Mutt in the Middle

LP 9 – In My Life

January 16, 2017 WindGuardian 2 Comments

Marat/Sade –

I Think It’s Going To Rain Today –

Alright, here’s another fairly new artist to me that I’ve really been enjoying recently.

In My Life (1968), Judy Collins. Initially released in 1966 with a slightly different cover, this is the stereo mix released two years later. It was pretty common in the late 60s to re-release albums in stereo as this was when stereo was beginning to overturn mono sound.

This album was important for not only Collins’ career, but also for another one of my favorite artists already featured on LP Mondays: Leonard Cohen. Collins’ cover of Cohen’s song “Suzanne” is often considered the first major introduction of Cohen to a much larger audience. This album was important to Collin because it established her more eclectic taste in music. She was a fairly popular folk singer, but this album saw her broadening her horizons in material she covered. From the Beatles title track to a Bob Dylan cover, from a pirate song to two Cohen songs. I’m really fond of musicians that pull from several musical backgrounds because I think it results in a richer musical experience ^^

There are several great songs on this album and I was hard pressed to pick only two. The two I finally chose though were “Marat/Sade” and “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today.” “Marat/Sade” is a melody of multiple songs from the German play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (known as Marat/Sade for short) which was later made into a movie of the same title. “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” is a Randy Newman song that I find extremely beautiful lyrically and musically.

Page 117

January 12, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

HA! Got this one done on time 😛

I think this page actually marks the first page of this inking exercise that I didn’t mess up on. I’m not saying I’ve perfected the art of inking, I’m only saying that I didn’t make an accidental mark while inking this page.

For the “Splash” panel, I debated drawing a realistic water splash (after all, I did something similar way back on Page 39). Eventually I decided I would draw it poorly and it would look funky, so I went for a stylized approach instead. And yes, I used a really cliche manga scene change with the first panel looking up in the sky.

Fun fact: the last, bottom panel was not in my thumbnail sketch of the page. The original plan was to make the panels taller and end with a “splash!” (sorry, couldn’t help myself). However, I thought an establishing shot would be beneficial to show where they are, and I thought it would be really ambiguous that Dayton had fallen into a fountain without the panel.

So…I would like to dedicate this page to my mom. Alright, confession time. I obviously pull from myself and my experience to help build the characters of MitM. Certain characters have more of me in them than others, but ultimately all of them have a little piece of me (after all, I do draw them…). Dayton’s short-temper with his dad is very similar to one of my traits that I’m most ashamed of. My lack of patience with my mom. I would generally consider myself a decently patient person, but sadly that is a characteristic I rarely show my mother. My reasoning for my behavior honestly is along the same lines as Dayton’s line, “I really don’t know…” however, unlike Dayton, I’m no longer a teenager and I don’t have some lame adoption excuse.

Anyways, I’d like to dedicate this page as a way for me to say, “Sorry mom. I love you and I really don’t mean to be that easily frustrated teenager that never grew up.”

JUMP to page >> Page 117

Weaver Art Deco

January 11, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

Weaving Through Design History: Art Deco

Tada!! :3

So this is actually an idea I’ve been mulling over since I finished designing my fursona. “What if I draw Grill in different art styles based off of design movements?” I figured it would be fun to draw my new character more, it would provide excellent practice to work in several different styles, and I could show off some of my design history knowledge (and help me learn more about each design movement).

Art Deco was an architectural style as well as a design style, which was at its height in popularity in the 1920s and 30s. In design, it was the transition between the highly detailed Art Nouveau movement and the simple, streamlined Modernism that is most common today.

Also, while I mean to mimic the styles each of these pieces focus on, I did NOT mean to rip the color scheme right out of this poster: Poster

Whoops……

Grill Weaver Ref Sheet

January 10, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

So…I thought long and hard about this, but I finally decided to do it.

