Halloween – Glen the Caterpillar Comics

Category: Halloween (page 1 of 2)

July 12, 2021

Glen Starts a New Business

I know, I know, all this past week there have been memes flooding the internets with adorable horned alligators. You’re probably already sick of them but you know what? Glen loves himself a good trickster god so I had to run with it. Now we get to sit back and see how long it takes before Disney sues us. *innocently whistles*

The Making of Glen

So for the past week I have been watching all sorts of tattooing videos hoping to learn enough to become a proper artist and maybe do some sort of creative endeavor that actually pays some bills. It’s interesting because it’s a completely different art form from comic design but weirdly I can still apply some of the lessons I have learned from both. For a while now I haven’t really enjoyed drawing Glen as much as I used to because I always felt I could make it somehow better – more realistic looking. And although I still want to achieve realism I realize now that I should do so when doing other projects. The beautiful thing about comics is they’re simple – they get to the point with the least amount of details possible and that’s good! So today when I drew the squirrel I didn’t give his tail individual hairs, nor did I give anyone fingers and toes on their paws because I realized I didn’t have to and it wasn’t adding anything to the piece. So for now laziness wins!

June 14, 2021

Glen Introduces the Bug World to Shakespeare

So I may have been wandering around BritBox like a lost lamb when I found something called Upstart Crow – which is apparently a very British comedy about Shakespeare’s life and it had me in stitches with it’s creative reinterpretations of the classics. This got me to wondering what Shakespeare would mean to a cheerfully stoned caterpillar. And this is what I came up with. I might be biased but I think putting Glen in a fur coat is always a great thing to do. I JUST WANT TO HUG HIM! But I’ll resist.

The Making of Glen

I made Glen SUPER late this week. It’s past 5PM on Monday and I just finished it. SIIIIGH. That being said I took the background from Glen Visit’s Popple’s Dungeon and updated it with some blurring effects to make it look less distractingly cartoonish. From there I played with brush strokes to find which one resembled fluffy fuzzy wuzzy bee hair. And then I drew a skull on the bee as Hamlet demands I do. It’s style is reminiscent of the death’s heads I find on the slate gravestones that I admire so much. It’s crude, at best, I know, but it works!

June 7, 2021

Glen Stages a Mutiny…

The past week has been total chaos so I had to get inspiration for Glen from a dream – a dream I had after about 48 hours worth of dreams trying to sleep off a migraine. It makes little sense and doesn’t have any context but damn if it isn’t adorable! To pirate Glen!!

The Making of Glen

Today I played with some new textures trying to get the teddy bear right… I don’t think I am done fiddling with this but I am getting closer so that’s all that counts.

May 3, 2021

Glen Discovers that being Wished into a Cornfield isn’t as Bad as it Sounds…

I decided to do another homage to one of my all time favorites – the original Twilight Zone and it’s insanely iconic It’s a Good Life episode where one little boy gets to wish people away for not thinking happy thoughts. Where do they go? The cornfields! I know the sting of this no longer reaches most people because most people no longer have first hand experiences with cornfields but here’s why that’s so scary- because they’re extremely disorienting. It’s just rows and rows of corn with no way out. It’s a terrifying thought, probably first implemented in old German fairy tales where magic umbrellas would fly bad little boys and girls away to the proverbial cornfield. (Doesn’t that put a whole new light on Mary Poppins!)

Still – in this classic horror scenario Glen always manages to find a way to make it adorable. And I couldn’t be more proud.

The Making of Glen

I was actually lacking in inspiration this week when this idea popped into my head yesterday. I had spent all day fighting with technology on a different matter so by the time I was ready to sit down and illustrate it I was already on the punchy side which is not a great place to start with such a complex illustration. I had to look up cornstalks in an attempt to draw them. I drew one and copied it many times over to make a field and I applied the same process to the pile of corn which I moved the corn into different angles in order to make them look like a more convincing pile. I think it came out well! And I am proud of myself for once again pushing the boundaries of what I could do – going so far as to find an appropriate brush stroke for the top of the corn stalks to make them look loaded with pollen.

Initially I drew the image in color. I thought turning it into a black and white image would be as simple as applying a filter like you do with photos. HAHAHAHA. No, when I looked up how to do this in Clip Studio Paint I got a bunch of grotesquely long multi-step tutorials which I looked at with glassy eyes before cheating. I totally uploaded the illustration to LunaPic (dot com) and applied the black and white filter. Took all of two steps and 15 seconds from upload to black and white. I regret nothing (fully realizing that if I were to be professional about this I’d totally learn the correct way which probably allows me to do this without compressing the image. Whatever, I’m not making this into a billboard so it doesn’t matter.)

April 19, 2021

Glen Fixes the Monkey’s Paw

Ah! Another week and another horror related comic! This one was inspired by a spirited discussion on The Monkey’s Paw. It all got me wondering, what would Glen do with a monkey’s paw? What would he wish for? And his very innocent (but potentially horrifically backfiring) answer had to be this! With any luck the monkey will be pleased and won’t curse his remaining wishes… but that’s up to you to decide what happens next.

