Tuesday stream + Kickstarter Update!

As the preorders for book 2 keep shipping out, Tuesday marks the first of the Rent-A-Chrispy streaming sessions! Come follow along on Ustream at 8pm Eastern time for some chatting and arting! Scroll down to the other streaming news post for my typical streaming rundown.

For the rest of you backers, work on artist edition sketches is moving along nicely! Above you can see a few samples. Click on the image to see more I posted to my Tumblr.

I'm almost done with all of the tiers marked for August delivery, and I've already started on other tiers. (Sometimes I had a color set out, so I looked for artist editions requesting it.) Everything drawn should be on its way to those backers by next week. The only delay this week is that I need time to prep for my InterventionCon visit! (Come see me, DC-area people!)  Bonus: I'm getting the dolls for Cupcakes of Bliss at the con! That means the dollmakers will be there, marking maybe the only time a latecomer could grab an extra doll order. The new button set should arrive next week as well, which is when Cupcake packing begins!

Once I have cleared through the pre-orders, the remaining Precocious books will be going up in the store. Soon! Sooooon! The store will be populated with more and more things as I get time. Feel free to nudge me over it if there's something you're after. Money talks!

Vote for a bonus comic!

First off, I'm so happy to have read such wonderful comments/speculation about the attic arc. I had no idea this story would go over so well, and with my current health issues I really needed such widespread positivity! I kept mostly quiet while the story ran, so as not to interfere with the discussion. It's always wonderful when commenting both thrives and (usually) stays on-topic without any nudging.

Once again, my "enhance the future books" promotion means you get a bonus strip! (Another will come next week too!) Click here to vote, and see where Jacob ended up! You'd best enjoy it now, as these bonus comics won't go into the online archives once a new incentive goes up. They are book bonuses you get to see *years* in advance!

Continuing charm designs

I'll do an official Kickstarter update when I have more ready, but here's some work on the charms offered in the artist editions for the Precocious book two preorder campaign.

These will end up in a circular template, so parts of the bodies will be cropped. I'll likely redo the Kaitlyn one to simplify it. Charms are small, so I must be careful with details. But that's why we do these intermediate stages. Learning! Also, I'm having fun with poofing tails. I recently drew a comic panel with Bud's tail swishing up into frame and I thought it was adorable, so let's do it more! (You'll see that comic in a few weeks.)

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.

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!

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!

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.

Open for Commissions

(Note: The above artwork is higher-priced commission than I'm offering below. I'm using it because I don't have a new example piece ready, and I want to show off recent work.)

Update for clarity: If you're interested, send me an email. You can use the feedback link on the home page.

In preparation for my upcoming appearance at Anthrocon (I'll be at a RCSI table), I am taking a bunch of quick 8.5x11" commissions. The goal is to build up skill, increase my speed and boost my portfolio. I'd love it if you guys could help me with this. Commissions will be done in grayscale markers ($15) or colored pencil ($20). (Additional characters are $5 more.) I'm also taking suggestions for exercises and studies, if you're unable to support me financially at this time but still want to be a part of this. You can find out more on the FurAffinity account I'm trying to get off the ground. I'd love to sneak some Precocious work into my con prep!

I don't know how much response this will generate, but you should probably know this is going to be your last chance to get a commission out of me for some time. Once my May promotion and any remaining outstanding commissions are done, I won't be drawing any more custom art outside of conventions (Anthrocon in June and Midwest Furfest in November) and artist editions of the book.

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.

Finding a print subject

Here are the first sketches done for the commissionathon bonus gocco print. I'm not sure any of these are that good, but my favorite is sweet Jacob.

These prints are going to be simple black and white things, as that's the limitations of the gocco press. (Technically, the line art can be any color, but I'm assuming black will be used.) I suppose I could draw a big complex scene and shrink it down for the print, but that carries some risks to it - and it's hardly in the simple spirit of Precocious! But, hey, I'm open to any ideas. I want these prints to be enticing enough that you guys commission me AND my pals!

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.

All the news that's fit to draw

Here's a followup of the newscast invasion commission. The characters are, hopefully, in place. All I need now is a nice background. Once that's in place, I'll trace the image onto a new sheet with colored pencil and begin the coloring process.

I'm moving slower than I'd like with this, but the fact that I'm moving at all is a good sign! I've got a lot on my plate these days, and I'm starting to sort it all into a decent work schedule. Still moving half as fast as normal, with double the normal workload - but things should equalize eventually.

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...)

Jacob shirts!

There's a new shirt up in the store! All you Team Jacob supporters better run and get one, because it'll only be there for a limited time?

Why limited? Because Cafepress is cheap and evil, only allowing me to have one design per product at a time. I can pay to get the ability to sell multiple designs, but considering my store sells about one item every two months, that hardly seems worth it.

So what I will do is swap the new Jacob designs around in the economy shirt slot. Get the one you want before it rotates out!




If you think those Team Jacob freaks are getting smug, why not grab the Blame Jacob shirt when it rotates in? Maybe one day you will meet someone wearing the Team Jacob shirt and get into a brawl! That'll be awesome!



Finally, since someone requested it, here's a Jacob "I like me" shirt. Wearing this shirt will guarantee hugs from everyone.

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!

Muffins... of DOOM! - Now in color!

I did it! I watercolored without screwing up terribly! I'm not sure my stroke quality is any good, and I can't stay in the lines to save my life - but those things are forgivable in watercolors, no? I declare victory anyway!

Watercolors are scary things, man, as one mistake could result in the entire piece getting scrapped. And I came close to that. As with all damning mistakes, this one came when I was 99% done with the piece. Everything was painting except for the "o" in "of", and that's when I decided to touch a spot in "doom." One hand slip later, I had a brown smudge across the "do." Fortunately, I was able to blot the paint enough to make it negligible.

Wish I could provide a better pic for you, but scanning faint colors seems to be the impossible task. I went to my good scanner, and everything light still came out as a pale cyan. Which really made Tiffany look weird.

Anyway, the next step in watercoloring is to double down on the difficulty and take on a new commission. Wish me luck, as this one will be a doozy.

Muffins... of DOOM!

I don't think watercolor test pieces are supposed to be this big (11"x17") or elaborate, but HERE WE GO! If I can pull this piece off, that means I can start taking commissions on watercolor pieces! Yay!