Some Sketches

   Just a few quick sketches. 

   I haven't posted anything in a long long time.  Sorry about that.

   I have been starting to draw a bit more now that the game is settling down.  It feels nice to draw again; it's comforting to know that my ability to draw hasn't gone compleatly to shit.  I was afraid that would happen.

   The game is coming along nicely.  I am going to Gen Con in August and I hope that I can at least get in touch with publishers there.  I'm nervous as hell.  The game has changed recently, and I think it will change a few more times before August.  I really want it to be the best it can possibly be before I take it there and so I have been fretting non stop about improvements and balance and all that shit.  Still, it's been the most exciting few months of my life so far, here's hoping that the next few months will be even more so.

  All the best,
  Jeff K.

Drawings

Hey people no comic this week but I have some drawings for you.  Recently there have been some major developments with the board game I am working on so I haven't had a lot of time to draw.  That said I do have some oldies-but-goodies.

Lets start things off with a bit of a comic.  Fun fact, the comic Collapse started its life as an attempt at some sort of pulp magazine cover.  Feel free to fill the background in as ya please.

Next, a close up of a large water colour that I did.  A million qualoos to the person who can tell what movie this image came from.

Here is an old oil painting from 2012.  Done on a piece of plywood, man oh man I'm not really a fan of it now but what the hell, lets put it out there.


Well, I think thats gonna be it for this week.  Next week I hope to have a comic up or at least maybe have someone fill in for me.

Cheers,
Jeff K.

Roadtrip!

I'd like to take some time to talk about road trips; but before I do I would like to say that I recently fixed the car's CD player.  Road trips are something that I like quite a bit, those who know me will know that I like driving in general and so this isn't a huge revelation.  Music is essential for any road trip, though, now-a-days I prefer a non stop torrent of podcasts.

You may have noticed that this is going up a bit early, frankly I felt bad for missing last weeks comic and so I wanted to get this out as soon as it was done.  In the future if I need to miss a week I am going to try and get somebody to fill in for me.

This strip was great fun.  I was going to write this thing about how it reminded me of the stereotype metal head's highschool notebook doodling and how the execution of panel two was pure joy.  In the end I kept flip flopping and I settled on telling you about that feeling in a roundabout way in the previous sentence.

Ugh, that last paragraph was rough and I don't know how I feel about it but I'll leave it in anyway.

While I was finishing this strip up I was chatting with a a friend named Ian.  He and his fiance had rented a movie from a local used movie store\rental place called Movie Village and when they got home it turned out that the guy at the till had given them the wrong DVD.  It was a strange coincidence that this weeks comic was pretty much about the same idea.  Strange in a really mundane sort of way.

I think that is it for now.  The last thing I want to mention is that I started a Tumblr that you can find here.  I'll put the comic up there as well so if your into Tumblr then follow me there.  I will also probably post other projects that I do on there, one off drawings and stuff like that, so if that interests you check it out.

Now that's it, and I mean it this time so have a good week and don't go down any roads that you know you won't be able to get out of.

Cheers,

Jeff K.

My Bad

Hello people, sorry I missed last weeks comic.  I had some test games lined up for the board game I am working on and combined with that easter thing I just didn't get around to it.

You can bet your sweet bippy that there will be a comic this coming friday though, so stay tuned.

Something a little bit different.

A while ago when it seemed that winter would never end I drew a comic.  It had been a while since I put physical ink on a physical page.  In a small notebook of rough, recycled paper I turned out this:

I like it quite a bit.  I like the idea of water world but with snow.  Instead of diving for Denver you would have to dig for it.  The world above would be a blinding desert, with white dunes stretching on for kilometres.  Under the surface the worlds sky scrapers would still be there.  Where their windows broke they would be flooded with snow, and where they didn't vast networks of pitch black caves would wind their way down to the long forgotten ground.  You could light a fire inside one and see the office space with snow pressing against each window.

Anyway, I like the comic and decided to do a digital version.  Somewhere along the way I got swept up with other projects and I never finished it.  The work in progress looks like this:

 I will probably finish it eventually.  Bit by bit.

I started to draw again recently.  The board game work has shifted from drawing new things and laying out cards to networking and getting various bits together.  I haven't been making the time to draw recently (other than for this blog).  Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I have started drawing again recently and it is all thanks to the podcast Comic's Coast to Coast.  This is a fantastic podcast put out there by web comic\cartoonist people Brian Dunaway, Joel Duggan and Matthew Ducharme. Each episode they interview an artist; and the show is just freakin' great and super inspiring so go give it a listen.

