I was at a flea market not too long ago and what did I see? A Tekken arcade machine! Not Tekken 2 or 3, but the original. I couldn’t believe it… and it was still being used! For those who don’t know, Tekken was an early 3D game. I saw this at the Columbus Farmers Market.

Remember this game? Any memories? Share!

Do you like snack foods as much as I do? Well I presume that you are human, and that you need food to live, so you must be thinking “why yes I do, my good sir!”. Well that is great news. I just tried this new snack food called Naturally Select Trail Mix. The flavor is Chocolate and Nut.

I chose Naturally Select Trail Mix over the other snacks in the section because it offered 6 ounces, instead of the 4 that most of the other bags offered. That and I like trail mix, because I like the taste of nuts in my mouth.

Well let me just say that the flavor should be called Chocolate and Fruit instead, because there were barely any nuts in the bag I had. To me, it was mostly dried banana and pineapple, which is gross. I remember finding dried something-or-other in my trail mix as a child, and being really confused. It was chewy, disgusting, and didn’t feel like it belonged there at all.

The thing is, many people like weird chewy sweets in their trail mix. If you are one of those people, then you should give this trail mixa try. It may be a good thing to keep in your pocket if you are lost in the forest or something. Unless there is a bear near by. In such a case, throw the bag in its face and run like hell. Or if it’s a male bear, throw the bag of nuts at the bear’s nut bag. That should slow him down a little.

Well, I’m still waiting to get my critique back for section 3. Yes, it’s been over a month this time. The time it takes to have my assignment returned seems to be getting longer and longer. Anyway I thought I’d discuss the fourth section (chapter) in the course until then.

This fourth chapter has to do with composition. What this means is arranging elements in a picture in a pleasing manner. The section discusses line, tone, depth, arrangement of elements, and other topics as well.

What is fun about this chapter is that part of the assignment lets you be a little creative, which is always something good to look forward to with this course. Unfortunately in one of the assignments, I tore the paper, so I hope I won’t have to redo it.  The assignments are to take solid shapes and arrange them in a pleasing manner… which of course, is the topic of this chapter.

This is a section that seems exciting because of its topic. Design to me has seemed somewhat mysterious, particularly because one problem can be solved in many different ways. That is what section three of the Famous Artists Course is all about: design.

There is not much to say about this section.  It goes through many aspects of design, such as shape, size, and negative space. I think the most interesting thing, ironically, is the assignment. Much of it are multiple choice questions, some quite difficult. The main part is to come up with a design of your own and glue pieces of colored paper to the assignment sheet. I came up with what looks like quilt pattern or something. We’ll see what the critique says when I get it back.

A month. That’s about how long it took to receive my second assignment back from the Famous Artists School after mailing it.

Because my last assignment took what I felt was a long time, I sent the second assignment by priority mail. (which is says to do in the instructions, but I don’t always take seriously.) I sent it on 10/30, and I got an email on 11/2 saying they received it. And then I waited. And waited. And waited. I ended up getting it back 11/31, I think.

Well this time, the artist who critiqued my work did more than just write a couple of comments. Don’t get me wrong, his comments were sparse like before, however this time he painted over with corrections on a sheet of plastic. This I appreciated, but it didn’t make much sense when he painted over the watercolor painting with opaque. He commented about the clouds being too light. To make the clouds, you wet the page and let the ink float around the paper naturally. When I received the assignment back, his paint-over was simply three blobs of paint in acrylic. Not much to learn from it.

Were you wondering what the quality was for the DVDs included in the Joe Kubert Correspondence courses? Well, here is a review based on the material provided in the Heroes and Superheroes correspondence course from the Kubert School.

Let’s just say it: the quality isn’t great. The DVD provided for the course is not professionally manufactured, has been burned from a consumer computer, and a paper label has been stuck on it. In addition, the video is a VHS-converted video which has been converted to DVD. Again, this was not done professionally, as it has the standard DVD-recorder menu when you boot it up.

How is the instruction from Joe Kubert itself? Well let me first say this video, made for the Heroes and Superheroes correspondence course, looks extremely old. Obviously, Kubert is dead as disco, so it’s not like he made this recently. That being said, he discusses many things, but not too much is said in detail. The video is 43 minutes long, and begins with a drawing demonstration. There are a few instances where Kubert inks on top of tracing paper. In book provided, it explains that this is for practice. In the video however, there is no explanation.

