from dusk til drawn

twas the night before the new year...

2007-12-31T17:45:00.000-05:00

i was in nj for the weekend, sans tablet, so here are some analog dkmons to finish up the year!

dkmon331

dkmon332-344

dkmon345-357

dkmon358-365

blue series

2007-12-28T00:11:00.001-05:00

dkmon320

dkmon321

dkmon322

dkmon323

dkmon324

dkmon325

dkmon326

dkmon327

dkmon328

dkmon329

dkmon330

handsel

2007-12-26T04:52:00.001-05:00

dkmon317

dkmon318

dkmon319

merry holidays

2007-12-25T05:15:00.001-05:00

dkmon306

dkmon307

dkmon308

dkmon309

dkmon310

dkmon311

dkmon312

dkmon313

dkmon314

dkmon315

dkmon316

paper + scissor rock

2007-12-24T03:31:00.001-05:00

holiday crafty dkmoni!

dkmon301
Biddle

dkmon302
Rondol

dkmon303
Philibuster

dkmon304
Alaisha

dkmon305

Ohm'n

brushing up

2007-12-23T05:22:00.000-05:00

different strokes, different folks

dkmon279

dkmon280

dkmon281

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dkmon283

dkmon284

dkmon285

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dkmon290

dkmon291

dkmon292

dkmon293

dkmon294

dkmon295

dkmon296

dkmon297

dkmon298

dkmon299

dkmon300

crack basement

2007-12-22T03:25:00.001-05:00

american apparel photo shoots are reminiscent of that grungy fiona apple vid for criminal, like a kitty porn dungeon or crack basement. guess that's where we're at

dkmon269

dkmon270

dkmon271

dkmon272

dkmon273

dkmon274
yukimi nagano

dkmon275
gina

dkmon276
kyung

dkmon277
heloise

dkmon278
allison

97 mo

2007-12-21T05:10:00.000-05:00

dkmon259

dkmon260

dkmon261

dkmon262

dkmon263

dkmon264

dkmon265

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dkmon267

dkmon268

all i want for Christmas are 107 dkmon

2007-12-20T05:31:00.000-05:00

massive attack for the next ten days, expect. aaaaah!

dkmon243
whoooo!..?

dkmon244
dietrich

dkmon245

dkmon246
charredcold kitty

dkmon247
ohhh now i get why it's called a goatee

dkmon248
and on the seventh day, god made sundaes

dkmon249
peanut butter wolf

dkmon250
peanut butter wolf
well, chris manak is so so much hotter than this, really.
let's call this guy freddy.

dkmon251
molienzo

dkmon252
cold boulder

dkmon253
she's in securities

dkmon254
smuglips

dkmon255
suckmykisslips

dkmon256
fistlips

dkmon257
poutylips

dkmon258
stanleylips

i suck at money

2007-12-14T02:27:00.001-05:00

overdraft fees are the bane of my existence.
debit + i = debt

dkmon237
skipped this one

dkmon241

dkmon242

yumi and everyone we know

2007-12-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

we change a bit everyday. bit by bit, bittle-be-bit.
sum of parts are we? at once all and some.
fragmental.

0yumi238

1yumi239

2yumi240

DO NOT PANIC

2007-11-24T03:47:00.001-05:00

Okay, we've reached official procrastinated-panic levels here. With a little more than a month left until the New Year and more than 100 (!!) dkmon to go, I am actually entertaining thoughts of getting a wig for my impending Britney move. But for dignity's sake, I will put up a grand effort in the remaining days to get back in this game. Last legging it:

dkmon230

dkmon231

dkmon232

dkmon233

dkmon234

dkmon235

dkmon236
eye never meant to be the needle that broke your back

some solids

2007-09-18T04:56:00.001-04:00

dkmon225
belligerent

dkmon226
enter the woo

dkmon227
the way we was

dkmon228
jenga, jenga, jenga

dkmon229
HI-kiCk

i have a new page up where i'll post fun/silly/every- things, so this blog will be reserved for dkmons only.
good night

roadtripped out

2007-09-17T01:41:00.001-04:00

dkmon220
shapeshifter

dkmon221
toadies get no love

dkmon222

dkmon223
i can see right through you

dkmon224

rutting away

2007-09-03T02:52:00.000-04:00

dkmon215
bah humbogart!

dkmon216
aidez-moi

dkmon217

dkmon218
i need male models

dkmon219

more doing, less construing

Laika

2007-08-16T01:12:00.000-04:00

dkmon214

burns

2007-08-05T23:36:00.000-04:00

dkmon211

dkmon212

dkmon213

still in hanover, burned, tired, stranded?
dc trip delayed for one more week, i think

pass that pod

2007-08-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

dkmon210

Wired has a how-to wiki on how to get music off your ipod.
<3

recuperation

2007-07-29T16:51:00.001-04:00

dkmon208

dkmon209

nyc killed me
hanover, be gentle please
starting tomorrow

Joshua Tree pissed on my night

2007-07-26T19:40:00.002-04:00

dkmon206

dkmon207

mini-trip

2007-07-25T02:43:00.001-04:00

dkmon205

i'll be city-hopping for the next two, three weeks and despite not knowing exactly where i'll be on any given day, i will try to keep up to date with dkmons.
ideally, my new site and main blog will be up and running by the weekend; if so, that's where i'll be posting stuff from the journey and...just stuff from now on.
non-dkmon stuff, that is.

