I might try to paint this one over the weekend, and if I do, I'll livestream it on Youtube. I think if you're subscribed it'll send you a notification if I go live.
2022-04-01 14:53:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Good news! The Zafiil rewrite is done! And as I expected, it’s so large it’s going to need to be published in two volumes, each of which will be about the size of Even the Wingless, which… was not a small book. I feel scooped out. I finished this novel (I thought) in 1996, tried to sell it, got nowhere, went on to write two decades’ worth of canon that assumed it existed… then decided to unearth it, edited the first 40% of it, discovered the last 60% was no longer ...
2022-03-28 17:43:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Just a short walk through my new(ish) studio, which is almost a year old now. I'm still making changes.
I'm going to talk in a bit about why I'm doing video, but I have to organize my thoughts first. (And don't worry, I have writing news for you all, probably sometime next week)!
2022-03-27 12:42:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Something I've been wanting to try for the longest time is a two-camera stream, where one camera is focused on what I'm working on and the other on my workspace so you can see the palette, and it turns out that's as cool as I hoped it would be. I'm going to continue experimenting with exactly how I want that to work but I'm definitely going to keep doing it, with an eye to doing full pictures (and sketching) streams more regularly in summer.
Here's yesterday's test:
Inspiration for worldbuilding is everywhere, and I was handed a particularly delightful source the other weekend by my father in the form of one of his college textbooks: Engineering Unit Conversions, by Michael R. Lindeburg, P.E. (There is a modern edition, but 2022-03-21 12:49:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Lots of stuff going on I have to handle, so I'm a bit non-responsive still, but here the creative stuff I'm up to!
I really enjoyed making this one, and I feel like I'm learning quickly!
Plus, it's funny. XD
How I developed Fleet, with lots of cartoons, old art, and newer art!
2022-03-14 13:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
A couple of days ago I decided to add art to this audio I did for this Patreon (ages ago) where I answered 'why did you decide to make the Emperor black'. I had so much fun looking for art (and splicing in the audiobook snippet) I thought I should do some more of them! I think someone else asked me 'how did you come up with Fleet' and I have audio for that. But I'd love more questions! Is there anything you've ever wanted to know about why I decided to do something? Let me know!
2022-03-08 17:30:07 +0000 UTC
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I've been sitting on this video for a while and I finally uploaded it. It's kind of mesmerizing, even to me! Enjoy!
2022-03-08 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
A couple of recent sketches from the newest sketchbook, 133. I've had some RL stuff to handle, so not very responsive... hopefully things will clear up soon! Meanwhile enjoy this Florida unicorn, and Zafiil and her friends at the Liiza festival.
2022-03-07 15:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
I heard about acrylic gouache from an internet artist and thought: 'what on earth'... so I read an article about it (https://www.rileystreet.com/blogs/art/acrylic-gouache) and decided 'well, I love gouache and hate acrylics, so 50/50 chance I'll love this stuff? Good enough!'
Armed with a mysteriously appearing gift certificate, I bought a set and did a really quick experiment this weekend: a ...
2022-03-03 14:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostTrust Your peers....
...unless, of course, one of them is a rogue flouting Fleet's already lax regulations. But stowaways are the least of the Stardancer's issues when they are assigned to investigate a mysterious area of space at the behest of an alien allied power. What will the Stardancer find in the depths of the Sargasso? And will it give them reason to dedicate themselves to Fleet's military mission, as their captain hopes, o... 2022-02-28 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I'll be launching the USS Boaty McScanner with an 11x14 sketchbook, with commentary! Stop by for shenanigans!
2022-02-20 16:12:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Courtesy of a probably not very mysterious bear, I now have a large format scanner, a piece of hardware I haven’t had in my arsenal since I had to consign my ancient Mustek to the landfill in the 1990s. As you can imagine, technology has marched on, and this new scanner will do 12x16 at an optical resolution of 1600 dpi, which is about a million times better than that old, beloved scanner. Plus, it is cool looking, and makes hollow sounds like a boat, so I have christened it the USS Scanner...
2022-02-15 14:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Another couple of days, probably. Might experiment with pre-orders on this one.
2022-02-09 15:08:48 +0000 UTC View Post
Now that To Discover and Preserve is at retail, I can talk a little about one of the amusing branches in history that happened when pre-publication Jaguar started contemplating her career plans. Writing a military SF series about Alysha had been my plan since high school, when I first wrote the stories that would end up in <...
