By the Sword and the Cross!

Every now and then I'll take a look at the details of my SiteMeter reports and check out the links that refer readers to this site...more out of curiosity than anything, since I'm not one of those people who is trying to "monetize" my blog. One thing that struck me as interesting is that a significant number of people come here after doing a Google search for "paladin sketch" or some derivative of that. This is an interesting bit of irony, as despite the name of this blog, there is no sketch of a paladin on this site. Until now.
I've been using the name "Paladin Freelance" since the late '80's when I first studied commercial art. The name derived partly from the legends of King Charlemagne (France's answer to King Arthur's roundtable), and partly from the old TV series, "Have Gun Will Travel", whose gun-slinging hero, Paladin, remains one of the greatest figures ever to appear on the small screen. The Freelance, of course, came from the fact that I've always wanted to work freelance, to give me greater control over what I draw. I'm aware of the connection to RPG's like "Dungeons & Dragons", but I've never been really into those games, so it's not a strong connection for me, and the Clyde Caldwell / Larry Elmore vision of the paladin never really appealed to me. My idea of the paladin, while no less noble, is a more classical, rougher view of the concept.
So, finally, here's my own vision of a paladin. The figure is based on figures in the statue of Charlemagne and his retainers in Notre Dame Square. The color scheme is made up from whole cloth.
To all who come here from Google looking for a paladin...you're welcome.

Getting Zen Done

Today I bring some readers a freebie courtesy of Leo Baubata, author of "Zen to Done" and the blog "Zen Habits".

It seems that the current incarnation of the self-help books that were so popular in the 80's and 90's is the personal productivity blog. Since some folks have figured out how to make money from blog-writing (mainly through the old business model of selling ad space), and since people always seem to have an interest in learning how to better themselves with as little effort as possible, there are scads of writers out there who are completely missing the irony of having you waste your time reading their blog posts about how not to waste your time.

However, like any idea, there's always a few who stand out. Just as there were some excellent and tremendously useful "self-help" books written by the likes of Dale Carnegie, Mortimer J. Adler and David Allen, there are also some self-help blogs out there that are, in my opinion, worth a visit. So much so, in my case, that I have added their feeds to my Bloglines subscriptions so that I don't miss anything new they might publish.

One of my current favorites is Leo Baubata's Zen Habits, a blog about "simple productivity". The blog describes itself as being about:

"achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits."

In short, it takes a Zen attitude towards achieving life goals, being not about doing more, as much as it is about doing better, and being happier while doing it. For example, recent articles include "A Guide to Living Your Life Consciously", "How Many Hours are in Your Day?" and "Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer and Restore Kindness". For anyone who's looking for a positive view of the world and a few helpful suggestions for personal growth, the blog is definitely worth a read.

Recently, Leo published a post (see "Faith in Humanity, linked above) based around Robert A. Heinlein's idea of "Paying it Forward", in which he gave away copies of his ebook, "Zen to Done"
, to readers who commented on the post. It was done on the condition that each of those readers pay the favor forward by passing on a copy of the book to one other person who would be able to make use of it. As one of the commenters to receive a copy of his book, I thought I could best pay it forward and yet pay back at the same time by getting his permission to pass on copies to a few readers of this blog and help spread the word about his writing.
Thus it is that I have 5 copies of "Zen to Done" in pdf format to distribute to my readers. "Zen to Done" is an application of Occam's Razor to personal productivity systems. In Leo's words:

"Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more."

I have to be honest and say that I have not finished the book yet, but I am enjoying what I've read so far, and am looking forward to finishing it. The thing about a book like this is that I find it best read in chunks that need to be digested for a period rather than in one whole sitting.

If you would like to receive a copy via email, be one of the first five people to either email me (see link at right) or comment on this post (I'm notified of comments by email), and I will send you the book. But be aware...the book comes with the condition that the recipient likewise pay it forward by sending a copy to one other person, to keep the ideas flowing and allow others to benefit from the work.

For everyone else who's interested, there's a link on this page at Zen Habits where you can purchase a copy of the ebook via Paypal. It's not expensive and worth reading, so do yourself and Leo a favor and grab a copy.

Oh...and for anyone who does not know about pay it forward, or might know it only from an episode of Oprah or the Mimi Leder movie, you can find out more about it (and Robert Heinlein) at Wikipedia.

Update: If you want a copy of the book, please make sure you don't comment anonymously, or else send me an email. I need to reply to an address to send you the ebook.

Gettin' Love From KATG!

Just for fun, check out this episode of Keith and the Girl to hear Keith Malley tear me a new one for comments I've made on their forum. Look at me, Ma! I'm pissing off Noo Yahkers!

