December 2013 Inked Drawings and a visit to Palm Springs

Here are some of my Inked Drawings from December 2013.

This image is an idea for the battle between the analog and.digital universes. The blade's name is Maggot Tooth inscribed in the runes. This is a reference to my web comic The Adventures of Jack Maggot. My plan is to add color to this, then get it printed out on a skateboard deck. I am working on another design with the same theme.

Here is another four eye drawing similar to the ones I started in November.

                                           

I made some rainbow looms for my Daughter over winter holiday.

 My Family and I visited Palm Springs over Winter Holiday. We visited Palm Oasis, Joshua Tree National park, and the Palm Springs Art Museum

Shots from inside the Palm Springs Art Museum.

This is a gigantic cast aluminum version of Marilyn Monroe in Palm Springs. Click the link for more info on Forever Marilyn, apparently the statue is getting moved back to Chicago in 2014. Glad we got to see it here in Palm Springs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Marilyn

The image is taken directly from the movie The Seven Year itch.

The Marilyn made the dress iconic I don't think anyone else could have worn it and made the same impression. The dress sold for 5.6 milion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dress_of_Marilyn_Monroe

Palm Springs has a spectacular skate park, very worth visiting. Bring your board if you have a chance to visit. BMX is allowed also. Here are 2 panoramas I took of the park.

November 2013 Inked Drawings/Jack Maggot works in progress and revisions

Working on some new themes of heads with multiple eyes. Finding inspiration in the linear work of Mike Giant http://www.mikegiant.com/index.php

Im trying to throw my own twist on the source material. When I saw a Sake bottle with a Uni/deamon with multiple eyes in Encinitas I had to take off on that theme. I'm planning on doing more of these on some larger,sturdier bristol boards.

The sketch on the bottom is the first one of the series. Above it are some printouts I made from Mike Giant's work.

My brush pen collection. The one on the top is a big one with rellly long "hairs"  The label is worn off and I don't remember where I got it, so when it runs out Ill have to switch back to a real brush. The Tombo and the Zebra are the best of the lot. Prisma color is good but not remarkable. The pigma is the worst of the lot.

Johannes from BPRD, drawn from my toy collection.

I started posting my comic on the web. Officially making it a a web comic http://www.jackmaggot.com 

Please check it out, spread the word if you like it or if you know someone  who will like it. 

The Adventures of Jack Maggot is a choose your own adventure format comic. It has mazes and other diversions included, such as mock ads, mock games. I have posted the first 9 pages and I will be constantly posting more as I format them for the web. I have a lot in mind for this comic which I don't want to reveal yet.

I had to redraw some pannels for my webcomic. Jack descending the staircase to the basement.

I used velum on this section for the comic. Lettering has proven to be a challenge. I have created a custom font from my own handwriting for now it will have to suffice.

Inked finished maze 2 of 3 for pages 18,19,20.

Inked Page 18 for The Adventures of Jack Maggot

Work in progress page 20 for The Adventures of Jack Maggot.

Some recent work from October 2013

Toaster bot

Mummy Cat with a WIP pencil 

Dia De Los Muertos Sketch with Classic car ref.

Nosferatu 30 min sketch

Golden Colorado: Moving to California part 5, from Massachusetts to California Day 5 and 6

A warm howdy from Golden

South Table Mountain seen from Golden Colorado

Looks like the mountain top from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

On Day five of our cross country drive, we arrived in Golden Colorado to a warm greeting from our friends Alan, Mercedes and Nyx.

We stayed in a hotel outside Colorado for a two day visit. During our stay we were able to catch up with friends, recuperate, visit local attractions and have our Mini serviced. The engine light triggered because a filter sensor needed to be replaced. The long drive from Boston finished off the old filter, the work was covered under warranty. The visit to the Mini Dealer meant I would spend a part of the second day in Denver area dealing with repairs while Rise and Mayari hung out at the hotel pool. The good news was that we spent the rest of our extra time with our Denver friends, and we had time to explore Dinosaur Ridge.

