11 posts tagged “comic”

Real short post tonight.  I realize I really screwed the couch as they say in certain corners of my imagination with this month's 30 day trial.  Mostly, a few things piled up this month along with me really sort of dooming myself by trying to add too much at the same time and I eventually just let it all go to the wayside. 

Next month, I'm going to refocus again but this time, I'm going to put it towards 30 days of drawing.  While April was 30 days of no-gaming that resulted in me picking up my beloved pencils again, June will be devoted to that cause which is something much more appealing and exciting to me than a 30 day workout regimen.  Maybe once I have my comic flushed out I can worry about making my workout plan golden but for now, the random runs with Nicole as she prepares for a Half-Marathon and the tri-weekly workouts I've been able to commit too will suffice just fine.  If nothing else, my burning out on working out too much did get me addicted to the actual act of it.  Went and worked out tonight and made my upper-body feel like rubber which means its working.

So, more tomorrow when I've better collected my thoughts on what June has in store for me.

Aside from all that though, my Australian Connection has reserved his flights to the Americas and will be testing the local bars infrastructures here in Denver this summer.  I've decided I'll totally be getting him a leather cowboy hat, 2 or 3 stuffed alligators and 10' bowie knife so that he feels authentically Australian while he's here, as I'm sure everyone will ask him if he's seen the movie Crocodile Dundee and I'd love if we can try and convince people it was an actual documentary.

As well, my bud Lee qualified for Tae-Kwon-do Nationals it seems, so that's freaking sweet.  All those times he accidentally split wood beams with his forehead finally paid off it looks like. He can splinter trees with a single thought it's foretold.  A single thought.

So, I love food.  Really, love it.  Sometimes, I dress myself up as a Chef just so I can feel closer to food.  My doctor says it's completely normal though.  Isn't that right Dr. Snuggles?

Long story short, we had a lengthy meeting today at work, so lengthy, lunch was purchased for us which is always cool.  We ate some fine Chinese cuisine, mine strewn with sesame and chicken.   All seemed ok.  That is, until it hit me.  Yeah, that it.

So, went home a little early today and feel much better now.    Safe to say though, there was no physical activity present that could be slated as exercise other than my standard walks to work.  I feel that this is understandable and excusable given my circumstances of digestion woes experienced this afternoon.

Aside from not being able to really sort my feelings on my friend's murderer being caught and the resurfacing of that painful memory, I've been a little burdened with family matters lately to be honest, which has kept me from my tasks regrettably.  The 5ish-day hiatus was mostly due to things just finally getting the best of me really.  My Dad is still out of a job and it's leaving my parents in a tight spot.  Several factors play into the whole matter, most of which deal with poor health of my parents that deter them from doing physical work even to the degree of standing for hours that makes their hunt for gainful employment difficult.  At any rate, it's got me pretty stressed for the most part.  My dad's a fine, fine Salesmen and it worries me that he won't find a job that can pay the bare minimum that my mother and him have set for just getting by.  I've as well been sending what spare cash I have and am starting to stress out from that as well knowing that I'm in no shape to fully help their financial perils.  At any rate, wish I had some connections or something where I could get my dad some great sales job and be done with this black cloud above my family and I for the past nine months. 

I'm quickly running out of optimism when my father calls me daily for advice and a pick-me-up.  Hard part for some to understand is that given my life, is that my parents have just me and my sister for support.  There's no grand circle of friends for them to call on nor can they rely on their relatives for a multitude of reasons.  So, when the worst comes knocking on their door, the call for help falls usually with me as they've really got no one else to fall back on. It's incredibly hard to watch your parents face something like possibly losing their home and health care knowing your best attempts to help haven't been able to slow it, let alone stop it.   Not an easy task to put the fate of your parents to chance and hope that it all just turns out ok while you try desperately to think about what they're going through facing their mid-60's without a penny saved, failing health and bills they can't pay.  It used to matter how they got there but right now, bringing up their mistakes serves little more than rubbing salt in their wounds.  All the while, I know that we all must face our own obstacles and demons and my parents, theirs but that's something much easier said when you're not front-row to the spectacle. 

