A small SCAD update!

I apologize for going silent everywhere. I owe so many people emails, and I swear I'll try to get to them all soon. Why have I gone silent? Simple. SCAD IS KICKING MY BUTT! I'm in Sequential Art boot camp - "intensive" courses meant to bring us outsider grads up to speed - and they aren't kidding around.

Everything I'm doing is stuff I've never really done before, and it's all vital to learn. It's good that I'm getting it, but bad that I'm not *getting* it as fast as I want to. Since this is basically an entire undergrad degree crammed into two months, one little hiccup means I start falling behind. I've let a lot of things fall away while I fight to get back on pace with things.

I meant to use this blog to post coursework and whatnot, to keep updates coming, but the workload has been so overwhelming I keep forgetting to share. Well, I'll share now!

The in-progress piece here - click it to see if full-sized - is project one for the drawing strategies class, and I've completely botched it. The concept is simple enough: An indoor composition with four or more figures. The subtext is where it gets you. This is the introduction piece; the one that defines you. It's mean to show understanding of interiors, lighting, black and white handling, composition, perspective and basic drawing skill. Yeah, I'm WAY out of practice with ALL OF THAT. I'm letting my worries get to me and it's been mental block city.

I've had multiple false starts, and now I'm at the point where I have to run with what I have. What do I have? A composition telling the story of me botching the project. We have cartoon Chrispys representing my various mental states hovering around a pathetically unfurnished room reacting to my failure to hit one of the ballpark with the first assignment. I'm going down with this one, but at least I'll do it with metahumor.

Oh well, this is why I'm boot camp, after all. I *don't* know everything yet, and this composition will give an accurate view into my state of development. I'm not pleased with starting out so low, but that's where I begin. It's only one project, and I'll have the rest of the quarter to right my wrongs.

Card me!

So there's a chance I will be able to get some business cards printed up for cheap... if I get something together by tomorrow morning. Ok, sure, I'll put in a little bit of effort for that.

They say a good business card demands attention, and I needed a good image to use... HEY, I KNOW! (I just hope it comes off as metahumor and not pure desperation.) Eh, it's not the greatest card out there, but it didn't take long to make and that's what matters.

I really should design a more professional card for my fine art side. To the heap of priorities it goes! If I get a moment later, I'll try to knock one out. For now, it's heap time. I have a cast page that needs updating and a comic buffer to build. And letters to write. So. Many. Letters. WHY ARE DAYS SO SHORT?

Infinite Canvas on a limited budget

I told myself I was done painting. It's time to get back to webcomicking! Uh huh. This is when Art and Whimsy sneak up behind ya, slap you around a bit and throw you in whatever direction they desire. It's an embarrassment of riches. After all, I planned enough work to last me until Thursday - and finished it Sunday night. All I had to do was lose my internet connection and ignore my family!

So now we have new goals. I want to sketch out the next 12 Precocious strips, which will take me into May! (April still needs a few Sunday strips, but let's ignore that.) I'm really into this bake sale storyline, so much that yesterday I woke up with a head filled by new ideas. Now I'm adding five or six strips to the story - I'm iffy on one - and they excite me so! More supporting characters now get in on the action.

I was honestly starting on that work when I realized I needed a cord to print out the new scripts. The cord was UPSTAIRS. People were NAPPING up there. I'm too LAZY to walk that far! Alright, fine! Let's paint!

I have six canvasses at my "regular" size of 22"x28" - even though they seem hopelessly tiny now that I've been making 4' behemoths - and I launched into the project with reckless abandon. You know why? Because I can! This size tends to give one the best cost-per-area ratios when bought in bulk, so I don't feel the "I am wasting money!" guilt when working on them. (I also have 2'x3' canvasses coming in that were equally cheap, so happy medium here I come!)

If you couldn't guess from the title and picture, the theme here is a landscape/cityscape that continues from canvas to canvas, eventually looping around. I've done this before. This could be a fun experiment, or pure self-indulgence. Either way, I have fun.

