My halloween costume - Alex from a clockwork orange. 

background complete. Skirt almost finished. Maybe 1 good day left and i am done. 

Candy Corn and orange marshmellow peanuts

Those are both really gross, so I will not partake.
However, i have pulled my halloween costume together and it is fabulous. I will post a picture later, but its the best one I have ever done.

I am really looking forward to the weekend. Going to check out some halloween parties! The thing with events like this is that the anticipation is usually better than the actual event. Take getting your drivers lisence for example. It was exhilirating (for about a day) then I started having wrecks and people kept bumming rides.

What a difference a year makes. Last year I was in shitty vermont, the temperature was artic and we were going to a giant halloween party. I drank a buttload of tequila and was at blackout stage by 10:30 pm. It was horrendous. I won't make that mistake again.

Finally, some new songs which I really like:
1) The killers-jenny was a friend of mine
2) Nada Surf-if you leave (its a cover of the 80s song)
3) pixies - bam thwock (new song only found on itunes or any filesharing prog)
4) new band: punchline - punk band which i just found

I have some others i was listening to on the commute, but i can't remember the names.

There is obviously no snowboarding in texas. Its time to plan a trip. Early January. Meeting some of the vermont & boston crew for a weekend in near quebec at Jay Peak.

Ok thats all.

Redid the shirt, finished the background. Getting closer! Need to colorize the skirt and finish the flesh tones.  

Finally! I love this show.  

A week of creative slumber

Taking the week off.

No new forthcoming art.

The 'rents are visiting and I am playing the role of gracious host.

Instead, I offer an alternative:

My ex roomate's blog

Our lives have scattered upon quite divergent paths. I bounced around the contintenal U.S., and Travis got married and settled in the Windy City.

I make pictures, he makes babies.
He was a good roomate and we got along famously. I would like to visit him someday.

He scared me one night. We had lived together for a number of months. Travis (who is a giant of a man) strolls down the stairs one night and smiles at me. Staring at me was a giant toothless mouth. His entire top row of pearly whites was M.I.A. It seems in his youth he suffered a tramatic BMX accident robbing him of his chops, thus he had falsies.

I nearly shit my pants.

post 

FInished the face for the most part. Blocked the hair back in, started shading the rest of the body. Gotta fix the arms. They look deformed. 

Tame

Went to the Pixies concert last night. It was at a small bar-b-q restaurant Stubb's.

It was nothing short of great!! Best concert I have ever been to without a doubt.

I came up with a halloween costume finally, and i think i have outdone myself this year.
I am not saying what it is yet, but here is what I need:

1) white pants
2) suspenders
3) black boots
4) eyeliner
5) a jock strap

Paradise by the dashboard light

So we are sitting around work today. All about the bejamins said, "Yo, I need a vacation." I quickly agreed. We suddenly began trading ideal destinations. We both felt that Corfu, Greece was the best choice given the time of year (and the amount of FREQUENT flier miles we have). The Frenchman then chimed in and said, "After Greece, come stay with me in hometown in southern France for a few days.

Suddenly I have a december vacation planned. Whether this will actually happen or not, I will not find out until next week, but I think tonight it will give me nice dreams.

Pixies concert tomorrow.

A little bit more work is done. I hated the face, so i scraped it off and redid the physical features. After it dries i will put the actual tones back in. Started on the shirt today, it gets some lacey fringe later. Thats about it for today. 

The chaos theory, and the Tao of the universe.

So last night I was ZENNING it up by working on a painting,
grillin' some chops and watching television. I was a multi tasking mf-er.
As I was doing this, Fred became hyper and was running circles.
Suddenly the doorbell rings. I am wearing my standard nighttime attire of hospital scrubs, and a white vneck and am covered in paint. Three religious zealouts are at my door and wish to save my soul. In the meantime, Fred has become dizzy from running circles and collides with my painting giving him a nice shade of red across his face. I am standing outside the door while some man explains to me that FAITH stands for FAITH ACCEPTANCE INQUIRY TRUTH AND HEAVEN, while my tattooed brother runs shirtless around the house chasing my multi colored dog shrieking "FRED! YOUR NOT ALLOWED TO PAINT". The church group is peering through my window. I told them to disregard what they see, my brother is "Challenged". Finally they left, although GOD punished my attention deficit by burning my chops.