I guess all in all, I just needed to write that all down as I like to internalize things a lot and putting it down here helps lift some of the weight that's been heavy on my shoulders recently.  I've been a therapist in one way or another for my parents since I was old enough to understand why they'd argue and I'm just ready for them to find some happiness and peace in their lives.  If I could get one wish, it'd be that their last years on this earth could be spent worrying more about getting rid of their sock-line tans than if they can sneak one more late month in on an already late mortgage so they can afford their diabetes medications.

At any rate,  just needed to vent via blog. 

Activities

I did get my draw on again and am quite pleased as a matter of fact.   Got my draw on real good.  Feel the sheer power, of the Gnome.

Gnome

Real short post tonight.  Need sleepy.  Stupid apartment gym full of people, only machines left were the ones that double as vending machines.  Good thing too as my friend Lee recommended that working the weights too much would make my arms explode.  Ran in the rain which was probably opposite from what I should do fight my runny nose. Decided to draw but then realized maybe I should go back at the drawing from yesterday.

Activities

Amazing to at least me the differences really paying attention to details make.  Wider and fuller eyes, a cleaner jaw and a cleaner mouth/chin make him look a lot more ... non-3rd grade fingerpainted.

Quick Facts

Weight: 249
Diet: Breakfast burrito (mainly vegetables, aside from the bacon), coffee, 4 glasses of water, footlong subway sandwich, taco-salad, 2 glasses of water. 

Does that rhyme?

Well, yesterday was a bit of a long day to be honest, so I completely forgot to even make a post until right before I was going to go to bed, which just doesn't work for me.  Saturday started with a 7am house-call by Comcast, or as they're referred to in this house, El Diablo.  It seems that as I previously commented, the actual company that provides cable has no real idea on how to manage it.  Yeah, I too thought this would work hand and hand as they're the guardian of all things cable but when it comes to say, turning said cable on or off it seems they never really read that part of the manual.  Lest to say, our 7am Saturday was not exactly what we're used too.  I've always just assumed Saturday's have a 7:00am just like every other day, it's rare that I've actually experienced it first-hand. 

From there, we got ready for a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to meet Sara and her esteemed Joshua for a morning of learning.  Safe to say, we all realized that these museums cater to the young, it's flashing lights low to the ground, it's buttons large and immune to the most intense smashing and even the most dull facts blinking against the wall in full neon splendor.  I won't lie, we were somewhat put off that there weren't adult lines for such things as the radio controlled Dock You Space Ship game.  Try as we could, the children always managed to get to the buttons first.  The little monsters, their lessons at sharing fully forgotten.  Well, jokes on them that they actually learned something.  I bet that kept a good deal of them up after getting home, realizing in horror they actually remember that Ben Franklin helped institute the Postal Service as they were quickly pushing buttons marked with neon-colored stamps. 

As well, it marked my first time in a Planetarium since perhaps my younger years.  We learned all about Black Holes and  I tell you what, Liam Neeson could narrate the Home Shopping Network and I would sit, engrossed, with credit card in hand as if God himself had shown me the necessity of a new set of steak knives.  A very good time was had by all yet about the time we had all left Wahoo's Fish Taco's I started feeling quite ill. 

I'm known to get migraines from the most random triggers, perhaps now I can add Steak and Rice to that list.  I'm not sure really.  All I know was that my head hurt from about 2pm until we went to bed and it kept up, getting even worse as the night wore on.  Regrettably, due to it, I didn't feel up to our second plan of the day, which was heading out to hang with some of my new co-workers at a local Bar.  As well, it kept me from my daily workout theme, making me feel quite lazy for the rest of Saturday Night.  And as well, it marked my first day loading up a game, I decided to enjoy a bit of simulated flying.  Had a good time of it actually and felt like it was earned instead of expected.  Not too shabby.

However, today I worked out almost an hour and fifteen minutes to make up for it and I can say I feel completely exhausted.  I do think though I'm coming down with something though, both Nicole and I feel under the weather for sure.  Hoping it clears up by the morning.

