New Button ideas + Kickstarter info

Here are some button ideas that should eventually populate the Cupcakes of Bliss gift box, available through the Book 2 preorder on Kickstarter. I can still play around with ideas, but the current plan is three regular buttons and one papercraft button (probably of Tiffany). By the way, the red outlines and green circle on Quincy are guidelines on the template and won't be on the actual buttons.

And here's a reminder: While some items will be available in the upcoming Precocious store after the preorder ends, others will not. The Cupcakes of Bliss will be very limited once the campaign ends. (Well, they will become convention-only Precocious swag grab bags of random goodies, as opposed to gift boxes that always contain a doll and the button set.) Dolls, the new buttons and the "Two Sides of the Same Coin" charms will be scarce once the Kickstarter ends. Once they sell out, they might not return to the store for a long time. I will have a photo of Autumn and Jacob dolls soon! The prototypes are being worked on! By the way, all Cupcakes of Bliss will ship late August, as that's when I'm meeting with Duae Cat designs to pick up the dolls.

If you are part of the Kickstarter already and want to upgrade, you can do it via add-on. This means you add the total for the item to your pledge (plus shipping, if your're international), then let me know about the add-on when I send out backer surveys once the campaign ends. (You should always review the tiers first, to see if the option you want is available. You can also message me to asking about creating new tiers, or confirming the add-on is ok.)

Add-on options are:
$22 - One extra book. (International orders add $10 for shipping costs)
$30 - Cupcake of Bliss gift box. (International customers add $10 for shipping costs)
$16 - Complete the 'Two Sides' charm set. (Option only for those with an artist edition. International orders add $5 for shipping costs)
$5 - A sketched Precocious cast postcard. (All orders over $80 will get one for free. No extra international shipping charge.)
(If I told you a different international shipping cost add-on earlier, you don't have to update your cost. That was my bad math and I'll take the hit for it.)

If you are not part of the Kickstarter campaign for whatever reason, you need to email me with your requests so I can factor them in to my orders. Even if you've already informed me, a reminder at the end of the campaign will be handy.

Hey, my 1000th blog post!

I'm not counting the 10 unposted drafts - so this is a legit 1000! Woo!  To celebrate this milestone, we have... a regular post-stream art-sharing post!

The card piece in the post below was pushed back to next week, because the client was sick and couldn't attend, so we filled up the night with the badge (will post it later - 1001!), card requests and an increasingly loopy Chrispy. I fought through the pain for you people, because I love you and want to entertain!

The Ursula saxophone card was the night's warm-up. (She has so much in common with Bill Clinton.) Knowledge Huntress Tiff was drawn during a commission break. She must have been playing with the time machine again, as she seems older.  The Kaitlyn and Quincy one is the result of me not paying enough attention - I thought I was playing with portfolio requests, so I messed around with the idea, but it was supposed to be a commission. (It's easy for me to miss stuff when my eyes are focused on drawing, so I encourage you all to yell at me until I notice.)

These are all up for grabs. $10 each!

Moving: Take two!

Behold: The original art for my Copper Road contribution to The Webcomics Tarot Project! There will be one for Precocious too, but it's a major arcana and I intend to make it spectacular! Unfortunately, spectacular requires art supplies that are currently in Savannah. (And I do want these to be spectacular, as I'm thinking of putting the originals up for sale.)

...Which leads me to the next topic! Tomorrow I make an attempt to rescue my stuff and bring it up to Virginia! It will be a daring adventure, as we'll arrive in the dead of night, grab the truck in the morning, load it up and attempt to leave around lunchtime. Grueling hours, but if it means I will FINALLY have my stuff, it's all worth it.

What does this mean? Well, obviously, my lack of a studio has ruined all planned August productivity. Once the studio is back and set up, I will have to lock myself in it and hammer out some Precocious strips to give me some breathing room. (And, of course, the preliminary plan had me drawing double strips. I may be rewriting those.) Stuff like portraits are on hold. (Which really sucks, because I fell ONE portrait short. It is nothing personal, portrait dude! Just bad luck!) I won't post the last portrait sheet until all four are completed, but you can find the ones already done on my Twitter account.  The tarot card mentioned above will also be pushed back slightly, although it does have high priority.

The rest of the big projects? Pushed back as well, or at least not getting full focus. Instead of launching some special projects early September, I think I'll wait until after I get back from Intervention in DC (see me there Sept 21-23) before making a splash. (I still might try streaming a bit, though, since the new webcam is already here.)

