Looking to get out of the cubicle for fifteen minutes? Visit San Francisco, Vegas, New York, and a couple of other cities (more to come) from your browser. Think “Castle Wolfenstein 3D” only with photos from real cities.

Unbelievable: http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html

I briefly toyed with the idea of participating in “Script Frenzy”, a screenwriting competition where aspiring writers churn out a 20,000 word screenplay in the month of June. I still might, but it’s a busy month for me. If you’re considering it, let me know!

I’m both intrigued and intimidated by the craft of storywriting. One goal in my life has always been to illustrate my own stories.

Last summer I dove head first into the “Dramatica” system, but my ability to understand it was a shallow pool and I bonked my head. With its structural matrix of 64 classes and types and variations and elements, it’s not for the feint of brain.

These days I’m working through Robert McKee’s STORY, a book that’s been around but is new to me. He says that the goal of the storyteller is a good story well told, a statement which neatly organizes the elusive craft of storytelling in my mind.

There is content, (the idea, the characters, the setting,) and there is form, (the structure of value, events, scenes and sequences.) Skilled craftsmen can create good stories (content) and tell them well (form.)

I’m about 150 pages into the book. There is plenty of help with form. Content, however, is largely left up to the artist. While my ideas vary greatly in quality, where I really struggle is in the telling, the grabbing of the reader’s attention and twirling him around by the heart-strings until he says, “yeah, that’s really how it feels!” or/and “I never thought of that before.” Telling a story well creates multiple sparks of emotion colliding with intellect. Enlightenment. A-ha. Inspiration. Something we rarely get from everyday life, but good art gives us all the time. That’s why good art is more than entertainment.

Chiaroscuro Drawing of a Female Model
Charcoal on Canson Mi Teintes Paper, 5/2/07

As I sat at my bench working away at this drawing, I was busy thinking about a few different things. Things at work have been tumultuous. We have new management and my job is currently being “looked at.” Sometimes this means one should start looking at jobs. My mind has been racing around ideas for the job hunt. I need a portfolio. I should “network” more, right? Monster.com is kind of crappy, right? I could always work at a bookstore. Or maybe a Chapeau Shop. You know, like, “what size do you wear, sir?” And then you answer…

My instructor’s voice woke me up from my day-dream-drawing. “Are you drawing on the rough side of the paper on purpose?”

“Shit,” said I. “I mean, ‘yes.’”

The drawing wasn’t going well, and it was my last one of the class, and I made it even more difficult by not paying attention to what I was doing. The rough side of Canson Mi Teintes paper has a waffle texture. It’s easy for that pattern to dominate your drawing, especially if you use broad strokes. I wasn’t aware of it. I was simply going very slowly and putting down small marks.

After the embarrassment passed, I decided to try to use the waffle pattern for the model’s hair and the drapery. I stuck with very short controlled marks for her skin.

This style of marking caused me frequent trips to the electric pencil sharpener. Chunks of charcoal, conte or graphite were always jammed inside of it.

From my bench, I would listen to a student, an art teacher, I believe, grind her pencil away in that sharpener, tsking and sighing. When it was my turn to sharpen and I found that I could barely insert my pencil part-way, let alone sharpen it to a point, she always popped over to ask me: “Do you think there’s something stuck inside of it?” A few minutes of surgery with a fellow student’s pocket knife would invariably produce a chunk of whatever material the woman was using.

Great class. Looking forward to more figure drawing. A big thanks to Mr. Norman, too.

A Study of Bokonon
Sketch Painting in Painter, 5/1/07

Last Rites of Bokononism

God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, “Sit up!”
“See all I’ve made,” said God, “the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.”
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.

I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn’t have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!

Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!

Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait…
To find out for certain what my wampeter was…
And who was in my karass…
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.

From “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut.
Grabbed from The Books of Bokonon.