Mr. Blue at the Natural History Museum

Another Mr. Blue image. I don't know if I like this one, but I'm sick of fooling with it. Hopefully more soon.

Mr. Blue Escapes from the Zoo

Another image from my Blue Bear book project. Chronologically this page would precede the page I posted the other day for the illustration friday topic "hide".

Bill in a Bear Suit™ vs. Skull of Lincoln

Not a particularly inspired composition, but I'll tell you what... at three in the a.m., it is making me laugh.

Illustration Friday: Hide

This is another children's book piece for the refocused portfolio. See the blue bear? He's hiding.

My Hiro

Okay, he's not really my hero. I'm not even into the show, which is odd because growing up I was a big superhero freak. My wife is into it though, so I kind of know what's going on in the show. I watched my first full episode last night and it was pretty good. Must resist geting sucked in.

On the other hand, I want to see this dude get his sword.

Because nobody demanded it

A million little dancing Mega Men.

The blarg is one year and four days old

So I missed the exact one year anniversary by a few days, but who's counting, really? Not I. It's hard to believe that it has been a year since I started this thing. I really need to post stuff more often, because there certainly isn't a year's worth of work up here.

It's funny, because I've read all these articles about how having kids can kill your creativity. That was a scary notion to me after our first was born. I discovered that there is some truth to it, but it isn't entirely the case. My brain definitely works differently, and not exactly better, but I've decided that it is working more efficiently. At least as far as creativity is concerned. Before we had the kids, I was constantly sketching and creating characters and story ideas on nearly a daily basis. It all just came very naturally to me. The only problem was 90% of it was crap. Sure, I was excited about them as I threw them down on the paper, but when I looked them over a little later on, I could see how awful they were.

Now, because I'm living the sleep and free-time deprived life of a Dad™, I don't have the luxury of creating 9 turds for every one good idea that I have. I have to have characters that interest me, that really justify the building of a whole world around them, and that have a decent story attached to them. And I have to say, it's been working pretty well lately. The time I do have to work has been alot more productive than it used to be. And I thnk I'm enjoying the process more. I'm certainly not trying to say that every concept that comes along is gold, but I've got a much higher ratio of good to bad.

Kids are a huge blessing, but if you're an artist thinking about having them, be prepared to spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to work in your new situation. It took me about a year to figure it out the first time around. The addition of our second has added a new dimension, but it would be alot harderif I hadn't learned some valuable lessons before.

Bill in a Bear Suit™ vs. A Space Cow

All the man wanted was pancakes.

Official Unfinished Ninja Turtle Sketch

Probably not really blog-worthy, but I liked this little part of an otherwise horrendous drawering.

2007: The Year of Fireworks and Karate Supplies

First post of the new year! And look at that, it only took me 16 days to get it posted.

I'm still trying to get out from under my holiday slump. Not that the holidays are bad or anything, in fact they were just the opposite. We had a great time, got to hang out with family, got to eat lots of awesome food, played a whole lot of Wii Sports. The Holiday Slump® is something that happens to me every year at this time and it's baisically just me being too lazy to do artwork because I got so used to not making any for most of December.

This year I had a pretty good run with those Mega Man pieces between Christmas and New Year's though.

Maybe this here blog will help motivate me to get some stuff done so I can break the slump a little earlier this year.