links when ready

addicted

2007-07-24T19:07:00.000-04:00

Andre 3000 - Millionaire (feat Kelis)

why isn't this a hit single??

i didn't do it

2007-07-23T23:06:00.001-04:00

dkmon204

heated

2007-07-22T23:30:00.001-04:00

dkmon203

waste land indeed

2007-07-22T22:46:00.001-04:00

in the spirit of yesterday's post on disgust at humanity's waste of space, here's a piece by Chris Jordan called "Cans Seurat":

this is a visualization of 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds. wow, pretty!

detail

Jordan says:

My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

you can see more of his awesome visual manifestations of statistics here.

malls are a disgrace to humanity

2007-07-22T01:29:00.002-04:00

dkmon202

i went to the Discover Mills mall today to buy some sandals, and the violence of my disgust at the whole experience surprised me. it wasn't just the usual aversion i feel toward commercial centers for the distasteful and idle consumption it encourages...i think it was how offensively garish and expansive it was, a sprawling, 1.2 million square foot land of trashy tv ads on repeat.

Menlo Park mall was not so obnoxious, as I remember...probably because it didn't try be a carnival, desperate to keep you transfixed by the b-side rides, poorly maintained outlet stores, gimmicky restaurants (they have a huge Medieval Times attached, gah!), exotic Asian/"nature" trinket stores, etc. Menlo Park was elegant in design, much more compact with two levels and a straightforward linear layout, lots of natural light, and seating amid the trees in the cafeteria. Discover Mills is...just too big. And not tall big, just wide big. It could be half the size if they only built UP! Much more accessible, less stagnant....

That's probably what I take most offense at down here in the south...that man takes up so much SPACE with ugly, unnatural buildings and things. Yeah, I get it, there's more space to work with, but is it necessary to fill it all? The way construction down here spreads its legs is vulgar. How many shopping centers does an area need? None of them are ever at max capacity, there are acres of empty parking lots because there's too much supply, the demand has a hard time keeping up...and with everything spread out, it takes that much longer to GET anywhere you need to go. This might sound like I'm concerned with the detrimental impact of suburban sprawl on the environment, and I guess I am...but perhaps it'd be more accurate to say that it's the inefficiency of everything here that really pisses me off. What a Waste Land.

good vibrations

2007-07-21T04:42:00.001-04:00

dkmon201

fox floats

2007-07-20T03:07:00.000-04:00

dkmon200!

the earth is your canvas

2007-07-20T01:46:00.000-04:00

wow. the Japanese never cease to amaze with their antics and art. (antartica?)
that's RICE they're coloring with!
from Pink Tentacle:

Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety. This year’s creation — a pair of grassy reproductions of famous woodblock prints from Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji — has begun to appear (above). It will be visible until the rice is harvested in September.

and for you skeptics: it's not Photoshopped

elsewhere...
less impressive, more hilarious:
as a publicity stunt for the upcoming Simpsons movie, this 180 ft Homer was painted next to the 17th century chalked outline of the Pagan fertility god in the hillside of Cerne Abbas, Dorset. Pagans were pissed at the disrespect, and as far as creative ad campaigns go, I'd say indignation is a rather rational reaction when compared to...oh, you know, a terrorism scare. (via boingboing)

dkmon to come!

WikiNotables #1

2007-07-19T03:11:00.001-04:00

dkmon199

thought train:
1. that's a pensive look
2. the possibilities of what a pensive looking person might be thinking is infinite
3. god i wish i can read minds
4. wasn't there a story of some malicious woman who read the thoughts of kids?
5. probably a kids' book
6. ooh, something involving an ear...oh gross yeah an extra ear in the back of the head or something strange like that?
7. malicious woman with power over kids, what kind of relationship is that...like, a teacher?
8. AH! WAYSIDE SCHOOL gets a little stranger!
9. duh, should've done a Google search earlier...let's see what kind of Wikilegacy it left behind
10. answer: an inspiring one! (though apparently one of questionable quality)

Louis Sachar, the author, on how he came to write the Wayside School series:

I returned to college, this time to the University of California at Berkeley where I majored in economics. On campus one day, I saw the unlikely sight of an elementary school girl handing out flyers. I took one from her. It said: "Help. We need teachers aides at our school. Earn three units of credit." I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School. Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience. When I graduated in 1976 I decided to try to write a children's book, which eventually became Sideways Stories From Wayside School. All the kids at Wayside School were based on the kids I knew at Hillside. It took me about nine months to write the book. I wrote in the evenings. In the daytime I had a job at a sweater warehouse in Connecticut. After about a year, I was fired (my enthusiasm for sweaters was insufficient), and I decided to go to law school. Sideways Stories from Wayside School was accepted by a publisher during my first week at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

this is the kind of story that reminds me that there is only so much life planning one can do, that so much of our lives are influenced by factors beyond our control and that there's really no need to stress out about the future...you just need to open yourself up to all the possibilities out there and follow those which suit your tastes. it's like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, except for real.

man, it seems like children's books have got it all figured out!
(to do: reread The Little Prince)

catcher

2007-07-18T03:13:00.001-04:00

dkmon198

contemplating

2007-07-17T03:05:00.001-04:00

dkmon197

who me?

