P.S. Do remember that L I A N ’s new home is now at http://www.l-i-a-n.com !

This was the first one....the angle was awkward.  The bottom of her rib cage, at least from that position, looked a little strange, but it came out alright for the most part.

This was my favorite...I've pumped the contrast a little too much, but I'm too lazy to go correct it (the shading was very, very, light).  Her torso is too thick, which you can see if you look at the thickness beneath "her" left arm.  If that back defining line, the one indicated by the little black triangle in the crook of her elbow, was moved over a few milimeters, it would do wonders.  Her head, and specifically her hair, was what I was interested in.  It didn't come out amazing, but I liked it better than anything else I produced this session.

Charcoal Club was crazy crowded this time around (which is a good thing), but since my dumb ass was about 15 minutes late, it meant I didn't have much to go with seating wise, basically a chair against the back wall.

Not much to say about these two either.   Nothing amazing, but nothing worth biting your pencils in two and throwing yourself in front of the light rail.

Oh well, maybe next week.

By the way, Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore is this Monday, Oct 13, 7 to 10 at Dionysus.  If you're having trouble scheduling your drawing and your beer, it's a good way to get it all out of the way at once.

After a long while of deciding on my next project I decided that I wanted to persue the manga style of drawing.  So you'll be getting nice hefty helping of my attempts to learn the style over the next few months.

This my first attempt at working with manga style hands.  I think that I've got the fists down alright, but I have problems with open hands.  I don't really know how to get them to look less segmented.  If any one knows a good tutorial site for this type of work, hand related or not, please post it in a comment.  It would be greatly appreciated.

This is what happens when I have a few minutes to kill.  I really don't know what I was going for by doing this but for pure amusement.  Anyway, above is a collection of six randomly designed logos in gray scale.  The drawing to the left of every image is just a quick graphite gradient style sketch that would represent the wording.

My favorite would have to be "fire dropplet."  I find that the shading on it was done pretty well.

Ann Curry talked Chuck Todd about how the economy is effect the presidential race and Congressional races.

Todd said, “If the election were held today, the likelihood the Democrats would get their 60-seat filibuster about 50%, unbelievable. They could pick up more Senate seats than they did in 2006. More house seats than they did in 2006, which, even three weeks ago folks thought was just impossible to think about. That’s how bad things are right now for Republicans. Every day that the Dow has one of these bad days, Republicans see their tracking polls plummet, literally is almost a percentage point for percentage point in this drop in the Dow is, also, the percentage drop for Republicans.”

SNL has hit in the past---recall Dana Carvey's impression of Bush I---but most recently notable have been the instant classic sketches featuringTina Fey portraying Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin in an impression that can only be called 'uncanny' in a Palin-Clinton Speech, a Palin-Couric Interview, and the Biden-Palin VP debate (complete with Queen Latifa playing Gwen Ifill). Thus far all three sketches have been major headline news on every network come the following Monday morning, drawing many viewers back to SNL again. Fueling this surge is the high accessibility of recent SNL skits on the internet placed there directly by NBC itself.

On Saturday October 4, 2008 SNL presented a skit titled "Washington Approves the Bailout" focusing on many of the ludicrous aspects of the current economic situation. The sketch instantly became a hit with links to the official NBC posting of the video appearing all over the web almost immediately. Then suddenly chaos ensued. Withing a matter of hours on a lazy Sunday mid-day as citizens awoke and checked their digital communications, countless numbers clicked on links sent by a friend, family member, or co-worked promising a hilarious video, only to be met with a cryptic message that the sketch was no longer available and apologizing for the inconvenience. Instantly as the so commonly do, conspiracy theories began to run wild. For two days one in the know would hear every theory from space aliens to the illuminati. Then finally on Tuesday afternoon the truth broke and a now far less funny, edited version was put back up on the internet by NBC. Unfortunately for the American public, the truth was far more sinister than Martians or Free Mason wannabes. The truth was that NBC lawyers had pulled the sketch. Though NBC officially did not mention this in their statement:

"Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards. We took it down and made some minor changes and it will be back online soon."

Apparently the sketch's portrayal of Herb and Marion Sandler was considered a liability since it pointed out their acts of corrupting US Government officials and their severe culpability in the current financial meltdown affecting the US. Additionally as a faux C-SPAN video SNL had a chyron on-screen text shown below the Sandler lookalikes that would normally serve to identify the subject on-screen stating: "Herbert & Marion Sandler: People who should be shot". Supposedly this is to be part of the basis of the video edit, as it may be misconstrued as a death threat to some people and/or offensive.

Now this is not the first time that SNL has turned against one of its funniest components. Norm MacDonald was fired from his stellar and unparalleled stint as the anchor of the weekend update sketch for making too many side splitting hilarious OJ Simpson jokes. Do not worry if you are confused, you are not alone. Many fans and casual watchers alike have asked themselves why a comedian would be fired for raising a dieing show's ratings by making hysterical jokes at the expense of a public figure who is himself, well.... a joke. The answer was unfortunately the same then as it is in now in the case of the Bailout Sketch: NBC Cronyism and Politically Correct Cowardice.

Thus an entire American populace is left one step closer to an Orwellian Nightmare in which our right to speech and thought even as basic as humor is subject to regulation by the State at the whims of the ruling oligarchical elite. That is unless a line is drawn in the proverbial sand, saying "This far and no further". For those looking to stand up and fight back by saying "NO!" to the tyranny of the minority, by saying "NO!" to those who would tell you how to think and how to laugh; stand up and wave the banner of Free Thought high in the sky. Spread the UNEDITED VERSION as far and wide as you can. Show it to your parents, siblings, spouse, grandparents, cousins, friends, co-workers, and to anyone you possibly can. The sketch is downright hilarious to anyone with a single drop of a sense of humor in their entire body, and (based on the talk of the town prior to the pulling and editing of the video) the quote "people who should be shot" is one of the most memorable gems of the bit. So much so in fact that to one who has seen the original, the edited version leaves one feeling quite dissatisfied. Make sure that the memories of original version Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night! Together it is possible to prevent NBC from pulling a Lucas on this classic!

Ultimately it is a matter of "How dare NBC!?!". How DARE they back off from calling a spade a spade? How dare they a non-news organization try to hold themselves to a journalistic standard when speaking about the rich and powerful whom have destroyed people's lives (some figuratively others literally)? How dare they back down from vilifying scumbags who wrecked the entire world economy so that they could glean a few extra shiny nickels! To paraphrase from one SNL's own skits, I invite them to grow a pair, and if they can't, I will lend you mine. So in case anyone else is looking to make a bumper sticker or t-shirt:

The scanner makes the brown paper look wrinkled - it isn't, particularly.

And here's the direct response drawing I did first:

- Блох! - за ним, воспроизводя часть названия климтовского полотна, проследовала наполненная мутной жидкостью чашка.

- Бым-дзинь-бым-дзинь, - несколько тише по-китайски проговорил летящий самовар. Само существование задымленного чудища с сапогом на макушке выглядело странновато - в компании с блюдцем и кофейной чашкой.

Всей гурьбой они проделали еще один круг вокруг моей головы. Потом еще один, и еще - с каждым оборотом ускоряясь, как евреи в танце. От испуга и удивления я зарылся носом в шарф - не зря же французы называют его сache-nez - и проснулся. На кухне чайник воображал себя пароходом.