on to something....

this February has 29 days. its a leap year. i suppose this means we have an extra day to leap forward, leap into something. change. also woman can propose to men on the 29th. in Denmark the tradition applies to the 24th of Feb, if a man rejects her he owes her 12 pairs of gloves.

life is not one-directional, we have to learn to switch paths and make quick decisions, roll with the punches, keep on moving towards what matters. i don't have a 5-year plan, never had... maybe i could use one, who knows.

i have been working towards change, taking from the past what works and letting go of what has lost its appeal. so my initial idea was to venture back into the world of comics and tights to draw inspiration from. started this one some days ago, before the images in my previous post... have decided to let it go. not quite feeling it.

i have decided to focus more on being an "illustrator" than a "fine artist" it feels better. the former title fits more comfortably, more space to move and p-p-party! would rather not stress myself worrying about the fancy galleries and wine parties that alienate me, rather go back to focusing on kickstarting some tshirts and stickers. maybe a vinyl figure! thats what i want. and that is what i will do.

the watercolours i had posted previously really got me thinking of these "dream giants" i have come up with. have decided to pursue this idea further. i don't know what will come of it, but something will happen. feeling pretty good about this... who knows what dreams will come, heh.

these are 8x10, much more work needs to go into them. whether i will consider them finished pieces or "studies" only time will tell. stay tuned in! catch you next time... same sky time? hugo time? hugo channel? OK lets drop that.

neither here nor there

i have a Transformers calendar hanging by my bed. i try to write in every relevant event that comes to pass. it helps me keep track of what i did and when, but also seeing something scribbled on almost every page makes me feel pretty good about being a do-er. opposed to just a guy that thinks he does but doesn't.

Valentine's day passed, thats pretty exciting right? spent it with my lady, this year she was in charge of EVERYTHING, which is kind of a jerk move but it was fun in the end. we went out for dinner followed by amateur night at Yuk Yuk's. also she got me this great, uber cute, pop-up V-day card! which just happens to be in scale with some action figures... which i'm pretty sure was her plan all along. or not.

my lovely lass also got me some chocolates and the February issue of Juxtapoz that i really wanted but couldn't seem to find. it featured awesome artist Jeremy Geddes. just amazing, solid work. comes to no surprise that he paints 12hrs/day 7 days/week, the hours of work really show through. oh if i could only be so dedicated, who knows what i could accomplish.

got home at midnight from work 2 days ago and decided to bust out the ol' watercolours. threw down some ink and water. followed through with some pen afterwards. pretty happy with the results. they seem to me to be dream or nightmare giants of some kind. maybe they walk through sleeping cities unleashing all kinds of madness. i think this is something i can build on. magazine reading and recent conversations really have me thinking that i should be doing more studies and preliminary work before taking on a "real" piece.

the scans of the pictures came out weird, maybe i need a better scanner, or maybe i just need to make more work to scan and learn how to scan more accurately as i go.

so thats what i have been up to this week. how are things with you? think i am going to stick to smaller works/studies for a bit longer until i feel they are getting nice and meaty enough to make a meal out of. thinking of throwing the smaller works on etsy or something. make a few quick bucks.

back and forth

this past week has been all over the place; good news, bad news... neutral news that really just becomes an irritating "maybe" in life, and everything in between. i have made so many lists in my little notebook you'd think i was printing receipts. does that make sense?

anyways so i put down some lines to add to the underlayer of this very blue piece i had started up some time ago. through it in a frame (broke one sheet of glass in the process) and called it a day. i like it, its pretty OK, but its not different enough. its still very much in the same place the others came from.

detail shot. many details are still lost in the shot, all in all though there is more drawing than usual. also switching back to pens n such instead of nibs and bottles of ink allowed for quicker easier lining.

no need/desire to go into details but past events have really got me thinking that i need to push. like, really push. not just in regards to effort and hours but also a need to push in a different direction.

my brother would always say "your paintings suck! you should just draw mor

e!" it was always about the drawing, its what came naturally... the work that came out these past years was always rooted in the attempt to combine paint/abstract with the lines that i have always known... maybe its time to put that experiment to rest. it was

fun while it lasted, got some good hype, learned a few things. in the end i feel that i came to depend on the same style and process for too long. like a shark i need to keep

swimming forwards in order to avoid sinking.

just keep swimming. keep swimming.

on a side note, my dog Chester has started classes. if you know me and have met this beast you would know he is not what you would call a well-behaved dog. hes loveable to the max but also loud and ka-razy! so far things have been going very well and i am so excited for the day he can run around freely at the dog park. i will be in tears! kid you not!

back in the day

i remember the days when i was a young kid growing up, looking in the mirror, dreaming about blowin' up.... but seriously folks...

like any problem one should start at the beginning. the whys of the world. why does hugo draw? well.. because it just makes sense to. its just the way its always

been. until recently its always been my source of peace and sense of fulfillment. need to recapture the magic.

was going through some Juxtapoz books i have. good times. always cool to

read how others got started, how they fell into their craft, how they caught their big break.

