A quick 2023 wrap-up, plus a look at what's coming up in 2024!

So, yeah, thought I'd write up a few words about my favorite pieces here from the soon-ending year of 2023. Alas, most of my fave illos were from my ultimately doomed attempt to puzzle out a viable "hybrid workflow" on fantasy test project The Chaste and the Chained:

Most of my Chaste art tests (as seen mostly by the $3+ tiers) produced adequate-looking results, but were far too slow and frustratingly time-consuming to produce on a regular basis, with the nightmarish double-page spread below quite possibly representing the most worktime-intensive image of my entire g-d career:

At least the final Chaste piece in the gallery was produced entirely digitally, which remains very likely my only way forward in terms of books I might theoretically draw myself:

I'm still far, far off from having a viable digital workflow figured out, either; as I've mentioned before, I'm very likely going to look for another artist to draw The Chaste and the Chained in the near future, as I have plenty of stories featuring this starcrossed couple ready to roll right effing now.

I achieved decent enough artwork results with the Clip Studio Paint test illo below from other fantasy project The Last Party:

...but once again, the production process was just too damn slow to be workable.

'Twas a nice experiment, but I'll need to completely reconceptualize my approach to doing comics artwork from here on out if I'm ever to write and draw an ongoing series again. (More on this matter next year, needless to say.)

So, you can expect to see more developmental work on The Last Party next year, even if my current workflow tests have all been failures.

Ah, but my script and roughs on a now-defunct Street Fighter one-shot this fall got me charged up again about writing-only projects:

...with the rest of my too-tight thumbnails for this canceled Juri story to appear here in January.

This experience inspired me to forge ahead on writing-only comics efforts, even as my hopes for drawing a series myself remain stuck in neutral.

The closest project to actually getting underway is the so-called "As Yet Unnamed Fantasy Comic," which already posts 30-odd pages of great character designs from an excellent artist; I'm about to start scripting and roughing out the first issue (or chapter, as format is as yet undecided) next month, so you'll likely start seeing content ere long from this project, which is my bombastic take on the "fantasy RPG action-comedy" genre that was all the rage pre-pandemic. (Better late than never, I say!)

(One of my favorite art requests from the Big Spenders Exclusive Bonus Posts, by the way.)

I'm also pretty much confirmed to be writing (and possibly drawing) a Big Two short story revisiting a semi-recent project; while I'm at it, I'm almost certainly going to pitch the editor on a longer-form return to this IP. Unlikely, but worth a try; in any event, you'll likely see some work-in-progress images here in 2024.

Similarly, I'm also working up another writing-only Big Two pitch involving another older project, which you might see some sample work from here. Ooh, mysterious!

Meanwhile, plenty of Life Drawing will continue in 2024, prrrrrrobably with all-new sketch sets from here on out if time allows:

And the usual doses of Distressed Damsels content will continue, as seen in this Dirty Pair--- nay, Rose & Lily commission from earlier in the year:

...and this slightly cryptic in-joke of a Big Spender art request:

Vaguely disturbing that the elephant looked more striking than the damsel, but there you go.

Beyond that, Vintage Con Sketches, PSM Endpagers, serialization of my layouts for Unidentified SF-Adjacent Project (possibly aka I**n M*n: H*pervelocity), and updates on The Trouble with Emerald will continue. Not sure what else I might get up to, though I am definitely considering branching out with further attempts to monetize my body of work.  (More on this matter latter, natch.)

Anyhoo, that's all I got for you this mornin'. Thanks for your support, and I'll blither at you folks in 2024, okay?