Bizzaro Joey

He's 15, he hates to read and he smokes weed constantly. It's Bizzaro Joey!

Astonishingly enough though, based on this picture I'd say he pretty much looks exactly like my dad, which is a little weird. Like every other 15 year old on Space Book, he was smart enough to list his ACTUAL PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS...so maybe one day I should pay him a visit.

crappy chess animation

maya, 1-2 hours

This is an idea I was working on for a chess game. I spent a little over an hour on it, and at this point the idea got vetoed in favor of another idea I was working on. No sweetening or overlap passes, just rough keyframes. The idea was to have two guys jousting, one knocks the other off, etc. Unfortunately I didn't get that far. Still, I figured it was a decent "sketch" that I could post, since I haven't been able to post any drawings in a few days. Probably the main reason I never post any work-related stuff is that almost everything I've done is copyrighted and unreleased, which is kind of a no-no.

NOTE: sorry for the lame compression and everything. I'm looking into how to edit the settings for this Blogger Video thing, hopefully I can repost a better resolution and frame rate.

git er done

random dude from hunting magazine, pen, 10 min

Saturday Life Drawing 10/25/08

pen, 5 min

pen, 10 min

pen, 30 min

pen, 30 min

More life drawing. Thanks for coming by.

sketch

pencil sketch

Jeez I suck. Oh well, just trying to get back to a drawing a day.

Saturday Life Drawing is Back

Dave, 5 min, colored pencil

Dave, 10 min, colored pencil

Dave, 45 min-ish, watercolor and ink

Thanks to Wes for getting the free Saturday life drawing sessions going again. There was a really good turnout. These drawings are pretty bad...this is the first life drawing session I've been to in over 2 years I think...maybe more. The model, Dave, was a great model, is regularly proportioned, and presumably doesn't get blown by methed out Republicans like the last one.

The Libertarian Myth

I have long felt quite alone among my friends in my skepticism of Libertarianism. It seems that many well intentioned, reasonably intelligent and independent people approach Libertarianism due to a regard for civil liberties and freedoms, only to get sucked into a world of ultra right-wing capitalism and selfishness of the highest order. It is a bizarre phenomenon. Most of the self described 'Libertarians' that I know are independent minded people. Often otherwise generally non-political, though sometimes they are very political. Rural folks concerned about gun rights. Motorcycle enthusiasts that don't want to be told that they have to wear a helmet. People that are disgruntled with the fewer and fewer places in which they can smoke cigarettes. These people are much more concerned about personal freedoms than they are free markets. Most of them could care less about unions and welfare one way or the other. Until, that is, they inevitably encounter some form of institutionalized Libertarianism, such as the Reason Foundation, Reason Magazine, or a "Libertarian" AM radio talk show- all of which are universally founded and funded by right wing capitalist Republicans. These institutions use a most twisted logic to form some very questionable connections. A young man who was once angry over the fact that he can't light fireworks in his back yard now focuses his anger on a single mother that receives food stamps to help feed her young children. To him, these are symptoms of the same problem- government controlling his private life as it sees fit. "Big Mother." Another bizarre connection: one of the most popular Libertarian websites is privatization.org. This is a truly strange development. What does Libertarianism- the supposed defense of personal liberties, have to do with privatization- the cause of huge, bureaucratic impersonal corporations? It seems that right wing capitalists have subverted the cause of folks interested in liberty exactly the same way that they have subverted religion- twisting it into a pretzel logic that inevitably bends back around to defend the market, the wealthy, the powerful, and little else. They have been so successful at this that they have managed to convince these folks that one of their sworn enemies should be the ACLU- an organization that has done a great deal to defend personal liberties and the constitution, which is it's stated purpose.

