TQOTU - The Kritillic Attack

This is the WIP 3rd or 5th page of the Teenage Queens of the Universe webcomic. There's a lot of negative space to be filled in and I need to finish my lines, but here's where I am now. I will finish and post the fully inked page tomorrow.

I'm going to post about a page a week here until I'm confident I will keep the schedule and then move everything over to its own comic-based hosting.

I have no confidence in my ability to tell a story in pictures well. At least, not well enough to carry a comic. My original intent today was to post a page and invite critique, but (while I would still welcome criticism) it occurs to me that I have spent the last forty years waiting until I could draw a perfect page, rather than just fucking getting on with the drawing.

If you're doing this, fucking quit it. I wonder how my art might have grown and matured if I'd just got on with the business of drawing, instead of bellyaching about the shit I didn't like.

Happi Easter Bunni

I learned something about myself.  I am not a furry.  I've drawn sexy women, sexy dwarves (the fantasy variety - with a beard... so you have something to grab hold of, I'm not discounting the personhood of little people), sexy halflings and elves (lots of those), and even sexy furry super heroines like Tigra and Wolfsbane, but I have little to no interest or ability in drawing sexy animals.

This simple black and white drawing took me almost two days to finish. Trying to find a suggestive pose while keeping it "clean" then trying to figure out how to make her look like a rabbit.  This was a pain in my ass. And I had to finish, because so much that I've uploaded here hasn't been (hoping to finish the Aiori pic from last week in time to post Thursday - then I think I might deducate this to Teenage Queens for awhile).

The specific challenge given me here was, "a dirty bunny in a sexy pose... using carrots in a suggestive way."  This is what I came up with.  Happy Eostre.

I also learned that Cam Scanner, the document scanner I use on my Android, no longer supports jpg output.  It's a wonderful app for pdf files, but W.T.F.?  Had to snap this with my camera and use photoshop express to clean it up (sorta).

Athlandis (Pencils)

Teenage Queens of the Universe.

The planetary capitol of Aio - abandoned now for uncounted millennia.  Not even the Grelaus archeologists who brought the Human Remnant to Aio know how the architecture has remained so well preserved through eons of neglect.

Pencils only.  This was going to be a little picture, just for posting here, and I kinda' went nuts with it.  I'm not even sure what it looks like on your end (I used my phone's scanner app; and I've never done that with pencils).

New Art Thursday: Everybody Draw Muhammad.

I wanted to talk about this.

First of all, I think he turned out looking more like a 2nd Edition Gnome than the Prophet of Islam. Secondly - I have no idea if the translations of "just a man" are accurate - I used Google Translate and checked 'em against any other I could find. I left some languages out just because I don't have font support on my laptop. The top bit in yellow says, "there is no god and Muhammad was just a man." I don't think I'm happy with that part.

Now I want to say something about why I drew this image, and about my problems with the whole "Everybody Draw Muhammad" thing.

I joined up because I stumbled upon the "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" poster and searched around a bit for the story. Then the news outlets picked it up and I went ahead and joined the Facebook group (well, one of them, anyway).

I thought long and hard about what I was going to draw (which is ironic, since I just drew him sitting there). At first I was going to draw Muhammad in some parody of an iconic American image like American Gothic (with Aisha) or one of Warhol's or Rockwell's works. Then I changed my mind and I was going to draw something about the hero of a major world religion having had sexual relations with a six year old.

I opted out of that one, because it turned me off drawing. I was going to make some kind of political statement, but let's be honest, I'm about as political as a rubber fish. I was going to copy the "Hope" or "Change" Obama Image - but decided that could be construed the wrong way, and probably was going to get done to death anyway.

I ended up just drawing him, since that seems to be what gets people in a fuss anyway; shit, Parker & Stone only drew a bear costume and said it was him.

"Fuck it," I said and looked around the Facebook pages and I was kind of disgusted.

I know that all I'm looking at is Anonymous (even though it's not), but there were so many lines crossed today. I'm not sure I'm happy about more than one of them. But I'm especially disturbed by the presence of Anonymous in the same social network as my family and friends.

