Comics! Games! Anthropology! » art

I Am Not a Crook

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:58:00 +0000

Last night the power flickered just enough to reset some of the clocks and shut off my iMac. I was very well-saved so I just rebooted it back up. No problem! This morning I was motivated to get an early start on my dissertation. The most important task is to visit the Windows side where my statistical analysis program is, load up the results of data analysis, and carefully document in writing each test I did.

I booted up the Windows 7 side through VMWare, and… Windows alerts me that my copy is “not genuine” (i.e.. I’m a filthy pirate). Well I’m not! Past Microsoft’s dirty insinuations I believe the program that sniffs out pirates was corrupted and, finding internal errors, assumed that it had been hacked. Then it locked me out of the operating system.

I’ve spent the entire day (from 9AM to 4PM (curse you daylight saving time!)) trying to find some way to get a Windows 7 boot disc to start up my VMWare Windows partition. I bought Windows 7 through a digital download so I don’t have a boot disc in hand. I think Dustin and his computer(s) will help me, so until he comes back from work I have to do other things.

I’ve uploaded a few sketches to my DeviantART. Check them out here. These are mostly from 2001-2003 I think.

Flickr also has more vacation photos.

Awesome Things

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:31:00 +0000

My friend Melissa has started a small side enterprise crafting miniature foods. She just started recently but you wouldn’t know it looking at her work. I had to get a typical Peruvian food immortominiaturized and I chose maíz morado, the purple corn that is used to make the lunchtime drink chicha morada. This is what Melissa made:

The board is just an inch across!

Her shop, Mousemarket (I know, isn’t that a cute name?!) is on Etsy.

Chicha morada itself is also awesome. I just made a pitcher-full from an instant mix I brought back from Perú. Mmm!

I’ve also signed up for yoga classes at the new Element Yoga and Health Studio. It’s like karate class, but I don’t have to remember a thing! The instructors here are also very friendly and positive. I’ve had a lot of fun spending quiet stretching time with them. And they are far less creepy than the Wii Fit instructors.

(Museum) Crawling in My Skin

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Last week our fine University held a Art Gallery and Museum Crawl. The goal is to visit five locations around the campus and take in their exhibitions. Each place had a snack table and there will be a prize drawing for those who got their card stamped at every location. I was only familiar with two of the five, so off I went!

The State Historical Society had editorial cartoons from the 30′s on display. They also debuted a brand new exhibit on Missouri portraiture, featuring portraits of Mark Twain and Harry Truman. There was also a collage of portraits drawn by kids.

As an added bonus they had markers and colored pencils out for you to draw your own portrait. Here is what they had so far. Can you see the one I did (click to embiggen)?

Our own Museum of Anthropology was also one of the stops on the tour. I’ve spent many-a-hour in there so I mostly chatted with the staff. I talked with Candy, the Associate Museum Curator (and awesome person) and met some of the new people I missed getting to know as I worked in my cave/basement for the past few years. They’re a friendly bunch!

Here are more of my photos on Flickr:

The Missourian has a short slideshow with photos from the Crawl.

I’m Looking Through You

admin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:28:00 +0000

My final completed SD vacation art project was further work with the Wacom. This time I was exploring digital inking; the only thing not done on my computer for this drawing was the pencils. The subject is Tinya Wazzo, Phantom Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes. See the full drawing at DeviantART!

Also, 1 month until The Beatles: Rock Band comes out! See I tied it all together with the title.

Saturn Girls of 3 Worlds

admin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:33:00 +0000

In my third yearly trip to Comic-Con, I’ve distilled my experience into a few goals. Rather than collect the glorified advertising that is the freebie, I aimed to get something unique that I’d value: art! Given the endless possibilities of what I could ask for at Artists’ Alley I also narrowed down my request for simplicity’s sake. I’ll have my favorite Comic-Con artists draw Saturn Girl, from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Here are three that I got that Friday:

{Colleen Coover draws great back-up stories for Marvel}

{Art Baltazar draws Tiny Titans, and won an Eisner Award for it that night!}

{Francis Manapul used to draw Legion of Super-Heroes, and now draws Adventure Comics for DC.}

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:59:00 +0000

My brother got me a Wacom tablet as a gift a few years ago but after a few attempts at using it I put it aside. It didn’t work well with my usual style which aims more towards precision which was hard to accomplish with the tablet. I decided to give it another shot, strangely because of the Facebook Graffiti app which has more of a painterly feel to it. I took the Wacom to the past Midmococo meeting for a public test run. After some exploratory doodles it suddenly clicked with me. I could at least make something that I am not ashamed of. I drew this:

{My first presentable Wacom-drawn piece. Click to see the full image at DeviantART!}

The drawing is kind of inspired by the brushwork art style of Street Fighter IV, which is a fantastic fighting game.

Also this is the first time I’ve used Pixelmator. I’ve heard good things about this graphics program but didn’t want to spend money to buy it. It turns out I already bought it as part of a MacHeist bundle deal! It’s a very good program, and the website is also very informative.

I’m using the Wacom/Pixelmator combo again to work on a comic I wrote two years ago. It may show up in the upcoming Mid-Missouri Comics Anthology 2009!

Long Live the Legion!

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:14:00 +0000

This is my first finished fanart, done when I was in Peru. It’s Saturn Girl, from the Legion of Super-Heroes! Click the picture to see the whole thing at DeviantART.