This week I’m going to let the pictures carry the newsletter. Less is more, silence is golden, I’m sure I’ve already said too much.
This design is available on a mug in the Zazzle store
and various schtuff in the Redbubble store.
The large design below is used on the schtuff that have more room for display.
Another glimpse at Kaiju Weather –
And that’s it for this week. In and out.
I hope things are good on your slice of reality. Not too hot, not too cold, just enough kittens.
Greetings and salutations! Welcome to the seventy-fourth edition of the Skook Works-in-Progress newsletter.
I hope your week has been a good one. There is a tendency to emphasize the scary and dangerous when we as humans communicate. There’s some value in that (warning signs should have attention paid to them) but it can make us feel anxious and despondant. Hopefully you’ve been getting some uplifting and friendly inputs as well.
These Days …
This week my left eye has started providing me with clearer and more colorful input. On Tuesday I finally had my first cataract surgery. The hardest part of the process was not drinking coffee first thing in the morning. It was the first time in years that I haven’t had caffeine kickstarting my brain and leveling my mood. No fun. The actual surgery went smoothly – at least from my perspective. I was awake but drugged so that I really don’t have a clear memory of the process.
I’m off work this week to let the eye heal. I’m not supposed to do any heavy lifting or much bending over and I do a lot of that as a mail carrier. I wore an eyeshield over the left eye after the operation until the follow up doctor’s appointment on Wednesday so I wasn’t seeing much change in my eyesight. I’ve had the shield off since the appointment and … things are different. In my left eye. Colors are brighter. I can see things more clearly in the near range. Things are still blurry in the distance and, unfortunately, my glasses don’t improve things. I’m going to need a new prescription.
I’ll have to wait on that until the end of June. Surgery on my right eye is scheduled for June 24th. Until then my brain is going to be toggling between two differently abled eyes and trying to send me useful information. It’s going to be interesting.
Mugshots
This week’s process GIF features cute monsters. All monsters are cute but not all monsters are cute to humans.
As usual, this design is available on a mug in my Zazzle store and all sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.
Sketching Ahead
Below are the base sketches for the last eleven upcoming mugshots. Many of these are already finished and available in my stores. I’ll be posting the process GIFs of each in future newsletters. 
That’s it for this issue.
Thank you for reading. May the next few days be good to you. May you spend time with friends and laugh enough to make the world bright.
See you in seven!
Good morning! Have you had your coffee yet? Perhaps you prefer tea? Either is good.
Drink up and read on!
These Days
Before I started writing this morning I cleaned 302 spam comments out of my comment queue. Most of them were attempts to get injected onto the Morgo the Mighty page. I glance at every comment before I mark it for deletion. I’m willing to consider the possibility that a comment is actually attempt to communicate rather than just another toxic bot infestation. No luck today.
At the day job I got to drive my truck, that is, the truck assigned to my route all week. After weeks of needing to borrow trucks from other routes and having to hunt for the keys for said trucks because the carriers don’t put the keys in the slots by the timeclock where they belong, it was relaxing to be able to just grab my key and start up a familiar truck. I’m also a little surprised to find out that I’m kind of a neat freak compared to many of my fellow carriers. I don’t leave personal items, rubber bands, trash or much of anything in the truck at the end of the day. While I do consider the vehicle to be “my truck” I want it to be clean and ready if someone else needs to use it.
There’s a layer of grime on the dashboard that came with truck when I took over the route six years ago. I made a cursory attempt to clean it then. I only made a slight dent. I’m now considering applying soap and water to it next week. There’s nothing like having to deal with other folks’ messes to inspire me to make my environment even neater.
At home, I’m sorting books. I work at it until I reach the nine box limit that Half Price Books will accept. I shift books around on the shelves for later consideration. The books I’m currently thinking I’ll be keeping for the long term I move to the set of free standing bookshelves that I expect will accompany us to wherever we go whenever we go. There are stacks of magazines and comics on the top of the built in bookshelves. I’ve begun moving those down to lower shelves.
I have one copy of Misspent Youths #1. I have many copies of issues 2-5. What do I do with them? Many copies of Last Dangerous Christmas. A couple of copies of GLYPH #1. Multiple copies of later issues of both the magazine and the tabloid version. What do I do with them?
