Everybody's Working for [Thanksgiving] Weekend...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is enjoying the long weekend. I hope your Friday wasn't too Black.

As for us, we had our first Thanksgiving with just the two of us. We enjoyed some homemade cinnamon rolls and some great coffee as we watched the parade and then set the turkey a-roasting. There was much eating, as I imagine there was for everyone on Thanksgiving, and we will be enjoying leftovers for some time to come. (Gobbleritos, anyone?)

In a little stroke of brilliance, Kelly suggested that we check out Michaels' pre-Black Friday sale on Thursday night, and I bought them out of the frames I use for my 10x10 prints. We were in and out in like 20 minutes, probably saw less crowds than an average weekend, and saved about 75%.

And then... the orders started flowing in. We spent all of Friday on my business. I ran out of frames and trekked all over the valley looking for more. Kelly played customer service rep for me while I was out, and helped me pack orders. We put in a massive print order, which didn't arrive in time to ship. So, this morning we finally hit the post office and shipped... 14 packages! (I have five more that need to go out too).

Here's the part of it that looks really cool. I transferred my earnings out of my Paypal account, and the amount I made this week in sales is about what I see on each of my bi-weekly paychecks from my day job. That makes working from home seem very, very attainable. It was exciting, very much so.

Here's the Debbie Downer part... I spent $200 at the post office today. And about that much in printing and packing materials. And north of $100 on frames. Just as seeing all the money come in was hugely exciting, seeing a huge chunk of it go back out again was sort of deflating.

I know that I have a 30-40% profit margin on my items so over half that money was bound to disappear, but I got a little carried away seeing my Paypal account fill up. It's still hugely gratifying to see so much success flooding into my shop, and it does make working from home seem closer. I just also learned the number one rule of business... gotta spend money to make money. :)

In other news, I finally sold some of the Harry Potter pieces that took me SO. LONG. to finish, so I'm really excited about that.. and I finally sold one of my Pulp Fiction prints, too. That means the only item I have yet to sell is my Elf print, which I only posted yesterday.

Anyhow, I finally got to see what gets the retail world all riled up about Black Friday. Hopefully, Cyber Monday is good to me too.

Now, with a little over a week left until I really need to start thinking of myself as "in my thirties" (as opposed to just "thirty"), I'm pretty sure that week is going to fly by, along with the rest of 2011... Who's got big plans to finish out the last month of this decade?

Yer a Wizard, Harry!

I've posted a new typographical tribute to one of my favorite cinematic and literary franchises: Harry Potter. You can get just the prints, or you can purchase them framed, all from my shop.

It's hard to overstate the effect Harry Potter has had on popular culture in the US, the UK, and around the world. The story works very well as a hero's journey to his ultimate confrontation with his antagonist, as well as the story of a young boy going through adolescence into adulthood.


The series is obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but for those who "get it", it's a magical ride into a world that exists just beside our own.

This is where I would normally interject some interesting facts about the featured movie. Instead, I'll just say that I've spent just about every free hour for the last four days on creating, tweaking, and posting these pieces (including the last 3.5 hours of this almost-humpday). Now, I's goin' to beds.

New Work

So, this month hasn't gone quite as planned. While there has been some writing, there has been much more graphic designing going on. I still hope to meet my deadlines, but it'll be a bit of a scramble now.

On the up side, I have some new work to share. These will be going up in the Etsy shop soon, and I'll write more about them when they do.

I give you.. my Harry Potter set: Villains, Heroes, and Magic.

Breaking Radio Silence

Okay, so I realize it has been forever since I posted here. Here's the latest with me:

The Pacific Northwest- In Mid-October, Kelly and I took an amazing nine-day journey. We flew to Seattle, and then drove our way down the Pacific coast back to North Hollywood. The trip was AMAZING. We also had an agenda: find a new place to live. We'll be looking to start a family sooner rather than later, and Los Angeles just is not the place for it. Now that we're back, we've been seriously looking into moving to the Portland area within the next six months or so.

Seller's Success- Since we got back, I've moved my focus away from my art to finish another, long-outstanding project: my guide to opening a successful shop on Etsy. I finally finished writing and spent most of Halloween weekend proofreading, formatting it into a very lovely PDF, and posting the item up for sale. You can view it in my Sellers Success Etsy shop here.

