$20 Magnet and print promotion!

I realize the timing of this isn't the best, but unfortunate events rarely schedule themselves properly. See, I need a new PC - and I need it much sooner than expected. The laptop I'm using now has a dead screen, a dead battery, a damaged hard drive and has recently started rebooting randomly. (In other news, NEVER BUY A DELL!) I have a little stashed away in my "for the comic" fund that gets me well on my way to new PC land - but now *that* is threatened by some upcoming medical bills! Thus, I turn to you!

In a mini donation drive, I am offering one of the new Precocious magnets and a signed 8.5x11 print of almost any Precocious comic for $20. (The "almost" is because triple-decker strips won't fit on the page and I'm reserving strip #1000 for a future mini-poster run.) Make sure you specify which magnet and strip you want when you donate.

I wish I had more incentives to throw at you this time, but I'm so far behind in book work that I can't offer original art for this drive. In fact, I have to close down my watercolor commissions offer until next month. *sigh*

Thank you to anyone who's willing to take part in this. Chrispy loves you!

It's commissionathon time!

So... as you might guess, that image above is not mine. It belongs to one of my friends, who is joining me on this current fundraising experiment. See, this time it's just not me looking for some commission. There are three of us, here for all you drawing needs.

There's a decent amount of Precocious readers who qualify as liking furry art, so we decided to team up and offer our services. Unlike me, they have TALENT, so they can draw most anything you ask them do, anthro or good old-fashion humans or animals.

For me... you know what I do. I draw Precocious-y stuff, and that's it. What I'm offering for this run are half-page watercolor pieces, featuring one character (mine or yours) and maybe one prop for $25 each. (Look down the blog for the Dionne/Jacob pieces for an example.) Normally I'd charge more, but since these are experiments so I can get better at the whole watercolor thing, you get a discount.

My friends are MUCH more versatile, and able to offer a great variety of tasks. You can get a sense of the work one offers from the piece above. (Which I should mention is from a few years back, so she's even better now!) The other draws ridiculously cute chibi art! I'll have a sample of her work up shortly. Their prices will range from $15 sketches to $50 full-color single character pieces done in a variety of methods. (Extra charges apply for extras, such as more than one character and backgrounds, of course.)

All artwork, no matter who does it, will be accompanied by a special limited-edition Precocious gocco print. This way you get something Precocious-y AND get superior artwork of your favorite character!

This is kinda an emergency fundraiser thing, as we're all in need at the moment. This post is a feeler to see if anyone out there is willing to work with the three of us. When the commissionathon officially launches, I'll put it out where people can actually see it. If you're reading this now and want to give my friends and me a shot, please reply here or drop me an email at chrispco@yahoo.com.

Edit: And just so you guys know. We don't do anything porny. Don't even try to ask.

Request week?

(Edit: Just to clarify, I'm looking for ideas for single strips, no whole arcs. Keep your suggestions simple! If you need more than seven words to say it, it's too complex!)

First off, I am still looking for guest strip help. Response has been rather underwhelming and it's clear I will fall far short of my goal with the current deadline. Some great people have contributed and volunteered so far, and I refuse to give up on this because their work should be put on display! I am extending the entry deadline for another week in hopes enough people will be worn down by my pathetic cries to get me the strips I need.

Of course, this now means I need some scripts for next week. The days of me having a buffer and being scripted ahead are gone. The next big arc is still in its infant stages of development, so that can't go yet. It's me playing around week for week, and I haven't been much in the mood for playing. I'm fighting a bad case of burn-out, which is joyfully timed with a large increase in my work load. If I can't get my week off yet, I'm looking for a way to jump start my stalled mind.

So, hey, if I can't get the comics community at large to listen to MY requests, why not turn it around? I will listen to YOUR requests! This could be fun! Since I have no scripts for next week's comics, I'm asking for your assistance. Give me some simple ideas to help get my brain back into creative mode!

What I'm talking about are scenarios, such as, "What if Tiffany finds a crossbow?" or "What happens when Jacob finally snaps?" Ideas that can be summed up in seven words or less. This is a creative challenge for me not, not an excuse for you to make me draw up your fanfics. Keep it simple and don't go beyond a set-up. Leave the context and punchlines for me. If you want more control - MAKE A GUEST COMIC! I really need those things! (If you can't draw, go hire/blackmail an artist! And artist that isn't me, that is.)

