Artsy (or not) Things I Got for Christmas!

As you'll see, this also serves as kind of a "2009 wrap-up" post. Some of these will demand longer posts later on after I've watched/read/played with them:

I got the collection of Chuck Jones' "Tom and Jerry" cartoons on DVD. I know these shorts have their detractors, but I like them. I haven't watched this yet but it looks like it may be similar to the excellent "Droopy" collection they put out last year (well, LAST last year).
I also got the four-disk Blu-ray edition of "Up". "But Trish, you don't have a Blu-ray player!" You're right but Disney has decided to do something neat to wean people onto the new format: regular DVDs come packaged with the movie and not a whole lot else but the Blu-ray DVDs come with the movie (both on Blu-ray and unleaded DVD format) and a whole lot of goodies.
Wait, did I say neat? What I meant was unnecessarily confusing.
Anyway, as you know I enjoyed "Up" and the disk is very nice.

Man, I can NOT wait to plow through these! I've thumbed through these books and they all look to be amazing. The two-volume Drawn To Life books are about as daunting as the Greg S. Paul textbook I unwittingly got a while back, but I think I can take my medicine. The Goldberg and the Gurney (I have started in on the latter and it may be the best "how to paint" book I've ever read) are shorter but very nice and packed with rare artwork.

These are a little more personal/in-jokey, but I had to share how awesome my sister is. She made a lovely photo album of our family reunion. My godfather gave me the cookbook, knowing I've started getting serious about expanding beyond my "heat up a can of Cream of Mushroom soup, cook frozen spinach, mix and dump in some spaghetti" repertoire. The random loose photographs are from my participation in LAST last year's Comicazi.con. I also got a copy of Inventory (not pictured but very nice and funny as to be expected from The Onion), and Obligatory (but useful) Gift Cards to GameStop - destined to take a chunk off the cost of "Soul Silver" (if it has the more interesting version exclusives) - and to the Apple store. Hmmm... why would I need that?

For my new toy badass art-making machine, of course.
I am... REALLY excited to start playing with this. I shall gush when she's fully set up.
Here's today's Sketch of the Day (or Whatever)!

Not sure what part of the creative process this gives insight into but that rabiescorn may need to be colored in soon.
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Oh gosh I just learned -like, literally just learned- that Arisia is this weekend! I don't know much beyond the fact that this is a huge sci-fi/fantasy convention in Cambridge, MA, they will be showing "Zombieland" and "Moon" among other films, and I missed the registration deadline. Wah. (To be fair, spring tends to be the start of convention season around here. Oh well.) Still, this may be a fun time for those of you in the general MIT vicinity.

It is time to get *really* serious.

That is to say, it's time to tackle this thing right here:


I am, I will admit, intimidated as hell. But it's time. It isn't like the process is quick either; one can not simply "get a job" in this field. It's time to just shut up and get started.
Incidentally, I just found out about a companion book, The Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market. Does anyone have it and, if so, is it worth it / more up my alley in terms of getting the freelance illustrator career off the ground?
I also, just last night, finally did an archive binge on "Lackadaisy Cats" and... soooooo pretty...
I may actually have to start treating "Fun in the Backyard" seriously...

And while I hate to end on such a bummer, here is another Reasonable (you would hope) Proposal, based on the recent "Tom and Jerry" movie announcement. Dear Hollywood people. Please stop making feature films out of seven-minute cartoons. "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was a one time aberration (and even then, I only say that meaning it was a big hit; I'm not suggesting that it was any good).

Stop doing it. Please. Not everything needs to be a movie.
P.S. - That goes triple for children's books.