Activities

Worked out for an hour or so this weekend, making my arms feel even more like jello.  Learning the hard way that this 30-days in a row thing is making it hard since getting to the gym, every part of me hurts in some fashion which forces me to switch up what I do each day.  However, I'm 100% positive that by May 30th, I'll be making my t-shirts explode by merely stretching as my muscles will be that deadly by then.

Set down tonight to draw up some character ideas based on my new concept for my comic and came up with a rough drawing of this guy.  He's a little more dirty sketched than most as I didn't really erase the guidelines as much this one so keep that in mind.  Trying to get him to look "strong" which I've learned is more than just making exaggerated muscles.  His jaw and head are actually cut with sharp angles to represent power, or so I'm told by my guides.

Ugly Stick

Crazy how even taking a day or two off from drawing makes it slower to start.  Proves to me that I need to make it a daily thing so I'm not constantly starting 2 steps back every time I grab my drawing gear. 

Quick Facts

• Weight: 249
• Diet: Cereal, Steak and Rice bowl, 1 mountain dew, OJ, 1 glass of water, grilled cheese, breakfast burrito, 4 cinnamon rolls (ack), cookie, coffee, 3 glasses of water, chicken-ranch footlong sub.
• I need to drink more water definitely and eat less cinnamon rolls.
  

Yeah, so reaching above my head is now a feat of incredible concentration.  Doing so makes me feel as though I've harnessed super-powers or something equally impressive.  Honestly, all this working out is now hindering my hygiene, if not my ability to participate in the wave.

Went and saw Spiderman 3 today and honestly, I liked it.  Now, I didn't love it as I did with the first two but come on, it's the third in a series.  How many of those have ever been great?  Honestly, the difference between like and love was mostly due to what seemed a somewhat scattered plot really.  Don't get me wrong, the plot was there but it just didn't feel realistic.  Granted, realistic in a ok, I can buy there's a kid with super-powers garnered from a radioactive spider-bite, a guy made of sand, a gooey alien and a guy riding a hover-snowboard but do they really expect me to buy everything?  Won't spoil anything but this iteration had a certain level of broken-immersion that really hampered the movie.  Several times did I find myself ripped from the story by some awkwardly placed cameo or scene that didn't fit at all.  It's natural though, after your movie has garnered record-breaking box-offices twice in a row, I'm sure there's a fair amount of "I could film a brick wall for 2 hours and still make a boat-load of cash as long as it said Spiderman in the title" going on in the background.  I will say, it's worth seeing only to see some of the incredible fight scenes but as far as the story and character growth that ruled the first two, it's just not there this time.

Activities

• I went and worked out for 40 minutes, working on arms primarily. Tell you what, it's getting easier as I found myself worried I was waiting too long to go the gym.  That's something that doesn't happen to me.  After a good talk to my bud Bill about routines, I got myself a little more rigid as far as doing something planned when I get to the gym across the street.  While my arms hurt and I can barely type without feeling tired, there's a good feeling as well there making me feel like I'm getting healthier by the day.  I can totally see how people get addicted to this whole exercise thing.
• As well, 34 days without touching a game.  How about that?
• I spent some time reading up on how to convert drawings to digital through Photoshop reading some tricks/tips from Penny-Arcade and a few other comics I like reading.   Lot of interesting ideas there as far laying out your strips before scanning them in.  As well, making clip art yourself to reuse in comics so that it's more of using parts for certain scenes than having to redraw each scene.  Lot of interesting stuff.
  

• Weight: 250 (dammit, this better be muscle I'm gaining)
• Diet: Cherry Turnover, Popcorn, Cherry Coke, cereal, milk, 3 glasses water, 1 glass Apple Juice.
• Wow, I really didn't eat anything good today.  I barely ate at all.
  

So, yeah, thought about it and having multiple day counts in a title is somewhat...lame.  I'm still working on my comic from last month, just need to scan some things in again to prove it.  Until then (tomorrow) you'll just have to take my word on it. 

