Precocious is five years old!

Forget this New Year stuff! The most important thing about January 1st is that it's Precocious' birthday! Five years, and around 2000 comics between the archive, deleted scenes and the book bonus stories. Not too shabby! (Thanks to Isabel Marks of Namir Deiter for the gift art!)

(Want to celebrate the occasion too? Now's as good a time as any to check out all the goodies in the Precocious store!)

When I started, five years was my goal. From all my reading of dailies, I saw year five as when artist competence and character development come together to bring a comic into a golden age. Well, every year I've done this has been precocious to me. Year one of Precocious was fresh and new and exciting. Year two built upon a strong foundation and expanded the universe. Year three is when I took a major level up and committed to the goal of making Precocious my JOB and not just a hobby. Year four is when I pulled out all my tricks. Year five... this was the year I took for myself and drew what I wanted to draw. The stories from the past year were so much fun for me to write, and it was so gratifying to see so many people coming along for the ride. I told myself I'd reassess the comic at year five, and I can't imagine stopping now. I'm not done. I have so much left to tell and so much silliness to share.

2013 was a great year for the comic, but not so much for me. A toothache I thought would be a one-week inconvenience turned into a botched surgery and a year of medical hell. As the year comes to a close, I'm still in doctor limbo, dealing with chronic pain and fighting all the side-issues that come up when lengthy medical issues happen. I've been double sick for weeks thanks to a cold caught due to being in so many doctor waiting rooms, and my drawing hand is in a cast because I aggravated and old finger injury due to me playing too many video games while stuck in bed during pain downtime. (Yes, this means I'll have to be clever with next week's updates, as my buffer doesn't cover the full cast stretch.)  I am so glad to see 2013 go. It was brutal. BUT I DIDN'T MISS AN UPDATE! In you face, 2013!

Here's hoping 2014 brings me health, and chances to do all things that I wanted to do in 2013.  Book 3 is coming, and the preorder looks like it'll start in February right now. (It will be in color, and thus VERY expensive to print, so I'll really be needing your support!) The other plans? We shall see. I'm a one man operation, so I can't put in the extra work needed until I'm healthy enough. My convention schedule is likely to be scaled back, again due to health.  I'm confirmed for Fur The More, Furry Weekend Atlanta, Anthrocon and Mechacon. I'll try for SPX. Not sure about any others.

Thank you all for reading Precocious. Keep coming back. Keep contributing. Keep spreading the word.

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!

Making custom buttons!

My June vow: Get back into art! This is easier said than done, as my lack of arting isn't due to laziness. My health problems have continued - and I've been a mess of side effects while trying out new treatments. A necessary step, if a frustrating one. Still, con season approaches, and my portfolio need upgrading! I want to do something artsy (beyond regular comicking) every day, although it's doubtful I'll be able to pull it off. Denial only goes so far, but it's all I have!

I'm doing warm-up and sample pieces at first, even though I owe commissions still. Gotta get myself back into a groove before doing proper paid work.

Today: Playing with custom buttons! I don't have a button maker, as it's far too expensive for far too few sales, but I *do* have snap-together button pieces - and all the ingredients to make magic happen!

Above you see the button pieces, marker paper with designs, a circle cutter and a template I put under the marker paper to let me know where the edges are.

Of the drawings, I decided I only liked Autumn and Bud's drawings well enough to take to completion. I markered them up (Bud got a faint coat of glitter, just because) and prepared for the next step!

In order to fit in the circle cutter, I had to cut out the drawings from the page. I used the template to make sure everything would fit on the button correctly.

And, since it's all good, I put the paper in the cutter and out came the perfect circles!

And, ta-dah, the circles snap into the snappers - and buttons are created!  These two will be giveaways to lucky Kickstarter backers.

As for the future, I must figure out how to price these things. Even though only 2.5", it's still custom art, and all custom art requires development time. But that's the future. For now, I'm just happy to have some art done.

Now, back to Precocious! Let's keep that buffer up!

Charm ideas.

After hearing Printcess is shutting down at the end of the month, my Precocious charms goals have to be fast-forwarded.  (There are surely other charm-making sites, but Printsess has a great reputation.)