Knives to the Hilt!

It's amazing what you'll find when you're digging through your old material. Witness the following.
I used to be an avid reader of Blade magazine, a monthly journal of custom knifemaking. I suppose as a fantasy artist, it was inevitable that I take an interest in knives. Even now, I maintain a small blade collection, although it's leaned more towards utility blades in recent years ( I just never found a practical use for that brass lion-head pommel laser etched Toledo blade in the sealskin holster...go figure).
Part of my monthly ritual of reading Blade was to take some time to make reference drawings of the most interesting knives and swords I found in each issue. Recently, I came across a bunch of these drawings, and thought it might be fund to share them. The art is pretty crude, but the beauty of the design of some of these blades still manages to shine through.

Comic Book Follies

Update: Just for fun, I've published this book on Scribd. Now you can download the issue in pdf format from this page.

OK, to make up for my tardiness last week, I've got a full comic book for you this week.
Back in the mid-90's, I developed a character named DeathMask that I fully intended to turn into a limited series of comic books. At the time, in the wake of the launch of Image Comics, there was a glut of characters named "Death--" this and "Blood--" that, but this was meant to be a bit different from the rest. The catch to this character was that he wasn't a superhero, nor even an antihero, but a flat out serial killer who chose the concept of the superhero as a stage and rationale for his behaviour, sort of an ironic counterpoint to the trend that comics was taking at that time.
The concept was born in, of all places, an anthropology class at University. The course was on war, genocide and violent behaviour, and was taught by Elliot Leyton, who remains one of favorite teachers and authors. Dr. Leyton is a world-renowned criminal profiler who has had a huge influence on the way we perceive serial and mass murderers. As part of the course, he taught his book "Hunting Humans" and the excellent "Aesthetics of Murder" by Joel Black. Studying these texts got me to thinking about the possibility of a serial murderer who acted out his fantasies using comic books as his template, and DeathMask was the result.
Despite its apparently simple beginning, seen below, if developed the book would have gone on to explore Dr. Leyton's theories of the formation of the serial murderer's psychology, as well as the cultural impact of violent comics books and other media, and would have attempted to depict a realistic view of this deviant behavior as opposed to the glorified villains seen in films such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Halloween" (fun they may be...accurate they are not).
I was pretty determined to make this book happen, and ended up submitting it to several publishers, all of whom rushed forward to roundly reject me. I think my biggest mistake was submitting it to Fantagraphics, thinking they might catch up on the literary aspect of it, only to have Gary Groth suggest to me that I might want to actually read a few of their books before submitting to them again. My greatest hope was for Caliber Press, but unfortunately, they folded up soon after I sent this.
Looking back at it now, I can see how amateurish the art was. I haven't exactly taken comics by storm since then, but I can see that I have learned a few things that I should have known before attempting a project of this scale. Even so, the story is still dear to me, and the book remains one of my favorite projects. In addition to this first issue, I've done two ashcan prequels, several pages of book two, and a ton of concept sketches. Maybe one day if I can ever drum up interest, I'll try tackling this again from a more mature point of view. Until then, here's the complete first issue for you to enjoy.

Days of Pork and Snuffles....

I really did mean to have some drawings to post today, but I've been behind the eightball all week, largely as a result of having to spend last weekend dealing with four kids, two cats, a dog, a hurricane and the resulting power outage, some amateur lumberjacking, and a wayward pig. I shit you not. Then of course, there's the cold that came about as a result of it all, which means that not only am I behind on my current project, but I had to miss a day's work at the office as well...which always puts me behind there too.
Anyway, there's a long weekend coming up, which will hopefully let me catch up on some of my art chores and let me find something entertaining to post in the coming week. Meantime, I can only offer this by way of explanation....

I HAZ LOLCAT!

I'm in ur internetz...


...participatin' in ur memes.

Skeletons In My Closet

This piece is a recent design done to be stencilled onto shirts for a pool team. Each of the players on the team had a different "bone" nickname, and the figures are loose caricatures of team members.

The Return of Paladin Freelance!

Just a technical note of interest....I've retaken ownership of my own domain, www.paladinfreelance.com. I had let it lapse when I discontinued "The Journals of Simon Pariah", but now it's mine again. For now, the domain will redirect you here, but I am tossing around website ideas, so who knows? In the meantime, it's an easier domain to remember than my blogspot address.

Welcome...Now Go Away

Today I'm going to send you somewhere else. Specificially, I'm going to send you over to the blog of Manuel Marino. Manuel has an interesting idea for a blog...he's getting people from various creative fields to write him short essays about their art. Each post is by a different author from a different artistic field. Recently, I've accepted his invitation to write a short piece on comics for him, and it's online as of today, along with a little illustration I did to accompany the piece. Go read it, and while you're there, check out some of the other informative and entertaining pieces he's posted.

