I give my elementary art students about 7-10 minutes each class for sketch time. I decided to sketch while they were recently and did a fairly decent Star Wars thing. I need to work on my 'Obi-Wan' likeness, but I am happy with it considering I did it in about 20 minutes. I do not generally draw Star Wars stuff and do not know why. I guess this may be something that inspires a more intensive and hyper-detailed Star Wars illustration. Just thought I'd share this rare Star Wars related art.

I recently was able to display most of my collection in cases at the school where I teach. This is just a small taste and my personal favorite collection within a collection. I never have counted them. I am (alas) without any carded vintage, but have most manufactured Chewbacca action figures on card from POTF2 Orange/Red cards to the present. I have miscellaneous rare and odd collectibles too. Bootlegs, Pez, plush, Lego...

I will attempt to add my other collection pictures soon. Have been on hiatus from JD for almost 2 years. Good to be back and I am sure it will give the staff cause for a few words of disbelief to see my ugly mug back in the forums. A big hey to all you JD gods! You have kept the force stronger hear than I ever could have imagined. I am blown away and missed you all! Hope to be around from time to time and not such a phantom menace...

A Million Little Pieces is a book authored by James Frey. It is about 6 weeks he spent in alcohol/drug rehab and how he overcame his addictions without a 12 Step program. I believe he has 14 years of sobriety now.

The book is unbelievable!!! I is so graphic, brutally honest and inspiring. I did not want to put it down and I did not want to finish reading it or for it to end. He has a follow-up book called "My Friend Leonard" that is equally compelling and weel-written. I recommend both to any and everyone! For those that can't relate to addictions, it is an honest and real look into the mind of addiction. James life is really incredible and he was at the right place at the right time. I am coming up on 11 years of sobriety and this book has reminded me of the importance of the now and being sober. It made me feel less alone and understood.

He was on Oprah and my wife demanded I watch it. I was blown away and cannot say enough about James Frey and his amazing books and life.

I do not care who you are. If you enjoy reading and need a good book, go buy A Million Little Pieces right now!!!

I completed this a while ago. I think I spent over 90 hours on it. Much of that time was spent applying correction fluid and re-inking. I think the hands and the ball were re-inked 25+ times. The corrction fluid is quite thick down there. I was using Pro White to correct for a while, but I had to do 3 applications to get the ink covered. I tried Liquitex acrylic white and still had to do more than 1 coat. I finally played around with correction fluid pens and I now swear by the PaperMate Wite Out pens. The feathering on the face also was re-inked 10 or more times. I wanted it to look as good as possible and despite all the corrections, I learned a lot doing this page. It basically took me from a novice to a fairly confident and fluent inker. Everything (except the Zip-A-Tone) is brush and ink. No quill or pens. I used a ton of different inks trying to find the best opaque black and fiinally just started mixing my own. I pour about 2 bottles of Black Magic into a larger jar and let that sit out for about 24-32 hours and coagulate a bit. Then I added a cheaper bulk ink (Dick Blick) to extend it and got some really decent opaque black. I experimented with brushes and I totally swear by the Windsor and Newton Series 7 #2 Kolinski Sable  brushes. I really tried to give the Raphael Kolinski Sable #2 brushes a chance and just wasn't able to acchieve the same fine point and control. I also experimented a lot with Zip-A-Tone. I found this huge cache of it while cleaning out my grandparents basement. A buddy of my uncle's was a graphic artist in the 70's and left it behind (lucky me). Tried to layer it in areas and just played around with different textures and effects. I have some of the newer Letraset tone sheets, but I had problems with the tack being too strong and it was pulling up my paper when I peeled the excess off. It is not as easy as it would seem to use an x-Acto blade to get that stuff to fill the space perfectly. It was all done on a Strathmore 500 cold press sheet. This is such good stuff. I have tried the hot press and the drying time is slow and it hard to manage. This paper soaks it in without bleeding and held up really well to all the crap I put it through.

I am pleased with it considering it was a major chore and huge learning process. I could never make it in the mainstream industry as an inker. I am too concerned with perfection and it being as close to what I imagine it should be as possible.  Getting those fingers to stand out from the glow of the ball and the castle within it was a definite acchievement. There were times I wanted to destroy it and other times I was so into it and everything flowed and felt right. Whether it's good or not in the eyes of others isn't as important to me as just seeing it through and finishing it. I think I started 15 pages and just destroyed them with my ineptness. Finally I sat bythis guy in a comic class that was an aspiring inker and he asked me why I had done so many and gave up. He just looked at me and help up a jar of Pro-Wite and said, "That's what this stuff is for..." I just had this idea that it had to be perfect from start to finish. Right after that I went to a comic art exhibition and every inked page they in the show had correction fluid on it somewhere. So those words rang true and seeing that Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner and R. Crumb all used it profusely broke me through the mental barrier of needing to be perfect from beginning to end. I took it to an extreme, but realized that perfection comes from making mistakes and correcting them...

The scan is a bit rough. I'll work on perfecting it and post a better one when I can.

I thought if anyone should start this thread, it should be me, the JD.com checklist creator. I pride myself on knowing as much as possible about variations and errors and I assume we will see our fair share of them from the SWIII figure waves.

So, while I have nothing at this time to report, I look forward to finding out what there may soon be in this department. So, if you find something interesting that relates, please share it with our fellow collectors of obscurity in this thread. If you suspect something, have any questions or want more details about specific production malfunctions and corrections this is the place to post. I assume there will be no missing pipe accessory and lets hope the clone trooper dot and visor is revisted in the Wookiee Warriors...

Best of luck and good hunting to all!

Well, I knew it would be, but she's here finally. Sydney arrived at 12:29 pm on July 3rd and all is well with her and my wife. She is way too quiet (just an observation, not a complaint) and very amazing! My first came out screaming and did not stop for 3 months, so it's a bit of a change...

We are home and I just awoke from a 17 hour nap after 2 sleepless nights at the hospital. I'm a happy father and enjoying the moment.

This is from a model I guess, but I found it in an antique shop the other day pressed between several old books and magazines. The guy gave it to me for $2, so I couldn't turn it down. The copywrite date is 1977 and I thought I'd share it in the spirit of days past. I never got into models, but I think the instructions are cool. I actually think it would be cool to start a collection of instructions and paperwork that came with vehicles and playsets. Anyone collect anything like that? If you do, or you have some, I'd love to see it. It almost makes me cry to see them and remember placing the decals on the Sand Speeder or Millinium Falcon...