Skook WiP #84

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Our Man Friday. Freya’s Day. FDay. Anyway.

Welcome! Glad to see you again.

These Days …

My desktop computer has been having issues for awhile now. It stops talking to my monitor with greater and greater frequency. I know the computer is still working because the monitor will often go to sleep in the middle of playing a video. Sound from the video keeps coming out of the computer’s speakers while the monitor is showing a black screen. I tried a variety of troubleshooting options and none of them fixed it so I took it in for repair.

I’d been thinking it was time to get a new computer but had been hoping that the old one could be propped up for a while longer. The folks at the computer place were happy to inform me that, after nine years, my machine was really too old to try to upgrade. I complained about planned obsolescence and things not lasting and the whippersnapper shrugged. That’s the world he’s always known. So I ordered a new machine. It arrives, hopefully, on Monday.

I took my old desktop back home, thinking I could use it until the new one showed up. Nope. It refuses to talk to the monitor at all now.

So I’m writing these notes on Sarah’s computer. I won’t be doing any Photoshop work until the new machine shows up. I can’t post any of my illustrations to any of my social media either. All my files are on the old machine.

So I’m reading books. Writing on paper. Working on the first of the Mighty Nizz komix. I’ve finished the thumbnails and I’ll be able to lay out the story in basic pencils. If I get that all done I’ll have to work on a different story for awhile. I can’t currently scan the layouts or make and print bluelines. Our scanners and printers are all connected to my computer and my computer is the only one with graphics programs.

Living in the 20th Century wasn’t too bad the first time. I’m currently managing this revisit fairly well.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of rocks. Boulders. Floating in uncharted space. Or something.
This design is available in both my Zazzle and my Redbubble stores. I’m foregoing links this issue. Rest assured, there will be links next week.

Face My Face

I decided it was time to make a new avatar for my online presences, a self portrait rather than a photo or a random illustration. Below is a scan of the physical art.

And here is the final, cleaned up, color version.
It’s not available on anything. I have a healthy ego but I don’t imagine anyone is interested in purchasing a product just because my face is on it. If I’m wrong, feel free to let me know.

Thank you for reading. I hope your week has gone well and next week is looking even better.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #83

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TGIF! (Because saying Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster It’s Friday takes too long and no one would recognize the abbreviation.)

Has your week been fantastic? If your state votes by mail or allows early voting I hope you’ve taken advantage of that and cast your ballot. Otherwise, I hope your trip to the polls is an easy one.

These Days –

I have been on vacation all this week. We tend to stay around home for vacations. Travel is fun and educational but it’s also tiring and a bit stressful. Right now I’m a big fan of as little stress as possible.

I got and finished a commission for a three page black and white comic. It’s the first comic I’ve finished in … years. David Mann wrote it, I did everything else. David had put out a call for an artist in his newsletter. I offered up my website and my Redbubble design page as my portfolio and got the job. He posted it to his Tumblr and Twitter accounts almost immediately after I sent him the finished pages so I’m posting those here. I’m leaving it to him to write a process post.

On Sunday I attended a figure drawing class. Live figure drawing has been a good way for me to sharpen my observation skills. It’s easy to get in the habit of drawing things the way I think they look rather than how they are actually constructed. My first figure drawing classes, many years ago, helped my illustration skills improve immensely. Since then I’ve taken classes or dropped in on open drawing sessions when I’ve started to feel like I need a jump start on my skills. It was the first of what will be six in person sessions. The in person part was important both for me and for the teacher. For me, drawing in person gives me the ability to adjust my position and move around so I can better understand how to draw the model. Drawing from photos is helpful but you can’t change the angle if you want to see something better. The teacher was excited because we were in a new building and this was the first in person adult class that she had taught in two years.

The rest of my time has been spent catching up on chores and attending to medical things. I’ve had check ups on how my eyes are healing (and got a prescription for distance glasses), teeth cleanings and the last of my physical therapy sessions for my knee. As these physical issues have gotten handled I’m starting to think of getting out of the house more. I’ll be testing my new night vision for the first time today. Most nights we’re in bed around seven. The sun is still up. Tonight we might be out after dark. I’ll be driving familiar roads so I don’t expect to have any difficulty but this will a new experience.

Mugshots

This week’s image was suggested partly by one of my nephews. He asked me to draw a zombie T-Rex. I wanted a design that would fit on a mug so I paired the undead dinosaur with a robot version.

