Day #252 - SPOON!

Day #251 - appeasing the sake ghost

at approximately 4:30am this morning, after watching an extremely entertaining but ultimately disappointing Asian Cup final Lester and I decided to toast the winners in their national drink.

I went to the cupboard, pulled out the bottle of sake that Lester brought back from Japan for me along with the sake cups that I bought some 6.5 years ago from our trip to Japan, we filled our cups saluted each other with "Kampai" and downed the sake, it was so nice we did it twice! We finally passed out around 5ish (we also finished off my vodka).
Hawk and Mika had strict instructions to wake up Uncle Lester by jumping on him and to leave me sleeping.

I remember getting a NERF dart to the face at about 8am-ish (I guess?) but it didn't disrupt my sleep too much.

I sort of remember Lester leaving, maybe around 9ish?

I finally emerged from the haze at around midday, the V we'd strategically left-over did it's job and I was back to a normal functioning human by 1pm.

Les I think didn't recover enough, so much so that he "etched" a pattern into the passenger door of his car.

So to stop the 'sake ghost' causing any more carnage I decided to 'etch' him a pattern in his honour, a Kabuki actor from the Tokugawa period should suffice.

I actually did pretty much have to etch this, I started with a 4H pencil and forgot to change up, so now my hand is understandably tired (my brain too).

Day #250 - the Mascot

Lester and I are attempting to stay up and watch the final of the Asia cup tonight, with a 2am kick-off it's going to be tough but I think we'll make it (it's 1am now).

more coffee!!!

Anyway it got me thinking about all things soccer and what I would draw tonight, then I came upon mascots.

Surprisingly the Socceroos don't have one, so I thought I'd create my own version of how I think he should be/look.

As Kewell is my favourite socceroo ever I thought I'd pay homage to him by making the Roo left footed.

We host the Asian Cup in 2015, I wonder what the mascot will be? hopefully not crap.

Day #249 - the importance of an O Ring

I can't believe that it was 25 years ago today that I watched the Challenger go up in smoke, I distinctly remember the shock as I saw it I couldn't understand the enormity of what just happened, that was 7 people gone in an instant and the NASA space program would be set back a decade.

I remember in the weeks after after seeing it replayed hundreds of time and hearing that they found a foot on a beach somewhere but nothing else and they came out with the reason why it blew up, it turned out to be a cheap rubber O ring either failing or not being there, a little ring of rubber.

I would love to see what we could achieve if we stopped fighting and spent our energies on discovering space.

I doubt that I'll see that happen in my lifetime but I really hope my kids get to see it or at least the beginnings of it.

Day #248 - my happy place

After the week I've had so far I wanted to draw something for me.

and old school is on the menu.

Inverts are way cool!

This is supposed to be Lance Mountain, it sort of looks like him.

This drawing sees the end of book 5.

Tomorrow is the beginning of book 6 I think I might start switching between an A5 and an A4 till the end.

Day #247 - Voodoo

I was reading one of my favourite forums today cghub.com and noticed that they have a 2d contest going about a Voodoo character, a witch or a shaman, some of the entries are amazing, this a social forum for professional artists.

I thought I'd draw my own shaman dude, not too happy with how it turned out but not too upset.

Got me thinking about how I used to think Mitch practised voodoo, HAHAHA.

Day #246 - AT-AT

I'm really excited because Hawk has started drawing again, he stopped for about 2 months but he seems really keen again which is very cool.

He asked me when he was going to bed how when I draw thing I make them look real, I told him that it's just from lots and lots of practice and the main thing is to practice shapes because that's how you can build up pictures.

He seemed quite happy with that but not with the excess amount of practise required, I asked him what he was drawing and he told me an AT-AT.

So I asked him if he wanted me to draw one as well.

I was very pleased he said yes.

So by request here is the AT-AT.

Day #245 - the Royal Space Force

Yesterday I was watching the news and noted that the Japanese had launched a manned rocket to rendezvous with the international space station. Cool!

It got me thinking about one of my all time favourite anime, the movie that also introduced me to the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, this is one of maybe 5 genre defining feature films.

