26 / JUN / 08 - 1027 CST : I'd rather be cleaning...

Hey folks.

Well if you've been following my twitter posts you'll know that I've run into a few computer problems over the past few days.  In truth, I knew that I was going to have to do some maintenance on my laptop for a while now, but I was hoping to keep putting it off.  Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's an option anymore.

So, while I'd much rather be doing pretty much anything else for the rest of the day (and dear god do I ever hope that this is just going to be for the rest of the day), I'm about to start backing-up everything from my laptop and then start in on trying to fix things.  And by fixing, it looks like I most likely mean completely reinstalling XP.  And trust me when I say that this is the absolute last thing I want to do right now.

Anyway, with any luck I'll have things up and running again by tomorrow.

*sigh*

Y'know, it's times like this that I wish I took up agriculture and not digital art.  I mean, you never have to reformat a cow, do you?  You just grab an udder and squeeze.  And how often to you hear about a cow crashing when you pull the wrong one?

Of course then again computers rarely get mad cow disease...but I guess no job is perfect, right?

Alrighty folks, I'm off to give myself a thunderous headache.

Later,

-Ed

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24 / JUN / 08 - 1017 CST : Down, but hopefully not out...

Hey folks.

There may not be a new "summer vacation" update today.  In fact, there's a chance that entire sire might be down on and off throughout the day.  So if you do happen to swing on by and find...well, nothing, don't worry.  It's only temporary.

Okay folks, time for me to try my best not to screw things up.

Later,

-Ed

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19 / JUN / 08 - 0927 CST : The colour of oops...

Hey folks.

I know I've gone a couple days without checking in during my time off so I wanted to swing on by and give you a little something to look at today.  It's not much, but I thought you might get a kick out of it.

Now as you probably already know, I've been working as the colorist for Brad Guigar's Evil Inc for a few months now, and during that time I can honestly say that it's been one of the most positive experiences I've had so far in art career.  Brad is pretty much one of the kindest people anyone could ever hope to work with, and so in a small effort to repay that kindness I've done my best to prove that he made the right choice by hiring me to breath a bit of colour into his strip.

And so far, I think I've done a pretty good job.

However, and I know this may be hard for you folks to believe, even I have been known to make a mistake here and there.  And while I know that Brad would never bring this little flub up on his blog, I think it'll act as a good example of just how much of a difference a few colour choices can make on a strip, so I figured I should bring it up on mine.

Part of the lineart for today's Evil Inc strip depicted a supporting character that looked like this:

This guy is just one of the many, many, MANY villains that Brad has created over the years to help bolster his evil army.  A dude, going by the name of "The Rock", who when coloured properly looks like this:

Now allow me to show you what can happen when the colorist misses the fact that this is a previously established character, doesn't take his name into account, and ends up going in a very different direction with the colours:

Amazing what a difference a few colours can make, huh?

Anyway, needless to say, Brad (very politely I might add), pointed out my error and asked if I wouldn't mind making a some "slight" alterations before the strip had to be posted.

So there you go folks.  Never underestimate the powers of colour and their ability to completely change a strip.

Alrighty guys, I'm off to get some more work done.  Hopefully I'll have another page of my colouring portfolio done by tomorrow to show y'all.

Later,

-Ed

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12 / JUN / 08 - 1351 CST : Everyone looks better in a tux...

Hey folks.

I've been wanting to show this off since I got it back at Keycon, but it kept slipping my mind.  It's a caricature of yours truly by none other than the (multiple) award winning artist, Lar deSouza.  

Lar is by far one of the most giving artists I've met.  Every year that he's been able to attend Keycon, the man spends hours entertaining those around him by sharing his incredible talent by doing caricatures of folks hanging out during the con parties.  Oddly enough though, I've always been too preoccupied with other goings on to manage to snag one for my self...until this year that is.

Oh, and for the record, what amazed me most about watching Lar work, is that fact that the man doesn't even touch a pencil when he's doing caricatures.  From beginning to end the man uses nothing more than a big ass sharpie type marker to lay out all the line work!  

I'm tellin' ya folks, I only wish I'll be able to gain enough confidence with my own artistic abilities so that one day I can swing drawing without a safety net like that.

Alrighty guys.  Off to bed.

Later,

-Ed

PS: In case you were wondering, Lar came up with all the visuals of this piece by tapping into a conversation we had about the two totally unrelated topics of how I met my girlfriend, and anime tentacle porn.  Yeah, I know.  That dude has a twisted mind.

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10 / JUN / 08 - 1806 CST : Clowning around...

Hey folks,

Here's a bit more eye candy to hold y'all over during my summer vacation.  This is a commission piece I did for an Ultimate Frisbee team that needed a logo for some team shirts.

On a side note, if you ever need to commission someone to do an art piece, it's very important that you be as specific as possible about exactly what it is you'd like the artist to do. In this case my initial instructions were simply to draw "a clown holding a balloon".  Which is exactly what I did, and yet the original drawing I sent off looked nothing like what you're looking at now.

Why?

Because "clown holding a balloon" is a very base description that can be interpreted in a million different ways.  Essentially it's telling the artist, I totally trust your judgment, and will be happy with whatever you come up with.  However, "a slimmer looking clown, floating in holding a balloon like it was Mary Poppins holding her umbrella" really helps narrow the artistic scope of an image.

So yeah, moral of the story.  Be specific.  Not only does it help the artist, but when it's all said and done I think you'll find that it has helped you out as well.

Alrighty, folks.  Back to bed for me.

Later,

-Ed

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05 / JUN / 08 - 1617 CST : Mother jokes...

Hey folks.

Well for the last GTē before I take a few weeks off I figured that I'd do a nice clean joke (pun intended) for my mom, where she manages to get the better of me.

So mom, this one's for you.

Later,

-Ed

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04 / JUN / 08 - 1527 CST : I can't quit you (till Friday)...

Hey folks.

I know I said Tuesday's strip was going to be the last one before I take a few weeks off, but in the end I decided to extend that a little bit longer.  So that means that there will be one more GTē, and one more full colour strip (which granted won't be a very taxing strip for me, but it will be long one...you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it) and then after that, the next new strip will be on July 7th.

Keep in mind though, I will still be updating the site during my four weeks off with various bits of artwork, audio files, and anything else I can come up with that think y'all might be interested in.  So that way you guys will have something to check out while I work on other projects.

Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone in advance for bearing with me while I take this minor hiatus, and hopefully in the end you'll feel it's all worth the wait.

Alrighty, time for me to get a bit more work done before I head to bed, so I'll see ya tomorrow when I post the newest GTē.

Later,

-Ed

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03 / JUN / 08 - 1557 CST : Too many Z's...

Hey folks.

Just swinging by to tell y'all (now that I can actually connect to server again) that I took a nap this morning that went into the overtime, and that's why the strip is taking me a bit longer to post than usual.  Anyway, I'll see you in few when it's up.

Later,

-Ed

PS: For those of you who caught it before I changed it and were wondering what the hell that last news post headline was about, that was actually the headline for what I'll be posting after I upload the strip.  Just forgot to change it before the last update. 

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