As far as my workout goal, I've met it 3 days in a row.  That's something I haven't done since college and even then, that was something that was incredibly far and few between.  3 consecutive days of working out?  That should mean that tomorrow, my body will literally fall apart from exhaustion and I'll be forced to ride my Rascal to work.  Yeah, its a HEMI.

Rascal

Little have I thought about the fact that this working out routine endangers my modus travelus so to speak.  My not having my Jeep anymore (moment of silence)...

My old jeep

...means that I'm dependent on my ability to move my legs to go to and from work.  Knowing full well that I'm on the verge of my 3 days of running / working out catching up with me, due to my possible limping and cries of pain that could possibly accompany my walk to work tomorrow, I may have people throw change at me from their car-window in hopes I'll use it for something other than alcohol. 

Aside from that though, I really do feel great.  It's been a long time since I've sweat this much in a 3-day period from something other than temperature.   Add with it, I've still not touched a video game (making this officially day 33 of that), and that I had a large amount of ideas that I wrote down in my headpad on my morning walk to work today regarding my comic, I thought this day was just too good to be true.  Then, out of the blue, my wonderful bosses gave me a gift-card simply because they wanted to let me know I was doing a great job.  Yeah, I'll let that sink in for a little bit Corporate America as the thought of a boss, let alone two presenting their employee with a token of appreciation without guilt or threat of lawsuit is something I know is unheard of.  Yet, it happened to me today.  I swear to Hasslehoff, I'm a grown man with a fine standard of not getting emotional but it's insane how a $20 gift card and a note saying thanks for the hard work can make even a six-foot-eight guy like myself get a little verklempt. 

I tell you what, I'm somewhat feeling like things are getting increasingly better and aside from getting a new job, which has helped a lot, but even more-so, I would like to believe my current attitude about life in general has had a big part in that.  I'm no hippie mind you, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd say that a good amount of luck and good fortune is a byproduct of how you perceive the world and yourself.  Won't get all Dr. Phil here just yet though.

All in all, feel like if I can keep this working out thing going, that by the end of May, I might be able to finally feel good about my physical-self which standing in front of my mirror the last few years, has been hard to do.  Not that I'm yelling at myself while I cut all my hair off or anything hollywood like that but I've definitely been upset some mornings when I get a glimpse of my washboard stomach in the mirror.  Add in I've got one hell of a lady, that I'm getting really far on my drawing and having a comic and having a job I really feel accomplished at means I'm on track to getting myself together once more and back on track. 

Now, if only my father could find a job and I wasn't constantly worried about his and my mother's well being as they hit their ninth-month of having no income at all,  I think things right now would be pretty damned perfect.  I have to believe that something will come up for them because I'd rather not think of what would happen if something doesn't.  Anyway, way-off topic there but sometimes it's just nice to put it down on paper and out of my head.

Activities

Got home and went to the gym at our apartment.  Ended up working really hard on my chest/shoulders/arms.  After that Nicole and Koda had just come back from their run I ran with them back the two blocks to our apartment.  Oddly enough, being around everyone in the gym makes me realize that I've somewhat lost my idea of proper lifting techniques.  Makes me think I need to call up some of my more in-shape buds and ask them for some ideas.  While I'm not trying to life a bench press with my ankles or anything like that, I do think I could be doing things more efficiently.  I was happy that I got about 16 lifts from the bench press today.  Not at all the weight I'd like to have hanging from the bar mind, especially when I look big which is something I can't help but be mindful off as I do my weights as guys next to me half my height lift small SUV's over their heads like it's as pillow.  I could go into my theories of why height plays a large part in being able to lift weights but I'm pretty sure that might get into the excuses area and I'd like to avoid that for now.

Quick Facts

• Weight: 248
  
• Diet: Bagel, French Dip and french fries, 5 glasses of water, grilled cheese, 1 cheese cracker, 2 glasses of OJ, 2 glasses of Mountain Dew.
  

