The next four for Tamino, sans text.

More distraction from things. I redrew this image from a year ago. Seems I've done a lot of work on the tuff bunny without realizing it. This one just for fun. Possibly something I'll bring with me to CTN-X.

Just a little morning drawing and inking practice. Something I should probably do more often as it helps loosen up.

Finally, back to the comic. I think I'm about 20 pages from the end. Now I just have to bust ass and get it done. The next four are the turning point of the story. Let's hope it has impact when it's all done.

Just some inking practice, to get back into the swing of things from having been painting for the past few weeks. Also to get back in the mood for Tamino, of which I've drawn four pages of today.

Here's a scan of that last painting as the photo was so terrible.

Worked on another portrait, meant it to fit in with the current series so did an ink drawing first which is below:



Tried some experimental stuff that didn't work, so painted over it, got to this point and was thinking I was done with it (for some strange reason as it's really just awful):



Worked on a more traditional style of painting to try and get it to a different level. This meant a lot of blending with a very small brush. While this photo isn't very good, it does work as a decent contrast between the midway photo. This is the final version, acrylic on panel, 16x20:



Next, I have to get back to Tamino, that poor cat...

Taken after yesterday's additions to the painting. Already started on today's.

EDIT: And here is the final.

A painting I'm working on. This is the second version. A friend suggested that I think about doing another layer on top of the line work, and perhaps even more after that, making it somewhat more a metaphor for the Photoshop approach to making images. In this case, there are some things that seem out of place, and I think the contrast is too low. So play with it I will. Why not? It's only my face.

Prince Harry. Threw this one together in about an hour and a half, from sketch to photo. Wanted to keep it as loose as possible while keeping some likeness. The lousy picture is here only because I haven't utterly convinced myself that I'm done with it. I should probably leave it alone. Still not sure.

I'm working on the comic, honest I am but I got the bug to paint, so did this one yesterday and today. It's actor Mike Kellin from an episode of "Lost in Space." Ink and acrylic on board. First of the next portrait series which I should have for the fall. We'll see how it all goes.

Hey. So this is where I work, when I'm not at work. There are little labels on some things. No reason to post these. No reason not to, either. Some day, I might make some money here!

Tried to get a bit more fluid both in the drawing and the inking of this and am liking things better. My stuff is generally too stiff and it's a constant battle to get past basic shapes and tight, tight ink lines. These, I hope are more in the right direction.

Working on that third character in the roster. He's based on a design I did about three years ago, though made more cartoony to fit the comic. Ink, Illustrator.

Three new quick and dirty color comps of the current characters. The painting and poses could be better, but it's good to see them in color and get a better feel for them.

Threw this together in about five minutes in response to the designs for the mascots of the 2012 Olympics in England as seen "here."

I don't care for the design. I think it's busy and over-designed and not really welcoming. I could be wrong. I don't know that mine's better, but it sure is grumpier.

Still working on these character designs. The first one is the last version with the goiter in the kid's hat. The sidekick is coming about a lot quicker than the 'hero' is.



Still trying to get a handle on the 'hero,' I drew his head without the goiter in the hat and liked it better.



Lastly, a size comparison with sidekick and 'hero,' as well as simplified hair and enhanced slouch. This is more what I want:




Yay ink!

On storytelling:

Storytelling is my big thing. As I get older, I get more critical of other people's stories and more determined to create those that are well thought out and structurally sound. This is why movies like "Avatar" bother me so much; it appeals to the senses but not thought. There was a lot of wasted opportunity and an 'adequate' story was stitched to high end special effects leaving little depth for the audience to hold onto.

