mad ramblings of the one true idiot

2012-01-24T15:52:00.001-08:00

sorry about the lack of art updates. i have some art but need to scan it and am waiting on finishing up some other arts to post a larger amount of arts.
besides that i wrecked my convertible. because apparently they do not like hitting telephone poles at 30 miles an hour (i hydroplaned on some snow). i purchased a crown vic as a replacement vehicle and apparently it doesn't like to continue running when i stop at stop signs/lights.
just found out for sure that i have to retake two classes from this past semester. one of which i was perfectly okay with retaking. i got a c minus in it(which apparently doesn't count as a c) but that was a c minus i worked my ass off to receive. the other one was weirder. i turned in work whose average grade was a b minus (most of them were c plusses though) and ended up getting a d plus. now i did have a couple of f's(two things my computer wouldn't save and two in progress assignments that were not as optional as they claimed to be) but apparently those were not the deciding factor in the final grade. apparently i didn't show enough progress or development. which makes no sense considering my grades were all around a C+.
how does average work over an extended period of time (ie a semester) result in a sub average grade for that period of time?
best wishes to all and one of these days i won't suck so much at the art
robula

apparently i missed a batch

2011-09-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

hey apparently i missed uploading a batch of sketches to this blog.

sketch dump

2011-09-20T16:09:00.001-07:00

you ever feel like all your skills are fading away, your brain is melting and quite possibly you are past your prime (at mid twenties). cause that is how i feel most of the time. i am questioning online grad school (even though it is supposed to be for comic books). anyways sketch dump.

couple of weeks.

2011-06-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

here are my sketches for my sketch blog from the past couple of weeks. i am really pleased with the creeper and demon and kind of pleased with the nuklon (especially the rocks) and metamorpho. i also just bought a convertible last week.
best robula

more sketches

2011-06-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

i hope to add color to some of these recent sketches. i am trying to learn how to do that with more skill. here is a sketch of the question (for the batman list) and mary marvel for the jla list. vic sage as the question is one of the best characters.
robula
ps i have been writing some stuff and hopefully this is getting me excited enough to actually make some comics in the not to distant future (or at least some comics pages)

finished with semester 1 of online grad school

2011-05-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

i have finished up semester 1 of online grad school and am trying to play catch up for my sketch blog. here are some sketches from the previous couple of weeks. they are from the batman list jim gordan, harvey bullock, and renee montoya and from the jla list hawkman, hawkgirl and captain marvel. i plan on making colored versions of all of these. the colors and some of the inks have been done in manga studio (hawkman, gordan, bullock) the other three(cap marvel, montoya, and hawkgirl were inked by hand)
robula

the past month

2011-05-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

this past month (at least month's worth of sketches) are late primarily because for the past three weeks i have been battling being sick or sick ish. i had the flu one week and then was getting over that and thought i had beaten it and up jumps some sort of cold/sore throat strep like thingy. i also had two birthdays to celebrate in my family, a wedding anniversary, easter, and i have been trying to focus on grad school so as not to fail out of online illustration. i also saw an advanced screening of thor in 3d which i would recommend except the 3d part which caused fights scenes to be indecipherable, caused the depth of scene to be missing or look completely fake and all in all was done poorly. also there was a definite lack completely of balder the brave.
anyways here are my late sketches. they are catwoman(batman list), captain atom(jla list), firestorm(jla list) ra's al ghul (batman list) blue devil (jla list) talia al ghul (batman list) zsasz (batman list) and the atom (jla list). several of these were done with thumbnails and then being blown up and traced. the captain atom is entirely in sharpie liquid pencil and part of firestorm is as well.
sorry about my inability to do anything in a timely manner.
best
robulas

SWITCH PLACES

2011-04-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

i am late for a very important date. no, i am late with my sketches from last week. hopefully will be closer to on time more often than not. here are my mad hatter (for the batman sketch list) and ice for the jla sketch list. i had them done last week but didn't get them up till now. things are going. that's about it.
robula

after spring break i thought things would go smoother

2011-04-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

hey all
i had spring break a bit ago and thought i had things going smoother but really what i had was delusions. here are some sketches which happen to be late (for my sketch blog) and i had them done on time but didn't find the time to scan them and upload them. here they are for the batman list we have bane and hush and for the jla list we have maxima and fire(done digitally in manga studio). these are for weeks 12 and 13 (pretty sure- also fairly pleased that i went this long with out being totally behind on the sketch a week thing). i also found some time to work on some comics work with a fellow i met on digital webbing which means i worked on pseudo professional stuff this past week rather than just school and my own sketch blog. i may post some stuff for that comic later on.
best
robula

grad school's foot meets my ass over and over and over and over

2011-03-21T01:34:00.000-07:00

hey
once again this week grad school has kicked my ass. i think maybe it should be easier than this but i am probably wrong. anyways, i would be posting some work that i have been making in those classes if they all weren't receiving midling to poor grades.
so anyways here are some sketches from my sketch lists. it is the riddler from the batman sketch and boostergold from the jla list. the riddler was done in manga studio which i just got this week and it is pretty neat. sort of like photoshop (which i also ordered this past week but have not gotten it installed yet) and booster gold was done traditionally. hopefully we will see more of me playing with digital art.oh and soder is a brand of soda in the tick and i used it in the booster gold drawing because i want to see a cartoon of boostergold and the blue beetle in the vein of the tick but with booster as the tick and blue beetle as arthur.
best
robula

