Funny, in my last rant i actually gave myself credit for not missing many comics this year and for being good about the 3 per week thing... then i go and toss a Dead Piro Day today. Ah, the irony :P

Actually, this is a a good spot for a hiccup and break like this - it falls nicely between things, so to speak. Usually miss a comic when i do a convention anyway, so i'm getting it out of the way on Monday rather than Friday. I'm diving into a new arc now, and the comic flows better when there aren't breaks in the middle of an arc..

In some recent fredart blogs (usually boring, random, daily blahblogging, but I've been pretty good at doing them regularly) i have been thinking a lot about how i haven't been doing a lot of drawing outside the production needs of the Megatokyo comic recently. I'm still drawing a lot, because the comic itself has been pretty drawing intensive lately, but i haven't been doing a lot of free sketching.

Today's sketch is actually one of the fruits of me trying to break that habit. A lot of times, when i tend to crash at the end of a long day and try to nurse back to health whatever brain cells i have left, i'll sit and watch TV with Seraphim and try to fight off the cats (who are obsessive about seeking lap time) I tend to sit with my laptop on my lap aimlessly trying to write, work on email, write a rant, work on outlines, or other supposedly useful things. The trouble is, computers is that they offer way too many distractions, so it find myself doing a lot of aimless wheelspinning, random poking around the net, talking with people, and not really getting as much done as i had hoped. There are exceptions, but often my brain is too fried to get any work done. What's amusing is that i still try.

What i've been experimenting with is pushing aside these seemingly futile efforts and putting my laptop down. I'm experimenting with going back to what i used to do a long time ago, before I had a laptop - just sit with an open sketchbook and draw. The biggest problem with doing 'art' stuff for a living is this feeling that most of what you draw has to be for some purpose or another. I'm trying to break that mental block, and i think i'm making some progress.

Today's DPD is really just one of those random drawings, a snapshot of Pirogoeth before the attack of Largo's armies, and the subsequent destruction of both groups by mysterious forces (refer to the bits and snippets of the "endgames" story in the books and spread throughout the comic if that makes no sense to you) It's not too bad - i had drawn in an elaborate rendition of the stone wall that made up the side of her citadel, but decided that i didn't like it, so i erased it, leaving only a window. Funny how that works, sometimes.

The reason for the DPD today is, as usual, really lame :P I'm actually still hurting, and i'm not sure if its the overexposure to fresh air and sun, or the fact that i'm not used to hard manual labor. Saturday was spent outside doing yard and garden work. It's been years since i've really done much of it, and while gratifying, it can wreak havoc on your hands if you aren't used to it. Gloves help, but unweathered hands and the fact that i'm still pretty out of shape didn't help matters. I am pretty sure that the neighbors were laughing at me :) In the long run, all of this will be good for me (i might even get some (gasp) color), but today my hands still smart. Drawing with blisters is fun :)

Sunday, of course, was Mother's day here in the states (and in Australia too, as i come to find out - odd how the floral companies are more organized around the globe than our nations are :P) , and if you combine that with the fact that several family birthdays fall around the same date... sunday turned into a full blown 'family' day. Ah well, nothing wrong with that. thanks for the tolerance of the DPD here, back to it on wednesday.

We're still getting ready for Anime Central this weekend, and i STILL don't know what the schedule is, but i will find out this afternoon, and post the time and location of the Megatokyo panel for Acen at the top of this rant. Everything is all set (as far as we can tell) for the show. We will be bringing lots of stuff (even a few Kimiko Blankets and Copic Marker sets) so if you're looking to pick up some MT shtuff, this will be your chance :)

As far as the panel goes... i have no idea what i'll be doing for it. I'm not allowed to jump off stage anymore, so there won't be any fred-acrobatics, but we'll try to make it entertaining. If possible.

Oh, for the MegaGear store, orders placed thursday and friday will be going out Monday because, well, we won't be here to ship them. Hard to be in two places at once :)

(sigh) it's gonna be one of those week's i can tell already.