Glen the Caterpillar Comics

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Category: Christmas

Glen Discovers the Truth Behind Frosty’s Magic Hat…

Well it’s the first Glen of the New Year! And I have been having a *super* stressful life at the moment which has sapped me of my creative juices. As such today’s comic was dreamed up at the last minute and drawn just as hastily. I’ll try to do better next time.

Glen’s Christmas Tree Waits for an Ambush…

Did you know this week is Christmas?! I didn’t! Between all the Covid restrictions I’m not really celebrating this year so it slipped my mind…. but with that being said Glen’s kids sure didn’t forget and they are up to their usual mischief.

The Making of Glen

I really pushed myself with today’s comic. I knew what I wanted to do but was at a loss on how to illustrate it. I decided I had to step back and draw the tree like a artificial Christmas tree is built – with a tinsel covered pole in the middle holding up several layers of branches also wrapped in green tinsel/pipe cleaner? I drew the base and then copy and pasted it several times on different layers, making sure to shrink each successive layer to make that lovely pine tree shape. And then I decorated it and added Glen’s kids between the layers so that it’d look like they were in the tree. When I finished that I copied the whole thing and threw it behind an opaque black fill-in to make it look like the lights were out. I tried to make the Christmas lights glow but somewhere between all the layering I wasn’t sure how to accomplish that… Even so I am super happy with how this one came out.

Recently I have decided to try harder not just with Glen but my other illustrations. For instance I am trying to illustrate a book of dreams I wrote down and I am having a lot of fun with it. I also continue to dream of animation so who knows where I will go from here. My artistic ambitions continue to grow as I teach myself new skills.

The Boxes are Always More Fun than What’s in Them…

I’m not going to lie – since the holidays I have doubled my efforts to stay in place and as a result I am lacking a lot of inspiration. I need muses! But alas, all I have is Amazon boxes… Eureka! That’s it!

The Making of Glen

Yesterday, when I drew this, was one of those days everything was coming together easy as pie. I came up with the idea of making Glen a box fort and then everything else followed. I didn’t have to do anything particularly new but I was surprised how much depth I could get just putting boxes in front of boxes! And in any event this was a little tip of the hat to my inner child. I am really enjoying drawing Glen lately and wonder if I shouldn’t be stretching my wings a bit and trying some animation!

Merry Christmas!

It’s Wednesday AND Christmas! So I would like to wish everyone a heartfelt Merry Christmas and/or happy holidays to all the lovely people out there still enjoying Glen’s antics. I couldn’t continue bringing joy and laughter without all your love and support.

Yours humbly,

Theophanes Avery

Justice is served to Elf on a Shelf…

This week’s comic illustrates what happens when you mix Lord of the Flies with baby caterpillars and a holiday stool pigeon… Does anyone else find that damn elf as creepy as I do?! This was a weirdly cathartic strip this week.

The Making of Glen

This week has been rough. I’m dealing with some things in my personal life that have left me drained of energy, creative juices, and time. As such I needed something super simple to draw and well…. how did it get so complicated?!

I ended up tracing a photo of Elf on a Shelf and then deleting the photo layer and then repeating that with a chair that was tilted at just the right angle. Resize so both fit. Add caterpillars. And lights, and a halo around those lights with a soft wash… and there we have it!

I’m actually happy with this. More so than I thought I would be!