After a two week accidental hiatus and another insanely stressful day I have come to you with a new Glen two hours before midnight! YAY! It’s not my best work but it is damn adorable so there’s that.
Category: Holidays
I apologize for the lack of a Glen comic last week. I had a migraine all week and was so out of it that Friday came and went without me noticing. This week I have decided to make up for this by drawing something so intensely adorable it’ll have the power to melt your heart. And here it is! Inspired by a very late night conversation about how sea monsters should be “boopable.”
The Making of Glen
This week’s Glen was a tough concept for me to gather and make into a readable image. How does one draw a Kracken in a way that makes it look like a baby? And how does one get a ship in bottle??
The answer to the first was to put the Kracken in a crib and endear it to audiences with HUGE baby eyes. As for the ship… that was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I drew a ship and then drew a bottle around it one layer below it. Voila! Nothing else fancy done here except use layers to make the legs all make sense.
A final note here would be that right now as my mind juggles a billion other things I have found having a muse is essential. This time it was inspired by someone telling me about a story they were writing where they were criticized for making legendary sea monsters adorable. Did I hear a challenge??
It’s been a very Cthulhu-laden week and I can’t really complain! It was fun drawing him… as a baby… and who knows, maybe the reason he’s so evil is because no one showed him any love. Well, we all love you now baby Cthulhu!
The Making of Glen
This week I did something a little different by creating a three panel comic. For some reason my illustrator was NOT cooperating with me to allow me to copy and paste multiple layers so making three separate panels that were basically the same took more time than it should have. Other than that this was straight drawing. I didn’t really do anything weird, interesting, or new.
“Eye of newt, and toe of frog. For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble!” Clearly I have been reading too much Shakespeare as of late. Mix that with a walloping dose of insomnia and I think my brain is pretty well melted. Good thing that really works for me… and Glen of course.
The Making of Glen
It has come to my attention that my art, writing, and yes, even these comics, can be a little intimidating to some because of their complexity and layering of many puns on top of each other. So I have decided to bring it down a little, go back to the basics and make it super simple. Maybe then Glen will be an easier sell because as it stands right now his only diehard fans are all people who know me personally and already love me for my weird brain. That’s really sweet and I’m not ungrateful buuuut I would also love for him to be a little more approachable to the outside world.
Well it’s May Day. This either means the day where old people reminisce about handing out baskets and kisses ooooooor it’s what you call when your plane is hurtling toward a rough and unexpected landing. Maybe there’s some middle ground here? Wonder if Glen could achieve this feat. Why yes, yes he can!
The Making of Glen
I was lacking in inspiration this week and came up with this idea only after procrastinating BADLY. I consulted my muse asking what would be a terrible thing to hug and they said a porcupine. Seriously?! Now I have to figure out how to draw a porcupine! Even though it’s an old idea I still think it came out cute.
I did a lot of new things with this comic… for one I drew a porcupine which I decided should look like an exploding fuzz ball. I used the fingertip blur tool to achieve this and learned the more violently you draw each line the farther it’ll go! I also enjoyed learning how to draw a snake entwined in a tree branch which is harder than it sounds. I was lazy with his scales though using the spray paint tool. And I was challenged in how to draw a face hugger and an amoeba… but I think I got it! Actually the longest time I spent on making this comic was drawing the bubble letters. I have been obsessed with bubble letters since grade school and always wanted to know how to draw them. I don’t feel as if I’m great at this yet but I’m getting there!
Well… since the entire nation has put itself in quarantine there’s really no way to escape the 24 hour news cycle about this new pandemic… which is what brought me to today’s comic with Glen and a secret admirer who happens to be a plague doctor… Hey, if I can’t ignore it I’ll make a little light of it!
The Making of Glen
Lately I have been so busy I haven’t had much time for Glen so he’s been very simplistic. Today I learned how to draw a rose (badly) and a plague doctor. I reused an old background. Now all that is left is to see how sensitive my readership is… will this offend or make people laugh. I do not know.
Happy Friday the 13th everyone!! Since it is such an odd day and one where the masses seem to be in full panic mode I decided to add a little levity to the situation. A little…morbid….levity. Offensive? Perhaps a touch. Just be glad I didn’t make a comic about our current toilet paper shortage. Ah, America…. you are psychotic.
The Making of Glen
I admit this comic is partially based on a nightmare I had as a small child about the owner of my lucky rabbit’s foot floating through the window trying to claim it’s foot back. SIGH.
With that cleared out of the way I would like to say I am growing my confidence in the drawing part of drawing comics. These characters are very old school and lovable. And the Depressed Teddy got a few aesthetic changes – for one I gave him proper eyes. And I also made him a bit chubbier… it happens. Glen was once thin too. I guess I feed them well.
I also used an old background – amended to have a floor. But I guess the biggest thing I am proud about today is my increasing skill in using the facial expressions of my character to portray the correct mood. This has been a struggle up until now! Mostly because I’m facial blind and read human expressions poorly even in real life. Weirdly drawing cartoons has helped me in identifying these subtle nonverbal cues.
I guess Glen has had a far more turbulent love life than I have previously thought as he’s in a bit of a vengeful mood today – hunting Cupid with his own bow and arrow. Now how he got these items or what he plans on aiming them at he’s leaving a mystery but I have a feeling Cupid is about to fall head over heals for the Kraken… Today might not be the best day to be a cherub.
The Making of Glen
I wanted very badly to have Glen wearing heart-shaped granny glasses today but I wanted them to be translucent like real sunglasses and I could NOT find online how to do this! So I had to make something up.
Basically I took the watercolor brush, warped the opacity, and painted a nice square over Glen’s face. I then took the eraser and drew two hearts, erasing everything around them, and using a red water color brush to highlight the rims. I then moved them around to the best position on his face before drawing in the nose and ear pieces. I’m happy with the result but I feel like there was probably a LOT easier way to accomplish it. I have to get back to trying to learn more illustration skills. I feel like I am not finding everything I need.
I also made the background with heart decorations but it came out WAY too bright and seemed to be too distracting (seen below) from the over all image so I again took that pink watercolor brush and washed the whole thing out. I am satisfied with the results.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOOO!!
Did you know there are several dozen Happy New Year songs and they all sound exactly the same? Yeah…. so I was at a loss of inspiration for this comic. I knew being New Year’s Day I had to do something to tip my hat to the holiday at hand but here’s the thing…. As an introverted teetotaler who abhors drunkeness, crowds, and loud noise I don’t really like New Years… I know, I’m a total blasphemer. Worse yet I have no real positive Happy New Year Memories with which to draw on – no romantic fated kisses, no wild unremembered nights, no exuberance for what’s to come – if anything I’m just perplexed by the whole thing. This year I spent it geeking out to the Twilight Zone and Doctor Who.
But with that being said I am very much looking forward to the new year. I can’t believe it’s 2020! And I hope Glen’s fans out there are just as hopeful. It is a new decade after all. Let’s fill it with mischievous giggles!
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