If I go to the full six paintings, I see these three being the last ones on the right - starting with the center one. Since the theme is civilization flowing into nature flowing into civilization, making different loops possible might be an interesting twist. (It also gives me freedom to switch things around for aesthetic purposes.)

This project may or may not come together as I keep working. It also may or may not continue during this trip. I may or may not be so infatuated with myself that I think this is interest. You may or may not care.

Who watches the watcher?

The character of Sebastian Miro is not only a nod to my favorite artist. Miro is also Spanish for "I watch." I'M REALLY CLEVER! Sebastian and his fellow performers watch the audience far more intently than the audience watches them. They adapt to the scene and adjust themselves to keep control. It's how to survive when under intense scrutiny. (I mean, is that a face you can trust?)

This painting is not that successful, but it's at a suitable "done for now" stage. I might take it on later with a photo reference, since I can't do myself justice here. I kinda like the raw nature of the painting, since it shows the painting process. Sebastian, by law, must be transparent in his actions; thus he must keep detailed logs of his activity. That doesn't excuse the painting from sucking, but it at least gives it some meta points.

Time After Time (Annelise)

Yes, she got her name from the R.E.M. song.

Annelise Ellen Rose, the painting may not honor you fully, but it's oddness is fully appropriate. You are a woman who is described as being slightly out of proportion at every attribute, leading to a face that is reasonably attractive, yet with something wrong about it. The painting lives up to a woman who is confident in herself, but hiding a physical awkwardness. (She also wears corrective,clunky shoes and has those thick glasses.)

Adding strips to the shirt was a risk, but I think it paid off. To me it looks like a strange knit sweater worn by a librarian or something. Hey! Annelise *is* a glorified librarian! Sweet! We're done here.

On to Sebastian, who may or may not get a separate post. (It depends on how much gets done before I fall asleep.)

I swear I'll get back to Precocious stuff soon enough, but these paintings have been waiting for MONTHS! Also, I got spoiled with my big HDTV monitor. Working on the strip just isn't as entertaining on the laptop alone. If you still need a Precocious fix, click on my DeviantArt link on the right and go buy a print or something. Some fine art is available there too!

Edit: Here he is!



Late night artistry took hold here, and I kinda like it. Sebastian is wearing a cloak that reflects his surroundings, which is a fair interpretation of his character. He's a performer, so his pay depends on reading his crowd and adapting to their tastes. As an information hound and gossip, he also makes a point of absorbing all "local flavor" he can. When you're the stranger in a new town every night, it's best to know as much as you can. Without social savvy, the predators out there will get you.

The diamond theme on his clothing (it'll be made clearer with red oxide soon) is part of the Maquette story. Sebastian is somewhat of a martinet. He will accept any restriction on freedom the law gives him, because without protection from the law a constant traveler is akin to ripe fruit on the vine. Law is society, and some sacrifices are needed for a greater freedom. He'll go nuts right up until things get iffy, then he shuts it all down. Even being suspected of breaking the law is bad news for him, because who trusts the guy who strolled into town, did some tricks and then passed around a collection hat?

Also, THE GODDAMN INTERNET HAS DIED EACH TIME I'VE GONE TO HIT "POST" TONIGHT! *waits 10 minutes* *posts*

Sew it goes.

Today's painting mission was aborted when I discovered I had somehow mortally wounded Etruscan Blues. (Man, those guys can't catch a break!) At some point I managed to stab the painting with something, causing a nice big tear. (If you click on the image to see the larger version, you can spot it on the right of the lower right eye-thingy.) Well shoot, that makes things difficult. So it goes. (Hey, you can see my Vonnegut collection in this photo!)

