Whoops!

Totally forgot to post the Big Beautiful Wonder Woman-a-month for March! I did post it on my Deviant Art page but not here. Sheesh.



This is something I've wanted to do for a while. The whole concept of WW's invisible jet as a bunch of white lines or, in the case of Darwyn Cooke, absolutely nothing really bugged me.

If it were totally invisible how could she actually find the dang thing on the tarmac let alone control the engines with the invisible levers or even see her altitude on the invisible flight instruments.

I figured that the SKIN of the invisible jet could be invisible and ended up with this image of BBWW getting ready for a flight.

Her costume was fun to design as it's a Wonder Woman-ed version of 1950's pilot gear The jet that you only see parts of is a bit of an inside aviation joke. It's an invisible T-33 Shooting Star, a 1950's jet that had a notoriously small cockpit that even average sized men had trouble getting into and out of, let alone BBWW. Of course, it had to be a two-seater so she could cart Maj. Trevor around.

The main image is hand inked and digitally colored while the background is totally vectored. The only thing I couldn't work out is how the shadows of the invisible jet parts would work so I copped out and didn't do them.

In other news, I've started full-time at Earl's Bikes. It was my favorite store before applied there and now that I work there and know the people better, it's easily the best bike store I know. I'm in the service department mostly with a little bit of time on the floor. I worked the floor last summer there part time and was asked by the owner to come back full time. Very little hesitation with 'yes'.

Cheers!

listening to while posting: nothing. I've shut everything down and then realized I needed to post.

New year, new stuff

Firstly, Glitter Dragons!

For better or for worse, I've started another blog dedicated to this strange exercise in cute. I'm hoping to get a bunch of artists, but we'll see!

Give in to the Glitter!

Secondly, I've been occasionally posting on the Big Beautiful Wonder Woman blog. However Jamal has so much on his plate that it is often not on his radar. I'd promised a BBWW a month so, as it's now the new year, I'll start here.

Here's the BBWW for January in all her Amazonian glory!



Hand inked; digitally colored. I'm inordinately proud of this one. Click to make her bigger; I can guarantee an increase in beauty.

Cheers!

Listening to while posting: Kiss Kiss by Perov Stelar (It's not playing but, I can't get it out of my head)

Call to Artists (of sorts)

Okay. As you may know, I work at an independent bookstore. Yesterday, I was working with a female colleague when a mom and nine-year-old (ish) daughter walked nearby. I overheard a short exchange and recounted it to her.

Me: that little girl was hilarious. She told her mom she wanted a puppy calendar but then said that she really wanted a rock star calendar. So, now I have to invent the perfect little-girl calendar with puppy rock stars!
Colleague: And glitter! Have to have glitter!
Me: And dragons!
Colleague: Glitter dragons!
Me: That's it! A calendar of a puppy rock stars in a band called "Glitter Dragons"!

So, this is you mission, should you choose to accept it: A picture (or more) of puppy rock stars in a band called Glitter Dragons. I'll be doing this to and posting my result(s). If you would like to participate, there's no money nor likely even fame involved. Just fun. Standard PG-13 no scat/vore/gore rules apply. Send your pics to revansATobscurius.org. Deadline for submissions is Jan 31, 2011 (unless a bunch of folks want to do it and demand a slightly longer deadline)

I'm personally doing it because it's outside of my comfort zone. I don't do cute very well and I've never actually drawn a puppy.

Listening to while posting: "Cruel Sea Captain" by Bryan Ferry from the compilation "Rogue's Gallery"

24HCD 2011

Whew.

Another year, another 24-Hour Comics Day. A shout out to our sponsors firstly Sweet Clover Market for the BIG box of assorted snacks; Phoenix Books for the two urns of coffee and a dozen cookies; Rocky's Pizza in Williston for, what else? Pizza. And of course Artists' Mediums for the venue and hard work.