I’ve been doing a pretty serious side project for a while now titled Weaving Through Design History. It takes my fursona, Grill Weaver, and places him on a poster styled after different graphic design eras. I’ll schedule the posters I’ve done so far to only appear here twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday so they don’t flood this site till all of them are here. But let’s just start off with a reference sheet of Grill ^^

My ultimate reason I decided to place all these posters on this blog is so that I can reference them on my graphic design portfolio site, or at least have this location to send people to if they want to see my posters rather than giving them my FA account username (because people not involved in the furry community can find FA to be a little…uh…daunting?)

Speaking of my design site, that needs some updating… ^^;
(Located here if you want to take a peak: Griswell Design)

LP 8 – Odessa

January 9, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

Odessa [City On The Black Sea] –

Melody Fair –

As 2017 begins, I wanted to feature a band that I’ve been listening to pretty intently over the last month.

Odessa (1969) by the Bee Gees. An album that was very poorly received both by the public and critics upon its initial release, but would later be considered one of their most significant achievements going on to be listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

This record has been on my turntable for awhile now and I’ve put it on my phone as well. Technically this version is the 1976 edit. The original is a double LP, but the edit is only a single LP. Since it didn’t sell well the record company hoped it would sell better if they sized it down to the more “popular” songs (and it was after the Bee Gees’ resurgence in popularity in the mid 70s).

The Bee Gees have a long and interesting track record. The Bee Gees lineup changed over the years, but their core staying steady with the Gibbs brothers, Barry, Maurice, and Robin. Starting their career back when they were teenagers in Australia, they moved back to England (where they were born) to try to make it big. Known for their three part harmonies and Robin’s vibrato tenor lead in their early years and Barry’s falsetto in their disco period.

Accused of being Beatles clones and selling out to whatever the music fad was, they were often disliked by music critics during their time. The Bee Gees countered that argument stating that they were singing and writing the songs for the moment, the songs that the public wanted to hear. My generation remembers them for their disco era (definitely their best selling years), but I’m a huge fan of their 60s stuff (but maybe that’s just the psychedelic fan coming out in me).

The songs I picked are the opening, title track “Odessa” and “Melody Fair.” “Odessa” is large and grand in nature, sweeping and incorporating the full orchestra. It tells of the story of a sailor longing for his love while lost at sea. “Melody Fair” is much simpler, but still touching in my opinion with its complementing harmonies and Robin’s distinct lead vocal part.

Page 116

January 7, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

Yeah, yeah, I know. Definitely a little later than normal this week, but I really didn’t want to miss updating this week…

This week’s page looked better as a sketch o_o

Setting aside self-doubt and the multiple inking blurps, still decently pleased with this page. Trying out some fun inking with the roof in the last two panels which is kinda cool if it wasn’t such a “marker killer.” Whatever the case, I’m glad to finally get Dayton and Janice out of the house. Still need to cover a lot of ground in this chapter 😛

If you haven’t noticed, MitM tends to move pretty slowly (probably to a fault). This page is a good example. Technically I probably could have combined each row of panels into only 3 panels. Appropriate pacing? or poor decisions on my part?? Although, looking back, I did just spend 6 pages waking characters up, having a brief argument, and finally leaving >.< JUMP to page >> Page 116

My Tribute To……Slightly Damned!

January 3, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

What! Another fanart so soon?! Yeah…but I’ve just had a lot of free time and a serious itch for drawing (a dangerous combination to be sure!) :3

Since I briefly mentioned it last fanart, here it is: Slightly Damned by Sarah “Chu” Wilson.

Slightly Damned follows the tale of Rhea shortly after her unfortunate demise. Being neither good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, she is condemned to an eternity outside the gates of hell in the realm of the “Slightly Damned.” A pretty insignificant place besides a single, rather silly demon Buwaro and his pet rock Thadius. Things hardly stop there though as the two of them (three counting Thadius) eventually escape from Hell, encounter the cursed angel Kieri, and…well…I should probably let you read it for yourself ^^;

Twokinds may have been the first webcomic I read, but Slightly Damned quickly followed as my second one. Just because it came second didn’t diminish its impact upon me and definitely served as my co-motivation to start Mutt in the Middle. Slightly Damned also holds a special place in my heart as it was the only webcomic I read along with my younger sister while I was in high school ^^

Similar to Twokinds, Slightly Damned progresses and improved significantly over the years. Chu’s splashes of color are really breathtaking to behold and are all the envy of those boring black and white sketches (see MitM for example xD). The fact that most of my comic work is done in black and white makes me just that much more impressed with Chu’s coloring. Along with Slightly Damned, Chu has somehow managed to find the time to do other small comic projects on the side which are always fun to read along as well.