2011-03-15T00:11:00.001-07:00

i have been busy and very anxious this week in regards to grad school so this post is a smidge late. hopefully things go smoother. i also saw and really enjoyed the adjustment bureau and i also ate delightful steak at outback steakhouse(thank you government student loans-ha-ha). anyways here are some more sketches from my sketch blog. maybe i'll throw up some stuff i have been working on for classes. oh and i also got manga studio so i might be making some more digital images.
robula

sketchy sketch sketch

2011-03-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

here is killer croc and guy gardner for the sketch blog i am doing. croc is for the batman list and guy gardner is for the jla list. this week has been busy. i fiddled with some hand coloring for the guy gardner drawing. i used high lighters, a marker and a green colored pencil. i also saw the animated film the illusionist. it was brilliant. hopefully things will go smoother at some point in time.
best
robula

2011-02-27T21:58:00.001-08:00

here are some sketches i did for my sketch blog. kyle rayner as green lantern- my favorite green lantern and two-face. i attempted to throw some colors on the green lantern sketch. some days you feel like you can do anything and other days you feel like you can not do anything. i find it odd the ratio for these days seems to be so biased. hopefully i can start to feel like i am doing the right things sooner rather than later.
robula

2011-02-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

my grandma passed away on valentine's day. she died a little before midnight. i have been busy this week going to her funeral and dealing with her demise. here are my sketches for the sketch blog. they happened to be a little late. they were a needed distraction. they are joker for the batman sketch list and hal jordan green lantern for the justice league sketch list.
rob

more sketch off sketches

2011-02-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

this time i tried quick colors. these sketches were done while scanning homework in for online grad school and on break at work.
i needs to learn to color (and draw)
robula

online grad school is a go

2011-02-06T20:36:00.000-08:00

hey all i started online grad school this week. just uploaded an assignment but i thought i would share my sketches for my sketch list blog . this week was batgirl and martian manhunter for the batman and jla lists respectively. they would have been up earlier in the week but i have been trying to do online grad art school

more list characters

2011-01-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

this week it was batman on the batman list and wonder woman on the jla list. i added man-bat to the batman one in order to get him into a sketch because i believe he is not on the lists. and i gots to draw more women and men and objects and buildings and items and guns and swords and axes and animals and landscapes.
robula

red robin and aquaman

2011-01-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

hey all here are my sketches for this week. red robin was the choice for the batman list and aquaman was the choice for the justice league list. red robin is rather a boring sketch and aquaman has some problems. his hands seem to not be the same size and his legs look too short and he is supposed to be riding a sea horse made up of seahorses but it looks more like a seahorse made up of coral.
best
robula

nightwing from my batman sketch list

2011-01-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

here is my attempt at nightwing from my batman and related characters sketch list. this is actually my preferred persona for dick grayson.
robula
count
of
nerdlandia

batman for my jla sketch list

2011-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

here is the batman i did for my sketch blog from the justice league list i created. there will be an entirely different batman sketch for the batman on my batman related characters list. i was going for a simplified look on this.
robula
the count
from nerddomington hall

skteches for my weekly(ish) sketch blog

2011-01-07T10:05:00.001-08:00

hey gang
i am trying to do a weekly superhero sketch blog with wes and my buddy willis. the link should be on the sidebar over that way -----
i made two lists and each week we have to do a specific character from each list. one list is all justice league characters and the other list is all batman related characters. week one is superman (jla list) and Robin (batman list). the robin i chose to do is damian wayne who i am not very familiar with so it was not as easy as the superman sketch turned out to be.
best
robula

more arting

2010-11-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

here is more art i made. from stories from wes or myself or maybe even others and i think there might even be a couple of drawings that have nothing to do with stories
best
rob

some art (see i didn't lie)

2010-10-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

here is some art. i was not lying. it is coming at some time. this is 6 pages i did for someone i found over at digitalwebbing.com his comic story and character called jack of spades. it is not the best work but it is better than some i have done and it is probably the best i was capable at the time. pages are in order coming up from the textual post. so page 2 is above page 1 and so forth. oh and the character belongs to the guy who wrote the story his name is brett kelly
count robula

2010-01-20T17:50:00.000-08:00

man this blog is getting to be sad.
art will follow.
some day.
somehow

not dead

2009-11-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

hey
i am still kicking. trying to make comics and find a job but mostly helping out my folks because i am one of those unemployed grad school dropouts who live at home.
best
rob

2009-07-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

here are some images. i am moving back home tomorrow. won't have immediate internet access but will be less distracted so should be able to make a lot of work that will eventually be posted.
love
count robula

here is a digital doodle i did in corel painter

2009-07-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

this is something i doodled while watching the cubs game. i really need to screw around with painter and photoshop and gimp more so that i can figure out coloring and layers and stuffs.
count robula

