Well, it took longer than I should probably admit to get an acceptable likeness, this is from last night’s speech.

There are plenty of political cartoonists who have arrived at excellent caricatures of our Commander-In-Chief, but I noticed when drawing him realistically if you get just one line wrong, it can somehow be wildly “off”…

Added to the distinctive features of Barack Obama, I can honestly say that I’ve never had so much trouble drawing a sitting President from TV.

I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up to my initial post of webcomic workflow for some time now. It may be that I over-complicated my task and hand, and I’ve been so busy because of it that it held up writing this post!

In a nutshell:

• Illustrator is out of the mix: It quickly became apparent there was too much back and forth between Photoshop and Illustrator, and this sucked a lot of the fun out of it. Part of the crutch was that I was enamored of Illustrator’s Art Pens, and the pressure sensitivity of my Wacom Intuos4 (see my YouTube review here) was a good match. I needed to force myself to draw better in Photoshop as well as…
• Ink more completely the hand drawn, traditional paper layout to minimize the computer drawing time. Vague and sketchy layout has given way more complete pages ready to scan. This is nowhere near where it needs to be to sell the originals which provides a major source of revenue for select webcomic artists who work this way. At this point, it is not a pressing concern for me.
• Somewhat related, I blogged a while ago about upping the publishing schedule by offering single panel-type gags a la Gary Larsen. I decided against this; I would rather make the main strip the best it can be – besides, others do this particularly well, like WebDonuts Webcomics and Spudcomics. I don’t know if I have anything new or unique to contribute to that style of comic.

In closing:
In the words of Teddy Roosevelt “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”

Russell Seager, 51
Racine, Wisconsin


As I wrap up this small tribute to the brave men and women killed by a troubled fellow soldier in a place they should have been safest, I feel doubly saddened that this little project has come to an end. Then I realize the cold, hard truth that there will be other opportunities to remember future atrocities on our own turf, by one “of our own”.

Thanks to cnn.com for keeping the gallery which served as my source online.

Happy New Year! Time to look at last year’s post and see how I fared:

• Create ashcan sample of original graphic novel. Attend NY Comic-Con to assess market.

Working avidly on this as a remedy to the frustration of not drawing much by hand in 2008, my eleven complete pages are a good sample of achieving this one to the best of my ability. The Con only served to enforce that it’s all about superheroes.

• Break with under-performing music project(a). Concentrate on the TMJ Ensemble exclusively (while continuing home recording pursuits) to free up time for graphic novel

This was easy, too. The amount of betrayal, disloyalty and “cut-throatedness” I have experienced in cover bands over the last twelve years is mind-blowing. I’m completely retired from playing music with other people. I have only recently begun rewiring my modest MIDI home studio and am pushing my gear to the best of it’s capacity, and my ability.

• Register at New School Professional Studies and take at least one online course

I did this, and was accepted but needed to withdraw. There is no tuition reimbursement with my employer, and the conundrum of a respectable combined household income disqualifies us for financial aid. Taking on out-of-pocket debt of this size is not something I’m comfortable with.

• Work out more intensely – lose some weight

Yep, the universal one. And I did – depending on which scale you believe. I really enjoy the Spinning Class that I discovered, it’s the best way to break a sweat and I’ve never experienced exercise so tightly integrated to music. I’ve taken off ten pounds and kept it off, but I’d like to lose another ten.

• Play fewer video games

I think I fared well here, too and would like to take this further. Played Beatles: Rock Band (a must-have, come on!) , and I’m playing Uncharted 2 at this writing, but I may return it to my friend unfinished.

So, how about 2010 resolutions?

• Webcomic (which wasn’t even a concept last year):
  To continue building readership by doing the best strip I can and stop obsessing over daily traffic in the interest of growing over time. As long as the monthly readership trends upward (however much is irrelevant), I’ll be satisfied. This is my top priority.
• Pick up the free weights.
• Assimilate at work, spent more time chatting (if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em)
• Resume painting. This can be either fantasy or the figurative work I typically do; this is akin to the “draw more by hand” desire

Thanks for reading. I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

– Tim