856 - Condensed Lumps

 

Taking a few days off from JSVB provided some surprising dividends.  If you look in on my blog often enough, you'll see my iconic red "Buy More Art" placeholder.  Seems some folks paid attention to that: I've sold a couple of pieces lately and and I also have some exciting  projects on spec.  Boy howdy, I do love paying customers!  The money will likely be reinvested in new supplies and materials to make even more art. 

 

The process of going away for a while is supposed to help recharge the creative juices.  Letting go also seems to have helped the pocketbook, at least for this time.  Although I brought my sketchbook on vacation, I didn't draw anything on my time off.  Instead, I tried some creative writing.  If my friend Earl is reading this, it's a fiction about Leaf Rapids, and something about which to cringe with worry and anticipation.  I doubt I will ever post it to JSVB.

 

I did some writing in my time at University, but none of it was much good.  My stories went from lurid to lumpy.  Now that I have matured a bit, I've tightened up the old prose a little.  The lumps are more condensed. 

 

Rip-off alert:  I drew myself as a child in the style of Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" cartoons.  When I was little I did wear big glasses and I could type a bit.  Today, that looks cute in a hipster sort of way.  Back in the 1970's, big glasses and typing was a recipe for social misery.  Anyways, I should give credit to Mr. Schultz for his brilliant cartoon creation which was a big influence on me as a child.  I find it funny how hard it was to draw in the Schultz style as a child and how easy it is for me now. 

I have another self-portrait that I drew in the Flintstones' style, which you can see by clicking here.  I also have a portrait of me as a Simpsons character, but that was drawn by someone else.  I'll have to post that someday.

 

Credit goes to Camino Palmero, who provided the free paper texture I used to age the image a little. 

 

Lastly, the text in my image does not belong to me.  It's the very first line from the Michael Butterworth novel "The Psychomorph" (1977).  What an opening!  The rest of the book does not disappoint, as long as you like giant space amoebas with attitude problems.