Labeling oneself...

Still working on top secret 'Haps stuff, but realize it's been over a month since I last updated anything...

As you may or may not know I'm a bit of a homebrewer. Turns out I've got a knack for it and am able to brew decent beers consistently. So much so that I figured it'd be time to start the marketing ball rolling (delusions of grandeur? damn right!) and get 'em some labels. I'll probably be trinkering with the look for a while, but might as well share what I've come up with so far. Wanna keep 'em simple, yet bold enough to stand out. Without further ado, here's round one:

Quick update

Yes, I am still alive and kicking. Mafus' pages have been officially inked and passed off for scanning. Now I'm starting inks on Eric Henson's 10 page story for the 'Haps as well. Busy! Busy! Busy!

Also, it's Movember! Get yo' 'stache on and join up with Brimley's Lip Rangers for a good cause! I'll be humiliating myself all month and you should, too.

Vacation has come and gone...

Refreshed and recharged to say the least. Putting KNOW IT ALL on hold for a couple weeks while I hammer out the inks on Mafus' pencils for our Perhapanauts back-up story. We've had the luxury of time on this back-up tale, but I'd much rather not procrastinate on it any longer. Clean the slate so I can fully delve into my own project.

That said, updates will probably be few and far for the foreseeable month since I won't be posting any of the 'Haps inks. (You'll just have to wait for publication, which will hopefully be sometime this year.) There may be a painting or two popping up soon, but other than that consider me on sabbatical. See ya soon!

A very skullish Father's Day

I received a copy of SKULLS by local artist Noah Scalin (co-curator of the International Skull Appreciation Day show I took part in) for Father's Day. As sketching Page 14 wasn't going anywhere, I decided to do a little Pop and Kid skull duo. Hell, it was Father's Day, so why not? Probably spent 30 minutes on it total and I think it turned out okay. The only real problem was the wood was super soft and didn't really appreciate having eye-hooks bored into its back. Get the feeling that we'll hear a crash one night as the hooks give up...

As an added bonus, here's Page 13:

Slack

I forgot to post Page 11 last Friday, so to make up for that oversight here's the pencils for both 11 and 12. Thumbnails for 13 tomorrow night and look for full pencils in a day or two. Peace!

Back to Know It All...

Nice to start hanging with the characters again. Page 11 has already been sketched, so I just have to lightbox that mutha and —BAM!—halfway through pencilling the book.

Also, sorry for the arty-farty image. Been playing around with different apps on my phone.

And it's done!

Dropping this puppy off in a couple hours. Shoooooooooooo.

Getting closer...

...which is good because this puppy is due Friday.

Back from the beach

Our regularly scheduled art posts will continue shortly...

Skull progress

With the Flyers finally eliminated from the playoffs I've found a lot more time to work on the skull. It's getting close, but still probably have another 6-8 hours left before I'll be happy.

Hopefully everyone got out for FCBD. Lilah had a blast and raked in a nice little haul from our two store visits. I think my fave book of FCBD was the Cap/Thor book. Great art, fun story and FREE!

Bonehead

I've obviously taken a break from the comic at moment and have been working on a skull (wait for it...) for SKULLS, the first International Skull Appreciation Day Exhibit. Kinda cool to be one of a hundred or so local artists selected to take part and while the deadline is still a month away I wanted to get cracking on it sooner rather than later. Cuz knowing my procrastinating arse I'd start the night before the deadline.

Sketched it out the other night after priming the skull (paper mache) and then took a Pitt brush pen to it last night. Of course, the Pitt pen doesn't really stick to the gesso the way I'd hoped and started smearing. Will be wearing gloves until I can get the underpainting on. Expect a lot of greens with some splashes of red.





As you can see, I've got a little helper on this project...

Pages eight and nine...check!

One from page eight:

And one from page nine:

Can you guess which one was lightboxed?

