A Twist of Fett
Young John Connor really enjoyed the Star Wars movies. His mother, Sarah, allowed him this escape knowing full well the terribly difficult future that awaited her son. She was also very generous in helping John to amass one of the greatest collections of Star Wars action figures, vehicles, and play sets that any kid could ever hope to own. For all that generosity, however, there was something conspicuously missing from young John’s collection. John Connor had never owned a Boba Fett action figure of any kind!
Each year he would ask his mother for Boba Fett for Christmas and for his birthday… but each year, while she would buy him the most wondrous and rare of all Star Wars toys, she would never buy him a Boba Fett toy of any kind. John did have lots of other toys such as Play-Doh and Lego building blocks, and he had fun with those too, but oh how he longed for his own Boba Fett. One day, John finally spoke to his mother about this. “Mother, “ he started, “you bring me lots of Star Wars toys and I enjoy them all…”
“You’re welcome, John, I want you to enjoy your childhood as best you can before the machine apocalypse,” she replied.
“And I thank you graciously for that, mother, but why do you never buy me any Boba Fett toys? I so wish I had some of those too,” John exclaimed.
Sarah pointed towards the Play-Doh and the Legos, but John did not understand. “I will never buy you such a toy, John, you should know that by now,” she added.
“But, why, mom?” he asked.
“Because, John… you have all that you need right here,” assured Sarah.
Still confused, John looked around… and his mother could see that he had not yet learned the most valuable lesson of all… “If you want a Boba Fett toy, John, you will have to create one from the other toys I have given to you,” she commanded.
“I don’t understand,” John replied.
“There is no Fett but the one you make for yourself,” said Sarah.
‘Sects Saturday 02/18/2017
*When I was a kid, I definitely remember one year where we actually did leave the Christmas decorations up all year so that they were already up by the time the next Christmas came around. This strangely seemed to really bother some people.
‘Sects Sunday 01/01/2017
*In real life I have been sick on and off for a while now, really playing havoc with my ability to keep the comic on schedule and I didn’t want quality to suffer. One day I might tell the story of what happened during the impromptu hiatus… until then, we’re hopefully back to business as usual… complete with Buzz starting fires he shouldn’t be, and subtle New Girl references for people paying attention. 🙂 Oh, and there is really text on that newspaper… and no I won’t tell you what it says 🙂
Santa Clauses!
Continuing the Christmas theme… Santa dropped by early for an extreme closeup portrait but couldn’t decide whether he wanted traditional or digital illustration work… so I did both! First, the completely hand-drawn version (pencil sketch w/ color marker finish) on a 7×10-inch comic backing board:
I followed that up, using the above baseline, to create a completely digital rendering in vector format:
Typical for my illustration work, I like the cleaner lines and sharper colors in the digital version. I must say, though, that aside from lacking a good match for skin-tone in the hand drawn version… both of these look remarkably similar for a change. Basically it’s a testament to my liking the hand-drawn one enough that I didn’t feel like I needed to make major tweaks or corrections in the digital re-render.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Twice the Olaf for Christmas!
And now… for something more warm and friendly 🙂
I’ve watched Disney’s Frozen more times than I can count recently with my nieces and nephew… so I was finally properly inspired to try my hand at some new Christmas illustrations. For Olaf I actually liked him so much I drew him twice! First, a completely hand-rendered illustration from pencil sketch to color marker finish on a 7×10-inch comic backing board:
Then, using the above as a baseline… I re-rendered completely digitally as a vector illustration:
The lines are cleaner in the digital version, and the colors are sharper. I also was able to more easily add in some shadows and a few snowflakes to complete the image. I personally like the digitally finished one better, but starting with the hand-drawn one allowed me to hopefully carry over most of the organic nature of the character.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Donny the Snowman
Profound apologies to Frosty the Snowman… but last month I had this idea for a Christmas mash-up… inspired by true events, ripped from the headlines as they say. 🙂 I wanted to get this one up before the holiday weekend and in honor of today being the day the Electoral College casts votes for the presidency.
The little things please me the most. I like how the magic twinkle effect around Donny is bringing him to life after the magical toupee is placed upon his head… and I like how disturbed that little girl truly looks. Her look in particular was referenced from the actual proper cartoon where she is cold and shivering while Frosty is seeking to save her from the cold at his own peril. I though that expression worked well here in this context. Meanwhile, Donny’s dialog is a riff on how Frosty always exclaimed, “Happy Birthday” every time he was brought to life. Donny says something far more tragic every time he comes to life. 🙂
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
‘Sects Thursday 12/08/2016
*This has a neater effect than I originally planned… it’s like it compels you to contemplate its very existence. You can’t stop looking, I know it! 🙂
‘Sects Wednesday 12/07/2016
*Don’t worry, I’m not doing it again this year! It was really hard coming up with twelve horrible puns last year… so this year all you get is the Partridge on a pear tree. 🙂
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