The Raven's Roost

Getting started on a new story today. Here's a title page/splash page whatever, especially for you! I didn't upload this to DeviantArt, and probably won't until the whole comic is done. Caution - full size file is YUGE. I like working at max resolution.

So this story has sphinxes in it, too. *nods sagely*

Art & Drawing - I wanted to share an incredibly useful link I found - I'd never heard of the Etherington Brothers until a few weeks ago, somehow, but they put out loads of art and comics tutorials. Free. Here's about 200 of 'em. They also recently did Kickstarters for physical copies of these, which I missed out on. I'm keeping an eye on Amazon and eBay for used copies, but I also started stalking them on social media in case there's another KS that will let me get my filthy claws on these books. Online tutorials are awesome, and people who give them away for free are doing the world a great service. As they say in their own intro to their "How to Think When You Draw" series, with everything moving behind paywalls or to a subscription model, it's important that there be high quality, free information on how to draw. But I'm also old-school and I like actual books. 

I started yesterday on a new short comic, "The Cat's Inheritance," and I'm currently working on a "splash" page or poster type drawing for it. It started as a personal piece to help me visualize the scene, where everyone is located and how they'll move around, but it's turning out kind of nice, so I'm going to add title and artist stuff and maybe use it to promote the story when it's done. I'm also working on an Iktober prompt, "Overgrown," which has me illustrating a community in Muna where people have built their houses in trees. So literal treehouse dwellers. It's now starting to cook up a story about a hermit who lives in one of the outermost trees and would prefer to be left alone to work, study, and meditate, but unfortunately he's got a reputation as a Wise Old Sage and people keep seeking him out for advice. What's a hermit to do?

Running - Oh man I really did a number on myself. Well, maybe not. My IT band (hip) and calf muscles are still a little achey and stiff, but once I get moving around they limber up. I've done two recovery jogs - slower pace, shorter distance, and I feel okay. But I need to start piling up miles soon, because it's about 60 days until the Dopey Challenge, and I need to be ready for that beast. Now that is a series of races where I really do not aim to PR - the goal there is finish in an upright position, smile optional. I'm looking forward to the cooler weather so I can get outside and run. I suspect some of my hip issues are from coddling myself on the treadmill all year, and that I need to resistance and challenge of outdoor running to strengthen those areas. The treadmill's been great for working on my speed, and it's good to have when it's raining, or you're not feeling too hot but want to get a run in anyway. But I can see that I'll need to balance it with road running.

Gardening - I left my experimental compost pile dormant for the week, of course. So yesterday I went to dump more stuff on it and saw several new "volunteers." Two pepper plants, and a couple of as-yet unknowns. Possibly an avocado (!!!) but also could be ... I dunno, squash? I used to have a really cool plant ID app on my phone that compared a snapshot to its database and then gave you a list of potential matches. I should get that app again, it was dead useful.

I'm considering planting Seminole Pumpkins. They're a local variety that happily tolerates Florida's climate and they're said to be very good pie pumpkins. There's the possibility of having WAY more than we can eat, freeze, or can, but I will address that if and when it happens. There's a guy down the road who runs a small farm stand, selling peppers, berries, and honey who might take my excess, or I could set up a small honor system stand myself at the top of the road. Or just go around giving random people pumpkins. Hi, nice day, like you shoes, here have a pumpkin.

I've also spent a couple of growing seasons trying to get Sheep Sorrel to grow in pots on the deck. I like sorrel in salads and on sandwiches, but for some reason my pots never produced viable plants. Until I started wondering what all those "dandelions" are growing in the side yard. They're everywhere - paddle-shaped leaves, spreading, no flowers to speak of. Then I started looking more closely and realized I've apparently started "wild" sorrel every-freakin-where in my yard. So for whatever reason it won't grow in pots or in the garden but it happy to grow in the Floridian Hellscape that is the yard. Oh well - at least I have sorrel now.

