Some of the art from last week’s posts featured lots of cute little animals in stylish mod clothing. Aside from monsters, that’s just about my favorite thing to draw. The first batch was for a shirt, but while I was drawing those, I started investigating Redbubble as a print option for my art.
I have used several other services, and while decent, none really grabbed me. I ordered some stickers featuring those same animals, and a couple of Gorinka images, and crossed my fingers.
The stickers came today!
I really couldn’t be happier; the colors on the animals pops nicely, the screens on the Gorinkas are crisp, and the stickers themselves are a really nice vinyl. I ordered these about 5 days ago, and got them today in a cool little mailer. Color me happy.
If you’re interested in cool little stickers of your own art, I highly encourage you to open a Redbubble shop. If you want some of MY cool little stickers, you can find them right here.
Change of course coming up for the next few weeks, as I have some miniature commissions to get to. I will, however, be posting progress pictures and reports here just for fun!
After finishing up the vegan tee shirt design, I decided to work some other animals into the series. The first thing I noticed is that my style has changed, which is most likely due to using a tablet to draw on now. The warthog and otter are the first of a new series, and will be worked into a story that has been percolating in the back of my head for nearly 20 years!
Intentional cute, that is. A lot of what I draw has an element of cute to it, but, from time to time, I draw cartoons of animals. In fancy mod clothing, to boot. This piece is part of a series I am doing to promote compassion for animals. My wife loves it, which is always a plus; she puts up with so many monsters…
I have a concept for a card game swimming through my head, and it needs some mad scientist types. I could do your standard “Victor Von” tropenstein crap, but I want to see more lady types in games. And everything. Cause ladies rock.
So, here’s Victoria, or Vickie as she’s known to her assistants:
Starting on the 19th of December, Skyrgámur descends from his mother’s volcanic cave and wreaks havoc on the poor, humble folk that leave their Skyr unattended. Skyr. Mighty cultured dairy product of the gods. It’s like thick yogurt, but less intensely flavored.
Skyrgámur, like all of the Yule Lads, loves to menace the common folk. His prefered brand of menace seems a little passive compared to, say, Stekkjarstaur, who loves to harass sheep. Skyrgámur just likes to break into people’s houses and eat all of their skyr. His name literally means Skyr-gobbler. I’m starting to think old Gryla was running out of ideas for terrible deeds for her sons to commit by the time Skyrgámur came around. Then again, he does have a brother who licks spoons, so maybe Gryla just has a skewed sense of menace.
Still, I imagine if Skyrgámur came calling with his assembled brothers and that infernal Yule Cat, things might get a little freaky.
Rogue One knocked my literal socks off. Well, kind of. The day after we saw Rogue One, I was told by a man claiming to be a doctor that I had pretty severe bone spurs on my right foot, so I haven’t been able to put socks on in a few days. Here, for those of you who like pictures of hideous freaks of nature, is an x-ray of my emergent mutant powers:
Enough about me, though. STAR WARS. I have loved Star Wars since I was a sad little kid who wanted to see the Rescuers so badly that he cried when his dad took him to see some stupid Space Movie instead. I was furious. I was livid. I was hooked for life.
Yesterday I drew two Star Wars characters I haven’t drawn yet, the Gauvian Enforcer, and then Bobbajo, the cool little merchant dude that wanders around Nima outpost. These were a lot of fun, and there will definitely be more to come!
According to Icelandic tradition there are a bunch of nasty spirits that start wandering the land on the 12th of December. Today is the 18th of December, and I missed a few days. But I’ll make up for it with one of my favorites, Hurðaskellir. His name literally means Door Slammer. Old Hurðaskellir is the reason why doors slam shut, especially late at night.
Hurðaskellir is one of the Yule Lads, and he comes down from his mother’s cave on the 18th to harass people and scare naughty children. He is occasionally accompanied by the Yule Cat, a very nasty feline that eats really wicked kids.
So, be extra kind this holiday season… That slamming door you hear tonight might just be Hurðaskellir, coming to scare you in your sleep!