The Wings of Honneamise : on a far-off planet, a Kingdom tries to launch the planet's first manned spacecraft. This ten year old project not only faces funding and technical problem, but also is subject to political conspiracy and the neighboring Republic's aggression. It's all up to Shilo, the first spaceman to be, his friends and their faith to make the space program a success.

What sets this film apart is the detail, the storyline flows okay and the soundtrack is sublime but without the amazingly beautiful images it would be just another movie.

Made in 1987 for approximately $8m it grossed about 50k at the box office and the guys that made it only went on to make Neon Genesis Evangelion.

If you'd like to see what Anime is all about I'd recommend these 6 titles and you'd be pretty set;

1) the Castle of Cagliostro (voted best car chase ever in a movie)

2) Akira (no explanation needed a masterpiece)

3) Ghost in the Shell

4) Ninja Scroll

5) My Neighbour Totoro

6) the Wings of Honneamise

Watch those and I'd bet you'd be hooked for life. Better than anything Hollywood can produce.

anyway, off to bed with my tired beaten up body, tough game tonight.

Day #244 - the guardian?

years ago a heavily religious girlfriend told me that I had a guardian angel watching over me.

I'm not a religious man at all but I thought it sounded pretty cool but at the same time a bit creepy, I mean, were they ALWAYS watching me? Man they would have seen some pretty off putting stuff.

after enquiring a bit further I asked what exactly this 'guardian' did? well, it seems that this guardian made sure I was never alone anywhere.

GREAT! so everywhere I go there's a crowd, geez thanks. No seat on the train? surely that's this angel's doing?

Vic and I have a good laugh at it because call it coincidence but it actually happens, We'll go into the most obscure location where there is nobody and before I know it I'm surrounded, shops, restaurants anywhere.
Of course, this is generally an inconvenience.

So I figure that I have my own personal spruiker, so I imagined that this is what he'd look like, one of those blokes with a bad English accent and portable microphone and amplifier.

Day #243 - the path to honesty

Today I made the first step towards making an honest woman of Vic.

I asked, she accepted, the rest is history.

Actually I had to ask twice because I didn't really ask the first time.

8 Years, a mortgage and 2 children before asking, yep a little backwards but hey that's how I roll baby!

Day #242 - Happy birthday Rocket Rod!

from as long as I can remember I would get taken to the Parramatta Speedway to watch the Sprintcars race by my Uncle along with my cousin Rod, Rod and I would sit on the hill picking our favourite cars and dreaming of one day driving them ourselves.

Fast forward 20 years and I was sitting on that same hill with Les and Ed welling up with tears and ultimate pride as Rod rolled around the bottom of the track in his debut race, he was last by a long way but he was living the dream.

Years later I asked him what it was like to drive them and he explained it this way; "it's like driving at 160km/h and then suddenly turning left, on mud"

the guys that drive these things have the some of the biggest balls in the world.

What's funny is I still remember that first night the best, apart from that was the night that two cousins sat in the back room of a car yard trying to figure out how to use a chinese vinyl cuttinng software to cut flames out of vinyl, after about 3 or 4 hours we had one little flame cut out a bit rough but it looked okay, I would never have imagined what Rod achieved with that little machine, it was amazing, he turned around and delivered the best looking car in the field, years before the rest had flames Rod had them, and what's better is that he did it himself whilst the other boys got professional sign companies to dress their cars.

Rod also had his best results with that flaming blue car, it seemed he had an added confidence when he drove.

Far and away my favourite car that he ever drove.

Happy Birthday Rod!

Sorry this looks a bit dodgy I drew it whilst laying on the lounge and I fell asleep and forgot to post it.

Day #241 - the Profile pic

Marty asked me to doodle him a profile pic, the problem was the only reference photo I have is his current FB profile pic, which is a very small photo with little detail.

So......I did it from my memory. (his face that is)

Marty is probably the fittest bloke I'll ever know (Petr and Fluey would be a close 2nd), here's a guy that will ride a lazy 50kms on the way to work whilst I'm struggling to keep my eyes open he's out there pedalling away, running half marathons for fun.

