docsmachine

Scribbles

Also submitted without comment. :)

Doc.

Sample Artwork

Posted without comment. :)

Doc.

Glitch Fixin'!

Okay, the updater seems to have fixed everything but #3875, and I rebuilt that. (From artisanal, handmade electrons, no less. Nothing but the best for you lot!)

Looks like it's all back in shape. Let me know if there's any other glitches I may have missed.

And I think somebody mentioned a misspelling or two recently I meant to go back and fix. If anyone can find them, I'll try and fix those too over the weekend.

Doc.

Animated TWB!

Okay, kind of. :)

Monday's strip was very time-consuming, but I had a lot of fun with it. Thought you ladies and gents might be interested to see how a panel like that goes together. :)

Besides, I haven't used my animation app in a long time...

Doc.

High Armor Class

And finished! If we go by typical WoW or RPG stats, she's now basically invulnerable. :)

Spent way too much time on it, and at a time when I have pretty full lists of shopwork to do, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Tried a couple different variants of the vest, but the original seemed to be the best balance.

Now, watch how many times I screw it up in the comic. :)

Doc.

Work in progress...

Oddly enough, making a "revealing tactical vest" is harder than it looks. :)

Since I'm going to be drawing it a lot in the next few weeks, I thought I'd try a couple different sketches- Pirta's tac-vest came out nicely, but today's version on Sandy... not so much.

And, since I haven't posted much here lately- busy summer, as usual- I thought I'd make a "pin up", both to try different versions of the vest, and as a bit of well-deserved bonus art for you lot. :)

For those inte...

Missed a strip!

I'd originally planned- in a really vague way- this storyline at least two or three years ago. Back in '21, I even started drawing a few strips, though only the first half dozen or so.

I've been trying to sort out some of my book files, as time permits (it usually doesn't) and I found a copy of the folder I had those starting strips in. The copy, for some reason, had an extra strip in it- I'd drawn another in '22, trying to get back into doing it.

This one should have followed Str...

The return of the Omniturn!

After posting the most recent Turret video, I was asked if I had the Omniturn back up and running. I'd posted some still pics of parts from it a few days back on the Guild, but as I was running more parts today, I thought I'd add a quick video here. :)

Ye, it's back up and running, and doing very well, thank you. Now I just need to get off my duff and push some more parts through it. :)

Doc.

More Machining!

Since I posted that other turret-lathe video, I figured you ladies and gents might like to see the "other half" of the part.

Tried to be a little more detailed with the editing, to give a better idea of the 'order of operations' but yeah, I still need a lot of practice. :)

Doc.

TWB Mobile?

This is something I've been meaning to tinker with for a good while now. I had a bit of a "you better stop and think" moment in the shop today, and decided to spend some time tinkering with the upcoming storyline.

That wasn't going well either, and for some reason this idea popped to the forefront again.

The story here being that more and more of you are surfing and reading on a phone or tablet these days. Personally, I can't do without my big du...

The Turret Lathe Saves the Day!

I was going to run some parts through my CNC lathe this weekend, and found the power supply for the computer had died.

While waiting for a replacement, I instead tooled up the pre-World-War-2 turret lathe for the same part, and cranked out fifty some odd pieces.

Not as fast, and certainly not as effortless, but arguably more fun to operate. :)

Doc.

Too good to pass up...

Mark Stanley of Freefall suggested this. Too good a gag to pass up, even as short on time as I am. :)

Doc.

Fair Warning...

I'm up against a couple of heavy deadlines and major "can't put it off any more" things at the moment, and I'm so short on time it ain't even funny.

The comic is probably going to be pretty erratic for the next two weeks or so- I should have something up on time, but chances are good it'll be B&W at best, or just an old book sketch at worst.

I know an epic shot like this one deserves full color, and I hate to throw it up unfinished, but I simply can't spare the time right now....

Restoring an early custom marker

Customer sent this in, it was the first gun he ever played with, and he got it from a now-deceased uncle. It had lain disassembled long enough the O-rings had basically crumbled to dust, and he wanted it restored.

Fun project, but I was rushed for time on the video.

Plus, a reminder: I've launched a second Patreon here, for those that wish to help support my works, but maybe aren't interested in the 'e...

Vintage TWB!

I found these in one of my older folders. It was supposed to be the start of a short storyline, involving Jake trying to teach her how to ride it, her buying stereotypical "biker" clothes (leather jacket, leather chaps, etc.)

But after drawing these two, the whole thing didn't really appeal to me- Pirta's not so much of a ditz she wouldn't know what a Harley is, and at the same time, the  'biker' thing just doesn't mesh with her personality- or Jake's.

I eventually reused som...

Twenty-Five Years as Alaska's coolest Airsmith!

I would like to take a moment to recognize- and perhaps brag a a bit- that July 1st, 2023 officially marks my Twenty-Fifth Year in business! :)

I had kind of hoped to have something special to mark the occasion- a secret project, a special comic, a video, a B-52 flyby... But unfortunately I've just been too busy. The story, as they say, of my life.

