New Artwork

   I've been struggling for the past few months or so to draw like I really wanted to.  I've drawn here and there, and been busy with other things as well, and in one way or another, whether artist's block or just being busy, I haven't done too much lately. 
  Well, today's been good, and hopefully it will be good from here on out.  I've got alot accomplished with a first version of a logo, and a quick sketch of a girl that I just imagined from out of the blue. Will do more on both, I'm sure tomorrow, and maybe even more artwork as well! It's good to be back in the swing of things drawing again, after how well today went! :-)

Here's the logo that I designed today. It's just the first version, but maybe it's what he's looking for.

 

I was just a little bored, and decided to draw a rough sketch of a girl out of my imagination.  I may work some more on this sketch tomorrow and possibly add some color to the drawing, as well.

Dis-Engaged! ;-) Engines at Sub-light Speed!

   "Dis-Engaged!"  No, it's not something Captain Picard would say on Star Trek: The Next Generation!  Although, if I had warp engines and phasers on stun, it would've helped me out of the situation alot quicker~~not to mention having a transporter handy! However, my engines are at sub-light speed, and looking for a new course heading. Can you tell I try to handle my problems with a sense of humor and make a joke out of them?  LOL  Yes, humor helps me relax, and not worry so much about the problem, usually, and then I can handle the problem alot easier, and quicker. Making a joke also helps to make a problem not seem as bad as it is, so you definitely deal with it better~at least in my case! :-)
   Not really sure where to begin. "Start at the beginning," they say"! ... ... ... Well, I was born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in a small country town of Colquitt, Georgia, in Southwest Georgia. Oh! Not that far back, huh?  I know it's an old joke but I had to use it.
  I do want to try to be nice, and keep it as simple as I can.  Basically, I broke off the engagement with Amber.  Everything was going great for about six weeks, and then everything blew up, from out of nowhere, and she was angry all the time, and I couldn't figure why, and then she cheated on me the last two weeks, which a few of my friends, who are very dependable,  witnessed her doing so.  "So, that as they say, is 'that!,'" to quote an old saying and to quote Catherine Hicks on Star Trek: The Voyage Home!  I got the $3,500 one carat diamond ring back, among other things, in great shape~got my money back for the ring; changed email accounts, blocked her on Facebook, changed the locks on my door, and then changed everything else she might have got hold of.  Among part of the disasters in the reasons I called off the engagement, other than the obvious cheating on me, was she had told lies to me about friends being mad, making me mad at them, wondering why they were mad at me, and us, and finding other ways to make my friends disappear and losing touch with them, behind my back. This is basically all I'll talk about online. None of this whole blog is in any way the detail of what went on, just a hint of what happened.  There were some things happening the last two weeks that I found out she does and wanted to do that would make your skin crawl, and to put it nicely, dating a zombie would've been less painful the last two weeks.  At least if you date a zombie, there's hopes of being eaten, and although it's a painful death, you know the end is coming and you won't suffer anymore, because you will be dead, slowly, and eventually! ~~I didn't even have hopes of that the last two weeks we dated, and were engaged. LOL  ~~Sorry about the morbid humor, but it fits. Again, I can't tell the details. The last two weeks her personality changed, and unfortunately, she was like a black widow. Again, I'm just trying to describe the situation, not trying to put Amber down in any way.  