Two Starving Artists - Peter & Jenny Foglesong

Under Destruction

2012-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Our downstairs neighbors moved out last month, and now the apartment maintenance guys are going to town, fixing the unit up. This is the first morning in a week that we didn't get woken up at 8am by power tools, but I can still hear them down there working.

We always were a bit wary of those neighbors - I think they were there when we moved in, and we barely ever saw them, and they just seemed kinda odd. The only times we'd know they were there is when they'd leave and slam their door so hard it rattled the entire building. And I did briefly speak to one of them, when their mail ended up in our mailbox by mistake and I knocked on their door. Otherwise, they were just kind of weird...

And they must have really abused/neglected the place while they were there, from all the moldy drywall and trashed appliances the workers have ripped out and thrown away. They may just be gutting the place, from the look and sound of things. At least these people apparently didn't steal the washer and dryer from the apartment like one of our other previous neighbors...

I wonder how fast they'll get that spot filled - it'd be nice to have at least one decent neighbor while we're here. Though I suppose it would make sense that it wouldn't happen until just before we (hopefully) move out of this place after 7 years.

Christmas Wrap-Up

2011-12-27T02:50:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas this year - nothing too terribly exciting, but very relaxed and enjoyable. We spent most of Christmas day at Jenny's parents' place, and left pretty late in the evening, after stuffing ourselves full of enchiladas, fudge and pie. We also spent a lot of time playing with her sister's new Wii (mostly bowling), which everyone had a lot of fun with.

Jenny's parents got us a new monitor, which we've needed for quite some time, and we also ended up with Patty's (slightly) old VCR/DVD player, since she also got a new TV which had a built in DVD player. We're pretty sure our old VCR just completely died, so it was very welcome. We do also have a combo player we got 4 years ago which works great, but this one that died was Jenny's before we started dating, and was probably her parents' before then. It's had a full life...

Also Sarah, one of Jenny's friends from work, was getting an Xbox 360 for herself, so she gave us her old Xbox for Christmas, along with all the games and accessories she had! Jenny wrapped everything up for me to open on Christmas, and I was shocked when I opened it up and just completely amazed by Sarah's generosity. But Jenny does work with a lot of really cool people. :)

In addition we got all sorts of other awesome gifts, from DVDs to jewelry, clothes to books and art supplies. We got to spend the whole day with family and had an all-around great time. We hope everyone out there had a great holiday weekend, and has a safe and happy New Years!

Sketches and Comic Signing

2011-12-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

A bunch of free sketches I drew today at Lightning Comics. I was there as part of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, to support fellow local artist Joshua Covey, as he signed House of Night #2, his big debut with Dark Horse Comics.

We had a good turn-out and Josh was busy the whole time, signing and sketching. Thanks to Matt and the gang at Lightning Comics for having us out and taking care of us while we were there!

Winter-ish

2011-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

It's feeling a bit more like winter around here, if not necessarily looking like it. Temperatures have been dipping down, and we've had a few days with snow on the ground. Nothing that's stuck around, and just as much days of rain as snow, but the city's already bracing for another potential dumping of snow like the last couple of years. Hopefully the road clearing plans will actually be sufficient this time around...

We went ahead and pulled all our Christmas decorations and tree out of the garage the other day, but haven't put anything up yet. That'll probably wait 'till after Thanksgiving.

Also saw on-line the other day that Fairbanks was in the mid -40s, and was the current coldest spot on Earth (at least of the places being monitored by that weather service). We still miss Alaska from time to time, but then we remember days like that.

Halloween Wrap-Up

2011-11-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

I spent Saturday afternoon with my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild, over at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, sketching for customers as part of their Halloween weekend event. We had a good time, and had a pretty decent turn-out of people.

I wasn't very good about taking pictures this time around, but did make sure to get a shot of this one, which I was pretty happy with. It was actually for the daughter of one of the other local artists who was there drawing - Joshua Covey, who drew the cover for the new (second) Guild Anthology comic.

We also had the first copies of the new Anthology for sale at the sketch event, fresh from the printers. They're available for sale locally for now - you can of course order them from the Guild and we can figure out shipping costs to your location. We should have them available on IndyPlanet soon as well, along with the first Anthology.

We stayed home for Halloween (had new TV to watch, after all), and actually had a fair amount of trick-or-treaters this time around. We've lived in these apartments for 6 years, and have never had a huge turn-out, which always seemed odd considering we're smack in the middle of a big residential area with a bunch of other apartment complexes. And I know there are plenty of kids living around here. But this year we may have had the same amount as the last 2 or 3 years combined. Maybe the weather was just nicer?

And the library lets their employees dress up for Halloween, so Jenny went as a pirate!

A Birthday, and What's Showing in Our House...

2011-10-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

It was Jenny's Dad's 61st birthday on Sunday - we spent most of the day over there, got some delicious food at the Texas Roadhouse (they do know their steak), and finally caught up on the last of the taped TV they've been recording for us.

We have had bad luck in the past with networks cancelling the shows we really like, but the number of programs we're following has slowly gone back up in the last couple of years. We're still following Fringe (great sci-fi and probably our favorite show on right now), Castle (a close second and a well written alternative to most cop shows), Supernatural, Chuck and Bones.

There's also The Walking Dead (the 2nd season starts this week), Eureka (in it's final season, unfortunately), Warehouse 13, and Alphas; plus the comedies we still watch: How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory and American Dad. And the very few "reality shows" we follow: Ghosthunters, Destination Truth, Holmes on Homes and Holmes Inspection.

This year we're also giving a few others a try:

Terra Nova - Cliched but entertaining - mostly watching it for the dinosaurs.
PanAm - Wasn't sure about this one at first, but the 60's espionage angle is enough to keep me hooked. And good writing and acting, regardless.
Grimm - This one hasn't started yet - cop procedural/modern-fantasy mix that might be good. Guess we'll see...
Once Upon a Time - Still don't know about this one (hasn't started either). It would be a sure thing, but we also know it's basically just a rip-off of the awesome Fables comic we're big fans of. ABC had been working on adapting Fables into a show, then dropped it, but then announced this one right after that - so not sure if I really want to support the show, regardless of how cool it might end up being...
Playboy Club - This was actually a really great show, which unfortunately is already cancelled. It got bogged down with fabricated controversy since it was connected with Playboy, but really it was far, far tamer and PG rated than most network dramas these days. The Club was only a backdrop for the setting, and the actual show was basically a period crime drama set in the 60's. Still hoping there are more episodes and they'll be released on DVD someday.

We did get some awesome TV news recently, when it was announced our all-time favorite comedy series, Arrested Development, will be coming back for another short season. This is one of those "cancelled before it's time" shows we loved, and these new episodes are also going to be a lead-up to an Arrested Development movie that's in development. Can't wait. :)

Still Here

2011-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

We signed our new lease today, so I guess we'll be sticking around here for a while longer. This is the first time they didn't raise our rent when we re-signed, but we had forgot they were also going to raise the rates for garages, so it'll still be $10 more a month than we had been paying. Yay.

This time around we opted for a 6 month lease, and hopefully we'll be able to move in the spring. Now that Jenny's got her new job, it means she'll be working more at one particular library branch, so we're thinking we'll look for a house in that area when the time gets closer.

(Long) Weekend Update

2011-10-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Jenny's enjoying her stay-cation - we stopped by the library Monday to pick up some holds and checked out a whole bunch of books and comics. We're also borrowing the complete DVD set of Daria, one of Jenny's favorite series, from our friend Josh. So she's got a few things to keep her entertained for a while. Otherwise she's just relaxing and working on crochet projects. She also sold a nice set of gloves (as seen to the left) she made for a co-worker this week.

Then yesterday we headed over to Coeur d'Alene for most of the day, to see Jenny's folks and catch up a bunch on the TV shows they record for us. The Fall season has started, and we've got a few new shows we're starting to follow, plus all the our regulars. Though as usually happens, one of the new ones we're really enjoying (The Playboy Club) has already been cancelled only 3 episodes in. Sigh...

This weekend was pretty fun too. One of Jenny's friends from work got married on Saturday, and she and her husband are really big geeks. They had a whole bunch of board games and card games for people to play at the reception, and even had the Star Wars Imperial march play at the wedding.

Saturday was also the annual 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge event. I knew we were going to be at the wedding months in advance, so didn't plan on actually attempting the challenge this time. But we still went over to the location after the reception was over for a few hours - I drew a little, and Jenny worked on her novel some, but we were mostly just there to hang out with our friends.

More Good News!

2011-09-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

In the last post I mentioned Jenny going up to full-time at work, and getting a better schedule. Well yesterday she also had her yearly Performance Evaluation, which went really well and garnered her a raise as well!

She's also got a lot of saved up vacation time she needs to use before the end of the year, so she'll be taking a week and half or so off, starting October 1st. No real plans, so it'll probably be a "stay-cation", but she's still looking forward to it.

Updating

2011-09-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

We've been without phone or internet for the past week, and just got back on-line today. A really nice technician guy from CenturyLink dropped by this afternoon to check it out, even though we weren't expecting him 'till tomorrow. Something was apparently wrong at the outside box, but everything's all fixed up and seems fine now.

We weren't sure about the change-over from Qwest to CenturyLink, fearing that it would be like the WaMu-to-Chase switch (more fees, more headaches), but so far OK. Still thinking about maybe changing providers, especially if/when we move (whenever that is).

Our friend Jamie is currently renting an apartment in a 4-plex that's a big converted farmhouse. His upstairs neighbor may be leaving soon, and if so we're hoping to maybe get in there. It's a nice enough place, and the rent would be almost half what we're paying here.

But, we *have* to know for sure in the next week, to put in our notice, since our lease is up at the end of October. Otherwise, we'll probably sign another one for 6 months and plan on moving in the Spring. Fingers crossed...

Other good news - one of Jenny's co-workers is retiring, and her (full-time) position is opening up. And Jenny got the job! It's not a raise, per se, but it does mean a full 40 hours a week (so bigger paychecks), and should be a regular Monday-Friday schedule for a change.

She heard from other co-workers that going to full-time might lower her insurance costs as well, but she's got to look into that. The new position should take effect at the end of October sometime, but she's not sure exactly when.

Blink & Chamber

2011-09-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

These are for an X-Men jam piece that the Comicsmiths' Guild is currently working on. Everyone is penciling their favorite characters and then they'll be assembled into a big image, which will be inked and finished by Levi Skeen.

We recently did one like this with different Green Lantern characters, and were pretty happy with the results. It's currently being colored by one of the members, and when it's finished we're planning on making prints we can sell to benefit the Guild.

Everyone seems to find these jam pics fun, so we're hoping to do some more in the future. Below you can see the final inked version of the Green Lantern piece.

Catbeard of the Caribbean

2011-08-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

So, my good buddy Matt Nelson has had this awesome weekly webcomic going for a while now, called Catbeard the Pirate, about the adventures of a pirate cursed to have a living cat as a beard. It's hilarious, and I highly recommend checking it out. And the current story even has dinosaurs!

I've been meaning to do some fan-art for it, so when this idea popped into my head I had to put it down on paper. Only pencils so far - I'll post an updated version whenever I get a chance to finish it.

Free Sketches!

2011-06-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

For those locals in the audience, I'll be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene this Saturday (July 2nd), drawing free sketches for customers. I'll be there with my friends in the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, and we should be there from 10 am till about 1:30 or so.

Lightning Comics has sales and events going on for the 4th of July weekend, so swing by on Saturday and check out the deals, and pick up a free sketch as well! Hope to see you there!

It must really be Summer...

2011-06-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

...since I broke down and turned on the air-conditioning today. It's supposedly only in the low 80s outside, but feels a lot warmer in the apartment.

Yesterday was the Summer solstice, and also Jenny's birthday. We spent the day over in Coeur d'Alene - her parents took us out for Mexican, and also got her one of the new Nook Touch eReaders! It's pretty awesome, and now she's looking for e-books to fill it up with and a cool looking case to protect it.

