Didn't have a chance to work on the landscape as I was watching this week's movie (oh dear) and writing the script for tomorrow's show. But the portrait of Scott McCloud has been bugging me. Ever since I did the one of Dan, Scott's has been looking pale and improperly colored. So I opened the file, brought up the palette I used on Dan's, made a few changes and got something I think works a lot better. So THIS is the final version. I suppose, until I print them, I can mess with them any time I want. But I really would rather consider things done and move on. Still glad I made this decision.

 This one has been lingering for far too long. To be fair, it's going to be a monster. There's a LOT of detail that will have to be worked out. But if I don't start it at some point, it'll never get done. This will be a painting of Harvard Square, looking out at the Yard as viewed from the tables outside what was Au Bon Pain. It was a chance photo but it really worked well. I knew I wanted to make something for my best friend and this is his favorite place to hang out. I just wasn't sure how to approach it. Now, I think I do. So far, the part I like best is the bricks. The level of detail on the building actually seems too high to me, but we'll see. That's why I do these proof of concepts. The chair might be TOO simple and I might need to do some shading on it. Might be that most everything is 'flat' until items get closer to the viewer. Dunno. That's why I work these things out. Still, there's now some progress.

EDIT: Decided to try a little dimensionality to the chair. All I did was add a simple highlight layer and I think that added quite a bit. This means a little more detail to the bricks that are closest and to the tables that will eventually be there as well. But I think I will still refrain from putting shadows under things. It was an overcast day and there were no harsh shadows anyway and their lack will, I think, add to the image.

 Ok, so I liked. I managed to get in another quick self-portrait (like I need another one of those) before the holidays are over. It's just a quick and dirty, made from a sketch that was in my sketchbook that I hadn't used and had forgotten about. I took a photo on an angle to get some low-fi distortion in it and made some quick and purposefully messy marks to ink it. I wanted to play with some brighter colors, so I thought to make some palettes from Van Gogh paintings. Interesting thing; they're not as brightly colored as one might think. I made one palette from his famous bedroom painting and wasn't satisfied with the choices. So I made another from one of his iris paintings and was happier, but still really surprised that the colors really were more sedate than I thought.

 This is one of those meme things that's big on art sites like Instagram. Art vs. artist, eight images boiled down from whatever you did this year with a photo stuck in the middle. I don't think it really represents what I did this year, though this year was not as productive as most. I only did 9 portraits and 40 some odd pages of the comic, plus some random images here and there. Then again, I'm also in two podcasts (50 episodes of one, likely 20 of the other), I play in two bi-weekly RPGs and I work part time. So I'm pretty damned busy. Even though there wasn't as much work, I'm more happy with it than I was the previous year. Still need to keep branching out, especially on the portraits. I'd like to do some more figurative work, maybe another 3/4 size one instead of just the constant closeups. The comic also needs some visual tightening, which I will do thanks to insight from a couple folks. That all being said, engagement is down overall. Doesn't make me feel very good but I knew that wasn't likely to change. Just have to keep making myself happy, I guess.

 I never really post these video things. Don't know why not. What you can't see here is that I start out using the grid system. The grid is hidden from the video playback. The reason I do this is because it takes a lot more time. Wait, does that make sense? Yes, because it forces me to really pay attention and mentally decipher what I'm looking at, to make a decision of some kind. Tracing will not give you this information or time to think. To the trained eye, you can tell that I do indeed do some tracing near the final drawing, but just of the highlights of the jacket. And then, in the end, I end up dropping them anyway. There's also a different head originally chosen which I do away with. While it seems that the painting stage doesn't take any time at all, that couldn't be further from the truth. I try and make the drawing as solid as possible so I don't have to do as much work when it comes time to paint.

