Ten Months to Three Decades

Today is my 30th birthday. The above photo was taken 10 months into the game. I came out the day my mom was supposed to be the guest of honor at her baby shower, a month earlier than expected. I guess I didn't want to miss the party. The doctor wasn't sure I was going to make it, because I only weighed 4lbs, 5oz, and had to be in an incubator for a couple weeks. Also I had jaundice, so they had to put me under some kind of light, and put gauze over my eyes so they wouldn't get hurt. One day, while I was getting my light treatment, my uncle was standing near the observation window. Another guy walked up next to him, and asked, concernedly, if the baby with the gauze on the eyes was blind. I hear that my mom was pissed, but probably because she was already stressed out and worried that I wasn't gonna make it, and now someone was asking if I was blind. I have a lot of fat baby pictures, that when I complain about how fat of a baby I was, my mom said they made sure I ate a bunch because they thought I was going to die when I was born. Sheesh. Now look at me, walking around like I own the place... I don't know what else to say about today, other than, it doesn't seem like it took very long to get here.

On the opening of my thirtieth year, I am thankful to have the life I do, especially after jumping the gun at the beginning and almost ruining it all. I am constantly grateful to my family and friends who are my valued copilots on the roller coaster.

Situation Normal

Ito-Mobile

Forget that other blog I was telling you about last week. That wasn't very well thought out. What I really wanted, was a place where I could do less talking, and more showing of what I'm up to...

I want to get better at spur of the moment photography, and according to my parents and everyone, the only way to get better at anything, is to do it more. Although I enjoy looking at other people's Polaroids, and real film fun, I'm not big into the retro camera movement, mostly because I can't really afford to take on more equipment (I have enough stuff because of my addiction to crafting, and my often wandering attention). Hopefully I can practice digitally, and get better at framing life, with no money wasted on developing my horrible mistakes*. I spent enough time and money on that in high school... My goal in my new space, is to document more, using my mobile phone camera, just because it is something I have with me most of the time, and is much easier to carry than my Nikon D50. Also, I get embarrassed bringing out "the big guns," because I usually get some kind of comment like, "Wow, someone has a fancy camera," followed by questions about the specs on it. That makes me nervous, since I suck at remembering technical things...

This new space is meant to house my photo essays on my day to day life. I am hoping to keep it free of words (in the posts), but occasionally there might be a cute video, links, or funny photos that I didn't take myself. My guarantee is that it will always be filled with snaps of the day to day, whether it be from my phone, my fancy pants camera, other websites, etc.

I hope you will visit my other home every now and then:

* Though I like to sound like I'm some kind of thrifty wizard, I accidentally spent a bunch of money, uploading pictures from my phone directly to Flickr. Still need to fine tune this whole process so I don't end up an accidental chump...

Inspiration from Conan O'Brien

I watched Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show last night. It was nice to see him on TV again... I love his new set, and the show was great. My enthusiasm for Conan's sense of humor bubbled over into today. I wanted more, so I googled, and found these videos. These might be old news to everyone else, but this is the first time I've seen them. They are extremely funny, but also extremely inspirational... Check it out, especially those of you who could use some laughs, coupled with some motivation and hope. (0 ---- 0)

Part 1


Part 2

It helps to know that everyone goes through down times sometimes, but can rise back up like a funny, red haired, phoenix...

I hope one day I can be this good...

Tuesday Shark Attack (Hat)

[via Boing Boing Gadgets, via Neatorama, via Crafter forum]

Aphids Suck, Conan RULES!

I wanted to practice using some of the other brushes my friend gave me for Photoshop, so I drew what went on in my brain this Monday morning...

I'm excited that Conan is back on TV, starting tonight. Also, I am determined to eradicate the aphids from my Shishito pepper plant...

A Kiss From Tokyo Trailer

Welcome back from vacation to those of you who had Memorial Day off. To ease the pain of the Tuesday-Monday blues, check out this radical piece of business:

Many congrats to Kevin, Stephan, and Cyrille! A lot more exciting news and updates coming soon... Stay tuned to Kevin's site for the latest developments in the world of Yuki 7!

