Author: Cynical Woman

Cartoonist, Artist, Geek, Evil Crafter, Girl Scout Troop Leader and Writer. Also, a zombie. I haven't slept in I don't know how long.
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Move It Mama Monday! The benefits of karate

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I went to our dojo’s Winter Karate Camp two weeks ago. One of the weapons I took a class on was the jo, a staff about 4 1/2 feet long. I spent an hour working on Jo Kihon, or the basic jo kata, and I’ve probably already forgotten most of it because I’ve got a lousy memory. But I did come away with a few basic jo skills that I was able to put to use the next day at Princess’ birthday party.

Get ready…..

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii….

YAH!!!!!

If that looked painful, don’t worry. Sponge Bob deserved it.

Of course, looking at these pictures now, I can tell you what my instructor would say. “Your hands are too far apart! Choke up on your grip!”

Oh well. Maybe I’ll learn better next year?

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Sunday Contentments – Reaching the “F@ck It” Point

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I am lazy, lazy, lazy today. I was supposed to get up at 4:30 and jump right into work. That’s my usual schedule. Of course, that’s been my usual schedule for a while, but at some point last week I hit my “Fuck It” point and have not been following the schedule at all. Today, for example, I didn’t get up until almost 9AM, even though I know I need to blog, cartoon, work on taxes and do Cookie Mom stuff. I just couldn’t be arsed. Really, all I wanted to do was stay curled in bed where it was nice and warm and just doze.

And maybe I’ve earned it, given how much work I’ve been cranking out in the last several months, and maybe I haven’t. I don’t know. I only know that I’ve hit the point of burn out and nothing really seems that critical anymore. It’s time to dial it back a bit, whether my workload will allow it or not.

So I contacted my clients earlier this week and let them know I need to scale back on my incoming work. I’ve taken an indefinite leave of absence from one job and have told another client they need to hire a second artist to do cover work for them. Part of me hates giving up the work, but part of me would seriously like to get back to that time in my life when I could take a day off every week and spend it doing things like sewing or baking or playing video games or reading or even just snoozing on the couch for a long afternoon nap. I need the downtime, so I’m taking it.

I also need time to focus more on my personal projects, because I can get the writing and the art done, but then I don’t have time to do anything with it beyond that. I can’t find time to promote my writing, or make prints of my artwork, or set up an online store for said prints, or get my podcast book set up on PodioBooks.com, or even set up a Facebook page. It’s ridiculous. I really need to scale things back to where I’m only working on one or two projects at a time, so I have time to focus on the marketing and promoting of those projects before moving onto the next big thing I want to do. Honestly, I think I’d start making money if I did that. Thus another reason why I’m scaling back on client-based work.

The whole Cookie Mom thing will be over in a few more weeks, and that should free up a LOT of time. I don’t regret taking on that job because Princess really enjoys Girl Scouts and because a part of me geeks on logistical projects like this. What can I say? I was a transportation officer in the Army Reserves. This was exactly the sort of work I did for 11 years. Only with crusty old NCOs instead of squealing little girls young enough to be missing their two front teeth.

So I’m lazy today, and I don’t give a damn about much of anything except sitting on the couch and vegetating. And playing Wii games with the kids and catching a nap here and there. Tomorrow I will throw myself back into work. I’ll be at EPICon in Williamsburg this weekend, and I’ll be busy with Cookie Mom stuff until the end of the month. Come April, I’m going off the rails and taking a whole day off. Woo hoo. Or whatever.

Enjoy your Sunday 😉

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Freaky Friday! Oh look, Mich, it’s a SPIDER!!!

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“A Very Scary Portrait of Mich” by Helen E. H. Madden, 4 March 2011

Here we have a lovely drawing of Mich, my partner in crime over at VeryScaryArt.com. Mich is afraid of spiders, which is why I’ve drawn this lovely giant purple arachnid landing on her forehead. I’m sure she’ll get it though with her trusty baseball bat! Hit that sucker hard, Mich!

Seriously though. This drawing was another one done on the iPad, using ArtRage. I used the pen tool for the inking and the marker tool for the coloring, with a little bit of the palette knife tool for blending the colors. The marker tool has a “blending marker” setting, but it doesn’t give a nice smooth blend. The palette knife took care of that problem for me though.

