For those who have expressed interest in owning their very own Puppy Cow plushie, I've launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to make the little beasties.  Please consider contributing to the campaign and please share with all your friends.  We've got until September 1 to raise $4000.  Thanks for your support!

[link]

I've started another Monster Cutie video tutorial series on coloring lineart.  The first part is up where we go over flatting by hand.

[link]

I finally finished the "Junior's First Kill" digital painting.  Took a lot longer than I thought.  But I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I especially like the sock!  HAHA!  So if you have about ten hours to kill, check it out here:

[link]

I posted a inking tutorial walk through video over at Monster Cutie of me inking the latest test comic.  The lighting isn't the best as my set up was a bit cramped.  You get to see how horribly I fuck up while I throw some ink around.  Hopefully, someday I'll have inspiring words of wisdom to spew while I art like Bobby Chiu.  But for now, it's just me rambling, pretending I know what I'm a doin'.

Last night (really, this morning I guess since I was up until 3am) I did my very last piece of Erfworld art.  Book 1 needs a cover and I'm the guy for the job.  It took much longer to finish this than I expected and of course, it didn't help that I decided the cover needed hundreds of little dudes fighting each other that no one will ever see.  But that's the way it goes.

It's been a weird three years since Rob and I first met in Old Town Alexandria to discuss plans to do this thing.  I've learned a whole hell of a lot about comics, business, the webs, and myself.  I kept copious mental notes and I'm hoping to apply what I learned to Yellow Peril.

Wow, three years.  Or something like that (I can't count).

I'm unbelievably excited to hit the ground running.  But one of the things I've learned is that it never hurts to plan ahead.  So for the next few weeks I shall be planning and developing and simmering all sorts of arty goodness.  And hopefully, sometime early next year, it'll all be ready to serve.

Thanks Erfworld!  Now it's time to see what I can do on my own!

So this is gonna sound really silly, but I've started a production diary for my next project, Yellow Peril.  It's a bit cart-before-the-horse of me to put out a podcast about creating a strip that hasn't even launched yet, but this is a good way for me to keep track of things so I won't forget.

I'll probably be updating these really randomly but if you're interested, you can subscribe to the podcast through the rss feed.

Over at Monster Cutie, I did a quick review of some sculpting materials I'm using for a few upcoming projects.  You can also catch a sneak peak at a piece I'm working on for a custom toy show down in Florida that's happening in February and my own toy that I'm working on.  Hoping to do some resin casts of it and possibly selling a few if it goes well.

So if you're interested in that sort of thing, head on over to Monster Cutie and check it out!

So I went to SPX this past Sunday and was awe inspired by the amount of awesome indy comics.  It made me both incredibly happy and overwhelmingly pissed.  Happy to see such feats of comic awesomeness by people who truly love what they do and haven't yet forgotten what it means to be a comic fan.  Pissed because I wasn't a part of it.

And so begins Operation: Get My Shit Together in which I will attempt to get some shit together so that I too may participate in comic awesomeness next year.  SPX 2010, I'm gunning for you!

This week, Monster Cutie checks out the Autodesk's latest release of Sketchbook Pro 2010.  Is this latest version a true Photoshop Killer?  Only one way to find out.  Come on by and check out the video!

I just posted an hour long video tutorial on basic digital painting.  Nothing terribly fancy but it should serve as a good jumping point for you to paint cute monsters.  And other stuff.

Voting for the first mini challenge in Dominance War IV is open and I need your vote!  Dominance War is an annual gaming art competition between a number of international computer art forums including CG Society, my forum of choice.  Leading up to the main event is a mini challenge.  This year's mini challenge was to create a War General Portrait either in 3d or 2d.  I chose 2d.  The top five entries of each team will be placed into a collected pool to choose a grand champion mini winner!  So I need your vote!

The final entries for the 2D challenge are here.  Voting starts today and ends March 8.  My entry is under jamihn.  I'm hoping to at least make it into the top five of the CG Society team.  If you want a bigger version of my entry, you can check out my CGS Portfolio and to keep up with my challenge progress once the main challenge starts, I'll be documenting my progress at my sketch blog.

