« July 2005 | Main | November 2005 »
October 31, 2005
It's Nighttime
Where does the breeze come from tonight? The fans are all turned off and the sky is free of clouds. God is singing a ballad he remembers from childhood. The tides are higher than usual. Our dreams are vivid and short. We cannot sleep for long before we wake again, turning in our beds, bothered by the sound, the wind from the east, the dawn’s glow coming far too early this morning.
God’s song ends and we fall exhausted into sleep. Alarms go off across the city fifteen minutes later. We wake and start it all again. The day is hot and the traffic thick. God is nowhere to be seen.
From For the Love of God
When will we get some rest? Our vacations are filled with hotels, museums, people crowding the beaches. The axioms we’ve relied upon have come unraveled. Division and subtraction don’t work any more. The statue of God is missing from the Acropolis. We clean the house and till the earth but the sun has fallen from the sky. It is night and time for sleeping. But we cannot find our pillows and our sheets are full of sand.
From For the Love of God
Finally colored these suckers in. I had to add a couple more colors to the palette of the third one just because everything was getting so darn grey. The red chimneys were from version two, but I added in some violets for a few details. My favorite part might be the fire hydrant in version three (it's taking up some expensive real estate) (seriously). Or the water towers on top of the high-rises. I've always wanted to do a documentary photography series on water towers, but then I found out someone else had already done it. And much better than I ever could. It's not like I don't have enough projects to work on already anyway.
In other news, halloween costumes have gotten way more sophisticated than they were when I was little. I saw two spidermen this year, with all kinds of muscles bulging out all over. Little mutants. Back in my day, a plastic mask and a garbage-bag-y-type printed apron were the limit for store-bought costumes. I had to make do with sheets and spraypaint and a crapload of safety pins (just look how far I've come...!). Actually, when we were wee, mom made us some pretty stylin costumes.
Thanks mom.
Posted by ribbu at 09:27 PM
October 30, 2005
Sahwweeet
All our creative energy this weekend was spent decorating cupcakes.
We decorated cupcake. Then we burf.
Posted by ribbu at 09:50 PM
October 25, 2005
Creative Meeting
After a couple weeks of slacking off, we have reinstated the creative meeting (mainly because we finally feel like we've accomplished something, and wanted to show it off) ("we" being the royal we, of course) (being me, robbi, egoiste!)
10.23.05
Creative Meeting
Matthew Swanson
Robbi Behr
11:19pm
Robbi reported on progress since last creative meeting:
She did some unsuccessful drawings of GWB.
She broke the nib on her pen.
She completed coloring in the disaster grid and placed it in the God HP.
She did an assessment of what remains to do before God is complete:
13 more drawings
9 changes to current drawings (mostly minor changes)
She would like to move some images around to avoid consecutive full bleed illustrations. Matthew will have to see how this works with the writing and narrative flow.
The most complicated remaining illustrations are the progressions of suburbia. In response to an earlier comment of Matthew’s that the suburbia layout resembled a W in a way that he found distracting, Robbi revised the layout so that the second cul-de-sac was not a cul-de-sac at all, but a through street. Matthew agreed that this represented a pronounced improvement.
Today Robbi drew the second progression of suburbia. And the third. Matthew reviewed these and really liked them. He pointed out that as Robbi colors these in she had an opportunity to present the first, tranquil, quiet neighborhood as having very few lights on in the windows of the houses but as the population thickens and the buildings grow more dense, to have more windows with lights on.
Now there are 11 more drawings left to do. Robbi gave Matthew a recap of these.
Robbi is still not certain that the illustration of Adam and Eve making out at the drive-in is the best possible solution to the paragraph it is attempting to illustrate.
For next week:
Robbi is trying to get the suburbia drawings colored in
She will try to sketch out Kyle as Godzilla knocking over buildings
She is going to try do another evening of drawing for fun (in the GWB vein, except [hopefully] better this time)
For next week:
Matthew is going to submit Cops to the City Paper competition
He will complete a revision of In the Jungle
He will present revised Facial Features of French Explorers
... and this is what happened in staff meeting yesterday:
Posted by ribbu at 08:57 AM | Comments (2)
October 23, 2005
The 'Burbs
At five thirty each night we get drunk in our homes and it�s something like religion. We stand on common ground, occupy a common state of mind as we watch the television. We say in unison that there is no more good news. We wonder together what God is up to. We eat our meat and potatoes. We sleep, a nation largely unconscious for the better part of eight hours.