I’m all off-schedule this week, both here and over at VeryScaryArt.com. I apologize for that, but between being out all last week due to my father-in-law’s death and then coming home and having to have a minor outpatient procedure done this week, everything’s just been crazy around here. We’re in the tale end of cookie sales now, with just one booth sale left to go tomorrow, and then hopefully things will start to ease up a little. I’m spending today locked to my computer so I can knock out some work, and will probably spend as much of tomorrow as possible doing the same. I need to get some stuff off my plate.

Speaking of which, I’m stepping back from some of the commissioned work I’ve been doing. We had a panel at Farpoint, moderated by Steve Wilson, about burn-out and overwork for creative people (writers, podcasters, and webcomickers among others) and we all talked about how we have too much stuff going on. What I realized that weekend was that I have so many things going on, I can’t properly follow through on many projects once they get past the first stages. I can write the book, but then can’t get around to promoting it. I can draw the comics, but I can’t seem to find time to set up a FaceBook page which I’ve been told would put readership way up. I can’t even find time right now to make new album art for “The Little Death,” which I desperately need to do. So I sent out some emails saying I was stepping back and stepping away from some work. Hopefully, this will make life easier all around. Of course, if I could just get past cookie season…

Anyway, I’ll be hard at work this weekend. Hopefully, next week and the weeks following will get better and easier. And maybe Mich won’t give herself a concussion trying to get rid of that SPIDER!!!

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WIP Wednesday – What’s Missing continued

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WIP – “What’s Missing?” by Helen E. H. Madden, 2 March 2011

Well, I got the sketch as finalized as I was going to get it, so I finally switched to the underpainting stage. Again, I’m still following the tutorial in Digital Artist Magazine (this was last month’s issue, with the article on using metallic paint in ArtRage). I’ve got all the basic colors laid down and some ideas for the lighting. Next I want to import some photos for texture and then get to the nitty gritty of the painting stage.

So far, I like it. But I have a feeling before too much longer I’m going to have to move this piece to the PD and blow up the size to really get the detail in the painting that I want. We’ll see. I’ll post the results next week.

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ACW Episode 105 – I got what you need

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This is the webcomic that was supposed to run last week. I drew it on my iPad at Farpoint while I was sitting at my author table, using the ArtRage app. The inking was done with the pen tool, obviously, while I used the water color brush and the chalk tool for the colors. This is probably how I will continue to do the webcomic while I’m at a convention. It just made life a lot easier to do a single panel cartoon on an easy-to-carry device. I mean really, my bags were so much lighter with just the iPad in it to handle most of my digital needs for the weekend.

So anyway, this is what I did at Farpoint at my author table. I sold my smutty books on one side and boxes of cookies on the other. I did pretty well, both book-wise and cookie-wise, on Saturday. On Sunday, I was wiped out both physically and emotionally and so I didn’t set up my table that day. But even so, this was probably one of the better conventions for me as far as sales go. And surprise, suprise! I was actually asked to be a panelist on a webcomics panel that Sunday. I thought that was funny, because I really only consider myself a hobbyist when it comes to webcomics. I love doing webcomics, but so much of my work focuses on writing and podcasting that I sometimes forget I’m a webcomicker as well. I remember looking at Bryan Prindiville on Friday and saying, “How the heck did I end up on a webcomic panel?” and he said, “Well, duh! You have a webcomic?”

I want to thank everyone at Farpoint for all their help and support that weekend. Both the con staff and several friends of mine went out of their way to take care of me, both before and after hearing about my father-in-law’s passing. It’s nice to know I have friends, especially friends who will sit with me in the bar while I down a few girlie drinks to kill some stress. Thank you all. I really appreciate your kindness.

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Sunday Contentments – My Miracles

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How did we get from this…

To this…?

After a week of mourning my father-in-law’s passing, we celebrated Princess’ 8th birthday. It was a relief to have something uplifting to enjoy after such a long week. I’m always amazed by both my girls. The Hubster and I spent four years battling infertility before I finally became pregnant with the Princess. She was my miracle baby, the child I feared I would never get to have. Three and a half years later, Pixie became my second miracle baby, just as impossible to believe she would happen as her sister was.