But most importantly he is my coffee buddy and trusted advisor.

So.... I think I'll be buying coffee in the morning :P (if he'll talk to me that is).

it took 241 days but I finally did it, I drew a penis.

Day #240 - the happiness formula

After a day like today, getting home later than usual spending 5 minutes with the kids before they went to bed, choking on a cup of coffee that came out my nose, eating dinner, finishing off a certain letter and submitting it I was looking for a bit of "Glen Time".

Normally on a Wednesday night Ed and I will go and whack the crap out of some golf balls but I stuffed up and didn't organise it, so as Vic was watching the Oprah special (ugh) I decided to crank the tunes, put on the cans, crack the Absolut and grab the PS3 controller.

I paused to doodle this, sorry for the roughness but hey they can't all be MLK.

back to it now :) life doesn't get any better than this!!

Day #239 - MLK jnr Day

yesterday was Martin Luther King Jnr day in the US. So this is a picture of MLK Jnr.

Martin Luther King Junior is such an important figure in US and world history, he was proof that one person CAN make a difference no matter what the odds. Without people like MLK Jnr we wouldn't have the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Eddie Murphy, Barrack Obama etc.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to ink in Darth last night and I really wanted to see how far I've come since starting this little project, when Vic asked me what I was drawing tonight I showed her the photo and said I was going to try to do a portrait. Her response was "how on earth are you going to draw that? you'll be up till 4am" I got it done a little quicker than that, actually I wish now that I had a camera recording me drawing this because when I was roughing it out and even when I'd drawn the outlines I thought that it looked nothing like him, it wasn't until I had filled in completely when I realised that I'd captured it exactly as I had imagined, I also forgot that the only black pen I had was a .5mm Sharpie so it took a long time to ink.

This is easily my favourite doodle for a long long time, probably since Robert Downey Jnr.

Maybe I need to just draw people that end in Jnr?

After a pretty stressful day's work I really really enjoyed drawing this, all up it took about 2.5-3hrs but it was totally worth it.

Day #238 - Happy Birthday Darth (voice)

Today is the birthday of several great people but in the end I had to decide between two, the greatest boxer of all time or the ultimate voice.

Initially I was thinking Ali but thought that was too cliché, so I drew Darth Vader! haha.

Today is indeed James Earl Jones' birthday, how could you ever forget that voice, from Darth Vader to Conan to the King of Zamunda.

It's truly unique.

I had an idea in my head and I tried to scratch it out before basketball tonight, I just wasn't happy with them but once I got home I was able to get the last one out, I planned on inking it black but it's getting late, I thought I'd post all three but the one at the bottom is my doodle today, sorry about the faintness but it's only a markup for ink.

Day #237 - CFH Trophy round 2

well it was the 2 round of the CFH Trophy today, I got lost getting there and that should have been the omen that I needed.

Glenmore Park Heritage threw out lovely conditions and nobody to hold us up and after the first hole I thought I was in with a shout but I self destructed (as normal).

it was ridiculously humid but the Captain prevailed so the first 2 names on the trophy are Hacker and the Captain and unless I learn to concentrate and put in a lot of practice it'll be one of them after round 3 too.

This one wasn't anywhere near the first round where we had a penalty putt out in the fading light to decide but the winner was well deserved, under the pressure on the 17th green he sunk a 20 footer to clinch it, only a wipe on the last (which he did) and a hole in one from Hacker (which he didn't) would have sent it the penalty spot again.

So, as a reward he gets a badly drawn portrait from my dehydrated sunburned self to commemorate his effort.

Well done Kerkie, congrats mate! a fun day all round and a pleasure to be a part of.

Day #236 - A big call

On Wednesday night Lester and Ed came over for a wonderful dinner that my beautiful wife made, of course she doesn't know how to do things small and there was enough food for about 15, so we had a long time to sit and gasbag which we are experts at, codshit is our speciality.

I put on Blue Harvest and Something Something Dark Side but that only whet our appetite, so I whipped out my two 'How Star Wars was made" books, one or A New Hope and the other for Empire Strikes Back.