After dinner i walked back to my room and noticed the swamp had grown larger. The swamp is the water puddle that stands in my hallway. Upon investigation i notice the walls are a bit mushy at the bottom. E GADS! We have a serious leakage issue.

Its 8:54 pm.

MacGuyver checks the airconditioner and notices the tubing is deficient. So it is off to home depot for tubes and cutters. CODE RED

As we check out the ringer uppers spies the red smears across my shirt and says, "Sir you are bleeding. "No my good man, it is only paint", I quickly reply as we pay for tubing that looks suspiciously like beer bong hose. "Uh..... what exactly are you guys working on?" he suspiciously asks us.

"Home Repairs."

I'm waiting for my program to compile

So i have 20 minutes to kill. The cool thing about living in Austin is everytime I go out on the weekend I discover new cool places to frequent. I met one of my friends out Saturday, and then met up with some others as well. We eventually went to a little bar, the name eludes me, but it was very cool. Sunday I woke up early and went to San marcos with my brother to the outlets. He needed nice clothes as he starts a new job today. My household is fully employed now, minus Fred of course. His job is to gaurd our belongings.

Lately I have been defiling my body with fast food and a sedentary lifesyle. I can no longer handle feeling bloated and lethargic, so I am joining a gym this week.

A crazy ex-girlfriend sent me a link to one of her friend's blog.
It's really funny, so you should check it out.

http://www.blindcavefish.com

I will be 27 in less than a month.

Mary aint'cha tired?

Here I blocked in the first bits of color. I am stuck on the background though, not sure what exactly I want to put in, and I am out of paint. So thats it for today.

Its a beautiful day and I get to spend it indoors watching a 6 hour defensive driving video. Argh!! I put it off (of course) until the last possible minute. I do get 6 hours to dork around indoors which means I will have clean laundry next week. I also started a new painting. It is pretty large, here is the sketch. 

Day 3 and things are looking better. I put in some of the darker tones, and started working on her shirt and it really seemed to come alive. The face is getting closer as well, just need to add some eyes. I will save the legs for the weekend as I think they will be tough. 

the sweetest deal of all time

An friend just im'd me (a former co-worker from the green mountain state, and past international travelling companion).
He had some big news.
His manager gave him permission to work remotely. (Working remotely is an elusive trophy for all corporate drones).

I was all like, "thats cool, dude"

Then he dropped the bomb on me.

He is moving to Paris to finish post grad education. So he not only gets to keep getting paid, but he moves to a fabulous city, and does not really have to go to work.

How cool is that?

We went to central market today for lunch. They poisoned my food and I soon found myself violently ill, so I left work early to come home and suffer alone. I also painted a little more. I roughed in some more details. It is still to wet to work with, but patience was not a virtue bestowed upon me. 

Information Ejaculation

Today was one of those days when you wake up, and everything just goes your way. I sprung out of bed to a beautiful sunshiney day. (I am going to love texas in the winter, poo on coldass vermont)
I made some eggos for me and fred, flipped on the tv and was met with none other than Pa Ingalls.

Man, I love little house. Pa Ingalls would be a great halloween costume, but nobody would get it. Laura Ingalls would be even better, but then people would just think i was wierd.

Traffic flowed freely on the way to work. Work was even fun today. (Disaster must be imminent....) So yeah. Life is peachy. I am also considering going to art school. I seem to be happier when i have a strong creative outlet.