Can this painting be saved, or will it become so meta it falls into obscurity, damaged and incomplete? Maybe I can sew up the wound. Maybe it'll still work. A scar reaching across the most visible eye form in the painting? POETIC! I could stitch it up, paint over the back of the painting to seal it - red paint, of course, so it can seep through a bit - and, hell, PAINT THE WHOLE BACK with something Roman. That way, when held up to a back light, it gets OPPRESSIVELY LITERARY! Or not. Who knows.

The mass of paintings in the picture is to show the different fates of the recent work. Dana's painting is finished, and it is marvelous! Everything went right with that one, and it is both large and in charge. Kickass! Andrew's painting, meanwhile, got stabbed. Oops.

(The flower paintings are there to fill space in the composition, which is fairly symbolic of their nature as well when you think about it...)

Roman Culture to others: OM NOM NOM

Oh, those Etruscan blues...



Am I so petty that I take a casual in-joke reference as a dare? Do I really need to ask these questions?

Only an art student could think "Etruscan Blues" would be an awesome song title, and only an art student could capture it. I am no longer an art student, so allow me some leeway. (I still intend to do grad school, so the spirit remains within!)

The concept is these Etruscan folk are doing their thing, civilization and all, when these young upstart Romans strut up, and on, and over, and by... It's like the Italian Borg Collective! As a student of the archaic arts (not as ominous or mystical as it sounds) I see these young, modern upstarts swipe what the need and digitize the rest. I'm a traditional ink and paper cartoonist, who uses the computer as a took to process the work and (usually) preserve the initial quality. This has, it seems, become a rarity.

First digital coloring happened, and I said nothing, for I thought it a fun exercise. The Waccom tablets came, and I said nothing, for that was actually kinda cool. Then someone posted on The Webcomics List forums looking for hand-drawn and hand-lettered comics, and only a few of us remained... with and embarrassed me halfway out the door and quietly shuffling around.

For me, original strips are important in cartoon. It's a real example of what you've done. You can hang them on gallery walls! They are special, because they show the craft and effort the artist put forth with his or her hands! They are outdated? If every strip is in color, it often means the original is just some pencil. (VG Cats is like this, I think.) Waccom-drawn, clip-art and sprite comics all exist purely in digital forms. Even people who letter in Photoshop don't have a complete original to offer. That's sad. It's also what I'm doing now. For the Precocious parents arc I'm digitally coloring *and* digitally adding text. Yes, it's a font of my own handwriting, but anyone looking at my originals can see the decline. Dialog is hashed in, often incomplete or missing completely. I just need to write enough to figure out where to put the dialog balloons. After that, it's all in Photoshop. That's sorta sad, because the completeness of the original is gone. Progress has come through, taken what it wanted and discarded the rest. Etruscan blues.

Of course, unlike the Etruscans, I am free to switch back to hand-crafted comics as soon as the arc is done. Will I? Am I going to be seduced by the convenience? Am I going to head out and buy a Waccom tablet? Who knows.

As for the actual painting here, it's been a fun flashback experience. The Etruscan blues idea is 10 years old, and this painting looks like something I would have made 10 years ago. The idea was to have people or faces being assimilated into architecture. That's what this, even if my MASSIVE STYLIZATION has taken over to send most of that to an, "Uh, I'll take your word for it," level. Also, after working on all the large canvasses, my old canvas size seems positively tiny! The color here is probably far off (now with three monitors which don't agree, I've lost all perspective) so know it's a bit darker, and was done with periwinkle, white and a dark gray. Let your imagination color correct!

Putting my best face forward

So I'm checking Google Analytics for today's hit count and I see my mini ad campaign has tripled my traffic. That's awesome! I just wish I wasn't an idiot.

See that sketch above? Why is it funny? If you're familiar with Precocious, you know Jacob is not likely to sit around in a funk and growl. (The pose was so odd that I really struggled to draw it.) If you're not familiar, the first impression makes you think, "I guess this is the strip's angry character."

So here I am, running ads and bringing in traffic. What is the punchline of the first strip?

"RODDY!"

