Shortly after the death of my uncle in February, my family went through a string of other deaths that we had to cope with.

March saw the death of my grandmother, "Cuca" Barajas. I was unable to attend the funeral because i currently dont own a valid passport and i get heckled enough WITH one when i come back from Mexico. Apparently my long hair, punk rock attire and totally evil looking 92 Ford Explorer suggest that I'm a f*cking member of Al Quida or something... jackasses....

After that we lost a great aunt, a close family friend lost both his eldest brother and his father. To cap all this off, the string of deaths ended with the death of the father in law of the uncle that passed away. So, my aunt lost both her husband and her father within 3 months of each other.

This time around the deaths didnt affect me as strongly as my uncles death ( with the exception of my grandmother) but i did have to be an emotional pillar for the family... never an easy freaking task, and not one I want to do again for a while.

My surviving grandmother, Aurora, went through a SEVERE depression after losing one of her children, and we were all getting worried that she would be leaving us soon too. At least thats passed for the moment.

Nonetheless, this string of sorrow had a pretty crippling effect on my artwork, as i had practically stopped drawing for over a month. My sincerest apologies to everyone with a request or commission pending (especially those of you who have been waiting for over a year for your pics!) I am slowly getting back into the groove, and everyone should expect their requests soon. Hopefully within a month, BUT im not making any promises seeing how easily i can get distracted by family emergencies, Pokemon games, work and sleep.
Still, im back for the moment, and its time to get back to work...
LETS ROCK!!!!

Peace y'all
Migg Verbasan

Ok, really quick, i've had some crap happen lately that kept me away from the drawing table, but that is wrapped up and dealt with... i'll return to drawing soon, my apologies to all who made requests or have pending commisions! I'll be back on the clock so to speak this week.
For any who just want to know when their drawings will be finished, stay tuned for the next journal.
For any one interested in knowing what happened, read on:

So a few weeks ago, one of my uncles goes to the hospital. According to the doctors, he had a stroke, and was immediately medicated (probably more than need be, but im not the doctor am I...). After a week his condition was stable, and after 2 weeks, it was dire. Things looked REALLY bad, and we doubted he'd live through the night. He then started reacting the voice of his son. This gave my family a huge boost in morale, but unfortunately he passed away on Thursday, February 21st.

The funeral was this passed Friday, and it was a very difficult ordeal. Not only was fairly young (49 years old), he was also one of the healthiest members of our family, and the least stressed out of the family, so this caught us VERY off guard. Plus, my grandparents are still alive, so they were probably the heaviest hit by the situation, I'll never forget the sound of my grandmother crying out for her son...

We released 5 doves at his funeral. The first was dedicated from my Grandfather, the second from my grandmother. The third from his brothers and sisters, and the fourth from his wife and sons. The last one was dedicated from all of there in attendance. That dove flew back, and rested on one of the floral wreaths that were placed near the grave. It stayed there the entire duration of the service, which brought an extra tear to our eyes in amazement, and wonder.

This particular uncle was very dear to me for. Not only was he one of the inspirations i had growing up for wanting to be a musician, but he was directly responsible for me taking up drawing.

When i was about 3 or 4 years old, my dad used to take me along with him to the construcion sites where he worked, due to lack of babysitters, family members in the states and the fact that children were prohibitted at my mothers workplace. My father and my uncle worked together in construction. Before getting to work, my uncle would always doodle something on one of the pieces of drywall they would be using, usually a woody woodpecker drawing. I remember watching him and thinking how cool that was. I asked him to teach me how he did that, and he showed me how to draw a Woody Woodpecker... and i took that lesson and ran with it.

This journal is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Victor Manuel Verdugo. We'll Miss You.

March 3rd, 1958-February 21st, 2008

WOW... ok, first off, OBVIOUSLY the whole November thing didnt pan out as well as we had hoped! Mainly due to the fact that both Maize droid and I work in places that get incredibly during the month of November... and as such both of us fell behind almost instantly and never managed to catch up. I did manage to get 16 drawings done, some were never posted because i wanted to finish coloring them before soing so... so expect one here and there through out the year, lol.

Due to the whole busy factor, we decided to change the challenge month to April, so expect to see us try again and fail miserably!!

And now onto other items....

The holidays were pretty good, i had a great Christmas, a fun New Years, and a great birthday, nothing like becoming a year older to get your hopes up, lol.

And now the bad news...
While i'll honor everything that came in before now, i will no longer be accepting requests. Sorry, but the last year showed me i really can't dish art out as fast as i'd like, plus I, kinda burned on em at the moment. Maybe later i'll accept them again, maybe i'll do something like a trivia question and give requests to whoever answers it but for the time being im done with em!