Once I’ve gotten the books managed I’ve got comics to sort. Half Price Books sells back issues of comics but I doubt if it’s the best place to take them. HPB has a computerized inventory of their books and they have a computerized set up for making offers on books brought for sale. Comics? Nope. I’ve checked their website. They do offer back issues but finding what they have available is tricky. I know someone who works for the company and he tells me that, while they do buy comics, it’s best to bring them in when there’s a buyer available who knows comics.
Mugshots
Today’s process GIF is of a cat who knows where it’s at. All the its.
This critter can be found on mugs in my Zazzle store and all sorts of other schtuff in my Redbubble store.
The happy fellow above is the latest addition to my collection of greeting card designs in my Zazzle store.
That’s it for this week. Thank you so much reading. I hope you didn’t spill that drink on anything important.
See you next time!
Happy Friday!
You’re reading the latest issue of the Skook Works-in-Progress Newsletter in which I ramble about … stuff … and show off some recent art.
These Days …
This week has been relatively uneventful.
I’ve been working half days at USPS to give my knee time to recover. It’s better than it was back in December but it’s still telling me that something is wrong. I’ll be seeing my orthopedist this morning to get a check up and have paperwork updated. Workman’s comp did not approve an MRI so I don’t expect that he will be able to tell me much new. Hopefully the updated paperwork will push Workman’s Comp into approving the procedure.
I have been without a regular vehicle for about two and a half months now. Every morning I come to work and check to see which routes are being broken up for delivery by the overtime folks. Then I check to see how many of those routes have vehicles available. The truck assigned to my route broke down at the end of October. It sat in the station’s parking lot for a month before Vehicle Maintenance finally took it away. It hasn’t been brought back yet. I heard that the engine needed to be replaced. Last week our new station manager asked where my vehicle was. When I told her she said she would call Maintenance and find out what was happening with it. I’ve had a couple of supervisors say they’d check too. My truck remains MIA.
Driving other routes’ trucks has provided me with lessons in hygene and organization. One look at my studio space will tell you that I am comfortable with a certain level of chaos. But that’s home. It’s my studio. No one uses it when I’m not there. I’m a lot tidier at the post office. I keep the shelves of my case clean, put my rubber bands away after I’ve organized the day’s deliveries, put the trays under the shelves and give all the missorts and undeliverable mail to clerks at the end of my shift. The only thing I would leave in my truck are few forms for vacant addresses and certified mail pick ups. I would always take my personal belongings home. I don’t want the next person who has to use my station or drive my truck to have to deal with mess.
Many of my fellow carriers seem to be comfortable sharing their messes with the other potential users of their truck. They leave food. They leave trash. They leave jackets and hats and satchels. They leave stacks of rubber bands. One guy has a selection of small tools stuck to his dashboard with magnets. I’m tempted to take photos.
Mugshots
Below is this week’s process gif. I am … hmmm … I was going to say, “Not a fan of clowns” but that’s not accurate. I like the idea of clowns. I like the idea of silly beings dedicated to making regular folks laugh. I feel bad that clowns are considered scary and creepy by so many people. I like the idea of putting on wild make up and ridiculus clother and going bonkers.
I just can’t remember ever laughing at (or with) a clown. A lot of clown humor is slapstick and slapstick doesn’t do much for me. I sympathize too much with the person getting the pie in their face or falling down the stairs to laugh at (or with) them.
Regardless, I don’t find clowns scary or creepy. Clowns just want to have fun. The world needs more fun. And lots of people deserve pies – in their faces.
This image is available on a mug in my Zazzle store and a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.
Full House
I did the design above last year for a client. He generously told me that I could use it for my own projects if I wanted. This week I spent some time coloring and expanding it so it would fit better on t-shirt and other schtuff. Yes, Halloween is always on my mind.
And that’s it for this week. I hope your days are pleasant and your nights are relaxing.
See you in February!
Two weeks into 2022.
Welcome to the latest Skook Works-in-Progress newwletter. I hope life is going well for you. If it’s not, have you asked for a redo?
