Tag: Ontario League of Artists

Growing Up a Little Bit at a Time

Last updated on January 8th, 2021 at 01:16 am

Last Updated: January 4, 2021

Today is one of my groggier days. After staying up late sketching and just cleaning a few things up in general, I’ve been definitely feeling the effects this morning. I didn’t end up buying those DS games last night, so I’ll venture across the street to the Eaton Centre and see if I can get my hands on some copies. Taking a look at the current to-purchase list, we have:

  • Drawn to Life
  • Locke’s Quest
  • Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro Lens (import from Japan!)
  • MacBook Pro quad-core laptop (doesn’t exist yet)
  • iPod Touch with camera (also doesn’t exist yet)
  • replacement parts for a 5th gen iPod Video 80 GB
  • SmartDraw 2010 (expensive software that will be used to make stronger documentation for OLA)

But in all honesty, you know what I’m starting to find? The longer that you go without something, the more you realize that you don’t really need it to do what you do. Yes, it would be NICE to have certain things, but how did you do what you did without them? You just found a way, right?

[Lunch Break]

Both Drawn to Life and Locke’s Quest are discontinued—I did not expect this! It’s almost as if God is telling me not to spend any money on big items… no iPod Touch, no DS games, no Macbook Pro… I didn’t even go for the lens after looking it up… wonder what this all means….

No, seriously, let’s stop and look at this—the only item on the list that’s easily accessible to me and that I can justify spending dollars on is the one where I actually know that it will have a definite effect on what I can provide to OLA services-wise. Funny how that works out—this in combination with the talk I had with my friend yesterday kind of make me think that I should be making OLA a bit more a priority! Hmm….

Despite the fact that I like to work around the same hours as such notorious characters as the Brothers Shible and The Kid (all born in September, coincidentally enough), here’s a public service announcement for y’all—get your sleep. Not because it’s good for you or any B.S. like that—mostly because without it, the day goes a whole lot longer. I need to go catch up on sleep just to have enough energy to catch up on all the work I didn’t do today. Vicious cycle, y’all—vicious cycle.

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to really hang out with the OLA regulars, so I feel as if there’s not much I can offer in my blog right now. I should follow my friend NJ’s advice and go back to basics—to the foundation of it all—that’s where I’ll find the answers I need to grow and move further. In my role, I get to play the bad guy—the guy who makes sure that OLA is doing what it’s supposed to do—and with that, I’ve gotta make sure I keep myself on track to lead an example—right, guys 😉 ?

Anyway, I’m off to make some beer in a bit (yes, I did say make and beer in the same sentence), so let me wrap this up.

Today’s sketch is partly what kept me up last night (well, that and the latest episode of Bleach with a filler arc that’s actually been worth watching so far)—it was one of the few non-celebrity ads I seemed to have lying around, and I’m hoping to use all the celebrity pics for another piece at a later date. So… check it out!A sketch of a fashionable lady who looks like she's floating

Sketch of a lady from an ad—looking for crits!

I’ll upload an actual scan when I get home. (Currently out for Greek food.)

EDIT: So I’ve uploaded it, and I’m not exactly liking it all that much yet—any crits or comments that anyone has would be much appreciated. Thanks 😊

So that’s ’bout it ’bout it for now. This weekend, I think I’ll take a good look at all of the OLA-related stuff sitting in my lap so I have more… relevant stuff to write about.

Peace, homefries!

–case p.

WordPress for BlackBerry – you didn’t see it coming!

Last updated on February 18th, 2021 at 02:02 am

Ah, I’ve finally managed to get a one-up on Rene! So here I am, finally having figured out how to use the WordPress for BlackBerry app to put my posts for OLA together—this will let me get a lot more done while I’m out and about, which is awesome.

Current location: Yonge subway station, about to board the eastbound train to meet a friend. It’s packed, but not nearly as bad as the northbound train was.

No sketching today as of yet, but I reflected a bit upon the skills I’m developing at work and how they might be able to relate to OLA. The connections are loose at best at the moment, but work with me for a moment here.

