Yes, yes I know. It's been a long time so here are some updates!

Much like a large portion of the US, I am in an area that has been hit by uncharacteristically cold weather.  The temperature dropped quite quickly, which is something El Paso is not prepared for in any capacity.  There were even 2 days this week that I legitimately took off from work.  Today, perhaps the warmest day we seen all week, was kind of a nightmare.

Yesterday while we were out at work then my "hub's" symphony rehearsal, the pipes in our apartment froze so we came home to no water.  Much of today was without water but then late in the afternoon it was back!  We had only just started cheering when we looked out at the patio and found that pipes around the wash room at our entire apartment complex had busted.  Ack!  Luckily we were able to prevent some damage that might have occurred had we kept our original plans today.

They ended up turning off all the water again until tomorrow.  I'm tired and all I want to do is sleep now or drink. LOL Drinking is probably not a good idea either seeing as it promotes a lot of urination and we only have so much water put aside for flushing.  Ah, the sacrifices we must make.  I guess doing watercolor painting is probably not a great idea either. LOL Maybe I'll do some marker art.  I hope all of you are doing well and coping with the extreme weather better. 

Much love and happiness to you all!

My dreams of being a Mangaka or Graphic Novel Artist...

...have been rekindled as of late.  I've always been a huge fan of comics as art has always been a part of my life.  I'm 26 now, going on 15 again with me getting into reading graphic novels regularly once more.  I used to frequent a nearby comic shop when I was in high school and blow what little money I had on Spawn, X-Men and some other random titles. 
It seems like the universe has thrown me back into this world (even though I don't feel like I've ever been that far) because so many people around me at the moment are readers or makers of comics. lol Some favorites right now are The Walking Dead, Y The Last Man, Naruto, and Batman.  When I was in high school I spent all my time drawing comic book characters and original anime style characters but as graduation approached I fell victim to my own self criticism and pretty much gave up on art all together.  I started college as an English major and later changed to Art as I could no longer deny my passion.  Comic making wasn't really more than an unrealistic fantasy that I wasn't even practicing at.
Needless to say this all leads me back to those dreams again.  So that's where I am.  I've been doing art a lot more these last few years and even though most of it has been painting and quite unrelated to comics, I want to do this.  I've been drawn to this book I keep seeing every time I go to the bookstore about making comics and last night I finally bought it!  Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels It's a great book so far and very inspiring.  Scott McCloud, thank you!!

Flying Lotus

Just a drawing I did late last week with Prismacolor Markers and Color Pencils.

I finally got my scooter!

I've always dreamed of having my very own scooter..  and recently when deciding that it was finally time for me to get my own form of transportation I decided that I would finally fulfill my dreams of scootering. (^_^)

Sure some people made jokes and my family definitely was not thrilled as the rider is definitely more vulnerable to injury but I could not let that deter me.  I started saving up some money and decided that I would look for a used one since after doing a lot of research, the kind I wanted would be out of my budget for now.  Upon searching Craigslist for a few weeks I found a retro style 150cc scooter that was perfect for me! ... Except for the color.  It was my least favorite color- Powder Pink. But everything else about it was perfect so I called up the seller and tried to arrange a time to get it which proved to be most difficult as it was at least an hour and half's drive away  and the timing was awful.  I had to work all week and my man had symphony gigs for the next 2 weeks and the seller was busy weekends. 

I tried to work something out with the seller and she said that she would definitely hold it for me.  The date was set that I would go for it and a couple of hours before heading there, I made a courtesy call to make sure the seller was alright with it.  She tells me then that she sold it...  My heart sank.  I had been so excited about it for 2 weeks already and this lady who told me not to worry sold it to someone else without even letting me know.

Despite my urges, I refrained from telling that lady off or getting too upset.  After all that wouldn't make the scooter suddenly available to me.  I got back on Craigslist and to my surprise there were 2 new posts that looked promising.  I made a few calls and well ended up getting a different scooter that afternoon.  The scooter I ended up with is larger than the one I first had my eyes on but it felt so right and it's even my old school colors. LOL  Go Raiders!

It's so much fun and I can't wait until the weekend when I can go riding again! There are a couple of things I have to fix on it but I'm actually excited to do it myself.  Although things didn't go as planned I am quite happy and grateful.

What's in your art kit?

On the "Maken Art" blog, the question was posed.. What is in your kit? 

I carry entirely too many art supplies daily.  I usually tote around a full backpack of various items to entertain me throughout the day.

Shown here is what I usually have on hand:

• 1 or 2 sketchbooks with a few different types of paper inserted throughout
• Cigar box of ~80 assorted Prismacolor Pencils
• Prismacolor fine line markers .005-.8
• Grey set of brush tip pens
• Glue stick & tape
• Scissors
• Prismacolor blender markers
• Copic 12 pc set of Cool Grey .Too Markers
• Zig Pigment Ink Markers .05 in a handful of colors
• A couple of different mechanical pencils
• Mini electric eraser
• 2 clear flexible rullers
• Retractable X-acto knife
• Creatacolor 12 pc Graphit Selection
•  Erasers and sharpener
• Sharpie Marker and Pen

I almost always have these items with me. Tee hee. Because you really never know when that inspiration will hit. Occasionally a few items will be swapped out for others such as watercolor or inking supplies but I try to only use those at home for convenience.  What are your essentials??

Black and White Art Show

This Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010 I'll be participating in the 2nd Annual Black & White Art Show being held at the Lips Lounge. I'll have about 5 new pieces and a few older favorites. Originals and prints for sale. There be lots of other great artists there too and live performances by The D.A., Rafa Pistola and the Immigrant Noise and acrobat David C. Owen.

The Black and White Art Show
Lips Lounge, 510 N. Stanton
Saturday, Sept. 25 – 8 p.m.
$5, 21+

A New Direction

Hello all. Do you ever feel over stimulated?? That's how I've been feeling lately and I think that is obvious in my blog and what actually keeps me from posting more. It seems as though a lot of the topics are so varied that it just leaves one wondering what this blog is really all about? So taking a cue from the title, this blog will mainly focus on all Into The Spiral projects and art.
The posts on topics not related to art, such as the science bits, social issues, political whatnot, and so on will be posted on the Spiraling Studies blog. I might even move all the post from this page to the other if they are not art related. I hope that you'll like this set up better! Thank you for joining me in this journey! Much love. Namaste.