Still playing with shirt ideas.

Good feedback so far! As it stands, the first shirts I'll be offering will be SCIENCE! and Tiffany's unrestrained creativity masterpiece. Don't go salivating yet, though, as I haven't solidified anything, much less found a t-shirt provider.

But I'm not done yet! Let's keep throwing out more ideas!



(click the image to embiggen)

The top one is a Ghostbusters line applied to a cast group shot. (The sketches were lifted from past vote incentives, if you're wondering.) EVIL is an attempt to combine some universal appeal with Precocious. Dunno if it's successful. Man, why must my comic be so insular? Finally, we have a sample from the exceedingly cute strip. Who wouldn't want to wear that?

Pick your fav 5

I'm trying to narrow my strips down to the five that best convey the tone, humor and awesomeness that is Precocious. Here are my choices for the final ten, which may not match yours. If you have your own favorites, here's your venue to let me know. I may not listen to you, but you can still cast a vote!

No original artwork today, as I'm working on the strip TO THE EXTREME. I'll be back to my daily supremacy tomorrow.

Strip #43


Strip #62


Strip #45


Strip #97


Strip #100


Intro Strip #16


Intro Strip #86


Intro Strip #30


Intro Strip #98


Strip #14

Mercy killing the latest sketchbook

Today was a no energy day, which meant sketching! Because sketching isn't that useful with a pile of work to do! Whatevs. I sketched until I ran out of pages, so here's my tradition "leftovers" sketchbook post!



As with most sketchbooks, this one had its token "I'm still a fine artist!" drawing.



Here's a fun one of Sydney in her aforementioned pikachu PJs! To balance it out, I added an Ivy sketch to make a mommies compilation.



Sometimes I like to give myself a challenge just to keep things interesting. These two sketches are me trying to figure out what Suzette's mother might look out. I have no plans to include Suzette's family in the action at all, I don't have any inclination to assign a name or personality to the woman. I just wanted to reverse engineer to see what genetics would create the girl. The one on the right is clearly better, but is it lame to pull the "almost clone" tactic? Oh well, it's not like Suzette's home life is ever getting shown.

Tomorrow a new sketchbook adventure begins! Motivation to start one tonight: None.

New year of life; new sketchbook!

Ahh, synchronicity. This day of transition brings with it a new beginning. No, my life is still crap. It's simply time for a new sketchbook! As is tradition, let's look at some sketches that never made it to the blog; the not ready for prime time players, if you will.

This one took *so* long to finish, which is a wonderful thing! I've been working too hard to waste time doodling! I will take that trade-off any day!



A birthday sketch! Man, I wish I had this many presents. Then again, I have no room for any new things. All I really require is goodwill and acts of benevolence! That or cash.



Since this sketchbook happened during the parents arc, adults were on center stage. We've seen the kids drawn grown up, random adult characters (not "adult" characters - don't think that!) and lots of parents showing off their glorious flaws.

I gotta admit, that is one cute drawing of Sydney Oven. Normally she's more sarcastic and weary, but a playfully sly cat is fine too. Deirdre Linkletter is more in-character, if not a completed drawing. I had another of her, which was a loose sketch and made her look a bit Bohemian, but it didn't fit the style with the rest. The panther in the back is an attempt to draw Dionne's mom. I can't remember if I shared the sketch or not, so into the background she went!



And here I wander into strange new territory. On a whim, I tried to draw those scary *other* animals. Precocious is purely doggie and kitty territory, as the animal forms are supposed to "human, but cuter!" and not "furry comic" outright. The bunny and raccoon chicks... not so great. Oh well, I have no use for them anyway.

The strip that keeps on failing

You first saw this strip when it got cut because it made no sense in black and white. Then I went the extra mile and decided to make the parents arc in color after all, so back in it went. THEN I drew a second strip #71, which was far superior than little #74 here. I have room for 36 strips (five weeks, plus last Sunday's) and one strip had to go. *chop* Away you go! Don't feel bad, buff joke! Look how far you got this time! You made it all the way to the inking stage. I put in the word bubble and border! Then I reached it in the pile. I looked at it. I realized what a BITCH it is to color all these things, and I decided inking a doomed strip was just not worth the effort.

Stay tuned for posts from the distant future, when I am putting together bonus material for a Precocious book. It'll probably be cut from that too.

An alternative to awkward teenagers

No, this isn't the intro to a Modest Proposal-type essay. (It totally should be, but isn't.) It's the sketch I planned to share instead of my teenager sketches. It is decidedly less interesting.