So, figure that I should keep track of multiple numbers as I'm doing multiple things.  As to make things a bit more historic for myself, I'd keep the counter going for multiple things.  I have to make sure I remind myself I have two objectives still and not fall victim to dropping one in favor of the other which has already started to happen and something I want to deter.

As with any goal, once you hit it, you consider it hit and part of you feels like that's it.  While I hit my 30 days that I originally struck out to hit, it's harder to keep in mind that the goal of the 30 day gaming fast was to get me working on something meaningful to me and that process wouldn't stop when the 30 days were met.  In a way, I had two objectives in April.  One, my gaming fast, could end May 1st as long as I kept going with the second objective (my comic drawing) past that point until I had something started.   I found that with my new additional goal of a daily 30 minutes of exercise somehow made me forget to spend the last two days also drawing or at least progressing towards my comic.  Need to make sure I keep going with building good habits each month that compound and not just monthly activities that disappear with each new month.  That's going back to my old ways where I start a project and quit it in favor of another, the real problem behind my needed gaming fast.  That's the core problem I'm looking to solve and I need to not loose sight of that.  Discipline and follow-through.  

Keeping that in mind, the days in my subjects will stand for just that.  The first Day listing (Day 32 currently) will keep track of how many days until I start my comic.  I'll stop count once I have a three installments made for my comic and have it posted on it's own website for all to see. By then, i figure it'll be self-propelled and I won't need a daily tally anymore as I it'll be self-explanatory my progress by then.  I mean, right?

The second number will list my added focus (exercise).  As usual, I'll list my Activities and Quick Facts.  I'll just be adding in what I did for exercise that day on top of any other related information.  So, hopefully this is enough explanation for my own benefit so that I don't get confused at my own system.

Speaking of being confused, how hard is it to downgrade cable? I mean, someone like Comcast, a self-proclaimed cable company, should in theory be masters of such simple tasks.  I mean, if I was a chef and couldn't turn an oven off, well, that'd just be ridiculous right?  Seems that turning off cable after you've followed their explicit instructions still means you have to depend on them doing the same thing.  Today we finally had our cable downgraded as they were supposed to do nearly 3 weeks ago.  Yet, they even messed that up.  We came home to find that we've only got Comedy Central, TV Land, the Home Shopping Network and two Spanish-language channels.  I mean, is that even a package you can request?  No ABC that means, which means no LOST, which means the one night Nicole and I actually set aside time to watch TV was denied us.  I never knew I could hate a corporation so much until tonight.  Stupid Comcast.  Stupid, stupid Comcast.

Activities

Nicole and I went running today with Koda for a good 40 minutes.  I even ran .6 miles without stopping once.  Yeah, don't remind me that there's grandmother's that can do that without breaking a sweat.  I'm not exactly a marathon specimen here.   It's no mystery you don't see herds of six-foot-eight German/Scottish males lined up to run the Boston Marathon.  We're not exactly legendary for our graceful running prowess.  However, I'm all about believing that I can be.  For a boy that was diagnosed with Exercise Induced Asthma in high-school (poor-man's asthma), I'm pretty proud that I'm even trying to do something that makes my lungs burn like they're soaked in napalm.  I don't talk about it much but running makes me feel like I'm drowning in jalapeño juice.  I paint pictures with words.
 
Quick Facts

• Weight:251
• Yeah, hold on here.  I've GAINED weight from 2 days of working out and eating pizza.  How does..oh..pizza.  Dammit.
  
• Diet: 1.5 Bagels with VEGETABLE cream cheese (does that count?), 5 glasses of OJ, 3 glasses of water, 1 cafe mocha, 3 slices of pizza, 2 glasses of milk, 2 cinnamon sticks.
• Didn't eat near enough today.  Really felt it when I went running, not something I plan on doing tomorrow as it made it much harder.
  

