Anyone near Williamsburg, VA?

So here's something fun: I get to attend a local-ish con, MarsCon, as a guest! Cool! This is a sci-fi themed con, but I've been told it has a solid webcomic presence.  Should be fun! (And it gives me an excuse to visit good friends down there!)

Also new for me: Panel discussions! I will be taking part in all webcomic group discussions and hosting my own talk - So You Want to Make a Webcomic? - with advice for new and aspiring comic creators and stories of all my rookie mistakes. Afterwards, I'll be doing a smallish book signing.

If you're in the area January 18-20, I would love to have you stop by! I look at analytics. I know I have readers down there! Set your calendar now, and help ensure my first talk doesn't end with me chatting with an empty room.  More details will be posted about exact times as the date grows closer.

In non-con news...

Copper Road and the next streaming session are likely delayed. While I'm nearly out of the woods with my dental nightmare, I'm so tired and almost a month behind with my plans thanks to this saga. For Copper Road, I might put up a holiday comic soon and save the close of the Ursula arc for the first week in January.  With streaming, I might push Thursday night's session back to Saturday afternoon. I feel OK, but last time five hours of talking took its toll.  Today I tried doing normal mouth things, as I was feeling better, and that turned out to be a BAD idea. (Back to soup. So much soup. Soup forever.) Two extra days of shutting up might help. If you don't see a stream announcement Wednesday morning, that means I'm waiting until Saturday - which should be announced on Thursday.

Also, check out the Bonus Comics Bar! We're so close! Wanna help push us over the edge and get the reward, you can donate or purchase one of the unclaimed artist trading cards!

The Buy Stuff page!

Hi, my name's Chrispy, and I am a haunted soul! (Y'all like the badge I whipped up for MFF?)

So many hours spent on site stuff today. I'm all zombied up now, but I hope this new page is helpful. It's probably better for me to consolidate all the notes on merchandise, commissions, streaming and conventions into one page. There's a lot more to do with that page/concept - such as setting up a system for selling original art - but it feels good to make a dent in the list.

At least this was an "easy" page to code. I'm slowly chipping away on the new cast page, but I sadly have little progress to report. If you guys beg me, I can post a preview of one idea I'm working with over on the sketch blog later. Maybe I should just post the pictures with names and add in the descriptions at a later date. (That's still a massive job, by the way, so please don't yell at me for going slow on a lower-priority page.) At least I hunted down the part of the CSS that was accidentally grossing up the body text with my menu/headers font.

It'll be months before I'm able to get all secondary pages up to standard, but I figure keeping up with the comics, the art and the whole second book project is probably the best way to go.

New Copper Road! 7/18/12

Today's comic is a chilling story based a horrifying real-life experience. No amount of scrubbing will ever get me clean. Vote to see the comic! (Vote every single day!)

In moving news, I've been building up my Precocious buffer. I should be able to continue uninterrupted, even with all the craziness, but I haven't ruled out taking a week off at the end of August and running guest art/strips - if only to catch my breath after a wild summer. (Most wildness has been good, at least!) A final decision, along with a post about me opening up commissions, will be posted by the weekend.

Hours in the day

I wanted to have a Mothers Day card update here for you, but instead you get to hear about me making more Precocious. Uh, sorry?

I've been playing a losing game of sleep math, and eventually the remainder was going to get me. Oh, sleep, how I hate that I need you. I am no longer young, and daddy needs proper sleep or he goes bye bye in the head. Today, instead of more drawing of Sky cooking, I wonked out for a few hours. I've gotta get back to the card thing very soon - like tomorrow - and straighten a lot of stuff out with it, but today is for Precocious.

I'm trying to build up a buffer to cover my trip to DC for my grandmother's birthday so that means work work work. Fortunately, scripting has been going well. I have two weeks ready to be produced, and lots of potential for a third, so produce I shall! I'll feel a lot freer to do the card stuff if I can get a week of strips inked tonight. It's amazing how better one functions with the security of a comic buffer! Working day to day is far too much stress!

What's fun is that we're coming to an exciting point with Precocious. This whole group project storyline is finally going to start paying off! Uh, after this next week. We still have one group left to cover before it all goes to heck. :-)

Snow day!

I got a lot accomplished yesterday! I finished all the strips for 2009! Also, I used up all my creative energy in the process. Thus, today is a snow day! I've done next to nothing, and I loved every minute of it! Enjoy this sketch of Bud and Casey, cuz that's all you're getting today.

Any progress is good, right?

Today was the hangover from yesterday's zombie day, so don't expect any artistic miracles. I did manage to ink the rest of next week's Precocious strips, so that's good. I also pulled out my "fun" painting for some work, with not as good results. I blame the mental fuzz.