Because first-time readers know about Roddy being a pest, and that the main cast ignores the outside world. Brilliant. While I appreciate the appropriateness of the visitor influx happening during a storyline about outsiders entering an insular world, have I sacrificed accessibility for metathinking? Man, I hope people stuck around to read the archives.

The weekend strip, the first thing most of the new visitors see, at least featured all eight main kids acting in character. The problem here is that it's more of a catharsis than a punchline. I'm too close to my own work to know if it's a good first impression or not. It better be good, since I don't have a Sunday strip to run. Maybe I should have done that. (Edit: As I found my Sunday templates while locating Bristol Board earlier, I did end up making a Sunday strip. It took until 6am and it's still not colored. Oy.)

What really is making me kick myself, though, is that the candy violence strips will start on Monday. I consider these strips my best work yet, as it's funny and catches the main kids at their best (worst?). Maybe I should have waited.

Maybe I'm just freaking out. The more I read on the Webcomics List forums, and the more I look around Project Wonderful, I realize I know absolutely nothing about being a web cartoonist. I guess that would lead to step three of getting my name out there. I've started promotion. I'm reading the forums more and I've even gotten some posts in. Have I written my cartoon heroes? That was supposed to be the first step, so I could have guidance for my nascent creation. Instead, I play Mr. Antisocial and do it all myself... which naturally leads to a nice pile of rookie mistakes. Everyone stumbles at first, and everyone stumbles HARD, but it's probably wise to have someone around to catch you.

Ahh, if only I wasn't so insane. Then again, it comes with the job, right?

Confident Optimism

Gotta do something to celebrate the wonderful transition from the horrors of the Bush administration to the hope that is Barack Obama's presidency. Though about another sketch with happy, Obama-supporting cartoon characters - but I've done that to death. This is a new era of responsibility and accountability. I'm a friggin' artist, so let's do the hard task!

Ok, no one in their right mind would ever hire me as a portrait artist, but it's not *too* horrible. I consider that a victory. Looking at the sketch and gauging my portrait talent... things currently look a bit rough, but we are also clearly on the path to improvement. Gee... does that remind you of anything? My sketch is no longer flawed - it's META!

The new subversives

I had a headache all day due to paint fumes, so comic work wasn't happening. I inked the dialog in the seven new strips, but that's it. Hell, I didn't even sketch today. The one you see above is the only thing I've created today. ("Today" being defined as the time from when I wake up to when I fall asleep.) Originally I was just happy to have an ok Tiffany sketch, and I was going to use it as impetus to scan and sort all the nice random character drawings I've had recently. But this sketch wasn't content with being a character drawing. While I didn't do any art today, art was clearly on my mind.

Art is a strange thing. No matter what you make, there is someone out there who will adore it... and someone who finds it stab-the-artist-in-the-face awful. It all depends on the crowd around the piece. What gets the highest praise in art school gets rejected from "local" art shows. What sells in said art show will depress every "contemporary" artist. What is an artist to do - find a new crowd or adapt to the environment?

I've sorta enjoyed Art at the Mill because it's a challenge to figure out what... um... "rural" people want in art. These people are not always art simpletons, but their art culture is wholly different than mine. They gasp at paintings of roosters. They shrug helplessly at the more interesting work. They organizers know enough about art to know quality, but they're also in the business to SELL. When push comes to shove, marketability beats merit every time.

My challenge was to find the line where a piece can have satisfying artistic merit AND sell. I have failed miserably. Sure, I could shun the world that values sunflowers and rooster paintings. Sure, I could move and find a nice, insular art community that has a deeper understanding of art. Problem is... would I fit with them any better?

I still remember the art opening I attended for students at the Corcoran. Every single one had dyed their hair black, with a pink accent for flavor. I'm sure they all think they are being individuals. Right. Being among my own art brethren, the star students were similarly identified via fashion.

