Image Unrelated

Ok, this is just filler so I have something up here for today. It's not like I didn't do anything today... I just didn't do anything visual to share. Today was a web design day. My art site got updated with the recent paintings, as I had forgotten that posting them here only is only so helpful. The Precocious page now has my Obama sketch on its main page. I figure that's far more interesting than the sub-par Max strip that was up there. Still, it's mild progress on a day when I had a case if the fuckits.

I bet you'll vote this time, hippy!

Sketched this out while watching the Obama special.

The Secret of Mania

Since I'm wasting time with a video game, I have to do some semi-related sketches as penance. (Click it to see the full-sized image, of course.)

Here are my kids playing with various deadly weapons available to Mana's adventurers. Bud is sporting the traditional sword and shield a la Legend of Zelda. This is not Zelda and Mana dude does not have a shield, but I'm willing to sacrifice integrity for style. Autumn is sporting the Xena-esque chakram, level two of the boomerang progression. In the background, we have a traditional domestic scene: Suzette, armed with the whip, is after the javelin-wielding Jacob. Aww.

Those troublesome gingers

I missed a day. I have no good excuse. Was I working too much to touch the computer? No. I was abusing the Wii's virtual console. Secret of Mana is the one game I wanted to pick up as soon it was available - I've coveted it ever since I had a Nintendo Power subscription while owning a woeful Sega Genesis - and this week it appeared. What kind of man would I be if I didn't follow my dreams?



Anyway, here's the Annelise painting as it stands. Like Moreh, the "shirt" is just a block of color for now. I think I'll tackle that last. The hair and knife are going to be far more fun. (By the way, the knife will be bigger in the end, but it's still of the tiny and decorative variety.) The hands, although not fun at all, are also vital. If I rock them, no one will care if I cut all corners possible with the top!

The Ice Queen

Aside from a few minor tweaks here and there, my Dania painting is done. I dunno if you like it, but those background windows are exactly what I wanted to paint. The end result is fairly successful when it comes to painting an intriguing freak of nature. w00t!

My other painting goal today was to salvage Millie, but I'm at the point where I think it's time to break out the gesso and cover up most of what's there. Like many of my recent paintings, the initial placement of the figure ended up conflicting with the pose I wanted. I should be able to salvage Moreh in an Ang Lee making Hulk point of way - that is, hide all the poorly-rendered details in shadow - but Millie's going to need a new pose.

I pulled out my old almost-classing Risk Key 70's temptress and began trying to tighten up the composition. The final, should I get this project going again, will likely never match the coolness of the first sketch, but I see potential.

On the plate for tonight: Trying to turn a photo of Andrew's furry paws holding scissors into Annelise's rosy fingers holding a pretty dagger. Wish me luck.

The joy of belt sanders?

Here's an almost finished Maggie for ya! She needs some touch-ups in the skin department, but otherwise things are going well. The painting is not exactly depicting the canonical Maggie, but that's a good thing as the story Maggie isn't nearly as cute. Yes, friends, I sanded down the Bai Ling "character" blockheaded and sharp features a bit too much. She also got fuller lips due to a gruesome painting accident in which I unknowingly nicked the black paint when I thought I only head maroon. The only solution was to give her a fuller, more seductive pout. Oh noes! Who would ever want to buy a cute chick painting? Answer: Still no one. :'-(

As always, the pic isn't the best due to crappy lighting, but you'll have to deal.

Ok, fine... Ever see Friends?

Here's the other way I could interpret today's events, in network TV form!

Ever see Panic Room?

How about Inside Man? Either way, I'm referencing a break-in movie featuring Jodi Foster being awesome.

The noises have changed today. The loud banging on the floor has ceased as the new floor is down. Replacing it is the sounds of sawing and drilling... which seems to be moving down through the floor, closer and close to breaking through my ceiling. IT'S LIKE THEY'RE CRAWLING THROUGH MY WALLS! Hello, paranoia, my old friend! Dude, I just got rid of Super Mouse - and I still jump at every little sound, thinking she's come back to kill me! THIS IS NOT HELPING!

This stuff can royally fuck up a sleeping pattern. I've been spending my mornings in a restless daze, trying to get some sleep in between break-in sessions. This can cause weird dreams. Today's dream involved me grinding my hips against Josh. Ok, that wasn't salacious as it sounds - I was trying to scoot in between Josh and Maddy (!) while visiting her in New York. It was fun times, even if it reminded me that I am so dull that *all* my friends are far more interesting than me.

Continuing the dream, Josh and I had our fun, then had to leave and drive home. On the way out of the building, we got stuck at a light as endless (and increasingly innocent-looking) pedestrians kept moving through the crosswalk and preventing us from our GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to take left turns. With Josh cursing at little children for blocking our way, I began to edge up to take my turn. Just when it looked like the kids were finally out of the way, one angry schoolmarm type stood right in front of us. Flipping us off. Seems our edging up on the kids upset her, so she decided to make a stand against us savages! We blew by her, running a red light, with her flicking us off all the way. Welcome to New York!

On the drive back, Josh told me he had stop at regular intervals at designated areas because his trucker's union had rules he had to follow. The dream ended as we wandered around a mini mall/lecture hall combo trying to find Josh's union office. You know, vivid and detailed dreams only happen every so often, and instead of hanging out with Alicia Witt and Mila Kunis playing "naked philosophical twister" I spent it DEALING WITH A GODDAMN TRUCKERS UNION! I don't care if your tits are bigger, Josh, it's just not the same!

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!

Hey look! Sketches!

Sadly, it feels like it's been years since I last did a page of sketches that didn't suck out loud. I am seriously out of rhythm here. As fun as painting has been, I've got to get back to the danged comic.

Don't mind me, it's just insanity at work! This is me prepping for the next strip, which kicks off the last batch of clunky stuff before things get enjoyably nutty. It's progress! In theory I'll be finishing *something* this week. In theory. It's easy to make these claims when the house isn't vibrating.