June shows

So I finished the charity piece that will be up for auction at Heroes Con in a couple of weeks.  It's based off of a Hendrik Goltzius engraving from 1586 entitled Haratius Cocles, from a series he did of The Roman Heroes. 

original

my sillied up version

I'm really looking forward to this show.  Last year I had really low expectations due to it was the first time I was doing the show and the fact that I was all alone.  My fears were completely unfounded and I had one of the greatest conventions ever!  So don't let me down Charlotte... ;]  This year I will also be doing the show solo but at least I have an idea of what to expect.  Olympian is still working on the added incentive Kickstarter poster, so I don't know if I will have any of those available at the show or not.  You can at least bid on an original Cursed Pirate Girl piece and help make next years show even better.  I believe I'll even be on a panel this year.  So you should definitely come to that and watch me be real nervous, I bet if you look closely enough you'll see my heart trying to escape the cavity of my chest just like a baby Alien. 

The rest of June will be spent working ferociously trying to make up for going to cons and then toward the end of the month the 25th and 26th Emily and I will be in Traverse City for C3 or Cherry Capital Con.  A couple of things that need to get done that weekend... First a trip to Horizon Books [to spend a bunch of money] and then we will need to find a theater so we can see the extended cut of LOTR Return of the King.  The 25th is also my birthday.  You should come just to say Happy Birthday.  You should also come because they're gonna have a bunch of great guests. Besides Traverse City is frickin gorgeous and tasty, what could you want more for a convention backdrop.  Hope to see you at either of these shows.

Cursed Pirate Girl chapter 4

So I'm really excited to be back working on the next book of CPG, I know I still owe a couple of people some con sketches, I haven't forgotten about you!  I just NEEDED to start the next issue.  So I thank you for your continued patience.  It will be quite a while before you see the next book laid out before you all printed up, soooo I thought it'd be okay to post a page or two along the way.  Mostly to convince you it will eventually happen and I will finish the story.  And no I don't need to convince myself, I know it will be accomplished. 

With that in mind here is the second page in Cursed Pirate Girl vol. 2 issue one -the Bright Star

                             Here are the steps that I take in doing pages. 
     -First I write out the script
     -then I break the script up into what I think will fit on a page
     -then I thumbnail out the script.  This I do almost literally, my thumbnails are 1 by 1 and a half inches and are very rough.  Some key dialog to let me know what I was thinking at that moment and usually just an idea of what panel structure I thought would work at the moment.
     -then I start working up a full size rough.  By full size I mean 6"x9" with a half inch border on the top and three quarters below and five sixteenths on each side.
     -then when I get the parts drawn up to what looks good I transfer the rough images to bristol.  With this page I worked up the main image then scanned it and adjusted the size of Haftu's head and then the whole figure.  I printed that out and worked up the fish on top of the print out.  I take a piece of tracing paper and trace it then transfer that to bristol.  I did it this way because of the minute details involved with the figures.  If there is an image with less complicated details I would have just lightboxed the print out.
     -once it's drawn out on bristol it's just a matter of inking. 
     -the last thing I do is erase any pencil I see and then put in the dialog.  While the entire piece is inked with a brush, I write the dialog in with a crow quill dip pen.

Here are the individual pages involved with making this page.

first rough, full size

print out w/ penciled water and fish added

tracing paper contour drawing, ready to be transferred

That print... part 4

Well here it is!  Here is that piece you've all been waiting for... maybe.  So here is the full thing with a couple of details, I'm guessing it was around 3 months but it could've been a bit more.  Emily tells me I should get a chess clock so I can time myself more exactly. 

The whole story behind it is pretty much this- CPG has put on a pirate festival to be a distraction so that her pirate crew can sneak into a secret royal treasure trove held in the small island city of Cub.  As the royal marines are attacking though she disarms them with the music she is playing with her concertina, it frightens the evil from their minds and hearts.  Transforming them into innocent festival goers. 

It's funny what are my favorite parts are, like the shading under the skeletons boot and the texture of the snails.  This was a very challenging thing for me to take on and I'm glad I did.  So far the only challenges I have set for myself were just to come up with strange characters and strain the limits of my imagination.  While this is a good thing, this was a different kind of challenge and I have already seen an improvement in the pages for vol. 2 of CPG.  I have definitely raised another bar on what I expect my work to look like.  In interviews and conversations I've always said that I do Cursed Pirate Girl for me.  And I am extremely lucky that I can afford to do it that way.  I'm also extremely lucky that there are people out there who appreciate what I create.  So thank you very very much for putting up with the slow progress of my little story and being open to something new/old. 

