Early Morning Status Report of Dooooom!

Hi guys! I haven’t done a status update for the current Icon Day in a little bit, so I thought I’d let you all know that the icons are coming along, and I’m expecting to have them finished in a week or so. I’m also working on a few other things, and will be posting pictures as I get them completed!

I got the tarot deck in the mail yesterday, and it seems that all my worries about the appearance of the cards were unfounded. They look great! The card stock and color is definitely pro quality, and the off-center issue, while it does show up on a few cards, is minor and something I think I only noticed because I was looking for it. Of course, I’ll have some photos of the cards so you can judge it for yourself, but I’m quite satisfied with this product.

So, later on today, I’m going to put together a post with photos and such, and start the whole preorder thing, to get this ball rolling!

Art Store

I’ve put together a store section of my site, featuring the originals I have up for sale, and also information on my current commission rates. I’ve decided to move things onto my site instead of going through Etsy, for simplicity’s sake. As I put new pieces in there, I’ll be linking them to their blog posts, with info about the art, and all that good stuff. If you see something that catches your eye, feel free to drop me a line at coyotepuck@gmail.com!

Many of the pictures up in the store haven’t been offered for sale, before, and some haven’t even made it online before now, so check it out! http://www.ninjahijinx.com/store/

Commission information is now here - http://www.ninjahijinx.com/store/commissions.html

To launch the store, sales of originals and commissions between now and this Sunday will include a MYSTERY SURPRISE!

In other news, things are going well in my neck of the woods. I’ve been busy, working on the pencils for Icon Day, getting website stuff sorted out, and a few other things. August is already shaping up to be a cool month. I drew some dinosaurs I still need to get scanned in to show you guys…

Also, Ekwara is off my vacation hiatus and updating Tuesday through Saturday, though I seem to have misplaced yesterday’s update. I’ll be remedying that today along with today’s page. Dracula is going off vacation hiatus this Saturday. Crimson Flag continues to update every Saturday!

I’ve been doing more writing, lately, which is awesome. I picked up a fun program called Write or Die, which lets you enter in a time or word count goal, and punishes you if you don’t stick with it. There’s a free online version, too! If you haven’t seen it already, it’s worth a look.

Back when I was writing adventures for the summer camp in Colorado, my writing ability was the sharpest it’s been, I think. I enjoy writing fast. It keeps my inner critic busy and lets me focus on the story itself. There’s something about that zone of words pouring out of your mind, through your fingers and onto the page at a breakneck speed that is satisfying in a way even drawing isn’t. I’m not so confident in my descriptions and all that good stuff, but I’m working on it, and might have something to show for that, too. For now, I’m happy to practice.

Panda and Icons

First of all, good morning! Icon Day is still going, and will be going until later this afternoon. I’ll close requests at some point before or around 6. There’s still plenty of time to go get an icon and to tell your friends! http://djinni.livejournal.com/240109.html Tips have gotten to the point where everyone who tips gets a bonus jack-o-lantern icon. If tips go high enough, instead of that for a second icon, everyone who tips gets a second icon of their character or whatever they requested.

I drew this.

Chapter 3!

Here’s the cover for Chapter Three!

Here’s today’s artslam - http://community.livejournal.com/artslam/536112.html

Icon Day will stay open for requests until some time tomorrow.  Check it out!  Right now, tips are about halfway to everyone who tipped getting two icons - http://djinni.livejournal.com/234614.html

I went to a meeting at Jeckyl & Hyde today, and it looks like as soon as a wall’s painted, I get to get started on the next part of the mural!  Hurray!  We have awesome plans for that.

Mural Progress, Zazzle, Comic News, Life

First of all, today’s comics will be going up at some point tonight - thanks to tips, Dracula will be getting two pages this week, and I need to make sure that happens!  I’m going to work on the mural, though, too.  It will be a busy day.

There are a lot of these icons to pencil.  Apologies for the wait, but this is about as long as I should have expected for it to make me take, especially with the mural eating my brain.  Both are fun.  I worry a little when I have long-term projects, but… well, read on after the cut.  I’ve been thinking about that a lot, this past week.

There is also a ton of art - in-progress photos of the mural, etc.

more »

Comics, Icons and Mural

First of all, comics updated yesterday!  Dracula updated a little late last night, so if you stopped by and didn’t see a new page, there’s one there for you, now.

Page 332 of Dracula - http://www.draculacomic.net

Page 37 of Ekwara - http://www.ekwara.com

Page 83 of Crimson Flag - http://www.crimsonflagcomic.com

I’m still working on the pencil art for the icons and will upload those as soon as they’re done.  I was aiming to have those done for yesterday, but that project is now sharing time with a huge mural project.  They’ll still get done, of course, and soon!