Page Seven is finito

At least pencil-wise. Also started the first oil painting of the year: a landscape, which is a first for me, surprisingly. A bit rusty with the oils, so it's taking a little longer than I'd hoped. (Read: I keep mucking up and have to do damage control.) Giving the painting a few days to set, so I'll be jumping back into Page Eight this evening.

Shades of pages yet to come

A successful Drink & Draw with Mafus at Legend yesterday. Was hoping they'd still have Hopfest on tap, but had just killed the keg. Luckily, there was a firkin of Golden Ale and Brown that was dry-hopped with Cascades. Can definitely recommend a draught from the firkin over the Maibock, which I felt was wanting.

Almost finished sketching out Page 11, but decided it'd be better to head home than have another and risk incarceration. Especially with the monsoon-like weather. So without further ado here's a panel featuring The Boglin making some devil's concoction...

Page six and back on track

After a slight creative derailment (read: Killzone 3) Know-It-All is back to steadily chugging along. Starting page seven today and will be meeting Mafus at the local brewpub for a little drinking and drawing this afternoon, where I hope to thumbnail pages 11 and 12.

And that's five pages pencilled...

I believe there's trouble afoot!

Keeping things loose as most of the detail will come in the inking. Plus, it save's on erasing.

Four pages in the bank

Here's a panel from page four. (May have drawn the lads too large to accommodate copy tho. Oh well.) Haven't lost momentum yet, which is nice for a change. Still there's another 18 pages left, not to mention the cover and whatever else I plan on throwing in this mug. Daunting, but doable. Especially since I'm enjoying the challenge again.

This place looks legit

Three pages of Know-It-All have been pencilled and here's a little sample of page three. Seems like a nice place to stop, dunnit?

Hoping to get another one or two done this week. Things are progressing a lot smoother and faster than normal as I've finally come to terms with being a cartoony artist as opposed to a realistic one. Guess I got tired of fooling myself and it's been fun ever since.

Okay, back to the salt mines!

Thumbnails now more!

As it's been posted over at Todd's Perhapablog I figured it'd be safe to post the whole thing over here, too.

As I've been waylaid with some funky virus from the wee lass I haven't had much energy or drive to draw over the past couple of days. Hoping to turn that around this weekend and maybe another page or two finished for Know-It-All. I'll keep you posted.

One and half pages down

Finally got the ball rolling on KIA. Sorry for the lookalike as you may remember this panel's thumbnail from late last year. Figured I'd keep the story secret until the grand unveiling hopefully this spring or summer. At home with sick kid today, so we might get to spend some time up in the studio. Fingers crossed.

Until next time.

Know-It-All is back on track

Riding on the coattails of the 'Haps Classic Cover...another page of KIA has been thumbnailed and ready to roll. Tomorrow night is Art Night in the Leaf house, so I'll start actually laying out KIA on bristol while Lilah colors/draws/holds court in her studio space.

Watched The Last Exorcism while sketching tonight. Not a bad flick. Drew very heavily (pun fully intended) off what Blair Witch started oh-so-long-ago. Decent, yet derivative. Rated M for Meh.

Now with more 100% more color!

Inked, now onto the colors!

Stay tuned, True Believers!

The days they come, but the years they go...

Just when you thought I'd disappeared off the face of the internet—I'm back. Not much to report in the ways of high adventure, mainly because work's blowed up in the past couple of months and I haven't had the energy/drive/gumption to be creative after clocking out for the day. Not that work's slowed down much, but Todd's having a Perhapanauts Classic Cover contest over on the 'Haps blog and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try to get some mojo flowing with an entry. The deadline is the end of the month and I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm only posting a small section of my entry. I'll do the same with the inks in the upcoming days.

As to the mojo I believe doing this piece did indeed start something simmering. It also helps that Lilah has been on a definite art/coloring kick as of late. May have to set her up with her own drawing table in the studio and we can push each other artistically.

First brew of the New Year will be bottled this weekend: a chipotle porter, which I hope will have just the right amount of smokey bite to it. I'll keep you posted on that as well.