Red Tee & NYCC '12

"It Matters Not What You Fight..." Tees:
 The online store has now been updated with the new shirt design sporting the "It matters not what you fight, but what you fight for" motto. This shirt is available in Men's sizes from Small to 3XL, and in a Ladies cut sizes of Small to Large. There is sizing information on the items in the store. Big thanks to the Hannon Family for modeling the shirts for the blog & store. Mom & Dad Hannon ended up being the best representations of the shirts on adult frames, but all 3 Hannon kids helped out and are proud owners of these new Mouse Guard shirts.

For the design, I wanted a mouse that was more animated than the last shirt, but still worked standing in space with no background. I also wanted to de-emphasize the weapon in a way that still read as 'mouse with sword comic" but went further into explaining the sentiments of Mouse Guard. I started with a sketch of a mouse holding a ribbon banner that I would later digitally add the text to. When it came time to place the text, I discovered there was no way to make it work without some of the text reading backwards, but with careful placement of the important words, I was able to make it work even with the mirrored text. I printed out that rough & inked the piece (text and all) using the print out as a guide behind my paper on the lightbox. Picking from various pantone & color swatches from my local screen printer, I came up with my color mock and sent the files off to them.

New York Comic Con Info:
Next weekend (Oct. 11-14) I'll be at the New York Comic Convention in Artist Alley. I'll be at C18 in Artist Alley, but it's worth noting that Artist Alley is not connected to the main exhibitor show floor, and you will have to go to the North Pavilion to find all the artists in Artist Alley. For the show I'll be offering prints, bookplates, shirts, sketchbooks, and original page art for sale. My inked commissions have already all be pre-booked, but I will be doing watercolor commissions like these at the convention for $120 each (first come/first served). And of course, I'll be happy to sign any book I've worked on or do a quick sharpie doodle in your sketchbook (as long as the line is short)

Rand Painting:
As part of an auction to help St. Jude's Children's Hospital, this painting of Rand in the flowers will be up for bidding at the New York convention on Saturday from 8-10pm. So if you are attending the convention, please consider going to the auction and bidding on a lot of great original art from a who's-who's of the artists attending the convention. While I painted this piece earlier this month I streamed the work and you can go back and watch the live streams of the progress on this painting with part 1 and part 2


Watercolor Wednesday: 
Here are last Week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces for closer inspection, or if you missed seeing them. First up is a pair of Dark Crystal paintings of a Mystic & a Skeksis. I'm a big fan of the Dark Crystal and of Jim Henson's work in general, and since it was his birthday last week, I though this duo would be a good choice for Watercolor Wednesday.

Next up are a few other Fantasy based pieces, a stargazing giant and some furry beast in a red hood. I painted both of these while visiting my Dad & his wife on the west coast of Michigan  (a place I've always thought to be rather fantastic)

Tomorrow I'll post more original watercolor paintings for purchase in the online store.

2012 Appearances:
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28
Thought Bubble: Nov 17-18
*2013 dates coming soon*