This one was harder than normal because I was not only participating in the 24HCD, not only helping organize it, but also participating in the Open Studio Weekend on Saturday from 6m - 8pm; right during 24HCD. So, I spent the week before getting stuff from sponsors for 24HCD and getting some artwork ready to hang at Phoenix Books.

The setup of both events went smoothly, the Open Studio the night before. I arrived at the event, set up the coffee and I fell into my normal 24HCD routine: I started writing the story first. I love coming in cold, it's part of the fun. All I had in my head since the drive in were the words "bi-plane" and "sphinx". So, with those words I carved out a rough story. Then, I started thumbnailing and writing at the same time. This is sort of a scaled down version of how some folks do 24HCD; they start at the beginning and just write until all pages are filled. It's the same way except there is some revising and I try to have at least an idea of the ending before I get too deep.

Writing and thumbnailing took two hours. It would have taken less except that I mis-numbered my thumbnails early on (I had two #3s) and had to add some pages.

Then, I started drawing. I used a Pentel brush pen (hacked with Higgins Black Magic replacing the awful stock ink) because I didn't want to get bogged down in the details as I would with a Pigma Micron. I did use Microns for the panel lines, lettering and for the eyes .

There were more interruptions this year with friends coming in to talk, great artist banter and heated discussions, so I didn't even get to page five before I had to go to the Open Studio bit. I wasn't sure what to do there as I'm usually on the other side of the art scene. However, two friends were there and they bought me some good beer and we had an impromptu tasting. What was nice is a local middle school librarian asked for my help in an upcoming project where kids will be either writing a play or a graphic novel.

Then back to Artists' Mediums to try to finish my comic. The beer-bringing friends showed up at 24HCD (sans beer) and chatted for a long time. I kept working until 5am then took a nap for an hour. I got to finishing the pencils and then inking the panel lines and letters of page 17 when I just had to stop. I helped clean up and we were out the door by 9am. I was good to go, tired-wise, until I was within a few hundred meters from our house, when I nodded off for an instant and drifted into the oncoming lane. I snapped awake before I went off the other side and, since it was a 30mph zone on a backroad in Vermont on a Sunday morning, there was nobody coming.

Sweet Enemy and I crashed for a bit; she on the couch with Fat Grey Cat and me on our bed. We didn't plan to sleep more than an hour but while I set the alarm I forgot to turn it on. I drifted awake three hours later and felt good to go.

Here's this year's story. There are some issues I have with it. Some are story elements I would have done differently if I'd had the time to revise the script; stupid ideas I'd purge; some are words I put in by mistake ("ridden" for "riddled"); and POVs that I wish I'd done differently.

It's got a lot of aviation in it but it's "television" aviation. That means there are some really stupid things involving planes and history here. I'm a former aviator, scale modeler, war history buff and usually a stickler, but I'm asking you as all of these things to please forgive the tv-style silliness...

But, here it is with all its flaws and incomplete-ness.

I'll probably finish it in the next week. I'll refrain from editing m thumbnails and try do each page as quickly as if it were at the event to try to maintain a continuity of style.

































So, what did you think? Should I continue? Should I refine it into a tighter story with tighter art or let it lie?

Listening to while posting: "24" by Jem. I bought Jem's "Finally Woken" for Sweet Enemy for her birthday and I like it more than she does now.

It's coming!

It's that time of year again! Time to unveil the poster for this year's 24-Hour Comics Day at Artists' Mediums (yes, they know it should be 'media'). Actually this poster is a little late as I've been going through an artistic funk that was recently broken by the Huntress. What you can't see in the JPEG is that the comics panels are halftoned for that comic book feel and to contrast with the flat colored type.

What do you think? Milestones: first superhero in four years, first manga catgirl ever.



If you're in town, stop by! I'll pour you a cup of joe and you can join the fun!

listening to while posting. Some sort of techno song by Parov Stelar.

Good gravy!

