Sunday, December 27, 2009

Murphy's Law as it applies to comics.

You're familiar with Murphy's law, yes? The rule of the universe which dictates that everything that can possibly go wrong will? I think Murphy is deciding to have a little fun with one of my comic book projects. I had this odd but intriguing idea for a comic a few months ago. One of those ideas that just pops into your head out of the blue without any of the usual struggle and hassle you get when you're actually *trying* to have an idea. And with the way the images popped into my head, it was immediately clear to me that it could only be made properly if it were made using scratchboard. Those (if any) who have read my previous posts will know what difficulties I've already been having with locating usable scratchboard. After failing to locate my usual brand in any stores (well, to be fair, I've found the brand in stores quite easily... just not in plain blank black and white. if I wanted to do this comic in black and rainbow or black and copper I would be having no such difficulties), I ordered some scratchboard from Dick Blick and was severely disappointed in the quality. Then my mom bought me a different brand in an art store in New Paltz, which was slightly better quality... but still unworthy of the project at hand (it scrapes pretty smoothly and doesn't flake off in chunks exposing grubby paper like the other stuff, but because of the way the black was applied to the white, it is impossible to get a totally clean white space without light black lines running across it).

So eventually I broke down and ordered the scratchboard I wanted all along from the one place in the US that still seems to stock it in that particular flavor: the official brand website. This morning it came in the mail.

Well, technically, I guess it came in the mail yesterday... During the torrential downpour. And it was left outside of the mailbox. In a paper package. Absolutely no plastic. Completely exposed to the elements. (Despite the fact that with the money I paid for shipping on two packs of it, I could have bought a third one, USPS apparently can't be bothered to provide their workers with cheap plastic bags for delivering priority mail in pouring rain)

So essentially, after all of that, after months of searching for a suitable scratchboard, I finally got exactly what I wanted all along, and it was completely and utterly destroyed before it even made it into my hands. And it costs a dollar a sheet, and I paid out of my own pocket. And I was really excited to get some actual work done on this rare week of freedom from my fulltime job.

So yeah... Apparently Murphy hates comics. Or maybe just scratchboard comics. Who knew?

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Illustration Friday - Undone

This week's Illustration Friday word is "undone." My response is inspired by the jackassery of my neighbor, who has recently decided to raze dozens of beautiful trees along the property line to build himself a driveway to the creepy little barn he lives in (in the middle of a vast, empty field which he can easily drive over and in which he has never grown anything). (see my previous post below for further ranting) The whole thing is senseless and repulsive, and the damage sadly cannot be undone. Hence my sketch.

I feel like I'm going to be drawing a lot of trees for a while...

Sunday, December 20, 2009

More Sad Things

Speaking of things that are sad: my landscape is changing in the most awful ways. All my life, I've lived in the middle of the woods and loved it (despite it sometimes being a little creepy). Now my creep neighbor has decided to build a second driveway so that he can drive right up to his sketchy little barn (where he lives. never trust a man who lives in a barn, raises no animals, and grows no crops) without having to drive over the vast, empty field he normally just drives right over judging by the tire tracks. The tire tracks which are now painfully visible, because he's decided that paving over part of his vast, empty field, in which he has never grown a damn thing, would just be too easy, cheap, and quick, and that instead he must cut down trees. Dozens upon dozens of trees. It's tree genocide over there. Senseless tree butchery. And now there's no barrier between our properties. We used to have a protective veil of beautiful trees. Now he has a straight line of sight right into our windows. It's truly creepy. And infuriating. And stupid.

I don't hate many people. But I truly, truly hate this man. Not just for this, but this really tipped the scales.

Engraving Art 2

You remember that rant I had a while back on how hard it is to find Engraving Art scratchboard in anything but rainbow and coloured foil and pre-printed designs and useless (for me) things like that? Well I was searching for it again after disappointing experiments with other brands... and my rant came up in my google search. On the first page. Towards the bottom, but still. That's how hard it is to get a hold of this stuff. You get the official website (with no pictures, so it's hard to know what you're buying, and I'm dubious because white "foil" doesn't sound like what I use), a handful of British websites, and my blog.

Sad.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Illustration Friday - Entangled


Been a while since I've had time to draw anything. It shows, unfortunately. Work is eating my life. I think that shows, too.