Sneaking in some last posts before the end of the year. Art forgery is one of my favorite subjects. I've read quite a few books on it and have watched a lot of documentaries. Makes me giggle. Almost stopped this at my usual one page but decided to finally branch out and be a bit more inclusive. I think, in general, I've been lazy, trying to fit every thought into one page. Something I should think about when doing future entries.

I am indeed home sick. I've missed two out of the last four holiday seasons for being sick. At least this time I managed to get just through before succumbing. Stupid colds.

Was re-watching a documentary last night, "Cartoon College" about the school in Vermont that has a two year MFA program. It's a good film and makes me want to draw, though it also makes me think of all the people I know in the biz and my large pile of generally unread comics. With Silas coming up, I really need to spend some time in the coming year to get up a new website and to try and get out to some cons to GET people to read them. Also have to look into getting things printed as people want to have stuff to buy. A personal goal, perhaps. Anyway, felt I had to get something done, even if I have zero energy. I think, more than other pages, with this one you can tell that I drew it first and am just filling in the words. I did draw this when I was sick earlier but there really wasn't room for all of what's going through my head. I ought to take these comics more seriously, even if I only do six a year. There's also a growing feeling that I can't use these for repositories of my depression and doubts as people reading them have taken me to task about that. So it might be that I do some pages for this and not post them as I feel the comic should be a place where I can say what I want and not worry about what others are thinking about it. If that's compromised, the whole point of the comic has no point. And hell, I've been doing it for nearly six years now. I actually look forward to changing the style and the color.

Was watching a documentary about Lucian Freud this morning and it had a quote in it which, for me wraps up Tamino into one, neat paragraph: “The promise of happiness is felt in the act of creation but disappears towards the completion of the work. For it is then that the painter realizes that it is only a picture he is painting. Until then, he had almost dared to hope that the picture might spring to life.” If there were a new version of the comic, I think I'd include this in the back. Glad to finally have something that works so well to describe what the hell I was feeling while making it.

Finished, colored version of this. Will likely make a t-shirt of it because why not?

A couple of quickies from the last two days. Worked six in a row, so wasn't drawing anything. That sucks. So the rabbit-thing sorta poked me and I made a couple with him. Trying to make him happier in the face of what could potentially be horrors undreamed of. The second of these might make a t-shirt design. I got the coyote one in the mail yesterday and he looks keen. I don't really mind that I'm the only one that wears my shirts; they ARE expensive, but the wear really well.

I recently ordered a hoodie as a gift for someone from Society6, another printing outfit like RedBubble and I have to say, the material was REALLY thin and the printing wasn't nearly what I was used to with RB. I wish stuff was cheaper, and for all I know, these businesses aren't making much off stuff either. Dunno, but I was surprised at the difference in quality.

A quick sketch as that's all I have energy or time for this last week. Work has been five days straight with one more to go. Then I get four off, but all of them have social engagements. Honestly, I would LOVE to totally disengage from the holidays though I likely never will. One thing about being tired is that I don't have the energy to be tight or wound up, so these sketches have a kind of looseness I wish I had all the time. Quick studies of the rabbit-thing.

Had the need to draw and ink something today so I did this. Felt good, really. There's something soothing about the brush and nice, curvy lines. Used Super Vectorizer and Affinity Designer, never touched AI. Thanks to Vince, managed to figure out one of my little problems. Went together quite quickly. No reason the rabbit-thing can't be happy sometimes. One of these days, I have to give him a name.

Still haven't had much time to draw. It's mostly work and occasional writing. That being said, there are some sketches I've made, breaking in a new pad. Looks like this one will be as eccentric as the last one which is fine by me. Sometimes I just like to draw for the sake of drawing. Stuff isn't very deep but it's enjoyable to do. One of these is a Biography that I didn't finish. Don't remember what I was thinking other than I was home sick. Just as well. I think that comic's getting stale. It needs something more. Barely updated it this year.

I think it's fair to say that, at this point, I'm not going to beat my previous record for posts in a year. That being said, I think I'll beat last year which is something. Stuff keeps getting in the way and, to be fair, a lot of prep work for Silas is in the writing, not drawing. Did manage to sneak this in last week before Black Friday weekend, which, as always, sucked every moment of time out of me. I mean to make this a t-shirt for me to wear, if no one else. Tried to make it initially in Affinity which mostly worked, but the final steps didn't work. Have to look into it more. AI is a little more buggy than it was under El Capitan and I'd really like to leave it behind. I take it as progress as I reached for it first.

Gah, haven't updated in a week, which corresponds to how long it's been since I've drawn anything. There was a VERY busy weekend which involved multiple social gatherings around a wedding. Then there's work and lots of hours there. As it is, there hasn't been a lot of -visual- development in Silas' comic but there's been a lot of writing as it takes less time. It's going to be an opera of sorts with all the text being in the form of lyrics. As such, I have to write songs. I've managed to get through five so far, which covers the first of four sections of the comic. I'm reusing characters from Tamino in this, most notably Silas himself, but others will make an appearance as well. Howard the dog will be the narrator, meant to open the comic with a 'song' that will, hopefully, explain what's going on so I can remain as obtuse as I usually am throughout the body of the thing. I referenced the opening of "Romeo and Juliet" for this at least in the broad idea. So this is a quick redesign sheet for Howard so he'll fit the current style. Not totally down with it yet, but at least pencil touched paper this week.

Keep forgetting to update all the different places. Did this version a day after I'd done the inked version. There's some layers of color in the way I was thinking of doing them but really I'd like to use my tablet monitor to color them. Sadly, it seems not to be working since updated to Sierra. Also, the background's not as wonky as I think I want it to be. Good details, not enough of them and they're too co-planar. Still got to write the songs before I can begin the comic. It's always something.

Last day of Inktober. Did this one even a bit faster than the last one, partially because it's got less detail in it. That being said, I think I finally nailed what I want for the style of the comic. I do love reference but I often get too caught up in its details to really let myself draw. These two both had photos for the background but I tried not to let that dictate the feeling. The city should feel used, broken, dirty. It's as much a character as the folks wandering around. Also found a good use for that Lucco-speak lettering I do; it will provide a contrast to the actual English I use for Silas' songs and as such emphasize it without having to resort to word balloons. Because I've developed an allergy to them. I don't think I can actually bridge that gap where the brain disconnects from the art to read the words but by not circling them and pointing an arrow at them, I can hope that people's eyes wander a bit more than with conventional methods. Also, when coloring these, I think that the blocks need to be a lot more organic, that I used a lot more subtle shade variances so that there's a kind of 'texture' to what's behind. Usually, I leave things pretty flat. This time around, I think I should use Illustrator or Designer in a more painterly fashion. We'll see. It FEELS good in my brain but what does that mean?

Inktober day 29.Silas and the city. Did this all at once, no ref for the figure, used a photo of Boston for the brownstones though I changed a lot. The graffiti is one half of a stanza from one of the songs. Once I color this, I think it represents the final piece of what I was looking for if I do the whole comic. That being said, it's not THAT different from Tamino but enough so that I needed to find what I wanted. Pencil, pen and ink. Could be less messy.

So I know I said I shouldn't do more of this stuff and really, I haven't..well, not much. One of these is from today, the others are from days ago and I'm just scanning and posting them now. That being said, I HAVE been thinking more about this stuff, wondering about adopting the general art deco style stuff for this comic, a 9 panel grid layout and...thinking too much about doing this. Whatever the final decision, here are some more pencil character studies because I haven't come nearly close to designing these characters enough. :P

I need to stop doing this. This comic won't go anywhere and even if I make it, it's using a style that's WAY out of date. Gah. I've been doing more and more research on this style and era and applying it to Ghiroy lately and really, where can it go? Nowhere. I'm re-watching a great documentary on newspaper strips called, "Stripped," and it's making me want to do this comic. And I really shouldn't. I've completed two long form comics, one short form and a collection of short stories as well as a pointless journal comic of over 100 pages and I still don't feel I can call myself a cartoonist. This isn't me asking for answers, I'm just venting likely based on some other crap that's going on in the background.

So there was this thing I went to on saturday... it's a local Halloween masquerade called Theater Bizarre. And it is that. The folks who put it on rent out an eight story Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit and do... this. The few photos I have here don't even cap the iceberg, or whatever. It's Carnivale with that 'demonic' twist, tons of shows going on at all times, music, costumes, burlesque...yah. I did what I could while wearing my 60 pound orc costume to take photos and I wish I had a lot more. You almost couldn't take a bad photo as the colors and eye candy were so amazing on their own. Everyone was behaved, it was a hell of a show and I tromped around for 7 hours only wilting in the last hour. I'm still a bit sore from it all and can't wait to go again next year.

Managed to get this one done on thursday but haven't had time to post. More on this 30s rubber hose style stuff which I still find satisfying in some way. Made me re-watch Pinocchio and Snow White which are past this style but still have some elements to them that are similar. Probably just a diversion. Should it be? Dunno. Ghiroy WAS supposed to be a quick and dirty D+D comic and then became so overblown a thing that it got away from me. Or something. Anyway, this.

VERY busy weekend which I'll get to in the next post. Did the drawing for this on thursday and just had time to ink it before work today. The otter's name is WatrDog and that's Scum next to him. Seems skivvy skating sounds like a keen idea but the otter needs to borrow a board. Scum's not having any of it. Anyway, was speaking with a friend online so managed to nab a scan of the pencil drawing before inking, so there's a before and after, for what that's worth. Inktober is fine and all, but I'm not too energetic about getting the drawings done because I draw with ink all the time. That being said, I think it's a great idea for folks that might not otherwise work with ink to try something new or stretch a little. One friend chose to make this Vectober, doing all her stuff with Illustrator which is fine though that's her normal tool. Should be a month where us analog folks have to do only digital, too I think. Or maybe we all need to sculpt. Or something.

