So I forgot to update this blog sooner. I’m very sorry! Things have been pretty manic in my studio.
I’ve been finishing up work on a new series of comic strips K. Ferrin asked me to make. Here’s a peek at one of them.
Click to enlarge.
Of course, Johnson & Sir and Validation are still updating regularly. I love the conversations my readers are having and the comments they’re leaving! Seriously, I read the comments. All of them. And I love you (but not in a creeper way).
Charlie & Clow will be up online soon! The goal is to have it online October 29! Here’s a peek at the cover:
Click to enlarge.
It’ll be available to read at www.charlieandclow.com (don’t try to go there yet. I’ll be building the site over the next week).
I’ve also been working on a short story penned by the fabulous Kristen Kellner. Here’s a peek at one of the panels in progress:
Click to enlarge.
I’m on my last few pages of this short story, and hopefully you can read it all online soon!
Also! There’s another new comic in the works. I’ve been keeping it relatively hush-hush because the writer is still writing it, but they want me to provide the art for it. We’ll be doing a KickStarter for the project in November. (Like, three-weeks-from-now November. Holy banana pants!) Here’s a color and style test I did for it…
Click to enlarge.
And here’s a look at one of the possible designs of the logo (it’s still a work in progress)…
Click to enlarge.
Like I said, the writer and I will be doing a KickStarter to fund this upcoming webcomic in November. I’ll hopefully post more art for it as I make it!
So…yeah. I’ve been making comics like a madwoman. Gotta’ remember to take a day off.
Be on the lookout for Charlie & Clow launching on October 29th! I talk more about the details of the story in this post.
Thank you so much for reading and putting up with my tardiness. I’ll see you on Friday when I talk about the Superhero Ladies series.
I had nothing planned to be written for today, so instead I’m going to share some of the sketches I’ve made and finished within the last few weeks. (Please click to enlarge them.)
Agents Sinclair and GalileyaAcrudon the Demon LordJohnson & Sir extras have a chat.Gestures and character concepts for new projects.Sketches I made at work in my spare time. Yes, they are drawn on the back of a coupon.Character designs I drew today for a developing story.
Plus, I’ve included some snapshots of current works in progress.
The comics are inked. Now for the color!
Oh! And I forgot to mention an illustration series I have on hold, called “Superhero Ladies.” I have at least this one finished, but the rest are sketches.
Number 1 in the series.
I’ll talk more about the series next week.
Also! I took the time to update the Commissioned Work if you would like to see some comics and other art I made for really swell folks recently.
What do you think? Plus, what do you like to sketch? Let me know in the comments below!
I was finishing some comics on Sunday morning, and then I went to a shift at my day job as a Michael’s cashier.
And when I got home, I splurged for myself and knitted and crocheted ALL OF THE THINGS.
ALL THE THINGS includes this little potato face here. He needs a hat.
The reason?
I needed a little time off to do something for myself.
And then I realized that, as a freelancer, I don’t do that nearly as often as I think I do.
As freelancers, we all need a little time off.
Freelancing is a lot of running around to manage everything, from finances to invoicing to actually making the things you promised to make for that client who forgot to pay you last week and –
It’s chaotic.
Sometimes the chaos is fun, in a “How will I kick Chaos’ ass THIS time” kind of way.
However, it can be really easy to get caught up in the chaos and never take a day off.
On the other hand, it’s easy to take a lot of days off.
Freelancing gives us the ability to set our own schedules, which is both awesome and terrifying.
It’s awesome because if you need to take a day to help mom move a fridge, get a haircut at some random hour of the day, or drive into the city to get a thing, you can totally do that.
But it’s terrifying because it’s easy to fall into one of two extremes: too many days off, or not enough of them.
Too many days off means you’ll be cramming to meet your deadlines, and that can infringe on your ability to meet promises you made to the folks outside of your work. Did you promise your sister you would drive her over to a friend’s house? Well you can’t do it because you have a deadline to meet and you slacked off too much earlier this week.
Too few days off means you’ll start seeing numbers in your sleep, you’ll see everything you do as “work” or “in the way of work,” and your friends and family will be deeply concerned for your health and possibly have the hospital on speed-dial.
So how do you handle this conundrum?
It’s all about balance.
It’s all about knowing when you’ve worked too many days, when you’ve taken off too much time, and knowing how your body and mind acts in those scenarios.
Listen to your body.
Don’t overwork yourself to the point that you get sick. Don’t take off so much time that you start sleeping in for eleven hours and wake up even more tired than you anticipated.
Know the rhythms of your body. Know when it’s tired, when it’s active and driven to get work done.
Make a schedule and stick to it.
If you are the type to make schedules and stick to them (like I am), decide how many days off you need and incorporate it into your flow. I usually do two days off, but they don’t have to be consecutive. Even if it’s mega-crunch time, I make room for one day off, at least.
If you are the type to not make schedules, then figure out the number of days off you would need in a given week/month/quarter and incorporate it into your flow. Do you need two days off in a row? Ok. Or do you need three days off a week? This will depend on your lifestyle and your responsibilities, but always make sure you have time off and that it’s balanced with your work.
