Punching Pandas

Today, I had a chat with a friend regarding video games. For a while, she went cold-turkey on World of Warcraft for a little while but then today relapsed to her old ways. I jokingly chastised her about breaking her vow and told her she couldn’t play that game until her newborn son could walk. So out of that, we made a bet. She has to stay away from WoW until her son is able to take 20 steps unassisted while I have to produce at least one “produced” drawing a week by 12:00 am on Sunday. And by “produced,” she means at the quality of the monster bunny picture I made a while back. Initially, the wager was coffee (not the cheap stuff), but once the bet got bigger, we’ll have to do something else.

I don’t think we’re starting the bet this week, since I’ve already lost 3 days. The good news is that you’ll start getting (hopefully) better, or at least interesting, drawings every Sunday. The bad news will be me tearing out my hair trying to figure out what to draw every Saturday night. I’ll try to keep up the sketches as frequently as I can. If anything, it’s practice, and this will force me to get faster with my work. If you guys have ideas for the Sketches of the Day, add a comment to his post.

The think-tank wasn’t working too good today…

I’ve dinked around with this character for a bit, but haven’t settled on a design yet. I feel like I’m starting to get what I want in this design. I imagine her being some kind of pilot or flying around on something high above. I’ll revisit this one later.

Here’s the sketch idea that Eric suggested yesterday:

“draw me a picture of a class room full of [something random]“

Yes, Lord Eric! Your wish is my command!

Can you find the culprit?

An inside joke. One of my friends was complaining about her laundry list of important things to do. Upon being told to finish the work instead of chatting, she defiantly told me I couldn’t “crack the whip from Seattle.” I know, it’s not that funny, but whatever, I don’t care. So Yuki, now everyone here knows that you’re slacking. Stop chatting and get back to work.

I’ve also been getting a lot of comments about the polar bear/turtle that I posted a couple days ago. So far, “Burt” and “Snuffles” were suggested. “Burt” was good, but might sound a little ordinary to some folks, but we’ll call him a polar burtle (polar bear + turtle). I could do something like Buffles, but then that sounds too much like “buffalo.” Glenda suggested “Puddles,” but that doesn’t make much sense for a polar burtle (why am I writing this?), so we’ll slap on some red rain boots for good measure. So there you have it: Puddles, the polar burtle with his red rain boots scratching his head because he’s just as confused as the rest of you.

Another tulip picture from Saturday…

Visited Mount Vernon for the tulips festival held this month. Even though there weren’t that many colors, it was still worth the hour drive… courtesy of Waiki.

And something to relate to yesterday’s post…

Lately, I’ve been running into the inevitable creative rut that plagues every artist regardless of discipline. I’ve been trying to fight through it with frustrating results. Maybe it’s time for something a little different. Maybe go someplace that I don’t usually hang out.

For some reason, I’ve been feeling a little worn down. Not entirely exhausted, but a little tired and lazy. Part of me thinks it’s just general angst about my whole financial situation. The housing situation hasn’t been going well as of late. I can’t match my competitors in my area in order to get my place sold, and each bill that comes in reminds me that I don’t have a whole lot of time left.

Aside from the condo, I’ve also had to reevaluate how serious I am about this career switch. I’ve been doing work at the studio, sure. But am I making a big enough sacrifice each week to attain my goal? I like to think that actions speak louder than words, and that mine reflect that intention. At the same time, I realize that I’ve been extremely blessed to be in this situation. Not everyone has the opportunity to pursue one’s dream job, and for that I need to be… no… should be thankful.

This is an exciting season of my life to be in. I know I should be enjoying all of this while I can even while the future is uncertain. I remember a couple weekends ago, I went snowboarding over at Stevens Pass for the second time of my life. I went through the baby courses a couple time before my friends threw me up on the blue (intermediate) hill. I admit I was a little apprehensive on the ski lift since I was still pretty green at this snowboarding thing. Looking down from the top didn’t help much either. But in order for me to get down, I had to just do it. So I took it down, slow, but I did it. After I got one run down, I went back again and again. Despite all the falls and tumbles, I had a lot of fun. If it wasn’t the last weekend of the season (plus, if I had some more disposable income), I’d go again.

In other words, stop staring down the hill like a chicken and just have fun.

By the way, if you guys would like to help me break out of this slump, feel free to send your suggestions and I’ll try to sketch something up. Thanks in advance!

I’m trying to get better at posting.¬† Also, I am a Blazers fan.

 

One of my friends asked me for a polar bear or a turtle.¬† I couldn’t make up my mind.

Did a quick doodling with a sci-fi/fantasy theme to it. No reason in particular.

Hey everyone! Sorry it took this long to get some new stuff out, but things have been going pretty good at the studio. One of the critiques that I’ve received on my work has been my “camera,” or how I’m positioning my shots. So from here on out, you might see some photography here and there as part of my exercise. Anyways, here’s my latest work. I started a couple weeks ago doing the line work and it took me a while to figure out how to paint it since I never did a night shot before. They’ll be more coming, so stay tuned…

UPDATE: I realized I had a couple noticeable errors, so I decided to update the drawing. Also, this drawing is rededicated to the memory of Nani.  Thanks for your input guys!

For those of you who don’t know Nani, she was the pet rabbit of a friend.¬† A moment of silence…