The goal for Precocious charms is not just to make them desirable to Precocious readers, but have extra appeal for those who don't know a thing about the comic. That's where I'm having issues. What you see here is a first attempt, with me turning the kids into the suits from a deck of cards.  (Current setup: Autumn=diamonds, Bud=spades, Tiffany=clubs, Jacob=hearts.) I need something that people might want, that also comes in a set of four - and doesn't require a label to identify, as these are charms.  These things can't be too complex in design. (I could, in theory, also design them as jack, queen, king and ace cards.)

If I was less egotistical, I would design cute charms for the conventions I attend, but I know so many others who could do a better job.  (I'm hoping to set up a deal, where I can have the adorable charms from Becca and/or Heidi with me at Anthrocon this year.)

These charms are my first idea for little table trinkets people can grab at my convention tables. I have other plans that I'd like to pursue, but with my health issues I have to tackle these things when I can.  If I'm on the ball, maybe I'll create a reader survey for Precocious readers and test the market a bit. Every promo I do costs a hefty chunk of change and LOTS of development and drawing time, so I need to pick my projects wisely.

Tonight's art cards!

Another good stream! At least on my end. You guys may have suffered, but at least you had plenty of suffering friends to commiserate with this time!

Aside from the new Copper Road (go vote and see it! It hurts my feelings when I slip this low in the rankings) I did these two cards, and they're cool. Totally.

Autumn's card started the evening. This is a recreation of the final panel of this comic with bonus color and double bonus not having to look at naked me to see that pose. Since this was a sequined dress in a sparkly environment, I went ADVANCED and used metallic silver and gold pencils for the shininess. I may have gone overboard in experimenting with colors and polling the chat to settle on the perfect dress color - BUT IT WORKED. What I'm most proud of, though, is how I pulled off the curtain-esque background. I rocked my color theory via means of insanity!

Vincent's card had a very cool origin. While folks seem to enjoy me drawing the Copper Roads, there's also a bit of quiet as I have to do the lettering and ink the borders. This time, I tasked the chat with deciding upon the next card while I did the less-zesty Copper Roading.  It... worked.  Rather than melting down into sectional violence, everyone actually seemed to have a good discussion and came up with the concept of Vincent, in holiday pajamas, hanging a stocking while standing precariously on a wobbly stool.  I admit, I was dubious about fitting it all onto a card - but IT WORKED. The end result was one of the coolest cards yet, and everyone involved gets to take some credit in its creation.

While commissions aren't canon - and even with no owner, art cards count - this does give an interesting view into Vincent's home life. I've always imagined Vincent's dad as doing the best he can - even in areas where he doesn't have the most expertise. Vincent wanted to celebrate the holiday, so daddy went out and got a big tree!  Decorations? Uh... One box of ornaments and no lights or tinsel? Like Vincent, there's something so sweet in that slightly inept attempt to make someone happy.  Anyway, Vincent's probably spending his holiday in the emergency room.

Also, when these cards are placed side by side, it's hilarious.

Autumn card sketches

Since the card piece below took up nearly all the stream last night (which, it was supposed to, as it is big and complex) there was no chance to work on the back-up card.  Yes, I was prepared in case the client had to run and wanted me to halt production while he was gone.  These were the sketches I had for that card.

1 - Horizontal card with Autumn stretched out reading, like in the recent comic. The background would likely be unobtrusive, with her leaning against a wall or something.  (The dunk tank colors would look silly out of context.)

2- Autumn with a refreshing beverage, inspired by this comic. Likely a vertical card, but I'd have to get clever with the background.

3- Winter outfit Autumn with hot cocoa!  I stole this pose from a Roddy sketch! Could be indoor or outdoor, depending on background request.

4 - Winter Autumn playing in deep snow. The deep snow allows for me to show more figure without having the awkwardness of chopping off the feet.

5 - Happy winter Autumn, maybe as snow starts falling around her. I'd have to straighten her up slightly to fit properly on the card, cute as that lean is.

