Sleeping is More Important than this Title

with the release of the iphone app being just ten days away, my deadlines have been a bit rougher than i expected. and i've been receiving a gentle amount of shit-talk spoken in my direction for being the guy who draws cartoons, drinks whiskey, and generally doesn't give a fuck about stability, but is still too busy to go out and do real-life things.

this job is not nearly as easy as it sounds.

i know. it surprised me, too.

but comparing the challenge of drawing for a client to the difficulties of any other job is like comparing seal's kiss from a rose to voltaire's candide.

i don't know if it was harder lifting fifty pound sacks forty hours a week as a pet shop carryout, or harder to remain funny for non-tipping tourists after a lunch-less nine hour shift as a tour guide. they're just not the same-- they were difficult and easy in their own ways.

it's difficult to have to revise my drawings over and over, but it's easy to be drawing all day. and the challenge-- the level of importance-- is amazing in both quantity as well as quality. besides, if i weren't frustrated and panicked, i would be bored.

still can't show you it.

i'm enjoying impending deadlines, potential telepathy, and the general respect i get for being the only illustrator on a team of coders and comedians. it definitely beats asking "how may i assist you?" all day while being graded on how genuine the question sounded.

but, till the release of this app, my spare time will be spent in the immediate vicinity of my wacom and my whiskey. they don't believe i can get all twenty drawings done by wednesday and i believe i can get them done by tuesday.

it's on.

anyway, i've been getting more and more comfortable with both illustrator and the wacom. i've also been keeping up with something like a tri-weekly freestyle drawing session.

we've got a game where one person yells an adjective and another yells a noun-- then draw.

the one above was a test of illustrator's watercolor tool. lightweight giraffe. i was hoping to get a sort of children's book feel. though, the vomit and the poorly drawn brown-bagged forty might've ruined that. i guess it depends on the type of parents. but it'd be a good ska album cover either way.

looking back, this one is more like howard the duck meets steven segal rather than japanese-- or beverly hills ninja plus feathers, even. but "japanese duck" is relatively hard to draw-- especially when there is a former japanese citizen standing directly behind you.

anyway, i have sixteen drawings left and a breakfast-meeting sunday morning. but after the meeting things should slide along like a greased cat.

wish me pleasant chaos!