Vote for a Bonus Comic!

I warned you that the latest Copper Road wouldn't be up long. Now it has rotated out and a bonus comic for the Charity arc has appeared! Vote to see it! (All Copper Roads from the past month will be added to the archive page on the 1st, if you acted shamefully and missed one.)

Having gone through the process of laying out a book, I'm much more aware about how comics fit on the printed pages now, and sometimes my stories don't fit so neatly. So, hey, if there's going to be a gap in the book, why not toss in a bonus comic to fill it? I want my books to give a unique experience, and including bonuses like that is a great way to do that. Granted, I'm three years away from benefiting from this new policy, but better late than never! And no promise it stick around beyond this week, as bonus comics take time to make! Still, let's aim high for now!

Best Pony

So... did I ever actually draw a proper Rarity before tonight? I know I'm not much of a fanart guy, but this seems like an egregious oversight on my part! Anyway, this is how I chose to kick off my new sketchbook. NO REGRETS.

Sharing over here, because I need to remember this sketch blog needs some more sketches. I get lazy too often and only put the little art tidbits up on my Tumblr account.

New Copper Road! 5/21/13

You all bought yourselves five Copper Roads a month, so here you go! Vote here to see the latest comic!

Oh, and we're not done with incentives for this month. More goodies will come!

New Copper Road! 5/16/13

I suppose I should have let the book post stay on top longer - you can still scroll down and get excited about that - but this is the first (non-stupid) comic I've completed in over a week and I want to post it! (Hooray for good buffers.) Vote here to see the new comic!

Proofs!

They have arrived! And a quick flip-through showed no obvious issues! I'll still have to scour them later, but yay! I can hold book two in my hands! (No, you can't do that yet, as this was a small proof run. Still, if the books pass the test, I'll place the BIG order once the Kickstarter funds end up in my bank account.)

Pimp my Studio Giveaway!

Darc, of Code Name: Hunter, is holding an awesome art supply giveaway (which I contributed to) and all artists and especially aspiring artists should check it out! These are supplies that are meant to get you off the ground, or enhance what you already have lying around. This is stuff we use, and we know how important quality supplies are! Darc has provided great stuff for sketching and basic drawing/inking, including helpful art instruction books that *I* covet! I've tossed in some of my favorite comic-making supplies!

How do you get this great package? Show some art initiative! Artists (even if just hobbyists/dabblers) make art, wherever they can. Share a photo of your work space, and you are entered into the drawing - which will be held on Darc's weekly streaming session on June 12th. It doesn't matter where your drawing space is, or its level of fanciness - the point is to show how we draw wherever we can. A rather large percentage of the first year of Precocious was drawn on a wobbly card table, mostly with supplies I scrounged up from around my grandparent's house. It wasn't much, but it worked.  Draw on the dining room table? At your desk? On one of those lap board in your bed? A lined notebook on the school bus? It's all good! Take a pic and send it to Darc! (Include links to whatever art accounts you have!)

Get all the details on her official post about the giveaway!

New Copper Road! (And stuff for the Cupcakers!)

They keep on coming! Vote here to see the latest Copper Road! I believe I'm done with my Kickstarter-fueled comic barrage, so this one might stay up a full week or more. (But it's cute, so you should vote and see it every day.)

For you Kickstarter backers, check your email. Since I can only send out surveys once, and I've realized it's likely best to wait until it's closer to shipping time (thought it won't be *that* long) I'm trying to get some feedback from those who ordered Cupcakes of Bliss gift boxes. While I make no promises about the dolls you get, I will certainly try to match people with one of their favorites. I'd also love to hear people's opinions on the buttons below. At this point, I think I'll have all of them made - just in smaller quantities, but again I want to play matchmaker the best I can. You'll get proper surveys soon, but this pre-survey gives me a decent look at what my order breakdown should be.

A great success!

The campaign has ended as an overwhelming success! You have blown me away with your support and generosity. I will reward you with lovely things! Thanks to both those who pitched in, and those who spread the word!