Yeah, yeah, sure. I bet quite a few of my family and friends are Anonymous (and if you don't know what I mean by that - I'm referring to the message and image boards, and any forum really, that allows contribution without identification. Usually these places are filled with the most disgusting and vile filth that you have to wade through to get to the gold you're looking for, be it comedy or porn or what-have-you).

But I didn't understand the necessity of drawing Muhammad fucking a pig (or a goat or a sheep or a horse or a missile[wtf?]). I didn't think it was necessary to harp on the whole pedophile thing. They know he was a pedophile, they like him that way. It's fucked up, but all you really had to do was draw the prophet. If you're going to get your fatwa just by drawing the man eating an ice cream cone.

Holy Shit! I should have drawn Muhammad eating a damn ice cream cone!!!

Damnit!

aRGHHH

Okay, I'm done. I just thought too many people took a look at "oh here, we're sticking it to the Muslims," and shouted for joy because they thought it was open season to say (draw) anything they wanted to draw of Islam's icon (I'm loving that word today for some reason). It just rubs me the wrong way.

I guess, if you look at it right, I'm being hypocritical. They see any depiction of their prophet as blasphemous and evil, which is what I did. Drawing the man in compromising positions is meant to draw out "even more anger than angry enough to kill you." Which I don't get.

Do you suppose this was a contest to see who could actually get killed over it?

I just wanted to protest the response to South Park (and other cartoonists), and maybe strike a blow for free speech. I knew it was going to piss some people off, but I didn't want to do any more than that.

I think all religions end up being an overall force for evil and wickedness in the world, but that doesn't mean we have to treat those who believe in them now like trash. Nobody really deserves any respect, but maybe we ought to give everyone a little anyway.

I'm not sorry for my participation in the event. It was challenging and kind of fun (and yeah, a little bit "fuckyou" to the man (I'm looking at you Comedy Central, you fucking cowards); but I doubt I would do it again. It was too hard wading through all the filth to find the good ones.

New Art Thursday: Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality Chapter One

This isn't a drawing. Which is kind of the point of New Art Thursday, but I really wanted to do this, so here it is.


HARRY POTTER & THE METHODS OF RATIONALITY
Chapter One: A Day of Very Low Probability

Written by Less Wrong. Harry Potter et al, belongs to J.K. Rowling. The Methods of Rationality belong to no one.

Let me know what you think. Not just about the story, but about my voice, tips for recording, any of it. I'm curious.

New Art Thursday: Clones

These are the three player characters (and their Jedi companion) from my d6 Star Wars game. I'll need to add color to bring all the separate pieces together, I think - I made the image so that it could be broken apart for use on my Obsidian Portal campaign wiki. In a few days, you'll probably be able to see the finished product(s) there.

New Art Thursday: Tesseract

(A geometric figure I don't completely understand).

This is only my 5th or 6th serious attempt (that blonde chick, myself, that scene girl at that Starbucks that one time, me again, that dancer girl, that actress... yeah 6th) to draw a "real" person; and it's the first time I tried to draw someone who exists in my world without resorting to recreating an existing image of her.

I should have stuck to what I know. As an image I'm happy with a lot of things about this drawing. I still don't know squat about detailed highlighting, but my use of color feels stronger (is it?). I am fucking in love with that pant's leg. I completed this image (start to finish, including rough's, pencils, inks & color) in under 6 hours - so I'm getting quicker.

It fails to do the thing it was meant to though. If it wasn't already Friday, I'd have scrapped the whole thing and started over from scratch.

Looks like I've got some learning to do.

It feels to me like when a bad (no - not "bad" - a not quite as good as you're used to) artist takes over a comic title you love to read. If you were reading this comic book and saw her here, you would probably know who she was - there are enough "cheats" thrown in to give that away; new readers are never going to know how much better she looked when [insert favorite artist here] was drawing her, though. I just wish I was better.

Maybe she was right. Maybe it just wasn't my day, and I'm being too hard on myself. Hope so.

New Art Thursday: Densjak Tribeslayer

Meet Densjak Tribeslayer, Goblin Wizard, and his familiar companion Bristlepig.

Densjak was something of a magical prodigy, who slew his own wizardly master to take his place as chief shaman and wondermaker of his tribe. But he was an experimenter, forever tampering with the very essence of magic; and his experiments eventually led to the death of his tribe.