It's been a weird couple of months. I got a job at my local bike shop and, while it's fun and the people are great, it's a lot of... action. I won't say stress, but my days are full with little time to eat and a big feeling of responsibility to my co-workers and the customers; we're so hands-on that people often wonder if we're on commission (we're not).

I've been riding to work when it's good weather (a 30 mi round trip unless Sweet Enemy picks me up after work). This feels pretty nice. I don't leave until after the morning rush so most of the roads are pretty empty. Almost feels like a ride for fun.

With all that going on plus some financial scares, not much art has been made.

This is not a good thing

I've planned on opening commissions for Page One-Hundred works but I wanted to get a small body together first. My slacking has not helped. I also need to get a poster for this year's 24-Hour Comics Day done. So, I made myself some coffee this morning, sat down and started drawing.

The Page One-Hundred is now fully in-progress and, after doing some studies of some Comfrey flowers, I thought I'd do a quicky. I took my goth pin-up thing and do something new with it. It's not sexy, but it's not bad. I think the wolf-girls are better in this new one.

Best of all, it's actually a drawing



Also, I went sailing on Lake Champlain for the first time ever today. Thanks to my Step-Mother-in-Law for being a great skipper!

So, until next time!

Listening to while posting: Secret Agent Radio on Soma FM

small update

I just finished the pencils for the "Norther Borders" Page One-Hundred Project piece; I'll be inking tomorrow. However, I needed something to do, so I colored up a Big Beautiful Wonder Woman in Photoshop. I was reading Darwyn Cooke's DC: New Frontiers and thought I'd grab my brush pen and try to emulate Mr. Cooke.



Real Life 1

It was about sixty this afternoon, so I threw a leg over my Kona Jake and hit the road. I only did about eight miles in a half-hour, but it was the first ride of the year. I climbed two big hills (including the unavoidable one that our house is on) and didn't dab or even ralph. Sort of expected to ralph. I've always referred to the first rides of the season as "Ralph Rides". I guess all of the working out this winter slowed the decline much more than usual. Cool.

Real Life 2

Tomorrow evening Sweet Enemy and I are sharing dinner and porto with a good friend (and fantastic printmaker) and his wife. Not sure why I'm telling you this except to promote him.

Listening to while posting: "Head Honcho" by Devotchka

Spring colds and books.

Well, I missed a week of looking for work, drawing, making model airplanes and anything else fun as I was down with a cold from the 17th to the 22nd. Sheesh! I only get sick twice a year, but when I get sick, I get SICK!

Book

I have been doing some work on something that might lead to something else. Like money. I really enjoy making Page One-Hundred Comics. I got the wild hair to think about offering commissions of a people's favorite books. So, in that spirit, I've been working on a fully inked and hand-lettered suitable-for-framing page as a test. I chose my absolute favorite book: Northern Borders by Howard Frank Moser. I will recommend it to anyone who likes a good novel. It will be like little, if not nothing, you've ever read.

How's it going. Well...so-so. Here's first test (click for extra-big version):



The layout itself took about two weeks of sketching. I had to take many liberties with the text because a lot happens, but there's a big moment that had to be shown. But, I'm pretty happy with it as an adaptation goes. The explosion turned out, if I may say so, awesome. A lot of failed attempts went into it and it worked, considering I've never drawn an explosion that occurred in water before. The lettering is good, but I sort of cheated with the sound effects: I typeset them in Illustrator, printed them out and traced them.

What didn't work was the figures. Even discounting the misshapen head of the grandfather, they figures are... unsure. My linework is wishy-washy and tentative. I think it might be my lack of confidence with my dip pen. I'm going to re-work the whole thing this weekend.

Another Book

In March, Sweet Enemy snagged a big audiobook cassette set of "Tojours Provence" by Peter Mayle. It was the second book of (probably) true memoirs of an Englishman who decided to escape the city life and move to rural France. His exploits of language, customs, odd neighbors and finally coming to completely adopt his new hometown's rhythms and lifestyle is funny, sweet and satisfying. For comparison, think David Sedaris if he actually loved life mixed with Bill Bryson if he was 90% less insufferable.

