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Merry X-mas 2011

Merriment abounds. I am pretty much going to try and lay low today before making the trek to the northern woodlands of Pardeeville Wisconsin to see family. I will be hitting the interstate around 8am X-mas day. Should be good.

These were gifts for family members that I thought turned out alright. Yeah I am a cheapskate and make paintings rather than buy gifts. That's how I roll.

Ninth Gate Vogue and a crook of the neck

Hey-O

So I have been swamped with stuff for the holidays. Steve Schnauzer #1 print files are out! Just waiting for the books to show up at my doorstep. I have a bit of work to do on The Carriers and then I am done with that too.

The first image was done as a commission for a guy I work with. He really digs the movie The Ninth Gate. I was really into making the borders. I was totally aping Mark Buckingham's Fables borders! But it was a ton of fun.

I saw a picture a friend had uploaded to facebook. In the picture was a girl with her head tilted in just the strangest way. I was really facinated by the question of why she had crooked her neck this way. Did she think that was her best angle? Must have been since it facinated me so much that I put her in my sketchbook. I don't think that the sketch really gives the girl justice.

Also some Vogue models in my sketchbook.

Still got a few pages to go before the end of The Carriers.

I have just a few more pages to color up before the fourth and final issue of The Carriers goes to print. It feel really good to be walking away from these characters for a bit and into something new. I am planning on returning to them someday in some form or another. Until then I have to really step up for the next book. HWID will present drawing challenges that I haven't tackled in quite a long time. HWID will also be painted in an entirely new method (see post below). Lots of work to do!

I am not sure about this...

I am getting a lot of compliments on the watercolors lately (pats self on back 5x) and it has me wondering about doing original art for comics with watercolor. I love digital though and it took a lot of work to get to where I am with it. So maybe a mashing of the two might work for me. I am enjoying the results on the tests that I have done. It is kind of cool to have base colors to work with in the original scans. It also allows me to be more selective with where I want to spend my time fleshing out the painting. Final art will be a combo of sumi ink, watercolors and digital paint added in post. I know I am not the first one to work this way but it isn't about that. It is about finding a working process that works for me. This feels right to me.

Ignore the shitty test quality of this. Instead think about buying full color orignial art from me at the next show you see me at. Yeah... That would be cool.

watercolors etc.

So at MIX I picked up a nice set of Russian Watercolors that are the bees knees. I have been futzing around with them. Tell me what you think.