Believe it

As it's House Week at Stuga Leaf there hasn't been much time to goof off with movies or video games. (Damn you, Resident Evil 5! Why must you be so addicting?!) So after doing some much needed housework I sat down with my sketchbook and worked on some character designs.

"What character? What story?" you might ask. Came up with the idea of doing an anthology of my horror stories as a graphic novel. I've really been dragging my heels on The Hollow as I don't know where it's going after the first two issues. But this anthology idea really lit the spark. I can do multiple stories in multiple styles and just have fun. It was slow at work last week so I adapted 'Know-It-All' to comic format. Probably one of my favorites and this charming gent is called The Boglin. I really really hope I can keep momentum going on this and get you swept up along with me.

Peace out!

Finished Doom inks

Still don't know who drew this and I'm too lazy to look it up. Still going with Finch as it seems his style. Mostly brush work with a pinch of quill thrown in for good measure. Again it was fun to forget that I don't have to adhere to every line drawn, though I'm sure that attitude would change if it was a real gig. Becoming more and more a brush kinda guy.

I'm beat or I'd write more and since it's Monday (late, I know) this still counts for the three times a week deal.

Slack in the saddle again

Another month gone by with only one post. Cripes. Why even bother, eh? Time to rectify this situation. Hunkered down and decided to sling some ink last night. Couldn't draw to save my soul was the main reason. Had this printout of Doom from some Ultimatum book or something. Think it's Finch's work, but not sure. I started trying to be all perfect and following his every line correctly, but it just wasn't any fun. If you draw that tight why do you need an inker anyway? Just digitally do it and be done.

Then a lightbulb went off in my head.

"You know, this is practice and for fun, right? Why don't you ink how you wanna ink and enjoy the process?"

After that I did start to loosen up and the brush flowed a lot more freely. Don't think I'm going to ink the whole thing, just Doom's mug as the rest of the page is all detailed bookshelves and floors about the size of grains of rice. Some pencillers are like guitar players: all about getting themselves off with their own work. It's not fun and doesn't inspire, it only makes art feel more unattainable to most. Okay, I'm stepping down from the soapbox...

Wanna try to get onto a 3-day-a-week schedule and get those creative juices flowing again. Peace out!

1st drawing of the New Year

More a confidence builder than anything really. It's been quite some time since I last posted or drew much of anything. December wasn't kind to me. I was on antibiotics on two separate times and in between those times I had the flu. Robbed me of any drive to draw and depression set in. That and my friend, Anna, asked me to draw something for her, which I've only half-heartedly attempted.

And that brings us to Etrigan here. I received the Kirby Omnibus of The Demon for Christmas and really wanted to do a drawing of him for the blog. Then Mafus did one and the whole depression thing ate away at any endeavor to do so. Anna's deadline was still looming and anything I laid down on paper wasn't cutting it. I was wasting bristol like nobody's business. Then the idea popped in my head to actually do the drawing I wanted to do — Mafus be damned. (Not really, of course.) It was just what I needed. Feeling much better about myself and life in general. Actually looking forward to knocking out Anna's piece now, though that'll have to wait until tomorrow night and this weekend. (Sorry, Anna.)

Colors will come once I've taken care of my looming project. Be on the lookout. Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year.

Slow Day At Work Bonus:

Two Candles Old

Today the little Lilah turns two years old. It feels like she should be older though. Maybe it's just that she makes us feel old with all that energy of hers. We observed her birthday yesterday and it started off with a baby all of her own. She'd had so much fun with a friend's baby doll that Angie decided it was high time for Lilah to have one as well. Notice Lilah's mastery of the "I'll hold you by the throat 'til you drink" technique. Impressive, eh?


Before her guests arrived Lilah enjoyed one of her favorite things in the whole wide, wide world of sports: a bubble bath. Then she got all gussied up and awaited her adulation. She also learned that stockings aren't the best footwear to run around on hardwood floors. She bit it hard just as I was warning her that she might want to be careful. Some tears, hugs and shoes later she was back in action.


Aunt Squeeze and Uncle Mafus went above and beyond with the cake and party favors. It was a Curious George extravaganza and everyone had themselves a hoot and a holler.

One more for November

Decided to get off my tuckus and get an entry in for Velocity's latest drawing contest. The criteria this time 'round was to take two characters and merge them together. I took the easy route and went with Man-Thing and Thing, so he could either stay Man-Thing or if you wanted to take it to the limit you could call him Man-Thing-Thing. (That'd be one heckuva Giant-Sized title, eh?)

Took a much simpler route also with this one as the super refined ones that Matt and I had done previously bore no fruit for all our extra labor. Bitter? Perhaps...or Naut?

