New for 2014: Premium Commissions

I want to try some new things at my 2014 conventions. One of them is this: a new "premium" commission. I want to take a limited number of much more complicated pieces, colored in watercolor rather than marker. I'm only going to do a couple for each show, and you can either place an order or select out of the ones that I already have done.

To start, I'm trying some My Little Pony stuff. I draw the ponies a lot, but I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with the backgrounds and those are a lot of fun. Also, I haven't done watercolors in a long time, so it's nice to start refreshing that skill. Here's Twilight Sparkle as a premium commission. I've got a Zecora one on the drawing board that I'll be showing soon, too. Both of them will be available at Connooga next month.

If you're interested in getting one, give me a shout and let me know. I'll certainly do a few through the mail. For these, 9x12 in full color, one character in an environment, I'm going to charge $125.

Coming Soon: The Complete Love and Capes!

The news broke on Twitter last week, but I wanted to officially announce that there will be a Complete Love and Capes collection from IDW this summer. It's going to include all 24 issues of the series. The only new story page will be the one-page "Hostess" ad I did with Just Jenn (which is the only post-baby story so far). I'm going to put some rarely-seen things in the back matter, including the complete collection of Love and Capes con prints, art done by some comics pros that haven't been seen before, all the t-shirt designs and more.

It's going to be quite the package of goodness. You can preorder the book on Amazon here.

1000 Deadbeats and More

This past week isn't just the anniversary of the Mac, but it's also a work anniversary for me. I just lettered my one-thousandth issue of the online Deadbeats strip.

I started working for Claypool back in 98 or 99. Honestly, I don't remember. It almost seems like I've always worked for them. At the time, Richard Howell contacted me about doing a pick-up Elvira story. The first one went okay. The second one was a little rocky because of production reasons on my end, but we talked through it and, the next thing you know, I was the regular letterer of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Along the way, I did an issue or two of Soulsearchers and I think even a Deadbeats. Then, in 2001, became the regular Deadbeats letterer as well.

Claypool has been an important part of my career. The regular assignments became the framework that allowed me to start a full-time freelance career. They were the known quanity that made taking the leap into the unknown so much easier.

We've gone through a lot of changes, from lettering on boards to paste-up to lettering completely digitally. Richard's been a good friend, and I'd like to think I helped the company a little, setting up the Claypool website and helping the transition from print to digital using some of the lessons (and mistakes) I made along the way on my own projects.

We've had a good run, and I'm glad it's still going.

ConNooga Exclusive Print!

In preparation for my appearance at ConNooga in Chattanooga, Tennessee next month (and my first show of the year!) I've done a con print for the show. It's Lookout Mountain, with Mark and Abby having their own look. As usual with these, these will be limited to 25 prints, and the original will be for sale, too.

I'm also looking at creating some limited edition, hand-colored Pony commissions that are a little more detailed and involved than my normal con sketches. We'll see how that goes.

Either way, my commission list is open, as well. If you'd like to get one booked before the show, send me an email at tz (squiggly at) thomz.com!

WIP: My Indiana Comic Con print

I'm working on a cover for something, but I can't show you that yet. And I just finished another cover, but I can't share that yet, either, darn it. But I just gots to share something, so here's the work-in-progress con print for my first appearance at the Indiana Comic Con. It's Monument Square in downtown Indianapolis.

I'm also working on a print for Chattanooga for next month. Two new cities, two new prints!

Manga Studio on Sale!

I wrote at absurd length about my experiences using Manga Studioin my December #tzadvent project. The program is on sale at Amazon today for less than $40. It's worth checking out.

Convention Calendar 2014

Want to come see me in person? Here's where I'll be! Connooga Chattanooga  February 21-23, 2014

Indiana Comic-Con Indianapolis March 14-16

MegaCon Orlando March 21-23

Emerald City Comic-Con Seattle  March 28-30, 2014

WonderCon Anaheim Anaheim  April 18-20, 2014

C2E2 Chicago April 25-27, 2014

Comicpalooza Houston Houston May 23-26, 2014

Denver Comic-Con Denver June 13-15

HeroesCon Charlotte June 20-22, 2014

Comic Con International San Diego July 24-27, 2014

Dragon*Con Atlanta Aug 29 –Sept 1, 2014

Baltimore Comicon Baltimore September 5-7, 2014

Cincinnati Comic Expo Cincinnati  September 19-21, 2014

Wizard Ohio Columbus October 31-November 2, 2014

New York Comic-Con New York October 9-12, 2014

Akron Comicon  Akron November 8-9, 2014

Changes from last year: I'm skipping FanExpo in Canada this year. Hopefully I'll be there next year. August-September is just filled with conventions and I need to pace myself a bit. No GeekGirlCon either, sadly, since it shares the weekend with New York. Connooga in Tennessee is new for this season. There's also a new show in Cleveland this year, but it's on my birthday weekend and I think I'm taking that weekend off. I should do that every once in a while.

