Back To The Drawing Board 6

The podcast just keeps rolling along!

This week I brought fellow artist and my former "mentee" (yes, I was his mentor for a bit) Josh Thorne into the studio to talk a bit about life and art.

Josh and I first met back in 2003. As part of a program through his high school, Josh was allowed to try and find a place in the Boulder community where he could help out and be an apprentice. So, for three years, Josh would come over to the studio, learn the art of illustration and comics, and help me out on various client projects.

With how great the conversation went you can be sure that Josh will be invited back to the show for round two at some point in the future.

You can check out the newest Back to the Drawing Board podcast HERE.

Enjoy and have a great one!

Happy September!

Happiest of Septembers, everyone! I, for one, am looking forward to it cooling down and, once football season starts, hockey season can't be that far behind (fingers crossed that there isn't a lock-out this year!) So I'll finally be able to think clearly again!

Fall is definitely one of my favorite times of year and September and October are the best.

For this month's header I took the piece I inked earlier this week of Nicole Baylor, painted it up, and popped it into the template. I've really been trying my best this year to only use my own creations in the headers and not fall back on using art I created for clients. I think I'm doing better this year than the last few but I can't promise it will continue if things get busy. But I will promise I'll do my best.

And here is the original painted piece I did of Nicole. In the original pencil sketch there was a bit more of a background and even a drum kit behind Nicole but, knowing I was going to use this piece for the header, I cheated a bit and left out the parts I knew I wasn't going to use.

So, last month I used Ryan and this month I used Nicole. That means Henry and Vincent will be in my head soon enough wondering why they aren't getting their fair share of screen time. So, we'll see if I can placate at least one of them next month.

For now, have a great September and I'll talk you soon!

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!