FACT! Free coffee is at least 50% more delicious than non-free coffee.
FACT! Too much isolation can be a very, very bad thing. This is especially true when one doesn't get tons of natural light in their apartment.
FACT! I have far too many Big Plans, and far too few Big Things To Show For Them.
FACT! All of this was quite pointless, but at least I updated.
So then, friends... What's new? What's on your minds?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Brysketch: Mutants
Hey, a few more character sketch fan-art things I did a little while back, just for fun's sake. This time it's Uncanny X-People Rogue and Gambit!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Brysketch: Vampires
A couple not-so-new ones today, character sketches from the Whedony world of Buffy and Angel that I drew last year.
First up, here's Angel. Not the greatest likeness for David Boreanaz, and the anatomy's not perfect, but I was still pretty happy with it.
And second, Spike. Much happier with this one! I think I got a pretty decent likeness there for James Marsters. I gave the original to my girlfriend, who's possibly a bigger Whedon fan than I am.
Obviously I do a lot more basic character sketches than pretty much anything else, which is something I need to work on. I'm going to try drawing something a little different when I have some free time, to try to be a bit more well-rounded. If it doesn't suck, maybe I'll share it?
First up, here's Angel. Not the greatest likeness for David Boreanaz, and the anatomy's not perfect, but I was still pretty happy with it.
And second, Spike. Much happier with this one! I think I got a pretty decent likeness there for James Marsters. I gave the original to my girlfriend, who's possibly a bigger Whedon fan than I am.
Obviously I do a lot more basic character sketches than pretty much anything else, which is something I need to work on. I'm going to try drawing something a little different when I have some free time, to try to be a bit more well-rounded. If it doesn't suck, maybe I'll share it?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Brysketch: Odds & Ends
I was going through an old sketchbook I haven't looked at in a while, and figured I'd post a few things from several years back.
First up, an unfinished little sketch of Mirage Comics' Fugitoid:
Here's an odd one from probably five or six years ago... I figure I started drawing a few characters with a fine-tipped marker, starting with Cyclops, then filled in the empty spaces and turned it into a "poster" of sorts. Why I'd cover half of Wolverine's face, I don't know. Not executed very well, but I doubt I ever intended to show it off... and now I'm posting it online.
Some random "Ninja Accountant" sketches, likely done when I was in film school, so... six years ago, probably.
And finally, a few "punk girl" characters of mine from about four years ago.
First up, an unfinished little sketch of Mirage Comics' Fugitoid:
Here's an odd one from probably five or six years ago... I figure I started drawing a few characters with a fine-tipped marker, starting with Cyclops, then filled in the empty spaces and turned it into a "poster" of sorts. Why I'd cover half of Wolverine's face, I don't know. Not executed very well, but I doubt I ever intended to show it off... and now I'm posting it online.
Some random "Ninja Accountant" sketches, likely done when I was in film school, so... six years ago, probably.
And finally, a few "punk girl" characters of mine from about four years ago.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Expansion
Just a quick note that I've started a second blog, devoted to posting various drawings/sketches/doodles/rough pencils/etchings/delineations (okay, that's enough!) that I've done over the years.
You can find it here:
brysketch.blogspot.com/
You can find it here:
brysketch.blogspot.com/
Brysketch: Spider-Men + Pleasant Surprises
Like a lot of 20-something guys, Spider-Man is one of my all-time favourite fictional characters. Along with the Ninja Turtles and Nintendo, Spidey is probably the character/series I'm the biggest fan of. So naturally he's the subject of a lot of my sketching.
More importantly, he's also the subject of a couple little drawings I was pleasantly surprised to have had touched up by others!
First off, there's a really quick Spider-Man sketch I did a few years back:
And here's the same sketch, inked by my friend Chris Grissom, who made it much nicer:
More recently, I posted a Scarlet Spider drawing online that I had drawn about three years back:
Just a few weeks ago, a colorist on DeviantArt found it and coloured it, like so:
Definitely nice to find stuff like this in your inbox.
More importantly, he's also the subject of a couple little drawings I was pleasantly surprised to have had touched up by others!
First off, there's a really quick Spider-Man sketch I did a few years back:
And here's the same sketch, inked by my friend Chris Grissom, who made it much nicer:
More recently, I posted a Scarlet Spider drawing online that I had drawn about three years back:
Just a few weeks ago, a colorist on DeviantArt found it and coloured it, like so:
Definitely nice to find stuff like this in your inbox.
Brysketch: Intro + TMNT
My friend Francesco has started his own art blog somewhat recently, where he's regularly sharing pages from his sketchbook. This seemed like a damn good idea to me, so I've decided to just steal it outright.