When you're done there, you might want to check out this site...found via Boing Boing this morning, it's got a lot of rare and early Bill Watterson art. You can see the early elements of Calvin & Hobbes style in his university work, and it's clear that even then, Watterson was an insanely talented cartoonist. There's also a whole lot of C&H sketches for your viewing pleasure.

When you're done with that, you can come back here if you want and tell me if you think my short piece on comics was dead on the money or dead in the water.

For Barrett's Private Ears!

I've just finished the last page in my Bruno the Bandit story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", and it feels good to be done. Not that I didn't enjoy the process, but this seemed to be the project that did not want to be born, as I ran into more problems, technical and otherwise, finishing this story, than any other project I've worked on to date.
Still, it's done and if you've been following, I hope you've enjoyed it. Below are some of the original sketches I did while planning the story; just preliminary roughs to lay done some of the character designs.
First there's Bruno himself...this apocryphal story takes place a lot earlier in his bandit career, so I knew I wanted him looking younger than he's normally drawn, but with features still recognizable compared to the way Ian McDonald draws them...


Next, there's Fiona, Bruno's sidekick. In continuity terms, she shouldn't have been in this story, but I figured if Ian can put her in Brunotots, then I could find a way to squeeze her into my tale...
Oddly, I find her harder to draw than Bruno. I can't quite wrap my head around the way Ian draws her back legs.


Next there's the pirates themselves. A lot of the visuals of the story depended on drawing Barrett's pirates in various activities. While a lot of figures appeard in the story, here's a couple that didn't get in...





And finally, there's Barrett himself. I was looking for the typical pirate look, but just about as mean as the day is long. In the story, he has a wooden leg, a glass eye and a hook for a hand, and if that doesn't make a man ornery, I don't know what would. I think a number of characters in my memory found there way into this one, including the pirate from "Blackbeard's Ghost" and maybe a bit of Hagrid...


And that's a wrap on that story. I'll be hip deep in my next project for a while, but I'm sure I'll be able to dig something fun out of my files to share. Keep an eye out to see what I come up with.

Vvroommm....

Looks like there's a lot of visitors coming here after reading my strips at Bruno the Bandit. Welcome, or welcome back as the case may be. I'm going to be putting up some rough sketches from "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer" later in the week, so be sure to check back. Meantime, here's a piece I'm working on just for fun. It started as a rough sketch after seeing a documentary on Big Daddy Roth, but I'm thinking that with a bit of tweaking, I could turn this into a T-shirt design, or some other sellable product. Suggestions?

Yarrr....

Yes, I know it's too late for Talk Like a Pirate Day, and everyone's done with Pirates of the Carribbean by now. Still, pirates are always fun. That's why my next project to see the light of day will be a pirate story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", over at Ian McDonald's "Bruno the Bandit" webomic. This is a 9 page story that will be starting. as far as I know, on Monday and running over the next two weeks. Here's a small sample of the art:



Don't forget to drop by and read the story.

It Never Rains But It Pours...

Busy, busy, busy!
I'm just finishing work on one project (more about which in the coming week), when another big...excuse me...Big! one lands in my lap. How big is it? It's so big, I can't tell you about it. Yet.
However, for yet another month it looks like I'm not going to be able to fill any new commissions. Once I finish the one I'm currently working on, I'll be caught up, which is nice since I hate to leave anyone hanging. But anything new is going to have to wait at least a month before I can get to it. Still, as always, first come first served, so if you want a sketch done, get your request in early.

Meanwhile, I'll still be posting at least weekly with work from my archives, and you'll be seeing new work from me online at another site very soon.
Here's an old piece that I still enjoy. I've noticed that jungle girls are getting a bit of a resurgence lately, what with the reincarnation of Shanna and Sheena and Frank Cho's cleverly named book, "Jungle Girl". So, this is probably an appropriate time to post this one...



I think I was a little too obsessed with muscular detail when I drew this, and if I were to do it over, I'd probably go for some softer lines and less shading, but overall, I think it stands up as a decent little drawing.

...And We're Back!

After too long a break, I'm back at it. I've been working constantly, of course, but just haven't had time to update the blog. That, of course, is both good and bad. Good in that I've been busy with projects, bad in that it's hard to line up new projects if I'm not out there selling myself.
Speaking of new projects, here's a sample from one I've just completed. This is a page from a book titled "Deathmatch UK", written by Paul Holmes, with art by Nicolas Colacitti and Rodrigo Mavica. The book is currently being submitted to publishers, and if it gets picked up, I've got a pretty good shot at being the regular colorist. Keep your fingers crossed.