That's it for now, have a good week.


Jeff K.

Collapse

I don't really subscribe to the idea of a multiverse.  This comic started as the cover of a pulp magazine.  I wanted to draw a cover and so I did; the plan was to make a comic around it, but that didn't really work out.  In the end it evolved into this.

Eventually I started thinking about what it would be like to have a bunch of universes collapse on you.  Like a room just fills with you, and everywhere you look there is another you who just turned to see you.  You would end up a black hole, the mass of infinite yous all crushed down into a single point until space-time just couldn't take it anymore.  Then I started to think about that illusion where if you stand in between two mirrors you see a line of yourself.  Usually it fades to green because the most common mirror materials don't reflect perfectly.  Eventually after light bounces around enough bits of the spectrum are absorbed until only greens are bouncing.  I forget where I heard this, I am not sure if it is true.

I sent my first board game prototype off into the world this week.  Not to a publisher, but to a good guy in the board game biz who kindly offered to look it over for me.  I will be sending copies to publishers soon I think, many more are being built.

That is it for now.  Have a good weekend.

-K

An Optimistic Pumpkin

This idea started off as a three panel strip of a pumpkin that ended with it rotting.  After tossing that idea round a little bit I thought it was too pessimistic.  I am not sure what my natural inclination is, but I am firmly of the opinion that pessimism is completely useless.  So naturally I try to be an optimist.  There is a saying that a pessimist is just an educated optimist, and I find that this general attitude is common with people my age.  Specifically the too cool for school-20 something-white- male-geek-internet-crowd.  I think it is easy to be a cynic, it's intellectually lazy.  I think there can be a difference between blind ignorance and optimism. 

I really hope nuance exists in the universe.

Anyway, what's up with you guys?  I am fine.  Going to see Noah soon and I am pretty excited about it.  For those who don't know me, while I am not particularly religious but I am a real junky when it comes to Christian stuff.  Movies, history, art, all that jazz.  I am also a Darren Aronofsky fan.  I am not sure if it will be a good movie or not, but what I am sure of is that Noah will be fascinating to dissect.  The fact that its marketing teams are squirming with anxiety gives me hope.

Sorry for the odd blog post, I usually edit more.  I think a big flaw of the internet is that it gives people too much power to self censor.  There is something to be said for off the cuff, in the moment thoughts.  

That's it for now, warts and all.  Have a good weekend.

Jeff K.

K9 Wisdom

It has been too long since a simple three panel joke gag, and this time with a splash of colour.  ho ho ho, he he he.

I have to say though I think the first panel is my most Scott Johnson-esque drawing that I have ever done.

What have I done since we last spoke?  I grew a pony tale, that is sort of new.  I had long hair before but it just kept on going.  I more or less made a board game; now begins the process of finding a publisher or self publishing.

Well that is it for now.  Don't want to go too crazy with the typing now that I am starting this up again.  I think I'll ease into it like a hot bath; but I'm sure I'll be writing walls of text in no time.

-Jeff

PS:  Now that I am back I realized how crappy my blog looked, so we are back to the default white blogger look until I take the time to make a new background and layout.

These last months

Over the last eight or so months I have been working on a board game.  I don't think that is an excuse for why I haven't been updating this blog.  Frankly, I just chose to spend my time in other ways.

Right now I have a moment and it struck me to come here and write this.  In the early days of this game I had planned on self publishing.  With the advent of kickstarter and the recent success of all sorts of indy board games I was inspired to get in on that action.  So I made the game and broke it down and made it again and broke it again and eventually I have come to find myself in the presence of a game that I think isn't half bad.  All the while I was making illustrations for the game; my degree is in fine arts ya see, and out of pride or maybe a desire to spend the least amount of money as possible I decided to do all of the art for the game. 

But months pass, things change, and opportunities present themselves.  I was advised against self publishing, it is a headache and an undertaking.  While it is not impossible, it is a HUGE time sink and in the end it is in my best interests to take the game to a publisher.  I am comfortable with this notion now; I wasn't in the beginning but I am now. 

As a result of this decision it is becoming more and more likely that my art will not be used in the final product.  I don't regret spending the hours that I did on the illustrations; frankly I believe they help get the tone across and will help the game find a publisher in the end.

In any case, I wanted to show you one of the illustrations I made.  As I drew it I kept earlier drafts for just such an occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

That is it for now.  I won't promise any new posts, I have learned that lesson.  All I can say is that I will be back in the future; though I can not say when.

Good luck in all of your endeavors,

Jeff K.