We've both been hit pretty hard by allergies this year. The pollen count around here has been really high and we've definitely been feeling it.

Oh, and I spent the morning at the dentist today for my yearly check-up. How fun... But at least everything's still in great shape, amazingly (especially considering the excessive amount of soda we drink).

Not too exciting, I know, but just wanted to post a quick update since it'd been a while...

Spokane ComiCon Wrap-Up

2011-05-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Just realized it's been a week since the Spokane ComiCon, and I never actually did a post-convention blog post....

The Con was a lot of fun (per usual) - it had it's highest turn-out yet, which is definitely an encouraging sign of the size of the geek community around here. We met a lot of great folks, and it was also awesome to see people we recognized from past events, who made a point to find us at the Con and get more sketches from us. And of course, it's great to be able to meet more artists and creative types, and catch up with friends from out of town.

The one serious snag in the event was the "fire drill" mid-way through the day... The fire alarm went off, and everyone had to leave the building while we waited for the fire department to show up and make sure everything was safe. We were only outside for probably 30 minutes, but I'm sure there were some who didn't wait around and just left.

And apparently this was a known issue with the alarm system itself, as it had gone off at least twice before that week and hadn't been fixed. Just bad timing, but thankfully most of the attendees took it in stride and didn't let it ruin the day.

I only got photos of a couple of the sketches I did during the Con. The top one is the person's original character, that he was getting different peoples' versions of. And the other was for a little girl, probably only 5 or 6, who apparently really liked Frankenstein. It was great seeing the thrilled look on her face when she saw it and realized it was for her.

Spokane ComiCon!

2011-05-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

I'll be at the Spokane ComiCon this Saturday (the 21st), in artist alley with my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild. We'll have copies of the Guild Anthology book for sale, along with a whole mess of prints and original art available, as well as taking sketch commissions. Hope to see everyone there!

Also, there will be a Drink and Draw with special guests Dan Panosian and Dave Johnson on Friday Night (7-11 pm) at Cyrus O'Leary's. To RSVP and get more information, you can check out the Facebook event page here: Drink & Draw Spokane!

Free Comic Book Day Wrap-Up

2011-05-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

Free Comic Book Day is always great, as it's kind of "Geek Christmas", but this year's was particularly fun, though a pretty long day...

I was over at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID with my buddies in the Comicsmiths' Guild, where we were drawing free sketches for customers for a little over four hours. There were people lined up and waiting outside before the doors opened, and we kept busy the whole time, with a steady flow of people.

After we were done there, we headed over to the local theater for another 2+ hours of sketching - this time of only Thor (and related characters) as part of a promotion for the new movie. We were only drawing for people who were going to see Thor, and we were still swamped, and stayed longer than planned.

But we had to eventually pack up and leave, as we had a free screening of Thor waiting for us, courtesy of the theater management. I thought the movie was awesome, even with my expectations as high as they were, and being such a fan of the source material.

It was a lot of fun, with a surprising amount of (actually funny) comedic bits and plenty of big super-hero action and fight scenes. Afterwards I was left thinking that the new Superman movie is going to have it's work cut out for it to compete...

But if you do see it, I wouldn't waste your money on the 3D version. I thought it really was unnecessary, and the conversion wasn't the greatest either. Unlike other 3D films I've seen, it seemed like they didn't adjust the brightness or contrast or something, as the glasses actually made things really dim. Which made many of the scenes (like the night-time sequences) a bit hard to see. I'm planning on seeing it again, and going for 2D next time.

And here's the pics I got of sketches I did during the day. These are all from the Lightning Comics session - I unfortunately didn't get any of the Thor pics, but it was kinda crazy at the theatre...

Free Comic Book Day!

2011-05-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (Saturday, May 7) is Free Comic Book Day, and I'll be sketching up a storm at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene with my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild. We'll be there from 10:30 - 2:30, and then head over to the Regal Riverstone theater, where we'll be drawing free Thor sketches for customers from 4:30 - 6:30.

Members of the Guild will also be over at Merlyns in Spokane from 11-2 doing free sketches for kids. Along with sketches from the Guild, the Imperial 501st should be there from 1 -3 for photo ops and there will be a costume contest with prizes for kids and adults.

If you're not local, be aware that Free Comic Book Day is an international event, so you can check the FCBD website and find a participating retailer in your area. Otherwise, we hope to see you this weekend!

Friday to Day

2011-04-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today was Jenny's day off, so we slept in and the spent the evening helping one of her friends from work move into a much better place. We got some (probably much needed) exercise and were also rewarded with gas money and free pizza. So all in all, not too bad a day.

My shoulder and neck are still giving me troubles; they seemed (relatively) fine earlier when I was actually doing the heavy lifting, but we'll see how I feel in the morning after it has some time to sink in...

Day to Day

2011-04-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

We had our regular monthly Comicsmiths' Guild meeting on Sunday, except this was a BBQ hosted at one of our homes. Not much "business" taken care of, but a lot of fun and really great food.

Myself and my Guild-mates will be drawing free sketches for people at two local comic stores (Lightning Comics and Merlyns) as part of the annual Free Comic Book Day event on May 7th. If you're local, you can drop by and pick up a free sketch and free comics; otherwise, check the FCBD website for a participating comic shop near you!

I must have slept wrong and tweaked a nerve or something, as I woke up Monday with my back and shoulder in pain, spreading to my arm. It's better now, but not 100% yet, and has mostly killed my artistic productivity for the week since it was my drawing arm and shoulder that was affected.

It's not the first time this has happened, and I'm sure a lot of it has to do with our bed, which is way too old and lumpy and definitely needs to be replaced. But unfortunately that's just not in the budget right now...

We did replace our monitor today, when we went over to visit Jenny's folks. Her dad is part of a computer club which refurbishes old computers for people in the neighborhood in need, and we picked up one from there. It's certainly not "new", and is still a big CRT screen, but is a lot better than the 10 year old noisy behemoth we had before.

Otherwise today (Wednesday), her dad also took us out for Mexican food, and we caught up on all the taped TV they record for us (since they have cable). Then some shopping, and we watched Skyline, which was a lot more entertaining than I expected. It wasn't very well received at the box office, and I hadn't heard much about it - but it actually surprised me, especially in how it ended. Unfortunately I highly doubt there will be a sequel.

Guess I haven't really done much normal blogging lately. I don't know if this will drastically change, but I thought I'd give it a shot. We've been getting a lot of DVDs from the library lately, so maybe I'll start giving some more commentaries on those, in lieu of anything else important to talk about for now... ;)

Tintin

2011-04-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

Continuing to play catch up with this month's "weekly" sketches for the Comicsmiths' Guild, here's Tintin and the Captain, set sail for adventure.

Barbossa

2011-04-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Getting back to posting art here by starting to catch up on the Comicsmiths' Guild "weekly" sketches for the last month...

This was for the pick of "any pirate", so I went with my favorite character from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Though really, Geoffrey Rush is pretty much awesome in everything he's in, so that's no big surprise.

Novel Release - Left Hand Tree

2011-04-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Last night (April 2), my friend and fellow Comicsmiths' Guild member J.D. Gunter hosted a release party for his debut novel Left Hand Tree at local comic store Merlyns. We had a great turnout, and Quenton Shaw (head of the publisher, QEW) even made the trip over from Seattle to manage the proceedings. Jay also did a live web-cast with a Q&A from viewers, which is now archived and available to view at the Ustream website here: Left Hand Tree Webcast

Left Hand Tree is about a young child in unthinkable circumstances and the very dangerous man who is his only hope of salvation. It is currently available online from QEW Publishing and as an e-book from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can also read sample chapters at LeftHandTree.com.

Robin and Marian

2011-03-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is fan-art of sorts - of my buddy Matt Nelson's characters from his awesome upcoming semi-steampunk Robin Hood graphic novel.

You can find some early preview pages and sketches for the project over in Matt's deviantArt gallery: Matt's deviantArt

Static Re-design

2011-03-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

This is for an event currently running over on Project Rooftop, in memory of the character's creator, Dwayne McDuffie, who recently passed away. Static was part of the Milestone imprint, published by DC in the '90s, which was a concerted effort to create a comics universe that showed real diversity, in a genre historically populated by mostly white characters and creators.

While his name is perhaps not as well known outside the comics and entertainment industry as some creators, McDuffie's reach was greater than most. He was the driving force behind the Justice League TV show, along with the Static Shock cartoon based on his own character, as well as a writer for Teen Titans and several of DC's animated movies. As such, McDuffie is probably responsible for reaching a larger mainstream audience in the last 10-15 years than comics themselves and creating a whole new generation of superhero fans that exists today.

Unfortunately I have the hardest time getting a decent scan of watercolors with my current (i.e. old) scanner. The colors for this still ended up looking washed out, even after tweaking in Photoshop, as you can see by the slightly blurry (but more accurate) camera pic below:

Emerald City ComiCon is this weekend...

2011-03-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

... but unfortunately I won't be there this year.

Jenny and I were planning on going, even though I wouldn't be at a table this time (Artist Alley sold out way early and The Comicsmiths' Guild didn't get a spot), but her job requires a minimum 3 months advance for time-off, and we didn't think to put the request in till after New Years. Oh well, realistically we probably don't have the money to spend on the trip right now anyway...

But, if you do happen to find yourself at the Convention, there will be a few local friends & Guild members in attendance:

- Levi Skeen and Nate O'Brien will be with the Sketch Crew, at A-15/16/17 in Artist Alley. Copies of the new Comicsmiths' Guild Anthology will be available for purchase there, featuring a comic short from yours truly.

- Erik Thompson should be at the Rorshach/MicroBrew Studios booth (114).

- Lars Brown will probably be at the Oni Press booth (806), but only on Saturday.

- Jay Gunter will be at the Creator's Edge booth (L-01/02), promoting his upcoming novel, Left Hand Tree.

Emerald City is an awesome convention, and I wish I wasn't missing it, but we'll definitely be there next year (both Jenny & I, and The Guild). For now, I've got to start thinking about the upcoming Spokane ComiCon and Free Comic Book Day, both in May. I'll be with the Guild in Artist Alley at SCC, and we'll be at local comic shops on FCBD, doing our regular deal of drawing sketches for kids.

The Guild's first "real" event as a group was for FCBD in 2009 - it's kind of awesome to think we've been together for 2 years now, and we're just getting started!

Aquaman Re-design

2011-02-21T23:49:00.001-08:00

This was my entry for the most recent Project: Rooftop superhero costume re-design contest (which just ended on Sunday).

I was trying to at least imply some of his classic costume's traditional elements (gloves, trunks, "A" buckle), while giving him an updated modern look. I'm pretty happy with how it came out, but guess we'll see if the judges think I succeeded...

Comicsmiths' Guild Update!

2011-02-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

The Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild (our local artist/writer group) has recently put out our first anthology comic, which is now available for purchase!

It's a 40 page book, with 10 short stories in a varieties of genres from local creators. My contribution is a 4 page action-horror short featuring a character I have many more plans for - and this is the only place to see his first published adventure.

You can order it on-line at Indy Planet (Order it Here!), and also find it at these fine local retailers:

The Comic Book Shop

Merlyns

Boo Radleys

Also a reminder - the Guild's next regular meeting is this coming Sunday (Feb. 20) at Merlyns, 3 pm!

What's Happening....

2011-01-06T22:46:00.001-08:00

So, how are things going, now that we're a week into 2011...?

So far, so good, I suppose. Jenny got a couple extra hours added to her schedule, bringing her almost up to full time, and she's been selling a few more of her crocheting projects to her co-workers. She's also been trying to work a little more on her novel, when she has the time.

I've got a few art projects on my plate - some new and some way overdue that I'm concentrating on playing catch-up with first. Also, the first Comicsmiths' Guild anthology comic is printed and should be on it's way here. We'll have those available soon-ish, both on-line and at local shops & events.

