Illustration Friday: Worry

When I saw the IF topic, worry, I almost was going to do a collage of some of my past illustrations since so many of my characters end up with a somewhat worried look on their faces. I think I'm drawn to that worried look because you can see that something is churning in their brain. I find the mystery of what that may be intriguing.

I'm not sure what this bunny is worried about. I know he wasn't so sure he'd make it to post before the deadline, and he's not sure where he came from. He just showed up about 5 minutes after I started sketching. I'm not so sure he's worried about anything in particular, and instead is just generally neurotic.

Illustration Friday: Wide

Lucy Pevensie pulled the wardrobe door wide open, and found a whole other world.

I've been meaning to post some photos I took a couple years back of the actual wardrobe that inspired C. S. Lewis to write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was on display along with his writing desk, and other items. I was most interested in the wardrobe, which although it was not the one from the movie it was more special because it was the catalyst to the entire Narnia series. I thought it was timely to post it now with the new movie, Prince Caspian out in theaters now.

This sign was some cute museum humor. It warned, "Enter at your own risk. The Wade Center assumes no responsibility for persons who disappear or are lost in the wardrobe."

A Typical Day

The other day I was reading a post on Eric Orchard's blog about his typical day, and I couldn't help thinking about my own day, and so when I got to the end of the post, and saw that I was tagged, I thought what a fun surprise! But, sorry to say, my days are quite boring, and I don't have myself on a schedule for the illustrating stuff you see on this blog. I'm thinking I may have to fix that. Oh well, here's a typical weekday:

4:55 am - The alarm goes off. I hit snooze to turn the buzzer off. Also, my wakeup light turns on, and I have my thermostat set to make it hotter, so I'm forced to throw the covers off.

4:57 - The radio alarm turns on, and listen to the weather, etc for a little while, although lately all I hear is the rhythmic creaking of my neighbor's bed above my apartment. More incentive to get up, and leave I guess.

5:15 - give or take - Take a shower, and make myself presentable to the world. Make a protein fruit smoothie if I have time.

6:10 or so - Pack my lunch from whatever frozen meals I have prepared in the freezer. Grab my protein smoothie, if there is one, otherwise just grab a yogurt. Leave for work. It's so nice not to have to clean the ice and snow off the car anymore.

6:30 - Arrive at the office. I'll check my email and horoscope, and maybe a few blogs. Also, I have my breakfast smoothie, or the yogurt with cereal. Then I look at what projects I have. Right now I'm designing Christmas. So everyday is fa la la la la, and holly, holly, snowflake, snowflake. A few other projects also cross my desk.

midmorning - I start to get hungry. I might nibble some Trader Joe Multi-grain Pita Chips, and then a few Tollhouse chocolate chips. I would say I check my email again, but I've probably already checked it 5 times by now.

about 5 to 10 minutes before noon - I go to the cafeteria to heat up my lunch, unless I have a cold salad. Lunch is almost alway brought back to my desk to eat, and internet browse.

after lunch - Back to work.
2:00 - small break

3:15 pm - The benefit of starting so early pays off. It's time to go home!! :) Now here's the variable part of my day. I'll either:
a) Run some errands
b) Drive to the bike path for a 3 mile walk followed by relaxing outdoors
c) Go straight home, and do my Yoga Booty Ballet exercise video followed by a shower
d) Go straight home, and browse blogs, or draw, or work on other projects
I didn't do much of b and c over the winter, so I'm trying to get them back into the routine, so I have more energy. Yesterday, I did 16,585 steps, according to my pedometer, approxiamately 8.29 miles to make up for all the slacking. I'm feeling it today. Good pain though.

between 5:00 and 7:30 - I make myself some dinner. I'll usually have my favorite Discovery channel shows on, "Cash Cab" and "How's It Made".

7:00 - 10:00 - Watch tv and maybe draw, or visit blogs, or work on some procrastination project like making a necklace, or work on a freelance assignment. What I do in this block of time depends on how tired I am.

between 9:30 -11:00 - I often fall asleep on the couch with the lights and tv still on. This is an awful habit I'm still trying to break.

2:00 am - I awake to find that I'm still in the living room, and some horrible infomercial is on, and those messed up dreams I was just having are starting to make sense. I now try to go to bed, but end up not being able to fall asleep, and I toss and turn for hours, hopefully, eventually getting a little more sleep, before the alarm goes off, and I do it all over again.

Whoa, sorry this got to be so long. Probably way more then you ever wanted to know.

I will now tag-- Eric Smith, Andi Butler, David Sones, and Sheree Boyd

Illustration Friday: Electricity

After Ben Franklin discovered electricity he invented the oven, and he and Isacc Newton baked that apple that fell on Isaac's head into a very fine pie in this chapter of altered history.

This week's topic of course made me think of Ben, but I also, for some reason, immediately thought of Isacc, perhaps because their epiphanies both came about outdoors. Anyway, I was excited about drawing some historical figures, but the sketch wasn't turning out like I planned. It was too dull and ordinary, and I asked myself, "Matteson, where's the style, the dynamic shapes, the fun???" I was discouraged, but kept at it until I got to this point which I'm kinda o.k. with.

Interestingly enough, I just read that Ben just missed meeting the aging Newton. So it feels good to be able to bring them together at least in spirit. Ben actually did invent the Franklin stove, but it wasn't electric. For more real facts follow the links above.

Illustration Friday: Seed

Little did the mothers who gave birth today at Hanz Hopkins Hospital know that Doctor Spermalot had planted his seed all over town.

This was the first idea that came to mind this week. Mostly likely influenced by last week's episode of Reaper. I wasn't sure I wanted to finish sketching this idea, and had started a 'prettier' second idea, but bounced back to this one. I've got to get working on these earlier in the week, but then again having no time means quick decision making, and more unexpected results.