Random :

The birds have made a mess (with the smaller sized feed).  i need to reposition the feeder for spillage.

Really happy to have finished FISH print, just in time.  She picked up 15 minutes later.  So many little details in it.  All that matters is that is came out great.

Noticed the light changing (for the better).  hex and I walked down 14th at around 4, and I could feel spring light peeking through the clouds.

I was starving at ate Lee's cake back at the studio.  then I started feeling gross and sick.

Rescued the little coffee plant (stick with roots really) from Peregrine this afternoon.  Don't know if possible, but hope it survives (against all odds, and Hex's better judgement).

Happy to be though this week.  Feeling lighter.

Snow came big Friday night and all day saturday.  We cocooned in the apt like everybody else -- eating way too much junk and watching multiple episodes of Law and Order and the movie San Andreas.  Mid day we ventured out onto 14th st which was a lot of fun.

Off Sunday too, which had an impact on this week.  3 big projects competing for the same time and deadline.  Ive put in a bunch of extra hours, and feeling a bit out of the weeds.  But not entirely . . .

Waiting on my BLACK screen to dry for the fishes print, than I'm going to print before leaving for the night.  So scared to mess it up after soooooooooo much work on all the rest.  I'm determined to go super slooooow and hopefully it will all work out.

Illustrations for Story District have been such a long slog.  Happy with the result, but it's been so hard to come up with ideas, and then DRAW them this year.  Each one has taken me double / triple the amount of time to get through.  And times a tickin!  One more to go…

 

good productive drawing day.

Sent amy SCANDAL, didn't hear back until later, after I assumed she didn't like it, and used the bunnies for another.  Now I have to figure out which bunny to kill (ha).

Crazy snow / ice last night, and tons expected over weekend.  Snow exciting.

Now that I've taken on the birds, I feel responsible.  They plowed through all the food I had, and now I'm worried about them.

ok - walking to gym, then home.

happy anniversary to Hexy.  9 years goes really fast!

I don't know why - I've just always loved this drawing.  Adding the hearts sealed the deal.  New postcard and card...

January 2016 going better than January 2015 (as far as I can remember).  Business coming in which is great.

Got first wave of Valentines in, and like them.  Although they really are very valentines-ey.  Guess I was pushing away from that, but now I kind of regret it.  Should have maybe made them a bit more pink and sweet.

Took down DOLCEZZA show last night, and TROHV on Monday.  Bummer for both.  Including Artomatic and Buzz, that's 4 big, long running  "shows" that are now over.  My studio is full of prints, and I need to find new outlets (or methods) to sell.  Sorry to see TROHV close, but sad to say not so surprised.  Such a big (awesome) store, but too few customers and business.  End of an era.

Working on illustrations for StoryDistrict, and it's slow going.  Hoping to crack the creative nut, and things will start to flow w w w w w w w w .  .   .

weird lonely day.

Went through the motions of working, but I felt strangely disassociated from what I was doing, where I was, and even who I was.

Like I shouldn't  be here.  Or I don't know what to do.  Or who I am.  It's a really weird (and bad) feeling, and hard to shake.

I went out to Office Depot, (the one nearby that Hex and I discovered) to get ink.  When I found out it was $10 extra, I left.  Then checking on Amazon I found it for 1/3 the price!  Crazy.  I guess they are dumping it?  Does somebody know something I don't??

Later I went through the huge pile of stuff that we saved from the basement in Rockville.  A nice "reset" on my feelings.  All the hundreds of doodles and drawings and copy pages from that golden era right after college and just before (and early on) BSUR.

Such a crossroad for my life and career.

A good chance to reflect, and what I needed.

tidbits:

birds have discovered the feeder!

the fish print is logistically tough!

making/ordering/posting new cards is a tedious process

I wish there was an extra day in the week

January is half over!

I constantly need supplies.

Productive day -- finished Tulips print and started In for the evening.

long slog though.  n o t h i n g to read and distract.  The world is on holiday, or hibernating.

This afternoon the January blahs set in.  Walking back from Dolcezza / post office, I was thinking about the afternoon, and what needed to be done.  There are deadlines for sure, but the whole urgency of December always flows into the ocean of January laziness.  It hits like clockwork.  The cold weather and short days have a lot to do with it.

Anyway - OH print came out great, and there are others right behind it.  And commissions and illustrations.  Finished up a "batch" of new cards, but anxious to come up with more.

...But my energy is shifting towards getting up from my screen and stool, and calling it a day.

These are the days when it's tough working alone.  There is no current of people working and buzzing around me, pulling me along.  I have to self motivate.

**sure have been blog faithful.  wonder how long I'll keep this up!

TIVO frustration continues!  I surgically removed the old hard drive and installed the new one, and was so nervous to hook it up to the tv and plug it in.  When I did, there was a static grey screen.  So I unplugged it all, unscrewed it all, and reinstalled it all.  Plugged it in again, and viola! a clear screen! but the same screen.  Nothing was fixed, the new hard drive did nothing to fix the broken old machine.

We even did it all again Sunday, after blow drying out all the dust.  "The dust MUST be the problem".  Well, it wasn't.  So we are back to square one, with a broken TIVO.

Fun night saturday -- VIP seats at StoryDistrict's Top Shelf show.  Reuben sandwich afterwards.

Back to the studio today.  Cold outside, and semi productive day.  Could have done much better.

New business coming in, which is great.  New card design ideas? -- not so much.

progress here and there.

drawing fits and starts

prints begun

went to buzz to change out prints, but the mojo has been completely wrung out of the walls there.  They kind of feel invisible.

note: stinky rotting bird seed stew.  gross!

1.  Everything is sooo much more fragile than we realize

2.  Things can be fixed

3.  Things are always changing.  Fast or slow, the one thing that is constant is change

4.  There is a process

5.  It never helps to add stress into the mix

6.  Give it time

- - - - - - - -

Last night sucked (I knew it would).  Plugged in new TIVO right on top of the old broken down TIVO, and went down the problem rabbit hole, troubleshooting E V E R Y single step.  Broken phone line, wrong number, wrong setting, wrong plug.  Midway through it froze, and we had to start the whole thing over.  Hours later, it's all set up, and we find out the bad news.  Works fine, just not possible to activate an account on it. So everything you want a tivo for, it won't / can't do.

Long story short(er), we ended up back the old one.  Ordered a new hard drive, and fingers crossed it works.

I don't know why I'm recording all this.  Not branddave stuff.  SO typical January stuff.  It just gets me thinking about how things change and break down and morph and decay and grow and come together and seperate.  Machines, bodies, companies, dogs, weather, clothing, cars, software.

I hate change.  But that is like saying I hate life.

Anyway, progress in the studio.  progress with drawing, and a better attitude today.  Things flowed easier.  Just want/need to come up with some new cards, so i can order them and get then in ASAP.  I already feel behind (6 days into the new year).

yikes.

Ha - MESSY afternoon trying to "improve" a drawing - then "drawings", and everything got all screwy.  Ended up not being able to go forward, backward, or sideways.  Unhappy with original, but unable to make it better with another version.  The definition of stuck.


Ugh.

Tomorrow is another try.

GRRRR - back to work today after a long holiday weekend, and had lots of trouble drawing.

Welcome to 2016 :(

Spent some time over the weekend cleaning up the studio, and organizing computer.  New Years Eve with Bill and Javi, and took down the tree in Rockville.

Warm December has become cold January.  So thankful for the new cozy studio to work in this winter.

Anyway, 1000 drawing later, and I still don't have a solid design after it all.  Very typical and frustrating.  Other projects get put to the back burner until I get this one thing done.  Blah.