We've got all the Christmas decorations down and out to the garage, and are in the beginning stages of completely re-arranging the apartment. So of course, at the moment it's a complete disaster. But when we're done, the plan is to have a real living room and dining room again, with the studio space moved to the smaller bedroom.

We're figuring this will also encourage us to do some much-needed un-cluttering, and get rid of some extra stuff we've been hanging on to for way too long. Or it may just end up in the garage. Guess we'll see....

A New Year

2011-01-01T23:58:00.004-08:00

Hopefully everyone out there had a happy and safe New Years celebration. I spent the first day of 2011 getting off on the right foot - by drawing! I was at local shop Lightning Comics with my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild doing sketches for customers, during their big New Years/3 Year Anniversary celebration.

I'm not really one for resolutions, but I do have a lot of goals and plans for this year, mostly involving finally getting various projects off the ground. I should also have some news soon about the upcoming inaugural Comicsmiths' Guild Anthology book.

For now, here's a few of the free sketches I did today (click to embiggen the image):

A Winter Wonderland

2010-12-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

Well, obviously the Pacific Northwest won't be left out of the current "snow-pocalypse" that's been hitting the eastern states. Spokane is currently under a "winter storm warning" with high winds and 7-12 inches expected to fall today. Below is an example of what it looks like outside our windows and the snow's still steadily coming down.

Our Christmas was more wet than white, but still fun, though I came down with a monster of a head cold late last week which I'm only now shaking off. I was down & out and pretty miserable for the past few days, with the whole sneezing/coughing/aching thing. But last night I actually got a decent night's sleep without NyQuil, so I think I'm mostly over it.

Regardless, with the weather the way it is, I'm planning on staying inside and warm unless I absolutely have to, until I'm 100%. Hence me taking these pictures from inside the apartment...

Recent Events

2010-12-24T22:43:00.000-08:00

The Robert Picardo signing at local comic shop Merlyns was a lot of fun. They had a really good turn-out, a lot more than expected, and Mr. Picardo was really entertaining. He talked for about an hour or so, telling some stories about his acting experiences, taking questions from the audience, and even singing a bit!

We were there to sketch for people before he arrived, but we honestly didn't do much work. The crowd was definitely there to see him, though we did end up doing a few sketches before the day was over.

Here's a pic we got of Mr. Picardo with a few of us in the Comicsmiths' Guild:

The following Saturday the Guild were over in Coeur d'Alene at Lightning Comics,drawing for customers during their big Christmas sale event. We had a lot of fun, and it's always great to see so many young kids who are interested in comics. A few of us will be back over there next week, sketching for people on New Years Day.

And here are a few of my sketches I got photos of from the Christmas event:

We'll be heading over to Jenny's parents' place tomorrow morning for Christmas. Aunt Joan (who lives in Post Falls) and Uncle David (coming up from Kennewick) will both be there, and her mom will be making enchiladas for dinner. Should be a lot of fun. :)

Hopefully everyone's having a great holiday season, and we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a fun, safe New Years! Lastly, here's a pic of our Christmas tree, which is set up in the studio (since it's the only spot with enough room in the apartment...):

Upcoming Events

2010-12-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be joining my fellow Comicsmith's Guild members at a couple of local events leading up to the holidays...

Sunday, December 12 - Merlyns and the Spokane ComiCon are hosting a signing appearance by Robert Picardo, better known as "The Doctor" from Star Trek: Voyager and a ton of other geek-genre shows. The Q&A session and signing will be from 2-3pm, and we'll be there at 1pm drawing sketches for kids beforehand. There's a Facebook Event set up, if you'd like more information or would like to RSVP: Robert Picardo Signing

Saturday, December 18 - Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID is having a big pre-Christmas holiday bash event, and we'll be there sketching for patrons from Noon to 3pm. Come by and pick up a sketch, check out the deals, and even meet Santa!

I Suppose It's Officially Winter...

2010-11-18T19:57:00.000-08:00

... since we just got our first snow last night. It's all gone now, melted away, but it was an inch or two this morning. The weathermen had been threatening snow for the last couple of weeks; it was still a bit surprising, and there should be more in the next few days. It's also been really windy lately - with some power outages and damage from downed trees - both here, and over in Coeur d'Alene.

We were supposed to have our carpets cleaned today, but that didn't happen. When we last signed our lease (about 3 months ago), they had a "get a random bonus for renewing for a year" deal going. We would've been happier with the free month of storage or $100 off our rent for a month, but we'll take what we can get, I guess. But of course, the cleaner apparently had some sort of technical difficulties with his equipment and had to cancel - he's supposed to be here tomorrow morning but, like most things involving this complex, I'll believe it when I see it.

They also scheduled a "preventative maintenance inspection" for our block of apartments, sometime today or tomorrow, so we had to move stuff for that too (so they can get to the hot water heater, under the sink, etc.). I was really hoping they and the cleaners would both be done today so we could move everything back to normal, but of course it was not to be. Hopefully tomorrow.

We were actually planning on putting up our Christmas tree and decorations early, and pulled all the stuff out of the garage a few days ago. But, not surprisingly, we're holding off until the carpets are cleaned. So for now, we're just listening to our Christmas music playlist on the computer and trying to get ourselves into the holiday spirit.

Greymon for Dinosaur Day

2010-10-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

My good buddy Matt Nelson recently came up with a pretty awesome idea - a brand new holiday called Dinosaur Day, where artists everywhere can flood the internet with new dino-related artwork, for no other reason than dinosaurs are themselves awesome.

So here's my contribution - Greymon, from the Digimon series. I've actually been a fan of Digimon for years, but strangely I don't remember doing any fan-art for it before this.

Guild Sketches - Red Sonja

2010-10-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

So, the good folks in the Comicsmiths' Guild have started doing weekly sketches, where one person picks a subject that everybody draws (similar to, and inspired by, the Comic TwArt blog). We've been doing it for a couple of weeks, and participants have been posting them over on the Guild blog and deviantArt page.

This is actually last week's subject - the She-Devil With a Sword, Red Sonja!

24 Hour Comic Book Day!

2010-10-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was the annual 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge, where creators around the world attempt to write and draw a 24 page comic, from scratch, in 24 straight hours. This was my 3rd year participating and the 4th year for the event here in Spokane.

Last year I did pretty well, coming up with a 17 page finished story in the 24 hours. I was hoping to do better this time, but I got a slow start and never really figured out what I wanted to do. I got 7 pages pencilled, with parts of them inked, when I hit a creative wall and never got re-started. After setting the pages aside and taking a break, I sat back down and did some writing and design work on another story idea I've had kicking around for a while but hadn't really started on yet.

So, while I didn't succeed at my 24 hour comic, I still made some progress on something else, and more importantly the event itself was a huge success. We had more participants this year than any previous, and also more people successfully finishing the Challenge. Great time, all around.

We even had a Spider-Man pinata this year - you can see a video of it getting smashed open over at the Comicsmiths' Guild website: ComicsmithsGuild.com

Sketchin' at the Fair

2010-09-11T01:19:00.001-07:00

A note to any Spokane locals - myself and other members of the Comicsmiths' Guild will be downtown in front of Merlyns today (Saturday the 11th) from 1-6, drawing free sketches for kids as part of the Sustainable September Main Street Fair.

We'll also be doing face painting, selling our wares (comics, prints, art, etc.) and talking up the 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge, which is on October 2nd.

So come down, peruse the vendors, eat some food, say Hi and spend some money on local art!

Project Rooftop - Captain America

2010-08-02T02:34:00.000-07:00

The current contest over at Project Rooftop (which ended yesterday) was to design a new costume for Captain America. It could be for anyone who's held the title, so I went for a new outfit for Bucky Barnes, the original Cap's sidekick and most recent shield bearer.

My attempt was something a bit "retro-superheroic", with some influence from his old WW2 outfit. The cape is meant to be a nod to the costume original Cap Steve Rogers wore for a while when he went by Nomad. Something about Bucky following in Steve's footsteps while also forging his own identity...

These Project Rooftop redesign contests are always fun - and one of these days I won't wait till the last minute to come up with my entry.

What's Happening....

2010-07-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been doing some lettering work for a couple of comic pitches, and also working on an original comic short for an anthology the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild is putting together. It'll be a collection of several stories, most around 4 pages long, showcasing the skills and diverse styles of our little group. We're hoping to have it printed up and ready to distribute by the end of September, in time for the Jet City Comic Show in Seattle (which a few Guild members will be attending) and the next 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge at the start of October.

Last month we had another fun event - members of the Guild taught a class on making comics at a week long day camp for kids. It was a superhero themed camp, and over the course of the week the kids created their own characters and made a comic featuring them. They also had classes in costuming, pop art, and even culinary arts. It wrapped up with them putting on a stage presentation, with the kids dressed up as their characters. It was an awesome experience, a lot of fun, and hopefully we'll get to do something similar in the future. You can see more about it on the Guild's website, including video of the presentation and pics of the comics the kids made.

Jenny's been crocheting a whole bunch - she's made a few larger tote bags and just made me a new hat. She also recently got back to work on her superhero novel she started writing some time ago. Otherwise she's mostly been working - while her job at the law firm ended a few weeks ago, she has been able to pick up a few extra hours here and there at the library. But she's still happy to have two actual days off per week again.

It's also been ridiculously hot here recently. It's still about 80 today, but there's a tiny bit of a breeze and it's overcast with a slight chance of rain, so it's relatively comfortable. We'll take what we can get, I guess.

Seven Great Years (and Counting)

2010-07-15T03:57:00.000-07:00

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary, or 7 years since we started dating. Jenny's got to work tonight, so yesterday we did our version of celebrating by buying some comics, picking up some pizza, watching a hilarious movie (Run, Fatboy, Run) and making chocolate chip cookies. Yep, it's been a great 7 years, and it's always getting better. :)

Post-Convention Update

2010-05-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday was the Spokane ComiCon, which was (of course) awesome. I shared two tables in Artist Alley with my friends Matt and Jesse, representing the Comicsmiths' Guild, and we had fun and met a lot of cool folks. We all did pretty well sales-wise too, selling prints and art and drawing a ton of sketches for people.

After the convention we headed over to fellow Comicsmith Levi Skeen's place for the after-party, where we could wind down and fill ourselves with some delicious BBQ. A big thanks to Levi and Heidi for the party and to Nate O'Brien for putting on an amazing show! Remember to mark your calendars for the next convention - May 21 2011 will be the 5th annual show.

I did a lot of sketches at the convention, but unfortunately only got pics of these 3. The Gambit & Iron Man went to a couple who ended up getting 5 (!) sketches from me and bought 9 of my sketch cards. The bottom one is of a critter from The Maxx comic. I don't know what it is, but thankfully he brought some reference along for me to draw from.

Sketchcard Benefit Auction is Live!

2010-05-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Thousands of cards! Hundreds of artists! And all proceeds going to benefit the American Cancer Society!

Please check out the event - it's an easy way to pick up some original art while helping support a great cause.

My contributions are here:

My Cards!

And all of the cards can be seen here:

Sketchcard Auction!

Thanks!

Free Comic Book Day Wrap-Up!

2010-05-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Free Comic Book Day has come & gone once again. It's always a fun experience, and this year was no exception.

I spent Saturday at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID, sketching away like crazy with other members of the Comicsmiths Guild and Joshua Covey, another awesome local artist who we just met that day. It was a packed house pretty much the whole time, and the day was mostly a blur of people and drawing. We were scheduled to be there from 10-3, and ended up staying till 4 since there were still people coming in.

A few other guys from the Guild were over at Merlyns in Spokane on Saturday, and apparently it was just as crazy over there as well. It's great to know FCBD did it's job and got people in the doors of comic shops to check them out. Hopefully some of them will come back and become regular readers.

Myself and a couple other Guild members came back to Merlyns on Sunday, as the owner was extending the FCBD festivities to the whole weekend. It wasn't near as busy, but that might have a lot to do with the day also being the annual Bloomsday Run, a huge local event that draws most of the city's attention. But we still ended up doing a few sketches while we there.