In the last eight years, I’ve watched Princess grow from a tiny red-faced screaming bundle of joy into a whip-thin, smart alecky bookworm who can hold her own against the boys in the sparring ring and yet still dress up like Cinderella when the mood strikes. She looks just like me, everyone says, and she even made us get matching eyeglasses last year to enhance that fact. She shares my love of all things spooky, especially zombies, and is so obsessed with cats right now she wants to be one (wait till I teach her about Selena Kyle!).

I’m proud of my girls, both of them, but to this day, I still look at them and wonder, “They came out of me?”

It’s a miracle, I tell ya.

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Observing a week of silence

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We have had a death in the family this weekend. The Hubster, Princess, Pixie and I are fine, but we are now entirely occupied with family matters and will remain so for the rest of the week. The Cynical Woman website, VeryScaryArt.com, and the Heat Flash podcast will not be updated during this time. Thank you all for your condolences, prayers, and kindness. We truly appreciate it.

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Freaky Friday! Self-portrait of the Artist with a Snake!

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“A Very Scary Self-Portrait” by Helen E. H. Madden, 13 February, 2011

This portrait will eventually go up on the Very Scary blog, where I have been working with my good friend Mich to scan in, display and review several pieces of children’s artwork that we picked up at the March to Keep Fear Alive. I’ll be drawing a cartoon of Mich as well, one that includes her greatest fear which is spiders. Mine is snakes, as you can tell from the image above.

This was drawn on my iPad, once again using ArtRage. I think ArtRage is ideal for cartooning, especially on the iPad. I do like Brushes and Sketchbook as well, but I’m more familiar with ArtRage and the fact that it has a pen tool makes it perfect for me.

If you haven’t been over to Very Scary yet, take a moment and go look! We have guest reviews written by really cool people. Enjoy the art, leave a comment, and consider helping out with the Very Scary site. We’ve got over 500 pieces of artwork to review, so we could always use a few volunteers 😉

BTW, I’m at Farpoint this weekend, so if you’re there and you see me, be sure to say “Hi!” I promise I won’t run away screaming.

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Rats! Episode 52 – The Transformation

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Ah, nothing makes you feel powerful and important like a brand new rat speaking up and calling you “Sir!” And I was just about always called “Sir!” in spite of the fact that I have been a “Ma’am!” since the day I was born.

Being in charge is both great and really scary, I think. It’s great because you get to make the decisions and call the shots. It’s scary for the same reasons. If your decisions result in a successful outcome, everybody pats you on the back and declares you a hero. If your decisions lead to, shall we say, negative consequences, then you’re pretty much screwed because you were the one in charge.

I have screwed up more times when I was in charge than I care to remember. When I left the Reserves, I breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that my days of being in charge were over. And yes now I find myself once again the one in charge. Of Girl Scout cookies, this time, not of millions of dollars of military equipment and hundreds of people’s lives, but still, I’m in charge and I’m on the hook should anything prevent the successful delivery of several hundred boxes of delicious cookies to our very hungry customers.

The thing is, once you’ve been in charge, you never stop being in charge. Doesn’t matter if you suck at it, you still wind up being in charge again and again and again. Because you have experience, even if it’s only experience at screwing things up.

Have fun this week!

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WIP Wednesday – What’s Missing?

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What’s Missing, WIP by Helen E. H. Madden, 15 Feb 2011

I haven’t gotten too much farther on this one. The whole Girl Scout Cookie Mom thing has pretty much eaten what little spare time I had. Hell, it’s eaten my entire life at this point.

Anyway, I finished up the sketch, combined all layers of the pencil drawings, and then started adding in loose shadows using the oil paint brush in ArtRage. I’ve got the thinners set between 80-90% and the loading up around 100%. I laid the oil paint down in a separate layer over the pencil sketch. I may put a copy of the sketch on top so I can continue to see it as I work. Don’t know yet though. I do know the next step will be to lay down the basic colors.

I’m going to be at Farpoint this coming weekend and plan to take my iPad with me. Hopefully I’ll get some more work on this done while I’m there.