The problem with these DVDs made on a consumer DVD-recorder is that they seem to always have problems like incorrect playtime information. Sometimes this means they won’t play is some DVD players, however I have had no major issues with getting this DVD to play.

This is not a fantastic DVD, and because it’s not commercially manufactured, it’ll probably disintegrate by the time you will be able to show it to your grandchildren. However, it is fun to see Joe Kubert drawing in action.

Well I received my first assignments from the Famous Artists School, returned after being mailed three weeks ago. Judging from their sample assignment, I was expecting them to be just as thorough. Here is one of the assignments for the first section, which I mailed in. And below is what I received back from the Famous Artists School:

Are they for real? One sentence?? There was also a letter included as well, however there was minimal criticisms on my work, or much of any mention at all. On the assignment shown, nothing was mentioned, except some generic pencil-handling advice, which sounded like it was written previously. I already mailed in the second assignment today, so hopefully there will be more comments this time.

While waiting for the critique results from the first section, I have begun, and finished, the second section’s assignments. The topics this time were painting in watercolor and opaque. In both cases, the colors were black and white only.

For the assignment, I bought Crescent brand illustration board, cold pressed. For the watercolors, I was told to use lamp black. So I bought Winsor & Newton Cotman WaterColours Lamp Black, number 337, series 1. It seemed to work out okay for me with no problems. For the opaque, I bought Winsor & Newton Designer’s Gouache, Jet Black and Zinc White. I am thinking maybe I should have gotten Permanent White instead, although I had no trouble with the Zinc White. I bought the 14ml tubes, however I think I should have bought the bigger tubes so I could practice more without having to worry.

The Famous Artists Course textbook for Section 2 says that I should use premixed grays, however I could mix my own if necessary. Well I had a hard time finding premixed grays anywhere, so I just mixed my own on the fly. While painting, I would sometimes run out of the paint I mixed, which is bad. Matching the exact color again is impossible. I eventually found out that there is a brand that sells prepared grays. The company is Golden Artist Colors or Golden Paints. They call their line Heavy Body Acrylic Neutral Grays.

Today I finally got an email saying they are sending back my assignments for the first section. Since the previous email saying they received my assignment, it has been 16 days. So it’s looking like it takes three weeks for the back-and-forth, like I have been suspecting. below are my crappy assignment work for section 2.

After receiving the Famous Artists Course textbooks, I was able to begin my first lesson and assignment. The first section was a lesson to learn how to use the pencil, the dip pen, and ink with a brush. I was very excited to get started. The section was pretty brief, and had many picture examples.

The assignments for the Famous Artists Course were to shade a couple of trees to have texture, and to ink a picture of a clown. It was recommended to use illustration board. I found some dip pens and watercolor brushes in Walmart. Below is one of the assignments I completed for this section. Comment and tell me what you think.

Here is a quick review of Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff. Recently I bought some Illustration board online from Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff in Boone, NC. I need it for some assignments in the Famous Artists Course. Believe me when I say that Honest Joe isn’t so honest. Why do I say that? Because a $14.97 order shouldn’t have 11.99 shipping! How does a $14.97 order turn to $26.96?!

Maybe it has to do with these cardboard pieces attached to every board I ordered, exponentially increasing the weight and size. Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate some good packing to avoid UPS from crushing my prized contents, which is something UPS loves doing. But not at the expense of nearly double the price of my order.

But oh no, Cheap Joe aint finished being cheap yet. He needs to soak the artist for every dime he’s got. He’s going to throw in a bunch of crap in your package to try and get you to spend all your money. I call it Cheap Joe’s Plug Packet. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? How about some information on some workshops? They only last a few days, so they can’t cost that much, right? …..Right?

Good grief. $695?! Is this a joke? So where is all this money going? Well some of it is used to print some stupid drawings on the packing boxes. He also sent me a free pencil, eraser and pencil sharpener!! Come on, Joe. I browsed your catalog, and your prices are just as high as anywhere else. I don’t need an eraser, I need you to fix your shipping prices!