Catching Up

Sooo... been a while since we've posted here and just wanted to make a quick update with a few things:

• Our New Years was fun. Had some friends over and actually had two "New Years" - one on New Years Eve proper and one the previous weekend due to work schedule conflicts. Good times.

• Then, just post New Years, we had some oh-so-fun issues with the shower leaking and the drain in the basement backing up... Thankfully the owner of the house we're renting got that taken care of relatively quickly. Just not fun while it lasted.

• Around the same time we both got super-sick - first Jenny and then me. There's been a couple of nasty bugs circulating the area, and undoubtedly she picked up what we had from work. Took some time to fully recover, and greatly diminished productivity for a while, but at least we didn't get the actual flu that was also going around...

• The Emerald City ComiCon is very soon (March 1-3) and we'll be headed there for a mini-vacation. We haven't been the last 2 years, and the last time we were there I was tabling in Artist Alley and barely saw the rest of the show. So this time we're looking forward to just being free to be fans and see as much as possible, and also catch up with a lot of people we haven't seen in a long time. While I'm not exhibiting this year, a lot of my friends from this area are - check out the list over on the Comicsmiths' Guild site: CSG at ECCC!

• However we will be exhibiting at the Spokane ComiCon, which this year falls on June 1st (my birthday!). We're splitting an Artist Alley table, so I can show off my art and comic stuff and Jenny can sell her crafty stuff. We've even got some ideas for collaborating on a project, but we'll keep mum on the specifics 'til we're a bit further along with that...

• Recently I did a guest strip for my buddy Matt Nelson's webcomic Catbeard the Pirate, while he was taking a short break after finishing up a long storyline. Catbeard's a great all-ages comic that's a mix of comedy and adventure - it's been going for nearly 2 years now, with one collected book out so far. You can see my contribution here: Catbeard Guest Strip!

• I'm starting to post more on my Tumblr blog, as it's a good place to quickly throw up sketches and works-in-progress along side finished works and other things. I'd recommend following me there for more frequent updates for now: Peter on Tumblr

• This site probably won't see a lot of updating, as it was originally meant more for personal blogging and updates, and a lot of that is covered by things like Facebook and Twitter now. But we'll try to post when anything relevant or important comes up... I'm planning on sprucing up my personal site relatively soon, as well as get a proper site set up for Jenny, but I don't know how quickly that will actually happen...

• And finally, for any local artist types, this coming Saturday (the 23rd) is the first Spokane Drink & Draw of 2013. It'll be at the Saranac Public House downtown, from 6-10, and is an all-ages event. It's being organized by Nathan O'Brien, who runs the Spokane ComiCon, and he's hoping to make them a regular thing. You can RSVP for the event here: Drink & Draw Social Club February Spectacular!

Thanks for visiting our somewhat neglected blog - hopefully we'll have some more to share with you soon!

Halloween Sketching

Just wanted to give a heads up that I'll be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID this Saturday (the 27th). I'll be there from 10:30 to around 2, drawing free sketches for kids as part of their Hallowe'en ComicFest activities.

This is a new event, sponsored by Diamond Comics, that's a bit like Free Comic Book Day. They provide a variety of free mini-comics for shops to give out to kids in the spirit of trick-or-treating, as well as having costume contests and other things happening depending on the location.

I'll be with a few of my Comicsmiths' Guild friends - other local artists and comic creators - so swing by and say Hi if you get a chance. And if you're not local, be sure to check your local shops for participating retailers: Comic Shop Locator

De-Con-structing

This last weekend (Saturday the 19th to be precise) was the Spokane ComiCon, and I was there exhibiting in Artist Alley, sharing a table with my buddy Matt Nelson. This was the third year I was there as an artist, though the first that I was there specifically promoting myself. The previous times I had been at the Comicsmiths' Guild table, representing both myself and the local artist group I'm a part of.

Sharing a table with Matt was a lot of fun, and I thought we were a great team, talking up each others' products to whoever was at the table and getting even more sales. This was also the first time Jenny was able to attend while I was exhibiting, since her schedule changed and she now has weekends free. We all had a lot of fun, and it was great seeing all our friends from out of town who were there for the convention.

This certainly felt like the best year of this Con so far to me. It seemed like there were more people this time, and it was just generally busier. I definitely did a lot better sales-wise than last year, and I think better than the year before. I was mainly selling prints and sketch commissions while I was there but I also had mini-comics, sketch-cards and copies of The Stars #1 (which I lettered) available for sale.

In addition, I printed up copies of a 20 page sketchbook (a popular choice for artists at cons) and an 8 page ashcan, which collected my 4 page story from the first Comicsmiths' Guild Anthology with a bonus intro page, plus sketches and pin-ups. I want to do more stories soon with the character (Seamus O'Kyte) from that story, so I made it up as a sort of Preview Book for the upcoming comics.

The next convention I'm planning on attending is the Jet City Comic Show in Seattle, on September 22. I'll be there sharing a table in Artist Alley with another buddy, and fellow local artist, Josh Montreuil. I'm intending to have at least one comic featuring Seamus available then, and possibly some more projects started as well.

Unfortunately I fell behind on my "In Geekness..." journal comics, but plan to pick them back up this week. I wanted to be ready for the convention well ahead of time, but that didn't happen - instead I ended up scrambling the past couple of weeks frantically preparing and getting things printed, at the cost of other work I should have been doing. I think time management is my worst weakness and the one I really need to fix this year if I want to be any sort of success as a professional artist.

I also got very little sleep the last week or so, and was generally stressed out from getting ready and worrying about the con, and I was completely exhausted by the time we got home Saturday night (after spending a few hours at an awesome post-Con BBQ party hosted by our friends Heidi & Levi), so Sunday I did virtually nothing beyond rest and running a lot of laundry and dishes.

But now it will be back to work, though. I've got a lot of real work to play catch-up with this week and, exhausting or not, the whole Con experience is a great boost to wanting to make comics!

Free Comic Book Day Wrap-Up

Here's some of the free sketches I drew for customers at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID on Saturday. I was there with my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild for Free Comic Book Day.

The shop had a really good turnout, and we were busy sketching the whole time, almost non-stop. It was great to talk to so many people who had been there for FCBD the past couple of years, and were looking forward to seeing us again.

There was a small write-up in the local paper about the event - the Guild got a mention, and they even included a picture of me sketching for one of the kids who was there. You can read it here: The Coeur d'Alene Press

 Also, there's a new comic up on the In Geekness page at my website, so be sure to check that out too!

Free Comic Book Day!

It's here once again - the day that's Christmas for comic geeks, and also a great chance to introduce comics to new readers and make a new generation of fans.

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday (May 5), and is a national event that provides retailers a lot of awesome comics, from a variety of publishers, that they can give away for free. All of the comic book stores in the Spokane area will be participating, and I will be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday from 10:30 - 3, drawing free sketches for customers along side my friends in the Comicsmiths' Guild.

If you're not local, be sure to check out the FCBD website for a participating retailer in your area, and I hope to see everyone else this weekend!

Sketches and Comic Signing

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!

Halloween Wrap-Up

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!

Blink & Chamber

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.

Free Sketches!

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!

Spokane ComiCon Wrap-Up

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!

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

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!

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!

Day to Day

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

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

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

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.

Emerald City ComiCon is this weekend...

... 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!

Comicsmiths' Guild Update!

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!

A New Year

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):