Zazzle Unboxing! BOOM!

I got some still images for ya!

Click HERE For Mousepad Link

Click HERE For Truck Hat Link

As always, thanks everyone for coming aboard.

Drawing Tae Hee Video Set

Hey, hey now.  Here's the two promised videos that accompany this POST I did a couple of days ago.  Commentary included.  Hope you enjoy!

The Guy Who Almost Faded Away

I mentioned a couple of post ago how I've been sitting around not drawing.  I'd sketched an image and struggled for weeks trying to create it the way I'd envisioned it.  Unfortunately, that process stalled completely.  Friday I decided to just do it.  To take whatever it was I had already done and keep going.  There's no such thing as perfection after all.  It's something that will forever remain elusive and paralyzing.  So I'd rather keep creating.  Anyway, I actually filmed the process of this particularly project, so until I update this post with the edited film, here are a few of the stills.

The usual inking and color outlining done.  Just going with the flow on this one.  Nothing particular in mind, except that I wanted dark, bushy-like eyebrows.

As always, I fill in the color of the eyes first.  For some reason I do the eyes before letting everything else blossom.  It may have something to do with how I'm inspired by Naoko Takeuchi.  Nonetheless, I also colored areas of shade/shadow, and filled his top lip.  I had a little problem with the ink not drying properly, so when I went to erase the penciling, some of the ink smeared.  

Now time for the crafty part.  I had a cousin over and, from a multitude of scrapbook paper, she picked up this denim background and a shimmery gold piece for his cap.

So I had to scalp him to get all the necessary pieces traced and put back together.  Thankfully, he remains unbothered by the event.  While the pieces were off, I dusted him with a fleshy yellow-tinted chalk pastel and a soft brown for his hair.  I used a paper towel to even it all out.

Almost done.  All the pieces glued in place now.  I streaked his hair with a single black colored pencil and four shades of brown.  I used an eraser to streak in highlights–which I don't believe showed all that much.  Added pupil effect to eyes.

Not sure if this is the complete version yet.  I added jewel studs (because I love studs) before the scan.  Scanned him in, revived color, darken the black areas of the cap, eyebrows, and eyes.  He reminds me of a certain popstar, but I'm good with that.  The innocence, the youth, the potential look of caution; done.  We'll name him Tae Hee.  Now on to the next project.

New Rules: Buffy Season 10 Wins

At the end of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comics/graphic novels, Buffy destroyed the the source of all magic on Earth called the Seed of Wonder. Almost instantaneously magic died out. At the end of Season Nine, Buffy and the Scoobies came together to create a new Seed to save Dawn, Buffy‘s magic-breed sister. In turn they generated a new, restarted system of magic on Earth. It’s fresh. It’s new. It’s un-evolved and raw. Magical creatures, and those who use magic, can kind of wield this untethered magic and make things up as they go.

However, one consequence of this new system of magic arrives in the form of vampires who can walk in sunlight, and shape shift into various other monsters linked to classic vampire mythology (like bats, vapors, wolves, etc.). They're many. They're harder to kill. And they've taken it upon themselves to wipe out your standard variety vampire as they go about creating “new rules” on Earth.

With magic begging to be rewritten, Buffy and the Scoobies (I actually dislike referring to Xander, Willow, and the others as that) have to come together to properly reclaim the state of affairs. And the key to doing so appears in the suddenly blank pages of the “slayer handbook," best known as the Vampyr book.  The book is like a manual to all things vampire, magic, demony, and Slayer-ish. When a few monsters and demons take interest in the book, Buffy and the Scoobies realize that they have to protect it from those who want to use it to rewrite the laws of magic to their own nefarious liking.

And that's the nutshell version...

I have got to say that I really loved New Rules–and that's besides the fact that I'm a die-hard Buffy fanatic.  The truth is that I could keep up with what took place in New Rules, and that's a testament to some improved focus and writing.  I enjoyed Season Eight and Nine, but I had a problem: I was always overwhelmed by the branching stories (some sprung from spin-offs) to the point where I couldn't follow along with all things overarching.  Seriously, some of the storytelling in Season Eight and Nine were like ADD manifested. The character of Spike piloting a spaceship. Dawn as a centaur. That one chapter where future slayers jumped into the past to kill Buffy.  Oh, and a few character mis-directions headed toward some unprofound conclusion.  Then there were some chapters/volumes that were amazingly well-done (Season Nine's Freefall), but ended abruptly before the focus changed in the proceeding. It was just so much going on at one time, and I'm sure a complete back-to-back re-read would work. Nevertheless, so far New Rules feels so much more contained and paced. Also, it had that same classic Buffy humor and fun, without too much of the excessive wackiness that I kind of rolled my eyes at in previous volumes.

While there were some storylines that tied in from spin-off graphic novels featuring other characters in the Buffyverse, that didn't take away from the set-up of New Rules as the opening of Season Ten. I just hope everything remains consistent through each proceeding volume. It’s so much better when the story is simple, and not about the writers making every little thing they can be possible in the comics that couldn't be done on TV.  Buffy has always been about wit, character, choices, sacrifice, and heroism–among many other things.  To me that's enough and everything.  Not so much spaceships and the occasional fairy.  

I won't spoil anything, but the super exciting bonus of Season Ten is that past characters emerge in the battle to reclaim (or snatch) the rules of magic.

Free Comic Book Day

No, I don't have a comic book to give away.  If I was aware of such a day as Free Comic Book Day, I might've been prepared.  It was only recently brought to my attention, though.  So I'll do what I can and share a few old scans from back when I used to do comics for my high school newspaper.  They are messy, but enjoy them the best that you can.  (^_^)

V-Day Skit

Notice the Sailor V influence?  I really, really should go get some good bristol board and try this all over again.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by.  

Virtual Portfolio 2002-2013

Hi, Comic Towel readers.  To sort of semi celebrate the one year closing of my small blog, I played around with Windows Movie Editor to create a virtual portfolio of many of the drawings I've shared throughout this year.  As I mentioned before, there was a point where I stopped drawing completely because I didn't know what to do with my drawings.  Nobody saw them, tucked away in my personal portfolios.  So as a newly "invigorated" individual, I realized it was time to pull them out and this time share them through whatever available platform.  What's even more interesting is that these drawings span eleven years (2002-2013).  That in itself marks a small sense of personal significance to me.  

So here we go.  My first virtual portfolio.  Enjoy...