2007-07-16T03:20:00.001-04:00

dkmon196

w00t

2007-07-15T04:48:00.001-04:00

dkmon195
i've been listening to podcasts lately, specifically NPR Fresh Air and The Sound of Young America. listening to interesting people enthuses, it's great. you should try it.

you can subscribe to both for free on Itunes. the latest feature interviews with Ricky Gervais and Patton Oswalt (comedian, voice of Remy from Ratatouille), respectively: both hilarious and probably inspiring for those seeking creative careers. that's right, do what you love because you love it!

on bended knee

2007-07-14T01:29:00.001-04:00

dkmon194

i used to smoke five packs of cigarettes a day

2007-07-13T00:08:00.000-04:00

dkmon193

i spent forty minutes going through myTunes trying to find this song, the only bit of which looping in my head was the trumpet break at the beginning...no helpful lyrics, just that opening melody. i wasn't even sure if there was any singing involved, though i had a vague idea that there was possibly a throaty vocal tossed in the mix. i tried my luck at Songtapper.com, but knew for sure it wasn't Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2), Playmate of the Year (Zebrahead), or Gay Bar (Electric Six), so i resigned myself to playing songs going back from May 07 (my library is ordered by Date Added) and literally yelped when i finally heard that trumpet opener, blaring all the way from Jan 2:

Otis Clay - Trying to Live My Life Without You
*this is supposed to be the whole song, but i keep hearing only segments at this link...i don't know whether that's just my computer/unbearably slow internet speed, or what, but hopefully you'll be able to hear at least the first bit.

man, i really need to redirect this kind of persistence towards less trivial pursuits.

keep your back straight

2007-07-12T02:54:00.000-04:00

dkmon192

in living color

2007-07-10T23:58:00.001-04:00

dkmon191
purple and yellow are so...what, early 90s?
that era was just saturated with complementary colors.
what are the colors of the 2000s? pink and green were in for one bit, i recall...that was fun.

death and cowboy boots

2007-07-10T02:04:00.000-04:00

dkmon190

caffca

2007-07-09T01:00:00.001-04:00

dkmon189
rounder, cuter, but not it.

un cafe, s'il vous plait

2007-07-08T02:19:00.001-04:00

dkmon188
This guy was rejected for the Awesome Creatures "Caffeinated Cat" but he's still a winner here!

halftime report

2007-07-06T20:38:00.000-04:00

dkmon187

Now that it's day 187, I figure it's about time to do a slightly belated halftime report.

Clearly, I've been less than regular in keeping up with this project (I don't think I've been updating daily since February) and I wonder whether massive updates like those of this past week defeat the entire purpose: to be more diligent about drawing.
So for the second half of the year, I want to come up with ways to vary up the pace so that I'd be forced to post at least a few times every week. Maybe certain days will be assigned themed dkmon, for example on Sketch Sundays, one could always expect to see life-like characters. And after spending an hour perusing through Overheard in NY today, I definitely want to devote a day to dkmon inspired by quotes pulled from the site...I mean, don't you automatically start visualizing those people who say the darndest things?

I also want to start writing more substantial posts on art-related topics, though I've been playing with the idea of starting another blog to keep track of other art projects and wonder whether discussions on the creative process, etc. might be more relevant there.

Anyway, you'll be seeing some changes in the next few weeks while I play with new ideas on how to trick myself into being disciplined, so bear with me!

Here's to a fitter, happier, more productive second half!

single sketchy/squiggly stroke, minus prop

2007-07-06T03:48:00.001-04:00

aaaand we're finally caught up again!
Which marks the beginning of a new era, the details of which I will outline in tomorrow's post. For now, bedtiiiime!

dkmon185
butthead?

dkmon186
say cheese damnit$@#*!

the theme is sitting

2007-07-06T02:54:00.001-04:00

dkmon175
i love inchworms and the way they inch along, and how they sometimes waver in the air for lack of hands to throw in the air in exasperated bewilderment and ask, "what is the meaning of all this inching?" and how they always keep going after that.

dkmon176
mind nags, boobs sag.

dkmon177
king of the hill

dkmon178
the stars are out tonight

dkmon179
if you need a cane, why bother dying your hair?

dkmon180
now what?

