Update #18 - October 2020

Hello, Patrons!

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you to my newest patrons: Ninna and Alec Breslow!

Thank you all so much; it really means a lot to me to have your support!!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

It was my birthday this month! I turned 27.

As I have the past several months, I've been rollerskating! This month, I've made a lot of new rollerskating friends thanks to the new western Massachusetts chapter of Communities In Bowls. Previous to this, the closest chapter was in Boston, a two and a half hour drive away.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

As a birthday gift to myself, I took a break from my diary comics to participate in Kloktober, a 31-day prompt challenge taking place during October, centered around the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse. 

You can view all my Kloktober entries in chronological order here.

I started thumbnailing my drawing for Day 1 (being a dick) on the last day of September. 

I was nervous about including five figures in the composition (something I ended up doing many times), and considered including Murderface only via framing device. I ultimately decided against doing so. 

I think it was a good decision to spend some time looking up reference photos and mapping out that three-person braid. 

Ballpoint pen sketches of Pickles the Drummer, William Murderface, and... Pickles the Drummer kissing William Murderface. The pose in the bottom-left is what I used for Day 2 (OTP).

Drawing two characters kissing... is difficult. Not only is drawing two characters interacting exponentially harder than drawing two charactrs not interacting, I also get very embarrassed. I'm embarrassed just typing this. 

Looking back on these first Pickleses and Murderfaces, I definitely see the difference between how I drew their faces at the beginning of the challenge vs towards the end. 

More possible thumbnails for Day 2.

Some Among Us doodles for Day 3 (outer space). I was playing a lot of Among Us and had a bunch of ideas for Dethklok playing Among Us. I'm surprised I fit in as much as I did; this essentially ended up being a seven-panel comic.

Thumbnails and exploratory doodles for Day 5 (nightmare). I knew I wanted to do something involving Nathan and and his prophetic dreams featuring whales, but it took a bit of tinkering at the thumbnail stage before found a composition I was happy with.

More thumbnails and value studies for Day 5 at the top of the page. Day 5 was the first illustration I produced during Kloktober that I considered portfolio-quality, and it was a huge confidence boost for me.

On the bottom of the page are thumbnails and rough designs for Day 6 (role reversal). Although I'm happy with the finished product (not to mention, a two-panel comic involving six figures is pretty ambitious for a daily challenge!) it was too big for my scanner and the image quality got crunched somewhere in the process of stitching it back together. 

Color studies for Day 6, plus some exploratory doodles for a bonus drawing involving early concept art versions of Charles Offdensen and Pickles the Drummer.

Lots happening on this page: there are thumbnails and exploratory doodles for Day 7 (drunk), Day 8 (prophecy), and more thumbnails for the Concept Art Offdensen x Concept Art Pickles drawing.

Day 8 is one of my favorite pieces from the entire month. You can't tell, but the kneeling figure on the steps is supposed to be Offdensen in his High Priest of the Church of the Black Klok robes.

Some sketches of Abigail (and Rachel, who didn't make it into the drawing) for Day 10 (Abigail Appreciation Day), and some thumbnails for Day 9 (your fave AU). Day 9 is another favorite from the month; it came out almost exactly like I was picturing it.

Some gesture drawings to work out Magnus' pose in Day 11 (fighting), and some exploratory LadyKlok doodles for Day 12 (ladyklok). 

It didn't come out perfect, but I'd had the general idea for Day 11 in my head for a long time, so it felt good to finally get it out on the page.

More pose ideas for Day 12, after I'd decided I wanted to go with Lady Murderface. I ended up going with the leftmost one, but I also really like the one in the center. I'm not in love with the finished product; it was one of those drawings where the entire thing felt like an uphill struggle for no good reason.

Thumbnail and pose explorations for Day 13 (playing music). I knew right off that I wanted a three-tier composition with Nathan in the foreground/lowest tier, the string section in the midground/center tier, and Pickles in the background/upper tier. 

More thumbnails for the individual components of Day 13's composition; at this point, I knew my overarching plan and what performing stances I was going to use, but each of the individual tiers needed a little exploring to make sure everything looked right. 

