Ping-Pong: Consistency! Yesterday I spent the most time I have yet just PRACTICING. A nice old fellow helped me work on my forehand. It was that back-and-forth style rally you see in Ping-Pong movies, etc. I did that! Longest rally I've ever had, too... Must've been at least 50 consecutive hits. I worked on my backhands and cuts, too. Man, I'm getting pretty OK. My highest-ranked friend commented that I have "blossomed" since beginning this whole thang. I wish I could play more than once a week, now.

PINAPL COLORS: Thanks everyone who has submitted colors to me. Sadly, I haven't seen anything that really nails what I want to see. Sorry I haven't replied personally to anyone who's submitted yet... I'm just too busy. I have to finish drawing the rest of the pages today. Then I'll hit y'all back with more definitive guidelines on what kind of colors I want to see. One suggestion though, I want LESS colors, actually. And LESS rendering. My style these days is somewhat "flat" and "wavy", so, the colors should facilitate that. Seeing people try to render my crazy weird shapes is sometimes painful :] But besides that, I'm stoked so many people are using my page to practice with.

I got my shirts from Design By Humans. My own shirts, as well as a bunch from the site. They are SO awesome. I wish I had a camera so I could model them for you. I'll probably use my Shirt of the Week winnings to get one (a camera). You should really own my shirt, you can get it right heah!

Sorry no recent activity on Ninja Rage-- This week has been crazy busy.

COMMISSIONS: The overall status is, most all the drawings are started, a lot of them are finished (you can look at the Com Page, but I haven't updated it in a while >_<). I'm sorry I'm like "biding my time" on sending them out... Well a few factors have led to that 1) Currently broke, 2) I'd like to DOCUMENT the shipping process (the special packaging I'm making, etc-- again, I need a camera) and 3) It's difficult to CUT THE CHORD when you freshly make an awesome drawing :o (of course, you shorty portraiteers have been waiting for over 2 years now... um "lol"?). Anyway, art for the masses, very soon. This all falls in that "thanks everyone for helping me live / being the reason I live the way I do" category, so yeah, thanks for everything.

ART: Here's the first page to my new PINAPL story which will appear in Image's POPGUN Vol.2 (with a cover by Paul Pope!)

Yeah, I like it. This story's only gonna be about 5 pages long. Mal says I need to use "actual gutters" sometimes... Like, actual space between the panels, some white space to offset some panels, and straight lines for panel borders... I agree with most except the STRAIGHT LINES. I'm kind of way into raw imperfect panel borders right now. But that's probably mostly just coz I hate reaching for my ruler. I like a "frontpage" to a comic (especially one in a giant anthology) to be a filled-space "poster"-kind of type thing. So that's what's going on here, I reckon.

Oh yeah, I'm kind of looking for a COLORIST for it, too. Can be fancy, can be simple 2-4 color treatment. Whatever! Apply in comments. (needs to be done this month)

For those interested, comic pages like the PINAPL preview above wont be posted on my Art-Blog, so my LJ is still the place for HOT EXCLUSIVES like this.

My livejournal, or the newly renovated GINGERBOX art forums, the forum I created, where I post art and stuff, and there's lots of other awesome artists always posting art. I urge newcomers to SIGN UP over at GBX and break off a piece of your mind for us!

And finally, Paul Pope is making clothes (thanx Brandon).

And now bits of niceneness:

JEFF RAMOS BLOG: An online pal of mine, Jeff Ramos, has a NEW BLOG in which he talks about music, movies and cool art happenings. He mentions Jfish and I, and our involvement with great new online t-shirt company Design By Humans.

Ping-Pong: (I play ping-pong every week at the Asian rec center, I will be blogging about it now, sometimes) // Week 1 of March, I played probably the best ping-pong of my life. I was returning slams and had a semblance of a solid defense! Offense is my specialty, usually... I am able to psych out opponents with my unusual style, and I have a pretty good stealth-slam (it just barely makes it over the net, and sneaks right under my opponent's arm before he/she can even think to hit it!). But defensively, I'm weaker, so it was good to get that on track. Week 2 March, WORST ping-pong ever. I didn't win a single match (I think I won four on Week Mar 1). AND I lost my keys :[ Here's hoping week 3 is more stupendous. I need to assert myself more! I'm a pretty decent player, I just need more confidence. I admit it is a little intimidating playing alongside mostly very skilled old chinese guys.

Random MUSIC awesome: Perusing Jeff Ramos' blog & myspace led me to The Ting Tings. I like them. They are good. The girl is ridiculously pretty, yeah. They're British. I randomly sent them a message of praise / offering my SKILLZ. They ACTUALLY got back to me this morning :o I may be doing some art for them! Wow! Prospering artists are in tune with each-other.

Yeah, it's all about the endless avenues you can take with your art. Between Sharknife, Design By Humans and my random music / game / media art gigs I get, I feel like I'm communicating pretty well with the pockets of the world that I think need my art in their life. NOW one of the tricks is just to expand my own art, and it's message, so that it can appeal to people out there not even LOOKING for my kind of art, but when they see it, they want it anyway. Yeah? Sure.