No post today and maybe not tomorrow. I want the next one to be the finished version of the Weirdsmith but I’ve run into a snag in getting it off my backup.

Glenn tagged me with this meme last year. I didn’t respond right away and the more time passed the harder it got to respond. Now Schuyler has tagged me. It looks like the rules have changed a bit in the months since Glenn first sent it my way.

Here are the details: Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you’re tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here goes.

1. I take great comfort in the idea that the universe is bigger than I can imagine, that the Earth is a tiny little speck in the midst of it and that a thousand years after I’m dead no one will remember or care that I was ever here.

2. I see things. Dinosaurs walking down the street. Squid climbing trees. The skeleton beneath your skin and the writhing demon in your skull. These aren’t hallucinations. I don’t mistake them for reality.

3. I used to do dangerous things when no one was looking. Explore abandoned buildings. Walk off into the woods at night. Walk through bad neighborhoods. I’ve never needed peer pressure to be stupid. I’m really more likely to be stupid by myself. I do it less now mostly because I just don’t have as much time as I used to.

4. I have a guardian angel. It’s got multiple wings and claws and teeth and just because it love me that doesn’t mean it’s going to make my life easy. Yes, I’m an agnostic. No, I don’t see any contradiction.

5. When I was a kid I noticed that old people had a lot of wrinkles. Old people who frowned a lot and didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves had less attractive wrinkles than those who smiled and had a good time with life. So I’ve spent a lot of time smiling and being cheerful for vanity’s sake. I want good looking wrinkles.

6. It usually takes me forever to decide someone is a friend. Well, not forever, years. I used have a hard time talking to strangers or new acquaintances because I figured they wouldn’t be around long enough to be friends so it didn’t make sense to spend the time with them. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself when some stranger talked to me. It always amazed me that my dad would strike up a conversation with people standing next to him in line.

I’ve tagged Leif, Jenn, Kip, Mad Dog, Nick (though I couldn’t seem to add a comment to any of his entries so he’ll have to find out about it here) and, because maybe having two people pointing at her will make her jump – Ninnah.

Ah zombies. Who doesn’t love these shambling echoes of humanity? Who doesn’t delight in waving their tasting limbs in front of these sad creatures, laughing as they lurch after us. What a merry chase!

The finished version of this piece is in my Epilogue gallery. All the finishing was done in Photoshop.

The finished version of this piece is in my Epilogue gallery. Other than Henry (Frankenstein’s creation) and Archie (the manticore) none of these creatures have names.

The finished version of this illustration is in my Epilogue gallery. Most of the time I ink a piece before I scan it in. Many of the illustrations I did for the Sentient 39 sequence I experimented with inking them in Photoshop using my WACOM tablet. The results aren’t bad but, really, I like using a brush or a pen and making marks on paper. So the WACOM tablet gets used when I color but most of the base of an illustration is finished before I scan it.

This is a Nooknook, one of an intelligent species living on an icy world. The Nooknook are six limbed herbivores. Nizzibet loaned them to me one day and I’ve never given them all the back.

The finished version of this illustration can be found in my Epilogue.net gallery.

My next idea for a webcomic was less about doing a comic and more about doing a themed, regularly updated portfolio site. My plan was to get a year’s worth of entries done and then start posting. Since I planned to post once a week that didn’t seem too difficult. All the illustrations were to be of scenes from my Sentient39 universe. Since that universe is vast and highly varied I didn’t see myself running out of material for years.

A finished version of this piece does appear in the webcomic that I did start.

In 2002 I set out to do a webcomic. The first idea I remember considering; represented here, was a series about a woman wandering through a decayed surreal landscape. There was to be little or no dialogue. I had about 50 or 60 episodes thumbnailed out before I started drawing the episodes here.

It would have been fun to draw but it didn’t grab me enough for me to be willing to commit myself to it as a long term project.

And here is the second nude. This one is a male.

Oh.

I bet you already figured that out.

I did this piece at the beginning of November last year. I needed some Photoshop coloring practice. Most of the color work I’ve done has had a greytone base to give the drawing weight. I’m trying to develop a coloring style that’s just layers of color. I’ve seen color done that way that’s wonderfully rich and vibrant.

I did this one after the Mutant Bug.

Sigh. I think the Bug was a more successful illustration. Probably because I’ve spent more time drawing hideous monsters than pretty women. Practice, practice.