2009-07-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

okay. its been awhile.
new stuff includes me leaving grad school for the glorious life of the unemployed and potentially freelance artist (so i am going to be moving back home). this school just was not right for me. we'll see if i find a better one. anyways i hope everyone had a great fourth of july. i spent the bulk of mine watching baseball and eating beef. and then watching some pretty awesome scifi pilot for a show that may be on fox in the fall. it was called virtuality. then i got caught up on the new season of burn notice (i thought maybe i would take a nap with it on but it actually held my interest). then i just watched cloverfield which is exactly what i thought a remake of godzilla should be like so it was pretty good. i am working on a bunch of drawings and hopefully i will finish one of them sometime soon. i promise the next post will contain some sort of image (hopefully one of mine) and i plan on posting again before i move.
be seeing you
robula (the count of crazyville)

2009-04-14T11:52:00.001-07:00

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2009/04/wilson-and-gaiman-at-work-and-play.html
everyone should watch this cartoon.

i hate having to do stuff

2009-04-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

man. isn't it a pain in the ass when you have to do something? anyways. i am doing much better physically from the car hitting me incident. my leg only hurts sometimes instead of always and i got a scar above my right eye that sort of looks like an anarchy sign. i highly recommend the film i love you man and i also sort of recommend monsters vs. aliens for awesome animation fun. anyways i should be doing some of the stuff that i don't want to do. oh, man. i also joined the over medicated masses this past week. anti-anxiety... maybe it will stop me from flinching as cars drive by.
i will see you then or at a later time
robs

my face

2009-03-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

i don't recommend getting hit by a car. but it could have been seriously worse.
it also really sucks cause you figure that once you get hit with a car you kinda figure that is the most annoying part but you forget about all the stupid ass paperwork bullshit you have to put up with.
seriously kids practice pedestrian safety
robs

thud

2009-03-02T00:45:00.000-08:00

so just as i thought i was getting myself back into gear making work and just sort of getting myself back to the realms of normalcy i had today. earlier tonight i got hit by a car while walking. i am fine. i got 7 stitches in my head and i have a bruised leg (which hurts far more than my head). i didn't get a concussion. i didn't break my leg (which is wear the car hit me). i got a fracture in my sinus (where my head smashed into the road) and i didn't even break my glasses. that is the part that gets me. i had a pair of glasses break once in a pillow fight but getting hit by a car doesn't even scratch em. anyways i have a feeling that this accident might slow me down a bit. thankfully i have a week long break coming up starting on the 5th so i'll use that time to heal and recharge.
rob

2009-01-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

apparently my drawings are not good. thank you for telling me something that i already knew. how about something helpful next time.
it might not be the best thing that the thought up above is one i have frequently after critiques (the one good thing to note is that this is usually said early on in the semester and most often by faculty that have not worked with me much)
so there seems, to me at least, to be a slim possibility that i change their minds later on in the semester. but most likely i just wear them down so that they can no longer muster up the energy to complete a sentence
robula out

break time is almost upon me

2008-12-11T22:49:00.000-08:00

hey all
i am gonna be incommunicado for awhile. i am going home to be with my family for the holidays. i will be making work that hopefully i will share with you. i also found the connecting chord for my camera so i can start uploading some images ( so that means i can share my san diego comic con experience). i can't wait to go home and relax for awhile. i will leave you with one of my favorite images i've ever run across
count robula verMILLION

building a dream

2008-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

yesterday i got the song brother can you spare a dime? stuck in my head. i watched videos of it on youtube till like 4 in the morning. i think i have a couple ideas of works inspired by it (i don't know whether to do both or just one) i want to either illustrate it (a long with a few other songs) as a comic or just do a spot illustration that i feel works with the song. i'll probably do both (or knowing me and how busy i have been) or neither.
anways i think i will put up an old drawing i did (cause the new ones are not digitized yet cause they are giant and i can't find my digital cameras connector for my computer)
hopefully these headaches will go a way
robula verMILLION
oh and the image is from something i started (for a small zine called Rice on the Other) which i have set aside ( i think i might retool it and come back to it later)

Every day that you see me is the worst day of my life

2008-11-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

this week has sucked so far. i have been scanning a shit load of things for an instructor. i have slept very poorly. and to top it all off today, i left my keys in my studio. good thing i gave a spare set to some friends. but the spare set only lets me into my apartment and not into my studio. so i am going to have to figure out some way of getting into my studio in order to get my keys that let me into my studio. also, today i found out i have a whole email address i was not aware of and have no idea to access. this email address is apparently the email address i have for being a graduate assistant but i have no way of accessing it. this, of course, is the email address that instructors have been using recently to email me.
Ah, horseshit.
robula verMILLION

umm vote

2008-11-03T20:55:00.000-08:00

remember to vote tomorrow. umm.. it is a shame i don't know how to use my scanner cause it auto cropped these images. both were on 9 by 12 bristol (horizontal) so there was more white space on either side of the figure and above their heads. i prefer it that way but without having photoshop or knowing what i am doing this is the best i can do for now. (if i figure out how to fix it i will edit it later)
these are zombie mccain and obama. i showed them to my drawing class and my teacher said "man you nailed these. i didn't know you had it in you but you really nailed these. you have some drawing chops." then she went on to explain how it is funny that in art school they teach you how to draw and then once you have learned how to draw they are bored by technically well done drawings. so here again was another teacher who was not sure i could draw because of the style i usually choose to draw in.
today i felt like i hate art and school. and by art i mean art taught through art history. or art that needs and desires to be labeled as fine art.
whatever, i found the dick van dyke show online so i am gonna watch that until all is right with the world. oh, man mary tyler moore was one good looking lady
verMILLION