Now, these mindsets are understandable for both groups. Most people only know mimetic art, so any art that doesn't look like something is a hit-or-miss unknown. You can call it ignorance, but that is a weighted term. You can't expect everyone to have a working knowledge of the concepts of design and art history. To be honest, my own art history knowledge is very weak. How can I judge if I'm ignorant as well? (Now, when ignorance turns into pride, that's where we have a problem - but that's for another post.)

Similarly, artists dress the way they do because they have the freedom to do so. It's the "subversive" move to flaunt society's norms and be free. After all, contemporary art is a very selfish thing when chosen as a career. Again, I've got pretentious blood of my hands. I have long hair and I dress too casual. I do this because I prefer the look, AND because it does play into people's first impressions of me. No generic MBA would wander into meetings with long hair and lounge pants. People who don't like my look are probably people I don't care to know. It's a social filtration system.

But here is where I stand out from the pack. I *like* to flirt with mass consumption. I want my name to be known outside of the wine and hummus circles! I also don't want to compromise. Instead, I use a keen marketing mind to carve out my own niche. One trick in advertising is to create a need the consumer didn't know they had. I'm not selling out, per se, but focusing instead on convincing others my work is mainstream.

I may have the hair, but I still don't look like any "normal" art student. A friend at school once pointed out that my argyle shirt made me the nicest-dressed person in the class. How awkward. The professor was a long-haired type who wore all black, and here I am in a decent shirt and corduroys! My assertion of individuality comes in my refusal to take on a style any more than my own. Lack of style makes me the real subversive in the room. That's how I stand out from the pack - by not being noticeable by looks alone.

The problem with being an outlier, of course, is that you are irrelevant UNLESS others start to follow you. That's where my plan comes crashing down. Ahh, but there's still time!

Anyway, what brought this on was my recent attempts to paint bowls of flowers. It's my most subversive work yet! I am using the visual language of the "common" art appreciator, but speaking with poetic quality of an artist. Will my assertive style overwhelm the bonds of familiarity? Will I finally make something accessible enough that someone might buy it? Best part: I've been painting PLASTIC plants! I'm gleefully artificial, but still joyously conceptual. I'm taunting both camps rather than playing their games. Leave it to me to go meta! (And leave it to meta to be off-putting to most everyone.)

To me, there is a story behind everything I do. There is something deeper, written in my personal language. To everyone looking at my pictures without reading my commentary, I'm just painting "interesting" things. If the viewer thinks it is the good implication of interesting, then he or she may be able to find a deeper level of enjoyment if they want to. If not, I'm still making someone happy.

I may never strike that perfect balance, and I will surely do work that is both selfish and sell-out now and then, but it's dancing on that line that drives me. That's why I do art.

I just hope I find that balance soon, because I have no intention of having a lonely life of self-satisfied poverty. Get with the program, people!

The View From the Ivory Tower

This post was supposed to show up yesterday. (In fact, I can leave it with its original time stamp for the 29th if I so desire... which I ended up doing because I forgot to fix the time stamp before hitting the post button. Whoops.) Problem is, I'm stealing the internet! He who lives by pirated wi-fi, dies by pirated wi-fi. No connection meant no posting.

The other delay came from my grandmother and aunt playing against type and shopping lightning fast. These two are grand masters of social shopping. "Talking to the wonderful people in line is half the fun!" said my grandmother. (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but trying to be as accurate as memory will allow.) Thinking they would be gone for hours, I sat down to write an essay and have a long chat with my aunt's partner, a kindred spirit in the anti-shopping mindset. Thinking I had hours to meander around before getting to my point, I launched into a back story for context. Didn't even finish with that before the shoppers were back. How rude! Anyway, by the time I got back to the laptop, wi-fi was dead.

And now... LOTS OF WORDS AND NO PICTURES!

One criticism I am sure to face when I unleash Precocious on the populace will be the justified accusation that it's all just too negative. Another will be that the strip is unbearably elitist. This would be when I giggle.

An artist can't help but project themselves into their work, and Precocious is very much the dark and twisted workings of my head on display. I like my humor like I like my coffee - intensely dark, then corrected with cream and sugar!

