Studio Stuff/Gallery Update: Double the Fun

…dirty laundry?

Okay, yeah, I don’t use the traditional easel all that much these days, but that’s not why there’s clothes hanging off it. For starters, that pair of cargo shorts and that Star Wars shirt (I know you can’t tell, but trust me, it’s a Star Wars shirt) is what I wear as a character in Revery (for example…). When I snap reference pics of myself, I don that get up, so I like to keep it handy (so I don’t have to go fishing it out of the laundry).

However, sitting atop all that is this:

…NOW it’s an Australian Outback hat.

Anyone who’s known me long enough recognizes this hat. I wore it almost every single day for my four years of college (and then some). I picked it up at an army navy store (perhaps in Fall River?) shortly before heading off to UMass Dartmouth back in August (I think) 1995. It was part of my new “look”, that also included a trench coat, shorts (year round, of course), and combat boots.

Mah boots. These babies, that I wore for 4+ years, have quite a few miles on them…you know, in case you couldn’t tell by looking. Bonus fact: that multicolored comforter in the back ground is the same one that was on my bed all through college as well.

People who didn’t know my name knew who I was from that very simple description. I had a lot of fun in college, I made a lot of wonderful, life-long friends who “got” me and all  my weirdness. Not only that, but they seemed to appreciate it and welcome it (which might be scary)…but then again, we were birds of a feather. I don’t wear it as much these days, but I still break it out on occasion, like one of the weeks I spent with my sons at summer camp. I still love the hat, and it fills me with great memories every time I nestle it on my cranium. I guess it’s been in semi-retirement so I can preserve it and the memories it conjures up for years to come.

G’day!

Oh, I almost forgot, this is how Jorj and I dressed back in college:

Uh, that’s me on the left…in case it’s not clear…

This is actually a double blast from the past, as not only is it an image of my/our days at UMass Dartmouth, but also this was a wedding gift I made for Jorj back in 2007. Yes, we really dressed like this, and yes, we really did wear around Laser Tag gear so that a small group of us could play in between classes (not sure everyone else was thrilled that we ran around the halls doing this, but we certainly had fun).

Yet another pre-tablet digital attempt on my part here. The pencils were done on a stock Blue Line Pro comic page, scanned, and painted in Photoshop with a mouse (which is blatantly obvious, in my opinion. I’m not sure how I got by without my tablet, even though this wasn’t that long ago).

The black and white pencils are probably better suited to the overall look and architecture of UMD, which has a reputation for being drab and depressing. I loved it, though.

One final note, yes, the title of this “comic” is Jorj and Toby’s Mexellentacular UMassD Adventures…I had been surfing the internet for fonts back in the day and found one called Mexellent, which I found to be absurdly humorous and began using that as an adjective all the time. It became a bit of an inside joke thingy, so when I put this image together, there was no other word I could use. My brain made me do it.