Not gonna’ lie, I had a LOT of fun drawing Jamie, Thomas, and Daniel in these punk rock/Rockabilly-esque looks. I don’t draw them in modern outfits very much, so it was a treat to draw these!
When coloring them, I wanted to play with Copic markers again. In particular, I wanted to experiment with using different shades when coloring each one. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Jamie’s shadows have a blue-green hue, while Thomas has a red/burgundy hue to his shadows, and Daniel has a blue hue to his.
One of these days, I’ll put together a tutorial on how to use different colored shadows with Copic markers.
These characters are the main cast of my adventure webcomic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts! You can read it for free now on the official webcomic site.
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Can you believe I drew these Two Ladies a decade ago?
Yep, I call this piece “Two Ladies.” I can’t think of the title of this without thinking of the song “Two Ladies” from the movie adaptation of Cabaret. Fun fact, the song eventually made its way to the Broadway version after the movie.
I drew them in Copic markers on brown paper to really make the earthy tones pop, and to give the other colors a more neutral tone. I wanted this to be down-to-earth, above all.
In 2015 I was on a kick of drawing LGBTQ+ couples for a while. This is probably my favorite of the bunch, though I have more. And I can’t wait to show you them!
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In today’s video, let’s discuss the age-old question asked anytime we walk into a room where comic artists congregate…”Should I make fanart or original art?”
As mentioned in today’s video, here’s where you can Join the Club!
This is Roxie, a transgender roller derby girl and star of the webcomics Validation and ROXIE. I painted this as part of a series of watercolor paintings as a fundraiser for the Zebra Youth Coalition in Orlando, Florida.
I want to say I painted this with Qor watercolors? It’s actually been so long since I painted it that I forgot!
The original paintings have since sold out. If you see this out in the wild, it’s most likely a print.
I wanted to share this because here in Toledo, OH, it’s PRIDE month! To celebrate, I’m sharing Pride-related illustrations each week during August.
Stay tuned for more Pride art! Or, to get sneak peeks ahead of time, sign up for my email newsletter (it’s free, spam-free, and I don’t sell your email to anybody).
I’m going to try a personal challenge – no watching YouTube for the next 31 days.
That’s right. For the month of May, I’m going to make the effort to NOT watch YouTube. (This likely means no new YouTube videos on my channel, either. Apologies in advance to my YouTube channel subscribers. I will, however, be doing workshops with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest, and those workshops will be up on their YouTube channel. I’ll post links to those workshops in the next few days.)
“But WHY?” You might ask. “YouTube is everywhere! How can you possibly do no YouTube for the month of May?!”
So, before I get into the How, let me tell you the Why.
Why #1 – May is a BUSY month for me.
I mentioned the workshops I’m doing with the Cartoonist Co-op as part of Nib and Ink Fest. I will also be packing up and preparing to move to a new apartment before the end of the month.
“You could just put YouTube on in the background – “
No. That’s part of my next Why.
Why #2 – YouTube is More Distraction Than Helpful.
I need to keep my hands busy, usually with making comics and art, or packing my apartment up for the move. I can’t be distracted with shiny visuals. Also, I have caught myself – multiple times – scrolling YouTube to try to find *something* to turn on, but realizing that nothing is catching my interest.
This leads me to…
Why #3 – YouTube isn’t FUN anymore.
I made this collage yesterday to make art out of my frustration with YouTube. Because YouTube used to be fun.
Used to be.
Now, because of its algorithms prioritizing the same content delivered in roughly 1700 different ways (seriously, HOW MANY videos are there talking about “productivity” or “things I do to stop doomscrolling” – on a platform formulated for doomscrolling). There’s also the sponsors who are 99% of the time scams, the ads, and my once-favorite YouTube creators no longer being favorites…
Well, it’s time that I take a break from YouTube.
So, HOW am I not going to watch YouTube?
How #1 – the Unhook extension.
The Unhook extension built for Firefox has commands for when you *do* end up on YouTube. Unhook does things like turning off Shorts, bringing you to your subscription feed instead of the front page, turning off the comments section, and other quality of life fixes.
I’m leaving this extension on in case I have a moment of weakness and end up on YouTube. That way, Unhook makes sure I only see what’s in my subscription feed. Which, right now, is looking slim, since I unsubscribed from a lot of people who stopped being fun for me to watch.
How #2 – audiobooks.
I have a long-ass TBR list of audiobooks on hoopla, an app available from my public library. It’s basically free Audible (so stop paying for Audible. You literally get hoopla and Libby – two audiobook apps – free thanks to your tax dollars). So instead of turning on YouTube, I’ll turn on an audiobook.
OR, I’ll turn on…
How #3 – podcasts.
This one might be trickier for me, as I’m trying to cut down on the number of apps on my phone. Podcast apps are freaking storage hogs. Also, as it turns out, a lot of podcasts I listen to don’t have episodes available on their websites. Their websites are basically place holders to tell people, “Listen to us on Spotify!” Which does nothing to help me.
Still, some podcasts have their episodes on their websites, and those will be super helpful this month. I also have some of my favorite episodes downloaded onto my laptop, which I don’t mind listening to The Dollop talking about the 1904 New York to Paris Car Race for the 17th time.
How #4 – music.
Y’all. My music playlist on my hard drive is entirely too big and I don’t play it enough. I gotta turn on some tunes!
Also, my library offers an app called Freegal, where you can download 5 songs a month – for free – that you can keep forever on your devices. Freegal’s music library is a little tricksy to navigate, and they don’t have everything. Still, I like that they have some of my favorite bands on there.
If Freegal’s not your speed, hoopla also has music. Hoopla has a lot of songs that Freegal does not, like Chapelle Roan.
So here’s something I’d love to hear from you: how do you listen to podcasts? Let me know in the comments, because I really want to listen to more podcasts!
