bff4ever

Are you liking having comics start these entries? I know I am! I do them in about an hour, which is a good pace. And for each one I do, I generate two more ideas. If I keep at it, I'll get a nice little batch AND I'll only get better! I'm kinda remembering how I draw people too. Like doodles of people. I have several styles. Anyhoo! Yeah! Art!

Today was a Faux First Friday in Bremerton. Faux because the real one was new years and they didn't do it. I just hung out at Bremerton Letterpress Co. which is where Karen's (aka KB) new press is! She got a (used) Vandercook and now it has a home with Marin...Marit? who is really nice and it's a new shop downtown. They got cards and bags and mugs and prints and stuff. And presses with which to make awesome cards. So this is even better for KB because there's a space to work from and a person to work with! So it should bolster both their businesses. And there was talk about me designing a card to be printed and sold. Just gotta get a little portfolio together. I've neglected to scan all my mushroom drawings, so I need to make a few more of those. Local & nautical sells. 

So I hung out. Met people. Gave Karen and Rob their baby shower gift (a baby sling). There's baby showers coming up, but I don't know if I'll be able to make them (one's in Portland the weekend after I'm going down, not sure if I'd want to do two trips but maybe I'll go down with Karen on the second one and split gas?)(and the second is with her sister and I don't know where that is, probably Washington, but yeah). So I gave them their present and they were like "ohh we heard good things about this" and "this is just what we needed!" so hurray!

Karen is seven and a half months pregnant, and ran the tressel press. Because she's a champ.

So if you're in Downtown Bremerton, check out the store front! It's really nice!

I also dropped off a garbage load. It went up fifteen cents! Yikes! Garbage and recycling. It was all looking a bit full. So that errand is done! And I reorganized my books to accommodate new acquisitions. Another task done. Tomorrow is a cleaning day. I really want to get a lot checked off the list. Cleaning, organizing. Yeah.

I'm also writing a lot more in this blog, after what felt like a year of very short posts. But I think I'm also talking my way through life changes and life focus. As I said during college, if I did nothing I had to write I did nothing so this blog helped me be a lot more accountable to my school work. So I'm taking myself to task for getting myself accomplished at being an adult.

get ready, get set

Loook! Drawing more! I want to do at least one comic a day. They are doing pretty well on Instagram. I'm trying to figure out the way to have them look the best. I went up to the garage apartment and dug through my old boxes and pulled out old barely used sketchbooks. I found some old reems of bristol paper. Basically better paper, because the little sketchbook I've been using doesn't have a heavy paper weight and the pens bleed. Yeah. I'm now motivated to overhaul a tidying of the house. I want to get my art supplies together, I want to get books put away better, I want this space to be less cluttered. I want to know where everything is, as well. Because every now and again I'll be like "where's this thing?" and I have to dig and dig for a while to find it. Right now I'm trying to find the 26th card I printed of Nate & Helen's Christmas present. The blooper card. Still looks nice, I just need to scan it. I really need a portfolio overhaul and to do that I must have new work to shove into it.

People like those cookies. Karen wants a print. I just need to figure out how to make prints? I guess? I'm just worried about the screen to print out transition, because there's been things that look WILDLY different when I look at them on my phone (typically my sketches, the paper looks more yellow).

Anyway, the fire is under me and it feels awesome!

And Anita and Cheyenne are visiting on Sunday! You might remember Anita from Santa Cruz or from Delaware. Nice to host on her roadtrip, like she hosted on mine.

Uhhmm. Yeah. Tidying. Arting. Want to tidy more tomorrow. Might also leave the house and hang with Karen at a First Friday in Bremerton.

My mood right now is doing pretty good. I think I have a little room of mental space of "get stuff cleared out and organized" and basically getting ready. Ready for what? Dunno. Whatever happens next. But I don't want to get there unorganized. I want to be a better me when I step up to the plate.

I need to make work

Look! Another comic! I'll try to do daily comics. Daily drawings. Draw SOMETHING ANYTHING daily. I wonder if I can swing taking January off to just make some goddang work, and then leverage a month of making into making and a job. Ya know? Like I have good drawing habits built up over the month, and then I find a job post birthday and stuff?

I also have another thing drawn right now that I'll scan in the morning. And I dug out a notebook that I only used a few pages in and I started jotting down comic ideas. I have ideas! I just haven't been drawing them.

