The Precocious Costume Contest!

It took five years, but Precocious is finally getting a real Halloween story! To celebrate, I am having a contest that lets you get cool stuff AND shape how this Halloween story unfolds.

The fun of Halloween comes from the costumes, and this is where you come in. Submit your ideas for what the kids should dress up as this year, and you have a chance of seeing your idea pop up in the comic! What makes this contest extra interesting is that I've left the ending of this story open, because one good suggestion could fuel some creativity. I'm relying on you to provide inspiration!

(After my weekend trial run, I've update this post to make it clearer and fine tune things. Make sure you read it all!)

What you need to know and do to enter:

-While most entries will be in text form - which is perfectly fine - I'd love to give this contest a fan art aspect. If you can include an image of your costume idea, that will certainly make me favor your entry.  I don't require finished art - sketches like these are fine - but I need to see enough details to understand what you're proposing.  I'm really looking forward to showing off a gallery of costume submission art, so if you have any art chops at all I encourage you to take the time to whip something up.  Submit your text ideas ASAP, and make are if you want to or can.

-The costume I choose for the grand prize gets their idea incorporated into the Halloween story, and I will draw the submitter an art card of their winning suggestion. See the witch Yvette illustration in the banner for an example. (Oh, and I am putting her art card in the store if anyone wants to grab it! Cards are alphabetical, so Yvettewitch will be at the end if she's there.)

-Everyone who enters will be part of a drawing for a second prize. That winner has the choice of a signed copy of a Precocious book, or an art card from the store.  (If the winner is outside of the United States, you must choose an art card due to the high cost of shipping books.)  There will be a third book/art card prize that will go to one who submits art, provided enough entries appear.

-The entire class is in play for suggestions. I have *my* list of costumes for the kids. Your goal is to give me something even better. Have fun with this!  I wonder who will get the most suggestions - and how many will get none? (I hope I get enough entries to have lots of choices for everyone!)

-Check out the contact page for how to reach me. Send your entries to my email.  Just so I can keep track of stuff, I'd prefer you put all your suggestions into a single entry if you're doing text-only entries. While you can do more, aim for around five costume suggestions. Edit your ideas down to the best ones!

-As this is a time-sensitive thing, you are free submit your ideas in text, then make and send drawings for your entries later. I want to make this an easy contest for the artists out there, so I shall be flexible!

-I'm looking for a costume idea, not a script or suggestions on what to do with the costume.  I want the image if you have one, and a description along the lines of  "(character) as (costume)." You can include a description, and maybe a link to explain any reference your making, but don't write a lot to sell it.  Anyone offering their own joke suggestions gets disqualified. This contest doesn't change my policy of not accepting joke ideas. It's possible to submit ideas for costume sets, with multiple characters coordinating, though I'd like the grand prize winner to be a single costume idea.

-I don't know how many suggestions will make it into the final story, as part of this contest is to let your ideas guide me. I could choose the best or the worst ideas for the story - whatever inspires me to write a joke!  The most clever entries might not have an opening for them.  That's why I'm sharing the cool entries on the front page too, because clever stuff deserves to be celebrated!  The earliest possible date for a costume suggestion to appear in the comic is October 24th, by the way.  (Well, there's at least one comic before then with a costume idea that someone will surely suggest, but it's an obvious one and was in the script before this contest was announced.)

-Again, I encourage artwork, and I'll favor the art entries.  Doesn't matter how skilled you are. I like to see the effort! (Blackmailing artists friends to draw for you is good too!)

-You have a better chance of your idea being chosen the earlier it shows up. October 23rd is likely the latest date for you to submit ideas and have a chance of seeing them used, though I won't disqualify a good idea that comes later. Still, if I can get a script out of a good idea sent early, a great idea sent late will be bumped out because I lack the time to write it in.  I'll be traveling to FurFright from the 24th to 28th, so I need comics for those days finished before I leave. I'll accept art all the way through the end of the Halloween story, because I can still show it off even if it's too late for scripting.

-I ask that you not share your ideas and contest artwork with others until after the Halloween story is over. If I do choose your suggestion, I don't want other readers expecting it.

-If your suggestion doesn't make it into the comic, or a similar idea to yours is chosen instead, please don't get upset. As mentioned, I'm going with what gives me the best scripting potential, not necessarily the strongest submissions. I won't know what's right until I see it. Could be highly clever. Could be basic and simple. I could put in a dumb idea to make fun of a kid in a dumb costume! That's the thrill of it. You are the inspiration I don't know where it'll go yet!

Email me with any questions or concerns. If any new notes/edits need to be made, I'll update this post.