I have mentioned before that this piece was created as an added incentive for those who were aware of and participated with the funding of the CPG trade on Kickstarter.  And I'm really happy that all of you will be getting a copy of this for free, and I'm really happy that Tom did offer to do it.  No matter how much I have whined in the past, it came out pretty ok and it was a good lesson to have learned.  And I hope it will pay off later when you're all waiting for the next issue of the comic to come out.  ;]

That print... part 2

So I'm again overdue, my apologies.  I was waiting to obtain scans of the finished product, my scanner is not that big and it's not the best for trying to get detail.  Tom has a good friend in Transmission Atelier who has an amazing scanner and it is from him I will be able to post images that will give you a decent look at what I have been up to.  He is still working on it.  I do have some of the surviving sketches I did in the creation process. So here they are-

The next couple are from the border. The first little one is a small sketch I did in one of my little sketchbooks and it turned out pretty cool so I decided to blow it up and use it as the top border that reaches from the two main figures that make up the sides of the border.  The second image is the figure that makes up the right side of the border.  The Cursed Pirate Girl on a merstag that I have posted earlier makes up the main figure on the bottom of the border.

What I could not find was the original sketch of the figure that makes up the left side of the border.  Which just happens to be one of the coolest things I've come up with thus far.  I really like him.  The figure above represents the "military might" the opposing force on the black waters of the Omertas.  At least after the first story arc of Cursed Pirate Girl.  The other figure represents the "Piratical will" on the Omertas.  The royal soldier above is capped with a giant key, I wanted that to suggest he is more of a wind up toy than he is a free willed character.

Hopefully I can get those scans soon and I will be able to show you some more. 

over due C2E2 blog

I know I said I'd do this yesterday... but, I didn't.  Here is what happened the whole weekend of C2E2.  It's not exceptionally entertaining but here you go.

Emily and I started off at about 8:00 pm Thurs. and did really good time wise.  The traffic was a piece of cake and we had the audio book "Lord of Chaos" from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Saga with us so that helped.  Got to Tom's around 11:20 or so Chicago time.

Headed out to the convention the next day, sorta took a wrong veer and ended up at Target.  Which was okay because we needed some things.  Then magically ended up in just the right parking structure for the show and got to our table hassle free.  The show went really well, artist alley was really packed full of people and it was almost non stop.  Highlight of the show was when a friend brought us home smoked uncut bacon and cookies, including a batch of his peanut butter and bacon cookies.  He actually brought us three parcels of bacon but we're supposed to give the other two to the Petersens and Katie Cook and her husband Ryan.  After the show we had dinner with the Petersens and Mark Smylie of Artesia fame.  The line for the restaurant was too long for our too hungry selves so we decided to try the bar.  It was loud and cramped and busy and we didn't get menus until Julia decided she would bus our table for us and took all the empties up to the bar and gave them to a waitress.  After that it didn't take long to get some notice.  I will say I think there were like two waitresses for the entire area, so I empathized. Getting back to the car was a fiasco, couldn't get to the right floor of the hotel to get to the sky bridge because after 11 you need a room key to get the elevator to work right.  Then I tried putting my self pay parking ticket into the machine at the hotel instead of across the street at where my car was parked.  Okay I know that sounds kinda dumb but, all the machines look alike and all the buildings are connected and no where on the frigging thing does it say "this machine is for hotel parking only" even if it had said "not for cars in lot A" I would've felt less of an idiot.  That wasn't the end of the troubles of trying to get to the car but I don't want to talk about the rest, sooo...

Sat.  was pretty darn the best con day I've had to date.  Got to the convention a little late due to traffic but when I did get there, there was a bit of a line at my table and my con sketch list for the day filled almost immediately.  Which was pretty cool.  Lots of people throughout the day and after picking up books from Tom last night I didn't have to worry at all about running out.  After the show Emily and I had planned to just go back to Tom's and order a pizza and just relax but Tom was over at a friend's birthday party so we met him there and received an awesome home cooked meal. 

