I've got a project that I was looking to assemble for future convention sales and I'm looking to get some feedback on. I've mentioned in the past that I have several varieties of vinyl vehicle stickers done up in a very bold graphic style, but what I'm looking to do next would be a series of color illustrations that would require more up-close appreciation rather than the sort of long-distance viewing that a car placement might be. I want to be a little coy about what the illustrations would be *of* so as to not spoil the surprise but it'll be some character illustrations coupled with some short phrases and decorative font work.

My question for the audience is what sort of interest do you have for this kind of sticker work and where would you imagine putting it? I'm hoping to make a themed series of images so that there would be a variety of choices, a cost discount for bulk printing, and a discount for people buying the whole set. I've been looking at different production options to find out what the cost of making them would be along with what the markup would need to be, and what I've found is 3x3 inch sizes are the "normal" size expected... unfortunately I was planning more for a size of 6x6 inches. I'm still exploring places to make the stickers so hopefully I can find a good balance of price and that 6x6 size.

I'd love to get some feedback. Thanks!

I started uploading some more content to my ToonFox account here today and discovered that by complete coincidence I last uploaded anything there exactly three years ago today. Things got really disjointed in my life shortly after January 25, 2012 and I stopped updating that account, unfortunately. BUT, I resumed today, so go on and check it out:

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ToonFox

For those who haven't look at that account ever before, -that's where I've been uploading artwork that other people have made for me. Currently the content has been my convention sketchbook but eventually I'll post other things in my collection too. There's lots of entertainment to be found there so do take a look and if you find something you particularly like go to the original artist and let them know that you enjoyed it!

Probably going to be brief about this because I'm sitting at the gate in Dallas and boarding for my flight is in 40 minutes...

I've attended Further Confusion since... 1999 pretty much solidly through 2012 and I really missed it for the past two years. Circumstances kept me from going 2013 and 2014 so being able to go this year was great and I'd been looking forward to it for awhile. Thing is that the *experience* of FC for me is essentially the same as any other show that I attend, -I arrive early to my table on Friday and then sit there and draw and visit with new friends and old nonstop until closing on Sunday, so it's not the convention that's the attraction for me it's the people I get to see and the Bay Area that's the real draw. At this point I've got so much history with the convention and the location that part of my enjoyment is also just reliving memories of the past, so here's a quick rundown of some of the things that I wish I could do to make the FC experience complete:

-I want to drive up to San Jose from Los Angeles again and stop at Casa De Fruta and pick up lots of chocolate cherries and blueberries.

-I want to celebrate a good convention's sales on the drive back to LA by stopping at Harris Ranch on Sunday for dinner.

-I want to drive south to San Jose from Seattle and enjoy the mountains and snow passing through Oregon along with the view of Mt. Shasta.

-I want to chat up  Scott_Ruggels about various stuff and then spend another week learning Maya / 3DS Max again at his place.

-I want to hang out with  JoeArtGuy and muse about comics, animation, and movies.

-I want to gather with  RGibson,  Pallascat,  SteveGallacci,  Calicougar,  Dustmeat, and  Furtech in a room again to gaze at the collected loot purchased at the convention. I also want to have the finances again to purchase said loot.


....all of that isn't to suggest that I didn't enjoy myself thoroughly, -I did, just coming back to FC after a couple years absence reminded me of some of the things that made this show my "home" convention and why I always enjoy returning. One great thing I was able to do was make a trip on Sunday evening to an old Todai's restaurant (under new management but still... Todais) with  Calicougar,  Ajin, and  Siroc and that felt just like old times... good folk, and good food.

Other fun thoughts about FC 2015: Friday and Sunday the air conditioning in the dealer's room worked GREAT! Saturday it didn't but as I recall that's one of the frustrating recurring things about the convention, so I count it a positive that the AC worked properly for 2 out of 3 days. I also managed to get a LOT of artwork drawn in my personal con sketchbook... I'm VERY happy about that because usually I end up waiting until Sunday to ask people and that has ended up meaning I'll only get one picture drawn per convention. I think I got five or six pictures this year and I couldn't be happier about that. :D

Sales were decent for me and gave me some ideas about things I can offer for merchandise at future conventions. One puzzlement for me however was the lack of sales for the original artwork that Scotty Arsenault had sent me to display. I'd been browbeating him for years to either attend a convention or to send stuff for me to sell on his behalf and now that he's relented nothing at all sold... and I can't figure that out since if I had the money I'd buy it all myself. I'll be pimping his stuff for sure before I attend the next couple conventions because it really deserves to be seen and enjoyed by other folks. I WAS very happy to have my copilot  Calicougar again with me at the table as she makes any convention experience more fun for me and there's been a long string of conventions where I've had to handle the table solo.