I believe that combating the 'Libertarian Myth' is going to be a very important issue in the future for people that care about civil liberties AND social justice. True Libertarianism is a good cause, but we must shed light on the fact that the Libertarian movement has been hijacked in this country. At this point it is not much more than ultra-right-wing ultra-capitalism which mainly favors the fiscal "liberties" of the wealthy and those with ambitions to become wealthy. Go to any American Libertarian website and you will see reams and reams of articles dedicated to right wing financial causes- privatization of schools ("choice"), NAFTA, the absurd notion of fixing health care with MORE privatization (how much more privatized/screwed can our system get? these guys can't get enough of getting ripped off by huge corporations), crusades against public transportation, crusades against environmentalists ( "Policymakers need to respect America's preference for cars" ...wtf?), building more privatized prisons and selling off public lands (damn those pesky National Parks, always getting all up in my personal liberties!).

Someone reading this list might ask...what the hell do these issues have to do with liberty? Sounds more like the old school conservative party line financial issue checklist to me. Some issues you won't see on these sites very often- criminal justice, death penalty, drug war, immigrant rights, prisoner's rights, gay rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, rights of the poor and voting rights. These are all issues that fall directly under the umbrella of personal liberties, any way you slice it. However- it seems that "liberty" issues that don't effect the pocketbooks of rich white guys don't make it into the official American Libertarian dialog these days. Granted you do get the odd bitch and moan article mixed in to placate regular folks, but by and large, Libertarian literature in America at this time is centered around private industry, private property and other issues that all have a common thread- their backbone is the accumulation of wealth, not personal liberties.

So, to anyone that considers themselves a Libertarian, I'd like you to consider these questions:

• Does "liberty" as a concept have a business vs. government bias? What's the difference?


• Is it possible that government bureaucracies alone are guilty of imposing on personal liberties, while corporate bureaucracies are not?


• Are liberties and rights limited to those that have financial ambitions?


• Are 'liberty' and 'freedom' partisan issues?


• How many of the issues that brought you to Libertarianism have anything to do with economics.....?


• Is there anything weird about the fact that all contemporary Libertarian literature is funded by right wing capitalist Republicans?


• When was the last time you were sitting around, pondering the many ways in which government bureaucracy has infringed on your freedoms, and you came to the conclusion that the obvious solution is....more private prisons? Does this have anything to do with "liberty" whatsoever?


• Do these rich white guys really give a shit about the smoking ban in your town? Or, like so many aspects of American policy, is it all about the money?

Anyway, thanks for reading.

FOOTNOTE:

I think it's easy to see how someone could be interested in reasonable personal liberty issues like gun rights and seat belt laws, only to find themselves in a world of hard-right propaganda focused more or less solely on economic issues, only to come around one day and write something completely asinine like this.

Yeah...those Mountain Dew commercials are genuine masterpieces, one and all. I don't think I have to address the differences between the 'commercial art' of our day and the 'commercial art' of Shakespeare; not to mention the fact that Michelangelo, da Vinci and countless others created a plethora of state sponsored masterpieces. I think it's safe to say that between the Vatican (official name: "State of the Vatican City") and the Dukes of the Renaissance...the majority of great art masterpieces were probably state funded. The great amphitheaters of Greek drama are universally considered civic monuments. Personally, I don't think that artists should have to rely on the State, the Church, or Industry in order to create works of art, but rather should have the benefit of a system which allows them to attain the basic resources necessary to create art (a little bit of money and a fair amount of free time) without losing their humanity.

A slogan I found on one of the few websites online that is critical of Libertarianism:
Libertarianism: Preschool for hyperactive Republicans.

me and my oily mouth

mouth study, oil on linen, 8x10, work in progress

Q: Joey, wass this?
A: This is another anatomy study, a mouth, this time in oil.

Q: How come?
A: Well, a couple of weeks ago I started experimenting with oils, and I thought some anatomy studies would be good practice. This is my second attempt at painting with oils. Like, ever.

Q: Is it finished?
A: No. This is after two 30-60ish minute sittings. In the way that I've been working, you basically do a drawing with the paintbrush in the first sitting: laying out the forms and shadows in a mid-dark value. Then you let the paint set up- for a day, a week, whatever. Then with each additional setting you come back and lay in more detail, more values, etc. It's actually pretty nice, because you are more or less forced to take things one step at a time, and it's hard to make mistakes due to getting ahead of one's self (a big problem with me). I say "usually," meaning, based on my experience of doing it that way twice. Anyway, yeah, it's a work in progress.