We then snagged the other Provence books and are now in love with the place. With the exception of the food (which Mr. Mayle writes about with infuriatingly loving, mouth-watering detail), Provence is a bit like Vermont which is, I suppose, why I fell in love with it. SE and I would like to visit, but our money, time and French language skills are lacking. If we go, I'm going to hit up my Québécois/American friend Ghislain for some helpful phrases like:

1) I have no idea what you're saying. Do you speak English?
2) I know very little French and that I do know is abysmal.
3) Lunch, please? Tasty and not expensive? What would you recommend?

So, that's it. I have been working on some Big Beautiful Wonder Woman drawings, but I put them on hold to work on the Northern Borders comic.

Listening to while posting: "Gender Bombs" by the Stills

Sorry I'm late

It was a very full four-day weekend last weekend, so this will be a long post.

Sweet Enemy headed to Massachusetts to visit my family and do some stuff.

On Saturday we stopped off in Northampton. A strange little town that appears to be equal parts annoying rich people and annoying poor hipsters. For example, there's a nice, small indoor mall which sported both a tiny, hip and expensive men's store as well as a surplus store where you can get everything from hotel soaps to cheap tools to candles to novelty magnets.

Northampton is also home to lots of galleries including SE's main target the R. Michelson Gallery. We also hit a smaller gallery down the street which offered two fun things. First, it was full of a neo-Flemish painter who, in addition to the standard still lives, also painted realistic pictures of stacked donuts. Secondly, the gallery's mascot was a friendly French bulldog. SE and I were admiring the paintings when we were startled by a clicking and a snuffling. We looked down to find this so-ugly-he's-cute little brown snorting thing. He smelled us and let us pet him then ran away, his little claws scrabbling for purchase on the wood floors. We talked with the attendant for a while and then the dog came scuttling back bearing his favorite to toy offered for inspection and an invitation to play. He was a hoot.

Then home to visit with the family. My niece is cute and four, but I was warned that she was attempting to be a drama queen; prone to moping and sulking if she didn't get exactly her way. It's just her nature, she is not spoiled. My sister finds the best way is to ignore her. The lack of attention is a painful punishment. She's still cute and I'm still the Best Uncle.

On Saturday, SE and I hit the Worcester Museum of Art. Say what you want about Worcester, but the museum is spectacular. We spent five hours there and still missed a couple of rooms. In the Mesoamerican room, I formulated an hypothesis about three related artifacts. I'm going to contact the curator of the department about it. I'll let you know how it goes. We also were turned onto a Lebanese deli by a friend and WOW, it was awesome. We grabbed some spinach pies, some halwa, some pita, some really powerful cookies and a potato-shaped mass of savory goodness called a "kibbee ball".

We also went to visit my paramedic friend Decapod Diver at work. We hung around outside talking until it got cold, then he fired up the "truck", got the heat cranking and we all sat in the back and jawed for another hour or so. It's always good to hang with him, and now it was also an interesting venue.

On Sunday, my dad and I went to a scale model contest in Chicopee. Some friends from VT were going to be entering models and running a vendor table so I thought I'd go. On a whim, I entered my Savoia S.21. At first, as it is a fictional aircraft, there was slight contention over where it would be placed. But, it ended up in 1/48 scale single-engine aircraft.

There were some amazing models there including a meter-long aircraft carrier that was easily the most detailed thing I'd ever seen (it had a lighted interior hanger bay and teeny deck crew abut 2mm tall). We got to shadow the some judges (armor) and I learned a lot. After the contest ended, I packed up my plane and we headed up to say goodbye to my friends; my dad was getting tired of standing.

One of they guys told me I should wait for the awards ceremony. I told him that there was not much chance of winning anything, but he convinced me to stay. It was neat to see awards for models that I'd been able to see judged. Then came the 1/48 aircraft. I was expecting a certificate, or at most a third. Then I got called up for the first place! I was stunned. Still am. I must have cheated.

