The Wallpaper Assignment

So the assignment was to design wallpaper for a boy's bedroom. I considered doing something along the lines of a train towing a zeppelin whose payload would be a giant salami smoking a cigar but I figured that might not be phallic enough...

And yet from a distance it's almost tasteful...

One of those rudimentary lessons in art that I have to keep learning over and over again is that when you try and take the easy way out it always winds up being more work than you thought it would.

I figured I'd just do a couple of quick scribbles, use the tracing function in Illustrator and slap some color on them. Of course by the time I got done editing the quick scribbles I'd spent so much time on them that I could have just as easily taken my time and done a really nice image.

One thing that I'm finding frustrating is that at the moment I haven't figured out a good method or location for doing pen and pencil work. I use a recliner with small tables on the side when I work on the computer, I do most of my editing in bed with a board and a red pen. I have a place where I can work standing up but I can't stand for extended periods of time and standing is better suited to large work. Maybe if I got a big foam-rubber wedge to balance a drawing board on I could work in my recliner -- but that would mean drawing with a big foam-rubber wedge in my lap. I really do need to solve this problem. Ponder ponder.

I will say that I would have killed for this wallpaper when I was eight.

As an aside, my run of good luck seems to be continuing. Among other things, it looks as if I've sold another story -- details to come when things look solid. And I got an unexpected check in the mail -- been a long time since I've been in a position to make a deposit.

The last few years I've been saying, "The bad luck can't continue indefinitely, something's gotta break sometime." This last week has been one of the most absurd runs of good fortune I've had in my life.

Frankly, it makes me a little nervous. I like it -- but I'm not sure I trust it. Just have to ride it as far as it takes me...