Rise and Mayari with a lifesize painted sculpture of an Iguana don, which is the type of dinosaur that left its foot prints in the sand.

Dinosaur ridge http://www.dinoridge.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Ridge

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dinosaur-Ridge/104056422633

We were really excited to see dinosaur ridge on day 6.  Dinosaur Ridge is a plot of land with fossilized dinosaur bones and foot prints are embedded in the stone hillside. There are dinosaur remains and footprints from many dinosaur migrations millions of years before the earth shifted and transformed Colorado into mountains. At Dinosaur Ridge you can interact with fossilized dinosaur bones and foot prints in a rock wall. The footprints were imprinted during the Cretaceous period millions of years ago, when the Colorado area was more low lying marsh lands. When the surface was still soft enough to be imprinted on by the Iguana-don type of dinosaurs which migrated over this surface. As time passed on the mud was covered by other silt and mud, add millions of years, shake up the earth and you get fossil imprints in a sandstone rock wall.  

Makes me feel like the geology of Earth is alive and that we were travelling through time.

   

You can take a walk on the trail to the other side of dinosaur ridge to see a bone quarry from the Jurassic era.

Basically a pile of fossilized bones embeded in the rock wall.  Less impressive than the footprints but still accessible and cool to see.

                                               

Mayari using special glass crayons on the windows of our car to send messages to fellow travelers.

                                      

The cat is back on the road...

Next stop Utah

Day 4 Road Trip with a Cat: Moving to California

Preparing for Day 4 of traveling to California from Massachusets

 Preparing to drive for a day started with cleaning and packing the car. This meant that by

day four the preparation had become a morning ritual. The prep process began with, sweeping out the car interior and throwing away any trash from the day before. I would then pack the top roof rack compartment with things we would not need until we stopped at a hotel for the night. I added a ratchet tie down over the top of the Thule roof container which helped keep the container sealed tight. The tie down also prevented water or insects from being driven into the container.

The Mini Clubman has a boot compartment under the rear storage area. It is small but useful for packing the stuff that was going to be inaccessible such as surplus travel supplies, emergency supplies of food and water, and emergency tools. That compartment was checked and packed before the interior could be loaded. The next step was packing the interior of the car with our daily gear, including our gadgets, food and a pillow fortress for sleeping. One of the last steps was setting up the litter box and cat accessories, while also being sure to have cat food and water easily accessible. After all our items were on-board, Mayari (the 4 year old) was next to get in the car. Then Chowder (the cat) , Rise and Myself. Note to travelers: Pack your cat last, then hit the road. We relied on using a leash most of the time in case Chowder tried to escape while going from hotel to the car, and on pit stops. The cat carrier was cumbersome and I would keep it un-assembled in the back of the car most of the time.The plastic cat carrier was useful for containing water bottles.

The next leg of our trip would be from the outskirts of Kansas City to Colorado. Deep in the Midwest we were about to cross over Dorothy's take off spot to OZ. The weather radio informed us it would be hot and there were advisories to watch for wildfires. That made it a normal early Summer day in Kansas which we will have a chance of being swept away by a tornado to a mythical land or burned by wild fire. As uneventful as it was,this day was pretty exhausting. The distance we traveled, the uniformity of the landscape and the heat were the contributing factors. Also there were very few places to get amenities. At one interesting stopping point we found a gas station, convenience store and gun shop all within the same building. I think this may have been as close to the modern day wild west general store. A place where you could gas up, reload, get a snack and move on.

We passed through the flint hills Saw long ranges of prairie which were in the same state as a the great plains were before cultivation by Europeans.

Thankfully there are stretches of highway in the United States where you will not run across a Starbucks for eight hours of driving. Kansas is one of those places. There were so few places to stop for coffee or gas along the way. The road was four lanes rather that six and the speed limit was 75.

Progress report for Day 4: we departed from Kansas City MO and arrived in Golden Colarado at the end of the day. Happy Summer Solstice 2012!