Sunday night we watched a remarkable and utterly unique film called Mary and Max. It's a strange, poignant tale of an Australian girl and her inadvertent pen-pal, a obese Jewish shut-in. Did I mention it's all in stop-motion?

Monday saw the morning start with a lot of playing and walking in the woods with my niece and then a lot of swing-set swinging with her and the neighbor boy who's a little older than my niece (I'm told he looks forward to my visits too and calls me "Uncle", too).

The drive back was uneventful except we reached the end of the awesome book on tape (yes, tape) that SE found.

That night, after food and a short nap, we hit the local music club to watch Devotchka awesome show. Well worth the money, even though that's about it for the budget.

The past week was rougher. I'm now on the extended federal unemployment benefits, having exhausted the state ones. I'm going to have to look for not-awesome work now, I think. Maybe landscaping. So, as much as I tried, there was not much drawing as my mood was grim. I did do some work on the identity for a great local gallery that SE shows at occasionally. I friends with the gallery owner so it's unpaid, but I could get exposure. Plus, I get to help out a great local gallery, SE and a friend. It's all good.

So, because I have to post art., here's a little sketch that I did for an idea for the identity, but ended up not using:



That's all!

Listening to while posting: "The Goalie Bop" by me.

Three Things

1) Second attempt at sexy. With some feedback from pinup artist Becca and some others (including my dad. Weird), I got back to work. This one is closer. Not there, but closer. I seem to have forgotten to use one piece of feedback that Becca gave me: exaggerated features often make a character look more natural. Looking now, the piece would definitely benefit from a little exaggeration. The poses and composition, however, I feel are a bit better. Sweet Enemy says when I finally get a drawing I'm finally happy with, she'll go all James Jean on it. That should be sweet. Here it is:



2) I spent the morning at my local independent bookstore (LIBS) with an double Americano and sketched out some potential covers/pinups of the stars of Interrogation 101. Anyone got a favorite? If not, I'll probably do them all for the inking practice.







3) Serendipity. This has nothing to do with art, but I thought it was neat enough to mention. Last Wed. I was heading back from my LIBS coffee morning. At a certain point on the way home, I had to stop for a bit because a wide load truck was negotiating a sharp corner. The truck was carrying some massive wind turbine blades! They were huge and all sci-fi-looking.

Yesterday, I was heading home from my LIBS coffee morning and at the same point in the road at around the same time, guess what? Yup. Another wide load truck transporting wind turbine blades! Freaky, no? Good thing I don't believe in coincidence. I guess that Wednesday around 11 AM is Wind Turbine Blade Truck Time in Jericho, Vermont!

Listening to while posting: "Shadows" by Au Revoir Simone

semi-fail!

I spent the the day drinking good coffee and drawing. I really mean I spent the day drawing. I started at 9:00 am EST with a tiny, incoherent thumbnail, sketched and sketched and finished inking it about 7:30 EST. I learned a lot. I learned how to work with a new nib. I learned my Pentel brush pen hack works pretty well. I learned that things in my head still look better than what they end up as on paper. The most important thing I learned is this:

I cannot do sexy. Not even slightly sexy. That bothers me. I like sexy, I appreciate sexy, I can definitely tell sexy from not-sexy. Unless, of course, I have to draw it. I think I can draw attractive women pretty well, but when it comes to making them sexy, I fail miserably. It's almost embarrassing, actually. I mean really embarrassing. Like a karaoke singer who really thinks they can sing.

So, in the hopes that someone will tell me what I can do to make this even slightly sexier, I'm posting it. The idea was to do a cheesy, silly, sexy pinup thing that might have appeared on a Heavy Metal magazine cover in the 80s. I think I got two out of three. So, here it is.



Technically, it's got some good points and I really learned a lot. But, please, if you know sexy, let me know how I can improve. Is it the composition? The style? The poses? The entire idea? Help!

