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.