The first portrait

First come, first serve!

I was given three photos of our friend here. Two clean-shaven. One beard. C'mon, you know I can't resist!

This is approximately 4.5x6" and done on a Canson drawing pad. I want to keep playing around with these to see where the comfort zone is and what tricks I can pull. If anyone wants to be a part of this experiment, send me a photo!

Fumbling through August

I'll get to the image above (and note how you can get one of you) in a minute. First, here comes the promised update on things:

My move was a disaster. I made it to Virginia. The stuff I crammed into my car made it to Virginia. Everything else? Not so much. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get anyone down there to pick up the rest of the stuff - the most important of which is my drafting table! - until the very end of this month. Lack of a proper work space in VA is gonna cause some delays with side projects, but I'll figure out a way to get the comics done. A new arc should still be popping up when the guest week is over.

Speaking of, GUEST WEEK IS COMING! I have lined up fancy comics for every day next week, plus extra comics and art that will be appearing as vote incentives each day. I'm very excited about this. I love seeing how other artists handle my crew, and it's fun to share the cartooning love of these talents!

Now to that art stuff above! September is an important month for me. I will be expanding the illustration side of my work, and that means picking out new angles and practicing them.  One approach is to try cute portrait stuff. I've had a lot of fun doing the character portraits at furry cons, but why stop there? Let's human up this place!  It's been a while since I did stylized portraits, and I want to tackle it again.  I let myself be a test subject and played with a few degrees of cartoony. I can also attempt some fine art twists. The goal here is to see what works best and give the people what they want. The name is there because I got jealous of all the cool furry badges I saw at cons. I don't have a character, so I just put myself on the dang badge! THAT'S HOW I ROLL!

Want to be a test subject for this new approach? Email me a picture of you or a loved one, and I'll chose a few to practice with! (Sticking with the headshot drawings for the free stuff, so don't send full-body shots.)

I'll have more art/promo/commissions news for you in a week or so.  For now, send me some photos and start checking out the sketch blog for the results! (Update: The first one has been posted!)

Chrispy has left the building

I have returned from FA:United a day early. While I met many wonderful people and had some great conversations, foot traffic in the dealer's room was dreadful and sales were brutal. We decided to cut our losses and bail, and we definitely were not the only dealers to do so. Oh well, a lesson is learned.

...and much good did come from this journey! The artist edition book sketches are done, and mailing begins on Monday! Yay! It was so much fun doing all these sketches, and I hope all who get them enjoy them!  For those who are jealous, start making plans to visit me at Intervention and/or Midwest FurFest! You can purchase an artist edition at the table, or bring your copy and get me to upgrade it to superawesomecool!

I'll try to give you another update on how moving/buffering/whatever is progressing next week. Because of the chaos, there will not be a Copper Road on Monday. Sorry! (Vote for me anyway, because I need to feel loved!) The week after will be filled with lots of bonus guest art and comics incentives though!

FA:United and moving! (And more!)

Folks in the Jersey area, you'd best be making plans to come see me! This weekend I will be hanging with the RCSI folks at FA: United and it will be awesome. Look at the map! We are easy to find! Also, since it's three people at one small table, I will have lots of free time when I'm not selling. I will be wandering and looking for friends! You can totally abduct me and get a good head start with me in your trunk before anyone noticed! (Please don't do that.)

As part of this conventure, I am moving shop from Georgia to Virginia. And I am doing it RIGHT NOW. What does that mean? For one, my internet access on Monday and Tuesday will be restricted to using the 3G on my iPhone, as those are the moving days. Actually, since I'll be setting up and soon traveling to FA:U, my internetting will be random all week.

Things will be hectic while I settle in, which is why I'm doing the upcoming guest strip week. (Still looking for more entries, by the way!) Another consequence is there might not be a Copper Road for the rest of the month. (If I have extra guest strips or art, I will use them as incentives.)

The benefit of this move is that things will get very awesome in September! I will try to figure out how to do livestreaming, so you folks can watch me draw commissions/bonus art and we can do regular chat sessions! I also have some promotions planned, which I'll get to soon.

Furthermore, I can announce that my presence at InterventionCon in DC (Sept 21-23) has been upgraded from "dude wandering around" to "dude with a dealer's table!" Even better, I am bringing some awesome friends with me! The programming for this con looks spectacular, and we hope to be taking part in a few panels there. You should definitely come to this one! It's a "local" con now, so it needs love to ensure it gets big and strong. (Also, it's an internet nerdery con, not a furry con, for those who have been scared. This is your new home!)

New Copper Road! 8/10/12

As it is moving time, I won't have proper internet on Monday for a regular Copper Road update, so you get it now! This one hits a bit closer to home than I'd care to admit. Vote to see it!

Reminder stuff:

I will be at FA:United next weekend! Come say hello! I'll be drawing in the artist editions of the book at FA:U, so shipping will happen soon after! Also, if you haven't ordered a book yet, go get one! It's awesome, and it has lots of bonus content! EVEN MY MOTHER SAID IT WAS COOL!

