So it goes…

I’ve been contending with unemployment and general malaise for the past 3 months. Since losing my job at Best Buy in Orange Park, life has been, for the lack of a better description, a giant ball of shit. Things change though. Things always change. Sometimes those changes are minor and you can deal with it easily. Sometimes the changes are pretty big and you find you can deal accordingly.

And then there’s this bullshit.

I went from barely employed and unhappy to unemployed and suffering from crippling depression. Try getting denied for fucking food stamps, that shit is depressing on a “this would be goddamn hilarious if it were happening to someone else” kind of level. Now I’m going to jobless and poor in Jacksonville to (hyper)actively seeking work and poor in an all new city: Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is an interesting little city. The best way I can really describe it is by referencing various neighborhoods in Jacksonville.

Let’s imagine all of Duval County is laid out on a table as a gigantic LEGO set. Now take the Riverside/Avondale neighborhood, the Mandarin area, and San Marco, and combine them, but leave various spots open on the board so you can sprinkle bits and pieces of Murray Hill, Springfield, and Arlington onto the map (in places you can’t predict). That’s Savannah. A sprawling classical neighborhood with elements of the fucking ghetto hidden on the board like a traps in D&D. (Man, that would make an awesome tabletop campaign…)

And that’s where I will be living for the foreseeable future. It’s strange. I’ve lived in Jax my whole life. I have friends I’ve known since the kindergarten. Now I’m going to be living, working, and learning in a strange new place with little to no friends or family in the immediate area. It’s not totally remote, but remote enough to make it feel daunting to someone with as robust a travel history as I have (read nonexistent).

I have confidence though. Why? Hell, I dunno. I guess when you’re fired and rejected for unemployment and food stamps, you kinda figure, “I guess there’s nowhere to go but UP now…” I’d just like it to be known that I could not have done any of this without all the people in my life, fantastic and otherwise. I would never have gotten off my ass to go back to school had it not been for the blatant idiocy and ignorance of a former manager. To this day I vow I owe him two things for being such an asshole that I decided to change my position in life: 1. Buy him a steak dinner, and 2. Beat him in the face with a stick.

So on June 1st, 2010, I shall make my way forward in life in a new city with new people and new experiences. Thanks, everyone. I’ll update you all periodically on the new digs.

Maybe I’ll post some of my new art next time too…

argo. (mtc)

PS. I’ll be at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 4-6 with an Artist’s Alley table no. AA-841. If you’re there, come see me. I’ll be selling some prints and doing commissions all weekend.

As promised. Here are the prints I’ll be selling at MegaCon this weekend. I’ll be doing commissions all weekend too.

See you there!

argo. (mtc)

Today’s been very interesting, and from where I’m standing, the rest of the week is going to be so as well. When you make plans, you have to understand that life tends to plan things a little differently. I had certain plans that included continuing my college education and then transferring stores to Savannah where I’d likely get into school there. I had plans to stay on at the store until possibly I got my bachelor’s. Life had different plans.

So here’s the news: I lost my job today.

Now, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve actually thought about how I would deal with this day for the past two, two-and-a-half years, and it hasn’t gone over at all how I had expected. That’s to say, I’m being relatively calm and cool about the whole thing, and I’m not outside ready to scale a clocktower with a high powered rifle. I’m fine with it. I think I realized sometime after I decided to go back to school that life is NEVER going to turn out exactly the way you want, but in order to cope, you just coast along, realize that chaos doesn’t give a shit about your plans and enjoy the ride. That’s why I think I’ve actually been enjoying the last several months at the store, I just stopped worrying about everything and just had fun. I didn’t care about the NOP, the sales figures, the bullshit. I didn’t mind the write-ups for the stupid things I’ve said and done while at the store. I just stood there, surprised more with my reaction, than with the news itself.

I feel… good.

That’s not to say everything’s roses. It’s not, by the way. I’m incredibly poor, I’ve already applied for unemployment (because I NEED IT!!!), I still don’t have health insurance, and I still need to pay for my tables at Heroes and maybe Dragon. I’m gonna need all the help I can get.

With that in mind, WHO WANTS TO COMMISSION ME!? I’ve got a couple of deals lined up already, and I know I haven’t been able to do some that I was actually asked to do sometime last year (Sorry, Neal), but with the sudden overabundance of free time, I can’t help but think I can put this shitty situation to good use.

Lemme know.

argo. (mtc)

1 So no sketch right now. I got caught up in going to the gun range earlier this evening with my roommate. Nothing relieves stress quite like pumping round after round into a paper silhouette of a human being. Add your own pictures on the face and you’ve got yourself a fledgeling office tragedy. But sketching was out of the question. Instead, I’ve got my friend Zac’s mega-commission. About 30-35% done with the final pencils on the Avengers collection. I’ve plotted Yellowjacket, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor while Wasp’s pencils are done with Hulk not too far behind. The final pencils are gonna be on my personal sheet so I can mess with them later. Once they’re done, I’m gonna transfer the lines onto a 15×22 watercolor sheet for Zac’s custom painting.

It will be sweet. Back to workargo. (mtc)

I can’t believe I totally forgot to post anything I did last week.

Actually, I can believe it. I went several months without updating the site, so I can totally believe I’d forget to post stuff.

crews.

It’s not that I don’t draw over the weekends, I did a couple quick pieces over the last few days. I just believe in having a few days of rest. Not to mention that this past weekend was one where I got to say goodbye to an old friend before she leaves for Japan for a year.

Plus, y’know, the fucking Super Bowl… The first half wasn’t much, but ever since that onside kick at the opening of the second half, New Orleans played like the Super Bowl team I’d hoped they play like. AWESOME GAME.

Here’s an Iron Man that’ll end up in Zac’s Avengers piece.

Tonight is cranking out the starts of the pencils for the Avengers piece, kicking up the finishing inks on the Hellboy piece, roughing up something else for a BIG Hellboy piece, I’ve got a Master Chief, Cortana, Ash from Evil Dead, a Spidey that’s being drawn up for Sweet Will, some ideas I’m kicking around for a print series called “The Vintage World’s Fair” with some surprise attractions at various World’s Fairs, and the start of a special piece for beautiful Jackie.

BUT FIRST! To Gamestop to pick up my reserve of Bioshock 2 Limited Edition.

adios.

argo. (mtc)

When it comes to putting out art, sometime you’re on fire, sometimes you’re burnt out. Right now, I’m burning the candle at both ends. I just hope the candle is a million miles long.

Here’s page 2 from the new sketchbook:

Zac, you really need to pay attention to these, you may see them a lot more soon.

argo. (mtc)

So my last sketchbook was ruined in a blight of Coke being spilled all over it. I lost a couple really good pieces, but I’m determined to move on with a new book I’ve gotten. The new challenge: sketch everyday. Here’s the first day.

I think it’s reasonable, although I may end up having his moist the shield over his head as he calls the battlecry. My friend Zac should keep an eye on some of the sketches for the next few days.

argo. (mtc)