All of them. In retaliation, the God of the Goblins marked him (his grey color) and shackled him with the boar - his familiar (a faithful and loyal companion to the end, but the eyes of Maglubiyet no less). He no longer has anything to do with goblinkind (because they attack him on sight, trying to rip out his throat in honor to Maglubiyet), so now he must truck with humans and their ilk - no matter how he despises them.

Densjak was a character concept I came up with some time ago, but never got to play. I wrote a short tale about his "fall;" it never went anywhere. He became an NPC, but with 4th Edition, I'd sure like to give him a shot in the PC ring.

New Art Thursdays: Mohan, Cleric of Pelor

Meet Mohan, wandering cleric - heretical servant of Pelor - the Sun God. Mohan is a pacifist adventurer. That may be the wrong word. He does not oppose violence, he simply abstains from it. He sees his purpose in protecting those who would venture into the dark places of the world, and to retrieve what relics of the faith he can find, to return them to the church.

He travels the free kingdoms seeking out adventurers and mercenary bands that may need a healer or a priest, in return asking only for what share of the spoils the gods make clear are due him - and those provisions the band wishes to purchase that he may serve them better.

Mohan is older than most human adventurers - closing on 60 (he has a long and somewhat dismal past), but there's no system for that in 4e, so I just assumed his faith in Pelor, and his unswerving dedication to his vows give him vigor unknown to other men his age.

This is the character I'd like to play in the next 4e D&D game we put together (or any D&D game, really).

One thing I've found that I like about 4th edition - it not only makes this possible, but he even manages to be a useful, contributing member of the party. Who might not get squushed.

More Mohan tomorrow.

New Art Thursday: Ambush! (Unfinished)

Ambush! It's a scene from the Rotworld script I've been working on for about a week (split up over the past year or two). Unfinished Ink over scanned pencils. It is entirely probable that this pic will be WAY too dark. We'll see.

New Art Thursday: Beastlands of Pluto

I think it's going to have "Beastlands of Pluto" across the top (and maybe "a Six-Gun Davey Grant Adventure," with "An Electroverse Tale" at the bottom. It'll also be in color. Hopefully a little easier to make out the details.

Tasty and Unfinished

I'm working on some She-Hulk artwork (because why the hell not?), but the first one is maybe half-done; here's a couple pieces from my practically defunct MySpace account.

First up is an Elven Archer I drew (and created for D&D, but never played) with butterfly thing. With the exception of the butterfly wings (I wish I'd given them some detail), I was pretty happy with this one. I gave her some fucking massive Elf Quest ears (which look a little odd on an adult-sized elf hunny), but you love it.




This second one was actually a sketch for an D&D character I played; he was a devotee of Asmodeus and trying like the dickens to become the evil mastermind of the city he lived in. He wore a mask and skulked about at night to hide his evil from the city as a whole. Before I got to draw this image, he was killed off by another PC (who managed to kill off all the other PCs too, the evil bastard). I drew, scanned and colored this about a year ago (a week or two after that elf up there); and just found it in a dusty corner of my hard drive.

I hope it's new to you. Or, at least, you're one of the gamers who was there when Mark dropped the "fuck 'em I'm evil" bomb, and I whacked ya' with a little gaming nostalgia.

Anyway. Savage She-Hulk on her way. Also, I feel kind of bad about not delivering on the Danger Mouse art. I'll give it a shot.

He's the Greatest!

He's Fantastic! Wherever there is Danger he'll be there...
He's the Ace!
He's Amazing! He's the Strongest; he's the quickest, he's the Best!!!


Inspired by this deviation; I've been on kind of a Danger Mouse kick since Christmas. After watching Series (season) One and half of Two, I had to see what I could do with it.

Up next, Penfold! Colonel K! Agent 57! Baron Silas Greenback! Stilletto! Nero! The Mark III! Count Duckula! and J.J. Quark.

'Danger Mouse' is a registered trademark of Cosgrove Hall Productions Ltd.. The 'Danger Mouse' logo is copyright Cosgrove Hall Productions Ltd. no copyright infringement is intended.