Hmm... things are a blurring for me and my flight is boarding in 6 minutes now so I'll close out. Maybe I'll do another post like this with other details. For now I'll just throw out my thanks to everyone who I was able to visit with and who expressed their interest in my work both verbally and financially. I have high hopes of making it back to FC again next year. :D

I'm here at table 39 with Tracy and sitting next to Roz Gibson and Steve Gallacci. If you'll be attending do pop on by to say hello! And for an interesting new thing, I've got a folder of original art for sale on behalf of Scotty Arsenault, known for his webcomic at https://www.commanderkitty.com.

Have fun!

...if you're going to be attending then I'd encourage you to take a look at my wife's account as she's offering custom badges for pickup at the convention.

Lookit:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6405441/

I know I've mentioned it to several people and on Radio Unifurse, but I can't forget to mention it here as well:

 Calicougar and I will be attending Further Confusion in ten days in good old San Jose, California. For me this is a little like coming home because FC was my "home" convention from what... 1999 through 2012. Sadly I haven't been able to attend for the past two years for reasons but this year I'll definitely be back and I'll be doing my usual thing of convention sales / prints / stickers, etc along with Tracy's presence for similar output. I hope to see a bunch of you there and even if you don't want to buy anything feel free to say "hi".

Cheers!

I apologize for the quiet for awhile but I've been both busy and very stressed out. I'm poking my head out again to send word that I'm going to be in Chicago this coming weekend to attend the annual Midwest Fur Fest convention and this time I'll be accompanied by my wife  Calicougar :D :D :D :D If you haven't already seen Tracy's artwork please do check it out because she's definitely worth visiting and buy stuff from as she's both extremely talented and extremely fast at delivery too! She's also accepting badge orders for the convention and you can see a wonderful holiday themed example she put together for me here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15116664/

Tracy and I will be seated in Artist's Alley in the G rated section and we should be there all hours of the day Friday through Sunday. I'll be doing my usual thing of doing pencil, ink, and color sketches along with con badges. If you'll be attending please stop by to say hello as I love visiting with people!

http://youtu.be/l55LwfcPfWM

...well shoot, I guess I'm just too dumb to use the youtube embed link code for this website.

Just finished watching this:

http://youtu.be/h8j2zj-A5tE

...a speed run of Doom 2 and I thought it was great both for the inventiveness of the play through and for the (relatively) brief walk through of all the levels I remember so well from the game. As I watched I recalled a comment that one of the developers (John Romero?) had made about Doom that was so unique to the game and oddly not repeated in any of the modern sequels or really to an extent any "Doom clone" or FPS shooter at all; the crazy ninja-like ability to dance and weave through the carnage like you were dodging raindrops because of your movement. "Survival through agility" is so at odds to modern FPS games where "duck and cover" and cinematic set pieces coupled with storytelling pacing rules the moment. This agility wasn't a power up or cheat, it was something you had from the very second and while you may not have appreciated it as a beginner (and certainly not if you played in 1994 before every computer had a mouse) this video clearly shows just how thrilling and powerful movement could be in avoiding danger and reaching your goal.

But thinking again on that developer comment I wonder... is Doom 1 & 2 completely unique in this realm of survival-through-agility? Again this video clearly shows that no matter how ghost-like your speed and skill the game still stacks the odds heavily against you such that shootouts WILL happen, and really that's part of what makes the speed dancing aspect so exciting. You aren't facing five or ten opponents where you're expected to take damage during progression, you're facing dozens and DOZENS in a mob where your guided-missile-like speed is as much a key to your success as the amount of guns and ammunition you carry.

The only game that comes to mind that's a proper comparison to Doom 1 & 2 is Serious Sam, which completely replicates the run-and-gun you-against-overwhelming mobs, but I don't recall your player motion was quite so nimble in being able to literally run circles around your targets. I never played Serious Sam 2 or 3 (I should!) but I don't think those had the same motion capabilities either. For what it's worth I don't consider deathmatch shooters to be proper comparisons even though games like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament gave you similar levels of mobility the experience of playing against other people is quite a bit different than a single player level that's been crafted to be punishingly hard through numbers while multiplayer games are hard because of the skill of the players.

