Okay, it's no secret that our lives are filled with cartoon characters telling us what to do. Jovny the Stork tells us to eat pickles. Tony the Tiger tells us Frosted Flakes are great.
Snuggles the bear only wants our clothes to be as soft as he is, the Kaboom clown wants our breakfast to be a circus and Serta sheep fret about making us sleep on a better mattress.
By far the masters of strange, yet enticing cartoon marketing animals are the folks who make store-brand cereals. Who knew that octopus' and sloths could make me want to buy their cereal?
And you know, I'm fine with all these characters, except for one small family of bears. Those Charmin Bears. These things make me unbearably (ha) uncomfortable.
Now don't get me wrong, they are nicely drawn, they are presented in water colors and the animation in the commercials is lovely. However, none of this disguises the fact that they exist for the soul purpose of wiping their ass. And oh God, their so cuddly about it! They rub their faces all over the toilet paper and frolic with it. Why did they have to pick something large and hairy to promote a clean-cheeks lifestyle? And the little bear doesn't seem to know any better and is running around the woods, presumably with little cling-ons like an actual bear would have and the parent bears just giggle and tell him to wipe his ass. (shudder) That's a little too real for me.
And you know, they aren't the only animals doing it. Often times I see toilet paper that is being marketed as super soft with the addition of a bunny, which of course I find disturbing and hilarious because all I can think about is a commercial that has some out-of-luck appalachian trail hiker who s out of TP and so he just picks up a fluffy bunny who had the back luck to come sniffing around at that moment, wipes his but with it and tosses it aside.
I'm not saying that they should have tootsie rolls selling me TP, the rolls that mimick my grandmothers quilts or the ones with leaves, flowers and little English provential cottages are fine, becasue it's nice but not weird (Except the cottage, but whatever), the point is that we have relationships with animals, or they represent us, and having them reprrsent something to dab dookie with is not right. Like the book says; everybody poops, even bears and rabbits, but don't make it something we want to cuddle.
What other cartoon animals do you think are out of line to sell you products?

Okay, long story short: I went to an Dinner and gallery reception and I had been looking forward to it for weeks. All the area artists were going to be there and I know most of them and they know me. I was looking forward to talking to them and all the inspiration that comes when you pool artists together. I left feeling alienated and disappointed in myself.
No one really said anything, but I left feeling like they were unsure why I was there, and then I realized...I have to give them a reason to know me.
Anyone can see by looking at my stuff I dabble in many things, and this tends to distract me, I tend to abandon projects before I finish them because I am doing something new.
Looking at Charlie Bremer's stuff (The artist having the party) there was no doubt what was his. He is interested in small, intricate things, which he photographs against solid black. He also does pictures of people and nudes with a rope. If you see ne, you automatically know it is his work.
Now it would be very easy for me to do the same thing, but the world already has a Charlie Bremer, it does not need another.
I have not drawn a lot recently in the last couple years and to get myself back on track I looked up things that inspired me, both in subject and in style, on deviantart and other places.
I have realized, this was a distraction. I was trying to make pictures that looked like other people's work who I admired, and this made me dissatisfied with what I was creating because it looked like neither mine, nor theirs.
My Girlfriend asked me what was it that was important to me to create in my art, and I didn't have an answer. I have struggled with the fact my art is nice to look at but often lacks substance or a deeper meaning, and in Upstate New York, things that don't make ou feel something tend to fly under the radar.
I still haven't found the direct answer to my question yet, but I started drawing again every day. I began drawing skulls. Mean ones, silly ones, distorted ones, and out of them I found my knack again. My confidence is returning, the things I am making I like and look good. Eventually when the skulls get tiresome I will branch out and start doing what I should have been doing all along. I don't know what is important to me yet, I don't know what my message is, but for right now I'm just going to make cool pictures.
What is it you are passionate about? What do you want your work to say?
There are a lot of artists here at deviantart that I am referring to that have talent but seem to be treading water. If you want to people to know you, you need to give them a reason. When I was in school, the reason people knew me was I was making my own characters while everyone else was copying Dragonball characters.Simply imitating other people's style and characters will not cause growth as an artist, you have to take what you learn from artists you admire and learn to incorporate it into your own and make something from it that is you.
Not every picture has to have meaning or be deep, but what is it about your work that makes people come back and loose themselves in your pictures?

Hey people,
I finally got around to putting my colossus costume pics up, so check them out!
Only 5 months late!

Pictures soon, I promise!
I have come to the acceptance that the Clossus will probably not be done in time for Halloween, which is a huge bummer. If I could work on just that, then it would be possible, but I was hired to make backdrops for a local theater and that will take up a lot of the time, not to mention my mom is moving and other stuff...
The head and shoulders are all made, as well as most of the club, hands, as well as the armor for the wrists, thighs and knees.
I need to make the suit for the skin as well as the hoof stilts...and that would take too much time.
It really sucks when you realize a project you put so much into won't be finished on time, especially when it's for you...I guess that's the down side of being an artist; your own stuff can suffer becasue you're too busy with other people's stuff.
Oh well. At least I get paid, right?