Art & Comics Education | Art Blog

Keep drawing. Keep drawing. Keep drawing. Keep drawing. (AKA “Get Motivated!”)

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The other day, Canadian artist and fellow Tumblr-ite Kimberly Parker posted some thoughts about artists comparing themselves to other artists and how to go about it positively and instead of being all doom-and-gloom about it (my words, not hers). It’s a quick read, so go ahead and read it. Without getting too personal, I, like so many others come with some emotional baggage. And I’m constantly battling them in order to get off my ass and … Read More

Art & Comics Education | Art Blog

30-Day Memory Drawing Challenge

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I’m issuing a challenge. To myself. It can be difficult for a busy person to draw everyday, but if one wants to get better, one should do it. I’m no exception. And there are many things I need to improve upon. Remembering standard architectural details of a building’s facade; a person’s posture during a certain mood; how a muscle flexes during a certain action. I could go on, but I won’t. I don’t need to divulge … Read More

Art Blog

Project Update – A shift in priorities

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I’ve had a slight shift in priorities in terms of what projects I’m working on. Maypole, the picture book, is still a priority. I need to redesign all the characters so that I can draw them quickly. Thea And The Crying Cloud King (working title) will probably be a prose novel instead of a picture book, so that will take longer to finish. I’ve got the plot, now I just need to write the words. So, … Read More

Art Blog | Op Ed

What’s The Big Deal About The New Supergirl Promo?

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I take it by some of the reaction to the new Supergirl promo that females with the personality of the new show’s Supergirl character – bubbly and happy, living in the shadow of another, unsure of herself yet strong on the inside, trying to do something meaningful with her life and the gifts she has – just do not exist? I would beg to differ. Not every strong female character needs to be hard-edged. Do they? … Read More

Art Blog

I’m Actually Announcing Projects

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I stopped publicly announcing projects before they were ready to go so that they didn’t turn into false announcements. But in the last 2 hours, I wrote the entire first draft of text for an all-ages picturebook/comic I came up with today. It’s ready to get drawn already. So here I go: I’m announcing a few things. This way, if any and all of you want to take me to task, you can. Maypole – the … Read More

Art & Comics Education | Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

The Warm-Up Sketch Activity – Part 2

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This is a “warm-up” sketch I did on 1-13-2015: The goal was to limit the time spent doing the sketch. This time I chose to work on larger paper. My sketch from the previous day was done in a 5×7 sketchbook, which somehow made me want to work meticulously. It’s probably due to the page space being small enough to sketch fairly freely, but not so small that I was forced to go into “thumbnail mode”, … Read More

Art & Comics Education | Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

The Warm-Up Sketch Activity – Part 1

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I have very rarely done warm-up sketches. I understand the value of warm-up sketches. I admit, when I was younger, I thought, “Why do I need to warm up my drawing muscles? Why can’t I just draw?” Of course it helps to loosen up the fingers, the hand, and the arm before doing any drawing that is meant to end up as a finished piece. But when you have a limited amount of time to spend … Read More

Art Blog | News

Portfolio Update

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As I get back into the practice of drawing all the time, I am, of course, adding new stuff to my website’s portfolio. Some new stuff has been added to both the illustration and design sections. I will, of course, be adding and removing stuff as I see fit to represent the best of myself. However, my Tumblr site will be a more of a timeline, featuring concepts to sketches to finished works, so if I … Read More

Art Blog

Traditional VS Digital Illustration

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I love traditional illustration. This is definitely not going to be my first post on this. Because, while I definitely prefer to do my finished artwork using “traditional”* methods, I have done some digital pre- and post-production work in Photoshop and I’ve been refining my opinions on the matter of traditional VS digital illustration (as if there were such a battle). Plus, I just purchased Manga Studio 5 EX**. In fact, it just arrived and, once … Read More

Art Blog | General Thoughts

I’m Back. And I’m Ready For “Something”

