Chapter Four Cover

I finished this!

I’ve also gotten a lot of work done on some other pictures, today, and am still planning on working through the evening. I might make a second post.

Here’s some extinct creatures I put on Zazzle.  The images are links to their respective stores.  I really had fun with these guys.  Yesterday, I did end up sketching out some baby big cats, and those are all inked and colored now, pending scanning.

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Today was a productive day. I got a lot of formatting work done with the tarot deck. Also, I have a new alarm clock, now. That should help a ton for getting my sleep schedule back to where it should be.

Today turned out much better after I declared my redo. I decided since my Monday was over by 10 am, that I must have unlocked a secret easter-egg weekday that doesn’t usually come up. Lokiday went very well.

The original art of lovely slow loris I posted earlier is not for sale, but I set up products on Zazzle with the image, which you can check out here  - http://www.zazzle.com/ninjahijinx/gifts?cg=196775246625476187

Signal Boost - A friend from the BS of Comics, which I go to every Monday, is selling 3×5 art cards to cover a vet expense.  From what I understand, you’re buying the art by title, and then getting the image as a surprise.  I’ve seen the stack of art, though, and let me tell you, it’s very well-done, fun and cartoony!  If you like my stuff, you might like this, too.  Each one is only ten bucks, too - http://plunderpuss.net/zoo/ Pass the word if you can!

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Friday

Artslam 11 - http://community.livejournal.com/artslam/637962.html

Today ended up being pretty crazy, toward the end, so I’ll get to comments and stuff tomorrow.  I did get a lot done, and then had to fix more computer problems.  I think it’s fixed, now.  Again.  Knock on wood.

Here’s the jaw base thingie for the swamp dragon puppet I’m starting:

And, art in progress behind the cut!

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Meep

Artslam stuff - http://community.livejournal.com/artslam/628430.html

I was not very productive today, but am still on track to get a few commissions finished up for this weekend.  I will be better about posting progress scans and stuff - I want to stay in the habit of doing that.

I want to redo this one, but that’ll happen, because that’s what the penciled pages are for, anyway.

I had to write today off.  I spent the day trying to draw, scribbling page after page of doodles, but nothing really came of it.  I drew a bunny.  I guess I’ll get my finished Zazzle stuff and this bunny up in the store in the next couple days.  No rush, or anything.  The next few days, I’ll be focusing in on the tip incentive pictures, to make sure those get done.  Then, onward to June!

I have a reason for being so distracted, today, and it’s a silly one.  I keep trying to puzzle my way through the nature of the universe, and all that huge stuff, which is definitely a thought trap, and quite a sticky one.  One thing always stays with me: no matter what is ultimately true, I know for a fact that I have the choice to interact with my fellow beings with love, and that choice is very important.  I hope I can learn to remember to do that more often.

Responsibility Day

Today, I did something I’ve needed to do, but didn’t really want to do.  I don’t want to talk about the specifics, but it’s taken care of, now, and that’s all well and good.  Since then, I’ve been having a tough go of things, today, anxiety-wise.  My brain’s told my body to go into fight (pretty dang irritable) or flight (augh panic!) mode, and now that my brain doesn’t have much to fret over, my body still hasn’t gotten the memo to knock that off.  I continued with responsible mode, though, and pushed through my work for today, once I got home, despite that.  I tried to remember these physical symptoms of anxiety are just that, and that even though I feel pretty crummy, I don’t have to let that prevent me from doing things.

Today’s Ekwara page -

Here’s how far I got on the Ekwara commission, today:

I inked and colored the peacock sketch from yesterday, and also set it up in my Zazzle shop.  Clicking on the image takes you to that.

I also did some organizational/planning work I needed to sort out, got another Ekwara page loaded up into the queue, and did this week’s Crimson Flag pencils.  Plus, did the previously mentioned errand, walked four miles, and had an avocado for dinner.  That… is not really a responsible dinner, but that’s okay.

If you’re an artist type, check out Artslam - http://community.livejournal.com/artslam/478165.html - they’re open for new signups for the summer.  It’s an awesome art challenge where you pick a theme and try to complete 30, 60 or 90 concept sketches.  I’ll be using Ekwara as my theme again this year, and mirroring my worldbuilding stuff on this journal (and maybe the Ekwara site?  I’d have to figure that one out.)

Comics This Week!

Behold, my uncanny ability to finally catch on to the existence of the thumbnail link on the bottom of my comic pages

There’s another page after this one, but it’s only text. I’m due for a double page update of Dracula, but am doing that for next week, because this week hardly counts as two pages, unless you imagine that Dracula is on page 440, and invisible.

Thanks for the input on how I’m going to be doing Ekwara for now on.  Along with the poll on my livejournal, I asked some other folks, and here’s what I’ve decided:

Ekwara will continue to update with a colored comic page on Saturdays until I can come up with a reasonable buffer of penciled pages.  I’m going to use a couple weeks to see how many penciled pages is reasonable for me to come up with in a week, then come up with a schedule based on that.  I’ll continue to post finished comic pages on a regular basis - in their own gallery, perhaps, in addition to replacing the penciled pages in the main comic as they’re created - but not on a specific deadline unless it works out for me to do a few penciled pages a week and a weekly colored page.  We’ll see how these next few weeks go, and then I’ll solidify my plans.

For today’s Ekwara page, I inked and colored the page from a more developed, finished pencil page, itself drawn from my rough sketch.  The finished page took about three times as long, overall, as a page usually takes, but I think the difference shows.  I had a chance to tweak poses, backgrounds and panel layout that I wouldn’t have otherwise done in transferring the rough sketch to a final page.  This is the extra step doing the penciled pages will add, and I think it will make the comic a lot higher quality with the added bonus of more frequent updates!