Below are some of the sketches I did both days (click the pics to enlarge) - unfortunately there were quite a few I didn't get photos of.

Free Comic Book Day!

2010-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Comicsmiths' Guild will be on hand at local comic book stores this Saturday and Sunday to do free sketches for kids, as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day weekend.

On Saturday members will be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID from 10:30 to 3, as well as Merlyns in Spokane from Noon to 4. The Guild will also be back at Merlyns on Sunday at the the same time.

Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE to anyone who comes into their stores. So drop by a local comic shop this Saturday, see what's happening in the world of comics and pick up some free books!

Many comic shops organize events, such as in-store creator signings or contests, to coincide with FCBD. So wherever you're at, be sure to check with your local shop and see what's happening. And if you're in the Spokane/CdA area, drop by and meet the Guild!

Sketch Cards for Cancer!

2010-04-20T00:55:00.001-07:00

The 3rd annual benefit sketchcard auction, sponsored by Blue Line Pro and the American Cancer Association, is fast approaching.

This is my 2nd year participating, and I tried to pick some subjects for my cards that will hopefully get some interest and collect some money for a very worthy cause.

The on-line auction is scheduled to start on May 15th. More information about the auction can be found here: Comics For Cures

Project: Rooftop - Black Canary

2010-04-06T02:19:00.000-07:00

I did this a couple of days ago and hadn't got around to posting it... It's for the most recent call for submissions for Project: Rooftop. This website is dedicated to superhero costume re-designs, and I've entered a few of their past contests, even placing in one of them (for Batman).

This one is for Black Canary, a long standing DC character who is one of the premiere martial artists in the DC universe, but has never really had a costume that matches her superhero name (in my opinion).

I'm actually pretty happy with the design I whipped up, but I guess we'll see what the judges say....

Happy day-after-April's Fool Day

2010-04-02T14:55:00.001-07:00

Hopefully everyone avoided any unnecessary nonsense, tomfoolery or shenanigans. There was the normal annoying fake internet news and the people in charge of deviantArt messing with everybody's avatars, but luckily nothing in "real life" to contend with.

It's yet another beginning of a new month, and lots of things on my to-do list right now. Mostly comic & art related stuff, including getting ready for the Spokane ComiCon next month, but we also still need to take care of (i.e pay) our taxes and a lot of other miscellaneous household type things.

Free Comic Book Day is coming on May 1st, and the Comicsmiths Guild will be sketching for kids at local comic shops again. I'll probably be over at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene with a couple other guys and other members will be at Merlyns in Spokane.

A reminder that most of our wedding pictures are going to disappear from our Flickr account in the next few days, so if anybody still wants to grab any now's the time. Our Pro (paid) account expires in a couple of weeks, and we're not re-upping it. So we're cleaning out most of the old pics and will maybe start actually posting some of the tons of new pics we have on the computer and haven't done anything with yet. We'll see, it's not really a huge priority right now.

Post-Emerald City Synopsis

2010-03-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Emerald City ComiCon was awesome! I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came by the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild table, whether it was to buy something, commission a sketch or just hang out and chat. We met a lot of cool people, and ECCC always has such a fun and friendly atmosphere.

The Guild sold a bunch of sketches, sketch cards and prints, and a few books as well. I posted a few of the sketches I did over on my deviantArt page, and you can see some photos from the weekend over on Jesse Acosta's deviantArt Journal.

I definitely think I learned a lot from the whole experience (my first Con as an exhibitor!), which I can hopefully apply to future conventions. The next one we'll be at is the Spokane ComiCon in May, and we'll have some other Guild events coming up as well, including sketching for Free Comic Book Day on May 1st.

If you're interested in learning more about the Guild, our next meeting is this Sunday at Merlyns from 3-6 pm, and we'll be discussing a lot of the plans for upcoming events. Any local artists and writers are welcome!

Off to Emerald City!

2010-03-12T01:04:00.001-08:00

Just a quick reminder that I'm going to be at the Emerald City ComiCon this weekend. I'll be with the rest of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild at A-16/17 in Artist Alley - we'll have mini-comics, prints and sketch cards for sale and myself and other artists will be available for sketch commissions.

So if you're going to be at the Con, be sure to swing by and say Hi and meet the Guild! We're easy to find, right up front in the first block of Artist Alley and right next to The Sketch Crew (A-18/19/20).

Weekend Update

2010-02-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

Local game store Gamer's Haven just re-opened over in Post Falls and we went to check out the new location on Friday. The shop looks great, with a large amount of space for in-store table-top gaming. The official Grand Opening is the first weekend of March, complete with tournaments and events.

Jenny and I have been wanting to get back into miniatures games for a while, and this might be the perfect time to start playing Warhammer again. There's also a new game, Malifaux, from an Italian game company, that looks really intriguing as well.

Saturday we headed over to Coeur d'Alene to have dinner with Jenny's family, to celebrate her sister Patty's birthday. She opened her presents and delicious Mexican food from Rancho Viejo was enjoyed by all.

We had a great turn-out at our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild today, with a record number of attendees and a couple of new people being there for the first time. We're still getting things straightened out for Emerald City ComiCon next month, but I think we'll have all our bases covered.

Comicsmiths' Guild Meeting

2010-02-18T04:38:00.000-08:00

A reminder to any Spokane locals that the next meeting of the Comicsmiths' Guild is this coming Sunday at Merlyns, from 3-6 pm. We're always interested in meeting local creators and any artists and writers are welcome to attend. We're currently getting ready for the rapidly approaching Emerald City ComiCon.

I didn't take any photos of the drawings I did at our last Guild event (at the Spokane Community College), but I did get a scan of one of them afterwards. This is a sketch of Jeromy Smith, another local Spokane artist and writer. You can see his work over at his blog: The Black Spot

Local Sketching and Convention Info

2010-02-04T04:52:00.001-08:00

The Local Artist Sketch Day at the Spokane Community College last week went really well. There were five of us from the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild there; we were scheduled for 2 hours and ended up drawing for about half an hour longer since there were so many people still waiting for sketches. There were quite a few people asking if we were coming back - we just told them to let the people in charge know they wanted us to do it again, so hopefully we'll be asked back.

The Emerald City ComiCon is in Seattle, March 13-14, and the Guild will be there en masse. We'll have a spot in Artist Alley (Tables A-16/17), where myself and 5 other members (Jay Gunter, Jesse Acosta, Matt Nelson, Rachel Green & Zephan Osiris) will be representing the Guild, selling merchandise and art, and taking sketch commissions.

In addition, we'll be right next to The Sketch Crew (Tables A-18/19/20), which has been a regular fixture at ECCC and features 2 more members of the Guild (Levi Skeen and Nathan O'Brien). Also, Guild members Lars Brown and Erik Thompson will be at their publishers' booths, Oni Press and Micro Brew Comics, respectively.

Emerald City is always a great convention, and this year looks to be no exception. We're all really excited about the show, and looking forward to both it and the Spokane ComiCon, which is on May 22. I'd encourage anybody who'll be at either show to swing by our table and say Hi, and see what Spokane creators have to offer the comics community.

Spokane Local Artist Sketch Day

2010-01-25T04:46:00.001-08:00

I've written more than once about the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, a local group of artists and writers of which I'm a member. We're something of a creative support group, and have monthly meetings, but haven't been doing a lot in the way of public events recently. We're expecting that to change in the coming months, and have quite a few plans for 2010...

This Wednesday, the 27th, the Spokane Community College will be hosting their Local Artists Sketch Day at the SCC Lair Student Center, and four members of the Guild will be participating. Artists will be drawing sketches for students from Noon to 2 pm, so be sure to stop by, see some local Spokane artists, pick up a sketch and meet the Guild!

There is also more information about Guild members, meetings and upcoming events at our website: The Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild

Avatar

2010-01-16T03:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (the 15th) was our 2 1/2 year anniversary, and conveniently also Jenny's day off, so we finally went out to see Avatar. We've actually been attempting to see it with her dad (since he also wants to see it), pretty much since it came out, but every time we try it's been sold out or something else gets in the way.

So today we took it upon ourselves to use some free movie tickets we had received (thanks, Mom & Dad!) and see it... and we loved it! I'd heard all kinds of comments, which mostly said the plot, writing and acting were pretty poor, but it was still worth seeing just for the effects. I had a hard time accepting that'd be the case, and honestly was getting a bit sick of all the hype about how "amazing" the whole thing was.

Maybe it was just because I'd lowered my expectations from the reviews I'd heard, but I ended up enjoying it a lot - way more than I was ever expecting. There was a couple of corny bits, but I'd say the worst bits of dialogue were already in the previews. The acting (for the most part) was good, the background and environments really were amazing, and the 3D really helped to enhance the whole experience.

Jenny's dad apparently doesn't react well to the 3D effects, so he wanted to see the normal version anyway, so we'll probably be going to see it again with him when we get the chance. Oh, and even though it's about 3 hours long, it kept my attention so well, I hardly noticed it'd been that long (that is until it was over and I tried to stand up...).

Nothing else exciting from today. We slept in late, went out to Arbys to eat after the movies, and came home to watch some TV (Smackdown! & Numb3rs) while Jenny organized her beads and I sketched some.

And here's something appropriate from my sketchbook today:

Hello 2010!

2010-01-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

I've never been one for New Years Resolutions, either making or completing them (on the few occasions when I attempted them). But there are a lot of things I'd like to accomplish in the coming months. I've got a good feeling about 2010, so I thought for once I'd try listing a bunch of "goals" or "plans" and see how many of them actually happen. So....

I want to have at least one comic launched, with it's own website and updated regularly. I've got a lot of ideas that have just been kicking around in my head - I keep saying I'm going to do something with them, and I just need to do it.

I'm planning on attending at least 2 conventions this year, as an artist: Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle and the local Spokane ComiCon. I'll be at both with my fellow Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild members.

I've been wanting to get back into miniature gaming for a while. I've played off and on since I was in high school (about 15 years ago), and Jenny has played for close to 10 years as well. But neither of us have really done anything with the hobby for the last 4-5 years. So I want to re-learn Warhammer and start playing again, as well as have a completely painted playable army by the end of the year.

Holidays always seem to sneak up on us - and as much as I love them and want to enjoy them, it always ends up being stressful because we wait till the last minute to do everything. So this year I want to get more stuff done ahead of time - buying presents, decorating and sending out Christmas cards.

And, assuming I get enough pre-holiday stuff out of the way, I want to attempt NaNoWriMo (the National Novel Writing Month) again in November. And hopefully I'll actually finish it, as well as...

Finish the 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge. I attempted it this year, made it to 17 pages (of the 24 page goal) and had an awesomely fun time. And this year I want to make it all the way to 24 pages.

And in the realm of art & writing, I've got a lot of other various things I'd like to get done. I've got some long overdue commissions to take care of, an idea for a miniatures game that might become reality and a super-secret collaborative comic book to work on. Besides those things, I just need to draw & write something every day and actually get better.

Honestly, there's probably a lot of goals, plans and pseudo-resolutions that I'm forgetting, but this is a good start. I hope 2010 works out for the best for everyone out there (including me, of course).

Oh, and along with drawing something every day, I also want to blog more and start posting more artwork & sketches on-line. So here's some recent scribbles from the ol' sketchbook:

Merry post-Christmas!

2009-12-28T02:15:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone out there had a great holiday! Jenny and I had a fun and relaxing Christmas - we headed over to her parents' place Christmas morning to open presents and her mom made enchiladas for lunch/dinner. Afterwards we mostly just lounged around watching TV and talking, and watched the latest Harry Potter movie.

The enchiladas were delicious, as was the home-made pumpkin pie for desert. And we got a lot of awesome gifts, including a brand new digital camera, which we were super-happy about. All of the ones we've had previously have been hand-me-downs from other people which, while appreciated, haven't been very reliable.

