So I'm ruining Tumblr now

With the health stuff, I've been trying to find the most efficient work method. To keep myself moving and whip myself into art-shape, I've been doing warm-up sketches. (I can draw in the sketchbook while resting in bed.) Since I feel bad about not being as interactive as I'd like to be, I've been letting folks suggest silly ideas for the warm-up drawings and dumping the results on my Tumblr.

I'm far more lax in what I draw as silly sketchbook stuff than with my official art pieces. While not my norm, fanart can be fun, and maybe it'll make you all happy. Drop your requests in my Ask box - you don't need an account - and then... wait a loooong time for the sketch to appear? While a sketch a day (don't expect them all to be color) is a good goal, I draw these when I lack the momentum to draw anything else. So, hey, if the Tumblr goes quiet it means I'm knocking out some excellent stuff in more important locations!  I pick what I draw from the requests based upon what inspires me that day, factoring in what I can pull off in the allotted prep time.  I may love a request to draw a larger scene, but it could be weeks before I have time to get it done. Simple stuff, like requests that can be stated in 5 words or less, have a higher chance of being used.

It may not be art card streaming requests, but I hope it's enough to let all you great readers know that I still care, and I still want to listen to your wishes.

Good thing it's warm out...

...because I keep drawing Ms. Monster without much of a top.

Here is the line art for the next belly dancer watercolor.  My big question here is the accessories. The cloth danging from the top was incorporated from the source pic, but it can go. The bracelets were mostly me seeing it they'd work.  (The original had patterned forearm wraps, but I didn't think they'd translate well.) For colors, I was thinking of borrowing a similar color scheme from the other Ms. Monster piece I did today. (Should I post the May commissions on this blog too, or keep them on my FA?) I'd aim for a deeper blue on this one - and I'm debating trying out going over the blue fabric color with a white ink pen and adding some designs.  That could work, or it could backfire big time. Maybe I'll do a test on a scrap paper when I'm working.

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.

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.

Cameo rundown

Edit: New site upgrades means no more hotlinking, so this post was all broken images! You now have to click on the links to see the comic pages. Sorry!

For the city arc, now in its final stages, I decided to indulge my readers and friends and offer cameo spots for strips where background characters are needed. It made all that extra drawing fun! Here is a list of which characters were cameos and who was behind them.

Strip #786
The gray fox in panel one of this strip was by the request of reader Iron Ed.

Strip #787
Reader Roland requested a Eurasian Wolf. I put the gender up for a vote on the forum and the female security guard won.

Strip #791
The yellow dingo is a character belonging to reader Al S. Romero. My webcomicker friend Irene Pitcairn asked to be drawn as a calico cat in a strip, and I was happy to oblige!

Strip #790
The lynx was reader Cyfrostan's request. The husky was inspired by reader InsanityKangaroo. Reader mrgameandpie requested a Welsh Corgi. Finally, Roland gets another show with his suggestion of adding some labs.

Strip #793
I then turned to twitter for my museum curator cameos. The first two replies came from @psychocatboy (the cat) and @comicalpanda (the fox).

Strip #794
More Twitter cameos! The kitty in panel one was inspired by @kendrakirai, while the one in panel three is little miss @drillecat.

Strip #795
On the wall of bans, you will see Ruby from Code Name: Hunter and Blue from Namir Deiter. The colorful kitties in panel two are readers Cookie (blue one) and PurpleCat (purple one, duh).

Strip #797
Our poor crewman here comes from the Twitter volunteers, @granite_grizz. Yorkshire Terrier was actually his 4th preference of species, but I hope he likes it anyway.

Strip #798
And we get to today's strip. The fox is reader @codefox. The bobcat mix comes from reader Adrik the Bat. The two ladies on the right are Sheana (yellow) and Celina (white) from The Cyantian Chronicles.

There's one more cameo coming up in the arc (Strip #802), from reader @JaxTracRat, but I didn't want to wait until his appearance on Saturday to publish this post!

If you want to get in on the reader cameo action, do know that a few more will be coming up in the next few weeks. Watch the forum thread or my Twitter account for when I open up for those requests.