Other Creative Pursuits- The Sellers Success guide was my first success in a series of three goals that will bring me through the end of the year:

October: Finish and publish Etsy Guide

November: Finish the first draft of my novel

December: Illustrate my novel.

Yup. I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I'm currently seventeen chapters into what will be a twenty-one (or so) chapter novel. It's a project I started a loooong time ago, originally as a screenplay, and finally finishing it will be a colossal accomplishment for me.

It's an action-adventure novel, young adult friendly but not necessarily young adult targeted. It'll be about the length of one of the medium-sized Harry Potter novels when I'm done. It will also feature a full-page illustration for every chapter, and I'll probably post some of my ongoing work on those here, once the work is actually ongoing. :)

Holidays- This is my favorite time of year, but it's also like hitting the very bottom of the slide, where you just fly forward and you're on the ground before you even know it's happened. Halloween, Thanksgiving, My birthday, wife's birthday, Christmas, Mother-in-Law's birthday, New Years, ZOOOOOOOOM! Year's over. Between all of that, and my novel, and the other various business odds and ends I'll need to do, I may be fairly silent here until the calendar rolls over to 2011.

Don't stop checking in every once and a while, though. I'm going to try to finish a few more typography pieces before the end of the year, and I might post some illustrations as well, so pop in to say hi every now and again.

What's everyone else's plans for what's left of 2010?

Typography-o-rama comes to an end

And that, as they say, is all she wrote, folks. I just posted the last of the movie homage pieces that I have made so far. I'll be focusing my attention on some writing projects (and our upcoming trip to the Pacific Northwest!) So I may be incommunicado on this blog for just a little bit.

I will be coming back, though... Both to this blog and to more homage pieces. What movie/book/song/tv show/poem/etc would you like to see get the homage treatment? Let me know by leaving a comment!

Do Not Watch. I cannot go when you watch.

We've come to the last of my movie homage pieces... for now. I present to you: Fight Club, available framed and as a print only. Perfect for your single serving friends.

Fight Club is the perfect picture of Gen X apathy mixed with a heavy dose of anti-consumerism, with a bit pf psychosis to boot. It features superb performances by Brad Pitt, Ed Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. A dystopian classic of my generation.

Here are some interesting facts about Fight Club:

• Tyler's recipe for explosives, as described in the movie, does not actually work. The one from the book, however, does.
• In an interview, David Fincher claims there is a Starbucks coffee cup visible in every shot of the movie. You'll have to check it out and let me know.
• There's a scene where a Fight Club member sprays down a priest with water. The camera shakes a little because the cameraman couldn't help but laugh.
• Brad Pitt went to a dentist to get one of his front teeth chipped to pl
  ay Tyler Durden.
• The packaging for Avery 8293 Matte White High-Visibility Labels (the real product, not in this movie) shows a letter with an address label attached. The label is made out to Tyler Durden.
• The producers' first choice of director was not David Fincher, but Peter Jackson. Jackson, however, was too busy prepping for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
• Ed Norton was a final contender for three leading roles at the same time: Fight Club, Man on the Moon, and The Talented Mr Ripley. Man on the Moon went to Jim Carrey only because he was a bigger box office draw, and The Talented Mr Ripley went to Matt Damon. Without these two twists of fate, Ed Norton may not have starred in Fight Club in one of his most best-known roles.
  

The Salted Pork is Particularly Good!

I've posted my tribute to my favorite movie trilogy: Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. You can get just the print, or you can purchase it framed.

All three of these films are still in the top 20 highest grossing films of all time, with Return of the King coming in at number three behind Avatar and Titanic. It's hard to say exactly how much these films mean to me, as an achievement in film, as the film(s) with the most moving score of all time, as an adaptation of one of my favorite book series ever since childhood. I have a lot of personal feelings tied up in the metaphor of the ring's journey and the relationships in the story, not to mention fond memories of seeing the films for the first time, and rewatching the Extended Editions in several long marathon sessions, with close friends.

