Some card sketches

From what I'm hearing from my doc, I'll have to do more adapting to being broken than waiting until I'm fixed, so I've been trying something inspired by my friend, Becca: Three daily goals. The farther I fall behind, the more frustrated I can get - so this helps break it down.  It's better to make a dent in the work than flip out and stress over how much I have to do, and what order I should do it in. It won't allow me to get far ahead, but I hope I can keep pace and get a few extra things done.

My goals are simple and sometimes vague. (Even then, I don't always get them done, but I'm not letting that get me down.) Yesterday it was 1)Ink two comics, 2)Color and upload two comics, 3)Begin work on two more comics.  Today it was 1)Finish last night's two comics, 2)Sketch out some owed commission work and 3)household chores.  I got 1 done, didn't really do enough to check off 3 (but I'm checking it off anyway) and 2... here you go!

Normally this is something that can be done during a stream, but I've also sketched and inked the art cards as prep work when needed.  As any streaming I make must be limited now - The more I talk, the worse I feel - reducing streamed work to coloring only will be beneficial. (It's not the full experience, but it's better than NO experience, right?)

Usually I'd go straight to inking, but I'm taking a break - and it allows me to show off the idea of the spray paint on the wall behind Roddy.  I'm not sure if it's over the top or not.  It wouldn't be included in the inks anyway, since it's part of the coloring stage, but whatevs.  For Dionne's card, the only change is me including her feet and the platform she's standing on. Well, I played with some costume stuff too, but it'll get refined more in inking no matter what.

Tomorrow's goals, by the way:

1) Brush up on reading Ginpu and sketch out my guest comic. (She's sicker than me, so she wins.)

2)Turning the outline for next week's Precocious into solid scripts

3)Lining pages and starting the thumbnails. (Takes longer than you'd think.)

Yesterday I went beyond my goals. Today I came up short. Tomorrow, I'll probably come up short, but it's a hefty list. I'm hopeful, though.

Cards and comics streaming, Dec 8th

December 8th is a special day, as it marks the beginning of Chrispmas - the season of giving! (Come to my streams if you want the full story of Chrispmas.) I intend to start this season by giving you a bonus weekend stream! Note the early start, 4pm eastern time, as I'm letting those darling people over in Europe get in on the action without wrecking their sleep schedules!

The plan is to draw two art cards and finish up the next installment of Copper Road, which will be posted after the stream ends.

Oh, and didn't I say this was the season of giving? During the stream, I will be giving away an art card to someone in the chat! You don't need an Ustream account, nor do you have to be actively chatting. You just need to be watching when the time comes and be able to let me know you exist. (You can use the chat room anonymously, or even email me if you're that shy.)

The above sketches, with festival outfits, are me getting you all started with ideas for the cards, as at least one will be created from chat requests.  The other card can be a commission, if someone would like to reserve a spot. Send me an email - chrispco (at) yahoo (dot) com - if you want it. Only $10.

The steam is expected to run 3-4 hours, so I encourage you to stop in and try for the freebie when you can! As always, this is the link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-sycophant

Another art showcase!

Once more, a great artist has come to help me in my time of greed!  The wonderful Matthew Dawson has contributed today's evil caricature. Give me thanks and love and follows!

Today's guest art showcase!

Here's the full art for today's comic, courtesy of the great Raiettei!

Much thanks to him for indulging me for this idea. Go check out his stuff and spread the love!

Di-Va's corruption

Forgot to post the one watercolor I did complete over the stream. Here is Di-Va trying to influence the Ticking Time Bomb.

Turns out painting a character cloaked in shadow with limited watercolor skills is pretty hard, but I think it all came out decent enough. The dark spot at the top center is not on the original, by the way. The paper is warped slightly - what with it being a WATERCOLOR and all - and that part simply wasn't in direct contact with the scanner glass.

The remaining watercolors will be done in the next few days. I was hoping to do them tonight, but I remembered there's this strange webcomic thing I'm obligated to do - and that comic's buffer is down to one. Since Tuesday is a streaming day, and it's a bad idea to wear out my arm too much before a live drawing session, I'm guessing the next two will be completed on Wednesday.

