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!

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!

Hetero-Normative Behavior!

I'm am such a wholesome idealist. Well, in one subject at least. Since the foundation of Precocious is my idyllic childhood, that means the environment around my kids is extremely awesome! Gemstone Estates has just about everything a kid could ever want! Outside the houses we have lots of stimulation. Inside the houses... LOVING FAMILIES!

The Precocious parents are a fun bunch. They have happy, healthy marriages, do their best to motivate and encourage their children and they are delightfully insane!

I'm almost done drawing the Max's birthday storyline, so now the question is what to do next? I have a silly little brawl over dessert, or I can go back and do that much-hyped parents storyline. Ideally, I'll do both! If I built up a large enough comic buffer, then I have time to create the parents arc and just insert it into the archives. That's the dedication I have to you people! (I make no promises that will happen.)

Either way, it's time to practice my parent-drawing skills. I want to get the parents introduction into the archives soon, as they do tend to pop up in the strip. While I do my best to get their personalities across in their appearances, I want the chance to expand upon them. Once they are established, their lines in earlier strips take on new interpretations!

The only worry I have is that I naturally write more adult jokes for the adults. One couple met due to judgment impaired by alcohol and fatigue. Another punchline involves nudity, paint and the dining room. (I'll let you contemplate that one.) I love it, but such risky gags could hurt any syndication chances.

The humor is appropriate contextually, though. Insane geniuses don't just pop up out of the blue. I believe in nature over nurture. The environment may do some finishing in shaping personalities, but lots of my kids nuttiness is inherited. Each kid is the natural consequence of their parents spawning.

That is... if I don't blow the strips with a bad script. Before I draw anything, I've got to tighten up the story and connect the dots.

I cannot draw a newspaper from memory

Soren Pingo: Newspaper reader. I dunno... are wry comments always funnier when said by a newspaper reader? Now that I think of it, a future storyline is partly based around Soren's daily newspaper rituals. Librarians love reading... but is reading a newspaper when surrounded by books cheating? Maybe it's like flirting with the floozy checkout girl just because she smiled at you and then going home to your beloved wife. Maybe I'm thinking too hard about sexualized word delivery units.

So where was I? Oh yeah, I was going to see if I could do another family portrait with the Pingos because I haven't drawn many Sorens. This quickly failed as I somehow couldn't draw a proper Autumn without soiling the page with my drool. Ok, that sounds really wrong, especially after a paragraph where I implied newspapers have loose morals and inclination to naughty deviation. What I'm saying here is that I finally drew a worthwhile Autumn and then did one of those "about damn time" sounds - which resulted in my spitting all over the page. Maybe this is why my friends never invite me to parties.

Portrait failed, I tried to draw a Soren just for practice. As the title of this post states, I couldn't figure out the proper newspaper pose, so I gave him the blank cheer expression that he would have had in the posed family portrait. Somehow, with this guy, it's appropriate no matter the context.

Soren is also supposed to be a bit overweight, but I'm not sure how well that came across. It's surprisingly difficult to get these weight subtleties with the characters at this point. Soren is chunky. Deirdre is curvy. Sky is skinny and compact. Ivy is to be the moderately-slender control case. None of that really comes across with the strip yet. I'm not even getting into Harvey Linkletter, since I'm still not sure what proportions are going on with that guy.

Soren was named after the Dane that came to America and started my Paulsen family, by the way. Just FYI. (Edit long after the fact: Turns out he was Soren Hansen, but his daughter still bred Paulsens!)

Family Entertainment

Some more Precocious sketches.


It's become one of my things to include librarians in every story. Libraries, and reading in general, are so important... and yet I *never* read a damn thing. As a kid, I read all the standards but none of them were engrossing enough to keep me going. As a result, I never learned "how" to read. Even if I'm reading something I enjoy, I fail at dedication. (Yeah, ADHD *really* doesn't help that.)

I voraciously plow through comic collections. At the moment, I have 12 books of comics by my bed - all of which I've read in the past few weeks. Right now I also have three "real" books by my bed that I might never finish. One has been there over a year. Another a few months. I have two more I bought and haven't even started across the room. I just bought a new one last week - but it's about Charles Schulz and Peanuts, so there's a chance I might actually get through that one!

So librarians are my way of atoning for my literary failings. As I am not a crazy raving in a street corner way, it is safe to assume that both Pingos are librarians. Soren is the good librarian. He reads books, he helps others experience the joys of reading - he actually has a top job as a librarian! Ivy... she's more like me. She's between jobs right now and the most reading she does involves general-interest magazines. (In case it's not clear from the sketch, Ivy's right arm is tucked behind her back. She is not an amputee. I'll save that twist for sweeps week!)

(If any Winchester folk are wondering, yes, since I have a friend whose parents are both librarians, I did use them for inspiration. Here's to hoping I don't get sued down the line.)


An Oven family portrait is truly weird. One like this - cobbled together from various sketches in a way that has proportional relationships and lighting (line thickness) a bit off - is fairly accurate in terms of how they'd normally appear in a group photo. It's sort of a canary-in-a-coal-mine thing...if all Ovens are in the same room together something very important is happening. Bud really raises himself - it's why he's become such a top notch chef. Mom Sydney is mostly off in the city managing her apartment buildings and networking. Sister Casey is off at college. Daddy Joseph is...well...off doing whatever he does. The Ovens are weird, weird people.