crunch!

I crunched a couple of bits from trying to teach myself how to use a metal lathe. I'm going to back off until get some guidance from somebody with experience.

In the past week, I've been running into the limits of being self taught. Whether it's broken figure rendering from the '80s or broken bits from Saturday.

I've decided keep pushing to do better art, and if I get better, I get better and if I don't, I don't. I'll just try not to beat myself up or go into a little personal crisis just because it's not as good as I think that it should be.

OTOH, it just would have been nice if this stuff was as virtuoso bravura as I wanted it be be to make those comics people regret losing me to the public sector.

DGH

"nice sandcastle...."

I finished up the the abandoned-alien-temple-thingie drawing. At least it came out better than the teenie fanzine art groove that I thought that it was heading for. OTOH, it's still shy of the journeyman-ness, let alone the "full French" bravura, that I was aiming for. I'm having "is the best I can do?" or "the best that I can ever do?" frustrations.

Not to mention it being three decades too late for flogging that teenie "I wanna grow up to be a Heavy Metal" artist, over two decades after being excluded from the Indie Boom that isn't ever coming back, and a decade and a half into a dying Direct Market. May tlansrated Manga kick your panties and capes. You narrow-minded fanboys lost a potentially good man to the public sector.

Anyway, based on a panel from the first series Captain Saucer #2 and a nod to some '80 or '81 sketches. Oddly enough, the biggest human artifact here is a flying saucer.

creation frustration

I'm a little frustrated at the Nukleia Hampion drawing and the abandoned-alien-temple-thingie one in progress (top & middle) because they aren't coming out as polished and realistic was I want them to (but I suppose the Skiffy subject matter is working against realistic part). I guess that I should be happy that they're better than the 1982 and '85 art that they're based on (bottom). Although, like the originals, despite having a lot of detail they're just not the most sophisticated things in the world.

As I get older, I'm really getting to hate being self-taught, because of all the self-referential viscous circles and all things that you just don't pick up by yourself. OTOH, like a lot of other stuff in my life, if I wasn't self-taught, how in the h*** was I ever going to learn it? School, the local community, or comics fans or pros were never there.

Although with a couple of tips to improve them. especially the realistic part, would cheer me up a lot.

coming down from the hills

Moving this load of stuff down from the farm made me feel almost like a hillbilly. What's almost scary is that this photo isn't even staged. There are two folding long tables, a Honda ATC 90 frame, four model rocket launch pads, and an 2.3 turbo engine block in there.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been really sidetracked by real life. Especially buying and moving into a house.

The boat was not included.

After once being through buying a house and settling down to a career for the rest of my life and having it taken away, ten years ago, I'm really hoping that this is the last time.