dkmon181
puffin

dkmon182
what-the-dillo

dkmon183
i wanted to see if the creepy old "you like popsicles?" man from Family Guy had a name and got as far as "creepy old man" typed in my Google search toolbar before they omnisciently suggested "creepy old man family guy"
which i guess means the creepy old man from Family Guy (or Herbert The Creepy Old Man) wins the Creepy Old Man popularity contest.
and...Google for God?

dkmon184
best seat in the house

maybe the next set will be themed

2007-07-05T05:23:00.000-04:00

dkmon165
so i've been staying away from facebook as much as possible for all the obvious reasons, trying to use it only when replying to wall posts or messages, but i couldn't help going through the photos of one peculiarly provocative friend whose demands for attention a la newsfeed could not be ignored any longer. i don't know this person too well, having shared only a brief time together, but there was one particular picture that so precisely captured the bewildered agitation that this character seems to enjoy provoking that i felt compelled to draw it.
i don't think i really got the look down, but all the same, i feel this exercise completely justifies facebook time...so from now on, anytime i find myself browsing through someone's fb photos, i must create a dkmon from one of them...or deactivate my account. (gasp!)
i wonder if people would be able to recognize any? preferably not, for the sake of my stalking privacy...though i'd be pretty impressed. if impressed is the right word.

dkmon166
photographer Mark Story archives old folks.
this guy's not so old, relatively speaking, but check that pout!
(via Drawn!)

dkmon167
"we're all stardust"

dkmon168
shifty line weight

dkmon169

dkmon170
i want someone to have to look up at ME!
(especially wid 'em puppy eyes, aw)

dkmon171
your shadow's getting restless

dkmon172

dkmon173
must love dogs

dkmon174
wobbly wobot

almost made it

2007-07-04T01:13:00.000-04:00

not quite free to go back to individual dkmon yet, but nonetheless...Happy Independence Day!

dkmon155
A few weeks ago, my brother requested a frog that could serve as an identity for Brink Magazine, a new online literary mag whose website is being redesigned by his company Barrel. He asked for a "Wind in the Willows kind of look", which I think applies here much more than in the final version I did for Brink. Judging by the reappearances of frog -like dkmon in the past few posts, it appears that my hand is still working the problem out. Maybe this one is it!

dkmon156
Zlatko arrives at the fishing bridge and surveys the scene

dkmon157
she's got a bright future

dkmon158
mosquitoes suck

dkmon159
if Winona Ryder were a dude

dkmon160
clearly Korean, look at those eyes and cheekbone area

dkmon161
shake harder, toy!

dkmon162
way more fresher

dkmon163
hair in all the wrong places

dkmon164
eye stares in eye pairs

scanner darkly

2007-07-02T00:15:00.001-04:00

So far this year I've been doing most of my drawing using the tablet, mostly because all occasions to draw have involved getting the image onto the computer at some point, and a stylus simply cuts out the extra scanning step. I didn't realize how unaccustomed I've become to drawing with regular pen-to-paper until an attempt to sketch a self-portrait resulted in a disturbingly disproportionate face, which garnered a laughing comparison to that of my brother...and from my own mother!
Fortunately, I finally have a scanner to use at my leisure, so I'll be able to clean up my non-virtual drawing skills while continuing work on the dkmon collection. With the exception of the first one, this set was drawn using a Precise V7 Rolling Ball Fine Pilot pen.
Actually, I'll start labeling each post with the medium used...once I'm caught up and back to uploading one dkmon a day, that is.

dkmon145
Fraulein

dkmon146
armchair

dkmon147
setting up

dkmon148
three egos, one pose

dkmon149
frumpsters are cute

dkmon150
this is a disturbing creature

dkmon151
his mien reminds me of that boy from Terminator 2 and American History X, who really knows how to work the femiman look.

dkmon152
only penguins can stop forest fires

dkmon153
a part of me imagines him as toothpaste
which seems to make him uncomfortable

dkmon154
that neck seems all wrong, hm...

sluggish ruggish

2007-07-01T02:18:00.000-04:00

dkmon135

tip of the manberg

dkmon136

scurrying away on sand from anal probing slugs counts as a nightmare, yes?

dkmon137
don't play with your food

dkmon138
changeling

dkmon139
those wings are in a sorry state

dkmon140
whimsical little fairy...with a huuuge backside

dkmon141
runtish

dkmon142
eye nose what eye need

dkmon143
castrated...in a different sense?

dkmon144
rainspot

playtime's over

2007-06-29T00:37:00.000-04:00

Comeback special: ten days overdue
so ten dkmon/day until I'm caught up.
Some quick math puts me at 185 next Tuesday, which evens me up just in time for 4th of July. How liberating!

dkmon125
if Spongebob's pet snail evolved into creepiness

dkmon126
two fatties in one

dkmon127
this one reminds me of Great Gatsby

dkmon128
trees = people

dkmon129

dkmon130

dkmon131
women are complicated

dkmon132
women are sexy loungers

dkmon133
womanly men and the women who love them

dkmon134
disillusioned

yawn

2007-06-08T21:19:00.001-04:00

dkmon124

desk jobs are boring
diet coke makes me jittery
this room lacks oxygen

pre-exam cramjunction

2007-06-02T01:52:00.000-04:00

dkmon123

i wonder what other people see in this cramjuncle

expect a massive comeback special on june 18th

to be continued

2007-05-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

dkmon119

dkmon120

dkmon121

dkmon122

not quite caught up yet, maybe later tonight.
getting ready to be steady!

painfully out of practice

2007-05-10T21:42:00.000-04:00

dkmon114

dkmon115

dkmon116

dkmon117

dkmon118

well well well then!

