Dancing Now

Haven't checked in with my Dionne/Max commission in a while, so here we go! As you can see, most of the main colors are down and I'm rapidly approaching the "repaint everything" stage where all the blotchiness become pure color bliss. If you would like to picture the final in your mind, I'm looking at making Max's suit a lightened Prussian blue.

I'm really happy with how this is progressing, and hope to get it done soon. It won't be done by the end of the month as I planned, but that was before I took a week off to wait for the projector. (Worth it!)

Now the unsexy work continues. Painting aside, I have to work on next week's comics, get back to writing character bios (I haven't forgotten) and write some of my Shepherd professors for grad school stuff. This is just the immediate stuff! I have business cards and postcards and t-shirts and the Precocious book and... ACK! Let's just savor the niceness of the painting for now, ok?

I'm working, I swear!

I'm just not working very *hard* as of late. Chalk it up to unexpected socialization and should-have-expected sleep problems. But I have done lots of stuff today, I swear! I worked on three comics, two paintings and did some Project Wonderful stuff for Sometime Alone. My daily sketching so far consists of nothing but Autumn heads, none of which are worth scanning for display.

I hope to have some painting stuff ready for display tomorrow, as this blog is in need of some good content! (And not just the shilling of shirts.) Chances are I'll have it ready tonight, but there's this danged midnight deadline thing. End of the day, my tush! MIDNIGHT IS WHEN I START TO GET GOING! So why don't I post stuff at 5am when I finish it? Because at that point I'm delusional and think the walls are talking to me. (They are such bores too.) Then again, delusional blogging might be kinda interesting...

More fun with shirt designs

So cafe press is weird in that it only lets you link one image to an item. Ok, fine, whatever. It's easier to use than Zazzle! Mock me all you want, other web publishes, but I'm taking the easy way out!

My counter to being forced to designate one image per item is to create an image specifically FOR an item. In this case, I'm creating the SCIENCE! graphic for a dark shirt. Will it work? I ordered a proof to see. (In addition, I ordered an Unrestrained Creativity shirt to see how that looks.) I want to make sure the quality is good before I officially offer to store to the public. You are still free to buy as you wish, though!

I do concede that the print on demand method is overly expensive. If I had a really good design, I'd produce and sell them myself - but I need this POD service to see what's popular first. It's good for trial and error. Anyway, if you worry about the cost, remember this also serves as a donation to keep Precocious going. (Donations are appreciated!)

In other news, I am still an exhausted mess. Maybe tomorrow I'll do better.

Look what I'm wearing!

Unlike the Zazzle debacle, my experiment with CafePress (the most loathed of all print-on-demand sites) has been a success! I have a nice-looking Precocious t-shirt!

I'll have more on this later. (Maybe I'll edit this post and put in some REAL content.) For now, I am operating with extreme lack of sleep and forming complete sentences is difficult.

Page of Bud!

Today is going to be a comic making day. I speak in future tense, even though it's almost midnight, because I SLEPT IN SO DAMN LATE! My day begins at midnight now, which makes it very easy for me to lose track of when I have the blog!

In honor of comicking, enjoy the latest page from my sketchbook, which is decidedly Bud-centric. (The last page was 90% Autumn. I spread the love!) With my recent battles with consciousness, my sketching time has gone way down. It's so easy to get caught up with all my other projects that I fail to PRACTICE. Practice makes perfect, and I LOVE BEING PERFECT, so practice I must!

I believe in the 10,000 hour rule, which states one has to practice for that long to be truly professional, and that means ever hours I can spare to focus on sketching gets me that much closer to awesome. Sketching also allows me to try out new stylistic approaches without the pressure of the main comic deadline. I haven't done much in that realm, as I feel I'm still standardizing the looks of everyone, but it's always positive to strive for improvement. Hard work pays off. Sleeping in to excess does not. Sleeping is the opposite of progress!

Paint by numbers

The latest painting is entering the final stages. Hooray! I'm not in my favorite "trace over everything" stage, where I tighten things up to make them ultra snazzy. I still have some details to figure out, but the final will look a lot like what you see above.

The big decision is figuring out the background. I'm mulling over two choices: A very pale yellowish color, and 50% gray, which I purchased after I noted my lack of it for the LAST painting. To be honest, I prefer the white background, but that would need some touches to keep it from being boring - meaning a lot of underpainting and, uh, overpainting... and paint is expensive!

Cuteness rules!

This is a cute sketch of Autumn I drew. Nothing more. I just wanted to share it! I should be sharing my painting stuff today, but this is cuter!

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?

I have a new toy!

Behold: Yet another artist's tool has been added to my inventory! I can has projector! (Thanks goes to Darc of Code Name: Hunter for the recommendation.) Now I can... project things!

First project: Throwing Max and Dionne up on my wall to start on my next commission project! Turns out I have no idea what I'm doing with this thing, but it was cool to have the device anyway! After doing it the inefficient way - this thing doesn't seem to have a focus, so I have to MOVE THE WALL - I got it all to work. Turns out all I need to do was accidentally knock it on the floor and have it fall apart. Oh, *that's* how it works! (Reading the instruction manual never entered into the equation.)

Actual work on the painting begins tomorrow, I assume. I say assume because today I assumed I'd get Sunday's Precocious done. Then I slept past my alarm. SEVEN HOURS past it. Ye gods! I think that's a record. Well, I have nice long night of consciousness ahead of me in which I can catch up...

I like your money!

Yes, friends, I'm thinking about merchandising again! I do it for SCIENCE! Wait, no. I mean MONEY! I do it for money.

Don't expect anything soon. I still haven't picked a store! Both Zazzle and Cafepress have disappointed me in their own ways, and I'll have to decide which evil is lesser. There's also the case of getting some finalized designs. So far I have some ideas and nothing more.

Before you ask, I can't do the bulk printing thing quite yet. Printing 100 shirts is all well and good, but that involves some up front case and, y'know, a guarantee of selling shirts! I'll have to be a bigger shot than I am now. (Or get more fans with LOTS of disposable income.)