News

New Studio!! Yays all around!

Thats right! We’re finally moved, and I’m in my new, spacious, kick-butt studio! Sure beats the small studio I’d been working out of the past year while we settled ourselves back in VA.

I’m still working out of the home, but now the wife and I have a space suitable for entertaining clients, complete with its own separate entrance! And this space is truly suitable of the name Lightbox. Its a 650 sq ft florida room off the back of the house, with 7 ft tall windows around 3 of the walls, and 6 sky lights overhead… a real ‘light box’ if I’ve ever seen one! Just doesn’t get much better than this!! Plus we’re only 3 doors down from Mom’s house, which is great because being close to her was one of the main reasons for leaving Cartoon Network and moving back to Va after Dad passed away. Its quicker to walk to her place around the corner than to drive it… although with this summer heat its been much more tempting to drive

I’ll post pictures soon, we’re still unpacking boxes, but its good to be able to have some breathing room once again. So turn on the lights, hang the sign up in the window and brew some coffee… Lightbox is OPEN for business!!

Home Sweet Home

 

These are some home backgrounds I painted in Flash for an online game promoting good nutrition and general health for children by Kaiser Permanente. Diggum!

You can see some of the original sketches & linework underneath… I love that stuff!

Feastin’ or Famine’n

 

You know how it goes, feast or famine. Well, lookin’ like its a bit of feasting time for me. Work has really picked up a good clip the past 2 weeks and its looking to be quite a busy Spring for Lightbox!! I vow to manage my time better this Spring and keep at least one full weekend day work-free, and I will spend as many weekends up crabbing in Maryland or sunning on the Outer Banks as I can as the summer approaches.

Its been a particularly good week this week. Work is lined up. The mowers are repaired, I got to watch my kid sing at a school function… good stuff. One thing I’m particularly happy about is having a new ‘intern’. A great local kid, current student at SCAD, is gonna work on some DBKTE projects for me while learning Flash. He’s got some very talented roommates too it seems… 2 animators, 1 bg artist, and 1 AFX artist/compositor… I may have to think on this a bit…

… anyhow, if I dissappear for a few weeks, send a search party. I’m probably buried under a wacom tablet.

Rained Out!!

 

Man, total bummer… with all the wet weather we’ve been having in Virginia this past week I’ve been unable to get my garden plot tilled, and won’t be going up to start the planting this weekend. However, seeds have been purchased, plans made for getting the tillin’ done, and my lawnmowers are all repaired. I say bring on the spring!!

Dagnabit!!

Catchin’ a Breather!

 

Whew! Its been busy the past week or so! I think I cranked out almost 10 minutes worth of animatics in about 9 days. Thats KRAZEEEE! Especially when you figure I’m recording all the voices & sfx myself. At least its been some funny comedy type stuff.

Wanted to take a moment and update ma-blog for any of you who may be reading.

Here comes the roll… in no particular order:

- Garden! Yes, I’ve inquired and waiting to hear back about renting a roto-tiller to go up to the property and get a patch ready next weekend (3/20). The wifey is out of town this weekend, so I think I’ll take the kids with me to Lowes to see about picking out some seeds and other supplies. I’ve been doing some research on the net. Not a lot, but some. I Probably should have prepared the ground back in the fall but I had no idea then that I’d seriously consider doing this. Hopefully the weeds won’t kill it!

- Work! 2009 has started a little slow, but its been steady. Which is a good thing. I’ve enjoyed having some extra time to work on self promotional items. But things are picking up! In the last 2 weeks several projects have presented themselves & things could get even busier very soon. Pretty excited about all of these projects really. I gotta say, I’m liking the diversity of what’s coming my way nowadays. I’m still very happy about being in business for myself full-time. It will be a year in June since I left Turner. I think its been a fine year so far. Keep your fingers crossed.

- House! Getting ever so closer to starting the loan process… we can taste it! There are several nice houses in the area we’re interested in. We’ve adjusted our expectations & price range & can’t wait to get out there and start slingin’ some offers.

- DBKTE! Dick Butt Kiss and the Tightends T-shirts are now AVAILABLE!! Contact me to get yours NOW!!

