Muahahaha...

Here's some Halloween-ish desktop wallpaper to spruce up your computers. They're for personal use only and sized for a variety of systems. Including Ipad. So there you go, Mom.

Enjoy!

1280 x 800

1400 x 900

1680 x 1050

2560 x 1440

Ipad

Um, boo? Like, Maybe?

It's almost All Hallow's Eve and there is a dearth of seasonally appropriate material on this blog. Therefore, I present to you, a monster.

Happy Weekending!

Amo/Amas/Amat

Baked apples, "Inspector Lewis" mysteries and The Oxford Companion to Fairytales are currently my three favorite things in existence.

Yours?

The Inlet and the Sound

I decided to do some coloring on the pirate drawing I showed last week. I ended up recording everything in Photoshop, but kind of goofed the audio, so sorry no process explanations! Anyway, here's the video.

Also, advance apologies for the seemingly never-ending Jay-Z scored opening ad. If I had my druthers, you'd all be sitting through an ad about ship rigging. Maybe cannons. Or perhaps even fish sticks. You know, something more artistically apropos.

The Foliage

Right Brain/Left Brain

Doodling this I kept thinking, "Why would an octopus carry a plaid suitcase?" to which my right hemisphere responded, "Why wouldn't an octopus carry a plaid suitcase?"

The View From Here

October? October!

Today I walked to get coffee (PUMPKIN SPICE!) and the trees are turning (SAFFRON COLORED!) and of course it meant I had to break out the sketchbook (AND DRAW!).

Apologies for the effusiveness, but I really, really, really like this time of year. In addition to all the seasonal wonderful-ness, I have some new projects on the drawing table that I'm loving and a head full of ideas.

One of those ideas (one that's been percolating for awhile) is to put together more process videos like I did this Summer. I've had a few people ask about this and after much hemming and hawing, I've gone ahead and set up a Ustream account. If you meander over there, I have a video that I did earlier today, coloring the foliage-loving girl above. I'm hoping in time to do some live broadcasts, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Allright. There's things to be drawn and an apple galette to be baked. Enjoy what's rest of the week and Happy Columbus Day weekend!

24 Hour Comics Day

I did it. I started and finished a 24 page comic Saturday, begining at 12 AM October 1 and ending at 11:55 in the evening. I won't lie: it's pretty rough and far from perfect. But I had a blast doing 24 Hour Comics Day and learned a lot in the process.

When I vowed to tackle a comic in the span of a day I thought, "Okay, it'll be tough, but really how tough?" and let me tell you, it is easily the most insanely brutal creative undertaking I have ever attempted. And that is why you should do it. There's nothing quite like pushing your limits as an artist to learn what stuff you're made of. At the end of the day, I suspect we're all capable of quite a bit more than we give ourselves credit for and it's in that metaphorical jumping off of the cliff that you figure it out.

Another thing I took away was a greater appreciation for distilling story and art to their most basic levels. After finishing the first few pages I crunched some numbers and realized if I kept going at that pace, I'd be participating in 48 Hour Comics Day. Yikes! It became very much do or die at that point and I began zeroing in more effectively on what elements were crucial to the story and which were superfluous. It's a process that forces you to make quick, gut decisions and there's something to be said for that.

I'll put up a link here in the next few days (as soon as I catch up on other work and my wrist stops mutinying). In the meantime, here's a look at one of the panels above.