To my backers: The surveys will be heading to your inboxes soon. I need a day or few to write everything out, but keep your eyes open. (And remember which email is attached to your pledge, so you don't miss anything!) This means it's time to start fantasizing. Who will be in your artist edition (and what color theme will it have)? Which original art/comic is your favorite? What Precocious doll do you want to hug the most? Do you really want to be that loony who asks Chrispy to sign their book with metallic or glitter pens?

To everyone else, the Precocious store will be opening soon with some goodies, and you can track me down at a convention this year - check the bottom of the Buy Stuff page for my con schedule - and you can get some sketched books. Books will end up in the store eventually, although artist editions (as well as commissions) will be for cons and Kickstarter backers for a while.

If you have any questions, feel free to write me and I will do my best to answer promptly.

Once more, I thank all those who helped make book two a thing!

The End is Near!

The final day means a final push! The preorder for book two (and all the bonuses that are available with it, such as a print-sized version of the above Yvette image) ends at 8:30pm Eastern time tonight! If you've already made your pledge, be sure to review all the tiers to see if there's something special you may have missed, or might have opened up due to someone else upgrading.

New Copper Road! 5/4/13!

Thanks to all supporters of the Precocious Book 2 Kickstarter campaign! You have hit a new goal, unlocking an extra Copper Road each month - AND HERE IT IS! (Vote to see it!) I bet this one will raise some questions. Maybe, if you're good to me, they'll be answered sooner rather than later.

Time is running out to reserve you book and get all sorts of fancy bonus art and goodies - much of which won't be available after the Kickstarter ends - so let's do this final push! There are still lots of good tiers open for grabbing!

(With these extra Copper Roads popping up, this means you gotta keep watching the front page so you don't miss one! Also, vote every day anyway. It really helps Precocious when you do that.)

Copic Swatch Page Update

(Click for full-size)

Today I realized I haven't updated my online swatch list in a long time, so why not do that now? As you can see, I've expanded my marker selection greatly since last year's con season. Most of the additions happened in December and January, when I thought I had six months of constant commissions/streaming ahead of me. Haha, whoops. Face exploded instead. As it stands now, outside of already-promised work and some Kickstarter bonuses, this set won't get much of a workout outside of conventions this year. What a shame. I love working with Copics, learning and growing as I progress. (Remember, I've only used these things for a year. I'm still, compared to most commission artists out there, a novice - and in need of practice.) So here's hoping for good health, and good streaming days to come!

While it's impossible to give you exact color, as scanning and the monitor the file's displayed on changes the appearance, this is still a handy tool to have for online commission work. Clients can look at what I have and at least get a ballpark idea of which colors to use. The lightest of the colors - in the top few rows, along with B60 - got washed out, but that's ok since I use them for layering/blending and they wouldn't be chosen by clients anyway.

If you want to know the colors I am missing, I have them on my Dick Blick wish list. (They are the Sketch Markers on the list.) I doubt I'll be buying new markers anytime soon on my own, but gifts are always accepted! The most important marker that's needed is cool gray 4. I've repeatedly said I want someone to bring me a payload of C4 as a gift! It's too fun of a joke to ruin by buying it myself. (For handy reference, the number on the right of the marker designation indicates lightness/darkness.  V0000 is the lightest, while V99 is the darkest.  But, remember, it's the RIGHT number.  B39 is far darker than B91. I can build up lighter colors to make a dark, so that's why most of the missing numbers end in 8 or 9.)

New Copper Road! 5/1/13

And so the rewards of you unlocking four (soon five? Can the book 2 campaign unlock them?) confirmed Copper Roads a month begins! This also means Copper Road is now set for monthly updates on the website.  If you check the archive page, you'll see the strips from the last few months have been added!

Vote here to see the latest comic! Enjoy Kaitlyn's misery! It's the first of the month, which means votes on TWC reset. This is the best chance to get Precocious a good ranking and bring in new readers!

And, since I have to in every news post, we're in the final stretch of the Kickstarter campaign for Precocious book 2. Reserve your copies now, along with original art, original comics, Precocious dolls, charms, magnets, buttons and sketches on various things! This may be your only chance to grab some of that stuff!