Bumm Bumm Ballon!

 Yay! One of my highlights this year -jobwise- because that game is effin fun!

Actually the game will be available in other countries as well but with a different cover, packaging and not our awesome manual (the manual is really awesome, me so proud!).

In Germany you'll be able to get it directly at the SPIEL in Essen (I cross my fingers for it- at least) or regular in stores.
Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
rating: Awesome! Get it as soon as it is out!

On Amazon Germany



It's kinda awesome how simple the packaging looks when you know how many hours I actually put into that thing. O.o we're still mulling over some additional things but basically I'll be happy to watch people test it in Essen :B And yes.... Ty and me will be there (whoot!).

How it works?

And even more plush stuff!

Owner of the collection is nhalyia and I'm quite envious of her >_< mostly because she has the pencil cases already. Rahh, aren't they cute?
I especially love how the oh noes motive (yes, header of my blog) turned out. and I love froggy o.o

And even more photo galore:

 

 Owener is Gabi and yes, I'm fangirling a lot when I get pics. It's just amazing and I am happy that people actually use the opportunity of the Artofwhere Shop though it's in Montreal but still.. they have the best quality and I'm a sucker when it comes to awesome handmade things.

As always you can find all products here

*groan*

I have to admit... I like medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog-jobs but sometimes I miss my chubs work. I hope I can finish all the missing comic pages for this month next week (brilliant optimism, I has you!) and finish some more medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog things and next to that I finally started working on the 4th calendar. I have no idea when I will finish but I pray I have some a lot time in July/August/September/whatit'salreadyDecemberholysh#+§.

*hint* there's a story...
I dislike how it looks so unfinished but surprise! it IS unfinished and the only person I can blame for it is me, myself and I. I normally try to get the face right and mull over the rest when I have more time (ending up redoing everything anyway). I want to stick to a non so 3dimensional style and include some more funny geeky illustrations this time and hope it works out and people won't freak out when they get weird stuff for their birth month.

At the moment I'm happy I have my moleskine with me most of the time since lately I keep getting tons of ideas (obviously always the case when you can't work on them....) and have to scribble those down with additional notes. Totally not worth uploading but good to keep them for more than 3 nano seconds.

Farewell, I have to finish a bit more of medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog. Buh. I still love the job. I tell myself so.

New Stuff!

Actually only one photo (thanks to the very lovely Stumdaemonin on Deviantart)

How freakin cute is that?! The motive fits so perfectly on the pillow case I can't believe it! I know I shouldn't freak out over one of my own motives but it's just so cool seeing those as actual products and huggable fluffy pillows. *can't get over it*
There are tons of new things in my ArtofWhere-shop which you can find here:
Follow the chubby panda

As always: If you have any questions regarding shipping yaddayadda use the help form on the page. Kate and Joey who run the show can help you if you take your time to ask them and they are nice and won't bite. :3

I started skating again after a decade of absence (yes... TEN years... how could I?!) and it felt so good. I used to skate 3-4 hours in a row and now getting back into it feels like coming home and totally new at the same time. In ten years so many things changed and I'm a tad more scared to break any body parts I might need for work (like arms, head and neck... who cares for legs).
Berlin has some pretty neat routes for bikers and skaters only and all the 6km+ will be mine O_O

If you have the option to get outside and stretch those stiff necks after a long day at the drawing table: do it.
Trust me, working all day and not doing anything for your muscles won't do anything good. I know what I'm talking about =.=

Sometimes...

... my own idealism is totally not cooperating with healthy common sense.

.... painting size... and final size (actually you see a bit more but ... you get the point). I know it's an idiotic obsession with details but.. but... but. It's DETAILS!

Some thoughts on details: I have to admit I hated painting details. I can't kid myself when I say I loved painting those 2 years ago. I hated it from the bottom of my heart.

It changed a lot and in two years I realized that it's a good practice like yoga. The longer you meditate over something and keep your inner demons at bay when all you want to do is scream and yank the computer off the table and throw it out the bloody window... the calmer you can get.
A lot of things stress me still now (like setting up the working color scheme and god, sometimes it's really hard- especially if the colors are not in my usual comfort zone) but details don't stress me anymore.

It's something I learned to love and I'm quite grateful for every job I got with tons of details because it meant I had to face my inner demons. A lot of artists neglect it and stick to their comfort zones, colors they love, lack of details blabla endless list. I understand sometimes it can be called "style" but normally I see it as a bad habit and no craving to take your art to another level if you keep doing only things your 100%ly sure you actually CAN do.