I've been drawing literally as long as I can remember. I have no formal training, I'm not a professional, I'm just an addict. It began with me as an impressionable youngster, watching the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series at home, the intro sequence working me up into an imaginative furor that's been going strong for nearly 20 years since. So I started drawing. It was practically a compulsion, but I loved it. I did it in school every day, usually instead of paying any attention to the class itself. I did it when I got home. I sometimes did it in the middle of the night, turning on a single, inconspicuous light and sneaking to my desk to let my imagination out in one of my dozens of little green drawing books.
Soon after, I discovered the TMNT comics - first Archie, and years later the original black and white Mirage books. I worked my way to Marvel and DC, and eventually up to Vertigo and Dark Horse. This only fed my addiction further. Comics became a pretty huge impact on my life, and will likely remain a huge impact throughout the rest of it.
So that's a bit of an introduction to me. But this is supposed to be a sketch blog, so I'll stow the narcissistic autobiographing and cut to the chase.
Appropriately enough, I'll kick things off with a few "TMNT" character sketches, Raphael and Casey Jones:
I've been drawing literally as long as I can remember. I have no formal training, I'm not a professional, I'm just an addict. It began with me as an impressionable youngster, watching the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series at home, the intro sequence working me up into an imaginative furor that's been going strong for nearly 20 years since. So I started drawing. It was practically a compulsion, but I loved it. I did it in school every day, usually instead of paying any attention to the class itself. I did it when I got home. I sometimes did it in the middle of the night, turning on a single, inconspicuous light and sneaking to my desk to let my imagination out in one of my dozens of little green drawing books.
Soon after, I discovered the TMNT comics - first Archie, and years later the original black and white Mirage books. I worked my way to Marvel and DC, and eventually up to Vertigo and Dark Horse. This only fed my addiction further. Comics became a pretty huge impact on my life, and will likely remain a huge impact throughout the rest of it.
So that's a bit of an introduction to me. But this is supposed to be a sketch blog, so I'll stow the narcissistic autobiographing and cut to the chase.
Appropriately enough, I'll kick things off with a few "TMNT" character sketches, Raphael and Casey Jones:
More soon!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Value
More and more lately, I'm thinking about the things I truly value as a person. I guess I might be doing the typical quarter-life-crisis thing, taking stock of my life and figuring out what's important in the big picture, but hey, let me be self-indulgent for a moment.
In a weird way, regret is pretty high on the list. It's not healthy to dwell on regret, of course, but it's important to feel it. People are flawed, they make mistakes - I sure as hell have said and done things I wish I could take back, but that's how we learn and grow. Regret is important because it's what drives you to do better the next time, it's what makes you learn from your mistakes. Most people see it as mostly or entirely negative, many live their lives dismissing regret, sometimes just ignoring it outright... but I think they're missing the point. It's only as negative or positive as what you take from it, and what you do in the future because of it. It's important for people to strive to be better, and I feel that owning your regrets -- at least my own, to me -- is a big part of that.
Because I'm lucky to live in a part of the world that affords me so much of it, I have to say that I value freedom. If you have the means to read this, safe wager says you're probably pretty fucking lucky yourself.
On that note, appreciation. We all get bogged down with routine and random badness, and all too often let it get us cynical. I'm probably more guilty of this than most. I need to remind myself more often to take a step back and look at the people I'm lucky to know and have in my life, the opportunities I've had and continue to have every day. Pretty simple stuff there, but important.
The one thing I value most is honesty. Which I hope is right up there at the top for most people. Life's a messy business even at the best of times, but dishonesty and deceit always make it messier. I'd rather hear something I don't necessarily like hearing than be left in the dark or lied to. If I do something stupid or wrong, it's helpful to hear it. If I create something that sucks, it's still good to get that feedback. I may not always agree, but every bit helps me see things from a broader perspective and become, hopefully, a better person overall.
Anyway. Not a cohesive or even particularly intelligent posting here, but I felt like writing something. Ramble ramble.
In a weird way, regret is pretty high on the list. It's not healthy to dwell on regret, of course, but it's important to feel it. People are flawed, they make mistakes - I sure as hell have said and done things I wish I could take back, but that's how we learn and grow. Regret is important because it's what drives you to do better the next time, it's what makes you learn from your mistakes. Most people see it as mostly or entirely negative, many live their lives dismissing regret, sometimes just ignoring it outright... but I think they're missing the point. It's only as negative or positive as what you take from it, and what you do in the future because of it. It's important for people to strive to be better, and I feel that owning your regrets -- at least my own, to me -- is a big part of that.
Because I'm lucky to live in a part of the world that affords me so much of it, I have to say that I value freedom. If you have the means to read this, safe wager says you're probably pretty fucking lucky yourself.
