It seems whenever you come to a point in life where you have to make decisions, whether they’re BIG decisions or little ones, you inevitably find yourself drawing some sort of lines. These aren’t lines on paper, but rather metaphorical lines that you’re drawing into those spaces in your life between the old and the new, or the stressful and relaxing. My own lines have been sort of zig zagging every which way for a few months now, in ways that required me to really focus and find a way to draw straight lines, but I think after a lot of struggling, I finally found a good ruler to use in the short term, and hopefully after a short period of time I’ll be able to set it down again and get back to some freehand drawing

The transition back into the working world is going moderately well so far. It’s a job that I know I can do, and I’m not running into anything that is really mind bending and causing me problems yet, so that’s a huge plus. It’s also nice to be able to put in my hours, and LEAVE when it’s done. Hoping I can get all the hours I want when football season rolls around soon, but that’s still kind of up in the air right now. I know I’ll be able to get game days and at least one practice day off, but hopefully I can get things worked around the other practice and stuff. we’ll see. It’s going good as I said, and it’s going to be nice to have steady money coming in again for a change.

I wanted to wait until after the weekend of the 4th to really get moving on stuff again, but I may have to man up and just start DOING things again before then. So much to get started on here. I’m going to really start moving on my creator owned project here, as well as some other things with DJ Coffman. Working on a cool pitch now with writer/creator Eric Hobbs. It’s a great little story, weaving elements from various sources like Neverland, Oz and others into a gigantic, all ages, adventure that looks to be something very special. Artist Derrick Fish is doing some absolutely amazing work on this so far. Some of you might know Derrick from his webcomic work on Dandy and Company. I’ve been reading that forever, and was excited to see his name and his work on this project and get a chance to work with him. We’re doing some really great work together, can’t wait to show some of it later.

As for my own project, I’m going to share some new stuff soon from that. However I’m NOT going to be sharing the name again any time soon. Needless to say, in the last week, I went to see if the domain name I wanted was available for it, and it was. This morning, it’s been registered and has some template thing installed on it and mysteriously has no contact information, no links, no content, but a header and a flaky looking “this belongs to me” tagline. Probably a coincidence, but in a day and age where people just scoop up domains for things left and right in hopes of selling them off, it just as well could be someone hoping that I’ll shell out money for a name I was going to build an IP around.

On the homefront, things are great. We’re getting a lot of little things around the house and yard done that we’ve been meaning to, and enjoying spending time just hanging out this summer so far. Not going to baseball/softball 5 nights a week and weekends is a HUGE bonus as well. Leaves you with a lot of free time in the evenings that’s for sure. Just in the last 3 days, I’ve put in a screen door in the garage that my wife has wanted for 3 years (evidently so I can now hear the speakers from the garage stereo better, which I guess is partly true) put landscape lighting around the water garden/pond by the patio with the wife, finished laying a natural stone wall on the backside of the burm by the pond, and trimmed all the grass in the front yard. that doesn’t even take into account the consumption of extra greasy and crispy onion rings, the graduation party with a live band, playing Lego Batman on the pS3 with my son, sleeping in late on Sunday, having friends over for a 4th of July PRE party, party on Saturday night etc….. so life is definitely good. The only thing I could complain about is that I’m still owed a lot of money from one comic publisher, but really…if that’s the worst thing going on in my life, I’m lucky. I’m sure that situation will be resolved one way or another, hopefully in the next several weeks or in the next month. It needs to be resolved so I can get on with my life. Something I’m making an effort at doing. And while things are hectic, it’s a good hectic now, and I’m enjoying it.

So I’m going to get working on some things that I feel good about now, and hopefully….set that ruler aside and find time to start drawing some of my own lines.

starting a new chapter in my life today. Headed back to a day job PT here for the first time in 6 years. It will be nice to get a steady paycheck every 2 weeks for a change I think. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of just putting in my hours and then leaving at the end of the day too. I’ll still be freelancing on the side of course, doing digital painting, sketch card and coloring commissions, and I WILL take on the occasional coloring project, whether it’s a graphic novel, comic book, mini-series or something along those lines. But I won’t be killing myself for companies anymore just to have books on the stands, and then to end up waiting months to be paid for them. If DC or Marvel come calling, maybe IDW or Darkhorse, I’ll consider taking on a project from them as I know they’re on more secure footing financially. Other than that, I’ll be taking on projects that I want to work on, and negotiating my own payment terms (which won’t be 30 days after invoicing, or publication or anything like that) I’m going to be in a position myself here now to require some form of upfront payment (33%, 50% or something) and then the rest on completion. If you can’t pay me any money upfront, I won’t be lending my talents to your project. And what I’ve learned really in the last 6 years running my own company, is that regardless of whether it’s illustration, web or graphic design, marketing, advertising…if someone is not willing to put any money upfront on a project, they’re likely not too fussed about paying you in a timely manner, if at all, when you get done with the work.

