Every New Year since I was 12 I think to myself, "You should really learn to draw." And at the end of every year I find that I have drawn less than the previous year. My problem is twofold: while I have ample access to teaching material on drawing and have dipped in and out of it frequently, I have never developed a knack for daily practice. Secondly, when I do practice I try to draw everything I imagine I would like to draw, and within a few minutes a lack of experience and skill leads me to be frustrated with the terrible doodles on the page which look nothing like the grand illustrations I imagine.

So this year I thought I'd just try to redraw the greatest graphic novel of our times: Watchmen.

The further illustrated (and mundane) adventures of Mister Savant! Still after books, this time he seems to be negotiating the price on a tome. Typical, the man is so obsessed with cheap and obscure paperbacks when he should be trying to get his hosts to part with their hats!

This drawing started off in my 15x18cm notebook with a vague idea in my head late one night, and so I ended up tackling it a little differently. I didn't thumbnail or roughly draw in the entire scene, instead finishing the pencils on one character entirely and then moving onto the next.

The last time I visited the swamp, things were a little different. Now, as you can see, the neighbourhood has developed a bit with proper buildings and nicely made roads (er, their somewhat unconventional building material notwithstanding).

Don't assume that this urban renewal has done anything for the property rathes, though. Sure, the locals are friendly, will greet you with tooty grins (and they can't wait to have you for dinner), but it's sill a swamp that is prone to space ship crashes. Parking's a bit of an issue, then.

After months of slacking off, I finally got round to doing something I should have done way back in March: I've redesigned the site's look!

When I switched over to Drupal I used the Minnelli template, a default template that comes with the program. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice and functional template, but being a graphic designer and using a standard template on my own site is a bit... well, shameful.

Whew!

Just under the wire, but I made it! I have now officially reached the target on one of these internet writing marathon thingummies. While there were weeks of inactivity and times when I was forced to work on other things, I was able to put some good -- but mostly crap -- words to a page, and reach the 20,000 goal.

I'm still not satisfied, however, because the story isn't finished. No, try as I did, the words 'FADE OUT. THE END' were not in my script; in fact, there is a really long way to go.

The other day I finally bothered to buy an optical mouse again. The old one had gone wonky and had been replaced, for a few months, with a ball one. While installing it I suddenly realised that the little graphics tablet attached to my work computer -- hidden beneath a pile of well-intentioned clutter -- was indeed working. Samir had fixed whatever byzantine driver issues were afflicting it, and in typical Samir fashion had now forgotten quite how he did it and when it had happened (btw, have you checked out his spiffy new blog and site?). With another hour to go before The Simpsons, I decided to give it and the new mouse a whirl.