2007-05-10T21:17:00.000-04:00

dkmon109

dkmon110

dkmon111

dkmon112

dkmon113

i know. you thought i was done. you thought i'd given up, convinced that britney's do was the way out...but there's still hope! and more dkmon!

a change gon' come

2007-04-19T03:04:00.000-04:00

dkmon106

dkmon107

dkmon108

planet earth

2007-04-16T05:38:00.000-04:00

dkmon103

dkmon104

dkmon105

if you don't have Discovery HD, you're missing out on the world.

old school

2007-04-13T05:35:00.000-04:00

dkmon101

dkmon102

After my Powerbook crashed during finals period fall term, I moved all my music to an external hard drive, keeping only songs added since 2006. Since then, I've gone back to dig up songs that pop up in my head from time to time, but the constant stream of new music is usually enough to satisfy my aural fix. Recently, however, I was in a car when Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" came on the radio and, as the VIP backseat lounge party broke out into a furious lip sync/dance extravaganza, I realized that I may have been too rash in cutting off my old musical friends, especially after all we'd been through together. One of the best things about music is its ability to conjure up old memories in the most immediate, tangible way, and here I was, depriving myself of self-indulging nostalgia! And so it is that I'm awake at 6am, listening to the resurrected likes of Madonna, 2Pac, Nirvana, Incubus and Cake...if I'm going to be reminded of how quickly time passes anyway, I might as well indulge in a little sweet reminiscing.
Lemonade, folks. Lemonade.

(though lemons also conjure up some fond memories...but that was before I even started listening to music. more of a smell/touch memory, now that i think of it, not even so much taste. the warm, moist air steaming, hovering over the sweet earth, the swelling symphony of birds and bugs with the woodwind section blowing through the trees...and those plastic zip-lock bags, sticky with citrus. yeahhh, childhood...when's the last time you thought about yours? do it now, it'll make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, which is necessary if you didn't pack any winter clothes with you for school because it's SPRING term, not to mention april, and just when you thought spring was here because it was a sunny 40 degrees on Wednesday, BAM. more snow! I must admit, it is very pretty...makes me think, if we hadn't set up such seasonal expectations, perhaps we'd be able to appreciate the surprises of nature as they come--another reason why we should just never expect anything, eh?)

on par!

2007-04-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

dkmon98
snow and 30 degree weather are inexcusable at this point.

dkmon99

dkmon100!

i can't believe it's already been one hundred days into the year...
time needs to relax and take a bahamavention, for serious.

here's to a fairly productive first quarter!

what kind of f*ckery is this

2007-04-07T14:58:00.000-04:00

dkmon94

dkmon95

dkmon96

dkmon97

abstract art is for lesbians

2007-04-04T00:56:00.000-04:00

dkmon91

dkmon92

dkmon93

college-funded open bar = yay studio art lectures!

mixup

2007-03-30T01:44:00.000-04:00

*EDIT*
so it turns out these bad boys were in CMYK, which...apparently isn't recognized by Blogger? I kind of like the floating hamster better in blue.

**

dkmon86

dkmon87

dkmon88

dkmon89

dkmon90

these dkmons' true colors are being stifled by inexplicable forces...i guess blogger is feeling blue today?

settling in

2007-03-28T03:12:00.000-04:00

dkmon84

dkmon85

school is cold, dreary and too small after a term in new york.
i feel claustrophobic already

fun, natural fun?

2007-03-23T03:47:00.000-04:00

dkmon83

why do different brushes show up so faint?

what do you consider fun

2007-03-23T03:42:00.000-04:00

dkmon82
new discoveries make for late nights
feel the goop and the brush

teenage mutant ninja

2007-03-22T02:16:00.000-04:00

dkmon81

meet Turdle.
Born a mere brainshart from my brother's search for provocative animal characters to star in his new t-shirt line, Awesome Creatures, Turdle shaped up to be a real dood.

