random art and real life problems

Sorry, but Death of a Friend will be later than I want. I pencilled up the next two pages, but then dealing with our very ill cat took precedence.

She's sort of okay. Her hyperthyroidism is acting up and she may be going blind. It's heartbreaking to watch her pace around as though she's looking for something. She hugs the walls and almost bumps into everything. Word to the wise: If your animal is on meds for a condition and the vet has you giving him/her a pill or med-infused treat, unless your vet tells you DO NOT crumble the treat into the animal's food. Unless that animal is going to scarf up the entire portion, it won't get the recommended dosage and my have a relapse. Like ours did. I feel pretty darn guilty.

Anyway.

Here's a sketch I found while cleaning the house today. It's from a few weeks ago and shows my rendition of a Martian from the Rocco Vargas universe created by my favorite artist Danial Torres. Now, the way that Torres portrays Martians may, at first glance, to seem a bit of a 'minstrel show' look at race. But, I don't think he intended it as racist. He only has a few non-whites in his works, but his universe was intentionally the lily-white 1930's Buck Rogers-style 'future' (the stories take place in 1983 and he wrote them in 1987, get it?). The hero is absurdly masculine with a gigantic chest and lantern jaw, women swoon except for the kick-butt Asian warlord-girl. The most prominent Martian is Samson, Rocco Vargas' servant/valet/sidekick/best friend and their relationship is tighter than worker/boss.

However, it's always easy for us whites to say, "oh, it's all in fun", but I think this is all in fun, or at least tongue in cheek and is neither racist nor misogynist. Have any of you read any Rocco Vargas graphic novels? What do you think.

Anyway, here's the sketches of a Martian girl. I changed the nose to look a bit more alien:




I also remembered that I did an Illustration Friday piece with a Torres Martian girl back in '07. It's here.

listening to while posting: my poor cat stumbling around the room.

Update compromise

Ok, guys.

I have an idea. I'll post the updates to Death of a Friend incrementally.

However, I will recommend that you wait until I post the final update. If you want to check, by all means, check, and I really hope you like it. But don't blame me if you find the emotional impact is lessened.

I must also ask you, if you comment, don't be a-spoilin'. 'Kay?

Here's the update

Listening to while posting: "Page One" by Lemon Jelly

Process!

Here's the most recent iteration of the potential collaboration with Sweet Enemy. Some things are working, but some aren't. I'm not entirely happy with with the woman's forward foot and may change it. Her expression has been proving elusive. Most of the time, when trying to get her to be looking down with an affectionate smile, she ends up looking as though she is smiling in that way that people do when they'd rather be somewhere else. I've been re-working the page so much I think it's time to pull out the tracing paper.



I'm also not sure of what to call it now. I thought of a student and teacher, but SE wanted their relationship to be more ambiguous. What do you guys think?

The next two pages of DoaF are ready to go, BUT, I'm debating whether to wait and post the last ten pages all in one go as it's going to be a page-turner. What do you, my loyal readers, want?

Listening to while posting: "Darling, be here" by Bodies of Water

procrastination... of a sort

I've finished two of the four free ink commissions. One is sent out, the other is waiting on another unrelated object to become available to send to the commissioner. The other two commissions are really hard, so I'm procrastinating. I've pencilled one (and had an inking failure) and sketched a bunch of thumbnails for the other, but still they are not done. I haven't forgotten them, I'm just... a wuss.

I've been procrastinating by doing other art, though.

I've pencilled, inked and half-colored the next two pages of Death of a Friend. It's getting heavy, now with only ten pages left to go!

I've also been trying to collaborate with Sweet Enemy. She and I have tried collaborating a couple of times, but we have differing styles as well as differing talents (she kicks my butt, in other words). She's doing an acrylic underpainting demo for the store she assistant-manages and we thought that I could flesh out a sketch I had lying around for her to use (and eventually make into a painting). I did the original sketch back in December while having a coffee and a muffin at a great local deli.

Tonight, I began working out a larger, tighter version. Here it is in progress; it's on 11" x 15" "green bar" paper*.



I've been doing research and am still deciding on the hair and dress for the teacher. It's going to be a 50s thing, btw.

