24 HOURS (worth) OF LOOMIS

Yeah, the third of October is 24 Hour Comics Day. Like always, I nearly missed a webcartoonist 'holiday' mostly on the account that I am not really a webcartoonist, just a big kid playing as one. BUT, rather than let THIS year's slip away like the last... well, how many years they have been doing it? Okay.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, I AM GONNA DO 24 HOURS OF COMICS HAHA (sorta).

Yeah, I have other plans in the next 24 hours. There is a dinner being thrown by my American Legion post that I can't miss, because those pots don't scrub themselves, kids. BUT, rather than make it all or nothing, I am just going to do 24 hours WORTH of comics (in other words, non-consecutive) within the next couple of days, which will allow me to fulfill my Kitchen Patrol duties AND have me sleep deprived enough to make my date on Sunday nervous. Oh joy! It'll be practice for next year's, I guess.

So, what I am going to do is study out of my Loomis books, and draw for an hour (or hours) and post the results of each hour here. I want to see if I can squeeze 24 posts out within three days, starting... shit, I better get started. :V

Loomis meets Lyster's cheekbones...

Now applying some of what I learned here to Lyster (LIE-stir), the erstwile hero of my main comic. Upstate has undergone scores of changes since a lot of people last saw it, especially with some of the character designs. Lyse's hair, for example, acts a lot more like real hair, and his jawline has slowly gotten squarer.

At heart, of course, he's the same. In fact, he's getting closer and closer to the bipolar kung-fu hippie I picture in my mind everyday. I'm trying for a good balance of 'goofy' and 'serious' Lyster - boils down to 'ridiculous' and 'not-so-ridiculous' looking, really. It's not perfect, but like his hair, Lyster has more realistic cheekbones than before. It's significant, to me at least, that I'm learning how cheekbones actually work to shape a face, as opposed to imitating them.

... so comes the Autumn of Loomis

I ended up taking some advice from some other artists and downloaded the works of an artist named Andrew Loomis, who was an illustrator from the early 20th century, or the 'pre-photoshop-filter' era if you will.

His books are long out of print, and his family won't publish them in the foreseeable future. Despite this, the books remain an excellent source for beginning artists, or in my case, horrible ones trying to start over.

I'm taking it slow, starting with 'Fun with a Pencil' and work my way forward. Already, it's helped make some more expressive, if a little creepier, faces.

Three years ago today I debuted the previous version of "Upstate" which only lasted a year before I gave up on it. Writing was half the problem I had with it, so much so I ran myself into a literary corner; so many sins I've improved upon since then. But the real monkey on my back has been the art.

Hopefully this is the way to pry that damn simian off once and for all.