Kind of a slow morning. I bought a Humble Bundle of graphics software and it's all downloading and installing as I type - these are massive files and once they're downloaded, the software wants to install more stuff. I've been at this for about an hour now but it'll be worth it once it's all finished. I'm not going to be replacing Clip Studio with Corel. I picked CSP for its manga capabilities and will still be using it to do my comics, but these other programs will let me paint and draw, fiddle with photos, make logos and such. Hey, now I can start editing the fucking tourists out of my Disney photos :D (seriously, I have a great shot of Spaceship Earth just after an evening thunderstorm but there are all these goddamn people wandering around)

Speaking of art, I need some for my studio. Kitty had this poster from a Mesa Verde event in 2004, but I don't really have any connection to the Southwest or the Native Americans there and I'd like to replace it with something else. I have some Florida Space Coast posters that are done in old-school travel poster style that I might get frames for. They'd look pretty cool in here.

I'm excited to use my new software but man, downloading and installing is boring, LOL. I think I'm going to make more coffee and put some music on. I haven't been much in a music mood lately, I'm enjoying silence more and not needing the distraction of sound.

 I've already mentioned a few times that I grew up around a lot of books. Many of them were my mom's art books - everything from how-to books to collections of works by different artists and a few general art books of the sort you might use in a college intro to art class. I liked flipping through these and became very familiar with a lot of the terms and concepts, as well as the artists. I "read" the spreads of images like a story when I was too young to really grasp the meanings, something that I think may have served me well over time, since I tend to impose my own meaning on media where I don't find any obvious meaning. 

One of those books had a significant section on architecture, so I learned about buttresses, vaults, and all the technical, engineering details of architecture. I still enjoy reading and looking at things on how cathedrals were built. This book also covered the interiors, and talked about how spaces flow (or don't) and how people live and go about their business inside them. I was deeply impressed by photos of two places in particular, aside from the soaring European cathedrals - Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin North, and his Falling Water. I used to wonder what it must be like to live in a place where the outside seemed to come inside in a way I hadn't really seen before. Our house had some very large windows, and many of the rooms were full of light during the day, but these places seemed to blur indoors and out in a way that pleased me to no end. I've linked to the preservation websites for both of them and they're on my Bucket List as far as American travel goes. 

I know a lot of people deride the Prairie Style as boxy, and there was even a derivative building on my college campus where the fine arts center was located that we referred to as the Cracker Box. Because it looked like one. But I find Wright's work doesn't really fall into that trap of being a square box with some nifty details on it. Maybe I'm simply being sentimental, but I'm extremely fond of FLW's buildings and other works.

While they're not precisely architecture, I'm in love with the Avery Coonley Playhouse windows. I have a spot in my studio where  a framed picture could hang, or a window where an art glass could be mounted - just sayin'. 

In the course of looking up links for this post I also discovered a FLW tour in Chicago which I obviously now need to do.

 1. It Wasn't Me - a 28 acre wildfire in Keystone Heights is now 100% contained - This was still smoking pretty heavily this morning but when Fox and I rode over there to check it out, a Forestry Service crew was also there keeping an eye on things. Early this morning when I went to put the bird feeders out, I stepped outside, smelled smoke and thought, "That's not good." We've been very dry and it's Florida's wildfire season, so it's exactly the time of year when a careless trash fire or even a flicked cigarette butt can start a disastrous fire. SO BE CAREFUL.

2. BUTTAH - The other day, I got snookered into buying a tub of roasted, salted cashews. This was because I was inattentive, and someone had put a "raw" sticker on one side so I thought I was actually getting raw cashews. Today I noticed I was running low on peanut butter which is obviously a big problem, so I made this cashew and sunflower seed butter. It needed a little extra fat to cream up properly so I added some cacao butter, which gave it a nice touch of chocolate flavor. I'll almost certainly do this again and maybe add some vanilla, too.

