Borders

Hey look a bum! :D Just practicing my life drawing. This woman appears a lot in my book and I love her curves.

Well, I am super sad that Borders Books has declared bankruptcy and is closing 200 stores across the states by April. There are two on the chopping block that are near and dear to my heart so I am a bit crushed at the prospect of losing them.

The first is right near where I currently live. UGH. I liked having a bookstore so close but my area is just dying economy-wise. There's like 4 areas on this stretch of road near here that just have abandoned buildings and this Borders is going to make another one.

The second is back home in MI. My Ann Arbor Borders is closing. That is the one I grew up in essentially and it makes me sad. It's also on the corner of this strip mall thing and I have no idea what they would put in such a huge location.

So nerdy book reader platypus is sad.

In other news...we went and saw Bodyworlds at the Science Center. I had seen it before in Chicago on a vacation and gotten ill. It's PEOPLE, folks. PEOPLE NOT FAKE PLASTIC, PEOPLE.

Anyway I took Evan on Friday and he really enjoyed it and I didn't get sick. We examined the body and all these things and it was really educational and enjoyable. Evan really liked it and that was the important thing, I knew he wanted to see it so I made it happen. Cause I LOVE him. <3

Mirror World Preview Page 2!

Mirror World Saga Preview Pg.2 by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Mirror World Saga Page 2 Preview!

Since I am almost done with page 3 I thought I would get page Preview up.

I'm trying to drum up interest once Miss Connie starts posting again!
MirrorWorld!

Read and catch up with the story so far!

Disasters and Other Good Things

Random sketch from breaking in them markers!

Alright so a few things. If you live anywhere near Scottsdale please go to SMOCA (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art) and go to the "Wishes" exhibit. It is amazing. The walls have all these holes poked into them and in the holes are ribbons. On the ribbons are someone's wish printed on it. You take a ribbon and you can leave your own wish on a rolled piece of paper there. The ribbon has to be tied around your wrist and knotted three times and you wear it until it falls apart and it should come true for you (if it's your wish or if you're wearing it for someone else). I am currently wearing two ribbons.

"I wish to be recognized as a great artist" and "I wish to be skinny" both are knotted three times and on my left wrist together. Hopefully this will help!

Next I went to Ignite Phoenix last night. It was AMAZING. I loved it. My friend Shauna Stacy did a fantastic job with her speech about Shaun of the Dead. There should be videos posted soon, you should go check them out...especially the 10 year old who did the speech on 3D printers, this kid was epically AWESOME.

This did make me get inspired and I'm thinking of trying out for the next Ignite Phoenix in May. I have a topic in my head and just need to outline it. Maybe...maybe not. We'll see.

Page 3 of Mirror World is almost finished. The inks are done and I am in the middle of coloring. All that is left after that is shading and I'll be adding just a few textures to the mix on this page. It's especially exciting because on this page is our first look into the Villains! OOoooOOoooh. The next 2 pages are in Alice's apartment and I am really super excited about that and can't wait to use some airier colors!

My disaster of an extra bedroom and the closet has been completely tackled. It's done and I'm done and I am so happy. The office furniture has been moved around in the other room and I am actually working in it again and getting things done. It is much more conducive to creativity now.

I lost my phone the other night at the park. It was night and I lost it sometime on a walk I was doing with my Geek Girls. So it was gone gone gone. And I was sad. I started looking at new phones and changed passwords to a bunch of things cause I was logged in to a bunch of stuff and that was all I needed was for someone to start mucking about with things.

BUT

a very nice gentleman named Brandon and his dog found my phone and called my mom. He called Evan and he went and picked up my phone. Brandon didn't even take any money as a thank you. I called him and told him I appreciated his honesty in giving it back. He has restored my faith in humanity a little bit. I'm glad my phone is safe and back with me!

Self-Portrait and Avatar and User Pic

Synthetic Platypus by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Not on the art list but I needed to create a user ID for several functions so I knocked one out finally.

So here is me, Synthetic Platypus in all my glory.

I wanted something simple but fun and poppy. This is the current style that I am using for the comic I am working on [link] (my stuff is not showing yet, but read it anyway!)

I am a big fan of wearing scarves so I thought I would incorporate the platypus into it for my pop of color. The platypi are nicked from my business cards sans the polka dots, I wanted it a bit more simple.

Now here is the issue. I desperately want this scarf to exist in real life!

Belongings

I wanted to title this blog post "Stuff" but opted for a better vocab word.

Why do we all own so many things?

Seriously, what is our need for all the many different things we have?

Hobbies? Interests? Results of boredom? Things we need to live such as cooking supplies and somewhere to sit in our living room?

Why do we need all of this?

I've been on a journey to get rid of many of my belongings. I read minimalism blogs and drool over bedrooms that have a simple mattress on the floor and one armoir for clothing. I long for clean lines and simplicity.

and yet...

there are things that I really just can't bring myself to get rid of. Things that have absolutely no purpose in my life but are there for the "just-in-case" and the "guilty" and these things are currently driving me up the WALL. I can't stand that I can't get rid of them and I just keep hanging on.

I have a bin. It is full of toys, dress-up clothes (that my grandmother made me), yearbooks, and misc. that I cannot bear to part with. My excuse is it is for my future children. But what if I have a boy? There is nothing in there but my Mr. Potato Head that would be of any interest to a boy.

