Darn it.

A few years ago, Justin was looking for something to draw, so I told him to draw a raccoon blowing bubbles. Just recently this year I used his sketch as inspiration to create this quick illustration:

Ok. That was all fine and dandy, until today I happened to have been browsing on Cornell & McCarthy's website at the professional illustrators they represent, and came across this:

Aaand my heart sank. I guess a raccoon blowing bubbles wasn't all that unique after all, and to have a professional illustrator unknowingly put me in my spot makes it even worse. 

I linked the illustration to her site, Renee Graef Illustration. I love the mouse on the bubble.

Cat Doodles

This drippy cold weather is depressing. We had an entire week (unseasonably, unbelievably warm) with 70-80 degree weather. Now it's back to goosebump city again. Ever notice it kind of hurts to get goosebumps?

Truthfully my only point to posting today was to post this kitty doodle.

Illustration Friday: Swamp

Remember being little and feeling swamped with homework?  A little part of me secretly thought it was fun, and I loved the feeling of accomplishment when I'd check another assignment off my  planner. I don't miss projects, papers, or presentations though. I definitely never take my free time for granted now that I'm completely done with school. I love that I go to work and come home and leave work at work. In college I always had these dark clouds of assignments and animation projects that hung over me all semester and brought me down.

Tried the first exercise of p90x with my sister yesterday. SO glad I decided not to bother getting into that. Not only is it expensive, but the first exercise is pretty much impossible. There isn't enough structure and there's too much room to cheat, it really is up to you to push yourself in order to get a good workout. I can't do that, not when all I have monitoring me during the time is my cat. This is why I'm a member of the gym and take classes, because in boot camp it's high intensity strength training with a little cardio, and unlike at home where I can skip out on pushups, at the gym my instructor is there ready to pick on anyone who gives up.

Well that was a rant. Can you believe it's only Wednesday? This week is crawling by..

April Sweepstakes

My apologies for being extremely delayed with posting. Perhaps every day is too much?

I wish I had a few extra hours each day where I could just fiddle in Photoshop for fun. I spend all day at work in Photoshop doing work things and want to draw illustrations for Illustration Friday, but by the time I get home and finish all my cooking and cleaning there's only an hour or so left in the day that I like to devote to other things like reading or tv. Also, I leave my wacom at work most of the time. Partly  because I don't like bringing it back and forth since it syncs weird with my pc at work sometimes, and partly because the computer at home doesn't have a nice big desk with lots of room for me to sprawl my elbows out. I'm more or less cramped between the keyboard and our printer.

One can dream..

So it feels like it was just February and I was posting the sweepstakes page I made for the month of March, and now here I am posting the sweepstakes page for the month of April. This months' theme is "pick-your-prize", so I went with the whole April showers bring May flowers vibe, and really I just wanted to play with paper-cut outs in Photoshop.

Birthday Cards

I really should start working on my illustration for Illustration Friday...

Zumba today. Boom.

Here is the front and inside of a quick card I made for my dad's birthday:

 

Summer?

Theories suggest that because we basically skipped over the entire season of Winter this year, we might also skip over Spring (or should I say spring over Spring), directly into Summer weather.

Um..hell yes? Please? Springs in WNY are awful. You might get one day that's in the 50's but then 2 days later it's snowing again. So far, we're off to a good start with record-breaking temperatures, including two days this week that are calling for temps in the mid 70's. Ridonk.

I have two illustrations to do this week, not sure if I'll finish both. I'm working on a birthday card for my dad and as of right now I'm putting that at the top of my list of important arty things to do.

Moving on, here's another comic. Will post the illustrations I've been working on when they're complete.

My iPad 3 Is On Its Way!!

I'm very excited today because my iPad 3 is expect to arrive at the end of the day. I've never owned an iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone, so this is kind of a first for me with touch-screen-smartie-devices.

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is "shades", I have an idea but I need to think more on my execution. I drew a comic yesterday about my frustrations at self-checkout lanes in grocery stores. Even though there is a designated spot to stand and wait for a self checkout machine to open up, I've noticed that people start to hover over my machine because they see that I've started paying. That drives me nuts! I'm not done yet! I usually don't even put any of my things in my bag until I'm done paying, so then I feel all pressured when they're standing there waiting and I'm scrambling to put my debit card away and pack up my things. Patience people...

Awkward Moments At Tops, #1 - Self Checkout

70 Degrees?!

Whoa.

