A change of venue

This painting has been driving me nuts. It's insanely hard to apply perspective when you paint the figures FIRST, but that is the challenge that faces me. I was stuck for weeks trying to figure out how I was going to set this inside a school, with thin hallways and lockers and whatnot. So, you know what? SCREW THAT!

After writing the man behind the commission, I was given a fresh perspective. Why not set it outside? Autumn can be walking to school along the sidewalk and stumble upon Dionne just as easily as she could do it walking to the classroom. (Plus, I don't fall into the trap of setting lockers in an elementary school.) I decided to try the venue shift, moving it to outside of the Poppinstock Academy.

This is obviously a very rough beginning. It has a loooong way to go before it looks right, but at least the underpainting is done. I'm not even sure how I'm going to actually treat the stuff yet - but that's a problem for the future. I hope it works out.

Falling right back off the track

Well, crud. A week goes by and all I really accomplish is a snazzy pair of glasses. My first ones. I'm walking around in glasses, wearing a SCIENCE! shirt. I have truly crossed the nerd threshold now.

As for everything else, I am SUCKING! Comics are coming along at an ok pace, but that's it - and even that pace is going to fall off soon when I get serious about cleaning up the mess that is my living area. I'm WAY behind on commissions, and I apologize for that. I'll do my best to catch up THIS week, but we saw how my optimism worked last week! (Sorry again!)

Today the goal is to finish inking this week's comics. Tomorrow the goal is to get back to the grind with painting somehow. The next day? Probably making up for my failures from Monday and Tuesday. I know how I work!

Getting back on track

With *most* of the pressing SCAD stuff taken care of, it's time to resume being awesome. It seems like it's been a month since things were stable around here. Maybe it has? I'm not saying it's all stable now, but things are starting to fall into place and that's a very good thing.

I'm hardly out of the woods. This next month is devoted to dismantling my life and putting it into easily portable boxes that will be transferred to Savannah. It's a massive job, considering the clutter around here, but if I spread it out it will still allow time for productivity.

This is the week I learn to ride the bike again. I'm back to producing new strips, producing on the commissions and (hopefully) having enough material to get the blog running again. I've fallen a bit out of rhythm, so expect hiccups, but I hope to keep improving myself.

By the way, notice my awesome t-shirt? You should get one of your own!

I made you a sketch

Why, yes, it *is* filler to occupy you while I freak out over all this SCAD stuff. Why do you ask?

I do apologize for dropping away, but this is a big deal for me and I'm currently living in uncertain times. It's going to be a scrambled two weeks here while I get my accounts set up and find a place to live, so I can't promise to be any better until it's all taken care of.

What I'm saying is... I hope you guys really like strip #600, because it's all downhill from there Precocious-wise. I'll probably do another "break week" thing, with a knife-twist of a change to a MWF schedule. It may only be for the two weeks. It may be longer. It all depends on when things get settled and how productive I am during the chaos.

I hope to get time to focus on my painting commission next week. I think I figured out a trick to help me get the perspective working, but I have to get home (I've been in DC, which is always creative death) before I try it. If it goes well, it'll pop up on here!

I hope you guys forgive me for this. It's for a good cause! If you want something more to do, remember there is a fledgling Precocious forum out there, allowing you all to play with each other! Use it! Use it well! CELEBRATE ALL THE GOOD TIMES WE'VE HAD. (Pray for more!)

Progress? Any will do!

It's been a sluggish week, what can I say? I've been wracking my brain over this painting background, trying to find the perspective the unites everything and it's blown a few fuses. But, hey, I *can* still color this design!

Now I get to throw it into the crappy CafePress store in hopes of making a sale or two from it. SO EFFICIENT! Unless I can get, like, 25 preorders (and find a printer that does full color on the cheap) that's my only option. Eh, getting a $4 commission is better than getting nothing at all!

Quietly judging you

I've been looking for shirt ideas, and the folks over at the Precocious forums delivered. This scene was a favorite, so I reproduced it in larger, t-shirtable form. Next stop: Coloring!

Max Power

Here is the colored version of the Max commission. I hope you guys like this color, because it took me four tries to get something I liked and I'm out of any usable prints. (I can still redo it easy enough if the printer cooperates.)

As usual, the color quality of this one isn't great because all the colors are faint. This is the best photo I could get. My scanner, I remind you, is designed for black and while line art - so it dropped out ALMOST EVERYTHING when I tried to scan it! Scanner, I love you, but you only do one thing well.

WE CAN DO IT!

Calamity struck today as my printer went whacko and prevented me from successfully printing out the Max commission for finishing, so I had to move on. Another commission was suggested with Suzette as Rosie the Riveter, and I am all for that! It was fun, if difficult, to draw!

And then I forgot to post it for two hours, missing my midnight deadline. DAMMIT! I can't do it after all.

Oh, there she is.

Here's the first look at the coloring of the much-anticipated Dionne/Autumn painting! This is just me laying down a base of color. Everything needs several more layers, but it looks promising, doesn't it?

Because of the perspective thing, I am tempted to finally paint a background - although I'm not sure what it'd be. That would add a ton more hours to the piece, but it could be nice. For now, I focus on the figures.

Battling midnight

*Phew* barely made it this time. I swear, midnight comes earlier every day! *My* days are from when I wake to when I sleep... but all these deadlines don't agree with me! Ahh, but my heroics pulled it off in the end!

Here is the line art for the Arbiter of Information commission. We have Max in his open, nice guy pose. Now the drawing goes for review, and if it's approved we move on to the coloring stage! For that, I am open to ideas. I have no idea how Max's outfit is colored. In my mind, it was white and gray - but that could be boring. Is that his regular red shirt under the robe, or is it something more color coordinated? Is his staff thingy gold, silver or what? This is why I make multiple copies of the linework. It lets me experiment.