Digital Remake

In an effort to learn some new drawings methods on my Bamboo Tablet, I'm recreating some of my non-comic drawings digitally.  The first piece I've made is this:

It was really fun to draw again.  When I was making this piece in pencil & ink, I had made a few mistakes.  For instance, the word "colors" was colored in the wrong order and the text itself is off center.  Digitally, using Sketchbook Pro and AutoCAD, I was able to correct some past mistakes.  Having an "edited" version eases my mind on issues I noticed with the original, but I'll say that having the mistakes will always make the original better.  Art is not meant to be perfect, but it's still nice to have the ability to go back and edit a view things here and there.

Meet Sir Reginald Butterscotch IV

Meet Sir Reginald Butterscotch IV, a man of exquisite but peculiar taste.  Oddities and contradictions make up much of Sir Butterscotch's life.  "As the Scottish would say," according to Sir Butterscotch, "when the bee stings, the honey pours".  This phrase of his makes no sense to anyone with ears, but Sir Butterscotch tends to be a little nonsensical.  He loves Scottish proverbs and sayings.  He doesn't actually know any, but he likes to make them up and pretend they came from Scotland.  Sir Butterscotch has a deep admiration for Scotland and its people.  He believes that Scotland made the world what it is today despite all the "Made in China" labels ("Scottish modesty," he would tell himself).  Sir Butterscotch would pretend so many things were from Scotland that after 73 years of living, he believed himself to be from there as well.  But, like all things Sir Butterscotch believes to be true, this was false and he is in fact, of British descent.  Also, the place he believes to be Scotland is actually Australia but when you get to be 73 years of age, these kinds of mix-ups become more endearing than baffling stupid.

Despite Sir Butterscotch's love for the Scottish lifestyle (or possibly Australian) he never did fancy the kilt (ironically, he also has a disdain for butterscotch candies too).  "Dreadful things they are and none too private either, aye!" he would say in one of those terrible Scottish accents you only hear on American television.  "A wee breeze comes by and then your haggis and kebabs (another made-up phrase on his) are out for the world and Mars to see."  Even when nobody asked, which they never did, he would tell people about his dislike of kilts.  However, his true fear had nothing to with his "haggis and kebabs".  As said before, Sir Butterscotch was a tad peculiar and had habits that he preferred to keep to himself.  He loves silk as much as he loves Scotland and what could be more silkier than a pair of ladies underwear.  There you see, lies the problem.  If a wee breeze were to come by and Sir Butterscotch happened to be wearing a kilt, the entire block would see that he liked to wear ladies underwear.  If only he knew that there are much less embarrassing alternatives, but Sir Reginald Butterscotch IV is a man of principal that sticks to what he thinks he knows is best, however questionable what he knows may be.

Current Projects

Conrad's Inventions has been taking a backseat to a number of projects that I've been working on (but there is a new one up right now).  Freelancing, guest comics, and a couple potential new comics are all on their way.

On occasion, I like to participate on Freelancer.  It's a great way to earn a little extra cash for pizza or salads (damn diet) and such.  Mainly I like to stick to the contest.  There are a number of reasons why I do this but the biggest one is because of my day job.  If you're going to make a person a promise, especially when they are paying you, you must stick to it which is something I can't currently do.  With the latest contest that I've took apart in, I didn't actually win, but it was a joy to see how other artist interpreted the instructions given to them.  One was for a book cover and the other was a t-shirt design.

Book Cover Concept for a Paranormal Comedy

Pin-up design meant for a tattoo audience

Just recently I finished working on a guest comic that for Tales of Hammerfist.  This is great webcomic to check out and one I'll end up doing a full write up on.  My guest comic will be appearing later this month (possibly next).  And while it isn't official, I'll also be attempting to make a guest comic for The Black Mudpuppy.  Another great comic that I'll also do a full write up on.  Since it would be unfair to Tales of Hammerfist if I share the comic on here, let me pull an image from my archives to share.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!

Also in the works in are a couple new webcomics.  One is being written and draw by myself and is for the ideas I have that aren't about to go into Conrad's Inventions.  Essentially, it'll just be a random joke of the day (because there just aren't enough of those comics already).  The other is a collaboration with Jerry McMasters from Webcomic Pete (whom I talked about in the previous post).  The kinks are still being worked out but an official announcement will be made as soon as possible.