The big story here is that I drew IRISES in my cartoon eyes! It was a half-thinking impulse which resulted in me drawing eyes... and not knowing what to do with them. At first, I was leaning in the direction of drawing Tiffany (she gets cut from BOTH versions of the Friday blog. Burn!) but that plan went out the window when I absentmindedly drew a canine nose. Due to the subtle differences in my characters facial structures (I'm sure you remember that post from over a month ago) the nose placement limited me to one of my two collie characters. I went with Ms. Monster over Deirdre Linkletter because the face looked younger and thinner. It should be noted that, upon completion of this sketch, my next drawing ended up being a cute Deirdre who looked 10 years younger and 20 pounds lighter. I am not sharing that sketch, as this was not intentional but rather a result of me fucking up.

Anyway, it's a wonder to all that I managed to salvage such an ill-conceived venture and turn it into a minor texture study. Whoopee.

Aaaand, while we're covering uninteresting posts and my lack of discretion.... MUSIC UPDATE! I'm still fascinated by my random iTunes experiment. We have a new top and bottom song!

The new leader, reaching 8 plays before any other reached 7 and currently the only song at 9, is PJ Harvey's "A Place Called Home." It's another of my favorites, so I am pleased. PJ Harvey is usually more rough and funky, making songs that totally rock as Sophie Muller videos, but this song is rather beautiful and harmonious. It's the type of song that deserves a Michel Gondry video. Unfortunately Sophie Muller went ahead and did this one too, so the video sucked. As the title of the song indicates, she's musing that after a period of loneliness and hardship, "One day I know we'll find a place of hope. Just hold onto me... One day there'll be a place for us."

The new loser song is Natalie Merchant's "King of May," which sat at the one play mark with the former champ, Wilco's "I am Trying to Break Your Heart," for a long time. Last night Wilco got the second play, leaving "King of May" at the bottom. What's "King of May" about? It's a song about giving a dying old man one last hurrah before he passes. Even though he's probably gone into dementia and is just a shell of his former self, you should all "raise your voices up; lift your loving cups to his long life."

A lot of meaning to those random results...

...so what does it say that Alanis Morissette's "That I Would be Good" keeps starting just as I move to close iTunes?

All the old showstoppers

Without any coherent idea in my head or theme in my sketchbook, I am going to do an early sketchbook leftovers post. It's not like I can work on a comic. (A cat is sleeping where I need to sit!) I have lots of nice sketches, so it works. In order to match them up, extensive Photoshopping was needed, but whatevs. The post title is a New Pornographers song. I've been listening to them and it seemed appropriate enough.



This adorable curtsy isn't that great of a sketch (where is the tail attached?) but I thought it funny enough to share. In related news, I seriously need to learn how to draw a curtsy, because I clearly have no sense of mid-pose skirt dynamics.



Obviously, these are three sketches from three different times. Jacob has been scrunched to fit. Dionne's sketch isn't even finished. Really, I just wanted to share Suzette (sans-collar for some reason) and needed some extra sketches to justify it.



As mentioned before, I had a failed attempt to draw the parents at a party. Just because, I scanned Sydney and Sky anyway. Maybe I should revisit this idea down the road.



It's the MARAUDERS! Max and Roddy! Get it? Meh. I probably should have saved these sketches for a day when I don't have anything else to share. I could write up a decent Max/Roddy analysis. Oh well, I just have to be awesome everyday now...



And here we have nice sketches of the main twosome. Autumn, fittingly, can be very difficult. Her large tail, hair points and big honkin' ears take up a lot of room - which means it's easy to draw her at a different proportion than the rest. Autumn is especially large and in charge because I had to Photoshop a bunch to get the two sketches to match. Bud's original sketch is large, so I had ample room to get the features in. Autumn's was smaller, so she had to be stretched to fit her features. And I still didn't finish her dress. Go me!

Parting with such sweet sorrows

I suppose I can call this latest completed sketchbook the stress book. A heaping bowl of crazy was poured onto these pages. With hope, none of it shows. I want stress to embolden me and reinforce my desire for success, not make me draw sad character over and over.

This sketchbook took a little over two months to complete, which is a good pace for me. One-month books mean I'm spending all my time sketching and not being productive. Three-month books may indicate I am not working hard enough. Two is just right. (I do hope to become a three-monther when I grow more productive.)



First up is the typical one actual art sketch. I believe the night I sat down and did this sketch I had a specific goal in mind for drawing. This was definitely not the goal. Oh well.



Before I did the color Bette sketches, I had played with her in the sketchbook. The first colored pencil was based off of one of these sketches. The right sketch is me starting to think about the panel in which she delvers her first line. It's a good sign that I feel I'm that close to getting the comic officially launched that I am starting to think about panel treatments.