I am not fond of radical changes but whenever I can stuff something into my style and it's a good add-on and no distraction or harsh change my votes are totally up for searching and sticking to them... and searching for the next one.

What's your thoughts on the topic? Are you more of the "I against I" or "no need to change" type?

Lion Kiki Steps

and because I already uploaded it and it's no magic at all, just a very good brush

(click on the image to get redirected to the ... huge download >_< )

Basic steps as always:
sketch
flats (thankfully done by Lew)
painting
painting²
painting³
more painting
adding a background color
done

It's really no magic at all and the brush won't do the strokes for you. In the end you have to be patient and play a bit with the brush opacity and flow.

Random cutie Han pic

Lew complained I don't blog often enough... maybe a cute snap-shot of Hantje justifies it. I've been @ home this week- working quite frantically on comic pages, cover sketches, corrections (I feel really dumb when it comes to mirror and reflection... theory and practice have never been more.... miles away from each other) and dealing with a sick bf.
I wanted to work on several things additionally but I was so tired I mostly just ended up napping on the couch whenever my mentally wake presence was not needed. It was so good and I really needed it.

I try to blog more often in the future if anything interesting pops up. At the moment I'm a bit wrapped up in the odds of life and getting the last big bunch of comic pages done aaaand a board-game finally rollin' into conception phase.

Zebra-Schwein got pre-nominated for the Graf Ludo 2012 and in 2 weeks the winner of the Origins Awards will be annouced. I don't really try to hope but it's good to see things get recognized. Actually it's pretty lame not to scream hurray but last year kind of sobered me up. ;)

Yay! Boxed!

IT's grass time again! Tretel looks a bit... actually he looks like he's in hunting mode, but he's enjoying his flower-box full of grass.I have no idea why he loves to sit IN the box instead of chomping on the strands but well... I can't blame him. I'll prep another box and hopefully Hantje will spend some more time outside as well.

Color and Fails...

I actually didn't really have any time to blog and dang, I thought I'd still have more of the fails on my computer but no... deleted in shame ;)

Anyways, this was one of the comic color schemes I got mad over. I wanted to achieve a warm summer evening scheme with a darker setting but everything I tried just looked muddy or too dark.
The problem with sunsets is that of course gras doesn't really look green anymore and all colors fade over to the yellowish-brown-muddy-something range.
But the real problem is: It just looks shitty.
I have no idea how Kazuo Oga manages to get those moods done but I decided to go the unrealistic but more appealing way. Sometimes you have to tweak it and god knows I wouldn't have liked a mud page. :/
The whole problem took 3 months to solve. Sometimes it's really the best to put the page away and start mulling over the problem again if you feel you finally have the nerves to work on it again.
But so much for realistic nature... no idea if it would have done any good to test out another scheme.

I wanted to write something about another more delicate topic but still after some weeks I can't figure out how to wrap it up, so just enjoy the weather (hopefully awesome) and have a wonderful week.

So fluffy!

That one was actually my sample print from ArtofWhere.com and no, it's not available (at the moment) but you can leave a comment with lotsa oh and ah and love and meanwhile I try to convince my editor ;(
The pillow size is 40x40 cm.

Origins!

Matt send me a note that "Space Mission" got nominated for the 38th Annual Origins Award in the US. Yay!
I have no idea if we have a chance but I cross my fingers. >_<

... that would be the reaction of my parents...

Furthermore German readers can peek at Zebra-Schwein here. They wrote a very detailled review with some pictures of the actual game. I got mine last week but haven't had any time to take pictures. Duh....

And because it's so fluffy I wanna die:
Pillow covers for everybody
Joey and Kate make custom pillow covers that are so soft you wanna huggle those forever. You can get my moon bun, maneki and some other motives there but I'd like you to check the shop generally since the quality is simply awesome and the team so freaking nice.

Oh yes. And I'm half the way through my comic pages. Hurray =.=;..... sloth me is slow.

Already MARCH?!

Holy... shit. I wonder why it's already March. I keep stumbling through the weeks trying to keep up with everything and sometimes it's just amazing that I wake up and another week went by.

