iTunes

Good news! The Back To The Drawing Board podcast has been accepted and is now up on iTunes. You can go right to iTunes HERE and listen to every episode for free. It feels like a nice little victory for the little podcast that Jeff Lafferty and I put together in my living room just a few weeks ago.

The bad news is that I was informed this week that Jeff will be pulling out of doing the podcast for personal reasons. The podcast was all Jeff's idea and I was just along for the ride so him backing out will be a real loss to the weekly show. But, I've been enjoying it so much and I've gotten some great feedback on the show that I'll try to keep it going as long as possible. I will definitely miss sitting in the studio with him every week and talking about art but the show must go on.

For now I've got a few guests lined up so we'll see how it goes. I figure the moment I'm sitting in the studio by myself and talking into a microphone to no one will be when I finally have to hang it all up.

Hopefully that won't happen for a very long time.

Wish me luck. We'll see how it all goes.

Little Bit O' Inking

I had some extra time on my hands this morning so I decided to ink an OilCan Drive piece I had sitting around the studio.

I originally penciled this piece of Nicole, the drummer of OilCan Drive, for an OCD trading card set. I've since put that idea on the back burner as I work on the new OCD comic book story but, since I had an hour to kill this morning, it made for a good piece to practice some inking on.

And, who knows, maybe I'll find some more time this weekend to lay some color down on her.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Back To The Drawing Board 5

The newest episode of Back To The Drawing Board is up and ready for your listening pleasure.

With Jeff out of the studio this week I brought in Rob Kelly for an interview. It was my first time using Skype and trying to record someone who wasn't right here in the studio but, other than a few glitches aside, I think it turned out well.

As always, there was a lot of stuff I wished Rob and I had talked about but there is always next time. So, when I get Rob back for an interview remind me to ask him about monetizing his blogs, talking a bit more about school, and actually asking what the story of Ace Kilroy is actually about. I mean, I know, but being new to this whole interviewing thing I actually forgot to bring it up.

Ah well, live and learn.

For now, go check out the new show HERE!

Brick

While working away this last week on a bunch of client work a friend of mine came over to spend the night. While we were watching James Cameron's Aliens (a movie he hadn't seen before) I finished up the client work for the night but still had some time before the movie ended.

So, I whipped out my blue pencil, brush, and ink, and sketched out a new character in the world of OilCan Drive.

His name is Brick and, if you can't tell, he'll probably end up being a proper villain in the new stories. We'll have to see how that goes.

Still, it felt really nice to whip something out for myself and my book in the middle of a busy work week. There may be hope for my own personal projects yet.

And, if anyone can tell me where I got the name Brick from there might be some kind of special prize involved. I doubt anyone out there can but I figure it's worth a shot.

Have a great day.

Launching a Rocket

With Jeff out of town today I had to helm the Back To The Drawing Board podcast all on my own. Jeff and I usually get together on Saturday afternoons for a few hours and record the podcast but with him being gone it meant I had to figure out something on my own.

We've always been meaning to get guest interviews on the show so I looked at this as an opportunity to try that out. It would have been much easier to find someone local and just have them come over to the studio since that is how Jeff and I have had it set up these past few weeks. Just a couple of couches, a couple of microphones, and we'd just record us talking. But, with it being so last minute I had to look beyond the local talent and set my sites on going global.

I know a lot of people use Skype to record their podcasts and it looked like the perfect way to get one of my friends from far away to be a guest on the show. So, I signed up to Skype and then tried to figure out how to get it all recorded. I ran into a TON of different programs that could do the job but, running out of time, I rigged up a way of recording that I had at least tested once and I knew would work.

I got my good friend, Rob Kelly, to be on the show with me. We talked for over an hour about going to school together, our careers, and the Ace Kilroy project he is working on now.

And, while I'm sure all Rob had in front of him was his IPad, you can see that the set-up I had in front of me looked like a primitive monkey trying to launch a rocket ship into space. But, while it may look like a mess, it did work and the show won't miss a week.

The podcast will air this Wednesday, so keep a look out for it!

Speaking of Blue Birds...

This seems almost funny when I realize I just did an illustration earlier this week of a blue bird twittering but, last week, I bought a new microphone. And, interestingly enough, it's called a Blue Bird.

I've been eying the Blue line of microphones for a while now. For those of you not in the know, the Blue Microphone Company builds perhaps one of the best microphones out there called the Blue Bottle Condenser microphone. It looks a bit like the big brother of the Blue Bird I bought and has the ability to change out the microphones capsules on top with different cap types. But, unfortunately, the Blue Bottle and a set of these mic capsules costs about twelve thousand dollars.

So, I went on EBay, found someone selling the Blue Bird, and got it for about a third off what it would retail for new. It doesn't have interchangeable capsules but it still looks great and, from the research I did on it, it sounded like it would perfectly fit the bill for what I needed.

The shipping was free and I liked the vibe of the person selling it. The mic got here quickly enough and, last Friday, I pulled it out of its wooden box, put it together on one of my mic stands, and plugged it in to test it out. I meant to just check it to make sure it was all in working order and then get back to work. But......wow!

And, I mean, really, WOW! This microphone sounded absolutely amazing. Or, I guess, it made my singing sound absolutely amazing. I ended up messing around with it for the better part of an hour before finally putting everything to bed.

All that great sound and it looks pretty too.

This last week has kept me pretty busy with work but the microphone hasn't been too far from my mind. It really made me want to start recording again so, hopefully, once I get some free time, it's back to work for OilCan Drive.

It's been far too long.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Back To The Drawing Board 4

The newest episode of "Back to the Drawing Board" is up and ready for your listening pleasure.

In case you're new to the blog B2TDB is a podcast my friend Jeff Lafferty and I have been doing every week for the last month. We get together every Saturday afternoon and, most weeks, we have no idea what we're going to talk about. But, it certainly doesn't stop us as the hour goes by super quick and, more often than not, I have to shut things down or each episode would run about five hours long.

For me, personally, I am really enjoying it. I didn't think I'd like it this much but I find that having an hour each week to talk about the way our lives in the creative world is going is some great therapy.

So, check the podcast out and have a listen. And, if you do like what you hear, please leave a question or a comment. Chances are, we'll definitely talk about it on the next show.

Have a great day!