New Gertrude

Finally a new Gertrude comic. I have another couple in mind.


Gertrude loves calamari by ~lunavalse on deviantART

I also doodled the following when I was watching Ponyo (for my second time) with Abe. That is a great movie. I hope someday to create stories as wonderful as those by Studio Ghibli.

Some poem comics

Finally inked these on Sunday. They have been penciled for months and the paper was getting ruined. Abe didn't put these together so they might not be as nice as usual. I should be getting a new laptop soon, so I plan to color both of these using my tablet and Photoshop.

 I think I came up with this one after I took that Poem Comics class at the Richard Hugo class. Yes, these are my shoes, and the socks are Rogue Roses by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, which I also have (because I made them).

And here is a poor scan of an Artist Trading Card I did of a character for an upcoming comic that I hope we can get done for Jet City Comic Show on September 24 in Seattle...hint hint.

Sketches! First up is some aerialists for my practice commission requested by Isaac, my brother. Not sure if they light pencils scanned through very well. I am doing some practice commissions in anticipation of the comicons coming up. Just in case. If someone asks. You know. I like to be prepared. So if someone asks, I will have examples and prices.

 The some dude I doodled tonight because I am too tired to draw anything that is not a doodle. I need to get more sleep. I wouldn't mind being so sleepy if I didn't have to drive so often.

Comic Review: Creature Tech

Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel

I grabbed this bad boy from the library after reading Ghostopolis. I really enjoyed Ghostopolis and was bummed Ratfist, TenNapel’s web comic, was ending soon (it is done now, but iw till be an actual book by next year), so I got my Doug TenNapel fix here. Great choice.

Art: 4 stars

As much as I enjoyed the art in Ghostopolis and Ratfist, Creature Tech in black and white was stunning. You can really see the strength in his inking. I adored his sketchy yet detailed and precise facial expressions. The cover is mostly acid green and black – quite striking and one of my preferred color palettes in grade school. So I was almost disappointed that it was black and white inside, but it only took a couple of pages for me to stand back and say, “Whoa. That is inking.” I may have drooled a little.

Story: 4 stars

Another great story from Doug TenNapel. The story is about a smart, kind-of douche guy who gets sent to some government facility hidden in a small middle-America town to work on deciphering/cataloging artifacts the government has found. Of course, things go wrong, but it is all just this other guy invested in the dark arts being another kind of douche.

The story worries a little on religion for a bit. It involves a well-known religious artifact, but the characters actually discussing religion seemed forced, like he felt it had to be there since the religious artifact was there. It was more just odd than off-putting or distracting. Simple side notes to the story.

Again, the main character isn’t the most likeable fella. But all the characters are interesting enough with both flaws and strengths,  and the story is so wacky it is probably good that the characters, even the wacky characters, are fairly normal – except the one who brings about all the wackiness to start with. It is a nice balance. Yes, I think wacky is a nice, single description for this bizarre story.

I do wish he had gone into more detail about the love interest. I didn’t really understand the point of why she was there. I mean, I don’t think everything has to be explained and purposeful, but she had so much potential. I was really disappointed I didn’t get to learn more about her.

Overall: 4 stars

A liked this even better than Ghostopolis. The art was better, or at least more striking, and the story was more available to adults (less full-on kids’ jokes) and yet still fully accessible to your non-idiot kids. In a few years, I may have to go buy this. All this review writing has made me want to look through it again, but I had to return it to the library.

Abe also did a review here.

Water Lady Sketches

I did some sketches. I am trying to figure out the water lady story. I really want to do it, but it has a lot of stuff I need to work out. Maybe that is what I will work on when I am done making stuff to fill up our comicon booths. I like the cartoony people I have been seeing in a lot of the comic books I have been reading, but it is not what my hand naturally draws, so I will need to practice.

The upper right (EDIT: er, left...upper left) image is a copy of this mermaid by Emily Carroll. If you haven't looked at her stuff, you should because it is amazing. That mermaid image she drew really made me excited to do the water lady story again. I will likely go with a Kate Beaton, Emily Carroll style but with watercolors. I certainly need to practice people more though.

nib seasoning doodles

So I may have learned to season my nibs. The guy said to soak it in vinegar for one hour and then dip it in ink, clean it off, and then dip it again and draw with it for 10 minutes. So I did that. And here are the doodles.

All of these are without my usual pencil sketch, so I am pretty pleased with these, especially the lady's face and the fish thing.

Some Sketches

A few days worth of doodles. I have been busy and tired so the drawing output has been slim, but I am going to try starting up the doodles again. I did this at work when I realized I hadn't been drawing as much as I should. 

 I drew this one night. I was in a weird mood. I really like her right leg.

 The top one on the next page is from The Sartorialist. Then I was watching Master Chef, so I drew the guy I hate and the guy who got kicked off, which was sad because he is so adorable and excited.

And then this at work recently. I might expand this and do a painting. This one was actually inspired by and Amanda Palmer song. I think song 3 from Dresden Dolls, Dresden Dolls.

Producing a linocut comic

I posted about making the linocut prints for my new comic Ooh, Shiny! What a time consuming project. Still working on it. I have two pages to write (but 8 copies, 1 copy for each book). Then I have to print the covers, cut the Davey board, prepare the covers, and bind the books. Soon. Soon.

Last few sketch challenges

Whoops. I forgot to post the last two images I did for the Ten Ton Sketch Challenges.

MegaMan as Coppertone baby by ~lunavalse on deviantART


Samurai Jack and the Squirrel by ~lunavalse on deviantART
I was going to, and did actually, make a sumi-e of Samurai Jack, but it did not turn out well.