3. G̴̡̨͈̝̲͚̺͒̓̇̆͐͜ͅà̷̧̧̼͓̪̮̬̗̣̱̦̥̃̏̓̆̆r̵̭̼̮͉̻͚̬̟͈̙̼̖̞͍̄͂̽̅̕ͅf̸̨̗̫̮̘̥̦̰͙̝͛̂̿i̵̡̨͙͉̘̖͍͎̥̣͐̊̑͛̅̃͂̈́̆́́͆̀̕͜͠ȩ̶̜̲̐͐͛́̑̈́́̈͑͠͝l̸͎̄̐d̸̡̨̹͍͍̤̣̠̞̹͍͔̳̀̅́̌̽ ̵̧̢̼͍͇̞͙͍̼̝͔͖̅͑̐̇̎͛̽̈̃̍͝͝ả̸̛̮̣̀͐̋͊̔̇͘̚n̸̩̦͍̲̋̋̔͗̿ḑ̸̛̼͇̌̑̅̾̀̽̽͋́͝ ̸̲̫̫̘̣͈̗̭͕͎͙̒͌̓̌̐̄̊̃̕F̷̨͕͍̦͛̏̈́̉͋̎̓̾̎̀͝͝ŗ̸̝͖̯͚͆͌͗̏̕͠ͅi̵̡͈͖͍̱̭͕̺̥͒̇́͛͌͑̅̚͜͝ͅe̴̡̖͉̰̥̻̮͙̓̉̉͒̿͛͂́͊̃͘͠n̷̡̧̧͉̱̰͚̹͔͉͆̏͛́̐͘͝ḓ̶̢̡̡͇̯͍̼̱̝̬̬̭̌͂͐͛̍̔̐͑͊͠s̴̢̢̛̮͓̟̙̥̪̯̪̳̜̺͑̏̄͆̀̄ͅͅ  HE COMES - "There's a kid in Miz Ryder's class who can draw Garfield better than you." - some fucker in fourth grade





Seriously, that kid threw a lot of shade for someone who couldn't draw a stick figure to save his life.

Finished up a small digital piece this evening. This started out as part of a series of sketches of deer (one's a deer unicorn. Deercorn? Unideer?) and I turned it into the infamous peryton, a winged deer that casts a human until it has killed a human.What kind of shadow does this one have? I don't know, he's flying too high.

Also didja know that perytons aren't "real" old myths, but were created by the writer Jorge Luis Borges for a novel? I haven't read that one yet, though it does look to be the sort of thing I enjoy.

 I'm finally getting to where I don't feel like an absolute amateur with my tablet. My scheme of spending one hour drawing each day is paying off. The idea is that I do at least sixty minutes. I can do more, but I don't have to necessarily, so if I have a lot of other things to take care of, I can. It's helping me build familiarity and develop skill, since I've done next to NO digital art before. But I've already been able to do much more than I could have with traditional media, which for me also has to include markers dying and waiting on replacements to be shipped to me, or simply not having a color I want and having to work around that. I've also started a half dozen different pieces and haven't finished a single one, LMAO.

I also still have lots of pencil sketches I'd like to scan and work up digitally but I'll get through those. I'm mainly looking right now to finish a short side-story comic, get it posted, and start my running webcomic. I'm going to aim for thirty pages done before posting anything so I have a very comfortable cushion if I can't work at some point. I may also talk to Fox about a custom domain - I know almost nothing about hosting or setting up a site for a comic though. I should probably just stick to posting shit on Tapastic for now.

Is it possible to live on smoothies? I feel like just having smoothies lately. Green smoothies, fruit smoothies, etc. Currently my favorite choice is green smoothies with chocolate, though I made a smoothie bowl that was key lime flavored and had avocado as a base - it was so freakin' good. And between the avocado and spinach it was this wild shade of bright green, like I'd used food coloring in it.

