Tricks and Treats

It’s been a wild and crazy few weeks – sinus infection, computer upgrades, Halloween – but at least life is an adventure. This was our first Hallow’s Eve in the house. The turnout was pretty decent but we still have enough candy left over to bury in our bomb shelter. At least if the world ends I’ll have a great excuse to down those mini Nestle Crunch bars.

On the computer front, I’ve made the transition to Windows 7 x64. All went kinda smooth though I’m hitting a few bumps with Sketchbook. I’m finding that disabling the windows tablet services get the strokes nice but then the “Open” and “Save as” dialog boxes stop working. I’ve been able to use ACDSee as a work around but is anyone having any luck with this?

Alright, time to soak in the new time change darkness!

Ratchet, Clank & Qwark Vinyls!

We had an awesome opportunity to create this year’s Insomniac Games employee gift for the Ratchet & Clank Future Games. We’re huge fans of vinyl toys and wanted to do our own take on the characters we have come to know all too well. Dave handled the concepts, I sculpted them digitally and we both did crate inspired boxes for the set. We worked with Gentle Giant for the production. They arrived in the North Carolina Studio today and they are so cool! Qwark is 15 inches wide!! Not sure if these will ever be released to the public, for now they are just for employees. But it was such a cool project! Hope you like.

Atonement

I think it’s safe to say that we have the utmost respect for anyone able to handle traditional media and do it with confidence. We were both trained traditionally, but working in a production environment has its demands, and working traditionally is not a good idea. Plus, computers are frickin’ cool!! Then Jake Parker goes and does Inktober! I mean really?! It’s amazing! Practically a call to arms!

So we did some reading, some digging through our old supply drawers and some spending. What we came out with was some Moleskin sketchbooks, a Col-Erase blue pencil and a Pentel Pocket Brush. So fun; absolutely the most fun drawing I’ve had in a long time. I am certainly not giving up digital, but I am addicted to this little brush pen like nothing else. Thank you Jake! Also, a big thanks to Skottie Young for spilling the beans about the brush pen. Nothing says inspiration then feeling that big kick in the ass!

Also…drum roll…We are officially sold out of Thoughts, Scribbles + Madness: Volume 2 and a Propaganda Packs! There is a small stack of Palindrone Robot Supply books left, so get them while they last. But big thanks to all who have supported us and written such great things about this year’s books. If you still want on, Stuart Ng and Labyrinth still have a few left each, but even they said they were running low. On to the next one!!! Don’t tell Dave I said that. He’ll pop.

A Mild Case of Sluggy

I’ve been sick for what feels like a century. I thought I was out of the woods yesterday but I was greeted with another sore throat this morning. What gives? What kind of Wheaties do the bacteria eat out here? In any event, there are many far worse off than me so I will now stop my griping. I feel as slimy as the dude in this post – a critter from the upcoming Ratchet game. October 27th folks!

In other news, I’ll be migrating to Windows 7 64-bit next week. Woohoo! RAM! Solid state hard drive! Anyone else taking the plunge?

Get-A-Way

Sometimes ya just need to get away from it all. Nuff said.

Change of heart

I can be a bit of a grump sometimes. There are all sorts of reasons for my occasional sour puss but none of that really matters too much. Unfortunately, this can lead to me snapping at my wife – which is never cool. Every time I’m irrational or bark needlessly, she hangs with me. We make a great team, especially considering she’s had plenty of reasons to smack me upside the head. This one’s for you babe.