Give me as many premises as you'd like! I hope to get a lot so I can pick and choose. Be fun! Be creative! To submit an idea, comment on this post. Heck, I'll take entries wherever they appear, be it email, shoutbox, comic comments or forum thread. I just want to see some participation!

(By the way, if you all let me down I am not above faking it. Those two example ideas I wrote above have already spawned comics in my mind!)

The past and the future

The quarter has ended, and the plan was to get this blog going again once the first quarter at SCAD ended. Yeah, I had so many glorious plans. Work ahead! Copper Road! Do commissions! Study comics! TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

And then I blew out my finger.

I still have no idea why it happened. I'm a sequential artist! When *haven't* I drawn for hours and hours on end? Did I just draw wrong one day? All I know is that my finger ballooned up to three times its size around midterms, made me delirious with pain and ended up sending me to the emergency room. They took a x-ray, found nothing, decided to throw my finger in a splint, give me anti-inflammatory drugs and send me to a specialist. By the time I got my appointment with the specialist, the swelling had gone down but the finger remained sensitive. The specialist gave me steroids and said we'll wait and see. The finger got slightly better, but was still gimpy enough that I couldn't do my classwork. I'm falling further and further behind. I'm starting to panic. I go back to the specialist for an answer. His expert diagnosis: "I have no idea." God. Dammit.

It's been well over a month now, and my finger remains damaged for no good reason. I had to take an incomplete in all my classes, with the assumption my finger would clear up so I could do the work before the break was over. I've had to scale back Precocious' drawing over and over, and now it looks like I'm going on a guest strip hiatus until I heal. If I ever heal. How did these wonderful SCAD times end up going so wrong? Bah! Bah, I say!

So that's the horrible past - what's the horrible future? I... I'm not really sure.

I've shut my finger down completely, meaning no drawing for at least another week. I hope and pray that stretch of time will be enough for healing, as I have that scary pile of make-up work to do and time is running out! Once I resume activity, the obvious blog solution will be to post my make-up work here as I do it. You can finally see my attempts to be a FOR REALS sequential artist! The only downside is blogging here could cause lots of double-posting to Facebook if I also set up a "critique me and help me get better" work folder there. This could all be avoided if the blog-facebook posting thingy was at all reliable! Bah again! We'll see...

When I start drawing again, I also have a pile of Precocious work to do. I have a long-overdue painting to finish. I have some Precocious art to do. I have to design some prints for a donation drive. I also have to actually DO Precocious comics at some point. *cough* That stuff should mostly be bloggable.

So, yeah... The blog will resume activity soon - somehow! (Just not for another week or so, due to the shutdown finger thing.) I'll have such a massive pile of work to do for the next TWO YEARS that I should have no shortage of things to share. I just need to get in the habit of SHARING my art, not hiding it from the world because IT IS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH. This should be less of a conflict as I improve my skills. In theory. Crud, I hope so.

When blogging resumes, I'll put an announcement up on the Precocious site. Until then, live in a state of anxious limbo. LIKE ME!

(Damn you, finger!)

Time out

As hinted at in the last post, I'm going to spend this week in DC focusing on spending time with my family. Precocious will keep going, but I am going to take a break from blogging and skip this week's Copper Road. The next Copper Road should be up next Monday and I'll start blogging again once I have enough free time to work on something to post!

For those not in the know: My grandmother's heart just gave her a hospital trip. My grandfather has advanced Alzheimer's and requires full care, most of which has been handled by my grandmother. My mother is here to help for a few days. My brother gets back tomorrow. On Thursday, my aunt and her partner are coming to visit. There's going to be no free time! I'll barely be able to keep up with the comic. (Tonight and tomorrow are for working ahead!)

Family always comes first.

Consume my bite-sized paintings!

These little guys are kinda fun to make. I got so used to working large, that I needed the change in scale. Here we have a pile of bite-sized paintings (actually 9"x12") in various stages of completion. You know you want one. Gobble them up! OM NOM NOM! (Click the image to embiggen.)

I just bought a bulk box of canvasses, so I have lots to play with now. I have another box if 12"x12" canvases too, so I can branch out into the land of SQUARE. Oooooooh!

All these art supply purchases are putting a hurt on my wallet, so I've gotta start selling something. Anyone interested? Or are you all waiting for more Precocious paintings? I can do those too!

Greetings from the great outdoors

Yes, I had to roam the neighborhood tonight in order to find the wi-fi to do my daily obligations. THIS IS THE LEVEL OF MY DEDICATION.

