Quick one today with it being Memorial Day and all... Here's a sketch of Leonardo holding a rat. It's not Splinter but maybe a distant cousin? The body was drawn with regular pencil and then darkened in Photoshop to give a bit more drama to it. The background is also a product of Photoshop. Graphic pen and half-tone filters can really do the trick on occasion.
First, the products customers have purchased just scream, “Cool people only.” Imagine seeing someone wearing this shirt, a pair of Zubaz pants and reading on how to cope with having an enormous penis. It just has “winner” plastered across their forehead.
So this was supposed to be a Nick Markakis shirt. He's only one of the best players in the American League, plus he's on my Fantasy Baseball team. It wouldn't be so bad to wear that shirt, right? He's still a dirty birdie but it's not his fault. They drafted him. However, this is not a Nick Markakis shirt. In fact there are NO Markakis shirts in the entire Albany area. I asked a couple of shop owners if they had any to which the reply was, "Who? All we got are those Ripken shirts." Really? You run a sports store and you don't know who Nick Markakis is? It's not like Baltimore is on the other side of the world. It's a five and a half hour car ride. A 45 minute plane ride. So I held out for awhile thinking a Markakis shirt would spring from the soil after a good soaking rain. No, that didn't happen. So now I own a Cal Ripken Jr. shirt. It's not that it's a bad thing, Cal is awesome in every way imaginable. He makes bald work, not many white guys can pull that off. But, he doesn't play anymore and people who know absolutely nothing about baseball would wear a Ripken shirt because he was "cool" and an "Iron Man." See, if I was wearing a Markakis shirt people would say, "Wow, this cat must know his baseball because I have no f'ing clue who that is, but I could sure go for a slice of Angelfood cake right now."
Donatello facing off against a very dangerous Leatherhead in the sewers
Leonardo and some sort of ninja star
Raphael spinning his sais
That's all for today! Cheers.
It's been a hectic week. All you blog readers out there know that I just came back from Tampa last Monday evening. Unfortunately a week later I found myself in Buffalo for two and a half days on business. Calm down, all you naysayers out there who think I'm saying Buffalo is a hole. It's not, but may I recommend something? When you enter into the city of Buffalo the first thing you are greeted with should NOT be a sprawling cemetery. I'm a huge fan of cemeteries. It's a great place to reflect on your local history and family origins, but for the traveler (like myself) it doesn't really seethe welcomeness. It's like the city is screaming, "Come for the wings but stay for your eternal vacation!" I have never seen a city with so many cemeteries. It's like they're around every corner, and not tiny ones either. Massive bone zones. Acre after acre of them. No wonder people in Buffalo are depressed! The city is dwindling, the Bills may move to another country and they're surrounded in death! People have always wondered, "What happened to all those people that lived in Buffalo? Where did they go?" Well, we finally know. They went about six feet below your feet.
OK- so when I said they were unsuspecting, that was mostly true. This guy let on that he knew he was being drawn. He looked at me, got up and walked away, but would pace around me from a safe distance a good few minutes after that. The jerk never let me finish him... so it's his own fault he kinda looks like Ed Asner.
Some dude that looked like Phil Jackson was reading a book. He kept getting bothered by his overweight wife.
Another older man that was reading. Soooo many people read in the airport. It has more readers than any library could ever imagine.
This couple were coming back from Mexico. The female was tired and fidgety... she didn't really look like a long-nosed troll.
The Bank of America Plaza in the foreground with a Tampa skyscraper I do not know the name of in the background.
This was about a block of from where we were staying. Just a neat little mural on the side of what would have been an average building. It's all about the little things.
In my previous post I described a building with a seven foot lizard crawling up the side. Just so you didn't think I was full of who-ee, here is that building.
This was down the street from where we stayed. It started out as a very foggy morning but it burned off real quick.
Go for launch! The Discovery Shuttle takes to the skies. It really was quite remarkable watching the flight into outer space.
George M. Steinbrenner Field from the right field foul pole.
Friday night, Vince and I decided to eat here. Stumps, sounds like a place you'd go and pick up a woman without any legs. Great food though, even if their restroom signs were misleading and their waitresses had sideburns.
This dude was down at Channelside making artwork from spray paint. When you really think you've seen it all, a man with 20 cans a paint and a ponytail brings you back down to Earth.