We got to talking about everything about Star Wars and Ed asked me a simple question, "what is your favourite ship" without hesitation I replied the Snow Speeder.

Ed was shocked and said that it was a big call, out of all the ships in all the films I thought that the best.

To be honest it's easy for me, the Snow Speeder, daylight, Slave 1 and then I don't care what comes 3rd.

I saw Empire as an 8 year old and in the opening scenes came Tauntauns and Snow Speeders and for the rest of my life I've wanted both.

Day #235 - Piggy Bank Rides

Mika cracks us up because historically I've used piggy back rides or "tauntaun" rides to get Hawk to go to bed, so now Mix is of age to have them as well she demands them.

She can't quite grasp the name though and calls them Piggy Bank rides.

This is what I thought that might look like, for some reason Mika's face just ended up all smudged and blue even though this blue pencil doesn't smudge (that's why I use it).

TGIF! two days off from the world, Korea v Australia about to kick off, fingers crossed we can grind out a result.

Day #234 - the ultimate alternative to trains

This week has been hectic workwise and today was no exception but after a hard day the last thing that you want to do is to walk out of the office into awful humidity and wait for an hour and fifteen minutes for a train that will take you two stops.

If I had these babies I would have been home in no time!

Day #233 - Out of order

Today I just couldn't draw, my brain sort of took the night off and after a while I looked down and I just had these random doodles, I don't know why they are there or what they mean.

I promise I'll try better tomorrow.

I blame the Lambrusco!

Day #232 - the Zombie robot

On Sunday afternoon Hawk came toward me saying "errrrrr, I'm going to get you I'm a zombie robot!!!" and gestured like a Zombie, I'm not sure where he even learned what a zombie was but he had the speech and the motions down pat.

It cracked me up.

Not satisfied with just being a zombie he had to be a robot too.

How exactly would you kill a zombie robot?

I thought Hawkie would like it if I drew his "Zombie Robot" chasing after C3P0 as he pointed out tonight whilst I was reading to him that I haven't yet drawn C3P0 for him.

where does he get his crazy imagination? :P

maybe Nan....

Day #231 - on the block

Today's doodle is one that I whipped out in about 2 minutes whilst on the phone to my boss this afternoon, we currently have quite a full agenda as there were a few resignations before Xmas and we are temporarily filling the gaps, well, I'm helping him but he has far more than me on his plate.

I quickly did this one for him and I was so happy with it that it is my doodle for today.

Yes that's right, that's a cock on a block!

Day #230 - Day of the Condor

Growing up as a skater in Wenty in the mid to late 80s didn't leave you with many options for skating buddies, I always had Bernie during the daylight hours, I remember him dialing nose blunts on the chairs at the Emma Cres shops, this was in about 86 on the big boat type boards, he also nailed handrails, no comply's and had the sweetest one footed ollies, Bernie oozed style and had beautiful fluidity to his skating (although I never told him), Bernie unforunately was a couple of years younger so would have to go home when darkness came and I would therefore be alone, which I didn't mind but it was always cooler to have a bud to push you, make you try stuff you wouldn't even think of.

Ed was in the same boat as me, except I don't think he even had a daytime bike buddy as he must have been the only Freestyle BMXer in whole Bay area (Toon Ga Bay), naturally our paths crossed through a one footed roller skater, by one footed I mean he only had one skate as his brother had the other.

So Ed and I would thrash around Toongabbie Public School, it eventually felt like flatground to me as we were there almost every night, well lit, lots of concrete, no cars, no people, it was perfect. Occassionally we'd travel down to McKay Pl and I'd try to Ollie over a ridiculous gap and land it to win $5 off Ed, I lost soooo much skin and bits of board over it that when I finally landed it some months later Ed bought me a new deck for my troubles.

They are amongst my fondest skate memories, up there with the Pendo ramp, jump ramps with Nik (he was insanely good), Fairfield and St Marys ramps, St Clair bowl, the 'shit ditch' on Chapel lane, Shopping centre carparks on Sundays and the gutter out the front of 16 Constitution, the Baulko ramp in the bushes was pretty damn sweet too.

