"Bloom" and Katrina OYL

Something I did really quickly last night. I like the colors.

Well, it is One Year Later in terms of Hurricane Katrina, and by reading some accounts on the internet and seeing them on TV you'd think that the entire nation forgot about this event up until now. Oh boy, and is all of the self-righteous fury flowing freely. For those of us who live in areas that were affected by this and Rita to this day, these johnny-reminded-lately morons full of indignant rage thowing around simplistic blame are amongst the most nauseating humans on the planet.

Yahoo has this article on their front page:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060822/ts_csm/akatcosts

Old news to us, but I'm glad that someone else is talking about it. What so many of the morons don't realize is that Katrina did not just affect "New Orleans," so anytime I hear or read a comment that leads off like that I pretty much dismiss that person's opinion as being ignorant.

So many things need to change after what happened last year, and not much has happened. Here in Texas and in the Houston area we are moving ahead with concrete plans, but we're encountering resistance from Austin and other Texas cities such as Dallas. Of course, we have strong leaders like Mayor Bill White and Judge Robert Eckles here, while the others...well - the less said the better.

There won't even be a blip on the radar on the anniversary of Rita, I'm sure. And you can forget about Wilma (if you hadn't already!).

Busy day

Here's another one for today -

Back to my dark colors! Much better! Not my favorite silhouette, but I like the coloring to this one. I may try a larger version with these colors and that pose. This background is the one I did the other night which I posted a few days ago if you'll recall.

Well, I made my first fantasy football transaction today. I dropped TJ Duckett (who didn't go to the Jets) and picked up the Texans' Vernand Morency, whom I think will have a great year. I'm hoping for a couple good games out of him until Portis is healthy, and on a non-fantasy front, I'm thrilled with his first showing this season for the Texans! He really does have good breakaway speed and he has great field vision. Of course, we're looking at a RB-by-committee situation here in Houston, but I think that Morency will get the bulk of the carries.

Holy Frijole! Where are the dark colors?

Where are the Dark Colors?!?!?!?!?!?

I made a challenge to myself a couple days ago to paint something that was not in the earth tones and dark colors I am comfortable with...and this was the result. Very basic, nothing special to look at, but hey - I am not a bright color person!

I did like the combo of those colors and I'm going to have to do something that blends them more than what you see here. I'm not the biggest fan of exact boundaries when it comes to painting, which is why you will usually see my stuff a mess of blending. The only real exception is silhouettes, and I am currently working on a few of those.

It's kind of funny - I am such a comic art fan, but I have absolutely no aptitude for comic art. Much like everyone who has ever read comics, I tried my hand at drawing some when I was a kid. I had such titles as the Surrealists, the Bunny Assassins and the the incredible adventures of Otto Tuck, Paranormal Plastic Surgeon.

Hmm...perhaps it was best for comics that I wasn't a good comic artist!

Speaking of actual "good" comics - we are only two days away from learning at least part of the new JLA lineup. I'm hoping for some, and hoping against others. I don't think that we'll see Nightwing make the League on this go-around, but I'm pretty sure that we will see a Titan or two in the lineup. I'm guessing either Roy Harper or Cyborg.

Obviously, I want Black Canary in there, but not Green Arrow. I want Hawkman, but not Hawkgirl. I want John Stewart as the GL, not Hal Jordan. I want Zatanna and I don't want a magician who is not Zatanna. We'll see what happens, I'm sure.

As for 52 - if you haven't read it by now then don't read past this....

I think it was a mistake to kill of Booster Gold. Talk about having one of the most relevant superheroes in comics right now! In today's NASCAR, Celebrity-Worship, Reality-TV world, a guy like Booster just makes sense. Nevermind that the Anti-JLI vendetta continues - it is dumb to kill of a character just because you may not like them, and that's what I'm reading with the interviews with Didio on the subject. Oh - and I really, really hope that Supernova is not an alternate universe version of Booster, because that would be incredibly lame at this point.

OK - Off to do more painting. I'm taking a break from this bright color stuff tho - just not me, I'm afraid!

A colorful update!

Another Friday Update!

This is the one from a few days ago that I was ready to junk, if not for the fact that someone who's opinion I value greatly saw some potential in it. It's still not a favorite, but I did have fun finishing it off. I stopped short of adding ruby-red lips, thinking that would have been overkill. It's amazing how adding a few different things changes the entire image. Compare this to a few posts back where I had the original. The Gold and Silver changed this image completely, making the colors much more vibrant, in my opinion.