So moving on, I’m going to enjoy doing advertising design again I think, likely be doing some static web design, and other things as they crop up. I’m going to enjoy working on my OWN projects when I don’t have paying freelance work, and generally just enjoying my family and the great life that I have. There are 2 things that I am working on now, the Flobots webcomic, and my own creator owned project Sprocket: A Rift in Time. Working with long time pal and collaborator DJ Coffman, we’re going to really be focusing on long form story telling online, and then in GN format. We quite literally have all the tools we need, not to mention a plethora of idea between us in just about every genre imaginable, to keep cranking out awesome content for years and years on end. It’s going to be quite a change of pace that’s for sure.

So, maybe more blogging will be happening on a regular basis. Or maybe I’ll be outside on the patio by the water garden enjoying a tall glass of gin and juice and just forgetting about the problems of the real world.

redesign of the site and blog happened at a good time. I’m swamped right now. Working on editing and designing TWO graphic novels, both over 100 pages long, potentially coloring some interesting new projects, doing a few commissions, and working on my own creator owned project more here. Still, I’m getting a lot done this week, and am scheduling work for June. So if you need a colorist for your comic, a digital painter or concept artist for an upcoming project feel free to get in touch. We’ve been making due here somehow, but it would be nice to line up enough paying gigs for the entire summer, that’s for sure. The search for a day job is going absolutely nowhere right now, so that would be one less thing to worry about.

Can’t wait to start getting actual pages done for the Rift in Time project. The script is really writing itself and I’m having a blast with it. Very fulfilling, and it’s going to be a great all ages kind of project, very visually appealing, fresh and fun I think. A distinct animated kind of Don Bluth look to it all as well.

back to work here, just taking a short break to fill the void with a progress report.

Finally updated everything to wordpress, portfolio and blog, and have a uniform look for it all. much easier to maintain and to update now. Check out the new portfolio site, RIGHT OVER HERE! More to follow this week…maybe. I wasn’t planning on having to do all this right now, but I lost (or rather deleted by accident?) my main site database files, so I had to get my portfolio back up and running. whew…been a long couple days. Hoping tomorrow to get into some serious design and layout work on the graphic novels I’m putting together for a client. Right now, taking the rest of the night off is in order.

Life becomes infinitely MORE hectic once you have kids, I’m convinced. However having YOUNGER kids is nowhere near as crazy as it is when your kids get to be of an age where they’re gone at sporting events every night of the week. I’m not the type of dad who is going to miss TOO many games that my kids play in, I rarely have an excuse to not make a game since I work from home. The wife and I have decided to trade off going to the away games this year for my daughters bball team, simply because I don’t feel like shelling out $10 at away games and subjugating my son to have to travel and sit through the away games as well. The season is roughly half over, but….on the horizon is track season (and having run track and been pretty successful at it, I think I’m going to have to venture out to see how those meets go too) as well as “conditioning” and “training” that my son wants to start for football this coming fall. In addition to the time that the kids want to spend on basketball. I won’t complain, at least not right now when I don’t have any deadlines creeping up on me. My kids are healthy enough and have the DESIRE to go out and play sports, and really, that’s what is the most important I guess.

Been a LONG week in the studio. Wrapping it up by saving out high rez files and getting those uploaded today, and enjoying a semi-day off here. If I can manage it. Going well so far though. One the agenda for the weekend are 2 pages that I have to get colored by Monday, need to help with taxes (which hopefully haven’t become too complicated being self-employed), and I’d like to do some other things over the weekend as well. Need new biz cards designed and printed, need to update my portfolio with new work since it hasn’t been done in MONTHS now. Saturday is going to be an all day bball tournament for my son, so I’m planning on that entire day off as well. more after the cut…. Continue reading

so with deadlines out of the way on Monday, I took all of Tuesday off for the most part aside from a logo design I had to get done. I took a good portion of yesterday off, started colors on a pinup commission of Jean Grey/Phoenix, watched a bit of a Dylan Cole Gnomon DVD, and tried to get my body back to feeling somewhat normal. Still have a shoulder that is now only KIND OF sore, but I also have a kind of sore neck now, and I pulled something in my ribs of all places, while turning over in bed the other night. Talk about lame. However the upside…there is one I promise, is that I feel almost completely recharged mentally.