And, as always, shows could be added. If a show is willing to bring me out, I can usually find a way to make time in my schedule.

My convention calendar is also accessible in the sidebar, too.

My Nostromo/Photoshop/Manga Studio Wrap-Up

I've been babbling for the last month about my Razer Nostromo and the new setup. If you missed it, the Nostromo Razer is a gaming pad with lots of keys on it.I've mapped these keys to functions in Manga Studio and Photoshop so that I don't have to look away from my Cintiq screen and reach for a keyboard, I can use they keypad. The idea is to make my workflow faster and easier. (Thanks to George Coghill for the tip on getting it, and my brother David for buying it for me for Christmas.)

What I wound up doing was having the Razer window open as I used each program and assigned keys as I needed them, rather than try to guess which commands I would use frequently. And I tried to make my commands the same across both programs, though I have separate templates for each. That way, if the zoom commands are different keys in both programs, I can make the same key on the Razer activate the same function.

I also used the D-pad by my left thumb to be key commands, too. I've tried to reserve this for less-used commands and some file commands (save, open) rather than actions.

If you're a super-geek, here's what I wound up with:

Photoshop

01 - Magic Wand
02 - Shift (so it's easy to select multiple areas)
03 - Deselect
04 - Invert Selection Area
05 - Expanded Fill (a Photshop action that takes the selected area, expands it my two pixels and fills that area)
06 - Pencil/Brush tool
07 - Eyedropper
08 - Switch Foreground and Background color
09 - Regular Fill
10 - Contracted Fill (like 05 above, but it reduces the area by two pixels)
11 - Undo
12 - Select All
13 - Cut
14 - Paste

Scroll Pad - Zooms in and out of the screen

Space - Command
Left Alt - Hides Selection (Command-H)

The D-Pad controls Save, Open. amd Delete.

Manga Studio

01 - Magic Wand
02 - Shift (so it's easy to select multiple areas)
03 - Deselect
04 - Contracted Fill
05 - Expanded Fill (a Photshop action that takes the selected area, expands it my two pixels and fills that area)
06 - Pencil/Brush tool
07 - Marquee Tool
08 - Marquee Tool
09 - Rotate Canvas Cunter-Clockwise
10 - Rotate Canvas Clockwise
11 - Undo
12 - Select All
13 - Cut
14 - Paste

Scroll Pad - Zooms in and out of the screen

Space - Command
Left Alt - Hides Selection (Command-H)

The D-Pad controls Save, Open. amd Delete.

I'm a fan of this set-up. If you're looking to become a power user on the graphics side, I'd recommend checking it out.

The House Rules

Happy New Year! Every year I make resolutions, big and small. Even if they don't always stick, I think there's something to be said for trying. And, while the calendar rolling over to a new start is ultimately arbitrary, if it helps you start a new habit, does it matter?

One of the things I'm obsessed with is productivity and good work flow. I want to make it possible to do the most with the time I have. So, capturing my ideas, figuring out how to use Photoshop more effectively, things like that are all part of that.

Boundaries help with that. I think they're important to those of us who freelance. I think it's typical for freelancers who start off with a day job to work nights and weekends. But when you make the transition to full-time freelance, it's easy to allow your work to bleed over your entire life. And, while I love what I do with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, it doesn't mean that it's all I want to do. I have a fiancee, a family and friends, books to read and movies to see and walks to take. I love being in the studio, but I want to make sure that I leave it, too.

So, I'm taking the opportunity of the New Year to post my schedule. It's important to manage expectations. How fast should you be expected to respond to an email? When is too early to call? So, here we go with my five house rules.

HOUSE RULES

1. I work from 9:00est-5:00est, Monday through Friday, not counting holidays. You can call (or text) me from 9:00est to 8:00pm est on those days.