Once I get each layer down, I pop them separately into Supervectorizer so I can change all those nice organic shapes into vectors. This process will simplify and smooth out the original marks some, but that's part of the process and one I often find surprisingly good. Then, it's just a matter of assigning colors. If you look at the upper right corner, you'll see the palette I made just for this image. It was taken from a self-portrait of Rembrandt I particularly liked. And you can also see that in the final image, there are two layers turned off. They're still there but this process allows me to turn layers on and off to see what I like best. Sometimes I do a lot of work on something that I won't even use. That's ok as long as I get where I want to in the end.

 Finally had time to work on and finish this. "Dan Explains" is a portrait of a friend I got together with while in Chicago. We hadn't seen each other in over 25 years so had a lot to talk about. A good deal of that discussion was about gaming, something for which we both have a good deal of passion. I wanted to express some of the energy and passion he showed that night so used three photos to do it; one for the body, one for the hand and one for the face. As can be seen in earlier posts, his expression was one I changed radically as I did this. His response, "My hands are HUGE!" and "...I think it makes me look a little terrified." Ah well, can't win them all. I like it. I think it works. Was very happy to find that AD can make palettes based off images. As I really like Rembrandt's self-portraits, I chose one of them, adjusted the number of colors, added a couple of my own and was able to get those rich browns I love so much. I will likely play with this feature more down the road. Likely, this is the last thing I finish this year. But that's ok. It's all a construct anyway.

EDIT: As is often the case, I turned some layers off to see what I thought of less detail and...I think I like this version  better. Sometimes that's the way it goes; I have to do a lot of extra work which won't show to get where I want to. But this one feels less fussy, and more like the 'cut paper' style I was originally going for. So, there's that.

 Have to go to work soon but had time to work on this. I decided that the head pose I had was too dour and wasn't really expressing what I wanted. Luckily, I took a burst of 59 photos before Dan figured out what I was doing. So now I'm referencing three photos to make this one image; one for the head, one for the body and one for the hand.. So far, it's doing what I want it to do. The jacket looks a mess right now but that's ok as the lines and shading are only meant to be a guide for the painting to come. So far, I'm happy with it. We'll see what Dan thinks when it's done.

 Been away to Chicago this time. Traveling is over til February so it's just the holidays that will get in the way of making any kind of art. I've done damned few portraits this year, which is odd, but there you go. While in Chicago, I met up with an old friend, one I haven't seen in 25 or so years. We had a nice talk with drinks and of course I took some reference photos while we talked. Or he talked. Had some time tonight to get started on the portrait in question. This is as far as I got so far.

 And...it's done. Once I get the greyscale down, color doesn't usually take much time. Now to send it off to Scott and see what he thinks.

 I've set aside the Johnny Vegas portrait as I think the pose just isn't working for me. I need something a little more "Johnny." That being said, I got to spend some time with an old friend, Scott McLeod (McCloud is the popular spelling) while away in Cali. I got to sit down with him over some Bubba Gump and have him talk to me, in depth, about "City Silent." I couldn't resist snapping some quiet reference photos as Scott was in full explanation mode, being totally himself. That's what I want in my portraits. He's so gestural I was tempted to add some other, disembodied hands to imply more action. When I did, it looked more like people reaching in from the side and wasn't doing anything to really help. My partner pointed out, too that the foreshortened hand up front was doing enough action on its own. The top is the image in greyscale that's headed to the vectorizer and color. The bottom is the pencil drawing, all done on the iPad using the grid system. He's a tough face to capture as I don't want to make him look too old, and there are certain, important lines that make his eyes look a little sad. I've been told he looks more studious than old, which is what I'm going for. Final to come. And then a likely break from art as I'm off to Chicago middle of next week. It's a busy season.

 Finally had a day off and had time to play with this. One of the things I learned from my time with Scott was how many times I was visually de-emphasizing Silas, which is certainly an odd thing to do. So here, I made sure that he was the brightest part of the little promo image. Moving forward, I will have to make sure that his 'actual' color is really not a thing. This is a fantasy and hell, he's never even shown black, so why not purple? As usual, pencil, Procreate, Affinity Designer.

