MentalPablum

Looking forward to hitting comic shows over the next several months. I need to find some smaller shows to fill the gaps though. Sticking to NC region since I'm small time

Raleigh, NC March 17-18
Greenville, SC March 24-25

Chris

So, I was wondering to myself if there is value in posting sketches to DeviantArt. And when I say sketches, I'm talking about sketch studies from my sketchbooks and small doodles that I'll do from work on Post-it Note pads. The question is multi-layered which is why I'm having a hard time on my own answering it and here's why.

Things to consider:

• Do people visiting my page want to see more finished work? (i.e., completed inks and/or marker colored drawings)
• Do people visiting my page want to see any and all art and are more compelled to visit due to the characters in the title or tags? (because...)
• What drives traffic? Am I even being seen since I'm not a professional artist and I'm not Core?
• I know I'd like to offer commissions, but if I'm not gather followers why bother at the moment.
• What is the content people want to see? I'm a process junkie myself and love seeing very rough stuff, but if I'm trying to show what I'm capable of to affect the above bullet then maybe more finished pieces are the way to go.

And on and on and on. So that is what is going through my head. I am back to sketching every day, but I'm not doing finished work every day. I mean, I have a full-time gig and a family so drawing time is precious. It's easy to sketch while hanging with family watching TV or the like. Finished pieces take a lot more time.

Not to mention I really need to sketch and do studies more right now than try to draw finished pieces. After the layoff I've had there's rust. My drawings are stiff and I still waffle in which direction I want to draw. You know, that dreaded word...Style. I think I've finally decided to just do what feels more natural at this point and I'm not going to try to force myself to make a line look a specific way just because I like how so-and-so does noses or this guy does hands. I'm just going to try and figure it out as I go. So if I draw Captain America there might be either different directions I take it, because I'm searching for how I interpret the character.

Anyway, this has been therapeutic because I have no idea if anyone will actually read this. But if you do, please comment. Share your opinion. What do you think? What would you like to see? Any suggestions? Similar questions rattling around in your head? Let's figure this stuff out together.

Thanks for stopping by.

Getting back into posting and it's nice to have other options like Tumblr or Twitter to post work to. I just want to draw and I just need to draw. It's as simple as that. I'm so motivated by the other art I see with the use of Copic markers and the like. It all just makes me more excited to try and draw something to see what comes out of it. Drawing is learning every time you do it, so I'm looking forward to learning a lot. I have some art challenges planned out for me so with things settled into the new house and my son going off to college the plan is to whip some stuff out.

Hopefully more people come along for the ride.

I will get back to my nostalgia run, but have had a few commissions come in that I am taking care of as time permits.

Other life craziness happening includes prepping my son for college applications, hosting an exchange student from Germany and renewing my wedding vows with my wife of 20 years.

So after a Batman piece and another World of Warcraft piece I'll get back to my nostalgia run. I have a pose for Rainbow from the DNAgents all lined up and ready to go.

Okay, so I think I've talked myself into working on some art that I've dubbed my "Nostalgia Run". That means I'm going to look at those comics and characters that I grew up on that maybe not everyone remembers because they were put out by someone other than the big two. I'm not sure I remember all the obscure stuff I read so if you all could provide some help maybe I'll add them to the list.

Here's some example titles/characters. Let me know if you can think of any others.

• DNAgents (to include Crossfire)
  
• Captain Paragon and the Sentinels of Justice
• Southern Knights
• The Elementals
• Dreadstar (although I guess Epic counts as published by Marvel, but it was creator-owned work so I added it)

This is at least a start. Quite a few to work through as most of those are team books. I started looking for reference and was surprised how limited the choices were. Oh well, here go...