On the first day of Christmas...

Another x-post from "My Gecko is Sick". My friend and I are switching off for the "12 Days of Christmas". I started.

Yup. I still hate "Twilight"

Just...not...a...fan.

Tiny Tragedies

crossposting with a shared sketchblog

My Gecko is Sick

At the wrong party - Dr. Who

Ok, another post from my shared blog with Nadine.

I promise to do something specific for this blog soon!

Another new sketch blog -

I decided to coauthor a sketching blog with another artist friend. It can be found here

http://mygeckoissick.tumblr.com/

We decided to make it a little area for sketching improv, where we would each contribute a sketch on the same theme, with each sketch and concept completed in an hour.

Since we both have a fondness for awkward situations and non sequiturs, we decided to embrace that in the name of the blog and our first sketch topic "At the wrong party."

Here's my first contribution. :)

More Out of Context science

Less hairy mothers would have to park their young - 

Out of Context Science

The Well Animatic

So when I first started this blog in 2007, I began with a post called "The Well."  A few months after that, I cut it into an animatic with the intention of animating it.

Never got around to doing the actual animation (but, there's still time!) However, I thought it might be fun to post the animatic.

Carol Prefers Burgers

About a year ago, I was chatting with a good friend who said she would prefer to be wooed with a good cheeseburger instead of roses.

My friends really do give me the best ideas.

(I did a quick scribble right away, but I always wanted to redraw it, so I did.)

Out of Context Science

I started following this blog awhile ago and began doing drawings from the posts. For ease of use, I had to create a tumblr version of this blog, which is here.  I'm trying to keep the drawings really quick, under 30 minutes.

I'll still update this blog, but following the original quote source for "out of context science" will be easier via tumblr.

Today's quote: None of the fish experienced any major hardships

Dr. Sketchy's SF

Granted, generally when people say they love sexy women with a sense of humor, they're not picturing vamped up clowns. But this model made it work.

I went to this sketching event with some friends, Nadine, Julia, and Jamie.  

Poitiers

On my way to stay with friends in Beynac, I stopped in Poitiers. It's a not very big place, with a whole lot of churches. 

At one point in time, I'm quite sure the building of churches was simply part of the local economy, because everyone was probably of the same denomination and I don't think the population was ever such that they needed to build "overflow" churches.

I have no idea though; I was on vacation and too lazy to look into it.

La Cigale

While in France a few weeks ago, I stopped in Nantes, and had myself a bit of tea in "La Cigale". The rooms in this cafe/bar/tea room is covered with cicada themed ceramic tiles. That doesn't sound very appetizing, but it was very charming.

You could tell that the cicada was female, because she wore a blue dress. And musical, since she carried what looked like a mandolin. I noticed no male cicadas.

The service isn't great - okay, actually I felt quite ignored. But the room made it worthwhile. I'm not sure what inspired the original owner to decorate in this vein, but he clearly went all out. Custom cicada girl tiles, custom cicada girl clock... Really, the only places we have in the States that is so thoroughly and skillfully "themed" is Disneyland.

Beynac, France

I was fortunate enough to spend my vacation with my good friend Sadie, in Beynac, France. As usual, I spent more time eating than drawing, but I did manage a sketch or two.

The Dordogne region of France is absolutely gorgeous in that "I'm in a Disney cartoon" sort of way. Actually, it's better, because when I was a Disney fan as a kid, I would not have been able to drink pear apertif or eat foie gras.

Sketches of salad I had to eat as penance are forthcoming.

A fashion crime against humanity...

I saw this fine gentlemen while sketching yesterday.
Homeless you say?
No!
Lost a bet?
That would be the only excuse for these shorts.

Lingerie and slippers

So writing this, made me think of this.

Mr. Brown

Technically, Mr. Brown was not a high school teacher, but one I had in 7th grade.  He taught history and English, wore shirts that looked like 70's linoleum, and had one glass eye (due to losing his real one in a skiing accident).

He liked to use Greek philosophy as a teaching template, and it was in his class that I first heard of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  He told us that the Greeks had three words to describe love; eros (romantic), philos(brotherly), and agape(unselfish). He had us keep a syllabus, and told us we needed to sublimate our bad impulses, channeling the negative energy into something positive.

In fact, when we got too noisy or out of control, Mr. Brown would shout "Sublimate! Sublimate!"

Yeah, now that sounds dirty.

However,  I believe his heart was in the right place, even if he often did come across as an overdramatic hippie.  He truly hoped that we would grow up to be good people, which considering he taught a bunch of 13 year olds, is quite an endearingly optimistic quality.

Mrs. Dudley

Mrs. Dudley was my English teacher in my freshman year of high school. She always told us to read at our desks while she left the room to smoke for 45 minutes.

In retrospect, I realize that she must have been a very unhappy woman. That's the only explanation for the odd revelations and pronouncements she always made.  

She told us about her divorce. She told us about how she went to her high school reunion and found out an ex-boyfriend had died. She assured us that life would not turn out the way we expected and we would likely find ourselves disappointed with the result.

Each time, we just stared at her blankly, thinking "Well, you probably did something to earn that. Those things will never happen to us."

Because we were 14, merciless and ignorant.

Good times!

Forecast; beware of boisterous bunnies

A very talented friend of mine related a story about how her young son interrupted a business conference call by throwing bunnies at her.

That incident begged for an illustration.

(The pattern you see on her dress is from a Photoshop brush that she created and kindly let me use!)

Japanese Horror Movie

The other night I was out for drinks in a quiet hotel bar with a friend, and this woman shuffled in.

She sipped her wine, while staring straight ahead, clutching her backpack which held...what? Drugs? A human head?

All I know is that I immediately thought of "The Ring" and said to myself "Must not make eye contact, must not make eye contact..."

Because you know if I did, I would be driving home one night, and suddenly see her staring at me from my rear view mirror.

Mrs Seymour

When I was in junior high, I had a typing teacher named Mrs. Seymour. I always thought she looked at our class with utter disdain and contempt.

Years later, I was discussing this with an old friend, who informed me that Mrs. Seymour actually had had no eyebrows. So she drew them in, apparently a little too high on her forehead.

Oops.