June 25: This is a tricky one

Okay, so it isn't a drawing, but it's a little mini-comic I made after I saw this picture on Random LiveJournal PIcture Generator over at toothpastefordinner.com (check the link on the right). Hope you like.



Especially the one in the green t-shirt.

I admit it it's in the style of some of the stuff over at TPFD, but I think I made it my own. It's pretty simple, anyway.

Later!

June 7: IIII aaamm IIron Maaan....

So I've decided to take full advantage of my Wacom and start trying my hand at digital coloring. So that's what this is. It's an Iron Man drawing done by a guy named Jake Bymers who posts as jaybob over at DeviantArt. But I thought it was a pretty badass drawing of ol' shell head so I decided to try my hand at coloring it. But if you think the drawing's cool, all I can say is "I agree," because I didn't draw it. Just giving credit where credit's due. Anyway, here it is:



I think it came out pretty well altogether, and for a first real attempt at digital coloring, too. But I'd love to hear what you guys think. Fire away.

Later!

June 6: "Morbid Priestess of the Flesh Eaters"

This is a little sketch I did for a weekly sketch group on a comic artists message board. This weeks' theme is "The Morbid Priestess of the Flesh Eaters." Sounded pretty cool, and an idea popped into my head, so I whipped this up. I did it with my Wacom, which I'm starting to become a lot more comfortable with with each use. I'm not great with it, but I'm slowly getting a hang of the learning curve. Hope you guys like:



I'm not sure if dead baby jokes was the "morbid" they had in mind, but it's what popped out to me, at least...

Later!

June 4: Braaains part 2 (with Tales of Controversy!)

This is a "husband and wife" zombie portrait sketch I did for some very good friends of mine a couple weeks ago. I would have posted it then, but I mailed them the actual drawing and didn't want to post it up here until I knew they got it. Turns out they just got it this weekend, so I figured I'd go ahead and post it now:



Here's kind of a funny story to go along with this drawing, that I figured I'd tack on for kicks. So I post every now and then on a comic artists message board; I won't name the place, but it's a site I've frequented off and on for the past 4 or 5 years where a bunch of comic book artists, from amateur artists to semi-professionals, post their work and comment on each others in the process. It's a pretty good place to post your work and get some good feedback as well.

ANYWAY I posted this drawing there after I finished it a couple weeks ago just to see what people thought of it. So I post it and I wait and wait and wait, and no response. Finally a couple people respond, with honest, yet slightly abrasive responses--to me, at least. Now, weeks later, they aren't as abrasive as I thought they were, which makes me feel like kind of an ass.

I'm usually pretty good when it comes to taking criticism, but combine the anonymity of the internet with a couple of slightly off-putting comments with having to wait several days to even hear any comments, let alone comments I didn't particularly agree with, and I'm going to probably let it be known how I feel. Basically I said that the guys who commented "took the fun out of drawing" and asked if anyone had anything "nice" to say.

"Nice." That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Next day I get a response, telling me that if I'm looking for something positive that I was on the wrong message board. Needless to say, I responded back with a shove of my own. To make a long story short, after a couple other people weighing in, me unknowingly telling a forum moderator to "take your 'we're not here to make you feel good' mentality and shove it up your ass," and a couple other random guys exchanging verbal blows, the thread was closed, leaving a trail of bitter men and bad blood in its wake. All over a sketch of some zombies. What's up with that?

Anyway, that's the drawing, and a little story to go along with it. I hope you guys dig, feel free to lemme know what you think (famous last words...)

Later!

June 3/4: Back on the horse

Something worth mentioning: at some point in the near future I'm going to get back into working on my graphic novel project. I don't know why this keeps happening; I spend maybe 3 weeks to a month working on it, get bitter and lose confidence, consider quitting, do random stuff for a couple weeks, and then get right back into working on the book (repeat ad nauseam). Maybe the book is more taxing on me than I think, maybe I start to overthink things after a while (maybe it takes me exactly 3 weeks of thinking about things before I over-think it; maybe that's my limit on thinking about something); I dunno, but it's starting to become a pattern.

Whatever, as long as I'm still working on it, I guess. Anyway, I made a post a little while back that made the book's outlook pretty bleak, so I figured I'd at least post my thoughts on it now if anyone (for some reason or another) was worried that I was calling it quits. I'm not.

Side reading: if you'd like to get a better glimpse into this weird cycle of self-doubt and almost calling it quits, check out the short comic "Two Questions" by Linda Barry, which can be found in The Best American Comics 2006 or McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13. I don't know if you can find it online or not, but I know it's in those two anthologies I just mentioned. It's a great little comic, and one that's definitely changed my thinking on comics and the creation of comics. It easily made Linda Barry one of my favorite artists.

Later!

June 3: In which I draw like a chimp (Even moreseo than usual)

The other day I bought a Wacom tablet, and so far it's pretty great. If you don't know what a Wacom is, it's a little drawing tablet that plugs into your USB port, and you can draw on it directly fromt the tablet to your computer. It's pretty neat, but there is a bit of a learning curve to it. That's what this little comic is about. It's not that good, and the art certainly ain't anything special either, but it gives you an idea of what it's like to re-learn to draw on one of these things.



Sorry there's been a bit of a post drought recently. I hope to remedy that. And I won't have immediate access to a scanner for a little while, so most of the stuff I'll post will be digital (aka done with the Wacom).

Ok, that's all for now. Hope you guys liked. Later!