Sketches From Memory

Sketch a Day, Day 62

xeyeti — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:33:01 +0000

My wife, like so many people it seems, is in love with the show Downton Abbey. I enjoy the show well enough, though I have a limit for British period pieces. I do enjoy basically any scene with Dame Maggie Smith, but hell, who doesn’t?

Anyway, it does seem like something horrible happens every week in that show. It’s sorta like World War I-era Game of Thrones that way: if something can go horribly, horribly wrong, it will. If we’ve got a completely different main cast by the end of the second season, I will not be at all surprised.

Sketch a Day, Day 61

xeyeti — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:34:12 +0000

Today’s sketch is a reminder of why I really should not try to draw my characters in profile (I’m not good at it). Three-quarters view all the way! Anyway, the joke is that Jerome is really bad at using tools and is very likely to injure himself.

Sketch a Day, Day 60

xeyeti — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:52:42 +0000

I’ve done 60 whole days of this, can you believe that? It’s, like, two whole months or something (someone check my math there).

Today’s sketch features two of my characters, Jerome and Simon, though one of them appears to have been replaced by a masked avenger of the night…could it be? Could Jerome really be the Dark Knight Detective?

No. The answer is no.

Sketch a Day, Day 59

xeyeti — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:49:21 +0000

I stayed home from work today because my voice is completely gone (sore throat and lots of post-nasal drip equals me not being able to talk above a hoarse whisper, which is less than ideal for teaching), but since I actually feel halfway decent, I’ve been trying to do little things around the house. I ran a couple of needful errands, vacuumed the living room, and folded a whole hell of a lot of laundry. Hence, today’s drawing.

Sketch a Day, Day 58

xeyeti — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:27:58 +0000

So I’m a bit sick today (and yesterday as well, come to mention it), and I wasn’t really all that aware when I got up this morning to get ready for work. I grabbed a dark t-shirt that I was reasonably certain was just solid black (I own, like, three shirts of this nature, so there was a good chance), grab the button-down shirt I was going to wear (black with pinstripes), and head off to work (yes, I was also wearing pants and shoes and such. Those articles of clothing aren’t really relevant to the discussion here). I went through most of the day in a haze, though at one point I did notice that the t-shirt seemed a bit faded or off-color somehow. It wasn’t until the end of the day that I realized it was because I had put on a navy blue t-shirt instead of a black one.

Yes, truly this is the worst thing that has happened in the history of ever: a guy who doesn’t really give two shakes of someone else’s leg made a fashion faux pas. And then blogged about it. Twenty-first century, everyone!

Sketch a Day, Day 57

xeyeti — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:19:45 +0000

Today’s sketch is a comic of sorts. We were expecting a two-hour delay here in Northern Virginia this morning (we had ice and snow and stuff over the weekend). I mean, the federal government got a two hour delay, so why wouldn’t we? But alas, it was not to be: we had to arrive at school at the usual time, much to the chagrin of the teachers and the bitching and moaning of the students. I do wish I could talk to the students like this, sometimes.

Retraction

xeyeti — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:51:58 +0000

“You made me look like a serial killer.”

My brother is agitated in a way that’s only semi-sincere.

“Well, the drawing didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted,” I replied. “I was going for your shit-eating grin–”

“I do have one of those.”

“–but I totally screwed up when inking it and was just too lazy to redo the thing. Sorry.”

“So, you’re gonna redraw it for tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, I was planning to.”

“Good.” He then proceeds to talk about music for 45 minutes. These are the conversations we have.

So yeah, here’s another try at Clyde, sans crazy eyes and creepy smile. It turned out much better, I think. Also, that’s a t-shirt for his band, The Palousers, who are quite fantastic. You should go like their Facebook page.

Sketch a Day, Day 56

xeyeti — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:46:10 +0000

Today wraps up the week of Crooked Halo model comparisons with a look at Clyde. Clyde is based on my brother, Clif, whose nickname in high school was Clyde (so, y’know, only loosely based). I’ve never been particularly happy with Clyde’s character design (the early design made him look hydro-cephalic, and I’m not sure the new design works much better), though it’s getting closer to something I can at least tolerate. I hadn’t really come up with many plans for his use in the reboot yet, though I did know at least that he and Simon would still be working on music even though they were living in different parts of the country (just as my brother and I do).

Sketch a Day, Day 55

xeyeti — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:23:22 +0000

Today’s sketch is a model comparison for Cletus, the pint-sized hillbilly genius. Cletus was featured in two or three big storylines back in the day (including one where I totally snarked on the old Hatfield/McCoy feud), and he was always a fun character to write (a weird mix of country bumpkin and nerd). For the remake that fell apart, I decided to let him grow up (since it was supposed to be five years later) and ditch the overalls, fully embracing his nerdiness. He would’ve been Jerome’s personal assistant, a thankless task at best.

Sketch a Day, Day 54

xeyeti — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:43:27 +0000

Today’s Crooked Halo character model comparison is for Tim Tation, the anthropomorphic personification of temptation. Definitely one of the more more entertaining characters to write for back when I was doing the strip.

His clothes haven’t changed, nor has his personality. I did try to make the hair more hair-like; the weird spikes he had were always a source of artistic frustration for me when I came up with the character (drawing hair has always caused me frustration. All the unnamed extras who appeared in my comic over the years had only two available hairstyles, and both were ridiculous). I’ve finally hit on something I quite like; now, I just have to start coming up with horrible things for him tempt people to do.