i voted

2008-11-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

hey
i voted yesterday. absentee style. robocop/unicorn 08. thats the ticket.
this is the second page to the fantasy epic i am working on starring me and my sister's cat. oh and i had a great dream about some of my friends and i as superheroes which was quite possibly a really good story. so i am going to start working that up. i gots lots of ideas and not enough time to do em all.
count robula
verMILLION

comics

2008-10-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

hey this weekend a couple of my brothers and i jammed out the plot for a comic idea we had. it was so much fun. i recorded the whole conversation on my awesome (super-nerdy) digital audio recorder. i need to transcribe the conversation and then email that back to my brothers so they can edit some of the script(adding some dialog and stuffs) but i wanted to post some art. so here is a character design i did for a book that my twin is writing for me to draw (i think we may have decided on a slightly different color scheme but otherwise this is the look) oh and i colored and inked this drawing digitally and it didn't take a shit-ton (what exactly is a shit-ton? is that a metric measurement?) of time
robula

ummm today was the greatest thing ever

2008-10-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

boy is sarcasm hard to convey in text.
i went home this weekend and saw a really good comic book exhibition at krannert art museum. it was a good weekend in which i saw three plays at the performing arts building and saw my family and ate extremely spicy frog legs.
but today
today was shit. i got up at like half past 5 this morning so that my sister and brother could take me to the bus station. i got on my bus and not 30 minutes later the bus had broken down. we were stuck there for 4 hours and then were shoved onto an almost full bus going to chicago. i got on that bus at the exact same time i was supposed to be catching my connecting bus in chicago to dekalb. so i got into chicago about 2 hours after i was supposed to have gotten into dekalb.
they refused to refund my money or to exchange my ticket for the next bus(which would not have been until 10 at night) i did not feel like being that late back here(i was supposed to help an instructor put up a still life which was actually finished by the time i eventually got into town)
i ended up catching a metra into elburn and my friends picked me up. this probably saved me some extra money because i would have had to buy another ticket for 10 pm to get back here anyways.
so all in all it took me 12 hours to get from champaign to dekalb
which in real time (or by a car) should only take about 3 hours.
yep. today was the greatest.
robula verMILLION
ps this all remminds me of the line from Office Space
"everyday you see me is the worst day of my life"

2008-10-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

hey i just got back from wonderful chicago. i crashed with my cousin and his great girlfriend and it was fantastic. i got to see the best people and got to relax a little. here is an image from what i am currently working on. it is a fantasy epic starring me and my sister's cat narfel. hopefully i get this story going at a faster clip than the current pace i am working at.
loves to all
rob

busy busy busy busy busy ummm... busy

2008-10-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

so i have been busy and this whole month sounds to be even more busy. i got a big crit with faculty next friday. i got some buds coming in to town tonight to go to a turkey testicle festival tomorrow. i plan on going to chicago to visit some of the best people in the world next weekend. the following weekend i plan on going home to see a comic book art exhibition at my alma mater. then the next weekend i think i have family coming in for a brief visit. all this plus i gots to make a lot of work and i got to scan a bunch of shit for myself and for a prof. i also got to set up a still life for day of the dead for a different prof. i also need to figure out a proper sleep cycle (for some odd reason i have taken to going to sleep at like 3 am or later which results in really bad mornings (especially if i have to be up in the morning)) i need to get my self more structured in my time management stuff cause this schedule is weird and barely struggling to work. i really need to get some art up on this blog.
ohhhh..... man... i am tired
rob

here we go

2008-09-16T19:18:00.001-07:00

hey
i got my problem with niu's bursar taken care of at the end of last week. then over the weekend my apartment got flooded. so that is great. luckily nothing was really damaged. and there was some miscommunication between faculty and me about a visiting artist.but last week also brought a visit from my parents, the film burn after reading and a visit from my cousin and his girlfriend. and thoughts on new works. so hopefully i'll be posting some pictures soon.
crapula
rob

things that should be better

2008-09-11T22:23:00.001-07:00

here is a short list of things that should be better in no particular order
moonknight
quantum leap
white paintings
imdb's plot synopsis of Roswell 1847
the american red dwarf
oh
and race relations

bill melendez rip

2008-09-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/090804-MelendezObit.html
bill melendez the animation director of many of the charlie brown and peanuts specials has passed away. his work was amazing and he will be missed.
rob

that last title was a little wrrong

2008-08-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

that last post was a little bit of me freaking out but was mostly just me being slightly mad at the state of things here at grad school. the biggest issue i have is that no one seems to know what they are doing but the other bigger problem i have is with the federal government creating a new regulation for the disbursement of financial aid. so i am now currently broke (completely). so that always makes for a worry free day. anyways i have some ideas for new work but am questioning whether or not grad school is exactly where i need to be considering i am not so sure i fit into the "fine" art world but i think i am going to plow full (or mostly full) steam ahead and just sort of ram my work down the gullets of these "fine" artists.
rob

