This was years ago, II got contacted to do some mockups for packaging for a tea company. I was initially competing with several other artists. Then it was just me. I think it was suppose to be 300+ illustrations if I got the contract. Eventually the tea company decided they didn’t want to spend the money. Th ad agency paid me for the one drawing. I got to the place to pick up the check and when I got to the car it was for over 40k. Which would have been around the amount if I had gotten the contract. II sat there for a minute. And took the check back and got my 300 dollar check. I was so broke at the time it was painful, but I also thought it was funny.

Keep making art kids!

Something comforting about ink. Forms taking shape on paper, playing with line and expressing something beyond words. My wife and I started an online DND game so I have a new pile of dice acquired over the winter break. Markers and sketch books and printer paper…even some 100% cotton rag. One of those pens on the left is a pilot 912. The nib seems beyond repair. So I got some zebra G nibs and after looking at a few videos…I trimmed and ground the nib with a dremel until it worked as a replacement. Very enjoyable to overcome difficulties, even ones so seemingly simple. I like that fountain pens with converters don’t make so much trash as the little ink cartridges or disposable ones do. Keep making art kids!

I was talking printmaking with my students today. When I make blockprints I tend to use harder material like linoleum or plywood with a birch or cherry veneer. I started this with one class and tested the print(those one are printed brown.

So that got me started but I noticed I did not feel the silhouette enough so after doing a bunch of test proofs I carved out more of the block. I also saw that I did not like the white paper look, so I tried manila paper instead.

I tend to lean on Alaska subject matter. I also think Walrus is natural for our students here in Savoonga. We are the Walrus capital of the world. :D Talking process with students the main idea was that it took me 10 tries to get something that I thought was working.

Another way to think about that is that we are not defined by one drawing we make. In this way art is a process of human development, we make mistakes or learning by trial and error are vital for our understanding, given that we live a while. Too often I meet folks that think they have to "get it" on the first try. Or expect that a formula will give a guaranteed result every time, but in doing so we halt development.

That would be a major reason as to why AI generated images are a real problem. And if we continue to farm out our and artistic work to computers we will actually halt human progress if we let it.

I think this one where I printed magenta first and then printed in purple was the most sucessful. What do you think? Have you tried much physical media? Do you like Printmaking?

KEEP MAKING ART KIDS!!!

The gremlin is back!

RIP

i used to work at TV stations. Some of my first jobs. This doodling on the particle board part of the master control deck was from around the time my oldest daughter was born. I wonder if it’s still there. Costal Television in Anchorage was owned by companies in different states…in this way they could have a FOX, ABC and one other network running out of the same building. Skirting antitrust laws. It was a bit of a pirate ship. The guy who hired me always smelled like Brie and whiskey. My manager was always high as a kite. The station manager almost got stabbed right before I got hired. I remember a news person being really disappointed that the homeless person they found wasn’t dead. As there was no story.

Thinking about the broken healthcare system. A co-worker there 20yo…had a back surgery that cost 80k. And did not know how to navigate the system to tell the people denying his claim he couldn’t pay. He had no hope. Just got an apartment. But due to that bill he didn’t see anyway forward. And he died not long after I met him. If his bill had been taken care of, maybe he could looked for other opportunities.

Not long after that I quit and started my education degree.

So watching this interview…one thing I keep coming back to…he was having trouble limiting his kids screen time, because he thinks Minecraft is better than legos? Or because his daughter was running out of lego? How are those things comparable? Or maybe it’s this whole thing of money people not understanding that working within limitations is a huge part of how creativity works.

I can have ten billion colors in photo shop. But when you squeeze the bandwidth and do lo-fi things, I’ve seen amazing things on Newgrounds with pixel art.

Or the messaging is so consistently that AI IS INEVITABLE…but the sub text is really just “use our tools” Ethics be damned, use the product they are trying to sell. Can we trade for ending world hunger…and ending war for profit?

Hunter Thompson said America is a nation of car salesmen with the good sense not to do the right thing.

When they get to the covid vaccine, it gets so weird. Zuck keeps wanting to say vaccines are a good thing, Rogan keeps wanting to push the MAGA talking points. Which is guess will be the dichotomy of the next admin. Like a buddy cop movie with a nerd and a bruiser trying to figure out how to extract the most wealth from working people.

I was considering caricaturing Zuck as a rat or a lizard…but he’s a nerd.Like a tiny shark nerd? I drew him a bunch and the eyes kept drifting apart. Or shrinking his mouth. My favorite comment is he looks like an undercover cop.

Another thing is Zuck and Musk both have had work done on their hair and their faces…so they went from looking like basement dwelling mutants to looking like they could be on a sitcom or a Micheal Bay movie. Maybe that’s is he looks like he should be a background extra on Bad Boys 5.

At least there is a ceasefire in Gaza…it only took 40k dead to get there.