Nipped in the bud. BUD.

I've heard it a million times in the past week or so:
"We've got to nip this problem in the butt."
"If you nip it in the butt, you're all set."
"If they start looking like they're going to riot, nip them ALL in the butt."

It's bud. BUD. Plants. You know? A seed falls. It burrows into the earth, or maybe some more dirt falls on it, and it starts to send its little baby roots out into the surrounding soil. Eventually it pops up out of the ground, a cute little BUD, its leaves all curled up around each other, just a sweet little baby sprout.
This is the point where you walk by and realize it's a cute little baby weed and you don't want it, so you take out your pruning shears and NIP IT IN THE BUD.

Being nipped in the butt looks like this. Let this be a lesson.



(okay, so maybe that's more like being about to have your butt mauled off)

Skinless pony - a first for childrens' toys

I saw this in the toy store downtown yesterday. When I was little I had a veritable stable of Breyer horses, most of them handed down or garage-saled because although they're gorgeous and sturdy enough (unless their legs are too thin - I also had a stable of amputee ponies), they're ridiculously expensive.

I'd like to find somewhere that has that horse model for UNDER $50, because I can't really justify spending that much on a toy, educational as it may be. I've been having trouble with hindquarters for a while, and looking at the photo of the model, it looks like I've had the bone structure of the butt all confused. Well, that solves it.

They should put that horse on sale for a deep discount - only morbid little kids are going to want to see the guts of their playthings.

Dawgs

Some old pictures, from summer of '04. I was out of animation school after just a year, working a few hours at the local library, and totally broke. I had also moved in with friends instead of back in with my parents (while I may loudly declare myself a college dropout, I'm not a college dropout still living at home), and had my share of the rent to swing.
"What will I do??" I asked, and lo, my mother stumbled upon a website charging $100 for a portrait of your favorite pet. Armed with my quick-sketch reflexes - I'd spent the last year ANIMATING - we went to a dog show, set up a chair and a sign, and I made about $15 an hour, a portrait an hour...

Which is what I did with my weekends all summer. It was a lot of fun to go out and get paid to paint quick little watercolors of dogs, and inbetween customers I got to draw the dogs as they went by. Plus, I got to see first-hand a million different dog breeds: little guys with dreads, greyhounds, afghans, great danes, and bichon frisees. I painted one bichon at my second show, word got around, and at my third I had three Bichons to every instance of any other dog. It got hard to make each portrait look different from all the others, but even white fluffy dogs have personalities that you can latch on to and emphasize.

By the end of the summer I'd burned out and didn't want to watercolor another dog in my LIFE. It was exhausting to pull nine-hour days every weekend, but what made it really awful was that I'd get all sketched out and wouldn't even want to pick up a pencil the rest of the week. So I fell back on my library job, and drew again.




The funny thing is that dogs were one of my problem spots before doing the shows.

Soccer team.

It so happens that I really did enjoy soccer when I was on a team as a kid. What kid doesn't like running around and kicking things?

Which of these kids doesn't belong?

Bee ladies!

Some bee nuns. Trying to get comfortable with Photoshop and colors again. I haven't been doing enough from my head recently, leaning instead on observational drawing, which at least feels like I'm doing something (as opposed to not drawing at all). You can't ever do enough observational drawing, but if you don't use it on your own designs, what the hell are you doing it for?

Certainly not for the end result of being a master draftsman on the fine subject of old men drinking coffee...

So much for the "daily" thing...

Things get in the way, the very universe conspires to keep me away... computer troubles and work and travel over the holidays got in the way, specifically, but now I'm back and I'm going to DO THIS...

I went down to the art building on campus today, expecting to find the open life drawing class that they usually do on Sundays, but it's been cancelled due to budget problems in the art department. There's the possibility that the advanced drawing students will get it going again, but there'll be a fee if they do manage to revive it. I don't mind a fee; it's better than paying for an entire class and having to deal with an instructor.




So I went to the equestrian center and the coffee shop, where unfortunately all the models were clothed (well, the horses were naked, but that doesn't really count).