oh but how frustrating it is! trying to find the love again... talking about this... heh performance issue with a friend the other day she came to the conclusion that i have changed as a person, and as such it does not make sense for me to continue to make the same work and expect the same satisfaction when i myself am different. this makes sense.

here is a shot of a much larger piece i have been throwing lines at for the past couple of days. its ok i guess, thinking of moving away from so much black, moving towards more and more lines and details and less abstract mess. dont know how i feel about this one. boo-urns.

brought some watercolour paper to work... dont have a desk to actually paint or anything but coffee is always on hand. so then these came out. fun enough.

in the process of packing still. a bit on the early side but its fun for some reason... packed away some of my smaller sketchbooks. so crazy looking through them. these go back as far as 04! with all the crap i have these are the books that matter the most. comics, artbooks, action figures, DVDs, junk and junk... it can all be replaced. THESE books a

re one of a kind. part journal, part image development, so many stories are told.

ctrl + A + delete

if all goes well i will be elsewhere in 4 months. a different view from my window, a different route from here to there. though i mean this in the literal sense that involves picking up address change forms at the PostOffice i also mean this in the metaphorical sense in regard to my brains.

for some time now i have had this urge to put everything away. out of sight, out of mind. neatly sorted in cardboard boxes in the recesses of my mind. is that the easy way out? to force things out of sight in order to better focus on what matters? to wear blinders instead of just willing my eyes to look forward....

i have been trying to keep busy. just going at it, whether the results are to my liking or not its good to just get moving in the right direction. forwards, upwards, just keep swimming. anyways heres what came out since last posting in the few minutes i find time to just ink away.

its difficult to get into the draw draw drawing rhythm again. also i am trying to stop falling back to the same routine of things. i'm not trying to be someone completely different but want to change up some. know what i am meaning? am also working on a larger piece, these little doodles may have warmed me up a tad, hopefully something good will come out of this.

i hope that like Stella i can, in time, get my GROOVE back. how are you people of the internet feeling these posts? watching me pick myself up off the floor and prop myself back at the drawing board... only time will tell.

"And why do we fall Bruce?"

mild nights

well so far things are not necessarily going in the direction i want. i am constantly think and rethinking what to do with myself but have yet to take any serious action. felling very stuck. feeling caught between a rock and a hard place, as the expression goes. though really it makes little sense, unless we live in a 2-dimensional world.... otherwise one would have to assume that somehow rock + hard place = complete 360 degrees of enclosure, which is probably not the case; in conclusion i am over thinking things.

is this kind of transparent ranting about my inner workings a bad thing to type up in my blog? does a writer at all benefit from admitting to the public that a serious case of writer's block has set in? maybe it is best for me to illustrate an illusion wherein all is peachy keen and i am artist of the year, proficient as the proverbial ant stocking up for the winter! instead of the shitty reality of saying "hey guys, yea i haven't been very productive.. i dunno why... work and shit i guess"?

tonight was incredibly mild for early January. took the dog on a nice walk sans phone or ipod. alone with the dog and my thoughts... and poop bags. i think this is good. thoughts are good. i then came home and worked out. also good. body and mind are kind of a 2-for-1 deal in my books.

currently i am wearing a latex glove on my right hand because its covered in pink spray paint and i can't seem to get it off and don't want to pink everything up. i was spraypainting a frame, nothing overly exciting but it is nice to see my hands in technicoulor once more! well there are a few more hours before i call it a night and surrender to the pillow. much can still happen.

hibernation

some days you wake up on your own, at a frighteningly early hour, go about your morning routine, have breakfast, so on and so forth. you then leave your home, venture out, maybe you will get in your car or take public transit to wherever it is you have to be at this Godless time between day and night... and somewhere along the way you realize that a generous amount of minutes have passed since you have rubbed the sleep from your eyes, and in that time you have yet to say a single word. you have yet to form any audible thoughts from your lips, you have not overtly communicated an idea or a thought other than the yawns or groans of morning labour... and in that moment you can't help but fear your voice. you find you are afraid to break the silence, to seek an echo in the seemingly empty world you find yourself in. things had gone alright up to this point, without your voice chiming in... maybe its better this way. but no, its not.

you have a voice. it must be heard.

this is kind of how i feel. i feel as i have been hibernating, as if i am in a tightly wrapped cocoon waiting for the right time to free myself and become one with the sky. but then i cannot help but wonder... do all crawling creatures that surround themselves in darkness while waiting for the arrival of wings survive the journey? surely there are a few that do not. surely there are a few that lay stillborn, enclosed in sheets of their own creation; dreams, goals, and hopes not met.

the year is coming to an end, and i have been silent. there has been so much change, so much to share, so much to shout about and i have remained mute.

i am growing uncomfortable in my stale cave, uneasy in this unwavering stillness. i think its time for something to happen, something to change, something to be said.

i wish you all the best this holiday season, and great things for the new year. i highly doubt 2012 will mark the end of the world. but there is no doubt that it will mark the end of something, and the beginning of something else, because what is time if not change.

see you all on the other side,

hugo