I officially hung out this particular shingle on July 1st, 1998. My 'shop' was a small, dimly lit storage room, of wh...

Officially old!

TWB, as of last week, is now officially old enough to drink! :)

The first posted comic says June 18th of '02, but as I recall, the first comic was posted to the Guild on the 21st.  After a day or two, I registered the domain name, but since I had multiple comics, I had to predate the first couple to bring it up to the then-current date. (Note the drawn-in dates on the latter actual-whiteboard comics, of the 22nd. I posted the first one on the 21st, drew the others [at leas...

From the waaaaay-back machine!

I was looking for some shop pictures from way back- actually before I even launched this biz, let alone TWB :) - and happened across this.

Longtime readers have probably seen it under the "Sketchbook" section, where it's been for ages. The story behind it is, the Thanksgiving right after I launched the comic, I picked up one of those tiny WACOM tablets, at a CompUSA Black Friday sale.

Not the kind with a monitor, the kind that's just a little pen tablet, and I think it only had li...

Blast from the past, part 2

Found something interesting in an old art folder. Way back when I first launched this account, I took this pic from an old T-shirt run we did back in '04 or '05, and redrew it.

I'd started on it, and spend a week or two tweaking it, and for some reason, I never got around to posting it. As they say, no better time than the present. :)

This is the slightly-less-naughty version, the spicier one is below. :)

Doc.

Doc's Overbuilt Hex Wrench Racks!

Constructive criticism welcome!

Doc.

Sketchin'!

Needed to do some sketching today, and decided I'd do up a video of it.

... I really was hoping it'd be better. :)

Ever since I switched to doing the strip entirely digitally, my pen-and-paper skills have gone downhill. Odd that if you don't practice a complex task for a couple of years, you lose your touch a bit... :)

No idea what was going on with the audio. I thought the mic battery might be dying, but I checked, and it's still got plenty of power. Maybe it was so quiet, ...

We Won!

Thanks to you lot (and all my readers in general :) ) we won both categories in the Ursa Major Awards!

There's no cash prize, no giant novelty check, and we arguably sent them more traffic than they could send us, but by golly, in six months or so, I should have a little lucite plaque I can sit on the shelf next to the statuettes I got last Christmas, and the small stuffed polar bear that Kathy sent me a while back. :)...

Alternate-alternate future...

Canonically, there are no hybrids in TWB, so couples like Howie and Cassie, and Jake and Pirta, can't have kids. But, several years ago, a reader suggested, if they could, a potential offspring of Jake & Pirta, might look sort of like a "reverse Pirta". :)

Something like a bushier skunk-like tail, a skunk stripe, and grey rosettes over black fur. I blew off the idea back then, but a recent conversation on another board reminded me of it. I'd been trying to think of a subject for my ...

Minor glitch...

The scheduler for TWB is currently being migrated off a 'cloud' server and onto a private one. There may be minor issues, please stand by.

Currently, Monday's comic links back to 2003, because I was an idiot and mis-set said scheduler. :) And as I don't have access to it at the moment, I can't fix it.

Things should be back in order shortly, we thank you for your patience. :)

Doc.

[update!]

Sorry again, ladies and gents- and anyone in between. :) Today's comic has...

Motivation!

And another old Doc-sketch from the archives. (Done discreetly at a buddy's office. :) )

Doc.

An old sketch...

I drew this, as the date shows, a while back, during a large multi family dinner gathering. The host liked it so much they put it into a photo frame and hung it up.

I saw it again a few years ago, and snapped a pic- in a dimly lit room, under incandescents. It's actually white paper, but the lighting makes it look like parchment. (As does the dirty glass. :) )

I found it this evening while looking through my archives for photos of an older project. Thought you lot might get a kick...

Name Change!

At least as far as this Patreon is concerned, DocsMachine is now TheWhiteboard! :)

Why? I'm separating the two sides a bit more- again, only as far as Patreon is concerned. I'm hoping to gain a little more traffic from my YouTube videos (which are mostly paintball and machine-shop stuff) and have been concerned that new viewers- looking for machine shop stuff- might be put off a little by the "adult content" warning. :)

So, since we already had the furry stuff and the warning here...

Sketch Challenge

I've started to realize that, since going pretty much fully digital on the comic, my sketching skills have deteriorated rather badly. I find myself slapping down some crappy linework, and then spending way too long "fixing" it digitally.

I should just have to tweak a few lines here and there, but instead I find myself practically rebuilding the entire drawing line by line.

A few extra minutes taking care on the original [digital] inking stage, could save an hour or more in the cle...

Saturday Preview!

A bit of behind-the-scenes on what a TWB strip looks like in the early stages.

Doc.

Vote Early, Vote Often!

The Time to Vote is at Hand! :)

TWB  got nominated for two slots; best comic strip (for the day-to-day  works) and best graphic story (for the Sherlock Holmes storyline) and Carry On got nominated for best comic strip as well.

If you have a moment, head on over and vote!

Thank you!

Doc.