I'm really burning through these things! There's a chance I might finish by August!

Icine 011

I've kicked around on one forum or another for the past ten years, never sticking around for more than a year, never hitting the 1k mark, never really becoming attached. Well, my post count hit 21k on Icine over the weekend, a fact giddy and terrifying all in the same stroke. Icine is a community I loved at first sight. The fit might seem a strange one, since I am not as cinematically inclined as some; my true passion lies with television, the written word, and digital art. However, I find that being around people who are inspired by art to be just as fulfilling as hanging around its creators, so in that respect, maybe the fit isn't so strange after all. This November will mark three years at Icine and counting.

To celebrate, I've kicked off an ambitious sketch project, 100 Varations on a Theme, inspired by Icine, the awesome people who post there, and any other bits of literature and imagery that happen to be kicking around in my head (Variation 001 is inspired in part by Piers Plowman, one of my favorite pieces of Middle English literature). The style of the work is various; in 001 I try for a more sketchy feeling, whereas in 003, 005 and 006 I'm back to digital speed paiting. Each sketch attempts to convey some part of the Icine experience, either through visual representation of in-jokes (such as the "Diminishing Returns Graph" in Icine 002), imagining what popular phrases actually entail ("Ninja vanish" is an expression I brought to the site from elsewhere as shorthand for saying goodnight/goodbye in Icine 003), or by drawing the posters themselves (Sherry & Fentablar in Icine 006 and Icine 005 respectively).

Icine 001

Icine 002

Icine 003

Icine 004

Icine 005

Icine 006

Icine 007

Icine 008

Icine 009

Icine 010

I hope to have this project done before leaving to Idyllwild in mid-June; the wiser part of experience tells me that I'll probably still be working on this come November.

Caught up in Davario's draw yourself as a teenager meme via Drawn.ca, I started a thread on Icine devoted to the same. Here are my efforts--one in black/white line, the other shoddily colored! These were quick, off-the-cuff things done in less than an hour. The last image is "Aurelle as a Sexy Robot," since she asked me to draw her and robots were on the brain. Be kind!

Happy May Day! I've decided to work on the Icine Webcomic again. I've revamped the cast of characters in order to fit in with the new vision of where the comic's going. First up on the to-do list: a new banner for the comic, maybe even a separate section for Welcome Week. We'll see. I'm notorious for not working on projects where I'm actually required to draw something on my own.

I've also been putting in time updating the site to bring all of the pages inline with the great php migration that began six months ago.

Just a tiny FYI--the Writers' Room has moved offsite to its new location at Dusty-Journal.com, the "other" domain. I've closed registration to cut down on spambot registration, but there are forums available to non-registered users--possibly. I'm still debating. I may open registration again once the forum stops being a Slayerverse one-stop drafting-shop.

In other obvious news: work has ground to a halt on the Slayerverse/Spike Diaries project. Sadly, my free time has seemingly dried-up since February. However, I might try to convince the others to transmute the Slayerverse into an original work. That might galvanize the necessary support from the writing staff, who have themselves been loaded down with work. We'll see! No promises.

I've uploaded the blind contour sketches that I've done for my Beginning Drawing class to the oft-ignored section of the site (see how tiny the button is for it?) sketches. These are for you Pat. Are you convinced that you draw as well as me yet? :D

If you've been following along over at Dimfuture, you'll have noticed that my absense from the Dusty Journal has not translated into an absense from work! Since the return of VM, the following colors have been posted: Have Some Text, Almost Forgot Friday, Part 2 , (a hiatus as Friday actually defeated me) Friday Versus Liles, Part 4 (with two colors), and the latest, Comic for you Sir!. I'll update the Vincent Macropod links in the archive with all the new colors starting--soon.

Part of the reason for the distraction: art classes at Citrus started last week, and I'm already challenged, awed, and frustrated by the work for the semester ahead. Drawing doesn't come easy. But I'm, if nothing else, persistant in the face of challenges. So I say.

Recently I've been designing covers for Aram (Dan of Dimfuture fame), whose hipster PDAs are to be admired. I might post these designs later on if I design one that's particularly striking. This is my first time designing for print. Brave New World, yo.

After a 6-month hiatus, new colored VM updates are here! Not here, here. Thanks to the combined efforts of Aram and Repto at The Usual Suspects, new colored VM strips should be up every Friday (assuming I remember--stupid brain). Not only that, but a new Placeholder Comics is up too! It's great to be working with Pat again. I've sorely missed collaborating with him--the mid-morning meetings in the University Center, followed by the inevitable "my art r suck!" conversation. Good times, those.

Admist all of this happy renewal of past projects, a new colored banner (as usual, drawing credits to the wonderful Matt Kessen) for Vincent Macropod!

After a 6-month hiatus, new colored VM updates should be coming next week! I've finally sorted all that emotional bunk that clouded graduation. Also, now that the month-long festive season has finished, new Spike Diaries updates should resume this Friday.

IWrimo began less than a week ago, and will run to the beginning of March. After which time, there will be a Slayerverse update. Updates are slow to come because, frankly, they're slow to write! I am long longer a prose gnashing machine. Coloring and graphic design eat up a good chunk of time now.