Get away now they trying to steal your soul

Road Trip! :D

My mom and I are leaving tomorrow on an epic, win and gold road trip to San Francisco! We are going to stop at the northern California coast/Redwoods area, stay 2 nights in SF, and stop at Ashland and Crater Lake on the way to Sunriver, where we will join my dad and brother Neil for a separate 4th-of-July-type vacation. WIN AND GOLD I SAY!

I will be back on July 7. Today I am trying to get ahead on Between Gears so that there will be updates for the next 2 Wednesdays while I am away. They should be automatically scheduled to start at 11:00AM each Wednesday, so check the site then! Apologies if something goes wrong; I will not have internet to know/fix it.

I get on the train and I just stand about

Today's warm-up drawing:

Yo soy tu amigo fiel

I wish I could have turned around and walked right back into Toy Story 3 today after it ended. I had ridiculously high expectations thanks to Pixar being Pixar and making many of my favorite movies over the last 15 years, but somehow they blew me away and I fell in love with Toy Story 3.

Oh hay, here's some warm-up arts for you:




Did you want to watch me nerdgasm on the internet? That's over here.

How great is that new Avatar art book, eh?!

For once in my life, I have someone who needs me

Warm-up drawing from today:



And colored version:

I was searching, you were on a mission

The last 10 days have not been good for art (...or almost anything else). As soon as I started packing up my things in Eugene, my art productivity did a nose dive, and I have only eked out a couple of for-fun illustrations since then (the majority of which I HATE). I forced some Between Gears pages yesterday, but they look TERRIBLE. :( The state of my art life affects other areas of my life, and this kind of inactivity/dissatisfaction is literally depressing me.

Last night, I went out with friends to celebrate being home. Terry gave me some advice that I really needed. He said that when he finished school, he gave himself a month to just be like, "I just finished 4 years of school. I am going to take a month off and only draw when I want to." It's hard for me to be idle...in some ways, I'm like a workaholic...but I need to RELAX and not beat myself up for needing that relaxation after this ridiculous year, the thesis, etc. A daily autobio comic might be really rough work by definition, but I shouldn't hate the way that it turns out. I need to want to be drawing it at least a little bit when I'm drawing it! I want to like it and be proud of it when I'm done.

Sidenote: CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME ILLO I GOT FROM TERRY LAST NIGHT!

It's right on the tip of my tongue--what's the word I'm thinking of?

Remember last year when I stumbled onto Smart Girls at the Party?

Stumbling, this time on Twitter, has led me to Smart Girls at the Party: season 2!! So exciting, since I could not find evidence in October that the show would have more seasons. AND check out the Parks and Rec cameos at the end!! LOVE!!!

Ano hi yo ano hi yo ano toki ni nakushita michi o mise

Doodle:

You love the people that love you

New art:

Visit by ~Tallychyck on deviantART

Now we can do whatever we want to do

Joy joy joy joy joy. Done with class. Waiting to be assigned my only final -- an at-home essay. Virtually done with college. Yesterday this was stuck in my head all afternoon:

Had a celebratory Senior Week night at Pi Phi, then went out with my roommate and a couple of her friends. Today I am going to be GOOD...stay inside, not spend money, drink lots of water...and draw as long as my head can stand it. @__@
Oh. Jk, I'm going out again tonight. I forgot that there's a Pi Phi group dinner. Augh this week. Good things in excess.

You have been cloudy, distant, dark; I'm thinking of Noah and the ark

9 new Between Gears pages this week!

I just drew the last November page, and hit the 100 page milestone!! WHOOHOO!! Just 172 left! Ha ha....

I've been hitting a lot of milestones lately. I went to my last Pi Phi chapter last week, took my last test on Tuesday, turned in my archival thesis copies today, and have my last day of class (EVER!) tomorrow! Exciting times, exciting times.

Consider this the calm before the storm of new art that will come after I move home and get set up there. :D Priority 1 will be finishing Between Gears. I start a BIG project in the middle of August, and would really really really like to finish BG before I get taken away by that. It's a pretty daunting race against time--I have to make 17 pages per week for 10 weeks to finish in time. But if you know me you know that's exactly the kind of challenge that gets me psyched to work :P

Oregon is being a beez this spring/summer. May was a bust, raining or cloudy all but a handful of days, and June is off to the same start. Even for Oregon, it's ridiculous and depressing. CHANGE!

EDIT: Oh HAY! Did I ever mention that my thesis went really well??? IT WENT REALLY WELL! I passed with distinction, which is the best you can do. It means that out of the honors college theses presented this year, mine was in the top 10%!