Anyway, I digress. Anybody whom knows me knows that I am a HUGE Tony Hawk fan, not quite stalker level but I did name my son after him, well the only BMXer that Ed ever talked about was Mat Hoffman, whose nickname is the Condor, I'm assuming it's because he goes really high and sticks his arms out like a bird?

I never saw him until 2002 during the X Games, he was 30 years old then which is quite old for that sport, I'd heard all about him and thought it was all hype, surely this young Dave Mirra is better, I'd just seen Dave Mirra's run and thought that'd be pretty hard to top. Then came the Condor, he was all in black, with his sponsor (I think it was Target, yes the store like K-Mart) and he rolled in and about 5 walls into his run he pulled a no handed 900 like it was nothing! Apparently it was the first he'd ever done and nobody had even thought of attempting one, he completed his run and was swamped by the other Pro riders and the commentators were lost for words and if I remember rightly the commentator was Jamie Bestwick? Right then I understood why Ed thought so highly of him.

Well, the Condor turns 39 today, so Happy Birthday Mat Hoffman, you crazy bastard!

There's a documentary about Mat out there that I'll try to get my hands on for Ed, i was reading an interview with Johnny Knoxville and he was asked about the doco and this was his response

"It’s like my cousin Roger said after watching the documentary: This film’s about much more than an Oklahoma boy riding his bicycle – it’s about Icarus flipping off the sun."

that's too cool not to include.

Day #229 - would have been 76 today, or is he 76 today?

Today Elvis would have turned 76, I don't have any LPs, CDs, MP3s of his music but he is easily the most beautiful voice I have heard, I don't really care for the man but his voice just transcended you, he had the total range!

Still remains the best selling solo artisit in the history of popular music and the dude has been dead for 33 years!

I think that my favourite track if I had to pick one would be "in the ghetto" the lyrics of which were the first of a song that I understood and then when Beats International covered it just really hit home. Imagine that this song was written by white Country music singer and could have just been another Country song that nobody would listen to, instead it ended in Elvis' hands and out of that perfect diaphragm.

I personally believe that Elvis is indeed dead, I was reading today that he died of impacted fecal matter in the bowel on the crapper.

What a shit way to die :P

Day #228 - ZOG

Today I took the kids out to Toys 'R' Us as it's my last day alone with them before I go back to work I wanted to make it something a little special for them, so Mix got herself a stuffed dog toy (I think she has about 8 now) and all Hawk wanted was jigsaw puzzles, so we went through the whole place and finally got to the jigsaw area and they were crap, there was only one puzzle for Hawk there, it was a Super Mario 500 piece (yes he can do them on his own the little freak, been doing them since he was 2, doesn't even start with the borders either) that cost $29, it was a little more than I'd like to pay for a jigsaw puzzle but he had his heart set on it and it sort of balanced against what Mix got so all was cool. I then stopped in to the video game area on the way out to look at PS3 games and notice that they had the Astro Boy movie (DVD) and jigsaw (100 piece) all in one for $20. I couldn't not get this for my little boy, he loves jigsaws and this was the first movie that I ever took him to see. So we came home, Mix went to bed and Hawk and I sat down to watch it together, he sat at his table and completed the jigsaw whilst we watched.

We both love the big gentle giant robot ZOG from the movie so I told him that I'd draw it for him. At about 11:30PM I remembered that I hadn't drawn it, so now it's 1:26, I finished drawing it about 15 minutes ago, took me around an hour to draw and for fun I threw in the little trashcan dog robot thingy.

I must be tired, I'm just waffling on and on and on and on and on...........

Day #227 - Body by Goro

After the defeat of Shiang Tsung at the hands of Liu Kang and Johnny Cage a new era dawned, free from the shackles of slavery Goro was free to pursue his one true love.

Personal Training.

due to his notoriety he quickly found success, his 'body by Goro' program was a late night smash, it was the number one infomercial and Goro's future was bright.

that is until Zumba emerged.

His sales dropped as he just couldn't compete with the juggernaut of Zumba.

Even his Wii Fit - Goro edition only sold in limited numbers and was soon include free with the console.

