This one was a real quickie. I only had about a half hour to demo this. It's going to be Dali. Might have a chance to finish it later. It's a start.

One of the other other things I do. I am one of those looneys that wanders around local RenFaires in costume. My partner and I are orcs because the bad guys have more fun. And we do. We get stopped constantly for photos. My partner has a goody bag with little shiny things for the kids brave enough to come up and get their photo taken. There's also the selection of drunks that are just like, "Whoa, bro! Can I get a (vomit) picture?" That's not fair; no one s puked on us and the reactions we get are 99.99% positive, complimentary and sometimes even lucrative. Takes a LOT out of me; this is a younger man's game. That being said, I do love to go, my partner even more so. Just wish the fairs were in cooler weather...

Latest demo at work. It's meant to be Picasso. The likeness is off, but since I have less than an hour to do these things, I can give myself a little break on that. Would definitely have worked on that had I more time. That being said, I like this a lot better than I thought I was going to. Sometimes the final touches mean the most. iPad Pro, Procreate. Plus it makes movies without me having to tell it to!

Been a lazy bastard. Just wasn't in the mood to draw today even though it was a great day to do so. Likely, tomorrow, when I'm working, I'll wish I was home drawing. So it goes. I have learned that trying to force something when I am not in the mood generally leads to nothing good. Still, late tonight I did some quick and dirty sketches of a Thompson's who will likely be a background character for like one page of City Silent. Trying not to be TOO lazy with that, either. Thought about just having silhouettes in the club shot but that is too lazy even for me. Damn, this comic is kicking my ass. But I want it to be something special.

New page of Ghiroy. As I've gone along, I've thought about this comic as more "D+D meets Scooby-Doo." It's meant to be fun, somewhat light hearted with moments of drama. To that end, starting with the next page, I'll have someone new on board the plotting team, my long-time GM and best buddy, Max Levine. He's already given me a great new direction for this little sequence. He bounced an idea off me, I tweaked it a little and will now run with it. This marks the first time I've ever really worked with someone else on one of my long term projects. I think it will go pretty well and that his help with make the comic a bit more attractive to a wider audience. Because right now, the audience is about five people and that might be overestimating.

So I did this today, changing up the subject matter of my demos at work. It was actually rather fun though Van Gogh is a really hard thing to choose as his style is SO hard to replicate. As the video shows, I had to get even more painterly as I went along to get something remotely close to his image. And I ran out of time. Only had about an hour. Still iPad pro, still Procreate.

Finally, another page of this done. I've been dragging my feet even though I'm dying to see this project finished. I really believe in the story and I'm really happy with the songs (though I realize I have maybe one more to write). There's been a lot of work done on it already but it's the backgrounds that are killing me to some extent. That first cityscape, the next which is still only half done and a shot that comes after that are all rather labor intensive. I'm glad I chose to skip them and move on or I'd still be doing them. Eventually, we'll get to the singing part, after one more page, I think. Howard has to get to the stage.

I guess I'm trying to do two different things with this elongated opening sequence; show the heights and depths, from the city's spirit to the streets and even below and I'm trying to introduce the eventual style of the comic a little more slowly than usual. I want things to be a bit chaotic, a bit cubist and I don't want the colors to exactly fit the lines. It's something I've done before and maybe it's a turn off for some readers. This way, it's a little more subtle. Don't know if it will matter or not. Feels right.

This page is pretty simple and nothing much happens in it. And I'm still pretty happy with it. It's one that could easily have not worked at all though I think it came together rather well. The main figure being a silhouette was a last moment decision and I think it works, making a bridge from one area of the image to another. Bricks, though. Love the way they look, hate drawing them.

Had time I wasn't expecting tonight so did another quick sketch/portrait. This time, it's Neil Gaiman, done from one of his publicity photos as I don't have any of my own. Interesting to me is how this brush makes things look just a little out of focus. I can't tell if I should spend more time or less time doing these. This one, too was done with a bit of whiskey. :"D

Did this one quickly today (about 45 minutes start to finish). Don't think it's as good as the Warhol and I wasn't going to post it but I was watching some documentaries on artists (home sick) and I realized that some of the work they probably didn't like might still have some value in it. That being said, I don't hate this, I just don't think it's as good as it could be. I still like parts of it, and doing these at all is good for me. At the very least, it gets me to use the brushes I buy for PS on a regular basis.