Little known fact.  99% of stores only carry clothing to fit gentlemen 6'4" and shorter.  Well known fact.  I hate clothes shopping.  The 1% of stores that carry actual large sizes of clothes consist either of athletic stores full of sweatpants and tear-away pants, Big & Tall stores that cater to lumberjacks or those that prefer plaid and carpenter boots or specialty stores like the Men's Warehourse, Buckle and Banana Republic.  Since I don't enjoy wearing pants that require a draw-string or shirts that double as picnic blankets, I'm forced to shop at the latter.  While, I'm of course thankful that there are at least three stores that sell fashionable pants that fit, I'm known to have fits over the fact I'm required to pay premiums for said clothing unless I want to look like I'm eternally prepared for flood waters.

Keeping that in mind, I've become infamous for wearing jeans out in order to get my money out of them to such a point as to where they simply explode from exhaustion into a storm of denim confetti.  Today, I realized with my new casual dress code where I work, my having only one pair of jeans was somewhat risky.  What if I was to be left without pants due to an unforeseen event where my jean was damaged beyond repair?  Wearing dress pants, when everyone else is wearing jeans, makes rumors spread you're actually going on an interview over lunch and I don't need that sort of gossip spreading simply because I break out my fine pleated-wear.  In defeat, I went to the Buckle today and purchased three pairs of jeans, meaning I will not need to buy another pair until my 40th birthday if current records stay unbroken.  Hallelujah, I've got extra pants that in total were more expensive than my television.  There's some guy out there at Buckle HQ, dressed only in stonewash, making a denim statue in my likeness right now I'm positive.

In celebration, Nicole and I went to a local swanky restaurant we've walked by dozens of times and ate lamb and carrot cake as rich people do for on a daily basis and it was glorious.  Other than dining out and pants shopping, I hit the pencil hard today, really working at my face-drawing and feel like I hit a milestone of sorts.

Activities

I really got inspired with how crazy-nice the weather was today and sat outside a while with my dog and practiced drawing faces.  This has always been one of my weaker spots, aside from hands and posing (which I feel like I'll be a lot better at with all the practicing I've done with poses).  I was pretty amazed that after a good deal of eraser used, I started to remember all the reading I had done in the past 3 weeks about how to make a face look convincing.  Here's the first face I drew this morning, I was trying to draw a likeness of myself really, sort of eerie how it came out pretty close.  My eyes are really that big:

Self portrait

Now, most of these were based on characters I've wanted to make in the past.  I had a revelation tonight on an idea for my comic, one that I'll hold back sharing just yet until it's fleshed out better and I'm positive that it's a good idea when I'm a little more awake. As far as the characters, I wanted to practice different looks with different personalities based on their faces.  As I worked on that, I wanted to start trying to remake a few of my old drawings to see what a new look would be like.  The ninja is a retry at one I made a long time ago based on a character Lee and I thought up a few years back:

Ninja Hut

Either way, I feel like these face-drawings were a big leap in my abilities.  They're definitely happening faster now and I can tell that a lot of what I've been reading is starting to apply itself.  They're not perfect yet, or at least, not perfect in my mind but they're really getting close, especially the ninja face.  I'm really happy with that one, as he was the last one I drew before scanning them in.  Think that I might be on par to at least get some characters fleshed out tomorrow so that I'm ready to start practicing them in different poses, which is indeed the hardest part of all I've found.

Quick Facts
Weight: 246.50
Diet: Hot Cereal and chocolate chips, apple with caramel dip, banana, turkey&cranberry sandwich, broasted lamb, mash potatoes, carrots/broccoli/zucchini, 1 beer, 2 glasses of water, 2 glasses of OJ, 1 glass of milk.

Well, for whatever reason, there was a small gap in posts so I thought I'd just combine Thursday and Friday into one.  Seems I've ran into a small snag in my original plan of sorts.  While, I'm not one to shy away from absolute optimism, there's a degree of my mission I set out to do that I hadn't really considered.  While, without question, I've marked considerable progress  in a good deal of areas, such as:

• I've not played a single video game since March 31st.  I've not had one single moment where I almost loaded up my PS2, not a inkling of desire to resubscribe my World of Warcraft account, I've not even enjoyed a simple game of Solitaire.   Truth is, I've figured out that the gaming wasn't an addiction, but instead, something to fill my time.  It made me lazy and unambitious because it was an easy mindfall.  Similar to TV, it was an easy fix to spend my time versus the work involved in trying to create something. 
  