Let’s take a look at what’s been going on with work lately:

  • It’s a project management office, which means I’m further developing my skills in the area of project management, a skill we’ll need to efficiently and effectively get OLA off the ground
  • mail merging: this will be a good skill to have if at some point we need to write standard letters, emails, other documents, etc. on a regular basis and we carry most of our OLA information in one place, such as a…
  • database: I’ve been in charge of making sure that our Access database is up to date and that any changes are made to the database when necessary—when we get larger and need database maintenance to make sure that our records are intact, I’ll be there
  • financial: there’s a pretty strong financial controllership component to my job as well, which will obviously come into play as OLA gets bigger and we want to do more with it

Hopefully, they’re all skills I can use for OLA in good times and bad 😉

In other news, since the MacBook Pro I want came up to $2850 (including AppleCare, the iPod Touch I’d need to buy for the student deal, student discount and the gift cards I have—though I should re-calculate without the iPod Touch—and maybe it’s a sign that I should wait until mobile quad-core tech is developed, since dual-core is SO 2001) and Apple disappointingly didn’t include a camera in their new iPod Touches as expected in their keynote release today (it went to the Nano? WTF!), I’ll be copping Drawn to Life and Locke’s Quest for the DS tonight (if I can find copies) in preparation for the release of Scribblenauts next Wednesday (which I’ve already paid for)! I’m looking forward to using all sorts of crazy item combinations to beat levels. I hope that this game will be as epic as the speculators make it out to be! My DS hasn’t been getting too much time in the spotlight lately, so this’ll be a welcome change.

In other tech news for myself, I’ve gotta replace/fix my iPods (yup, plural—one original, then another for when the first broke… but I never bothered to fix the first one… oops). One’s got a busted screen and is still under warranty at Future Shop, so we’ll see how that goes; and for the other—wait for it—wait for itttt—I’ll be fixing myself using this site: iFixit—I know, right?! Epic win! The Internet is making us self-sufficient when it comes to services that we’d often rely on experts to do for us. I’m hoping to keep one for myself and give the other to my girlfriend, but we’ll see how it all turns out 😊

Babbling, babbling, babbling.

Oh noes, a serious part!

I’ve been told that I’m the kind of person who tends to always keep certain things to myself—no matter who it is, there’s always certain elements that I choose not to share. This is very true. I have a friend who would like to see me go into business for myself. While I don’t think this is a bad idea at all, to be honest, I’m scared. I don’t know if I’d do well. I don’t know if I’d ever get to a point where I’d consider myself successful at what I’d do. It would be a massive risk to take, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Though, truth be told, I can’t see with any clarity where the path in my life is leading me right now, so perhaps it’s a step that needs to be taken. Any thoughts?

A sketch of two women dressed in Chanel.

By the way, I guess I ended up doing a sketch after all:

2 Girls, 1 Sheet.

Right, so we just wrapped up a game of Catan: Cities & Knights and Sarah and I are walking home. Welcome to a random day in the life of Casey E. Palmer. Hope you enjoyed your stay!!!

Sincerely,

The second logo for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad

An Average Day for an Above-Average Guy

Last updated on January 8th, 2021 at 12:00 am

Don’t you love those moments where you see something that you just have to draw? This happened on the subway this morning with me, with a dude sitting down who definitely had his style coming correct. Black dude who was well-groomed, dressed well and reading a pamphlet on managing money. Mad cool. But it was morning rush hour, so I couldn’t take a seat and sketch him out there and then. Instead, there I was staring like a fool as I tried to memorize as many details about him as possible. Facial hair. The style of links his chain had. Did his shirt have a pattern to it or not? This is what I came up with in the end:

A sketch of a Black man with an afro who I'd seen on the subway

This is going to be one of my longer days. As I’m typing this, it’s 5:30 at work with no light at the end of the tunnel. But I will eventually go home in the hope that I can work on some more OLA-related stuff. You guys might not realize it, but there’s a LOT going on in the background that a team of us are trying to accomplish in the name of OLA so that we can make a big name for the group in 2010. I feel I’ve gotten a bit off track with my fair share, so I’m looking to get back to putting some things together there. This will include some infrastructure for future OLA projects, some work on my own personal projects and just trying to help others get to the point where they want to be. The more I can get life to calm down, the more time I can spend getting my OLA stuff to the place where I’d like it to be 😉

[Doomz Note: I left work at 8. 11 hours! Woo!]

