Park Avenue Acrylic Sketch

© 2009 Megan Amoss

What my neigborhood looks like in blobs of color. This is only 8x10", acrylic on canvas board.

Tactics

I really thought I was over manga - I thought I'd read my way through everything they had at the White Marsh library that was any good...until I found some volumes of Tactics. We watched some episodes of the anime from Netflix a few months ago (and it was gorgeous), so I was excited to check out the manga. I'm happy I did. Tactics has lots of things I enjoy in a story - magic, folklore, Japanese traditional culture - and it's FUNNY. The story is a real story, not something contrived to sell drawings. The characters have complex motivations. It's entertaining and worth reading. Definitely more worth the time than TV, which I haven't watched since last year's US Open (tennis). But I digress...

So, yeah. This has been my guilty pleasure post of the week.

In other news, my father now has a blog, 'The Postmodern Quaker.' He writes much more thoughtfully than I do.

Semi-New Friend

This is my saxophone. I've had it for two years, but I just started playing it this week. It's awesome.

Saxophone is easy for a decent clarinettist to pick up quickly. Certain things are going to take me longer to learn - I've never been one to use vibrato with the clarinet, so I've got to get used to that. Also, the keys are arranged somewhat differently. Anyway, I'm enjoying the learning process. Progress has been gratifyingly fast.

Tonight, after I did some exercises and played a bunch of stuff out of my clarinet Concert and Contest book, I figured out how to play the Poirot theme song. Heeee.

I'm hoping to find or arrange some music to play with a group soon. Cello, harpsichord, and saxophone night, anyone? ONE NIGHT ONLY: we play weird instruments!

Post-thunderstorm moonrise

There was a ferocious thunderstorm last night. Lightning everywhere, wind every-which-way, and rain so thick we couldn't see more than three feet past the window for half an hour or more. When it was over the city was washed, cold, and probably on fire.

Two of a kind

Saturday night

Painting still life for "fun" and listening to some seriously gorgeous Gerard Finzi vocal music - "Dies Natalis" - on the radio.



It's not too hot out now. We went to Charles Village this morning on a fool's errand that turned into a nice long walk. It was about 92 degrees out, and we tried to stay in the shade. The air is still cool, but the sun is powerful!

If you look closely at the photo above, you will notice that we ate the blackberries that had been in the tiny bowl. :-)

Things change...

In about a week and a half, I will be a part-time employee and a half-time student. I feel like there's been a sea-change in my life.

Soon I will be much poorer but much happier. It's just now sinking in that I will finally have time to do REAL work soon.



Also, in the last few days, I've come across some really great things around the internets. One of the best is A Journey Round My Skull, whose author has been into book illlustrations for a while. His latest post is about Jiri Trnka, one of many Czech illustrators who were doing fairy tale books around the time I was born. My childhood and my sensibilities were strongly shaped by their creepy, wonderful artwork.



While I'm feeling chatty, I'll reveal that I've developed a Friday afternoon library raid ritual. This afternoon I came home with a big fat shopping bag full of graphic novels, and I've already devoured three of them. I keep on posting them at my librarything in case anyone's interested.

Commission: 'Oliver' the yellow lab

© 2009 Megan Amoss

It looks like I'm in the custom pet portrait business. :)

Sketchbook: Heide Cat

© 2009 Megan Amoss

A charcoal and chalk sketch of Heide-kitten drawn from a photo. She's the shy one.

New t-shirts and tote bag at my shop

I made some t-shirts and a canvas tote bag over at my CafePress shop with my Blue Piano design. Yay!

Besides that, I spent the weekend resting, tidying up, singing (Byrd for 3 again, encore by request), and reading piles upon piles of graphic novels. One of the graphic novels was the collected Gunnerkrigg Court webcomic, which somehow I hadn't heard of til finding the book in the library last week. It's awesome. It has that same pull-you-into-its-world quality that the Harry Potter books have.