Yup, the bunny stuff just doesn't get a lot of hits. My partner says it's because I've been diddling around with the designs for so long and producing no actual comics that people are tired of that. I'd agree with him except for the fact that I see lots of other people do the same thing, posting either the same character in similar poses over and over or even just doing the usual pinup and they still get notice. At some point, it has to be me. I accept that. The flipside of this is that what I'm doing now really makes me happy. I like looking at my own work. This goes against most of my life where I struggled to be able to even look at it, never mind appreciate it. So, I stopped posting work in places that didn't seem to care. And doing comics like this one I think are unhealthy. At some point, if I haven't passed that point already, I might start making this kind of comic, me being miserable on purpose just for attention. And that cannot be healthy. So I should probably stop doing Bio, too. Or just not focus so much on the negative. Or something.

Morning warmup, just doing another image of young Sharp. Will start plotting the short story with him and Adrian today. He's a determined little bugger.

Ok, I know this is going to seem like "Delve Deep Babies," but it isn't. My partner suggested that, until I'm ready to do the full comic, I might want to do a short story just to generate some interest. For each of the main characters, I did this "ask them 100 questions" thing so I could better flesh them out and it turns out I wrote about an incident when Sharp was little that would work well for this assignment. So, I designed a little Sharp and his brother, Adrian.

Just messing about with more tree styles. I like the tall, spindly pines. Stars, however, are a pain in the ass.

Morning warmup drawing more trees. These are kind of habit forming. For a final, I'd do some editing here and there but I just wanted to extend the style a little bit. Kept this one more centered on one color and as such I think it has a kind of dreamy quality. Started with one green and just adjusted the color from there.

Played about some more with tree design tonight, opting to use the Yiynova with Illustrator to get a more organic feel to the forest. I think this will work out better in the long run as the lines are automatically smoother with the tablet.

Well, didn't get the Nickelodeon gig I was really hoping for. That was a blow though not a big surprise. Have to keep moving. So before work, I did this quickie tableau with Sharp and one of the new monsters. I think they're going to work out well. Also, mono-chromatic backgrounds should not be overlooked. I need to coordinate my colors a bit better, pay attention more to mood. I think this forest has a good deal of creepiness to it. Also helps to make the characters pop.

Worked on some monster designs for the bunnies today. You need monsters if you're going to do anything like a D+D comic. These might be too creepy. Then again, maybe not. I think they look good and icky. Totally changed the color scheme which I think helps a lot. The original versions were green. It all comes down to being inspired by the color palette I choose.

Just some morning warmup with the rabbits. Trying to add more contour to the shape of the heads. Been looking in at some more blogs of pros, trying to learn what I can. Otherwise, I've been working on a small commission which I can't post yet.

EDIT: Here's a color version of the above.

Morning warm up. Used a little Jack Kirby for inspiration and went from there. Trying to make the characters more action-y. Not sure that I want to use sound effects like this in the comic, but you never know.

Made a new one of these for Armand then re-worked all the others into little promo-posters just for fun. Now all I have to do is make the damned comic. I'm especially happy with Armand's face, Flick's pose, Sharp's build and Benny's pose. Pushing, pushing, pushing.

Another quickie for the morning. Trying again to add a lot more gesture and energy to the poses. Haven't done a lot with Benny, and I really should. He's the thief of the group and as such will be the most physically expressive, I think. At least there's a lot of room for this and a lot of opportunity to really push my usual drawing skills. I have no idea what he's try to stab; perhaps he's just looking to slice a coin pouch string. Wouldn't be a bit surprised.

Another adaptation of a baseball swing for sword practice. I'm sure the fencing enthusiasts (if any actually ever see the comic) would have my nuts for this kind of thing but I really like the parallel of these two things. Sharp is meant to be good with the sword, but not some kind of graceful expert. Lost a little kinetic energy in this one; it's a little less cartoony, too close to the original ref. That's a problem I constantly struggle with. Moving on.

Saw some really inspirational work from an animation pro online and realize, not for the first or last time that I need to work on my poses/gestures. So I did this pose again, trying to get it better. I think I succeeded. This is just Flick, frightened, casting a spell at some monster off screen.

