Steaming prep + contest winner prep!

It's been a mess of scheduling issues and poor health, but maybe we can make the last Kickstarter stream finally happen! I remain not in the best of shape, and it's not looking like any good news on the heath front is coming any time soon, but I have medication set aside to cover a stream, so let's go! (Every stream I've done in the past year was also medicated, so this one isn't any different.) I hate owing people work, so I'll whittle it away whenever the possibility arises.

Anyway, here are some sketches from the upcoming stream, and something else thrown into the picture frame for my convenience. I took these photos with an iPhone in weak light, so they only clean up so well in Photoshop. Forgive me!

The Soren card was a possible sketch for an request night stream a long time ago, and it was resurrected for the last Kickstarter stream. I'm glad he gets the chance! There are a lot of great card sketches that never got made, and that's wrong! We must go through those sketches and give them justice!

The Bud card is for the costume contest winner. While his suggestion was my favorite, drawing the costume in action would be somewhat awkward for an out-of-context card. Thus, I drew a good Bud card with the costume. So WE know what it is, and why it's funny that he's eating that apple, but it's also just a nice-looking piece. As it's highly unlikely I'll have the time and strength to do a test stream for this, before the big main event stream, I'll be coloring this piece off-camera.

This is a piece I'm so excited about. It's going to be the cover of a binder that contains lots of my art! It's 8.5x11, though slightly smaller on the page than this cropped image. I left room for titles, which I won't be drawing on the piece, but can be added to the digital print file and then printed out.  As not all details of this one are in/approved yet, it's only in pencil.

This is for the artist edition book sketch. I drew a more elaborate scene, involving Ivy and Ms. Monster, but that would have been tough to fit in that space - especially since it'd be better on a wider, landscape layout. It should become *something* one day, though, because it was great!  This piece is Ms. Monster in front of her chalkboard, announcing some group projects.  (I'll add the chalk text to the board with white ink after I'm done.)

There's also an Ivy card I'll be prepping, but I didn't keep proper notes and now I don't remember which Ivy sketch was chosen. That'll be ID'd and drawn up soon.

Night of Sketches, Part 3

As this is part three, that means you should be scrolling down to see all the recent sketches and read a story about my house that probably doesn't interest you. Too bad. Do it.

Like all sketches from tonight, these are from someone's Rent-a-Chrispy's ideas. In a flattering twist, I was told he has too much Precocious art, so maybe he should collect it in a Precocious binder. Which would need cover art.  OK!  Most of these sketches are variations of the same idea: Autumn looking through the art binder and being adorable in the process.

The idea stemmed from a suggestion that Autumn be pulling a book down from a bookshelf.  I did attempt that for one sketch, and included a few more sketches that can have that bookshelf added into the background. The Ivydoll and Pingoball were added on a whim later. Autumn does have a fox-style doll on her bookshelf. It is NOT the Pingoball, as it was created before Pingoball was a thing, but it happens to have the same color shirt as the Pingoball by dumb coincidence... so maybe a retcon wouldn't hurt?

Next up is the book sketch! As Ms. Monster played a large role in the book's big stories, she was chosen to the be the featured character.  Since this is a commission time and not an artist edition sketch, it can be as simple or as complex as desired. Above is a smug Ms. Monster, standing in front a blackboard that will have some doomeriffic message on it. It's a simple look that fits nicely in the space provided.

If we want to get ambitious, though, a scene was proposed of a parent-teacher conference involving Ivy.  My first idea was to have Ms. Monster printout a long list of Autumn's misdeeds.  I like the sketch, but it would be a tight fit in the book. (It is doable, though.)

Trying to find a more vertical solution, I drew Ivy and Ms. Monster confronting Autumn.  Ivy is angry, while Ms. Monster has the smug tattletale look going on.

Finally, I roughed out some Ivy arc cards because Ivy is fun!  The one on top is the "we got sued by ANOTHER magician" look, and the bottom row has the "world's best mug (when full)".