oh holy crap i should be doing something else

2008-08-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

hey everybody(the 2 people who read this) hope you are fairing better than i. i am currently in dekalb. i just started the grad program this week and it is one of the worst things i have ever had the misfortune to start (but i am positive it will get better if only people begin to understand what they are doing) i also started my grad assistantship which is so far worse than the actual grad school part of going to grad school (always something to put things into perspective) i really wish i had the time to post more right now but i am excited about tomorrow being my last day of class this week so i should be able to make it to my studio at some point this weekend and should be able to tell(and show) you all what went down at San Diego Comic-Con international this summer and let you all in on more of my craptastic adventure in dekalb.
meh
rob

dekalb or bust

2008-07-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

hey all
i am going to dekalb tomorrow to hunt up some apartments. hopefully i find a place that is not too much of an expensive shit hole. i don't know. i should really be asleep now.
rob

Mo

2008-07-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

hey
i just saw wall.e . it was great. the movie was one of the most visually stunning works i have seen in a long time.it was also a touching story. i think i fought back tears at least once. i may be a big softy (not unlike a teddy bear). anyways. i highly recommend it. one of the best pixar films i have seen and the opening cartoon was hilarious. i cried laughing. oh and my favorite line from the film was "mo"
so hopefully i can make the rest of my evening as awesome as the start was.
good times
captain out

it's not like i'm poor but i eat a lot of spaghetti

2008-07-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

hey
i just saw the film The Fall which was quite brilliant and i just saw it with my parents and sister who came up to give me money so as i could pay rent. i wish this whole moving thing was not so damned hard(i don't even have a place to move into yet so i am getting a little ahead of myself) things will work out somehow. i need to update this more. i need to be more productive. i need to change some of my lazy unproductive habits. oh well something will get done. it always does
meh
aight blah
me

oh the humanity

2008-06-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

i got a lot of graphic novels from the library today. i read three this evening. i also watched a couple of episodes of reaper which is quite good. the only things i seem to want to do are sleep, read, and watch t.v on my computer with my earphones in. it is like i only want to exist in fictional lands. i may need to shake some stuff up. i am going home this weekend and am excited about it. i wish it was five o clock tomorrow already so i could be done with work and going home already. oh and our air conditioning might be broken. i might need to eat something (i am not starvin like marvin girl but i think i want a snack). i am out of here
count robula

why can't i sleep all day?

2008-06-10T09:59:00.001-07:00

hey all
i just want to be asleep. the land of the waking is a little too uninteresting. the highlight of my day is lunch with one of my best friends. after that the day just goes down hill and i spend the rest of my time wishing to sleep or thinking about all the crap i am supposed to do. i think i should stop thinking. anyway i watched three episodes of alias last night it is better than i originally thought but i am still unsure on whether or not i am going to watch the whole series. i also watched some my name is earl that i had not seen. anyways i think i should try to get back to my day job. history books here i come!
i'll see you
rob

still kicking

2008-06-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

hey all
i am still floating around. the birthday was quiet and pleasant and last week i moved my sister home so that was pretty cool. i got some pretty exciting (at least to me) news that my thesis book is now in the university of illinois library system so now people can i-share my thesis book and check it out from any collegiate library in the state of illinois. pretty sweet. anyways i just finished up a class that i was sitting in on. it was a making comic class and was pretty good. i wish it had been a longer class instead of being a four week class for six hours a day cause it would have been nice to have it as a eight week class for like three hours a day. i hope to start updating more (a wrench was thrown into parts of my plans for that cause my scanner broke) anyways i gots some stuff to do to try to figure out exactly what i am doing with the move up to niu but that can't really even be contemplated until tomorrow at the soonest.
be seeing you
rob

2008-05-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qPk4GBN9Uzo
this was one of my favorite cartoons i saw in my animation film class.
oh and i am posting this for laura
it is a new post. see. that is one this week. i got to do one next week and then maybe pick up the pace. thanks for the cd i am listening to it as i write this
you are all the best
robbie
ps my birthday is soon i am kinda getting excited

in future times

2008-04-17T19:08:00.001-07:00

hey all
i am still kicking(haha you can't stop me---kick, kick) anyways. i have been really busy recently first setting up for my thesis show and then taking it down in the last couple of weeks. i have been a little stressed and been misplacing anger so if any of that got thrown your way: my bad, yo!
so the thesis went well and i sold a solid portion of my books and all that jazz. we had a sweet turn out and stuffs. i am excited it is over. now all i gots to do for shows really is show up to others and eats all their foodz and i guess the b.f.a. show. i also got into grad school and need to make a trip up to niu to sign some shit. i think imma do that in the beginning of may. so yeah. hopefully i will post artwork. i know i keep saying that but really it is one of my hopes.
keep on rockin' in the free world
that bearded kid

defenders defenestrate!!

2008-03-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

i think i have learned the bulk of my vocabulary from comic books and here is another word
defenestrate: to throw someone through a window
honest to blog i am not making this up. google it.
anyways i got crit tomorrow morning at 8. i think my work is interesting visually but i don't think i could write my way out of (or even into) a paper bag
rob

a few unanswered questions

2008-03-11T19:50:00.001-07:00

why does donald duck wear a towel when he gets out of the shower but does not wear pants?
how is mickey mouse a dog owner and best friends with a dog? is that hypocritical?
if storks deliver babies who or what delivers them?

