panditty.com

I have known the taste of salt water, 
and the smell of decaying forests, 
and the cracks in hundreds of sidewalks. 
I have loved the gas pedal, 
and the airport concourse, 
and the ever-changing time zones. 
In all these places, 
I thought I could find a home in not having one; 
I have chased the sun across the sky so many times, 
not yet ready to admit, 
you never catch up.

I don't know who wrote this, but I'd like to meet them and be their friend.

I’m surprised I can get anything done lately with all this Minecraftin’ going on up in here. I’ve also decided that I won’t date a boy who doesn’t play Minecraft with me. If my Minecraft OCD doesn’t drive him away, then we’re meant to be. Also, I’ll judge him based on the house he creates for me while I fill our pork-box and create my farming empire.

Madison, Chelsea and I are getting ready to start our own podcast featuring our nerdy and barbaric nature! Here is a little artwork I whipped up for it.

These lovely Star Wars moleskines want to be in my possession! I want the large ruled and blank ones. You can buy them here.

…but I won’t let that stop me! I must admit, I’ve been falling behind on my dino-a-day but as long as I’m releasing dinosaurs consistently, I’ll consider it a success. Otherwise, my imagination is still alive and the only thing that’s been holding me back is all the plentiful game releases, a healthy reading addiction, and not having enough hours in the day. As long as I’m busy, I have no time to miss things the things I thought I had! Just saying that sentence reminds me what a ridiculous duck I’ve been!

It’s almost 4:00 am but I just had to draw a Totoro. Anything Ghibli-related is a good thing – I think tomorrow while I work, I will have a mini-Ghibli marathon. Definite participants are: My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and maybe I’ll throw one in that I haven’t seen as often, like, Nausicaa or Laputa. Either way, I have them all on my handy-dandy hard drive!

I just want to cuddle and watch Ghibli movies.

I posted this on tumblr on November 9th for Carl Sagan’s birthday. I’ll post it here as well!

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan

When I started my dino-a-day project, I was very self-motivated, but lately I’m feeling a lot more reluctant to produce dinosaurs. Instead of beating myself up about it, I’m taking the weekend off and starting up again on Monday. But I’ve produced some non-dinosaur related art:

This Halloween, I need something cheap and easy and cute. I already owned a dark cotton dress, so I made a red bow out of 100-yen felt and a cheap broom.

Voila!

Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service.

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

– Ira Glass (source)

This is exactly what I needed to read right now. I constantly feel like my art doesn’t live up to my own expectations. I constantly compare and measure against more skilled artists and feel like I’m making a horrible mistake with my life. Reading this soothes my anxieties and keeps me determined.

(Thanks Samwise!)

 She’s dead, lives alone, loves books, smells like vanilla and mothballs, and believes in nothing – not even herself.

The story of how this character came to be is that I really wanted to try drawing hair! I was mildly inspired by this art because I liked the aesthetic of bones and bright hair but I still stuck to my own personal style at the same time.

Either way, I like how it turned out.