Before my face decided that exploding was a thing it wanted to do, thus removing my ability to stream without heavy medication, we had talked about a Soren art card.  I couldn't find the sketch on the blog, and eventually figured out it was a sketch I drew during a stream and never scanned in. As luck would have it, I found what I *think* is what we'd talked about in the first old sketchbook I pulled out.  Here is Soren reading in front of a bookshelf.  Now that I think about it, I remember turning down requests to draw this card because I didn't know where to crop it, and worried that I wouldn't be able to capture the sitting look correctly on the first try.  (It's not good entertainment when the streaming artist has to erase and start over, especially when it's light pencils that aren't easy to see.) So, if this is indeed the card desired, I get a chance to solve those problems before I ink/color it live!

A clone of our own

After a break to spend a few days building up a comic buffer, my attention again shifts to commissions! Here is the Pingo family photo, part two of a series. (For the Oven family portrait, click here.)

I'm pretty darn happy with how this came out. The colored pencils were mostly kind this time, and I appreciate them for that. I have no idea why the poppy red and vermilion decided to mix so brilliantly when I made the girls' hair, but I'm thrilled they did.  For once, this scan is actually pretty decent for colored pencil. Colors aren't as vibrant here, but at least it's not blotchy like normal scans.

It's nice to have one project completed, as it gets me closer to opening up commissions again - although you still shouldn't expect me to do that until late April/early May. I'm aiming to finish up two or three more by the end of the weekend.  (Doesn't sound like much, but remember that I'm currently on a work schedule that also forces me to average two comics finished per day.)

It was a great day today. I won my battle with Savannah over a parking ticket, spent the money I saved on discount Easter candy, got some socializing in and still managed to check off every item on today's itinerary. I hope tomorrow is even better!

Another family photo!

Here's the sketch for the Pingo version of the family photos series. Soren needs to be shrunk slightly, and everything will be moved up in the final to make the feet less cut-off (although I will be repeating the fade-out effect when the feet/ears reach the page border) but it's a good start.

Edit: I did some quick mock-ups in Photoshop to show how the composition would look in horizontal and vertical formats. The white border shows the area where a frame might obscure the design, and it mimics the fade effect I plan to use. (Well, the fade will be more rounded, like in the Oven piece, but you get the idea.)  Since I ran out of space for drawing feet in the original, I very quickly added some lumps to approximate feet in these compositions. Don't make fun!

Mercy killing the latest sketchbook

Today was a no energy day, which meant sketching! Because sketching isn't that useful with a pile of work to do! Whatevs. I sketched until I ran out of pages, so here's my tradition "leftovers" sketchbook post!



As with most sketchbooks, this one had its token "I'm still a fine artist!" drawing.



Here's a fun one of Sydney in her aforementioned pikachu PJs! To balance it out, I added an Ivy sketch to make a mommies compilation.



Sometimes I like to give myself a challenge just to keep things interesting. These two sketches are me trying to figure out what Suzette's mother might look out. I have no plans to include Suzette's family in the action at all, I don't have any inclination to assign a name or personality to the woman. I just wanted to reverse engineer to see what genetics would create the girl. The one on the right is clearly better, but is it lame to pull the "almost clone" tactic? Oh well, it's not like Suzette's home life is ever getting shown.

Tomorrow a new sketchbook adventure begins! Motivation to start one tonight: None.

Parental Guidance

Last night, my mother was in a panic. She had let the cats out and they never came in. As the night went on, they she grew more anxious, swearing that she was hearing them meow and fight outside. Visions of predators taking them or neighbor cats luring them too far away filled her head. She vowed never to let the cats out again.

Yeah, she had shut them in a room upstairs. That is remarkably different than outside. Way to go, mom! Hey, at least she was home!

So here are some cartoon mommies! These mommies are much more on the ball than real life mommy is right now. Ivy is the mom who knows what's going on. She knows know the kids work and it's hard to put one past her. Sydney is also quite savvy, really. She just doesn't care. This woman never got the "be selfless" message at mommy school. Not that she's criminally selfish, mind you; she's just not selfless. No mommy of the year award for Sydney, but she won't be a FARK headline anytime soon...

The hunt is on...

