Guitars and Microphones!

Yes, no one wants to hear anyone else's music - especially young'uns whose grandparents are younger than this artist - but *I* have the power here and you must suffer through it! (Or just not click. The story would read the same if I made up fictional song lyrics.) Anyway, if you'd like to sing along with the kids (and Ivy) with the main song from the current story, and the embedded video above doesn't work (news posts on the Precocious front page are mirrored from Blogger, so who knows how it'll go), here is a link to the music video for Kate Pierson's Guitars and Microphones. (Does it count as another B-52's reference for this comic if it's a band member's solo album?)

I stayed true to the concept of this story, by the way, and I listed to the album over and over, THEN this song over and over and over and over. And then I couldn't find a lyrics sheet for the song, so I listened over and over AGAIN to try and make it out. I doubt I got it totally right, so my apologies to Kate!

I also stayed true to the concept of something else, but you'll have to wait for that comic to go live before you know what I mean! (Hint: The comic's title is "Bring Your Arms" - though it's not about that specific song.)

And while I'm doing a news post, here's a health update: I got botox injections to help muscles spasms in my face that were causing migraines, but it didn't go well and has so far been ineffective. I have dozens of emails to write and respond to from the past three weeks, as well as a personal goal of getting at least ONE Copper Road done in June, but right now it's all I can do to keep updating on time. And that's really annoying, because it could mean reshuffling my planned Summer story order.

Wasting time, sitting still

I've been rocking out today to R.E.M.'s latest live album release. Note that I didn't say "working" - I'm not good at working to music, as it makes me bop bop bop around the room. Also, by "bop bop bop" I mean "sit down at one station after another." Don't confuse it with actual physical exertion. I'm not smart enough for that today!

It was still worth it! I'm a crazy R.E.M. fanboy, so this album was bliss. It consists of "rehearsals" of the material that would eventually become their AWESOME album Accelerate. It's fascinating to see what the songs were before they were finalized. I could geek out more, but I haven't even read the liner notes yet. More music geekery is in my future!

As you can see, work did in fact get done today. Eventually I did shut off the music and move to more traditional working methods. I wanted to sketch out eight pages, but five is still pretty good, with possibly one more to come! Tomorrow: Inking bonanza!

30-minute meals

Y'know, if art is food for the soul...

This is part two of my "I have toys!" experiment. I had 30 minutes, watercolor pencils and PJ Harvey as background music. Inspiration!

So there's my stylized Polly Jean portrait. It was quite fun to do, even if the hurrying precluded perfection. Oh, and if you're wondering, the dark spots on the image are places where water made my paper warp dramatically. Hey, watercolor paper is precious! Bristol board I have in excess.

Uplifting

I love it when people do things for me - especially since I rarely do things for other people! It means they care enough to overlook my jerkass nature!

Today was a Metric day. When I'm down, I listen to Metric's "Fantasies" and rock the frak out. Track 1: "Help, I'm Alive!" Track 3 includes the line: "I'm not suicidal, I just can't get out of bed!" And, despite the seemingly dark stuff, it's all in electro-pop, inspirational rockitude. It really gets me pumped up. "Every living thing/pushed into the ring/Fight it out to wow the crowd/Guess you thought/You couldn't just watch/No one's getting out/without stadium love." Meaning: Suck it up and fight on through!

So a sluggish day began looking up. My trainwreck interview with WCRI was posted and Tom of Alone in a Crowd drew me some fan art! That gets the spirit going.

Now, I leave you to go work on the strip. Maybe. (I'm still looking at that magnetic bed...)

I can haz iPhone?

Oh lawds, what have I done? I now have a phone that is smarter that me! It's so shiny and new and INTIMIDATING! (Doesn't stop me from taking the token smug photo, though!)

Now I've gotta figure out how to USE this darn thing. As I type, I am syncing the phone with iTunes. My speaker station will now have its desired compliment - and it SHOULD charge this one! If that works, then it's on to playing with other features. Hey, I might even look into the phone part of this iPhone sometime too!

Anyone with an iPhone who has ap recommendations or general tutorial stuff, please share in the comments area. I am a complete n00b, so guidance would be appreciated.

