Cat Island Sketch

A little sketchbook sketch from Cat Island. I like this character, though I'm not sure who she is yet.

And today is my last day as sole stay at home parent! My wife is done teaching for the Summer, leaving me with a lot more time to work. I'm a bit relieved, to be honest. I wish I could take a few days off to just read in the garden with a jug of cider but that's not going to happen. I actually think Christmas is going to be my next break. Love Christmas.

Some news on the Marrowbones front, I may have a co-creator to work with me on writing. I don't want to announce anything yet but it looks good and he is an amazing writer. More on this soon.

Right now I'm finishing a 3 page Cat Island story, and then it's a pitch and then Maddy Kettle. Getting there. 

Escape To Cat Island

Some more in progress work from Cat Island, which is going to have a whole lot of monsters in it, so very fun to draw. This is also my last day as a full time stay at home dad as Julie finishes up her teaching year this evening. So, I'll be hiding away in my studio in a frenzied attempt to complete some work. 

Mixing Up The Analog With The Digital

Another look at Cat Island, which I pulled out my old dip pen for. I've been covered in ink the last few days. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I can push the two mediums. In my illustration work I was doing some analog/digital work I thought was really cool and I'm really excited to bring that to comics too. Also, I just think Cat Island is a really, really cool idea for a comic. 

A Cat Island Monster

Some good, old fashioned pencils for Cat Island. Just doing a little three page intro story to Cat Island to get a feel for the look and medium I'll be using for it. It probably won't hit Saturday Morning Webtoons for a couple of months but I'm wanting to save up some pages before it launches. I'm trying to combing ink and watercolour with digital, pushing the analog stuff a lot in Photoshop....

Process Goblin

Just a quick sketch post today. A goblin to help promote a friends Kickstarter campaign. I'll post more about this soon.  I find myself working on 4 books simultaneously and still being a stay at home dad. Not sure how I got here. 

The Cat Golem

Here's a shot from downtown Toronto yesterday where the family all wandered around a French festival on the waterfront for a while. Today is all about making comics and finding a ruler. This morning, while everyone was still asleep I slipped out with the dog and we took shots opf houses in the neighborhood for reference. I need a cool house for a new comic. I also need a new ruler as all of mine appear to have made their escape during our last move......

Return Of The Analog Sketchbook

I bought an iPad about 6 months ago and I felt it was a significant enough purchase that I decided to let it replace my paper sketchbook for the time being. I did some really cool experiments using the iPad as a sketchbook and continue to do so, my favorite sketching app is called Procreate. Really fun and easy to use. With current projects being done on my Cintiq and my sketching being done on my iPad I was using very little paper or ink or paint at all.

I missed working on paper and keeping sketchbooks. I've been keeping sketchbooks since I was 14 and have boxes and boxes of them. I felt like I was breaking a pretty good tradition.

Also, an issue with iPad sketching is it's not overly conducive to messiness. That cool, interesting messiness that comes out of exploring a line or a tone.

A brand new independent art supply store opened just a block down the street and I thought the timing was good to start a regular sketchbook again. Now I'm using both my iPad and my sketchbook and drawing more because of it. I can discover and explore things in any medium.

Relieved to have access to paper again. 

Atha Brew's Tribe

Here's a book that won't get done any time soon. I'm not sure why I started it. I just really wanted to and I think it's good but boy, I do not have time with al the other projects I'm doing.

In any case I thought I'd share this page with you, though it may never go anywhere. 

Henny Of Cat Island

 Drawing is dangerous! And so is having kids! It always takes you somewhere unexpected and likely will lead to more work. Oh, and games! Games are dangerous too.

Staying at home with Henry takes my imagination down all sorts of unexpected paths. Henry and I started playing a kids fantasy role playing game game called RPG Kids and it is insanely fun. It's the kind of thing that totally engages him for a while and I think telling stories together is really, really good for both of us. This is the main character in our story, Henry. Or Henny as I've called him, to protect all involved parties.

And of course, I've started writing scripts around this character. The comic is called Cat Island. Not sure when I'll properly get to it but I thought I'd share it now. Because I think Henny is pretty awesome.

What I'm thinking is replacing my Orchard of Laughs comic on Saturday Morning Webtoons with Cat Island. More soon!

Great Review Of Marrowbones 2 Oliver's Tomb On The Forbidden planet International Blog!

Quick post to share this wonderful review of Marrowbones 2 from the Forbidden planet international Blog! Wow! See it here.

Above is some pencils from Marrowbones 3. 

