Happy April! Kindof insane to think the year is ¼ over. So let’s not think about that and instead get into some art and comics!

Hallowed Ground is a new 100+ page afterlife horror anthology by my good friend Michele Abounader and Deathline Comics. The anthology boasts an insane roster of talents, including Anthony Oliveira, Vash Taylor, Jessica Fong, Chloe Stawski, and so many more! Also Kevin Wada and Bailie Rosenlund on covers!

I had the honor of doing one of the covers for it under the theme of Purgatory. Michele never misses with her anthologies and this is one of the coolest themes to date. Also, everyone who backed FUNeral Home who also backs Hallowed Ground will be receiving an exclusive art print by Tench! Look at this. It’s magnificent.

We are back at it for Ringo Awards season, and it would mean the world to me (and team gay pain) if you would consider nominating FUNeral Home for Best Humor Comic and Best Short Story at the Ringo’s! Nominations are open to anybody, you don’t have to be a pro or a creative. We put a lot of love to make this comic as unhingedly gay and shenanigans as possible, and truly believe there’s nothing like it out there. And do throw some love to our letterer Jodie Troutman, who put all of those beautiful PIERCING GAYZE sfx into the book.

Nominate your favorite comics here:

One of the worst feelings as an artist is having such an ambitious vision in your head but failing to make it come to life. After four years humming and haa-ing over this beautiful dark fantasy book I wanted to make, I decided now was the time! I have to bring this book to life or I’ll never do it! I had always dreamed of having a book as beautiful as this women knight’s artbook, DamesZine,

Now, do you see my problem? And why I struggled so hard to sit my tush down and commit to this project? I so badly want a book to look like this, but I don’t draw like this. I’ve applied every year to these projects and never get into them. For years I resigned myself to a wistful sigh and pushed back on things I couldn’t do perfectly.

I don’t know why, but last month as I was super sick recovering from con crud, I finally took a good look at all my art output of the last year and went “what am I doing wrong?” Why can’t I render as well as Vulpetrope, or Sachin Teng, or Velinxi. Artists I have admired for years. In my mope I threw all of their art together on a giant moodboard just to see what they were doing that I wasn’t.

That night, after moping in front of the newly minted artboard of my favourite god-tier artists, I picked up the stylus and drew again. But little things kept nagging at me in the back of my head.

“Remember how XXX did proportions? You should exaggerate them more.”
“That composition from XXX on that cover your liked, what if we tried something similar?”
“See how XXX rendered their colors, relying more on cell shading than soft gradients?”
“Here’s how XXX did clothing folds, let’s try it out!”

Well, that looks different.

I know the best way to improve your art is to hit the fundamentals. However, as a certified lazy bum, I do not enjoy doing them. Instead I had to trick my brain into doing exercises my own way—by drawing my OC’s while taking to heart everything I mentally took notes on staring at that beautiful moodboard of other artists. Constantly fighting my brain to do things differently than I used to before. Which is why as much as fundamentals are important, if you are like me and hate doing them, you gotta turn them into FUNdamentals. Make the work fun for you!

This was the first time in many years I felt that spark again while drawing. The last time this happened I was obsessed with the comic My Dear Lass and tried to peach-ify my art. This time…I’m just having fun and trying new things 🙂