More Etching

I've been in a crafty kind of mood this year, I guess. I was encouraged by my friend Bruce to keep goin' with the glass etching I'd been dabbling in last year. I wanted to find a reusable stencil, so I wouldn't have to repeatedly re-cut the same design with my exact-O. The last etched glass project I did involved a lot of exact-O-ing, and swear words, when the tentacles I'd cut for my contact-paper-jellyfish kept getting stuck on top of each other, and then torn by my clumsy mitts.

I finally found some reusable, vinyl stencils at Michael's, the kind that I could cut my own designs in. It comes on a clear plastic backing that you can place them on when you're done using them, like reusable stickers. During this round, I did some testing with how much Armor-Etch cream was needed for an even etching, and also with how long the cream should be left on before being rinsed, in order to ensure a lack of visible brush strokes. I'm not sure whether it adds something to see the brush strokes or not, but I'm leaning more towards no visible strokes... My process was something like this:

Draw design with a Tombow HB pencil (my favorite softness, and brand) onto the stencil.

Remove stencil to self healing mat, and place flat, so as to preserve the clear backing sheet for later.

Use exact-O to cut stencil.

Place stencil on glass.

Brush super heavy/thick coat of Armor-Etch cream onto stencil/glass, leave for 30 minutes.

Rinse.

Dry.

Remove stencil to backing sheet.

Enjoy newly etched glass.

I also messed around with some glass paint. On the squid glasses, I felt it was best to keep to the simple shape, and only used paint to detail the eyes, so they would be more visible. I had some glass jars that I cleaned and saved, to try out something a little different. I wanted to do some UPA style characters... simple etched shape, with an offset line drawing. It's a little hard to get the glass paint to resemble an ink line, most of the time I had to put it on in more than one coat, or push it around, rather than paint it on. My lines ended up a lot thicker than I had hoped. To put the paint on the glass, I waited till my glasses and jars were completely dry, let the paint dry over night, then baked the glass in the oven (it says what temp on the bottle) so that the paint would set.

I'm considering putting some of these, or items like these in the store... But maybe want to get a better handle on how to get the line work looking more like what I imagined.

In case you're curious, I'm trying to sprout an avocado seedling in the amoeba jar, which is what that weird pod is, being supported by toothpicks, and cradled in water.

New Plush Forms

About a month ago, I was trying to come up with some new plush ideas, so I can slowly but surely start putting the stock pile of fabric that I've built up, to good use. I want to eventually start selling some new things in the store, but I'm not sure if these particular ones will be put in there or not. Also, I've posted some sketches, in case you're interested to see my process. Don't follow my lead, I don't really know what I'm doing. Nevertheless, I thought you might want to see how it starts out for me. The tiny newsprint page was my attempt to figure out some construction ahead of time, but, to someone who actually sews from real patterns it probably looks like a cave painting.

Surprise! It's Adventure Time!

For the past few months I've been workin' on Friendleton's show, Adventure Time, over at Cartoon Network. It's the first time I've been paid to work there, though not my first time gaining experience there. My very first internship in animation was at Cartoon Network, on Grim & Evil/ Evil Con Carne. I am having a blast working on Pen's show, and was thinking it would be a while before I could show you what I've been drawing... Then the other day, they posted some of my boards from the first episode I've done for the show. I've been working with Adam Muto, who did an awesome short about Samsquatch with Frederator... I went to school with Adam, but we didn't talk much. I mostly knew him as the animated dancing guy at the end of one of Pen's films. It was one of my favorite animations ever. I am smiling, thinking of it... Anyway, now me and Adam talk all the time, because we share the same office, drawing and laughing furiously together. We also own two of the same T-shirts. Aaaaawwwhhh Jyeah! Anywho, clickity-click on the super long hyperlinked sentence, or on the image above to see the post on the Frederator blog about me and Adam's board.