To Miss a Blog is Human, to Blog Divine!

Februaury BLAHHS err I mean Blogs:





I stumbled this past week and it wasn't all the snow that hit the US and Canada. In actual fact we probably got off the lightest in Toronto.

No. I stumbled in my pledge to you and myself. My pledge to get something up here every week/weekend on a regular basis. Yes. I know I have been putting some pictures up of my warm up sketches in the past weeks as well as my "inspirational" posts and though some were "half baked," I just wanted to show you my ABC Acronym "Always Be Creating" Ok. I finally saw the movie "Glengarry Glen Ross" and I appropriated ABC from the movie.

I like my version of ABC better!

That Being Said!:

What do you do when you aren't creating? Or reading about creating or listening to creative pod casts or even watching creative videos? Go read a comic, a book or watch a movie! Get yourself far away from the creative process stuff! I received my Mark Rudolph comics the other day and I am greedily consuming them. I picked up every comic that Mark has available and so far my favourite is "Closing Doors"

I enjoy Mark's use of different drawing styles and his layouts in the "Closing Doors". You get a feel for the frustrations of the characters on the page and what it must be like to run a failing business (a record store) and live in economically depressed areas of Michigan (Mark's home state). I like that Mark's writing style in this book is very different than the other Mark Rudolph books I have read. Of course being a graphic novel this allows Mark's writing to shine as he is able to develop the story and isn't confined by the shorter length of the mini comic format which a lot of his books are...

Recommended with 5 out of 5 howls!

I do have a soft spot for the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits inspired mini comic "Echoes From Asteroid X" also from Mark Rudolph.



What could be better than Spaceships, robots and alien planets? Nothing! Overall a fun read with Mark's clean crisp art reminiscent of comic artists of the 50's and 60's! My one complaint is that at one point the story jumps forward too quickly in time and that may be a little confusing. An additional panel or two or some more narration/captions may have added to the clarity/time line here but this probably more a limitation of the mini comics format than the story.

Recommended with 3.5 outta 5 howls!

My Art Week:

I am still drawing and taking notes and compiling story ideas. I am doing what my guitar teacher used to say that "five minutes with the guitar is better that no time at all" Yes. Five minutes with the pencil is better than no time at all!

I already posted some images here of my digital ink work. I am inking with no pencils and working from poses I have seen in art, miniatures and television. It is quick and dirty but I am enjoying not being too precious and I am learning more about blacks and the shade/shadow process. Oh and I am drawing lots of female characters as I need to practice their form...

Time to get a hot drink and get to work on my mini comic! Go out there and

AaaaBBBccCCC!

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ArrrOOooo!