Everyone wants a panda.

It was like a week ago, but my computer's been ass.

Big Joe! (me)

Leighman!

J-Dizzle!

S. Covin!

Sazz-Unit!

$115 later...

So after wallowing in self-obsession for a couple of hours, my brother pointed me to some software that seemed like the magic answer to my hard drive problems. It cost $90(US) and was a pain in the ass to make a boot disk out of (I purchased/downloaded it on my mum's PC which doesn't have a burner, and my PC doesn't have a floppy drive), but whatever it did, it seems to have done the trick. All of my artwork and photos are intact... for now. That's all I really cared about. I'm making back-up DVDs as I type.

Cautiously yours,

--Joe.

P.S. Thanks for the support, friends. You know who you are. Extra special thanks to my best mate Daniel who let me sob over his keyboard for an hour as I tried to burn an ISO of the boot disk using his virus-ridden computer.

You suck.

I fear the worst has happened. After a couple of days of my computer staggering and barely being able to start up (all this after a I purchased a new power supply and motherboard), today I think it finally called it quits. At least my hard drive did. Windows wouldn't load up at all. I tried re-installing, but after Setup checks my disks it comes to the unhappy conclusion that "Drive C has been corrupted". Drive C. I have over 20 Gigabytes of artwork and photos on Drive C.

This really throws a major spanner in the works. I was really looking forward to getting back to work and making something of myself this year. It's my first year out of uni, and my ambition was strong.

I don't really feel like talking about this a whole lot now. I guess tomorrow I'll be taking my computer into the service centre that it's practically been living at for the past few weeks. I'm sure they'll be glad to see me again. All I can hope for is that I can salvage some data from the hard drive. God knows where I'll get the money from.

I really thought things were gonna get back on track. Fuck this optimism. It always makes the crap stuff that much harder to take.

Thoroughly and utterly depressed,

--Joe.

Lo, I am returned.

Lo, dear readers, rejoice, for I am returned once again to illuminate and rejuvenate these, the dark and dank recesses of the internet.

My computer decided to bite the dust about a month ago, hence my absence both from making drawings and posting said drawings here, for your immediate entertainment.

It's taken days of arduous travel, to and fro, from service centre to service centre, but I can finally boldly claim that my computer is now up and running at a robust 25% of it's former glory. There are still some kinks to iron out, but I am, for the most part, back.

It's been a great summer thus far, with my lovely Girlfriend-Girl down from her perch atop our magnificent brown island. Christmas was fun and eventful. I dressed up as a certain portly elf for the children, and also got some pretty rule-ass gifts myself.

Um, what else? Work's kinda been on a halt for a while, but I'm expecting that to turn around very soon. I'll keep you posted.

Also I went on a holiday somewhere in there too.

Anyway, this is a journal for my drawings, so here are some I've been hoarding for a while.



Started drawing at much higher resolutions, hence the cleaner line-work.




Click for a larger version.




Did this for Lucy's Christmas present. It's around A3 size in a nice curvy wooden frame. Click for a larger version.




Click for a larger version.




Click for a larger version.




Just mucking about.




What a cool mo-fo.




I figured I'd have to get this out of the way some day, so here it is.




A couple of old photos of my Mum as a kid that I scanned in and restored.




Glamour!


So yeah, that's about it. It's good to be back. I find that I feel most secure when I'm in some kind of a routine, and after a year of keeping this journal, and a month or so without it, I've realised that it's something I definitely want to continue doing. Plus, I'm a glutton for approval, so it's always nice to have a forum for people to tell me how great I am. Keep it up, friends!

Love,

--Joe.

Girl in a chair.

Suburban Wonderland

Trying something a little different. I'm not the best at doing backgrounds and environments, so I thought I'd brush up a little. I went for a kind of wacky Hanna-Barbera / Looney Tunes style here. Not sure if it shows, but was fun to do. Might do some more.

Click HERE for a large version.

Hope everyone's enjoying the yule season!

Love,

--Joe.

T'ain't nobody cooler than my man Deniro.

Just thought I'd share with you all one of my favourite moments in cinematic history. The moment when Jimmy Conway (Deniro) decides he's gonna whack toupee salesman Morrie in 1990's GoodFellas. The combination of Scorcese's slightly slower-than-real tracking shot, Deniro's brilliantly subtle performance and, of course, Cream's kick-ass Sunshine of Your Love, makes me rewind this scene about five times every time I watch this film.

Deniro's performance is amazing. Watch it again. At first, something takes his attention away from his conversation. Then after he takes his first drag, it's his cheeky little grin that let's us know that something's up. Then he exhales and locks into a distant stare. We can see his mind ticking over - cool, calculating. He's thinking of how he's gonna whack Morrie. By the time he takes his last drag, his mind is already made. He's dead serious, and we know that some heavy shit's about to go down, even before Ray Liotta's voice-over fills us in.

Genius.

The last day of spring.

Christmas 2006

Did this for a Christmas lunch poster for my church. Click on the image for a wallpaper-sized version.

"Shoot."

I guess it's cool to post this now. This is the short film/art piece I did for my graduating exhibition, the opening of which was last Saturday night.

If you're still planning on coming to the show (it runs 'til December 7), I'd suggest you wait until then to watch it, as the YouTube quality ain't the best.

Count Sockula hits the big time.

So I just found out that the sock-puppet I made a little while ago was featured on a puppet-building website conveniently titled PuppetBuilding.com (click for link). Pretty nifty, eh?

Chase the Chaser

Here's that music video for Something With Numbers that I got to be in. Turned out pretty rockin' I think.

A short poem about my dog.

Pension Day

Who wants to see the Project Greenlight short film I worked on?

You do?

Well, okay.

Here it is.

See? My name's in the credits and everything!