Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Dislocated Nashville

I've never been to Nashville before.

I assume it is not dislocated. Nor are the inhabitants of this musical town all dragging dislocated appendages around. Of course not, you may chuckle, Nashville is home to many fine, well located shoulders and musicians. And I would smile and nod "yes" but deep down inside I'd still be wondering.

However, in a hour or two (or less) I'll be in a fine automobile couched on poofy seats hurtling around 60 or 70 miles an hour for the lovely state of Tennessee. Nashville bound, specifically.

Portland Studios has been invited to the grand opening concert of Andrew Peterson's new album, "The Far Country" which Justin created the cover and interior booklet art for and Brannon designed.


I actually did nothing for the CD other than I think I handed Justin some paper once. Basically I'm going for kicks and a free concert along with a being near Graceland.

Should be a great trip if I can manage to keep my wandering arm in joint. I'm haunted with the memory of the resounding "pop-heard-round-the-pool" of Colorado fame.

Full post detailing all the gritty details of Nashville upon my return Friday afternoon.

For now, the promised story from my very first post.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE LEGEND OF INDUCTION NIGHT: A FOREWORD

This is the funniest thing I have ever read.

People may tell you, "No, this is the funniest thing I have ever read, or that is the funniest thing I have ever read."

No, no, this is the funniest thing I have ever read. Maybe it's because I know the people in it, or maybe it's because it happened to me, or what I really don't know. All I know is my last words to Justin were, "Write a story about this. And make it uncontrollably funny."

And he did.



Gwen, outside the E.R.


Me, inside the E.R. and Hillary is so sorry.


A small excerpt, for those not yet convinced to undertake the reading of the chronicle:

Setting; after the dislocation and the journey to the E.R. This is Justin, the one driving, who is speaking:
. . .

I turn back to cory and tell him, "Cory, i have good news and i have bad news, the bad news is that your arm is out of joint and that we have to take you to the hospital which is an hour from here threw an impossibly hard hike and a gutwrenching drive back the good news is that we- ... ok there is no good news.'

At this point, cory makes an unbelievable louis and clark expedtion back up the mountain dragging a limp right arm over the rough terrain while navigating the terrain like a spider with only 3 limbs where the rest of us struggled with 4. after an ardous mile hike back we reach the car, cory is now in a stupor and is shivering and moaning about yaks or something, and hillary is now back to her normal peace loving self and is aghast at what her alternate steven segall ego has done to poor cory. so anyway, i step on it and drive at 180 miles an hour all the way back to travelers rest, hitting every single bump and rock and pothole and curb and water buffalo that i could find along the way and slowing down only once, when Gwen pointed out a boiled peanut stand in Travelers Rest, where the back half of an elephant was standing. and i said, "my thats odd, the back half of an elephant right here in trav- AH! THATS NOT AN ELEPHANT!! THATS A, A PERSON!!!" and sure enough, it was, it was the hugest person i had ever seen in my entire life. literally the size of an elephant's flank. and it was looming over the boiled peanut stand like some horrific steven king poltergiest pachederm. and ben kammer got on top of the car and shouted through cupped hands, "PUT THE PEANUTS DOWN!! NOW!! PUT EM DOWN!! YES, YOU, BACK AWAY! to no avail, as in my rear view mirror i could see her lift the peanut stand from its trailor park foundations and eat it, clerk and all. Cory moans and i step on it again.

after a few more minutes of super high speed travel (that to cory felt was like riding in an old pinto with square wheels through a mine field) we arrived at the hospital. they fired cory into a wheelchair and ziiped him right into the back, and then they shooed us out.

. . .

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Without further ado:

The Legend of Induction Night.

Kiln Firing In Progess


that's the way to do it.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Schwarz und Weiss


"Galumphingly"


"Windows of Glory"


"Top Hat"


"Star-crossed"


All doodles pictured here circa several months ago.

For Breakfast

I had an apple that tasted like spagetti.

Watercolors

The other side to my digital post.



"The Blue Goblet" (cover)

Portland Studios interal story development.



"Wolfgang's Beautiful Pumpkin"

Wolfgang discovered a beautiful pumpkin upon which he sat for many days until it hatched.




"Conversations"



"The Watchman"

Monday, August 29, 2005

Digital Painting

All work done entirely in Photoshop.


"Eliakim"

Pre-production concept art.



"Joseph" (in progress, detail)

Pre-production concept art.


"Adolphus Moravius Grimble"


"Adolphus Moravius Grimble" (detail)

Portland Studios internal story development.

Friday, August 26, 2005

July 9


20 GB Resurrection w/ Click Wheel


It lives. Back from Apple in California, my iPod has new life. Or something like that. It's a brand new one. I was covered under the AppleCare protection plan and they simply replaced it which is incredibly nice but loses a little something for the sentimental buffoon in me.