And relax.
It will get done.
I know sometimes I tend to overwork myself because I feel a sense of urgency. Like, “If I don’t get this done now, it will never get done!”
That’s bull-crap.
Things will get done. Your project will get finished, and then you will move on to the next one.
Nothing needs to be done “right now.”It just needs done.
How soon, or how late, is up to you.
I’m not telling you to shurk your deadlines.
I’m telling you that if you need to take a breather so you’re not overworked, take that breather.
Take care of yourself first. The rest will follow.
I hope this helped you in some way. Please take good care of yourselves.
So when was your last day off? Did you do anything/nothing/all of the things? Leave a comment!
There are artists who only do illustrations. There are artists who only make toys. And there are artists who only make comics.
It’s like Kelsey Wailes just went, “I want to make ALL OF THE THINGS!” And she set out to do just that.
This woman does comics, illustrations, toys, sculptures… It’s like she rocks any artistic outlet she sets her sights on. Pretty much anything she creates seems like something fresh, from colored pencil portraits to Doctor Whooooo toys.
While a lot of the work she makes falls within the realms of fanart, it’s still great to see such well-executed work in such a wide variety of media.
I had the pleasure of seeing her work first hand at Intervention Con, and I even got to sit in on a panel she ran. The panel was all about how to make vinyl toys like the Doctor Whooo above. She’s a great educator and quite the inspirational speaker.
To be frank, all of that creative energy and all of the outlets she has to express that creativity…make me a little jealous. But in a good way.
It makes me want to experiment and try new creative things, learn new techniques, try new media…
Plus, her comics make me laugh super hard.
You can read her comic Doctor Kawaii online, and you can also find her work on Etsy and Tumblr. Mostly I follow her on Twitter because I’m a weirdo.
So who are some of your favorite artists? Let me know in the comments below!
Here is Exhibit A: a Young Adult (YA) novel called Dragonswood.
There are a lot of things that are remarkable about this book. Let’s go into them right away!
This is not like other YA novels.
Here’s the typical YA formula, which I discovered the other day browsing through Tumblr:
White girl has magic powers and falls for a boy, but also falls for another boy and must choose between the two and save the world at the same time.
While Dragonswood does take place on an island by England in the 1000s, (thereby having lots of white people), and the main lead does have a special power, here’s what makes the book different.
It stars a domestic abuse survivor.
Tess, the main lead, has no romantic interest in men from the start. She distrusts men because of her experiences with her physically abusive father, and the book does a great job making you understand Tess and her father’s circumstances.
Yes, she has a magical power – seeing prophetic visions in flames, called Fire Sight – but the visions are not straightforward, and often they don’t even come to fruition the way you expect them to. Hell, her ability doesn’t change the world, and it’s not the catalyst for saving the world either. it’s just a thing that she can do.
Of course, her ability makes her stand out from the world she lives in. Most people consider her strange already, especially since…
She lives in a medieval world with a twist.
Tess’s journey begins when a witch hunter comes to town, and Tess is accused of witchcraft by her village: she was spotted running into Dragonswood (the forest next door) when she occasionally flees from her father’s fists.
Of course, Tess also feels a calling to the forest (though it’s not witchery. Witches don’t ever appear in this book). The forest itself is a refuge for fairies and dragons, and townsfolks are afraid of Dragonswood and its inhabitants. They want the forest torn down so they can have lumber and farms.
The world of this book is marvelously and surprisingly complex. As you read you see the world reveal itself even more. There are strong political undertones and Tess questions authority multiple times throughout this book.
However, be warned that in the first few chapters, Tess is brought into questioning by the witch hunter, and she is tortured. And it is a graphic scene. Don’t read it if you don’t want to read about thumbs being crushed.
After she is tortured, she flees with her friends into Dragonswood, where they are rescued by a woodsman.
Enter the Potential Love Interest. And the good news is…
The Love Interest is not a condescending smartass.
Remember the typical YA formula? With its two boys that forces the main character to choose one over the other? It’s all over the place, from The Hunger Games to the Mortal Instruments series. One love interest is a sweetheart, and the other is the bad boy that eventually warms up to the lead character. We’ve all read it before.
Dragonswood has none of that.
And at first, Tess doesn’t even have romantic feelings for the huntsman, Garth. It’s part distrust of the male sex, part fear that he’ll turn her in to the witch hunter for a reward. Tess is a survivalist, and she will cut any bitches that get in her way.
But Garth? Garth is actually kind of a sweetie.
Garth has incredible patience with Tess. When she is frightened and flees from him, he gives her space. When she snaps at him, he doesn’t argue. He even gives her paper and ink to draw with, something that no one in her village ever did.
In short…
Give this a read.
The things I mentioned are just a small part of this marvelous story. It’s not even half of the book.
If you’re tired of reading the same old Young Adult novel, read this book. It’s a breath of fresh, fantasy air with wonderfully developed characters and a complex world.
If you’ve read this book before, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!
Have any suggestions of books for me to read? Leave those in comments too!