• We did away with our Premium Cable channels and returned our DVR.  It would seem, I as well learned that a DVR is just as damaging as any video game had been to using my free-time with efficiency.  Without a DVR, if you miss your show, it's easier to just release that and go about your other tasks.  With our DVR, there was always something to watch and that was as damning to my ability to focus on less simple tasks as anything.
• I've become self-aware of my health again and have started working to correct some of my poor eating habits.
• I've been able to wake up feeling accomplished instead of paranoid that I'm wasting my free-time, and essentially, my life by making sure I have a goal to shoot for that provides a tangible reward.
  
• I've reinvigorated my desire to create.  I've began drawing again, on a regular basis.  I've built up a small drawing guide library and from what I can tell, have vastly improved my abilities just in a short time.  I'm not Stan Lee by any means but that's never been the goal.  If I hadn't done this, I'd still be the guy talking about being better at drawing.  That's the lesson right there.

All in all, it's been more an experiment regarding the power of decisions and habits.  It would have been far easier to just sit back and continue my pattern prior to April.  Simply just keep to my routine and complain that nothing was changing.  As they say, you can't expect change if all you do is repeat the same steps over and over.  It takes that initial step out of your comfort area to create change and I think that's the lesson I had to reteach myself. 

I've got a weekend to work on my comic idea and start fleshing out characters.  What I find really refreshing is that despite the fact everything hasn't gone as well as I'd laid out Day One, I'm 27 days closer to making a comic than I've ever been and that, right there, is a success already.  I've reminded myself that I'm able to focus and commit to something despite my basic instincts.  Defeating your bad habits in under a month and replacing them with productive good habits is an incredibly fulfilling feeling and if anything at all, I've improved myself immensely in the last few weeks. 

Can't complain about that.

Activities:

Really, really, reallllly worked on faces because, well, thats where I'm weak right now.  Here's a sample of what I'm trying to do.  You can see, I'm really trying to focus on just plain face structure.  I have a habit of drawing flat and lifeless faces and I really want to improve that because I want my drawings to inspire energy in every line, which, is crazy difficult.  I can't tell you how difficult of a time I'm having with faces.  It's something that I'm going to be good at if I have to wear out every damn eraser and pencil in a tri-state area.

Face_up

Quick Facts (2 days)

Nicole found the following video while surfing the interweb.  Seriously, I can't remember the last time the two of us have watched something over, and over, and over again without getting tired of it. It's called The Landlord It stars Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Pearl.  Freaking Hilarious.

As I fear that the YouTube version might get removed, here's the link to where this video originated in case the YouTube link goes unexpectedly dead.  Seriously, it's playing in the background right now as I write this and I might have to change my boxers I'm laughing so much.

Activities

Gun Slinger with face

I read a good deal on drawing techiniques today, reading everything from the books I already own to the forums on Ben Cardwell's site, especially regarding the anatomy and how to put more energy into it.  I've been working on the same model that I last posted but I wasn't sure exactly how to detail it without losing some of it's posing.  The face I thought was the hard part but what really proves difficult is matching all the parts together to bring about a common feel. 

Hard part is proving to be just getting a flow to my own style.  Trying to practice finishing my Gun Slinger is proving to be a little more difficult as I really want to put down on paper whats in my head.  Perhaps I need to just do it and then go back and improve it, which goes back to how I have a long history of not doing rough drafts as I get too caught up in getting it done the first try.

Quick Facts

• Weight: 247.50
  
  
• Diet: 3 Glasses of OJ, Shrimp Gumbo, Fried Catfish, Cajun Fries, 2 Lemonades, 8 fried pickles, 2 fried Alligator Tails, a ton of Sushi, and a cup of Coldstone Peanut Butter Perfection Ice Cream
• Yeah, I totally suck at this eating thing.  Its like a game show of "What will Brandon eat".  I mean, who eats Cajun and Sushi in the same day other than Louisiana hippies?