Season 2 Episode 2 of Ask a Slave is live!  This time, Lizzie Mae answers questions from around the web. It goes as well as all YouTube comment threads go.

Had to do a song for my favorite character from my favorite movie (because I'm obsessed), so here's my tribute to Mako Mori from Pacific Rim!

With apologies to the Flaming Lips.

If you like the track and want to download it, head on over to my Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/ultraridergo/mako-mori-battles-the-giant

[caption id="attachment_7584" align="aligncenter" width="640"] So many Miyazaki![/caption]

I was heartbroken when I heard that Hayao Miyazaki had decided to retire from animated features.  His films have always filled me with a sense of wide-eyed wonder.  And though we have twenty films directed by him to fill our days, I still want more.  I guess that's the best time to retire.  Far better to leave fans hungry than sated.

So what does an animation director do in his retirement? Serialized manga, of course!

On NTV's "Sekai-ichi Uketai" variety show, Studio Ghibli's producer Toshio Suzuki let slip that Miyazaki is working on a samurai manga set in the sengoku era.  Suzuko refused to elaborate any further.

Miyazaki is no stranger to manga.  His seven volume version of Nausicaä Valley of the Wind has sold millions.  I'd be curious to see if he's using assistants on this new work, or if he's going solo.  Either way, I can't wait to see what he has in store.  I'm a sucker for a sword.

More as it develops.

From: Anime News Network

In living color! Color me bad! Paint with all the colors of the wind! Colors, that 80s movie that no one remembers!

My thoughts on moving from black and white to color for the comic.

Season 2 of Ask a Slave is here!

Soooooo you might be thinking that Azie made up some of these questions for comedic effect, especially that last one. Sadly, no. These are all real questions that tourists asked her on a daily damn basis.

The really sad part is that she has enough of these questions for a second, third, and probably fourth season.

My awesome friend Azie Dungie was on the Kojo Nnamdi Show yesterday to talk about Ask A Slave.  Azie sounds like a seasoned pro and Kojo asks some really great questions.  But my favorite part is the woman who calls in freaking out about WHERE DO I FIND THIS WAHTS A WEBSHOW HOW DO I INTERNET!  She sounds so desperate to see the show which, honestly, is as it should be.

If you haven't checked it out, all first episodes of the first season are up at Ask A Slave. I believe season 2 kicks off on Sunday.  I can't wait!

Reader Amanda Steven's mother recently passed away so she raising money for the American Heart Association as a birthday gift. From Amanda:

Hey everyone,
As some of you may or may not know this summer my Mother passed of Heart Disease. I’ve been doing a lot of small scale things for the American Heart Association ever since. Right now, I want to test something. According to Facebook I have 1300+ friends, Twitter tells me I have ~400 followers, and 100 on Tumblr. I am asking if you all of you could send me $1-2 to my Paypal. I would like to donate it as a large and very late Birthday gift. Anyone who donates will be entered in a nerdy raffle filled with Pathfinder core books, D&D books, manga, and other geek stuff. My Paypal is Lkrouser@optonline.net. Send as a gift otherwise it gets put on hold. Please help me do this for my mom. Thanks.

- Amanda

Sometimes, I get to draw cool things.

A while back, Adam Warrock (Euge) contacted me about designing a shirt for his upcoming tour which kicks off in December.

My idea is this:
Like sorta chibi versions of me and Jaime Lannister in like a cloak and a beard and all shitty, and he's missing his one hand (like when he's with Brienne).  And we're jumping up and high fiving each other and he's swinging his hand on a string to high five me?

Top text says: ADAM WARROCK

Under text says:  HIGH FIVIN' POP CULTURE EST. 2009

Chibi and fucked up? I'm the artist for the job!

I let the idea mull around in my brain meats for a little bit before I put pen to paper.  Then I did a few quick thumbnails to play around with composition.  In general, clients like to have a few ideas to choose from, but if you give them too many options, nine times out of ten they'll pick something you don't like.  Best to whittle the choices down to your strongest ideas so that no matter what the client chooses, you'll enjoy working on the piece.

I ended up sending Euge two sketches that I whipped up in Sketchbook Pro.



Though design A responded exactly to what Euge requested, design B captures the absurdity of the situation.  And it makes me laugh.  Thankfully, Euge agreed and we went with B.

Next step is to put pencil to paper.  I prefer to draw on paper.  I find that I hesitate less when the undo option is unavailable to me.  I also work a lot looser on paper than I do digitally and I felt the figures needed that sense of motion.

Laying in the basic forms, I try not to do too much more rendering than this.  I know I'll be inking the piece so drawing a thing twice over takes more time.  But sometimes, I just feel the need to work in more details at the penciling stage.  I didn't do too much more with the faces, but I did work in the fingers and clothing details.

When I first started doing Yellow Peril, I only inked with a sable brush.  Now I use pretty much anything that's on my desk that's loaded with water proof ink.  I generally start with the faces first and hop around as I go.



For things like hair, stubble, and clothing folds, I'll usually use a brush of one sort or another.  Everything else is sort of up for grabs.  I used a micron for Euge's shell toes.  I do all my corrections in Photoshop so I don't freak out too much about smudges or tangents.  And I've got to scan this thing into a computer anyway for color separations.

I scan at 600dpi because I want to retain as much lineart detail as possible.  Then it's a matter of figuring out which bits to color what.  Euge was aiming for a three color shirt.



And bam!

Since the design was going on a dark shirt color, I used that for the lineart which meant I had three colors to play with for shades and tones.  If it was a light color shirt, one of the colors would have been used for lineart.  This gave me a lot more flexibility so I was able to do some cell shading to add depth to the piece.  Some font play, some layer separation, some Pantone swatches, and we're ready to print!

I can't wait to see this thing on tour on a shirt on bodies.  I had a lot of fun with it and I'm so glad Euge gave me the call.

And that's how a shirt is made!  Well, one way.

I've always loved hand painted lettering so I can't help but drool while watching Glen Weisgerber do his thing.  The fluidity of his line and his absolute confidence with the brush is a joy to behold.  The tail of the "g" at the end is really fun.

Certainly, this type of lettering can be done on computer.  Grab a couple of bezier handles and you've got some pretty convincing pinstripes.  But there's something about a curve painted on a surface by an expert hand that a vector can't quite capture.

I have a feeling I'll be trolling Airbrush Action's YouTube page for more inspiration like this.

Apparently, it's my lot in life to compare absolutely everything to Pacific Rim! Because robots punching! And SWORD!