This is green.

This is my side project I've been working on. It will be a comic strip for next year that will be featured on Blogspot as a daily comic with its own blog name and site. Stay tuned for more details, pictures, and possible character designs on Endless Green Tea.

My blogspot link has changed, it goes by my blog's title Endless Green Tea, which it will still represent creativity, fun, inspiration and originality for all and myself. Its a tea party of creative flavor! I decided to make the change, because when I was coined the name Urban-Ronin by my friend Nick. It was a metaphor for who I was, but not what I would become. I have since reasoned with my life and taken change for a different course. Which is why I firmly made the change to now dedicate this blog section to my interest, inspirations, life, and entertainments. Here you will receive updates on new art projects from me and others' gallery shows, and various art media related information. I want to promote friends and colleagues also with their news and links to booster networking and expand our knowledge of creativity. Come have a taste, I assure you. The green is good.

Did I mention I was holding a chicken?

Last week I went to Sarah's Farm in Jasper, Georgia. I had a great time despite the rain and cold windy day. I was a friendly admirer as I made new farm animal friends. Dolly and Molly the two horses ate from my hands, they were more benign than Gizmo, a bashful black goat I tried to entice into accepting feed from my hands. Gizmo was reluctant to accept and responded with nays. The chickens weren't friendly at first either. What was wrong with these farm animals? I waited for Jessica to coerces the chickens into a docile manner before I held them. Once, they were in my grasp they remained calm. Soon we were getting hit by droplets of rain and had to leave. It was fun.

Amy Goes Print

Amy goes print! I'm exciting she's now in hardcover. Purchase your copies at www.Blurb.com immediately, before we pull it off the site. We will be making minor quick adjustments for the official publication for the next print. We are glad to present Amy in first print! Julie the author and I have edited the pages and sent them to Blurb for print in softcover and hardcover. I will admit offhand the first edition is what we called "The Green Copies". A small incidental fallacy we will proudly admit as a limited edition to our esteeming anticipatory fandom. So if you happen to purchase one of these limited green copies we have published, it's assured you will have a valuable book in your hands, once the proceeds of our book we have imagined springs to life. I'm very proud of this project! This was a wonderful idea to create in those two months and watch sprite from the depths, which it did, a two-print page with an outline for Amy's quest was all it had begun. I had a few doubts in the beginning, but after some sleepless nights with caffeinated teas I was hopeful for a completion. So order one! We will gladly sign it for you. In the meantime, we will have a colorful book ready and published that will be available to the public. We are in consideration in processing publications with an independent or corporate publisher. I'll keep you advised on the updates.

Surfs up! It's my birthday.

It's my birthday today! I'm excited besides the fact it's looks gloomy and dreary looking outside, I'm just glad I finished my work in time for a weekend holiday for my 26th birthday.
I finished the inks for the children book I'm illustrating, Amy Goes Surfing written by Julie Labossiere. The link will lead you to a sneak peak of all the pages I illustrated. The book will be published and sold on either of these sites Lulu or blurb.com. I will post you a link when it is online.
Now that the pencils and inks are completed the next portion of the work is to add color. But first, I need to take a break and marinate in a hot tub of my own primordial goo, as I will watch my fingers wrinkle up into tiny flesh dunes.

The Green Box

It's Sunday, Sept 27, I'm holding a green box on my lap. It's for Nathan's birthday. I was prepared to take pictures I thought. I renewed the batteries to my camera.

It was a two hours lapse riding to Rome, Ga in the rain. The weather cleared nicely before reaching the greeting sign that said Welcome to Rome. I was tickled by Rome's landmark, it was Roman columns made from red bricks. I studied roman architecture to know the columns were Doric.

Nathan's parents Mr. and Mrs. Garner were very friendly and hospitable. They commissioned me to make a pair of shoe's designed for their son's birthday present. Immediately, Nathan came running up to me with his younger brother when I arrived. We all watched as Nathan sat the green box on the living room floor. We waited till Mrs. Garner had her camera. Then, Nathan pulled the lid off the box. I was exhaling the tension within my muscles when he reached inside and lifted a pair of red shoes out of the box. It was like I had forgotten my keys in the house, but only to find I had a spare in my wallet. I was relieved his shoes were still inside the box, as if some magician would try to trick me in a moment of suspense. I saw excitement in his eyes, and I heard awes from everyone in the living room. It was heartwarming to see him wear them. A day of satisfaction for Urban Ronin.

