December Photo Collage

I forgot to upload this little collage of December photographs. There is genuinely nothing to take pictures of in Bland county in December. This months highlights are lots of snow, what I think is a statue of Mr. Bland from the Courthouse yard, and my birthday cake which looks like a forest out of Tim Burton's fever dreams.

December Arts

2 Weeks of Photos

Photographs from the last two weeks including mushrooms, a Murderface doppleganger in Buckaroo Banzai, animals, and a book that I bought in Princeton, WV. I picked it up because the dust jacket blurb sounded similar to a story description from "Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials" (His illustration of the Demu is on the right.) "Cage a Man" is the third book I've read after seeing Wayne Barlowe's illustration of a character or creature from it. I've been lead to the conclusion that Mr. Barlowe makes amazing art and reads terrible literature.

Will art for arts.

The paint palette monster.

Grumpy crane at zoo.

Queen Scrymnyx

Also arts.

For a contest.

And also some work stuffs. My boss is giving me a crash course in typography better than I got at VCU. :0

Breakfast of Tarzans

Breakfast: Scrambled ostrich egg and coffee.

God's away on business

Hey BBC,

I noticed that there were some mistakes on a diagram of the BP oil disaster in one of your online articles. I fixed it for you. You're welcome.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us+canada-10638728

alive - post

Have been failing at being good artist lately. Working two jobs - one of which is at zoo. Like animals but come home exhausted and just sleep in free time. Must drink more coffee.

Art for Sale

Got some spare change? I have a few little arts for sale on my Etsy account. Have a look around.

Dean Koontz Manga?

What in the name of Floyd's barber shop did I just read?


http://www.deankoontz.com/whats-new/press-releases/odd-thomas-manga

So I found this DEAN KOONTZ MANGA at my local library yesterday. I've never read a Dean Koontz novel but I have a vague idea of what genre he writes in and as far I know it had never been conducive to manga. I took it home and read it in about an hour.

I'm not sure why they thought this would make a good manga. The story seems like it would have fit a gritty American comic style a bit better and while I'm not familiar with Koontz's writing style I would think that whatever he brings to a story with his style is obliterated by turning it into a graphic format. (I mean I assume this, he could be a really dry boring writer for all I know.)

The characters seem like they would be interesting when they were described on paper but when drawn as Manga characters they're about as interesting as a bowl of bran flakes. I also do not understand how this person can draw faces so poorly. Again - I'm no great connoisseur of the manga but the faces are just badly draw in some places. Especially Odd. o_o His chin proportions change from scene to scene. The style of this illustrator (just going from this one book, she might have done some other really great stuff that I haven't seen) is SO BORING. The scenes are in a small town made up of generic buildings and houses that are mostly empty except for a two or three pieces of furniture. Annnd all those magazines.

So all and all I don't recommend this book unless you have an hour's time to waste in a Barnes & Noble that you've already read everything in.

Buy some bears?

Do you need some bears? BUY THESE DAMN BEARS!

2 Arts 4 You

Why current literature for children sucks

For those that know me, you're aware that I'm currently unemployed. I've been puttering around my Dad's storage shed (my Dad sells used books) and I came across a box. It could have been filled with another set of French encyclopedias - BUT NO. It was filled with something much better.

TURN OF THE CENTURY CHILDREN'S LITERATURE. Most of it is in rough shape but these are still amazing little bits of history. There are many qualities to these old books that I think we should bring back to current children's literature.

1: PIRATE KITTENS

2. VIOLENCE

Yes. You read it. Bunny on his way to execution. That holy cow better get to praying.

3. POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS. I was blown away by this little piece of paper I found in a decimated copy of Grimm's Fairytales. Hmm....pigs? Wait....let me fold this right here......



OH SNAP HITLER.

4. WEIRD PRODUCT PLACEMENT.

5. QUALITY ILLUSTRATIONS OR WHATEVER

Yes Abby. I scanned that dragon just for you.

Okay. I guess I should go get a job now.

Bland Photos

It's now been a whole week back home. The weather report said it's going down to 8 degrees tonight. I'm drinking hot tea and listening to the radio. I was so frazzeled from the end of fall semester that I haven't done any real art, just sketches and prep work. Hopefully I'll start to work on some more finished pieces tomorrow. For now here are some photographs of what my life looks like. I hope everybody has been having a good break.