Saving the world one bird at a time

My father made himself a trap to catch squirrels and racoon ravanging our garden. I hate the idea but what can you do? Sometimes, however, birds get captured. That's what happened last Sunday. It was raining and I noticed through the small caged window (the trap is made of wood with a steel door) that a bird was frantically trying to get out. Who knows how long the bird wa sin there so I went outside to get it out. Poor thing had the door slam on it's tail feathers when he (or she?) went inside.

I felt good that I helped a creature to freedom. Two days later, at the train station where I, well, take the train to go to work, I noticed that a goose made a nest directly in front of the station house (where they sell the tickets). I always love to see wildlife in it's domain but this was just not the right spot to raise children. Right next to a huge parking lot and a very, very busy road where lots and lots of very, very aggressive (read: stupid and always-in-a-hurry) drivers think only of themselves zoom here and there. Plus, with the warm weather, kids use the empty lot after business hours to go skateboarding or play with their remote controlled cars. You know how some teenagers just love to be sh!t disturbers... Not all, it just takes one to take a creature's life for kicks.

So, I decided to call an animal rescue team to see if there's anything they can do about this. Maybe put up a fence or something. I was afraid the train station would just sho the bird and her eggs away because the city paid for those bulbs. But I couldn't find wildlife resuce in the yellow pages or online. I decided to call up the Kortright Conservation Area (they are very close to the GO Train station where Mother Goose made her nest) since I know they do that even though they didn't list it on their site. I figured, why not? Since it was after business hours when I called, I left a message. Couldn't hurt. I was also going to send an email to the OSCPA, Humane Society, Greenpeace and even WWF.

To my dismay, nothing was done when I went back the next day. Nor the following morning. However, tonight, yes, there's yellow caution tape around the area where the goose is. I don't know if it's because of my phone call or maybe the GO staff was concerned. If it's the latter, then hurray for the GO train!

In any case, I was happy. Humans can help animals after all. but I couldn't help but worry about the fact that the goose was nowhere to be seen. But you could see the eggs. 5 or 6 of them. And they are large. No specks on them like I thought they'd have. I'm sure she went looking for food but I wonder if she was scared off by the nice people who put the tape around her nest. I hope not. Then those eggs would never hatch. I'll see tomorrow morning if she had returned.

Boy, I'm such a doomsdayer! But I do feel good that I did something. How nice for after-Earth Day! I should take a photo so I can post it here.

Back on topic of the blog: my drawings-- I've been working on a painting for my future niece or nephew who is due to arrive on this Earth at the end of August. It's made in pastel and it's done. Almost. All I need to do is spray it with a fixative (I think that's what it's called) and add some outlines (it's a cartoony drawing after all) with conte crayon. I used a smooth board to draw with oil pastels. For some reason, this used to be ok. Now, suddenly, it doesn't work. It's like oil pastels don't go well with smooth canvas. Whodathunkit? :) Oh well, it's the last time I'll do that I guess. Now I'll work on pastel paper (well, obviosuly) as I like the texture oil pastels create. I'll post a scan once the baby's born. Hm... come to think of it... I should make the painting in black and white since that's what babies can see when they're born. If only I had thought of this earlier! :)

I'm also working on a comic for June's issue of YYZ Lifestyle. It will be about the World Cup and I've decided to make the subject matter about the fandom here in Toronto during that time. You know, how all the bottled up racisim shows up base don which country lost. Your country and nationality sucks big time because your national team lost. Oh brother. It would help if they actually watched soccer all the time in between the 4 years.

Anyhoo, this post has gone on long enough and the longer I'm on the computer, the less I'm weightlifting and/or drawing.

Can you believe I went from rescuing birds to painting to wannabe World Cup soccer fans in one post? Get used to it :)

New Spud comic

Well, I just finished my latest Spud comic for YYZ Lifestyle magazine. I'd be considerate enough to post it here but then why bother getting the magazine? You're going to have to get a copy :P Unless, of course, you don't live in Toronto...

But I can be nice enough to tell you that it's about that old phenomenon where as soon as your friends get married you never, ever see them again (unless, of course, you're married yourself-- what is it with most couples dumping their single friends and sticking to their kind?). I really should be posting more drawings if this is supposed to be a blog from a 'toonist. Next time. Right now it's late (yes, 9:30 is late for me on a work night).

Today, I bought one of those Brit magazines about drawing on the computer. Computer Arts, I think? I left the magazine at work. They all seem to be from the same company. This one is focused on digital cartooning and how it can be applied to different industries. Plus it comes with a nifty demo of Toon Boom software (since I want to start making Spud movies--- note to myself: find the bloody time!) which I can easily have downloaded from their website after all this time but never quite got around to doing it.

