Visual Art Update

It has been a busy bit of work since the last time I updated anything to do with the work I am doing for the comic. And so now I am at a loss for what all I want to say. Basically, I am working through different gestures and poses as I work on figure studies. Sometimes I make subtle changes to the images to see what effect the changes have on the image as a whole. But I am drawing, always drawing.

In some cases I work with he picture as it is to see if I can recreate it.

A hand drawn version of a picture of Ivy Doomkitty.

Recreated from the picture of a friend playing in the snow with her children.

While pictures like these can be a challenge to recreate the image as close to the original as possible. There is also the challenge of creating something new from a base of inspiration. In other drawings I have used only the gesture represented within the picture and created something else entirely from the image.

Wish I could give credit on this one but it is lost. Changes from the original were made to make it more streamlined. The ornamentation was left off to focus on the character.

This image I title Knife Ear. The thoughts behind it came from a fantasy racial slur against elves. They are often called knife ears. In this image I have played with the words and formed the pointed elf ear like the blade of a knife. The only part of this image that reflects the source image is the gesture.

With these pictures I have taken what is represented by the reference and taken it into a direction that fit within the worlds of speculative fiction. This means they won’t always follow the rules of the world we inhabit.

Elvish slave girl. The woman’s form was the only thing retained from the original reference.

Usually when I look for reference pictures and such that I want to attempt, I search for pictures that jump out at me first, and then from those I look for challenging gestures. Basically, I want pictures that will make me work to complete them. It is from those that I am able to not only develop the muscle memory needed to draw but also they make me stretch beyond what I have thought I could do previously.

One of the toughest pictures for me recently was the one of my friend and her kids playing in the snow. The biggest challenge was the visible leg. When we look at what is represented we know how a leg should look. But to draw it our mind fights us. It desires to make it look like a leg should look and her leg in this picture doesn’t conform to that image. It took me several attempts to figure out what it was I was drawing and even then I could feel the internal battle between the right side of my brain and the left side of my brain. In the end I had to take a deep breath and shut out the left side of my brain. I turned my work upside down and the picture upside down. This simple trick forced my mind to see it for what it is, a couple lines. From there the rest of the picture fell into place.

At this point, I want to call attention to some changes being made within the scope of the site and the work involved. The stories that are told here will continue as they have been. But with the visual work, I am rewarding the Patreon supporters first. For those who choose to help the efforts of the site, part of the rewards will be full access to the visual works. This means the drawings and work that goes into the creation of the comic strips will be shared with Patreon supporters first. But not only that, they will also be given sneak peek visual art that will not be made available on this site.

What this means is, to gain the deepest access to the madness all you need to do is pledge as little as a dollar a month to the continuation of the work.

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You can support these stories at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post but as a monthly pledge. Just click on the Patreon image. Extra stuff for different levels of support and I will be adding in more as time goes on. Thanks for your support. Or maybe a long term commitment is more than you are willing to deal with right now. If so, please drop a few bits into the tip jar. Either way, I appreciate the sentiment and it helps keep this place going.