The Mysterious "Something"

So last week I made some vague references to a mysterious “something” that I was thinking about doing, but that I ended up not doing.
Last night I did it.
What was “it,” you ask?
In looking at a list of upcoming events in Loudoun County on the Web, I noticed that there’s a local art gallery and studio that has an “open studio” on Monday evenings, in which the public can go in and, for a $12 fee, sketch a live model.
I’ve been interested in sort of refreshing myself on the fundamentals of drawing, particularly “analog” drawing (as in non-digital; on paper instead of on the computer), so I thought this might be a good opportunity.
As noted, I didn’t go last week, for a variety of reasons.
One of those reasons was that I felt rather self-conscious. Walking into a studio and doing life drawing seemed kind of like walking into a gym when you’re ridiculously out of shape.
It’s been at least a dozen years since I’ve worked in any media other than the computer. I can’t even remember the last time I actually drew something of note on paper with a pencil.
Beyond that…well, while I’ve been drawing for pretty much as long as I can remember, I’ve never had any sort of professional instruction. I’ve skimmed through some books here and there, but basically anything I know about art I just picked up on my own.
My high school didn’t have an art program, and, lacking anything that even remotely resembled a portfolio, there was no way I was going to get into an art program in college. And simply meeting the various requirements for my degree didn’t allow for me to even try taking an art course as an elective.
The closest I got to an art class in college was cleaning the classrooms used by the art department in my student job as a janitor.
Seeing the work done by some of the students also added to the self-consciousness factor and pretty much made sure that I’d never even try getting into an art class.
I’ve never done any sort of “life drawing,” either. Not in any sort of formal setting, at least. I once asked Lorie to pose for me back when we were in college, but she was so disagreeable the whole time that I decided “Never again.”
(Beyond that, I once did a sketch of her while she was sleeping. Her angry “I don’t look like that!” reaction killed any ideas I had about trying that ever again.)
So, yeah. I felt more than a little trepidation about going to the open studio with my sketch pad and Mickey Mouse pencil set – not literally Mickey Mouse, but just some cheap little set I randomly bought one day a while back – tucked under my arm.
But I did it.
As an aside, even though I was more committed to going this time around, I almost didn’t go, as, for whatever reason, my contacts decided to irritate my eyes again when I wore them Sunday night.
I spent all of Monday with swollen, bloodshot, bleary eyes.
So the circumstances weren’t really conducive to my going, as I looked terrible and couldn’t really see.
When I got home from work I was going to use the prescription eye drops I have left over from when my eyes were really irritated, as they’re the only thing I’ve found that actually works to relieve the problem. However, I don’t like using them because they dilate my pupils, so, for the sheer hell of it, I decided to try some regular over the counter eye drops that I had.
They worked like a charm.
While I was glad to have the problem cleared up, this annoyed me to no end, because if I’d known that something other than the prescription drops would work, I could have gone to the store at lunch time or something and bought some, sparing myself a truly miserable day.
In any case, I did go, and I suppose I should talk about the experience.
It was odd.
Like most everything in my life, drawing has generally been a solitary pursuit, so it seemed strange to be surrounded by other people, but I got over that fairly quickly.
The model – who was clothed the whole time – had a tendency to move a little too often, and the “monitor” facilitating the whole thing had her change poses a little too frequently, so there were many poses that she didn’t hold long enough for me to get a chance to do a decent sketch.
Or, I suppose I could take the blame and say that I couldn’t sketch fast enough to keep up.
Other than that, the lighting was poor. By that I mean that there wasn’t much light to work by; the lighting on the model was excellent.
Overall it was an experience, and I may try it again. Somewhere along the line I think I’d like to take an actual class, but that’s still firmly in the “maybe” category.
It took me a little while to get into the swing of things, so my first couple of sketches totally blew, but I’ve scanned in the ones that were, as I told Scott, at least within spitting distance of being halfway decent.
Here they are:



Smudging has always been an issue for me.







So, yeah. Now you know what all the vague, mysterious somethings are. I believe I warned you that they would be boring, so I don’t want to hear any complaints out of any of you. I mean, honestly, you didn’t think I was doing anything interesting, did you?

