Tuesday Night Party Club #50

Galleries – Atomic Age Cthulhu

Atomic Age Cthulhu is the last book I illustrated for Chaosium. I did the work in 2012 and the book was published in 2013. It is a collection of adventure scenarios set during the 1950s. I shared the illustration duties with Caleb Cleveland and Marco Morte. There was some miscommunication between the folks at Chaosium who were sending out the assignments so I started some pieces but didn’t finish them because someone else was already doing them. I did maps for the first and, probably the last, time. It was challenging and sort of fun but not something I feel a call to do again.

The three scenarios that are I worked on were –

High Octane – In which Serpent People engage in shenanigans in the Pacific Northwest.

Destroying Paradise, Hawaiian Style – In which an Elvis type singer is targeted by Deep Ones.

Return of Old Reliable – In which a test subject monkey returns from space with a very bad attitude. This scenario was written by Oscar Rios, the future founder of Golden Goblin Press.

There was companion fiction anthology to the scenario book. I was commissioned to illustrate the cover but, for reasons that were not told me, Chaosium chose a different artist to do a new cover and used that instead. Oh well.

Story Seed #99
Start With the End

If you have a hard time starting a story, try beginning with your climactic scene and work your way back. That’s sort of what I did with these story seeds. I started with the hashtag #99stories and despite a delay after the first few (and perhaps some cheating along the way) we’ve arrived at number 99. If I’d planned better I’d have an actual story seed to offer.

Let’s pretend that I did.

Remembrance
Richard Corben

Richard Corben passed away on December 2nd. The image above was a limited editon print he did in 1978. It was the first and,so far, only art print I’ve ever purchased. Sadly, I lost it somewhere in the intervening years. He was one of the illustrators that has most influenced my art. Tributes to him can be found all over the internet right now. I hope to write something longer about his work in 2021. He had a long and impressive artistic run and I’m sad that it has come to an end.

Local News

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This week is my Long Week at USPS. I’ll be working six days in a row. I’ll just do one thing after another until I get to collapse on Sunday.

Last week I was able to finish a Mighty Nizz illustration that had been sitting on my drawing table for over a year. Yes, it was really on my drawing table the entire time. I put other pages of bristol board over and moved it around when necessary but it stayed on the table the entire time. I’d penciled it and started inking it and then got caught up in doing commissioned work.

The space on my drawing table already has more works in progress on it waiting to be tackled. But Christmas and mail first.

Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe. Write letters. Be good to yourself and those around you. See you next week!

Tuesday Night Party Club #47

Gallery – 2019 Daily Sketches 303-332

This is the penultimate collection of my daily sketches from 2019. 30 images all in one covenient place.

Story Seed #96

Once again, there are thirty images above. They all have stories. The story you find in the illustration will be different than the one someone else tells.

Recommendation

This week I’m recommending David Lasky’s Etsy shop. David is a cartoonist, art teacher and friend. His work is lovely and eclectic. Check it out!

Local News

Rain and cold and darkness have settled over the Pacific Northwest. The holidays loom but we’re staying away from other humans and their icky diseases. The mail and parcel volumes have increased as expected so I’m getting overtime whether I want it or not. Wearing a mask in addition to rain gear leaves me with just a narrow strip with which to observe the world. I feel disconnected and unbalanced. The mask does keep my face warm. That’s an unexpected bonus.

I’m also officially a Guy Who Wears Glasses. As I got used to the new prescription I started wearing them in more and more situations and now I wear them more than I don’t. I go without them in situations where I need to have a mask on because I haven’t yet taken the steps to prevent them fogging but otherwise they’re just part of my wardrobe. The eye doctor recommended cataract surgery. Supposedly that will correct my vision issues so the glasses may not be a permenant accessory. I won’t be taking any steps toward surgery until after the holidays though. Too much to do, not enough time to recover.

I’m continuing to add images to my Zazzle and Redbubble shops. Both shops recently had complete strangers make purchases. That was encouraging. One can’t become a mogul by selling just to ones friends.

I’m currently completing and/or coloriing older illustrations of Little Red aka The Mighty Nizz. The image below is from 2011 or 2012. I’m pretty sure it’s the third time I’d drawn the character. I found it when I was clearing and organizing a stack of art and art supplies this summer. It was mostly still pencils, only the lettering and the bear in the tree had been inked. I wish I’d remembered to scan that version but we’ll have to settle on the completed inks.

From that to this –

I also colored two images from 2015. This –

Became this –

And this –

Became this –

I actually prefer this version to the more detailed one I did later. I’m making both available in my shops. I long ago learned that my taste is not necessarily my audience’s. Unless I hate an image I’m likely to make it available.


In 2021 this newsletter will get a new title – Skook WIP (Works in Progress) and will be hosted at tinyletter.com. If you subscribe, each issue will come directly to your email address. I’ll continure to post links to issues here but, if you want cut down on link hopping, please use the form below to sign up –

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It’s Thanksgiving this week. We’re keeping it small. Just me, my wife, our nephew and his girlfriend. Easy enough since we share the apartment. Others were invited but the C19 resurgence is keeping them home. I’m working the day before Thanksgiving so any cooking I do will happen in the morning on Thursday. Since we’re keeping the menu small I don’t expect to do much. Since I’ll be tired from the day before I really don’t plan to do much.

Thank you for dropping by. I hope that your holiday is warm and relaxing. We’ve been in a slow, stupid apocalypse for months now. Celebrate by doing what makes you happy and keeps you safe. See you next week!

Preview Sketches

Here are some of the sketches I plan to turn into colored illustrations over the next few months. No doubt I will get distracted and work up new sketches before all of these get completed. I’ve also started work on a graphic novel commission that I expect will take up most of the time that isn’t currently filled by my day job. This week I’m just posting these previews and a few other, older illustrations that haven’t made it to this site yet. There may be some weeks where I don’t post. Hopefully not but … minisketches2017001 minisketches2017002 minisketches2017003 minisketches2017004