Otherwise, we got several DVDs (including Star Trek!), books, clothes, art supplies, giftcards and a few other random things. Also, Jenny got me an MP3 player, which I wanted but really wasn't expecting. :)

We unfortunately didn't get any Christmas cards mailed out this year, but really appreciate getting the cards we did receive from friends and family. We'll hopefully be a little bit more ahead of schedule next year and get them sent out on time.

Week in Review

2009-12-20T23:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't been keeping up with the ol' blog recently, so here's a few highlights to catch up for the week....

Monday - I spent the day hanging out with my buddies Levi and Jay, working on our super-secret comic book project. Much work was accomplished.

Tuesday - Jenny and I had a great time at the company Christmas party thrown by the law firm she works for. Delicious (catered) food, good company and we ended up at the Post Street Ale House for drinks afterward.

Wednesday - We were planning to go to the movies with some friends, but that fell through and we just went out to eat and did some shopping.

Thursday - I happened to catch a great holiday deal that Dreamhost was running, and set up a web hosting account with them (regularly $120/yr) for less than 10 bucks. I was already planning on setting up a website and a place to host some webcomics, so that will work out well... For now I've moved my personal blog/site over and registered a new domain name, which is here: www.peterfoglesong.com

Friday - Jenny's Library Crafty Club had their monthly meeting. This time it was a fun white elephant gift exchange, with some great Italian food.

Saturday - We rescheduled our movie night, and went to a local indie theatre (The Magic Lantern) to see Boondock Saints 2 (which was, of course, awesome) and then went out to dinner afterward with some friends.

Sunday - Today was our monthly Comicsmiths' Guild meeting, which this time was a chili feed at Jay's house. Good turnout, great food and a whole lot of fun!

All together, this has been a pretty great week! I didn't get anywhere near the amount of work done as I was hoping to, but we did have some fun times with friends and were still somewhat productive. We've still got some last minute Christmas shopping left to do, so that's on the immediate agenda for the start of this coming week. Hopefully everybody out there is having a great holiday season and is staying relatively stress free.

Sketch Cards for Cancer!

2009-12-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

Blue Line Pro has recently announced it's 3rd annual Sketchcard Benefit Auction!

The concept is pretty simple: Blue Line Pro provides blank sketchcards to artists, who then fill them up with awesome art and send them back. On April 3rd, 2010, they will then auction the cards off, with all proceeds going to help the American Cancer Society.

They're always looking for more artists, of any and all levels of skill and experience, to participate. In addition, they of course need people who want to bid on the art, so please spread the word to anyone who might want to pick up some reasonably priced original artwork while also helping out a really great cause!

For more information, or if you're an artist interested in participating, please check out these two web pages for details and contact info:

Comics For Cures

Comics Mentor

Local Arts & Crafts

The next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is this upcoming Sunday, the 20th, at 3 pm. This meeting will be at one of the member's homes, NOT Merlyns, so please leave a comment here or by e-mail for more information and directions.

The next meeting of the Spokane County Library Crafty Club is this Friday, the 18th at 7 pm, at the Spokane Valley Branch.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T00:03:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving! Jenny and I will be spending the day at her parents' house with her family, and then probably head back to Coeur d'Alene on Friday for the big Festival of Lights downtown on the lake front. Should be fun.

We've got a bit of a jump on the holidays and have already put up our Christmas tree and decorations (what few we have), and have Christmas music on rotation. The snow's not really sticking yet, but I've got no worries about it being a White Christmas (hopefully not quite as bad as last winter, though).

Arts & Crafts

2009-11-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

Just a note for any Spokane locals who might be reading:

The next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is this coming Sunday the 15th, at Merlyns, starting at 3 pm. Anyone is welcome, and we're always looking to meet other local artists, writers and creators.

Also, the Spokane County Library Crafty Club is tomorrow, Friday the 13th, at the Moran Prairie branch, starting at 7 pm.

Feel free to leave a comment if you would like additional information about either event.

Sick Days

2009-10-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

Jenny's been knocked out with something the past couple of days - we think it's probably the flu, but doubt if it's of the swine variety. She called out sick to work Sunday and Monday, but she is starting to feel better and will probably be going back to work tomorrow. I've been doing my best to take care of her while she recovers, although I've caught myself coughing a little bit and my head's hurt off and on, so there's still a chance I'll get whatever she had as well. Great.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, our local artist/writer group. We had a good turnout, and made some headway on a lot of group organizational type stuff. The main thing is that we will definitely have a presence at the Emerald City ComiCon next year in Seattle. We're still ironing out the details, but I'll post up some specifics as soon as I've got any. Should be fun.

Wednesday Stuff

2009-10-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

Jenny has a mandatory library "Staff Day" on Friday (her usual day off), so she took today off from the law firm, which worked out well. We both had haircut appointments this morning, and then headed over to The Comic Book Shop to buy some comics.

We actually didn't get this week's comics, as we got to the shop before they officially opened and they were still sorting through the new books out today. But we left our subscriptions pile up for almost 2 months, so we had quite the sizable stack waiting for us. Maybe we should get back into the habit of actually picking up our comics each week again....

After some time at The Comic Book Shop, it was off to lunch, and then some much needed grocery shopping. Then back to the apartment so we could meet with the office and sign our new lease. We're locked in for another full year - so we've got 12 months to get some more income coming in and find a better place to live, so we don't have to stay here any more.

We eventually got a hold of our friend Jamie, picked him up, grabbed some dinner, and came back here to watch a couple of movies. We saw Meet the Robinsons, which was hilarious and highly recommended; and Illegal, a classic Edward G. Robinson courtroom drama, which was also quite good!

What's Happening...

2009-10-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jenny's father's birthday, and we spent most of the day over in Coeur d'Alene with her parents. We went to see the Surrogates with him - which was a pretty awesome sci-fi flick (based on an equally cool indy comic). Glad we got to see it in the theatre, though I think it could've been a bit longer.

Then after the movie the four of us went out for Thai food at the local Thai Bamboo (which was, of course, delicious), and then caught up on a bunch of recorded TV from the past week. A very fun and relaxing day!

The library is doing sort of an "employee exchange" program, where they're moving some people to different branches so they can see how things might be run differently and meet other co-workers. So now Jenny is working up at the North Spokane branch once a month. Her first day was this last Thursday, and she really enjoyed it, although it does mean a much longer commute (like 45 minutes instead of 15).

Otherwise things are going OK. Jenny had her year review at the library, which went well and got her a raise (yay!). The temperature is dropping, and even dipping to freezing occasionally, but the apartment seems to be holding the heat pretty well. Maybe those new energy-efficient windows they installed actually work.

I've been working on some commissions and tinkering with one of my comic ideas. Doing the 24 Hour Comic Challenge has definitely been an inspiration to get back to work on it - hopefully I'll have more concrete news on that relatively soon...

Jenny's been working on a bunch of cool crocheting projects, which we really need to take some pictures of and post up. It would probably help if we had a decent digital camera, since right now we have 3 old ones that all only work about half the time.

Local Arts & Crafts People: The next Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is on Sunday the 18th at Merlyns, from 3-6 pm. The next Crafty Club meeting is on Friday the 23rd at the Spokane Valley Library and starts at 7 pm. Feel free to leave a comment if you're interested in more information.

24 Hour Comic Book Day

2009-10-06T02:04:00.000-07:00

...was Awesome!

The 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge was held this last Saturday, October 3rd, simultaneously testing artists around the world as they attempted to create a 24 page comic, from scratch, within the span of 24 hours. I made it to 17 pages, which I'm quite happy with - hopefully next year I'll make it all the way to 24!

We had a great turnout at our local venue (Spokane's Merlyns), with lots of prizes, goodies and food donated by local businesses, raffles, and even a coloring contest for kids. There were a lot of participants who showed up for a few hours and had to leave, but I was one of the few die-hards who stayed for the whole 24 hours (in our case the official time was 10:30 am Saturday to 10:30 am Sunday).

The whole experience was a ton of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year. We've also got our next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild coming up on Sunday the 18th. The meeting will be at Merlyns and runs from 3-6pm. All artists and writers are welcome!

I've posted my comic up at my deviantArt page, here: My 24 Hour Comic!

And I also drew up 4 Star Wars pictures for the kids coloring contest, which you can see here: Star Wars Coloring Pics!

I Want....

2009-09-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

The Microsoft "Courier" Tablet Concept

I'm a fairly OCD person when it comes to organizing, and make lists for everything to help me remember what I'm supposed to be doing most days. Because of this, I've taken to having a little Moleskine notebook with me everywhere I go. I use it as a day-planner/calendar and also jot down notes to myself so I don't forget ideas I have.

I'm also (not surprisingly) a very visual-based person. I like making sketches, drawing out ideas, and I've often wanted a more intuitive system for digitally combining my notes, sketches and ideas into a cohesive, yet easily manipulated whole.

So when I saw the pictures and video showing the concept for the new Courier from Microsoft I was seriously geeking out. I even had an idea for something similar to this a few months ago - I then heard about Apple's rumoured tablet which sounded close to what I wanted, but wasn't quite.... and then I saw this on Gizmodo the other day.

It's obviously just in the concept stage right now, and I have no idea if/when it's released whether it will live up to my expectations. Ideally I'd like to be able to use it for sketching, finished artwork and writing, but there's no word yet on hardware specs or what software it will use, so for now I just have to wait and see. But it's definitely got my hopes up, and I'm still geeking out about it, so I'd thought I'd share... :)

Trying to Blog More Often....

2009-09-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing too crazy going on at the moment, although I did apply for a job today (Monday) that I think I've got a decent shot at. I actually applied and interviewed for the same job a few months ago, and was in the running for it, but apparently it's open again so I figured I should go for it. It's part-time at the library, and seems perfect for me, so I've got my fingers crossed.

Jenny was feeling sick today, and her throat was really sore, so she called out for both of her jobs to rest up. I stayed up really late last night getting my application ready, and then went to turn it in first thing this morning, so I was pretty exhausted too, so we both spent a good chunk of the day asleep. Exciting, I know. ;)

Yesterday was our monthly artist meeting, and this time it was a BBQ hosted by one of the members (Erik Thompson, who doesn't have a website yet, or I'd link to it because he's an awesome artist). The BBQ was a ton of fun with a lot of great food, and we ended up staying there pretty late (hence me not getting started on my application till even later).

Our group was also out at the Spokane Main Street Fair last weekend. We've got a couple of photos of us up over at our blog: Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild Blog!

The next big event for the Guild is the annual 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge, which is on October 3rd. Last year's challenge was actually what got us all together in the first place and sparked the formation of our group. Hopefully we'll end up with even more members, since we're expecting our biggest turn-out yet this year.

Otherwise, things have been going all right. The weather has been pleasant, not too hot and occasionally rainy. Us both being sick off and on is annoying, of course, but we've still been keeping busy with art & crafts stuff.

Plus the Fall TV season is starting, so we're getting all of our favorite shows back, plus a couple of potentially good new ones. Maybe I'll use an entry to just run through all the shows we're watching now, which is probably too many. But at least we don't have cable or we'd most likely be glued to the couch...

Comicsmiths at the Spokane Street Fair!

2009-09-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned in other blogs about our local artist/writer group, which we've named the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild. We now have a blog set up for the guild, as well as a deviantArt page and Facebook group, so everyone can keep up with what's happening with the group and it's members. They're new, and very much works-in-progress, but it's a start, as we had several people asking if we had a website for the group at our last event. Here's the sites:

Comicsmiths' Guild

deviantArt Page

Facebook Group

Members of the Comicsmiths' Guild will be at Merlyns tomorrow (Saturday the 12th) after 3pm as part of the Sustainable September Main Street Fair!

We'll be drawing free sketches for kids between 4-6 and taking sketch commissions for others. There should also be a variety of prints and original artwork for sale as well. If you're a Spokane local, swing by and say Hi, meet the Guild and pick up some art!

