Baby you could sit and hope that providence will fray the rope

Two Wonder Womans! One for Women of Wonder Day...


...and one will be auctioned along with some other Periscopers' artwork for Dylan Williams of Sparkplug (you can also catch the end of Floating World's fundraiser for him today).

Try not to panic

It's been an unusually long absence for me here--3 weeks! I have been guh-rinding on my can't-show-you projects, with the exception of yesterday when I took the whole day off, got a massage, walked around in the sun, and went to dinner. The graphic novels are coming along (I'm nearly at the halfway point with them both), and the children's books are in their final edits. Soon, soon there will be things to show!

Oh! And Eric Stephenson mentioned this in an interview last week: Between Gears will be published by Image in early 2012!!!! So there's been some necessary prep for that, even though the comic is done, to design the book and extras and such.

For now, please accept these early pencils for two side projects:



It's Monsters & Dames submission time again! I'll post all of the process sketches for this eventually; it went through a lot of different versions before I drew this. I still want to change several things...


Pencils for Women of Wonder Day, previously Wonder Woman Day. You can draw any empowering female character this year, but someone's gotta represent WW ;) As always, I encourage all artists to submit artwork for this! It will be accepted, it will get exposure, and it will raise money for an awesome cause.

Change their minds and change the world

So, how much did I love Wonder Woman Day?



It was AWESOME, and I didn't even walk around or bid on things! Some quality people at that event. Quality conversations were had. Kudos to all involved for putting on a great day of fun and awareness. Early estimates put $ raised in Portland at $22,000!!!!!

Some nice people let me photograph them with things that I drew:



(Thanks to Justin Zimmerman for scanning this!)



My Eve for this Eve-themed sketchbook turned out pretty evil-looking! Like she knew exactly what she was doing. :P

There was a team at Excalibur filming for this documentary. Jen Stuller won one of my art pieces in the auction, and I got to meet her and hear about the project. Very cool; I want to see the finished film!!

I also got to catch up with a comic-nerd-comrade from UO and do a sound bite for the new website NerdStock Comics!

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And sidebar -- Oh em gee, this is fantastic:

A prize in every pack

You've still got a couple of days to get a piece of my original art on the cheap, and support a great cause while you're at it! Wonder Woman Day bidding goes on online until Saturday at midnight, and continues live at Excalibur Comics on Sunday. There are currently no bids on my grayscale piece, and the watercolor piece is going for $15.

Wonder Woman Day 5 Signing!

The poster has just been released for Wonder Woman Day (Sunday, October 24). I will be signing and sketching from 12-6! Come on down!! :D


I believe that the free print for my station will be the piece that I donated last year:


And do remember to bid on pieces if you can! There are some GORGEOUS donations...I love the ones from Terry Blas, Veronica Hebard, and Conley Smith.

I have 2 pieces in the auction:

I wish a falling star could fall forever

Terry Blas's awesome comic Briar Hollow updated on Sunday with a piece of fan art I did for Sam.

Also, I scanned in the Copic marker Wonder Woman I made as a warm-up for WWD (it turns out it is okay to donate, though it is a nonstandard size, so it will be a part of that auction in October).

All you do is fill me up with doubt

I have easily listened to this song 100 times in the last 48 hours. Somehow, magically, it never gets old.





I'm still working on a Wonder Woman Day piece, character designs for several projects, and Between Gears. I started work at the zoo last week, and didn't draw at all Monday through Friday, but I hope to force at least an hour each day after work this week. Things are adding up quickly and could get very tight next month. I also found a place to live and will move in September 4th, and I still need to find a day job. Busy, busy, busy!

I'll be bulletproof

It's that time again, guys - time to get ready for Wonder Woman Day! Andy Mangels has sent out the call for art donations, and I hope that those of you who draw will consider making a piece for the auction. I participated last year and am excited to do it again. This time, I may actually be able to go to the Portland events. :P

This short video from last year sums up the charity:

So make a move cause I ain't got all night

There's a nice article up on Neighborhood Notes today by Jamie Rich. He interviews Wonder Woman Day founder and organizer Andy Mangels, current Wonder Woman artist Aaron Lopresti, Emi Lenox, and myself about Wonder Woman, the charity, and the art that we contributed.

