Two work demos from the same sketch. Another Rembrandt (I really like his self portraits.) One I tried to make more relevant, whatever that means by working his image into something that look spray painted. The other one is just a quick, messy interpretation. I like both for different reasons and managed to get both done in under an hour. Don't know that there will be a lot more of these work demos; I was recently told that a lot of the stuff I do isn't as 'catchy,' or 'relevant' to the customers. Another coworker, who is very nice and young apparently can really 'work the crowd,' though I think what she does is draw dogs and cats. Which is fine. I don't think that really shows the range of the iPad but if that's what they want, I'll let her do it. Bitter? Only a little.

Haven't been doing many work demos lately and, if I have to be honest, I'm getting a little bored doing them. While I really like it when folks come over and I can talk to them about making art on the iPad, I often am at a loss as to what to draw. I can't really do MY work because, well, that's not the time for it. Hadn't done a Rembrandt in awhile, and he's always a challenge. So I found a self portrait of his I liked and worked on that. You can't really replicate the painting because there's so much texture in his paint. The best you can do is approximate. I didn't get nearly the richness of color I wanted, but we're still talking less than an hour. The second one came because I was feeling done with the first and wanted to go in a different direction. It was fun and if it were a real painting, it would make me smile. I haven't messed about with the primaries in too long. That used to be my thing. We all branch out.

And the other, other thing I got done today was see the podcast that my friend Max and I have been working on for a couple months finally go public. It's just a podcast where two old friends talk about movies, but we do have a structure and there is an overall plan to this. We take a few episodes to really get things smoothed out, but I like us. If you're interested in listening to or downloading episodes, they'll be made available here, weekly.

One of the other things I managed to get done today was to finish and post the PDF of the second track to my Gumroad store. In a way, I don't know why I bother as no one downloads it. Every once in awhile, someone downloads Harlon or Tamino though I have no idea where they got a link from. Still, I want to be consistent. Here is where you can get it for free.

Pages 51-53 of City Silent. I got a lot of use out of that background. It gives me a slight pause between Silas leaving the stage and the spirit of the City descending. Silas isn't meant to actually see it, just record the vision he had. That last page is just a separation between songs, so while it is a page, it's also not a page. Should have the PDF up on Gumroad today, at least that's my goal. Then I have to go and thumbnail the next song. Forward is always good.

Two new t-shirts I had made through RedBubble. I know that no one else will buy them but I really like the shirts they made so who cares? I'm especially fond of the way the skater mouse came out. I can easily see doing a few more this way. Inked on the iPad then dumped into Designer which I can now do as a whole on the iPad.

City Silent page 50. I guess this is a milestone? It's the most pages of any comic I've done since Tamino, excluding "Biograph," which really doesn't count. This is only the end of the third song and there are 24 more to go. Progress has to step up if possible, though this was one of those more complex scene-setting pages and it's been hanging over me for a bit. That being said, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The inking of the background was problematic. My eyesight just isn't up to it any more and I'm going to have to look into one of those magnifying light things. It's depressing, but if it means I can keep going, it's worth it. Otherwise, lots of work with the iPad. Procreate has become my favorite art tool. Funny, Affinity Photo has been out for the iPad for over a year and I never considered it. I think it's too much for what I need. This song has one or two more pages to do and then I can move on, but this is an important moment in the comic as it's the scene from whence the title comes. Silas has had a vision to paint a falling star and the spirit of the city landing. That's about to be exactly what happens. That's his muse. It's departing the scene. Well, it's important to ME anyway.

I recently went through the PDF of the second song, the last one I released and I was pretty pleased with it. Though it's even less successful with an audience than Ghiroy at times, and that's saying a lot, I think I achieve actual beauty here and there. That's what keeps me going. I wish there were more people who actually read it and saw something in it. I really do. But in quiet moments by myself, for tiny fractures of time, it makes me happy.

Quickie sketch as I wanted to do something street-ish. Did the sketch in pencil, took a picture of it in Procreate and then used my messiest brushes to ink and color it. Offset the lines at the last minute. Just a bit of fun.

Page 49 of The City Silent. While this one was fairly easy, and re-uses elements from previous pages (why the hell not?), the next or last one for this song is going to be a pain in the ass. Lots of detail background work. Moving along.

Don't know how I missed this one. It's another work demo, this time me trying to make a sort of saturday morning cartoon version of Andy Warhol. iPad as usual.