Charlie Chaplin

Enjoy:

Legends

So I'm on a Jimi Hendrix kick right now.  Pretty soon I'll have a giant painting of him, so here's a color study.

Groovin

Jimi Hendrix

Bob Marley

I'm still alive. Here are some of the things I've been working on. I'll write more soon. So sorry I haven't had all the time in the worlds. My love to you blogdom. Heart, Toast.

Summer Projects

Sorry I've been away so long. I hope these will make up for it. Hope you like them. Heart, Toast.

I'm With Coco

Conan O'Brien is a leader of the redheads. I look up to him as our leader at least. Let's look at history and see who has done greater. Esau: Totally lost his birthright to Jacob. Nice one ginger. King David: Totally lost his seat in heaven. Hmm, I didn't mean this to be a religious post. Moving on! Molly Ringwald: Whatever happened to her? She had a good thing going. She is lost now though. Carrot Top: Completely destroyed the rep that we were building. Props? Seriously? You can't build a career only on that. I think he still performs in Vegas—the place where washed up entertainers go to die now. Luckily Conan came along.

I've been watching Conan for years. I remember when my mom and dad let me stay up one night. I was so excited! I remember seeing Conan's show start. It started by some random guy going into makeup and coming out looking like Conan. For the longest time I thought that that was actually how Conan got ready for the show. That he was some random brunette, but was transformed into this hilarious redhead. 

Through the years I came to admire Conan not just for his comedy style, but for the attention he gave everyone. He seemed like he genuinely cared about what people said—even the really weird guests. 

I don't think I need to go over the whole Conan vs. Leno debacle. If you want to read about it look here. I thought I would just illustrate my feelings in the picture below:

"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. 

I hate cynicism—it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. 

Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. 

But if you work really hard, and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

—Conan O'Brien on his final show

Judgement

I found it easy to be friends with everyone in elementary school. Nothing seemed to make me hate someone—unless they had cooties. Cooties are disgusting. I'm glad I got my vaccinations for it at a young age. In retrospect I feel kinda bad for those kids with cooties. Stuck in bubbles while we lived the life in the outside world. So minus the cooties kids, everyone was my friend. I felt comfortable at doing whatever I pleased, and not feeling judged for it. Then came middle school. It's an awkward time. Not only does your body go through "changes," but your social situations begin to change as well. People start defining who you are by the clothes you wear, music you listen to, looks, people you hang around with, etc. It's a pretty tough adjustment.

I don't think I would have considered myself one of the "cool kids." I had hand me downs from my older brothers which consisted of baggy jnco pants and oversized neckhole mossimo shirts. I tried to listen to rap music, but wasn't really grasping it since I'm probably the whitest person I know. Even Eminem couldn't reach me. I enjoyed comics and studying. I also had a wicked X-men action figure collection going on. These were not considered "cool."

I always enjoyed when teachers would say "Just be yourself." I'm pretty sure these people didn't go to middle school. Being yourself seemed really odd and weird. It really bothered me that I was always going to be judged for appearances. I decided to try to fight this concept in high school. I changed my appearance drastically. I started buying band shirts and dickie work pants. I grew my hair out and wore tons of wristbands. I'm talking spikes and chains type wristbands. I wanted people to get to know me by who I was and what I did, not by my appearance.

I think that I wanted to kinda be the bad boy that I heard so much about in movies and in books. Someone that looked scary, but was in actuality someone that—when you got to know—was a really nice guy. In Rebel Without a Cause James Dean's character is painted as a troublemaker, but in actuality is a good person with a rough family situation. His parents are constantly fighting with his father always advocating for him, but always losing. We learn that he is a good person that cares about certain people surrounding him, but feeling need to protect himself from people around him. He is an antihero, or a hero that lacks the normal attributes that we would assume a hero to have.