Here are some interesting facts about the Lord of the Rings trilogy:

• Ian Holm, who plays Bilbo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring, also played Frodo Baggins in the 1981 BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
• The Two most renowned Middle Earth artists, John Howe and Alan Lee, appear in cameos as two of the nine human lords who later become the Nazgul.
• The two men were also an integral part of the visual design process for the trilogy.
• Very little CGI was used in making the Hobbits appear so small. Instead, Jackson mostly utilized forced perspective camera tricks (objects and people closer to the camera appear larger than those further away).
• All three films were shot consecutively, on location in New Zealand. It is estimated this brought about $200,000,000 dollars into the New Zealand economy.
• The Helm's Deep battle at the climax of The Two Towers took four months to shoot.
• The final day of filming for the trilogy, a shot of some skulls for the Extended Edition DVD, was completed three weeks after Return of the King had already won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

I Don't Know. I Didn't Go Into Burger King.

Pulp Fiction is the lastest film to be homage-itized in my Etsy Shop. It comes in framed and print-only styles, but not with mayonnaise. Gross.

I feel like picking a favorite movie is like picking a favorite person. It just hurts feelings. But, if you twist my arm behind my back and.. okay okay stopit! Ow! Ow! Ooowwww! Stop it! Mom! Oooww! MOOOOM! Uncle! Uncleuncleuncleuncle! OKAY IT'S PULP FICTION!

Here are some fun facts about Pulp Fiction:

• The role of Vincent Vega was originally written for Michael Madsen, who played Vincent's brother Vic in Reservoir Dogs. Madsen couldn't do it, due to a scheduling conflict.
• Tarantino has often talked about having both actors reprise their roles in a Vega Brothers movie, but has yet to do so.
• When buying heroin from Lance, Vincent complains about his car getting keyed. It's clearly Butch who did it, off camera. He later kills Vincent with his own gun so keying his car seems unnecessary.
• The part of Jimmie was written for Steve Buscemi. He couldn't do it due to a scheduling conflict, but appears briefly as "Buddy Holly"
  at Jackrabbit Slim's.
• Tarantino wanted "My Sharona" to be the song played during the Gimp torture sequence because if its, ah... appropriate bass rhythm. He couldn't get the rights.
• The "Bad Mother Fucker" wallet was not made for the movie, it belonged to Tarantino, and is a reference to Shaft.
• "Martin and Lewis or Amos and Andy?" means "Vanilla or Chocolate?" Think about it.
• Tarantino collects vintage TV-show themed bo
  ard games, and did not pass up the opportunity to sit down and play "Welcome Back, Kotter" with John Travolta during filming of Pulp Fiction. I am not making this up.

I'm not saying this print is what was inside Marcellus Wallace's briefcase but.. well, it's pretty cool.

...or El Duderino if You're Not Into the Whole Brevity Thing.

My homage to The Big Lebowski has been posted, framed and unframed. Put it on your Christmas list, or pick one up for the bowling enthusiast, slacker, philanthropist, or Nihilist in your life.

1998's incomparable The Big Lebowski is written and directed by the Cohen brothers and stars Jeff Bridges as "the Dude, "a role that seems to define what Bridges himself would be up to if he hadn't been born into a Hollywood family.

The Cohen brothers manage to take what should by all means be a contrived and ridiculous story about incomprehensible and largely unlikable people and craft it into a modern-day classic. There isn't a hipster alive who doesn't wish he could be friends with the Dude, nor who doesn't know a blow-hard with a heart of gold like Walter.

Here are some fun facts about The Big Lebowski:

• Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, and Sam Elliott were all the actors that the Cohens had in mind when they wrote the screenplay.
• In the movie, the Dude never actually bowls.
• The nine-toed girl (who gives her toe to the nihilists) is played by musician Aimee Mann
• The plot starts when Jackie Treehorn's thugs bust into the Dude's apartment. One of them pees on his rug. the other is played by Mark Pellegrino, aka Jacob from Lost.
• The second time we see the thugs, each is wearing the clothing that the other was wearing in their first appearance.
• A White Russian (or, a "Caucasian") is 2 parts vodka, one part coffee liqueur, one part cream.
• Jeff Bridges had one question for the Cohens before every scene: "Did the Dude burn one on the way over?" If the answer was yes, he would rub his eyes to make them bloodshot before the take.
• Every bowling shirt Donny wears has someone else's name on it.
• As ridiculous as he sounds when he is saying it, everything Walter says about the kidnapping is dead-on. Bunny was not really kidnapped, it was not her toe, and there never was any ransom money.

Stay tuned, there are more films to come!