I am trying to draw as much as humanly possible today. Recruitment is over, but school continues to kill my drawing time day after day, and my very good friend Molly will be visiting and having super fun times with me this weekend. Art must happen today!!!

So far today, I've inked a few pages from the project I am doing with Jake Ingman. Next is Between Gears, then some more coloring on the Monsters & Dames piece. Lately, I feel like I'm getting nowhere, no matter how many hours I find for art, but I am going to change that! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, lalalalalala~

She's thinking 'how did I get here?'

I wasn't able to be in Portland for the Amazing Amazon First Thursday event this week, which showcased Wonder Woman Day contributions, but Matt Grigsby was nice enough to e-mail me some photos from that night!



Art always looks better framed by two handsome men! :P (Matt's site, Terry's site)



Matt and his ink wash painting.



Terry and his mixed media painting.



They hung my piece next to Alex Ross's!! I'm not sure whether or not you can see it in these photos, but the gallery had the glass for each piece uniquely engraved! Mine has butterflies on it.

A lot of people who I mention on this blog, and whose work I really admire, are in this gallery. I hope I can make it to Portland sometime during October to see, and I hope that you can as well!

Tell me why you're staring

Wonder Woman Day is coming up, and the Lara Sydney Gallery in Portland is hosting a show with several of the donated pieces from the WWD charity auction. Mine has been chosen as one (bottom left of the promo card!), and I just thought I'd let y'all know in case you happen to live in Portland or will be there over the month of October. :)
Also, if you are interested in buying any of the donated pieces, I'm told that the ones at the gallery will have a "buy now" price, so they might not make it to the silent auction, let alone the online auction. If you have your heart set on one, make sure to go to the show opening on October 1st!

Don't believe in anything that you can't break

I updated Between Gears tonight with 3 new pages. I need to simplify...those pages take longer than they should for a page-a-day schedule...

Exciting news: my piece for the Wonder Woman Day 4 charitable auction was chosen to be in the Lara Sydney Gallery in Portland this month! There will be a reception on First Thursday (October 1) if anyone wants to go see it. Many of the contributing artists will be there to talk about their work and socialize (I wish I could go, but I need to be here). I believe pieces in the gallery will have a "buy now" price on site, and will go up for silent auction on the 25th if they are not bought (and then go to an online auction if they aren't bought on the 25th).
Also, organizer Andy Mangels called to give me details, and mentioned that one of the charities that WWD benefits used my art on their newsletter this month!!! I am so excited that it's of use to the charity at all, let alone appearing in other places!

Work Week started yesterday! 9-5 training in the name of Pi Phi. <3 I'm actually loving the social warm-up and getting to know the new members.

Sing P-O-N-Y-O!

UGH. SO BAD. I was listening to the English version of Ponyo's theme song IRONICALLY and Disney's voodoo magic made me actually LIKE IT.


Wonder Woman Day 4 by ~Tallychyck on deviantART
Here be the finished piece! (A photo, sorry for the quality!!) Please support Wonder Woman Day (on October 25) this year by submitting art, bidding on art, attending the event, or just picking up Wonder Woman and giving her story a try!

To get the galaxy without using whiteout, I tried some 'drawing gum', which I assume is just masking fluid in disguise -3- I tested effects like masking out on scrap from the same watercolor paper to make sure they worked:


Success! On to masking everything!!!




Ahhh, it is a glamorous life, this. <3

Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

Here's a digital mock-up for the Wonder Woman piece. I will watercolor it, but to help myself plan out color and lighting, I need to play around with it digitally first. Someday I hope to be able to visualize things in color, but right now my brain works in grayscale.
As you can see, there's a lot I need to leave white in the background. I'm testing out some drawing gum now on scrap paper to see how it holds up to a medium wash. So far, so good. I guess there's always white-out, but I don't like the bump that leaves...

I could stay forever leave right now it's your call either way

Progress photo for my Wonder Woman Day 4 piece (If you're an artist, consider contributing a piece!!). Overall, I like it so far despite some little quibbles. I have to touch up the inking, make the lines bold and crisp, and add some weight in certain areas, then it's on to color (plus, you know, backgrounds are a good thing). :P
I made one big mistake, though: Art Media was out of hotpress watercolor paper in the weight I wanted, so I went with coldpress. AGH. Too much texture!! My linework looks broken and fuzzy...I can't get the brush to move along without a drybrush effect.