In addition to the Guild, Merlyns will also be host to local members of the 501st Legion from 2-4pm. Get photos of yourself with stormtroopers and more of the Galactic Empire's finest!

The Street Fair will also feature live music, entertainment, sustainabilty info, kids activities, bike tune-ups, food and fun! In the street - 0 block of West Main, 3-8pm.

Also, I'm still sick, or maybe sick again, I'm not sure. I had what I think was a sinus infection about a month ago, before I got my wisdom teeth out. I think I shook that, but now I've got some cold-type thing. I've been a wreck the past couple of days, sleeping for 1/2 the day, wiped out with no energy, head stuffy, runny nose and sneezing, and my throat's been really rough and scratchy. Fun.

So it's been a lot of rest and juice and soup, and not much getting the things done that I need/want to do. The sooner I'm over this the better....

What's Happening....

2009-09-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

...around the house:

I finally got my last 2 wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. It was long overdue, and I'm glad they're gone. Of course, that side of my face is totally sore right now, and I'm sticking to a semi-liquid diet for a couple more days. Lots of instant breakfast, ice cream and pudding, which means it's more of a chocolate diet, but I'm not complaining about that. Oh, and we made brownies last night too! :)

We got our notice from the apartment office yesterday that our lease was coming due in the next month. Seems like we just signed the last one.... Well, as much as we'd still like to find a new place to live (as we have for the last couple of years), it's still not really an option with our lack of funds. So we'll probably be signing another year lease, and hopefully our options will look better this time next year.

Oh, and I have been relatively successful getting myself back to a semi-normal sleep schedule. Having to get up for my dentist appointment at 7 am certainly helped, as does currently having to take pain medication to sleep which pretty much knocks me out every night. So I'm back to going to bed around 12-1 am, which is a lot better than the 4-5 am I'd been averaging...

And last, but certainly not least - a few of us artists from the local Spokane Comicsmiths Guild will be headed over to Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene again this Saturday. They're having a big Labor day sale this weekend, and we'll be there doing sketches for customers between Noon and 3. Should be fun!

Local Comics & Games News

2009-08-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild. It was a good time, and fairly productive, with some brainstorming done regarding the upcoming 24 Hour Comic Book Day event and discussion of various projects. Not sure on the exact date of the next SCG meeting - we're going to try to meet more often, so the next meeting may not be at Merlyns or on a Sunday.

The Marvel Birthday event we sketched at did make it into the Coeur d'Alene paper, and one member, my friend Matt Nelson, got his picture and name featured on the front page! That was, of course, incredibly cool, but unfortunately there wasn't any actual mention of the SCG group. Here's the full article: The Coeur d'Alene Press

I've been thinking about working on painting miniatures again - I haven't touched any minis or paints in months, but I've been looking through my gaming books and thinking about working on an army again. I'm sure hanging out at Merlyns and being surrounded by games and gamers probably has something to do with it as well.

Not sure when I'll get back into it, but I have been looking at gaming websites for the first time in ages, trying to catch up on new releases. In my internet browsing I also discovered that Gamer's Haven, the awesome game store in Idaho that tragically burned to the ground, is going to re-open in October! The store was originally in Coeur d'Alene (I even briefly worked there), and the new location will be in neighboring Post Falls (in the Outlet Mall along I-90). The new shop is scheduled to open October 1st, and I'm sure I'll swing by and check it out. :)

In other news, I think I might be coming down with something. My head's hurt pretty much all day (slightly less after some DayQuil and Aspirin), and I've just felt cruddy, like I have no energy. Hopefully I'll shake whatever it is quick, 'cause it's annoying...

Happy Birthday to the House of Ideas!

2009-08-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was the big Marvel Comics 70th Birthday Bash, with comic shops across the country celebrating with store events. A few artists from our local Spokane Comicsmiths Guild were at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID for the event, drawing free sketches of Marvel characters for customers.

There was also raffles and giveaways of exclusive comics, a giant birthday cake, and Spiderman and Captain America showed up as well. :)

The whole thing was a lot of fun. My friends and I were there from 6-10 and were drawing pretty much the whole time. Unfortunately, I only got photos of a few of my sketches (there was a Shadowcat I was really happy with - wish I'd got a shot of that). I posted the few that I did get over on my My deviantArt Page and one of those is posted below.

Participating were myself and:

Today is Pleasant

2009-08-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

In fact, it's the first time in weeks that we've had both the A/C and the fan turned off and it's still comfortable. We had an awesome thunder shower last night that dumped buckets of rain, and there's actually a nice breeze today. Very pleasant, indeed.

Saw on-line that Fairbanks finally got some much needed rain as well. Hopefully it'll keep up and help squelch all the smoke they've had to deal with from the fires up there. Of course, the timing of the rain is not too surprising for those of us who are from Fairbanks, as the fair starts today... ;)

Speaking of the fair, our friend Tigger (aka AlX Hurlbut) has a booth this year and will be selling prints of her photography. Any locals who are going, be sure to stop by and check out her photos & say Hi (and buy something!).

Also, this will be my friend Ellen's (of Ellen Million Graphics) last year selling at the fair. She's closing down the Gift Shop portion of her website, and expanding her business in other directions. So drop by her booth as well, to find out what's happening in the wide world of EMG and grab some of the cool Gift Shop merchandise that might be gone soon!

Today was Too Short

2009-08-04T22:48:00.001-07:00

Or rather, yesterday was too long...

I've been stuck on this sleep schedule for a while now, since I haven't had a day job, where I stay up till 4 or 5 am and sleep till noon or 1pm every day. I've been wanting to break myself of it, so last night, since I was drawing and still awake, I just decided to stay up. I thought maybe I'd just stay up all today, go to bed at a decent hour tonight and get up nice and early tomorrow.

But it didn't work. Unfortunately, I just can't do the stay-up-for-36-hours-straight thing anymore. So I fell asleep this morning and slept for a bit, woke up this afternoon, and was kind of a wreck for the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll still get a good night's sleep tonight and everything will work itself out.

We've got haircut appointments tomorrow at 9am, so I'll have to wake up early anyway.

Today was a Good Start to the Week

2009-08-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Took care of some much needed chores: laundry, dishes, some cleaning, and bill paying. Got started on another commission and brainstormed some other ideas. I think this week will be a bit more productive than some recent ones...

We always have problems with wasps making nests in the eaves of the apartment building - I had the maintenance people come by earlier in the summer and take some of the super bug spray to the one's by our windows. But now we've got a giant nest in the stairwell outside our apartment. I put in a work order for them to do something about it - hopefully they've got a tall ladder.

Oh, and a while back I had posted a few of those daily Avengers sketches I was doing. Well, I finished my A to Z list. They're all up on my deviantArt page (http://piotrov.deviantart.com), and just for fun I stuck them all together in one big image. You can click on the image for a bigger version:

Today was Relaxing

2009-08-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

Relaxing, though mostly unproductive.

I slept in and did a bit of work on the computer, and Jenny worked at the library as usual. We spent the evening over at her parents' place catching up on all the cable TV shows we missed from the past week and eating Mexican food. So yeah, nothing much exciting, but it is a pretty typical lazy Sunday for us.

We have started going on walks every night, in a very slow attempt to get back to being more active. As long as we go later, say after 10, the temperature's actually fairly comfortable. We really need to get in shape, so it's a start...

Today was Hot

2009-08-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

It's been unseasonably hot up here in the Pacific Northwest, with the Seattle area already hitting record breaking temperatures. It's been in the steady 90's over on our side of the state, which is still hotter than normal, but today was rediculous. According to Google it hit 104 and I know the one time I looked at the thermometer outside the apartment it said it was 100 here.

Needless to say, we're hiding inside as much as possible. The A/C is on and our fridge is stocked with lots of iced tea and cold beer. We had a delicious grilled chicken salad for dinner tonight, and are trying to keep from cooking or eating anything hot, although we did turn on the oven to bake cookies. Of course, it was worth it. :)

Otherwise, I spent the day working on commissions and will probably be up late tonight writing, hopefully getting some more of the plot of my superhero comic figured out. The plan is to start serializing it as a webcomic, and eventually collect it in print. I'm still not sure when I'll actually get it on-line (since I'm still writing and haven't started drawing it yet), but I'd like to have the first collection ready by next March to sell at the Emerald City Comic-Con. Something to shoot for, at least...

Con-Current

2009-07-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

This week is the big Comic-Con down in San Diego; from what I hear it gets crazier and less about comics each year, but I'd still love to get to see it eventually. Maybe Jenny and I can make it there for an anniversary or something. We still haven't taken a real honeymoon, so that's always a possibility. :)

I do know a few people who will be at the Con, including local artist/writer Lars Brown, who's the creator of Northworld and is a member of our Spokane Comicsmiths Guild group. Apparently he'll be splitting his time between the Image and Oni Press booths, so if you're at SDCC take some time to swing by, say hi, and pick up one of his books!

Possibly the coolest event at SDCC is one not listed on the website - for the first time, two comic artists will actually be getting married at the convention on Sunday! Renae De Liz and Ray Dillon met in person at SDCC five years ago and decided to tie the knot at the same place. The two initially met through the Digital Webbing comics community - a website I probably spend entirely too much time on, but through which I've met some really great people.

Also, my photographer friend Tigger (aka AlX) will have a booth at the 100 Years of Motorcycles festival at the Spokane Fairgrounds this weekend, where she'll be selling her prints. Jenny and I have been helping her get ready and matting her prints the past few days. Any locals who are going to the be at the show, be sure to check out her photos (and buy something!).

Happy Anniversary!

2009-07-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 2 year wedding anniversary for Jenny and I, and also marked 6 years since we started dating! Jenny took the day off from work and we slept in for most of the morning.

We'd originally planned on going out for dinner, walking around downtown and seeing the new Harry Potter, but it was back to being stupidly hot again, and neither of us really wanted to go outside. So we cranked up the A/C, cooked a nice big dinner and watched a movie we hadn't seen yet. Not too exciting, but much cooler, more relaxing, and a lot cheaper than going out...

The movie we watched was Defiance, which I'd highly recommend. Set during World War II, it's based on a fascinating true story about Jewish brothers who end up becoming resistance fighters. They protect other Jews from the Nazis and build a secret community for refugees in the forest.

This Sunday is the monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, 3pm at Merlyns. Friday the 31st is the next Crafty Club, which Jenny organizes through the Spokane County Library. Any locals who are interested in either group, please leave a comment and we can provide more information!

A Few Things...

2009-07-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

...since I haven't blogged in a while:

The 4th of July was good - we just headed over to Jenny's folks' place and relaxed and had lots of barbeque. Jenny also went to a beading exhibit at the fairgrounds with her mom, and picked up a bunch of cool stuff she can use in her jewelry making. We didn't stick around for the fireworks spectacular, since we got stuck in the traffic trying to get out of CdA last year and didn't want a repeat experience. Instead we got out early and still heard plenty of illegal fireworks going off around here.

It's cooled off a bit over the past few days, and even rained some. We were over in CdA on Sunday and got to see an awesome lightning storm, but all we got here was a tiny bit of thunder off in the distance.

There's still some cold/flu type bug going around, and we think Jenny brought it home from work and gave it to me. I'm sure it's nothing major, but it's still annoying. The heat saps enough energy from me as it is, and this certainly doesn't help.

Jenny's taking the day off from work this Wednesday, as it's our 2 year wedding anniversary. We don't have anything big planned, although we're thinking of walking around downtown and going to Riverfront Park. The new Harry Potter film also comes out that day, so we'll be seeing that if nothing else. :)

I've been attempting to write more than draw lately, as I want to get to work on these 2 different comic ideas I've got and figure it'd help to actually have a story to draw before I dive in.