Of course as I type this I'm now reminded of the new game mode in Titanfall called Frontier Defense which is rather Doom-like in the way it places you (and three other players) in defense of a central point where varied mobs all rush and your supreme mobility is one of the big assets you have to make full use of your weaponry against the stacked odds.

Can anyone else make other suggestions of games that fit this mold? Does anyone else get a wonderful sense of enjoyment at seeing all those Doom levels again even though they're quite primitive compared to today's AAA efforts?

I am... still here. I've been both caught up in obligations and personal demons and I'm sorry I've kept some folks waiting. I've not intentionally gone underground, but there's been several outside projects along with personal milestones that I can't afford to displace. I hope to be more active here soon.

Hey folks, you might have some fun tonight watching an art stream that my wife is putting on. More information can be found here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6071821/

I'm looking forward to it! :) :) :)

So I've been a bit busy lately, but it's been a blessedly awesome experience. Starting June 25th I drove from Kentucky up to New Hampshire in one long 1000 mile run and then spent the following week visiting with Scotty, Brad, Jess, and Adrian and did my best to internalize some of the Flash animation techniques currently being used for television production (a bit of a different approach than what I'd done for years based on traditional animation techniques), and I feel like my time was well spent. New Hampshire offered a nice break from the summer temperatures of Kentucky and along the way I got to visit Maine again and to feast on Lobster Roll. mmmmmmm. I also got to see the biggest dog I've ever encountered... it would be no exaggeration to say this dog was more like a small horse, and I should know seeing as to the city I live in.

After New Hampshire I spent another day driving to Pittsburgh to attend the Anthrocon show where I got to meet up with... well, pretty much everyone on FA I guess. I met you, you, you, you, you and you, and you as well, and yes you too, and you and you and you and you, and before I forget, you too. Don't ask me how I managed to remember you all, my brain is just that big. For anyone who I owe artwork to, I'm back home with my workstation again so expect to get a message from me in the next day or two to find out if you'd like me to do your piece online during an art stream or if you'd prefer your picture on paper (which I might be able to stream but will be a little more hard to set up).

Anthrocon was a great show for me and I'm astonished to say that I doubled my previous sales record. I don't know what I can attribute that to other than the sense that a lot more people actually *bought* something from me instead of pleasantly saying "I love your work but I just don't have the money...". I was delighted and was impressed because for the first time ever someone actually tipped me. Definitely not something I was expecting but a nice little bit of extra "thank you" that means a lot. Kudos to Erika for sitting at my table and letting me spend some time looking about the Dealers Room where I got to say hi to a bunch more people who were also spending the bulk of their convention time manning dealer's tables.

After Pittsburgh I drove down to Charlotte to visit with Erika and Robert for a bit along with Erika's army friend (whose name escapes me now... sorry!) and while there I got to see How to Train Your Dragon 2, which was a surprisingly moving experience for me. I was completely taken by the story of Stoick and Valka's reunion which was played out in such genuine, lovely fashion that I almost wish they could have been the main characters. I'm so glad that Dreamworks is making films like this instead of the utterly forgettable pop culture jokefests of Shrek, Sharktale, Bee Movie, etc.

From Charlotte I flew to Los Angeles where I've spent the past month effectively. I used to live in LA from 1997 to 2004 and it felt like coming home, although when I last lived there the gas prices were more like $2.30 a gallon and it's now $4.59 a gallon in some places. I know LA is hugely populated but the gas prices there are no-shit predatory. On one street you can find a Chevron station selling gas for $4.09 and then less than a mile later on the same street another Chevron station is offering $4.39. On my gas price search software it showed a range of prices within a 2 mile radius from $3.79 to $4.59. That's opportunistic robbery there. And before someone chimes in again about the relative cost of gas between the US and Europe I know things could be worse, but taking advantage of the consumer is still spiteful no matter what.

California is also going through a serious drought which is plain to see from all the brown, dusty foliage that's withered, the grass that is fading, and the shockingly low lakes and water reservoirs. I don't know whether to be fearful about what the future holds but I know I'm glad to be back in Kentucky at least for the ability to stand outside during the rain and feel some relief from the heat.