MURAL PROJECT!  A local restaurant, Jeckyl & Hyde, asked me to make a big sharpie mural on their wall, and I’ve been working on that this week!  It’s a very exciting project - a Victorian street scene.  It’s right up my alley.  Here are some in progress photos.

Shot of the corner near the (real) window.  This part of the mural is the wall of a building up close.  For this part of the mural I needed to incorporate the big restaurant window and a little metal door that hides a water shut off valve.

The disguised metal door.  You can barely tell it’s there, any more, which makes it funny when you do open it.

Of course, I sneaked in a kitty!

Progress on the street scene beyond the close-up building.  I didn’t get a shot of the man standing in the foreground until after yesterday’s work, but here’s this part of the wall before I got started, yesterday.

A closer shot.  You can see my pencil work on here, too.  I’ve blocked out/measured out all the major areas, then go in and add details, measuring more as necessary.  I’m not working from a grid, but using a framework of strings and guidelines.  That’s working out very well with how I create art.  In a larger work, you need to be really careful about distortion.

After yesterday’s work.  Buildings!  There’s going to be a fountain and a number of folks wandering the street.  To the right of the street scene is a closer building in the middle ground, an alley where Mr. Hyde is lurking, and another close-up building on the far edge of the wall.  All of those parts are blocked out, but not inked, yet.

This is at an angle, so I can see some distortion that isn’t actually in the mural itself.  I drew this fellow earlier, but finished the brickwork on the wall yesterday.  He’s about life-size, a hair smaller, and is actually a full figure, but I didn’t get a shot of his feet.  The wall’s going to have a lot more ivy on it, but I’m saving that for last, because it eats sharpies.

Anyway, that’s why I’ve been quiet, though I learned that the pizza place has wireless, so I’m able to do in-progress twitter updates, now!

Icon Sketches

Here are more penciled icons!  Some I need to rework a little, but my initial pencils are pretty rough anyway, and that’s how I like ‘em.  I’m not quite done with the rest, yet, but I’ll have those soon.  Today is MONSTER DAY, and I intend to celebrate.  Then, back to the icon mines XD

Oh man, now I really want to do an ‘Icon Mine’ picture.  That’d be fun.

Dracula and Monster Day

Page 327 of Dracula is up.  http://www.draculacomic.net

And if you missed it last night, Ekwara updated, too, and so did Crimson Flag!

Some of you might remember that February 16th is Monster Day.  Evidently this year, the sixteenth is also some other holiday no one’s ever heard of.  Mardi Gras?  Whatever.  It’s Monster Day!  The traditional (three years strong!) tradition of Monster Day is to go buy a ton of mark-down Valentine’s Day candy (or fresh vegetables), to watch monster movies and listen to monster music while drawing monsters.  If you can’t draw, you get to draw monsters anyway.  Everyone can draw on Monster Day!

Yes, it’s a holiday I made up, but it’s a holiday I made up that I’ll be celebrating for the third year in a row this Tuesday, and that counts for… monsters!  If anyone else would like to celebrate, too, you are invited.  I’ll make a post on Tuesday for posting my Monster Day creations, and you’re invited to post yours, as well :)  (For those of you posting comments via my blog, there’s a bug that prevents comments from displaying, so you’re better off posting in my livejournal)

I think I’ve been through the worst of giving up soda.  I had a pretty tough time waking up this morning, but am feeling pretty good, now that my Dracula page is done.  I’m aiming to have all of the icons penciled and posted before Monster Day, and then after that, I have some other cool stuff planned.  It’s been a bit of a slow week for me, but giving up soda’s going to be worth it in the long run.

Comic Updates

So, I made the decision to consistently take weekends off, which is working out pretty well, so far.  This way I always know when my days off will be, and can work for the weekend like a normal adult.  Haha…

Page 324 of Dracula is up - http://www.draculacomic.net

Page 22 of Ekwara is up - http://www.ekwara.com

Page 74 of Crimson Flag is up - http://www.crimsonflagcomic.com

Chapter 30 of Arcadia Snips went up last Monday.  The story is almost completed, so if you’ve been waiting for the full story to be online to read the book, give it a look!  If you like it, consider buying a copy.  It makes for a nice little volume, full of pictures I drew! - http://www.arcadiasnips.com

After a little waffling, I’ve decided once the griffons and white elephant art cards are finished up, I’ll be doing Icon Day this week - probably on Wednesday, but that may change.  I’m trying to figure out how to get it on webcam, so you guys can watch me draw icons live on Ustream.  That would be fun!  I also have an idea for another art card sale that I think you guys will like.

BTW - those of you who went in on the white elephant sword and sorcery cards are in for a surprise when those come in the mail!

Icon Day Update

Here’s a quick update on icons - scans of the rough inks.  I haven’t cleaned these up, yet.