Drive that car

While driving keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

This monday I had my first go for the driving test. I failed horribly. My stress level was beyond the radiation level on venus. Which resulted in me trying to start in second gear and failing three times at it before I was even on the road. Let me tell you that the examinator wasn't too pleased about that fact. That and the crossroad that I crossed in an evil way.

But today I was well prepared, completely stressless and better used to the car. Plus I knew what I had done wrong and was sure not to make the same mistakes again. Which I luckily didn't. No this time I succeeded in my test, though I have to say it was a funny trip that day.

On this ride I was treated with a lot of normal things happening. Trafic lights staying on red for an eternity. Little girls pressing on buttons to turn on red lights so that they can safely pass the crosswalk. Cars coming from the opposite direction in very tiny streets. Garbage trucks being parked at the other side of the road blocking my way and a lot more crazy stuff.

But from now on I too can become a danger on the road. In other news, I wasn't very inspired by the events of the day to draw and late at night I had to try three times before I got something that is moderately ok. While drawing this I spend way to much time on the space. I should find a new way to draw space. The trick I use now just doesn't do it anymore for me.

Spaceship 21 by ~wulfnstein on deviantART

Playing with clips

Having some creative time during lunchbreak is always good.

During lunchbreak I can be bored at times. So if I'm bored and there are some things lying on the table I tend to play with them. This time there were some clips, a rubber band, and a few other things lying on the table. After a bit of experimenting with the possibilities I got to the final design. By putting them togheter I was able to transform them into some sort off airplane.

The rubber band on the table helped me to attach something else to the "airplane". And to finish it off I got two pieces of paper wrapped up like tubes and attached them in such a way that they were the "engine blasts". If it hadn't been for the fact that a red marker was lost, the airplane would have been decorated with some red colors here and there.

Once finished I couldn't help playing with the toy and I started making it move through the air while producing those "mmjiiuuum" and "vrrooooom" sounds. The child in me was awake again. As a finishing touch to it all I made a little sketch of how I saw the contraption in my imagination. It definatly has a sci-fi touch to it.

Adventure games

Look out behind you, a three headed monkey!

I've played my fair share of adventure games. Day of the tentacle, Monkey Island1 & 2, Myst, and a lot of demos from indie game adventures and so on. The old ones were fun with their pixelated styles. It gave me the option to imagine more then what I saw. Of course with graphics of today, everything looks just way more awesome.

So this drawing was inspired by adventure games. I figured, drawing a background would be a fun thing to try. Day of the tentacle was obviously the inspiration for this one, with the house on the top of a hill. Though I don't think they had an iglo in that game. In this game however there would be an eskimo sitting on the edge of the iceplate, trying to catch a fish in the grass.

I'm guessing some sort of mad scientist has invented a machine to bring stuff from one place on the planet to another and in his first attempt he just transported the poor chap from the chilly northpole to that european landscape. How to bring that eskimo back would be a subquest for the main character. Of course after having investigated the iglo. And after grabbing every possible item in it.

Adventure background by ~wulfnstein on deviantART

Story time

The story of three little mice.

"Yesterday, when you weren't looking, a little mouse sneaked into your room. The hole behind the detached wooden plint was his way into your sanctuary. The little mouse didn't realise you were too focused on your homework to notice him. Yet he was very attentive for any sudden movements you might have made.

Carefully it sniffed around the air. Searching for that one special treasure. Something that you were not allowed to take back to your room. Cause mother doesn't like it when you take food upstairs. But when she hadn't been paying attention, you had crawled into the kitchen. Just as silent as the little mouse had snuk into your room.

Of course you didn't need to snif around like the little mouse. You knew exactly where to find the little snack. The mouse however had to try a bit harder. But as you had been guided by knowledge, the little mouse was guided by its nose. So don't be too surpriced about the crumbs you just found instead of that delicious cookie your mother had baked the other day. "

And that is a little story I have been writing on the bus. I ended up with 4 versions. The two first ones are shown here. The others are just text, but these two have little sketches I made during the writing. They also have most of the changes and corrections I made during the writing proces. Its just me practising a bit on writing, I thought it would be fun to try it once.

Who knows, maybe I'll write some more in the future, I have a whole notebook of 40 pages available. Though I don't think I'll be as good as good ol' Arthur C. Clarck. But its still fun to write. And with this story I like how it turned out to be a "you" perspective instead of an "I" or "him". Oh and see if you can figure out who or what the two other mice are.

Crazy days sometimes

Yesterday had a painfull opening, but a funny intermission.

The ending was kinda normal, without any special plottwists that makes you wonder why you watched the first part anyway. The painfull opening was me getting my hand hurt in some extention on a shop rack. The flesh of my hand got stuck between some iron, only for 1/4 of a second, but long enough to crush it.

After the obligated curses and revenge-kick against the shop rack I continued working. First rather annoyed by the pain, but after a while I figured it was just another experience in life. So while I'm typing this I don't even mind it that much anymore. I only hope it wont turn out to be a nuisance while I'm drawing.