 Went on vacation so didn't draw anything for a couple weeks. Did this when I got back. Just a simple sketch but it was fun to do and I should at least ink it. We'll see. Also got some great feedback on the comic from a VERY high end source, Scott McCloud, who's been a friend for over 30 years but whom I haven't really sought out much before as I felt I would be imposing. Turns out I wasn't and though his critique was harsh, it was good and contained stuff I really need to consider. I WILL be going back and redrawing a bunch of stuff from the first half, but not now. I will instead use what he told me to move ahead.

I also saw an actual, honest-to-goodness opera while I was in L.A., "The Barber of Seville" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, once home to the Oscars between '69 and '94. Great experience and I think, because of that, I really 'get' opera now. And I wasn't far off. Anyway, it's all progress.

 Got some work done on the Johnny Vegas but to me, it's looking so...plain. And the likeness isn't quite there. Feels rather Santa-ish in this set of greys. So I'll have to reconsider and move ahead in some fashion. Might be that I've wrung all I can out of this particular style.

 As I take a break from the comic, I thought I'd do a portrait or two. Was damned lazy today, and I needed it. Hell of a long weekend and thursday, I'm off to the west coast to visit my sister. Still, managed to get a sketch in of Johnny Vegas, a British comedian I happen to like. There's still something not quite right but it's nearly there. A lot will change in the inks.

Did some merch work a few days ago and posted these ne t-shirt designs to my RedBubble store. I don't sell many shirts, which is fine. I'm happy that I wear them. I have samples of all four coming in the mail, all black shirts. We'll see how they look when they come in.

 

 Finally figured out all the controls to get the first half of "The City Silent" available for download on my Gumroad store. I wish it could have been free but it was above their minimum file size for that. So we'll see if anyone downloads/buys it. Having gone through it, I honestly think it holds together, makes sense and is, in some moments, even beautiful. But that's me. I do not regret one moment I've spent on this project. I only wish I was tackling it more quickly. Still, progress, always progress.

 I redid the cover for the comic so there was something different for this release. It is not the final cover for the whole comic. That will change in time. While it doesn't have any of the characters in it, I hope that it's got at least enough to make someone go, "What the hell is this?" A graphic designer I'm not. When it comes time to do the final final, I will go looking into my reference library to put something much more eye catching together.

I did manage to get the pdf finished today as well. Pain in the ass especially as I resized the images for the last 65 pages to the wrong dpi. Didn't take too long to fix and allowed me to go through the pages one more time. And I love them. Are they a masterpiece? Perfect? No, but they're mine and they make me happy. They represent the best I am capable of at this time. Now all I have to do is finish it. Heh.

I didn't feel like stitching them all together but these are the grid shots for all of the first half. Man, doesn't LOOK like 174 pages or six years' worth of work, but there you are. It's kind of fun to see the colors start out kind of dark, a little dour and then have them pop when the mice show up. The greens of Howard echo, which is good. All in all, I'm happy with it. There's some real fun in there and some pages of which I'm pretty proud. Here's to another 200 pages to come!
 

 And with that, I've updated all the pages I think I need to update. Silas is there but doesn't stand out too much. There's no need to insert him into Zippa's song as his hand crumples the last flyer, implying that he was following along. Now the tedious task of going through, re-exporting all the act 2 pages that haven't been done without the copyright notices and then finally shoving the whole thing into one document so that I can release the first half.

 So here's the one page "corrected" to have Silas in the background. I think he actually makes a nice counterpoint to Digby, who is also watching the mice below.

 While there was no new work today, there was a good deal of time spent fixing the pages of the last section. 12 pages and I had to mess around with almost all of them. There were little issues, like shadows missing from four of them, colors being off on the mic in three of them, and other miscellaneous issues. Now, they're ready. I've also identified where I can insert Silas in earlier parts of the act so that he appears in all of it and so that his inner monologue will make a little more sense. That wasn't easy; those pages with the mice and Digby are PACKED. I think there's a couple places that will work and that's really all I'll need. Might do one big once over after that but I think the pages were proofed when I finished each track. And of all the tracks in Act 2, those early ones were the least consistent on purpose.