This time of year is a little odd in our house: My wife, the Sainted Rachey Klabe, is a Christmas traditionalist, and I am a fan of turning convention on its ear. Luckily, she’s been patient this past quarter century, and not found too many reasons to give me the boot. Except on Saint Nikolaus Day, when I guess our footwear is supposed to spend the night on the porch.
My absolute favorite thing about the Holiday season, though, is how people celebrated them in the past. Hyperallergic has a great collection of Victorian Christmas cards, and as you can probably deduce for yourself, I freaking love them.
The look on this kid’s face says it all: “Glory me, mumsy sure left me the plumpest oranges for DEAR CHRIST A GOAT!!!” Really makes you wonder what kind of vagrant goat problems the Victorian English had to contend with.
And then there’s this little ditty:
WHO WOULD (other than me) give this to anyone? Poor froggies! And this isn’t the only morbid frog card in the collection!
I’m hawking my wares again! Just a friendly reminder that my coloring/story book, Grimmleigh’s Beastly Oddities is available on Amazon, and eligible for Prime shipping. I may be biased, but this is the perfect gift for that person in your family that goes bump in the night. Here, for your sampling pleasure, is a sample page:
There is a story attached to this guy, too. It’s called “the Yeti that hates Beaches.” It’s probably the coolest story about a yeti that hates beaches you’ll ever read. And you’ll be supporting an independent artist! ME!
And if you already have purchased this book, you are amazing, and I love you for that.
I used to manage the entire overnight operations of the banking arm of a Fortune 500 company. I was promoted to the position because I could see inherent flaws in certain types of operational practices and came to the table with multiple solutions that might work to solve that problem. Said company was impressed, and thought “let’s give this guy a team comprised of student loans specialists, as well as a smattering of investment ninjas from the consumer banking department.” There was a parade, balloon animals, and all was good in the world.
That was, to put it bluntly, the second worst decision made in any of my vocational arrangements. The first worst decision was me accepting the job. I am not in any way a Leader of Men. I don’t have a lot of compassion for people who don’t want to work, and I have little patience for laziness. I work my ass off, and if anyone is working with me, I expect the same. I don’t work well in the traditional American Corporate Management structure because I don’t want to babysit, coddle, or motivate anyone… I just want to get the job done. Quickly, and in a preferably efficient manner.
The first realization that they had made a terrible mistake was when they had me take the Carnegie Strengths in Business test. The typical Strengths that a strong manager would have were WAAAAAAY at the bottom of my list, whereas problem solving traits were towards the top. Something called Ideation was the giant cherry on top.
What is Ideation? Well, it’s a mindset that is always thinking of new ways to do something, or just new somethings in general. I do it all the time. I am doing it right now. Imagine, now, working for someone who isn’t in the slightest bit worried about how your work performance is today, because he’s thinking of ways to streamline the way you do your job in the future? It’s a trainwreck scenario for a call center. For a creative job, though, it’s pretty cool. It’s the kind of thing that turns a mundane afternoon of reading history into the life and times of vampire Andrew Jackson.
I am self employed. I get to make decisions that could make or break our business, and that keeps me pretty motivated to stay on task and keep things moving. The only time it gets bad, though, is when my brain starts working on something else altogether. We might be working on new menu items for the restaurant, but my brain is trying to figure out how to work a gear on a puppet. I don’t make puppets, but my brain is trying to work it out. I have to shove that aside right now, and focus on the task at hand.
Here’s the problem, though; I have this idea for a game literally rampaging around the brain right now. Yesterday, it was a variation on the traditional Rummy card game, but instead of face cards and number cards it would have been body parts and sabotage cards, with the goal of laying down a stitched together monster before your opponent can sabotage your lab. Today, it’s a deck building game. (I don’t know anything about deck building games…) Tomorrow, it might be a traditional board game with dice and pawns. By next week, it might be a fully interactive RPG using puppets (what is the deal with freaking puppets this week?).
Puppet Shatner? Just putting it out there. Might explain a LOT.
This is the curse of the creative process. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It’s a huge part of what makes me who I am, and part of how I go from drawing a graphic novel in July to having a published coloring book in August. The creative ammunition is crammed in there, waiting to be fired off. I just need to aim a bit.
Grimmleigh's Lab 