In every sketchbook, sometimes you draw a character but the sketch doesn't fit in the current post. These are the best-of almost-posted sketches of the post-Thanksgiving drawing session.



These three were tinier sketches I thought I could salvage. The Jacob and Autumn were rejects from the "awkward moments" post sketch. Tiffany was a few pages before, which explains why her treatment is noticeably different.

I had more sketches I thought I could share, but I tossed all those that would not fit in a group shot. That's the dedication I have to you all. Oh well! This sketchbook is now officially at rest and I'm on to the next one!

Finally, a holiday I can support!

Thanksgiving time! This may be my favorite of all holidays. If I was on schedule with my strip and doing regular updates, this would have turned into a strip. Since I'm over four months behind at this point, the idea is reduced to a graphic novel-ish sketch. Tiffany is living the fantasy, even I prefer light meat over dark. Hey, cartoonists are legally obligated to draw feasting characters holding a drumstick. It's in the Constitution. Go check! The James Bond-ish joke here was stolen from a Fark headline. I wish I could claim it as my own, but alas...


Ok, so the whole being thankful thing is lost one me (in all likeliness, there will be a sad and bitter post tomorrow on this subject) but Thanksgiving has so much for me to love! Football all day? Check. Large quantities of my favorite foods? Check. Being able to tune out annoying family conversations due to football and/or food-induced coma? YEEHAW! Not *needing* to avoid conversation? 'Ello, we have a new twist!

Thanksgiving for me has traditionally been spent with my mother's side of the family. They are normals, which just seems wrong. Smart, well-adjusted and successful people in my family? WHERE ARE THE CRIPPLING MENTAL PROBLEMS AND TRAGICALLY COMPELLING STORIES? Conversation can be difficult.

Them: "I just ran a marathon and went to a big party."
Me: "I spent the last week hiding in the dark while clawing at the bugs underneath my skin."

In addition to showing me how live can be lived if a talented genius was sane, that side of the family is great because they are as obsessed with sports as I am. It doesn't matter if we have no rooting interest - although we will all unite to root against the fucking Cowboys - it opens the door for sports blather in all its delicious glory. Seriously, it's hard to find an intellectual peer who is not above rooting for morons playing games that focus on, ugh, PHYSICAL prowess. I love a chance to be a sports geek. (Note for nerds who hate athletes but want to love the game: Since football uniforms are so padded, you can imagine the players as robots instead of asshole jocks.)

So normally Thanksgiving with mom's folks works because it is the one time I can blend in. The problem is the TRAVEL. Three hours and an overnight stay? That's lost of *extra* conversation without the ability to hide behind food and sport. C'mon, family, let's admit it: We'd all be terrified to learn too much about each other. My brain would scare you, as my brother's metro brain would scare me.

Dad's side of the family is my side. We're all crazy jerks, but in the same zesty way! Our dinner conversation can be frank analysis of each other's psychological defects in between meandering stories of how we've confused others in the normal world. Only problem: They're not much for Thanksgiving and NONE of them like sports. I wanted to spend time with them, but I didn't want to sacrifice what I love about this holiday... so I made a deal! Give me Thanksgiving and I will come.

Since cooking is out of the question due to everyone here dying rapidly, they ordered a full meal from one of those stores. Maybe if might not be as good as home cooking, but it's perfect when preparation could lead to funerals. Also, after years and years of being DEVASTATED by minimal leftovers - THE BEST PART OF THE MEAL, DAMMIT - I have requested sole control of all remaining turkey. It's been years since we went home with enough turkey to last past two sandwiches. Mmmmm..... turkey sandwiches. Om nom nom!

With food covered, the focus turns to football. Thankfully, my aunt's partner is on my side. As long as we both enable each other, we get our football time! Also, when the games turn out to suck - I hate the Cowboys and Titans, and it's clear they will destroy the Lions and my beloved Seahawks - I can go chat with the family AND ENJOY IT!

On paper, this looks to be awesome. In practice... well, that will determine how depressing my "FUCK THIS GIVING OF THANKS SHIT!" post tomorrow will be.

Another one bites the dust

Tonight I put another sketchbook to rest. It took slightly under two months to finish it. In theory, this is a good thing. I had burned through the my last few sketchbooks in under a month, meaning I had done no *actual* work. In theory, moving at half that speed should mean I've been doing actual work!

OR, it means my tooth exploded a month ago. :'-(

Eh, I got *some* work done during this sketchbook's reign of power, which is an infinite amount more than with the previous ones.



Woo, kids! I like this collection because it shows how much taller Max is compared to the others. Aside from that, it's just the "best of" from my Rome watching marathon.




