Monday, March 30, 2009

Infinite Canvas on a limited budget



I told myself I was done painting. It's time to get back to webcomicking! Uh huh. This is when Art and Whimsy sneak up behind ya, slap you around a bit and throw you in whatever direction they desire. It's an embarrassment of riches. After all, I planned enough work to last me until Thursday - and finished it Sunday night. All I had to do was lose my internet connection and ignore my family!

So now we have new goals. I want to sketch out the next 12 Precocious strips, which will take me into May! (April still needs a few Sunday strips, but let's ignore that.) I'm really into this bake sale storyline, so much that yesterday I woke up with a head filled by new ideas. Now I'm adding five or six strips to the story - I'm iffy on one - and they excite me so! More supporting characters now get in on the action.

I was honestly starting on that work when I realized I needed a cord to print out the new scripts. The cord was UPSTAIRS. People were NAPPING up there. I'm too LAZY to walk that far! Alright, fine! Let's paint!

I have six canvasses at my "regular" size of 22"x28" - even though they seem hopelessly tiny now that I've been making 4' behemoths - and I launched into the project with reckless abandon. You know why? Because I can! This size tends to give one the best cost-per-area ratios when bought in bulk, so I don't feel the "I am wasting money!" guilt when working on them. (I also have 2'x3' canvasses coming in that were equally cheap, so happy medium here I come!)

If you couldn't guess from the title and picture, the theme here is a landscape/cityscape that continues from canvas to canvas, eventually looping around. I've done this before. This could be a fun experiment, or pure self-indulgence. Either way, I have fun.

If I go to the full six paintings, I see these three being the last ones on the right - starting with the center one. Since the theme is civilization flowing into nature flowing into civilization, making different loops possible might be an interesting twist. (It also gives me freedom to switch things around for aesthetic purposes.)

This project may or may not come together as I keep working. It also may or may not continue during this trip. I may or may not be so infatuated with myself that I think this is interest. You may or may not care.

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