Can I have this dance?

Here are some proposal sketches for yet another commission! This time we have Dionne and Max at some formal social event thingy, and aren't they acting cute? Rich people have all the class!

Dionne and Max have an interesting friendship, considering they couldn't be more opposite. I think of it as a common ground friendship common to youth, where friendships are often based on proximity more than anything. It's only when we get older and set in our ways that we become more selective about who we party with. Despite being the embodiments of good and evil, there's plenty of common ground. They're both smart, and in the same smarty class. Both of their families have money, landing both of them in the ritzy Diamond Bluffs. They've probably been put together for as long as both have lived in Gemstone Estates, so why not do something with it! Hey, opposites attract, right?

Actually, let's stop right there. I'm going to sink this ship before it sets sail. When I created these characters, I limited them to doggie or kitty forms. One reason for that was the knowledge that if I added in any more species, people would start identifying them BY species - and I didn't want that. They may have cute animal forms, but they act and are treated like people. That being said, I didn't choose their forms willy nilly. Max and Dionne are both elite animals (wolf and cheetah-ish) because they're the elite kids, for example. Another use of the duels species is that I could determine compatibility. Most pairs are dog-cat for a reason - to stop the shippers! Dogs and cats together = MASS HYSTERIA! They're not supposed to be together IN THAT WAY. Bud and Autumn will never have romantic tension, and neither will Jacob/Tiffany, Dionne/Max or Kaitlyn/Quincy. It is not that kind of comic!

Not that this coding STOPS anyone, but at least I tried!

Fight the Power!

Man, I totally lost track of time today. I got caught up in a non-art project and that's a whole day...wasted? I don't even know anymore. Anyway, this is a joke sketch I drew of angry black(ish) cat that would ruin all things in the world should be in be in-canon. I mean, what would her name even be... Foxy Kitty? THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!

One of these things just doesn't belong!

Let's take a closer look into the class roster posted today. Not only is this the first view of THE OTHERS, but it's in COLOR! What have I learned and what will change?

In the comic, we see 12 kids, with one obscured by Ms. Monster. That must suck for him! Who is it?



It's Xander, of course! He hates being seen as one of the smarties, and it's entirely possible he placed himself there JUST SO no one could see him. What a jerk! He deserves to not be shown!

Aside from it being in character for him to resist appearing with the rest, there was also a question of Xander's coloring. He was conceived of as a white cat, but the thought behind it was racist. The theme is supposed to be CLASSISM! Racism with dogs and cats just makes things confusing! Roddy got SOCKS'D (R.I.P. , former first kitty) *and* IRISH'D to sweep aside the "black cat" thing. Kaitlyn is a Siamese kitty with an Asian last name, putting my race-neutral stance in jeapardy. I'm not changing Kaitlyn, because she's awesome, so I have to be careful of the race card. Xander cannot be the rich white boy!

But he does have money! As a classism-themed strip, this is where I go for gusto! My rich kids are high-end creatures, with Dionne a cheetah-panther mix and Max the alpha wolf. Almost everyone else is a domestic cat, or basic-level dog. The exceptions are Kaitlyn* and Autumn, who are noticeably Siamese and fox, respectively. Both are fairly common in the world, just cooler. Kaitlyn is the leader of the others. Autumn's family is a series of oddball clones; plus she's the outsider in most of the early stories. In both cases, the specialty works.

(*Kaitlyn is actually a Siamese *mix* - meaning she's back to the basic level. Since the reader might not ever be shown this, I'm counting her as special anyway.)

So Xander cannot be white, but he CAN be a high-end cat. He can't be too high-end, however, since he's adopted. (Again, this may never be shown, but the WORD OF GOD says it's true.) The issue tackled is predestination. He was bred to be a rich kid, and he had to discard his birth parents to achieve the goal! So what cat is a known commodity, yet still classy and elite?



How about an Abyssinian?

As the sketch I shared is the same ol' Xander, you can rightly conclude that I haven't actually sat down to alter the character to LOOK Abyssinian yet. And that would be the REAL REASON I hid him behind the teacher!

And now... the rest of the class!

Overall, it drives me nuts how the image looks different on every monitor. I made it using the HDTV, and it looked great on it. On my desktop monitor, it looked darker and muddier. On my laptop, it's clear this screen leans to the blue. Max and Yvette went from gray to PERIWINKLE. Dionne, Bud and Vincent all had their colors annoying altered by the blue love. Kaitlyn also went more gray than maize, but she still looks good on this screen so I don't mind. On the other hand, Jacob was intentionally de-blued when I colored him, so the addition of blue here gives me the color I wanted... meaning he's too light on all other screens. Argh!