Caution: No Manatees are in this area. It must have been a marketing ploy.
Walking down Channelside, I thought this would make a great shot, everything was on the same vertical plane. Symmetrists unite!
Downtown Tampa from the south
A rather large bird cleaning itself within the Florida aquarium. It certainly had no fear of humans, and neither did it's friend who tried to crap on us from above.
This was a decent aquarium, but not the best. They were definately lacking in many areas. Every species of turtle they had on display I had owned as a pet at one time or another. What does that make more pathetic? Me or the Florida Aquarium?
And just for kicks, me acting like a fully-grown eight-year-old outside the Florida Aquarium sign.
More to come... I'll post a few photos, along with some sketches I did in the Tampa Airport. All in all it was a great trip. Got to see some friends I rarely get to see and got to enjoy some weather that wouldn't normally be in my city for another three months.
Earlier this week I was running at the gym watching the numerous televisions that were splayed out in front of me. There is usually a wide array of channels to choose from: NBC, CNN, ESPN, VH1 and MSNBC just to name the a few. I generally choose to plop myself in front of the news channels. Being in the news business, I'm always looking for new ways to go about designing elements for my own projects. MSNBC has a nice graphics package so that is one channel I choose to watch a lot of. It's also one channel I can't stand listening to because of Keith Olbermann and his flaming torches of Republican hatred. This is why the gym is so valuable, all the TVs are on mute.
This leads me to the clip that I posted above. The Rachel Maddow Show this past Monday had one of the worst guest duos on in recent history. In her "GOP in Exile" segment semi-regular Arianna Huffington was joined on set by "comedian," Hal Sparks. Yes, that Hal Sparks. MSNBC couldn't get anyone else? Was Carrot Top busy pumping iron and getting plastic surgery or something? The worst part about having the former "Talk Soup" host on was that I think he was trying to take himself seriously. It also doesn't help matters when he chooses to look like Lestat (Cruises' character) from "Interview With the Vampire."
Hopefully this isn't a trend. Countdown w/Keith Olbermann had Paul F. Tompkins on earlier in the evening as a guest commentator. Shocker, another wanna be political commentator that thinks they're funny. It's like Best Week Ever on the wrong channel! People need to understand that just because you have a camera in front of you it doesn't make you qualified to rant about politics. It just doesn't. Maybe Tompkins and Sparks stayed at a Holiday Inn the evening before.
If Rachel Maddow and her producers believe in giving her young show credibility they should learn to stay away from said goofball wanna be political commentators like Hal Sparks. They need to surround themselves more with the likes of Ray J and Kim Kardashian (no reason to get fired up, this is merely a joke... or is it?)
It's already started. My eye has been twinging. Usually on the way to Nick's daycare we listen to some "Tiny Dancer" or "Madman" or "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" among others... Today was the first day of different. We listened to The Pretenders and Matchbox 20. Too weird.
Must.... find.... better.... covers..... Will not.... survive. Atleast I didn't give up cheese like my wife. Good luck with that one. Mine as well sign your death notice now.
Be wary of one-day sales at Macy's, men. Be wary. I was perusing the sales rack yesterday evening when a nice young man struck up a conversation with me. "How ya' doing?" he says. I didn't think much of it. "Fine. And you?" I reply back. With no reason to be alarmed I continue flipping discounted clothes on the rack as if they were playing cards. "I'm doing well. Looking for anything in particular?" At this point I thought he was an employee, but the bags from various other stores around his wrist were a clear indication that this man was merely just a civilian. "Nah." I answer back, "just looking." He then asked me "Is that a late present for your Valentine?" referring to the bag I'm holding from Banana Republic. "This? No. This is just a t-shirt." He then explains to me how the bag looked like very nice and that he thought it was holding a gift for someone special. He continued on how he cooked dinner for his Valentine (lasagna by the way) and that he's never cooked before. I reply back, "Wow, well that's very nice." He tells me he's an engineer and that he likes to go overboard and get everything just right. I say "Yeah, my Valentine's Day was low-key. Having a kid under the age of two just kills the romance, ya' know?" He looks at me with that slight deer in the headlights look and says, "You have a kid? Hey man, have a good night."