6 - Sitting Autumn looking concerned. The orientation of this card would depend on how the background is handled. Is there something causing that concern? What's happening in this scene?

An Autumn card could be drawn as early as Saturday's stream - although I already promised to start that one with a Kaitlyn - since it was a request *and* I owe someone a Kaitlyn. Saturday will likely go Kaitlyn card, Copper Road, then one more card, depending on who's around.

Texas hold'em!

For those who weren't able to spend six hours hanging out with me in the stream, here's the finished version of the piece I colored tonight.  The Precocious kids are hustling poor Kendall, and he's about to go down to Autumn's all-in! (Or maybe cheating Tiffany will knock him out first.)

Pieces this complex are pretty intimidating for me, since I still consider myself a newbie with marker, but I'm happy with how it came out.

11x8.5" piece, Copic multiliners and sketch markers on Canson comic paper. This image has approximately half an inch around each edge cropped to show how it would look framed.  (No one asked, but I want to prove that I did take possible framing into consideration when I composed the piece.) You can find the full image in my FA gallery.

Kendall belongs to SirKain.

Kendall's card trouble

UPDATE: The coloring of this piece was pushed to next week, because the client got sick.  Check Precocious' front page for an announcement of when the stream will happen.

I have absolutely no idea how I pulled it off, but I did it! I got the inks done! I can color this tonight as planned!  If you want a full explanation of what's going on, you'll have to come to tonight's stream at 7pm Eastern time. I'll be starting with a badge, then moving on to this piece.

And now I rest my hand as much as I can before 7pm.

Also, this is my 999th blog post.  That's kinda cool.

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!

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.)

My Copic'd Kids

My vacation is over! I am back in Savannah and preparing for some major summer undertakings! There's so much to do, and so much planning needed before I can start doing it. It's daunting, but also exciting. (I'll share more about the plans when everything starts to take form.)

While I had a wonderful time stomping around the country and kicking butt all through June, it is nice to be back to the grind. One perk: I HAVE ACCESS TO MY SCANNERS AGAIN! Well then, let's use 'em!

I present to you, the main four Precocious kids in Copic marker, for the first time ever.

The marker thing was a whim that has turned into a wallet-draining tornado. I loved working on grayscale, since it was nice and cost-effective, but the people wanted color and a timely coupon to Art Supply Warehouse resulted in an impulse buy of a color set. And some extra colors. And then some MORE singles to fill out my palette a bit...

Ok, so now I see the appeal. Copics are kinda swell. I have a long way to go before I become a master at them like Darc or Becca, but I really love the practice!

Without a swatch list of my own, I had to guess which colors would fit the Precocious cast best when ordering. Overall, I'm quite pleased with what I could do with my meager collection. (For the record, both Bud and Tiff's fur colors didn't scan well, so I tried to approximate them using Photoshop. They look better in person.)

If you're interested, and you don't feel like reading the info in the pic, here is what I came up with:

Bud:
Fur: Silk
Ears: Baked Clay
Hair: Light Suntan
Nose: Tea Rose
Inner ear: Pinkish White
Pants: Light Grayish Cobalt

Tiffany:
Fur: Egg Shell
Ear: Baked Clay
Hair/Smiley: Cadmium Yellow
Nose: Tea Rose
Inner ear: Pinkish White
Eyering: Yellowish Beige
Dress: Lime Green

Autumn:
Fur: Apricot
Hair: Vermilion
Inner ear: Baby Skin Pink
Dress light: Lime Green
Dress dark: Forest Green

Jacob:
Fur: Warm Grey 3
Shirt: Lipstick Red
Pants: Antwerp Blue

I can see a few colors that might be improved. I may want to play with the orange and yellow in Autumn and Tiff, and Jacob could probably work with Warm Grey 2, but I don't have that one.  Jacob's pants could probably be a lighter blue as well. I'm happy with all color choices for Bud.  Down the line, I may update the aforementioned colors, but for now I think it's all good.  (I can't afford another marker binge for a while.)

Book sketching tests

The time will soon come when I'll be working on book sketches for the artist editions and those who buy the sketch package at cons.  Sweet!  Now, how should I handle it?