Tackling the visible class...

Yvette is jarring blue on this screen, which makes her look even worse. She already suffered from a strange expression ruining he facial balance, a simplified dress that screams "lack of effort" to the heavens and hair that may be too dark. I wanted her to be a real gray tabby, as opposed to Sky's "phoning it in" tabby, but I'm not sure I have it right.

Jacob's problem is that I sucked on his drawing. Hey, it's hard to draw 13/14 figures in one panel and make them all good! Since he looks good on my laptop's screen, he's almost certainly too light or warm-colored on every other screen.

Tiffany is a strange child in many ways. No matter what the screen, he coloring always looks right! Why is my most unreliable child the most reliably colored?

Dionne's color looks dirty on this screen, but nice everywhere else. I don't see enough wrong to merit changing anything.

Roddy is black and white. AWESOME!

You'd think I would have Bud's colors set, considering he's, like, the main figgin' character! Nope, I try new things every time. I want to make his browns a bit darker, but that would color him too close to Suzette. The Bud version shown here is probably the best of him so far.

Kaitlyn's coloring was WAY too monitor-dependent. While I love the drawing, I have to change colors in the future. Her lighter fur needs to be a step or two lighter and should be more yellow. Her hair and extremities color are NOT the same. Either the hair needs to be lightened, the dark needs to be darkened, or both.

Suzette has a good color balance, but I bet I could make her a bit darker if I wanted. Probably not worth changing.

There's a reason Max usually wears a red shit. I gave him blue for balance, and MAN did that screw things up! So blue! I do want his gray to be cooler, but not to such an extreme!

Autumn is notable for being the only BRIGHT character in coloring. Best part, it's not too far away from real foxes. Foxes are unnaturally adorable. Autumn's colors will stay.

Vincent was the big color change of the group. He was conceived as darker, but balance dictated that I needed a lighter character. I wasn't attached to the old look, so I waited to color Vincent last. At first, he was REALLY light, being white with Dionne's fur color for his darks. That failed hard (white backgrounds tend to screw that stuff up) so he fell back to what he is now. Not bad, but I'm not set on him either. Also, no pink shirt in the future. That was purely for color balance.

Quincy avoided the Kaitlyn curse and actually looks pretty good. The two are best friends, and they look like the same coloring with the species and gender switched. I wanted to dimish that gag a bit, since I have no intention of dealing with that concept, so the two got different colors. Quincy always gets the red lightning bolt shirt, although I did downgrade its intensity a bit. The green pants were an experiment, but they look tackily great!

Finally, I deliberately darkened Ms. Monster. She appears to be standing in shadow on my laptop, which I suppose is fine... but it's a mistake. Both her colors were simply darkened, but they NEED to have some intensity added back to them. I would have faired better if I used Dionne's fur color and pants color. Next time, I am trying that!

In the end, it was a time-consuming venture, but ultimately rewarding. I enjoyed paying homage to the Far Side (if you don't know the original strip, you fail at life) and it was fun to toss the other kids out there for once.

Discarding the race card

As I've referred to the Gender Wars arc as Precocious' pilot episode, let me continue that TV series analogy. Pilot episodes are generally raw, as the creators haven't yet discovered what works. Some premises change. Some details are altered. Some characters are cut. Other characters are re-cast.

The major visual Precocious change looks like our poor, unlucky black cat will be recast. I mentioned a few posts back that I was in the middle of inking a Roddy drawing when I turned to get more ink on my pen. When I turned back, I saw Roddy with only the top of his head inked. It looked... better. Could I change my black cat to a Sylvester-type cat? At the time, I decided to stay the course and debate the change later... but now it's later.

The day after the site was launched, I feel the pressure to make my moves now. Look, just because I officially launched the strip doesn't mean anyone showed up to see it. My traffic went from zero to, maybe, two. I still have time! While this post was originally going to be about weighing my options by comparing the two inking possibilities, I've gone ahead and made the change.

I like the *idea* of Roddy as a black cat, but in practice it was limiting. Only certain types of mouths look right when drawn on an all-black character with just India ink, which is a problem because Roddy is supposed to be rather expressive. By making him black and white, I now have the freedom of expression with Roddy that I need. I lose the concept and I lose the race card, but the long-term gains in storytelling will likely make it worth it.