My Fantasy Flipboard

From the first days when I started actively using the Internet it has been about discovery. And more often than not that discovery has been focused on one of my favorite things: fantasy art. Finding things online and printing them off I'd stuff these prizes between the pages of my spectrum Art annuals, keeping all this amazing inspiration in one place. The print offs were terrible, the ink staying cool and wet for way too long and imprinting on my hands. But it was awesome. I loved it.

As the Internet becomes more and more personalized and more and more effective in searches, the possibility of accidental discovery is diminished. Early on you'd look up some artist you were eager to find and it was likely they would be on a website, not their own, along with other artists the person who built the website enjoyed. It was all very sloppy and all very strange. The whole Internet was like Myspace: limited design tools and a profusion of unrelated stuff.

And now we appear to be shuffling away from the World Wide Web and onto apps. Apps are our little portals into the chaos that is the Internet. That's fine. Probably essential. But it makes discovery even harder. And that's why an app like Flipboard is so important. A self curated collection of places to make discoveries.

So, I want to share my favorite fantasy art sites I follow on Flipboard, many of which I discovered through social media. At least right now.

Here they are:

Muddy Colors

The Art Order

Dungeons & Dragons

Spectrum Fantastic Art Live Facebook Page

#sworcery

Hi Fructose Mag

F Yeah Digital Painting

And a few others that aren't really art focused but still have some fascinating and cool art to discover:

Grognardia

A Paladin In The Citadel 

Kotaku

I could go on and on but I gotta get drawing!

Who Is Atha Brew?

In the dangerous northern wastes people must stay close to each other to survive. Nomadic tribes trudge the wastes, hunting food and staying several steps ahead of the cursed storm winds that can transform and disfigure those caught in it. Atha, caught in such a storm has a terrible disfigurement starting with her hand and inching up her arm. In superstitious dread the tribe exiles her to die in the wastes.

Instead of dying she builds a new tribe of treasure hunters, including a goblin and a ghost. They hide their money away in caves and pits, saving to buy entrance to the Tiered City, the one place in the north safe from the monsters and killing magics.

Atha's Tribe is to be an ongoing high fantasy comic. I'm still not sure about the book's title yet... Any ideas?

Henry's Robot Servant, or Drawing Excuses

My wife is currently doing report cards and recent days have been my most unproductive in memory. I have Henry long hours and it's tiring, hard to draw at the end of the day. I'm penciling a page here and there, I'm still working daily but my output is tin. It's over soon though, back to a normal schedule after not too long.

So, in order to cope Henry and I are exploring our West Toronto neighborhood which is really, really fun. The picture with Tik Tok is from this afternoon at a great little bookstore called Community Roots.  The bottom picture is from a pizza store a coule of blocks down where they're starting to know us by name. 

Marrowbones Single File!

Introducing a combines PDF edition of Marrowbones issues one and two, that's 85 pages for 6 dollars. And you only have to download it once! Just go here: 

                                                                        Buy Now 

Very worthy: Garlicks By Lea Hernandez

I've been a fan of Lea Hernandez' work forever.

She was the one who showed me, through her cartooning, how to incorporate the influences of manga in a smart, beautiful way. Not just mecha and guns. She gets manga, and was one of the first western cartoonists to get it. But I'm simplifying things, there is a lot more to her work than that.

Her work is one of a kind. It's always been amazing, but this current work is by far her most beautifully drawn. I'm so excited for this book.

It'as all happening through crowd funding and this is a great chance to be a part of an amazing, important comic. We NEED cartoonists like Lea.

Check it out on Kickstarter and help make it happen right here. 

Marrowbones, Ollie And Yigh.

Thanks so much for buying Marrowbones 2 everyone! The sales have let me buy food and get my website back up and running and I really , really appreciate that. That means I can make more comics! I have issue 3 written but need to complete Maddy Kettle and other contract work before I get to it. But soon! You can buy Marrowbones 1 and 2 for 3 dollars each by clicking the buy now button to the right. 

Buy Marrowbones One And Two Right here!

"Marrowbones is never what you think it's going to be. Unless you think
it's going to be completely wonderful and strange. In that case,
you're right" Emma Bull

Issue 0ne:

Buy Now

Issue two:
Buy Now

Marrowbones On Comics Are Great!!

  Listen in to my interview with Jerzy Drozd on his amazing podcast comics show Comics Are Great! I had an incredibly fun time and it went by way too fast. You can also see what I look like! Prepare yourselves! The horror!!

You can buy Marrowbones 2 right here: Buy Now And if you still need it Marrowbones 1 right here: Buy Now

Marrowbones 2 Oliver's Tomb Now For Sale!

Now available! 3 dollars, grab yours below to be transported to a realm of adventure and spookiness! 

                                                                             Buy Now