Hmm ... Logistics.

I asked Laurie to stop by Pla-Za tonight on the way home so I could pick up something to tote all these markers around in a reasonably organized fashion. I finally latched on to the "Art Bin Mega-Tote," which is basically six individual plastic trays with little rubber footies, all wrapped in a big blue nylon zip-up cover, very similar to this. I'm not sure how it's going to work out ... it makes carrying the markers around much easier, but they're not exactly easy to access and use once I get wherever I'm going. I'll probably shop around a bit this weekend for other ideas.

Unfortunately, I pencilled and inked a quite nice Dover pic while hanging out at the Rathbun house this evening, got home and pulled out the "deco yellow" marker to start doing the color undercoat, and squiiiidge every spot on his cheetah body smeared all over the pic! Ugh!

At first I thought it was because I used "Staedtler Pigment Liner" pens to do the inking, because I'd left my 08 Micron at home by mistake and that was the closest hantamouse had on hand. However, I've been doing a little experimenting since then and I've found that doing dots with a Micron also smears! What is THAT about? The lines stay just fine, it's just the dots that smear. Weird.

The Dover pic, alas, is pretty much ruined; since it's a commish pic, I figure I'll just trace the ink onto another sheet and color that instead. However, I'm going to see if I can figure out what's up with the Amazing Smeary Dots issue before I waste my time smudging up another sheet of bristol. This is something I'm going to need to get worked out before I start doing commissions at conventions, where the ones who don't ask for Mopsy, ask for Dover instead.

Meanwhile, I'm up way too late again. G'nite. :)

-The Gneech

Where's My Samurai?

You are a katana! You are sharp, fast, and easy to
control. sometimes you are too short but you
make up for it with your grace and elegance.


What kind of sword are you?
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More Pen-Holding Goodness

Well, I went over to Michael's Arts and Crafts today and looked around at pen-toting options, and finally settled on a pair of these, the "Crop In Style Pen Caddy." (I assume "Crop In Style" is a brand name, rather than a direction to people who have to trim illustrations. But I digress.)

The pen caddy is, as near as I can tell, basically three pieces of heavy cardboard, covered with black nylon. Onto the nylon is affixed three long strips of elastic that are sewed down in small sections; you tuck the markers into the elastic a la ammunition being tucked into a bandolier. Each one holds 75 pens, so I bought two.

It's a snug fit ... the elastic holders are really made more for standard-thickness pens and have to stretch a bit to accomodate the markers. Still, they're relatively easily-accessible and I can keep them sorted, which is a big plus, so it still works out better than the "Mega-Tote."

Hmm. So now I have a $25 Mega-Tote sitting here with no use planned for it. I'd return it, except I already opened it up, attached all the rubber footies, and tossed the packing material. D'Oh! Oh well. Anybody wanna buy a Mega-Tote?

On a related note, I traced the Dover pic onto a new sheet of bristol and colored it forthwith; I am pleased with the results. It'll run in SJ as part of the August filler stuff, in case you'd like to see it. It involves our friend the cheetah, a computer, and a bazooka. Scratch another item off the "Too Much To Do List!"

On an unrelated note, I just sorta assumed that camstone would see the post I made about no gaming this weekend, but he showed up at jamesbarrett's house wondering when the game was gonna start. Oops! Sorry about that, dude! I flaked.

-The Gneech

Orange Alert Status Report

Well, I didn't get as much progress made today as I'd hoped, but I have officially begun work on it -- specifically, I pencilled and inked the front cover artwork. It turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be ... which is annoying because I had already been expecting it to be a challenge. :P

Tomorrow, I intend to crank out OA stuff as fast as I can, with possible breaks to get Laurie's birthday present, and (maybe) go see either Pirates of the Caribbean one more time (three's enough in the theater) or Tomb Raider II, depending on tomorrow's mood. I hope to get both outside covers finished at the very least by the end of the weekend; if I can get the inside title page done as well, that will be a slam dunk day. :)

I think it's time to do a ( revised 'Too Much To Do List!' )

Oh yeah, and "Do Bowflex" and "practice Kung Fu!" ;P

-The Gneech