I had my teeth cleaned this morning – so, sitting in the dentist chair, while waiting for new X-rays to be developed I had this nice view of the parking lot below.
Last weekend we put up all the Halloween decorations. The kids love this stuff, very fun. Yesterday we saw The Corpse Bride and The Were-Rabbit all in the same day at the same theater – two stop-motion feature-length movies. I don’t know if that’s a first in motion picture history. And then coming to work this morning it was terrible to learn about the fire at Aardman, where the Were-Rabbit movie was made.
Somewhere in Culver City, California…
I found this little collection of great quotes about drawing and sketching. A couple of my favorites:
“Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good.” ~ Cennini.
and
“From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’ ” ~ Hokusai, The Drawings of Hokosai.
I love Hokusai.
Sunday afternoon sitting on our porch. After I started this I suddenly realized it has a lot in common with my Purple Gate watercolor, even though several years and miles separate them.
This morning the light had a strange movie-like quality to it due to the recent fires. The smell of smoke is everywhere and there was ash on my car, even though I live 20 miles from the nearest fire. Seventeen thousand acres is a big area and a lot of incinerated trees. Living in L.A. is always a strange mix of extremes: near-perfect non-weather 95% of the time, punctuated by fires, earthquakes, mudslides and the once-a-century deluge. It’s like Mother Nature sings you a lullaby, kisses you goodnight – then jabs you with a hat pin.
UPDATE: It looks like there’s a fire in Burbank as well, only two miles from my home, and that’s the culprit. Hopefully they put these things out in a hurry.
He’s looking up information having to do with Legend of Kay, the new PlayStation game he’s crazy about. We try to limit how much he plays – usually weekends only, and after chores; but one thing I do like is that he draws a lot of the stuff in the game, characters, etc. Notice the sheets of paper behind him. His drawings of General Grievous and Briarios he taped up, like a mini-gallery of scary cyborgs.
Anthony Zierhut 