I'm working on another small project that will be available online in a couple of weeks, so watch for that as well.
This coming weekend, I'm going to be attending the "Word on the Street" book festival in Halifax. It's an annual book fair held in the city that always delivers some nice new discoveries in local literature. Plus, my favorite comic shop, Strange Adventures, always hosts an impressive display there. This year, their exhibitors will include Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone of "The Spirit"...the best non-Eisner treatment of the character possible...Seth of "Clyde Fans" and "Vinyl Cafe" fame, Marvel-zombie and jaw-dropping artist Steve McNiven, "Thieves & Kings" creative genius Mark Oakley, and Eisner award winner Hope Larson. So, it should be a good opportunity to meet some people and snag a few signed books. If you're in the area, I strongly recommend attending and checking out what folks in these parts have to offer.

Enter Sandman

Currently, I'm reading, and quite enjoying, the 90's Vertigo series "Sandman Mystery Theatre". I especially like the pulp-themed covers with their clever photographic work. I also enjoy reading a reimagining of an older superhero that does not depend heavily on the Moore/Miller style of reconstruction. Matt Wagner did some first-rate writing on this series, and it's quite a change from his work on Grendel and Mage, which shows his range. I've enjoyed Guy Davis's work since I first picked up Saint Germaine from Caliber, and I'm proud of the recent acquisition of a signed Baker Street hardcover. His work in SMT is a little tighter than it is in most other things I've read by him, but he's still got that loose line and distinct sense of form that bucks the typical comic book esthetic. Good reading all the way around, and highly recommended.



And on that noir note, I'm off for two weeks vacation in atmospheric Newfoundland as nature, proving that it lacks any sense of irony, is about to batter the eastern seaboard with Hurricane Dean. See you in September...and pleasant dreams.

Tellos Creator Passes Away

This is not the sort of thing I normally post here, but I thought it would be appropriate:

Found, with much surprise, on Drawn!:

Mike Wieringo has passed away

This is the sort of news that comes at you out of the blue and snaps your head around. Wieringo was one of those artists I never followed, but who always caught my eye with his work. He had a clear set of influences, yet managed to turn those into a distinct style all his own. His work was bright, fun and enjoyable, exemplary of some of the best things comics can be.
And he was only 5 years older than me.

I always thought of Wieringo as part of the "new breed" of comics artists....that generation of creators post-Byrne, Perez, etc. who were building on the work of their predecessors the way that group built on the work of Kirby and Lee. And, like most young talents, you see them as being damn-near immortal, or at least as having a good, long run ahead of them.
As an artist when you read something like this, it makes you wonder if you're doing as much with your own work as you could or should be. It makes you think about all those excuses you make for not getting down to that drawing table. And while it's probably not going to turn you into an instant workhorse, it does at least serve as a reminder that you're not going to be here forever.

So get to work.

All Booked Up, Uh Huh Huh....

Between vacation time and ongoing projects, I'm happy to say that I'm going to be booked up for the remainder of August. I'll still take sketch requests (hey, that Donate button ain't broken, pal!), but any requests received from this point forward will not be completed until September. But hey...keep those projects coming! As long as you keep payin', I'll keep dancin' to your tune!

Desk Doodles!

A few quick sketches from my blotter to finish off the week. I'd love to get time to color more of these, but there always seems to be something else demanding my time RIGHT NOW! Hmmm....maybe it's time for a sick day.

First up, a sketch sort of inspired by those creepy psychic kids in Akira...

Next, a sketch done while listening to Patrice on the Keith and the Girl podcast. I'm not into gossip, but she's just enjoyable to hear.



For something a bit different, there's this frosty lady...



A couple of larger pieces next. First, this CARniverous vehicle a la Big Daddy Roth...


And finally, there's this. Spongebob Batpants? Batbob Spongepants? A desperate cry for more sleep? You decide.




That's it. I'm off for a wet and wild weekend. Which unfortunately means flume rides and bumper boats with my kids, not semi-disrobed floozies and beer funnels. Oh well; ya takes what ya can get.

And We Have a Winnah!

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Bruno art contest is Robin Reed. Robin is a writer and cartoonist herself; you can find her work at Barstow Productions. Robin not only entered the contest, but took a stab at naming the characters in the drawing, getting nearly every one of them...and making me realize that there's one or two that I can't even name any more.

Congratulations, Robin. And thanks to everyone else who entered. Keep an eye on things here, as I've been thinking it might be fun to do other contests here. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to send them to me.