Webcomic Talk

Something I would like to start doing about once a week is write up an article on other comics.  This isn't going to be a review on comics, but just a general discussion on some comics that have either inspired me or deserve more attention that what they are currently receiving.  So, without further ado, let's get right into it.

As a just budding webcomic creator, I've been on the search for other webcomic creators from which I can either learn from or grow together with.  Lucky for me, I discovered a group called Webcomic Underdogs.  This site has a growing community of webcomic artists and writers who are all in various stages of creating their own webcomics.  Webcomic Underdogs has been a great place to take apart in, and through it, I have come to discover several webcomics that have turned me into a regular reader.  All of these creators and writers fully deserve all the praise they can get, which brings me to the first webcomic I would like to discuss.

Webcomic Pete, boiled down to it's essentials, is a webcomic about making webcomics.  Written and drawn by Jerry Mcmasters, this is a family friendly strip that is a blast to read.  A lot of webomic creators, both amateur and veterans, are going to see parallels between this comic and their own experiences.  Even readers who don't create webcomics will find entertainment in the humor of the strip and are given what is a fairly accurate peak into the day-to-day life a beginner webcomic creator.

There is a particular hurdle that some people might have a hard time looking past at first.  The art of a comic is something I'm discovering to be less and less important with exposure to more webcomics.  Obviously many webcomic artists want to be able to make a pretty comic, but without strong writing, that effort in making a gorgeous webcomic goes to waste.  A well drawn comic cannot carry weak writing the same way a well written comic can carry weak art.  Webcomic Pete is a great example of how true this is.  No offense to the creator, but the art isn't on the same level as some other webcomics out there, however, you will hardly even notice it as you go through it's archive and read all of it's excellent strips.  If a webcomic like xkcd can be as successful as it is, then I believe that there is an audience out there for Webcomic Pete that can elevate it to that same height of success.

I know this isn't suppose to be a review, but I'm giving Webcomic Pete 10 rabid weasels out of 10 because this is a very funny webcomic that everyone should be reading.

One final note, for any artists out there who are seriously looking to get into webcomics but aren't very good writers, Jerry Mcmasters has a proposal on Webcomic Pete that you might be interested in.  Take a few moments to read it, Mcmasters is a very straight forward person, and see if you might be interested.

Super Smash Bros. DRAWL

Recently, I participated in an art project called Super Smash Bros. DRAWL.  In this project, 45 artist got together and each made a drawing of a character from the game, Super Smash Bros Brawl.  In a first come first serve basis, each artist chose a character and was given free reign to artistically represent that character in order to show off their artistic style.  It is incredibly neat to see what how everyone chose to represent their respective character.  Someone nabbed Kirby before I could, but luckily I got to draw my second favorite, Meta Knight.  I went through a few ideas, and the one that ultimately was posted can be seen here.  Meta Knight is one of those characters who seems like such an obvious person to be in Super Smash Bros that it leaves you wondering why he wasn't in it sooner.  But then, that list of obvious people to be in Super Smash Bros is a long list so it would be understandable if it had taken longer as well.  These are the sketches that I went through trying to figure out what I would do for Meta Knight:

Those sketches then let to these final drawings:

The image of Meta Knight slashing his sword didn't come out as well as I wanted.  However, I am very happy with both the first and last one.  If you went to the site, you'll notice that the star one was used (shame on you if you haven't gone yet).  You may have also noticed that there is an image missing from the final drawings.  Meta Knight sweeping his Dimensional Cape (which if you don't know, is apart of his Final Smash) was meant to lead to a joke.  I wanted one of these drawings to be a humorous one.  With Meta Knight owning a dimensional cape, I figured there had to be a joke in there somewhere.  It begs the question of where does he go when he uses is?  Wait...

I got it!

He teleports away to a waiting Lady Rainicorn (from Adventure Time) whom he uses to fly away (along with Kirby holding on to her tail).  An update with this image will be coming ASAP.

To Anyone Visiting

This blog is going through the construction process.  It may take a while but thank you for coming here and I hope you're enjoying Conrad's Inventions