This is how books are made. At least the part before I turn on my computer.
Sketches of page layout
Paper setting in coffee bath (foreground) and tea bath (background)
Some rather nice finishes.
Nick Cave in concert
Watercolor scrawl from notes and drawing in the dark from the Nick Cave concert last week. Note about the bottom: Audience members passing chairs along to clear a space at Nick Cave’s request.
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Notes from my very first 0 level Dungeon Crawl Classics Game. Plus my button, which I know you’ve already seen. But button.
Garycon V
Gary Con Open, The Blighted Lands Part 1, henceforth known as The Disco Inferno of Racist Dragons & Bedazzled Displacer Beasts. Colin of DGS DM’d. We moved on to round 2.
The Disco Inferno of Racist Dragons & Bedazzled Displacer Beasts part 2. DM’d by Chad of DGS. We won the day (& the Open), evil was defeated & the land was restored! Includes notes from group.
Sketchbook time!
Sometimes I draw. Sometimes I include the conversations around me.
And sometimes I’m completely obnoxious and draw at concerts. If you’ve seen a dark haired chick balancing her sketchbook at the back of the crowd and wondered how in the hell she can draw in the dark – that was probably me.
Wallflower
I can’t even go to parties and not draw.
Fuck yeah.
Figurative Illustration Workshop – Faun
June’s Figurative Illustration Workshop featured a faun. Our lovely model had fashioned furry leggings and a tail, with her dog providing reference for the animal legs. And then, of course, the horns. More of that in a bit.
Cownabilism
Cow wants you to eat hamburgers, yes?
And all that was….2011
I’m supposed to do one of these end of the year posts, right? Except my head is deeply buried in work and I used my favorite New Year’s quote last year. I must say, this has been quite the crazy, stressful, wonderful year. Moving to a new state and selling a house in the old took over my life a bit. So there is much I will be celebrating as this year ends and a fresh new one spreads out in front of me, full of a lovely new city to explore and much art that is begging to be made. A few years ago I had what I called my Year of Destruction, in which my world was turned upside down in what seemed to be a couple of unfortunate incidents until I found it was simply clearing the way for something new to be built. This year has felt similar to that, a series of endings and beginnings, but I’m not quite sure what to call it yet. I have new projects to look forward to, and this new year feels full of promise.
Screw it. The man is wise, and this beautiful sentiment can not be said enough. Enjoy your evening and new year.
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously.
I hope you will make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now – I hope that you will, when you need to, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself.
- Neil Gaiman