Watched a couple of short painting documentaries tonight and got in the mood to paint. I don't really paint all that much any more, partially because it's a pain to drag all the stuff out, partially because the last few attempts haven't been very satisfying. Now that I've fixed my tablet monitor (the pen died), I've been poking at all those real media brushes I've bought for PS. I've had a few photos chosen for portrait demos at work. This was one was a famous photo of Warhol by Richard Avedon. It's very honest and in your face, and it's very Andy as well. Still don't know how I feel about Warhol, but he makes a decent subject. I guess this counts as a 'speed painting' as I kept it under an hour, start to finish. Sadly, this is how my painting happens; either it works, all at once or it doesn't work at all. Continuous poking at a painting just leads to a muddy mess for me. Oh, well. I was fairly happy with this one, making sure to stop before I thought it was really done. I've heard that's a key to keep from overworking something.

Little promo posters of the three main characters of the Ghiroy comic. Just for fun, mostly, or a website if I ever get around to doing one.

Reworked the lettering on this page as it's been driving me nuts since I posted it. Had to be done some time.

Had to rework this image as I noticed the fog on this page and the last were nearly identical. Also brought the little things in the upper corner forward to add some depth. This also allowed me to highlight the faces a little better. Moving on...

A cartooning friend asked people to do fill in strips as he went on vacation. I offered, he accepted. I did some quick and dirty character design, as shown on those top two images and then went right into the comic. I am not someone who can do a daily strip though I wish I were. Those people have a special set of skills matched with dedication. So for me, it was a fun bit of play for just one day. The comics can be found HERE.

New page. Wasn't sure how to approach this one. Originally, there was meant to be a body in the lower right corner of the last page but I couldn't figure out how to depict it. So I put Francesca back into the composition. This meant that I needed to show all three proposed bodies together. Somehow, this just came together and I had no trouble with the figures. There is a lot more playing about with transparency and gradients here, but I don't think it will make things stand out TOO much. And this page is meant to be a kind of visual 'stop,' a more serious point in what's otherwise a pretty cartoony comic.

Lately, I've been thinking this comic isn't just a mash-up of D+D and graffiti, there's a good deal of Scooby-Doo in here as well. And that's fine.

Another of these work sketches along with the little process video that Procreate makes for you along the way. Don't think I got his appearance down very well, but I like how the sketch itself came out. For some reason, I feel a lot more at home with the pencil tool than paint brushes so far at this point. Considering I'm doing this in the middle of a busy store with less than an hour to draw, I think it came out ok.

Playing about a bit with the Ghiroy formula. First was the nose. Haven't been satisfied with the noses in the comic though I don't want to get a lot more complex there. Just a little. Also made Crow's head a little less square. The other one had me playing with keeping to the pencil lines a lot more closely, come what may to see if I liked a more organic feeling overall. Not sure that I do, though I think the minor updates to the noses will help a bit. Little things here and there.

Another page of this down. Was going to have a skeleton in the bottom right but decided that not only was I leaving Fran out I was lessening the impact of what's coming next by previewing it in this way. So I put her back in and added an odd little Star Trek ref as a kind of exclamation. Not my favorite episode at all but it sounds like something a mage would say. So there it is. For the most part, I can do these pages from start to finish in one day, which keeps it in the 'fun' range as it should be. Now off to work on a page on the more complex comic.

This is a portrait of Monet I did at work today while demonstrating the iPad and Procreate. The program will keep track of your moves and make a little movie without you even having to ask. So I have that, too. This one was based on a kind of crappy photo of him. One of the cool things about the Impressionists is that they were around during the rise of photography, so there are both images and, sometimes, movies of them painting. Anyway, these are fun to do.