Corruption

I owe three people comp sketches (and there's one more project for which I'm still awaiting refs), so here's the first one.

Di-va is out to bring Ursula (Ticking Time Bomb) into her group of villains! Will it work? I do kinda like the clock and wires look for TTB's costume, although I'm not sold on the headband.  Ursula's markings interfere with a lot of headgear options

It's 50/50 on if I'll have more sketches tonight. Late night + early morning = blargh. I'll try, though!

The commission sketches begin!

Let's get this commissionathon started! For my May con commission promotion, I have requests so far. Since I can't go forward until I get approval, and the effort begins tomorrow, I'd best get these out there so the clients can review them!

First up is Jonathan's. He asked for Ms. Monster on vacation. I decided to have her playing with a beach ball. Above is the second sketch I made for her. The first was action, but the action had her arm coming across her body and obscuring... stuff. This time I drew her on the beach holding the ball, but felt it was a bit too static.

This is the one I like. It's an overhead angle of her playing with the ball. Maybe more challenging, but a good composition.  Through the joint miracles of iPhone and Twitter, I already got approval on this one. I know I said I wasn't doing this first come, first serve, but for the first of May, I think I'll slot in the only confirmed piece I have and let the rest work themselves out.

Jonas asked me to draw a commission with Dionne acting nice (for her).  I took this as her pretending to be nice while still being horrible.  Somehow that scene from Kill Bill popped into my head, where the nurse was actually assassin Elle Driver. It might not totally be appropriate for the idea, but I *had* to draw it.

This might be more in line with the theme.  Dionne selling cookies outside a weight loss center. I don't know how much is visible on the small sketch, but the sign has her continuously increasing her prices - while she happily counts her money.  I originally labeled them as girl scout cookies, but Jonas is from France and I dunno if the term has the same cultural impact there.

Ed actually sent me a drawing he had been working on, asking me to adapt it. It's his character painting Kaitlyn in her princess outfit.  The first attempt was copying his layout, with the main change being Kaitlyn looking annoyed. (While the painting could show her being happy and princessy!)

Since the first version didn't show up much of Ed's character, I moved the figures around a bit for the second try. I also scrunched them up to make this a vertical composition.  I should also note that I did this sketch without Ed's character sketch in front of me, so the markings aren't right.  No one freak out over it!

And that's the first wave. I'm going to post now because Blogger is throwing error messages at me and I'm scared it'll go down at any moment.

Deleted Scene Time!

Here's a quick sketch of a comic that got cut for time. I thought this script was the weakest of the eight I wrote for the week, so it went away. In hindsight, I wonder if using this comic and combining #968 and #969 (making this comic the new 969) would have been better for pacing. Oh well, too late! (click the image for a larger version.)

What might have happened

When you write a story - especially a long on like the Birthday Bashing arc - some ideas change dramatically from inception to execution, and a good number of thoughts end up on the cutting room floor.

When writing the water balloon confrontation, I took it through many incarnations before it hit its final form. At one point Suzette was the betrayer. (Or, rather, suddenly a "conscientious objector.") At another, Dionne tried to betray so much she asked for her own balloon to soak Autumn with - which promptly got HER soaked by the males, who weren't buying it. (Autumn was saved!) Finally, I decided to let Autumn have it again - since that seems to be how all gender wars end up.

Because I'm trying to streamline things to finish up the story, I tend to cut a lot of the non-essential connective tissue. The above scene is one of the many possible transition strips between the betrayal and Autumn's soaking. It's not canon, just a possibility, but do note how in the strip before (strip #964) Dionne and Suzette are positioned behind the two males most likely to chicken out. So much could have happened!

More watercolor experiments!

While I'm still waiting for the SpiderForest auctions to start, I decided to keep practicing with watercolors. Here's a Jacob and, by request, a Dionne.

I'm still at a very basic level with this stuff, but I'm having fun. If this works out, I'd like to try taking simple watercolor commissions in the future. Heck, if the auction goes well I might start selling artwork that way! Maybe these pieces can go up for bidding? Maybe not, but they are available if anyone wants to purchase them.