In other news, the inestimable Becca gave me (and six other creative bloggers) an award!. I have to pass it on to seven others and will do that before the end of the week. Probably when I post the update for DoaF.

Cheers!

Listening to while posting: "Young, Thomas (1773-1829)" by Artichoke from '26 Scientists Volume 2: Newton to Zeno'

* Green bar paper was the most awesome thing of having a dad who was a computer developer back in the '70s and '80s. They would print REAMS of this stuff during compiling and dad would bring it home to draw on. It was cheap as free and most of my art until high school was done on green bar paper. I scored (somewhere) a big box of blank green bar paper and have been using it for the initial work on drawings and Obscure Tales pages (before tracing onto Bristol) for the past two years. I hope I find another box before it runs out...

no art today

First, Last night, Sweet Enemy, AndreZero and ScienceGirl went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Here's my Three Sentence Review:

1. It was gritty and naturalistic and only a little steampunk with a single, small nod to future/anachronistic technology


2. Most of the film was a Guy Ritchie Film, with the cool camerawork and asides that you'd come to expect, but some parts of it looked as though they were done by Standard Film Director #17


3. I thought that Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Holmes was more like A.C.D's character than was that of Jeremy Brett

I have been making art, but it's for the free commissions and I won't post an image of a commission until the commissioner receives it and gives me permission to post it. I've also been working on Death of a Friend and doing up some fanart for a little-visited Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane fan blog. Both the commissions and the fanart have forced me to push my abilities rather past my current talent. One of the commissions I had to do four versions in four styles before it turned out how I wanted it to be (read: not sucky). I'll post a link to the Rahne fanart when it's posted, post commissions if I get permission to do so and post the update to DoaF when it's done (we're getting near the end and, if you ask me, AndreZero has done a great story)

Listening to while posting: "Handlebars" by Flobots

update for the heck of it

I've got a bunch of art-things going on. Three people responded to my free commission offer, I'm working on a collaboration with Sweet Enemy and I'm doing a piece of fan-art for a Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane fan blog that has a call for fan art (it's not a big deal and probably no exposure, but it's an excuse to do a piece of my favoritest New Mutant). I'll post a link and some scans when I've got some stuff done.

I've also finished up a 1/48 Sopwith Camel model for my dad (for xmas) and man, it was hard! I'll do a post on my model blog as soon as I have some photos.

In non-art news, Sweet Enemy and I watched "Hancock" last night. It was at our local library's DVD section and I thought that free was a pretty good price for a movie I had misgivings about. We went into it full of trepidation.

Well, with the exception of the epilogue (which was trite and bothersome on a number of levels), I thought it was a pretty darn good movie. It was a tight, cohesive film that had some pretty good plot twists. Sure, there were some plot holes (where does he get his money? What is his L.A. Backstory? Did he start off as a true hero and fade into a drunk?), but I found these to be forgivable and besides, what superhero films don't have plot holes?

So, in the end, I have to say I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Listening to while posting: "2112" By Rush

Update and a challenge

Whew!

Last week, even though between Thanksgiving, nursing the ill Sweet Enemy and then nursing myself from what I caught nursing Sweet Enemy, I found time to pencil the next two pages of Death of a Friend. Tonight, between 8pm and 1am EST I inked, colored and posted the update.

Hope you like it. This update to Death of a Friend is dedicated to Snabulus' Ladybug who was in the hospital a little while back with a potentially life-threatening condition. As far as I know, she's home now and I hope she's doing fine.

Now, the challenge. It's to me actually. I need to stretch myself a bit, artistically and I wonder if a way to do that is to take commissions. Now, I don't think I'm good enough to ask for money, so the first five people to email me will get a FREE black and white ink drawing. The subject can be nearly anything you want that can fit into a 6" x 6" space (anything but: scat, gore, vore, nasty stuff in general. I reserve the right to refuse an idea and ask for another. What do you want? It's free.). I don't know if I'll get five people. Heck, I'll take one person. Five just seemed like a good number

In order to keep a bit of anonymity, and give you a challenge, you have to go to my portfolio to get my email address.

listening to while posting: "Upside-down from Here" by Atom and his Package