The Making of Glen

So, since I was doing so well with posting a Glen every week and I am getting into other illustrations and tattoo design I thought it would be a great idea to invest in a gaming PC (which is coincidentally the same kind of PC illustrators use.) And I must say this combined with the better drawing tablet and a kneeling chair is SWEET!! LOVING the new set up! So sleek! So fast! So easy! I must be moving up in the world.

The new PC with its much larger screen has also allowed me to see the details in the things I draw so much better! I don’t know how this is going to play into my Glen comics in the future but for now it’s mesmerizing.

March 29, 2021

Glen Plays the Devil’s Advocate for Satan’s Lonely Heart…

So last week I grew restless and tried to escape my boredom by visiting the location of a botched horse cremation. I didn’t really comprehend it was at the top of a mountain and REALLY messed myself up and spent the rest of the week recovering… which brings me to today, Monday, where I am sitting here staring at a blank screen wondering what the heck I am going to draw for this week’s Glen comic.

Finding no real inspiration I procrastinated by scrolling aimlessly through my Twitter (@TheophanesAvery) feed. For some reason it was inundated with references to Satan this morning?! I didn’t figure I had the emotional bandwidth to look into why Satanic Panic was trending so instead I just let my mind wander and BAMB! Inspiration for a Glen comic!

The Making of Glen

Today’s comic was SUPER simple although I did learn that I have completely forgotten how to draw flames… ah well, can’t keep everything in my head. The one thing I did differently was giving Glen a considerable dialogue that was in and of itself the joke. I don’t know if this will fly but at this point I’m calling it good. Maybe next week will be less stressful and allow me proper inspiration. One can always hope.

March 9, 2021

Glen Interviews a Murder Hornet…

The past couple of weeks have been absolutely horrible for me so I haven’t had the time, energy, or funny in me to draw a Glen comic on time. That’s why this one is going up a day late… and is darker than usual. As I have stated in my other blogs gallows humor is how to get through the dark times.

The Making of Glen

I am starting to experiment with the idea of multiple panels when I can’t get a concept out in one. And that more layers is always better than less. My life has been so stressful as of late I am struggling to find the time but I really wish to grow as an illustrator and maybe do a short Glen animation in the future. It’s always good to evolve as an artist.

November 30, 2020

Glen and the Mad Hatterpillars…

This week’s Glen started out as a morbid joke and somehow ended up in a really well suited pun. It refers to an actual real-life species of caterpillars called the gum leaf skeletoniser. I had no idea when I was drawing said comic that they’re also affectionately nicknamed mad hatterpillars!

The Making of Glen

This week’s panel is super simple. It was an easy image born from the fact a week’s worth of cleaning house has left my brain soup. Next week I will try to invite more complexity.

October 26, 2020

Glen Brings his Kids Trick or Treating

An early and appropriately socially distanced Happy Halloween to all my wonderful weirdoes out there! Here’s Glen doing his rounds Trick-or-Treating with is kids… all behind masks and on leashes. Bravo, little guy, you’re a brave soul.

The Making of Glen

I really toppled down the rabbit hole with this one! Spent more than four hours illustrating it because I wanted the spooky house, spooky tree, and the costumes… there’s a lot going on here. And I got to include a little Among Us fellow peeking out from the tree all “sus.” I’m not a gamer so I have to thank this inspiration to my muse and his insistence on making me watch funny YouTube videos (which I love! Don’t get me wrong!)

What did learn from this delightfully nerdcentric panel? Uhhh… how to make shadows for the tree? Everything else was just me playing with skills I already had. I am loving this one. It’s been the best in a long while.

October 19, 2020

Glen Plays “Dungeons & Dragons”

Before you all start yelling at me, “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU PLAY D&D!” I KNOW. Gawd, do I know. This week I have been repeatedly asked to join a campaign. You are so sweet for inviting me but I don’t think you truly understand what you’re asking. This Glen comic is 100% the amount of seriousness I could pull off playing. I am only good at comic relief and I don’t think that’s an actual role sooooo….

The Making of Glen

This was an interesting comic because it started out being three panels in my head, you know a little conversation between Glen and an unseen narrator, but I managed to boil it down to one adorkable image. I recycled the background of my Popple Dungeon but added a few things – mainly I blurred the grout lines to make them look a little more realistic and a little less cheesy. I’m always in the air about whether I want Glen to be super simple and campy or weirdly realistic. This is apparent in the fact I started out trying to draw an actual Dungeons and Dragons suit of armour and ended up instead arming him with a rubber chicken….

I also realize this comic might come off as a bit… mmm…. misogynistic. Trust me, as an owner of tits and a twat I am actually making fun of the trope not endorsing it. Besides, all us nerds know virgins aren’t great dragon bait – they are much better at catching unicorns.

I have no control of Glen. He damn well does what he wants to do and I am but a hapless observer.

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