As I wrote in this snark fest below, I decided to take some time off and go back to art school to learn computer graphics and recharge my creative batteries.

That didn’t work out.

Here’s my rant from the old blog, which seemed to touch a chord for many of our fine readers here as the path to creative freedom is littered with the bodies of aspiring artists who paid freaking huge loads of money to go to art school and got nothing out of it but a big student loan bill.

For the record, I remain no computer graphics expert, but with some tutorials from Lynda.com, some very handy tutorials by Brian Haberlin, and one Photoshop seminar, after just a few weeks of study, I was able to produce the art for Tori Amos: Comic Book Tattoo, and the training for same cost a fraction of what one semester of one useless art class from my dumbass school, not to mention the fact it took a hell of a lot less time.

Tori Amos: Comic Book Tattoo was the first time I had tried to do an assignment from start to finish on the computer, and I think it turned out…not half bad. Thanks also to me pal JMS for the upgraded computer equipment which makes all things easier. Painting with a mouse is a thing of the past and I’m no longer going blind trying to see on a crappy old screen.
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Click on the SHOP tab above to go to the bookstore and buy this lovely, awesome tome. And be sure to click on the Brian Haberlin link, because he’s got some free downloads there. FREE TUTORIALS! Tell him Colleen sent you!

And now, Another Reason to Ditch That Dumbass School.

About that school…

I’ve agreed to finish out this quarter, because if I do, I continue to get access to school tutors and tutorials that the school offers until April, even though my current class ends on February 15.

The school…it is not happy.

Their argument is that if I were really, really dedicated and willing to push “past my comfort zone”, I wouldn’t be scared of the big bad computer programs.

Holy fucking flaming shit, I do believe that the reason I went to the school in the first place was to learn the god damned computer programs. Instead, I spend more than half my time writing essays about color, how advertising affects us emotionally, and doing thumbnails by the dozen. After I have wasted about ten hours of my week talking about hue, tone, shade, and the color wheel, I then get a design assignment that requires I use software I’ve never opened in my life. (more…)

Some time ago, a number of artists (me included) were approached about possibly doing the art for a graphic novel adaptation of Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn for Scholastic. I never got around to doing any samples because I was already contracted and knew I would not be available, but James Owen has posted his samples at his blog.

Mike Kaluta nailed the gig (and I’d kill to see that art), but for a variety of reasons, it appears the project has fallen through and now the contract is up in the air.

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On Monday at noon, Libertarian intellectual Timothy Sandefur will lecture at the University of Virginia law school before the Federalist Society, Room 298 of Slaughter Hall.

I am way too sick to travel to see this lecture, but I am very interested in his thoughts on property rights, particularly with regard to intellectual property rights.

Sandefur’s Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America is the first book to be written on property rights after the Kelo Decision which greatly expanded the U.S. government’s eminent domain and the scope of asset forfeiture.

Sandefur’s blog is on my list of favorite’s to the right. You can also read Sandefur’s papers here.