Man, sketching wallpaper ideas is hard work. Should the Oven-tossing idea not be enough, I'm thinking about a good old fashioned group shot - with suitably chaotic happenings going on. A post-prank chase seems so fitting.

Hetero-Normative Behavior!

I'm am such a wholesome idealist. Well, in one subject at least. Since the foundation of Precocious is my idyllic childhood, that means the environment around my kids is extremely awesome! Gemstone Estates has just about everything a kid could ever want! Outside the houses we have lots of stimulation. Inside the houses... LOVING FAMILIES!

The Precocious parents are a fun bunch. They have happy, healthy marriages, do their best to motivate and encourage their children and they are delightfully insane!

I'm almost done drawing the Max's birthday storyline, so now the question is what to do next? I have a silly little brawl over dessert, or I can go back and do that much-hyped parents storyline. Ideally, I'll do both! If I built up a large enough comic buffer, then I have time to create the parents arc and just insert it into the archives. That's the dedication I have to you people! (I make no promises that will happen.)

Either way, it's time to practice my parent-drawing skills. I want to get the parents introduction into the archives soon, as they do tend to pop up in the strip. While I do my best to get their personalities across in their appearances, I want the chance to expand upon them. Once they are established, their lines in earlier strips take on new interpretations!

The only worry I have is that I naturally write more adult jokes for the adults. One couple met due to judgment impaired by alcohol and fatigue. Another punchline involves nudity, paint and the dining room. (I'll let you contemplate that one.) I love it, but such risky gags could hurt any syndication chances.

The humor is appropriate contextually, though. Insane geniuses don't just pop up out of the blue. I believe in nature over nurture. The environment may do some finishing in shaping personalities, but lots of my kids nuttiness is inherited. Each kid is the natural consequence of their parents spawning.

That is... if I don't blow the strips with a bad script. Before I draw anything, I've got to tighten up the story and connect the dots.

Stipples are the Devil's Dots

Obviously, this is not a stippled image. The stippled strip had no panel that would make a nice splash isolation. Also, I am mad at it for wasting most of my evening. (It came out looking nice, though.)

The image shown is more about me being in DC. It looks like I'll be here one more day. It means I'll have to start scanning/'shopping/uploading strips here, which is not my preference, but the whole "being with loving family" thing outweighed the "be a lonely and selfish jerk" mindset. They're still not getting me for New Years!

For my inking update: Four strips remain incomplete. Two of them involve a chessboard, which is something that will be annoying to draw with tech pens. One is the last strip, which is a relatively easy inking job. I just wanted to save it until last. The final is a strip I wrote about before. Strip #45 was the one that could be simple or easy, depending on my ambition. Well, I went for the most ambitious drawing as possible. The result: FAIL.

The most ambitious panel of the whole damn series is panel #3 in strip #45. In it we see a close-up of the water balloon in Jacob's hand, with Jacob's face showing through the balloon. I even filled a teapot with water and held it up to a poster so I could properly get the distortion. Well, guess what... in ink it just doesn't work. I can't properly draw his fingers to show them curling around the balloon. His face is distorted and upside down, so I have to make sure people know he is looking *through* the balloon and not looking at a reflection. Parts of Jacob's head should also be visible from behind the balloon. That's just too much for me to take at this point. I botched it horribly, and it was made worse due to me not having any white out to cover up the disaster. I might have to redo panel #3 and scan it in separately. That's frustrating.

Oh well, there's a good chance I'll be able to finish the inking tonight. That's supremely awesome! Once the strips are done, it's just a long grind to scan and prepare them. If only no-copy blue was also no-scan blue. Life would be so much easier.

Articulate Friday

Rant post has been put off again due to good things. Yay!

So, with my DVD player dying... I feared I might have had to brave the frightening outside world on this soul-destroying shopping day. Then I remembered Amazon.com! I found the DVD player I wanted on sale *and* it'll be shipped to my doorstep for no additional charge. Yay internet!

This bonus holiday strip is the result of my joy. The poor parents must brave the brutal shopping environment... except for Sydney, who is rewarded for her laziness!