For the past couple of weeks I have been doing daily sketches of The Avengers and posting them on my deviantArt page. I started with Ant-Man and am working my way through the alphabet, drawing one character per letter. Here's the first 9, and the rest can be seen here: http://piotrov.deviantart.com

Weekend Update + Comic Stuff

2009-06-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

Things have been going well enough, if not particularly exciting. But then, I guess that's nothing to complain about.

Jenny had her dentist appointment on Friday; she hadn't gone quite as long as I since her last check up, but it'd still been about 10 years. But she had nothing to worry about, as her teeth were in fine shape - no cavities or problems.

It's back to feeling like summer, with temperatures in the 80's and up to 90. Looks like more of the same this week, so I'm thinking we'll be breaking down soon and turning on the A/C. Which means higher electric bills. Yay.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, the group of local artists and writers that was formed after last year's 24 Hour Comicbook Day. We've begun planning for the next 24HCBD, which this year falls on October 3rd and will again be hosted by local shop Merlyns. We also discussed some other possible plans for this coming year which unfortunately are only in the discussion stage, so I won't go into details yet.

And, of course, we also sat around and drew. I began sketching out designs for another character in my Fight City superhero comic - a super-genius crime boss known as "Brains" McBannon. I think these are the closest so far to what I want:

Weekend Update

2009-06-22T00:35:00.001-07:00

I think I've ingested enough cake to last me for a while...

Jenny had her Crafty Club Friday evening, and since Sunday was her birthday, one of the people brought a cake, which she had leftovers to take home. Then on Saturday we went over to Tigger and Lincoln's for a barbeque and birthday celebration for Jenny & I and Lincoln's daughter Elizabeth. There was more cake there, and since Elizabeth was turning 15, the house was quite a madhouse of sugar-crazed teenagers. But the food was good and it was still a lot of fun, even while dodging crazy kids.

Sunday we headed over to CdA and Jenny's mom had made a cake for us as well. They also surprised us with presents and took us out for Mexican for dinner. All in all, a good (and fattening) weekend!

Weather's been pretty nice (in our opinion) the past couple of days, which means grey, cool and wet. We even got quite the show the other night from the lightning storm that rolled in. Hopefully we won't have as dry of summer as last year - no need for more wildfires.

Cleaning up the Blog

2009-06-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about streamlining the design for this blog for a while, to make it easier to both read and update, so I finally sat down and did so today. The main thing I wanted to do was get rid of the daily Twitter posts. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I quickly realized how annoying it probably was, and decided to shut it off and move the Twitter updates off to the side. My apologies for not doing so sooner.

I'll probably end up tinkering with it a little more, but I mainly want to simplify it as much as possible. Maybe now we'll get back to blogging semi-regularly again...

Quick Weekend Update

2009-06-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Went to the Spokane Comic-Con on Saturday, which was an awesome show and a whole lot of fun. We had planned on getting there when the doors opened, but got off to a slow start and ended up there around Noon, staying till the end.

I'm definately going to have a table there next year, and plan to have at least one of my comics started with some related material to sell. Jenny and I are talking about sharing a table, so she can show off her art as well. Figure that prints of her paintings would sell, and her jewelry should also go over well.

After the Con, we went out to dinner with some friends who were at the show and met a bunch of other cool artist/comic folks as well. All in all, it was a fun day!

I've got a bunch of different projects (mostly art but also writing & other things) to work on right now, so I should have no problem keeping myself busy. Just have to get moving and deal with this heat sapping my energy... I thought I was ready for summer, but I guess not.

Arts & Crafts in Spokane

2009-05-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone who might be in the area this Saturday (May 30) should be sure to check out the 3rd annual Spokane Comic-Con, being held at the Spokane Falls Community College from 10-5.

Jenny normally works on Saturdays, but was able to get the day off, so we plan on spending the whole day there just hanging out and being geeks (next year I hope to have a table there myself...). Several of my friends will be there, however, so be sure to swing by their tables and check out their work. You can find a lot of them on deviantArt:

Ben Hansen
Jesse Acosta
Lars Brown
Levi Skeen
Matt Nelson

More information about the convention can be found here: Spokane Comic-Con

Also this weekend (Friday through Sunday) is Spokane Art-Fest, the annual arts and music fair, sponsored by Spokane's Museum of Arts & Culture. You can find out more about it here: Spokane Art-Fest

And finally, Jenny also has her Crafty Club meeting on Friday, which she organizes through the library (where she works). Needless to say, we plan on being pretty busy this weekend, but it should be a lot of fun!

Blogging Catch Up

2009-05-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged (or even Twittered) in a while, so just wanted to start remedying that:

Jenny and I have both been sick off and on the past few days - sinus stuff and head aches, but thankfully no real flu. I also did something to my back last week which I'm still slowly working out. Probably wouldn't have seemed as bad if I hadn't got sick at the same time.

It seems Summer has arrived. It's been blue skies and sunny, and in the 70s the past few days. Still pleasant and not horribly hot yet. Just a matter of time, though...

I might have some temp work lined up at Borders next month. They're apparently doing a big re-organization of the store and will need some people to do overnight work for a while, moving stuff around, which would be perfect. I'd love to get back on with them, if even part-time, but they haven't had any regular hours to spare. I'm friends with the store manager, though, so if something opens up I'm sure I'll hear about it (which is how the temp job came up).

In the meantime, I've been trying to throw myself into art and also starting to write again. I want to get my superhero comic back on track soon, so I can start it up as a web-comic. I'm also working on a second, completely separate, project which I'm hoping to do something similar with.

We're still way behind on TV shows from this season, with the last few episodes of a few of our favorite shows still taped and waiting to be watched. We have been watching a lot more movies than normal, as Jenny's dad has been taking us out to see some of the big summer blockbusters he also wants to see. Besides Wolverine and Star Trek, we saw Angels & Demons last wednesday and are looking forward to the new Terminator movie this week. I wasn't really impressed by The Da Vinci Code, and mainly just wanted to see Angels & Demons for all the art and architecture that's shown, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was incredibly rediculous, but entertaining.

Also, both of our birthdays are coming up relatively soon, although we don't really have any plans or ideas for what to do. Probably nothing too exciting, due to lack of money, but I'm sure there will be cake involved. :)

Wolverine Re-Design

2009-05-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

Here's my entry for the current contest running over at Project: Rooftop. This one was to design a new costume for Wolverine, to go along with the release of his recent movie.

I tried to make a somewhat "realistic" outfit for him, inspired somewhat by the X-Men movie costumes and those designed by Frank Quitely during his and Grant Morrison's run on the New X-Men comic.

This was actually the second design I came up with. My first attempt can be seen over at my deviantArt page: Discarded Wolverine Design

Speaking of Wolverine, I did see his new movie last week and it was... OK. Not great, but still entertaining. Some good action scenes, with a couple of CGI bits that could have been improved. But I did like it more than the last X-Men movie, so I guess that's something.

We also saw the new Star Trek, and it was excellent! JJ Abrams did a great job of re-starting the series for a new generation, while not erasing or stepping on any of the stories that came before. Well worth seeing in the theatre - I hope the inevitable sequels will be just as good.

Hot Water

2009-05-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

They replaced our hot water heater yesterday, even though we got a new one last March and it worked fine. But that must not have been recorded, and the powers-that-be had already decided we were up for a new one. I tried to dissuade them, to save everyone the hassle, but they went ahead anyway.

On the brightside, it didn't take them near as long to replace it this time (last one they were here nearly all day for some reason). Maybe this guy just knew what he was doing. He said that the old one was going to Habitat for Humanity, so at least it's hopefully going to someone who needs it.

However... there were two guys who showed up first to drain the old one, and Jenny said she heard one of them complaining that he hated working when people were actually home. So they hooked up the hose to the old heater, ran the hose down the stairs outside, and left it to drain while they went to eat lunch. Oh, and the front door was propped open by the hose!

So our thought was - would they have done the same if we hadn't been home? Just left our front door open and walked away? I doubt they would've hung out and waited for it to drain. Thankfully a different guy came back to do the actual work, who seemed a lot nicer and way more competent.

Also, my wisdom tooth above the one I had removed has been hurting really bad over the past week or so, and needs to come out. My appointment's on Friday. Yay.

Wolverine Sketches

2009-05-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

To try to make it fair for the kids receiving sketches on Free Comic Book Day, we decided beforehand to have a standardized size and use 6" x 6" bristol pages for all of them. So, as practice I've been doing warm-ups in my sketchbook for the past week or so at the same size and trying to speed up my drawing while keeping things simple.

Here's a few Wolverines, all done in about 10 minutes each or so, with blue pencil and Sharpies. I only ended up drawing one Wolverine on FCBD. But honestly, before this, I really hated drawing him (which should be apparent from the awkwardness of a couple of the sketches). So at least I got some practice.

It's good practice, and I'll probably try to keep at it, as well as scan some more of the warm-ups later....

Free Comic Book Day!

2009-05-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

So as I'd mentioned (more than once), myself and a few other local artists were hanging out at local comic book store Merlyns today, drawing sketches for kids as part of Free Comic Book Day. Though we'd initially intended "kids" to refer to those 10 or younger, we drew pics for basically anyone who asked, which also included quite a few parents and other adults....

And it was a success! A lot more people showed up than I think any of us imagined, and we did a whole lot of drawing. I lost track of time, but I'd say there was an hour or more where we were basically swamped by kids asking for pics. Crazy but very cool.

We were expecting kids to want drawings of superheroes, but it turned out that Star Wars was the all-around favorite, with the video game Halo also making a surprisingly strong showing. I drew at least 7 Star Wars pics myself (that I can remember), and 2 Master Chiefs (from Halo). We did have several superheroes, with some other random requests mixed in as well.

I do have to say though, my absolute favorite request turned out to be the last drawing I did. After a lot of Clone Troopers and Jedi, I really wasn't expecting any surprises. But then a young lad came up with his mom and said he wanted a drawing of Fin Fang Foom! He knew who he was (I'm still not sure how), and I had to oblige such an awesome and unique request. It took me some searching to find a reference pic, but it really made my day. It was also the only one I did in color, and I really wish I'd got a photo of it....

In addition to us, there were a few people there in Star Wars costumes so people could get pictures taken with them (and which might have subconsciously influenced the requested subject choices somewhat...). They were also making the rounds to the different comic stores around the area over the course of the day.

There are 2 major comic stores in town, Merlyns and The Comic Book Shop, the latter actually having 3 different location. In addition, there's another shop, Lightning Comics, just across the border in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. All of the shops participated in FCBD, as did the CdA libraries, and in addition Lightning Comics scored a coup by having writer Chris Claremont in the store signing comics!

John, the owner of Merlyns, seemed pleased with how we did, and was talking about having the group come in more often for similar events. We were able to spread the word about the local artist group and 24 Hour Comic Book Day, and hopefully helped to inspire some kids to keep or start drawing. All in all, it was a heck of a lot of fun!

In addition to myself, the following artists participated. We've all got pages on deviantArt, so take a minute and click on over to check out samples of their work!

Jesse Acosta

Lars Brown

Levi Skeen

Matt Nelson

Mike Lail

Odds & Ends and even some Art

2009-04-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

A few miscellaneous things that I haven't really blogged/twittered about. Just trying to catch up....