2008-02-28T20:38:00.001-08:00

i met Simon j. Smith on sunday. he is the director of Bee Movie and he is british. he had some funny stories and lots of information about how they had changed the way they made the cartoon movies because of jerry seinfeild's involvement. jerry was apparently involved with every possible process to give the whole film that seinfield vibe. i spoke with him for probably a total of like half an hour about story boarding. it was one of the coolest experiences i have had. i am such a nerd.
rob

lunar eclipse or alien armada? you decide

2008-02-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

hey all
i just saw a lunar eclipse it was fucking beautiful. i took two photos of it and now i feel exactly like those wackjobs who claim to see ufos but have blurry photos of dots in the sky. hope you all gots to sees it.
love ya
rob

worst comic strip ever

2008-02-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

hey all
i have been reading the comic strips when i shelve newspapers at work and i just now came to the realization of why i torture myself by reading the Family Circus. I apparently (oddly enough) have a optimistic outlook on comic strips and keep reading that strip in hopes that it will eventually become good or at least have one good strip ever. it is funny but i always thought i was a pessimist.
me

Silk Screening

2008-02-08T11:00:00.001-08:00

hey all
jay ryan(one of my favorite artists and a hell of a good guy) was at my school today. he gave a little talk about how he silk screens(mostly posters for rock bands and stuff) and then he gave a demo. the demo was quite similar to the one i saw when i was a freshmen. we got to pull a print each but this time it was two colors(sweet!) i kind made an ass of myself because i was not pressing down hard enough. it is a sweet print of a cat and a dog looking at abstract art in the kranert art museum in a sage green with brown outlines and his website printed at the bottom(www.thebirdmachine.com)
anyways that was fun. i gots lots to do this weekend and not much time to do it weeeeee
rob

shits starting to pile up

2008-02-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

hey all
shit is starting to pile up. i was quite productive yesterday so i felt kinda good. got an email today telling me i gots more shit to do this weekend than i originally thought. so yeah everything just keeps adding up on top of each other and my back is starting to hurt(literally). i think it may have something to do with sleeping on a couch but it is too cold for my attic. my shoe also has a hole in it so i should probably go buy new ones which adds to the stuff i should do this weekend. anyways it is not like i am the only one with the shit going on. somehow i do not think taking a writing intensive semester was the smartest thing i have ever done. but then again i cant really think of anything i have done that was smart.
see yas
rob

new computer woot woot

2008-02-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

hey all
i am sending this out via my new laptop it is fancy and was expensive. had a good time with my family today and then a good evening with some friends. i got a lot of graphic novels from the library and some books for my science fiction class from the bookstore. i also got a small peanuts collection for a dollar and a new marvel history book with audio commentary by stan lee for a dollar. i watched superbad again tonight that movie is really funny. also apparently my bird passed away at home not too long ago. i guess she was so old it was not too surprising. she was not in too good of shape anyway. i am gonna go now.
rob

i just spilt an entire glass of water on my work computer

2008-01-31T18:28:00.000-08:00

i was sitting here at work and enjoying a glass of water while trying to use paint to fix the lettering on a piece i sent to Rice on the Other. i could not get paint to look good. and then i spilled all the water on to the computer. and it is snowing (kinda blizzardy) i wish i did not have to redo the lettering stuff. i wish i could just make work that looks like the stuff in my mind but no apparently the connection from my mind to my arm has some sort of gap in it so what comes out looks like crap. anyways i got my laptop last night and i am gonna try to take it to best buy soon so that i can get a warranty and have them install security and optimize it (optimize prime it(nerd joke))
okay back to shit
peace me outy

falling further and further behind

2008-01-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

hey all
i am falling behind. this weekend i could have been productive but i had to help one of my friends out with a problem. i am in the middle of doing another two pages of mac and c.h.e.e.s.e for rice on the other(by the way some but other than myself published some of my work). i have to get the two pages to the guy by the 31st. i think. if not he will probably put it into the next volume after that anyway. i have so much work to do this next week and i do not know if i am gonna have the time. hopefully i can post some of the mac and c.h.e.e.s.e. pages up here. anyways best to all and hopefully no one is as busy as i am
rob

sooo busy

2008-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

hey all
i am sooo busy this semester. it does not make that much sense. it is my last so you figure i would have picked classes that do not take up all my time but noooo, i had to pick ones that sounded good. stupid me. classes that sound good always inevitably have work that accompanies them. i ordered a computer but i gots to wait for it to arrive.best buy did not have the one i wanted in stock.
i think i am now gonna do some comic book work while at work. take that school you are gonna pay me for doing school work. yeah!