Lets see, while in California here's some of the things I did (and forgive me the rambling nature of this next paragraph, -there's so much that I'm just going to put in single sentence descriptions: Stood underneath the planes landing at LAX. Visited my old office in Torrance along with my hangouts in the area. Stopped by Big Lou's Toys and Collectables in Culver City. Visited my old friends Shawn and Colleen at Playa Vista. Went to Disneyland for a day (Cars Land is amazing, especially at night, and Space Mountain is much better than the Florida version). Took my daughter to Legoland for her birthday (so nice to see the park from a kid's perspective after having gone there by myself as an adult about ten years earlier). Went to Irvine three separate times to visit with my old colleague Lawrence, and again later to visit with Ajin, Adam, and Robert. Spent a day visiting with my longtime friend Georgia at Comic Con and later on my old college buddy Sean in Carlsbad. Watched Tracy and Samantha swimming in La Jolla. Got to visit with Roz, Scott, Tom, and Eric in downtown Hollywood and even got to watch the LAPD bust some folks on the metro train for not having a valid ticket (and hopefully for other reasons not announced). Met up with my old character design instructor Charles in Burbank for a great catchup on things while also trying not to listen too closely about the chemtrails that are harming the air. Visited Tracy's aunt and uncle in Palm Desert / Indian Wells where we melted in the humid 111 degree temperatures. Stopped by the gigantic dinosaur sculptures in Cabazon. Got to visit with Dave and Jonas in Pomona twice which was great, and also got to mess around in my old home neighborhood of Van Nuys, even to the point of having lunch at the 94th Aero Squadron by the airport. Drove up to Fresno to visit Tracy's cousin's and then spent a day on Lake Wishon which was blessedly removed from some of the nearby forest fires. The forest fires were hard to miss however at Eric's ranch though and my asthma was really bad as result, but at least I got some entertainment from watching Eric's border collies Tay and Tass, who were stellar examples of the intelligence the breed is known for. Then onto Oakhurst and Fishcamp, CA to see of Tracy's old haunts before making our way to the Tenaya Lodge where Tracy and I were married (and introducing Samantha to the place) and then finally to the Yosemite Valley which was also suffering the effects of the statewide drought but was at least somewhat clear of the forest fires due to rain the previous night. Drove then to Mariposa,CA, then onto downtown San Francisco where we spent a few hours wandering around the waterfront around Ghirardelli Square, then down to San Jose for the night to meet up with Anne and Russ. The next day we drove out to Half Moon Bay, then the coastline highway down to Santa Cruz before heading back up to downtown San Jose for dinner with Tim, Jimmy, John, Tugrik, Garth, Tracy, and Samantha. Lastly we beat feet past Casa de Fruta and Interstate 5 to LA so that Samantha could visit with more family members before our flight back last Friday the 8th.

The flight back was interesting because I was trying to use our accumulated miles with Alaska Airlines. For 50k miles we could have flown directly from LA to Charlotte, but we'd have had to leave on Tuesday the 5th. Instead we used 50k miles and Sam and I flew back to Kentucky on the 8th (with a nine hour overnight layover in Dallas, TX) and then I booked a flight five hours later that took me to Detroit for a layover before the connecting flight finally brought me to Charlotte, NC. Fortunately I like flying and Samantha got to watch My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Ponyo on the laptop so she was an agreeable traveler throughout.

While in Charlotte for the final part of the trip I helped out Erika taking photos of her newly complete costume project Oscar and Dodge, and I gotta say the results are very, very handsome and an impressive display of skill and handiwork. I look forward to seeing the eventual performance once she and Justin are able to don them together. Lastly I got in my car and made the drive back from Charlotte to Kentucky which was agreeably easy despite some intermittent rain and low cloud cover through the Smokey Mountains.

God I love travel. Thank you to everyone I got to meet along the way; getting to visit everyone has been the antidote to the rather hermit-like existence I've been living for the past year or so.

**edit** - Whoops! Forgot to mention that I'd also had the pleasure of meeting and drawing with Ryan as well down in San Diego. Too short of a meeting by far, but glad to have had the chance to stop by in the first place!

A friend of mine,  BlueCanary is finished with her epic costume projects that have been taking up all her free time and is available to do some commission art projects / badges. If you haven't seen her work before I encourage you to take a look as I've found it to be extremely charming and have a couple examples in my personal collection which always make me smile when I look at them. More information can be read on her journals here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6019652/
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6005994/

Give 'em a peep and see if you don't smile.

Cheers!

