Black Is (And Isn't) A Color

James Gurney has just published the best explanation of the properties of black that I have ever seen. He has done a four part examination of its use as a pigment, in composition, and properties as a color...or not.  This last installment was my favorite.  As it turns out, it depends on the context of the discussion, and its relation to other colors.  This man is a heck of an educator!

If you don't read his blog yet, I highly recommend it.  GurneyJourney.blogspot.com

Making Madness

What have I been making lately?  A lot, actually!  My own deodorant (after a terrible breakout from the one I bought from Lush,) a new purse, a lot of artwork for my friend's movie, a corset for another friend, and food.  Lots of food!  Friend, memories, and plans to travel to NY.  So here's to marathons of crazy busy madness, because sometimes you need it.

Anathema - Getting Down to the Wire!

I promise I'll get back to regular scheduled programming soon. But for now, I need your help. Rachel's kickstarter has only 4 days left, and we still have $1200 to raise! Please, please please spread the word! Even if you don't like horror or plan to pledge yourself, repost somewhere. It would mean the world to me! Here's the link to her marvelous lesbian werewolf epic fundraiser! It's basically a pre-order of the comic, with some added rewards like original artwork from the artist! Now seriously, who doesn't want original art? But it doesn't even get a chance if the funding isn't reached! Make her dreams come true!

Anathema Still Needs Your Help!

Anathema is nearly half way funded, but Rachel still needs your help!

She's got five issues, FIVE to fund with this thing.  I know what's coming and let me tell you, it's going to be an exciting ride!  Forbidden romance, action, mystery, Monsters created by a monster fanatic?  What more could you possibly want?

Now, I know some of you are probably thinking that comics are for kids, or for geeks, or are wondering how you even read one.  Let me tell you though, that it's an amazing way of telling stories.  You see, like a film, you have the option of telling things with words, or with pictures.  Rachel's got this incredible way of selecting which tells what, for the best results.  She wrote one comic for an upcoming anthology in which all the text comes from actual letters, but the story is told in pictures.  Glorious!

We're going to be at C2E2 this weekend, promoting this thing.  She's only got a couple of weeks to raise the remaining $10K!  So please help!

Why would a person need to raise that much for a comic, you wonder?
Well, it's like this:  Rachel is not an illustrator, so she has to hire one.  He'll do an 11x17 drawing for each page.     There's 22 of those per issue.  Then, because the illustrator only does the pencil and ink, you have to hire someone else to color those.  It's a basic fact that there is a LOT of work involved. Christopher Mooneyham is the artist, and he's stellar.  Check him out!

Anathema Continues!

Rachel just launched her kickstarter for the rest of Anathema, and it's off to a splendid start!  I couldn't be more pleased, or proud, or excited! 

Thank you for allowing me to shamelessly plug her!

The Other Side: Part II

Rachel's been plugging away at the latest project, The Other Side.  I was right there with her, tweaking and adjusting the logo.  When I finally got something she loved, I traced it for a nice clean copy.  After a not-so-quick scan, here's the final result:

The next step will be to turn this into a vector image.  I don't know if I'll ever go to an all digital way of working.  There's something oh-so-satisfying about the feeling of pencil on paper!

The Other Side

I'm getting some steam again, now that I'm drawing much more regularly.  Rachel's a big help, for sure.  One of my latest projects has been a logo for her next project.  I got kind of lucky on this one, having come up with a lot of different ideas in one go.  I was pretty pleased with all of them, and Rachel liked one in particular right away.  After that, I just did a bunch of variations on that theme, and fine-tuned it until we arrived at the final versions.  It's a little creepy, a little elegant, and I like it a lot! 

Here's a photo of all the working versions:

Inspired by Charles Vess

Rachel bought me the illustrated version of Stardust last weekend.  It was illustrated by Charles Vess, who has this amazing way of drawing old, twisted, gnarled trees.  I love it!  So I tried my hand at it.

Autumn Forest Scene - After Charles Vess

As I was drawing, I kept thinking about this woodcut I had done years before.  These pine trees live a very long time, and get twisted, with a sort of spiral to their branches.  To achieve the Vess look, I basically did the same thing, but made the trees much smoother.  

Twisted Tree - Woodcut

I'm going to list it on my Etsy page, so keep a lookout! 

Out of the Rut - Thank You NYCC!

Perhaps a comic convention is not the normal place for a person to find their way out of the creative slump.  However, when you get to meet with well known comic creators, established (and EXTREMELY talented) artists, and hang out in Artist Alley all week, looking at people who do amazing work, it can light a fire under you.  It did for me, anyway.

