abbyhoward

Sketchbook Chunks~

Here are some excerpts from my sketchbook! I'm not the cleanest or most thorough sketcher in the world, which is why I'm usually a little shy about posting bits from my sketchbook, but I am sure no one minds as much as I do.

I've scanned all the best bits from this year's sketchbook and will be posting these once a month for y'all! Expect a lot of ancient beasts, since this is the sketchbook I kept while working on my upcoming book about the Mesozoic. 

Tracker 6 was a really tough d...

Journal Comics-- Got 'Em

I was really nervous about the reptile portion of the class because I thought everyone would be bored to tears, but it wound up being their favorite class! Probably because they got to see the best video ever . And they met my snake Wednesday, who they'd been asking to meet since the moment I mentioned I had a snake. 

So even if they don't quite know how phylogeny works or that dolphins aren't fish despite...

Cut-and-paste animals for class

So as some of you may know, I've been teaching an after-school class about animal diversity and evolution once a week, and the big project at the end is for students to create their own animal using what they've learned about adaptations. But some of the students aren't able to draw or design their own, so I made some cut-and-paste bits they can put together and color instead!

And then of course I had to test and see if it would work so I made like eight of these. Then fancied up a few, for go...

Extinct creatures-- Styracosaurus

Styracosaurus was an herbivorous ceratopsian, like Triceratops, though with many more fun accessories on its frill. All the ceratopsians had such interesting heads, they're really fun to draw!

Ceratopsians are close relatives of pachycephalosaurs, and they share a fluffy common ancestor (Kulindadromeus, which I thought I'd done a post about but turns out I didn't! Guess I'll have to do that next).  This means there's a decent chance that ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs could have had s...

Don't Hurt Dimetrodon's Feelings, You Owe It Your Very Existence

How is everyone not instantly enamored with our adorable great great great (etc) grandparent Dimetrodon. But alas, the tweens were steadfast in their "meh"ness.

Sistertime Podcast Plays Zoo Tycoon

The Sistertime Podcast is back!! For a three-part video series in which we play Zoo Tycoon. I apologize for how low-res the game is, it is an ancient computer game.

In case you were wondering why there haven't been many Sistertimes lately, Maddie is thoroughly entrenched in local politics and "making the world a better place" or whatever so she hasn't had a lot of time to sit down and watch long-forgotten kid's shows. And I was in some kind of art coma for like five months. But now I have awok...

Journal Comics!

Okay so it's been a LONG time since I've done minis, but here I am, back with some small comics. Though this time I'm not quite going for the jokes as much as I am doing journal comics, because I like reading other people's journal comics, and I've been doing some weird and interesting things lately that have given me a decent amount of material.

For instance, I've been teaching an after school class about evolution and animal diversity once a week! It took some getting used to, but now we're ...

Extinct Creatures-- Pachycephalosaurus

Whoo, it's been a while since I posted an extinct creature! Guess I got a little burnt out on drawing them after working on the Mesozoic book. But here we are with Pachycephalosaurus, one of my favorites! Though really, I think all dinosaurs are my favorites.

Pachycephalosaurus (pachy=thick cephal=head saur=reptile) is a d...

The Last Halloween update for this week!

Hey, folks! This update will be going up on the site probably just after midnight, but here it is for y'all fresh out of photoshop. I'm so happy I finished this update!! 

I have missed being able to put comics up consistently. It's not that the actual comics take any more time than they usually have, it's that I've had a lot going on these past few months! Nothing bad, just a lot of things keeping me from having nice long studio days like I used to. But it's getting more manageable, and I...

What I Was Working On!

Whoops I did not realize that I had not yet posted this here!! I made the image and everything, but I guess things have been a little hectic as of late. Though when are they not am I RIGHT

So hey! I can finally talk about the big secret project I was working on for most of last year. I was writing and illustrating a 128-page kids' book about the Mesozoic. It was a very exciting project, and I am so glad I can finally talk about it.

It'll be available in major bookstores on August 1st, bu...

Update On What's Up!

Hello, my dearest Patreon supporters. You've probably noticed I've been kind of absent for a few months now, and I want to let you know it's not because I have given up on my comics or gone down a depression spiral or moved to a cabin in the woods stocked with MREs and survival gear-- I've just been really busy! 

I think I mentioned a little while back that I had a big project that'd be finishing up around the New Year, and that finally wrapped up around Jan 14th. I still have another rou...

Sistertime Podcast-- The Gift Of Winter

Whew!! A new Sistertime that doesn't sound terrible. There are even some beautiful Spoons yells in there. 

Get into the holiday spirit with us in this episode, where we discuss an animated short that was about snow but also political action. It wound up being ~pretty relevant~ I suppose.

Also, so sorry for my lack of communication lately! That thing I was working on this summer is in its last stages and it's been nse to the grindstone lately. Thank you so much for your patience, you...

Secret Sistertime: The Phantom Of The Opera (animated)

Sssssooooo we aren't really sure what happened, but we recorded this episode and the recording turned out pretty bad. Maybe the mic got jostled or the wrong mic was used, but in the end, the result is a podcast that is still kinda okay, if you like the way phone calls sound.

That being said, I didn't want to leave ya'll hanging, so if you are desperate for a small amount of joy in this dark life we all now lead, here's a secret Sistertime just for you!

Sistertime Podcast-- Animorphs w/ guest The Morph Club podcast

So it's not exactly forgotten entertainment, but I liked the idea of talking to our pals Carey Pietsch and Megan Brennan about something we all think is super cool-- Animorphs! Both the show and the books. 

Next Week's The Last Halloween Update-- Right Now!