This is another favorite from the month. It was an ambitious composition, but it went incredibly smoothly.

The drawings in purple pen are exploratory sketches and thumbnails for Day 14 (pre-klok). I know I have a lot of favorites from the month, but if I had to choose only one, it would probably be this one. I'm incredibly proud of it. While figuring out how to draw the interior of the bus, I was reminded of a time many years ago when I'd struggled with drawing bus seats... I think I've improved a bit since then.

The drawings in pink pen are sketches and possible poses for Day 15 (sweater). I saw at least two other people draw Toki in that exact sweater I have him in on the far left; great minds think alike!

Color palette decisions for Day 14. I'm glad I didn't go with my first idea; the purple and yellow turned out gorgeous. The two purple balls were to decide whether or not to use an alcohol marker on top of the color pencil rendering. 

Exploratory sketches, thumbnails, and color concepts for Day 16 (klokateers). I like the concept I eventually hit on, but I feel like it could have been executed better. Also, the sticker that came with my mail-in ballot.

Above, in the Col-Erase pencil, exploratory sketches of Abigail and Rachel's poses for Day 18 (time travel). I relied heavily on Merchant Ivory's English Landscape: Rooms, Views, and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by John Pym, which, while not a primary source, I do love using as a visual reference for Edwardian costume design. I like Day 18 a lot; the clothes were fun to draw, and I'm happy I managed to work Rachel into one of the pieces.

Below that, in the ballpoint pen, brainstorming for Day 19 (90s fashion). I didn't have a clear direction in mind, and I think the final illustration suffered for it. I do like the Pickle in the very bottom-left , though.

Thumbnails, the actual drawing, and color concepts for Day 20 (working). I'm not in love with how this one came out, but it's not terrible either.

Exploratory sketches and thumbnails for Day 21 (childhood/hobbies). Another one I'd had in my head for a long time. My two big head-canons concerning Offdensen are that 1: he's trans and 2: he played flute as a child. This incorporated both of them. 

I drew this one on a day when I'd filmed an entire studio vlog, which I intended to post on my youtube channel. Unfortunately, something went wrong; after I'd finished editing the vlog, I was unable to export the video. To boot, I can no longer open iMovie on my laptop, so all videos from here on out are going to have to be edited by my partner, Aidan.

I absolutely LOVE Shakespeare so it was very hard for me to settle on an idea. Day 22 (Shakespeare) ended up being a seven-panel comic, assigning some of Mercutio and Benvolio's lines from Romeo and Juliet (act three, scene 1, to be specific) to Pickles and Offdensen. (I really wanted to use Pickles and Murderface, but I just couldn't rationalize Murderface as a match for Bevolio, while Offdensen fits the character perfectly.)

I ended up trimming out some of the play's text to make the dialog fit the panels better. It took a lot of thumbnails to figure out how I was going to lay the page out.

Above, in purple, more exploratory sketches for Day 22. The poses in the fourth and seventh panels were tricky and took some legwork to figure out.

Below, in pink, brainstorming and thumbnails (and also the final product) for Day 23 (snow). Part of me wants to go back and add snow to Day 15 so the two can be a matching set.

Poor Amber didn't get much planning for the one piece I worked her into, but I still think Day 24 (formal wear) came out pretty ok. The fake text message I put in the caption is what really made it, I think.

Thumbnails for Day 25 (Dethklok music genre switch) are also scattered around this page. 

Thumbnails and exploratory doodles for Day 26 (sacrifice), Day 27 (favorite Dethklok song), and Day 28 (scene from fav episode). 

Spending so much time on Day 22 and Day 25 had put me behind schedule, and I was trying to scale down my ideas so I could catch up.  I do like how all three of these turned out, though.

In blue, planning for Day 29 (gods). At this point I'd drawn each of the members of the band many times, and didn't need to do to much preparatory work outside of deciding on the general composition. I wish I'd pushed the color palette farther, and maybe added some rendering, but I was still behind and just didn't have the time or energy. It still came out well, I think.