In Case You Were Wondering...

For anyone who's been wondering what Jon has been doing with his time lately, here's your answer:



Yes, that's right; I've been designing a new logo for Heroic Portraits.
Whaddaya think?
Of course, that's only part of what I've been doing, as I've also been creating some new content for the site (which accounts for my "mystery drawing") and thinking about what I want to do in terms of redesigning and actually marketing it.
I'm considering actually paying someone to put together a nice Flash-based version of the site, but before I really even think about that, I'm in serious need of content, so that's really been my focus.
I'll post again in a bit with the answer to yet another mystery.

Not The Kind Of Change I'm Interested In

My car is desperately overdue for an oil change.
Not having weekdays off has seriously cut into my ability to get things done at a time when no one else is out getting those same things done.
I had to go to Wal-Mart today to pick up some stuff, and remembered that they do oil changes, so I decided to try there.
It would have been a two hour wait.
Every other place I went by had huge lines, so I decided that if it’s waited this long, my car can wait a little longer.
Honestly, at this point I’d really prefer to just forego changing the oil and actually change the car, but I really don’t feel like taking on a car payment again right now, so I guess I’ll just have to put my teeth in and then grit them and put up with it.
There’s nothing wrong with my car – strike that, I’m sure that there’s plenty that’s wrong with my car that will be revealed next month when I get the safety inspection – but…well, I hate it. I’ve always hated it.
Still, not having to make payments on the thing is nice, so I guess I’m stuck with it.
When I went to Wal-Mart I had the sense to write up a list of the things I needed, and for a change I even remembered to take said list out of my pocket and look at it.
Once.
I figured, “It’s a short list; I can remember what’s on it.”
For those of you who wonder, this is a prime example of why I lack confidence: every time I managed to muster some up, I invariably misplace it.
It was indeed a short list, but not quite as short as the list of items I actually bought.
Oh well.
Yesterday Scott came over to watch Left Behind II: Tribulation Force and to give it the MST3K treatment.
It was truly abysmal; much worse than even the first movie.
You would think that, in the context of a movie based on the Left Behind books – dubbed by Fred of Slacktivist as “The Worst Books Ever Written – the words “Bloopers and Outtakes,” appearing in the special features menu, could potentially be the greatest, most cringe-worthy phrase known to man.
Such was not the case. Even the bloopers were terrible.
I’d planned to grill up some brats for dinner, but it seems that’s what Scott had for lunch, so we opted to go to Fridays.
As a lingering after-effect of my dining experience in Kansas, I was in the mood for ribs. Of course, compared to the ribs I had in Kansas, the Friday’s ribs were sadly disappointing. They weren’t bad, they were just sorely lacking compared to what I had in Kansas.
Apart from my adventure in misplaced confidence, I didn’t do a whole lot today.
I talked to my mom, did some more mysterious drawing, and did the laundry.
I also grilled up yesterday’s brats for tonight’s dinner.
And that’s pretty much it.

So I hope everyone survived the Fourth intact, with the same number of fingers, toes, and eyes that you had back on the third of July.
For my part I didn’t do a whole lot.
I spent most of the day working on some pictures (more on that in a bit), eschewing any Independence Day-related activities, as activities=people, and then in the evening headed over to Jamie and Casey’s house (based on Scott’s invitation) and had dinner.
They were all wrapping up a round of D & D when I got there, and after dinner they went back into gaming mode, and I went back into anti-social mode and headed home to do some more drawing.
I appreciated the invitation, and was glad to not have to feed myself, but I wasn’t really in the mood to be social – I know; what else is new? – and not being into the whole gaming thing, I didn’t have it in me to hang out until it got dark enough for them to light off the truly massive amounts of fireworks they had.
As for all of the drawing I’ve been doing, you may be wondering why you aren’t seeing the results here.
So why is that?
Because.
You’ll see them eventually, just not yet, and I’m not inclined to say anything more about it. Not trying to be mysterious, I just don’t feel like writing about it just yet. Trust me; you’ll be bored when you do find out, so you’re not missing anything.
I got up this morning and reminded myself for the first of many times that it is, in fact, Saturday, not Sunday.
After sitting around for a while I went out and did some shopping, then came home and cleaned up the house a bit.
Scott’s coming over later on for a screening of Left Behind II: Tribulation Force.
As my only real exposure to the books has been reading the dissections on Slactivist, and given that after five years Fred has yet to complete dissecting the first book, I don’t know much about the plot of Tribulation Force, and will not be able to see where the movie diverges from the book.
I have to say, I’m almost eager to watch it, but then I remember that it’s going to be absolutely terrible – there’s no way for it to not be terrible – and my eagerness fades.
I bought some brats to grill for tonight, so after cleaning up in the house I decided to clean the grill, which was an annoying, messy pain.
A while back I mentioned that I’d lost my stylus for my smart phone, and given that it was the spare stylus, that meant having to buy a new one. In fact, I ended up buying six.
Getting into my car on my way home last night I was, as I so often am, distracted by something shiny. In this case something shiny on the floor between the seat and door. It was my stylus.
I’d assumed that I’d lost it somewhere at work, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
So where I once had none, I now have seven.
Now, if only what holds true for smart phone styli held true for girlfriends…

