new Society6 products

Hopefully I have a better blog post coming later today, but first:

I spent some time today resizing some of my Society6 artwork for the other product they sell -- i.e. laptop skins, iPhone skins, t-shirts, and hoodies. I'm hoping that in a couple days I'll have all of them reformatted.

I though two pieces in particular looked really nice -- the "My Dear" laptop skin and the "For the Heart-Hungry" iPhone skin. 

Society6 prints!

I've mentioned this before, but I'd like to remind you -- I'm now selling prints of my artwork on Society6.

If you have a Society6 account and like my work, please promote it!

If you have a desire for often travel-themed prints, buy one!

If, however, you don't currently have the money for such things (and I can appreciate that problem), consider liking a print on Facebook, tweeting about it, or liking it on your Stumbleupon account. I very much would appreciate the publicity.

the soggy life and times: a very late and somewhat sparse post from Kyoto

Was looking back at posts I meant to publish previously, and lo and behold, I came upon one written before I apparently became too busy and grumpy in Kyoto to blog more, entitled the "soggy life and times." I deleted the bits about flooding, as I feel most people probably know what's up regarding the Missouri River at this point, but I did pick out some fun pictures.

First: some work! I made a large 1:30 scale model of a portion of a courtyard in a temple near Nagoya which my office was redesigning to have better circulation and better views onto their garden.

It was an endeavor.

It was uber uber humid in Kyoto . . . I kept all my food in my fridge because I was nervous about the possibility of bugs, and after unintentionally leaving a package of soba out for a night it did this:

Ginkaku-ji and further plans

I did indeed haul my lazy butt over to Ginkaku-ji. It cost 500 yen to get in. I think I might go back (perhaps!) because it's sooooo close and quite pretty and I forgot the memory card to my camera so basically I just have these two EXTREMELY SPEEDY sketches that I'm not super happy with. (There were colors, man! colors!)

This is the main and most famous building there. "Ginkaku-ji" means "the Silver Pavilion," though it is not, actually, covered in silver, though apparently that was originally the plan. It's supposed to be a counterpart to Kinkaku-ji ("the Golden Pavilion"), which I saw last time I was in Japan. Both were built as private residences, this one in the 1480s-90s, and later given over to orders of Buddhist monks to turn into temples. I kept picturing whatever brilliant old Japanese architect who designed this place spinning in his grave, yelling, "I spent MONTHS getting the curve of that roof JUST RIGHT, and now you cavalierly butcher it in your drawing? FOR SHAME!"

Ah well.

life drawing

There's a life drawing class once a week at the Hot Shops in Omaha. As I have been sort of a hermit for a while, and as I need some incentive (always!) to keep drawing, I signed up for it. The first night was last night; luckily the snow let up for a bit so the drive was more or less okay. I had only done life drawing once before (hey, 4.102) so I sorta kinda knew what to expect but not really. It was quite a big room (the Hot Shops are in repurposed warehouses close to the river in Omaha); the model posed on a platform in the center of the room, with theater-ish lighting. The teacher provided chairs and easels. I, sadly, left most of my paper in Fenway House (pain in the butt to mail home), so I took the largest sketchbook I had, which is about 10" x 8". Hopefully this weekend brings a trip to Blick (as well as a swing by the Joslyn.) Luckily I did keep most of my drawing supplies, so I've got enough charcoal, china marker, soft lead pencil, etc. to last me for at least a few sessions.

We did five two-minute poses to warm up (didn't upload any of those, they sucked), two ten-minute poses, two twenty-five minute poses, and one forty-minute pose. I think I did reasonably well, but I'm looking forward to what improvement the next few sessions might bring.

So, without further ado, the "best of."