Woah, the patio light just blew out, sending all nearby insects to the next-brightest light: my laptop screen. Suburban wildlife attack!

Edit: I just noticed that a dude in the next house over has been watching me the whole time. Attention dude: With the light on in your room, I can see you too! Also, if it's your bandwidth I'm stealing, thanks for that!

Creating a connection

Don't glare at me! I'm up here (in part) to prep for dinner. I'm in charge, so it's fried rice for all! It also coincided with a break in painting, so I'll do the progress post. I happen to set up a stepladder for my laptop, well, I have do something while the rice simmers. Why am I not cutting chicken and veggies while the rice simmers? SHUT UP! STOP LOOKING AT ME! I AM NOT A HOPELESS ADDICT! *sob*

The concept for this painting is, well, connection. Two forms -be they buildings, land masses, weird blogs of paint, whatever - are connected by a bridge the melds into them both. We grow dependent on our connections, eh?

Awkward moments; treasured memories

I wrap up my current stretch in DC as a complete wreck. Stress has taken its toll on me. I've got zits. I've gained weight. I am low on sleep. I might be getting sick. I desperately need a shave. I'm awesome!

That's not to say this hasn't been a positive expirience. I'm glad I could help, as little as I could, and I *did* get some art done while here. After some recharging, I'll come back again to get things right this time. I'm starting to get selfish over here - hiding away in my cave and eating at odd hours - and that's fairly useless outside of moral support. When I get my energy back, I'll do what I should be doing now. I'm going to get my grandmother to tell more stories and just give her a partner in conversation. I'll have a better grasp on what I need for art, so my studio will be better prepared. (Needed: More paint and a mechanical pencil sharpener!) I'll do more around the house, even if I'm clumsy at chores. My grandmother has a 50-year head start and learning the ins and outs of this place - and things must be done properly - so I fumble around like an idiot most of the time. Next time I'm here, I might even cook a decent meal. I'm 0-for-2 so far. (The thing about cooking for an Alzheimer's patient is that he eats with ZERO politeness.)

Anyway, I need a recharge. I need to turn my sarcastic awesome back into actual awesome.

Cranial Concrete

What a way to start November, huh? My mind has been so blank these past few days I couldn't even put up FILLER in good conscience. This has been highly frustrating.

Me and productivity rarely coincide as is, thanks to my brain being wired in an amazingly specific way to negate all my best qualities. Oh, and I'm also hardwired to struggle mightily with any alternate (er, normal, that is) life paths. Basically, I'm wired to fail. Pure force of will alone is how I made it as far as I have. (Have I made it anywhere?) Problem is, I have to actively fight to keep myself even mildly useful - which leaves me vulnerable when life gets fuckly bad. Recent events have worn me down to nothing, which is quite frustrating.

My house is a construction site, which is detrimental in several ways. The constant banging has brutalized my sleep pattern, which is never good for anyone. The lack of a kitchen means I am living out of a microwave now, which sucks. Having the only working appliances as well as the utility stuff nearby means constant invasion of my personal space. (Let's face it, I'm borderline agoraphobic, so this stuff is a big deal.) I cannot get peace here and the constant invasion of people and sounds is starting to severely affect me.

This blog is very useful because the post-a-day goal forces me to have visual proof that I did something positive. Recently, I've been focusing on my writing. I want to create a thorough outline of Maquette so that, if I die unexpectedly, there will be enough there for someone else to take my story and complete it for me. (Note: I am not planning on dying anytime in the next millennium, but I need *something* to force me to put stories that exist entirely in my brain down in real form.) By working on painting in addition to the writing, I had something to show off!

Well, the environment and creative block finally set in with painting. Without something to show, I am just this delusional wistful artist wasting his life on a project no one will ever care about. To make matters worse: My crappy painting skills extend to drawing. For years I would sketch for hours a day. As of late, sitting down to draw feels absolutely foreign. I'm going to chalk it up to the environment finally getting to me, because if my brain was imploding for good that would be far too depressing.

Anyway, the goal of this post was to apologize. I'm not apologizing for my lack of posting her as much as I am apologizing for being a crappy person in this past month. While I've struggled to create, I've increasingly isolated myself. To all my friends I've ignored in that time, I'm really sorry. I've been a wretch and you are so awesome that I'd hate to bring you down with me. Here's to hoping this whiny dirge has been enough blather to get the frustrations out of my brain.

