Guitar and Grace

“I have come to chew bubble gum, and kick ass. And I’m all out of Bubblegum!” Roddy Piper in THEY LIVE

Why, oh why didn’t someone tell me eons ago, to pick up this DVD from the library on teaching myself the guitar. I’ve learned more in the past two days watching this dvd than the couple of lessons, and the months trying to learn from the awful book that came with the guitar… combined.

It’s the way the video takes you through learning the guitar which is a functional, practical approach to get to the heart of playing, rather than the soul numbing tedium of TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR that the book and the instructors send beginners through. :).

Two lessons with the DVD and about an hour of practice in, and I’m moving through chords A,G, E then back to A. Not fast yet, but getting sure.

The biggest thing the DVD stresses is 20 minutes a day come rain or shine, hell or high water. So far, so good.

The DVD is called ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS GUITAR and you can get it here. You can thank me later! 🙂 .

Art from the Edge of the Sea: Images of you and Images of Me #1

I’ve been meaning to get back into the habit of drawing regularly. While I’m obviously no Kyle Baker or Kevin Nowlan, and not going to make a living at this, the goal isn’t that.

The purpose of this new segment ART FROM THE EDGE OF THE SEA is just to get back into putting down lines that hopefully day by day get better. The goal to see if a bad or rudimentary artist can progress… noticeably.

The hardest thing about doing this on the computer is controlling the line, it’s a bit harder than controlling a pencil. And I’m just using a crude basic illustration program and my touch pad (no tablet, no pen), so you can imagine it’s a bit like trying to draw with a brick.

But what the hey.

I’ll take it slowly, like this is the first day of my life. And this my first drawing. I’ll try and do one at least every other day, we’ll see how that works out.

Hope you guys will keep checking in to see if I evolve out of awful. 🙂

Here is the first drawing. Try not to scream 🙂 :