In pink, plans for Day 30 (Halloween!). I considered a Facebones jack-o-lantern, but didn't think the idea was worth pursuing. I went with my only other idea, which was dressing Dethklok up as the gang from Scooby-Doo. I hadn't really expected that idea to be a winner, but the characters matched up better than I expected. At this point I was very tired, so I went straight into the final drawing with very little planning, allowing myself to be the most cartoony I'd been with my style all month. I think it came out really cute.

I didn't do any extra planning for Day 4 (villains/family), Day 18 (birthday), or Day 31 (your choice of topic). 

Day 4 was a video that I'd wanted to do for a while but hadn't gotten around to finishing; most of the art for it had already been sketched and lined, and just needed to be colored. 

Day 18 was an actual get well card that I scribbled on top of with a sharpie. It was  fun and in character, but also a way for me to grab a much-needed rest day.

Day 31 was drawn at 1am on November 1st (it was still technically October on the west coast! it counts! it counts!!), and was just my usual Corvid covered in banana stickers. Despite being one of the pieces I put the absolute least effort into, it was the second-most popular piece of the month.

Before I wrap this section up, some quick stats!

Characters drawn, and how many times I drew them:

• Pickles the Drummer: 20
• William Murderface: 11
• Nathan Explosion: 11
• Skwisgaar Skwigelf: 10
• Toki Wartooth: 10
• Charles Offdensen: 9
• Abigail Remeltindrinc: 2
• Magnus Hammersmith: 2
• Seth: 1
• Metal-Masked Assassin: 1
• Amber: 1
• Rachel, from the season two episode Klokblocked: 1

Five most popular Kloktober posts, judged by amount of notes:

• Day 1 (being a dick)
• Day 31 (your choice of topic)
• Day 8 (prophecy)
• Day 14 (pre-klok)
• Day 9 (your fave AU)

My five favorite Kloktober posts:

• Day 14 (pre-klok)
• Day 25 (Dethklok music genre switch)
• Day 22 (Shakespeare)
• Day 9 (your fave AU)
• Day 8 (prophecy)

I had a lot of fun doing Kloktober, and I feel like I really stretched my limits as an artist, and I also loved getting to see all the incredible work others posted in the tag! 

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe  - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

This is one of my all-time favorite books. I put a hold on it a while back after hearing that there would be a sequel. I took yet another break from Springsteen‘s autobiography to listen to it, since it’s an in demand item.

I feel like I always uncover new things about the characters when rereading this book. It's very much a "show, don't tell" story; silence vs communication is a central theme, and what the characters leave unsaid is just as important as what they do say.

This book is both a comfort and an inspiration to me. There are certain parts of the story I tear up at no matter how many times I read it. Ari and Dante feel like such alive human beings. I'm very excited for the upcoming sequel.

The Wicked + The Divine - Kieran Gillian (Writer), Jamie McKelvie (Artist), Matt Wilson (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

I had read previously as far as had been released, up to volume three. All four volumes, plus a collection of bonus comics, have now been fully released.

I LOVED this series. It was really REALLY  R E A L L Y   G O O D.

One of my chief worries was that a comic that is this high-concept, is this world-building-heavy, and has this many moving parts wouldn’t be able to stick the landing and wrap everything up, but it did. Absolutely nothing in this behemoth of a story was wasted, and every character in the diverse cast was treated with the consideration and respect they deserved.

It occurred to me halfway through Kloktober that as a fan of Metalocalypse, it shouldn’t be surprising that a story about musical performers who are also gods would appeal to me so much. I also for sure looked to this comic throughout the month for ideas on how to stylize certain things, like the blood splatters on Magnus on Day 11, the dethlights on Day 29, or the pink-and-red limited palette I used in multiple compositions.

I am now rereading it a chapter at a time, alongside the authors notes, which are dense and extensive, but super informative. For me, this comic is up there with Watchmen in terms of being a masterclass in what the comics medium is capable of. Reading the notes, it becomes even clearer how this could only be accomplished by a talented team (writing by one, sketch/lineart by one artist, coloring by another, lettering by yet another), each of the four working at the top of their game. It’s intimidating, but incredibly inspiring.