Remember how I mentioned I was prepared to take pictures? When I arrived back to my hideout, I tried posting the pictures I took at the Garner's house. Unfortunately, it wasn't the batteries this time, I forgot to save them on my memory card. How bad is that? Thanks to Mrs. Garner taking photos, she was nice to send me hers instead.

Young Athletes On Ice

Golden Eyes, May 09 Ink and markers

Last weekend, was the Anime Weekend Atlanta convention with my friends' Laura and her husband Zach on Saturday. Laura has been mentioning the convention for weeks; it’s one of the biggest anime conventions in Atlanta she says. It was already planned in her agenda that we were going to see the largest Yaoi forum. If you haven’t heard Yaoi is an acronym for Young Athletes On Ice. What does that have to do with Anime? Apparently, Laura has been raving about her manga interest, and she asked me benignly if I would sit in the forum with her, forewarning me there would be crazy fans. Zach and I had no idea what we were up against.

Our night at the convention ended with a big surprise. What’s so popular about Yaoi? Laura, Zach, and I stood in a tremendous line as we waited for the doors to open into the Yaoi forum. There stood a girl not far in a colorful maid costume with a paddle in her left hand that had embedded “I love Yaoi.” I was becoming skeptical why there would be a paddle involved with Young Athletes on Ice? A lady with a walkie-talkie addressing head counts for door tickets came up to me and asked if I had any understanding what line I was in. I responded quizzically, “I think I‘m sure? I know what this line leads to.”

“Good, you’re in the right line.” She walks off.

I turned to Laura with a questionable look of, did that just happen? Laura’s noncommittal gesture of the conversation just seconds ago says not a word. I sensed something flatulent, like a faint stench of comprised mischief looming in the air, especially around Laura.
The line started to vanish behind the double doors of two women patrolling the entrance, advising everyone to show their identification cards before entering beyond. Why did we need to have identification cards? Laura, Zach, and I waited at least thirty minutes and more before we could enter and I didn’t see anything to indicate we needed to have our Identifications. There were three groups of chairs inside: left, middle, and right. We sat in the left row of chairs; I sat on the outside of the row, next to the middle group. On the right corner end of the room was a large projection screen. I began to notice more people with engraved paddles that read I love Yaoi. Some of them were dressed in costumes. One in particular, was a pale Caucasian male dressed in all black leather gloves, shorts, a vest, and an English patrol hat. He went to the front of the row of chairs making an outlandish display of vulgar dance. Women and men cheered and screamed for the guy in leather as he paraded around the middle row of seats in his ridiculous outfit, clapping and spanking himself with the paddle that read, “I love Yaoi.” Then he stops in front again. He makes a gesture to the audience for one of the men or women to spank him the first time, the one whose lucky to break the paddle on the first try wins a prize he says. Unfortunately, the force of flesh against leather and wood smacking together didn’t produce enough force for the young male to break the paddle on the leather guys’ ass. I looked over to Laura and she’s grinning from cheek to cheek. “What has she got me into?”

Afterwards, a normal female introduces herself as she comes up to center and announces the Yaoi event. She gives a cheerful speech, and addresses audience to the projection screen to watch a fifteen-minute segment of Yaoi presentation. I won’t explain what I saw on the projection screen, but it was definitely not for the innocent eyes.

Yaoi is a popular Japanese term for female oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homo-romantic male relationships. The acronym for Yaoi is… there is no such thing as Young Athletes On Ice! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Where was I on January 2009

Arms vs Murado, Robert Carr 08'

Today I discovered a gruesome truth to my best friend's whereabouts. I am shocked of what I am to discover. Had I not posted my story before (read Beachsand ), I may not have gotten the truth. Luckily, with the push of a button to the web, we have a vast and ready collection of information. I forewarn, the news is old, but I will admit my very own ignorance of the webs resources and networks. I will describe myself briefly, for this is dedicated to a best friend of mine. I am a pleasure seeker. Such materials such as the internet does little for me to stay tuned on one particular subject. For this its more of a deterrent. If I had of taken a serious search to find someone I possibly would have. In this case, I found my answer in the most unfortunate manner. In this event I have discovered my own discrepancy. Today, I have found, I had lost.
Untitled, Robert Carr 08'