As You Wish

Today, I've posted my typographical homage to The Princess Bride. The framed version is available here, and the print-only version here.

The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner, was released in 1987. At the time, I was seven years old, just about the right age to place myself in Fred Savage's shoes (well... bedsheets, anyway) and feel the same sense of wonder and adventure at this story as his character did. This is a timeless classic. I've been disappointed recently by how some old 80s favorites fail to hold up to the test of time (Labyrinth, I'm looking at you), but The Princess Bride is just as funny and quotable now as it was then.

Here are a few fun facts about the Princess Bride:

• As thick as Andre the Giant's accent is in the movie, his real accent is even harder to understand. Every time he would forget to annunciate, co-star Mandy Patinkin would slap him in the face to remind him. One assumes Andre took this in good humor or there would be no more Mandy Patinkin.
• Vinzzini isn't just blustering when he says "never get involved in a land war in Asia." This is a real strategic principal, similarly presented by Field Marshal Bernard L Montgomery to the House of Lords in 1962 (although presumably with less cackling).
• There really was a Dread Pirate Roberts, too, thought to be one of the most successful pirates of all time.
• It's not stated in the movie, but the screenplay notes that the boy and his grandfather live in Evanston, Illinois. Take a look at the bedroom and you'll find Cubs and Bears items all over the place. Go Chicago!
• On the DVD scene menu, the scene that should have been labeled "Pit of Despair" was incorrectly labeled as "Pit of Desire." That would have been a very, very different scene.

Signature, Shop, and Star Wars

So, it's been a while since I've posted. Last time I had the excuse of being hyperactive over at my other blog, Fatblog. This time... Eh, I've just been lazy. It happens.

However, for the last two days, I feel like I've done nothing but work, so what goes around come around, or glass people shouldn't throw stones at baskets of unhatched eggs, or... whatever colloquialism I'm looking for.

My first bit of business lately was coming up with a new digital signature for my art. I've been looking lately at going back to my geek roots and starting up role-playing again. As such, I've been looking at the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Players Handbook, and noticed some art by Scott Fischer. Ficsher's art is sweet, but what I really noticed is his signature:



I thought, man, my poorly scribbled "SS" just doesn't match up to that. I love the play on his name with the fishbone. I drew on that idea and thought "Smith... Smithy... Blacksmith", and thus came up with the following. What do you think?


In slightly more relevant news... I opened my Etsy Store! Skahfee Studios is open for business. You should check it out. For now, just my Star Wars pieces have posted. Over the next week or so, I'll be posting new items every couple of days. Keep an eye on my shop for the items, and keep an eye out right here for some words on what the piece means to me.

I've already talked a (quite) bit about Star Wars here, so that's why these 3 pieces don't get their own post. Seeing the Star Wars movies was a formative moment in the childhood of quite a number of geeks, and I certainly can't count myself out of their number.

A lot can be said for the work that Lucas has done in the last ten years and how... uh, not so wonderful... it has been. What is hard to deny, however, is that Lucas is a master world builder. Every alien race, every futuristic piece of machinery, every planet where it never stops raining (or never starts) that he created could easily be a bit of flimsy, two-dimensional scenery for his actors to chew. Instead, it all feels grounded in a real history and it's all just swimming with little perfect details. That is Lucas's legacy, and it's something that should make every creative mind jealous long after we forget how wooden Hayden Christensen was as Anikin Skywalker.

Anyway, that's enough from me... I'll be back!

Typographical Love

Be forewarned, there's some profanity in the following images. If you prefer not to see it, you'll want to skip this post.
My recent Star Wars pieces aren't my first forays into expressing my Geek-itude via typography. It all started when we moved into our current apartment and decided we were done decorating our home with posters bought in the framing section at Michaels. We had been looking around for a long time trying to find a way to decorate the long, short (as in not-very-tall) section of wall over our breakfast bar.
What I came up with was a series of four prints that, framed, look a little like this:
The featured movies are Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Snatch.

These hung for a long time before they started to get some admiration from visitors and I soon did The Big Lebowski and The Princess Bride prints by request as gifts for last Christmas.
When the Etsy store opens (and I have decided to do so, more to follow on that) I'll be posting some of these for sale. Here are some closeups on Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, and The Princess Bride:

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this style, leave me some comments. :)

In other news, I've redesigned my other blog, FatBlog! as well as Kelly's, A Perfectly Paper Blog, so check out both. I have also begun work again on my action/fantasy novel, which I hope to self-publish (as in, make a few copies for myself and maybe some friends) by Christmas. The book will feature a full-cover dustjacket and chapter illustrations (a' la Harry Potter), so expect some of that work to appear here in the weeks and months to come.

