Life Lately and Happy Turkeys!

(Given the date, I should stick a link in here to Turkey Man, my Thanksgiving Super Hero drawing from a long, long, long time ago to start this post. I also ought to do a current version of him at some point…)

So, as I was checking in on my almost non-existent site stats, I realized it’s been over a month since my last post! That’s a bit too long. I do more frequent posting/updates to the Face Book page and my Instagram account, but I do want to stay more active here. But, as I’ve said before, if I have limited time (which I always do) and I have to chose between making art and writing about art, I’m usually going to chose making art. Except for right now, apparently.

So, what have I been up to? Well, we had the flu blow through our house at the end of October. That was fun. It very much disrupted my studio routine, particularly my in-the-evenings art making (I’m hoping to settle back into that night time schedule after the holiday). Drawing at night is a double edged sword. It’s great to get the extra hours creating, but I tend to lose track of time and stay up way too late. Somewhere in the last month I finished up the third cover for L.S. Gagnon’s Little Witch series, which I need to craft a post about. I tried out a few new methods and ideas that I picked up from watching tutorials. I’ve produced a bunch of promotional-type art for the jiu jitsu school I train at now to be put on business cards, posters, and a website. I still have a few more to pump out, as well as some tweaks and polishes to the ones I’ve “finished” (because I can never call anything done). I’ve been having fun “churning” out panels for IPMDT. I say “churning” because producing, at best, one a day isn’t exactly super productive. I’m averaging about 3-4 hours per panel, from sketch to scan. That’s a bit long (at that rate, Revery will take me eons), but I’m mostly happy with my results. There are always little things that bug me once I’m done, particularly the further away I get from it (the initial panels/strips make me cringe a little). I’m toying with the idea of eventually going back and making some tweaks to things that are bigger issues (like font sizes) and coloring the strips, perhaps to be made into book format…for sale even.

Beyond all that, I’ve got some gift related art that I need to get cranking on, I have a t-shirt design for our Boy Scout troop to work on, my own t-shirt shop to launch (I set a goal of before the end of this year, which I’m likely going to miss. The hang up is still the same: I need to call the bank and set up a separate account to be linked to a PayPal account, as well as do all the listings for the designs. Never underestimate my ability to procrastinate making simple phone calls-we’re at at least a year an counting now.), I still need to finish 10 Things and figure out what to do with it, there’s Revery of course, tons of concept illustration ideas and other projects all waiting in my brain ether.

So that’s the scoop on current and future projects. I also recently picked up a few graphic novels at our favorite shop:

Very excited about Edena, I love Moebius’ work, but I’m fairly ignorant of it. I’m only just starting to get my hands on some of it. Jaybird is beautifully illustrated, light on words (great example of visual storytelling), and weird/cool. Breath of Bones looks interesting, but I haven’t read it yet (and truthfully, I still haven’t read 80% of what I picked up during last year’s Free Comic Book Day sale…I’m working on it though).

 

I also got a special delivery courtesy of my IT/R&D/Purchasing department (also known as my spectacular and patient/tolerant wife):

MOAR PENS! A good mix of Pigma and Mangaka pens. I still like and use the Copic Multiliners, but I’m trending more towards these brands at the moment. I like the mix of flexibility and rigidity in the Pigma brush pens, and the Mangaka fine point nibs seem more consistent and durable than the Copics. The only downside, which hasn’t been a problem yet, is that the Mangaka pens are a water-based pigment, so if and when I have the time to experiment with some technique ideas involving the Copic greyscale markers and water colors, I might run into some bleeding issues with those.

 

But wait, there’s more! The “Purchasing Department” just walked into my studio and handed me this. It’s a Mangaka fine point brush pen that’s supposed to be a hybrid between a brush pen and a fine point. I scribbled around with it just now and it has some promise. The nib seems to be a great cross between the two pen types, allowing for some tight, thin lines that gradually melt into some thicker ones. It should be great for getting some of the nice, organic line weight changes and contours I like.

 

So, there you have it. Hopefully it won’t be another month (or 2017) before my next post. I have a few things to post about (like the Little Witch cover and the jiu jitsu art stuff), so my only excuse is my perpetual excuse: time.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, everyone! Enjoy each other’s company and appreciate everyone’s positive qualities.