when I get a house, I’ll really need a library room of some sort. It’ll be very nerdy, with wall-sized fantasy maps put up and sturdy bookshelves that won’t warp under the weight of my stupid collection.

The model was late today and I had class to prep for, meaning I had a slim 35 minutes to draw when all was said and done. Especially considering that, the gestures went well and I got a few decent pieces out of the session. Looks like the break week didn’t deteriorate my skills like I feared it might.

I caught a nasty cold and have been hacking my way through the week. Today looks like I’ve hit the peak of its nastiness, so I’m hoping that healing comes in short order soon. The last thing I need to hear at my eye exam tomorrow is “It seems violent coughing has shaken your eyeballs loose, Mr. Zubkavich… looks like you’ll be legally blind instead of better than 20/20.”

More next time… now is the time for sleeping and recovery. G’Night.

Media overload for the past couple days… went on a bit of a spree over the weekend. Not sure when I’m actually going to have time to enjoy all these things.

Books waiting to be read:
Digital Character Design and Painting
Sin City: The Hard Goodbye
Cartoon History Of The Universe Volume 1, 2 and 3.
The Tipping Point

RPGs to be read as well:
Werewolf: the Forsaken
Exalted: Book of Bone & Ebony
Arcana Evolved

Movies waiting to be seen:
The brand new Sin City trailer looks quite amazing.

Video Games waiting to be played:
La Pucelle Tactics
Phantom Brave

I open my eyes when I wake up and see the world clearly for the first time since I was 12 years old.

I had laser eye surgery last Wednesday. Within a few days of the procedure I had better than 20/20 vision. It may fluctuate a bit as my eyes heal over the next couple months, but everything looks like I should have 20/20 or better when it’s all said and done. Needless to say, I’m quite ecstatic.

Free from glasses. It’s the kind of confidence booster that I need as of late. I look in the mirror and I get a big smile because my sight is so crisp and real.

I wanted to make sure my parents knew before I posted this. I decided not to tell them beforehand because I’m pretty sure they would’ve gotten way too nervous about it. The kind of nervous that would’ve made me worry too. I had my doubts before the surgery, but in the end there was nothing to fear. The whole procedure was totally painless and quick. The doctors at Lasik have been fantastic and I can whole-heartedly recommend this for anyone who can afford it. I know that sounds like a cheesy commercial, but it’s all quite true. I’m actually a bit in awe of it all.

It’s something I’ve been planning for quite some time and even though we were just moved into the new apartment, Reading Week looked to be the best time for me to rest and recover from the surgery without lectures to worry about.

I have to take precautions for the next couple months, but before the summer it’ll all be finished. No more eye drops or wearing dark glasses in bright light. Perfect timing for summer weather, experiencing new things and enjoying the convention season.

Even now, it’s like a little bit of magic. I want to soak up the sights around me fully and completely.

Above the kitchen cupboards in our new place there’s about a four inch gap where the cupboards jut out from the wall. Apparently, the many people who have lived here before us have never cleaned there.

I noticed some dust clumps peeking over the edge and decided I’d stand on a chair to get a closer look… then I used a paint scraper to take off the substantial layer of pure green-grey scum that had accumulated up there. Good God, what the hell was that stuff? I have no idea how some people can live with filth like that. Bleh. That stuff was nasty enough to make me want an exocist to give it a few banishing prayers before I sent it down the garbage shute.

Oh man…. I am really glad it’s Reading Week at Seneca. Not having to teach is going to make my week almost sane.

The stuff is moved into the new place. Now comes the massive reorganizing, searching for things, making room, throwing out, adjusting and ripping your hair out that comes with settling into new digs. Without exaggerating, we’re currently moving around boxes more than hip deep over almost the entire apartment. The kitchen and bathroom are almost organized… that’s about it. The rest of the place looks like a shantytown of boxes and stuff stacked precariously at all angles. The phone is hooked up and the internet is finally working, but other than the little pocket around the computer I’ve carved out, it’s like traversing the trenches of some kind of war zone.

All things willing, I may have a cool surprise later this week. In the meantime, I’m heading back into battle against my arch-nemesis: Box-Mo.

Finally moving into the new place this weekend. We’ve had the place lined up for over a month, but even now that it’s happening it doesn’t feel real.

It’ll be really nice to settle into the new space and enjoy the uber-convenience of the subway and shops nearby. Also, having a living room for just recreation instead of using it as a pseudo-art studio space will also be quite nice.

Teaching has hit a decent stride lately. The lectures feel relaxed and confident, which is a boost that I need lately. Personal time has been introverted and self reflective as of late, but not in a bad way. Time to take stock of what works and what doesn’t internally.

Today was another short life drawing session. Here are the two best gesture drawings:

There’s some weird web comic synchronicities going on with the ol’ Makeshift Miracle. It’s given me pause and amused me at the same time.

I poked around the website on a whim, checking the server logs and seeing if it was still getting traffic. I know I mentioned Makeshift in January, but this is getting quite odd. Traffic is slowly going up now, not leveling off or decreasing. I tracked some links back and found several long forum threads from people who were raving about it. This isn’t based on any prompting from me – these are complete strangers. I’ve gotten a couple fan mails over the past month as well, which is always nice. I’m used to getting about one a month since the comic ended, but now people are e-mailing about the comic or my tutorials a couple times a week.

If the site was being updated or advertised at all, it would make more sense. It’s just sitting there and getting a strange surge of word of mouth as of late. I’m not complaining, but it is sort of odd that it’s happening now.

Digging through the links feels like reverse cyber-stalking as I check which places are linking to it. Some are in foreign languages, some are RPG fans that found my site after seeing my professional artwork and others are web comic artists who like my work or were inspired by it. I even found a Japanese-only White Wolf fansite that linked to my post about Chad eating rancid sushi as well as my site. So strange.

More digging and I find out that Scott McCloud has me listed as one of his Top Twenty best web cartoonists. It’s a weird feeling – Gratifying and honestly, a bit intimidating too.

No point to this blurb beyond that. I didn’t post this fishing for compliments, to come off unappreciative or naïve of the work I did. I just wanted to make a record of the coincidences drawing towards Makeshift lately and add that to my “maybe I should find some time to do another web comic” thought process pile.

G’Night.

I picked up and devoured a great book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s about the instant moments of thought and deliberation that we have in the instant we’re reacting to things. Quite excellent.

Life drawing was short and the entire time I was able to draw consisted of 1 minute gestures. It took me a bit to get the groove going. The two best gestures of the day weren’t as good as two weeks ago, but they’re better than last weeks disaster.

I came across some interesting web comic links and what-not that I’ll try to post about when I have more time.