jklind

Backing up, a bit

Since I'm dragging my feet on drawing "The Next Day", I thought a bit more about a discarded bit where Lily spends the rest of the first day with an iron grip around Daisy...  and then I pictured a shell-shocked Rose getting home.

This may have impacted me, just a tad.

"What are your influences?"

...I've only recently managed to track a key one down.

For I don't know how many years, the first pair of images above lingered in the back of my mind. A distant memory from the mid-1980s, of a handful of comic pages I'd found by accident. I was around 6 years old at the time, and from prior experience I knew I'd get in trouble if I was caught with those pages, so I left them where I'd found them. As I got older, every so often I'd think back to them, a...

The week ahead

My nieces were visiting for much of the past week, but now that they're on their way home, I need to get back to work. For the next day or two, that may mean scripting out the dialogue for the comics pages I have thumbnailed, as well as the ones I haven't yet.  The un-thumbnailed pages may have be more wordy than the current batch, so it will definitely help to know what will fit onto a single page. The sooner I get that all sorted out, the sooner I can start drawing it!

Speaking o...

Table for Three

More progress on the house model - since at least one page will have Daisy, Alice, and Violet seated at the kitchen table, I started blocking in that area.  I was almost ready to block in the table and some chairs, too, until I realized I already had models I could use... models I made 10 years ago, and never used.

The kitchen is more or less done, for reference purposes, so now I need to decide how much of the next room I should do. Right now I'm torn between having Lily icing her...

The Next Day

I've been a bit distracted over the past week, between the 3D house model and a new comic collecting/scanning obsession.  Looking at the news, I'd say everyone else could use a distraction right about now.

I've had this page locked down in my head for some time now, it's mainly taken me this long to thumbnail it because I'm less certain about the pages that come after it. The next one might have at least one difficult-to-stage panel, while the page after that might benefit from a r...

Note to self - don't go overboard (goes overboard)

One thing that's prevented me from diving into the next section of the comic, is Daisy's parents' house. Backgrounds might be my least favorite thing to draw, so I'm knocking this out based on some old blueprints just make my life easier. I do need to remind myself that we won't see much more of the outside that what's in the first picture, to avoid wasting too much time on this.

Two other areas I may need to give some attention to, are the family room and the kitchen. I know what's goi...

Up, up, down, down...

I'm slowly making progress on this set!  I haven't made up my mind on part 2 just yet, but at least parts 1 & 3 are done.

Pretty soon, it may be time for me to switch to some 3D work. First I need to model the front of Daisy's parents' house, and then I'm like to start blocking in Candice.  Candice might be my most "safe" character to eventually put on my demo reel, and I'll need something to demonstrate my rigging and other tools. The only potential problem is she could t...

Button Mashing

This pic of Daisy in a SNES-themed costume is proving to be more frustrating than I'd expected...  Her pose just isn't working for me, but I can't quite picture how else she could stand and still have the overall idea work. I also don't want her to be grumpy, even though she wouldn't exactly be thrilled with Mary touching her buttons.

As-is, the only way the original idea works in my eyes, is if I add to it. That makes it a comic, though, and I seem to recall another comic I should...

A squeeze a day...

Mary's never going to learn to keep her hands to herself.

No Time To Unwind

Two weeks ago, my task list consisted of two pinups, roughly five comic pages, and a whole bunch of Python coding. Now two weeks later, the list is exactly the same. Why I thought I could get anything done while visiting family - despite that pretty much NEVER panning out before - is beyond me.

Backing up - two weeks ago, I drove out to Arizona with my parents, to visit with my brother and nieces. We stayed at my brother's house, where I quickly realized there was no place for me to set...

An Improbable Choice

Serpentine!

A few days ago, I felt the need to switch gears again - I hadn't worked on my Maya tools in months, so it was time to make some progress!  And I have made progress over the past few days, although it's a weird case of being big and small at the same time...

Back in October, I started a major revamp of my tools, with a heavy emphasis on class inheritance. I'd mainly focused on my control class, but this past weekend I decided it was time to work on the next level - a group of contro...