Here it is as a cover, just for fun:



Listening to while posting: "Jinji" by Tomoyasu Hotei

small stuff

AndreZero is still writing the Obscure Tales story that the Deneb Princess appears in.

In the meantime, I've started fleshing out some more concepts to throw at AZ. One is an overly ambitious sort-of-superhero-y team book. The other is something I've been thinking of for a while. It's a story of an Alternative WW2 where Gen. Billy Mitchell wasn't discharged to die at age 59, but was actively listened to by everyone about the uses of military aviation and (and this is probably the farthest fetched part), became and advocate of women combat pilots.

The idea came about when friend named her graphic design company after a certain plant, the Cobra Lily. I thought that Cobra Lily would be a great nickname for a pilot and so built an improbable alternative universe out of it.

In doing some sketches for the cover of the fake first issue of Cobra Lily, I decided to work on a patch she'd wear on her jacket. I came up with the backstory that Gen. Mitchell created his own training unit and trained women to fly combat. After they'd proved themselves against men, they were shunted out to active units. All of the "plankholders" of Mitchell's training unit wore their patches with their nickname "Mitchell's Molls". The character is loosely based on Fifinella the mascot of the WASPs.

These were sketched on paper, scanned, vectored (in Illustrator) and digitally colored (in Photoshop)

Clean version:


Slightly dirty version:


That's all. I may have a cover by the end of this week. Tomorrow night we're heading to an art opening that Sweet Enemy's taking part of. It's at the super-cool S.P.A.C.E Gallery in Burlington. So, I'll be hob-nobbing with a bunch of wicked cool folks who are much more talented than me. If you're in town, stop by.

Listening to while posting: Porcelain by Moby

wrinkles

I spent a couple of hours today working on copying a photo to try to get a grip on wrinkles on clothing. I can feel how it should go naturally, I can nearly understand how things would work on a pose I made up. Not quite, though. Something is missing and I still need more work on it.

Here's the picture, though. It's a portrait of Anke-Eve Goldmann in her winter riding gear. I'm not posting the original image as my mistakes (the eyes are a bit high on the face, for example) would be more glaring, but I am linking to it in case you think I've traced. Of course, that would assume that you thought it was too good ;)

First in pencil:



I then traced the pencil, transferred it to Bristol and inked it with a Pigma Micron 01:



I then scanned the inked image and colored it digitally:



There are a good deal of things that need work on this, but there are enough good moments to keep me going. More drapery to follow.

Listening to while posting: "B&S" by The Bobby Hughes Experience

aht

So, yesterday's Animal failed. I was having an awful day and couldn't bring myself to draw. It sucked (for the record, I'm going a bit potty being alone at home looking for work, teaching myself PHP and talking to people via Facebook. I was going through meatspace contact addiction).

ANNNNYway. I did up a set of fake frames for the story that AndreZero and I are working on for Obscure Tales issue 8. The first frame is the cockpit of the Stellar PrincessStarliner seen earlier. I just wanted to do a cockpit and some aliens. The second frame is the main character of the story, a stewardess on board the Deneb Princess. The frames are a test of the style I may use for the comic and a test of the stewardess look.



That's all. It helped me out of my doldrums and I MAY do two animals tonight to make up for the lack yesterday.

Cheers

listening to while posting: The annual Joke Show on Prairie Home Companion (The only PHC I can take anymore)

Animal Week 2011 # 1: The Hippopotamus

I'm the kind of person that needs goals, tangible goals to learn. So, in an effort to improve my drawing skills, particularly in inking and shading, every day this week, I'm doing an animal from Akira Satoh and Kyoko Toda's fantastic book Animal Faces. It's out of print but, a great resource for drawing.

Each drawing will be approximately 3.5" x 3.5", drawn in red pencil and inked with a Pigma Micron. I'll post the image immediately after I finish it take any criticisms you'll dish out and any suggestions you might have; my only stipulation is that you point out one thing that does work.