My characters are mean, violent, snotty, inconsiderate and foolish. The nice and redeemable characters either have their good natures abused or are treated like an outright enemy! What is wrong with me? People, please! Conflict is funny.

Precocious was created when I was around 11, and the underlying theme remains the same: It's all about classism. Not only do we have clear divides among economic brackets in the elitist-sounding Gemstone Estates, but we have intellectual elitism on display with the children attending the incredibly elitist-sounding Poppinstock Academy. Who are the worst enablers of this? My main characters! They outright ignore those not like them, down to pretending the other side of their classroom doesn't exist!

That would be the intensely dark coffee mentioned before. The cream comes in the form of the treatment. I'm making fun of myself via proxy with this strip. As much as I like to let my pride prop me up, doing so means I miss so much in life. If you take me out to a bar, I'd likely embarrass myself because I've always dismissed bars as being a home for the base elements. No, in reality the bar is just another social gathering place for all types! I think Dana's amazing story of love and happiness can prove I'm a damned fool.

The reason my kids come off as negative is because their attitudes are foolish. Autumn keeps getting her comeuppance for her competitive streak. Bud is decidedly warped because of his tendency to isolate himself. Jacob's desire to be a part of some grand design often ends with him spending energy on pointless endeavors. Tiffany's space cadet nature can also be seen as a consequence of pure self-indulgence. If I had made my children sweeter, that would imply their intellectual isolation was a *good* thing. These kids satirize the faults intellectuals can have. Intelligence is a wonderful thing. Knowledge as a weapon (the tagline of my strip) cuts both ways.

The character of Max is vital to Precocious. He's a saint and, aside from some blind optimism that strays from realism, he has no personality flaws. My official character biography calls him "history's greatest villain." Max is the control character that needs to pop in every so often to confirm that it's *my* kids are whacked. Later on, the other side of the classroom will also contribute. Kaitlyn Hu is fully sane and perceptive; she's the good Bud. Vincent Iddenstein and Yvette Nutely have their quirks, but they're also good at heart - it's Tiffany and Jacob with creamy souls! Quincy Wozwax is overly competitive, like Autumn, but even he's remarkably social with his nerdy world.

Now for the sugar in this equation. While my characters are often seen as irredeemably evil, there's no way a strip like that can persist without suffocating under its own darkness. The main kids *are* redeemable and they do have souls. Their elitism is the tragic flaw that causes their downfall time and time again; not something that will doom them to a lifetime of evil. They talk big and talk bad, but it's more dark humor than pure evil. They are "haters" that bandy about insults and harsh words freely - but it's not so bad because they all understand the rules of the hater's game. As I've always put it, they hug by hitting! They're normal, but this version of normal is skewed into the darkness.

A Calvin and Hobbes strip once had Calvin remarking how a little bit of antagonism could make any boring conversation into something exciting. The final panel had Calvin beaten into the ground, claiming his point was proven. That's what I'm going for!

For this pilot episode, I've done my best to throw in subtle clues to this. Bud remarks that their conflict is the "current" war, implying they do this all the time. The kids spend more time arguing semantics (and writing official documents) than actually fighting, because the challenge in building a grand scheme is more important than the negative fighting. When it's all over, they walk off content, wondering what they should do for fun the next day. In the end, they just wanted a water balloon fight - but they had to set it up in their way. Just like me, they can't tackle a normal task without doing something foolish to turn it into an epic event.

Even so, the redeemable aspects of my main kids might be *too* subtle. This is where Dionne, Suzette and Roddy enter the fray. If I have Max and Kaitlyn on one end, showing the contrast between my kids and well-adjusted people, I need to have some negatives on the other end to prove my children have sweetness and innocence in them as well.

Dionne is wonderful for that. She is fully aware than my kids talk a good game, but could never fully devote themselves to the path of evil, and she is delightfully malicious in exposing it! Dionne plays the evil game better than anyone, and she'll always win.

