Following my painting-filled plein air trip in June, this month I swore off painting in order to hunker down and focus on my comic, Tilted Sun. It's been a good shift overall - I'm no longer taking trips to the art store to seek out a special oil paint color or buy a never-ending ream of surfaces. Half of the challenge of painting was just keeping a good amount of paint/canvas on hand.
After working on the comic for more than a year, I’m happy to say it is finally taking off and starting to make sense. Several elements in my life as an artist had to come together before I could gain momentum on the comic: I had to get really good at using Procreate on the iPad Pro and also find awesome brushes that worked for my sensibilities. I also had to reach a critical max on painting - I had to paint until I was tired of it!
Here are some randomized sneak peeks of the comic without being super spoilerific.
To get the latest on Tilted Sun, I’d recommend following the Tilted Sun Instagram. I still keep it pretty deep under wraps though. I don't exactly know why it has to be so guarded, but I guess it is because I continue to want the comic to be really good. Releasing anything less than good wouldn't be right.
There are also a bunch of high-level process/development updates I’m posting on Patreon - for Patrons only. Topics I've covered in Patreon include: the importance of detail in Miyazaki films, working hard for a tech company that eventually sold, and characters/pages in the comic!
A couple other anniversaries happened this July. Professionally, I work extremely hard and stay pretty quiet. What makes me happiest is just “Getting it Done.” No complaints, no BS. So, I was really touched when the company where I work bought me this art set for being with the team for one year.
Thank you guys.
I also went to a family reunion! It was fun to see everyone on my Mom's side of the clan. Here is everybody!
Yours truly is in the far back right of the photo.
While I traveled to the reunion in St. Louis, I got the chance to knock out a few more airport drawings. This time I stuck to paper instead of the iPad, I guess the iPad has been getting enough activity with about 60 pages of my comic being on it.
A friend commissioned me to make posters for her office sci-fi book club - bringing life and excitement to the daily grind. I've been making these posters for the book club over the past year, here are the three most recent posters as pre-text versions:
Another Comics Update! If you donated to the Past the Last Mountain Kickstarter as a 30$+ backer, you should be getting a hard copy of book this week if not already. Artist friend Jennifer Spencer was kind enough to share this image of the book with me:
Written by Paul Allor, this comic above ^ is a story about two very different people who are good friends, even though the world tells them that they can't be friends.
I believe this that story, and the entire Past the Last Mountain collection, is very timely. I hope you get a chance to check it out!