From For the Love of God
So, there are three "nighttime scenes" in FLOG - I did the first a while ago, so it's all colored in and finished and whatnot. It took so GD long that I was feeling very daunted by the idea of making two more, each more complicated than the last. I finished drawing them last night, with dog at feet, cats in tower, man in office. It was quite cozy, really. The coloring in part is going to be way no fun, but the hardest part is over (and, like I secretly admitted before, I actually like the coloring in part). Keep in mind that these aren't consecutive in the story itself. I mean, they are in this order, but they aren't one right after the other. In order to find out where they go relative to everything else... well, you'll just have to buy the book. Once it's published. And preferably right after it hits the New York Times Bestseller list (then they start to offer them on discount, and you'll get a good deal). But, come to think of it, don't wait that long. I'd rather get more bang for your buck.
Where does the breeze come from tonight? The fans are all turned off and the sky is free of clouds. God is singing a ballad he remembers from childhood. The tides are higher than usual. Our dreams are vivid and short. We cannot sleep for long before we wake again, turning in our beds, bothered by the sound, the wind from the east, the dawn�s glow coming far too early this morning.
God�s song ends and we fall exhausted into sleep. Alarms go off across the city fifteen minutes later. We wake and start it all again. The day is hot and the traffic thick. God is nowhere to be seen.
When will we get some rest? Our vacations are filled with hotels, museums, people crowding the beaches. The axioms we�ve relied upon have come unraveled. Division and subtraction don�t work any more. The statue of God is missing from the Acropolis. We clean the house and till the earth but the sun has fallen from the sky. It is night and time for sleeping. But we cannot find our pillows and our sheets are full of sand.
So - there you have it. The best was drawing all those little tiny tiny windows. Whee!
Posted by ribbu at 11:11 PM
October 19, 2005
Almost Bushed
I often, selfishly, find other people's bad art to be greatly encouraging. When I see someone struggling with a nose, or a hand, or an upper lip, I secretly heave a sigh of relief. It's nice to be reminded that I am not the only person who sometimes really can't draw. I know it's extremely irritating to hear people who can draw say that, but some days really are better than others.
So - in the interest of those of you out there who are cripplingly, miserably selfish like me, I am posting some BAD drawings I tried to do last night of George Bush (the latter) (and, hopefully, the terminal) (no politics here!):
I have to be careful not to fall into being a caricaturist - mostly because I'm not that clever or up-to-date. I am (sadly, tragically) mainly informed through Howard Stern, John Stewart, the cnn home page that pops up by default as a screensaver in OSX (and even then I find myself drawn to "Woman bears 15 children, 16th on the way!" (you know you looked at it too) "Madonna breaks leg, tour postponed, daughter in tears!" or, my most recent favorite, "Nut-cracking gorilla surprises scientists"). Also, I think it's just a different art form. I don't want to get pigeonholed into something I'm not really all that good at (says the egomaniac - would that I even had 1 (one) job right now...).
I especially like how as time went on, I started really taking it out on poor old GW - the snaggly-toothed dracula being the one I liked the best. Perhaps I need to work out my feelings with a psychologist - anyone care to join?
oh, and ps: the second image really looks like Mongomery Clift, yes no?
Posted by ribbu at 02:13 PM | Comments (1)
October 18, 2005
Patchwork
In his optimism, God refuses to admit that we are broken from the start. His confidence in our ability to do the right thing is almost enough to get us there. It breaks our hearts when we let him down, day after day after day.
Our failures make him moody, which sours the skies around the world and brings us rain. Crops flourish. This odd logic keeps our people fed.
From For the Love of God
So there hasn't been a creative meeting in weeks. Blame it on the Baltimore half-marathon and us having so many damn friends. So tonight I went back at it, this drawing thing, and didn't get very far. I have about a million bad doodles of GW, but couldn't scan them in because they're still wet. Tomorrow, and tomorrow...
