Uncategorized

One Last Thank You

(I wrote this post over a month ago at this point, but I have held off on posting until I received my print, assessed it’s quality, and then sent prints to my parents and my siblings. Those prints are finally in their hands, so I can make this post without spoiling anything).

I’ll get to the title of this post in a bit. Be forewarned, this is going to be long, and perhaps emotional.

On June 8, 2020, my last remaining grandparent, my memere, passed away, two weeks to the day after her 99th

So, Uh, How’s Everybody Doing?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been mostly keeping up with the shorter posts on FB and Instagram, but I thought I might get a little rambly, so I figured a blog post might be better.

First up, we are all healthy and fine in our household, and so far I can say the same for my extended family. Having the kids home to do virtual learning is going okay, but it has plenty of challenges. It’s about as disruptive to my studio plans as summer vacation, but the important thing is is that everyone is safe.

Right around

Obsession, Compulsion, and a Hobby.

So. This is my first post in how long? I have no idea where the summer has gone.

That’s a lie. Time passes as it always does, and I continue to be oblivious to it’s passage until a big enough chunk of it to be noticed has slipped away. I also am aware of the things I’ve been doing or otherwise occupied by that have used up that time.

Today is another day in a long line of days like today: too many things I want to do, too many things I need to

Another Torso Decoration for You, and One for Me!

Wow, four weeks, four shirts posted to my Etsy shop! So far, I’m sticking to alternating between a PMD related shirt and some of my other designs, we’ll see how long that holds up, especially as I get through the existing designs and start generating new stuff. I actually didn’t tweak this week’s design at all. It’s a simple, bold, graphic image that I am still fairly happy with, so I decided not to muck with it.

Here’s what I had to say about this image in the Etsy posting: This image is

Tablet Art: Smile For The Camera

Right. So, once again, there’s been a gap in posting. There’s been a gap in studioing, too (yes, I’m making that a verb). I had to spend a week performing my civic duty by serving on a jury in a particularly disturbing trial. If not for the subject matter, the whole experience was actually kind of interesting and rewarding. I have a new found understanding of and respect for the concept of a jury of one’s peers. I’m glad to be back in the studio, though.

The first tablet drawing I did (a few weeks ago, now), after finishing up that

Gallery Update: Merry Plunger-mas!

The first month of 2o17 is almost in the books, but it’s not too late to post about xmas, right? I hope not, because I have several posts coming up somewhat related to that. I’ve been trying to finish up the book cover for the fourth Thea: The Little Witch series. I’m currently awaiting approval. I still have a handful of illustrations, plus a book cover for another author, awaiting me, but, I don’t want to fall too far behind on postings. I haven’t had the time to work on IPMDT while working on the cover, but I hope to

Life and Stuff…

Wow, it’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? There are lots of reasons for that. Summer vacation started, which means my studio hours get seriously truncated and interrupted. Two of my sons decided to have medical problems that required some surgery (one of them an emergency case, but both are fine and back to driving each other nuts). I finally got the help I needed to do some serious repairs to my barn. Basically: life. It’s a struggle not to get swept up in the frustration of not having enough studio time, let alone time to keep this website up

Gallery Update: Baby’s Are Like Squids…

I’m finding it difficult to not spend all my studio time working on It’s Plunger Monkey Dynamo Time!, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’m making some progress towards some big goals/ambitions…but I’m completely not touching some others. Hrm. I need better time management skills, but that’s nothing new.

What is new (see what I did there?) is that my good friend and his wife are due to have their first child any time now. Obviously this called for the traditional, custom PMD card:

Toby-Gray-PMD-and-Squid-for-Aaron-and-Junko No, this

Experiment…

Well, it’s the first full week of school, and with all the after school stuff going on, the start up of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts looming, family events, and other obligations and projects, I haven’t settled into a studio schedule yet. However, I do try to take advantage of whatever un-busy moments I have to read about and learn new things, like this:

Toby-Gray-willy-mceyeballs-gif-experiment Testing, testing…is this thing on?

I watched a great Phlearn YouTube tutorial recently on how to make GIFs and videos in Photoshop. I decided I’d “quickly” try

Studio Stuff: The Yin Yang Hat

Since I was crazy busy last week getting ready for company to spend the weekend while simultaneously getting my oldest ready for his week at Boy Scout camp, today is the perfect day for a Studio Stuff update.

yin yang hat Meet The Yin Yang Hat.

I bought this hat my senior year of college, partly because it’s fun and cool, but also as a stab at some self therapy. You see, I’ve always struggled with self esteem/self worth. It’s a bit better now that I’m older, but I still deal with it. Back

Go to Top