Guest art: Drake Appaz: Silver Age Unity (2009/08/03)

Another guest art by Drake Appaz! The rest of you are such slackers.
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Sketchbook: Juni rotoscoped (2009/08/04)

Just to try to keep somewhat in practice and to study character construction a bit, here's a quick drawing I did of Juni by taking a photograph of myself, tracing over it, and then modifying the tracing.
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Sketchbook: fluffy rotoscoped (2009/08/05)

Just like yesterday's, only this time it's fluffy.
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Sketchbook: fluffy rotoscoped again (2009/08/06)

Two more rotoscope pictures - pretty close to the original photograph in terms of shape, with obvious differences in coloration.
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Random: Transformation Diary: Manipulated Me (2009/08/08)

The change occurred overnight. It did not sink in right away.

Realizing what had happened, it took a picture in the mirror. Would anybody believe what happened?

It got dressed, and waited by the window, steeling its resolve, working up the courage to exit its home, unsure of what was waiting for it outside. No longer human, would it still be a part of society, or would it be outcast, a plaid freak with no place in the world? At least it would finally be cured of its nail-biting habit, one way or another.

Leaving home, it looked around, amazed at what it saw - everyone around it had also transformed as well, appearing much as they always did in its inner vision. Whatever had happened was not restricted to itself; apparently the whole world had changed. The peculiar thing was that nobody else seemed to notice that anything was different. It began to worry. Was it the only one who remembered life before this, or was its memory of its human past the delusion? Worse yet, was this reality the delusion, brought on by too many years of fantasy and introspection? Or perhaps the slightly nervous unease was because everyone was going through the exact same thought process, nobody willing to question that which seemed normal to everyone else. It decided that answering these questions would be difficult and would likely result in more problems for itself; it would leave well enough alone, and live in the world where it belonged.

Tuesday morning I liked the way the light was streaming through my bathroom window, and since I'd been thinking about photo-manipulations again (after messing around with it for the first time in over 10 years the night before), I thought that if I'd somehow been transformed overnight, this is probably the situation in which I'd realize what had happened. Then I'd start to wonder, "Now what?"

The hardest part about doing a photo-manipulation seems to be getting the edges of skin to look right. I can see why most photo manipulations are of the furry sort — it's a lot easier to cover over that stuff when you're putting fur over everything, rather than trying to recolor smooth skin. It's also very easy to fall short by not accounting for skin's tendency towards specular highlights, and also the subtle textures introduced by the camera itself.

If pressed I will show how these images were put together, for anyone else who is interested in this sort of thing (you will not have to press very hard). While this is far from amazing high-quality work, it might still be helpful for someone else.

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Journal: 2009/07/05: The Reveal (2009/08/11)

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Unity: 189. Bureaucracy in-action (2009/08/18)

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Unity: 190. Testimonial (2009/08/20)

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Unity: 191. Disbelief (2009/08/24)

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Unity: 192. Father figure (2009/08/26)

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Unity: 193. Coersion (2009/08/28)

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Unity: 194. Agreeable (2009/08/31)

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2009/08/26: I had might as well let you know

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If it wasn't painfully obvious by the fact that plot threads are getting wrapped up faster than a dead fish at a newspaper convention, Unity is coming to an end. I'm not sure how many strips there are left but a rough script for the rest of the series has finally precipitated out of my rough working outline like so much sucrose in a super-saturated sugar solution.

This chapter is maybe two thirds done, and then there is just one more (fairly brief) chapter to go. But it's not really an ending so much as a beginning, as I have plenty of ideas for other things that can happen in Unity's universe (although I haven't started writing any stories around them just yet).

Also, when it does wrap up (and I'm excited to have finally managed to see a comic series all the way through to the end!), I'll release the whole series in an easy-to-read CBZ file, maybe for a nominal fee (would $3 be reasonable?), with some of the more egregious problems cleaned up and the files saved out at full resolution. If anyone has any suggestions for a simple digital-media store that isn't Paypal-based, I'd be willing to hear them. (I'd use Dreamhost's "Files Forever" service but I found that actually purchasing on there is a confusing, messy pain in the butt, if the purchase process for my album is anything to go by.)

2009/08/18: Some time again

I finally have some time (and wrist strength) to work on comics again, so that is what I'm doing. I'd like to apologize to Drake who had to put up with my vagueness in direction. I hope he still finishes the version of Unity #189 he was working on, since while it was quite different than what I intended it was still an interesting take on my little world, not to mention much better-drawn than anything I've ever done.

2009/08/11: Just a quick comic

It feels like forever since I've drawn a comic, probably since it is. Drake is still working diligently on Unity 189 (which seems to have somehow turned from a normal 3-panel strip into a full-page setting-establishing epic) so here's a journal comic sort of about something that happened back in July. It's not up to my usual low standards but I needed a warmup.

2009/08/08: Monsters of Webcomics

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Thanks again for submitting your work for the Cartoon Art Museum’s Monsters of Webcomics Virtual Gallery.

I’m pleased to say that your work has been selected for inclusion in our exhibition, and will be featured in the Virtual Gallery along with a wide array of webcomics from around the globe. This historic exhibition will include over 100 artists, making this one of the largest exhibitions in the Cartoon Art Museum’s 24-year history, and we’re thankful for your participation.

I am pleased as well! My stuff will be in a museum! I think this is only the second time this has happened.

Here's a full press release of the exhibit, and also you can read more about the goings-on at the Cartoon Art Museum on their LiveJournal.

In any case, if you happen to be in or near San Francisco, the exhibit opens tonight, and will be running until December 6th. It would be fun to have a shared outing so as to meet up with as many readers as possible; I know a bunch of you are from around here too.

2009/08/04: Another wrist update

For a while there it was really dicey but I think I'm getting things under control. I just have to take it easy for a while. I've done a bit of simple doodling (to appear here over the next few days) just to keep somewhat in shape, and Drake has offered to try finishing the next Unity for me. We'll see how that goes — I'm pretty optimistic given the fanart he's done over the years.

On that note, however, I'm definitely not ready to give up drawing for myself. I look at my current stuff and compare it to things I drew even 3 years ago and can't help but see how much I've improved, and when I look at my much older stuff I can't help but think that I absolutely must keep this up.

I'm still not a very good artist, but when I don't spend all weekend drawing I feel a massive void. Fortunately I have other projects to keep me busy (music production mostly) but that still doesn't satisfy me like spending a whole bunch of time drawing comics.