So, instead I'm posting something old from FLOG that I moved to a different page (now going with new text) which makes me feel like I did something. It looks all brand new now. It does make me wax nostalgic for the south of France, though.
Posted by ribbu at 11:04 PM
October 13, 2005
At the Altar
In which there is mild promise but no resolution.
Sara sits on a boulder by the edge of the quarry, watching Elton work his cutsaw.
“Elton’s enormous muscles are necessary for cutting that lime,” she thinks. “Without lime, there would be no baseball. Without baseball, there would not be a first pitch to throw, and therefore no president of the United States.”
She takes a sip of her milkshake.
“Without a president, there would be anarchy,” she thinks. “And without milkshakes I would be quite a surly girl.”
She loves milkshakes. She loves granola and koalas and Chinese kites.
“I am a girl who loves wearing pink,” she says. “This does not distinguish me, exactly, but it does describe me.”
“Get to know me,” she says to Elton, who, after the kiss, has asked to come inside.
Elton studies in his books. He has books. Shelves and shelves of books inside his house. He is a laborer. “I am a laborer with books,” he says.
“A laborer with books,” she says, “Is like a penguin with a heat lamp.”
“If I was a penguin,” he says, “I would like a heat lamp.”
“You have a point,” she says.
They are standing at the altar. Time has passed.
“Will you marry him?” says the pastor.
“I will,” she says.
“And will you marry her?” says the pastor.
But Elton is silent. He looks at Sara and is not certain. She is so small. How can someone so small be considered reliable?
All the rice is recycled to make gluten.
“And what is gluten?” says Milo, who runs the organic farm Elton belongs to.
Elton wonders about Milo, thinking he should know about things like gluten.
“How can I trust that his chickens are truly free range if he does not know what gluten is?” thinks Elton.
“How can I pull spinach from his soil or berries from his bushes?”
Milo leaves, on a motorcycle, for the golden frontier. Elton never sees him again.
Elton moves into the empty house on the grounds of the organic farm. Jessica, a high school student, is in the guest room.
“Milo made love to me sometimes,” she says. “He made me feel like a woman and also gave me food.”
Elton indicates that she can stay. Though he encourages her to stay in her room instead of in his room, as she indicates she would prefer.
“You’d better study for that algebra exam,” he says.
“Aye, aye, Cap’n,” she says.
He marvels at the trim plane of her flat belly as she walks down the hallway to her bedroom.
Posted by bogenamp at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)
October 10, 2005
Finalemente!
God�s curiosity is not born of malice. He lacks imagination, and our antics delight him. He used to arrange us on a checkerboard, trying for interesting conflicts, novel ripples on the page. But soon he found that, left to his own devices, man will eat a dog twice his size.
From For the Love of God
I've given you the writing again so you can remember what this is all about, since it's been so long in the making.
Maybe it feels like longer to me. Big projects have a way of intimidating me into a corner. But, this one's done, and there's only 12 more to go before FLOG is finished. Whew!
In other news, my life is wholly uninteresting. Don't expect much out of this blog in the way of juicy gossip, high entertainment, or non-stop action, because man, have I got none of those in spades. It's 12:26, and hours past my bedtime...
Posted by ribbu at 11:41 PM
October 09, 2005
Forthwith!
Yeah, okay. At this rate, I probably will not be done before the end of time (always, seeming, more imminent). But I have my excuses. A trip to New York. By bus. Altercations, delays, and a bizarre and yet grippingly entertaining show starring a good friend stood in the way of real artistic progress this weekend (though, said bizarre show has left some striking visuals that are bound to show up somewhere down the road...).
I promise to get more done tomorrow.
We were unable to have our creative meeting this morning, as we were in NY on an inflatable bed (no good for creative meetings) but this will not deter us (as the inflatable bed did). More progress, forthwith!
Posted by ribbu at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)
October 06, 2005
I'll be damned!
Okay - so here's the small amount of progress I have made in coloring this sucker in. It is long and tedious, but not that long and tedious. I got waylaid, as always, doing something that probably isn't really worth doing...
I decided to make some invites to our pre-half-marathon carb party. This makes it sound like we're way more fun than we are, I know, but having invites makes it all true. Only fun people have real invites.