This design can be found on a mug in my Zazzle store
and a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Beware the Nizz

I was filing the stacks of art that have grown around my drawing space and I came across an unfinished illustration of the Mighty Nizz staring down a wild pig. I inked it up and colored it and it can be found in my stores. I may still make a process GIF of this one but, for now, I’m just showing the black and white on paper version …

And the final color image.

It’s apparently hot all over the country this week. I hope you manage to stay cool.
Thank you for reading.
See you in seven!

Skook WiP #82

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Friday!

Newsletter!

No process GIFs this week. This week’s designs are abstracts. Process GIFs seem most fun when they are presenting the evolution of a specific illustration from sketch to finished design.











These designs can be found on mugs in my Zazzle store.
And on a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

I hope the previous week treated you well and that the coming week treats you even better!

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #80

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This week I’m going to let the pictures carry the newsletter. Less is more, silence is golden, I’m sure I’ve already said too much.

This design is available on a mug in the Zazzle store
and various schtuff in the Redbubble store.
The large design below is used on the schtuff that have more room for display.


Another glimpse at Kaiju Weather –

And that’s it for this week. In and out.
I hope things are good on your slice of reality. Not too hot, not too cold, just enough kittens.

Skook WiP #79

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Good morning! It’s great to see you again. Without glasses! I hope the week has been treating you well. I hope you’ve been treating yourself well when the week has been poorly behaved.

These Days …

I’ve had the last week off from the USPS to let my right eye recover from cataract surgery. The surgery was on the 24th and I was not supposed to bend over or lift heavy things for at least seven days afterward. My eyesight is greatly improved. Having both eyes done feels less dramatic than when I’d first had the left eye done. I had a few weeks to get used to better eyesight with one eye before I got better better eyesight overall. My brain has just shrugged and accepted the new normal and is quickly forgetting how blurry and dull things looked just back in May. I’m finding myself a little disappointed in my own shortage of wonder. This is modern medicine! This is great!

I’m expecting to get new glasses so I can see better at distances but I’m not yet feeling a rush to get them. I’ve been getting used to reading and drawing with the new peepers. Reading is pretty easy. Drawing requires a little more work. Things line up, the images are clear but something still feels a little off. The more I practice the more I train my brain to understand the new now. Practice, practice.

My jaw is still recovering from last week’s dental surgery. Less pain over all but the right side, where I had two molars removed, is still protesting.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is for an abstract design. I mostly do illustrations of specific events, critters or places but I’ve been challenging myself to do create designs that … are different? I’m not sure how to put it. All art appeals to emotions. Abstract art does that differently than representational art. It also looks good on products in ways that illustrations can’t.

This design is available on a mug in my Zazzle store
and all sorts of other schtuff in my Redbubble store.

The Weather Report

Another concept/promo illustration for Kaiju Weather my in-development graphic novel featuring giant monsters. I’ll be doing (and publishing) comics that feature the Mighty Nizz before much of this one sees light but progress is being made. This design can be purchased on schtuff in my Redbubble store.

May your next week be better than this one. (Even if this one was already greater. There are no limits on good.)

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #78

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Greetings and salutations! It’s great to see you again! Is that a new hat? I love it. It goes well with your eyes!

These Days …

Supposedly there’s a Chinese curse that goes, “May you live in interesting times.” A quick googling (actually Duck Duck Go but “Duck2Going” doesn’t verb as well) reveals that the phrase is another one of those fortune cookiesque statements of Western origin that gets attributed to the Wise and Mysterious East. I don’t remember anyone tossing the curse my way but this week was far more interesting than I like.

On Monday I had dental surgery. The Pandemic and the retirement of my previous dentist had me putting off an appointment for awhile. One errant tooth on the lower jaw started encouraging its companions to join it in being loose and groovy and I couldn’t put things off any longer. Not being able to take bites of ones food does give one focus. I had an emergency exam last month and scheduled an appointment for this week. Now I have spaces in my mouth and my tongue has stitches to poke at. When this heals (and the upper jaw has been worked on) I’ll be getting some plastic substitute ivories. Until then pandemic health cautions (wearing a damned mask) hide the gaps in my grimace.

The dental stuff was more or less expected. X-rays from my previous dentist had told me that my jaw was losing its love for some of my teeth. Wednesday’s emergency room visit was more of a surprise.

I started having … brain fog … in the late morning. I was at work, delivering my route. Some of the addresses on some of the mail started looking unfamiliar. As the day went on the distance between my physical memory and my mental memory got wider. My body knew where to go and where to deliver. My brain was having trouble recognizing names and addresses. I managed to finish my route. I think I delivered everything correctly.

I had a follow up dental appointment scheduled for a half an hour after work. I remember sitting my car trying to remember where my dentist’s office was located. I knew it was somewhere in the same mall as the Post Office that I work at. That’s part of why I chose that dentist in the first place. I kept thinking it was in one building but every time I looked at the building I couldn’t see any signs for my dentist. I finally had to google the location on my phone. I had been looking at the wrong building.

I vaguely remember going to the dentist. I don’t remember going home afterward. Sarah tells me I had enchiladas for dinner. That I kept asking her the same questions over and over. That I couldn’t remember why I was missing teeth. That I couldn’t remember names of former roommates or birthdays of old friends. That I had forgotten that I’m officiating a wedding in October. We got a ride to the emergency room. I had a CAT scan and, when that didn’t show any obvious problems, I had an MRI. While going through the ER process my memory started knitting itself together. I remember the MRI. I remember that the doctors didn’t find any clear cause for my memory problems. I remember that they sent me home with a referral for a neurologist.

I took Thursday off from work. I felt mostly fine. I had pain in my jaw from the tooth extractions but I could think clearly and remember what was happening as it happened.

Yesterday I had my second cataract surgery. My memories of the first surgery had been vague and surreal. The anesthesiologist told me I was more likely to remember this second surgery. I don’t remember it at all. I remember asking a nurse when the surgery was going to happen and being told it was already done. I’m okay not remembering that. I’m not supposed to remember much about the surgery.

I have the next week off from work to let my eye heal. I’m not supposed to lean over or lift anything heavier than five pounds for the next few days. Right now I’m wearing a plastic eye shield and my right eye sees halos around all the lights. I’ve got an appointment with my eye doctor later today to evaluate how the eye is healing.

Mugshots

This week’s design is of strange worshippers of odd gods. Or maybe they’re alien treasure hunters who have located their prize. Or maybe they’re extradimensional beings playing a game. Or maybe … That final image in the process GIF didn’t come out well. Below is what the gradients look like in the actual art.

The above design is available:
On a mug in my Zazzle store.
On a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

The Weather Report

Below is another of my concept/promo illustrations for Kaiju Weather, my in-process graphic novel featuring giant monsters.

This image is available on schtuff in my Redbubble store.

My apologies for posting late this week. Hopefully I’ll be on time next time. Hopefully the next few days will not be interesting.

I hope that, if the next week is interesting for you, it’s because you’ve it sought out and are enjoying it. Take care and take care of those you care about. See you again soon.

Skook WiP #77

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I am currently badly sketching random things. It seems to be part of the creative process. It happens every time I finish a large progect. I rest a bit. Do things other than draw. Then I have to learn to draw something I like again.

This means I have to sketch a bunch of random things until I feel comfortable sketching again. The sketches look bad to me because they don’t look like what I’m seeing in my head. They’re probably fine. They’re just not what I want.

Once I’m comfortable sketching again I start sketching specific things. I usually have a number of projects planned (if not simultaneously in process) so it’s easy to pick one. After I’ve chosen a project I start sketching specific characters, scenes and objects that will appear in that project. When I have enough base and concept sketches/ideas worked out, I start sketching the illustrations/designs/pages that will be the physical versions of the final images.

I usually try to do a small stack of sketches before I start turning them into the final art. Each project is different but, these days, for each image, I usually do:
1) a rough sketch with a nonphoto blue pencil
2) a tight graphite (B) pencil sketch over the original blue pencil sketch
3) scan the graphic sketch into the computer. In Photoshop, increase the size and convert it to a blueline image. Print it out.
4) If the image is mostly what I intended I start inking. If a little work is needed I add changes/details to the printout with my nonphoto blue pencil and then ink. If the image needs a lot more work I go over it with my graphic pencil and then repeat step 3 (without needing to blow up the image again).
5) When the inking is done I scan the image. I will use this scan to create the tight black lines of the final image.
6) I then add shading and tones to the original inks. I might use pencils. I might use markers. It depends on the effect I’m trying to acchieve.
7) I scan in the toned version and get to work in Photoshop. Colors. Layers. Electric voodoo.

I’ve been making process GIFs of the stages of my individual designs and posting them in this newsletter.

For instance:

Mugshots

This is a design that got away from me. It’s my version of Glinda from Steve Ahlquist’s Oz Squad. I’d originally intended to just depict the upper body of the character. I did the first sketch so that she would fit on a coffee mug. As I went from step 1 to step 7 I thought it would be fun to expand the design to a full body image that would better work on a t-shirt or as a poster. 

Because the image no longer fit well on a mug it’s not available in my Zazzle store. Other Oz Squad related designs are. At some point I should probably create a t-shirt version for that store.
It is available on schtuff in my Redbubble store.

The Weather Report

Here’s another concept/promo image for my Kaiju Weather project. Since it’s planned as a graphic novel the process of creating it is a bit more complex than just making a series of images. I’m past the point of having ideas but still working on creating a story that works with those ideas.

This image is available in my Redbubble store.

Time to go back to sketching. My next big project is a series of comics featuring the Mighty Nizz. It’s going to be a lot of fun once I get through making bad drawings.

Thank you for reading. I hope life is treating you well. Be as good as you can to your friends and loved ones. And yourself. Remember to treat yourself as well as your friends and loved ones.

See you next week!

Skook WiP #76

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Friday. The sixth day of the week. The last day before the weekend. Assuming that you’re one of those folks who somehow has a Monday to Friday work week. Thank you for reading. Feel free to share/forward this newsletter to anyone you think would enjoy it.

These Days …

There is a moment in every workday when I have the thought – This is weird. How did I get here?

I mean, I know how I got the job as a mail carrier. I applied. There was a procedure to follow and I followed it and got hired.

It’s just … weird. I put on a uniform. I sort mail and organize mail and parcels at a station with a few dozen other folks who wear similar uniforms. I drive a truck with the controls on the right side of the vehicle. I deliver propaganda and advertising and magazines and catalogs and personal notes and other printed materials to a series of metal boxes. I deliver parcels into those metal boxes if the parcels are small. If the parcels are large I deliver them to the front door of the address on the label. I pick up outgoing mail and parcels and carry them back to my station for distribution and delivery elsewhere. I do this five days a week.

In 21st Century America this isn’t really that odd. I’ve had jobs that required wearing a uniform. Lots of folks have such jobs. And delivering stuff is a booming industry these days.

As a kid I thought being a mail carrier would be a cool job. I just didn’t aspire to work as a mail carrier. There were times in the past when I might have applied for the job but USPS wasn’t hiring.

I think the reason this feels weird is that having the job seems like a random event. Nine years ago I applied for a lot of different jobs. This is the one that had a process that kept me engaged. None of the other businesses had a process. None of them responded. All of those businesses are now hiring. As is the Post Office. If I were looking for work today would the results be the same?

The thought only lasts a few moments and then I go back to thinking of what I want to draw next or trying not to think about the lastest earworm that’s dancing in my head. I know I will have the thought tomorrow.

Mugshots

Today’s process GIF is of fish. None of the fish depicted here are actual species. At least as far as I know.  I might have accidentally drawn a real fish. Or maybe one or two will be inspired to evolve based on this illustration.

This design is available:
On mugs in my Zazzle store.
On schtuff in my Redbubble store.

The Weather Report

Below is another concept/promo image for Kaiju Weather, my (still gestating) graphic novel featuring giant monsters. It’s available on schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Today is the first day of my Long Weekend when my rotating days off synergize to give me three days off in a row. I plan to celebrate by taking a nap.

May you be getting all the rest you need and all the joy you want.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #75

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Friday, June 3rd.

You’ve made it through another week! Congratulations! While we were going about our days, the planet upon which we live traveled about 11.2 million miles.

Think about that.

These Days …

I’m going back to work this morning. I’ve taken a week off to make sure my left eye has fully healed from last week’s surgery. It feels like it has. I saw the doctor on Wednesday and he thought it was in good shape. So … back to carrying mail.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of a gathering of robots. These are not our robot overlords. These are the working class types who either befriend us or act as henchfolk to the ambitious mechs. You could have beer with these chaps and most of them wouldn’t try to disassemble you.

As usual, this design is available as a mug in my Zazzle store and on all sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

A Weather Report

In the far too distant future I will start drawing the Kaiju Weather graphic novel. I’ve been thinking about it for years. I own the URL. I’ve done character designs and concept sketches. Below is one of the promo pieces I did for practice a couple of years ago. Because … capitalism … it’s available on schtuff in my Redbubble store. One of these days I’ll need to put it on the actual Kaiju Weather website.

And that’s it for today. Good luck today. And tomorrow and every day after. Wish me luck at work!

May the next 11.2 million miles go by gently!