New Copper Road! 4/1/12

Yes, it's a new month and that means I'm begging everyone to get their vote on! I'm giving you what you want! Look! It's Yvette, and she's going all crazy!

Haha, April Fools. That pic above is totally not a scene from the new Copper Road - although the new comic *is* all about Yvette! There is so much Yvette in it, you guys. Please vote. Please vote every day.

Anyway, that's all the fooling I'll be doing this year. Or any year. April 1st is a day when most of the internet becomes awful, and I don't want to contribute to the problem. Let Precocious be a safe haven, where you can get away from the fools!

Portal sketches!

I handed out a few free sketch promises over on twitter (see, it pays to follow me!) and both of the chosen folks decided to play with the same theme of playing in the Portalverse. I confess I've never played the games, but I've been on the internet long enough to catch the companion cube love. Had to look up the edgeless safety cube, though. Anyway, enjoy!



Oh, and here's a "bonus" sketch. Seems *someone* had some brain trouble about which character was requested with which companion object. D'oh.

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!

I demand a lot from my readers

Look! It's the lost Yvette watercolor! The good lad who received her was kind enough to take the photo I forgot to take and send it to me... and it only cost him the price of a NEW CAMERA! (I appreciate the dedication, but that money could have been spent on ME instead!)

Anyway, if this is a trend, the next person I send a watercolor to has to buy one of those extremely sensitive $2000 large-format scanners to capture the essence of the piece. And then they should send me that scanner, because daddy wants.

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.

I am trying to melt your heart

The SpiderForest community will soon be holding an auction of digital prints and traditional pieces, with proceeds going to help a member in need. These watercolors will be my contribution. I went for maximum sweetness with these pieces, with hopes of drawing in more bids. This is charity! I want to make an impact! I hope these do well.

When the auctions begin, I'll put up an announcement on the Precocious main page.

This page is the key to the future. Maybe.

Yes, yes, I know I should be working on commissions today. I finally got my comic buffer large enough to cover my move and that means the only art things holding me back ARE those commission. BUT, there is one complication: I AM A ZOMBIE! I pulled an all-nighter last night to help reset my wayward sleep schedule and that means I am completely worthless today. This is bad news on many fronts, as I had lots of errands to run today too. Oh well, THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TOMORROW!

So anyway, I had to do *something* today to kill time while I wait to collapse at a suitable hour. At one point I chose to take out my weariness on the sketchbook. It just so happens that the current Precocious arc's scripting is hung up on Yvette's entrance. I could go a few directions with it. The *fun* route involves dragging her entrance out over a few days, but I'm getting very paranoid about how long this arc is taking to develop. (Things move so slow when only going MWF!) The efficient route is to just plop Yvette in there over the course of one strip. The compromise route is to make the extra strips into vote incentives, I guess. Point is, while I debated my pacing I began drawing Yvettes.

As I draw, I start thinking about other plot points and how the arc is going to play out. Right now, it's wide open. I know where it's all going, but I'm uncertain as to how long it will take to get there. Obviously, I've been taking my dear sweet time so far - and something tells me it's pissing people off. This pacing works when it's daily, allowing me to see all the sights as I go, but when three strips take a week I HAVE TO MOVE FASTER. Right?

When I have some difficulty with the sketching, I realize I have to nail down at least one important plot point. I go through all the permutations that had been in my mind before and I reject them all. So I look at one sketch, think about what it takes to make it possible, and ideas start to form. INSPIRATION! Suddenly a throwaway gag has turned into a plot point! Ideas are pouring out of my pencil as I jot strip idea after strip idea down. At the end of the session, I have potentially added a MONTH to the length of this arc, assuming MWF updating. Even better, this plot point provides the perfect transition to the NEXT arc. Victory!

Or is it? I love this new plot point (in my weary brain dead state, at least) but wasn't the point of sitting down to script to MAKE THINGS MOVE FASTER? This drags the birthday party out for potentially another month! What do I do? This plot point isn't *needed* to advance things, but it could have great long-term payout. On the other hand, I don't have anything solidly scripted for the main party, so I could just gloss over THAT in a "I can't believe it was so uneventful" letdown way. That's totally lame, but it could save a few awkward weeks.

The plan right now is to use the little free time I have over the next two weeks to script as many party strips as I can, so I can sort through and pick the best of the best when it's time to produce again. (It could potentially give me some bonus vote incentive strips as well!) The arc might still take forever to finish, but I'm hoping people won't mind if the comedy increases. Granted, I have no idea what you guys actually like, as my favorites and your favorites rarely coincide. Ahhh, I don't know! I'm so scared of losing everyone with my MWF update schedule, I second guess every strip!