I still need to figure out lighting on these pictures a bit better, because some of this is still lost in the translation. Regardless, this one will move from the WiP file to the finished folder!

Mid-Day update

Update!

OK, this is the one I was working on last night that I hadn't planned to revisit until later. Honestly? I didn't know where I was going with it. Then I'm sitting there looking at it, and all of the sudden I thought that it looked like Jesus. I hadn't set out to do a painting of Jesus...but here we are! This was a good lesson for me - don't just throw something away because initially you aren't happy with it.

"What the hell are you thinking???" or 2 more works in progress...

Two more paintings that I'm working on at the moment. The first is almost complete, and the second one is just at the background stage. I will go back and work on the second one after I finish this entry, and I'll complete the first one tomorrow at some point.

Well, I completed my first fantasy football draft of the year earlier this evening! I am once again in too many leagues for my own good, but not all are pay leagues, so it's just a time waster more than anything. Anyway - in this league I'll be going into battle with:

QB - Eli Manning
RB - Clinton Portis (whom I did not know was injured)
RB - Edgerrin James
WR - Tory Holt
WR - Andre Johnson
WR - Deion Branch
TE - Jeremey Shockey
K - Neil Rackers
DST - Da Bearsss!

My bench consists of:

QB - Michael "Ron Mexico" Vick
RB - TJ "Soon to be a Jet" Duckett
WR - Reggie "TO's replacement" Brown
WR - Ernest "Where's Jimmy?" Wilford
WR - Laverneaus "And Shirley" Coles
WR - Nate "Insert Nickname Here" Burleson
DST - Denver


There's a three RB cap in this league, but I should be able to pick up another if CP is on the injured list to begin the season. I'm thinking Frank "No Relation to Al" Gore will have a good season.

Sigh....one draft down, a few more to go! I think my next painting will be entitled "overwhelmed" and it will just consist of paint splatters on all of my war room notes!

I do need to drop one of my many WR's to get a tight end to play in week four when the Giants are off.

Anyway - time to get back to the canvas. I'm really enjoying this and I hope to have the website up and running by November....oh...have I neglected to mention that? Oops! More details on that later!

A quick comics note - RIP to one of my favorite characters growing up. We've seen the end of one Golden age it would seem. I read Didio's comments on that decision and it makes me wonder if they realize what the world is like outside of comics...eesh! Bad call, DC!

Oh, and JLA was delayed, as was Civil War and Wonder Woman....looks like late comics are acceptible for both companies these days.

"Falling" and a work in progress

This one is called "Falling." It should be apparant why! I love earth tones, and I love silhouettes, so it's only natural that I may combine the two. This actually shows up on a lot of my stuff (and not merely limited to earth tones). The silhouette can be a powerful way of capturing an action without making the picture appear too busy, in my opinion.
Now this one...this one I'm not sure about yet. I'm trying to play around with more colors, but even when I do that I seem to retreat back to my dark tones. This is very much a work in progress at this point. I know what I want to do with it...but I don't think I'm quite ready to pick it up again. I may try another variation of the same image at some point. I'll keep you, my loyal, non-existant readers, up to date as I go.

Actually - there is one person whom I know reads this blog with semi-regularity, and she is actually quite a fan of the above image. I may need to finish this one off just for her!

I am issuing myself a challenge for the weekend - do a painting with no crimson, no beige, no orange and very little black! I don't know if I can do it!

In lighter news...butane prices have dropped.

hehehe...I never get tired of that joke!

"Descent"

Have you ever looked down into a long, dark shaft with a flashlight? I remember looking down this well when I was younger, trying to see the water at the bottom. It was rather eerie, because the light would only go so far down, and the discoloration of that world was rather disconcerting. I knew that there was water at the bottom of the well, because you could drop a rock and after a few seconds hear a distant splash. I would look down with that light trying to see the reflection off the water from the disrupted liquid surface...but could never see it.

I would have nightmares about that well...imagining falling down into it. Of course, I also had these fantastic ideas that at the bottom of this well was the doorway to lands I had only read about in books and comics like Narnia, Middle Earth or Skartaris.

Man...I really needed to have less time on my hands when I was younger, huh?

Well, I took the day off today and it felt great! I got to sleep in for a while, and the day would have been perfect if not for my continuing issues with Cingular. I missed some very important calls today, and I'm quite cross about it! Oh well, water off the duck's back and all, I guess.

The Astros still have a chance. I can't believe it, but they are within not only the Wild Card, but the freaking National League Central title! You know what this means???

Boy, the NL really sucks this year!!!