Eventually, I'm going to fight the right balance of production and distribution to give me an actual income, even a negligible one! All I can do is play around until I hit on something that works.

Oh, right. I have a blog.

So I'm sitting here, putting together the donation packets for mailing tomorrow when I realize I HAVEN'T SHARED ANYTHING I'VE BEEN WORKING ON IN DAYS!

What can I say, I've been immensely self-absorbed. (Also, much of my work wasn't blog-worthy.) My solution to the recent funk was to lock myself away and ignore everything else in the world. Not the brightest thing to do, but it's working!

So here's the final version of the Skull Mountain commission. (At least, I hope so.) That's my first offering. To make up for my slacking off, I think I'll have to blog nonstop for the next few weeks. (Yeah, we'll see if I can pull that off...)

The artist's eternal war against unconsciousness

Blame Wimbledon and the cruelty of time zones for pushing me over the edge. I'd been tempting the sleep demon for weeks, choosing to eliminate an hour or two of slumber a night in favor of more work time - and suddenly trying to wake up at 7am every day without a shift in bedtime was bound to get me.

The past few days have been washed out by built-up fatigue, and I've only made it worse by trying to appease those damn sleep demons with inconsistent napping. Yeah, I am NOT someone who can nap. Naps leave me more scrambled and tired than before - yet my body keeps fighting for them anyway.

At this point, I've cost myself about two days' worth of work time with my sleep shenanigans. Thank goodness I chose to pull this stunt when I was two weeks ahead in everything! Things are still well in control, just not as super-awesome as before.

Yesterday was SUPPOSED to be my commissionathon, but that fell through because I was doing make-up work for my failed comicathon. This morning was supposed to be my make-up commissionathon, but, uh, I was in a daze well into the afternoon.

SO LET'S CATCH UP, STARTING NOW! I have two commissions that need to be sketched out by the end of the night, and a third that demands attention today or tomorrow as well. (But tomorrow is supposed to be the paintathon...)

So here's part one of my make up work, a concept sketch for a commission involving the kids riding the Skull Mountain ride at Six Flags: America. The scene I chose to depict was the part of the ride where the boatacoaster goes down a hill and splashes into the water. I was supposed to fit eight kids into the scene, but my current composition ended up cutting out Max's seat. Oopsie.

As I wait for approval/suggestions on that sketch, I now move on to the next project. Can I have a second post about it up by midnight? Knowing me? Probably not. BUT I'LL TRY!

Edit: I failed. Not done with the sketch and too tired to finish tonight. Sleep now. See you in 12 hours!

Progress, and the end of acrylics

As I continue my quest to improve, I have to face and defeat my old demons. SCAD intensity plus epic life tragedy meant a scrambled Chrispy who had to let things fall aside while he struggled to keep afloat. Now, with this time of peace, it is time to make amends.

It's been a long climb to get back to my old levels of productivity. For the first time in many months, I have a comic buffer. It's still small, but having it means I don't have to devote every single day to completing comics. I can go at my own pace, do the type of work I want to do, take a mental health day and, most importantly, turn my attentions to part projects that got pushed aside when my life hit the dark ages.

The most important project I dropped was my last commissioned painting. When SCAD became the dominant force in my life, work halted on the piece and it was shelved indefinitely. I kept vowing to set aside time to complete it, but week after week that time was not there. I would drag the painting and painting supplies with me whenever I traveled - just in case I had a free day - but those trips always ended with no progress. Even when my schedule opened up, my increased comic obligation and persistent mental funk meant I rarely had time to breathe, much less pay attention to other things. It's only been on this recent kick, which my productivity increasing, that picking this project back up became feasible. This week, my comic finally reached a place where I had a buffer of a few days. I was finally able to take one day and set it aside for other projects, and this painting was first in line.

It seems weird for such a simple composition to have caused so many problems, but that's how it is. I'm quite excited for it to almost be done. Finishing this piece and shipping it off will serve as the closing of the last, awkward chapter of my life - allowing for a fresh start on things!

