stupid jobs and good jobs and knitting

I've just spent the last two or three hours destroying the internet with resumes and links to my website. As everyone on earth does, I hate my job. It's just a crappy food service job to pay the bills. there aren't a lot of hours for me, its boring and dirty and I aspire to not have to get out of bed before 10 am. this is my one and only dream, to never get up before 10 am. is that so wrong? I just think i'm burnt out when it comes to working bullshit jobs. The only steady job i know of for an illustrator is like an Art Director which is not really what I want to be doing. Working at Rough Sketch doesn't exactly make comics seem like something that's steady. It's what i want to be doing though. The idea of working freelance is kind of scary. Because say i quit my job and just do that, what if there's a dry spell? then i get kicked out of my house. but i really don't want to have a crappy on the side job forever. i can't tell you how much i hate....i mean hate to the point of madness...that i have to get up at 6:30 to go to work. when i had class at 8:30 i thought that was the worst ever. I'm also afraid there is this curse that all people employed will hate their job. I also just want to draw right now. I need to get my studio space set up here at the house so i can just go work when i want to. I'm also really into knitting clothes right now. I'm making a bathing suit. it's going to be sweet. but i should get my sleep on, as tomorrow is one of those days were i have to get up way too early for reason

bicycles

so i don't know how many of you are avid cyclists, but i am. I get from point a to point b by bicycle no matter what. i have a bianchi cafe racer from 2008. its celeste green i love it. its taken some punishment too, but it refuses to die. and i get into some serious pickles on that thing. i've been hit by a few cars in my time riding it. recently huge catastrophes have befallen me. first my tire got shredded, then the tube, then old manager tried to help me fix it and screwed up my gear shift so it was held on with saran wrap, my back break didn't work so it was just disengaged, the break pads were replaced but wrong, then i was coming out of my work and someone had either tried to steal it or was driving on the sidewalk and just back up all kinds of over it and the chain wheel was bent to hell, then finally someone stole the seat off of it. i've been to many bike shops in philadelphia, but my all time favorite and most helpful is Via Bicycle off of 9th and south. i've taken it to them for each of these crisises and they let me skate on paying them once because i was broke. i just paid next time i came in. they fixed everything this last time i went in for my seat and for an awesome price. plus all the guys there are really nice funny and attractive. i made them this card to say thanks and they hung it up in the front. if you have a bike, go there.

Can you put this rice cooker in the bathroom?

I spent last night working on my portfolio and website for critque. we have to go through the oregan trail in order to meet some directors at this large shindig in new york in a few weeks. very important and very nerve rocking. It was an all nighter with The Hommenid. Things got a little dicey around 4 am when i couldn't stop singing the crab people song from south park, using various words instead of crab people and thinking i was hilarious. but i submitted everything and the jury told me at first that it needed a lot of work to be accepted but it was really not as much as i was expecting. just some tweats and refinement. which is understandable considering i was under the gun like a robbery victim.

Alright kids! enceles 2.0 is up, but still stay tuned for enceles 2.5 when i get all the links working and my comic pages up. which should be sooner rather than later. we (my web designer and sweetheart as well as myself) are going to tweat the roll over on the gallery page as well. she wants to rebuild it in flash, me not so much. we'll see what happens. but either way it looks pretty badass and i am excited. 

check out the bio, seriously.

Queen of Swords and Movie Banter

  
I really want to design a taroh card deck, though at the moment a very intimidating project. I've done a few designs and even a final or two but most get filed away and not really considered for anything. My suit is the suit of swords. Swords represent the air signs, as in libra, gemini and aquarius. I know a bit more about them than the other suits and I did a design for the queen of swords a while ago of this asian queen in this cherry blossom landscape. I originally finished it as a collage piece. Like ridiculous collage with beads on a piece of wood. I decided to revisit it as a digital piece since its more updated with my style. I scanned the original collage and used some elements, like some facial texture and the trees but redrew everything else in pen work. I am pleased. 