Is there something up with the double posts? I've made two double posts recently and I know I didn't do anything to prompt it. :/

**edit** - So on my playback devices I have *four* different "devices" for which I can select to output audio to. Three of them are labeled as SPDIF capable (1: "Creative SB X-Fi", 2: "High Definition Audio Device", 3: "High Definition Audio Device") while the fourth one just says "Speakers": "Creative SB X-Fi". I've been futzing around trying to get one of the three SPDIF devices to function properly since why not, -my audio card is using an SPDIF output to plug into the reciever... surely one of those should be correct. In fact the PROPER solution was to make the fourth choice the default device, -the one choice that has no listing for SPDIF connections. Where's the logic in that? What a strange thing too to have those other three devices function only partially while the majority of the sound goes nowhere. At least it's all resolved now and I've got things back to normal.

---

Does anyone know how to problem solve an issue involving an SPDIF connection on my computer? Before I left for New England everything was working perfectly. Now that I've hooked my computer back up to the sound system via the SPDIF cable I'm only hearing sounds via the Windows audio events. Everything else (youtube, winamp, itunes, media player, games, etc.) produces no sound, although the audio meter indicator tells me that the computer knows sound is actually being played. I get no errors, just no sound. If it weren't for the fact that Windows sound events still work fine I would have thought that a cable wasn't plugged in correctly or a driver issue might have been at fault.

...pardon me while I sleep for the next 17 hours.

...pardon me while I sleep for the next 17 hours.

Once again I find myself working until the wee hours of the morning on homework from the day's commissions at the convention. It's 4am and I'm doing the gamble that if I finish up as much as possible of the day's work that I'll be free to take on more work tomorrow. Usually the gamble is successful, and regardless it's worthwhile to me since I regularly enjoy the results of my efforts, but man... it's late. I'm going to wake in about three and half hours and as usual I'll manage my way through the day, but I'll undoubtedly be a bit spacey as the day continues onward.

My con experiences are largely the same one show to the next, but I always look forward to it, and as tired as I'll be in the morning I'll arise happy and full of anticipation.

Folks might know that I've been a sometimes-participant on Radio Unifurse for awhile now and if you're attending Anthrocon this weekend I've got some signed prints available for sale and the money will be going towards the fund raiser to get some necessary equipment to keep the show going. The general view of the print can be seen here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12508599/ but the actual print is signed by everyone involved with the show and the print ( Thorn drew the picture, I inked it, and  BlueCanary colored it).

Hope to see you all in the dealer's room! Today was great with lots of cool people stopping by and while I spent more time talking and selling than I did drawing I feel really good about how today transpired. Hopefully more to come tomorrow!

Yep, I'll be attending. Dealers table C05 which is located to the left and far back of the room when you enter. I'll have my usual stuff with me: vinyl stickers, some comics and our art book, original art, and my art supplies. Stop by and say hello! I'll be seated at the table essentially the entire time the dealer's room is open so there should be no difficulty in finding me.

Should be fun and I hope to see y'all there!

Yep, I'll be attending. Dealers table C05 which is located to the left and far back of the room when you enter. I'll have my usual stuff with me: vinyl stickers, some comics and our art book, original art, and my art supplies. Stop by and say hello! I'll be seated at the table essentially the entire time the dealer's room is open so there should be no difficulty in finding me.

Should be fun and I hope to see y'all there!

...for those who acquired Battlefield 3 recently when it was on sale for $0.00 you might recall that all the extra content that you could buy was still being sold at full price. Well, if you held off on buying it then the price is now $20, or half off. I still hold that you can get by just fine without purchasing the extra stuff, but there is a lot of things to do and play with if you are interested and the price is pretty good at $20, especially if you just got the base edition for free.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/.....ield-3-premium


...and as before, if you do get the game let me know sometime and I'll join up for a multiplayer match.

...put some flowers in your hair!

No, seriously, my wife  Calicougar will be attending Califur in Irvine this weekend and should have a table in artist's alley. If you're going to be attending look for her as she does great work in timely fashion. You won't be disappointed!

If anyone out there is interested in playing Battlefield 3 you can get the game for free right now and for the next week via the following link:

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/.....andard-edition

The game is technically old, but it's polished and fully entertaining as far as military shooters go, and you'll find *plenty* to keep you occupied if you do get it. If for some reason you don't have the computer horsepower to run it right now you might as well grab it anyway for the days to come when you can run it.

Naturally enough the extra game content isn't on sale, but honestly it is just extra stuff and not mandatory. And if you do pick it up let me know and I'll try to find an opportunity to join in a multiplayer match sometime.

There's some famous work done with long takes in movies these days, but how many people knew about Spielberg's usage of the technique? Neat stuff to watch:

http://videosift.com/video/The-Magi.....rgs-Long-Takes