In a week, I will have a much better sense of what my new schedule will be. I don't want to make any new promises now, because the house I'm in now needs A LOT of work and unpacking/cleaning/sorting is draining. I hope to catch up with everything soon!

Another watercolor done!

Here's the Quincy in summer piece! Slick Kat is up next. I've been holding off on him because I'm scared of his precise markings. Today it will happen, though!

My Little Copper Road

The prep work is done for the next Copper Road comic, which I'm aiming to get out tomorrow! As you can see by this sketches, we're trick or treating... AS PONIES!

Hey, I can indulge a bit if I want to!



Here, the Great and Powerful Quincy returns. I have to decide when I put him in the strip whether I want the ears in or out of the hat. Trixie is ears-in, but that looks kinda weird here.



Good old Kaitlyn gets to be Applejack. That hat drove me nuts, and it drives me nuts still.



Yvettershy and Derpy Vincent may not make the comic, but I wanted to draw them anyway!

The mission is commission

Today I bring you two more commission pieces in progress.



The inks for the Quincy piece are done, and now the tough stuff begins. This is easily going to be my most challenging watercolor due to the tree, but I also must figure out how to properly render Quincy as being in the shade. I'm aiming to get to the coloring tomorrow, but don't hold me to it!



And here we have concept sketches for a commission of a reader's character, Slick Kat, done as a Precocious kid. I need to work on the markings a bit more before it's correct, but it's a start. The clothing and pose are not set either, although I do equate vest with "slick". This was just a first try.

Think Summer!

Here are some sketches for my latest commission: A Quincy painting inspired by the summer panel in this strip. I must say I'm surprised that Quincy has popped up again, but I'm happy he's getting attention.

The main tweaks that are going into transitioning that panel to a watercolor composition are changing the tree into a weeping willow so the leaves can reach into the frame and figuring out the position of Quincy's legs. The original pose is in the sketch on the left, with an alternative on the right. I've had fun drawing the spread leg pose recently, and I think it could work here if I figure out what to do with his tail, as it wants to occupy the same space. The final consideration is how close I pull in on Quincy. This will be settled at the ink stage, I guess. I'd love to go to the edge of the paper, but that seriously causes problems for anyone who'd want to frame the art.

I'm glad I got another commission! I was worrying my opportunities had already dried up.

-c

Heeeeeerrrreeee's Quincy!

And the first batch of watercolors is complete. I'm ready for a second batch now!

The reason you only see Quincy and not Yvette is because I totally forgot to take pictures of them before shipping. Yvette was already gone by the time I realized it, but Quincy was still sitting around in an envelope. I ripped it open, snapped a photo and taped it back up again! Hooray for absent-minded artists!

(Oh, and I saw your request, Slick Kat, and gave you a reply. )

Time for more watercolors!

The inks are done for the latest two watercolor projects. These are the last in my queue, so someone please commission a new one and fix that!

On each project, I was given two "I trust you"s when I submitted the sketches... so you guys are now at my mercy! I made some command decisions on my own and now you're stuck with 'em! (I hope you like it.)

The actual watercoloring should happen tonight, meaning all watercolors should ship out tomorrow. Hooray!

More commission sketches

Here's some sketch work for Yvette and Quincy commissions. Wouldn't you like to see me sketching ideas for a commission of YOURS?

For Yvette, the challenge was to draw her in queen mode, ready to smack someone with the scepter, such as in strip #482. (With the tiara from #488). I haven't done much with poses yet, with my focus going towards potential outfits. Her royal look was never shown in the comic, and I'm not sure how far to go with it. Perhaps more playing around is needed.

The Quincy commission was simple to make a Quincy watercolor, so the goal is to make it as Quincy a watercolor as a Quincy watercolor can be! I can't video game him beyond a DS, because where would the cords go? I can't really put him in a cape due to that dang tail getting on the way. (I had to droop it and make a sad Quincy.) Is a magic want enough for wizard roleplay without a cape? *shrug* we'll see.

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!

The *other* Halloween project

Hey, guess who forgot he was also doing a Halloween Copper Road? If I was on the ball, it would have been up today. I am not on the ball, so expect it on the 1st.

I'll start work on the wallpaper tomorrow - hopefully. It looks like the giant TIFFWITCH is the winner., but there's still time for the other options to rally!

Do not want!