These Days …
On Tuesday I filled out an application for a Managing Editor position at the major bookseller down in Portland. Sarah had been sent notice of the job via LinkedIn. The application period was ending on Wednesday and my initial thought was that that was not enough time for me to put together a resume and fill out an application. The job description emphasized a need to be able to make deadlines. So I thought, what the hell, let’s see if I can make this deadline. I had to work up a resume for the occasion. I thought I had one saved on my computer but, if so I labeled it in such a way that I can’t find it.
The pay is equivalent to the Post Office without requiring as much exercise. That’s a plus. The job is expected to be done remotely most of the time. That’s another plus. The job holder is expected to live in the Portland area. We live in the Seattle area. So we’d need to move. The likelihood that I’ll even get a rejection notice is pretty slim. I applied mostly for the practice of doing it. I’d be happy to keep delivering mail.
My body has other opinions.
I’ve been back at the USPS working what are supposed to be four hour (half day) shifts. I spend a couple of hours sorting and organizing mail and parcels for delivery on my route. Depending on the day and the carriers available I divide the route into three or four parts and I deliver one of those parts. My knee is still complaining about being used so I reserve the parts of the route that require the least amount of walking for myself. Some days I’m able to deliver my part in less than 2 hours. Most days I’ve gone slightly over.
As of this writing, I’m still waiting for Workman’s Comp to approve me getting an MRI. They want a diagnosis. They want to know why I’m not working all that annoying mandatory overtime. I’d like to know why my knee is on strike and what I can do to encourage it to be willing to put up with my abuse again. Workman’s comp wants to stop paying me to not work. I want to deliver my full route. (My customers want me to deliver my full route. They tell me. Some tell me in very colorful language.) You’d think that would be incentive for them to quickly approve the process. You’d think.
Mugshots
This week’s mug design is an example of thinking ahead. Perhaps too far ahead. I was thinking of Halloween when I drew this. Can you tell?
I do know quite a few people for whom Halloween isn’t simply a date on the calendar. It’s a state of mind. They’d be happy to see it celebrated all year. I’m guessing I made this design for them.
The mugs are available in my Zazzle store. The design is available on other schtuff in my Redbubble store.
Meow.
See you next week. Thank you for dropping by!
Hello and welcome to the first issue of the Skook Works-in-Progress newsletter for this year!
This is the seventh day of 2022. I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions. I haven’t done that in years. If I’m going to take on new habits I prefer to just take them on rather than wait for a specific date. I do plan projects based on dates and time frames. This newsletter, for instance, should run weekly throughout this year. I’ve found that having to post on a weekly basis inspires me to have something to post about – specifically to have some new illustrations or images to show off.
I’ve been running a couple of online stores since the end of 2020. I spent 2021 adding designs to both stores.Many of the designs were reworks of illustrations from my portfolio. Many more were original illustrations done specifically for the stores. As I added designs I started designing specifically for the products that were available. A design tends to work best if it is created with a specific product in mind. What works on a t-shirt may fit poorly on a phone case.
Mugshots
My favorite object to design for is a coffee mug. My big project this year is to create 52 new mug designs. And, because I think it’s fun to make and share process gifs (and because this is the Skook Works in Progress newsletter) I’ll be posting a process gif of new design in each issue here.
This week’s design is an abstract. Because … what the hell.
It’s available on mugs in my Zazzle Store. My chosen version is below. If that particular mug isn’t to your liking you have the option to move the design to other mugs or objects. If you have difficulty doing that just email me and I’ll be happy to help out.
This design is also available on a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.
These Days ..
I’m working at the post office again after a month off due to injury. I’m currently scheduled to work half days – that is four hour shifts. Before the injury I was working ten to twelve to thirteen hour days.
I had to look up the history of my knee problem in order to justify my downtime to workman’s comp and I was reminded that I first injured this leg back in June of last year. It’s gotten better and then worse again.
When I sit it feels fine. When I stand and walk it complains. The longer I stand and walk the more it complains. The x-rays have been inconclusive as to a cause. My orthopedist has requested an MRI. That will need to be approved by the insurance company. Hopefully they will decide they don’t need quite as much profit this quarter and they will give the okay.
Ten-Four Good Buddies
That’s it for this week. I’ll be working on other art and illustrations in additon to the mug designs. The mugs will be my regular feature. Other work, designed for other products and purposes, will get sprinkled in as I have time.
Take care of yourself. Be kind when you can. Punch a Nazi if you have the chance.
See you next week!