Baby Sheba goes back to the vet tomorrow for her booster shots. But ... she's developed a lump on her back right leg, where they give one of the vaccines. It hasn't gotten any bigger this week - it's still about the size of an almond. It really threw me when I found it, though. I know vaccine induced sarcomas are rare - as in one in between ten and thirty thousand cats - so it's extremely unlikely that I have another cancer case on my hands. It's statistically most probable that it's just a lump that some cats develop in the injection site and it'll go away after a few more weeks. That doesn't mean I won't worry, of course. Little Sheba having to make those trips out to the specialist vet ... she'd be miserable. (The surgical specialist is almost all the way to Jax Beach, it's a hell of a drive from here.) I know it'll be an extra expense but not much of one to get them to check it out tomorrow. 

I'm kind of just waiting to go work on the water softener at the moment. I hate waiting around but I also don't want to get involved in another project or task, so this is entirely my own fault. Although I'm considering going outside an picking blackberries for a while. Smoothies. *nods*

Last week I had the dubious pleasure of getting my first ever mammogram! (yaaayyyy) And they need me to come back in. Figures.

The letter was so vaguely worded and so heavy on the "please don't panic" message that I'm honestly not sure if I need to worry or not. On the one hand, their findings were that I have dense tissue, which is pretty common in boob-having people of my age. On the other hand, the request for a diagnostic procedure was sent to my GP's office the next freaking day. I still haven't got my next appointment yet but I'll let y'all know if my tits are going to kill me. Fox says he's impressed by how well I am outwardly handling things, which I guess I am, but as I said, with the little information I have I'm kind of stuck at half-panicked half-calm. Besides, the imaging office is super close to a local sandwich chain called The Sheik (founded by displaced Middle Easterners) and they have this freaking amazing steak and onion grilled pita.

So that news kinda took the shine off New Zox Day. I managed to score a limited band called Tempest and a colorful little number called Fernweh. That second one needs a picture for you to really appreciate how spiffy it is, and "fernweh" is one of those wonderful German words with no direct translation into English, but it basically means "wanderlust." It also strongly implies the need to visit new places and see new sights, rather than visiting a familiar destination.

For the last few days I've been working seriously at getting my studio into a usable condition. I will probably work on comics and 2D art in there as well as making Shrines and miniatures, and Fox may be able to build me an angled box to draw on. Actually, I think I can convince him to help me build a light box, too, which would be handy. I'm mostly sorting through my Shrine materials right now and it's insane. I have so much ... stuff. I have entire boxes of fake flowers and seashells. One is nothing but plastic toy animals. I'm devoting an entire tote box originally designed to carry stuff like nuts and bolts to just jewelry pieces, like pendants, and ... stuff. How did I accumulate all this stuff? But there have been some fun moments when I found things I'd forgotten about, such as:
A set of glow-in-the-dark figures of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
A Mardi Gras dubloon from a funeral home encouraging the recipient to take out a burial policy.
A plastic frog in a bikini. With boobs. Because frogs totally have boobs.
A tiny wooden dollhouse chair.
A tiny wooden monkey necklace. The monkey has a huge boner ...
About a dozen tiny crystal cubes.
Tons of flat-backed glass marbles!

That last one is awesome because I'd been considering making a bee and butterfly water station. You take a shallow pan or the water tray for a flower pot, cover the bottom with those marbles, and then fill it with water until the marbles are not quite submerged. They are then places where insects can light and drink, and they don't fall in the water and drown. Small lizards and birds will also use it.

I'm glad I at least have my anxiety meds again. This would be unbearable otherwise. I'm still having some issues, like this afternoon I decided to Google my own name and make sure there are no arrest warrants out for me. Because anxiety does that to you. I haven't even actually done anything, I just starting getting this idea that the cops were going to come out here for me. Thanks brain. After all I do for you, this is how you repay me.

Anyway, it also occurred to me that you may not have seen any of my art yet, so have a link to my badly disorganized DA gallery!
http://ravens-roost.deviantart.com/