It was a good day. It was TERRIBLE night. I debated not blogging at all, but I'll just say things are not fun right now. I hope good news comes tomorrow.

I'm still trying to be productive, though. I need to get myself ahead. Living deadline to deadline is not healthy for me or anyone around me.

Cosplaying

Oh, Quincy, you are fun to use because you have no shame about enjoying your passions. Meanwhile, I whip myself and wear a hairshirt every time I play Pokemon. (My favorite part: The breeding! *hangs head*)

Here are some sketches I did for the next Copper Road strip. How much dorky dress-up can I fit in? I came up short in anime cosplaying. I don't know what's popular and well-known in anime circles anymore. Heck, I don't know what's going on anywhere with these kids these days. I'm old and useless! *sob*

I'm attacking the darkness!

This is it, the final sketch of the latest sketchbook to be conquered by my mighty pencil! It took forever to finish this bugger, since all my drawing time was spent on the comic, but that's a good thing.

As my life is so comic-centered, what you see here is prep work for next Sunday's Copper Road. It's clear to anyone who knows the signs what it's about. Gotta say, Vincent would be a terrible dungeon master, but sacrifices must be made if Quincy is going to play along to give Kaitlyn an introduction. Besides, RULE OF FUNNY! No questioning it!

Anyway, today is going to be a production day. (Assuming all goes as planned.) I have to finish this week's Precocious strips and start on the next batch. I'm out of Sunday scripts, so that may skipped over. Even when I'm ahead in the dailies (which hasn't been for weeks now) Sundays always get done last minute, so this is nothing new. This is why I have to work in batches. Creativity is not a constant stream, and even if it was it would not be homogeneous. A constant flow of creativity is sometimes mostly paintings, sometimes all about sketching, sometimes writing, etc. Time of low creativity can bring a flow of high grinding productivity, such as lining templates, lettering or a good focused inking session. I have to play it the best I can and go with the flow. I've wanted to ink for days, but creativity has been telling me to paint. I have one last day to be whimsical before cruel deadlines rear their ugly heads, but let's hope it doesn't get that far.

A new era of vote incentives

Sometime on Monday I launch my Precocious spin-off comic: Copper Road!

You see, friends, I crave attention. I validate my existence by the numbers beside my comics name on toplist sites. And those numbers have been DROPPING! Something drastic must be done!

There is a thing called vote incentives - little bits of bonus art that, in theory, entice people to vote for one's comic. I have been using small things here and there, with lackluster results. FINE! Let's go for gusto!

Copper Road will be my new vote incentive. You wanna read my new comic? THEN YOU MUST VOTE FOR ME!

Copper Road will appear sometime on Monday, so get your voting fingers ready!

Damn you, Quincy!

I've been working on next week's strips, and it's been a fight! I love the scripts, but trying to cram in complex conversation into a teeny tiny three inch panel is very difficult. I've had to cut a few corners, move figures around and shuffle dialog like a madman.

So far I have two strips done. The first was a last-minute decision to scrap a strip and replace it with the strip I scrapped for that. Even if the strip is a flop, this new/old one gives me a potential book title! (I might run the alternate strip here after it runs.) The second strip featured such glorious things as five characters speaking in one panel, and I think I managed to pull it off reasonably well. It doesn't get any easier for the next strips. The dialog is too good to change, so I must improve my art-making!

I put on my robe and wizard hat

Edit: Hey, disappointed Googlers! Check out my comic strip, Precocious! It's far more entertaining than this post!

Rather than be internet social, which I must do if I have to beg for PHP assistance in getting the new website ready, I decided to go the other way. I started watching Battlestar Galactica again and sketched some outsider characters. Quincy is the strip's designated uber-nerd, so he seemed an appropriate subject. On that note, Quincy outgeeks me and it's rare that I can make a reference of which he would approve. This is why he's on the OTHER side of the classroom.

Shiny happy people holding hands

Why do I set myself up for this? This Sunday strip is expanding rapidly, now featuring a giant shot of the class - in what should be a full class shot. Oh, SCREW THAT! I have neither the patience nor the skill to draw 15 desks and 13 kids spread among the desks with a few in the center forming a discussion group. WHY DO I SCRIPT THESE THINGS?

So here is my first attempt at a compromise. Forget the damn desks - they pushed them all back so EVERYONE can join in the discussion group. And they sparkle, because in comic visual language, that means EVIL CUTE! (Because Bud and Kaitlyn holding hands isn't enough of a sign that evil reigns.)