 Somehow, I managed to get another page done after work and before hanging out online with a friend. A little closer to the end of act 2.

 Well, THIS never happens. I got two pages done today. To be fair, the second one wasn't all that challenging. But this does bring the lyrics to an end. There will be a couple pages left, Howard leaving the stage, etc and then I will be done with the first half. Feels like progress.

 I did manage to finish this yesterday but didn't post. I had to redraw the head as it just wasn't working for me. Other than that, the page came together pretty easily. One more verse and one more coda page, possibly one of Howard walking off stage and this section will be done. Luckily, they're easy pages to do.

EDIT: Oops. I'd forgotten the mic. Easy fix.

 Things are looking a little weird so far, but I won't adjust anything until I get some more color done. Just some quick stuff in while doing everything else and, honestly, resting.

 Finally figured out how I was doing the background and what I screwed up so I could finish this page. That and I finally had a day off to chill, do some (late) sound editing, listen to records and this. The intermission is about 2/3 done and I'll try and start the next page today as well. Really want to get this section up so I can oversee the whole first half. Stylistic changes are huge, moreso than any other comic. And I think I'm ok with that. And I might even have ideas on how to start the next section at least stylistically. I've been thinking about a much looser approach, leaning on contour drawing, something at which I'm not too bad and which will bring a different feel and flow. But, we'll see. That's a ways off.

 Made a little bit of progress tonight, but it was a long day at work and a late arrival at home. It is what it is. Still struggling to figure out exactly what I did in the previous pages.

 Just back from vacation in Boston. Managed, between chores, to at least start the next page. Doesn't look like much here, but at least I made a go. More later.

 I wanted to get more intimate for the 'refrain,' which made this page easy to do. As such, I got two pages done today which never happens. I think it works well and gives a little break from the same angle of the other pages in this section.

 Got page 168 done. Dear gods, the layers and their interactions for the background might not look like much but I had to ponder for over a half hour trying to figure out just what the hell I'd done so I could keep the look consistent. Trying to be fancy, that's my problem. Still, I'm about halfway through the intermission and I think it will actually encapsulate the meaning behind the whole first half. Good for me. I wrote the lyrics over 6 years ago at this point, so I'm going on trust that I had half an idea what I wanted to do. Seems I did.

 Got a little start on the next page. Playing again with a bit of warping, nothing too extreme. The head was done freehand from a ref photo, the rest is me. Pretty happy with it so far, will try and get the page done tomorrow before I head off for home. Because when I'm away, I don't do art at all, though I will be looking to take more reference photos.

 Finished 167 easily enough. Looking at the four pages from this section, I think they're going pretty well and do echo the opening of the comic, as I wanted them to. Might or might not have a chance to work on the next page today. After that, forget it as the weekend is already shot. Progress.

 Got started on a page today and it's going well. It just needs the text which shouldn't take long. I'll have time to finish it tomorrow and maybe start on the next. Then, it's launch weekend for the next stupid phone. I am so over retail. Every time I go to work it's, "just have to get through this..." Drives me insane. But I still get real work done here and there.

 A little work yesterday, this morning and after work got this page done. The intermission's lyrics are a little longer than I thought, but totally vital. They more or less explain what's going on in the whole act. There won't be a ton of pages and the background's not going to change so I should be able to knock these out relatively quickly. Except I'll be going to Boston in a week and a half and all work will come to a stop at that point. Moving on while I can.

 Got these two done today. They were easy for obvious reasons. Howard enters, is about to do his bit for the intermission. This section will just be him in front of the curtain to, again, reinforce the idea of the comic as a stage show. I think, for the final final, Howard will be back in the coffee house. This section should come together fairly easily. We shall see.