Not according to plan

A few months ago I did a guest post on Matt William's blog about my new project, The Green Bull (a Wandering Koala tale). I was so happy with how The Caveman Conspiracy turned out that I decided to do another story in that style.

But a funny thing happened to me on the way to the forum (google it if you don't get the reference). The story grew from a manageble 8,000 - 10,000 word novella (the ideal size for such a venture) to over 16,000 words, a little long for that style. So I decided to make it a regular illustrated novella so it would meet the size limitations of ePublishing.

But that doesn't mean I've abandoned the format. Oh, no, my friends, I have many stories left to tell that will use either that format or a version of it.

Here's a sneak peak at a few of the illustrations:

And while we're on the subject, there's a new Wandering Koala comic available at no cost for a limited time on Amazon.com, Wandering Koala uncovers The Sixth Figure. Pick it up as a stocking stuffer for yourself!

Cards of Christmas Past (Part 3)

This was one of my earliest cards, but still one of my favorites. This was back in the day when I still mailed all my Christmas cards with a stamp, so much fewer people received it. Here's a chance for all those who missed it to enjoy!

Angels Heard On High

The old lady of eighty was home alone.
Being widowed and childless she sat
Watching the fire and stroking her cat
Wondering if the storm had stopped
And if the snow had piled so high
That it had buried her windows and doors.
Then she jumped in her chair startled at the sound
Of plastic and metal on concrete moving around.
Then peered out the window to examine the site
And realized the sound of walks being cleared that night
Sounded like angels she had once heard on high.

–Jeff Thomason, November 6, 2002

Halloween and the Return to Traditional

Fall is one of my favorite times of year. In this part of the world, the air is chilling, the leaves are falling after putting on a new shade, and the new TV shows are starting. And Halloween is right around the corner.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I'm not sure why. Is it the costumes? The candy? The Jell-O popcorn balls? The whole jack o'lantern, witches, skeletons, bats, cats, etc. that goes along with it? Probably a combination of all the above.

One of the things I love to do at Halloween is create Halloween-themed illustrations. Usually I get so busy that I don't start until the day before. Needless to say, I've created very few in the past.

But this year was different. This year I'm working on a new story that I've hinted about in other blog posts. But for it I wanted a more refined and higher quality illustration than I've used in the past. That meant I needed to draw more, but not just fun little sketches. I needed to draw great illustrations.

Recently I've been trying to move to a 100% digital workflow. There have been a lot of nice things about it, but the drawing itself just never seemed to be exactly what I wanted it to be. There is too much temptation to be sloppy, to just lay down lines and shapes without thinking them thru because they're so easy to change, and an overall lack of real texture. So I decided to try moving back to traditional media. And the results have been good. Really good.

I've been using a calligraphy pen, something I stumbled onto back in college when I was buying all sorts of art supplies to experiment with. On of the supplies was a calligraphy dip pen for lettering. For some reason I decided to try inking a drawing with it. And I loved the result. But I hated the mess. So I got a calligraphy pen with its own ink supply. I really liked how it crated shapes and how quickly I could ink with it. What I didn't like was the line quality. It seemed so lifeless. Over the years I experimented with other tools and other line qualities, but I never found exactly what I was looking for, not even in digital.

Recently I pulled out a calligraphy pen (not my original one, because that one had been stolen along with a lot of other things when the house I was living in was burglarized, but that's a story for another day...) and started to sketch. I really liked the shapes it made. This particular pen made a thin enough line that I had to go over it a few times to build up the thickness I needed. And in doing that, the line became more naturalistic and had some life. Was it the perfect line? No. Was it a great line that led to great illustrations? Yes!

Above and below you can see some of the recent illustrations I've been working on. None of them are mere sketches. Each has a mood, a background, and each tells a story. I even went back to my old black & white ways, something I haven't done recently but keep meaning to. The color is still laid in digitally, mostly because physical media doesn't scan as well as I'd like it to, although I think the oil pastels might...

Anyway, enjoy my latest work and return to physical media. And these are only the beginning.