At this point, I was going to continue with the pilot episode/regular season analogy. I want to talk about lessons learned, promotion and various other comic things that weigh on my mind. But not tonight. All today I've been in major postpartum depression, and the power I need to win friends and influence people just isn't there. Oh well, I'll be back in the rambling mood soon enough.

Articulate Friday

Rant post has been put off again due to good things. Yay!

So, with my DVD player dying... I feared I might have had to brave the frightening outside world on this soul-destroying shopping day. Then I remembered Amazon.com! I found the DVD player I wanted on sale *and* it'll be shipped to my doorstep for no additional charge. Yay internet!

This bonus holiday strip is the result of my joy. The poor parents must brave the brutal shopping environment... except for Sydney, who is rewarded for her laziness!

Personal Foul - Unneccessary football blathering. 15 yards. Replay down.

I can't stop with the football! These drawings now adorn my wall. They're signed, dated and everything!

Let me explain my football-watching philosophy first:

I am allowed to root for eight teams. This seems odd at first, as sports fan usually have THEIR team while the rest are rivals. Well, I justify my "cloud of favorites" (as one person politely put it) by pointing out how the NFL has eight divisions. If I have one team I root for per division, that means EVERY game played now has some value to me as a fan. I'm not saying my favorites are all created equal. I was born and raised a Washington Redskins fan, so they'll always be tops in my heart. In a virtual tie with the 'Skins are the Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks, two teams I adopted and followed when I was very young. At the time, I chose them because I thought their logos (or lack thereof) were badass - I'm such an artist - but 20 years of actively following them should be enough to make me hardcore no matter the origin. (Woe to the Atlanta Falcons, who rock on the logo and color front but managed to fall from my favorites list over time. I remain fond of them, though.)

To roughly rank my favorites: Redskins, Browns, Seahawks, Jaguars, Patriots, Panthers, Chargers and Packers. You may find it cheap, but I think of it as a potential joy come playoff time if all make it! If I had to pick wild card teams, I'll go with Falcons, Saints, Ravens and... Jets? That would be my perfect playoff set, I guess.

Point is, I got to thinking... "Hey, I have eight main characters and eight favorite NFL teams!" Can I make more football reaction pics? Let's go down the roster! I edited the new two into the old pic to remind you of the picture two posts down, SINCE I CAN'T COUNT ON YOU TO REMEMBER!



Autumn - Redskins. I suppose in the Precocious world, "Redskins" is likely still a racist term... but against foxes! Autumn's a red fox, so there you go! Her Redskins pose is happy and proud!

Bud - Browns. As Bud is the me representative in the strip, he also has my futile devotion to the Browns. That's all. His Browns pose is the deflated look that comes from watching the finally-promising Browns revert to the same old failures.

Jacob - Jaguars. The good team that tries hard and always fall short. Jacob roots for the solid team that's always under appreciated. His Jaguars pose is him so shocked to see the Jags fail - when *everyone* thought this was finally their year - he dropped his game snacks.

Tiffany - Seahawks. This is simple; both Tiffany and 'Hawks are "out there." No one pays attention to the Seahawks because they're off in the (rain)clouds. Her Seahawks pose is the only reaction to watching the "final year" storyline play out in absolute tragedy: Suicidal.

Dionne - Patriots. She chooses a proven winner with some questionable ethics. What a shocker. She doesn't have much of a Patriots fan pose, as I thought I was going to scrap the sketch at first. Oh well, let's just call her cautiously optimistic.

Suzette - Packers. She's adopted the "working class" team, so in touch with the people that the fans actually own part of the team! That's definitely up Suzette's alley. Her Packers pose is simply this: "What the fuck is this shit?" Aaron Rodgers is injured already, just in time for a losing streak. Sheesh!

Roddy - Hmm. I'm down to Panthers and Chargers. Both are good choices for Roddy. Both are quality teams that seem to under perform year after year. The Chargers are known for their recent stint of Martyball, which is a guaranteed exit from their first playoff game. The Panthers are more of a team that underachieves via injury more than anything, which is not Roddy's brand of failure. Still, making Roddy a black panther would be hilariously racist. Should I draw a Roddy, he'll probably be a devastated Charger fan. I may just drop it all, though, because shading a black cat in pencil is tedious. Such is my dedication to art.

Max - And here is where it all breaks down. Max wouldn't be a rabid fan of any team. Instead, he'd happily root for the local team, but be happy to see each team play. He doesn't judge! Since Precocious is based on a school in DC, I suppose his home team would be the already-taken Redskins. Oh well, Max would never wear a team shirt anyway, since it would be mean to all its rivals.