I guess the dude isn't into other dudes with baggage. I was a little hurt, he had never met my son. He could grow to love him as his own. I can't raise this child on my own! But, in the end it's good to know that after having a baby, men still find me desirable. I still got it, yeah!
Continuing on in the grand theme of nuclear warheads with brains comes Paisley Love. This bomb doesn't want to melt the flesh from your face, it wants to give you flowers and maybe even spoon in bed. He wants to show you that behind his cold metallic base and greased up gears that he does have a heart... and that it's on a string.
Keeping in theme with yesterday's post, we start today's entry with something in the same vein as Captain Bitchin'. Smart Bombs! Back at the end of 2005, Ken Lilly was making a small movement in the vinyl world with a line called Smart Bombs. In 2006 two sets were released at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) that would be followed shortly by the first wave of Smart Bombs. I had designed two that would have been represented in wave one if everything went according to plan. Today we'll be looking at the first design: Mr. Tinklepaugh's Stitches.
Original wrap-around design of Mr. Tinklepaugh's Stitches, 2006
Looking at this now, almost three years later I see a lot I would have changed. My main peeve with this is the width of the inking, it's the same throughout. In retrospect I should have added a variant of thicknesses throughout to make it look a bit more hand drawn than just a simple computer stroke. Maybe I'll eventually get to do that, who knows.
Next up... Paisley Love!
God Bless the MLB Network. Yesterday the channel launched with a Hot Stove Special with Host Harold Reynolds and a smattering of current and former players including Al Leiter and Jimmy Rollins. Meh, whatever, but immediately following that program was really what every Yankee fan was tuning in to see. For one of the first times since October 8, 1956 viewers would be able to watch Don Larsen's perfect game in it's entirety.
From watching the game I noticed a few things: The game in general was much faster. The commercial breaks were much quicker than in today's game. Larsen's perfect game was completed in a shade over two hours. That's gotta be some kind of a record! Also, the game was much closer than what history remembered it to be. The opposing pitcher, Sal Maglie only gave up five hits in eight innings. He also had a perfect game until Mantle's right field home run in the 4th inning. In the end he only gave up two runs. Two runs! That's what we call a gem in today's World Series. Poor Sal, all he is remembered for now is the loser of Game 5 not that he pretty much shut down a lineup that consisted of Mantle, Berra, Bauer and Slaughter. The home plate umpire helped out a lot in this game though. If the ball was remotely close to the outside part of the plate it was a strike. If he was umping in today's game he would've been sent to the minors. Players from both teams, notably Mantle, exchanged words with him on his extra wide strike zone. Mantle then hit that homerun that broke the zip-nada tie. It was in the 6th inning though was where the Yankees did their damage against Maglie and the only slugger it consisted of was Bauer. The rest was all done on the art of small ball. Third baseman Andy Carey hit a single back up the middle (that Maglie almost snagged). Next comes Larsen, who bunts with two strikes, TWO strikes! No one expected it, Larsen almost gets a single out of it and it moved Carey to second. Bauer is up next and hit a single to left field where Brooklyn's Sandy Amoros bobbled the ball enough for Carey to score from second base. And that's your ballgame.
All the commercials from the original broadcast were played. It was pretty hilarious to see Mel Allen stop Casey Stengel (who was talking to Jerry Coleman) in the clubhouse and ask if he would try this new razor. Stengel obliges and states how he can't believe how smooth his face is. At the end they tell you you can change the settings for a boy's face with light facial hair, a man's face with normal facial hair (they show Coleman shaving) and then for a man with heavy hair flow (showing Bauer). It was kind of an odd choice to pick Jerry Coleman and Hank Bauer for the commercial when you had guys like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford on the team. All three probably said "no way, go find Hank." The prices were quite exquisite in 1956 too, you got the razor and a baseball encyclopedia for $1.
UPDATE: I should have put this in my original post but forgot. In today's game Jason Giambi and David Ortiz usually have to hit into a shift put on by the opposing team's defense. I always thought this was a relatively new thought process. The shortstop, second baseman and first baseman are all on the right side of the field, leaving the third baseman to man the entire left side. In the 1956 World Series Perfect Game, the Dodgers did just that against Mickey Mantle when he was hitting left-handed. Pretty wild to see that on a game almost 52-years-old. I guess it isn't a new practice after all. And no, Mantle didn't hit into the shift. He hit over it, way over it.