The day the music died

In today's "I'M AN IDIOT" moment, we feature Chrispy and his new iPod speaker!

I listen to music constantly. Without it, I get all twitchy and panicky. I had been using my old desktop to play my music through iTunes. It worked fine, until everybody died. The desktop is unreliable, the speakers are aging badly and I knew I couldn't keep relying on the aging system. I decided to go with an ipod speaker system in anticipation of me upgrading to an iPhone soon.

I was a good consumer, doing my research and narrowing down my choices to match my need. I thought I was going for Altec Lansing Inmotion mini player, but I was worried the sounds wouldn't be full enough for my needs. I'm not a music stickler, but fuzziness drives me insane. That's when I spotted the higher-end model on sale for only $10 more! It was the top-rated player on CNET! The reviews made it look perfect, as the features it lacked were ones I'd never use. I bought it!

Oh wait, NO I DIDN'T! I bought a lower model that looks almost exactly like the higher end model. WHOOPS. This one... not so good reviews. For insance, it won't change iPod Nanos. IT WON'T CHARGE IPOD FUCKING NANOS! This was a feature that should be assumed in ALL MODELS OF IPOD PLAYERS.

So, earlier today, the music goes off. The battery is dead. I am confused. I pull out the manual. I look for the product name. I curse. I curse LOUDLY. I'm an idiot.

I can work around this, of course, but it requires me remembering to charge my nano during every moment I'm not listening to it. Aside from that stupidity, it works fine for my needs. Doesn't stop me from stewing over this, though. Can't believe I screwed up like this. I can only hope it charges the iPhone when I get it. If it doesn't, I can't be held responsible for my actions.

Edit: Salt in the wound: It is now on sale, so it cost me an extra $10 to screw up too.

Large and in charge

Guess who got a new large-format scanner? I can scan ALMOST TWO TINY PAINTINGS AT ONCE! More importantly, I can scan two strips at the same time. (Aww, yeah!)

If this bugger keeps working, then life will be excellent. It will cut soooo much time off of tedious scanning sessions. Yay!

Big Suit + Small Cartoon Child = Problem

This week's vote incentives for Precocious are indulgent music references. NEXT week's strips OF Precocious, are EVEN MORE INDULGENT music references. Obviously, at some point I was going to draw one of my kids in David Byrne's oversize suit from Stop Making Sense.

Turns out cartoon proportions are a sartorial nightmare. Let's ignore the whole "how can they fit those giant heads through those tiny collars" thing and focus on arms and legs. Tiny, short legs. As Calvin once said to Hobbes, "SHORT PANTS TOUCH MY FEET, OK?!" Granted, my kids aren't quite like that, but when an oversize jacket gets in the way... Calvintown.

Will I keep the visual gag, which fortunately was not vital to the strip, or will I chicken out and draw Jacob in his already-difficult Waldo shirt?

Fox Confessor Brings the ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! Er... alt-country.

Before I left for DC, I purchased Neko Case's album "Fox Confessor Brings The Flood" as well as the New Pornographers (featuring Neko Case) album "Challengers" *plus* their single "Letter From an Occupant." (Bonus: Neko was born in my home town, meaning for one year of my life we might have passed each other on the street. Also, on 9/11 I realized I had been in an airport before so it was very personal to me.) I got one good night of listening and love before I left. Guess what songs keep going through my head as I relax here without any music! (For those not in the know, I normally listen to music as I sleep. Here in DC I filled the void by turning the TV to ESPN. It's just not the same.)

As I near my return to Funchester (today!) the distraction has intensified. I needed my rockin' redhead fix! After pulling a Chibi cat and zoning out while providing "moral support" as my aunt and I ran annoying-but-needed errands, the songs were playing in my head so loud it was hard not to sing along - much less listen to what my aunt was saying. When I got home, I rolled the dice, hijacked the wi-fi again and pulled up YouTube to locate those cravable songs.

Once free for the night, I got to play them over and over as I sketched my own foxy redhead, Autumn, doing her best to emulate Neko's style.

Enjoy the songs with me!