RIP Heath Ledger

2008-01-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=144093

apparently heath ledger died. this is weird. he was only 28. condolences go out to his family and i hope his daughter is okay.

i just spent too much money on a worthless machine that will be obsolete the moment i open it

2008-01-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

i just bought a computer today. i had to order it so it wont be here for awhile which is not really helpful cause i could use it now but in order to have a useful useless machine i had to order it. now i have a couple of weeks to wait for it to show up at my house and then i hope no one steals it while i am at classes. classes are not bad this semester all stuff i want to be in. my poetry writing class may be a little harder than i was expecting but it should be fun. the first day we all had to write a poem in the first ten minutes and as i sat there listening to the class's poems i thought to myself what the hell? there were not any sad poems. no poems about destruction. no poems about death. i thought for a second i was in the twilight zone. where were all the goths with slashes on their arms or the kid who obviously was not maintaining his hygiene. i thought it was supposed to be a poetry class for people who wanted to write poems not a class for people to write how much they love being themselves. needless to say my poem was the only sad one.
my cat finally died. she was not comfortable so my folks had her put to sleep and then cremated which was oddly fitting cause the last time i saw her she was trying to shove her face into a furnace to keep warm. well hopefully when my computer arrives i can update this thing with more stuff like drawings and photos and stories and poems and the abundance of crap i have to say.
peace me out

why does school suck all the living fun from my being?

2008-01-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

hey all. back to school this week. last semester at the u of i (barring any sort of gigantic disaster). i have been extremely tired since returning. i do not understand it. i have been going to bed earlier and earlier and nothing seems to help. i have also had heartburn for a couple of the days so far and now have a headache at work. hopefully this weekend i will get a computer and some sleep. three days off is gonna be useful.
back to work i go.

still alive and kicking but more out of habit than anything else

2007-12-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

hey all
i just wanted to post to try to get back into the habit. i have to kinda restart a project that is due on monday. so i am a little upset about that. i asked some of the university donors what they thought of the junior senior painting show and they said that they thought it was one of the better shows they had seen from the university. so i guess that is a good thing. i am terrified of applying to grad school. not because i am afraid of getting rejected but more out of a realization that this means that my undergrad is over, which in and of itself is not that upsetting but i am gonna miss seeing these people on a daily basis . enough rambling for today! i will be back

interactivity without all the technobable or the tech which provides said babble

2007-10-07T17:21:00.001-07:00

hey all
i guess i need to push forward and do this homework.
i am gonna talk about this one project from conrad bakker(who happens to be a teacher of mine). the project is written about here http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004308.php
apparently he hand crafted replicas of small objects that he found on the street (or objects that he likely would have found on the street) and he then placed them back on the street and documented them. but he also left them there like their forebearers. so he made like wood rubber band sculptures and left them on the ground like the rubber bands would have been that inspired the sculptures.
these pieces may not come off as overly interactive but the idea of leaving the artworks floating around brings up a potential for public interaction. it does not seem to be the largest factor in making the work but can not be ignored. if something is left anywhere it is likely to be found by someone else and then they may do something amazing with it but that may not be documented.
this reminds me of a piece that ryan thompson(a grad student) was showing the studio class documentation for. he was in russia and left these white washed unarmed toy soldiers everywhere and he too documented them. he was not solely interested in what happened next but it was at the back of his mind.
people leaving things behind allow for the interactive magazine found to be in existence. without people within our society being interested in what other's leave behind no one would bother with that magazine but it is fairly popular. i for one am immensely intersted in odd things that i find discarded. this fascination with leaving items and then sharing our finding of them cereates a unique interactivity between artists who purposely leave art behind for the public to do with as they please and with the public who will actually notice the things that are left behind. it is not the most obvious means of creating interactivity but it is one of the few methods that create a lot of possibilties without necessarily any culminating results being made aware to any of the people involved be they artist or public.

Bye, bye Lucky

2007-10-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

i found out my dog died. we had had her for 13 years and she died this weekend. it put a whole downer on my weekend (which actually was not that bad other than loosing my dog) . i dont know what killed her other than just being old. apparently she had been eating odd things not that long ago but long enough not to think that that is what did her in. also she may have had a tumor in her stomach so that probably did not aid her health. i will miss her greatly. i no longer want to do anything because of the grief but that is not what she would have wanted. my dog was all about happiness and being as happy as doggily possible. bye bye lucky. i love you and will miss you dearly
robbie

ficitonal game

2007-09-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

so for this fictional game i want to take a look at tag removed from the sense of touch. lazer tag does this in a way that shifts the game to relying heavily upon the sense of sight. i was going to see if i could think of a way to shift the game into relying heavily upon the sense of sound.
i know that in ordinary tag the sense of sound comes into effect when you are listening to see if the person who is it is running up behind you to tag you. now i was trying to think of a way to create a version of tag that used sound waves like how the lazer travels to hit a sensor in lazer tag.
so in sound tag you where these suits that are full body suits. this suits allow full mobility so that you can run at full speed and duct and stuff like that. they have sensors in them that monitor the sound waves for key commands that are prerecorded before each match. this is so that the monitors could be able to grab a hold of your vocal patterns. the suits also have a visual sensor so that when other suits pass in front of yours your suit will notice.
the prerecorded command is a command that tells the suits to prohibit movement but the recorded command only works with the suit that is on the visual monitor tha is on your suit. so the visual monitor would be on the chest of the suit and if you spoke the prerecorded command when another players suit was within the path of your visual monitor they would be frozen. the combination of these two monitoring devices woould be key to getting past the ability for people to just yell the command. this also creates an emphasis being placed upon the language of the game. tag you are it or i got you becomes as crucial in this form as it was in the orginal form of tag. the importance in lazer tag falls heavily not on the auditory or language used. it is more upon the line of sight of the lazer light and monitor. this new version combines the element of sight and hearing. i dont know, but it was fun to think of new ways to play tag. (too bad i'm stuck inside)