Today has been an embarrassingly fuzzy day for my normally beautiful mind. Most of the conversations involving me today involved a blank stare and weak vocal feedback. Yeah, this is not me at my best. Sorry, everyone I conversed with! With which I conversed? Bah.

If I succeed in sleep tonight, perhaps tomorrow I will return to my more eloquent self. Today's victory is that I got anything done at all!

Nap the day away!

It's been a bizarre day, devoted to unconsciousness! Why was I so tried? What the heck do I do? I do nothing! NOTHING! Zzzzzzzzzz....

It's not like an early schedule is vital for me, being unemployed and all, but there is stigma and shame involved here. I really should be awake for daylight activities - if only because that's when the food-providing locations are open. (What do you expect me to do, cook?)

Now comes the big question: Do I roll with the late-night antics, or try to sleep and reset the internal clock? My only confidence is that I will be choosing the wrong option!

Family is exhausting!

I'm finally back home after extended Thanksgiving festivities. Status: TIRED! Combine a Thanksgiving which had me up until 3am chatting with the cousins and two early mornings in a row, you get a Chrispy in need of a good, old-fashioned SLEEP IN 'TIL NOON DAY! Oh, tomorrow, I don't want to see any of your beginning!

Tomorrow must be the day I finish up drawing this current storyline and shore up the scripts for the next week. Tonight is not for thinking too hard.

I'm still sleepy!

My early night plan backfired horribly. I went to bed at midnight and went into what would be better called a dreamless coma than actual sleep. It was about 3am when I gave up and started my day. I haven't slept since, which means I spent the entire day in a daze.

No work got done, but that's ok. If I have one day when I don't work, that means I WORK HARD EVERY OTHER DAY! Remember that! Knowing I was going to be useless, I decided to relax and see where consciousness took me. I played some video games, did some reading and didn't stress over it. If I can get some sleep tonight (big IF) then I hope to catch up tomorrow. If not, oh well - I'm a week ahead in the comic, so one day won't kill me.

Reunited, and it feels so good!

I'm back home, with my beloved no-copy blue pencil. Oh, how I missed this little bugger! Fat mechanical pencil, you were a poor substitute!

Anyway, daddy's tired from a hellacious drive home during a dreary, rainy day. I'm too lazy to hook up my scanner, much less sketch something fun for the day. Instead you get to bask in the glory of my bloated ate-out-for-20-straight-meals face! Sexy!

Time out

As hinted at in the last post, I'm going to spend this week in DC focusing on spending time with my family. Precocious will keep going, but I am going to take a break from blogging and skip this week's Copper Road. The next Copper Road should be up next Monday and I'll start blogging again once I have enough free time to work on something to post!

For those not in the know: My grandmother's heart just gave her a hospital trip. My grandfather has advanced Alzheimer's and requires full care, most of which has been handled by my grandmother. My mother is here to help for a few days. My brother gets back tomorrow. On Thursday, my aunt and her partner are coming to visit. There's going to be no free time! I'll barely be able to keep up with the comic. (Tonight and tomorrow are for working ahead!)

Family always comes first.

Daddy's tired

I am dealing with less friends than yesterday, but I'm all tired out from socializing. You're lucky I got Monday's strip done in time! Anyway, this is my lone sketch of the day. Tomorrow I'll be more rewarding.

Toss your kid in the air day!

See! I haven't forgotten the wallpaper I owe everyone! (Now *you* stop forgetting to vote for Precocious!) The drawing is inked and ready for coloring. (NOT TODAY.) I still need to think of a good tagline for the image. "Good family values"?

Ladies...

Today was a travel day - back in Funchester, for whatever good that does me - and I'm tired and worn out. Thus, you get a sketch blog in the most basic form: Here are some sketches from today!

I've been doodling the Precocious supporting cast for vote incentives (visit the comic and vote to see 'em!) and here are some leftovers. Enjoy the adorable evil.

Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Marilee!

After working my butt off yesterday, daddy's tired. Rather than share something interesting and dynamic, I'll show off the latest early-stage painting.

This is Marilee Ruth Bishop, another of the Maquette ladies. She is not merry. This painting doesn't really do her justice yet, as it makes her look like she's about 10 years older than she is. Also, she looks like she's made of ice. Part of that's because I've only played with a limited palette so far, and part is due to a poor-qualify photo.

I took a risk with this one in painting the window shape, and I'm not sure it'll work. Marilee is first seen through a window, staring coldly. She's not actually *at* the window like this - it's the audience looking in at her - but painting a tiny figure in the background would be sacrificing quality for accuracy no one cares about. Going forward, I want to stylize the painting more and more. Maybe I'll blend the figure into the window frame, making her look like a ghostly figure. (Which is a good fit for the character, really.) I dunno what exactly I'll do, but I need to activate the space. The "patiently waiting in line" look just doesn't bring the mysteriousness as it should.