2022-02-07 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostA while back I posted a link to a survey in the hopes of understanding how to make things more awesome for those of you supporting me on various patronage platforms. Some of the results were surprising, but I think I got a pretty clear picture based on the responses. Here are some of the takeaways:
Claiming this first week of February as an interstitial week, to re-evaluate my plans and catch up on administrivia.
The Kickstarter’s just about done. I’ve only got three physical prizes left to fulfill, and of those three, two are missing surveys so I can’t mail them anyway. I’m not seeing any major structural issues with the Alysha book, so next week I’ll do the edits on it and kick it out the door. Street date… let’s call it February 16th, to give reta...
2022-02-01 14:16:39 +0000 UTC View Post
I have been doing well at my goal of consistent scanning; my target is five historical scans a week and whatever I’ve done in my current sketchbook, and instead I’ve been doing about 25 historical scans a week, sometimes more. I’ve been picking a random book every day, just to keep things interesting, but once I started getting into the final chapters of the new Alysha novel I plucked out Sketchbook 121, which has some scans in it from my initial story development for that book that I k...
2022-01-23 17:37:38 +0000 UTC View Post
The ships of the Alliance's Fleet map the galaxy, police its hundreds of worlds, and run its diplomatic and scientific errands. It's also the backdrop for the lives of millions of Pelted, a complex work environment filled with opportunities for development, career and relationship alike. Join the crew of the Stardancer and several other ships, and live a day in their life! You'll take a trip to the vertiginous world of the Phoenix, tour a star nursery, answer several distress calls... you...
2022-01-19 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
From the most recent one, this time. Grumpy birb and adventurer's tavern.
2022-01-17 16:24:42 +0000 UTC View Post
As promised, here are a couple that caught my eye during last week's scanning. These are from Sketchbook 2... that was 28 years ago!
2022-01-10 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
With the new year, I'm evaluating how I can improve my offerings and interactions with patrons and readers... please fill out my form and let me know what I can do to make things better or easier for you!
https://forms.gle/Ux44hNjiU5tMKSJJ9
2022-01-07 15:24:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe beginning of a new year is a good time to decide whether you want to tackle pre-existing problems you’ve been ignoring, and putting together the Fleet collection finally broke the last straw in terms of my sketchbook situation. I’ve stopped scanning artwork predictably since stardancer.org went away, which means I no longer have documentation or easy access to art from 10+ years now, and if I keep waiting that situation will only get worse.
2022-01-06 13:48:47 +0000 UTC
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2021 was an absolute trainwreck, in multiple ways. I lost the first four months of it—no work at all—and had a major routine change halfway through it when my commute went from seven minutes to thirty-five, and I went from being home 99% of the day to being out 99% of the day. The kinds of work you can do in a coffee shop are very different from the kinds of work you can do at home with a stationary set-up, so the disruption basically went “major disruption, nothing done—a few months ...
2021-12-31 13:14:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and hopefully a better New Year to you all, aletsen. I've prepared this gift for you, a feel-good short set during the Fallowtide about one of our favorite men of mystery... Lafayette KindlesFlame!
Go grab your warm fuzzies here: https://BookHip.com/CVVFTRD
I hope you have a great holiday... and as always, thank you for your support.💛
2021-12-20 19:50:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Pretty sure it's not a spoiler to say that Something Big is Coming after I've beat that drum for at least six books, so hopefully this montage will not surprise anyone. I'm trying to get back to daily drawing, and since I like montages and I am thinking about the future of the Peltedverse, I decided to do one for that final story arc.
(No, the final story arc doesn't end the Peltedverse. Just its major conflicts, as far as I can see. Still plenty of room to go deep, and go into the past...
2021-12-10 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Courtesy again of Petrov, the Fair Godbear! Get the entire Alysha series and prep for the forthcoming releases of both the collection and the new Alysha series novel. (And no, please don't feel guilty about taking a coupon! They are ALREADY bought, so if no one takes them, that's wasted money! If you want to read the series and are low on cash, don't talk yourself out of it for anyone else's sake!).
From 1996 and 2021.
In context: https://peltedverse.org/wiki/index.php/Isolde_Garreau
2021-11-15 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post