Q: You crazy.
A: I must apologize for the poor picture quality. This is, obviously, a cell phone picture. And not a picture from a nice cell phone like Keeler's where you can watch porn educational videos in high definition, but my old cell phone that doesn't even have teledildonics a qwerty keyboard. I plan on buying a decent digital camera soon to better document stuff like this. Also, this is small enough that I can scan it, but I can't do that until I'm done and I let the paint dry for a few weeks. Check back soon for more updates.

Q: What are you doing in the meantime?
A: Other than working 45-50 hours a week?

Q: Uh, yeah.
Well, honestly...at the moment I'm trying to feel some kind of empathy for that yuppie guy that killed his family in California.

Q: Really?
Yeah. I mean, everyone knows that I can't stand yuppies, that I feel that they proudly represent everything that is standing in the way of peace and progress and happiness on earth. But still, I am determined to stand upon some base level of humanity, in order to feel the pain of this tragedy. It's easy to say that this man only got what was coming to him (by that I mean his personal financial issues, not his death). That anyone involved in rampant, material speculation should rationally expect the pendulum to swing the other way sometimes. That business, by nature, is a process in which one's great gains are only made possible through great losses elsewhere in the system. It would also be easy to point out that this man's future, after "losing everything," would certainly be no worse than the situation that I, my friends, family, and practically everyone I have ever known have been in their entire lives. I've never known the kind of wealth that this man took for granted- took as a matter of life and death apparently. However, he was a human being, breathing the same air that we breath, warmed by the same sun, driven by the same kind of anxieties and fears. I'm certain that when he was first smitten with young love, it probably felt pretty much the same as when such a thing happens to you or I. In that light, it is a bit more difficult to judge, and easier to feel empathy.

Q: Do you think that this 'yuppie' would have granted you these assumptions?
A: No.

Q: Why, then, do you come to these conclusions?
A: "I suppose it has something to do with being able to look oneself in the mirror." - Noam Chomsky

ink and watercolor sketch

mAPPLE_THOR(N)pe

ink sketch from photo, 5 min

This is another one of those where I was headed to bed and thought to myself- "I need something to post tomorrow!" So I sat down and did this quick thumbnail from a Robert Mapplethorpe photo that I had in a book that was sitting around. I remember reading an interview with Patti Smith about a time that Mapplethorpe gave her her first hit of acid, and they walked around New York during this huge garbage strike and there was garbage piled up everywhere and she freaked out. Sounded pretty heinous. That story always makes me think of the time that I was in Texas with some friends, and we brewed a big pot of thornapple leaves, drank the tea and then proceeded to have unspeakably surreal hallucinations for 2 days. Precognition, retrocognition, psychokinesis. I had a fairly in depth conversation with an old friend that had died 2 years earlier. Wild. Tropane alkaloids are really like nothing else on Earth, and I think the proper attitude one should have towards them is fear. I think the only reason that the Patti Smith story brings the Texas thing to mind is that Mapplethorp kinda sounds like thornapple, and, well, a freakout is a freakout.

blog from the dead

mouf study, ink and watercolor, 5-10 min.

I did this one in the last 5 minutes or so before bed last night. I had just gotten done putting colored ground on some new canvasses, and I thought to myself "I gotsta put something on that blog." Jeez, it's been almost 2 months. Well, I'm going to try to get back up to a post a day. I told you guys I'd be out for a while, but I didn't think it would be that long. Anyway, thanks for coming back. As I'm typing this, I overheard someone out in the hallway say "It's only pain, we can work through that." Awesome. That's the theme of the day, friends.

mind of persia concept

Last night I was inspired to do a painting based on the concept of Persian identity in Iran. I did a few quick, rough thumbnails, about 2"x1" or so to develop the idea. This was the one that I felt best captured the concept.