I've also been thinking about participating in a Shirt.Woot Derby some time in the near future, if inspiration strikes (as if I don't have enough projects).

What's everyone else up to lately?

All Quiet on the Blogging Front..

I know, I know... It's been a little quiet around here lately.

But I did recently write TWELVE posts on my other blog, over at my web design and consulting business, Fat Dude Design.

The posts themselves are concerned with building a Facebook Fan Page for your brand, business, art, or craft. You can check it out here.

Later this week, I'm going to offer to make a portrait of you, and talk a little bit about selling my wares on Etsy.

More to come...

A little plug...

I'm a busy little bee. Maybe sometimes not quite as busy as others, but lately more so than before.

One of the many hats this busy little bee wears is as a web designer. Tonight, we're celebrating the official re-launch of Kelly's website. Please join me in congratulating Kelly on her redesign. You can visit her at www.myperfectlypaper.com, and drop her a line at her blog, www.myperfectlypaper.com/blog.

Or... hey, while you're at it, you can put your money where your mouth is, and congratulate her with a purchase of a beautiful paper rose bouquet that is more beautiful and perfect than the real thing... and will never wilt or die. Pony up at perfectlypaper.etsy.com

And hey... speaking of web design, did I mention I have a special little web designer hat? Well, I do! Seek me out at www.fatdudedesign.com.

As a side note, today marks the official retirement of the "Current Projects" label for me, cuz... I'm not writing about much else here. I might as well label them "blog post."

Wow, I guess that's it for the weekend already... Happy Monday, everyone!

Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!

Here's the last one. I'm not 100% satisfied, so it may not be quite fully armed and operaitonal yet, but it's close, I think.

Here's what all three currently look like next to one another. Darth's spotlight effect is a little more pronounced than the other two, and I like it better, so there will be a little bit of tweaking to do.
I have a lot of web design and writing work on my to-do list, so I may be silent for just a bit on the art front, but I have many many more projects on my plate for this blog as well, so stay tuned!

Random Art #1

From time to time I'm going to share some random recent projects of mine. This is more of a test than anything else, to see how much better I've got at some different techniques since the last time I worked on getting my webcomic off of the ground.

I call this "Mine?"

New Watermark

You may have noticed the watermark on my Boba Fett image. This is of course not a new addition to my art itself, but just a way to protect my work here on the 'nets.

Here's a better look:
I had a little help when I was designing it this afternoon. Apparently Moleskines are tasty.



Happy Caturday!

What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me.

My homage to The Empire Strikes Back is done.
As with Lord Vader, Boba here is created with every bit of dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back, plus the opening scroll.

I thought this would be easier than the first since Boba's helmet is mostly large, solid shapes, but getting convincing curves out of blocks of text was frustrating. It's still a little sloppier than I'd like around where the dome of the helmet meets the visor.

Much more so than with my Star Wars project, I'm struck by how great the script is. Lots of smiles and fond memories as I went through this one. That Han Solo may be a scruffy-looking nerf herder, but he's charming too, eh?

It may be time for a movie marathon soon.

Apropos of nothing...

So, over the last few days, Kelly and I rewatched the Pirates of the Carribean movies, and it reminded me... As a kid, I'd hear the term "Davy Jones's Locker" ... (Where does a kid hear that? I wasn't big on pirate fiction. Hmmm.) ... and it would always confuse me.

Why is he going to Davy Jones's locker? It doesn't make any sense!!!

Ahhh, to be a kid again.

-S

We meet again at last. The circle is now complete.

After much gnashing of teeth, it's done:

Darth is completely made up with every bit of dialogue from the non-extended edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. No omissions, no repeats. No stupid scene with Jabba the Hutt at Mos Eisley. The different shades of black are accomplished with different text size and spacing; it's all just 100% K black.
Part one of my homage to the original Star Wars trilogy is done. I'm eying candidates for my Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi pieces. I'd like each to be an iconic image, and one that's important to the film it represents. Faces (rather than masks like ol' Darth here) aren't likely to turn out. My current candidates:These are, by the way, not simply digital art. I intend to print and frame these as 10x10s. I may even consider putting them up on Etsy...