Sun. was also really surprising for a Sun. usually I make about a third of what I can on a Fri. but it was about the same as Sat.  I had a nice talk with one of my favorite artists, which made me feel really cool.  Afterward we took a stroll and got some sushi with Gordon and Jennifer of Transylvania TV and Dave and Julia Petersen at a restaurant called Triad, just a few blocks from the convention center.  It was a delicious way to end the show.  We loaded the car up with CPG trades and said farewell to Tom and headed home.

That's about it, hope I didn't bore you too much, heh.  Among the things I had at the show I did have the finished Kickstarter print original there and a couple of the Pook the Tarantula plushies.  I successfully handed over the Kickstarter piece to Tom and he should have been able to get it scanned by now.  I will be able to post some art from it soon.  Here are a couple of the con sketches I managed to remember to take photos of.

The next con I'll be attending is the Comic Geek Speak Supershow in Reading Penn. April 30th and May 1st.  Hope to see you there.

that print that Tom suckered me into doing. part 1

So for those who don't know what I'm talking about when I say "the Kickstarter print", what I mean is a Cursed Pirate Girl print that was made to be an extra bonus for anyone who contributed to the trade of CPG on Kickstarter.com.  This is a print that was not featured as an incentive initially during the run of CPG on Kickstarter.  Tom just thought it would be nice that if we met the goal of 500 backers we should do something extra.  So he commissioned me to do something "really special".  It's been a bunch of months after we first talked about it and... I finished it Mon. around 2:30 am.  I don't have a name yet, but it measures 13 inches tall by 18 and 1/2 inches length wise.  I will not be posting it until later... sorry... heh.  I will post several times on this subject and will show a bit of the process.

I just thought you'd like to know that it is done and when I get back from Chicago this weekend I will be getting back to Cursed Pirate Girl vol. 2 issue 1 "the Bright Star". 

C2E2... dunh dunh duhhhhh...

For those who will be coming out to Chicago this upcoming weekend for the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo [also known as C2E2], I will be in artist alley at table I-3.  I will be there all weekend except for a signing with Archaia for the Legends of the Guard trade [which I still don't know when that will be] and the occasional bathroom break.  This year I will have tons of trades of CPG vol. 1 as well as buttons, prints, a special guest appearance by a small spikey potato, maybe portfolios, and I want to display the Kickstarter print.  We will see how that goes though, no promises.  I am working on a new print that is taken from said Kickstarter print and will be a little bit smaller than the stained prints.  I am planning on coloring it, so it will be a lot different than the other prints available.  Here is the black and white version though...

The original is from the border of the Kickstarter print, and measures 3 1/8 inches from coral crown to the end of his sea weedy mustache and 3 1/4 inches from sea shell to sea shell.  I will post the colored version later tonight after I finish it.

I will also be opening a commission list for con sketches, there will be 4 spots a day and they are just a measly $75.  So come early, if you can. 

Hope to see you there!  

instant second post!! or CPG vol. 1 book signings

If you're interested I will be doing a bunch of book signings at different comic shops here in Michigan and in Chicago later this month. 

Feb. 9th- Green Brain Comics
Feb 12th- Vault of Midnight
Feb 26th- Chicago Comics

That's not all, keep checking back, I have to hear back from Olympian on a couple of others I'm trying to plan out.  Thanks!

New Blog!

Helloooooo... well I've got a new blog.  You can all give thanks or sneers to my dear lovely wife Emily.  She seems to think I need to get out there on the ol interwebs, so she created a new spot for me to ramble on about what I'm up to and art and stuff like that.  So, well, I'm not doing much, I've been working on the special print for all the wonderful people who contributed to the trade of CPG vol. 1 via Kickstarter.com.  It's been a long time coming and I'm definitely past the 50% mark, so that's good.  I just want to let you all know it is still in the works and you will eventually get one... I'm having a lot of fun with it, which equates to -I'm making it more difficult with every new little critter and sculpture I come up with to pack into it.  I have Twittered a sneak peek at a part of it, that also appeared on my FB account here- cpg w/ merstag and Turnip.  I won't be posting any more of this until it's more completed, so there.

I will however, post some stuff up you won't have seen before.  These are some con sketches from last year's San Diego Comicon.  

There is a bunch to catch you up with, but I think I'll save some for another time.  I'm gonna try to do this more regularly, wish me luck.