a few things

Ok. It's been a while, so here's a quick break down of some thoughts before I post some images.

It has been a while since I've posted to my blog. I know...I've neglected it pretty badly. I'm hoping I can keep up a Friday update schedule. There's a bunch of stuff I've been sitting on, so there may be a few more posts in-between this and next Friday's update. Other than that, expect Friday updates for now.

Also, just an FYI: sometimes I post things to my Flickr before I post it to here, I think because I feel I don't need to include as much text with the image? And because it's a nice little holding hub for my work? Either way, be sure to check that out, too.

With this and each subsequent post I'm going to try and get back into the habit of capitalizing letters at the beginning of sentences, as well as the letter "I". Probably not too important for my art blog, but I think it's something I need to work on and get back into the habit of doing.
Perfecting the art of the written/typed word.

Another thing that I need to work on that pertains to this blog and my writing skills and what have you: blog commenting etiquette.
What's the word on that?
I'm not talking about "Don't be brash and rude and out of line when commenting on people's blogs" or things of that nature. I'm more interested in how to go about replying to comments left behind by people. Is it best to reply to them in your own comments, denoting when necessary which person you're responding to, or should you comment back to them on their blog? Or...email them back saying thanks? Or just let it be and acknowledge that someone commented? I know I'm pretty guilty of that, so I want to change up my methods.
I've seen a few different things, people replying in their own comments section and other people not responding at all. I...don't really know which would be best to do. I guess the former considering I'm still trying to build a following, so best to act all proper, right?

And now on to the central part of the post: IMAGES!

I tried to do a journal comic a few months ago, but fell behind on it...and just kinda stopped. This is the only day I've inked so far. Inked it with a crow quill. I was a bit rusty with that and it took a bit to get back into...so I'm thinking that's why I fell behind on them? I like how Napoleon turned out. I should probably start this up again.

This is a figure ink sketch I did a few months ago and just finished coloring today. At that moment, I was into drawing women with the heavy eye make-up and making them all fashiony looking.

Feedback on the coloring would be greatly appreciated. I usually use a cell shading method when coloring, but I thought I should try to be more painterly, understand how that works. This one of the first few sketches where I messed around with different opacity levels on the brush. It was fun and cathartic but I felt lost the whole time, which I guess balances out.

And for those who don't know, Angela and I started up a Chu Chu Chums blog a while ago!! We have an official Chums Phoenix Comicon recap on there, plus we've recently started posting a collaborative comic story which is being done all Exquisite Corpse style!

Here are the first two panels (Angela).

And the second set of panels (me).

Check out the blog for more of the comic as well as other Chu Chu Chums updates!!
And the twitter, too! RSS feeds are cool but if you have a twitter account, be sure to add us Chums! That way you'll get updates on when we post new comic panels and about other Chums stuff that goes down.