This was a simple bit to do. Obviously used the same page from 137, turned off the layer with Digby in it, added a new one, some new smoke and voila. Might add just a hint of Digby in 138, might not. Otherwise, I am good to move forward.

 So, I managed to get the redo of page 137 finished today. This is meant as a transitional page between the last track and the new one. I think it works. The gig poster really stands out, but Digby, looking a little wasted, is almost part of the background. He's also covering the second poster which will be the second bit of the 'credit' for the coming track.

 I think I got my page numbering messed up. Don't know how I had time to do this after work, especially as it was a later than usual Sunday but I did. Maybe it's because the flyers were already done. I like how this came out. The thing that will connect this style to the rest, I think, will be the characters overlaid with it. There's a page before this that has to be done, with Digby on it. That shouldn't be too hard. But I'm pretty happy with how this came out.

 Took some time to make the flyers today. Luckily the drawings were already done which saved one step. I really wanted these to feel like handmade band posters or something similar, cheaply xeroxed and glued to walls and poles. Though they're big here, this is just one page's worth. That being said, the track itself should go more quickly than most.

 And once again, I am outguessing myself or second guessing or whatever. While I like Zappa's character, I really didn't like the way the last page looked. There was something about it that didn't work for me. Perhaps it was just too far away from the style of the previous page and the rest of the comic. So I had another idea that would allow me to move forward, keep things 'simple' and reuse some of the work I already did. Flyers. As Digby walks out of his part of the story, we see flyers in the background with Zippa on them, singing the song as before but with blocks of text, etc. I would still be using photo backgrounds, dumbed down as I did before, but also trying to keep them as simple as possible. This will add to the 'selling' idea of the song. The process is a little more complex; I have to 'age' the images to make them look like they were both done on a crappy Xerox machine and that they've been out in the world for awhile. I print them out on wrinkled paper then scan them then vectorize. It seems to work pretty well. The above is just a quick paste together of various elements to see if they work. For my money, they work a lot better than the previous versions. I just have to get past this track...

 After long days at work, I often don't have much energy to do anything. But I threw on a record and managed to play with Rembrandt and the turpentine brush in Procreate. A fun enough time, just a little doodle.

 Poking about online, thinking about some early Freud paintings and decided I wanted to get out of my normal mode. This was fun to do. Spent a few hours this morning painting it and an hour or so last night drawing it. That being said, I could totally take this even further. Not sure I have the patience to do so right now but I might come back to it. There's something really satisfying about observational work, looking back and forth, scrutinizing. I'd just have to do it in more sittings, I guess. I blame the modern world and everything but me. :D Still, managed to knock this out and while not flattering, I think it's fun.

 Of course I wandered back into portrait making while working on the comic. This is Joan Blackwell, one of the hosts of "Portrait/Landscape Artist of the Year," one of my favorite tv shows. I wanted the lines for her wrinkles to be there but faded way down so that you could see two different versions of her at the same time. It would be a total bitch to print because of that. It also doesn't work real well on the internet as most people will be looking at it on a small screen and those details will be lost. I took a screen shot of her on a beach, liked the idea and the colors, so went with it. 

 Updated version of this page. It's a little wilder than the last but I did want to get away from the totally literal backgrounds of the last track. I also wanted this one to go a lot quicker. That's the first verse right there. I'm getting a lot of use out of that painting I did a few years ago. Good for me for recycling.

 Forgot to post this last night. Had some time after work so started on the replacement for the last page. This feels more dynamic than the last and, once it has background and proper coloring and text will, I think do a better job. Sometimes it is two steps forward, one step back. And that's ok if it makes a better comic.

 Did this today. And, while it works, it does its job, I don't think it's particularly interesting. So for now, I'm going to leave it, maybe try something else and come back to it before I decide how to proceed. But at least I got something done. Along with the podcast. And the grocery shopping. And the laundry...

 Got this finished today. There was some last minute messing about with the colors as I tried to relate this page more with the one before it. It's still a bit of a stretch, chromatically but I think it works and that added orange gradient ads a sense of depth, too. Regardless, I can move on and do what I hope is a quicker track.

 Only a little work on this tonight as I worked today and had to watch this week's podcast movie and take notes. That being said, I have a redrawn Zippa, a second one and a new color scheme. A little bit of progress.

 First up, current status of page 137. Getting there. The basic layout I'm good with. Not sold on the colors. After I got this far, I decided that I didn't want to start the song here after all. Instead, I'm going to have Digby leaving the scene, walking further to the right til he's off panel at the bottom. Zippa will be mocking him and walking along the graffiti background. The song will start up closer on the next page. I'll like throw up some 'cover' graf so the painting becomes more texture than actual mural. It's from a painting I did a few years ago with house paint on a long canvas. Thought it would work well here.

Also, taking a look back at this year on the blog. I had 139 entries, which was more than '22 but a few less than '21. Which is fine. My best year seems to be 2018 but that's for number of entries, not quality. I've had this blog for over 16 years. Most folks have left blogspot and I'm guessing the only reason Google hasn't canned it is that they've utterly forgotten about it. Fine by me. While this was originally envisioned as a social media, a way to network and all that, it's become, perhaps always really was, a place for me to keep tabs on my own progress as an artist. That's a good thing. I believe I'm still growing, still learning new things, still seeking. And I'm progressing. In portraiture especially, I think I've stepped up. My favorite of the year just might be the one of Kate, which I still haven't been able to give because the Weezil and I haven't got together. We're like that and it's fine, but I do want to post it outside of here.

I'm going to keep writing in this blog and waving to Vince (hi, Vince!) as he's kind enough to read and comment. There's a lot of art out there to learn about, a lot of things still to try. I'm hoping to actually take some paints out this year as there are one or two things I have in mind. We'll see. Best laid plans... For now, I'm going to hope that I have more focus on this damned comic as its progress is too slow. I got one, ONE track done this year. The mice finished in October of last year and while a lot more complex than stuff with Silas in act 1, there's really no excuse. Digby's, too was a lot louder and more colorful than anything I've done before and, I think, longer. Still, glacial is the word I'd use to describe the pace.

So here's to 2023 and more artistic progress. Some day, I just might get it right.