ToonerToons

Well  I got back from a 5000+ mile driving/camping and hiking trip in the western United States. This is one big country with a lot of open space. Of course without sufficient water resources that land can only support a certain amount of people. We noticed that while we were in the big national parks the only people there seemed to be European. I guess when they booked their trips the Euro was really strong against the dollar. Thats a good thing too. Please, come spend your money here and help our economy out!

Anyway it was an amazing trip and we saw a lot of cool scenery. I hope to do a painting or two based on some of the thousand or so pictures I took. There was a lot of vertical hiking involved too. When I started I thought I would die but after a week or so I was keeping up with my teenage son pretty well. Even though it was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit we were not truly hot until we returned to the sweltering humidity back east.

Thats all for now.

I've been trying to draw at least one picture a day. I've missed a few but for the most part I've kept it up for a couple of weeks now. It is amazing how rusty I had gotten with the pencil but it does come back fast thank goodness.

TTFN

I've been trying to make myself do at least one drawing a day, something one of my old art professors used to stress. So far so good. Well most of the drawings aren't so good but I'm trying anyway.

I have also been thinking of trying to try simplifying the toons I do. Not really copying but in similar fashion to the artist Dark DP. Clean simple shapes and soft light shades instead of strong contrasts. Some people who hate my stuff will rejoice I'm sure.

Well I'm feeling a bit better now. I've got a major set to build for a series of shows we are putting together. The art is already done so now its time to pull out the carpentry skills. Keeping busy with creative projects takes the edge off some not so good things right now. I went on a church council retreat last weekend and had a blast. Yes we had to work to but I was with a great group of people and laughed more than I have in years. It was really good for me.

The RL tough stuff is still there confronting me but with activities like these and others I'll get by. I seem to be drawing more of late also and I managed to write about 5 or 600 words today. A new disaster may come my way tomorrow but I wont worry about that. Take em as the come.

Not much to say right now as I am dealing with a sh_t storm of real life events. Oddly enough, I have found that during this time my creative lull is subsiding and I'm finding that by finding the time to be creative gives me a little peace in the eye of the storm.