I will be open for commissions in February once I'm done with all the last requests i took in.

Peace out y'all, hope you had a great Holiday Season and thanks for all the comment, views, and faves!!! You all ROCK!!!

Week 1 (and 2) has come and gone, but again, we are a LOT more merciful on ourselves this time around...In the event that we miss a drawing or ten, ALL final drawings must be posted by the first Sunday in December...thus giving us a little extra time... I have finished a few drawings, but i dont want to post until they are colored as well ( as sort of a extra challenge to myself)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!!

For the entire month of November, 2007, 1 new, finished drawing must be posted by each participant per day. No old drawings may be posted. A new, Finished drawing will be defined as a rough sketch with a solid pencil or ink outline, backgrounds are accepted, but not mandatory for this competition. In order to aid the struggling participants (specially after the dismal failure last year….) we have adopted a new rule that is simple, all drawings for the week MUST be posted by the Sunday ending that particular week. This year, drawings that are late are acceptable, BUT all drawings MUST be posted by the first Sunday in December!


Every Week a Theme will be chosen with 6 categories, only one character from each category may be drawn.

Weekly Quotas:

1. Smiley Face Drawings: Each participant is allowed 1 "Smiley Face" drawing per week.
A Smiley face drawing is defined as a simplistic, raw or unfinished drawing. Literally,
a smiley face can be drawn once per week to help if the participant is overwhelmed
and can not finish a drawing.

2. Colored Drawings: Each week, one finished drawing must be colored and posted.
A "smiley face" drawing can be colored and posted, but it can not count as the
finished colored drawing for the week.

3. Artist's Choice: A Different theme will be chosen for each week in the month, and each
week one specific character will be chosen by both participants for the other to draw.
This "Artists Choice" can not be drawn as the weekly smiley face, BUT can be colored for the weekly colored drawing.

Week Two's Theme:
ADULT SWIM!
Venture Bros.
Harvey Birdman
Metalocalypse
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Space Ghost/The Brak Show
Super Milk Chan

Artist Pick:
Murphy from Sealab 2021
Granddad from the Boondocks

and on a final note.... WORK SUCKS!!! Enjoy yer youth childrens, once its gone... there's this LOOOONNNGGG down side, lol!!!

Peace y'all!
Migg

And suddenly with no freaking warning, November is upon us again… so once more its time for the ungodly NOVEMBER CHALLENGE!!!!!

For those new to this event, basically it is a challenge wherein all participants must post a drawing a day for the entire month…. For some its nothing major, for people like me…its just ruthless!!!!


TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!!

For the entire month of November, 2007, 1 new, finished drawing must be posted by each participant per day. No old drawings may be posted. A new, Finished drawing will be defined as a rough sketch with a solid pencil or ink outline, backgrounds are accepted, but not mandatory for this competition. In order to aid the struggling participants (specially after the dismal failure last year….) we have adopted a new rule that is simple, all drawings for the week MUST be posted by the Sunday ending that particular week.


Every Week a Theme will be chosen with 6 categories, only one character from each category may be drawn.

Weekly Quotas:

1. Smiley Face Drawings: Each participant is allowed 1 "Smiley Face" drawing per week.
A Smiley face drawing is defined as a simplistic, raw or unfinished drawing. Literally,
a smiley face can be drawn once per week to help if the participant is overwhelmed
and can not finish a drawing.

2. Colored Drawings: Each week, one finished drawing must be colored and posted.
A "smiley face" drawing can be colored and posted, but it can not count as the
finished colored drawing for the week.

3. Artist's Choice: A Different theme will be chosen for each week in the month, and each
week one specific character will be chosen by both participants for the other to draw.
This "Artists Choice" can not be drawn as the weekly smiley face, BUT can be colored for the weekly colored drawing.

WEEK ONE THEME:
American Cartoons (Childrens): 6 American (childrens) Cartoons have been selected for this week, they are in no particular order: Mighty Max, Kim Possible, Johnny Test, Shaolin Shodown, Avatar, and The Powerpuff Girls. One Character from each show must be drawn by the participants.

Artist Pick:
Dexter from Dexter’s Lab
Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot

Any one else interested in joining us can draw any character from the show Dave the Barbarian.

Participants:

Anyone else interested in joining, send me a note and I’ll add you to the list!

THAT ASIDE!!!!!
Obviously commissions and requests are on hold for the minute, BUT I do plan on working on them during this little month long challenge. DONT WORRY!!! I havent forgotten anyone!

Wish us luck, and pray we don’t completely F*## UP LIKE WE DID LAST YEAR!!!!!


PEACE Y’ALL!!!

Migg Verbasan