Thoughts of No Return

One day after watching a few standup comedies on television, I had this thought while showering...

Why are there so many Jewish comedians?

Then it hit me. It all goes back to the Old Testament to the part where Abraham had 2 sons, one from his wife who sired Isaac at 90+ years of age, and the other from his egyptian concubine who sired Ishmael. Abraham's son, Isaac, means "to laugh" and "wisdom". Those two traits are ideally what makes up a comedian.

His half-brother Ishmael would always be the one mocking him. In essence, Ishmael was history's first recorded 'heckler' while Isaac would be the one standing up (for himself?) with his self-deprecating humour.

Now that we know a little bit more about Isaac, how about the time when Abraham was told by voices in his head to go sacrifice Isaac to the altar? Can you imagine if Isaac was a bit like Woody Allen being his neurotic self, talking to his father on the way there? Can't blame him for wanting to sacrifice him.

Envelocrodile

Bic pen on Envelope
Coloured on Photoshop

Quick doodle, quick colouring.

Scrying Warmup

Now I did this out of boredom and ended up having some fun with it. I did not expect it to result in anything post-worthy at all. Sometimes I like to look around, browse through something visually abstract in order to peel out images from out of nothingness to generate some creativity. Probably the best way to go at it (at least it works for me) because that can get the creative juices flowing which in turns gets the enthusiasm going. Motivation comes after action afterall.

Top image is something I've drawn as a result from staring at my Firefox browser decorated with a Persona (2nd image down is a screenshot of it) for a long time. I keep looking at a specific corner (as shown by arrows on the screenshot) every time the browser loads up or during lulls in surfing.

For Firefox Personas, go here
Credit also goes to elreviae of deviantart for feeding my soul with the inspiration.

I dunno the technical term or artsy fartsy word for an activity somewhat similar to cloud watching, so 'scrying' will be the word that I'm using for now. Note to self, I really need to write up a "What is Scrying?" section somewhere on this blog soon to avoid repeating myself.

In the end, it doesn't really feel like my work because I'm using someone else's to create another piece. But some parts I could isolate and be happy with that and call it my own. But for now I just love the way it turned out, armour and all, minus the face. I don't care for the face but I wanted it to be a centaur'ish type of creature to begin with.

I am also so very personally tired of the Lord of the Rings Balrog's flaming hair/weapons type of cliche as well, but I ran with the idea anyways so as not to squelch any creative juices during the process. The editing of all things can commence AFTERwards.

Migraine March to May,Meep Meep!

Ink on paper w/ editing/touchups on Photoshop

Ahhhh feels good to be back into drawing again. Finally got a nice break from the constant headaches so I thought it'd be a good idea to get something drawn inbetween the down times. Yeah, it's not over yet. I fear that they will never end but oh well, what can you do?

Creature Feature

Two weeks straight of headaches going into the 3rd with no sign of letting down. All the demons + monsters in my head are getting maniacally restless and needs to be let out. So I ended up drawing a few escapees to keep my head from asploding. So far, no mess!

A Few Chicks

Finally swatted those monkeys off my back! Feels so good and yet it's still proving to be quite a conundrum as far as drawing goes.

I'm still in sitting in purgatory over this whole drawing thing. How do I get back into it and why should I keep doing it? The feeling is lacking and at times I feel like I'm forcing it out of habit without any emotional attachment to it. That's not a good sign, at least not for me anyways. I need that 'special something' to go on with, without that 'special something' there is no point to it. Call it a spark if you will, passion, love or desire. Drawing, sometimes I hate it, sometimes I miss it. I don't always love it so it's very hard to keep on keeping on with this whole thing.

I know the writing sounds pretty dim. It's just the way I feel about it hence the lack of updates over the last few months.

I need something like a comeback. Perhaps a new way of thinking, or feeling, or rediscovering is in order.

Thought Du Jour

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

--- Thomas Edison

“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search... I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”

--- Nikola Tesla

So, after reading Tesla's quote should Edison's quote be 1% genius, 9% perspiration? 90% theory + calculation or something else?