Luckily I had some fun when I went home from work. After a few days of burning heat the skies finaly decided to drop some rain on us. Boy was I pleased to see the customers run in the store and seeing how the raindrops went at least a meter inside the shop. Good old rain flushed the floor so hard my collegues were even cleaning it up a bit.

Supricingly it didn't rain when I was walking to the busstop. But the rain that had fallen before had left a big pool at a parkinglot. A pool of 3 by 6 meters, on the right a supermarket and on the left a big old church. Its clock told me I still had a few minutes to kill before my bus would arrive. So when I walked passed the pool I had this feeling, no, an urge, a need to walk through the pool of water.

After doing what I did I came to a funny conclusion. I'm not impulsive enough to just jump in that pool, splashing about like a mad kid. I am however mad enough to stand still, contemplate the concequences of jumping in with my shoes on. Then figuring I had better take off my shoes, remove my socks and go through the pool barefoot. Feeling the cool water and dirt between my free toes was a funny experience.

When I finaly arived at the busstop I only had to wait for a minute or two for my bus.

Hot hot hot

Its a heatwave up here!

The temperature up here has been way to high the past few days. I don't mind good weather, but this is just crazy. Last day when I went home after work I got a treat of pure heatness. I got on the bus and put my ass down on one of the seats in the back. The seat was boiling hot. At first I thought someone had sat on it and it was still warm. But when I switched seats I knew it was just the bus being boiled beyond cooling!

So as a last hope I sat in the back where there was a draft from a hole in the roof. When the bus was driving the wind cooled me down a bit, but everytime it stopped at a red light the temperature just rose to the tops. The sketch on the right was made during that busride. It portraits the bus being on fire. Which is sorta how hot it felt to me.

A funny part of that busride was when the busdriver stopped at a station for the bus. He got out and put his head under water. So when he got back on the bus, his head was dripping wet. "ah, that felt good" was his remark. That must have been the best idea ever for a busdriver.

In retrospect I think it must have been crazy for the next clients. Cause for them it could seem like the busdriver had been sweating all day. On the left are just a few sketches from one of the churches near my job. Nothing special, except that there was a stone in the corner that was pointed in a strange position. Those churches can really defy the logic of building a house sometimes. But that is what makes them so fun to watch and draw.

I'm rather sleepy today.

Its very odd when you wake up in the afternoon thinking it is morning.

So yesterday there was a "gaming" night with some friends. Gaming being just hanging out mostly. Playing some risk, halo3 and watching some Gabriel Iglesias. But in the end all that stuff kept us busy for the entire night. That of course was the start of me being very tired and taking a "nap" in the afternoon.

That nap ended in a rather lenghty sleep. Many of you might have had that moment too, where you wake up and you have no clue of where or when you are. Thus, while I was in that moment I just figured, "hell its probably morning and I have to go to work. But wait, its already light, Oh no, I overslept!" Its a good thing my memory got back when I checked my clock and it was blinking 17:25.

As for the drawing of today, I had this one in my "still working on it" folder for the last seven or more days. It really needed to be done soon. It started out as just some random circles that I drew on the paper. Call it lazyness or geniusness, but the circles were to good to be removed so I stuck with it and made this crazy landscape.

Bolgras by ~wulfnstein on deviantART

Its grass on spheres that float in the air. Sorta like those lava-lamps but only the bubbles don't detach from the ground. But they are still as agile, gooyie and of course covered in grass. Though I do belief I overdid it with the brightness. Maybe I should have used a sunrise or sunset instead. But I guess my lack of sleep deprived me to go hardcore on the colors.

3 hour project

Other people always give you ideas you never thought off in the first place.

So today Lieven had the idea to get me into his 3 hour project. It includes a subject and 3 hours of time that you keep working on it, making something that revolves around the subject. So he gave me the mission to make a piece for a cd-cover, and I told him to go for coffee stuff. I got inspired by the expresso that he had made before.
So I started with some random lines, but soon got to the idea of using the equaliser from those music players. It seemed like a good way to portrait music. After a while I made those things break up and let them turn into flying stuff. Which soon was a bird of some kind. A bird with the equaliser in his wings. And then it went on from there to produce the following thingy.

Though we didn't really spend three hours on our subjects today. Mostly because there wasn't enough time. But we did get to play some funny computer games. The older ones. The kind where pixels are actually visible, though I guess the youngsters won't know what I'm talking about. Since we didn't have gamepads we used two keyboards on one computer, which seemed to work just fine.

Sketchy business

Working for a company tires me down sometimes.

Like today for example. Today I'll be kicking the dust early enough, since the sales are starting today. Lotsa crazed woman looking for clothes as cheap as possible. Yesterday we prepared for it, in the smothering heat of the store since the airco shut down after the shop closed. Waking up so early both sucks and thrills me. Its way too early, but it'll be a long day that feels used, not wasted.

So yesterday evening, after coming home at 20:54, I didn't really feel like making a big colored drawing. Thus these two sketches were born. Real quickies that I only gave about 15 minutes. But I did film my desktop while making the second one. So at least I got another speed painting to show. Well I'm off to work, off to madness!