So I did a little sketch yesterday, to improve upon my background work.  It's a little comic-ier than my normal stuff,  (It's like I only saw comic art for the entire time I was in NY, or something.) but I'm rather pleased with the amount of detail I achieved in a short period of time. I've needed work on backgrounds, environments, landscape, and detail in general for quite some time.  The trees are a little spatially confused, but I'll keep at it, and hopefully see some improvement quickly.  I'm just glad to feel this inspired again!  Hooray!!!

I was drawing from the book Lost Cities from the Ancient World.  Here's my pencil sketch, for your enjoyment.  Critique is welcome.

Pyramid at Palenque

Beginnings and Endings

The last couple of nights, I've been working on the wedding dresses.  I finally bought the material for mine on Wednesday.  I've been determined to do everything the right way, so fabric for both has been pre-washed, and pressed.  I cut out all the pieces for both of them, and started construction of mine last night.  This was per Rachel's request.  I think hers will go more easily than mine, and I would have started it first. I did alter the bodice, and didn't alter the pattern for the skirt, so I might have some reworking to do there.  *sigh*

Last night, I managed to cut all of the pieces for my dress, and I have probably 7/8 of the bodice construction complete.  All of the seams are smooth and tidy.  I'm pleased so far.  Can't wait to show you, but it will have to wait until after the wedding! :)

Today is the final day of the Anathema Kickstarter.  Rachel changed the lineup a bit, and John Statema has been brought aboard.  Yes, THE John Statema.  Loves horror comics, knows the same stuff that inspires Rachel, influenced by Berni Wrightson.  Can you say PERFECT? His "rough" drawings for the story made me weak in the knees.  Seriously. So if you've been thinking about backing this project, make your way over there soon!  It all closes at 10:00 tonight!

Small Celebration

I have learned in the recent past that pattern alteration is a must for the vast majority of us. (If you want to have a well-fitted garment, that is.)  I've researched and tried my hand at altering, and after several versions, I finally have a mock-up that fits Rachel very well!  I'm so stinking excited!  I'm also too burnt out on it to work on my dress.

Also, Joe Hill (Steven King's son) has pledged to the Anathema Kickstarter, and is now following her on twitter.  She's gonna be famous!

Thanks for celebrating with me!

Bride Pride, and Sewing Inside

Firs of all, Rachel has done a number of interviews for Anathema, and is being mentioned in articles pretty regularly now: Comic Booked,  The Outhousers (They loved the illustration of her on the toilet.  I had so much fun drawing that!), and on AfterEllen which is pretty rad, if I may say so.  I'm super excited that all of her hard work is being noticed.  Another one with a rather exciting site should be up soon.  Yay!

Since she's so awesome, I'm totally marrying her.  :)  I think I've finally found the pattern for our dresses for the wedding!  I was looking through my favorite projects on burdastyle, and I saw frkbustad's That Little Black Dress.  Only then did I realize that I have this pattern, and was working on a mock-up/toile/muslin of it.  Problem: I hate the bodice.  The gathering in the front, while simple, is a little too... gathery for what I want. But when Rachel and I were talking about her dress, I found an alternative in my stash!

Meet New Look 6557.  This one has gathering around the bust line, too, but since it's a horizontal gather, it's much simpler to turn into a dart.  I'm working on the muslin for Rachel right now.  She's doing the halter version, which I'm already excited about, even though the muslin is a patchwork of blue, black, with pencil marks all over it.  For myself, I'm going with version E.  Love that neckline!

Why, oh why, did the weather have to get nice when I have so much work to do inside?!

Anathema - Going Strong!

Rachel is very close to achieving 50% of her funding goal!  Help her out!

She fed me small details about the story after much begging.  All I can say is I can't wait to see this thing printed! I truly believe that goes beyond my biased opinion towards her. :)

Anathema Progress

Rachel hit the 1/3 mark of her funding goal today!  And, while doing all this advertising, she has made quite a name for herself as a letterer.  I couldn't be more pleased - except for maybe when I see that progress bar hit 100%.

Like her on Facebook, and Twitter, and Everywhere else!

Anathema - A Return to Classic Horror in Comics

Here's the reason I was drawing Rachel so much!  If you like horror, or comics that aren't your garden superhero variety, please help spread the word!

Enjoy!