Ugh, I'm rambling because I'm so tired. At least I'm blogging. I might even blog again tomorrow! With commission progress. (OH GOD I HOPE SO.)

Awww again!

Here's the final coloring of the Yvette commission. Isn't she precious? The coloring is actually much nicer than you see. My scanner, as much as I love it, can't handle light colors. This is GREAT when scanning line art, and not so great when scanning a light gray character. You'll just have to trust me that it looks OK.

Awww!

Here's the line work for the Yvette sketch. As you can see, we went with her hugging the stuffed animal. The ear and tail markings will be done in colored pencil, so that is why they are missing from this drawing. I ended up making this drawing on a full page of paper instead of the half-page as planned, so my tiniest character is nice and big for me. In the future, I may want to do a card-sized drawing for a donation incentive.

If approved, I will get to coloring - provided my printer behaves. My printer is old and surly. Don't make me replace you with the young hotshot printer/scanner combo upstairs, old man!

So cute it may kill you

I've started work on a new commission and this one's adorable: Yvette in pajamas. How can that not make your brain explode into candy?

My take on the idea was to give her a big stuffed animal friend for her to drag around as she prepares to drift away into slumber. What you see is my playing with poses. So far I like the bottom one the best, as it shows off both jammies and toy, but the others have their charms. (Other pose suggestions are, of course, accepted.) For the PJs I went with a basic polka dot pattern. I have to keep the pattern fairly simple. Anything too complex would come out looking like black blobs once tech pen gets involved.

(Click the image for a larger version.)

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.)

Outside, but looking in

Continuing the outsider theme, here's the other half of the ignored part of the class. These sketches are not as good as yesterday's, which is a sign that maybe I'm moving back to work. I don't know why that balance exists, but there you go. Good productivity means bad sketches. Good sketches mean bad productivity.

I also don't feel like dying today, which is a bonus. While I'm not feeling great, this improvement means the culprit probably was stress. A few days of relaxation should help. Well, as much as I *can* relax...

And the meek shall languish in obscurity

I made the sketch. I scanned it. I remembered I had to actually post it at 11:40. Victory! Ok, so it's not like this was done *early* - it took forever for a decent sketch to appear - but I had a comfortable window, dammit!

If Kaitlyn doesn't drag these two along, what chance do they have? You know, this post can make a real deep statement about something. I've been fighting to get my strip noticed, and networking is not my strong suit. Kaitlyn is the only *normal* kid in the class, and so she can guide the meeker/crazier class members. Then again, even Kaitlyn can't break through the Gemstone delusion. What chance does erratic Vincent, who tends to stick his foot in his mouth by cluelessly rambling - or Yvette, who is near mute but *potentially* lives a complex inner life (we're not sure) - have if their leader can't succeed?

If I sound like I'm reeeeaaalllly stretching, DUH! The original idea was to draw the other half of the class like a posse. After starting on Vincent, this post's title popped into my head - so I stopped with the 9-year-olds. I'm just happy I got a decent sketch today. Don't read too much into it. ;-)

Life is but a dream

Ahh, but there are several types of dreams! One, always a favorite, is the stress dream in which YOU CAN'T WIN! No matter what you do, your brain changes the rules to screw you over. One of my most common involves me driving in a highway and taking the wrong exit, only to be stuck in an series of increasingly difficult roads that always lead me further and further away from the path I desire. The common ending for these has me carrying my car on my back as I gingerly walk across a shaky rope bridge over a chasm. One I had recently involved a Batman-obsessed gremlin thing that was a pushover. I beat it up and outsmarted it time and again, but it was always right around the corner to attack again. The dream ended when I thought I had it trapped in my grandparents' house (Mom's side) only to realize too late that they had installed a pet door. With a, "well, that's the end of me," sigh, I woke up. Another fun version ends with thousands of airplanes falling from the sky until one finally hits me.

The above sketch is a fairly good indicator of the past 24 hours. On one side, we have the quiet and reserved Yvette Nutley. On the other, a tempting and shiny meat cleaver. A truer emotional self-portrait has never been done!

Let's recap the fun!

-After sleeping through my alarm and moving like a drunk snail all morning, I arrive at my grandparents' house (mom's side) a few hours late. This is not a problem for me, since they didn't believe I was coming. Such faith they have in me! I try to explain webcomics to them, then explain over and over why the one painting they like of mine wasn't on my website. It's my poinsettia painting that has been sitting at my grandparents' house (dad's side) for the past month.

