Happy New Year!

It's been a long time since I've said anything on here. I hope you've been enjoying the revamped version of Never. Hopefully I can keep up the regular updates, but again, no guarantees because it's me and I suck and guarantees.

In other news, I finally got off my butt (or really on it, since I need to sit to do comic stuff) and fixed up my HallHogs comic. Everything should actually be working now, right back to my original comics drawn in 2006. I lost the psd files a long time ago, so I couldn't fix the quality, but at least I have a version of all of them. Even the archive page is now online. Hopefully none of the links are wrong, but if they are, please send me an message.

I've also decided to start uploading some of my newer HallHogs comics which I've been sitting on for about eight months now. So NEW HALLHOGS ON WEDNESDAY! Yay! Or something. Hopefully they will continue every Wednesday, but once again, no guarantees.

That's all from me for now. On to an awesome new year!

Return to Never

My newest comic project is actually an old project revamped. Again. The characters of this story were first created when I was a teenager, rewritten into a finished book just after high school, then rewritten into another book as a NANOWRIMO project, and finally turned into a comic. As is the nature of this story, I've decided to redo the comic. The last version of Never had lost its way. I was taking much too long to get to the point and in the process the plot got completely lost. Combined with the fact that the illustrations weren't consistent in any way, size shape or ability, I figured it was time to give this story another shot.

Why not move on to something else? It's a comfort thing, I guess. These are characters that I grew up with. They are the first thing I think of when I'm considering writing a new story and it's always a difficult decision to move on and try something new. However, rewriting the novel for NANOWRIMO helped me to start writing again, and this time I'm hoping it will help me start to draw regularly again. My goal is to update with some sort of regularity. But I've promised that before and have failed miserably, so let's just say that I will update as often as I can, generally on Monday's. I can promise that the month of November will be consistent.

A face in shapes

While we were at the gallery doing the drawing thing, we spent some time drawing a head that had been sculpted by one of the artists. It was very interesting using geometrical shapes to try and recreate something 3D. It's much easier (in some ways) to copy someone elses painting or drawing, because they have already found the shapes for you, all you have to do is see it how they did. With something real like a statue, depending on which angle you view it, it will have different shapes and lights. I never got to the part where I'd shade this drawing in and make it look more realistic because I really liked how subtle this turned out. I'm going to have to do some of my own observational drawings using technique I think.

In a Cafe/Gallery

Yesterday I went to the monthly drawing session that the Confederation of the Arts Gallery hosts. I met up with a couple of friends and we drew our own versions of some of the work that was on the walls. Same sort of deal as last time, but this time the focus was on finding the shapes rather than on the shading. Despite the fact that I teased one of my friends for stealing my 3b pencil leaving me with a 7b, I actually really enjoyed using the softer lead. I'm so used to drawing my comics that I don't often use anything more than my mechanical pencil which is limited at best. Apparently I just want everything to be dark and smudged.

This sketch is based off Kathleen Munn's drawing "In a Cafe." Apparently she was one of the first Canadian impressionists, long before the Group of Seven, but she was never very well known since she was a woman.

A little silly

Sometimes the day just needs a little silly to help you get through it. Today seems to be one of those days for me. Of course, along with the strip above, today is NEVER update day. Click the linky to the righty. Or something.