On the agenda today, more digital inks on Take a Chance #4, finish up the commission pinup, and get some of the flats for TAC4 pages I have back already dropped into my files for color scheming. I’m still in really good shape here for a somewhat EASY 2 page a day schedule on that book as I’ve set aside time to do NO other comic work for the next 2 weeks really BUT that book. I deserve a small break in my coloring schedule after 2 completely busy and insane months of cranking out pages.

My daughter lost her first bball game yesterday by a large margin, but she was one of the 3 girls who actually scored any points (the team only had 5) and I think…I’m going to leave it at that. It will be a long year for her, there will be a lot of unrest and turmoil within that team, and it won’t change until they all get on the same page and really start to care about the game. *edit* I just typed a bunch of crap about parenting, pride, and respect that I’m going to delete as it contradicted me not leaving it at that.

On to the art related stuff now. Somewhere in the last 2 months, I think it was after I passed 70 pages worth of work just after the New Year, I came to realization. I like to paint more than I like to color. I’ve been trying to paint as much as the comic page will allow, but sometimes pages just don’t make sense for that type of thing. I really got to do a lot of it with the giant sized Grimm Fairy Tales issue in Decemeber, I’ve been getting away with it on some pages for the Take a Chance book, a couple of pages in Herbert West 3, but not many really in Grimm Fairy Tales 35 which is what I wrapped up on Monday here. So as I sat there yesterday, after realizing that I had done almost 120 pages in about 6 weeks (which included some commissions) but basically almost 6 books worth of work, I was feeling an odd mixture of pride and disappointment. Sure that’s a LOT of work. MOST of which I’m proud of. But honestly, I felt more like a machine set to automatic at times than I did any kind of artist. So I started thinking hard about what it is that I enjoy the most in my work, and it’s really the painted elements. When they’re present that is.

So I’m contemplating things here now. Do I see myself as a top tier colorist at Marvel or DC some day? Because really that is probably the only way I can continue this as a career in the future. With the comic industry shrinking, and it was already small, I can’t answer that question really. There are some amazing artists working there already as colorists, and on a GOOD day of mine, I can come close to them. On a consistent, page by page basis though, I fall short. So I wonder if that is a circumstance of my own creation sometimes. Would I be able to aspire to BETTER work if I only did about 44 pages a month? I damn well could come a LOT closer than when I’m doing 90 pages a month, that’s just the truth of the matter. I know I have the drive, and when it comes down to it, the confidence in myself and my abilities to get to that place, but it comes back to the question, is that what I REALLY want? I don’t know many people coloring comics that make a living doing it WITHOUT working for DC or Marvel. The fact that I’ve been able to get by for going on 3 years here doing just that, is still kind of hard to figure out. With the changes to the market that have taken place over the last 3 years, and the changes that are occurring now, it makes me wonder how feasible it’s going to be for me to keep making the kind of money I’m making now WITHOUT moving on in my career.

Without rambling too much more this morning, because I have some things to do today, here’s where I’m at. I’m thinking of really making a push towards matte painting and concept art here. I really think that it’s something I can excel at. Looking at what I’ve done in the last 6 months, I think that I have a much higher upside if I were to focus more of my energy into that, than if I was to continue to sit here and crank out 80-90 pages worth of comic work a month. I’m seriously considering enrolling in some of the Gnomon online workshops that they offer for things like that.

HOWEVER, with the way the economy is right now, the fact that my wife’s job is tied directly to the automotive industry as a 2nd tier supplier, and with so much uncertainty in THAT, I’m not sure that I can justify turning DOWN any work that comes my way. Especially when I can GET that much work, and have smaller publishers willing to pay my page rate, outside of the Big 2 in the comics industry. I offer something that evidently JUSTIFIES my page rate or I wouldn’t keep getting work.

It’s a tough position. It’s hard to find people to talk to really in either industry, that I can relate to. My situation is really, honestly, pretty unique. I’ve talked with a lot of colorists, comic artists, concept artists and designers, and really….just looking around, I sit at home scribbling all day and make money without really working for any BIG name companies. Things just end up working out somehow in the end every time for me. We all take different paths in life. I guess it comes down to which fork you end up taking in the road sometimes. My problem I think is that I’m at a crossroads here now and it feels like there are about 10 different forks in that road of life. Which one do I take?

