New Mouse Guard Tee!
Starting at C2E2  this weekend I'll be selling new Mouse Guard tee-shirts. (This is a color mock-up, the shirts were not printed in time for the blogpost) There are already shirts available on CafePress, but I wanted to do a new design that was printed locally and that I could guarantee quality control on. We will make these new shirts available for order through mouseguard.net at a later date. We should have the shirts at C2E2 (because we are driving there) but instead of bringing stock of the shirts with me to my other convention appearances, I plan to have a sample available, and then we will take orders at cons, shipping the shirts once we are home.Small, Medium, Large, & XL will be available for $17 each.
I'll be reprinting this shirt if necessary to keep it in stock for a while, but my plan is to periodically introduce a new design after a print run starts to run low.

To create the shirt's image, I did a new design based on my German print design. I didn't want to just re-use the German piece though, I wanted a mouse with swords and a bird behind him that held no meaning to real-world nations. I drew the mouse and bird separately, scanned them to composite them into a single design, and then hand inked this artwork using a print out of the sketch composite as a guide.

Then I scanned my ink work and prepared a digital file for the printer. I wanted the mouse's inkwork to print one color with the bird printed a different color. I approached this the same way I approach color holds  making a layer for the mouse and one for the bird. I deleted the original ink artwork scan layer so the separate mouse & bird layers are sitting on a transparency.

To show that layer break down a bit better, I've made this diagram. It shows that I only have 3 layers: 1) the mouse's outline, 2) the bird's outline, and 3 a background layer. On the mouse & bird layers, there is nothing but their outlines, the space all around them has been deleted to transparency.

C2E2 Info Dump:
-I have a signing every day at the Archaia booth (529)
Friday: 5-6
Saturday: 12-1:30
Sunday: 1:30-3

-I have a panel on Friday at 2:45-Archaia Presents where I'll talk about Black Axe and Legends of the
Guard v2 (and reveal some pages from contributors) Room S501abc

-Another panel on Sunday at 10: 45- Archaia Presents: Better Stories Through World Building with Sean Rubin & Jeremy Bastian. Room N427bc

-Otherwise, I should be at my artist alley table: E11
selling prints, sketchbooks, original art, bookplates, tee-shirts, and taking commission requests (first come/first served each day. No pre-lists made, $200 fully inked 7" x 7" on 12" x 12" bristol. No mice-as-other character requests please)




C2E2 Charity Auction:
While in London I did this piece for the C2E2 charity auction to benefit St. Jude Children's hospital. I did a Ustream brodcast as I drew and inked this piece from my London hotel room, looking out the window for design cues for the lantern and column bases, and now it can be yours! Here are the details on the auction. Happy bidding!





2012 Appearances:
C2E2: April 13-15
Boston Comic Con: April 21-22
FCBD: Jetpack Comics: May 5th
Heroes: June 22-24
San Diego Comic Con: July 11-15
Baltimore Comic Con: Sept 8-9
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28