Really happy with the way it came out. Keep coming back to look at it.

I sent him a copy for feedback but lately he’s been as elusive as Aurora Giselle SanDiego, so I may not hear back for a while: you guys get to give the feedback.

I had the pose and a vague idea of the setting before I started. I only had to change it slightly so the scenery would make a little sense. You can’t make out much of the background in this scan but I think it may come out pretty well; someone who saw it at Sketch Nite said ‘that looks so peaceful; I wish I was there.’

So I think at least that part of it has the potential for success. Another thing I’m trying new here is the eye shape. Those of you who watch my stuff know that in general my eyes tend to suck. So last week I sat down with nine favorite artists—in alphabetical order, Blazingcheeks, Bravo, Captaingerbear, Greening, Kahmari, Khatoblepas, -Kronexfire-, Kuma, and Raccoondrew—and examined eye shapes in several of their pieces, copying out many. I have a whole sheet of eyes now, and I’ve learned a couple of things now for my own work: chief among which is that the visible part of the eye—or at least of the eye + lid complex in general—tends to be drawn with a shape leaning towards the triangular. This was entirely news to me. (I’ll probably post my eye sheet later.)

At any rate, I do like the eye I came up with on this piece, even if it does feel a bit toonier than my usual stuff.

I think Frank’s adorable. Haven’t finished striping his tail yet here.

Not happy with how Ralph’s head is coming out; I’ve redrawn it a few times already. Was joking at sketch night last night that maybe I could solve anatomy problems by putting a big fedora on his head. Or just wrapping him up in a burqa.

What I’d written so far hadn’t really given Iñigo much of a personality. I think he definitely has one now…

Before becoming a pirate I guess his name would have been Aureo.

So many skinny characters! Argh! And his head looks too big. Hmm.

Will probably color it eventually.

The hair in this shot is a little too short to get away with not drawing eyes. Will probably work on lengthening that hair some.

The logo on the baseball cap is that of the Chattanooga Lookouts. Though Ralph was born in Texas and Frank in Georgia, they grew up in Tennessee and still live there at the beginning of their adventures. In broad outline their home setting is the Ooltewah-Collegedale area, though the finer details of the geography of the area do differ a little (White Oak Mountain seems to be called ‘White Oak Hill’ in Turia, and I have no idea anymore what ‘Green Frog Mountain’ from the day of the naked hike is supposed to correspond to).

Did some more work on this. Realized Isaac’s position was entirely untenable, so adjusted it a bit. (He was half leaning on his side, but now he’ll be prone.) Also redrew his face some—I never could get the hang of drawing long muzzles.

Started work on finishing this one… just a bit of linework so far.

So, this is Fiordaliso, another of the Maltese Corsairs. I didn’t have his description on me when I started working on him at Sketch Nite in Boulder last week, so I’ll be making a few modifications when I get to working on him next.

According to the code, the description of Fiordaliso is “The night lookout is a small, scrawny fellow with scraggly whiskers. His fur is a dark blue-grey and he usually dresses all in black. There are three piercings in his right ear. You may not believe the stories about the first mate being part wolf, but every time you look at Fiord you can’t help but think the tiger may be mostly rat.”

Before becoming a pirate, his name would have been Giglio.

click for larger

And this would be the much-rumoured birdsona. This guy’s name is Careless Rook, and he’s a pied crow. I started drawing him at Sketch Nite in Boulder last week, but wasn’t able to finish it because I couldn’t conjure off the top of my head how bird wings and feet were supposed to look.