So, this is about all I accomplished today, meaning that, as usual, I accomplished very little compared to what needed to get done. Anyway, I suppose this thing was inspired by how, when we were at a Family Event a couple of weeks ago, my nieces and also my mom and also everyone else got pretty energized over blowing bubbles (although, my nephew was more into discovering the space-age coolness of Nerf, which is a completely understandable preference).

Meanwhile, I have a meeting tomorrow and plus there’s other stuff to do, but my number 1 dream is to sketch, even if it’s just an inch-square sketch of nothing in particular.

O.K., I think I’ve finally perfected the spice rack design. As you can see, the rack now includes an iPod dock, which is, of course, a necessary addition to every other thing. Also, the rack contains a separate compartment for the handy storage of a cellphone. I don’t think it’s a wide enough space to hold a smartphone, but my phone’s one of the un-smart disposable kind. I’ve also included a sort of tray or well in front for the accumulation of spare change and bus tokens and perhaps fortune cookie fortunes (I had a hard time rendering the little slips of paper, though). Meanwhile, I made sure to leave ample room for a wide variety of spice bottles (my choices: popcorn salt and hagelslag - that’s a pretty wide variety, I think). And, so, the next step is to either wish for the official invention of a countertop Drexler replicator, or wait for an affordable craft printer, or go see if there’s enough scrap wood in the workshop to just go ahead and make this thing the old fashioned way. Although I bet I won’t choose option three, since I’m actually supposed to be doing paperwork and other sorts of Real Life Stuff.

So, I drew the original of this thing in Flash, although it doesn’t move. Force of habit, I guess. Anyway, when we went to London, there wasn’t a single scrap or tendril of fog anywhere, and instead it was always brilliantly warm and bright and shiny. I mean, I know London still has air trouble, just like every big place, but our neighborhood, which was a neighborhood Dickens lived and worked in, was never once afflicted with even the hint of a pall of Dickensian chimney-smoke. All of which I’m glad about, of course, ’cause I much prefer busy, rushing, futuristic London to some embalmed touristy version. Or, I prefer it if I don’t have to negotiate London traffic except once a week every few years or so.

Um, anyhow, before I end up freewriting about fog for an hour, which would be a waste of all our time, here’s the picture. I think maybe this couple have had a breakdown out in the country or something. Or maybe they’re hunting truffles at night. Or who knows.

It’s thundering and lightning outside, right at this very exact moment. Which means I oughta quit working on spice rack designs and shut this dang machine down. I hate it though, ’cause every moment of delay means our spices will have to keep on being all disorganized and whatever. I mean, we hardly ever use cumin, on account of it’s always hidden behind the bay leaves and the cajun-flavored sea salt. And the last time I saw the turmeric, Howard Dean was still a viable candidate for President. So, as soon as the weather clears up, or at least as soon as the lightning bolts quit tickling the tops of the trees in our neighborhood, I’m gonna re-embark on my mission to computer-design a new rack ASAP. Man, I can hardly wait…

Spent most of the morning designing a spice rack. Although, like a Homer Simpson spice rack, who knows if it will ever actually get built. Still, a husband can dream…

Anyway, I suppose you can apply textures to objects in Google’s SketchUp thing, so the blue spice rack oughta have dots and stuff all over like how I normally paint. But, maybe just imagine ‘em, ’cause I’ve gotta go do other actual work.

Oh, and yeah, on the third version, I’ve added some sporty lettering, which I hope will help avoid some kitchen confusion by keeping this particular rack distinct from the teabag rack and the rack that holds the souvenir pot holder collection.

Okay, so, this is the last of the old drawings. After this, I have to try and draw new stuff. Unless I find more old stuff, in which case I get to procrastinate some more, which is always nice.

It’s late, this is all I could come up with.

I guess when you’re a completely amateur type of artist, you’ve possibly gotta draw about a million not-so-great pictures before you end up with one or two halfway decent ones. Like, with these two things, which are both from a few years ago, back before the art hiatus, I think what I was trying to do was to capture a little bit of a Twins Seven Seven sort of feeling, with marks and lines and patterns all over the picture space. But, you know, instead I just sort of confirmed why I ought to do this kind of imaginary animal subject as cut-out wooden figures instead of as drawings. I mean, sometimes I wish I was one of those horror vacui style of artists, but I think I’m instead pretty content for negative space to stay negative and totally blank. Well, anyway, I still think maybe I’ll eventually end up with a style of some sort. Someday.

Again with the rummaging around in old boxes. What I’m looking for is: who knows. I think mostly just for re-inspiration…like, surely I used to draw something other than spaceships and aliens and spaceships with aliens inside of them. Or, I mean, I used to draw all sorts of crazy biological junk for science type people, but that just involved a lot of heavy caliper-usage and not much fun scratching around aimlessly with a Speedball pen. And, well, in my experience, biologists aren’t usually amused by any arty embellishments you might want to use to perk up a drawing of a medulla or an “entoglossal process” (it’s a real thing, trust me). So I suspect none of that science art mouldering into compost in the bottom-most heap of files is really gonna help with the re-inspiration project.

Anyway, found this piece at least, an olden sketch from way back at the dawn of the 21st century (hard to remember that far back now). I think it really captures the glitz and excitement of sitting around all night poking away at a graphics tablet. Which, actually, I do think that’s fun…which is weird, I know. I oughta get my kicks rock climbing or base-jumping, but where I grew up, it was an extreme enough thrill just to clothespin playing cards to the wheels of your bike. Like, you know, for that groovy fake motor sound. Anyway, gotta work and get some other business done tomorrow, so I’m gone.

Another animated sketchbook thing, the result of aimlessly goofing around for an hour. If there’d been another free hour, this guy’d probably have a couple of bird-like robot friends and a body of some sort and also perhaps a reason to exist. But, you know, there wasn’t an extra one of those hour things, so he’s out of luck and will probably always just be a floating head. Dang, though, I apparently need 40 thousand more years of practice just to make up for a couple years of being away from art. Oh, well, back to work…