Inklings 3 released!

Shipment of Inklings III finally arrived, and the book is on sale now, only from Shadowscapes. 8.5x8.5 inches, softcover, 58 pages of b&w ink artwork done over the past two years. Lots of drawings that have only been viewable in this blog, travel sketches, and keyword sketches. The book is $20.00. And as always a sketch option is available for an additional $15.00

Inklings 3 coming soon!

Inklings 3 proofs arrived in the mail today! This latest installment will be 58 pages, a little bit longer than the previous two books. Softcover, 8.5x8.5 inches. Features ink artwork that I've done in the past two years 2010-2011. It includes about 20 stand-alone full page ink drawings, many vignettes, 110 keyword card art pieces, and about 30 of my private travel sketchbook drawings.

This should hopefully be available in January. Here are some previews:

Night Magic

I was reviewing some of the keyword card sketches I've done in the past year, with some thoughts of starting to gather together ink drawings for the next installment of an Inklings book. I came across, for keyword "nostalgia". On this evening when the cricket-orchestra is loud outside my screen door, it stirred some thoughts.

My own nostalgia frequently coalesces from my memory in the form of fireflies.

I left Summit, New Jersey when I was 7 years old, and there are no fireflies in the places I have lived in California. I remember nights that seemed so black and muggy you were swimming through them. The voices of the older kids I played with bounced from the trees around me as we delved into the darkness. Were there flashlights? I don't remember. I remember the blinking pinpricks of light. I remember the pine trees, and fragrant needles underfoot. And fireflies piercing the fabric of the night. I remember catching the sparks in our cupped palms, and watching them glint from inside the glass jars.

I was squeamish of bugs. Elizabeth was the tomboy, the oldest girl, and the alpha of our group. She would pick up caterpillars from the tree outside my house, hold them between her fingers as they slowly curled up into a tight fuzzy black and yellow ball, and then wriggle straight and arch again in a mesmerizing fashion. She would try to put them in my palm, and I would just stare at her with my fists clutched tight behind my back, shaking my head emphatically, "No no no." She would casually pass her hand across the thread of a dangling emerald-green inchworm, and offer me that living writhing jewel. Sometimes I would tentatively take the proffered gifts. I wanted the older kids to like me and didn't want to be excluded from all their games.

But the fireflies needed no social prod to fascinate me, to entice me into chasing after their sparking flashes, and capture their blinking lights in my hands. They transcended being insectile. They were summer magic. Inevitably, after capture, they would glow and flash in our jars for a while, but then the lights would fade, like banked coals. We watched hopefully, but when they lay dark and still, merely insects once again, we reluctantly unscrewed the jars and let the cloud of lights lift up into the night.

Inklings II shipment arrived!

Well that's a huge load off my chest. I was worried that UPS wouldn't arrive in time before I had to leave for my hour long drive to the south bay tonight. Having had all kinds of UPS-woes in the past, I have low expectations; though the situation seems to have greatly improved once I moved out of an apartment and into a house instead. I used to scream curses at UPS and Fedex on a regular basis when they foiled my plans.

At any rate, Inklings II is here. I'll probably be spending a good portion of Fanime doing the cover sketches for the pre-orders. It'll give me something to do during the downtime at the show! I should have them ready to ship by the next Friday.

For any other artists looking for a POD company with good quality greyscale (NOT the laser dots that you'll see with most PODs, which incidentally was what made my search take so long, I recommend QualityPOD. Tell them that I sent you. :)

Inklings II

* $20.00 (+$15.00 for an original ink drawing on the inside cover)

* 56 pages of b&w ink drawings

* 8.5x8.5 inches, perfectbound

Inklings II previews & taking pre-orders

Well after searching high and low for a printer the past several months and being frustrated at several turns, and delayed, and delayed again, I've finally found what I was looking for.

The proof arrived in the mail today, and it looks good, so I'm going ahead with the run.

The other good news is that because it took so long to find a suitable printer, I eventually added another 6 pages of new art that came about during that intervening time span. So this one's 56 pages of ink scribbles.

If all goes as expected, they should be ready by the end of this month. Currently taking pre-orders for shipping approximately the first week of June. As with volume 1, I'm offering two options:

* book for $20.00
-or-
* book with an ink sketch on the inside cover for $35.00 (if you ask here nicely, I'll do a requested subject).

Here's a peek inside the covers:

dA prints of ink drawings

"From Sea Foam"
Medium: Ink
Size: 7x11 inches

Since I don't offer my ink drawings as prints from Shadowscapes, I've decided to add availability of them through deviantArt. As well as some miscellaneous others that are not sold as prints on Shadowscapes. Mostly it's the recent ink drawings of the past several months.

Along those lines as well, I'm still on the hunt for a good printer for Inklings II. It's been several months of wrangling. Unfortunately the printer who did the first Inklings for me went out of business. So it's left me in the lurch in getting reprints of it, and in getting this second volume off the ground. Was aiming to have some in time for Comic-con (mid-July), and in January that seemed like "Plenty of Time!!!" And then the months creep by and I'm still stuck at Square One.*hair-tearing moment*

I've been sending in price quote and sample requests to numerous printers. And while the prices have all been good, the quality alas has fallen far short of what I was hoping for. After chatting with my old printer a bit the other day though (probably something I should have done a while ago), I found out the reason why was because most of the print-on-demand companies are optimized for text printing. Since that's the bulk of what they do. They're not so good when it comes to the quality of grayscale printing.

I'm crossing my fingers though that the current company I'm having conversations with will be able to print with the same quality of Inklings I. Waiting for their samples later this week with baited breath, and then hopefully I can get past this roadblock.

Meanwhile...sweating through this sudden heatwave. Poor freezer's icemaker can't keep up with me.

Cypripedium californicum

"Slippers"

6.5x7.5 inches, ink on bristol board

A fanciful little commission of Cypripedium californicum, a Californian orchid. Cypripedium refers to Aphrodite/Venus.

* * *

I'm working on getting an Inklings volume 2 out. Having a horrid time getting my printer to actually do it. It's been a series of misfortunes since late January when I sent them the layouts, so I'm not really holding my breath for it to be available anytime soon. I'm hoping they can do it in time for the summer conventions. I am factoring in a 6 month lead time after all (low expectations lead to pleasant surprises).

While quality from small press seems to be quite good these days, reliability is where the big failing is so far with all the companies I've had to deal with.

Still, it's great to be able to do things like this, that 10 years ago would really not even have been an option without searching overseas for an affordable printer, shelling out a large sum of money for the run, and then finding room to store the 1000+ copies. My poor little garage is already packed to the gills with paper product. Wait, there's supposed to be room for a car too???