I'm still taking guest comics and guest art for the break week I'm taking to get my new studio set up. They are due on August 20, but I do ask that you email me ahead of time to let me know something's coming.

I'll post more details about my moving and convention schedule Sunday night.

New Copper Road! 8/6/12

Due to the miracle of webcomic time, characters' birthdays aren't always set in stone. As long as the date happens *sometime* over the course of an arc, it counts! (And even then, it's flexible.)

From the Party Crashers arc, we know Kaitlyn has a birthday in early August... so happy maybe-birthday Kaitlyn! (Yes, it began in August. Ignore the archive URL dates. That's a quirk of adapting a numbered comic into a date-based system when I switched to Clickthulu.)

What gifts did she receive? Vote and see!

Flavors of Autumn

UPDATE: The glitch with the store has been fixed. Order away!

First off, for all those who missed out on the pre-order, the first Precocious collection is back in the store! Order your copy today! Second, don't miss the new Copper Road! Third, I'm still looking for guest strips.

And for those heroes that not only pre-ordered, but reserved an artist edition - your time is coming soon! I will be drawing on your books in two weeks! That means it's time to start figuring out what those sketches will be. The breakdown of the sketches is quite amusing. One Bud, one Jacob, one Tiffany, one Casey, TWENTY ONE AUTUMNS. I know she's the cutest, but wow! (My guess going into the pre-order was 10 Autumn, 10 Tiffany, 5 everyone else.) The challenge now is to find 21 unique Autumn scenarios, so let's do it! EDIT: After talking with RCSI, it seems the count they told me was merely, to paraphrase, "what it seemed like as the orders came in." Since the sketches weren't happening until mid-August, they hadn't even bothered to go back and look yet! Oh well, there's still a ton of Autumn requests, but the other story was funnier.

Actual total:
Autumn - 11
Jacob - 3
Bud - 2
Tiffany - 2
Dionne - 1
Max - 1
Roddy - 1
Yvette - 1
Casey - 1
Suzette -1
Anyone - 1

And now back to the original post...

Unless I get a good idea for a Copper Road, my next few days will be for character sketching. I'm in packing limbo right now, with most non-essential stuff boxed up, and the rest still needed for day to day life. I want to be ready to go, but I guess there is no option but to throw all the important things in boxes at the last minute. (Yesterday I cleared out half my kitchen, only to put it right back in place once I got hungry.) Anyway, if you want to help, give me some ideas for the Autumn sketches! What should she be doing? If you're one who ordered the artist edition, you can give me a specific request - although I can't guarantee you'll get it. Look at the above art for examples of what will appear in the books. (The book sketches will also be shaded with blue colored pencils.)

New Copper Road! 8/1/12

It's a new month and the stats have been reset, so let's get to voting so Precocious' ranking stays in the happy place! I've done my part by uploading a new Copper Road to entice you!  (EDIT: Head over to the archive page and enjoy all the comics from last month too! Read 'em again! Comment! Love them!)

Whether you've been paying attention to the Olympics or not, you've probably heard folks complaining about how poorly NBC has been handing everything. As someone who has desired to spend every day of the games so far with three screens of competition playing around him at all times, let me assure you that the complainers aren't just doing so because griping about things makes them cool. NBC's been a joke, and their handling of the games has seriously hurt my enjoyment. (Note I said I "desired" to stream the games. I didn't say I was able to successfully.)

I could list all the reasons they suck, but long news posts scare people. Speaking of... GO READ MY LONG NEWS POSTS BELOW! They are important!

Lots of news!

Ok, folks, I'm going to cover a lot in today's news post. I figure it's better to put it all together than spread a bunch of things out over separate posts. (I can only have four current items on the home page, and it's rare that anyone is even reading this, much less scrolling down to see more.) So let's go!

GUEST STRIPS! - I am still looking for contributions from those who are artistically inclined! If you think you can pull one off, shoot me an email and let me know! The reason I'm looking for these is because I have a big move coming up in a couple weeks, and it'll take me a while to settle in. I'd like a week to catch my breath.

Commissions! - Since I haven't had many bites this time, I'm going to shut down the studio early. I could use the space for packing. You can still commission me, but there's no longer a promise of a week turnaround. You might have to wait until September for delivery now. In related news, my attempts to figure out livestreaming has been pushed back to September due to the pressures with moving.

CONVENTIONS! - I'll be at FA: United in Whippany, NJ the weekend of August 17-19. Come see me! I'll also be wandering around Intervention in DC in September 21-23, and I'd love to do a reader meet up there!

And the badge too!

Here's the second Haven commission. It's like the original sketch, just cleaner. I did this during the Olympic opening ceremony, which made things more surreal because I kept looking down and missing things.

*color the badge*

Oh, kids jumping on beds.

*color the badge*

Now there's a 100-foot tall Voldemort!

*color the badge*

Suddenly, Mary Poppins! Thousands of them!

Ok, sure. Whatever. All in all, it was a nice cultural moment. Too bad it was mostly ruined by NBC. Seriously, NBC, this is why people joke about you being the sixth best of the big four networks.