Suzette is the big red "Do Not Touch" button personified, always a risk to fly off the handle. She may have *small* point in claiming she's a victim of circumstance, but when she gets worked up her fire burns bright and hot. Again, while my kids scream at each other all the time, none can match the fury of Suzette.

Roddy's role as the outsider helps put my kids' quirks into perspective. He is usually right in pointing out how their attitudes and behavior are unhealthy and unkind, but his bitterness over the whole thing constantly makes him look worse. Roddy doesn't understand the "hater" mindset is another way to have fun, so he's eternally frustrated. Roddy is also my concession that this strip is far from normal. His frustration is fully justified, but he'll never be able to win until he understands of the insular bubble created by the Sapphire Lake kids.

I like my coffee as the intense dark roast, with double cream and one sugar. Get it?

Why finish something when you can just start something else?

So I had one last canvas to defile. One last wrapped piece of potential. How could I have overlooked it all this time? I am nothing if not thorough in my painterly destruction! A new Maquette girl must enter this world!

Besides, I was royally fouling up the other paintings. Fresh start!



This is Mi Magnolia, known as "Maggie" because of her stupid name. ("Who's that?" "Oh, that's Mi." "You wish!") In Audde, the capital of my fictional territory Ardille, there is a clear division between the classes. The higher ups get to dance around in the architectural wankery that is a city built over a mountain valley. Not in. Over. It's pure showing off! The Ardillian elite also have a hard-on for pompous names that seem to come from lame fantasy stories. (Getting into meta humor here.) They can (mostly) pull it off, but those lower-class people always seen the need to imitate their superiors and they are not always as successful. Mi Magnolia sounds catchy and looks pretty on the page, but it's more of a bad movie title than a name.

So Maggie is class struggle personified. Her ticket into the upper class is to work as a personal trainer in the senate's gym, where she can charm powerful men who can't help but fantasize about a younger woman. (She's not that young, at 36, but is technically younger!) There's no doubt she has aspirations of breaking into the upper class, but questions surround her in regards to how far she will go. Does she genuinely like the people she chats with, or is she winning them over in a more salacious way? Does she want power for herself, or is there something more malicious behind her. She keeps writing in that notebook when she thinks no one is watching - is she a spy?

On the painting front, I had initially dismissed doing a Maggie piece because I wasn't sure I could capture enough of her. Where was I going to find an Asian woman who is fit, sort of blockheaded, with bangs and a ponytail? That seems a lot to ask for in a random Google search. It's not like I could think of a well-known actress who would fit the - hold on.... BAI LING! Her cartoonish features and hair are a perfect base for a painting! Maggie as I picture her would look like Bai Ling, if Bai was a bit more compact and someone took a belt-sander to her. How did I not make this connection before today?

On the painting itself, I'm still in the process of figuring out the exact placement of features, but all of my first drafts have those flaws. (As well as many finals!) I was tempted to put her other hand in the picture holding a pen, as if she's jotting down a note and looking around to see if anyone spots her, but that would be hard so fuck it. Instead I'm positioning her left arm to imply she's looking back as she walks out of a room to check her notes.



On to the other paintings! Dania has been driving me nuts. She's really close to coming together, but I am flailing about to get the final touch in that will cement it all.

There are two big changes here. First, I've given her a new dress. I decided to hit Google to see if I could find a dress similar to the one I had her wearing in my writing. One jumped out at me, as it was draping horribly on the mannequin and looking awkward. I am all about that! Of course, in adding that dress I was reminded why I chose to ignore the "ruffles" part of the dress description before. Blech.

The other change is the possible addition of the clipboard. On one hand, it activates more of the space in the painting. On the other hand, I'm not sure I could stylize a clipboard and make it look right. Thus, I panic and run away! Every time I work on Dania, so much white paint is lost!



