Yeah… So the next installment of the game is going to be late.

This is partially due to having actual for-pay work eating up my art time, (more on that later, if the client approves) and also because the next installment has been an utter bitch to make.

So, here’s some filler. But wait: it’s filler that doesn’t suck!

These are some full-page spreads I did for a CD bookelet about two years ago.  For those that are curious, the musician is a friend. But I don’t just listen to his music just to be polite, I listen because it’s good.

I’m not really happy with this, but I’ve found that’s a recurring problem whenever I try to draw a character that really matters to me: I obsess, I still can’t get it right, so I overwork it. (if I were working with regular old pencil and paper for example, I’d have erased a hole in the page.) The result isn’t bad exactly, but it is overwrought, and it looses some of the natural grace of the original idea.

Oh, that’s Agatha, by the way. She belongs to Phil & Kaja Foglio, and lives over at Girl Genius. Girl Genius has an artistic style that perfectly matches the thematic content, which is… Hmm. I’d tell you what it’s about, but I won’t because I don’t want to give anything away, it’s all too awesome for me to risk messing it up. Suffice it to say that it’s relentlessly silly, (though with some serious themes about identity) manically detailed, and there’s always a reasonable likelyhood that someone will throw a bomb at you.

Not my character. This lady belongs to Joe England over at Zebra Girl. I heartily recommend giving his comic a read. The writing and plot starts off a bit sitcom-y, but he finds his feet after a bit and then things get interesting. The art starts off pretty good and gets pretty damn good. Not even close to my style, but inspirational nonetheless.  I also love the recent turn he’s taken toward, well, going balls to the wall with his art.

Besides, I’m obligated to like anyone whose avatar of choice is a pissed-off bunny.