I think I need more coffee this morning. That’s about the only thing I’m sure of today.

I’m not going to blabber on and on today. I’ll keep it short and simple. I’m taking almost the entire day off here. I’ve earned it. I’ve worked extremely hard since the beginning of December here. I’ve worked myself to the point of pain and exhaustion. However I’m beyond thankful that I’ve been able to do that. With the way the job market and economy is right now, I’ve been truly lucky and blessed to have work to DO.

So today, I will wrap up invoicing, and a logo design and then enjoy a day of change. I’m going to watch the Inauguration. I’m going to pick my kids up from school. I’m going to enjoy dinner with my family and spend time with them tonight. I’m going to draw in my sketchbook. And above all, I’m going to enjoy what it is to be an American today. I’m going to enjoy what it is to be able to LIVE the dream that is the American dream. And above all, I’m going to enjoy a refreshing change of pace in my schedule- a day off! I hope you are lucky enough to do the same.

I know, I know, it’s almost a week late. I’ve been extremely busy, which is of course a good thing in these troubled times. I had to go back and actually check the blog from last year here to revisit my goals I had set for 2008, and to recap them a little bit. Funnily enough, I sort of KNEW from the start that they would be hard to accomplish because life is in flux so much of the time, however I think I came away from the year having done just that. I’m going to just update my last year goals first here.

2008 goals revisited.

1- Find more time to create art for just me. CHECK.

2- Finish losing the weight I wanted to lose last year. I lost 15 lbs in 2007, I have about 10 more lbs to lose to get to where I wanted to be in 2008. CHECK. (although I seemed to gain quite a bit back between Thanksgiving and New Years )

3- Become a better digital painter. CHECK!

4- Learn a new software program. HALF-CHECK. picking up on Vue 6 somewhwat.

5- Paint the elvish script around the decorative ceiling shelf in our living room for my wife, and include a large celtic/elvish design motif painted on the ceiling for her. FAIL. we put off painting the living room until this year. so it’s not exactly a fail I guess.

6- I have a comic coloring related goal I don’t want to mention really. CHECK.

7- Make more connections. CHECK.

8- I want to start to step back a bit and give my kids more freedom. CHECK.

9- Relax more. HALF CHECK.

10- Become a better person. Don’t get me wrong, regardless of the few people out there that may think I’m a jerk, I’m really a good person. There are certain things I want to work on though for sure. I think we probably ALL have this goal somewhere deep down, for some it might be buried in their sub-conscious, but the bottomline is just being the best person you can be. A better dad, a better husband, a better friend, a better brother, a better son, a better artist, a better citizen….that’s a lot of hats for any of us to where, and yet finding the BALANCE is the key. CHECK.

2008 in review.

Now on to the recap. Talk about a crazy year. Work was erratic, which was complicated by an erratic financial situation as well. Through it all though, I accomplished more work wise, and had my best year financially as a freelancer. SOMEHOW. So in retrospect, I’m not going to complain about any of the problems that arose, as they were overcome through good fortune, grace, and perseverance.

This was the LAST year that I coach for 6-7 months out of the year though. I think I’ve decided that I’m scaling back the coaching to JUST my sons football team for the next 2 years, and then I’ll be done likely as not. That proved to be quite an added amount of stress trying to juggle all of that responsibility on top of the hectic and sometimes crazy deadlines of a freelance career. There were times that I was completely worn out looking back. Thankfully enough football coaching came last and was high energy enough to keep me going until the end.

The kids have taken huge strides this year in finding their own independence and discovering what they’re made of. My daughter is going through a lot of adversities and what not as she navigates the waters of middle school but is managing fairly well thus far. She really enjoyed playing on the MS volleyball team and the competition, and the team had a great year. She’s just now starting basketball and is loving it, I think

My son had a really good year of baseball and the team did really well. This was also the first year that we decided to get him into football. He’s been bugging for a couple years now and the timing seemed to be right, in addition to the fact that I was asked to help coach his team. I think there was an adjustment period at first, but it was definitely something he enjoyed. He learned a LOT about himself, and I learned quite a bit about him as well from the entire experience. He seems to welcome the challenges and responsibilities that come with playing quarterback, and he’s determined to make himself the absolute best player that he can. He’s already started his off season conditioning for NEXT year, and if the kid wants to go outside and throw a ball at targets when it’s 5 degrees outside, I can respect the heck out of that sort of commitment and determination. It will lead you down all the right sorts of roads in life.