On that note, appreciation. We all get bogged down with routine and random badness, and all too often let it get us cynical. I'm probably more guilty of this than most. I need to remind myself more often to take a step back and look at the people I'm lucky to know and have in my life, the opportunities I've had and continue to have every day. Pretty simple stuff there, but important.
The one thing I value most is honesty. Which I hope is right up there at the top for most people. Life's a messy business even at the best of times, but dishonesty and deceit always make it messier. I'd rather hear something I don't necessarily like hearing than be left in the dark or lied to. If I do something stupid or wrong, it's helpful to hear it. If I create something that sucks, it's still good to get that feedback. I may not always agree, but every bit helps me see things from a broader perspective and become, hopefully, a better person overall.
Anyway. Not a cohesive or even particularly intelligent posting here, but I felt like writing something. Ramble ramble.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Everything Can Be Awesome
The trouble with imagination is that it sets you up for disappointment. When I was a young boy I watched movies and read comic books and played video games - let's be honest, much like I do now - and I dreamed of a future where super powers and flying cars and time-traveling to the distant future and everything you could dream of were not only possible, but inevitable. Imagination was my drug of choice, back when drugs were something only heard about in terrible PSAs shown in between hopefully less-terrible cartoon shows. Eventually reality kicks in, you realize you're not going to be Spider-Man when you grow up, you find you're able to enjoy life nonetheless. I'm not complaining about this, it's just the way of life. When faced with the immovable object that is reality, some choose to give up their imagination, and others just find a new outlet for it. I went the latter way (even if it's an outlet I don't use enough).
I've been bitter and jaded and angsty. I've hated the world and most of the people on it. I've believed that reality is a terrible place to live, that there's no hope for humanity, that we're all doomed. (To be fair, I was a teenager, I grew up and I got over it.)
But really... it's a pretty amazing time to be alive, isn't it? The world's a messed-up place, there's a lot of trouble in desperate need of fixing, but something about me keeps focusing on the potential. The thing about potential is that it usually goes unrealized, but it's there, and god damn, I think we can make something of it if we try hard enough. Everything can be awesome.
I don't know when it happened, but I've been infected with optimism. Even at times when by any measure I should be fueled by cynicism, I can't help but feel a little burning sliver of hope deep down. But the question is, is that real, or am I still just that kid with his head in the clouds, believing in the impossible?
I've been bitter and jaded and angsty. I've hated the world and most of the people on it. I've believed that reality is a terrible place to live, that there's no hope for humanity, that we're all doomed. (To be fair, I was a teenager, I grew up and I got over it.)
But really... it's a pretty amazing time to be alive, isn't it? The world's a messed-up place, there's a lot of trouble in desperate need of fixing, but something about me keeps focusing on the potential. The thing about potential is that it usually goes unrealized, but it's there, and god damn, I think we can make something of it if we try hard enough. Everything can be awesome.
I don't know when it happened, but I've been infected with optimism. Even at times when by any measure I should be fueled by cynicism, I can't help but feel a little burning sliver of hope deep down. But the question is, is that real, or am I still just that kid with his head in the clouds, believing in the impossible?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Launch
I warn you in advance, I'm not sure where this whole blog deal is heading, if in fact it's heading anywhere. I've got a LiveJournal that I update fairly often, and it's doubtful I'm gonna jump ship on that. But friends of mine are migrating, and I hate being left out, so here I am.
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say I have an addictive personality (okay, I do), but if I have any problems in this world it's with coffee and DVDs. I've mostly curbed my coffee addiction, down from sometimes five cups a day to two at the most. But nonetheless, I'm sitting in my room on this early Sunday afternoon, sippin' coffee from a manatee mug and watching season one of X-Files. I've actually cut back on the DVD purchases lately too, but I ask you, when it's only 20 dollars for 24 episodes of a quality program, could you resist? If so, you're made of sterner stuff than I, my friend.
For the sake of self-promotion, I have to link to Welcome to Hereafter. It's a comic I've been doing lately, which I hope you'll find delightful.
I've got nothing else to say right now, so I leave you with a picture of the current month on my penguin calendar:
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say I have an addictive personality (okay, I do), but if I have any problems in this world it's with coffee and DVDs. I've mostly curbed my coffee addiction, down from sometimes five cups a day to two at the most. But nonetheless, I'm sitting in my room on this early Sunday afternoon, sippin' coffee from a manatee mug and watching season one of X-Files. I've actually cut back on the DVD purchases lately too, but I ask you, when it's only 20 dollars for 24 episodes of a quality program, could you resist? If so, you're made of sterner stuff than I, my friend.
For the sake of self-promotion, I have to link to Welcome to Hereafter. It's a comic I've been doing lately, which I hope you'll find delightful.
I've got nothing else to say right now, so I leave you with a picture of the current month on my penguin calendar:
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