Puns aside (you know you love em), this task was a bit trying because it involved making poo sitting on the back of an animal seem really cute. Luckily, Koreans have mastered the art of drawing cute piles of ddong, so the turd was actually easier to get out than the rest of the body. There were some concerns that the neck was too long, but this guy ultimately won out over the simpler, neckless version:Hm...I just noticed that I didn't include a tail in either version...do all turtles have tails? Well, these fellas seem perfectly happy with their crappy, tail-less life.
Anyway, there should be a site coming soon where you can get your very own feces-featured t-shirt and be the coolest kid around (Korean children).

single stroke series

2007-03-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

dkmon73

dkmon74

dkmon75

dkmon76

dkmon77

dkmon78

dkmon79

dkmon80

dust yourself off

2007-03-21T20:23:00.000-04:00

dkmon72
version1.0 fell victim to my mac's narcoleptic tendencies, but i like this one better anyway

caper

2007-03-21T20:21:00.000-04:00

dkmon71

chapped lips

2007-03-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

dkmon70

sushi lounge

2007-03-11T05:50:00.000-04:00

dkmon69

madame

2007-03-09T03:54:00.000-05:00

dkmon68

color blind

2007-03-09T02:17:00.000-05:00

dkmon67

At dinner the other night, a friend kept asking if the meat was ready yet. We were at the type of Japanese/Korean bbq restaurant with the grill built right into the table so that the diners have the pleasure of trying to cook a mountain of raw meats and eat it before it all burns beyond rationale. I thought he was just being annoying until the conversation turned to buttons or painting or some other inconsequential thing involving the ability to discern color, whereupon his girlfriend explained that he was colorblind.
"Like you can't tell blues, greens and grays apart?" I asked, thinking of another friend who had thought his pinstriped pants were gray when they were in fact a hilarious green. If only he had been into polka dotted shirts back then...
"More like I can't tell reds and browns...like if this meat is cooked or not."
Ah...right. Hearing that, however, didn't allow me to appreciate my superior sense of saturation and hue, but rather made me wonder about the fantastic colors that must elude the limited scope of human perception. Or even those colors that just don't exist in nature and haven't yet been manufactured. Where are you?

and one for good luck

2007-03-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

dkmon64

dkmon65!

dkmon66

dkmon57

dkmon60

dkmon61

dkmon62

dkmon63

dkmon56

5 down

2007-03-06T21:03:00.000-05:00

dkmon51

dkmon52

dkmon53

dkmon54

dkmon50

little by little

2007-03-06T01:47:00.000-05:00

I was talking on the phone tonight while pacing around the living room when a frantic dustball scuttled over my foot to squeak under the couch. In the kitchen, another mouse bumped into my foot as it dove under the oven on its way to what I imagine is a thriving mousetropolis--these city mice can be plain rude, you know? The sightings have increased significantly over the past few days and it is now distastefully clear that the mice have taken over the apartment. Ugh, just now a mouse ran out from behind the tv stand and sped along the wall towards the furnace!
What was once an occasional intrusion easily remedied with a few Froot Loop-baited mouse traps has steadily, quietly become an overwhelming infiltration that--while sitting alone late at night, surrounded by the scurries and squeals of rodent traffic in an otherwise silent apartment--seems insurmountable.

And just as the number of little furry pests grow at a frightening pace, the count of unrealized dkmon is also reaching a dreadful high. Something needs to be done, asap!

Okay, so March 6 is the 65th day of the year. I have 52 dkmon posted, which means there are 13 left before I'm caught up.
Sooooo, let's see: BY 11PM EST, those lucky 13 will be up here, or I will give up internet until I am caught up for the next 13.
I know, discipline is not really one of my strengths, but I'm working on it. That, time management, and self-punishment (same as discipline?). Live and learn, live and learn.

creepily sure of themselves

2007-03-02T04:40:00.000-05:00

Still dealing with post-SCOPE traumatic stress syndrome and have been feeling a bit scattered, but it's been way too long without posting anything, so here are some of the dkmons i've finished. The characters are numbered thus because i believe that a dkmon should attempt to reflect the particular day indicated. I need a bit more time to work out the SCOPE related ones, which I plan to launch after a post recapping the experience of working the fair. That should all come in the next few days, but in the meantime:

dkmon55
submissively deviant

dkmon58
crazy hat lady

dkmon59
the mice have been watching NIMH

Sitting at my computer, I have a clear view of the hallway and lately, sudden scurried movements would catch my eye before disappearing under doorways. This is very disconcerting, because that means the mice have expanded beyond the kitchen (where all our traps are planted) into the rest of the apartment. Tonight, I saw a tail sliding into one of the bedrooms. Later on, I made eye contact with a greasy little black fellow who had his tiny head poking out from beneath the closet door. I wonder if it's the same mouse who invaded my sleeping flatmates' space.

must...sleep...now!

2007-02-20T01:59:00.000-05:00

dkmon48

after some hesitation, i decided that including words in these drawings isn't a complete sacrilege, as long as they make sense together. maybe i'll learn a thing or two about typography in the process, hm?

dkmon49

i realized that i was actually a day behind, so NOW i am officially caught up! who knows how long that will last, now that i'm going to have to work like a normal human being and sleep on schedule. if you're in the New York area, come check out the SCOPE international art fair: i think it's free, and you can come gawk/gag at contemporary art from all over the world with yours truly.

headphones = antisocial

2007-02-17T23:40:00.000-05:00

dkmon47

good hip hop is like a good conversation: the words captivate, invite reflection, inspire response.
bad hip hop is like talking to a dude who quotes way too many Will Ferrell movies: the words irritate, invite sarcasm, inspire guesses of source until you stop listening and just focus on the noise around his voice.

