Kelci D Crawford

Man I haven’t updated this blog for a while. But I’ve been up to a lot of projects.

Page 2, on my easel’s scratchboard.

…and Auxaton at the bottom, just for you.

So this evening I had been reading entrepreneurial material and watching Ramit Sethi, one of my personal favorite money people, talk about creative entrepreneurship and ideas and clients and such. And I came across this article on About.com talking about manga-artists in North America, and how thoroughly screwed the industry is.

Simple fact of the matter is, unlike in Japan, the United States or even Canada (as far as I’m aware) have no magazines for aspiring comic artists to submit their short comics to. People who want to get their first work published don’t have anyone to send work to aside from talent searches, and the talent searches are often looking for a specific look. I know Yen Press and Top Cow are both running talent searches right now, but they both cater to exceptionally different art styles.

But as of yet, here in the States, there’s no real way for an aspiring comic artist to get their first work published. I was exceptionally lucky when I got my first story published in IF-X, but IF-X isn’t going to last long: they stayed local to Michigan and Ohio, and they’re down to the last two issues or so before the line is retired completely.

So my brain crack idea was this: what if there was a magazine, on closer to a national scope, that gave comic artists a place to publish their short stories?

There were similar ideas with the Flight anthologies, and that’s admirable, but they kept themselves to a particular group of friends. I would want to reach out to all aspiring comic artists regardless of artistic style: manga or superhero, noir or cartoon, or something else entirely. It would be professional and professional-looking.

But I got a lot of questions in mind about this idea, like…

Who will the magazine be marketed to? The consumers? Which consumers? Or do you market to editors? Or other comic makers?

And how would you pay for printing? Selling ad space in the magazine can be one way, but what other ways can be added to that?

Those are the ideas and questions I came up with tonight. What are some of your ideas, questions, concerns, etc? Let’s talk about it. :D

Boy do I feel bad for not updating sooner.

I have a legitimate excuse, though: I’ve been working on my webcomic.

Here is the first page before blacks and tones were added.

And here it is after…so far.

I’m still trying to figure out the lower two panels, and some adjustments have been made to the top panel since I took this photo. Lettering for this page will be added digitally. There are other technical things I could talk about, but I’ll leave those out for now.

And this comic WILL be hosted on SmackJeeves! I decided to go with SmackJeeves because they have an awesome community of creators and readers and the comics that are on there are fabulous. I wanted to help contribute to their awesomeness.

I’ve also been working on some other projects, too: an old professor of mine is commissioning me to be his assistant for the studio, and I’m painting a mural for my grandparents for Christmas. I want to get started on a commission for some friends of mine, but I have yet to see reference images from one of them. Le grrrrr.

As for the Storenvy: I have taken photos of some new merchandise, but the camera’s being a douche and won’t turn on half the time. Once technical difficulties have been solved, new products will be posted for sale.

That’s all for now. Don’t Forget to Be Awesome, and I will see you soon!

So I was going to make a post about moving back home and building a new shelf because I have entirely too much shit and talking about job hunting and how much easier it is to do here in the south of Ohio than it is in the north (I still don’t know why this is)…but I don’t feel like doing any of that.

Instead, I’m going to overburden you with the tyranny of links.

First, there’s ChrisOatley.com. If you are an aspiring concept artist or animator, you owe it to yourself to check this guy out, because that’s all he talks about. A lot of what he writes is encouragement for artists, but he does have some actually useful videos and digital painting tutorials. I think the more important part to his practice, though, is not so much the “How do you use these tools”, but the “why.” Very thoughtful.

There’s also The Paper Wings Podcast. If you want to make comics (LIKE I DO) or do some other kind of artistic storytelling, you NEED to subscribe to these guys. Chris Oatley is one of the co-hosts, but the other is Lora Innes, creator of the fabulously historical webcomic The Dreamer. The Paper Wings Podcast covers everything from how to actually make money (legitimately) from your webcomic, to gathering an inner circle of supporters and lots of other topics that are really freaking useful.

A fabulous webcomic you should read is It’s A Dead Man’s Party. Not only is the artistic style freaking gorgeous (especially as it goes on), but it’s one of the few webcomics I have found that actually has a kind of mythology incorporated into it, by which I mean it feels like what you’re reading are myths. Each chapter is a story of its own, and follows various characters’ lives that traverse through Purgatory. READ IT.

MangaMagazine.net is a new discovery (for me), and it has a lot of, at least artistically, good manga from independent creators. I’ve only read one story so far, Hell Kitchen, so I can’t attest to the quality of the rest of the comics. What made this stand out to me, though, was that the website touts a strong community and strong creator support, such as being featured on the main page and getting paid via advertising. I don’t know if this works, which is why I’m hesitant to join in this community, though it sounds promising.

And Fancy Owl’s store. Go there. Now. There is ALL THE BEAUTIFUL DIGITAL PAINTINGS. And they’re all ladies. Support them.

And last link to share, I opened a Storenvy store of my own, called We’re Magical Like That. I say “we” in the title because 1) everybody’s magical in some say, 2) my work and characters are mostly fantasy based, so there’s a lot of magic (dur), and 3) just in case any friends would like to share retail space with me, so it won’t be a one-woman operation anymore. So far I have only one thing listed for sale, and that is my “Ghost” mini-comic. For $1. I’ll be posting more things for sale soon, like the IF-X comic and some old prints I need to clear out of my inventory.

So there you go! Check those out, Don’t Forget to Be Awesome, and I will see you all tomorrow!

Things at my workplace have been…turbulent for me, to say the least. Some days are awesome, but others not. And I got tired of it.

So I gave my bosses a one-day notice and I’m packing up my stuff to head home today.

It’s a sudden shift, I admit. I originally planned to stay here at the amusement park until the season was over. But I feel that it’s for the better for my emotional and mental health if I left now instead of prolonging my stay.

I’m still job-hunting, but I feel like there’s a little less pressure now, for some strange reason. Probably because I’m headed home, where I know I’ll have a place to stay while I job-hunt. Do you know how much panic comes when you realize that any day you could be homeless? NOW I KNOW THAT PANIC and I want to avoid it as much as possible. Thankfully that edge is off for now.

Also, you may have noticed that there haven’t been any new sketches of original characters lately.

That’s because I’m cancelling the Daily Character Challenge.

The project was originally intended for me to try out new styles and such, but I got caught up in other projects, most notably prepping the launch of my webcomic. Plus, the Challenge wasn’t getting the feedback I was expecting. So I decided to cancel it in favor of pursuing other avenues that I know will pay off in the long run.

This includes the webcomic. Here’s a banner image I whipped up recently:

This is Jamie Roberts, the main lead in the story. She’s currently disguising herself as a boy to go to military school, so she might become a hero like her role model, Queen Norsa of Corith.

Of course, she created the name Jamie Roberts so she could create a new identity for herself, and also to hide from her parents who might search for her to get her back home, which is the LAST place she wants to be. Her two friends, Thomas and Daniel, keep her gender a secret so she can still attend the school.

There will be more to come, so keep your eyes peeled. :D I’ll post again once I’ve settled back home and a few other things.

In the meantime, Don’t Forget to Be Awesome!