Zoroaster boy

boy in Zoroaster Center, ink and watercolor sketch, 15 minutes

I asked the boy for some wisdom of the prayer book from which he was reading and he said "Fire is the sun unwinding itself from the wood." No joke.

Light

guruji, watercolor and ink sketch, 30 minutes

I met my guru in an airport in 2003. I was walking along with a big backpack on, and out of the corner of my eye I saw an old man that looked very strange to me. He had golden brown skin, a mark on his forehead, and what in my naivety I thought was middle eastern dress. As a young man fresh out of Kansas (the naval of ignorance), such were the limitations of my knowledge of the world. He walked up to me with his hands in namaskara and said "Ah, my student!" Of course, I was taken aback. After staring blankly for a moment, I managed to get out "uh...I'm sorry, I'm not-" and the man cut me off with "Yes, but you will be! Soon!" The man did a strange little bow and walked away. I wasn't really sure what to think. Over the next couple of years I was surprised when I began to see the man's face on the covers of magazines and books. A series of strange coincidences finally coalesced into a singularity when, several years later, I found out who the man actually was and discovered that, strangely, I had recently and somewhat absent-mindedly become a student of his tradition and had just began studying under a few of his disciples. Stranger things involving yogis have happened to me since then, but I will certainly never forget this encounter.

meeting minutes

John in tha Meeting, 2 minutes, pen

Naoyuki Tsuji

experimental animator Naoyuki Tsuji, pen and photoshizzle, 30 minutes

Meeting Minutes

Steve and Matt, Gel Pen, less than 1 minute

Brain Droppings

pen, 15 min.

Bad Form

colored pencil, 10-15 min.

This one's pretty heinous. I sketched it out of my head in between loads of laundry. This is a great example of what happens when your drawing skills atrophy. The rendering isn't god awful, for a 10 minute sketch. That kind of "muscle memory" takes a long time to completely go away. But everything else (lighting, composition, etc.) is very weak, and the proportions in particular are WAY OFF. I've always had a weird issue with facial construction, in which the area from the eyebrow ridge down to the bottom lip basically ends up scaled up about 20% and rotated about 15* out away from the main facial plane of the skull. This one suffers from that pretty bad. Not having a model or reference will accentuate these issues. Oh well, I wasn't expecting to get much of anything done this week, and you know what I say about bad drawings vs. no drawings.

Currently listening to Nick Cave (just bought tickets to the Ogden show, woohoo!).

the jawbone of an ass

So...this week I am expecting the first of a month long stream of visitors to my crib. Do to this, I probably won't be able to post many drawings over the next couple of weeks. I'll do my best. For any of my bloggerlovers (pssshhhh - blogger please) that live in Denver, you might be aware that T-Cloud is coming to town:

http://denver.craigslist.org/m4w/755159528.html

Karka Sankranti is passing and tomorrow is the first day of Dakshināyana (दक्षिणायन). It is the time when the kite string pops. A time of going-under. The nighttime of gods. Some things I could have done without during the Uttarāyana (उत्तरायन):

fake buddhists
fake mystics
fake EEE ES PEE
the shallow
the boring
the bored


...mostly the shallow

O, this Kali Yuga. I will spend the next few weeks contemplating this period and the next. The Uttarāyana will no doubt be a time of evaluating personal relationships. Thanks to Jack, Wes and Christine for making me smile every day in 2008 and never bumming me out.

Currently listening to the new Girl Talk album.

A Fort Collins Jazz Experience

jazz fan, pen, 10 min.-ish

This is an old guy enjoying the music at the 1st annual 'A Fort Collins Jazz Experience.' It was drawn on the back of a festival satisfaction survey. Along with Tara, my long time partner in crime and good friend, I was a volunteer 'stage manager' of the Oak Street stage. I decided to sketch this while Tara was busy attracting the attention and conversation of every weird old guy in Northern Colorado. I believe we were more or less reppin' Arts Alive Fort Collins. Arts Alive is executive directeded by Rachel Herrera, who is an awesome painter and a totally cool chick. Speaking of painting, I think I'm going to go home and do some oil studies.