- The rest of the story: Everything else is pretty much steady. Weather has been nice enough that the cookout season has begun. Looking forward to many more. Family is healthy. Naomi got a new bike last weekend, so we’ve been getting out and riding some. I’ve so gotta get back into the gym! Now that the temp is above freezing in the garage I no longer have an excuse to avoid the workout. Gotta get my svelt figure back before Ocracoke in July

That wraps it for this update! Check out the new drawings in Random Sketches.

Stay tooned!

~L

Just Legalize it Already!

 

Yes, I’m talking about Marijuana.

The incredible gate-way drug of choice for many otherwise law-abiding American citizens. Whether you smoke it or not, everyone should be for the legalization of the weed.

To me its simple. We need to create new industry in America. We need new tax revenues that the public won’t revolt against. We need to cut back on government spending. We need to address over crowding in our jails & prisons. We need to allow legal access for the chronically &/or terminally ill to whatever treatment they feel eases their predicament.

Basically… we NEED to legalize the weed.

This is a main principal of the Libertarian platform (one of many), and for good reason. It makes SENSE people! If only fiscally, it makes sense.

- legalize & regulate, the gov’t can tax it heavily and I can guarantee that almost all the pot smokers out there would gladly pay to not have the fear of arrest hanging over their shoulder. Besides, with the economics of the weed the gov’t could probably tax the  hell out of it and the avg cost to the end-user wouldn’t change. A win-win if you ask me!

- new aggriculture, hope for farmers looking for a new cash crop. No more illegal grow operations screwing up the environment (along with associated violence). Legalize industrial Hemp again (look to NORML for more info on that). How can that be bad?

- lower gov’t spending on war on drugs, or at the least redirect funding to focus on the stoppage of more harmful drugs like meth, crack, heroin. Things you can actually overdose & die on. This is feel-good stuff, people!

- lessen the overcrowding of jails by releasing non-violent marijuana offenders. Save on the cost of running facilities that are maxed out. Focus on rehabilitation and not incarceration for drug offenders. Free up the courts that are swamped in minor marijuana related cases. Ultimately saves even more tax-payer money! AND you still get the warm n fuzzies!!

- overall impact on economy… invest in Taco Bell baby!!

I’m not getting into the ‘rights’ & ‘wrongs’ of marijuana other than these 2 points:

1- Alcohol is legal, 2- Cigarettes are legal

They say California is getting ready to vote on completely legalizing marijuana. Not just medically… completely. I hope they do. And I hope it works. And I hope the rest of the country is paying attention.

Ten years ago I said to a friend of mine that we’d see it legalized in the next 25 years. With fifteen years left, I think we’re getting closer.

Maybe something good will come from this financial crisis after all?

A Green Thumb

 

So its almost spring and this year I’m thinking of doing the unimaginable… planting a vegetable garden.

I’ll probably fail miserably at it, but I think I’d like to give it a try anyways.

My father always kept a garden or 2 going, and I remember as a kid absolutely hating to work in them. I’ve always hated yardwork of any sort, never really got in to the Zen of it, but something inside of me is starting to wonder if I might have a green thumb after all.

Even though I watched him work the gardens every year I never paid much attention to what he was doing, so I’m pretty much starting from scratch. I know I have to pick a plot, till it up real good, but beyond that… not much. My nearly 90 year old uncle today advised me that you can cut up potatoes with eyes on ‘em to plant and that mid-march was a good time to get them in the ground. Says you can get 2 yields a season that way. I think that will be my start.

Beyond potatoes I’d like to plant some tomatoes, green peppers, peas, string beans, butter beans, & carrots. I know all of these have grown succesfully on the land we have in Louisa, so I think they’d be a safe start.

Part of my motivation is to prove to myself that I can return to my roots (no pun intended) and grow food for my family. It may not be much, but you never know in these turbulent times when such a skill might come in handy. I don’t really think things will ever get to such a point, but even if I can cut down on costs at the grocery store then I’d consider it a good thing.

So I welcome any advice and gardening tips! Leave ‘em here or email them to me. I’ll try to update often on the state of the garden, and hopefully by the end of the summer I’ll know whether it was a success… or just another one of my grand ideas that never gets off (or out of) the ground.