after fiddling about with corel painter and the wacom pen, I seem to have found some satisfaction with it.
next I need to do something more subtle less cartoony and see if I can really layer color to get a more painterly effect.

My 3 day camping trip to Oswald West

the hobbit tree- one of the highlights of campsite number 26. although to get any spot is really pretty amazing. some have friends who stay there the first leg then the second group of friends come join them. some just try their luck- but that can be alot of time and gas wasted. some write a message on the message board on the top of the campsite. maybe you do you surfing then come in and scope out the premises. some will drive by early pat of the week pay for a multi-day set then leave a tent or sometthing there showing its taken and come back when they can actually go to camp for awhile.
make no mistakes about it- Oswald West is not just a surfers cove but a place to party until the wee hours of the morning and the campsites arent sound proof folks! or so it was for the 3 nights which we were there- and the required to leash your pet rule.....its optional weather or not your dog is a puppy or has been through obedience school, just go ahead and let your dog roam free- and when camping bring only what you can wheelbarrow down for a 1/4 of a mile and back up.....otherwise you will be stuck with a chore on a constantly rainy morning without breakfast after very little sleeep.....and thats not the way to end a camping trip, although I am sure it must happen on occasion...

a surfer is amused whilst I play with football with my son. guess this is a real surferrs spot here on this side of Neahkanee mountain- but the surf was not kind to those brave enough to venture out unto the waters, although watching surfers out on my home beach growing up in Huntington Beach I expected too much maybe??? wetsuits??? c'mon the water is fine!!!!

me and julian on our way from the campsite to the surfers cove.


"what??? ya call that surfing??? my stuffed kitty can outmaneouver you standing on his paws.....his front paws!!!"



Neahkanee mt trail filled with lots and lots of trees very big very Lord of the Rings like and this one you walked in between its legs sort of . some of the old dead trees had decayed with a log or a stump left behind and other moss liccean, etc taking over and in one instance a full grown tree had grown on top of a stump which had broken down there were some big families of 5-6-7 trees other trees which were huge and were curved to acclimate to slanted ridge or maybe to take full advantage of the agle of sunlight it recieved......truly breathtaking and a real feeling of the spirit of ancient forests seemed to live here.

demented family portrait

Both of these drawings were done in 1996- I was going through a transition in my life- ending a nearly 7 year relationship which had fizzled out 3 years previous and moving out first with my mom and then almost exactly a month later, after doing the north portland-tigard commute for work(lots o reading and listening to music there!...and maybe it why my sketchbook is filled with not only such rich images and writing but so many!!! read some henry miller went back to school moved to a studio in laurelhurst or as I affectionately called it laurelthirst since many a beer cannonball of chicken chili and packs o cigarettes were smoked there. lots of living drinking spending money having a friend Tony move into the apartment building adjoining mine transferring to gresham then back to portland then finally to rockwood as a clerk turned 30 in 1996.

lots of reexamining of my life during these 3 years - taking some classes with Mel Katz- really trying to find myself annd then after too much stress and after too much rehashing over the same stupid damned things - a period of depression- the new year with 2 blue moons and falling in love and thus ends ann intense period of my life- from may 1996 to februuary 1998.

driving, the adventure, part 1.

So, it had been awhile since I last drove...and having the residue of the anxiety still trapped somewhere within from that crash back on April 15th, where I took an exit a little too fast and then turned a little too sudden on a little too slick of a road with tires which may have skidded a little too much from a previous incident that same day and flying sideways into the freeway divider where I flung my body from midpoint to the left inner padded loer ceiling between the drivers side window and the back left passengers window the car having flung like a cue ball in a bank shot or a hockey puck also in a bank shot...
I did manage to drive a few times once to forest park once to a dentist appointment once to pick up a garage sale iteem maybe one more time and then this morning to LLoyd Center to buy my new glasses and back... not a big deal I tell you ... not a big deal besides the inner drama that went on initially.....until..... until i reached 20th and burnside and saw a long firetruck a couple of police cars flares, etc, blinking lights.....hey thats where I was going to g-g-g-g-g-.......hey......what th'......huh???
Yes, thats right, the car was turned over, and enough of it was out of sight that the imagination was running away, but I had to reel it in and get back to me being behind the wheel talk myself through every action and soon I was realigning myself for another attempt at paralell parking and successs....misssion accomplished!

I think my trick is the bit where I talk myself through each and every step of the process...do they call that neurolinguistic programming? I dunno!

lord......I wuz born a ramblin man......deederdiiiinnnnggg!!!!