(Edit: Changed the post title to a New Pornographers reference instead of a Charlotte Gainsbourg reference because she has nothing to do with this post other than writing a song with an appropriate title. I was tempted to go for a direct "New Pornographer" reference, but a dude who draws a strip about children just shouldn't go down that path. Just for fun: Had I wanted to go down that path and take a further detour into the badlands, Gainsbourg famously performed a song called "Lemon Incest" with her father. Imagine the possibilities!)

(Edit-again-because-I-can't-freakin'-sleep: Fuck it! I'm going with the Fox/Neko reference for a post title and then tossing it into a drunken blender. I'm not drunk. The blender is. I'm just stupid. Don't ask any more questions.)

This was in my dream...

OVEN FAMILY DANCE PARTY!

It's official: I've had a Precocious dream. It has finally taken over my life.

This experience was spawned by a morning of random, unfocused dreaming. Eventually, I ended up on my grandparents' (mom's side) deck for an Oven family picnic thing. I was Bud, naturally, and mostly I observed this strange Oven convergence. (Again: The Oven family is NEVER together!) Sydney (mom) was setting the table with typical (and lackluster) picnic sides. Joseph (dad) wandered out from the kitchen with a sad plate that featured cheap local pizza as the centerpiece. Casey (sis) was lounging in the corner, less than thrilled with dinner.

And then the music started! Sydney and Joseph started dancing to the groovy tunes of Garbage's "Why Do You Love Me?" (which, of course, was playing on iTunes at the time) while I watched in confusion. Sydney was jokingly mouthing some of the lyrics to Joseph, which is something inappropriate to do in front of one's children. (Although it's completely in-character for the Oven parents.)

"I think you're sleeping with a friend of mine. I have no proof, but I think that I'm right..."

For the song's finale, Casey joined in with the dancing. Face with my strange family cutting a move in front of me, I decided I needed to participate as well. I was not much of a dancer, so I mostly jumped up and down. Casey, picking on Bud like always, mocked my weak moves. "You dance like a construction site!"

I should explain that statement. An earlier dream, when I was still playing Chris, involved my asshole brother sustaining a neck injury at a construction site. He was so stupid, he refused medical assistance and was going about his life as always. I was very happy to know that one trip would likely kill him or paralyze him for life. It was like Christmas Eve! (For those hypothetical future readers who don't know my brother: Trust me, the world would greatly benefit from his death.) ANYWAY... The insult meant I had dance moves akin to a quadriplegic.

BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Where the magic happens

I'm going to try and keep this daily posting trend going as long as I can! (I give this one more day before I fail.) The consequences of the trend: GLORIOUS FILLER!

I don't want to share the actual strips as they are completed, since they'll (hopefully) all be online in a few weeks, so when I'm being productive it means I have no stupid sketches to share.

Therefore, being the attention whore I am, I took photos of my work areas. Think of it this way: When I am rich and famous and awesome, you can all come back and look at the pathetic origins of Precocious. See, people one day might care! I'm sure of it! It's blogger solipsism plus artist arrogance! MY EGO IS OUT OF CONTROL!

Seriously, I spent a half hour earlier today Googling myself. I'm link #5 when searching for "Chris Paulsen" and #1 with "Christopher Paulsen." Woohoo! I'm also pleased that an image search for "Bud Oven" hits this blog as result #1. I'M #1! I'M #1! ROCK ROCK ROCK!

Anyway, on to the magical mystery tour...



My drafting table is located at the foot of my bed. If I was a hard worker, I could say I wake up, slide over and start working. In reality, I sit down to work, grow frustrated, slide over and cry myself to sleep. It's awesome in reverse!

While it normally isn't covered in comics laid out in an attention-whoring manner, the thing is always cluttered. The right side is the "staging area" - with templates, drawing supplies, my trusty ruler, a cutting mat and various knives. (This is an upgrade, as I used to keep my knife on the floor by my feet. No, really.)

I use a mechanical pencil for my drawing. It's whatever brand was offered at Costco. It's not top quality, but I'm used to its feel at this point. If you look at the comics, you can see some were done with red pencil lead and some with a blue. This is my damned if you do, damned if you don't situation...