I refused to take on any new commissions as long as I had outstanding work to do, but now that I'm almost done I can start looking ahead. I'll tell you one thing: Working with acrylics is OUT for now. Thanks to my painting class last quarter, I don't get as much joy from working with acrylics as I used to. That urge will return one day, but it's on to new media for now! I've started dabbling in watercolors, and I'd like to keep practicing that. I still have my large collection of good old colored pencils - and, if I want to combine it all, a nice group of watercolor pencils too! I want to see what goodness I can do with that stuff when I open up commissions again!

A change of venue

This painting has been driving me nuts. It's insanely hard to apply perspective when you paint the figures FIRST, but that is the challenge that faces me. I was stuck for weeks trying to figure out how I was going to set this inside a school, with thin hallways and lockers and whatnot. So, you know what? SCREW THAT!

After writing the man behind the commission, I was given a fresh perspective. Why not set it outside? Autumn can be walking to school along the sidewalk and stumble upon Dionne just as easily as she could do it walking to the classroom. (Plus, I don't fall into the trap of setting lockers in an elementary school.) I decided to try the venue shift, moving it to outside of the Poppinstock Academy.

This is obviously a very rough beginning. It has a loooong way to go before it looks right, but at least the underpainting is done. I'm not even sure how I'm going to actually treat the stuff yet - but that's a problem for the future. I hope it works out.

Oh, there she is.

Here's the first look at the coloring of the much-anticipated Dionne/Autumn painting! This is just me laying down a base of color. Everything needs several more layers, but it looks promising, doesn't it?

Because of the perspective thing, I am tempted to finally paint a background - although I'm not sure what it'd be. That would add a ton more hours to the piece, but it could be nice. For now, I focus on the figures.

Show me.... Dionne!

Sorry this post is a day late and half progress. It's a day late because I was working on Precocious bonus stuff (you'll find out soon) and it's half progress because the day is still young. I'm going to keep working on this thing, but I wanted to get a post up. Besides, all you're missing at this stage is some paint sketching and linework.

Since I'm still struggling with creating the perfect horrified Autumn (I do have one nice sketch I may use) I'm forging ahead with the painting of Dionne in her British prep school outfit. This is always the hardest stage of the painting: Transitioning the sketch to the canvas. Fortunately, I used the money from a prior painting commission to buy a projector! The projector is a pain in the arse, but when I finally get it working look at how fun it is! Also, look how crappy my wall is. Dang.

British invasion

Before I get back to the Yvette commission, here's an alternate take on Dionne trumping Autumn's schoolgirl look. Instead of ye olde Japanese sailor suit, I've gone with a British style. Preppy!

Sailor Dionne

And here we have another commission. This one is about Dionne taking the schoolgirl outfit style and trumping Autumn. Japanese schoolgirl > Catholic schoolgirl?

Finding a proper source was a far more harrowing experience than expected. Let me tell you something... If you are interested in drawing a sailor suit, Googling "Japanese schoolgirl" is THE WRONG THING TO DO! Holy crap, it's all creepy and gross porn! I should get hazard pay for this commission.

The first step is nailing down Dionne's look. After that, I can play around with poses.

(click the image for a larger version.)

The devil in the details

More from the painting commission! I am trying to add some details to Dionne's gown. This is my *second* attempt at it, and I hope it's more acceptable. I went with the ruffled look, mostly because I had no idea what else to do. :-(

Do a little dance

As promised, and - er- forgotten, here is yet another painting post - with the painting looking very similar to the last version... but more finishedish! It's not totally done yet, but it's very close. Yes, it should be done, but - heh - I just noticed I forgot to paint the bottom border! That's minor, but it means no signature yet. (Glad I caught that now...)

I can't believe I still have the painting around here. I blame the snow. Ever since snowmageddon hit, I've been on a perpetual snow day - even though it barely impacted my normal life. I live like a shut in! My bedroom is my studio! I had no place to go! But, still, it felt like time off, and KNOWING I couldn't leave led to the required stir crazy feelings. Now that the snow is finally clearing, I emerge blinking and confused, wondering where the last 10 days went.