Alex Heberling

Quickie sketch of Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic, which I did for a warmup drawing.  I’ve been so fucking busy this month that I have barely had enough time for Garanos, to the misfortune of all other artwork at the moment.

The baby lettuces are here!  These pictures were taken last night, 8 days after planting.  So far, 4 Caesar, 1 Salad Bowl, 3 Simpson, and 4 Little Gem have sprouted, so that’s only 4 bad cells in this planting.  I’m disappointed that more Salad Bowl hasn’t sprouted, so I hope to get a better yield from them the next time I start seedlings.

There was a small mold problem afflicting the exposed edges of the pots early last week, but I consulted the gardening subreddit, and it appeared to be due to over-watering.  I let the seedlings dry out a bit and it cleared right up, so I’m happy about that. ^_^

Meanwhile, the sunflowers have gone INSANE and grown to about 4 inches high.  I transplanted them to a self-watering pop bottle planter several days ago, when I discovered their roots were poking through the bottom of the pot they were in before.  I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too soon, since the seedling wasn’t very big yet, but they, um, appear to be doing okay.  ^_^;

A pretty nice sketch I did in the break room at work last week.  I don’t know if I’ll color it or not, because I really like it as a sketch!

During my neighborhood walks the past few days, I’ve been taking my camera with me to collect textures and references, and this photo stood out as rather lovely. ^_^

As the first bit of art I actually got done after my Week of Rest, I’m really happy with how this cover turned out.  I’d had thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook done that never really captured the gestures and mood I wanted, but when I actually sat down with the full sheet of paper to attempt a final drawing, it came out pretty easily, and on the first try, no less!

I wanted to attempt some more interesting lighting than I usually use, so I went for an extreme-overhead light source, which I think also helps with the overall mood of this piece.

The color-shifting effect is a seperate layer with the Blending Mode set to Color, with rust red, purple, and blue painted in by hand with a soft brush.  It’s set to about 45% opacity, so the ‘natural’ colors are just tinted a bit, rather than have them be very very saturated with the color overlay.  It produced a very nice effect that I really like with the symbolism of Ethre, Gara, and Styx’s respective colors.  She has this choice between the two men presented before her, and yet both are equally a part of her, and important to her in many distinct ways.

All in all, very evocative, and I’m proud to have this as the cover for the final chapter of Garanos.