My truth . . . revealed!

A short while back my friend Andrew Finnie awarded me the bald-faced liar Creative Writer's Award, the rules of which state I tell 6 "bald-faced" lies about myself and one surprising truth. It's time to reveal the truth!

1. I entered the "Draw or Die" marathon and sketched for 96 hours straight.
No, I made that marathon up, but it sounds like lots of fun. Get everybody into one room with a bunch of art supplies and— (I did stay up for 96 hours once, during film school).

2. I once leapt off a train moments before it derailed — and amazingly, was unhurt!
Thank god this was a lie (but I used to leap off speeding cars — I was training to be a stuntman at the time . . . and fortunately, never got hurt).

3. I have eaten 1,313 different species of plants and animals (and counting).
I do like all kinds of foods and have tasted exotic stuff like crocodile and water-buffalo and bugs, but I really have no idea how many different kinds. So I made this one up.

4. I once grew 2 inches in one night.
No, not me. But I've heard of this happening!

5. I've seen a ghost (and even put my hand right through it!).
This one is true — cross my heart. It wasn't even one of those vague white-mist type of ghosts, it was a semi-transparent person with hair floating about as though underwater. The ghost slowly faded away after I put my hand through them, smiling the whole time. Amazing!*

* congrats to Andrew for guessing this was the truth! Well done, mate!

6. I've climbed to the top of Mt. Everest.
Alas, no . . . the closest I got was climbing Thorung La in Nepal (I spent the night at very high altitudes, higher than any peak in the continental United States. It's freezing and hard to breathe at those heights!). You can read about more of my Nepal adventures here or here. Anyone who hasn't been there . . . I highly recommend it! Namaste!

7. My name isn't really Justin Segal. That's just the name I use as part of the Witness Protection Program. Oh damn . . . I wasn't supposed to tell you that.
Ha ha.

Perspective

Illustration Friday's theme this week is "perspective" . . . which is cool, because there literally IS no such thing as one single perspective — everybody has their own view on things, even if they think they're looking at the exact same thing. It got me thinking about shifting points of view and how people see what they want to see . . .

Somehow, that got me pondering how monkeys feel when they've been caged for scientific experiments. It's a subject that's always torn at me. I always feel bad for the monkeys.

Winter Games!

Monday Artday's challenge this week is "Winter Games!" . . . and with the Vancouver Olympics still in full swing, I can image people everywhere are getting into the "gaming" spirit!

A blessing and a curse

I've been blessed and I've been cursed. Sir Andrew Finnie has awarded me the bald-faced liar Creative Writer Award for entertaining my readers and making them laugh!

It's not entirely Andrew's fault. Apparently, he himself was awarded this distinction by Susan Beth Studio, and she in turn got it from someone named Weezel. It's a chain-mail type thing, and I think you can tell what I think about chain-mail (thus the "curse").

The rules of the award state I should tell you 6 bald-faced lies about myself and one surprising truth. I will leave it up to you, kind reader, to see if you can guess which one is the truth! (answer to be revealed in a future post):

1. I entered the "Draw or Die" marathon and sketched for 96 hours straight.

2. I once leapt off a train moments before it derailed — and amazingly, was unhurt!

3. I have eaten 1, 313 different species of plants and animals (and counting).

4. I once grew 2 inches in one night.

5. I've seen a ghost (and even put my hand right through it!)

6. I've climbed to the top of Mt. Everest.

7. My name isn't really Justin Segal. That's just the name I use as part of the Witness Protection Program. Oh damn . . . I wasn't supposed to tell you that.


Ok. I'm supposed to nominate seven new people to continue the chain. But I choose to spare seven people instead. I award them the opportunity to tell what truths or lies they wish . . .

Propagate

Illustration Friday's theme this week is "propagate" . . . which immediately brought to mind a pastoral image of laundry fluttering on the line, row after row of laundry in a quaint domestic scene. It was a beautiful, tranquil image [ sigh ] . . . but then, I decided to sketch something that made me laugh instead!

Adrift

Illustration Friday's theme this week is "adrift" . . . I think there's nothing better than mixing Old World low-tech stuff with the future (steampunk rules!), so the image of a tiny wooden river raft drifting through space immediately came to mind . . .

Between the Splines

I came across this little cartoon while digging through the piles of work from Animation Mentor. This was done just for fun — kinda an in-house gag for animators. It makes me miss the times when I used to cartoon regularly . . . the comic muse is calling me!