Goro planned on releasing a new fitness game for Xbox Kinect but unfortunately the game would freeze whilst trying to identify the player's 4 hands, an oversight by some hasty developers (damn developers whom don't understand production environments!)

Nowadays you'll find Goro on dairy farms milking cows trying to still pay off his HECS debt, he's fast, gentle and efficient.

He no longer thinks about the old days but will sometimes have the odd underground illegal fight to put food on the table.

Day #226 - BJ Worthy

I got schooled today in how to make BJ Worthy coffee!

that's right, I was taught by a master and he's been in my midst for some time.

So now when somebody tastes my coffee they may say it's good.

I'll reply, it's better than good, it's BJ Worthy!

Day #225 - kickin' it old skool

I saw a picture today and for some reason it got me thinking of the skateboard art that I really liked back in the 80s and the style of drawing that I adapted to because of that influence, I thought it would be fun to draw a picture of a weird dude half growling with his eyebrow raised, a look that I practised for hours in front of the mirror till I could do it without thinking, it took me years to stop doing it automatically when somebody said something that I found questionable or odd.

I think I don't do it anymore?

On a side note I have perfected the disturbed homeless man face, the trick is focusing a foot beyond the head of the person that you are talking to and having the ability to twist your lip and talk through the side of your mouth.

Yes, I'm full of skills that I haven't actually found a useful application for yet.

For instance, I can shake my eyeballs.

anyhoo, I think I'm missing some adult interaction, hopefully Les and Ed will visit tomorrow (PLEEAASEE!!!)

Oh and the Fantastic Mr Fox is indeed Fantastic! Wes Anderson never fails to deliver.

Day #224 - DK

Today I broke out my Donkey Kong T-Shirt, I'm too afraid to wear it out in public for fear that I might get bashed or admired.

So I thought I'd draw Donkey's 'side art' from the original machine.

Arcade machines back in the early 80s were extremely difficult and Donkey Kong is no exception, to get through the first 4 levels is an achievement within itself, the spring level is a nightmare, it just seems you have no time at all.

some cool things about Donkey Kong, it was the BEST game and watch that Nintendo produced (IMHO) and was very cool in it's double screen technology.

Kid of today might be stunned to find out that this is where Mario came from, the character that Nintendo have built their brand around.

I've always found it kinda cool that the 'villian' in the game is the character everybody liked.

If you haven't seen it I highly recommend watching "the King of Kong, a fist full of quarters" it's a great documentary about 2 guys fighting it out for the all time top score on Donkey Kong, it sounds really bad but it is really a cool doco it highlights how weird the world of arcade games truly is, it inspired me to see how I could score on Twin Galaxies on my 720 degrees machine, I'm about 4th at the moment.

anyway, it's 1am and I'm daddy daycare this week so I'd better get some sleep.

Day #223 - for Erik on his birthday

It was either this or "Iron-overefffecient-Man", I chose the easy option.

Erik was my first ever boss in IT (if you don't count Gateway) but I didn't really report to him, I did enjoy poking fun at him and he has always been a very good sport about it, of course none of it was ever done with any malice intended.

He probably doesn't know this but I still have the "HuP Holland" hat that he gave me and the Dutch version of the Graphic Work of MC Escher, I was envious of his "complete works of Escher" and I did eventually get my own copy (in English).

I remember his scripts and I remember poking fun at the spelling mistakes, I remember that when he had to develop the image for AMP that he had to print out the entire Windows (95 I think, or maybe NT4) registry and read through it all to understand it, or maybe he was just showing off.

I remember that he had his goals posted on his wall in his office and by goals I mean photos of things that he'd like to have.

I remember that his house is an ex porn studio.

But most of all I remember that he has a heart of gold and a classic laugh.

How could I not draw Augustus?

Happy Birthday mate and keep up the good work! (chasing away Augustus I mean!)

Day #222 - Master chef/chief?

This is a silly idea I got today when my mother in law mentioned the Masterchef show to Hawk.

If I'd realised that this was 222 I would most definitely had drawn Richie Benaud.

"Richie Benaud is like the Yoda of cricket" - Lester Mata 1997