One last thought, if you're not familiar with shirt.woot, well, now you are. Some real gems there, and they have their own typographical nod to the Star Wars universe. I give you, the @-@ (non-geeks, my apologies. You won't get it. So... this one is a visual joke that should be on everyone's level.)

And with that, the weekend is nearly over. So, an early happy Monday to everyone. Here's to a productive, creative week!

I Find Your Lack of Faith... Disturbing.

Hey, welcome back... or... hello, for the very first time!

As long as I've already gone on and on and on about what amused me in my childhood, I might just dip into that well one more time. It's relevant, I promise.
I'm a 30-something (well, not quite -something yet, thank you very much) male geek, so naturally one of the key components of my childhood was Lucas's Star Wars trilogy. (That's right, I said trilogy. As in three movies. As in there were not three more, and they did not drop the ewoks off at the pool all over my childhood, got it?) I have such weird specific memories of the flicks from when I was a little kid. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's charred corpses were really disturbing. Han getting frozen in Carbonite was confusing. And even then, yeah, I wasn't too sure about the Ewoks' contribution to the overall Star Wars oeuvre. But overall, man, I just got lost in those movies, and I wore the hell out of the VHS tapes that my parents had recorded the films on, off of HBO.
All this comes back to me lately as I mutter obscenities under my breath at the sides of Darth Vader's helmet.

The current project is an offshoot of something I've done before, typographical art created with memorable quotes from some of my favorite movies (one movie to a piece, natch.) Today's work-in process looks like this:
If what I'm doing here isn't immediately apparent, here's a closeup of old Sithy's chrome-dome:
That is the dialogue from Episode IV: A New Hope. Well, a portion of it. It'll fit. It'll all fit. I'll force it if I have to.

Here's the part that made me stop for tonight:



Those raggedy-ass edges just won't do, but damn if I'm not going cross-eyed fixing the spacing line-by-line, word-by-word. We'll get there folks, but ol' Skahfee can't take any more for the night.

Inception tomorrow, Zuma beach on Sunday, and plenty of productivity in-between! Happy weekend, everyone!

Cheers,
S

Messieurs et mesdames, Bienvenue au cirque du Skahfee!

(with apologies to Mister Jingles.)

Hello, all. It's been a while since I've had a blog, but lately I've felt the tug, and I've been embarking on a new journey that I thought bore some documenting to random strangers (and maybe a few friends).

Since I can remember, I've had a lot of creative ambitions. I mean, a lot. I made stop-motion movies with my dad's camcorder when I was in grade school, and I was in choir in high school, and did some theatre all the way up past college. I struggle with writing all the time, I've taught myself to design websites, and I've even dabbled a bit with computer game design over the years.

Lately, I've been thinking about one old creative desire that's remained unrequited for most of my life. There was a long time when I was a kid, beginning in grade school up through Junior High, when I was really, really into art. Drawing, specifically. I had a manila folder when I was a kid, just jammed full of drawings I'd scribbled on computer paper with bic pens. A pen and a piece of paper was almost as good as a toy box to me for a while, I remember drawing out epic fantasy battles that would put Tolkien to shame.

It continued through Junior High, when I got my hands on How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (And after like ten seconds of searching Google, Here it is! Dang, do we live in the future or what?), and decided that I was going to draw a comic book. I can't even tell you how much of American History I completely missed scribbling in notebooks and referring to my dog-eared reference and hanging on Stan the Man's every word (all written before I was even born).

I even did a year of art class in my freshman year of high school, but something changed in my creative leanings and I soon dropped it for choir. After that, drawing and art were delegated to random dabblings and scribbles.

I've felt the tug again lately, though (as well as in a million other creative directions). I have dozens of little projects on the backburner, and I'll document some of my progress here for anyone who's interested to read it (or you know, to amuse myself, as I am wont to do.)

A side note, you're visiting me today on skahfeestudios.blogspot.com. My old blog, skahfee.blogspot.com is abandoned and was snatched up almost immediately by a spambot. I've informed the good folks at Blogger, but... well, you know how it goes.

I'll see you around the corner. Till then.

Cheers!
S