I'm starting to work on the next project, the one after Tamino. It's a Hero story, something that's been mined to death. Yet I still find the really good ones to be compelling and I still want more. There are certain things that should be part of a Hero's tale that are often missing. I haven't read "Heart of Darkness," or the other books Conrad has written on the Hero's tale and I probably should, but one aspect that I find most important, and which is often missing from Hero stories is the sense of balance. Risking one's self is not enough; if the Hero is to succeed, to me, there should be a sense of balance to the whole equation; the Hero should lose something to 'pay' for the evil that's been vanquished. A prime example of this is Frodo's having to leave Middle Earth, that the lands he helped save offer him no comfort. It's sad yet also adds a quality and depth that can't be matched by the 'everyone's scrubbed and looking fine' endings that most Hero stories seem to have. Another, lesser but still important example of this is the very ending of the recent, "How to Train Your Dragon." It's a small detail, but extremely important to me, what happens to Hiccup there. It was a brave move by the studio to allow that to remain in the story and I applaud that.

The other thing that bothers me about a lot of stroytelling is the feeling that it's a given that there will be a love story involved. In many films, this feels tacked on at best and the characters' motivations often seem stretched. It's as if there simply can't be a gripping adventure unless there is a love story involved. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be love portrayed in such stories, just that it's better if the love aspect is a crucial part of the tale, and not something that's merely added because those telling the stories simply can't imagine there not being a love story in their tale somewhere. For my next comic, love will be part of the story, and will be a central, crucial aspect unlike 'Fite,' or 'Tamino.'

I'm really tired of writing being treated like a doormat in Hollywood and current literature. So many stories are coming out that seem to only have been checked for spelling and nothing else. I want stories that are not only well thought out but have been put through the grinder, well scrutinized for sense and balance. I'm really tired of the assumption that audiences will simply accept a few holes here and there, that areas of a movie or a book that cannot bear any moment of scrutiny are acceptable in small enough number. I hope that my own next story will be part of this, regardless of how it will be received. I appreciate craft, something that seems on the steady downswing these days.

Some concept work for the project to come after Tamino.

The latest quartet. Slowed things down here, tried some 'animation' for this set, and also tried to subtly reintroduce the hint of 'stage play' to the story. Words to come.

The next quartet. Note that the last page has been flipped to make for a better composition. As this is just a temp file, I'll flip the artwork on the real page when I go to finish it.

Inks, then color with Illustrator. Yah... he's a distraction.

More of these...

Just some quickie designs between Tamino pages.

And here's the next quartet. I am getting very close to the end of the comic. It's within sight though there is some really complex imagery coming up. I just know it, even though I haven't designed it yet.

STILL wasn't satisfied. Also, having designed the next quartet, I realized the last page wasn't going to work. So redrew that and recolored the whole thing. I think it makes more visual sense now. The old version was chaotic and didn't flow. Don't know what I was thinking.

The next four. The device of the open book pages was appropriated from Kunisada though I don't know if he was the first to use the device or even the only one to do so. And when I saw it in my book on his prints, they only showed up in ads he did for cosmetics. Perhaps the pages denote something like having the words, "PAID ADVERTISEMENT" below the photos. I don't know. But I have a reason for using this convention and for focusing only on Tamino's head. So there.

EDIT: Did some work on these as it felt too bare.

The most recent quartet for Tamino. Coming along, just more slowly than I'd like.

This one makes me laugh. It's not some president, a spiritual leader or a military genius. It's the commander (or major?) character from "Destroy All Monsters." I hope I captured both the seriousness and the goofy quality here. Perhaps if one didn't know who this was, the effect wouldn't work. Ah, well. Acrylic on panel.

Still working on Tamino, more slowly than I'd like. Every so often, during the coloring process, I turn off the level that has lines in it to see how the composition works without them. It helps me balance the colors. Of course, for whatever reason, the colors are sharper in AI than as a jpg. Still, things are coming about. I hope to be done with the comic soon as I want it to be done and to move onto other things.

Portrait of my dear friend Max for his birthday. It's really cool doing portraits of friends as you get to stare at their faces for hours and rediscover things about them. I find that the closer the friend, the less I look at them in person as I think I know what they look like.

Finished these two today, the remaining charity pieces I was working on for MoCCA. Wish I could go. They're all 9x12, watercolor, cel vinyl and ink on paper. I hope they help raise some money there.

Another quickie portrait, this one of a friend, Chris Goodwin from a photo taken while he was deeply engrossed in a book about Russian art. Acrylic on brown paper, approx. 16x20.