Today the weather calls for a high of 70 degrees here in the wonderfully tropical Western, NY. 75 in some areas! (not mine). This is not only unusual for this time of year...it's shocking.

They really need a size in-between Large and XL. Just sayin'

The weather also calls for isolated thunderstorms which would explain why it looks like doom and gloom outside, but it's all good because although I'm not a fan of a lot of rain, if there's thunder and lightning with it I'll deal.

I just realized I've been spelling lightning " l-i-g-h-t-e-n-i-n-g " my entire life. Fail.

It's not that I don't like rain, there's just an unnecessary over-abundance of the wet stuff in this area. When it rains, it pours. For days. Non stop. After awhile I get tired of squishy shoes and soggy pant legs.

However, this weather is very appropriate for this illustration I drew the other day. It was meant to be a loose drawing without going into too much detail, but I think I have something wrong with me where I have a very hard time leaving drawings "unfinished" looking. I love the way it looks when illustrations are just painterly and colored outside the lines at times, but my perfectionism gets the best of me from time to time. I'll keep working on that...

Tomorrow's Friday! WOO HOO!

Hump Day

For the past two weeks I've been enjoying a brand of oatmeal that I recently discovered due to the fact that I had a coupon for it. The brand is Better Oats and although they have other flavors, I was eating the flavor "raw-pure and simple" because most flavored oatmeals have unnecessary added sugars and what not. It tastes like crap when it's plain, but if you add just one packet of a zero-calorie sweetener like Splenda, it makes a world of difference 0_0

Anyhoo, I'm sure this story about oatmeal is interesting. The point of my story is that I ran out of Better Oats so I bought my local grocery store brand in plain instead, and...well...it's disappointing. From now on I'm sticking with the good stuff. Lesson learned. 

I'm working on a new illustration, just something simple. I don't want to post it yet because I'm actually almost done with it. However, there are always comics to post, so here's another doodaloo. I don't know about you, but I have the worst memory when it comes to reading books. I can remember bits and pieces, but for the most part I completely forget almost everything that happens in a book the second I finish it. This is especially bad when I burn through a series of books, one after the other, in a short amount of time. I usually end up forgetting what part came from what book, so don't quiz me on Harry Potter because I will most likely draw a blank.

P.S. I'm really bummed because this was almost small enough to bump up to the size XL, but it just barely hung over the edge. And now it's microscopic, so you'll have to click to zoom.

Zumba-Zumba-Indoor-Soccer

I've decided that even though I have indoor soccer games on Tuesday evenings that are 90 minutes long with zero subs, I am going to take Zumba after work as well, when possible. Including tonight. Why? Because Zumba is only offered Tuesday's at 5:30 or Saturday's at 9:00 AM and I am not...giving up my Saturday mornings, even though I'm normally up by then because my cat smacks me in the face (weird habit of hers). It's the fact that if I wanted to sleep in I have the option.

I finished that doodaloo about running on a treadmill. I don't think I'll be doing another 3-pager for awhile. I'll  stick with a few frames from now on. This is a pretty accurate illustration of what goes through my mind while on a treadmill. I don't mind cardio machines, but the treadmill...nope. Not gonna happen.

Looks like it might need to be expanded in order to easily read the text. Sorry :]

Is It Friday Yet?

Umm...yeah. This weekend was a blur. Regardless of the fact that we turned our clocks ahead yesterday, I'm actually not very tired this morning, but I'll just pretend I am anyways.

Gosh I'm so tired....See? Now I have a reason to feel bad for myself this lovely Monday morning.

After a very disappointing and not to mention ego-killing shopping spree yesterday, I've decided to jump back on the wagon of weight-loss. I really don't need to lose a lot, I'm technically at the appropriate BMI, but there is room for improvement, I do need to eat better foods overall. It's so hard to eat right when my coworkers bring in donuts and treats literally every other day. I don't even like dunkin' donuts. To be honest their donuts are pretty sad donuts considering the word "donuts" is part of their business name.

A smart Asian nutrition-junkie on youtube once said "It takes 2 weeks to get over cravings". Lets see how long it takes for my cookie cravings to vanish.

At least I'm good about exercising! I'm actually in the middle of drawing a rather large doodaloo on what I think about when I'm running on a treadmill. I'm nearly done, I've just been looking for a window of time to finish it when I'm feeling it, you know?

In the meantime, here's another doodaloo, and no, I'm not one of those dweebie pokemon-loving animators with a charizard backpack. I liked pokemon when it was still cool, back around 1999-2000 ish.