The problem with minorities...

Hey, let's talk racism! Oh, yes, let's do!

By introducing kitties that are black and Siamese, I open myself up to dangerous racial undertones. It can be, dare I say it, a tar baby of a situation!

OK, have I used enough language to make this post show up on some inappropriate Google searches yet?

When I first began designing characters, I was advised by a classmate (who is a better cartoonist than I'll ever be - and thankfully on hiatus so I have less competition) to work with blacks in making my characters stand out. With that enabling, I set about designing my characters to really stand apart from each other. Bud's vest went black and his ears went darker, Autumn's extremities went black, cream-colored Jacob's shirt gained stripes and Tiffany...uh...Tiffany got one shaded ear and a ring around her eye. Thankfully, Tiffany is one to accessorize, so she gets her shot at tonal variance in other ways.

But did I stop there? Oh no! For my other classmates, I really went wild! Suzette, Max and Vincent have lots of shading. Dionne and Yvette have spots and stripes, respectively. Xander's design is still not finalized - as he might never get a line in the strip - but most of his coloring will come via clothing.

Then I went really nuts: CHARACTERS IN BLACK FACE! Sure, it makes sense for those kitties to appear, but cartooning is a black and white thing. When the most expressive parts of a character would appear as a flat black blob, that might not be the best planning. Hey, I'm all for an artistic challenge and I'm up to figuring it out! It just absolutely terrifies me to know I'm just two story arcs away from needing a solution.

That I'd create these characters was inevitable. On that same magical night when EVERY Gemstone Estates support characters emerged fully formed, along with the bulk of the initial Precocious storyline, the rest of the class was named.

Kaitlyn Hu was easy. With my love of giving my characters silly names, the temptation of the "Hu's on first" baseball gag was too great to resist. Also, how I could I *not* include a Siamese kitty after spending so many years around Dana's Siamese brigade?

Of course, by creating Kaitlyn I opened the race box. She is obviously of Asian heritage in a world of cute animals. Does that apply to all critters? Is Dionne African because she's a cheetah? Is Quincy proud of his European heritage as a German Shepherd? (Quincy's also a black faced character, but the secondary racial implications don't exist in his situation. Who doesn't love the Germans?) How global am I going?

This is not an issue with which I want to deal. All I wanted was the Hu name so I can make puns! Kaitlyn Hu ("'K, who?"), her brother Wen Hu ("Who? When?") and mother Shii Ann Hu ("Who is she?" "Shii Hu?" "That one over there!" "Shii Ann." "No, just her.") are just too fun to drop in now and then. All I can say is that I'm going to keep Kaitlyn away from chopsticks until I figure it out.

This also brings up the racial purity issue. In order to invoke specific species, the parents must naturally be the same. The Pingo family is pure red fox. The Hus are pure Siamese. (Siamese kitties are easily mixed in with regular kitties, but Dana's kitties were racially pure and I followed suit! Way to make me a furry racist, Dana!) All the other families are mixed. Even Dionne - clearly a cheetah - has markings that don't match the normal cheetah look, which is meant to show she's *not* a purebred. I slightly tackle this in the second story arc, but I still fear the Aryan race implications. It's the role of the creator to fret over every little detail - even though almost all readers will never think of such things - right?

Roddy is my way of countering the Kaitlyn problem. His name is so...so...white! Finnegan! He's Irish! Like the Et and Oven families, Roddy is just a normal house cat when "race" comes into play. In real life, it seems there's *always* one black cat in a litter. That's all Roddy is. (Although the idea of "litter" isn't valid in my strip as my characters are merely humans disguised as adorably cute critters.) Neither of Roddy's parents are pure black. One might be a boots kitty, but that's as far as I'll go.

The reason Roddy is black is because of the bad luck connotations. Roddy's life kinda sucks. He's on the outside and always ends up in second place. Overall, being second-best in everything makes Roddy a very talented person, but he never gets any respect. Scrappy losers don't make it into record books. Is there any wonder he's bitter and belligerent?

Yes, I am aware this means I am keeping the black man down. And creating an angry black man. I can't win, can I?

All I can do is ask for you, the reader, the know my strip is about CLASS WARFARE and not RACIAL DIVIDES! I'm all about getting into issues about money and intellectual differences, and I do know in real life these issues do have some overlap - but my world is one of critters! This is supposed to give me a "get out of race issue free" card.

But then I went and made Kaitlyn Hu. I wanted to have cake and eat it too.

AND I have no idea how to draw these animals with India ink yet. Way to go, Chrispy!