Every artist handles things differently.  I wanted to offer something more than the typical pen and ink approach, so now it's time to find the look.  I've seen some wonderful book sketches Darc of Code Name: Hunter did with monochrome colored pencil, so... monkey see, monkey do.

What you see here are various tries to find the best combo of pen and pencil application. Do I sketch in regular pencil, or no-copy blue?  Should I erase the pencil or show the process lines? What type of pen should I use for the inking?  When should the inking stage occur?

The first try was Tiffany.  I began with blue lines, then inked with the glorious Fude pen that was recommended by Becca of Nattosoup.  It was all awesome until the coloring began. SMEARS! Noooooo!

Darn it!  I want to use that pen whenever possible, so that was disheartening.  The next try was Jacob, where I colored him first and use the pen overtop the pencils. That looks great, but it does make coloring more imprecise.  It should be OK, though.

Autumn is the standard sketch, using regular tech pens. I erased the pencil after inking, so it's a little cleaner. No problems here, but it's harder to pull off line variance.

Bud's inking went the other way.  I left the pencils to show process and used a brush pen, which gives nice lines despite my complete inability to use it.  The downside here is that error potential is high, and I take it a bit slower in drawing.

And then there's the blue. I've been on a monochrome kick for a while, so this should be no surprise. It's also practical.  It's a lot easier on the logistics to keep it in one color family, and I think it's a nice touch.  It doesn't have to be blue.  I just like it, and I can use the blue pencil for sketching.  (Although it doesn't scan well AT ALL. This is an iPhone photo you see.) There's a chance I could switch to toning with markers, but there's a bleed issue there.

The actual book sketches will be a bit larger, of course.  Gotta come up with some scenes to draw, especially since I need to have 21 unique sketches for Autumn.  (Yes, that's out of 25 pre-orders. Dang, guys.)

I know I'm getting ahead of myself.  Most book sketches won't be happening until August.  Still, it's a fun thing to practice!

I got some special fan art!

Every time someone makes fan art for me, it's awesome - but when another busy comic creator takes the time to draw something for me, it's really special.

Ok, so I kinda asked for this one. Mark, the creator of Autumn Lake, wanted to draw something and asked for ideas. I told him to draw Precocious fan art. Instead of e-slapping my arrogant face, he did! Check it out!

This makes me happy, as Autumn Lake is one of my favorite webcomics. There's something very classic about the feel and execution of Autumn Lake, and it's that sincerity that is so appealing. Mark and I share many influences, so of course it pleases me to see another out there aiming more for timeless than trending topic. It's special, and it really needs to have more eyes viewing it. For those scared of the archive size, I suggest starting with the epic Lonely Robot saga.

Commission sketches: The final frontier!

Ok, yeah, I've been watching way to much Star Trek recently. (Just wait an hour for the new Copper Road!) Anyway, sketch work has begun on the final batch of the May commissions!

I was give free reign on this one for Phil, and that is always so scary. I decided to take a proper crack at his fursona. (His look was previously used as a cameo in the strip, but not in-character.) Since he's been having technical difficulties with just about everything he's touched recently, I drew something with him being taunted by a tech demon.  (Blue screen of death demon?) As is, the demon is singling him out as his choice for torment, but an alternate idea could zoom in a bit and keep the demon to a face on the monitor. Yes, he's wearing the SCIENCE! shirt. He said geeky shirts were good, and I chose mine!

Karl wanted a sequel to his Derpy and Bud watercolor piece, with Derpy hunting down the jerk who took the last muffin. Unwitting subject of an impending lightning strike? Had to be Jacob. Instead of making multiple sketches, I just drew alternate Derpy poses in the empty space.  I love the idea of her riding the storm cloud behind Jacob.  This piece could benefit of a shift to a horizontal layout.  It could also be flipped, with Jacob walking the other way. That way the eye would start on him and then move to angry Derpy.  I don't like that angle on Jacob as much, so it may not happen, even if it helps the narrative.

