Ready, Willing and Cable (8)

New cover for this week's Chautauqua Region Word. This is our local newscast team. I love their set. I included a picture for you to see. Small town news has got to be a tough gig. They are my heroes.

Yawn... Time for Sleep

Yeah... true, but don't forget to post the cartoon. Here's this week's bad cartoon. These hunter characters come back every now and then. Here they are again.

Tomorrow I'll post the cover of this week's issue. I'll be working on that tomorrow night. I'm thinking about taking some time off from work. I have some vacation saved up and my mother is coming to town for the holiday. Got a ton of work around the house done today. Other than that... just another sunday...

DARFUR Benefit

A Poster for an upcoming benefit for the women and children of Darfur, Africa. Proceeds go to protect civilians in the camps from genocide.

I designed this last night.

Disc Mus' Be My Lucky Day

Nine to five, my official capacity is the field of graphic design. There are worse ways to spend your day. People who read this blog know that I'm an illustrator/painter deep down, but the design stuff is great to do too.

Enter Cale Hawkins. Cale is a local musician who is just really talented. I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of details, but I encourage you to check him out at his web site.

Anyway, I've been a friend of Cale's family for a while, and I recently got the chance to help Cale out with an upcoming CD he is releasing. NO... I wasn't doing anything musical. I was helping with the design. Here's a few samples. Cale will no doubt be famous someday, and when that day comes I will show up on his doorstep to exploit his wealth. See you then, Cale.

This week's cartoon.

Happy Thanksgiving. The holiday strips tend to be not so political. This is a good example.

I got tagged... sheesh.

Galoot put out the challenge on this one.

List 5 things that certain people (who are not deserving of being your friend anyway) may consider to be “totally lame,” but you are, despite the possible stigma, totally proud of. Own it.

1. I like musicals. The dumber the better.

2. I watch Star Wars a lot. All of them, though for my money, The Empire Strikes Back is still the best.

3. I have never been afraid of making a total ass of myself in front of a crowd. Improv is a great outlet for this.

4. I find all types of art inspirational, especially animation. Annoys the hell out of "grown-ups" like the wife. Whatever.

5. I can identify many fonts at a glance. This also pisses off wifey.

Moving on then...

Still in bit of a creative funk... but time waits for no one. This week's cartoon. They can't all be gems.

Also... check out my new MySpace music page. I threw up a couple of songs I wrote. Working on a new one... a Christmas song. More on that later...

http://www.myspace.com/garypetersmusic

Enthusiasmic Lapses

Piles of work. Piles of problems. I am at no means at rock bottom, but still, the juices flow better at some times than at others. I know I probably just need a little sleep, but figured I better blog to remind myself I have one,

The job has me in a funk. How do people do it? I have a theory which a video on YouTube beared out for me last week. There's a Canadian artist named Bobby Chui (look him up). His digital paintings are really good. If you go to YouTube and look him up, you'll be impressed by the work, but the funny thing about this guy is that his videos are not about digital painting. Sure, he busts out a great piece by the end of the vid, but the narrative is what keeps me watching.

He never really talks about what he is doing. He never really gives you clues about his technique. What he does do is talk generally about being focused, driven and creative. You'll feel like you just came out of a personal pep rally.

One of his posts talked about a guy who had a very unfulfilling job in the creative field. This guy's job just sucked. He began to forget why he got into art. THIS I can identify with! If you sit at work all day long, creating for someone else, by the time you get home, the last thing you want to do is something artsy. It is so true. You use it up. I'm at the short end of the creative stick tonight, but tomorrow is another day. I want to get up early to see if the old "Sleep on it" still works.

Based on an Actual Conversation

For anyone who doesn't know, I do a weekly comic strip for a local publication. The Chautauqua Region WORD has been running this cartoon for many years. It's fun and it's always something different. I have about 4 years worth of weekly strips. I've been toying with the idea of creating a book. It would have a limited appeal but it might be fun to do it and see where it goes. Anyway, people I know always end up in it, sometimes on purpose. This one won't run until Wednesday, put you can get a preview here! Woot!

The Subtle Art of the Birthday Poster...

Several of my blog posts are about how darn busy I am all the time. I am getting better about saying no to certain projects, but there's always time for a couple of extra bucks on a side project. A friend of mine from a couple of towns over got an idea one day. We used to work in the same office building, but in different offices, and one day he approached me with a project. Some friends of his were getting married. He wanted to give them a unique gift. He asked me if I could create caricatures of them and put them on a movie poster. I said sure and as of today we've done about a dozen of these. I'll post some of the old ones if I run across them...

This one is for a guy having a birthday. He owns the town bowling alley. This is almost done, but I won't finish it tonight. Too tired. Just enough energy to post this... I need sleep.

Becoming what it always should have been...

The inevitable... that has an ominous sound to it... doesn't it? It doesn't have to be all gloom and doom. The more I am watching my blog posts progress, the more I am realizing that this is becoming an artist's blog. which is good. Super good. It should have always been an artist blog.

I think when I began this blog, I was going through a lot of personal crap. The posts were dark and angry, but worst of all, the art dropped out of my life. There's a lesson in everything. I learned a really valuable one over the past couple years. If pieces of your life aren't working for you, don't drop the ball. Don't get all angry and let it ruin you. Concentrate on those things which you truly love. Concentrate on those things that make you who you are. Hold on to those things. Push everything else to the side. Don't ignore the rest, just move it from the focus. Take those most important things, and make them happen again. Enjoy them. Obsess over them. Do them better than you ever have before. Do them more often. Reality is not perception. Perception is too passive to create or define reality. Reality requires work, effort, and joy. Get some.

Sometimes "the inevitable" is just a sign that you back on track

Waiting for Good Dough...

Well, not really. The dough comes at the END of the job. I am wainting for the client to get back to me on this poster design. What do you think. The show is a music showcase of all ORIGINAL music. I ran with the ORIGINAL concept and tried to think of something timeless and recognizable. It's just fun. I don't know. I hope they are not deliberating. It's like waiting for a jury. Ugh... Can't slow down though... More work to do...