My wife and I enjoyed our FIRST anniversary away all by ourselves in 12 years this year as well. Needless to say, we don’t get enough time with just the two of us when we’re running around everywhere, but it was nice to spend time together for a change without having to be anywhere at a certain time, or do anything in particular for a while. It’s amazing still, that we can both work from home and not end up at each others throats all the time Honestly though, we are both extremely fortunate in today’s job market to be able to have that kind of luxury. It’s one of the incentives for working hard all the time I think in some ways. I would go get a real job in the outside world again if I really had to, and I’ve been pretty damn close to having to over the years, but it’s hard to imagine having a better job than I do right now.

In general, we just really kept ourselves busy, tried to handle all the obstacles that came our way, and enjoyed our time together with family and friends. So a big shout out to all of those friends and family that we enjoyed spending time with this year. You helped us get through a topsy-turvy year whether you realized it at the time or not. We don’t have anything to REALLY worry about, and our lives continue to be filled with nothing but AWESOME for the most part.

On to 2009…

So as the New Year gets underway, I have some of the same goals I had as last year. I’d like to lose another 10 lbs, 15 if I’m lucky, that would put me at the “perfect” weight. Plenty of things to get done around the house obviously, when isn’t there. I’d like to really work on the RELAXING bit more I think too Finding more time for my own artwork, and really get at least one of my own projects off the ground this year, regardless of setbacks. Aside from all of those things, after having spent 2 years coloring comics for a living now, I’d really like to land some work at DC or Marvel I think. Something related to, or including Batman is my goal. It may not happen, but looking back on my past goals the last 5 years, there is very little that I have NOT accomplished if I have set a goal to do something. So I figure I’ll get that out there in the Universe somewhere and see what happens.

Okay, wrapping up almost a complete day off from actual work here, and it’s time to put on the Dad costume and go do some running kids around now.

snow day = no school. It’s a bit more complicated than that really. We’re getting a decent snow storm today, some freezing rain, ice, and LOTS of snow. Somewhere between 8-12 inches by the time it’s done (which doesn’t factor in the ice all over everything I’m guessing) So no school today, which is fine with the kids I’m sure, and my wife now gets to keep all of the vanilla/chocolate/sprinkled covered pretzels she made last night, which I’m sure makes HER happy.

I’ve got one BIG deadline out of the way this month. I’ve got a couple days to finish up 6 pages of another book here, and then a 22 pager due by the 2nd of January, and yet another book due by the 13th of January. so really, I’ve got 3 more deadlines in the next 30 days I guess. Nothing wrong with being busy this time of year, or in this economy period. I just hope my body holds up over this stretch. It’s tough with the holidays and family this time of year to work this type of schedule. There’s just so much other things that you have to juggle on top of work. It can wear you down, if you let it

Alright, off to work here, after I get another cup of joe.

forgive the spelling mistakes today. just finished an all nighter, literally, and I could care less about how many spelling errors I make right now.

just wrapped up colors for Beyond Wonderland #4 with Nei Ruffino, Garry Henderson, and Blond (who came on at the last minute to save all our butts) The issue is made of complete AWESOME in my opinion, Dan Leister did an amazing job on the art for the book.

Put on a pot of coffee for my wife who’s waking up in about 5 minutes now, thinking of cooking a huge breakfast, and then crashing till the afternoon once these high rez files finish uploading. I probably won’t take off the entire day today, I’ll squeeze in another page or so I think likely as not. Strangely, not too tired right now, so if I can’t fall asleep I may just stay up all day and dork around.

this week, have to get the rest of our xmas shopping done, for the kids. I have a couple things left to get my wife, but I think we’re planning on heading into town on Friday to do shopping. then I’ll probably take the kids either Saturday or Sunday to pick up gifts for her.

It’s pretty apparent that I’m jumping all over the place right now too. It’s been really refreshing to have so much work lately, regardless of how busy it seems I am. I’d much rather be swamped right now, than be out of a job like so many other people. I think I’m doing some good work too, at least it seems that way to me I’m pretty happy with what I’ve been cranking out, and I’ve been cranking out a LOT of stuff. The first issue of my Dabel Bros. comic, Take A Chance is out this month. Can’t wait to get a copy of that and check it out, the art is fantastic, and I love the concept of the story (and the writing)

K, I’m losing it, it’s time to wrap things up, and get something to eat here, I’m starving!!!!!!