More of this crap. Foozer is the name of the comic I'll probably never do, but there's no character that's actually named that. Strangely, this comic will work best, I think, when I don't think at all about it. No sketching, no plotting, just DO. Harder to do when sober. Well, we'll see. The characters are strangely soothing to draw. It's all meaningless. Just fun. So be it.

Remember when I said no more comics? Ignore this shit. I got in a mood for Vaughn Bode stuff the other day, even though I've never read it before. I just remember selling it when working at the Picnic. But there was a freedom of the earliest of underground comix, where one didn't have to plan, one just did. And I was looking through some of my older stuff and came across Joe Flash, a character that only I liked. I wondered if I could do stuff that had no real plot, no point, was just kind of hippy and fun. And I -might- do this shit and post it under a different name, not tell anyone and just make it because it's fun. I hope it gets a lot weirder than this, and more pointless.

Finished this tonight. I think it works if it's a little impersonal. If painted, would be as credible as work by Alex Katz and has more of a likeness. Dunno. I like it.

Tonight's sketches. Sometimes, I just want to draw to draw. Tonight was one of those nights. Wasn't time to work on the painting but I still wanted to do something artistic. So out comes the sketchpad and pencil. I started with goofy little doodles of nothing, really, went back to an old character and ended with a portrait sketch of another artist I still framed. Might paint him, too.

Still working on this portrait with yet another version. I ordered a set of four paints through the mail and they came today. Worried that I might just like the idea of painting more than actually doing it, I used the sketch I did yesterday, married it with the original sketch, printed that out and transferred the drawing to a canvas board I happened to have. Most of the night was spent just getting the outlines done, then getting the whole thing covered in paint. After that, I started doing some observation and dabbing colors here and there. The Zorn palette (just black, white, yellow ochre and cadmium red light) is really tricky to work with. The black is the only remotely cool color. Greens, such as the grass behind him are impossible. What was interesting was that, just as I put the brush down for the night, I realized that I was able to get a very bluish grey on his jacket. Lots of work to be done still, not least of which is learning to use this palette. Also might be one of my best starts ever with real paint. Which means I have plenty of room to screw it up tomorrow.

Another attempt later today. I think this version is a lot more successful with this style though I haven't nailed the expression yet. Still think this would work even better in paint.

Two updates

Continuing on with this portrait. I did one on the iPad in a more painterly style, which I liked. Then I decided to experiment with lineless version in Designer. I like the designer style; it something I often find by accident when working on a piece that has inked lines and I turn the line layer off. In the case of a print I did a few years back, I decided I like the version without the character or inks better and so posted it today:

I think, in this case, I need to adjust the drawing as it looks a little too cartoony for me right now. That being said, I think I want to paint a version like this.

No more comics.

A post with no image! I've been thinking a lot about what art I want to pursue lately. I find I've been pulled towards doing comics less and less, to the point that, while I have a lot of free time right now, I haven't wanted to touch Ghiroy at all. And "City Silent?" Haven't done a new page of that one since last August. Can't help but notice that the song I stopped on was, "White Canvas," a song about writer's block, or artist's block. I came to the decision that I simply don't have whatever spark there is to keep doing comics. They are long term projects and require a certain dedication as well as a consistency I'm having more trouble with, not less. If I'm going to be honest, they feel more like work these days and less like fun. I'm really enjoying doing more with portraiture and even occasional illustrations. The single image allows me to problem solve and then move on, either to another image, another style or both. The portrait work I've done in the last year dwarfs output on both comics, but in quality and quantity.

Does this mean I'll never do another comic, ever? Don't know. But for now, comics are not going to be on my docket. I love the ones I did, glad I finished the ones I finished, feel badly about the ones I didn't. Now, it's time to move on.

Today's redraw. More in my style? We'll see what I can do with it...

First pass with the current sketch. I think it's too much illustration, not enough portrait. I lost a little of the worry of the subject and even though I took a screen grab, liking the pose of the artist in the middle of working, it feels posed. We'll see.

Sketch from tonight. It's referenced from a still frame from an episode of, "Landscape Artist of the Year." I liked the moment so caught it and will try to paint it. Question is, how to approach it? It's all good practice.

Been watching a lot of "Landscape Artist of the Year," and I realize I could probably use some practice in observation and strict paining, meaning no sketch or anything. So, this afternoon and this evening, I did just that, using a cheap little kids mask I had hanging around. iPad and Procreate and looking.

This is also an experiment with palettes. I've been reading about the "Zorn Palette," based on the artist of the same name. It consists of only four colors: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light (originally Vermillion), Ivory Black and Titanium White. Great for portraits, apparently, terrible for everything else that might have actual blue or green in it. Since the mask was red, black and yellow, seemed appropriate. Tried mixing colors on the page using the blending tool but it ended up being too awkward, so I tried to only 'add black,' or 'add white' or some such while painting. Wish there was a different way to mix colors but that's me trying to make one tool act like another.

Forgot to post this here! Did a portrait of Vince, the one main reader of this blog. I'm not wholly happy with this but I think it was a good experiment. I might revisit this image later on to try and get it just right. Big blocks of flat color. In part of my mind it works. It might be enough.

