My New Teacherly Response to All Technical Questions

"There's a thing you can hook up to a thing, but I don't care."
Also here's a rough for a future Arms and Ether strip. Not all that productive of a day, so far. I did get a foot-long sub, a mexican mocha, and a cupcake out of it though, so my middle-aged man physique is happy. UPDATE--and some fish and chips.
So. . . this ridiculous 6 minutes of drawing will make my life bearable when I sit down again to work on this strip. Weird, eh?

Montaigne: The Original Middle Aged Man

I'm trying to get a handle on drawing Renaissance-style ruffled collars (or "ruffs") because the Arms and Ether character, Ginger Childe, sports one. The "go-to-guy" for ruffled collars is, for my money, Michel de Montaigne. Here are my deep insights into "The Seigneur."

1. Montaigne was a sweet-assed bald man. That's the way you rock middle age, baby. Grow the 'stache, hole-up in your castle-shack and start discoursin' on whatever suits your eclectic fancy.

2. The pants-less lifestyle is a central theme of the first five Arms and Ether strips. I just realized that Montaigne, actually discusses the pants-less lifestyle in his On Cannibalism. "All this is not too bad -- but what's the use? They don't wear breeches."

3. I can say I'm a sharper fellow for having taken Claude Rawson's, Literature and Cultural Reticence: The Cannibal Theme, as a young English major. Now back to drawing that damned collar.

4. Literature and Cultural Reticence: The Cannibal Theme was my second favorite course title, topped only by Black Women and Their Fictions.

Bald Power: Cal Ripken Jr. and Glenn "Divine" Milstead Unite!

This connection must have been made somewhere before as both Cal and the late, great, "Divine" are prominent Baltimore figures. Nonetheless, it bears illustration. Thanks to my brother for drawing this to my attention.

Dang it. Now I've got to lay low.

From today's Medford Mail Tribune:
Police circulate sketch of Human Bean robber.
"Witnesses described him as a white man about 30 with dark, short hair, a full beard and a pot belly. He was last seen wearing a tank top and long black shorts, police said."

Better put off that trip to Medford. I'd just be asking for trouble.
"But officer, I'm 41!"

Plus that damn drawing looks like every other page in my sketchbook. . . Maybe I'd better change my profile picture.

Sunday Lovin' Had Me a Blast

A beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. Played some basketball in the ol' Bellview gym with a good combo of guys over 40 and kids under 15. Then ran into bearded art stars Matthew Furber and Andrew Farris at the Beanery. Jolly times. Talked video games, comics and Tom of Finland. Now, what to do? Lots of tests to grade, curriculum to develop, web site to make, happiness hole to create/fill, walls to stare at, etc.

Domestic Front: I finally got the water heater installed yesterday with lots of support from Scott, Nick and Galen. Good to have friends that are smarter than you. Nice to do something non school/art related. Also, Julie and I went out to dinner with Scott and Christy on Saturday. Twas much fun. Eatin', drinkin', and talking #$@#!. Get some carbohydrates in me and I'll start prattling on about just about anything I know absolutely nothing about.

Now, I think I'll work on the site. . . though I should be grading tests .

"Dick the Dude" and "Pete the Pirate" are two of Wooly Willy's "magnetic personalities." If you Google "Dick the Dude" you won't find images of Wooly Willy, however.

Miles In Action

There he goes again. Did you know that Height (in pixels) x Width (in pixels) x Color Depth (# of bits per pixel) = the # of bits in a digital image? Thank you, Eric Picard who taught me all of this digital nonsense in graduate school. My teaching compatriot Dennis Dunleavy took this picture on his Iphone while we were "team-teaching" this morning. He's an honorary "Fairbrass Brother," along with my brother and Marco Rosichelli.