I tested all the gear last night and it worked!  So sometime next week, I'll do a proper digital painting demo online.  If you're bored and have an hour to kill, you can check out the recorded stream here.  Or just wait until I upload a timelapse of what I did.

I was supposed to run a Photoshop Master Class at Katsucon this past weekend, but I didn't find out until I showed up on Friday.  I canceled because I didn't have anything set up.  But I thought it might be fun to do a panel online sometime.  I'm muddling with screen capture and broadcasting my screen and all that hoo ha and I think I've figured it out.

I'm gonna give the screen capture broadcast thing a try tonight sometime depending on when I get home.  It'll probably be around 10pm EST.  I've got some Erfworld graphics that I need to create for the website so you can see me hack through those.  Not sure how long it'll run, but I'll record the broadcast and maybe edit it down in a disco timelapse thing or something.  So, if you want to give a peek, here's the link: [link].  So tentatively, tonight at 10pm or later, I'll be arting.  If it works, I'll do a real deal demonstration next week.

I came across these videos from Richard Solomon, an illustrator representative.  He's got a lot of good advice for illustrators looking to do more with their careers.

In other news, I think I'm going to stop spamming my DA account with Headline DS.  Unless I do something really funny, I think I'll just keep it updating at Headline DS and my sketch blog.  No need to flood DA.

Hoo ha!  JOURNAL ATTACKUUUU!!!

Rob and I were interviewed on ComixTalk about Erfworld.  I apparently don't have much to say in interviews unless you're talking arts.  Then I can't shut up!

Speaking of Erfworld, we're getting a lot of "Deus Ex Machina" complaints about the latest strip.  It's funny to watch the forums swing back and forth.  When Parson is winning, we're total geniuses.  When Parson is losing, we're total hacks.  So remember kids, you can't please any fans any of the time so just worry about making things that make you laugh!

There's this new online painting program called SUMO Paint.
[link]

Looks like it has a lot of really nice customizable brushes.  No pressure sensitivity, but it's got layers and just about everything else that you'd want in a painting program.  May give it a whirl some time.  Probably not as robust as the GIMP but it certainly has more features than your typical web painting program.

Oh, and I'm going to try to use this thing a bit more.

I finally put up some shirt designs over at MySoti.  My Fish Food piece and Great Kahuna Bot V are now available for purchase.  Have a few more ideas I want to try.  If they don't win over at DBH, I'll probably put them up on MySoti.

Want to see your design on a vinyl toy?  Then enter the big old Great Monskey Design Contest!  Grab a template [here] and get to steppin'!  Contest ends December 19 and you can enter as many designs as you like.

PRIZES

1) Three winning designs will be chosen and included in the next Monskey series.
2) Winners will receive 100 toys with their design.

RULES

1) Enter as many times as you like.
2) You can use up to 6 unique colors in your design. Please include the PANTONE swatches along with your submission.
3) Accepted file formats: ai, eps, psd, jpg, pdf
4) Submitted work must be original and may not contain work previously published, trademarks, logos, copyrights, or any other intellectual property from a third party (If you didn't draw it, you can't submit it).
5) Artists retain rights to their design and may use it for other private or commercial uses if your design is not chosen once the competition is complete. If your design is chosen, by submitting, you grant Octopus Design the exclusive right to use your design on vinyl toys (if you don't win, you can use your design for whatever. If you do win, you can use your design on anything besides vinyl toys).
6) Three winning designs will be chosen by Octopus Design's art team.
7) Winners will be contacted via email.
8) Contest ends December 19. Winners will be announced December 22.
9) Send entries to azmnews@gmail.com with the subject line "Great Monskey Design Entry."

Not cleared to upload animation yet, so here's a direct link to the video.

[LINK]

This is a quick animation of Pooter.  Animated in Flash.  Normally, you would create a mouth graphic with all the mouth shapes on different frames so you can call on each mouth format on demand.  I just drew them on his face.  I like the look even though it's not all that consistent.  Hoping to do more.  Just gotta get the right voices.

I posted a new tutorial on Monster Cutie on some basic strategies to draw faster (actually more efficiently).  Having lots of fun with these.

If you have any suggestions for tutorials or tips, let me know!