The red lead is easy to find and I have a setting on my scanner allowing me to filter it out. This makes scanning a breeze! Problem is... the templates are no-copy BLUE, so I'd have to draw out my own templates. Also, the red doesn't erase, which is a BIG problem for someone still in the early stages of comic drawing. I don't even know how to draw my characters WALKING yet. If this last strip - with three characters walking in a line - was done in red, it would likely be an unsalvageable mess.

The blue lead is imported from Japan, since America has no use for STANDARD NO-COPY BLUE in mechanical pencils. I have several traditional no-copy pencils, but the constant sharpening drives me crazy. The problems with the blue is the cost and, uh, my scanner's complete failure to filter out THE UNIVERSAL NO-COPY COLOR! Still, a simple "select color range" in Photoshop easily bypasses that issue; and, most importantly, I can *erase* the blue! Despite all the hoops I must jump through to use it, erasing is enough to keep me a solid blue user now that I have it. I'm sure this story was very interesting to you.

If you look closely, you can see my attempt at drawing the comic in a block format in the pile. This format is the only way to fit the entire strip on my scanner at once. Drawbacks here mostly revolve around tracing errors. For that strip, I made the bottom panels too tall *and* managed to trace the template about one degree crooked. What that means is I spend the same amount of time correcting my shortcut as I would scanning the properly-sized templates twice. Yeehaw.

I also tried to fit two of the block templates on a sheet of Bristol board, only to learn I'm about a half-inch shy of the margins I need. The leftover from the sheet I used became a scratch pad for a few illustrations shared on this blog. If you examine the photo, you can see how my "For Sparky" illustration was made in parts and pieced together in Photoshop later. Only an artist would think this is cool enough to share. For everyone else: Doesn't it suck to learn that the magic is all man-behind-the-curtain lameness?



The light table - a brilliant birthday splurge for myself a while back - is where the lettering takes place. Using lines on the templates I bought as a guide, and splashing in some good ol' math, I came to the conclusion that my comic should have room for 14 lines of dialog space. I checked it out by analyzing an Ozy and Millie book and found... 14 lines of dialog space! Win!

With my standard set, I printed out a sheet with guide lines. Come lettering time, I throw the sheet under the comic, turn on the light table and it keeps my pen from straying. With the printed script at my side, I first do my lettering in pencil to see if it will fit. If it doesn't, I'll try to re-write the dialog or cut some lines on the spot. I do my letting with a .08 technical pen. Never one with any handwriting talent, this is still my weakest area. I can only assume I will gain skill through repetition.

For inking, I use a pen I found in a box of my father's art supplies from the 60's. As I am not an expert, my nib of choice is Hunt Globe 513 EF - which is a very adaptable nib, allowing for good control on thick and thin lines. I had used my dad's for years before I stabbed myself with it and broke it. (It was an accident, I swear!) It took months and several rejects before I found my model again. The company that produced the nibs had long since ceased to exist... as it had been gobbled up by pen giant Speedball. Turns out I can find my nibs hanging on a rack in friggin' Michaels now. It's convenient, but it just doesn't feel as special as it once did.

So there's my low-rent operation as it stands. One day I will have a real studio, with proper lighting. One day I will have a professional scanner, which can filter out the no-copy blue. One day I will have an assistant, whose job will be to create block templates correctly and scan my work so I can focus on being purely creative. (I hope.) One day I will be able to switch between nibs with ease - maybe even switching to using a brush like the pros - allowing me more depth in drawing. One day I'll be over my newbie jitters, with muscle memory and enough skill to produce better quality strips in a fraction of the time. One day, Precocious might actually be a real friggin' strip and not just a silly gleam in my eye.

Man, I hope that day gets here soon.

So, wait, how does the Ducky handle again?

So much life lost to playing Mario Kart...

But, hey, I've almost triple starred everything! I'll get geek cred!

I'd love to post something more, but work is not cooperating. (I have to work at work? I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THAT!) As a filler post, here's a shot of the fearsome foursome made from sketches I drew while watching There Will Be Blood. (A phenomenal movie that made No Country For Old Men - another great film - look like Gigli.)



Ooh...tonight is R.E.M. night! Form of....NEW WAVE MUSIC FANBOY!