I haven’t posted any of my warm-up sketches, recently. Sorry about that.
Here’s yesterday’s. I like it enough that I’ve started turning the idea into a proper print.
CINDY-LOU WHO, The Doctor Who’s No More Than Two:
As always, if you’d like the originals of these sketches, they’re $45, postage included. Add $5 for overseas shipping. Paypal gladly accepted.
SPEAKING OF SKETCHING…
As is often the case, I think the sketch I did of Matt Smith for Monday’s cartoon turned out better than the actual finished drawing. I believe other cartoonists know the frustration of this, when it happens. I’ve got no idea how the Doctor’s cowlick grew to such proportions on the final, but there you go…
By the way, as happy as I was with how the original sketch turned out, you have NO IDEA how hard it is to find photos of Matt Smith in profile! Seriously. I think I came up with about two, out of 100 Matt Smith pics overall.
How it turned out (good…but not AS good, I feel).
Anyway, I still love the first sketch of Matt. I’m no great caricaturist, so those few times I think to myself that I’ve managed to capture something, I’m happy.
Possibly I’ll turn the sketch into a larger painting – albeit a stylized one – or a print, as well.
Muskrat Ramblings
Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketches Redux… posted by John
First off, it looks like Dork Tower will be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays, through January 1. Apologies for this. I’ll TRY and get three strips a week up, but the holidays are quite crazy.
Secondly, I’ve had quite a few people ask about buying some of the two-minute sketches I’ve been doing. I’m not sure about this. I generally feel a bit weird about selling original art, yes. But to be honest, I’m not sure what I’d charge for them. $40 seems like a lot, for a sketch. But I know that of I was charging $20, while I’d obviously sell more, it wouldn’t be a huge incentive to me. I’m weird that way, I’ll admit it. So anyway, I’m still thinking on this. You know – being my usual neurotic self about my work…
Anyway, someone on Twitter raised some interesting points:
TWEETER: $20 is very reasonable, especially if that includes US shipping. The question is, do you really want to be in that business?
JOHN: (a) It probably wouldn’t, and (b) I don’t want this to be a business. I have dfar too many things on my plate as it is.
TWEETER: A quick story:I ordered a sketch from a web comic, never got it. Asked her about it, she wouldn’t make it right. Still pissed
JOHN: Understandably so. Which is what I worry about, with a $20 price.
TWEETER: Point is, it was a business she was not prepared to run.So if you’re going to sell the sketches, commit to running a business
JOHN: Agreed. Which is why, selling an occasional sketch for $40 strikes me as something that’d fit into my schedule a lot better than selling many sketches for $20. But if someone REALLYREALLYREALLYREALLY wants one, perhaps this is the at to go, in the future. We’ll see.
Does that make any sense? Honestly not trying to be a jerk – I, personally, would not pay $40 for any idiot’s sketch – just trying to think what might fit in, scheduling-wise and John’s-Sense-Of-Responsibility-wise. If I were you, I would not pay $40 for a sketch.
(Possibly this post should have been titled “Why john needed a Business Manager”).
ANYWAY, here are the last few sketches that I’ve done. I forgot to get some up, last week.
A young Neil Gaiman, apparently. And one in the wind. No, it’s not “Author Week” on “Two-Minute Warmup Sketches.” I don’t expect any of these two-minute sketches to be anything close to great. Just some fast fun (for me, anyway) that may or may not spark later ideas. But they get the day rolling. But I kind of like something mischievous in the eyes, on this one. Possibly one day, I’ll turn it into a proper piece.
I need to draw more blondes, by the way. The studio reeks of magic marker, at the moment.
If you click on the images, you SHOULD see larger versions of the drawings.
Muskrat Ramblings
Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketches… posted by John
The idea for the morning warm-up sketches came from my pal, Stacy Curtis. He began posting his morning sketches on his Facebook page and I, frankly, had fallen out of the habit of sketching.
There’s little I emphasize more to kids who want to become cartoonists than “Sketch, sketch, SKETCH!” Well, that and learn to live on Ramen Noodles. Still, “Carry a sketchbook on you at all times” is what I’ll usually tell younglings. And yet, here I was, failing to follow my own very good, solid and sensible advice.
Warming up in the morning has also proven pretty important for the rest of the work I get done that day. It seems to shake the cobwebs out of the old noggin. Some sketches are more successful than others, and none of them are supposed to look GREAT (though I’m thankful when sometimes they look cool). I give myself three minutes to come up with anything: more sketching may follow, but that first one of the day needs to be done in less time than it takes to boil an egg. I doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, it just has to be DONE.
Anyway, here’s this morning’s Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketch (which actually took two minutes – leaving me a full minute to, say, boil an egg): CAP’THULHU AMERICA!
There’s probably a line somewhere about him being “the first IA-venger,” but I’m not touching it.
If you click on the image, you SHOULD see a larger version of the drawing.
Muskrat Ramblings
Fifteen Years and One Sketch Later… posted by John
So I’m working on some art for the 15th anniversary of Dork Tower next year. But right now, it’s athe 10th anniversary of Munchkin. So I thought I’d do up some promotional cards and postcards and the like.
Here’s the art: Dork Tower and Munchkin: two great tastes that taste great together.
Here’s what it will look like, as a postcard:
In both instances, click on the image to see a larger version of it.
I’m pleased with the piece. It’s far more dynamic than the original sketch I did for the anniversary.
Coincidentally, it shares some similarities with Today’s Three-Minute Warm-Up Sketch. These help me loosen up a little, before approaching more ’serious’ drawings. I’m only so-so about this one, but for a very quick piece, I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much. But I thought yesterday’s sketch was more successful. Anyhoo – Matt and Gilly, as Batman and the Huntress:
Muskrat Ramblings
Between a rock and a hard Munchkin deadline… posted by John
This is a busy, messy week for me. I’m between Munchkin projects, and between major holidays. As a friend of mine cleverly pointed out, Thanksgiving in the US is the point where we switch from complaining that Christmas is being celebrated too early to complaining that Christmas is coming too soon.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that this week, Dork Tower will run on Tuesday and Thursday, as I work on getting a backlog together. I’ll try and get a third strip up, but can’t promise anything in that regard. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, here’s this morning’s Warm-Up Sketch: “A Girl and her Dragon.” I don’t think I had a young Anne McCaffrey in mind when I quickly doodled it, but I don’t wonder whether her passing last week was why I had dragons on the mind.
Wouldn’t it be nice to think so?
If you click on the image, you SHOULD see a larger version of the drawing.
If I post more such things in the future, would you prefer to see them here, in the blog, or on the main website, where the comic strip appears? Just curious.
I haven’t posted any of my warm-up sketches, recently. Sorry about that.
Here’s yesterday’s. I like it enough that I’ve started turning the idea into a proper print.
CINDY-LOU WHO, The Doctor Who’s No More Than Two:
As always, if you’d like the originals of these sketches, they’re $45, postage included. Add $5 [...]
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Sekrit Possibly Big Dork Tower Project