Tag Team

Was sketching around Saturday while Lilah was watching her favorite movie in the whole wide world: IRON GIANT. Was just about to start inking when Lilah noticed what I was doing, "Guy-Ant!" and wanted in on the action. Tried holding her hand while she went over the lines, but that didn't last long and she was soon scribbling away. Lost a Pitt Pen in the process, but worth it if it helps keep her interest in art.

Picked up a new, larger sketchbook yesterday as the small one I thought would be easier to cart around is really too small to do anything other than thumbnails and headshots. Also did page layouts for the first issue of THE HOLLOW and want to start cranking on that sucka while we wait for the second part of our 'Haps story. That's all I got.

Drink & Draw

Met the 'Fus yesterday at Legend for a couple local brews and drawing. He threw down the Morbius gauntlet for our subject, which threw me as I kinda know the character, but not really. I had to actually wait for Matt to draw his so I could see what the costume looked like. I kinda gave him Spawn's wraparound cape/collar thing not knowing any better. For not having drawn anything for a couple weeks I don't think it turned out too bad. I definitely need a bigger sketchbook as the little one, while easy to tot around, isn't so great for working up decent drawings.

Barack The Vote

Don't forget to vote today.

UPDATE: America, we did it. Thank you.

The Mad Cow O' Hallowe'en

Since Todd asked...Lilah went in the cow outfit her grandparents bought her last year. She and I went around the block with her Hello Kitty goodie bag while Angie managed the candy back home. Lilah had people running in from their cars just for the chance to give her some candy. (It's true. She was that cute.) She finished the night with her favorite cartoon, Curious George, and that was that as they say.

Happy Hallowe'en

Sorry for the lack of action around here. Been busy with the 'Haps story and obviously can't post that stuff. (Page 6 is done and dusted. Have maybe 2 hours left on the cover.) Sure I could've drawn something in my spare time, but there's been a lot of video games out, too, which have gobbled up those minutes. Plus, there's Lilah.

Speaking of Lilah...this'll be her first real Hallowe'en and she's attending her third such party today at school. Last night to get ready for the Creepy Evening we decided to carve up the pumpkins on our front step. Nothing fancy. I just took a knife and attacked one. Turned out okay for not drawing first. (I'll post a snap later when it's dark and I can take a shot.)

While carving Lilah took great interest in what was going on. This is a snapshot of what happened in the 10 minutes it took to carve up ol' Jack O' Lantern:


Lilah: "I say, father, this strange piece of fruit sure looks orange and delicious. May I sample it?"


Me: "Lilah, you really don't want to do that, honey."

Lilah: "Pish-posh, father. You're such a wet blanket. Variety is the spice of life as they say..."


Lilah: "Zounds, father! This victual tastes wholly unappetizing. I fear I may regurgitate. Thankfully, licking this chair has settled my quarrelsome stomach."

Me: "Told you so."



Lilah: "I shall never doubt you again, father. Your word is gospel."

Dolemite mutha@#&*%!

I was just informed that Rudy Ray Moore has passed. Glad I'm wearing black today. Damn.

The Anniversary Weekend

Angie and headed off to Charolettesville and Afton on Saturday for an extended weekend to celebrate our third anniversary. (My parents were kind enough to watch wee Lilah for us.) Our first night was spent in Charolettesville since all the B&Bs were booked, but that was okay since we hadn’t had Mellow Mushroom pizza in a long ol’ time and there’s plenty of used bookstores in the downtown strip. (Though the comic shop is now gone.) The Super 8 we stayed at we lackluster, but they had the Sci-Fi channel and a great Mexican restaurant across the street. Rested, we woke up and hit Monticello.


I'd never been to Monticello before, which was rather surprising as my parents constantly dragged us to such places as kids, so it was nice to see something like this with an adult eye. Jefferson was an enlightened soul, but had a few backward ways, especially when dealing with his slaves. For a short tour you gleaned a lot of knowledge about the man and the times. Not sure if it was worth $15 a person, but I'm still glad we went.

After that we headed towards the B&B in Afton, though we stopped at King Family Vineyards first. Angie had been there for her bachelorette excursion three years prior and loved the place as well as its wines. We ran through their wares, grabbed some lunch grub from their fridge and oven and proceeded to eat, drink and take in the gorgeous view. (Sorry, I don't have any pics of the place.) Half a bottle of Cab Franc later, we packed up headed over to Veritas.

Veritas was jam-packed, so after a few minutes of waiting we decided to come back the next day. We'd passed a brewery on the way over, so luckily we said, "Let's got check it out." I say "luckily" because en route we found out that the brewery is closed on Monday and they didn't open until 4pm on Tuesday. I would've been one sad camper. Blue Ridge Brewery is an island of beer in a sea of wine according to the tagline on their door and I'd have to agree with them. Angie and I struck up a conversation with the bartendress and enjoyed ourselves so much that we went back after dinner that night.