Speaking of origins....Wolverine origins comes out this weekend. me=excited. It has a high potential to be dumb, but it has gambit so i don't care. Plus Hugh Jackman as an actor is pretty fly. Also Star Treck is coming out. I've never been a fan of star treck but this movie looks seriously awesome. I love sci-fi. This is going to be a good movie summer. Also anticipation for avatar is out of control. 

But being behind the times, I finally saw Ironman. I never followed the comic but the movie is genius. One of my favorite movies of all time now. People say its better than Dark Knight. I could see that argument but I have loyalty to Batman so they're about equal in my book. Also just saw Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. I liked the book much better, but it's long so I guess they did ok. At first the kids' acting was horrendous but they got better by the end. When Voldemort is taking over Harry it was pretty awesome, very exicted for the next installment. But I immediately go into fan art/fan fic mode with that serious and I need to calm it down. It's so good I don't care what you think.

In closing.....nerd, nerd, nerd, nerd, nerd

Beowulf Tattoo

I just finished up a commission for a client. he wanted a tattoo sleeve of the story of beowulf. it was definitely a challenge to even figure out how to lay that out. it's kind of got a strange amorphous boarder. I think it came out pretty cool but I've never designed a sleeve tattoo before so I'm not quite sure if it's going to work, but hopefully the tattoo artist will be able to adapt it how it needs to be. I'm unsure if I want to add the piece to my regular portfolio though since it does look kind of odd being designed within the format of an arm. I'm really just excited to get paid as the economy has been punching me in the face the last few months. I really hate banks and want to keep my money in a mattress. or everything should be free. for me. I'm busy busy though. It feels like its non-stop but I know its going to slow down soon and I'm sure I'm not going to know what to do with myself.  I do have a new living situation though with some really good friends and house is super sweet. That is awesome. I mean as much as I love my studio, i like having a real house better. and you know, showers are great. but i'm going to have story material until i die. sweet 

The things I pay attention to

well as a comic book artist, I of course saw the watchman on opening night. I highly recommend it. They didn't include some subplots but you have to pick your battles when making something so long. they handled the designs and costumes really well and the integrity of the storytelling was really on point. but seriously, the comedian is robert downey jr. doppleganger.  Billy Crudup did an amazing job as Dr Manhattan. The characters were really really spot on all the way, but he really had that nailed down, he was just as moving as he was in the pages when i first read it. and kudos for actually showing the male anatomy. i was really surprised they did it, but it was so tasteful, it didn't feel like a shock value thing but something that added to the idea of who dr. manhattan was. i'm shocked to say this but i like how they handled the ending better than in the graphic novel. that may be blasphemy but i think it was just so much more powerful, less contrived and less "wtf?" overall A+ and a good time.

I also played Resident Evil: 5 this weekend upon its release. well more accurately, i watched it be played. I love video games but i need someone to explain it to me while i play it because i'm typically bad at them. As far as zombie games go, the R.E genre is not really my deal because they don't really seem like zombies. People were giving me a hard time about being a zombie enthusiast and not being into R.E. It's just a little too alien esq to me. As far as the game play goes it takes a minute to get used to as the controls are different than RE4 but i didn't have as much trouble with the analog as some avid gamers, but then again i'm not really used to a particular control set up. I think i had my typical troubles when it comes to anything with duel analogs. Also the world is very much 4D, you can go anywhere. It's easy to get lost if you're not careful. The hordes aren't as huge as left 4 dead but they definitely are relentless, you don't really reach an end to them, plus they yeild some serious weapons. As far as the "racist" aspect goes the game programers diversified the zombies very well, their is an equal mix of black, muslim and white zombies to fight that don't fit a "stereotype" that i can see. It depicts a good sense of an african village i think if you combined multiple regions. Now for what i'm really interested in is the overall concept design. The skin on the people is amazing, digital rendering is getting really impressive, you can see all the pores and stuff, hair is still a little stiff but rome wasn't built in a day. The detailing in the main characters, Chris and Sheva, is also really nice. Their clothes are definitely uniquely theirs and there's nice little touches. some of the zombies you see are really nicely designed as well. The Executioner zombie you see early on is one of my favorite and hard to beat. He has spikes coming out of his skin which reminds me a little bit of Return of the living Dead 3 which was a nice little easter egg for me. The backgrounds are very very nice. It's a very concrete location. considering i've been doing a lot of work with slum towns i really appreciated the little details. nothing looks repeated which i really appreciate, aside from things you're suppose to destroy to get items. overall i give the game as solid B.