Frankisstein - Jeanette Winterson (cw: discussion of violent transphobia and corrective rape)

Jeanette Winterson is an author I’ve heard lauded for Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by friends and mutuals whose opinions I greatly respect, so I had very high hopes for this book. It was, unfortunately, an enormous let down.

Quick tangent before I really rip into this: the British narrator trying to do American accents was very funny. Even though the book as a whole disgusted and disappointed me, I did enjoy that.

The text ambitiously tries to weave together a narrative that discusses sexism vs feminism, marxism vs commodification, humanity vs transhumanism, historical politics vs modern politics. I don't feel it was successful. It might have been better to focus on exploring one theme well, rather than trying and failing to gesture at the interconnected web of violence that encompasses all of them. 

The story is split between a historical fiction plotline about Mary Shelley, and a modern speculative fiction plotline about her descendant, Dr. Ry Shelley. Both plotlines had pacing issues, the modern one especially so; it had a tendency to jump forward to the next important part, then linger, then jump forward again. I got the distinct feeling that the author already knew which scenes she was excited to reach and wasn't interested in building up any substantial amount of connective tissue between them. Even within the scenes, the characters would appear and begin speaking about topics the author wanted to explore in unnatural ways. The book was involved with its own themes and high concept ideas, but didn't put in much work to invest the reader in them.

This book took a VERY different approach to erotic scenes than Confessions of the Fox, which I read last month. It doesn’t feel at all like it was written by a trans man. It bothered me that the trans character narrator explained the ins and outs of his trans body in his internal monologue, in a way that felt very much like it was intended for a cis reader who is unfamiliar with the process of medically transitioning. Both the other characters and the author seemed fixated on his genitals, which did make me fully realize in retrospect how relieving it was that Confessions straight-up refused to allow the reader to know certain things about it's trans character's body. Where Confessions was a difficult read because it was tackling hard questions and discussing uncomfortable subject matter, Frankissstein was a difficult read because every single character was consistently horrible to the trans character, and getting through all the deadnaming and misgendering and transphobia was a huge drag. The way his gender and physical transition was used as a point of argument when discussing A.I. and trans-humanism could have really been interesting, and probably would have, if this had been an "own voices" novel, but the actual execution was sloppy at its best, outright offensive at its worst.

Finally, I was taken off-guard by a very sudden transphobic, violent rape scene that takes place when the trans character uses a men’s restroom. Prior to this scene, I’d already felt that this book was a book about a trans man character that was ultimately intended for cis readers, rather than for trans readers. The rape scene in particular passed by the land of “kind of rough to listen to but handled with respect and compassion” that Confessions occupied and into the territory of “genuinely triggering and ghoulishly voyeuristic of trans pain.” I really can’t emphasize enough how horrifying and out of nowhere it was. The scene concludes with the trans character sitting on the ground sobbing and reflecting on how this has happened before and how there’s nothing to be done. Then we unceremoniously switch back to Mary Shelley’s plotline (who, as a cheery palette cleanser, is busy contemplating her grief over the deaths of her children), with no comfort or protection offered to the trans character or the trans reader. When the narrative switches back to present, we move right along to speculation on robotics as if the rape scene had never happened, underlining how little of a point there was to it, which was the final kick in the metaphorical dick. I ultimately was unable to finish the book because of this scene, something I almost never do, as this scene was triggering for me in a very literal way. It took me several days to get over the physical trauma response symptoms. 

I looked into the authors own views of trans people after this. Although she signed a letter condemning J.K. Rowling's transphobia, she also seems to be of the opinion that trans children don't know what they want and should be prevented from transitioning until later in life. 

This book was awful, and I would not recommend it to anyone.

THIS MONTH’S MUSICAL JAMS

I've been listening to a lot of slowed and reverbed pop songs. I find them fun to skate to, and good for putting on in the background while working.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk to me about, do leave a comment below!

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave