This is from that OTHER thing I do. It is art related as I have to make graphics for this thing. Editing is something that's cross-discipline. In art, I do it with ink or colors. In video, it's clipping, adding and taking away. This one is a bear as it seems to need more care than most. That being said, I think it's coming out better than most. Since I don't use Final Cut that much, every time I use it, I kind of have to learn it all over again. That being said, as much work as it is, I really do enjoy it.

Because Vince asked, sort of, here's the background of the recent page with no characters. I was pretty happy with it and am a little sorry that so much of it gets covered up. Note that I had to patch over the manhole cover as its placement was right under Howard's nose and it was visually hard to figure out.

Finally had a chance to draw today. First day off in about a week and I haven't had the energy to do anything art-wise. But now I have. This is pretty much exactly what I wanted, the look, the wonkiness, everything. Just getting Howard to the club. As soon as he's on that stage, I can really get to the part I want which is the lyrics. This is just the overture. I think this comic is going to be a lot bigger than I think it will be. Well, what else have I got to do?

Totally forgot to post this as I've been really tired the last few days. Did a little test for page five of the Silas comic. There are two other figures to go into this as well as some background stuff. That being said, this is the general look.

Gah, these damned cityscapes. They're vital to the comic and a real pain in the ass. I'm so much more interested in the figure work for this comic, the smaller settings and stage-like aspects it will have. The upper photo is a screen shot of where I was this morning. I really needed a break because this page, too is becoming a roadblock to the comic moving forward and that's not good. So I wandered off to work on one of the first figures of the story, one view of Howard. Took me 45 minutes from photo shoot to ink. That feels like progress. I might just leave this page til later because it's dragging me down so much. Thing is, when it IS done, I think it'll look pretty decent.

Did this one today at work, and I think it's the most successful of my recent sketches on the iPad. Had a LOT of fun with this one. All I did was lay a photo down, put single lines for where the eyes, nose and mouth were and did everything else freehand. My coworkers are starting to ask me to do them, so I suppose that's a good sign, too.

While my real work hasn't been getting much notice, these sketches I do at work have been. To be fair, I'm copying Dutch masters, so there's reason for that. I've even had some people tentatively approach me about work or some such because of them. I really don't think I'd do well collaborating with someone but the scope of people that have talked to me has been really interesting. The latest was a pair of young men that live and work in downtown Detroit, one of whom is a graphic designer the other was a fashion designer. I have no idea what they thought I might bring to their work but they ended up not contacting me anyway so it doesn't really matter. Still, it's good fun to talk art with just about anyone. Glad I get the chance to make these in public. Still iPad pro, Apple pencil and Pro-create.

Then there's this. Another one of those work-demo things. Took a photo of myself making a face, because that's what I do, and then I drew in Procreate on the iPad. I think I want one.

So, the reaction to my Etsy store was, shall we say, apathetic. I should have known. I do these things and they generally lead nowhere. But at least I can say I did them. This is the first Biography comic I am not posting on social media (this doesn't count because no one reads blogs any more [except you, Vince!]). I hate that I get 'yelled at' for drawing out my feelings on things. I will add the print series to the Etsy store and then, if no orders come in, will let it quietly fade like I have my other stores. On the other hand, I realized only yesterday that I'm actually working on three comics at the same time; Biography, Ghiroy and Silas. And they're all very different from each other. So that's my pat on the back for today.

Finally finished page 2, the roadblock. Just so much to do with this that it was really slowing me down. I hope the others come more quickly. Lots and lots of windows, but I think it gets the feeling I wanted it to have. From here, we move in closer and the city, as a whole shouldn't come up too much more in the comic.

Last night, I set up an Etsy store. I figured I should try and sell some of the huge stacks of original art I have that are just filling drawers, doing no one any good. I could use some extra cash and while I'm generally very attached to my art, there's no real reason to hold onto it if I have decent scans of it. Lots of it is just a part of a final image anyway. So, for anyone reading, here's the link:

Mike's Etsy Store

Managed to squeak in another page of this today. Feels like the story is a little slow, even though it's just 11 pages in. So next will have to come some more action. Or something.

Some more of these, demo drawings I do at work on an iPad Pro. On the one hand, it tickles me that Apple pays me to draw at work. These are things I would not do on my own, at least no before being asked. My fine art stuff seems further away these days, though with the iPad, this sort of thing seems so much easier than it did in the past. I'm just copying, or trying to copy old master paintings so far but it feels as if I'm getting better at it and I'm approaching them as I should any real painting; starting big, whittling down the size of the brush as I go along. They're far from perfect or really done. And one of Vincent is obviously highly stylized. They're fun to do and I get to make and talk about art at work, so it's win win for as long as they let me do it.

A few hours later and there's this. Put a lot of work into this today and I think the background is done. Got to add the figure tomorrow, the mystery cat on the flag pole. That will finish page two. They won't all be like this because I'll never get the comic done. That being said, I feel there have to be establishing shots, something to set the style and place in 'stone.' All those damned windows... Kept the palette simple; copper for the night sky and its opposite blue for the windows. -Might- add some little spots of red on top the antenna or something, might not. I rather like it the way it is.

Work continues on this. I was going to draw this out again, ink it and THEN do the coloring. On a whim I decided to try coloring it as it was and am very glad I did. I like this better. It has that wonkiness I wanted without a LOT of other steps. This page has been a roadblock, stopping the comic nearly dead in its tracks and yet is very necessary. So there you go. And here I go, back to the screen.

Made some progress today. It's slow going. The drawing part will, I hope, come a bit more quickly. Then there will be the coloring. Yah. Not many pages can be this complex.

I AM working on City Silent, it's just that the second page has been a kind of roadblock. I knew I needed/wanted to have a detailed cityscape but that doesn't mean it was going to be easy to draw. And it's not. As it is, this is just a drawing -guide-. I plan to print this out in some other color, dimmed and then ink the final over that. I want the esthetic to match and that means dip pen. The rest of the comic won't be SO bad, but there will be times that setting is important enough for this kind of thing. So, slow going for now.

Another day at work, another chance to make a sketch. This time, it's from a Franz Hals painting. I like his later work a lot as it was rather lively, and he was done trying to paint people as they wanted to be seen and did them more like he saw them. iPad Pro, Pro-Create.