I was also introduced to WoW. I'm not really into high fantasy, i'm more into things that look like they can occur now and I'm not a pc gamer at all. give me a console any day, i don't care what anyone says about it being better. plus the MMO concept is not all that enticing. But i was shown some designs and all i can say is: come on blizzard...you're laziness is showing. from an artistic stand point you never want to feel cheated and there's some moments for feeling cheated. i think i  should do some redesigns for them and send them a sample and be like "hey...you know who you should give a job to?" 

also in with  my other interests, I don't know how many of you know of a band called Carcass, but they've been disbanded for some 17 odd years. out of that came the stellar band Arch Enemy, which i think all should give some props to for having such a sick female vocalist who can do things i just don't understand. but they played a show this weekend and that is like this huge thing in metal i feel and it just went completely unnoticed....come on guys.....look away from the crap on the radio and behold true metal gods and rejoice in the second coming of carcass. hey guys...releasing an album? i do gore....give me a call.

Also on the art front, my revisions on my comic are coming nicely, i should have them up shortly....and hopefully a more functional site as a whole. I need to call my host and figure out exactly the problem and fix some design problems on my end, like my blog loading without a scroll bar. But i have a new long term idea for a graphic novel i think a long the line of "Blankets" so a little more autobiographical and a little more girly that my typical stuff, but i think i have some good stories to tell. But to my guy fans, sorry for the flowers and melodrama that may be coming, but don't fret there will always be more zombies and carnage and awesome along the way as well.

Big Fat Octopus

Right now i'm currently working on a lot of personal projects, and i'm looking for more things to be inspired by. I'm very into music and i go through phases with what i actually like a lot at them moment. I like the femme rock bands and the riot grrl scene especially right now. it's what is in with me at the moment. i know it's twenty years too late but i just got really into Jack off Jill, i never even heard a song by them before! But i just got inspired. I found this band called The Gossip, and i recommend everyone listen to "standing in the way of control" its about the gay community losing the right to marry. But the lead singer is outrageous in every way. Her name is Beth Ditto and she is a person that exemplifies living out loud and for herself.

The other night i was working on a personal piece about the the octuplet mother Nadya Suleman, who's been coined "octo-mom" so the piece is her as a scary octopus monster that's releasing eggs into the sea. I have my photo ref on my studio desk, lots of octopi and me a little more shirtless trying to look scary to get a good upper body pose. Well it's no secret that i need to lose a couple pounds but a guard who does the overnight shift in my building comes up every night to do a safety check in the studios. He didn't know i was in the room and chose to peruse my affairs upon the desk, commenting on how i looked in the photos, he used the term "nasty" and i mean, good i was going for scary octopus monster. but still ouch, you know? what was that guy even doing perusing my things? But after that i think i found Beth Ditto at just the right time. She's 210lbs and is naked all the time. She loves herself and is having a great time. No one could make that girl not feel beautiful. 

I also thought about mama cass after skimming though some google pictures, for Ms Ditto did a pose reminiscent of a nude mama cass shot in flowers. I love the mama's and the papa and so does my dad and he LOVES Mama Cass, because he thought she was an amazing talent and he said she had a beautiful soul so she was the most beautiful woman in the world to him when he was younger. How awesome is my dad? but all this just inspired me to work on a likeness piece. 

I always struggle with them and i can't find one that really fits my style and i think all the large head tiny body stuff has horrified me out of the genre. But I was just too awe struck by Beth and what she is doing in life. There's the part about health, like we don't tolerate drug addicts why tolerate a similarly unhealthy habit of over eating? But some people's bodies are a lot different chemically and if she's healthy enough to be on stage doing a whole set, which is a lot of exercise i'm sure she is just fine other wise. If she has no serious health problems i think she can be as fat as she wants. especially if she's happy with it. I don't have a clear idea but maybe i'll post some sketches when i get to it, but i'm pretty excited.