Why Do I Even HAVE Weekends?

I know I’m supposed to be the most miserable, unhappy person in the world, or at least that’s the apparent face that I show to the world, and I guess that to hear me tell it the Universe doesn’t piss in anyone’s Corn Flakes as often or to the same extent as it does in mine, but the thing is, I don’t eat Corn Flakes, and I honestly find the various mishaps and setbacks I have in life more amusing than depressing.
Most of the time, anyway.
Eventually.
Anyway, my actual point here is that while I’m presumably in a constant state of morbid despair, the fact of the matter is that it really doesn’t take much to amuse me, or to suffuse my entire being with moments – and they generally are only moments – of transcendent, and, frankly, child-like joy.
By way of example, last night I was eating a Popsicle. This particular kind of Popsicle has a riddle/joke printed on the stick, with the answer/punch line revealed only when you finish the Popsicle itself.
Before getting started on the task of actually consuming the Popsicle, I read the riddle/joke printed on the visible portion of the stick, and upon having the answer/punch line revealed through my efforts, I was inordinately delighted to discover that I had correctly guessed the answer.
(What did the breeze say to the screen? Just passing through.)
Seriously, it was the highlight of my day. Possibly the week.
I wasn’t as successful with the next one I had, though. After reading the question, I could not immediately come up with an answer, and said, “Hmm…I’ll have to think about that.” Sadly, my ruminations were not up to the task of solving this particular puzzle, but, buoyed by my earlier success, I didn’t let that get me down.
(What do elves use to make sandwiches? Shortbread.)
Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that sometimes the smallest victory can be the sweetest. Or, you know, the sourest; it was a sour apple-flavored Popsicle, after all.
Getting back into character, I have to say that I was annoyed upon waking up this morning and realizing that it was already Monday. I mean, sometimes I wonder why I even have weekends; they seem to end almost as soon as they begin.
Not much of note happened at work. One of the meetings I had ran a lot shorter than expected, which would have allowed me to actually go to another meeting with which it otherwise would have conflicted – if said meeting hadn’t been canceled (another little nugget of joy in and of itself).
There was something that I was thinking about doing tonight, but feeling kind of tired and just generally not up to the prospect of doing anything, I decided against it. Maybe next week.
I’m being deliberately vague about this “something.” It’s not anything terribly exciting or mysterious, but there’s a good chance I might never do it, so I’m reluctant to mention what it is, but I suppose it probably would have made more sense to not mention it all. Oh well.
Life is full of contradictions and less than satisfactory answers.
Especially when those answers can’t be found on a Popsicle stick.

Bonus Video Department:
While looking for a video for my theme song the other day – one that was “official” and not fan-made – I found this other interesting Nine Inch Nails video featuring a rehearsal of the song Just Like You Imagined.
Some of you may recognize it as the song in the trailers for 300.
I just find the video kind of fascinating to watch, as, no matter what you think of Trent Reznor and his music, you have to admire his attention to detail and his ability to bring his ideas to life.
See for yourself: