Skook WiP #105

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Happy Last Days of 2022!

I used to spend the first few weeks of each year forgetting that the year had changed. I’d write the previous year in all the places I should be writing the current year. For a minute I was going to congratulate myself on training myself to remember the change better. Then I looked at the corner of my screen. There is today’s date. If I looked at my phone it would show me today’s date. Drat. I haven’t gotten better at the remembering that the year has changed, computers just tell me, repeatedly, what day it is.

These Days

I have gotten very little drawing done in the last week. I mucked up my fingertips last Friday pealing ice off my car. “Freezing rain” had been predicted for Friday. Never having experienced freezing rain I didn’t know what to expect. What we got was ice on everything. Our driveway was a sheet of ice. The lawn was a sheet of ice. Our car was shrinkwrapped in ice. I always park the car on the side of the street when I know we’ll have cold weather. I’d intended to go to work. Getting into the car was pretty easy. The doors weren’t so frozen that I couldn’t open them. But the ice on the car, and especially on the windows, was determined to stay in play. I spent 45 minutes running the engine and the defrost, alternately sitting in the car and getting out to pull off sheets of ice. While I was doing it I was having fun. It was a new experience and I do enjoy unwrapping things.

The road by our house seemed drivable. I made it two blocks, almost to the main intersection before I decided that going farther was a bad idea. Someone’s car was stuck at the intersection. A woman had tried to make it somewhere, realized that it was a bad idea and parked in the road with her hazard lights on. I parked on the side of the road, under a tree where the ice hadn’t collected. After checking to make sure the woman was okay (she was waiting on her husband to come help) I walked back home. Very carefully. I had slip on cleats over my boots but those aren’t meant for walking on thick hard ice. I walked most of the way in the road. No cars were on it so it was safer than the sidewalks and lawns.

I didn’t try to walk down our drive. I sat down and slid. I got a cold wet butt. Better that than bruises or worse from falling. Warmer rain was predicted for the afternoon. I thought I might be able to go to work later. Rain did come, but not until dark and by then I’d changed out of my uniform and settled in.

Out in the cold my fingers had gotten numb. I was wearing fingerless gloves so my palms were comfortable. It was only as my fingers warmed up that I realized how raw the tips had gotten from picking at and pulling off the ice on the car. A lot of regular actions became painful. Buttoning my shirts. Opening pill bottles. Unwrapping bandaids. Anything that involved using the tips of my fingers in a sustained effort was painful. I could type. The contact between fingertip and key was brief enough that the pain was minimal. Holding a pencil, pen or brush – nope.

So I’ve spent time thinking, getting ahead on newsletters and planning for next year. And, oh, right, having Christmas (the day itself and the day after, a federal holiday) to eat and celebrate and hang out with friends, family and Sarah.

I did deliver mail on Christmas Eve. In pouring rain. Safer than ice but … yuck. Only about a third of our stations carriers made it in so a lot of routes didn’t get delivered. We focused on getting parcels out and it looked like most of those that had been sorted actually made it to their destinations. There were still palettes of parcels that needed to be distributed. Some of that got handled by folks on the Overtime Desired List on the 26th. The rest of it was waiting for us when most of us came back on the 27th.

I worked 15 hours on the 27th.

I worked 13.5 hours on the 28th.

I had the day off on the 29th. I spent that running errands and making lasagna.

Today? I have no idea how long I will work today. I’m guessing it will be more than 8 hours.

Mugshots

For the last mug design of 2022 I visited with the Misspent Youths gang. I always have fun hanging with them. I did the main illustration so it fit on a mug. I added the logo for t-shirts and other products that allow for more design space.

Mugs can be found in my Zazzle store.

This design is on a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Sunday will be the first day of 2023. This is my last newsletter of 2022. Next year I’m changing the title and adjusting the format. I’ll get into the reasons why and what to expect in the first issue.

I hope that your year is ending on good notes. May next year be bright and warm!

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #104

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Merry Merry!

Christmas Eve is tomorrow. I’ll be out in the cold and rain (we got snow earlier in the week but none is predicted for this weekend) delivering mail. And presents! Even if the boxes in my truck clearly cat litter and dog food I’m going to assume that they are gifts for someone.

Postal carriers get Christmas Day off. We’ll open presents in the morning and then I’ll be helping Sarah cook and clean in preparation for guests.

Monday I’ll be back at work. I’m expecting the 26th to be as busy as any day before Christmas. I expect we’ll be continuing to start at 6 am until the New Year.

I’ve been getting up at my usual time to write. It’s a habit I want to maintain. I’ve gotten less actual writing done than I’d like but something is better than nothing.

I’ve gotten even less artwork done. The cat has decided that I need to play with him after work and he’s happy to walk on my drawing table until I do so. It’s hard to ink and shoo away a demanding feline at the same time.

I’m making plans for 2023. I’ll write about those next week. If my brain lets me.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF harkens back to a simpler holiday – Halloween. Or perhaps just the general fall season. Whatever the case, these ladies know how to get around.

This design is available on:
A mug in my Zazzle store.
All sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

That’s it for this week. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope yours is as merry and joyous as you need it to be. If you just have the day off, celebrate something!

Thank you for reading. See you in seven!

Skook WiP #103

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Feliz Navidad!
Nollaig Shona Dhuit!
Joyeux Noël!
Zalig Kerstfeest!
Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Buon Natale!
Milad Mubarak!
Mo’adim Lesimkha!
Gëzuar Krishlindjet!
Eftihismena Christougenna!
Sretan Bozic!
Merii Kurisumasu!
Sing dan fiy loc!
Sung Tan Chuk Ha!
Kung His Hsin Nien Bing Chu Shen Tan!
Chuc Mung Giang Sinh!
Sawasdee Pee Mai!
Merry Christmas!
in ten days anyway. Until then … I was going to write “Bah Humbug!” but I’m too tired to feel that strongly. Neither am I interested in dumping snow on someone else’s good time. I’ve spent a good chunk of my working life in retail or customer service jobs and this is a busy, busy time of year. At my station, we carriers are starting work at six am (start time is normally seven), grabbing all the large packages that the clerks have sorted and taking them out for delivery in the dark and rain.

It’s actually kind of fun. Just delivering parcels is simpler than the usual combo of mail, parcels, magazines, flyers and everything else. I’m working my own route so I know all the addresses, have keys to all the buildings and know how to arrange delivery order for highest efficiency. There are usually a few large packages that didn’t get sorted before I left that still need delivery with the mail, small parcels, magazines, flyers and everything else but only a few. Regular delivery goes much faster when I can sort, carry and deliver the small parcels with the rest of the mail into the mailboxes and not have to also schlep the larger parcels to someone’s porch, or worse, up three flights of stairs and down a long hallway. I’d be happy if we continued this arrangement after the holidays.

More parcels means longer hours. I’m continuing the habit of writing when I first awake but I’ve got less time to do it before I have to uniform up. And I’ve got less energy to draw after work.

Sooooo … I really do hope y’all are enjoying yourselves. The great thing about delivering packages is that my customers actually want them. The rest of the mail – the bills, the ads, the catalogs and Red Plums? They’re usually less excited about that. Parcels though, that’s stuff they asked for or that someone they like has sent them. At least at this time of year I feel like I’m presenting folks with things they welcome rather than more paper for them to recycle.

Mugshots

Today’s process GIF – Princess Ozma is a cat person. A big cat person. Or person who likes really big cats. Here she’s flanked by the so-called Cowardly Lion and the always Hungry Tiger.

This design can be found:
On a mug in my Zazzle store.
On a bunch of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for enduring my complaints. Feel free to send me yours.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #102

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Greetings from the Pacific Northwest!

I’ve been feeling kinda brain dead the last few mornings. I get up, pour myself a mug of coffee and stagger down the hall to my studio. I sit at my computer and stare at the screen for a bit. Spending November writing on Daughter of Spiders was great for building the habit of writing each day. Writing instead of scrolling my social media feeds. A bunch of bad writing at least feels like I’ve made an effort. Social media scrolling can be fun and I enjoy snarking with folks but I rarely feel like I’ve accomplished anything.

I’ve gotten a bit stalled on the actual story of Daughter so I’ve been spending some time writing background i.e. world building. How much of it will end up in the story? I’ll know when I write more of the story I guess.

This morning I’m writing to y’all.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a meeting on the road, travelers exchanging stories and giving directions.

This design can be found:
On a mug in my Zazzle store
On a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store

Mighty Nizz

The last page of the first Mighty Nizz comic posted on Wednesday. Below is what the art looked like when I scanned it into Photoshop. Go here to see what the final art looks like.

I’m currently inking the next Nizz story. It’s eighteen pages. I work on art in the evenings after work and as I have time on the days that the post office isn’t using my body to shlep around mail. I’m expecting to be able to post the first page on February 1st. I prefer to have the whole story finished before I show off any of it.

Thank you for reading. The nights are getting longer. Stay warm. Have some hot chocolate. Or eggnog. Toast to the good days and laugh at the bad.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #101

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Welcome back!

These Days

It’s dark. Dark when I’m writing this. Dark when I go to work at USPS. Getting dark again when I finish my deliveries. We even had some dustings of snow. I suspect that it’s winter.

It’s the 2nd of December. I kinda sorta participated in National Novel Writing Month in November by expanding Daughter of Spiders. When I first thought of adding to Daughter  I’d planned to just be making the original 2013 posts a bit longer and more detailed. They were all very short – hints at stories rather than stories themselves. Once I started writing? I found myself turning those short memoir excerpts into complete chapters. No, I didn’t write 50,000 words. I didn’t expect to. I haven’t added up what I did write. I’d rather not know just yet. I did find that, if I continue expanding each post in the same way, I’ll probably write at least 400,00 words. That likely means that my intention of posting a new version of Daughter, complete with new illustrations, in 2025 is probably optimistic.

In order to make time to write I took myself off all my social media. I’m only on a few platforms – Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. Staying off Twitter was easy. I haven’t posted anything myself in years. I get links to tweets emailed to me by Twitter in hopes of getting me to come to the site. Last month I just deleted the emails without opening them. Tumblr and Facebook took a little more effort to ignore. I see a lot of artwork that I like and am inspired by on Tumblr. I like wishing people happy birthday and snarking on folks’ posts on Facebook. I used to wake up by drinking coffee and scrolling my feeds. In November I drank coffee and wrote. By the time I had to make breakfast and get in my uniform I … had feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment from … well … accomplishing something. Having accomplished something at day’s beginning makes spending 9+ hours delivering marketing and propaganda (and parcels) a lot easier. So, while I’m not committing to a strict fast of social media, I am going to maintain the habit of just writing in the mornings.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features Medusa tending to some of her permanent guests. I like Medusa. She’s a sympathetic monster, one of many of the victims of the Greek gods.

This design can be found –
On a mug in my Zazzle store
On a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store

Mighty Nizz

Below is the scan of the physical art for the 9th page of the first Mighty Nizz comic. The final version of the page can be read at the site.

I’ve finished the pencils for the next Mighty Nizz story. Inking, shading and coloring will take a while but they are in progress. I prefer to have a whole story finished before posting the first page. That’s likely to be sometime in January or February. I’ll keep you updated.

‘Tis the Season

Christmas is coming up. If you know someone that you think would like my illustrations on schtuff, now is the time to order that schtuff. Heck, if you’d like a present for yourself, go for it! The sooner the better. Give the folks at Zazzle or Redbubble time to make it and send it.

I’ll see you next week.

Take care. Take flight!

Skook WiP #100

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Greetings!

It’s the day after Thanksgiving. Hopefully you celebrated like a human instead of a Puritan. Those guys were jerks.

I am celebrating the 100th issue of the Skook Works in Progress Newsletter by mentioning that this is the 100th issue of the newsletter and otherwise moving on. Yay!

For NaNoWriMo I am expanding the text of Daughter of Spiders. New illustrations will get done as time permits. (The first time took almost two years.)

Otherwise –

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a collection of dangerous women. Dangerous women are good. Don’t let sad men tell you otherwise.

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

Also –

This second process GIF is of another dangerous woman. I’d originally planned this image as another mug design but once I started rendering her a full body portrayal seemed like a better direction.

You can find her on schtuff in the Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

Page eight of the first Mighty Nizz story can be seen at MightyNizz.com. This is a scan of the physical art. The final (cleaned up) color version is at the site.
Until next time
Jump
Climb
and ambush the creatures who threaten to do you harm.
Hug and cuddle those who just want to be good company.

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #99

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November 18th. I hope you are well. Well groomed, well fed, and well thought of.

I’m working at updating and expanding Daughter of Spiders for NaNoWriMo. It’s taking the majority of my words this month.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF is of an illustration of the sort of tree you want to have around if you want to read outside on a dark night.

This design can be found on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
All sorts of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The seventh page of the first Mighty Nizz story can be read now. A scan of the original art is below. The colored version is at MightyNizz.com.

Thanksgiving is next week. Be the best company you can. Eat as much as makes you happy. Reject the Puritan strain that infects American Culture. Those guys were anti-fun.

See you on the day after!

Skook WiP #98

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It’s 11/11/22. It’s the 11th day of the 11th month. The war to end all wars ended today back in 1918.

Yeah. No comment.

I’m off social media and putting my best efforts into updating Daughter of Spiders as my project for NaNoWriMo. Any internet use has to be for historical research for the story. No current news. No gossip. No reviews of old b-movies.

Mugshots

This month’s process GIF features a girl and her dragon. Or perhaps a dragon and her girl. Or maybe the tragic death of a lollypop. It’s all a matter of perspective.

It’s available as:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A lot of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story is up. The scan of the original art is below. The final colored version can be seen at MightyNizz.com.

Versus

Back in October I was commissioned to do a portrait of someone, a friend of a friend. The initial suggestion was to portray the fellow taking out a giant bug.
The commissioner also thought it might be fun to portray his friend as Katsuki Bakugo (a character from the anime My Hero Academia) fighting Meruem (a character from the anime Hunter x Hunter).
My client gave me the choice of depicting either scenario. I sent him sketches for both and asked him to choose his favorite. He went with the anime version.
I worked up pencils for the portrait. I’m not familiar with either of the animes from which these characters originate so I had to do some research to get their details right. I think I did fairly well.

Once I got approval on the pencils I moved on to inks and then spot blacks and shading.
Below is the final version. I had to be a little more careful with this project than with illustrations that are intended for print. I can fix errors on those pieces digitally. The physical art for this one went to the client so it had to be as clean and mistake free as possible.
That’s it for this week.

Take care. Take charge. Take flight.

See you next Friday!

Skook WiP #97

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How are you doing? Are you getting enough to eat? Getting enough rest? Did you vote?

It’s the fourth day of November. That means I’m four days into expanding Briar Rose Taylor’s memoirs. I’m not expecting to get the 50,000 words written necessary to turn Daughter of Spiders into a novel. I’m using National Novel Writing Month as a prompt to get work done now that otherwise I’d do … someday. I’m putting in at least an hour first thing in the morning before breakfast, chores and then doing time at USPS. In the evenings I’m having dinner, hanging out with Sarah and illustrating the next Mighty Nizz story. I’m taking a break from social media. I’m writing the bulk of all of November’s newsletters in October and doing quick additions and edits before they actually post.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a space station with infinite living space. Infinite corridors anyway. For infinite running from infinitely hungry aliens.

This design is available on:
A mug at my Zazzle store
All kinds of schtuff at my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

The latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story is live at MightyNizz.com. A scan of the physical art is below. The final, color version of this page can be seen at the website.

A New Mouse

Part of the advantage of print on demand is that I can change the designs if I think of ways to improve them and I’m not stuck with a bunch of stock I don’t want to sell. I recently started wearing a t-shirt with the image below emblazoned on it. At the end of the first day I thought of a way to improve the design.
Below is the new version. It’s available on all sorts of stuff in my Redbubble store. Both the original (because it looks better on some products than the update) and the new version are available in my Zazzle store.
Have a great week!

See you in seven!

Skook WiP #96

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Greetings and salutations!

This issue and, most likely, November’s newsletters, will be shorter on personal news than previous issues. In order to give myself time for NaNoWriMo in November I’m writing at least the basics of the letters in October. Given that I have no powers of prognostication I’ll be leaving off the “These Days” sections. Let’s just pretend that I’m having fun delivering mail and getting lots of writing done in my off hours.

Mugshots

This month’s process GIF is … hmmm. One of those images that came to me without any explanation. I’m sure there’s a story to be told here but I’ll leave it you to start it.
This design can be found on:
A mug in my Zazzle store
A variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Mighty Nizz

Below is the scan of the latest page of the first Mighty Nizz story. The finished color page can be found here.

Sketches

Practice, practice.

Daughter of Spiders

I’ll be setting up a gallery (or galleries) for the illustrations featured in this project. The text will be going away on November 1st. If you’d like to read it before then I recommend starting here.

I hope your week goes smoothly and is dotted with plenty of joyful moments.

See you in seven!