Extra-soft Pillows

Voulez-vous une invitation écrite ?

December pics - 300 dpi

December's pinups, at the highest resolution!

December pics - 150 dpi

December's pinups, at a higher resolution! The next few will be added, once they're ready.

Cross-squish

Dumb idea - a variant of Daisy with implants instead of naturals, and unable to do this pose.

Yarg

One down, four to go!

Gift-wrapped

What ever could it be? Shh! Don't tell me! I want it to be a surprise!

Christmas Scramble

You'd think that by now I might've learned not to make too many art plans in December, because odds are good there won't be enough time for most of them...

The 5 pinups I'd started inking and coloring are taking a back seat to this year's Christmas pinup. Once these are all done, I'll have the poll winners to work on - Daisy buried in Mimi's cleavage came out on top, followed by the Konami code. All of the other ideas were multi-way ties, though there are some good ideas in there that I...

Poses a plenty!

One downside to scribbling an idea and thinking "I'll get to this later", is there can be a LOT of them once "later" finally arrives. And with time always being a factor, a few might get drawn, while the rest get pushed back to "later"...

What can also be fun is when some poses are less character-specific. I might sketch a pose for Daisy, but may it'd work better for Monique, or even Mimi. If y...

The week ahead

Some time today I want to compile some of the recent pinup thumbnails - along with some older unused ones - into a new poll.  Apart from those, I may already have my assignments for the rest of the week...

Characters to Sculpt

I'm inching towards finishing my singing bust sculpt, but regardless of how far I get, I think the next week should be focused more on drawing, and finishing one or two of the pinups I've thumbnailed recently. Or even some of the ones from months ago!

At same time, I'd like to start drawing more model sheets for characters I'd like to sculpt. One of these - Aeolus's Davey Malloy - I'd already d...

Well that escalated

I had an idea for 2-3 images of Daisy applying lotion, which then became a longer sequence.  Then I decided to add Mimi to the mix.

update - now it's REALLY escalated! Iku suggested Monique get in on this, and things kind of snowballed from there!

Who wants some Candy?

I'm not even done with my first sculpt, and I'm already planning future ones! Candice has been on my mind for a while, so I figured it was time I drew a model sheet for her.  Also I started toying with the idea of her having a twin sister who's her opposite in almost every way. Name-wise, I think Cornelia Beatrice Kane has a nice ring to it...

Before I start sculpting Candice, first I'll want to make a reusable base mesh. That's not overly difficult, as it's just simple shapes. Whe...

Doing the thing

After a weekend of changing up my drinking habits and clearing my head, today I finally jumped into Blender for more than just a look around!  It has some quirks that take a little getting used to, but all in all I don't think I did too bad, for my first day. 

It's a cover-up!

This week hasn't quite gone how I'd hoped, so to take my mind off things, I've been working on some custom game covers.

My main goal this week didn't sound so difficult - dive into Blender, figure out its sculpting tools, and then use them.  While I did explore the tools and fill out some index cards with notes and shortcuts, I found myself resistant to doing much more than that. Learning a new program is always frustrating, especially when it's similar to something you already kno...

Planning to plan out the planny-plan

Over the past few days, I've been outlining the next several pages of the comic. I suppose I could end the current chapter where it is, but at least two pages feature character cameos that I don't think I'll be able to fit in anywhere else. None of these pages are ready to be drawn just yet, as I still need to do page layouts, and plan out the dialogue.

In the meantime, I've been thinking more about using those Haunted Mansion busts to either learn how to sculpt in Blender, or re-learn ...

Pushing Daisies

Boredom could perhaps be a cure for art-block... and then drawing is a cure for boredom! If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to think up & sketch a silly idea or two.

Grim Grinning Ghosts

I could use another break from Daisy and the comic... The next page may only be two panels, if not a single image, but art block isn't making it easy to figure out the posing. Rather than force it, I'm feeling the urge to work on something else again. And since I'm been on a Haunted Mansion kick lately...

Disney's Haunted Mansion has always been one of my favorite rides. When I moved to Florida over 15 years ago, I even wanted to remake the ride as an Unreal level, which gave me an excu...