Drawings.

Tonight I was going to make myself some soup for dinner, then go to the archery range. I didn't do that. I settled in on the couch and turned on the telly, set it to Cartoon Network, and made myself very happy without leaving the house instead. My copy of Learn to Draw Japanese Comics got itself some use, as did my copy of a new favourite book, _The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression_, by Gary Faigin. It's a *wonderful* book. It's the first book I've yet seen that really goes through the elements of the smile and the types of smile and handles them all properly, in real detail.

True, I was using it to practice manga techniques with one of my characters - Xiang Fang, one of my Akashic's uncles - but even so. Variations on the theme of Smile are terrific fun. I almost did the theme of Scowl, too, but that didn't pan out just yet.

It really doesn't take much to make me happy. Leave me alone for a while with Cartoon Network's Friday lineup, a drawing pad, the right references, and a bunch of drawing tools, and I'll cheerfully burble away until the cows come home. If you want to see the results of the burbling, they're at http://www.megaloceros.net/pen.htm, along with a bunch of other stuff I've drawn. Lemme know what you think.

It's a good day.

So far, anyway. Class turned out to be decent, although it's building off Systems Analysis - a class I took last semester and had nightmares about. (Yes, I have a Saturday class - I'm going after a master's degree in MIS, and it's only scheduled on Saturdays this semester.) I got home and had a good lunch, and I did some other things. It's snowing. I'm warm. I've got a purple upper left arm from where I managed to string-slap myself *above* the arm guard during archery practice. I've got a lovely copy of Volume 1 (of 4) of Journey to the West, translated by Anthony Yu. I'm a happy camper.