- Grandma (mom's side), with whom I am supposed to be spending quality as she has terminal cancer and all, says she is tired and goes back to read and watch TV. She feels perfectly healthy, so she's in no rush to do that creepy family time stuff. Most of my interaction with her was checking her math while she balanced her checkbook (she got it right) and turning down the beer she offered. Most of my time was spent chatting with my aunt (mom's side) as we "watched" a basketball game.

- Then I got a call. My grandmother (dad's side) wanted to know where I was. Now, I had told my aunt (dad's side) that I wouldn't arrive until after 9pm. I was told by my mother that grandma (dad's side) said it was perfectly fine if I showed up late at night. When I showed up at my grandparents' house (dad's side) at 9:30, I found out neither relative had told HER when to expect me. I was in trouble.

- The reason I didn't spend the night at my grandparents' house (mom's side) is because I have daily internet obligations! I need five minutes of internet time to upload the day's Precocious strip, and the only wifi I can steal is around my grandparents' house (dad's side).

- When I arrived at the grandparents' (dad's side) house I was greeting with the strange image of my grandmother (you know by now) eating cold Chef Boy-Ar-Dee from a can. Things also smelled funny, but at the time I chalked it up to the can (chef's side). After taking great care to keep their pipes from freezing during the recent cold weather, the pipes chose to rust themselves into oblivion instead. The kitchen was out of commission, the heat was out and the plumbers had a bit of trial and error before finding the problem.

- Thinking the leaky pipe was in one place (the wrong side) they knocked some holes in the downstairs ceiling. Though that hole came the distinct smell of dead mouse. Oh great. That explains it. (It's mostly dissipated by now, but that was not fun coming into the fresh kill zone.)

- I was tired from a day in which nothing had gone right. Grandma (still dad's side) was the same. We talked ourselves into a stupor and then adjourned for the night. It was time to do my update.

- THE INTERNET IS DEAD! I tried every fix I could, even though Windows (Satan's side) told me again and again that the problem wasn't on my end. The person from which I was stealing wifi was currently without internet - and I was up shit's creek until that person realized there was a problem.

- As midnight grew closer, I became increasingly distressed. I had it all planned out! I abandoned my grandparents (mom's side) just so I could be covered for the update! I couldn't do any other work because I was checking the connection every 10 minutes until 3am or so. I missed my update time and I hated myself for it.

- Feeling helpless, I decided to try sketching. Guess what I had forgotten to bring! If you guessed MY DAMN PENCIL, you know me too well. Fortunately, I had brought lead refills, so my no-copy red pencil was sacrificed to the alter of "I can't scan red!" That is one problem solved, everything else in the world still wrong.

- I could not sleep. Not only was my mind still panicking and waking me over and over to check the connection, but it was FREAKIN' COLD! I had just escaped a house where I was forced to run the space heater all day to keep feeling in my hands, and now busted heat put me in the same position.

- I end up sleeping through TWO alarms and oversleeping an hour. I am not remotely rested and I feel sick because of it. Oh well, at least this place has the best shower in the world! See, at home something has gone wrong. At the 10 minute mark, the hot water is gone. This had not been a problem before. Showers (home side) had been reduced to trying to ration hot water long enough to clean AND relax me. (If unrationed, it would never reach 10 minutes.) This means showers had become stressful and ALWAYS ended in cold frustration and disappointment. GUESS WHAT! Two minutes into this shower (grandparents dad's side) I had shut off the cold completely and was taking all hot I could. I finally had to bail, cold and miserable.

By now I am starting to wonder if I have died and ended up in Purgatory. No matter where I go, the same problems follow me. I can't get warm. When I do momentarily reach warmth, overheating immediately follows and I have to freeze again. No matter how long I sleep, I cannot get any rest. This has been going on for days. No matter what I do, I cannot get on the internet. I can't properly taste food. Feelings in general have become confusing. Seriously, since when have I been so succeptible to cold? It's getting worse every day and I don't know why! It's a minor disaster wherever I turn, and I am starting to suspect nothing will ever go right again. Around the 10th time I managed to connect to a wireless network from the nauseating IHOP only to have it fail to connect to the internet, I was certain I was a ghost. It's not just recent events, you see, but the past two months have been unrelenting in thrusting negativity on me. Is this like the Sixth Sense scene where I am lamenting how I am ignored by people I thought were friends, only to realize they moved on because I was, yanno, dead? Is this why I can not sleep for a day, sleep an entire day, quit eating for a while, eat like a pig another time, work hard, do nothing and generally turn my life into one crazy variable experience.... and yet the result is always the same. I feel the same no matter what I do. I weight the same no matter what I eat. This is not something mortals do. I am dead. I've been dead for a while. I'm dead and the afterlife SERIOUSLY SUCKS! Fuck me.