There are twenty-four animals in the book (with eighteen different portraits) so, if anyone wants to throw out a number between 1 and 24 that isn't 13, that will be the animal for tomorrow.

Here's today's, the Hippopotamus:



listening to while posting: "Tokyo, I'm on My Way" by Puffy AmiYumi (I can't get enough of this song for some reason. It drives Sweet Enemy nuts and I think I'll go upstairs and sing the refrain to her right now!)

The Big Picutre

So, in my last post I posted a pic of a spaceliner I created, inspired by Jake Parker's Missile Mouse. I mentioned Jake's fantastic cutaways and wasn't sure I could make one. However, last night I had a cup of coffee after dinner (rare occasion) and, since coffee is a creativity fuel, I made one (click to enlarge):



The image is pretty big, but so was the original drawing (almost 11 x 14). The hardest part was reconciling the interior with the pre-designed exterior (the Millennium Falcon Problem). It went pretty well, with only a slight reduction in passenger capacity. I did have to add transferrable water ballast tanks under the passenger compartment to allow for weight and balance. This wouldn't matter if it was a space-only craft, but I wanted it to be atmospheric as well.

So, my first cutaway is, I believe, a success. I'm pretty darn happy with it, actually. What do you think?

Listening to "Zina-Maria" by Gogol Bordello

production design

So, as I said last post, I've been inspired by Jake Parker and his fun Missile Mouse comic. For an upcoming project (guess what), I needed to make a spaceliner. Unlike the inestimable Mr. Parker, I haven't kept up with my spacecraft creation that filled my time in high school, so I had to start small. I started sketching based on a swan-styled spaceliner by the great sci-fi artist Angus McKie (dubbed the Interstellar Queen when it was featured in the great 70s sci-fi book Spacecraft 2000 to 2100AD).

The Interstellar Queen was a huge, long-range liner, but I needed a small medium-range passenger ship. So, rather than being swan-like, I went for a bit more duck-like. I also opted for a smoother, more aerodynamic profile as this would be an atmospheric as well as a spacecraft.



Mr. Parker also creates great cutaways of his great spacecraft. I thought about doing a full schematic, but after painting twenty little seats for a 1/72 plastic model of a Faiery Rotodyne VTOL passenger plane, I couldn't bring myself to draw dozens of identical seats just now. I'll absolutely have to figure out a floor plan later, but for now you will have to make due with a profile:



About the book I mentioned. If you like old-school sci-fi art, pick this book up. ABE Books has some and they start at US$10. WARNING: there is a newer version of the book published a few years ago. DO NOT BUY IT. Instead of the original artwork, the new book features CG rendering of the originals; a pointless and rather insulting thing to do. Compare their version of the Interstellar Queen with McKie's original

The other great one in the series is Spacewrech a great crammed full of really great art. These are also on ABE Books, but only a little more expensive

listening to while posting: "I'm Leaving" by Condo

It's time!

Firstly, the new AndreZero-penned Obscure Tales episode is up. I give you:

Interrogation 101.

Enjoy!

Secondly, the meager response to the free drawing giveaway means that all posters get one! I'll work on them in order of posting and new-ness. So, in order, it's: 1) Decapod 2) Arjan 3) Rambler 4) Snab. Get your thinking caps on and decide what you want. Hit my portfolio and dig up my email (you're now part of a special crew) and let me know what you want. We'll work out shipping once I'm done drawing.

In other news, we survived the huge wind storm (90 MPH gusts) out here last week just fine. Only two trees down, and that means firewood next year. We did lose power for three days due to a four-meter pine branch hanging on the lines. Sweet Enemy, Bernie the Fat Cat and I made the best of it, though; sitting in our stove-room, heating tortillas on the wood stove by the light of our glass-chimney'd oil lamp. We read comics and ghost stories and basically enjoyed a small technology-free vacation. I took some video of the trees in our woods blowing like wheat; if I can get it off of the camera, I'll post it.

