These pictures are from a “nature walk” I took back in October while visiting family in Virginia Beach, VA.  Mother Nature never ceases to blow me away with her beauty.  It’s interesting however, for all our talk of environmentalism, and saving the earth, I notice less and less people every year enjoying the outdoors.  Bizarre.

This is a character sketch I did a couple of weeks ago when I was working on the Thomas of Cecil story (which concludes next week).  I hope you all are enjoying it.

For those of you that are keeping up with my personal life, I am happy to say that my back is much improved, and my mental state is also improving daily.

New to the Reader:

Misunderstanding Between Friends - an art comic about various subjects.

The Park - a very well drawn story about super heroes living in a trailer park.

Letters to a Wild Boar - an art comic that seems to be updating again (to my delight).

Sorry for the lack of blog updates last week, I was super busy, and didn’t get around to it.  More this week (fingers crossed).

Let me know how you are enjoying this series so far, and whether you not you like seeing these longer story arcs, or if you just like the stand alone comics.

Have a good week, everyone.

I have shied away from posting serial comics over the years, but this one seemed to need a bit longer than one page to flesh itself out.  This is part one of a three part series.  I hope you enjoy it.

New feeds:

Cardboard Armour - A clever comic about a lot of random subjects.  I have enjoyed the archives thoroughly.

Scalderville Illustration - Some very interesting illustrations that I have found inspiring.

Kate Beaton - There is something compelling about her line work.  The comics are fun too.

I have received a lot of encouragement from readers in the last week.  Thank you.  It is touching, and I appreciate it.

I’m still working on my yet-to-be-anounced second comic and a prized filled contest.  I’m thinking December.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, but I think it captures the season perfectly.

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me with encouragement me.  I have been going to a couple of different doctors, and I think they have a handle on what’s going on with my back.  Now my mind is another matter.

Well, I tried something really different with this one.  I attacked the page with no real idea what the final result was going to be.  I just started drawing on Monday and slowly let the comic’s point of view reveal itself throughout the week.  Let me know what you think.

I think I owe you all a bit of explanation about what the future holds.  I have hinted at a lot of things over the last couple of months, and none of them have come to fruition.  With that said, I am still working on the other comic project, and hope to have an announcement about it soon.  I also will be holding a contest in the next couple of weeks, that will offer a bunch of prizes and entertainment.

I’ve asked this a couple times now, and haven’t really gotten an answer:  Are you all enjoying the blog updates throughout the week, or do you find them to be distracting and/or a waste of time?

On a final note, I’m glad to see that my friend Adam is updating the Flowfield Unity again.

I hope everyone has a good week.

Here’s another image pulled from my sketchbook that I fiddled with in Photoshop.  I figured I’d post a little before and after.  I’m really trying to work with some of the texturing (not a word) ability in Photoshop instead of just flat colors.  I’m moderately happy with the results here, but I’m not sure about my process.  There’s probably an easier way that I’m not aware of.

New Feeds:

Animation Backgrounds - I stumbled across this yesterday somewhere.  A great source of inspiration.

Killer Spoons - Just plain fun.  Not always safe for work, however.

Finally, I thought this was a pretty good interview of Karl Kerschl over at the recently retooled Webcomics.com.

This is another goofy illustration out of my sketchbook.  I hope you all are enjoying these little distractions.

More new Reader adds:

Illustration Promo - a blog dedicated to showing artist submitted promos/mailers.  Very cool if you are looking for ideas.

Super Fogeys - a superbly drawn comic.  I haven’t gone through all the archives yet, but am dying to.

Unlingual - a fun “artsy” comic that is always well colored and always leaves me scratching my head (which I enjoy, by the way).

Sorry for the missed update on Sunday.  I had a bunch of stuff going on, and simply didn’t get the piece done.  On the bright side, I should have some blog/illustration posts this week.

New to the Reader:

Urban Sketchers - I stumbled across this recently, and love it.  It’s a collection of sketches by various artists of the cities they live in or visit.  It updates often, and I am at times blown away by the talent.

NOTE:  I took the above picture on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during a recent outing.

This is a doodle that was in my sketchbook, and I just jazzed it up a little bit with Photoshop.   I really have no idea what it’s about, however.  This has been a long week.  I was going to put up some links, but I am exhausted, so I think I’ll go to bed.