Clint Eastwood is antihero. A majority of his characters are rough, gritty, and dark. He was just someone that you didn't want to mess with. He stood by his principals and you didn't want to cross him. In the end though, you always discovered he had deep reasoning for the actions that he made. He always helped people in the end.
Another antihero—you can disagree if you want—is Don Vito Corleone, or The Godfather. He is a man that has great sentiments towards his family, and wants the best for them. After the mafia kills his family in Sicily he travels to America and starts a new life. He tries to have an honest life, but the local crime family edges him out of his job. Determined to make ends meet and provide for his family he starts a life of crime and eventually becomes the local mafia leader. He becomes what he hated.

I thought that people should get to know me. I thought that the clothes and spikey accessories would scare off people except the ones that didn't judge by how people looked. These were the people I was interested in getting to know. Eventually I found that this was not realistic thinking. I dated a girl who was a lot of fun, and great to talk to. She was a little wild, and I felt that I could be myself around her. One day I decided to go hang out with her without all of the accessories and without crazy clothes. Our relationship was over that day. I think that people will tend to judge us by how we look. That has a large affect on who we are. I find myself judging others by there looks and actions as well, and realizing almost every time that my judgements have been wrong.

Toast Returns

When I was a little kid my parents and brothers were entertained by asking me "Who are you?" I'd squint my eyes, and with a stern look I'd say "I'm Batman." I ran around with my Batman pajamas fighting crime. The pajamas even came with a cape that had velcro so that you could tear it on and off. I would run around jumping in the air while the cape flied around in back of me—but when I fought bad guys—I was all business. I'd rip off the cape and kick some bad guy butt.

Back then they would play reruns of Adam West's Batman on T.V. I would sit there and be entertained by all of it's corny punch lines and crazy plot twists. I even own the movie. Watching it now is as hilarious as ever. In one scene, Batman runs around with a bomb that is about to detonate, but can't throw it over the side of the dock because there are little ducks there. Just about when it blows up Batman runs off screen with it. There is an explosion and we are to believe that our caped crusader has blown up. He returns seconds later unscathed to tell Robin—and the audience—what happened. The show always had something like that. Something incredible would always happen off screen leaving you wanting to know what happened. Below is a drawing I did of Adam West as Batman.

"Beware of Strong Stimulants"

Contest Winner: Grace Finlinson

As much fun as the old show was, I think it was the cartoon that really got me into Batman. Remember when you were excited to come home from school to watch cartoons? Batman was the most exciting part of my day. School would teach you math and science—things you would never need to know in real life—whereas Batman taught you to have a moral backbone. To fight for good and justice. The intro didn't even say Batman during it. It didn't have to. Who doesn't know who Batman is?

In the DC universe(Detective Comics), there has always been two heroes that have reigned supreme. Those two are Batman and Superman. I feel that you can like both, but when it comes down to it, the choice is easy: Batman. He is more relatable. Sure he's rich and has a batcave under his house, but he is a normal guy. He wasn't born with super powers. He had to train and master his skills. He's a millionaire playboy by day, dark caped avenger by night. Who would think being a nerdy reporter is cooler than that? Batman has that dark edge, and Superman is a boy scout. If you doubt how cool Batman is compared to Superman; read The Dark Knight Returns and it's sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

I'm assuming at this point, you're thinking I'm a nerd. I admit that that is slightly true, but what person hasn't been fascinated by the mythology of these heroes. Perhaps you didn't get into the show or comics, but what about the movies. The old Tim Burton ones are still amazing. I remember being in a class where a teacher was talking about Batman(one of the only times I paid attention) and heard his view on the actors that played Batman. He said,"Michael Keaton was an actor in comedies. When I saw that he was playing Batman, I thought they were making a big mistake. When I saw the movie I knew that that guy was Batman. At first I didn't think Val Kilmer was a great choice, but that guy was Batman too. George Clooney was not Batman, but Christian Bale is Batman. They just keep getting better and better." I agree with his statements. The new Batman films have definitely become some of the best movies of our time as well. July 2012 can't come soon enough.

I leave you with a couple more drawings I have done below.

"I'm Batman"

The Joker: Best Villain Ever!

I drew the above piece, but it was originally done by Alex Ross.

To see the original go here: http://www.harley-quinn.com/joker/joker01.jpg

His website is http://www.alexrossart.com/index.asp. Check him out!

KAPOW! BAM! SOCK! IT'S OVER!