mcclellangg.com

Update September 2026

Oct 02, 2026

It's been a long September

Overview

Good Morning!

Wow. This month has felt like a grind. Where do I even begin?

The first week had me spending a lot of time with a small person, which was interesting, and challenging in ways I did not expect. It wiped me out, leaving me feeling like a shell of a human being, until mid way into the following week.

The second week was the annual boy's beach trip. A long weekend in a house with 10 other boys, only 2 bathrooms and limited sleeping options (some being floor in the common room) is far from my ideal sensory setting.

The fun came at a cost that I may not be so eager to pay in the future.

The combination of those two weeks zapped me and left me with little time (or energy) to work on my own stuff. I was low battery Grayson for the majority of the month.

Neti Pot Season officially started Tuesday September 22nd.

Practicing: Drawing

Last month I mentioned making drawing the thing that I practice. This has held true for this September, and may continue through October. I'm about 80% done with the third lesson on Drawabox, and hope to submit it for review in a week or two.

I started taking a class, Sketchbook Bootcamp, at the VMFA. The instructor Jamie Douglas is an awesome person, and makes dope art. You should keep him out!

There is this idea of contrapposto when it comes to capturing life from figures. It originates from sculpture. People don't do things statically. Poses we take are rarely symmetrical. The spine curves, which informs other movements to bend forward one way and back in another (generally on opposing sides).

rapid iteration is great

Another practice I am adopting (that I learned from class) more is rapid iteration with observational (or any) drawing:

  1. Get a subject (life or photo, we used toys/figurines and those were awesome)
  2. Set a timer for 1 minute
  3. Draw it

When the timer is up ask yourself "What do I like?", "What do I not like?". Moving quickly forces you to put something on the page and get out of your head. I've found this to be a boon.

If I did that exercise 10 times each iteration would improve, and it feels a lot more fun and productive than sitting there and overthinking for a single still-life.

Another variation we did involved using a 3 color process:

- Drawing from Observation (3 colors process, light/medium/dark):
1. Light color--quick rough sketch
2. Medium color--nail down the outlines/details
3. Dark color--just the darkest shadow shapes

Examples: rubber ninja, spray bottle, mason jar of water

Here is an example Jamie did:

An example of using the 3 color process to draw a Ninja including the figurine

And here is one I did from a frog figurine:

An example of using the 3 color process to draw a frog

I really love the idea of using fun toys, or figurines as a reference to draw things we don't normally see in our day to day!

sketchbooks

Over the summer I also started keeping a digital sketchbook in Procreate. Most of it was just absolutely random doodling, and me messing around to figure things out. There was one thing I made, that I alluded to previously, that I was really excited about!

It's A MAZE! I could not decide which flip variation I liked better so I'll just add them both.

North East Start

A drawing of a maze created with Procreate

South West Start

A drawing of a maze created with Procreate

I'll add them to The Gallery as well!

I have 4 different sketchbooks, AND a journal right now haha. Once I finish this one for class maybe I'll narrow it down to 2 and the journal. Although one is sort of my Daybook, an idea I got from The Pragmatic Programmer, so I wonder if that should count toward the total . . .

Active Project: branding

Christ I am feeling so close to finishing a web project that I have been working on for longer than I care to admit.

It's been more of an exercise in branding and UX/UI than programming, and I've spent way too much time on it, but I want it to look as good as I can damn it. I've been shifting a lot of my free energy into this because I really just need to be done with it.

Once I finish that I might ... go all out on blog improvements? AFTER doing a retro though, I have learned A TON FROM THIS PROJECT, and it's given me a chance to get a lot of visual design experience that I've always wanted. For that I am grateful.

Running Again!

For a while it felt like it would never happen but I CAN RUN AGAIN!

LET'S FKN GO!

I'm taking it slow. Sticking to the Vita Course for now to build up my miles and confidence. Would love to get back to the trails though.

I probably need to make efforts for a more holistic exercise routine. Temporarily losing running made it painfully obvious how much I rely on it for my mental health.

As Wu Tang says, diversify your bonds. I'll have to think on that.

Outro

Anyways, like I said it's been a busy month. I managed to sneak in 15 hours of TV these last 2 weeks to finish the recommended AHS rewatches. Gramps and I are gearing up for the new season. The GOATS, Jessica Lange and Evan Peters ARE BACK BABY!

Although after watching the first 3 episodes last night I gotta say I'm a bit disappointed so far. Sadface.

Spooky season is upon us. Happy start to your HappyHallowThanksMas Days! Cherish them, they go by quick.

And if I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!

Content

Movies

  • The Truman Show (rewatch, A perfect movie?)
  • HP 1 (rewatch, it's that time of year)
  • The Substance
  • Beach Week ... too many
  • The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West VA
  • HP 2 (rewatch)

Books

TV

  • Lanterns
  • AHS S1 (1, 9, 12)
  • AHS S3 (1, 12, 13)
  • AHS S4 (3, 4)
  • AHS S5 (4)
  • AHS S7 (10)
  • AHS S8 (1, 6, 9, 10)

Music

Articles

Stats

  • Ran 4 miles (He's back baby!)