You know who may not suck, tho? The Texans. As I said before, this team will surprise some people. I love the fact that the offensive playbook no longer calls on Carr to stand still until sacked. He was all over the place in the plays that he was in! Having the Johnson-Moulds targets will be a boon to the team, if not to fantasy football owners. Wali Lundy was impressive in the time he got as well.

As for Super Mario - some will just focus on the fact that he "only" got an assisted tackle in his 11 plays, but I watched all 11 plays, and he was making the O-linemen have kittens out there! He commands a double team on every down...and he still looks like he's overpowering them! I remain a Super Mario fan!

As for the "other" football - the English Premiership League kicks off this weekend, and I'm trying my hand in a fantasy league for that sport for the first time! I'm kind of nervous, seeing as how I'm competing against actual Euro-types, but it should be fun. I'll let you, my loyal, non-existant readers, know how I'm doing...unless I'm just sucking harder than a whore during shore leave...then I might fail to mention my weekly results!

I'm off to do more painting. The "block" is officially gone. I'm working on several things now, and I'll post images as I complete them. Some are way more involved than what I've shown so far, so I may do updates on them as I go. Cheers!

"Night Owl"

OK, this isn't my favorite thing that I've been working on, but it is the one that got me out of my rut lately.

I have been so down on myself with this new art project that it was stunting my productivity. Tonight I had enough, so I decided to paint a quick image - the first thing that popped in my head...and this was it.

I call this "Night Owl."

When I was a kid I would sometimes stay with a friend during the summers who lived out in the country. There was no light polution - the skies were bright and brilliant, and the world seemed to glow in a light violet hue. The moon was bright enough to read by.

I remember sitting at this window looking at the night sky, and off in the distance (a couple miles away) there was this one house in the middle of nowhere that always had one light on in the same window every night. That was the only light at night in that world that didn't come from the heavens, and I guess it became it's own little star in my mind.

Anyway - this piece is pretty much crap, but I've been putting off posting anything for long enough, so I might as well put something on here that will leave me nowhere to go but up, eh?

Cingular is really aggravating me today!!!

Solutions, Not Problems is updated for August! The new topic of the month is Cuba, and in a new feature, the Question of the Month is "Is everything political?" which was put forth by a rather clever member of that forum!

http://z13.invisionfree.com/SolutionsNotProblems/

I am not one to usually talk about my "feelings," but my god, I hate Cingular with a passion! Their coverage in this area has always been piss-poor to begin with, but over the last 48 hours it has been downright deplorable! I have a strong signal, but everytime I make an outgoing call I get the "call failed" message, or the "network busy" message. I can't send out or receive text messages, either!

The real cherry on the sundae??? The Customer "Service" line shuts down at 10 PM CST. If not for necessity (most people I know are on Cingular) then I would drop these incompetant assclowns faster than...well, something really fast...that drops.

Ohhh!!! Faster than the football out of a Texans' receiver's hands!

OK - that may have been unwarranted. I actually am quite excited about the Texans this season. They have addressed many of their needs quite well, if not quietly, and their new defensive scheme should be fun to watch. Suddenly they have a very deep D-Line.

I think that David Carr will have a breakout season. He now has a system that works for him (no more of this standing target bull-bleep!), some solid tight ends, two AWESOME #1 receivers (yes, I think that Moulds still will get some #1 attention from defenses), and a coach who has made mediocre runningbacks into stars.

The O-Line is still a worry, but not so much anymore. I think that Mike Flannigan and Mike Shermann will make their presence felt early and that will change the tone of that line.

Mario Williams was the best choice for the Texans, and anyone who still doesn't think so needs to stop their aggressive Q-tip usage, as I think they've pierced the ear canal and hit gray matter. He will be considered a failure by most before he even makes a play, but to the more savvy fan, his impact will be seen and felt immediately. One man who will be a big fan of his? Anthony Weaver. He may as well start asking opposing quarterbacks if they want paper or plastic.

I'm thinking that 6 wins is a definite possibility. This franchise is finally making smart decisions.

On a college football note - I have never had more respect for Bob Stoops than I have now. He did the right thing by kicking those idiot players off the team. Short-term success isn't worth the long-term damage that Rhett Bomar would have caused. They'll still be a great team this year, and I hope that the Sooner Nation backs the coach's move on this one.

Have I mentioned that I really, really despise Cingular right now?

I'm about to go on a short vacation, but I'll update this when I can. I know how you, my loyal, non-existant readers get when you don't get your tin-foil fix. Maybe I'll finally publish part two of my Interview with God.

Either way, I'm off to have a beer. Cheers!