Ok. Now stop what you are doing. I have two songs for you to go download:

1) Alkaline Trio - we've had enough
2) Pete Yorn - life on a chain

Alkaline Trio is kind of punkish (I am on a big punk kick right now). Pete Yorn is kind of folky, kind of Dylanish. I am hoping he comes to Austin, i think it would be a good show.

Finally....Do you ever have one of those moments when you are in a totally serene situation, but then you have a flashback of something funny from your past and you start cracking up? It happened to me today. So I am in this meeting at work. Its me, three dudes from india and a guy from lebanon. Its kind of your typical corporate meeting (a snoozer).... anyway out of the blue I have a flashback of this kid I went to high school with, Brian Shelton. A whole bunch of us are out one night (I think we had snuck out or something), we are all walking down the street and Brian looks over (he was a real quiet type) and says just above a whisper, "I think i am going to go poop on that car." He walks over to this sedan, steps up on the bumper and situates himself firmly in the center of the hood, drops trou, and assumes the squat position.
Now I have never before hear the sound of turds landing on sheet metal, but I promise you, the first time it happens, you know exactly what it is. I heard to small thuds reverberate through the still night and immediately knew that he had just made good on his promise.

Fast forward back to today.

I am not sure what triggered this vivid image, but it hit me from nowhere. I was near tears from laughing and everyone just looked at me. I wanted to share, I really did, but I knew they just wouldn't get it.

Weekly portrait sketch. 

I felt the urge to start a new painting today. I found a photo magazine with some really cool shots at the bookstore, to use for reference. After about an hour i have the basic form roughed in. Its hard to tell right now, but it will be a woman squatting on a stage. Now that the color is roughed in, I need to let it dry for a few days, enough so the paint can go from soupy to tacky and i can start adding actual details..... 

trying to learn how to color with photoshop. This is rough. 

do you know christine????? I love found magazine. Ever heard of it? Simple concept, you find funny items, send it to them, and they post it. Very simple. 

Halloween brain fart

I am having a halloween brain fart. I am at a complete loss on what I want to dress up as. Every year I seem to pick an obscure outfit, and only 2 or 3 people know what I am (Last year I was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, it was a sweet outfit.

I have however, came up with some ideas for carving a jack o' lantern.

My first pumpkin will be based off of the infamous GOATSE man. If you do not know what GOATSE man is, google it. (Don't do it at work though, it's completely gross and nasty).

My fingers need medical attention.

A troubling ailment has developed with me in the last few days. The digits on my left hand seem to feel tight and non responsive. I think at the tender young age of 26, the onset of athritis has began, or perhaps some other dehibilitating tropical ailment.

This presents a problem as I am left handed. I write, I draw, I play the guitar, I eat. All of these tasks involve Mr. Lefty.

Never one to forego medical attention, I have promptly scheduled a visit to the doctor tomorrow for a battery of tests, xrays, and other non-invasive medical procedures.

I love Sundays. Grab the sketchpad, sink into the couch, and HBO offers a great movie from a few years ago.
 

Finally got my new art table from fed ex. Unfortunately, the box was ripped open, some parts were missing, and the top was crunched in. I went ahead and put it together. Evan strolled buy and I showed him what was missing, he promptly went to the garage, found some scrap wood and made some replacements for me. 

I haven't forgot about this. Just needed some time off. I think the fence has taken me about 2 months because it is such a pain in the ass. I need to put in the rest of the slats, and then put some type of greyish glaze over the fence. 

Zen and the art of self-revelation 

Little house on the prarie

Here are the top 5 things that are great about coming home after travelling:

1) Drinking cold pepsi from a mason jar
2) A bedroom with the perfect temperature
3) The big comfy couch with tattered found blanket
4) Soft toilet paper (t.p. in germany is 100 grit)
5) Waking up with Fred wrapped around my head (freds my dog)

After the ACL festival, 2 weeks in germany and oktoberfest I am ready for the big fat nothing. My only goal for the weekend is to replace the pants which I blew the ass out of in the airport. Other than that, i may just sit.