Missing Caribou

Ugh. here are a couple of panels, or a full page in webcomics land, that I failed to post when I put up the Caribou comic. This would have made the transition make more sense. I really liked these images, too. I'll repost the whole thing later. Maybe I'll add a bit on the end as a way of explaining the ending.

Something I'm playing with.

Another robot story. Playing with how far I can stretch a sharpie drawing with Photoshop.

Pink Shirt

Bringing Brushes Downtown

Here's a sketch of someone I met downtown yesterday done on the Brushes app and touched up in Photoshop.

Microstoria: Caribou

  

I hope you like this. Because of the length I'm leaving it up for three days.

Caribou Orbit

Here's another peek at Caribou, a comic I was working on in my spare time, I'm posting it in full tomorrow morning. My original intent was to just do it as a 10 page experiment in combining mixed media and digital media including collage ( those stars were borrowed from the Hubble ) and then I started writing more ideas down and it began to evolve into a huge science fiction epic but then I decided I've got too much lined up as it is and it's an experiment again. I am considering posting short science fiction stories here and having them collected. I even have a title for this imaginary/projected collection: Microstoria. Microstoria is essentially the study of history from a small scale, individuals or small groups. I think.

Anyway, the idea behind this comic is that a science research space station payed for by a sneaker company ( Caribou Sneakers TM ) is attacked by a group of terrorists ( the cause of the attack is that the engines of the Caribou contradict the physics of a small sect living on the moon and decide to wipe out the technology ) The Caribou is evacuated leaving behind a young girl and a handful of elderly scientists.

Also of note is that this comic is designed to be read on a computer screen or hand held reader, more or less rather than specifically for print.

Rage shop

I just downloaded Art Rage, the free version, for my Mac and doodled this and then played with it in Photoshop. I don't know what she's saying... If you have a computer and don't have Art Rage grab it! There's a free version and it's really fun. Check out the tag below to see more Art Rage fun I've had.

Ontario Place

I was kidnapped yesterday ( by family and friends) and forced to spend the day at Ontario Place which, I'll admit, is a pretty mind boggling place. It's so big and kids are having so much fun that it gives you the exact same or very close to the feeling of when you're very young and an amusement park seems to go on forever. We went with Paul and Liz Linsdale, both noted researchers in microbiology, and their kids Evie and Duncan who are great with Henry.I also sketched a lot on my iPod brushes app. Funny how the technologies I was worried would end drawing and reading actually make draw and read more than ever.

Lost Street Car Girl

Yeesh! Thought I'd lost this one but I had saved it to an external disc. This is me still playing with sketches on Photoshop. I was pleased with the contrast.I hope you all don't think I'm being indulgent by posting all my experiments.This stuff is so much fun to do.

Steampunk 2

I nearly fell off my chair when I saw this on Jeff Vandermeer's blog yesterday afternoon. I was blown away and honoured when Jeff asked my for  some pictures for this anthology, the first one I'm a huge fan of. It's one of the most exciting anthologies I've ever read. Every story a gem. It's such a strange thing to recollect all the worry and anxiety of doing work for people you respect so much to finally seeing the work in the book.

Street Car Girl

Telephone Doodles

Some stuff I doodled on White line pads and then noodled with in Photoshop over morning coffee. I have stuff on my PC harddrive to post but it's still in the shop.

GLIMPSES

Some more playing with a single watercolour section in Photoshop. I'm almost done the painting itself and moving on to the next big thing which is illustrating a story for Holly Black in an upcoming Jeff Vandermeer anthology.

A Glimpse

Here's a magazine cover I'm currently working on.

For something new I tried watercolour on Canson Illustration Board. A familiar medium but an unusual board for me. It blew me away. Then I selected a small part of it to play with in my newer version of Photoshop and I nearly fell over. There is a world of difference between the version of Photoshop I was using before and the new one I'm using on my new iMac. It's subtler and more intuitive and seems more geared to image manipulation than just photo-manipulation. If that makes sense. I'm so excited to produce more work with this program. And I'm really looking forward to working on the Caribou 1 short stories.

Leaving computer Holes.

Here are the first three pages of a ten page story called Caribou 1. I've been doing it in marker, brush, ink and acrylic paints. It's a somewhat darker science fiction story than I usually do. I'm also experimenting with style and mediums. My point today is that I'm leaving large empty areas to work out in Photoshop. I usually find my work is so tight that there is no room for any digital media so I'm trying a different approach; leaving holes for the computer. Treating the computer like it's a brush or pen with its own unique contributions rather than an enhancement tool. I'm reading a couple of books right now on the history of electronic music which draws interesting parallels with early twentieth century art like Dada photomontage and cubist collage beginning with Musique concrete in the mid century. I like the idea of borrowing other peoples images and recycling them for a new purpose. Something that really appeals to me is taking a Hubble telescope image and incorporating it into a comic because the image originated from something other than a specific human choice. However, the Hubble images are altered in Photoshop by NASA!