This is Phoebe my Siamese. I picked her up from the SPCA so that Newt (my other cat) would have company. She is the weirdest cat I’ve ever seen! She is cross-eyed, deaf, drools, has balance problems and doesn’t know how to use her claws. Specifically, she doesn’t retract them properly. She also has abandonment issues and pulls her fur out when she’s alone.
I think she would make a great meme.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass
Some old vector illustrations I found in my files. See a couple below and more here…
Created in 2001 for DJ Sunspun.
Created in 2001 for DJ Sunspun.
Mermaid at Bondi Beach.
A vector illustration created in 2004 based off of an earlier sketch. I always get lazy once it comes to the background.
I don’t really sketch anymore, but here are a couple of my old thoughts below (and a few more here) …
A female monk experiencing enlightenment.
I sketched this in 2002 while traveling through Thailand. While visiting the various temples I learned that some believe (I’m not sure to how widely excepted this is) that women were not capable of reaching enlightenment. That sounded ridiculous, and inspired this visual in my mind.
Mermaid at Bondi Beach
I sketched this in 2002 while living at Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia.
Palm Trees are graceful, living things.
I sketched this in 2002 while traveling through Cambodia. I was pondering the truth that plant life is actually mobile. They move over the ground as animals do, but just much more slowly. Much, much more slowly. A tree will follow receding water over time, direct it’s roots in new directions, bend against the wind and turn it’s foliage to the changing light.
The Flying Fish of Bocas Del Toro.
A bit of a story around this one…
In 2005 I was in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. I had just returned after doing a little travel loop through central Panama. I returned to pick up a surf Board that was being shaped for me, however the shaper was way behind schedule. This is a surf town and if you aren’t surfing there isn’t much to do. I was stating in Las Brisas which is a tiny little hotel that extends on stilts into the ocean, with the living reef growing up around the foundation. I was lying on the deck, looking into the water which was crystal clear. You could see all the bright reef fish. I had a single string of fishing line that I had fastened to a short stick of wood on one end and a sizable hook on the other. I was using Spam as bait. The water was so clear, and the reef life so abundant I was actually trying to catch a very specific fish that I was told was good to eat. A big blue one. However, I had to continually yank the line away from other less desirable fish. So one medium sized fish takes an interest in the shiny hook (the Spam had worn off by this time) and I started pulling the line up as fast as I could so it wouldn’t bite. The fish chased the hook and as I pulled the line right our of the water the fish followed it, coming out of the water, into the air and catching the hook in mid flight! While swimming in hadn’t looked very big, but when it spread it’s glittering, membrane wings it tripled in size. It was beautiful and it now sat on the dock gasping for air with the hook right through its throat. I felt terrible. It was making an audible croaking noise which surprised me and made it’s pain (or fear?) seem more dramatic. It’s body was slippery and it’s wings spiny but I did get the hook out and got him back in the water. The combined surprise of the wings and the vocals of this fish caused me to think about it quite a bit as I couldn’t quite place it in my limited understanding of fish life. To me it seemed less like a fish and more like a mythical mermaid type creature. And so… I sketched this with the intent of putting a finished graphic on my surf board. I never did. When the board was finished, the thin, carefully applied glass was so flawless I just couldn’t bring myself to mar it.
Mexican symbology for my friend Neto
I sketched this in 2005 for my friend Neto. The Serpent and Eagle are representative of the national symbols of Mexico. I was spending a lot of time in Mexico and the time and sketched this at my Mother’s property in Mazatlan.