color pencil appreciation

Back in the day when I was taking art classes in school, color pencils were not my favorite thing. I remember drawing still lifes on huge pieces of art paper, endlessly filling large areas with these tiny stupid pencils. There was nothing graceful about these marks, just big slatherings of parallel lines, indifferently applied. I don't think it ever occurred to me that this was a hopeless way to use color pencils. I just felt that color pencils were a hopeless medium.

But I returned to them today, looking for something faster and more convenient than watercolor, and less unforgiving than black brush pens with color markers. I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed using them. It helps to work at a more reasonable scale obviously. What were my art teachers thinking --- keeping us occupied with a Sisyphean task, probably. Used at normal scale, you can appreciate the buttery softness of the leads, and the wide range of light to dark lines possible from any one pencil. They do still have at least one black mark against them, though: they don't scan particularly well.

The "collected edition" cover

I guess I will try to collect this 3-part tale in a single volume and put it up on IndyPlanet. Here is the cover I came up with for that version:

Holy Nib pt. 3 (of 3)

Finally finished this 3-part series. Part 3 is 10 magazine-sized b&w pages, so all told it's around 33, 34 pages (Parts 1 and 2 each ran a little longer.) Quite a relief to be able to get on to other projects, other ideas. Here's the cover and some selected (non-consecutive) pages:

piddling: the 9th top secret for making top comics

Forget what you thought you knew about piddling - this essay blows the lid off all that came before and gives you an insight into the piddler's inner zen (or inner pid if you will.) Note: if you're looking for information about puddlers, see our section on the early 20th century steel industry.


I think it was an essay by Joe Bageant (most famous for his book "Deer hunting w Jesus") that first made me give some thought to what piddling was, and whether I myself was a piddler. At that time I concluded that for the most part, while I had nothing against piddlers or piddling, it wasn't really something I had a natural affinity for. You have to be slightly older than myself maybe, more at peace with the universe and (perhaps most importantly) have a garage, in order to spend time out in the garage sorting one's trout lures, or whatever else the piddler does when he piddles.

Nevertheless I realized today that there may

The Extraordinary Wonderosity of Science

I just did some illustrations for UAB Magazine, a local university publication. The article was about various programs UAB and other institutions are starting to try to spark an interest in science among kids.

And here's a partial sketch of one before color:

Christmas card commission

Recent caricature commission the client plans to use on their Christmas cards. I used a different pen than I usually do. It's a disposable drawing pen but the tip is sort of like a dip pen - slightly chisel-tipped and with some flexibility. It's from Pentel, I think they call it Pentel Sketch. Then I used Prismacolor markers for the color. Kind of a corny drawing style, but that seems to be my natural inclination, I guess I shouldn't fight it...

Cover colors for Pete Moss #2