This is a morning warm up, a quick mock up of the boys adventuring in the forest. Just trying to get a feel for my backgrounds. I received a copy of a collection of UPA cartoons in the mail yesterday and they have indeed been inspiring me (not that this is the first time). I may try some texture on the trees but when I tried it on one, it looked like it was just adding busy lines instead of really adding to the image. I tried really hard not to have anything in this image be the 'proper' color, to force myself to think outside the norm. And it works, I think.

Beefed up my main character and made the pose a little more aggressive. I think it's too angular for what I want but it has a lot going for it. Poke poke, prod prod.

A quickie before bed. Watched a video on character design from a pro and tried to add a bit more shoulder to Sharp. This is just a quick attempt at that. I think it's worth expanding his build a little bit. I still want him young, not totally formed, but the spaghetti build should stick with Benny.

Doing a little more stuff with this style. This time, I referenced an old Marvel western comic for the pose. Poses are still sometimes one of my weaknesses. I'm so used to thinking flatly that I often don't get creative enough with posing. This retains the cartooniness of the style while adding a bit of seriousness as well.

Sharp adventuring

Felt inspired to do another one of these before work. This time I planned out the background a bit along with the figure. It's just Sharp wandering off into adventure, but I think it gives a good overall feel of what I'd like to do.

Sharp, again

Another little diversion from tonight. Went and saw, "Monsters University," and came home just wanting to draw something. The bunnies are the closest thing I've made to being something commercially viable. I haven't actually -made- the comic yet as I've been experimenting ad nauseum on the designs. Well, this, coupled with a style from the old UPA cartoons for backgrounds is, I think, it. I tend to make things too complicated, too 'deep,' too steeped in the idea of being some big THING. The bunnies were supposed to just be a fun little D+D comic and I've let that get out of control. There's nothing wrong with a little fun, and I think the bunnies would be best being just that. To that end, might as well keep the designs simple as well, something smooth and flowing without unnecessary detail. This pose was taken from a pitcher about to throw. I equate Sharp with baseball a lot. I think he swings his sword not as a master fencer but more like a jock. Blah blah. Anyway, there it is.

More Joe

Had to change the layout of my blog after seven years as, for whatever reason, Blogspot was refusing to upload my images the way it's been doing so for all this time. Couldn't figure out how to change it as nothing seemed to work. So the hell with it. Anyway, took the Joe experiment from earlier a little further and reproduced one of the pages of a short story with him in this style. Fun to do, don't think I'll do more with it. At the very least, it's good to use the brush every so often.

Manga Joe

Took a break from other things and styles yesterday as I came across some images from 60s manga and decided to play around with them a bit. Because of the big eyebrows, I decided that Joe Flash would be a good character to adapt. So I did. It's fun to see how someone else approaches a given subject, how the abstraction changes from place to place. This era of manga has a more 'Mickey Mouse' approach to it than current day stuff. By that I mean that you couldn't really rotate the head logically, that some details are drawn utterly differently than they would appear from other angles (such as Mickey's ears) based on aesthetic rather than spacial concerns. For me, this is often a hard step to master as I'm so used to trying to make designs work three dimensionally, to make visual sense. The Mickey approach is fun, too and is far more abstract than the usual. Tamino was like this. Lucco wasn't. Anyway, just an excuse to push in a different direction for a moment. Moving on.

Tamino the Cat

Well, it's finally up and ready for the world. My graphic novel, "The City Dreams of Tamino the Cat" is up and live at the iTunes bookstore. For now, it's only available there for the iPad via iTunes. Until I learn yet another format, that's where it is. I've heard bad things about making things for the Kindle, but that's likely the next stop. I put a lot of work into this and I'm rather proud of it. It's my favorite of my completed comic projects. I will be the first to admit that it's not an easy read at all. It won't be for everyone. Might not be for anyone but it is what it is, and it's what I want it to be. So have a look. And thank you. The City Dreams of Tamino the Cat

Austin America

Another auto image, this time the less iconic, but more personal Austin America. This was our family car for most of the time I was growing up. My sister and I nicknamed it the Awful Awful though really I don't remember it being that terrible. Well, maybe it did break down a bit. I think my mom hated it. I'll have to ask her. Would I drive one today? I'd take the chance for a ride, that's for sure. Nostalgia is a powerful force. Ink, Illustrator.