Happy birthday, Fight The Nothing. I may just have to stay up late and submit a birthday present.

It has been a crazy year. I got a big promotion, Adam got a great job and moved to Chicago. I regret the absence of art for almost 6 months of that year, and I don't think we'll see as much this year as we did last year. Without penalties and strict deadlines, it looks like about one new piece per week will be the new norm. Our intention is to make higher quality art with more time on hand. We still have the old habits of waiting until the last minute, but hopefully soon we'll be posting more developed submissions that make up for the lack of quantity.

I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we truly appreciate those who check up on us from time to time or subscribe to the blog. It really wasn't necessary to us to have an audience beyond ourselves, but I think it helps us strive to be better artists knowing there are people watching.

Thank you, and here's to another year of fighting the absence of creativity and art in our lives!

Page 150

Flight
I didn't get to adding color last night, so I'll submit this as my final draft. I will try to remember to add the colored version when I finish it. I'm pretty pleased with this version of the dragon/Phoenix pairing, but Adam made a good point in that I don't want our tattoo to appear as if Kelly and my totems are fighting. In the original version, there is an orb in the center. I don't know what it represents, but perhaps an addition of something in the center of the piece would make it appear that both beasts are striving towards it instead of each other. Thoughts on this?
Adam, your weapon is night.

Draft and poll...

For flight I thought of a piece that is near and dear to me. When Kelly and I decided that the tattoo we would get as a couple would be a Phoenix and Dragon (to represent her and I respectively), we did not know that these two mythical creatures had an ancient connection in Chinese culture and art. They represent the yin and yang and make the most powerful and balanced pairing. Although very pleased to discover this, my journey towards a final design stayed well away from Chinese art. Recently I picked up a pencil again-thanks FTN- and did a study of the eastern model (see the first picture). I was pleased with its balance and so am exploring my own take on it.
I submit this not as my final contribution but as a work in progress. The middle photo is my draft, and the next step is to add scales to my dragon.
I have selected a few options (pic #3) as to how I might proceed and decided to present them here and poll the readers (only slightly to see who is reading this).
Please comment to tell me whether you think I should use a grid/diamonds, circles, scales, or any alternative.
Thanks,
-Jeremy-

Page 149

CATS

Hey Fighters!

It has been some time. Time well measured by the amount of lolCats in my inbox. I have to say coming back into the habit of blogging has been a little tedious for me. Since we last talked I started a new job, moved into an apartment in Chicago, and entered into a long distance relationship. It isn't so much as I can't find the time it's just that there are so many others things to do when I do... My apologies. Please bear with me as I pull out of my nosedive into the nothing.

I started a Cat Lady drawing last week but every time I thought about working on it, it was at home and i was at work or vice versa. Or I was having a delightful adventure to the future birthplace of James T. Kirk with my love (yes it's a real thing, no its probably not worth your time... but it is hilarious). Anyway you can tell by the drawing that I did not go that route. Instead enjoy this masterwork political satire about the escalation and futility of war... aka a picture of a cute cat and playing with a laser pointer.

Jeremy,
Your finally up. Make me some couch art concerning "flight".

Page 148

Carnivorous

I was going to draw Daffio and his carnivorous habits, but none of my duck sketches deserved the title. So I settled on this. Carnivorous was one of those words that seemed like it would be easy, but no pathways that I tried worked out well.

Page 147???

WOOOOOOOOOO... Hello fighters!

Its been a while and I will be posting from work from now on most likely. Jeremy gave me ox forever ago and I yet it took me a while to get at it. I will fight more furiously in the future. Anyway you can't give me ox and not automatically graviate towards Paul Bunyan. Here he is:

Jeremy,
I have no clue what page we are on but I'm calling this from 147. Correct me if I'm wrong.

From page 148 your weapon is Carnivorous. I look forward to it

Aaaaannnnd... We're back!

Mustache!
Adam and I have discussed our format for FTN and our absence from its artistic bosom, and have agreed to recommence our "fine" art frenzy with some new guidelines:
We shall continue to draw inspiration from assignments corresponding to pages from The Neverending Story (until finished, at which time a new framework shall be decided) with a looser rule set. There will no longer be penalties, as they were a huge pain in the ass. We will simply take turns, and post one after the other when we can.
Please pardon us our vacation, we are now recommitted to sharing/forcing art from our souls (or our tipsy weekend whims, as it applies here).

By the way, John Wayne movies are awesome. I never noticed his mustache til I looked him up on my phone.

Your weapon is OX, and what a mighty weapon that is.