sasstistics.

color, man. dig it.

 

i've been researching color theory this morning, trying to learn a thing or two about it. interesting - if convoluted - stuff. i won't bore you with the details but i thought i would post the munsell color system diagram. it's a work of art unto itself: 

 

actually, pretty awesome indeed! like a terrordrome of color. you know what isn't the least bit awesome not even a little? statistics. yes, i, drew, am enrolled in an online statistics class ... again. after my first attempt failed abysmally, i decided to mount that pile of flesh and bones and whip that dead horse into a gallop once more! we'll see if my powers of bestial-necromancy can conquer the unholy might of (semi) practical data interpolation! in hindsight, i should have taken this class freshman year when all that knowledge from high school was still juicy and steaming, not now that i'm an old fart work-a-day dumbass like everyone else. 

woah - "juicy and steamy?" gross, man. 

anyway, i've never felt stupider. on the other hand, the lengths to which my virtual professor, one michael fahy, goes to endear this terrible dull class to college students is admirable. for instance, one question on our initial assignment involved calculating the age of a very young mother given rough data about how her age corresponded to her son's. as if to say: "you found the answer and now you know the horrible truth ... john's mother was 22 when she had him! wear a jimmy-hat, kids!" in another one, you had to write an equation for figure out the alcoholic content of a mixture of juice and vodka given that vodka has a 40% alcoholic content. i spent a good 30 minutes trying to remember the name of that drink (it's s screwdriver, right?) and then gave up. me am dumbs. still, college kids love drinking and hate statistics so maybe if you give them both, it'll be a wash, right? right, michael fahy? 

 

maybe. seriously, though. i commend his effort. for all the trouble, he could have just as easily given us work out of some dusty old book. or not even offered this online class. then i'd have a 100% chance of not graduating from college. 

editor's note: interestingly enough, michael fahy is also the name of a irish politician who was sentenced to jail for one year for messin' with government funds. 

editor's note, part 2: the original title of this blog was "asstitstics." get it? ass-tits-tics? but that seemed crude and not in keeping with the whole idiom we've got going here. so we changed it to sass-tistics. like we're being sassy. which we are. 

...and handsome.  

mediocrity!

coffee. coffee. coffee. 

my day is defined by my coffee intake. one cup in the morning. sometimes another at lunch. certainly one after lunch or about 5 o'clock or so. another when i get home at night (8:30 or so). logically, i've been doing some research on the benefits / detriments of coffee on one's health. it's seems like eggs - frequently changing sides of the healthy / not healthy debate. so here's me, riding the raggedy edge of possibly being healthy. 

my mood? oh, i'm much better, thanks for asking. yesterday was an overwhelming day. it was a snowball kind of day, you know? 

at the top of the day one little thing set off rolling down the hill and all through the day it picked up other little things and pretty soon this huge ball of tiny, individual, unique little problems was careening towards the tiny village the bottom of the hill - drewville. 

the art is even going better (quickly approaching mediocrity!).  i started a new piece this morning and it looks pretty nice so far. it's interesting, you know: i've always just doodled with a pen on notebook paper and somehow it landed me here drawing for a living. now i'm trying to teach myself all this color and painting theory so i can actually make decent looking junk. at the same time, i have to learn as quick as possible so each day i have a little task. yesterday was blue robot day - figure out metallic textures and posing and stuff. today was green dragon - totally different textures and lines. a couple days ago i did a human face and it turned out pretty cool. soon i need to do landscapes. but here i am rambling when you possibly want to sort-of see what i'm talking about:  

so hopefully these don't look awful. like i said, i spend less than a day on each one (actually more like 2-4 hours). i'll keep posting works in progress here as i go along. and i'll keep touching these two up and posting new versions (hopefully). 