I live in the East Coast Time Zone, but not all of my clients do. So, I start at 9:00, the classic time to start out here. I try to wrap up around 5:00pm. But I have a lot of West Coast clients. It's unreasonable to shut them off at 2:00pm their time. So I'll take calls up until 5:00pm on the West Coast.

Does this mean you can't call me at 10:30 on a Sunday night when you have a crisis? No, of course not. If you're a client and you're living a disaster, it's my job to make that go away. But not everything can be a crisis. If it is, we need to have a talk.

Same schedule for texts. With emails, I know that people send those when they think of it. You've got an idea on a Sunday night and want to get it to me when it's clear and you're on your computer. Great! I'll take a look at it Monday morning.

2. I try to return all work emails in 24 hours, phone messages the same day, text messages within a couple of hours, Monday through Friday.

Here's more expectation stuff. I'll occasionally get an email that reads "Please respond- URGENT!" I'll tell you right now, email is the worst way to get me an urgent message. I'm a one man operation, so there are times when I'm at a meeting, heading to one, running out to buy art supplies, whatever… I am not constantly looking at my email. Heck, in my more productive times, I turn it down to check every 15 minuyes, sometimes once an hour, just so I'm not interrupted while I'm in the middle of a huge project. I've always got my phone with me, but that doesn't mean I can always get to it either. Texting and driving is bad, and if you scheduled a meeting with me, you wouldn't want me to interrupt it to take some other client's call, so I won't do that to someone else.

And please, leave a message. If I don't pick up the phone, it doesn't mean I'm ignoring you. I could be on a call with someone else, my phone might be in a bad service area. Even if it's to say "I had a question but I need an answer now, so don't worry," then at least I know why you were trying to get a hold of me and if I should call you back.

3. I can't promise instant turnaround time.

I've got a forty-hour work week, and I try to book each of those hours. So, when I go to bed on Monday, I already know what I'm going to spend my Tuesday working on. So, if you call that Tuesday, even with something small that wouldn't take long, it doesn't mean I can do it. I have a client I work remotely for once a every couple of weeks, and during that day they've bought all my time. So I'm already booked solid. That can happen.

It's best to assume that it will take me three to five business days to turn something around. Now, if you call me a week ahead of time and let me know you'll have a project coming in hot but you won't have all the details or necessary materials until the day of, that's fine. (This is especially common with lettering, where you're waiting for art to be finished.) Then I know to block that time out for you.

And sometimes things happen, I know. An artist blows a deadline. You suddenly get an opportunity that you can't turn down and you need an ad for it. We'll take care of it. It may require some late nights on my part, it may require a rush fee on your part. The goal here is to make sure everything isn't a rush.

4. Deadlines. I don't miss them. Please make sure to tell me them.

When you've got a project, let me know when it's due. From my newspaper days, hearing "ASAP" drives me nuts. To me, that means I can do it As Soon As I get the projects done from people who could actually gave me a deadline. If you need it finished tomorrow, tell me that you need it tomorrow. There have been more than a few times when people have given me a task, I let them know I've received it and have it scheduled for tomorrow, and I get the response back later "Oh, we need that today." Tell me that to start and we won't lose time going back and forth that could be used to get the job done.

I've been working professionally for over fifteen years and I haven't missed any deadlines in that time. I've gotten pretty good at time management. And, if I can't make a deadline, I'll let you know that, too. I won't take more work than I can handle.

5. If you're a regular client, I will let you know my schedule.

It's not all about what you need to do. I have to do things in the client/artist relationship, too.

I do a lot of conventions. My brother got married on a Friday afternoon two weeks ago. I do career days at schools. There are lots of reasons that I'd be out of the office.

So, if you send me regular work, I'll be sure to email you and let you know when I'll be away at Comic-Con in San Diego. I've got lots of clients who aren't comic related, so they don't know the industry shuts down for that week in July. It's my job to make sure you know that so if you do have work, we can make sure it gets done.

I hope none of that sounds too harsh. I think it's good to get these things stated and in the open. I'm under no illusion that this will solve every issue, but it's a good place to start.

And, if you're a freelancer, I encourage you to think through these things yourself. When do you want to be available? How much do you want to work in a week?

Almost All My Table Commissions from 2013

I went through my photos from 2013 and pulled the images I have from commissions I did at my various artist alley tables. I'm sure it's not complete, but there's a good chunk of them here. Almost 100! I've also included the group shots of my Star Wars: Galactic Files II cards.