compare contrast a couple of games

2007-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

hey hey. so on a sensory level tomb raider actually uses more senses than one usually associates with video games. most video games are designed in a way in order to create interesting visuals that the player has to navigate through. tomb raider does this but people often forget the effect that sound has on the players while playing the game. sounds go off when you collect things or fire your games or are even used to warn you about dangers(like bears). also there is a huge impact from the actual language used in the game. lara croft speaks. players get directions from her and helpers and there are also (in some versions) video scenes in between the actual game play that allow the story's plot to be unfolded. this character is an extension of the player. the directions are sent directly to the players through there ears(or eyes if the volume is off). the players develop an affinity for the character and start to feel empowered by her. this and all games like it create a way for players to encourage their own self-empowerment.
the game i want to compare tomb raider to is calvin ball which is a game created by bill waterson's character calvin from calvin and hobbes. this game (while being fiction) is a game that most children have played. it is a game where the rules change everytime you play it. this fact of constant changing rules builds upon a child's creativity and their memory. if someone does not remember how they played it before they are not going to be able to figure out what they can not do. therefor not being entirely sure what they can do. this game unlike tomb raider relied upon playing with at least one other person(for calvin it was hobbes who within a fictional world was even more based in fiction) but for me was my twin brother. somehow, the version of the game i played was called wesleyball and not named after me. hmmm... anyway so this game and its flucuating rules creates a heavy reliance upon being in some sort of creative sync with the other participant. you kind of have to be able to understand what they are thinking when they are adding rules or setting down the guidelines and they need to be in synch with you when you are creatively adding your own rules because if no one is on the same page the question of cheating gets brought up. language plays a huge role because you and the other player(s) need to be able to coherently say and get across the rules to each other based upon your memory of how it was played last.
man i miss playing calvin ball.

brief history of oil painting

2007-09-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

hey all
oil painting started way back in the day. oil painting that we think of got its start around the 13th century but did not really develop into what we now consider oil painting until the 15th century. what we consider oil painting was developed by jan van eyck (a flemish painter) who was one of the first people to create a stabel siccative(drying) oil mixture which he could use to bind pigments. this was then fixed by a man named antonello da messina who added lead oxide to the combination which made the paint more like honey and increased the drying properties. i would hazard to say that oil paintings prime was in the 16th through the 19th centuries but it still holds a place as a traditional media in art making today.
information is encoded in oil painting mainly through the mark making the artist uses to depict his/her image. the pigments used to create the images are bonded together by the oil medium. most oil paintings are characterized by multiple layers of paint. this is often done in order to create a sense of realism. some paintings are made with thick layers of paint almost creating a tactile surface. oil paintings usually last hundreds of years but sometimes the colors fade. oil paints are exceptionally usefull if one is trying to get a sense of realism in the image and are actually fairly portabel. not as portable as some media but more so than others. many famous landscapes were painted outdoors while directly observing the subject matter.
oil paintings have the greatest effect upon our sense of sight. they also have a moderate effect on our sense of smell because oil paints have a distictive odor. oil paintings generally fail to captivate our sense of hearing because they are generally flat 2-dimensional images that do not make sounds.
most oil paintings that anyone can see are in a museum setting. this setting limits the amount of auditory distractions and other visual distractions by keeping paintings fairly well separated and on neutral colored walls. this environment is generally thought of as the easiest way to view paintings and get a personal feeling or connection between viewer and painting. most painting now are funded by the artists or grants. used to be that oil paintings were funded by the patrons. these patrons usaully had control over the subject matter being depicted by the artist. now most paintings are controlled by the artist and then are sold via galleries.
oil paintings are not limited to specific creators or viewers. most people when asked to name a painting or a painter will name an oil painting or a practitioner of oil painting.

this brief history of oil painting was braught to you by my brain and http://www.wikipedia.org/, http://www.holday-art.com/, and http://www.encyclopedia.com/

awesome news

2007-08-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

hey all
this was just sent to me. hopefully i will be able to partake in this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6967474.stm?whataboutspiderpig

old or new media

2007-08-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1243837605&size=o
this comic strip of calvin and hobbes is an old media because it was made by hand with a brush and ink. it is also a new media becuase it uses the combination of text and image together to tell a story which is not the most ancient forms of media. the image we are looking at is actually one of the newer forms of media because it is a digital photograph of a printed copy of the comic strip. it being digital removes the viewer ( a little ) from noticing the hand of the creator in it. but it being originally made by the hand forces it's way more heavily to the forefront. the strip being hand made puts it into the old media category because there are ways to make the comic strip images entirely digitally now.

flight of the conchords

2007-08-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

hey all. everyone who can should check out this wildly entertaining sitcom from hbo called flight of the conchords. it is about a struggling new zealand folk band.