Illustration Friday: Yield

"Oh, hello there."

Pizza

Happy Friday!

I need to start drawing characters more. Specifically people. My problem is that I love drawing and creating illustrations in so many different ways that I actually haven't come across my "style" quite yet. Dem's an issue.

The only people that I draw the same way every time are my comic characters, which are really not meant for anything they're just for fun so they're otherwise useless, right? They say that your style emerges when you find yourself having fun as you're creating the piece. I guess I can say the grandma at the casino is not my style because I've hit a snag and now I'm not feelin' it. I will finish it though, but will probably not continue with that style anymore.

I know for a fact I'm having pizza for dinner tonight. Is it bad that I'm considering getting pizza on my lunch break? It's barbecue...so that's different...

I don't like to leave my posts naked, so here's another older doodaloo:

Illustration Friday: Intention

Well I'm not going to have enough time to finish this, so I'm handing in a work in progress. My intention is to post the finished piece asap. I'm not happy with the colors at all so far but I was waiting until I filled in everything else before I messed with the colors in case I change my mind.

Her intention that afternoon was to spend quality time with her grandson.

On a different note, Justin and I pre-ordered our iPad 3 last night! Woop Woop! It says it will deliver on March 16th, and thus the countdown begins...

Spring Fever

It's hard to concentrate with this gorgeous weather! We are experiencing our first spring-like day here in Western New York. A whopping high of 57 degrees! Can you believe it? I find it hard to focus when the sun is shining and I don't have to wear my winter coat outside.

I've had little progress on my drawing for illustration friday. Barely started shading, but I'm bored with black and white so I might just jump right into color to motivate me. After all, I only have two days to get this thing done.

Monday Monday (bah dah...bah dah dah dah..)

This weekend I spent time thinking about what to draw for this friday's illustration. I also spent all of my money. Justin's two best friends drove up from the Harrisburg area for the weekend, we went out to eat twice, drank at home, and went to the casino. I lost. The silver lining to this dark cloud of debt is that I came up with an idea for what to draw! Yay...

One of my favorite things about going to a casino is seeing all of the people who go. They are portrayed as these really upper-class, fabulous places, but the majority of people you will see there are 70+ aged old ladies with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and ratty tee shirts. Thus my illustration, or..so far it's just a sketch. I highly doubt that children are allowed in any casinos, but that's beside the point.

So here is the sketch, this woman is a grandmother whose intention was to spend time with her grandchild for an afternoon.

"Intention"

Happy Friday!

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Intention". I'm going to have to think about that one. In fact, I intend to think about it.

Tomorrow I'm going to my grandma's house to celebrate her birthday. I'm not sure how old she's turning, probably 78. If you ask her she'll tell you she's turning 50, so you never really know. I drew her a card with a cupcake on the front. Calling people "Cupcake" and "Martha" is one of her things, so on the inside of the card it says "Happy Birthday, Cupcake." I'm probably going to slap my logo on the back of a bunch of cards to see how they sell in my local office supplies store.

Here's the original drawing that was put on the front of the card. Obviously I just used the finished cupcake on the right-hand side, but I thought it'd be neat to show a before and after type view:

Drawn in Photoshop with a wacom intuos4

March Madness

I work at an advertising company that also runs daily deals. We run sweepstakes often to gain more subscribers, and this month we're launching a "March Madness" sweepstakes. This is just an example of some of the stuff I do at Findiquick. I design a lot for webpages and print-outs, and do a lot of email marketing. I basically get paid to draw some of my characters in Photoshop all day so that's pretty cool...

March is exciting, at least at first, because the weather will finally start to try to act like Spring. It can also be really frustrating though, because one week it could be in the 50-60's, and then two days later it's snowing again. Here's to hoping I don't have to wear my winter coat every single day this month! 

This month I want to do more illustrations. February was a pretty good month in that sense, so hopefully this month brings as much promise. 

One last note...I'm concerned about my toenail. I play indoor soccer two nights a week, and my indoor shoes are just a tad on the snug side because that was the only pair they had left, and now I have a bruise on both of my big toenails from stopping so quick on the gym floor and jabbing at the ball. The worst case scenario is that eventually one of them falls off and then flip flop season comes and I can't wear flip flops...which would be pretty terrible. I live in flip flops during warm weather, and I'm even allowed to wear them to work. I can't wait until soccer switches to outdoor...