...back to "work."

sonova gypsy!

topsoil. 

yup, that's what i feel like.  there are a number of things that have added up to bumming me out lately and the whole pile-up has had the effect of making me feel like a big was or worthless. melo-dramatic? perhaps. nonetheless true. my art isn't going all that well, work is dull for the moment, and money woes plague me. also, i can't seem to stay interested in any of the women i try to date. i feel permanently damaged ... oh, f*** that. i'm not talking about that s*** here. 

i have been dedicated large chunks of time to listening to paranormal and conspiracy podcasts at work while i draw. interesting stuff. the EERIE

 podcast comes highly recommended. these three folks, who are not the greatest radio personalities, nonetheless consistently deliver a really interesting show. a few things differentiate them from similar-such podcast i've listened to: 

1. they do not assume the existence of anything paranormal or supernatural. at all. ever. 

2. they have really diverse guests - a reporter tracking wolf-creatures through wis

consin, a UFOlogist, the son of a full-blooded gypsy, etc. 

3. each show is 2 hours long. 

check it out, if you're into that sort of thing. i think it's fascinating as all get-out. as a treat, here is my favorite photo ever of an extra-terrestrial: it's just fantastic. he's got a leather jacket on (the hellraiser!) and the cops are all looking down on him. and the clincher? his little head is hung! like, he knows he was up to know good. oh, zarglax ... for shame. 

seriously?

poor again, poor again, jibbety-jib. 

today i spent well over $300 on tickets - 2 parking tickets and a traffic infraction. i don't want to talk about. so i won't. it's done and it's over and we're not talking about it. so there. 

in other, better news: i was kicking around dinosaur comic's page the other day and i saw that the author had posted a link to another comic. it's really, really charming. in spite of - or because of? - it's manga style, it's really really good. it's eccentric enough to keep you guessing, magical enough to be endearing and damn well rendered in b & w. just all around grade a work, that. 

today is saturday and, thus, my day to get things done. normally, saturday would be my day to spend money on necessities like groceries and art supplies but, as aforementioned, that ain't happenin' today, no ser. instead i think i will clean the apartment, contemplate my financial woes, maybe play some nintendo. i think tonight i'll try to convince seth and eliot to play settlers of catan. we'll see. in the meantime i have my coffee and my npr and my cats who are laying in the sun licking eats other's buttholes. 

seriously! 

well, i guess i'll hook up the ol' wacom pad and launch photoshop and enjoy the free pleasures of artistic endeavor. 

axis and allies

some people have pick-up sports games. we have axis and allies.

tonight is the 2nd night of our axis and allies game. eliot is playing russia, seth and i are picking up double duties as uk / usa and germany / japan respectively. last night the japanese failed to invade alaska but made a strong foothold near mongolia. germany lost some eastern europe territories but made significant gains in 

pseudo-living

i draw robots for a living. 

well, okay. not a living per se and not always robots. it sounds nice though. and it's not that far from the truth. i got this job at screaming death monkey - it's visual effects (VFX) house but jeremy, the guy who started / owns / runs it wants to turn it into a full-fledged production company. so for all his VFX stuff and his personal projects he hired me to draw concept art and develop all his ideas and answer the phones if he's busy and stuff. 

... so here's me, drawing mostly robots for a pseudo-living. 

because of the writer's strike (day 80!), there is very little work coming in. we're doing keanu reeve's new film but its basically done so no concept art is needed. i've spent the week storyboarding this upcoming film that i'm also director of photography (DP) on ... drew some robots ... and downloaded a bunch of podcasts on trans-dimensional conspiracy theories. needless to say, i have very little to do right now. still, i'm pulling a paycheck so i can't really complain. plus my boss(es) are great. they like my art (although i can't imagine why), we laugh alot and things are pretty genial all around. still, it'd be nice to working on a project instead of reading each presidential candidate's website, which is what i did this morning. of particular interest was ron paul's site.

frankly, i don't agree with what i understood to be the libertarian ideology. but ron paul's site seemed pretty moderate - dare i say reasonable? - especially on education reform (which is super-duper important). then i came across this: 

"in the past, i introduced legislation to repeal the so-called "assault weapons" ban before its 2004 sunset, and i will oppose any attempts to reinstate it.

"i also recently opposed h.r. 2640, which would allow government-appointed psychiatrists to ban u.s. veterans  experiencing even mild forms of post-traumatic stress syndrome from ever owning a gun."

seriously? people should be allowed own assault weapons? veterans who are certified as suffering from psychiatric disorders should be allowed to own assault weapons? 

what a nutter.