Sketch Cards

After C2E2 this year I decided to start doing a sketch card a day. The daily bit lasted a whopping three weeks. I'm not the fastest artist in the world so sometimes I really have to buckle down and work on actual work without distractions. I like doing the sketch cards though so will try to keep up with it the best I can.

The reason? During C2E2 I was asked to do a few commission sketches and I hadn't drawn openly in public like that since college. I work quietly in my office, often digitally or on marker paper where I can redraw things over and over (using multiple sheets of paper or layers in Photoshop) until they're 'right' to my eye. These methods allow me to redraw and edit very easily. Sitting in McCormick Place and drawing 'one shot/one kill' was waaaay more stressful than it should have been and I was disappointed in the results. I said to myself, "self, that's not going to happen again."

So that's the reason. To try and stay true to the 'working live' conditions I set up a couple of simple rules for myself: have no idea what I'm going to do before sitting down to do it and then finishing it in 45 minutes or less. So for better or worse, these are my results so far.

Easy Come, Not So Easy Go explained

More pages from The CORPS!

Jobs come and go. It's a part of life. This one wasn't so easy to let go, unfortunately, because of the 'not getting paid' part. That's hard. So there, now my stupid title has been explained. Not that anyone was wondering. It was bugging me, I admit it.

Design A Character

I love coming across new things, especially fun ones. I found this group over on DeviantArt called "Design A Character", link ,and thought "this should be good, fun practice". The first challenge in progress since joining the group (earlier today) is called "Drop In". You take a picture and add a character that would seem to fit.

I went to a website where I knew there would be interesting pictures, link , picked the first picture of interest I came across, and this is what my brain produced. Fun, and not overly time consuming.

Easy Come, Not so Easy Go

So way back when I posted pages for a comic I was working on with Rick Remender. Devil's Due was the publisher. The book: The CORPS! (pronounced "core"). It was a G.I. Joe kinda thing. I got an issue and a half done and the book got cancelled due to DD's money problems. I have yet to be paid for most of the work. That money's pretty much gone now, as is Devil's Due it seems. Oh well. Such is life.

Since I'm pretty sure these pages will never be published I'm sharing a few of them here that I can still stand to look at. That's how it goes with most of us artsy fartsies - we rarely like our own work. So here are a few pages from issue 1. I'll post some pages from issue 2 next time around.

Okay, so I made a small reference there to farts but it was really by the way side, therefore I'm considering this a fart-free post. :-)

Patience with the Elderly

So when we're young it seems we are constantly annoyed by older people slowing us down. That was me anyways. As I've grown older though, I realize that I will one day be one of these people and they're doing the best they can. How arrogant I was to think everyone was out to get in my way.

So I'm walking out of the grocery store the other day and I get behind an elderly fellow, easily in his nineties, and he's slower than molasses in January. I don't get frustrated though. See? I'm a grown up now. Good for me. The old man peddles along, holding onto his shopping cart for dear life. He raises a shaky hand and waves to an employee he recognizes outside, dutifully watering plants. I think "how nice. What a nice fellow." Again I'm proud of myself for my maturity. I pat myself on the back once more for my personal growth.

Then, after a full minute of patience, the old man lets one rip. FRRAAAAPP! Loud, full-bodied, and full of stink. He doesn't flinch. I'm not sure he even knew he did it, but I sure knew. And that's the thanks I get for being more mature.

No, not all of my posts are about farting. I can't help it if my life revolves around such things. It just happens - there's no reasonable explanation for it. I'll see if I can't post on a different subject matter next time.

Overheard on the train

The METRA commuter trains to be specific.

A young father holds up his infant son and says the following between spurts of giving the child rasberries (putting lips to stomach and blowing):

"Are you gassy like daddy? Are you gassy like daddy!?"

Mixed in were other great lines like "Did you fart? Did you fart!?" and "Did you drop a duce? Did my boy drop a duce!?"

Truth. I Swear.