I found a sketch I'd made of Autumn with her hair unrestrained. I liked it, but it was just a head - so I played Dr. Frankenstein and threw it on a body of Autumn with her, uh, autumn gear on. (Autumn of autumn's head was fine, but not as interesting, so off it went!) This Dionne is inferior to the one in the first image, but it was scanned before I found the better one, so enjoy it anyway! (For the record, Dionne tends to point in sketches so I can practice drawing the spots on her arms.)



Finally, here's some more of Bud's mother, Sydney. This batch of sketches shows off her ponytail a bit more. Since she appears so infrequently, I have the freedom to change her hair length as I please. I should note that the most interesting sketches - which had her hair down and gave her more fashionable dresses - were all poorly placed on the page. Oh well, these two full-body shots are fair enough.

Overall, a very depressing and sad month was reflected in a very depressing and sad sketchbook. My characters, as always, stood around with benign smiles or slight confusion - so the subject matter didn't change. The execution is what depresses me. I should be taking more risks and creating more dynamic poses with my characters, but it's all I can do to keep the static blah-ness together.

To fully commit to the role as a reflection of my mood, there is a point in my sketchbook where I suffered such a jolt that I somehow go switched around and began drawing from a different end of the book. Two thirds of the way through in my current direction, I ran into my drawings from a few weeks ago. They are much cleaner and more controlled. All my recent stuff is loose and unfocused. Gee, I wonder why.

Another inspirational pep talk from me to me!

Missing Persons

These are not the best sketches to show, but I wanted to cover a couple characters mostly ignored here so far.



Yes, it's yet another family portrait formed by combining various sketches that results in a strange scene. Why are the normally cheerful Linkletters concerned? Heck, even Harvey's smile is far too subdued for him! What is wrong? Well, tonight I am a shitty artist!

I thought I had inspiration, but then I watched a Wes Anderson movie. When will I learn that man is creative DEATH? The crappy painting I made while watching The Darjeeling Limited got rejected from the Mill show - even after I reworked it. Now, The Life Aquatic has sapped the joy from my cheeriest of characters. Wes, dude, you're going Tori Amos on us. You've reached the point where no one questions you... so no one tells you to EDIT YOUR SHIT DOWN! Tori's been making double albums...with about half the songs good. That's dumb, yet forgivable, because iTunes allows me to strike her failure from the record. I can't do that with a DVD, Wes. Stylish filler is still FILLER and it seems to drain my soul. AND THIS IS COMING FROM *ME* WES! MOST OF MY POSTS ARE USELESS BLOAT AND EVEN *I'M* TIRED OF YOUR SHIT! This is why Cracked wrote an article about why the movie didn't work!

Wow, that was... uh... unplanned. Oh well. Anyway, there's a poor version of Harvey Linkletter - but he's finally on here! Fun fact: In the post introducing Gene Et, I also had a image of Harvey Linkletter ready to go and fill in the final missing parent. All it took was one misclick in photoshop and I was left with... an image of Gene with Harvey's name on it. Whoops. Of course, I had closed out of Photoshop before I realized my mistake. I didn't go back because, well, that Harvey sketch kinda sucked too. The dude is just hard to draw! I have come to rely on cranial fluffiness to draw my characters...and Harvey is supposed to tallish, thin and *regular* animal fluffy. Deirdre must be noticeably fluffier! The fluffiness change throws my already weak proportion control out of whack. The silly oversized bow tie doesn't help either. Deirdre's sketch is weak too, but considering I just posted an awesome one of her below - even if she's missing feet in said sketch - I'm content that you know I *can* draw her well.



Suzette has only made one appearance so far, for a far different reason. While I'm total weaksauce in drawing Precocious parents, I've got Suzette down. Because of this, I practice drawing her far less - which means fewer chances of a fully-rendered Suzette working. (For me, having a character "down" is still equivalent to, like, a 10% success rate. Dammit.) This isn't the best Suzette either (again, I blame Wes Anderson) but her angry face is always fun - and far more common than the innocent look she sported in her other appearance here.

So, yeah, I seem to be posting whatever I can to make up for lost time after my tooth explosion. I even had another self-indulgent rambling ready for later... but Wes Anderson has ruined those for me. At least for today.

If I had to scan them, you have to see them!

Sometimes I just scan whatever I like and see what post I can make of it. Sometimes, that turns out to be an eerie parade of Bud Oven. These poor saps, not being Bud, didn't get to take part in the post. It's only fair they get their time to shine! (Twice in Autumn's case.)

Oh, and can you tell I've been experimenting with the "WHAT!?" expression for my characters?