Breaking The 4-Month Silence

The most articulate complaint I've received about my failure to blog these last four months has been, "Do you really want 'Golden Poop' to be your blog's swan song?". The short answer is a horrified "No!".

However, other than art and music, there has been little to fill anybody in on.

Regarding art stuff, developing my skills as a tattoo designer and artist has been an amazing challenge this year. Just last week, I was approached with a request to re-create this angel "pretty much as-is, only without the flower, and put her hand in water and have it coming up around her."



I flatly refused. I don't want to be responsible for any more crappy jail-looking tattoos than already exist in the world.

With the negotiated agreement that I could do a redesign as long as the elements all remained the same, I came up with this:



Somewhere along the line I picked up a nickname of "The Tumor Doodler" by some at work. Can't imagine why, unless it's that my cubicle usually looks something like this:



Even since I snapped this photo, my style changed again. You see, I recently discovered the beauty and strength of thick lines (thanks to a new friend who does AMAZING tattoo work). Here's what my legal pad sketches have looked like lately:



Lest you think I only draw tumor-like blobs, I am actually very busy trying to develop a number of art styles. Unfortunately, it feels like I'm going in too many directions at once. But at least I'm creating - there have been many seasons in my life during which I stifled that flow.

And speaking of creative ventures, I made another Christmas song submission (the same contest for which I created "Christmas For A Dragon") last year. I'm a better engineer now, and there were fewer entries this time. However, there are enough great ones to prevent me from thinking I'll be even close to the second-place level I hit last year. (And truth be told, I wrote and recorded it in the two days before it was due, so it's pretty much my own fault.)

Anyway, it's as done as it's going to be. Click the link to hear "Christmas Economy A.D.D.".

That's about all for now. ...And I'll try to make the next four months a little more interesting.