It's not Billy Crystal but I like the image. I started with a number of sketches and approaches. One of them was the usual inked version, one was big areas of watercolor like texture. The final, because I'd seen someone on Instagram do this, was more of a traditional approach using a brown-scale underpainting, building color up on top of that. It's not a good portrait, and I'm ok with that. I think the approach is worth remembering. Again, I like it. And I suppose that's a good thing.

Had a little time tonight so whipped up a D&D character sketch, something I pretty much never do.

Still working on the Billy Crystal portrait which is becoming less a portrait and more just an image. I think the likeness is still in there, but is less important. I guess I consider it a style exercise as I try and pin something down. All pencil.

Got to work on the next portrait because why the hell not? Was watching a video with Billy Crystal in it and I paused at what is not the most flattering frame ever. But something attracted me so I took a screen shot and, tonight, started a sketch based on it. Already started inking it in Procreate. We'll see how it goes from here.

Even with the shutdown, shut in, whatever I haven't done a lot of art. Instead, I've been cleaning the house and playing Animal Crossing. Well, there you go. I've been rewatching painting shows and finally dug out some old work I that I liked but which didn't sell. Always liked the Giacometti portrait I did for my one show. I kept the reference so here's an updated version of the same thing. Procreate.

Morning warm up. Sometimes you just have to scratch that itch before moving on to other things. Wanted to keep this as loose as possible. Pencil first then Procreate. Love that sumi brush.

Page 3. Coming along. The plan as of now is to get to about page 10 then start uploading them to their own Instagram account at a rate of two pages a week. That way things will be consistent and I'll have a bumper in case I get behind.

That third panel was a problem. Thanks, Vince for pointing it out. When I read your comment and looked at it the next day, I was really unhappy with it. So I changed the angle and redrew the whole thing. I think this works better. I especially like Crow's face in this as it has a mix of youth and weariness I was hoping for. Also, there's a slight feel of the sinister with the goblin even though he's just a waiter.

Page 2. Had a little trouble with one of the poses and had to draw it a few times. Still not utterly happy with it but it works and I don't want to lose momentum. Moving ahead is good.

Had a hard time drawing tonight, though I figured out the problem; I was leaning far too hard on the photo ref. After about six tries on this one pose for Crow, I gave up and decided to work on the goblins, in this case, a bartender. First shot and I was happy with it. So here's a sketch of what a goblin in Ghiroy will look like.

This is more like it. Got a comment from someone yesterday that the brown lines from the promo piece were worth keeping. I'm using that poster as a kind of key to how I want the whole comic to go. So I redrew this, dumped Mikilo for the moment to concentrate on Crow's loneliness. Pretty happy with it.

Other shit I did today.

I guess I did get a lot done today? This is pencil on an actual comic board inked on the iPad, finished on the Mac in Affinity Designer. We'll see if this remains an official page one, part two or not.

So the last re-design of Crow got a resounding "ugly" from two separate sources. I don't see it personally. I liked that design. Kind of a lot. And while I don't think the hero has to be some handsome hunk, I do need him to be at least appealing. So I tamed down his eyebrows and his janky teeth (not seen here), put back his original hair and made this. At this point, I think I honestly don't know what other people like, because I like this style a lot.

Another set of images that I'm happy with. At this point, I just need to pick a style and stick to it. Or else.

Late night, last minute sketches. I like them. They feel like me, are expressive. Crow is kind of my current muse; if he looks good, I think I'm doing good. He's the lead I follow when it comes to cartooning. If he succeeds, I succeed. Or something like that.

Learning to draw like myself. Been trying my favorite pastime again; re-designing Ghiroy characters. This year, I really want to try and make a go at SOMEthing I do. I turned 55. That seems pretty damned late to leave things if I really want to accomplish anything artistic. Ghiroy seems my most likely candidate for any kind of commercial presence. D&D is big right now, bigger than it's ever been. Strike while the iron is hot. Thing is, because of all the styles, I find I don't really know what my style is. I try and adapt, playing with styles that are more iconic and lend themselves more towards toys and cartoons. But are they really mine? So I sketch and sketch and honestly get nowhere. I LIKE a lot of the designs I've done but I have to stick with ONE and try and make it work. I've seen a lot of other people make do with less. Perhaps one of the reasons Ghiroy hasn't gone further is that I keep re-treading old water. I have to, this year, promise, pick a damned style and stick with it no matter what. If the comic doesn't succeed, I'm no worse off than I was.

Sigh. Ghiroy is a constant problem for me. I THINK it could be something, especially since D&D is kind of huge these days. What this comic needs to be is appealing, simple and easy to produce. So far, I've not had any of those things. Today, I took ten minutes before work and just doodled the main characters on the backside of another sketch. Things came easily and are relatively appealing. There's a Disney quality to them I'm not totally proud of but mainstream isn't so bad a thing to aim for if I'm trying to get people to read the damned comic. I really feel for anyone that's given Ghiroy a try; I am a TERRIBLE cartoonist when it comes to consistency.

Let's see if this works. Process video of a work demo. I can't show the reference photo as it's one of the demo photos in the equipment we use at work so is likely copyrighted. Didn't use anything but observation for this one. Started off doing Mikilo but didn't like it, wasn't inspired so went to portrait mode. You'll have to trust me that it looks like the guy.

EDIT: Nope. You just see the final. Oh, well.