Robert Glenn Carr, A friend, an adversary, a contestant, and a challenger to a cause and an ambassador to reason. He is some one whom I admire. He is a remarkable artist with talents beyond his comprehension and he carried it with pride and humbleness. He is a virtue to my friendship and to those who took the time to understand him. I remember in High School when we walked the halls of Douglas Anderson art school. There in our presence we had leadership, we had seats of tribunal vestige, we would sit in the morning cafeteria before class an debate and discuss art and comics. We were the hierarchy of our class. Rob' which we called him by nickname was a tall, resourceful, intuitive person. It was naturally built in him to look down on others because of his height, but he was the total opposite of the nature. I can remember a time, he would look down on my artworks and look sternly through his electric-tapped glasses. They had popped in the center sometime so he adjusted them with electric tape. One would wait for his reply as does a visual analyzes of your work. He would make a monotone groan of displeasure or satisfaction. "Hmm..." He moaned. The taunt nerves of his remark made you small. He was like a scientist, who scrutinized every possibility. To me the moan meant failure. Only one could satisfy his competitiveness with wordless action, and he would show gratitude in his posture, that became bold and upright, not like the haughty shoulders and soft voice everyone knew him as. Rob was a serious judge and he spoke with reason. This I do ponder why now this reasonable person I remember has come to such a violent end. Karma at Old Palas! Robert Carr 08

On my discovery today, I was on facebook making some information changes to my profile. I was amazed that I started to get thumbs up from old friends. When one of them noticed the Rob I was blogging earlier was the friend I had not found. I told the acquaintance, Rob's been missing for a year and more now. Their reply was shocking news. I had just recently said how Rob and I haven't seen each other for a year. I was unprepared for a shocking discovery.
I couldn't believe it. I had to find out. This is the find mentioned by Channel 4 news:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police have charged Robert Carr in the New Year's morning slaying of a 23-year-old man at a Southside apartment complex.Jeffery Brooks was shot several times about 1 a.m. on Jan. 1 at the Silver Springs apartment complex on St. Johns Bluff Road.Police said Carr and Brooks were giving each other tattoos when an argument broke out and Carr shot Brooks, then stole Brooks' money and expensive tattoo equipment.Police said they found Brooks lying on the floor of the apartment and his 7-month-old child was also in the unit. Brooks was transported to Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, where he died.Carr, 25, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder and armed robbery. He is being held without bond at the Duval County jail.

I can't believe my eyes. Robert is my best friend. I am still searching for words to describe. I can only say for what ever cause it had to be, it was with reason, because the friend I know is no beast to our society, no lesser man. He is a talented artist, and he took up a profession which he could excel without social reprimand. If he was justified and accused for the crime which he had committed, I believe deeply, and with all sincerity, it was a cry of a struggling artist who had lost all hope in humanity.

I love you Robert Carr

Beachsand wedgy in Underpants with a Marlboro hold up

This was a fun piece, it took me about 8 to 9 hours to complete. I remember when I initially started sketching her. My friend Rob was sitting next to me, and he starts ranting about Paris Hilton. Well, I'm not knocking her game. I think Hilton's really decent looking. I love her glamour, it's hot! Since, we didn't have anything better to talk about, we would occasionally say odd things and mention random events in our lives. Rob and I grew up mostly from mid to highschool. We separated our bond once I committed to studies for college and moved. We were still best friends and have been for four years after. One day I received a call from Rob, he sounded really heartbroken. I was at the time too, we missed working long hours together, creating ideas and stories. We needed a bro'mance! A week later I left my airbrush gig in the mall to visit him in Atlanta where we stayed in this shabby apartment with no furniture. We didn't have beds either, and we slept on wooden floor. It was hard times, but this piece brought back memories. We were messing around with painter for the first time and I was dreaming up old memories of Florida and I began sketching this girl. I remind you Rob was talking about Hilton. I guess it stuck with me and I started drawing this thin woman.
I remember the cigarettes incident, which I called this piece Marlboro girl. For whatever the idea came up, it served as a visual date to my first cigarette experience with Rob. It was a Marlboro light and I was stressing out about jobs and how we were broke, and going to earn more money to furnish the place. I took a good drag from it and tossed it out my broken driver side window.
After I had finished the sketch and started to ink her, Rob comes over to me and says that she looks hot. I decided to test him on his accusations from his earlier opinions of Hilton. Had I not told him beforehand she was Hilton, I wondered what he would had said. I finished painting, he looks over incredulously, "She ain't that hot."