And then we rush home from the IHOP (after two hours of awkward and horrible-tasting misery) because we have doctors appointments. We don't stop by the library (which offers free wifi) because of this. Aha! Once again the solution is twisted away from me! This is a dream or death! I am certain!

Once home, I find the wifi person finally remembered to plug his modem back in. I do my comic update 14 hours late. I have no email, no comments, probably no chance in readership... and when I call my grandparents (mom's side) with an offer to come visit, they tell me not to bother since they didn't expect me to come over anyway. Even though we had all discussed it the day before.

No matter what happens, it all stays the same. WHY DOES THE SAME HAVE TO SUCK SO MUCH!?

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Dude, they're 9 or 10.

(Clockwise from top-left: Kaitlyn Hu, Autumn Pingo, Dionne Crup, Tiffany Et, Suzette Grady, Yvette Nutley.)

I really wanted to get some work done today, but I couldn't resist the depressing allure of football. At first, things were looking up! The Redskins won a thrilling and fully-enjoyable game! (It'll never happen again.) Then I made the mistake of watching the 4pm games... which curb-stomped my soul.

I am going to be angry at the bullshit officiating of the Chargers game until the day I die. REPLAY EXISTS TO REVERSE BAD CALLS! DON'T COME BACK, ADMIT YOU FUCKED UP AND THEN SAY YOU FUCKED UP SO FUCKING BAD THAT THE FUCKING BRONCOS GET THE FUCKING GAME HANDED TO THEM! WHICH IS THE SECOND FUCKING TIME IN THE FUCKING GAME THE FUCKING REFS FUCKED UP ROYALLY! FUCK! Norv Turner should have been allowed to beat Ed Hochuli to death with his clipboard for those obvious crimes. Yes, Ed is a refereeing beefcake, but I think an anger-fueled Norv could still do some damage. Seriously, if there ever was a case for justifiable homicide...

(You don't want to know how much football-related ranting was edited out of this post...)

ANYWAY, I WAS ANGRY! Instead of smashing things, per norm, I tried to calm down and numb my mind with lame sci-fi. Enter: Threshold! Oops, I mean Fringe. Fox decided to show the premier again with extra bonuses, like a teaser for The Day The Earth Stood Still remake which looks like it might as well be Threshold: The Movie! (To future readers not in my inner circle: Threshold was a sci-fi show that was so poorly written that it became awesome in its incompetence. It's like Showgirls, with fractal patters instead of boobs. And, yes, Elizabeth Berkley does show up in both.) Anyway, Fringe was enough to kill my angry brain cells, allowing me to get to work. I only drew one more strip, leaving me still HOPELESSLY behind, but I did get something productive from my misery. YAY FOR MY NEW POSITIVE OUTLOOK!

Still pissed, and unwilling to start inking things, I turned to the warm embrace of my sketchbook. First came a nice sketch of Dionne. Then a nice sketch of Autumn. Then an OK sketch of Tiffany, which is good considering I've been struggling with her. Well, fuck it.. LET'S GO FOR IT! I drew every girl in our smarty class, and together they average out to be a decent sketchbook page. Fuck it, it's enough to keep my string of half-assed daily posts going! Enjoy!

I AM SHARING SKETCHES!

...IT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG! (Maybe?)

After a day of total unproductivity, all I have to show is a struggle of a strip sketch and some sketches that I think and keen. Here are some more precocious characters - from the *other* side of the classroom. The main characters are insular types and, despite facing these kids every school day, they keep forgetting the non-Gemstone kids exist. I like to think of that side of the class as it's own comic strip that just isn't being shown. In that strip ("Copper Road" - NO ONE STEAL THAT NAME FROM ME) Kaitlyn would be the central character - one only an expert cartoonist can draw reliably. (Uh oh...) Yvette is the near-mute lackey. Vincent is the oddball who lives in a universe with more optimism in its logic than in our own.



This leaves Roddy, Quincy and Xander as the last to get official first sketches. Poor Roddy, he's a big supporting character - the only non-Gemstone kid who is persistent enough to get the Sapphire kids to recognize him. Of course, him being a black cat and me not having a decent method for drawing black features (see Kaitlyn) might have something to do with it. Quincy is the dog version of Kaitlyn (German shepherd) so the same problems arise. Xander is a character that resents all the other kids and doesn't want to be involved in their antics... so he's not involved. Aside from occasionally putting him in the background of strips, I won't have much use for him.

And, since I don't like the current version of Jacob on the site, I sketched out a MUCH better version of him. This sketch, along with the others above, will soon be re-traced and turned into cute color illustrations for my site.