My blog looks stupid in IE

No shock there. I just noticed that some of the styles for the headings, etc. don't show up the same way on IE (saw it on a PC) as it does on Firefox and Safari on the Mac. I really have no energy or patience to deal with the inconsistencies of CSS across platforms and browsers (read: IE's ability to not conform to standards). Last year I had the wonderful ordeal of trying to get an entire website made in CSS to work across all browsers and platforms. Because most of the world uses the one browser that has it's own rules for CSS (sounds like a great metaphor for American foreign policy), I had to spend almost 3 months trying to figure it all out.

You may already be a non-winner

Back in February, I thought I'd try my luck at entering the Applied Arts magazine photo/illustration awards. There is no 1 winner, just a bunch of winners they select and publish in an issue of their magazine. Of course, you have to pay to enter and I thought why not? It was my first time entering any illustration contest and I had a feeling that maybe, just maybe, I could actually and quite possibly perhaps probably win! The prize is just being published and you get a few copies of the magazine to send to your friends and associates. Winners would be announced in April and guess what? It's April and I received an e-mail.

I didn't win :(

Unfortunately your work was not selected by this years panel (who were quite tough), and hope that you will try again, as each year there is a new panel of senior creatives with a fresh outcome.

Right. I don't know if I will try again next year. Maybe. But I won't enter two paintings. Just the 1. It costs $50 to enter and I have the feeling that priority is given to those who already made a name for themselves in the design industry so they can show what kind of talent reads their magazine. Just a thought. Not that I'm angry or anything. Really, I'm not! Just a little sad. Now I can't advertise myself as 'award winning' :(

Anyhoo, no big loss (except I'm out $107-- I had to pay taxes, too). I'm curious to see the winning selections and learning from it. The judges are apparently senior art directors or whatever and I can't really assume my work will appeal to all of them. Even if the selection is pretty tough (whatever).

If you want to see the artwork I submitted, you can see one of them on my portfolio site at http://www.superspud.com/studio. It's the first work you see when you enter the gallery (the yellow painting). The other piece I sent is not on my portoflio-- but it's displayed here on the left for all to see and say "THOSE PAINTINGS DID NOT WIN AT LEAST MISS CONGENIALITY??? WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?".

Science and Religion are compatible! Well, obviously.

I'm taking a break from a painting (oil pastel) that I'm working on and thought I'd add an entry for today. Oh, by the way, Happy Easter!

As I was painting (pastelling?), I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts called The Daily Breakfast. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a show made by a Catholic priest in The Netherlands. It's a fun show to listen to with next to no preaching. He talks about the news, movies, games, etc. while teaching a little about the Catholic Faith.

Anyway, the reason why I'm mentioning his podcast is today's show had a mention of an e-mail I sent to him (I always get excited-- it's like hearing your name on the radio.). I mentioned that I listened to the latest Quirks & Quarks, a science program on CBC Radio One. A segment talked about the Vatican observatory in Arizona and all about the Catholic Church's endorsement of scientific research in the past and in the present (and the future, too).

Being an astronomy buff and a Catholic (who was also a little intrigued to have stumbled upon the Church's observatory in Rome), it made for an interesting listen. they interviewed Brother Guy Consolmagno who runs the observatory and talked about how science and religion really do co-exist in harmony.

The best thing was, I always believed the exact same thing. Science, the way things work, chemistry, physics, planetary orbits, etc. they all work because that is how God made them work. Just like how an engineer invents something to work in a specific way, that's how God made everything. And it's up to us to figure it all out. Though I wish we didn't have to resort to animal testing or building nuclear bombs, but I suppose we still have a long, long way to go in our evolution.

It was refreshing to hear the show after all the insults athiests spewed all over the Internet about religion being stupid and stifieing science. I think the problem with most people is they don't seem to take the time to think things through before posting-- and the Internet is notorious for that. All those flame wars. Oh puh-leaaaase.

Quirks & Quarks is also available as a podcast on iTunes.

Ok, all done.

Sort of. I've worked on this all day and boy is my back, neck, arms and eyes hurting! Knowing me, I'll take a look at the blog in a few days and come up with a few changes to the design. Oh well, that is the life of an anal artist! Let me know how you like it. Does the red background look like red or is it, shudder, pink?

My iTunes is playing Swing That Music by Louis Armstrong. For some reason, it just seems fitting. Don't know why. Maybe because the music reminds me of 1930s cartoons :)

Speaking of which, I should get off this computer and invent some more cartoon characters. I'll keep ye posted.

Happy Easter and Passover!

Things will be a little wonky

No I didn't forget all about my SpudJournal. I just didn't have the time to play around with the style sheets to make it all my own unique design.

Until now that is. If you happen to be viewing this blog while I'm making changes, you'll probably wonder why it looks so strange. Parts of the template don't seem to match, perhaps the font is way off, etc. That's because you caught me while I'm working on it. I plan on having everything done today.

Welcome to my Spudblog a.k.a. SpudJournal a.k.a. let's-see-how-far-this-thing-goes-and-if-I-can-figure-out-how-to-get-this-to-work-with-my-spudsite (which is www.superspud.com and also www.superspud.com/studio). In the meantime, before I post anything, I want to customize the template to my look and feel. Stay tuned!