The Last Halloween is coming back this month for the start of BOOK 2! It is a pretty exciting book with really fun and interesting characters, I think folks are gonna like it. And maybe also be mad at me? But I guess that's what the world is like. So far everyone seems to be not-mad so that is pretty great!

Anyway, I finished this update yesterday but was just a little too late to update it, and as the site will be undergoing a few updates, I might as well save it for next Thursday. But you gu...

Sistertime Podcast 25-- Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog

Boy! This one was pretty rough!! Would not recommend this one, pals. I don't even know if the veil of nostalgia could rescue this one for anybody. But ey, we watched it anyway, listen to us discuss if you'd like!

Extinct Creatures-- Nyctosaurus

Here is the last pterosaur I'll be posting for pterosaur week, and finally one that eats fish, Nyctosaurus. It lived in the late-ish (but not as late as Quetzalcoatlus) Cretaceous in what is now North America, where there was once a vast shallow sea. It likely remained in the air for long periods of time, gliding across the open waves in search of unlucky fish. It's been theorized that some pterosaurs could float on the waves, like many of our modern sea birds, so I've drawn in a couple sleepy N...

Extinct Creatures-- Tupandactylus imperator

Check THIS guy out. What a handsome boy he is! The male Tupandactlyus imperator had probably the largest crest of any known pterosaur, making him a special friend indeed. This species lived in the mid-Cretaceous of what is now Brazil, and was another example of pterosaurs with unique feeding habits. It's been theorized they were nut and seed eaters, rather than fish-eaters. I realize now I have not actually posted a single pterosaur that ate fish but I swear, most of them did.

Pterosaurs are p...

Extinct Creatures-- Anurognathus

Anurognathus is by far the cutest pterosaur. Sorry to all other pterosaurs, you just can't beat this little flat-faced, big-eyed bug eater.

Anurognathus lived in the late Jurassic of what is now Germany. It hunted insects during dusk and twilight, which is why its eyes are so adorably big. In Mark Witton's excellent book Pterosaurs, he describes little tufts of pycnofibers along the terminal edges of their wings, which would help them fly silently (some owls have structures like these, ...

Extinct Creatures-- Pterodaustro

Here we have Pterodaustro, a cute small friend who has around 1000 teeth. Pterodaustro lived in South America during the early Cretaceous, and probably used its long bristle-like teeth to sift through water and silt for tasty invertebrates and other small organisms. So actually, that little drawing of it dipping into the water is probably pretty inaccurate!

Most pterosaurs ate fish, though paleontologists are still trying to figure out their exact method of nabbing fish from the water. ...

Extinct Creatures-- Quetzalcoatlus

Okay so this week, to make up for my many weeks away, I'll be posting extinct creatures daily! And all of them will be pterosaurs because I haven't done any yet and they are my absolute favorite things and sometimes I cry when I think about them.

So pterosaurs. They are not dinosaurs, though they share a common ancestor with dinosaurs, so they're pretty close. They're warm blooded, quadrupedal, and have a coat of what looks like hair but is actually something called pycnofibers, a structure th...

An Early JSPH Again

It has been so relaxing finishing these JSPH updates so far in advance! I've been traveling a lot this month, so I've had to finish them early for scanning. I'm glad I have stuff I can give you guys in thanks for all you do for me! You are wonderful, and I hope you have a great day.

-Abby

Early JSPH-- Possessionware

I am gonna be traveling this weekend so I have already finished next week's JSPH, which was inspired by a very suspicious CD that arrived in my mail the other day. It claimed to be "the software that you ordered" (I have ordered no software) and you could practically smell the viruses within its plastic casing. Or perhaps what I smelled... was Digital Satan himself

Sistertime Podcast, Episode 25

Whoo we're back at it! We watched a movie about a sweet little unicorn boy, and we recorded this episode in the ~same room~ instead of 3000 miles apart.

Extinct Creatures 9-- Gigantoraptor erlianensis

Ah, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, what a beautiful and frightening beast! It lived in what is now Mongolia around 70 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous, and it was most likely a predator (though there is still some speculation about its diet).

Gigantoraptor might share some superficial similarities with birds, but it belongs to a separate group of theropods which just happened to evolve birdlike features, the oviraptorids. Though the wings are actually a trait shared by most if not all man...

Extinct Creatures #8~ Spinosaurus aegypticus

Last week I shared with you a couple herbivorous dinosaurs of the Gondwanan mid-Cretaceous, which naturally led some folks to ask about one of the most popular carnivorous dinosaurs of that time and place-- Spinosaurus aegypticus. It also happens to be one of my top fave dinosaurs, because it is so unique and huge! Though it also has a fair amount of Discourse surrounding it at the moment.

It's gone through some changes recently, and reconstructing it before we've resolved all its odd anatomic...

Extinct Creatures #7!

Hey hey we got us some extinct creatures again, at last! I've still been sketching them regularly, just not finalizing them. But it means I have a backlog to choose from.

Here we have two herbivores from the middle Cretaceous (like 112 mya or so) of Central Africa-- the first is Ouranosaurus, an iguanodont with a big sail back. It is very pretty, I think! A top-notch iguanodont. As with any sail-backed extinct creature, there are a few possible explanations for why it evolved-- it could be use...

Birthday Special- Middle School OCs

It's that time again, the time when I feel the need to draw the characters from my middle school novel (well, novella. It was like 100 pages.) And because it's my birthday, you HAVE to listen to me! Those are the rules.

It was all about the lion girl, Alabaster, who was put in charge of making sure no evil forces in the universe became too strong.  The bat guy was originally supposed to fulfill that role, but he was not good at it and fell into despair and became evil, and she has to stop...

July 2016 patron supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Mini Comic-- Kissed

What, two whole minis in one day! Yes. 

Wednesday is very confused by hair and gets lost in mine a lot