Just trying to let you know how much she changed, and again, this is all putting it mildly.  Then, to top it off, she cheated on me with a guy I was a little acquainted with, barely, unfortunately, who never bathes, and probably hasn't bathed in a month, and when he touches his sleeves or any of his clothes, dust flies like a you just opened a mummy's tomb, who is also older than her dad, can't afford to feed himself, much less Amber, and take care of her, whose house looks like Pig Pen's on Charlie Brown, can barely put a sentence together, and all of this is the facts about him, not exaggerating, believe it or not!  Again, he's not a friend, just someone I met, and even she barely knew him.  Roadkill on the movie Rango at least gets a bath when it rains. I don't even think he bothers to do that.  Again, as funny as it sounds, these are just the facts about the guy.  It really puzzles me why she cheated on me with him. Bad enough to cheat, much less with someone like that. It's almost comical and unbelieveable that she cheated on me with someone like that!~Bad enough to cheat on me!
  Again, I got out of this unscathed, and not a scratch on me, well at least in most ways I didn't have a scratch on me. God just protected me, and several things that could've gone wrong, didn't go wrong at all.  He was watching over me, and tons of people were praying for me in this situation. Again, all of this is just scratching the surface, and the real truth is like a Stephen King novel, only this time the novel ends really well, at least for me. In all my years dating girls, I never, ever have had anything this drastic happen in two weeks, that would make your skin crawl, or even come close.  All the girls I've dated have been great, and even the relationships ended great, as good as they could anyway, except for Amber and my ex-wife, Pam, in Georgia, many years ago. Believe it or not, in the last two weeks and the month following after I broke off the engagement, Amber's breakup was worse by far. I treated her like gold, but she cheated on me anyway.  Fortunately, out of all the girls I've dated, those are the only two who've cheated on me.
  So, I'm looking for a new course heading, now. Eventually, I will be looking for another girl to date. I haven't given up on the ladies. Most I've dated have been fine, and fortunately they are all different. :-)  I made the excuse of focusing on my career for a few years or so, not to date, but even my friends back home knew that wasn't like me, since I'm around girls all the time. They encouraged me to get out and date, and within a week I was back dating again. One thing for sure, as good as it was for those six weeks, I know I want to get back out there and date again. I hadn't realized what all I was missing those few years, in dating girls, until Amber and I started dating. So, no more focusing on my career. If anything, there will be a balance of career and dating in my life, but not giving up dating. If anything, I will be dating more, like I used to. After this latest dating experience, I feel like I've been chopped up by Edward Scissorshands, but I came through it and the old James/Jim is back! :-)  Still, those first six weeks were amazing, and I definitely want to get back into dating, and continue dating, because with the right girl, those six weeks I'm sure would have been more awesome, and would continue to grow, as our relationship grew stronger. I know there's hope! The right girl is out there for me somewhere! :-)  I've just got to find the right one and beam her up! :-)