The white paint thing is also causing me to screw up Moreh. When one has to mix colors, one cannot make enough for just a few brush strokes - yet I keep micromixing and running out with Moreh with my irrational need to ration. This means each new step needs me to mix the color just right or it looks terrible. Epic fail with that so far.

Her outfit is also causing problems. She appears too large on the canvas for me to show the table on which her hands are resting. This means my skill as a painter must somehow make the arm positions look correct. I'm fucked! Best I could do for now was to underpaint a block of green which seems in no way connected to either arm. Yay! The teacup is crap too, but that's because I haven't really focused on it yet.

See, this is why people love me. I'm so fucking positive about things!

The wrath of text

(Again, I hate sharing the examples from the actual strip. My hope was that it would reduce small enough to make the text unreadable, but to get that point was to make my cute Jacob drawings too tiny. My solution was to cut out panel four and the punchline, even if said punchline is fairly easy to figure out.)

It's official: Text-heavy strips take longer than art-heavy strips.

Granted it is mostly mental, but morale plays a large part in art. Complex drawing is ART, so it is worth the time invested. Doing my best to write legibly while trying to keep my pen from smearing due to my left-handedness is a CHORE, so any time spent on it sucks by definition.

Another factor is how I prefer to work. For art, I am best when I've got a DVD going. TV on DVD is the greatest thing ever. So much of my art has been produced with Lost, Rome or Grey's Anatomy in the background. I avoid most comedies, as they are either too engaging or not striking enough to occupy my stray thoughts. Futurama is the exception, as it's amazingly rich *and* I've seen every episode so many times I can easily tune it out if I need to focus on art. Re-watching stuff is key, since the DVD is a distraction and not my main focus. (When watching things for the first time, I work in my sketchbook instead of on the *real* art.) I don't need quality programming either - the almost-good Babylon 5 works, as does a reality TV marathon. Sports I don't give a fuck about are awesome as well. I loved the World Cup, even though I hate soccer. I also have a reason to watch college sports, even though I find them sick, amoral and cheap. On the flip side, I can't work on Sundays during the football season because I'm a NERVOUS WRECK!

My recent spurt of productivity has come from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Battlestar Galactica. Well, LOTR mostly. Galactica is a bit too engaging, which means I hit my sketchbook instead of the drafting table. Even worse, all my text duties happen at the light table - meaning I can't look up at the TV whenever the music indicates I have to *watch* something. Instead of working by the show, I found myself pausing it and going off to do the text work because I was scared I'd miss something. Drawing during BSG is a piece of cake... but I'm fragging monologing instead!

Maybe it's the option to watch that makes all the difference. Working to music is a deadly folly for me. I'm fanatical about my music and I easily get lost in it. I can listen to a play list repeating for hours and not notice the passage of time at all. Maybe it's the time frame. With a movie or TV show, I have to make the conscious decision to stop working and watch for an extended period of time. With music, it's easy to say, "I love this song... what's four more minutes?" over and over and over...

Alright, enough time wasting. I'm not really so self-absorbed that I'd think anyone would find this interesting. I'm just typing until my sleep med kicks in. Although, if anyone is still reading at this point, I appreciate it. A good friend sits and listens even when a friend is being a bore. I'D DO IT FOR YOU! Hey, just be glad you didn't have to sit through this in person. (Uh...again.) Ahh, blogs: Places to talk about things that would ruin verbal discussions. THERE IS NO SHAME ON THE INTERNET!

Man, maybe I should have tried to get a worthy post to keep up my daily trend. Whatevs. Chances are my *big* plan won't get done in a day, so filler is the only solution. No, I am not adding a "filler" label. At least not yet. I don't want to have to make that "Is this filler?" call every time I write something. It'd be hell on the self-esteem. The "Fail" tag already causes enough hardship.

Oh, and this rambling, text-heavy post is ALSO reinforcement of the post's original premise that text-heavy stuff is less fun than pretty pictures. THIS POST IS META! SURPRISE!