Progress Report

First, the good news! I'm still moving forward with the comic and there's a chance I will be taking 10 strips to DC for inking. Yay! This means I have to get scripting again, since I only have outlines for the remaining strips. This sketch shown is the last panel from Ivy's introduction strip and the best thing I've drawn today. The pose was not originally planned, but it brings out more of Ivy's character than the initial conception. I think this strip shows Ivy being tuned into what the kids are thinking... and how can she resist poking fun?

Now for the bad stuff! EVERYTHING AROUND ME IS FALLING APART! Both my downstairs refrigerators have gone wonky, so I can't trust them anymore. My DVD player - highly instrumental in my art making - is now completely dead. I watched The Mist. I watched Signs. When I put in The Village, I think that was just too freaky for the player to handle. Plugging in The Happening today got me the message, "THIS IS NOT A PLAYABLE DISC!" Everyone's a critic! Thank goodness for the PS2! Yeah, the DVD color balance is way off due to my video game settings, but it's something! As for the review: Someone got *dangerously* meta. If your movie requires an artist's statement to be enjoyed, your admirable pretension might be too much.

Among the walking wounded: My light table has started flickering, my printer only accepts a command half the time, the speakers on the computer are starting to crackly, my computer itself is really showing its age and my scanner has lived a long, full life... AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT COMES AFTER LONG FULL LIVES!

Sad segue, I will be in DC from Wednesday until Sunday. My grandfather has been given a better prognosis, but my grandmother's has gotten far worse. Life is brutally unfair. Oh yeah, my mother had told my grandmother that I was showing up on Monday, when I had planned for Wednesday. I didn't show, and I broke my grandmother's heart. THANKS, MOM!

I had delayed my trip to DC because I can't seem to be productive there and I didn't want to lose my Precocious mojo. Now I feel incredibly guilty and selfish.

There's a bad short story that can come from this. Some guy thinks the universe is against him, as it slowly sabotages everything in his life. The twist: It's the character that is falling apart most of all, and so he dwells on every subtle thing that does not go right whether it's something major or not. Most of the problems are the results of the guy's failure to save himself.

So here I am, going insane because I need to do something to earn my place in this world - and ignoring everything else around me. I look at all the loved ones and possessions that need attention, and I worry... How can I help them when I clearly can't help myself? LET'S FIND OUT!

Once again... Charles Schulz turned his anxiety and lifetime horrors into an amazing cartoon. When things look their worst, maybe I can find my best.

My genes did WHAT!?

I know I said a Sky post was coming, but I was watching Iron Man.

Let me explain: I started watching the movie yesterday and devoted the time to sketching Ivy. I then stopped watching to the movie to do social things. (As social as I can be, at least.) Sitting down to finish the movie, I decided to continue with the Ivy drawing.

It's not good enough to just draw an adult. One has to also figure out how adults and children look relative to each other. If my relative height experiment happened to involve Ivy discovering some Autumn and Bud made mischief.... Bonus!

Enter... THE MOTHERS!

I am at the point in the first storyline where the other moms appear. (Well, not Bud's mom.... she'll be here for the holidays, though!)

As any Precocious scholar can see, I have been deliberately trying to make my kids shorter and cuter. This small change is positive for the strip - the kid's arms can't reach the top of their heads, but the shortness allows for more adorable dialog - but it also means rethinking the look of the parents. For Sky, the change is beneficial because I get more face space for her cranial quirks. For Ivy... the bigger head makes he look really young. One think I'm trying to get around this is giving the adult women the almond eyes. It works when I do it right...but I rarely do it right. The other is to make the eyes proportionally smaller on the adults. This means I must counter all the muscle memory I build up - but correcting it is far easier when drawing the strip than with even-erasing-shows-up-when-scanned sketches. Finally, I could just alter the character design to suit the latest style.

Is it time to rethink Ivy's hair draping over her face? Maybe try shorter bangs? Maybe shrink the ears to a more natural size? Maybe stop worrying over a character who is obviously Autumn's mother? (In fact, Autumn looking like Ivy's mini-me is a key point in many stories and somewhat of a go-to gag.) In conclusion, I need to stop worrying and enjoy the cute.