Since I didn't post anything really fancy a short sum-up of last month...
- I dyed my hair with Henna... which means no chemical something on my head... ever again. If you put red on natural reddish hair you get... surprise... red. So it's not really a brave change but brave enough since I freaked out about getting green hair (which might have been fancy but green doesn't suit me... yes.. I know because I had it once upon a time)
- I'm still working on two board games and one is my personal "project from hell" because me and abstract are a challenge. I like it nevertheless but I keep struggling and hope I survive with any sanity left. The problem that it's French and my French is kinda rusty doesn't make it any better. Good thing is I have still have my oldfashioned dictionary book from gramma school O_o;
- ... the weekly amount of time I spend with sports is simply outrageous
-  if something's called a "leg burner" consider what you read is what you get... I can't get over it... leg burner... burn leg, burn... it burns...
- I got two catfishes... Heinrich and Herbert (I stick to H because my gastropoda is named Hildegard... Hildegard rocks btw)
- Tretel likes to shower.. can't get over that as well

And what happened in your last 30 days?

Btw the photo shows stuff my dad collected for my mum at the beach. He muttered "it was boring and those things kept poppin up in the sand" but I subtitle it with "because you like those things...". Cute, isn't it? :3

Oh Hai!

hehe... :D

Oink! :D

I bet the final pig also glows at night.... couldn't pick up my game this week because I was sick *mimimi* but I'll post some photos next week. :)

Trees in Panels

... can be total sucker...

 The actual size of the panel.... because honestly.. every tried to add details to the a stamp size? O_o I failed which meant working with 600 dpi was a good decision.

 sketch and ... flats done by Lew... and a long road to go...

 Adding the leaves, erasing a lot and adding branches because it looked unbalanced. Adding things and erasing things happens all the time. I made the sketch (I think) 7 months ago??? Some months later you pretty much feel a lot wise ;)

 Depening the texture of the branch without going too much into hardcore realism because that's what I 100%ly don't want to achieve (and never will).

 Adding a bit of light....

... and correcting the contrast and bluring out the end of every branch because it looks too hard otherwise.

Still need to do the background, foreground, birds, details and the... whole rest of the page but that's pretty much it.
The leaves are 2 custom brushes and before you ask for those: Create some yourself, it's much better if you know how your tools react and why they actually react like that. I am still updating and cleaning my own set and it's worth the time you invest.

Parents...

My dad wanted me to become a city clerk. My mum possibly something between police officer and piercing shop owner (when I got my nose piercing ten million years ago she complained why I didn't get a tattoo... I was a bit dumbfounded). Comic artist is 100%ly not what they expected. They are still trying to cope with the idea.

Actually me as well....

Chantalismus

Mehr unter Chantalismus.

Ohne Kommentar ;)

Holy...

... and that happens if something is sold out and doesn't go into reprint... the book actually costs only 10 Euros... normally. O_O

I hope nobody actually considers paying such a -addmeanwordhere- price. A book goes into reprint if you have enough people wanting it. The best way to get a publisher reprint something is pre-ordering. I know a lot people don't think about it but it's simple math. The more pre-orders the higher the chances the new bunch of printed books gets actually sold = publisher doesn't need to worry about having a huge pile of books nobody wants. Simple, huh?
That's theoretically possible for all books if the contract is still going on, it wasn't limited, a collectors item, yaddayadda. As always the universal laws of Murphey can hit every title but generally it should be possible.

I hope everybody had a good start this year. :) I certainly had. ^_^

Zebra-Schwein

Again a board game! It's the last one I did last year and it's again totally different from "Mount Drago" and "Space Mission" but for me the most hilarious and funniest game.
Actually it's for kids but I think if you have a bunch of people who are willed to play a game that happens to include drawing (it doesn't really matter if you are GOOD... really) you might have many laughs, tears and odd doodles.

The game comes in five languages (German, French, Italian, English and Dutch I think) and costs around 22 Euro (regular price). Included is a very pink pig buzzer, 30 animal cards, a sketch book and all my love, sweat and hours I spend on it.
(You have no idea how often we changed the cover... ).

Available on (German) Amazon HERE

Keeping the booty warm

Hante loos a bit like :S in the photo but honestly it'd hard to get a pic of both without one having a funny face.
Tretel seems to keep on growing. No wonder Hantje hisses all the time he pops up for "play time". I wouldn't like having the big boy bullying me as well ;)
I normally find them on or next to a heater now (in winter). As long as the booty and tummy are warm everything's okay.