What about my smaller bin of baby clothing that was mine? This was recently bestowed upon me by my mother. A box full of frou frou dresses with lace and long sleeves and velour onesies. I will never ever dress my child in these but I'm keeping them. Why? I don't know. The fabric is pretty...maybe I'll get a quilt made from them all. When? 20 years from now? Next week? I don't know and yet I'm keeping them all.

I have a bin of my sewing stuff (corralled from 2 bins and the floor) but I like to sew so I'll keep that, it's useful.

What of the giant mirror box in the back of the closet filled with old giant art? That I never look at? There's pictures that are framed that I'm not hanging up in the house and there is big watercolor paper that I will eventually paint on. So just a bit of paper could be saved and the whole box could be gone, but I can't.

This is currently frustrating me beyond belief. I've been cleaning and organizing the extra bedroom and walk-in closet and keep getting stuck. I'd like this space to be completely empty...we don't use it so why store things in it? We should live comfortably in the spaces we do use and not just put random things in this room. It's been a catchall since we moved in and a blight in my wanna-be-clutter-free soul.

This is also not being helped by my parents. My dad gave me part of a coin collection and my set of the license plates he has collected. I love the plates but what do I do with them? They are in the garage right now...I had an idea to hang them in there but I was looking at my garage and enjoy the bare walls we do have. The coins are already packed up to be sold somehow and eventually (they are worth the change that is encased in the plastic. I've checked.)

Then my mom just sent me a box of random stuff. Colored dividers, articles, a file bin and a noise machine. 20 dollars this cost her to send. I perused the articles and am going to truly read two of them (out of 20) I have no need for a file bin (we have file cabinets) and have no use for the dividers. The noise machine is a particular annoyance because she knew that I couldn't sleep with these...in fact I just got off the phone with her (literally) and asked if the noise machine was for Derek and his family and she said no it was for me and Evan and I reminded her that I can't sleep with those. She told me to save it! But then dad said to send it back in a box I need to send them. BINGO. Precisely what I'm going to do.

I feel thwarted right now though. Maybe I'm burned out on cleaning but I just feel like there is no winning against our consumerism and need for stuff. Le sigh.

Now off topic:



Random sketch from sketchbook. A party girl this is from a bit ago but I had gotten new markers and wanted to have some fun.

SaraEvanWedding

Click here to view this photo book larger

HoneyMoon

Click here to view this photo book larger

Work Work Work

I'm trying to bust my butt to get my goals done for the month!

I finished my class, so I just need to get my paperwork done and turned in and I will be truly a Arizona certified teacher! Huzzah.

Lot's of good that it will do me if things go awry for next year. oy vey.

Anyhoo running has been going better. My goal for this month was 3 times a week but I did it twice a week so that's good.

Blogging has been pretty regular. Which is something I've wanted to work on!

I just finished my page 2 for Miss Connie's comic so I need to make a preview for that and post it.

I have the idea for my animation and Evan downloaded the software that I need so I just need to bust that out.

Money I wanted to save is saved.

Garage is cleaned.

I had an epic month apparently.

If I can just catch up grading artwork at work next week I'll have set myself up for a brand new February.

I'll post about my animation in the near future documenting the how to of everything :D



This is a mini-watercolor painting I did last year of Evan's parents for their card for their wedding anniversary. I want to start posting misc. art inside this blog that I don't put anywhere else but here.

Mirror World Preview

So I finished working on the first page and now am in the throws of inking the second page. I'm taking my computer to work today so we'll see how it goes (gotta love subbing wednesdays)


Mirror World Saga Preview Pg.1 by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

So here it is! I asked Connie if the preview was okay and she said that it was cool with her...I didn't want to give anything away if she didn't want.That's why there is no text showing. I didn't want to give away the actual story.

Page 2 is done in the same place with the same people. Page 3 takes us into the MirrorWorld and the bad guy's lair. My thumbnail for page 3 has been approved so as soon as I'm done with page 2 page 3 will be on it's way.

Still thinking about the movie thing. I do an "animation" project with my students, I may adapt that into something.

Trying to be active lately as well (can't be a lazy artist and sit on my bum all day) I've been running a lot again lately. Got up to five miles yesterday...I will be running on Thursday with my geek girls too.

oh I'm also going on a girls trip (not of the geek variety) to Disneyland. I've never been so this should be fun. Don't feel too bad about the lack of Disneyland for me...I've been to Disneyworld in Florida too many times!

I'm on my last assignment for my college class for my certification here. Which is good the last day is the 31st. I'm going to work on that during my prep tomorrow and Friday. If I can just get the outline of it finished on paper I can just type it up and submit it when I get home on Sunday...and hopefully run 6 miles that day too.

I'm a busy lady, but I'm feeling better now. So that's good.

Setbacks

Man...this week SUCKED BALLS.

I really can't think of another way more eloquent way of describing this week other than "sucking" and "balls".

But on the positive notes:

My computer was fixed for free. Apparently last generation MAC Book Pros have a faulty graphics card. I found that out the hard way this past week. But the new card cost nothing.

Except for missing one day of running and one day of gym I stuck to my good eating and am seeing results.

I don't want to keep revisiting it, but I am going to post happy things on my next post!

There is arting going on as well, I am working on my friend's comic which a preview of that will come in the next post and I did a fun trip around the area and that needs to be talked about as well.

I'm having trouble with my creative grab bag series right now. I picked another difficult card (make an animated movie!) and I don't know what to do. I wanted it done by the end of the month, but I'm not sure if I can do it. We'll see