Milling Around

This is the last weekend for Art at the Mill, and I have foolishly volunteered to do whatever Mill volunteers do for this closing. If anyone wants to visit me, I'll be there from 3-6 Saturday (today) and 2-5 on Sunday.

What was I thinking? Do I really need to impress a bunch of people who happily purchase paintings of the mill instead of my artwork? I only took the Sunday shift because it's the official end of the show and they told me I could take my unsold paintings home when I was done.

Also, I managed to volunteer DURING THE BROWNS-REDSKINS GAME! Could I have time it any better? Criminy!

Chrispy 2, Mouse 0

As predicted, my pet mouse returned a few nights ago for more adorable action. This time, she was even more brazen about making this room her home. In addition to the usual scamper-bounce thing, she took up climbing. She would scale the busted ask speaker and run back down. She'd climb a bookcase, jump into a bag and climb back out for more exploring. She'd climb right up next to me and sit on my computer! Should I turn and speak to her, she'd bound back under the bed - but five minutes later she was again forging new frontiers.

As the cycle continued, it was time again for me to catch it! Earlier in the night, I had placed a peanut on the ground beside to see if she'd come up and take it. I turned away to do something else and looked back a minute or two later. The peanut was gone. So I placed a *second* peanut down. Again, she grabbed it so fast I missed her. OK then! My mouse loves her nuts!

It was time for a trap! While Chipotle had failed me so hard earlier, I still had the bag. In went a few peanuts and onto the floor it went. It took a while for the mouse to emerge again, but sure enough she went for the bag. She climbed it, ran around it, went under it - had I been a cat, the tip of my tail would have been twitching like a blender blade with the anticipation. Finally, she jumped in, grabbed her peanut and ran before I could get the bag. Curses!

But the *second* time she got greedy! Mouse - mine! like a good pet owner, I gave her a lovely place to live. I took my box of files (use: holding papers I probably need, but will never look at again) and emptied it to give her a home. She even got a water dish, some food and a cardboard tube for shelter. She enjoyed her new home for about five minutes. Then, just like in all relationships, the bitch went crazy!

A nimble gal, she would climb the sides of the box and crawl around the top, trying to find an escape route. Then, in a non-nimble way, she'd slip and fall. Into the water dish. She's scramble around, making a mess of the good home I gave her, before settling in her tube to hide in shame. Realizing there was no way out, she did the typical mouse thing and tried to gnaw her way through the hard plastic.

As it was 5am at this point (I took my sleeping pill at 1am, but sometimes it just doesn't work) I decided to let my mouse enjoy her home as I slept. By morning (my definition) she had made significant progress in her escape route, but had a long way to go. She had also made a huge mess of things by falling off the wall so many times, and that's when I decided to have mercy - but not before putting her in a clear plastic bottle to take photos! I think I earned a medal of freedom for that act of compassion.

Anyway, so ends the latest saga of the mouse. Check back in a few days, since I'm sure she will return.

Just for fun, I tried another mouse girl sketch. It should be noted that I did not use my mouse photos to help in drawing. This is because I'm a damned fool.

Last day of filler posts!*

#3 of the character Halloween costume swaps! This time: Dionne and Suzette!

You know what, Dionne looks rather awesome mocking Suzette. Conclusion: Overalls are always cute?

Suzette, on the other hand, looks like something out of an ironic horror movie. There wasn't much to work with, but I tried. Yes, Dionne's standard outfit has slacks instead of a dress. I figured Dionne does wear dresses on and off, while Suzette would never wear one. The out-of-character factor won me over. For now. This may change. It's likely I will abandon this middle ground look and go for the standard heart shirt look or go full pageant garb.

Anyway, I should be home later today*, so if anyone wants to hang out and hear me whine for a while...

*My laptop found an unsecured network in the neighborhood! This allows me to edit this currently-upcoming post to say I may be staying in DC past Saturday. Earlier, I mentioned I had enough clothes to last me until Saturday. The reply I got was, "We can do some laundry." I may never leave! (Not that it's a bad thing...but I only had three days of posts stored!) Maybe I can find another unsecured network on Sunday, log in and...uh...describe** my sketches and (potential) paintings. Whee!

**To edit my edited post before it appears, I'll point you to the post below as a reminder that I can indeed post images while in DC. A post for Sunday is all queued up and powered by webcam adequacy. Don't worry - I didn't do a video. I *totally* would have, but no way I am trying to upload a file that big over this weak of a signal.