Glen the Caterpillar Comics

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Glen Meets a Newt

“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.

Glen Learns the Secret Life of Bees

I actually had fun with today’s Glen! It came out pretty nice! And I think it captured an idea well. Good job me!

The Making of Glen

Inspiration for today’s comic came in the form of my constantly wandering mind. Basically I read someone was watching The Secret Life of Bees and I couldn’t help but wonder what are bees keeping secret?! And then it occurred to me, their fuzzy black and yellow stripes are just coats!

Other than that I didn’t do anything crazy new in drawing this except I created a new layer to add watercolor painted wings that looked translucent. The rest was straight up Old School Drawing. I know, how does anyone do that anymore??

Glen Solves the Mystery of the Mateless Socks…

So how is everyone doing in their “self-imposed quarantine”? I’m doing well, so is Glen as I force him to carry his own weight in domestic chores. Little was I to know that he was going to find all my missing socks! Good little caterpillar!

The Making of Glen

Today attempted to draw a sphynx cat freehand… that came out looking so bad I am not even going to share it here. I deleted it and am pretending it never happened. After that I found an appropriate cat to trace in the perfect pose. I admit he looks slightly evil but… you know… hairless cats and all…

I had fun making a swirly vortex with the blur tool. And I did freehand draw the bubble lettering. I used about five layer to create the sock pile. Annnnd I’m not happy with it because the sock outlines are way too thick in comparison with the cat but after spending an hour and a half on it I didn’t want to start over. Lessons for next time!

Glen Stumbles onto Some Old Photos…

I have been so scatterbrained lately I totally forgot to draw a Glen last Friday AND almost did the same thing today! Quarantine is turning my brain into mush… but it has allowed me to do some Spring Cleaning where I found these old gems from Glen’s adolescent years…

The Making of Glen

I had an image in my head of Glen on one of those horrible laser light background school photos and I had to draw it out… So I had to source the laser background, research what headgear looked like in the late 80’s and then work my way forward from there ending this little teenage saga with a walloping dose of Lisa Frank. Glen insisted on the Hanson Brother’s T-shirt. I had no say in this. All and all I found this hilarious.

Glen Discusses the Danger of Muppet Mange

Glen is back this week for a three part public announcement given in true 80’s style.

*No Muppets were harmed in the making of this strip. All we fine after being fed a course of Ivermectin.

The Making of Glen

This week ended a long drought of inspiration for me with the added magical element of a muse. Initially I had drawn just the middle panel with the Muppets as a joke to a very Muppet-loving friend. This then spiraled out of control as I needed to build a story around it. I once again realized that life as an artist is MUCH easier when you have a muse to get the creative juices flowing. Muses don’t usually give direct inspiration, no one was asking me, “Hey can you draw me a mange-addled Muppet?” but just by having conversations and being around they can inspire me to come up with my own storylines.

I also did a number of new things when it came to drawing this comic. In the first panel I used a premade backdrop which came out rather sweet. In the second I played a lot with positioning. In the third I learned how to slant a graphic I drew (the And Now You Know star) on a straight horizontal. All and all I am very happy with how it all came out. I feel like this week progressed my illustrating chops.

Glen Finds the Original Owner of his Lucky Rabbit’s Foot…

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.

Pirate Squirrel Drives Glen’s Nuts

Another day and another stretch of a pun, what can I say? It was a weird week. In today’s panel we get to see Pirate Squirrel stealing the ultimate ride – Glen’s acorn carriage. And we get to see Depressed Teddy all tangled up in the reigns!

The Making of Glen

I have been SO focused on writing and editing lately I haven’t had much time for Glen BUT with that being said I did add a few new elements this week. The first was a muse… I was completely and utterly out of ideas so I started having a nonsense conversation with someone until something came of it. This is so much easier than coming up with a new panel every week on my own!!

Besides that the biggest challenge I had drawing today’s panel would be the position of the depressed teddy bear…. again he’s in an odd position as I have him flopped up-side-down on the seat of the carriage tangled in the reigns. It’s… interesting how a teddy bear can change my perspective of the physical world…

I also stopped myself from making this comic overly complicated as I was going to have the squirrel driving out from under a house made of nuts… but that seems like a whole ‘nother joke in and of itself so I will save it for later!

Glen Minds his Peas in Queues…

Hey hey! Welcome to Glen’s new release day, FRIDAY! This time I am keeping it Friday. It was total madness to change it to Wednesday and I apologize.

Anyway… I was low on inspiration this week so I decided to play with puns. I learned that the phrase, “mind your p’s and q’s” is a British saying and that historians and etymologists can’t agree on what p’s and q’s actually are… So I decided to answer that question once and for all. They’re peas and queues.

Bear with me American audience, I know “queue” is not a word we use often here (unless we work the phones somewhere) and bear with me English audience for I clearly am not British. Much love to everyone though!

The Making of Glen

This week’s comic was so obscenely simple it only took me a few minutes to draw so I have little to report on except for the fact I am learning comics can get their point across very smoothly if there’s no distractions. Simplicity. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?

Glen Fails at a Dad Joke

I admit it – I have been obsessed with my writing lately and not giving Glen the attention he needs. Also writing has been my entire world for a few weeks and it’s burrowed into my brain so deep that I was unable to come up with a plotline for this week’s comic that wasn’t writing related. So here we are! Making bad puns… about writing…

The Making of Glen

Today I decided to draw Glen Old School – in one layer! Using the same tools I would have in Classic Microsoft Paint. It was a fun jaunt down memory lane but only lasted until I had to put in speech bubbles and text which are automatically a new layer. And then I decided a plain solid colored background was boring so instead I put them on the beach. They like the beach. I think. I’m still struggling to get the right expression on these little buggars. Could use some help!

Glen Decides to Give Cupid a Taste of His Own Medicine…

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.

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