Today, I listened to a lot of Jurassic 5, which restored a bit of the passion for music I didn't realize had been dwindling with every industrial corn mixtape fodder I hear attempting to compensate for its formulaic filler by beefing up the product with all the essential/usual veterans and criminals and banking on their insanely idiotic/catchy campaign slogans to push releases. I'm not saying it's wrong to have a signature style--it definitely helps distinguish one rapper from the millions of others reaching for the stars out in myspace. But when the only style concerned is that of the rapper's obscenely decadent life, the music just becomes an echo of his celebrity, fading dumb and dumber with each baaallliinnn'!

It's the same thing with food (and any product, for that matter): it's easy to forget that you eat at McD's because it's fast, filling, and has the brand power to convince you that it's soo bad that it's good. But when you decide to go to that local restaurant where all the ingredients are farm fresh and each burger is carefully prepared with consideration to detail (good style points!), you'll remember what good food really tastes like and wonder how you could have put that other garbage in your body for so long and maybe that's why you've been getting fat, breaking out and your girlfriend's breaking up with you.

That being said, of course I'll still listen to all those fast food joints...sometimes there's nothing else that will satisfy quite like a Fat Joe slammy with all the Lil condiments. But hopefully I'll be a bit more conscious about my daily music diet until the industry upgrades and restriction won't be as necessary.

business + pleasure = pussiness and b-leisure

2007-02-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

caught up! the first few are more recent (i'm too lazy to fiddle with this image loader, and really...does it maatter?)

dkmon44
tried to experiment with transparencies and colors to create an icy, alien landscape.
don't know, seems kinda video-gamey to me.

dkmon45
this dude's black face freaaaks me out...

dkmon46
memory-laden furniture

dkmon39
i like this guy's eyes...wearily inquisitive, like an old dog lying by the door

dkmon40
already nostalgic!

dkmon41
these types of drawings are always fun to do because they're just straight up freestyling and each resulting splatter has such a flexible interpretation on its own existence.

dkmon42
face is kinda like those kuba/kota masks, les desmoiselles style, yeah? or maybe more like Viola in Two Sisters (short animated film by Caroline Leaf--she scratched each drawing directly onto the frames of the film, which is absolutely mental!).

dkmon43

the color plague gripping fashion sickens

wine, dine, grind

2007-02-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

swaying on the lego yellow
stamping out sooty snuff
the accordion echoes, never sounded so soulful
more tannin on the tongue
flavors less tinny heard
mitten smooch sendoff across the tracks
wave, wave sway ease a smile slow, let that flat carry it now
wafting, wavering, wooooooosh
stand clear of the closing doors please

introducing a new breed

2007-02-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

*EDIT - I forgot to name the music for this piece:
Snack n C'mish - Palms Out Mix vol.1 - Midnight Run
Also, to distinguish these from regular dkmons, I'll be labeling them under muse.ic, but continuing the count.

muse.ic38

I have music playing almost all the time, and with a growing bookmark folder already packed with diligently updated mp3 blogs (combined with my avid collector spirit), I am finding myself aurally inhaling hundreds of songs at a time without really stopping to savor the subtle flavors in each. Since this could lead to a serious case of binge-hearing, I've decided that as part of my dkmon project, I will choose songs to analyze, dissect, and articulate visually--an exercise that seems to be a natural progression of the course of my interests over the past half-year...

When I took animation over the summer, I became familiar with the powerful correlation between sight and sound. Though I've seen enough music videos and Looney Tunes cartoons to know that the two work closely together, I wasn't really aware of this correlation as expressed in films by innovative "visual musicians" as Oscar Fischinger(whose work was solicited and then mutilated by Disney for Fantasia) and Norman McLaren, where it appears as an abstraction of the senses which attempts to articulate a certain philosophy of art that extends beyond aesthetics and includes the spiritual. In my art history class during fall term, I learned that Wassily Kandinsky (whom some claim as the Father of Abstraction) likewise based his methodical analysis of the psychological properties of color, form and arrangement on the "spiritual vibrations" he felt while listening to music, which he explored in depth in his Composition and Improvisation series.

While I'm not so sure I would call them "spiritual vibrations", I do believe that there is a visual vocabulary for music, as with anything else. Though the principles are pretty much the same as those which govern graphic arts, I find myself reluctant to equate such a commercial expression with something I find so personal...hm.

Maybe I would call them spiritual vibrations after all...

In any case, this will be my last post until Sunday. I'm headed back up to school for some business and pleasure, and will report back on whether they should indeed be unmixed.

cold coma

2007-02-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

dkmon36

zzz

ahead of the game

2007-02-06T01:01:00.000-05:00

dkmon37

i forgot that i had already drawn dkmon36 and drew one for today before realizing i was doing extra work. since the one i just drew is a direct expression of how ridiculously cold it is tonight (and reportedly will be tomorrow, eeek), i'll put it up now so that you may project all your frost-induced pain and discomfort onto this freezing fellow, who will take it and like it (he's kiiinda into S&M).

when life gives you lemons...