Hm, note to self—we’re going to need to make the site mobile-friendly if I’m going to be posting stuff daily. I’m not always gonna be around!

Anyway, that’s all you’re getting for now. I didn’t do anything too elaborate today art-wise. I went to work, sketched a little at lunch, came home and crashed. Yeah, that’s right. That was my day. Ha!

Have a good one peops,

The second logo for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad

Return of the Mack

Last updated on September 9th, 2014 at 11:07 pm

Hey y’all—sorry to be absent for a few days; I was helping my girlfriend move into her place—one that is currently lacking in both electricity in most of the house, but more importantly, lacking in Internet. I spent much of my Monday evening catching up with the affairs of the weekend so that I would stay current.

One thing that I definitely need to catch up with is OLA—there’s been a number of things going on, and I definitely need to fill in the gaps on some of them on my end. In fact, just to show you how dedicated I am to finding time for OLA, I should tell you that I actually brought my laptop with me so that I could work on this blog entry on the GO Train in to work. It’s only a 30-minute ride, but I plan to make them 30 minutes well-spent!

One thing I’ve noticed is Achievements—I’m totally an Achievement fiend—or rather, should I dare to day, an OLAchiever? Now that I’ve got my fix of time-wasters and social media out of the way (as well as about a month of laundry), I think OLA deserves some attention. So I hope y’all are prepared for a blitz of Doomz, ’cause that what’s coming to you!

Next on the list is the blogs I promised on financial matters, etc.—I hear that some may be worried that ol’ Doomz has forgotten about them and the questions are never to be answered. Never fear! I definitely have NOT forgotten—in fact, there are other OLA members who’ve already been taking action along the seeds I sowed—but there is still much to do and much to write about, so that too will come.

Keeping on top of OLA 2010: If you’ve been hitting up the Saturday Ssauga Sketch Sessions (and if you haven’t, I hope you have an AWESOME reason, for they are full of WIN), you may have heard about the grand plan that is OLA 2010 (that isn’t the official name, but I figured that it’s cryptic enough to get attention, yet descriptive enough to give it an air of definition). To put it in a nutshell, OLA has a number of goals they need to achieve by Fall 2010, and you’ll be hearing far more about it as time develops. My role in the matter is a mix of acting as a project/business manager, keeping us on track with regular (okay, semi-regular) updates and of course, as all OLA members who want to make something of themselves are expected to do, working on producing something that I believe is at the highest level of quality that I can work at. I look forward to sharing thoughts, ideas and plans with you all as things cement themselves further in the near future.

So, OLA, you are not forgotten—merely put aside for a couple of days while I got a few other affairs in order. But this week I’m back, and I’ll try hard to get things put together in the midst of everything else I have going on.

Have a great day, OLAgents, and GOOD LUCK!

–case p.

We Be Bloggin’!

Last updated on October 7th, 2020 at 12:15 pm

Last Updated: October 7, 2020

Hey all,

So it looks like I have ample time on my hands to get dumpin’ all this stuff in my cranium into something a little more… tangible. Currently, I’m over at my girlfriend’s scanning docs that’ve been sitting around and just sketching and writing so I don’t have so much physical clutter around me. To streamline, you’ll be seeing a lot of things point back to my site (to be resurrected soon), such as an embedded FriendFeed (housing things like my Flickr, Tumblr and Twitter accounts, etc.) and the blog I direly need to start to express myself.

What am I hoping to get out of the Ontario League of Artists? I worked with WordPress a bit when I was still working for the provincial government, so I already have an idea of its potential. I’m looking forward to having a mini-community to really discuss what’s going on in my art life, share my sketches, get feedback from my peers, etc. I think we can make this place as good as we want it to be.

For now, you’ll have to make do with this vague sliver of my thoughts, but I intend to bring more.

In due time, my friends. In due time.

The second logo for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad
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