Well, the problem is I can't seem to get my printer to print these out right, front and back. I uninstalled some driver software when I wiped my computer (always a bad move, I have decided) and now I can't get things to line up right. Damn me. Damn me, damn me, damn me.
Well, at least I've been damned. There are people who have been trying to do that my whole life.
Posted by ribbu at 09:22 AM | Comments (1)
October 05, 2005
Oh, Disaster!
God’s curiosity is not born of malice. He lacks imagination, and our antics delight him. He used to arrange us on a checkerboard, trying for interesting conflicts, novel ripples on the page. But soon he found that, left to his own devices, man will eat a dog twice his size.
From For the Love of God
So, when Matthew was talking about properly identifying disasters, this is what he meant.
This is just the black and white drawing (obviously) - coloring in started last night but is so tedious (even though I secretly love it) that I'm going to have to work on it again tonight.
The question is, can you properly identify the disasters?
That's what I thought!
Posted by ribbu at 12:03 PM | Comments (4)
October 04, 2005
Creative Meeting
So, we've decided that we need to organize our lives if we want to get anything interesting done. We've established Sunday Creative Meetings (in bed) (but not like that), which have withstood the test of time so far (two days). Hopefully, it will happen again next Sunday. Matthew kept minutes, and I dictated, like the dictator I am.
Creative Meeting
Sunday, October 1, 2005
11:30am
Matthew presented the first draft of Facial Features of French Explorers. Robbi made a few helpful editorial comments and noted that although the copy was not quite what she had had in mind, she thought it would work and that she liked it.
Matthew will further refine the copy, especially to the end of making sure that the comedic elements escalate throughout the story as the pattern establishes itself and the “joke” itself becomes less of a gratifying end.
Next Robbi presented her sketches from the week, reporting that she had scanned them all and that she had divided them into five categories:
People
Animals
Editorial
Sayings
Junk
Matthew noted that Robbi’s “sayings” and “editorial” drawings, many of which feature a sketch accompanied by a sentence or phrase, might be collected to form a book of assorted bits of poignance. Robbi liked the idea [but doesn't really like the word "poignance"] and plans on collecting these as a potential marketing piece. Matthew noted that this piece might also make a nice gift.
Admiring Demi Moore or Alice Cooper? Matthew remarked that Robbi could do more of these “double exposure” type of drawings and could, perhaps, even feature a grid of four on a promotional postcard. Rather than trying to determine ahead of time which two faces she would attempt to combine, Robbi suggested that she draw one person and then see who else the bungled product might look like before assigning the doppelganger.
Next Robbi presented the finished b/w of the “disasters” page from For the Love of God. Matthew went through the grid, successfully identifying all of the low points in history and made one suggestion about the Indian on the second “Welcome to America” panel. Next up for Robbi: scanning and coloring. She allowed that she enjoys coloring in the b/w sketches but that in this case, there are a lot of small details to attend to.
For next week:
Robbi would like to:
Color the “disasters” drawings
Have another page of sketches
Color in this week’s sketches
Another b/w drawing for god
Reviewing past work for potential candidates for “collected poignance”
Try to do a few portraits for the “double exposure” series.
Matthew would like to:
Have a second draft of FFFE
Have a first draft of Nasty Chipmunk
Have a revised version of In the Jungle…
Posted by ribbu at 12:09 PM
Unfinished Business
This is a sketch I did a little while ago and haven't colored in yet.
The way all of my personal work goes is I sit down with a pen and some nice paper, and start to scribble. Strange things come out. This is one of them. I've got pages full of the stuff. It's all a bit of a mystery to me... the challenge for me is to have something specific in mind and then try to draw it. When I do that, I often get this:
Who the hell is that supposed to be...???
Yikes, I say.
Yikes.
Posted by ribbu at 12:07 PM
October 03, 2005
This is our dog.
Our dog Iggy.
Posted by ribbu at 05:47 PM
And so we begin again...
This is attempt no. 2 to jump start our creative lives. We are a power duo. We will rock THE HAUS.
And then, the Haus will fall. And down will come baby, Haus, and all.
Posted by ribbu at 05:43 PM | Comments (1)