Engaged: Meeting Amber! :-)

   Yeah, it's hard to believe that I'm engaged when for the past 5 years, I've proclaimed myself as the Eternal Bachelor! :-)  No complaints about being engaged to the most beautiful lady that I know, though~in fact, I'm excited! :-)  It's just funny how life happens that way, and sneaks up on you when you least expect and changes all of your plans! LOL  Trust me, dating and being engaged is far more important in my life now than I ever thought it would be.  My fiancee', Amber Goff, still picks on me about it taking me 3-1/2 years of her chasing me, to finally notice her.  Of course I deserve all of those jokes, after that much time before I came around and asked her out! :-)  I don't deserve her, though, and fortunate to have her in so many ways! :-)  It's a miracle that she even still gave me the time of day after all that time, and for that reason, alone, I don't deserve to be engaged to her, much less other reasons. :-)  Still, she gave me the time of day, and I asked her to date, and here we are! :-)
   Well, we first met at church, 3-1/2 years ago, when both of us were volunteering on camera for TV Production, and from the time I saw her face, her eyes, and her hair, I was attracted to her~much less her personality! She loves to joke around as much as I do, if not more! :-)  So, those of you who know me, with our personalities being that much alike, we hit it off pretty well.  I would look forward to her coming in and both of us working the same camera crew in the mornings, and then she would give me a "love punch" with her fist on my shoulder, and laugh at my jokes! :-)  So, we had so much fun then, and I thought she was very beautiful! :-)  Her dad even told me, when he saw the way she gazed at me the first time we met, and the way I looked at her, that he knew I was going to be his future son-in-law! :-)  That's how well Amber and I hit it off from the beginning! :-)
   Now, if you get technical, we didn't meet at our church, for the first time.  We actually met several times in Albuquerque, at Walmart, coffee shops, car shows, and even The Frontier restaurant a few times, before then.  One time, at The Frontier, I was showing my ex-room-mate, Duane, how easy it is to talk to girls, if he would just be himself, and Amber happened to be behind me in line, and I turned to her and started talking to her, and didn't know her at the time.  Later, on another visit to The Frontier, Duane and I were going over the script and the storyboard art that I drew for a short film, we were filming, and this beautiful blonde with a feather in her hair, walks in and sits down.  I couldn't take my eyes off of her! First of all, she was beautiful, and second, not many blondes wear a feather in their hair, and my jaw dropped!  I thought I was dreaming! :-)  Well, she remembered me from talking to her in line, and she was with two guys at the time, and the two guys sat on the opposite side of her when she sat down.  Now, that I thought was strange! A beautiful girl and two guys it in the chair OPPOSITE of her! Crazy, was what I was thinking!  I couldn't figure this out for the life of me!  I wanted to go over and say Hi and talk to her, but I couldn't figure out the two guys! This was driving me batty, and my room-mate even noticed.  He wondered why I didn't go ahead and talk to her  I told him, normally I would, but she was with two guys, and I couldn't figure out if she was with one guy who sat opposite of her, and the other was tagging along, or if she wasn't with a guy at all, and they sat opposite of her for that reason.  It sort of looked like she wasn't with any of those guys, but I couldn't be sure.  Come to find out, she spotted me, and remembered seeing me before, and asked those two friends of hers to sit on the opposite side, hoping I would come up and talk to her.  She saw that once she sat down, again, I couldn't take my eyes off of her, sitting at the table across from us! :-)
   Even then, that wasn't the first time we met.  She remembered seeing me in Knoxville, Tennessee at the Walmart, and she and I noticed each other then, and hit it off pretty well, too! :-)  Of course that time was just before I moved from Knoxville to Albuquerque! :-)  I was also a manager of a fine art department in an arts and crafts store there, too, and she remembered seeing me there, as well! :-)
   Soooooo, if you get technical, Amber and I have known each other for some time, now, and then 3-1/2 years ago, was when we got to know each other better, and hit if off well, as friends! :-)  Now, she's my BEST friend, the girl of my dreams, the girl that I love, and looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her! :-)  I love you, Amber! :-)
   Hope you enjoyed the story! :-)  There's more to it, and I'll write more about it later! :-)

The Newest Pirate

  Well, here's the newest pirate drawing. They wanted something a little more simplified, and sent me a drawing that was copyrighted, and I drew my version of a much simpler drawing than what she sent me. So, from their cartoon, I drew this one, in the same style but totally different in the way it looks! :-) 
  

Pirate T-shirt Designs

  Funny thing: Just fiinished watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the minute I finished workiing on designs for a pirate T-shirt.  Sometimes when I draw and paint I will watch movies and listen to music related to what I'm drawing. My brother's wife, Cassie, needed a design for a Relay for Life that her place where she works is doing for the American Cancer Society, and she asked if I would draw something for her. Both of these are done with the Wacom Tablet to save time, drawing and coloring straight into the computer, with Corel PainterXI and Photoshop CS3 Professional Suite.

A Basic design for a T-shirt for my brother's wife.



A second design that I made. Had to keep it all simple for the colors to show up well on a T-shirt.



Girl and Car Concept Art

   Here's a copy of a rough pen and ink sketch of a girl and a car that I was doing for a short film idea a friend of mine had about six years ago.

Concept Logo Design

  I've been working on a logo for a friend, who just started his own business. This is just some concept art, but will have the final art, pretty soon. This is just to get the idea on paper~well digital paper, that is~so I can see which direction I need to go, and what changes he wants, as well.

    Above, is the 2nd concept that I drew for the cartoon logo. It was the first of the drawings that started me in what I thought might be a possible direction to go with it.

  After finding a decent concept to start in a rough sketch, I redrew it again, and the result was this 3rd drawing, above.  It still has possibilities, and far from a refined finish, but it also gives me more ideas for a better drawing that will have better lines, and start to look like a cartoon logo should.  This is only two of the steps. Will continue to work on the logo in the computer and drawing with the Wacom tablet. It's so much faster doing concept and final art for things like this in the Wacom Tablet, and no scanning needed to transfer to the computer. Will update again, as soon as I get closer to the final design.