School Daze

First, my daily art:


On break at work I cleaned up the page, spotted some more black onto Robin's coat which I think really helped. Then I did my usual fun coloring out of boredom. Its nice to have colored pages in a sketchbook, its more striking, even if my coloring is pretty flat. It has been a while since I used colored pencils, I need to get into a rhythm before I start getting too creative.

Now a more imperative topic. School started today... Oh the horror. I could not fall asleep for the life of me last night. If something important is happening the next day, I can't sleep. Anyway, I woke up and got online to check out my online courses. Health and Astronomy. My Health class doesn't seem too bad, but my Astronomy seems to be a nightmare. I will have to be extra organized and assertive to accomplish my classes, art, and everything else I want to happen this quarter.
My Astronomy teacher wrote a novella worth of information. The syllabus, an intro letter, discussion questions, a lecture, this week's agenda. It was a lot. I just read through it and my eyes are bugging out. I had to write notes on just what he expects each week from me! Tomorrow I have to get up early to pick up my books, my financial aid check, and a parking pass just in case I need to do something on campus. I'm frightened by the amount of work this teacher is demanding. I am very interested in Astronomy, but I am hokey pokey about my pace. Maybe I need a fire under my ass to jump start my mindset back into a school sort of pace.

In other news, I totally forgot my Spanish Instructor's birthday party. We are good friends, and hang out a bit outside of classes. I have been so bogged down getting over being sick, kind of feeling in a rut, trying to get art ready for a few events, and mentally preparing/fearing school. My mind was elsewhere all weekend, I totally forgot it and I feel horrible. After I am done posting this entry, I will be drawing her a birthday card. It will be personal and it will mean a lot to her. I also packed up my guitar and a folding music stand. For her belated present, I am going to play a couple classical songs. I was also wanting to paint a sign for her class as a surprise. She just got a new office for her school, and needs to decorate. I am going to hand paint her Spanish class sign, I think she will like it. Unfortunately, do to time constraints, it won't be in her hands until probably next week.

Last bit of info. Last night, during my insomnia, I watched the very tail end of a PBS program. There is a black scientist guy I see all the time on tv. I've seen him on Conan O'brien talking about astronomy, he gets so excited about it. I've seen him interviewed on news networks, he's somehow some kind of big science geek. Anyway, he had some show on, and he was talking about the evolution of writing. I would have LOVED to watch the whole program, history is awesome, especially about things I am interested in. Anyway, he started talking about his crow quill pen (basically the same thing I use to ink, but I use steel nibs rather than an actual cut feather tip). He said that if he is going to write something important like an article or a speach, he uses a crow quill pen. Each time he dips for new ink, he gets about six or seven words before redipping. He states that this process gives the piece a cadence feel to his writing, he thinks a lot more, and there is a unique thoughtful flow that is lost in the 'now now now' technology of a keyboard.
I really think he stumbled onto something so true. Even when I use a brush to ink, I am so much more thoughtful with each stroke. It is so different, and has a more organic flow than any pen.

Okay, enough yammering. Time to draw a Birthday Card.

Doodling and La Bamba

I think I mentioned this before, but I bought a new sketchbook. This book is just for me to practice 100% comic stuff. I want to have nice complete work in it, inking, colors, panel layouts, whatever.
So, while watching La Bamba, I drew up this:


All using the pentel brush pen. I haven't erased pencil marks yet because its still too wet to brush an eraser over. Approximately 45 minutes all together. Another thing I am trying to do is loosen up and have fun, when I participate in the 24 hour comic day, I don't want to stall and just stare at a blank page. I did a lot of that last year. I notice if I start doing something, anything, it makes it easier to keep going.

Joker, possibly a painting?

First up, daily sketch. I've actually been drawing and redrawing this. I think I have three tiny sketches of this in my little sketchbook for work, if you look at the previous posts, then you can see an older rough of this:



So what do you think? Is the pose decent? Face decent? different angle? bigger teeth? smaller head? anything? I really want this to look nice, I've never really drawn or painted fanart before, so its important to me to have this look good. Joker has always been laughable to me because I never read how macabre and sadistic he is. To be honest I haven't read much Batman until a month back when I read Gotham by Gaslight and The Killing Joke. The new film really opened my eyes to appreciating Joker so much more. Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson just don't have the screen presence like Heath Ledger.


So, my brother is better. Thanks all of your for your kind words, they meant a lot to me. I guess his heart naturally went back into normal rhythm, it was the surgery that threw it into a-fib for awhile.
Let's see. I've been thinking about things to write about, and now I'm drawing a blank. Oh yes, I wanted to mention that I noticed a trend in my favorite comics. Some examples off the top of my head that I have been currently reading: New X-men, Young Avengers, Runaways, Blue Beetle, New Avengers, Scott Pilgrim. What's the thread between these? A: Children. I love it when young kids get super powers and have to deal with extreme situations. It was my dream to have a super power a kid, and I suppose I'm living that dream through these comics. B: I love team books. It's more bang for your buck. New Avengers made me want to have an comicgasm because it has Spider-man, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, plus more. Holy shit what a line up, favorite characters all around, in one comic.

So, that's about it for the moment. I've been terribly busy and frustrated, so my daily sketching has minimalized for a little bit, but honestly I am trying to keep a decent update.