Anyway, yeah. Gotta get projects going.

re: unemployment. Yeah I probably can get it, but I'm worried that filing for it will screw up health insurance & future tax stuff. Benefits vs costs, ya know?

Ran a Target errand. I got a good snicker at this down that was supposed to say BREATHE DEEP but the way the lettering was stacked, it kinda looked like BREATHE BREDEEP. Star Wars toys still largely sold out. There was a Rey Jakku Lego toy though, that was cool! I didn't get it, I just admired it. I got bread and other stuff.

Went home. Drew. Watched Drunk History. Felt a bit better.

laid off comic

Look! Blogging the day of! And I drew something (see above). Maybe I'll just auto bio comic my way to success! That's what a lot of illustrators do when they are suddenly unemployed.

Anyway. Had a rough night sleep, Stayed home. Leaving the house tomorrow though. Sat in front of the fire. Drew. Listened to podcasts. Need to draw more, what else am I doing? Nothing, that's what.

Maybe I should get my booze handlers permit, just so I'm set for applying at different job places.

Ya. Mellow day.

dungeons and dragons and that's sister wendy if you're Nolar

2nd

Slept in and had pasta for a late breakfast. Didn't do much inbetween waking up and heading out to the game meet up. It was pretty chilly. I drove slow and safe. The house was easy to find. Up in the woods of north west Port Townsend. People there: Ron (his house) Rowan, Evelyn (Ron's kids), Ron's wife I think but she didn't play with us, Alex, some guy, Logan who I could swear I knew from somewhere, Emerald, Morgan, and two other people. Emerald helped me make my character! So nice! My character for a new dungeons and dragons campaign. I am jumping in at 4th level. A 4th level neutral good cleric named Wensledale. She's a halfling and apparently the conscience of the group. The campaign is sort of a mystery with ghoul bites. We accidentally shot a farmer's daughter with arrows and I hurt my team when I subdued a mental patient with a sonic spell. But I healed them, and chastised the doctor for his poor care of his patient. The gaming went from 6 to 10:30ish! A good long game! I'll be back in two weeks for another round, and in the mean time I'll brush up on my knowledge. Emerald loaned me a USB full of D&D literature so I have that to study. Excited to get into it and expand my universe. Seems like a good way to meet local area nerds, as there isn't a local indie comic scene this side of the water.

It was a slow drive back with the temperature being so low and the roads being clearly ice on the side.

3rd

Not much of a day. Loafed around. Lit a fire. Made kindling. Read The Girl on the Train (very good thus far!). Tidied up a little. Had pot stickers. Watched telly.

4th

Had to leave the house as I've been out of vegetables for a while. Long overdue for a grocery run. I used my Barnes and Noble gift card that Hans gave me on Tomine's Killing and Dying. Yay for comics! I was hoping B&N might have dice for sale, but no dice. Avalon Comics, where Wizards used to be, did though! Sean and Michael were nice fellows who pointed out there is Tuesday DND at the shop. Ohhh! Except Tuesday might be beekeeping classes too? Though haha I'm unemployed, what am I doing thinking about doing fun things? I needa find a job. I have enough to absolutely get through January but February will be dodgy. But it's nice to know I have time to read and sit in front of the fire. I need to do a tidying overhaul again, because there's lots of odds and ends sitting about. And need to make a dump run too as the trash is getting full. Argh.

Where was I? Oh yeah, dice! I bought some of the other dice (D12 D4 D8 D10 and percentile) from Avalon, so that I wouldn't have to continue borrowing Emerald's. I already had that D20 I got so Dad could reference it for his boxes. Now I have a funky little assortment. There's lots of different style of dice. If I continue playing, maybe I'll invest in a match set (big investment of like, $5).

So that was nice. Not nice was paying a visit to Ma and Pa and having them talk over me when I had a bunch of different things to talk about. Guess that is why I need to keep up with this blog more regularly. The ol' one sided conversation. I talk to people so rarely in person, so it's real shitty to not get a conversation during the rare chances that I do have. But I got my mail and got a few nice cards.

Swung by Trader Joe's and got food. There's a chocolate milk in my fridge. Treat to myself! And eggs, baco...ohh did I forget bread? Yeah I think I forgot to get bread. Damnit. Well I have eggs and bacon and I might make another trip to Silverdale soon. Or over yonder that way.

Lit a fire when I got home and computered in front of it. The heat just doesn't reach the master bedroom like I want it to.