I do miss all the knicks and bumps and scratches on the old one, the majority of which are due to me dumping a load of rocks at the "Garden of the Gods in Colorado" into my pocket thinking, "Hey, yeah, Garden of the Gods rocks." And then thinking, "Hey, yeah, time to put my iPod back in my pocket." The lovely white pod and metalic case was dramtically scratched. On an unrelated note, I also threw my Nalgene bottle from the top to see if it really would not burst. Nalgene kept their word, and a few minutes later I was drinking nice Colorado sun-toasted water. Nalgenes may not break but they sure as anything don't keep water cold I discovered.

But back to my iPod. I also dropped it once. Or twice. I think from about 5 feet once onto the driveway. But that was after I had fried it so I don't know what that actually did to it if anything but probably something. It was 5 feet after all. And a driveway.

All in all though, I am very pleased to have it back.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Cardboard Sarcophagus

I fried my iPod the other day.

It's a long complicated story involving unsavory elements that are bad and scary and will not be mentioned here. I spent an entire morning at work trying to heal it. John Bjerk came over and even with all his powers could not return to life my lifeless pod. With nothing left to do, I packed it up and mailed it back to Apple in a cardboard sarcophagus. See below.




HOWEVER, glad day, I just received word from Apple....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: donotreply@apple.com
Date: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:48:18 PM US/Eastern
To: cgodbey@portlandstudios.com
Cc:
Subject: Status of Dispatch ********: IPOD (20 GB CLICK WHEEL)
Reply-To: donotreply@apple.com


Dear Customer

Your product has reached our repair center. We will notify you by email when the repair is complete.

Check your repair status at http://www.apple.com/support/selfservice/status

Apple
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was good news. But this is better news....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: donotreply@apple.com
Date: Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:46:13 AM US/Eastern
To: cgodbey@portlandstudios.com
Cc:
Subject: Status of Dispatch ********: IPOD (20 GB CLICK WHEEL)
Reply-To: donotreply@apple.com


Dear Customer

Your service request has been completed and your product is on its way. Please allow two business days for delivery.

Check your repair status at http://www.apple.com/support/selfservice/status

Apple
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Creative Work Environment

I am pleased to work in this environment.

Ophelia





My pretty hamster who I hope will not fulfill the literary destiny prescribed by her namesake.

Developing Spots

One of the things I hope to keep updated and in the forefront here is personal work (look for more on this later tomorrow) and updates on current projects. At this point there's several work projects going on and the one I'm highlighting today is the development of the interior illustrations for the second book in the Landon Snow series, Landon Snow And The Shadows Of Malus Quidam.

The project is a three book series along lines of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, and the like. The story follows the adventures of young Landon Snow through all sorts of amazing exploits. For more info on Book One, Landon Snow And The Auctor's Riddle, check out the site; simple, but effective. Look around the text for links to other Landon Snow treats. Release date is October 1st, this fall.

The example here is for the interior illustrations. There's probably around 20 -25 "chapter spots." The spots are small illustrations that go at the top of the chapter.

This is the rough for one spot from Book Two. The request was for a bird that belongs to the old man.

The request below,

"A green bird with white underwings and white and black markings. (This is the bird the characters heard singing before arriving at Vates' place in book 1. It's Vates' bird, and its name is Epops.) "




Here was the first rough. Not quite what they were looking for, they wanted something small that could fit in your hand.


So, the creation of the second rough. This one was accepted and all that remained to do was the final, below. It was done on Graphic paper (a type of printmaking paper) with graphite pencil.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

I Don't Wear Glasses


Which is too bad really. I've always wanted glasses. These belong to my future father-in-law (June 25, 2006) and he wielded them during his college days. Thanks to my good buddy, Gwen for the picture.

As you can see, I've been drinking 1%.


Speaking of June 25, 2006, (which is, if you haven't guessed, the wedding date) here's my lovely finacee by the glassy shores of Lake Erie-- which was delivering up a seriously beautiful sunset.



The Light Night Rains

I woke up this morning with a sore shoulder.

Oddly enough it was my left shoulder. If you know anything about me, this is odd. Generally, the right shoulder expirences glorious malfunction.

It makes a good story though, the right shoulder does. It makes a great story infact; one that I didn't write. But another time. Stay tuned.


Sunday I was holding a cup of hot coffee and doing something (I don't remember what) that could probably be considered a dangerous thing to do while holding a cup of hot coffee. The burning sensation that spread across my hand was fantastic. And not in the "Wow! Neat!" sense of the word fantastic either.

I mentioned to my sister that if I had a blog, I'd blog about that.

So here I go.

I'm still trying to figure out lots of different things so all this will be in a state of unsettle for quite some time. My goal is to create a blog that will be somewhere for me to post some thoughts, a few drawings, a spattering of ideas, a handful of things I'm working on, and all sorts of things.

All in good time. I do have a job.

***

Done as a piece for a class, and the name sake of my blog, "Light Night Rains" made it into my Senior Art Exhibtion and remains in my personal collection as one of my favorites from the show.

And naturally, Mozart gets flooded.