Ink, but not technically inktober. Been playing a lot with this sort of 30s style with the old Ghiroy characters. Don't know why I can't let this one go but I feel there's something of worth here, both in story and style. The more innocent looking style is kind of at odds with the story I suppose but that -might- work in its favor? Certainly makes it easier to draw. I swear, looking at my sketchbook, this one especially, I'm some kind of artistic schizo. Oh well. I've been going through some old animation and comic art to soak this in. Strange to me how the colored version doesn't evoke a feeling of old animation at all, while the black and white kind of does.

Another inktober image. It's not my favorite but I wanted to change things up, so tried this otter dood. I think he'd be over seven feet tall if he stood upright. Adapting an otter to the style of the coyote was hard and not entirely successful. That being said, still glad I did it.

Day 17 of Inktober. I can't possibly do them all as I have this job thing. That being said, I think this is the most inspired of the bunch so far. I see no reason why skating in your skivvies can't be a thing as long as I don't have to do it. Tried not to be too fussy with the ink this time around, so there are times when there's a little dry brush and I'm fine with that.

And then later, I drew this thing. No idea what's wrong with me at this point. :"D

Inktober day 14. Scrawny, ugly rabbit guy because we can't all be pretty. Tried to keep the inking as close to the sketchiness of the pencil lines as possible. While I like my current tip, it doesn't flow over the paper all that well.

The second image is actually from yesterday. I didn't think it was that exciting though it did jolt me out of my 30s cartoon phase. Didn't post it elsewhere and probably won't.

This is a page of me doing character design. Started out of my head, went into some reference based designs and then took it back out again. This is a pretty good illustration of my thought process if read from upper left to lower right (more or less). Eventually, I got something I more or less liked, but as this is just for Inktober, I didn't take it too far. Found it really hard to try and come up with something that looks like it would live in the same world as the recent coyote skateboarders. That might be a weakness of my designs; that I can do one but not a whole line up. Don't know. Don't do it very often. Still, this is about a half hour's worth of work which eventually lead to the next post's image.

As I said, I got stuck in this groove yesterday and couldn't get out of it til late. I can sort of see a value in this style of stuff. It's taken right from a 30s book on learning to draw comics though there's a definite sense of old Tezuka art as well, though nowhere near his level. I never thought of Japanese comics having influence from early Disney stuff, but I think it's very much there. I got lost in this, wondering if there weren't a reason to do the comic in this style and eventually decided that I didn't want to do this, as satisfying as it was to draw. This is as far as it goes. I hope.

My brush fought me on this one. Turns out it needs replacing. Took a different tack on this one and went all toony. Thing is, that mood kept with me all day and it took hours to get it out of my system as the next post will show. Just another inktober image otherwise.

Inktober continues after a little delay because of houseguests. Not really pushing myself too much with these, but I did ink this one a bit differently. Used two different sized brushes and tried holding them further back to be a bit more 'painterly' here. Also used a pen for final, little details. That being said, another coyote, sans skateboard.

More ink, more inktober. I have a thing for skaters it seems.

Been doing foxes so now, for something totally different, I did a coyote. How can you tell the difference? Why, the coloring! This guy's name is Scum because. I don't think he's as 'bad' as he thinks he is. Day four in Inktober. Think I might be able to squeeze one in tomorrow after work and before housework. Then things slow down.

Inktober day 3. Went back to the brush for this one and also changed style. Was trying to use the same ref photos but things were coming out too stiff, so I changed tack quite a bit. It's all good fun though I might miss a day here or there because of various things like work and house guests. Still, worth doing. Hell, I did an entire comic project this way once.

So, Inktober. For those (hey, Vince!) that don't know, Inktober is this internet thing where you're supposed to draw something with REAL INK once a day for the month. It's not like I rarely use ink; it's one of my main tools. I think it was started to make people go back to the basics or something. Thought I might try it this year, though I have house guests coming next week, which will make it hard. Couldn't hurt. I've been drawing these skater foxes lately because why not? When I went to LA a few weeks ago, I took some photos of some skaters at Venice beach and have been making use of those photos since. My foxes are what I call 'mud foots,' or those that have the darker 'socks' and 'gloves.' In my head, there's a prejudice against them for some reason or maybe it's considered more attractive to have red socks or something. Don't know. It's something that entered my mind when I developed Digby awhile back. Dunno what it is about skaters. Sure, I like looking at them but they might represent something which I don't really understand. A kind of freedom? Surprised I haven't made them into mice. Anyway, these are the first two days' worth for Inktober. We'll see how it goes.

Last post for the day. Did this using a photo I took at Venice Beach for reference. Tried to get as far away from the ref from the start as possible. Worked pretty well, but there's no way I won't draw something at least twice because..that's the way I am. There are good things about both versions, I think.