Power was back on Friday thanks to the hard work of the CVPS crews. There were 25,000 out total in our county and some friends were still without power; they had a large maple across the road and hanging on the lines at EACH end of their road.

We do have to call a tree surgeon as a big pine right next to the house has developed a vertical crack in one of its large (8") branches. Creepy.

Pax!

Listening to while posting, Symphony #7 by Antonin Dvorak on VPR Classical

Stuff and things and others things!

Firstly, I'm halfway done inking and coloring Obscure Tales issue 7. Here's the cover:



This is smaller issue than before, so it will be posted all at once. Keep watching for the announcement of the posting.

Secondly, 'tis the season!

I'm again offering free 6" x 6" ink drawings*. I'm offering five again, but due to my job situation, we'll have to talk about postage. Also, if you don't make the cut, I'll do one, or any other art for very small amounts of cash or in trade for a similar-sized piece of original art.

You might be saying to yourself, how do I get a free drawing? Just comment "I want a free drawing!". If you are one of the five, I'll post your name on the blog and you can contact me via email and we'll talk about what you want and shipping. C'mon! You can't beat the price.

If you've already gotten a free one last time, you can still ask for one. However, newbies get priority. Anyone can give me money, however. The commissions can be of nearly any size or type of work from the standard 6" x 6" ink drawing to a comic.

Thirdly, if my art doesn't float your boat, perhaps the art of Arkonbey's Favorite Person on the Planet™ Sweet Enemy will. She has an etsy store that sells original art and prints.

So, let me know if you want something!

UPDATE 23 Nov 2010: You have until December 4th to request a free drawing

listening to while posting: "I Miss You" by Bjork

*The free ink drawing can be of any subject or character, but there are limits. I'll do mild or suggested violence, but no gore; I'll do tasteful nudes or pinups or even innuendo, but no graphic sex; scat and vore are right out. I like to have my artistic boundaries pushed, but am to wimpy to do it myself. So I'll accept any challenge you throw out.

Pigs in Space, 1953 (and other stuff)

Halloween is over. We had our party (you should have been there!). It may have been a success since folks didn't leave until about midnight (yeah, I know that's early. Some had to work and one had to get sleep for a four-hour drive).

Kick Enemy Men, Sweet Enemy and I stayed up talking for another hour or more talking. KEM lives four hours away and we don't see him nearly as much as we'd like. A new friend brought a sampler of microbrews from around the country (he's a maven). Many awesome beers were tasted. Decapod Diver, my oldest friend came up from MA (he really needed a break) and brought a goose/duck/buffalo chili (he personally shot and dressed two of the animals); it was delicious. Add to that my nearly-famous lentil stew, pumpkin pie, snacks and Irish Coffee, it was a feast.

After Irish coffees, we all piled into our long, narrow living room to watch An American Werwolf in London. It's been my favorite of DD and I since we first saw it back in the eighties. This time, we got to watch it with a girl who'd a) never seen it and b) was a bit of a ingenue with horror cinema. She was affected by the effects. Even the transformation freaked her out! This was awesome. It is one of the best transformations in cinema history and it's nice to see that it can still stand up after all these years.

Whew.

The newest Obscure Tale is on hold. Well, not on hold, really. I've got six pages inked, but I'm tossing them into the woodstove and starting again. I don't like the inking style. It's boring and lacks good line variation. I think the Pentel brush pen is in order. To get practice with it, I refined and inked a sketch I had done last Thursday. It was going to be a "standard" Golden Age space-girl, but her chubbiness and the stylized pose made me think of Ms. Piggy. So, since I'd already done a BSG-style re-imagining drawing of the Swinetrek crew, I thought I'd do a Golden Age version of Ms. Piggy.

The lineart works pretty well (thanks to Sweet Enemy for making me re-work Piggy's breasts, they look much better now), but the color is only okay. I always fall back on local color shadows.





listening to while posting: "Tokyo, I'm on my way" by Puffy Ami Yumi