Don't Drink and Draw

no comment

Ugh. Awful. I did this one after a pitcher of margaritas at El Noa Noa and a few beers with friends. Don't drink and draw. I drew this around 1am. After finishing, I immediately stood up, realized I was too drunk to drive home, and crashed on my friend's couch. Then I got up at 5am to go to work. Blah. However, I do think it says something that I was able to keep my commitment to drawing every day AND posting a sketch instead of completely slouching it off to go get hammered with my friends. I'd rather post a crappy drawing than no drawing at all.

Tha Boss

colored pencil, 30 min-ish

This dude definitely had the parking lot on smash.

Book Store Girl

random girl in the bookstore, 5 min., pen.

I happen to live in the South Broadway artsy-trendy-indie district in Denver. While the scene can certainly be pretentious, I try to take advantage of the good things that it has to offer. Like the many cafe patios, where you can sit for hours and watch the cute indie girls in their skirts and print tees, and the hipster dudes who walk by in hot pink shoes and Big Business and No Age shirts, pretending they are hanging out at the Smell in L.A. (a couple of years ago...when it was cool...when I was there).

One of my favorite spots is the Denver Book Mall. It's not a normal used book store, but rather a co-op of over 20 book sellers all under one roof. They also have decent coffee and a small art gallery. Last night I was sitting in the magazine section flipping through a LIFE magazine from 1972 and decided to do a quick sketch of the girl across the room as she was staring out the window. As usual, I could only stand it for so long before I had nightmare hell ride images of turning into an urban hipster myself, like some kind of god damned latte werewolf.

As for the sketch...this is why you shouldn't let your drawing muscles atrophy for a year and a half. I remember a time when a life drawing of such low quality from my own hand would have triggered cascades of vomit. Oh well, that's the point of this whole "sketch a day" thing, PRACTICE!!! I have a feeling that, after drawing every day for a month, my skillz will be back up there somewhat. We shall see.

South Central Colorado @ 80 mph

When cruising south on U.S. 285, somewhere past Fairplay you are hit with the realization that you've escaped the Denver Doldrums and you are in the presence of the Real Colorado. A light rain had just tapered off, so we rolled down the windows and were immediately hit with the scent of Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, moist Alder Fruit and Colorado Blue Spruce. Keeler and I both leaned back in our seats and filled our lungs. In this part of Colorado, every switchback reveals a unique and picturesque panorama. It can be a bit overwhelming; every 90 seconds or so your entire field of vision is filled with a new and amazing landscape. It's enough to temporarily wipe the cynical gunk off of your pineal body.



I decided to take advantage of the situation by attempting to capture some of the landscapes in my sketchbook. As you can see, sketching in the passenger seat of a car doing 70-80 mph over mountain switchbacks poses some unique challenges. Aside from the bumps and g-forces generated by this kind of driving, there is also the previously mentioned constant changing of scenery. I only had about a minute and a half to capture each image, so I decided to do a series of thumbnail drawings. A started somewhere past Johnson Village and continued as we approached Wolf Creek Pass. These are about 1" squares, more or less the same size as they appear on your monitor (unless you have the same screen resolution as my grandma).

Not the best drawings I've ever done, but I get credit for coming back from a road trip with sketches to post, right?

Thanks very much to Robin for the new moon Cleansing Ritual, and to Rollin for taking care of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Currently listening to the Chemirani Trio:

Em sketch

I felt a little cheap after yesterday's post, so I thought I'd post something a little more authentic. This one is actually mine. The art and the subject.

I think I may try to turn this into a "sketch of the day" type of deal. I've started drawing every day again in order to get my chops back up for a new batch of paintings, so the obligation to post things would probably be a welcome pressure. Iyengar says "Pressure bursts pipes and also makes diamonds." Perhaps I will start after I get back from kicking the Animas River's ass this weekend.