2007-02-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

...eat a miracle fruit and taste lemonade.

Miracle Fruit - a fruit that masks sourness and accents other flavors for approximately 30 minutes at a time with no reported illnesses or side-effects (besides foodphoria), yet is banned in the US by the FDA. They sure know how to kill a party.

Maybe if enough people blog about this, there will soon be dealers for these taste-altering substances everywhere. Spread the good word, sprout those seeds!

Here's an interesting article on how the Japanese are using the fruit to lose weight: a miracle diet at last!

resisting B tendencies...

2007-02-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

it's funny because it's true
(check out more relational observations in index form here)

a sofa slinky!

2007-02-05T04:57:00.001-05:00

this would be perfect for a nomadic college kid...or the furniture-fickle...or anyone who knows how to appreciate functionality. too bad there seems to be no info on this magically morphing couch thing yet, though given that i saw this via boingboing, i'm sure that by the time i wake up tomorrow afternoon, there will be relevant updates...like where i can go to find out that i can't afford this ridiculously practical and necessary addition to my life.

uh...

2007-02-05T03:41:00.000-05:00

dkmon35

the horrid result of an experiment in flat coloring
i think that's a monkey in a kimono hiking up a hill with Doughboy eyes.
huh.

daily double

2007-02-03T15:34:00.000-05:00

dkmon34

Jeopardy is stuck in the 90s capsule forever with afternoon Nickolodeon family game shows (remember What Would You Do? oh man...) and Rosie Perez in White Men Can't Jump. There's something comforting in that.

blechhhh

2007-02-03T01:16:00.000-05:00

dkmon33

too much matador or meds?

bringing whimsy back

2007-02-02T02:51:00.000-05:00

dkmon32

she sips tea daintily, dreamily, daily.

back attack

2007-01-31T19:51:00.000-05:00

dkmon31

dkmon30

dkmon29

dkmon28

dkmon27

dkmon26
What started as a random fun way to catch up on dkmons ended up being a kind of pseudo-Rorschach test, it seems.
You be the psychologist.

Life in a Hurry makes everything Blurry.

2007-01-26T03:26:00.000-05:00

I decided that my first legal purchase of alcohol will be a case of Magic Hat Circus Boy: while it's no Edelweiss, it still has that thick, fruity-delish flavor of a good wheat beer--but more importantly, each bottle is capped with some enlightening witticisms which have been compiled here (seriously, how did we know things before the Internet?). Some of them seem to be some random crap the employees think of while baking and making ("Gus loves it!"), but in any case, they're delightful, insightful, and beat fortune cookie quips hands down--or bottoms up.

Some of my favorites:
"Undressing. Distressing or a Blessing?"
"What's the link between what you drink and think?"
"Mud Season is pleasin' for a Reason"
"Put no Stock in the tick of the Clock"

bog fog

2007-01-25T01:35:00.000-05:00

dkmon24

Residential reservations. Seasoning for the congested. Who does Clive Owen look like? Dramatic finales secure next times. Noxious nasal drip.

seussy

2007-01-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

dkmon23

that shade of fuzzy purpink always reminds me of Seuss's Truffula trees. i've always wanted one of those to rub against my cheek. now if only jackets had THAT stuff lining the hood instead of that hideous faux fur...

where am i? how did i get here?

2007-01-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

dkmon22

hmm...the pastel/airbrush combo is not very convincing, is it?
looks kinda like he's trapped in some murky womb tomb...
ah well, he's still a cute little bugger.

faking it

2007-01-22T02:23:00.000-05:00

dkmon21
i seriously need to study lighting
a bit neanderthal, yeah?

peeved

2007-01-21T01:16:00.000-05:00

okay, so i'm officially boycotting Photoshop for a week. the fucking thing crashed on me just as i was saving the original dkmon20, which was an ode to the cute girl waiting for the E express with me tonight, self-conscious even through the knee-knockingly freezing temperature. ugh...i'm disgusted.

here's an appropriately disgusting replacement, doomed to live as an anguished memorial to its miscarried sib.

nature's action painter

2007-01-20T16:17:00.000-05:00

aren't penguins just the cutest?

more adorability pics
via boingboing

countdown

2007-01-20T00:32:00.000-05:00

dkmon19
he's an english major. hates irony.

beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejooooo...

2007-01-19T01:12:00.000-05:00

saw parts of the movie for the first time two weeks ago...bug eyes and creepy crawlers always remind me of that ol dirty rascal (the cartoon version, of course. wow, remember when Beetlejuice was a cartoon series on tv?? those were the days...)

my own eyes are about to pop out: post on my day as an official freelance illustrator tomorrow; tonight, i sleep long and hard.