Our local bank is Washington Mutual, which is of course now becoming Chase. Not particularly pleased about that, but we don't do much banking anyway, so it's probably nothing to worry about. I am glad that Jenny and I both hung on to our credit union accounts in Alaska when we moved...
I'd mentioned the wasps coming back - I did get the maintenance people over here to spray bug killer and knock down their hives, and it seemed to have done the job. There's still a few around, but they're not swarming directly outside our windows anymore. It got really bad last year, with wasps regularly getting into the house, even after we got the new windows installed.
Avista is our local electric utility provider, and they've already been catching a lot of flack recently for raising their already high rates in the face of the current economic conditions. We normally pay our bill on-line, but when we logged on last week we found they'd switched to a new 3rd party company to handle their billing transactions. With this comes the new requirement that we give them our bank account information - even though we're paying with a credit card. We said no, and sent them a check. Just rediculous...
We hadn't been watching Chuck, although we had caught bits and pieces of it (since it's on right before Heroes). Jenny decided to start watching it on-line, since about half the series is available, and now we're both huge fans. The show's hilarious, with a lot of geeky in-jokes, and has got some awesome guest stars. Luckily we got caught up in time for tonight's episode, which is the season finale. Unfortunately, it's not certain whether it'll be around next year. Just our luck that we'd get hooked on a show right before it get's cancelled... :)

Also, the AFL tournament I was participating in is over, with Gene Kelly being the champion this time around. For his final entry, instead of just an illustration or comic page, Gene actually made a 2 person flash video game pitting his character against his opponent's! It's really impressive, and can be seen here: AFL 3 - Final Battle

I drew up this pic of his character Rocket, as a congratulations for his well deserved win:

Weekend Wrap-Up

2009-04-20T03:57:00.000-07:00

Today was our monthly local artist meet-up; not a huge turn out, but quite a few people had other understandably pressing matters that kept them away. Still, we all produced some art, discussed some new projects we had started working on, and squared away our plans for Free Comic Book Day.

For any who are going to be in Spokane on May 2nd - a few of us will be at Merlyn's from 11-3 (the store opens at 10 am) doing free sketches for any kids 10 and under. Even if you're not a kid, please swing by and pick up some free comics and check out everything else the shop has to offer.

Also, the 3rd annual Spokane Comic-Con is rapidly approaching. This year it will be at the Spokane Falls Community College on May 30th from 10-5. Jenny was actually able to get the time requested off from work, and we'll both be there, but only as fans, hanging out and having geeky fun. I'm planning on getting a table next year, as I'll (hopefully) have something to showcase. Guess we'll just see what I can get done between now and then...

Otherwise, the weekend was good, and mostly relaxing. We were supposed to hang out with our friend Jamie on Friday, but it was his mom's birthday. So maybe we'll see him later this week. We ended up going over to CdA to take the car in for an oil change, and going out to lunch with Jenny's parents, so everything worked out OK anyway.

I've been sketching some, but mostly just doing research and some writing for a new project, and I really need to get some actual artwork done this week. I got knocked out of the AFL competition over on deviantArt, but I haven't actually finished my last entry. I need to do that, and I also wanted to do some fan-art for a few characters that I didn't get to face. The un-ending hunt for a day-job continues as well.

Also, I wanted to wish "Happy Birthday!" to our good friends Alex (on the 19th) and Shannon (on the 20th)!

Hey Kids, Comics!

2009-04-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

Every year, Spokane hosts the Get Lit! literature festival, which usually includes lots of writing workshops and speakings by authors. This year they also branched out into graphic novels, with a panel on comics and comic creation. Manny Trembley and Eric Anderson, the two local creators of Panda Xpress and Sam Noir, both published by Image Comics, hosted an hour long discussion about the comic industry.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fairly large turn out and, considering comic books' reputation for having a predominantly young adult male readership, it was encouraging to see that more than half of those that showed up for the panel were female, of all ages. There were a few teachers present as well, who were interested in using comics in their classrooms, which was also nice to see.

The discussion was really interesting, and I learned quite a bit, especially about the publishing aspect. It was also great to meet and talk with Manny and Eric after the panel.

The monthly Spokane Comic Artists Meet-Up (S.C.A.M. ? Hm, maybe not the best acronym... ) is tomorrow at local comic & game shop Merlyns at 3 pm. It's not anything especially organized, mostly just an excuse for artists and writers to get out of the house and get together and chat about comics or whatever, but it's been a great opportunity to meet some fellow local creators and comic fans.

One thing we do have planned is for the upcoming annual Free Comic Book Day. FCBD is a great opportunity to introduce comics to new readers, and especially to get kids interested, so a few of us will be hanging out at Merlyns and drawing sketches for kids 10 and under for free. Should be fun. :)

Weekend Update

2009-04-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

For some reason Loudtwitter didn't forward my Twitter updates for Saturday to the blog this morning like it was supposed to.... Not sure why; I checked and everything seems to be set up correctly, and it worked yesterday. Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

EDIT - Nope, didn't work. Hmm....

Anyway, weekend was good. We were supposed to hang out with our friend Jamie on Friday, since it was Jenny's day off, but he ended up having to spend most of the day running his mom around on errands, so we postponed until next Friday.

Instead, I did chores - cleaning, balancing the checkbook, dishes, laundry and stuff. And Jenny got out her paintings and worked on them some. I also attempted to finally fix our reception problem in the den, but to no avail. I found we had a super-long coaxial cable that I hooked up and was able to move the antennae all over the place in the apartment and the reception never got any better.

What seemed wierdest to me was that I was able to stretch the antennae all the way into the studio where the other TV (which gets all the channels) is. The antennae was in the exact same spot in the studio where it normally picks up stations fine, but when it was hooked up to the TV in the other room, it couldn't. Just made no sense.... Maybe we will have to make that coat hanger super-antennae after all. :)

Jenny's bosses at the law-firm were getting rid of some old computer equipment, so she came home the other day with a desktop (without a hard drive) and two flatscreen monitors. The PC went to her dad, as he's part of a computer club in CdA that refurbishes old computers to give to people in need. One of the monitors definately works, and we'll probably switch it out for the old one we've got now, and the other one may - we just have to get an appropriate power cord adapter for it to find out.

Jenny's dad also gave us their old PC a while back, when he got a new one. It's been sitting in our closet since then since the extra monitor he gave us is about to die, and we really don't have any extra room for it anyway. But now that we'll have another functional monitor (either the 2nd flatscreen or our old one), I'll probably get it up and running. We may actually switch it out for our current PC, as it's still newer/faster than the one we're using now (Jenny's old one). But I'm not looking forward to re-installing everything again, and the fan needs to be adjusted as right now it sounds like an airplane taking off....

And we finally filed our taxes today. We did it online, and should be getting a very small amount back. But we'll take whatever we can get, and are just happy we don't have to pay anything. :)

Connecting, continued...

2009-04-10T16:38:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention before - I set up a blog over on Wordpress as a pseudo-website for myself. The journal portion is just the same as you'd see here or any of my other blogs (for now), but I wanted something I could use as a somewhat organized portfolio as well. Anyway, it's a work-in-progress, but it's here:

The New Site

Also, I got my Twitter feed set up to post to all of my various other pages, so that should (maybe) be more convenient. MySpace, deviantArt and Wordpress all have built in widgets for Twitter, and the entries should show up on Blogger and Livejournal as a single bulk post once a day.

And lastly, we're planning on cleaning out our Flickr account pretty soon here. We initially set it up as a Pro account and uploaded ALL of our wedding pictures for anyone to see and/or save, but it's been a year and a half or so since then and we figure anyone who wanted pictures probably already has them. Also, we let our Pro account expire, so it only shows the last 200 pictures anyway.

So we'll be taking down the vast majority of the wedding pictures and probably editing the remainder of them. Then we'll hopefully start actually posting other photos, as well as art.

Gotta Get Yourself Connected...

2009-04-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Some of Jenny's family have signed up for Facebook, so she signed up, and I went ahead and reactivated my account as well. Much of the problems I had with it initially were actually fixed during their most recent update (which, of course, happened just after I left), so I should be sticking around this time...

I also signed up on LinkedIn - my friend Levi sent me an invite, and I figured it certainly couldn't hurt my chances of finding some work and networking. I haven't done much with it yet, beyond just setting up my profile.

And finally, I went ahead and signed up for Twitter. It was mainly because there were several feeds (mostly pro artists and writers) that I wanted to keep track of anyway, I figured I'd might as well sign up and "follow" them. I also realized that while I keep intending to blog on more of a regular basis, I usually don't want to post an entry if it's just one little blurb - so I wait, and then either don't post at all or post one gigantic entry. Sooo, that's just what Twitter's for, right?

I'm still kicking the tires on Twitter, as well as putting my Facebook page back in order, but here's all the new links (I also updated the link lists on the sidebar to the right):

Updating

2009-04-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

It definately seemed like Spring today - it was in the 60s, the sun was shining, and I opened up some windows to let the fresh air in. Felt great. We've been getting back to taking regular walks in the evening (easing back into some much needed exercise), and the nice weather is a great incentive.

Job hunting continues. Another spot opened up at the library which I applied for, as well as some other jobs I found online. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Other than lacking in money, things are going alright, I guess. Besides job hunting, mostly just trying to work on art inbetween keeping the apartment clean. Can't really complain, considering the state of the economy and how hard it's hit some people.

Oh, and our new neighbors seem OK so far. They're an older couple with a teenage daughter, and they seem fairly normal. Hopefully normal = quiet.

Neighborhood Watch

2009-04-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

I was woke up the other day by someone stomping up the stairs towards our apartment, and my automatic first thought was that it must be the maintenance people and they were about to start hammering on our door for some reason.... however, it was actually our new neighbors moving in!

Apparently they finally found someone to fill that unit after it being empty for the last few months. I went out to check the mail while they were unloading their moving van and introduced myself. They told me their names, but I honestly forgot them as soon as I was back inside (I'm really horrible with names...). I mainly just wanted to let them know that yes, there was someone living next door, and help them put a face to it. Maybe they'll be less likely to be excessively loud and obnoxious if we atleast attempt to be friendly towards them. Guess we'll see.

Well, they probably can't be any worse than our last neighbors. I hope....

Comics for Cure Sketch Card Auction

2009-03-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let anyone and everyone know that the Comics for Cure sketch card auction is now up!

The auction, co-supported by Blue Line, Comics 2 Games and the American Cancer Society is an annual event put together to raise money for the ACS by auctioning off original art in the form of sketch cards.

The cards that I submitted this year can be found here: My Sketch Cards!

And the whole auction can be seen here: All of the Sketch Cards!

This is an awesome way to collect some original art at a reasonable price, while also supporting a great cause. Please help spread the word!

Arts & Crafts

2009-03-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

They just revealed the results from the most recent Project: Rooftop contest (which was to re-design Batman as if former Robin Dick Grayson was to take over for Bruce Wayne), and while I didn't win, I was pleasantly surprised to see my entry had made it into the Runners-Up. This looked to be their most popular contest yet, with a huge amount of impressive entries, so I'm just happy that I was even mentioned. You can see the winners and results here: Project: Rooftop Batman 2.0 Results

I''m still participating in the AngelCrusher's Fighting League art jam/trade over on deviantArt.com, although I did get behind when I was doped up and recovering from my dentist visit. After I was back to semi-normal, I knocked out the 2 entries I was missing and am now mostly caught up. Just have to get the last 2 entries done in the next 5 days before the semi-final round starts. You can check out what I've done over at my deviantArt page: Peter's Gallery on deviantArt

Jenny had her first Crafty Club at the library last Friday, and it was a success, although she's thinking of changing the time so that more people could attend. She did make a necklace for her mother's birthday, which her mom loved. She's actually in the process of modifying it right now so it fits a little better, but here's a scan of it in it's original incarnation:

March 12, 2009

2009-03-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Now that it's been 2 weeks to the day, I guess I can mention something that's been bothering me.

On the 12th, a man jumped off the 6th level of the parking garage across the street from the building one of my jobs is in. Downtown, right before 5pm, when most jobs close for the day. There's a sky bridge network that connects most of the buildings. Apparently, they have very sturdy roofs. No one else was hurt when he landed. But, whether by accident or intention, he landed and stayed directly across the street from one of the big picture windows in the skywalk in the building I work in.

Had I been in the back copy room (my "office"), I would have been almost eye level with the guy before he jumped. Luckily I missed that. And luckily the police and firemen had already mostly covered his body by the time everyone in the office found out about it and were looking out of the windows down to the scene below.

Even taking several shocked looks out the window didn't prepare me for the look out that picture window as we headed to the parking garage to go home.

Just go here and see what I mean. Poor guy...

Well... Time to go to work. I hope nothing exciting happens today.