Night Light - The Trick

Not too long ago, I told you that I was very excited about the way painting digitally allows you to manipulate colors consistently, and therefore keep continuity and make your work believable.  I had to take an existing character, and make it look like she's sitting in the dark, illuminated by her laptop only.

Here's a little dose of color theory: the darker it is, the cooler everything looks, and the less contrast it has.

Whenever I have to do a series of images in photoshop, I create a palette layer, and include all the colors I use.  This means everything can have perfect continuity, within a single image, and from one frame to the next in sequential art.  To make a night scene as believable as possible, you must do the same thing to each color.  This is incredibly easy on the computer.
With your palette on its own layer, do a color overlay.  Use a very cool, almost grey blue.
Shoot for something like this:   Make adjustments as necessary, but this will make for a good, dramatic difference.

Then, when you pick up the colors from your palette, it will find the adjusted colors.  Paint away, and it will automatically look like cool, evening light!  Here's the difference:

Illustrated Rachel - Daytime

Illustrated Rachel - Illuminated by Computer

I did cheat a little when it came to the hair color.  The highlights were much lighter than I thought they should be, for only having light on a little bit of her hair.  This is where one must use a discerning eye and take liberties!  

Night Light

When it comes to how I choose to do things, I'm often a traditionalist.  Give me home made ice cream and clothes, paper literature, and real, messy, paint!  So when I say this, please understand how much it means:

I found a new appreciation for painting digitally. 

I had to take illustrated Rachel, and paint her as if she was in a dark room, with only the light of the laptop illuminating her.  This is not something I'd ever attempted before, but I know the way it should work.  I gave it a whirl, and what can I say, but success!  It was a really fun and interesting challenge, and will really test your knowledge of the way light works, and your understanding of human anatomy!

I can't wait to show off this drawing!

New Project!

Rachel and I are going to do it!

We're going to start a web comic!  I'd like it if people read it, maybe even laughed a little.  But this is more important, on a personal level.  We're both artists.  This single platform will keep us working, and together, no less!  She'll have to come up with some short story, I'll have to illustrate it.  I'll gladly work on this project, dedicating time to it every week, just to keep the fires hot.  Once we finish this video, we'll be in business!

I'm excited.
: )

Illustrated Rachel

Here she is!  This is the illustrated version of Rachel.  It will be used for her Kickstarter video.  She added her initials to the background.  (RAD, in case you couldn't tell.  She's as proud of hers as I am of mine.) I've got 8 more illustrations to draw, and 16 or something to color.  At my current pace, I'm getting four drawn, and half of one colored each night.  That's three or four hours of work.  It doesn't feel like I'm getting much accomplished.  But when I consider that it took two or three weeks for Rachel's penciler to do her first page, I don't feel so bad.  

I need to start figuring out how much time it takes to do the illustration and color separately.  Then, perhaps I can start making this into a business.  My goodness, I would love to. As much frustration the hair caused me, I still feel better than I have in months.  It's like I've been missing a crucial nutrient, and getting it back, I realize how sick I was feeling.  

We're thinking about doing a weekly web comic.  It would naturally, feature us! Well, her,  mostly.  She's the funny one.  (Look for my Things My Sweetie Says posts.  Redonk!)  What do you think?  Totally lame idea, or would you read about us and look at my pretty pictures?

Drawing Up a Big Batch of Happy

Rachel and I always try to work together.  She's very much an ideas person, and I'm very much a do-er.  Unfortunately, our combined skills and ideas usually leave some kind of gap.  When she said she wanted a fairly normal, calligraphic logo for her comic, I doodled one.  Lo and behold, she liked it!

Now, we're in the process of putting together a video for a kickstarter page.  For those of you who don't know kickstarter, it's a website where creative people can collect donations to have their projects funded, and pledgers receive fun rewards.  Rachel doesn't like appearing in front of a camera, so we decided to draw her video.  Yes, that's right, I'm DRAWING the video.  I'm not fully animating it, that would be crazy.  I am doing sequential images to complement the sound.

Last night, I managed to draw 4 of the roughly 20 images we'll be using.  I got one partially colored, too.  Drawing black hair is kind of difficult, as it turns out! Nevertheless, those four hours we spent at the computer working on these drawings were some of the most enjoyable ones I've had in a while.  I was seriously sitting at the computer GIGGLING because I was so entertained.  Of all the things I enjoy, making art is the most enjoyable.

May you always have as much fun being productive as I did last night!

Remember the Zornow Challenege?  I do.  I'm still working on it.  When I post the video, you'll have to let me know how I'm doing. :)