We checked into our B&B shortly thereafter (Afton Mountain B&B) and set up camp, crashed and woke up for apricot stuffed French Toast in the morning. To offset all the wine we'd soon be drinking Angie and I headed to Crabtree Falls for a hike. I kept calling it Cascade Falls because I thought it a more appropriate name. What follows are a series of pictures I took before our camera battery died. (I charged the other battery, but forgot it at home.)


There was a Santa Claus looking guy sitting on a nearby bench meditating at the base fall.


The next cascade up was my favorite. Kinda wish I had a sound chip of the falling water to include.


A close up of the second cascade. Love this pic.


Almost to the top.



And finally the view from the top. Shortly after we took this picture a VTOL aircraft went roaring through the valley. Was a bit unsettling.

From there we headed to Veritas and were the only people in the place, which was very nice after the madhouse of yesterday. After sampling and purchasing their wares our stomachs took us to Greenwood Grocery for some of the best sandwiches we've had in a while. (Angie got the Chester and I got the Italian.) We drove like crazy to Pollack Vineyards, so we could sample and get down to eating those lovely sandwiches. Pollack (Everyone hearts Casey!) had tables set up on their patio, so we settled down with a bottle of Vig and took in the sights and grub.

Feeling heady with wine and food we ran back to the B&B to drop off our purchases as not to have them spoil in the heat of the car. More wineries were calling our names, so off to Cardinal Point we went. (The nice thing about Afton/Nelson County is that all these places are within spitting distance of each other.) Another round of samples and an introduction to Obie the Winery Cat found us on our way to Afton Mountain Vineyard. Four vineyards in one day was more than ample, especially after our hike. We took our latest purchases back to the room, Angie napped and I went out for a pizza. We crashed, got up for pumpkin pancakes, hit a farmer's market and headed home to Lilah.

A good time was had by us both and it was extremely hard to come back to the city. We looking to head back for a daytrip with Lilah to hunt up a pumpkin for carving and to score some more Blue Ridge beer (we don't need any wine after all we bought this weekend).

In the interim...

As I've been busy with page four and other sundry drawings I figured I'd post this as I don't really have anything else to really show. Kinda like the exclamation point Matt and I received. Page four has been fun so far. Using more quills than marker this time 'round for a more old school look and feel.

Also, played through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. A fun game, but the camera was a little wonky and it didn't really rate a replay. The Force powers are a blast at first, but get very repetitious along with the button combos for taking out mini-bosses and whatnot. If you're a Gamefly member, it's worth a rental, but I can't see dropping $60. (My mistake is your gain.) You could always wait for it do drop in price or try to find the copy I traded in.

Page 2 inks

This has been done since Wednesday (Page 3, too!), but I caught a nasty chest cold/sore throat combination right after that hampered my posting. I think I'll have Matt rescan it as I have to piecemeal the page together and my scanner isn't the greatest to begin with. After that some clean up and we'll be passing it along to Craig and Todd.

Assignment 3 Critique

Joe Kubert makes it look so darn easy. Almost hurts my feelings. Well, maybe it does hurt my feeling just a little bit. He pulls no punches, but that's why I'm taking the course. He's a fount of knowledge and I'd do well to listen to what he has to say. So listen up, people, Uncle Joe is speaking.

Also,I sent a copy of 'Haps #1 with this assignment, hence Mr. Kubert's first comment on the page.

Also also, thanks to everyone on Renfield. Your words were very much appreciated.

Renfield

Today our sick, little kitteh enters the clearing at the end of the path. That's all I got. (Except that's a very young Lilah doing her best Popeye impersonation while drooling on Angie's shoulder.)

Uno inks

Busy at work, so I'll write something later. In the meantime here's the inks for Matt's first page of our 'Haps story.

"It's like, how much more black could this be?"

"And the answer is none. None more black."

I now return to the 'Haps.

First post of August...

And it only took me three weeks in to do it. A lot going on in the world of the Leafs. Most good, a little bad and some down right rotten. (The rotten being a very sick Renfield, one of our cats.) We're keeping our spirits up and enjoying every day.

Read my horde from the comic shop and couldn't sleep. I blame Doug TenNapel for being such an inspiration. Bought EARTHBOY JACOBUS today and couldn't put it down once I started. I know I've gone on about his work before, but Crom can that man tell a tale. Great stuff as usual and wholly inspiring. Kinda bummed that the glue holding the cover gave out though. Anyway, I messed around a little with this page earlier tonight, but wasn't feeling it and I really wanted to finish it. Mainly to loosen up my drawing hand and arm for some inking. After reading EARTHBOY I just had to finish, so here's the latest assignment for the Kubert course. You've seen the top left and right panel before and I put a little ink of them testing a new brush awhile ago. The middle-top and bottom panel are the newy new stuff. Gonna sling some ink on it tomorrow night and get the ball rolling. Okay, it's late and I'm starting to finally cool off. Peace out!