Back to the Locals....

No more sharks--it's back to Oregon's finest..including more "Tales from the UPS Store!"
On Monday, at no later than 11 in the morning a woman comes staggering up to the counter and while gesturing wildly asks, " WHERE'S THE LIQUOR STORE?" She then leans forward, intently listening to my co-worker's directions to the liquor store that's just across the street. Silence. Slowly followed by, "WHERE'S THE LIQUOR STORE?! I know it's around here somewhere!" Once more directions are given...this time not only my manger tells her again, but he's also joined by two of the customers who are nearby. She mutters something, kind of spins around and clumsily makes her way out of the store. We(3 other customers, my two managers, and myself) were all stunned for a good minute after she left, and then the wild stories of that woman's morning were concocted followed by much laughter.

The bottom drawing focuses on another part of my job. At the end of the day, I have to take the day's non-UPS mail that people have dropped off over to a local USPS sorting facility. The building alone is eerie(all front windows are covered with plaster, the only entrance is on the far right side..that type of place), but what's inside really completes the atmosphere. This guy is the definition of creepy. He doesn't say much, but his Gollum-esque, soul piercing stare scares the beejesus out of my managers and I...and on Tuesday, I was given the challenge of caricaturing him. So with sunglasses on my face, I march in, deliver the three bins of mail, and memorize Mister Creeper. The next task: Figure out his name. A name-tag has not been spotted so this could be challenging. Only change I'd make would be to his cheeks/jaw. Just a tad too chubby.

Today, I hit downtown Ashland! I staked out a busy spot and started sketching. Counting down from number 6:
6) A very cute couple(spotted very far away, so I only caught their matching wardrobe). Though I personally would have put the pink shirt/purple long-sleeved combo on the woman...but apparently real men wear pink nowadays.
5) Some guy who walked by, sort of resembled Bill Clinton...but with a giant British flag on his bulbous belly.
4)I've dubbed her shirt "Intergalatic Butterflies"--those are not polka-dots...they're stars. If I had drawn her full front it would have been a solar system with bright yellow butterflies fluttering around the stars.
3)That combination of colors has been burned into my retinas. Wow
2)Riddle me this---what do you do when you love leopard print, but can't wear the clothing all the time? Tattoo it into the flesh on your upper arms! And why stick to traditional colors--go bright red! Well, this guy did just that. Unfortuately the quality of the picture ate up a lot of the colors, but I swear the prints are there. The rest of him, bandanna, goofy smile and all were the icing on this wild cake.
And number 1) Impossible for me to take this guy completely in on the first glance. I watched him for awhile as he literally walked along the street inspecting various car bumpers. Not looking into the windows or anything...he'd step off the curb, intently stare at the front bumper, and then move on. Maybe he has a collection of license plates in his garbage bag and was hunting for more? Or the bag/backpack just contain more pairs of black stockings like the ones he was wearing under his cargo shorts.

Also, I'll be typing up the Miyazaki lecture notes this weekend...until then, over and out.

The Last of Shark Week

The final roundup of sharks. Today was a free-for-all:
So I dove right into these three. Top to bottom: Frilled Shark, Unicorn shark, and the Lemon shark.

The week has ended and so it's time to move on. But no need for a long face....gotta go out with a bang---like the Great Drunken Shark!
Just don't try arguing with 'em...my money would always be on the shark. And yes, that's a tiny jelly fish(Squishy!) the shark is incoherently babbling to.

It's only fitting to end with this. Sorry, no embedded clip, the user disabled it.

Shark Week--Elephant Shark/Great White

Friday: The comical looking Elephant Shark or Australian Ghost Shark.


Friday: The infamous Great White Shark! They're such torpedoes, but with, "lifeless, black eyes---like a doll's eyes. Doesn't seem to be livin'."(See if you can guess where I got that lil' quote from. Might need a bigger boat to find out.)

Shark Week--Mako/Hammer

Mister Mako Shark for Wednesday.---"Baaaah"

And then Thursday is Hammerhead day...and I couldn't resist making a play on "Stop! Hammertime," so there you have it.

And I spent last night doing some super quick studies from a certain trilogy.

Hate this top one, but I'm posting it nonetheless. It is a little more recognizable then this bottom one though...

I like this one a tad more. Taken from this scene:

Gandalf: [pointing to a tunnel] There!
Merry: He remembered!
Gandalf: No, but the air doesn't smell so foul here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose.

Sketchy Sharkies

Kristen has issued a challenge in honor of Discovery Channel's Shark Week to draw a species of shark a day. Here be my sharks:

Monday was Oceanic White Tip(no color on these):
Today(Tuesday) was Goblin Shark--and I went off in a different direction with this character. Instead of terrifying creature of the deep, he's...a little more "book-smart"---

Still warming up on Shark 101, but I have until Sunday to get a handle on these guys.

Roadtrip Report

A summary of my week in photos. I had an absolute blast and honestly felt like this one week lasted a whole month. I visited a bunch of friends from school along with family, toured around places like Pixar(incredibly awesome! I probably had the widest, silliest grin on my face while walking around.), LA zoo, the Getty Museum, and even attended the Hayao Miyazaki lecture in downtown LA. I also have some excerpts from my 600 + mile drive back to Oregon....that 680 in Northern California was nasty. 40 minutes to travel a whopping 8 miles? No thank you. Also, Kiwi didn't come with me on my trip so he was exceedingly estatic when I returned. Anyways, not too much else to say...I do have some sketchbook pages to share though:

My Aunt(who lives in Woodside, aka. the place where I woke up to squirrels scurrying up redwoods with giant ears of corn in their tiny mouths--photographic evidence can be seen above.) and I spent a Saturday running around San Francisco before driving over to Half-Moon Bay, where I proceeded to draw until my fingers were literally numb from the cold(it was maybe 65 there?)
On Monday, a large group of CalArtians and myself spent the day at the LA Zoo. Despite the heat(easily 95 degrees), and the insane amount of bees--we had a great time. The only really active animals were the Sifaka, everyone else was chillin' in the shade.


I do plan on typing up the notes I took at the Miyazaki lecture, so until then, here's a video.



The lecture started off by playing several trailers to his films, one being Totoro. This movie was a pretty iconic part of my childhood, along with my brother's. We watched this film several times during the summer...still one of my favorite films by Miyazaki.

Another Installment of Food Courties....

A combo of some dog park gestures and the fine folk of the food court: This next one has a special story. I come into the food court, pick a very empty table, sit down, and proceed to draw. Give or take five minutes and out of nowhere this very crazy lady comes up to me and insists I move because I'm in her seat....I really just want to draw so I get up and move a whopping 4 tables down and resume drawing---though I start to watch her out of the corner of my eye. She proceeds to walk over to a nearby Orange Julius to order something and that's my cue to start drawing--the final selling point, aside from the outfit, was the fat oozing over the handles of her walker, making her look like she was wedged in there good and tight(I wouldn't have drawn her otherwise, but after her assault, she was immediately put into the territory of 'no mercy'). So enjoy and watch out--she's a looney one.


These two mark the "closing chapter in one sketchbook, while another one begins." The woman on the left who is munching away on nachos was the final drawing in the sketchbook I started in June. Miss Tanline is the first drawing in my newly started sketchbook. That tanline was blazingly bright against the rest of her skin....she was on the other side of the food court and I could definately make out that swimsuit line. Yikes(and it's soooo skimpy! What in the world kind of swimsuit was she wearing...eww)

Alright, well this is the last of the mall updates. Tomorrow I leave for a little week long vacation(roadtrip!)--though drawing is definately on the itinerary, see ya'll in August!