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It’s a while since I posted anything here. Let’s just say it’s been a tumultuous road for me the last couple years. But here I am. I’m back. And I’m drawing again. And it feels good. I’ve been missing it so much and now I just need to get some good habits back in my system. I was reading a thread on PencilJack and it really hit home with me. Some kid posted that he was … Read More

Art Blog

Payday Progress: 1-14-2010

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I started working on Payday on what I think is the week of 4-20-2009 (my first post about it was made on 4-24-2009). It’s been my policy to draw for at least an hour every weekday morning, which isn’t a lot of time, this was implemented with the consideration of a few things: I have a ton of projects that I have unwisely started, and this is my way of helping me to prioritize. I need … Read More

Art Blog | News

Fighting David Parrot

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So I’ve been back at the drawing board, and it’s nice to draw comics again. But while working on Payday, I just felt… dull. I’d spent some time doing thumbnail layouts (and if you’ve been reading, you know how I feel about doing those) and thusly lost the feel for drawing some of the characters. I needed a break from what I was doing. I needed to draw something fun and quick, and I wanted to … Read More

Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

Payday Progress Update: 11-6-2009

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For those of you that frequent my web-bursts via this site or Twitter, you know that I postponed drawing full-sized pages of Payday in order to try doing thumbnail layouts. And you know that I have said on more than one occasion that I really, really, really didn’t like doing them. In case you haven’t heard that before, here it is: I hated doing thumbnail layouts. It’s not that they weren’t productive, overall. My last, full, … Read More

Art Blog

Payday, the Unscripted Comic… Update 7-21-2009

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Emphasis on “unscripted”. I just got finished pre-dialoguing (is that a real word?) the first 19 pages of Payday. I’m going to wait to ink everything until I’m finished with the book, because I know the way I’m drawing it is slowly evolving with each page. Therefore, by waiting to ink until the end, I should be able to give everything a unified look. One thing I’m finding is that doing an unscripted book, working from … Read More

Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

Payday progress update: 7-15-2009

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Pencils for page 18: I like this page if for any other reason than the storytelling. I know there are no words written out yet (except in scribble), but the juxtaposition of the characters and the pedestrian traffic light makes for good implication in that particular scene, I think. One thing I re-realized while drawing today is that I need to re-adopt the practice of getting the pencils completed just enough to be inked. The pencils … Read More

Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

Payday progress update: 7-8-2009

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It’s been a while. I’ve been meaning to post this page for about 2 weeks or so, now, and I forgot all about it. So here it is, page 15: I like it. In other news, I JUST finished page 17. How sad. It was an easy page to do but I got stuck on a panel, not knowing what to draw. It happens with an unscripted comic, I guess. I do prefer scripted, but I’m … Read More

Art Blog | Sketches/Drawings

Payday progress update: 6-8-2009

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No real stories. Just pages 12 and 13: I like page 13. It’s simple, fairly direct, and certainly one of the more spacious pages. On a related note, I’ve decided to forego the weekly updates and just do a “Payday Progress” blog. These will, of course, be specific to that project.

Art Blog

Weekly comics progress update: 5-31-2009

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Late post again. While I am making progress on the graphic novel, it’s slow going. For one, I’m starting to nitpick over correctness, especially in perspective. Second, I’m in the middle of scene where character development via exposition is taking place. This is always an interesting thing for me to draw because it challenges me to come up with ways to convey conversation in a visually impacting manner. I have a few more pages left of … Read More

Art Blog | Comics Rehab

Weekly comics progress update: 5-25-2009

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Missed Friday’s post again. Things are going well with the work on my graphic novel, Payday, though it’s slow-going. Not because I’m not moving along. There are some things I’m drawing that do take some time, but there are two factors that are impeding faster progress. One being my schedule. I draw for an hour and change every weekday morning, and sometimes on the weekend, depending on what other projects I want to work on. The … Read More

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