This one started out as Autumn being territorial about her library, but drawing a full library background in the time allotted is impossible. It's a shame, because it was a good idea. (I may have to turn a variation of that into a strip down the line!)  A smaller-scale version of Autumn protecting her books that was suggested was her sacrificing herself to keep a book dry in the rain.  Sounds cute!  If I went with this, I could do regular color or something more experimental.  I think a rain scene would look neat in all blues.  I may have to redraw her to show her a bit more hunched over, but the idea is there.

Here's an alternate take, showing the set-up.

I was given two options for this one:  Kaitlyn and Autumn having fun together, or Kaitlyn making Autumn all poofy paranoid. Since I couldn't think of a good activity for the friendly stuff, I turned to the dark side.  I'm torn over trying to make this a vertical or horizontal piece.

Hey! Wen got a commission! That's right, Roddy, even Wen got chosen before you. The question about Wen was what he does when not tormenting Kaitlyn.  He's a sporty jerk, so I decided to have him playing catch.  Maybe it wasn't the smartest move to make him play American football, since this for a European reader, but you must admit football is a suitably jerky sport for him. Bonus insult:  I swiped this pose from another drawing I'd done... a drawing of Roddy!

Finally, I was asked to bring back Tiffany dressed as fruit, from an old sketch of mine. It proved harder than I thought to find an alternative to the original pear look.  I through inverting the shape and going strawberry would be good... but the pear shape still beats it. I suppose it'd be cheating to make her an eggplant.

There are two more commissions that need sketching, but I ran out of sketchbook pages. (That means I'm down to just two empty sketchbooks! Ack!)  They'll have to be sketched tomorrow.

Giving 'em the business

When I went to the post office today to mail the recent commissions, I had a nice chat about the art I was sending with the lady behind the counter. She asked me for a business card, and I checked my wallet. One left! I handed it over and made a mental note to reload when I got back to the apartment. Once there, I pulled out my box to see... I'm in the market to reorder.

The cards I have now will get me through the next con easily, but it'd be wise to reorder before the next. That means updating the design! I like the "I DEMAND ATTENTION!" idea, and those at the cons seemed amused by it too, so it's staying for now. The art for it is quite old at this point, so today I drew a new attention-grabbing Tiffany.

For the design, I made a few changes:
- I removed the Precocious logo from the front, so I could make Tiffany bigger.  This may or may not be a good idea.
- Fonts switched around. While I kept the Precocious font for Tiff's voice, everything else was upgraded. The new logo font took over the important info, and a non-offensive Franklin Gothic was used for supporting information.
- The Bud and Autumn on the back were upgraded with the recent magnet images. (Poor Jacob remains shut out.)
- The tagline was rephrased to mention the daily updates, and "webcomic" was changed to "comic" so the label purists won't get mad.  (I don't care what you call my strip, as long as you read and enjoy it!)
- Twitter and blog links were added to my information. It gives folks other ways to contact me, and lets them see my personality in action.  (Is that good or bad?) The downside is that the back is now text-heavy.  I do think the black box for my name did a good job of stabilizing everything.
- I made the blue background cover everything.  The original card has a separate white space where the logo and website appeared on both sizes.

I'm liking the upgrade so far, but I'll see what the reaction is before I do any more playing around.  Plus, it'd be silly to order new business cards when the company I'd order from botched my magnet order and hasn't come through with the corrections yet.  (I was promised it'd happen, but I'll still worry until I see the proofs.)

Magnet time!

I'm playing around with new magnet designs today. Since I've already done Tiffany and Jacob magnets, the next step is Autumn and Bud! Autumn gets to go first, because I already had the art done. I'm gonna try drawing something new for Bud.

What do you guys think? I'm planning on ordering my magnets this weekend, to make sure I have them by the con.

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!

Playing with promo art

Here's a draft for an upcoming Precocious banner, for when I go fully con crazy.

It's about time to start upgrading my online banners too. This is difficult, as I don't have much of a feel for graphic design. I don't know what sells, and I certainly struggle to get my oddly-proportioned characters to fit nicely in any of the standard ad spots. That's sketchbook work for the future, I guess.