(I may do a Sky-centric update tomorrow. Ivy got the nod today because I could just scan the sketchbook page I filled with her. Today, laziness won.)

Once more unto the breach

The first page of the new sketchbook is done. The cherry is popped. It is defiled by my pencil. No self-respecting collection of paper will have her now. Mwa ha ha ha.



There's nothing truly special about this page, but any artist would know you don't want to waste page 1 on something...experimental. You experiment in sketchbooks so you can keep your failures HIDDEN - who wants to be reminded of the sucking every time the book is opened?

Sure, I played it safe, but at least it's not *too* painful. Hey, even if the page is unremarkable, I still know what book it is because I wrote the date on the page! (What an auspicious day!) It only took me, uh, four years before I took my professor's advice to start dating my sketchbooks... even if I still only note the dates the book were started and finished.

My sketchbook etiquette overall is far improved. Last night I did an inventory: 17 sketchbooks completed in this modern era. I thought it would be more, but then I realized I had drawn on the front and back of pages for the first dozen books. (Revisionist history: I am now working on skethcbook #30!) This is an artist no-no - it's very hard to scan pages when they have the impressions of the next page on them. When I was still developing my style, this was helpful. It was like a slash and burn effort, obliterating my early work as I moved forward. Now, it would just be sloppy. It's still best to scan pages fresh, as graphite is a smudgy thing. This is such an uninteresting paragraph to anyone but me, but I made you read it anyway. Sucker.

Aaaannnnnddd... since I'm covering sketchbook pages, I would like to revisit one I posted for the heck of it a while back. Mostly I want to put proper labels in the post so someone could do a character search on this blog and find the image. Hey, I was on fire that day! Let the people know my awesomeness!



The mission of the day this page was created was to go Charlie Brown on my characters: BIG HONKING HEADS! My character proportions are already wildly inconsistent, so no one would know I did it on purpose. Now, if you're looking at the sketches and thinking, "their heads don't look so huge to me," that's the POINT! It ups the cute factor if done right. It's creepy as fuck if done wrong. Lord, I hope these kids are cute. The parents, I admit, are bit much, but it was fun to experiment.

Family Entertainment

Some more Precocious sketches.


It's become one of my things to include librarians in every story. Libraries, and reading in general, are so important... and yet I *never* read a damn thing. As a kid, I read all the standards but none of them were engrossing enough to keep me going. As a result, I never learned "how" to read. Even if I'm reading something I enjoy, I fail at dedication. (Yeah, ADHD *really* doesn't help that.)

I voraciously plow through comic collections. At the moment, I have 12 books of comics by my bed - all of which I've read in the past few weeks. Right now I also have three "real" books by my bed that I might never finish. One has been there over a year. Another a few months. I have two more I bought and haven't even started across the room. I just bought a new one last week - but it's about Charles Schulz and Peanuts, so there's a chance I might actually get through that one!

So librarians are my way of atoning for my literary failings. As I am not a crazy raving in a street corner way, it is safe to assume that both Pingos are librarians. Soren is the good librarian. He reads books, he helps others experience the joys of reading - he actually has a top job as a librarian! Ivy... she's more like me. She's between jobs right now and the most reading she does involves general-interest magazines. (In case it's not clear from the sketch, Ivy's right arm is tucked behind her back. She is not an amputee. I'll save that twist for sweeps week!)

(If any Winchester folk are wondering, yes, since I have a friend whose parents are both librarians, I did use them for inspiration. Here's to hoping I don't get sued down the line.)


An Oven family portrait is truly weird. One like this - cobbled together from various sketches in a way that has proportional relationships and lighting (line thickness) a bit off - is fairly accurate in terms of how they'd normally appear in a group photo. It's sort of a canary-in-a-coal-mine thing...if all Ovens are in the same room together something very important is happening. Bud really raises himself - it's why he's become such a top notch chef. Mom Sydney is mostly off in the city managing her apartment buildings and networking. Sister Casey is off at college. Daddy Joseph is...well...off doing whatever he does. The Ovens are weird, weird people.