As for this little fanart I whipped up, well let’s see…Similar to the Twokinds one, I pulled from my graphic design posters for inspiration. This time I pulled from my experience with psychedelic posters, although this piece ventured pretty far from a more traditional psychedelic work. About all that’s left is some of the font work and the compositional elements like the layered characters and profile views. I’d like to say that I chose psychedelic design to pull from for inspiration because of Chu’s bright and vivid use of color, but it honestly might have hinged more on the fact that I was listening to Bee Gees all day…

Please go give Slightly Damned a browse through at: Slightly Damned Homepage. If Chu ever stumbles upon this, thank you so much for all your work and keep it up! ^^

LP 7 – Yesterday Once More

January 2, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

We’ve Only Just Begun –

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft –

How to start off a brand new year?? Well I’ll give it my darndest shot.

Yesterday Once More (1985) by the Carpenters. Before you say “Finally an album from the 80s!” I want to point out that this is actually just a compilation album of the Carpenters’ work, most of which is actually from the 70s 😛

For being just a compilation album though it went Platinum in three countries and double Platinum in the US! The Carpenters were often disliked by critics, who described their music as slow Pop music that was too bland. However other music artists often cite them for inspiration (Sir Paul McCartney is quoted for describing Karen Carpenter as the best female vocalist ever). Whatever the case was, their career was cut short with Karen’s tragic death in 1983 at the age of 33 due to complications with anorexia. The band consisted primarily of the brother sister team of Karen on drums and Richard on the keyboard.

Apart from being one of their most loved songs, “We’ve Only Just Begun” felt like the best way to start the year off fresh to me. “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” isn’t actually one of the songs they wrote, but it’s one that they made popular and is personally one of my favorites. If their style of music just ain’t your cup of tea, I would heavily suggest you listen the album “If I Were A Carpenter” (1994) which is an album made up of Carpenter songs re-imagined by Alternate Rock bands from the early 90s that dishes up a cool clash of generations.

My Tribute To……Twokinds!

January 2, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

Alright. Vinyl LPs are pretty cool, but let’s get to something I’ve been wanting to post since I created this blog: Tributes, Or “My Inspirations” (according to the category it’s listed in). Basically fanart that I’ve drawn to honor someone that has greatly inspired me in my artistic endeavors.

Let’s start this off with one of my all-time favorites: Twokinds by Tom Fischabach.

Twokinds is a webcomic largely following Trace, a blue-haired dude with amnesia, and Flora, a tiger keidran gal. The setting is a fantasy universe with high racial tensions between the humans and keidran. Trace and Flora develop a strong friendship and find themselves right between all of this conflict. While my poor description may play this up as another Romeo & Juliet clone, there is much more to it including Trace’s troubled past and an ever expanding cast that provides multiple viewpoints and side plots that at times become the focus. Trace and Flora provide an excellent central focus and plot, but I’m a huge sucker for side characters, and Twokinds delivers plenty in this category ^^

As time passes, I find more and more webcomics that really grab my attention, but Twokinds will always have that special nostalgia that can only be attained from being my first webcomic experience. With an astounding amount of 13 years on the internet, Twokinds has seen a lot of change. Sure, I didn’t get on the bandwagon till roughly the middle of Chapter 13, around 2010 (I think), but even since then a lot has changed.

I was still in high school at the time and I wasn’t much of a comic nut at the time, believe it or not. I would occasionally sketch some and daydream about some random action stories that never made it to paper. When I eventually stumbled upon Twokinds, it not only introduced me to webcomics, but also a proper introduction into the furry community (for better or for worse xD). It definitely ignited my initial passion for comics in general, which would lead me later to manga and graphic novels. It inspired me to sketch more often, eventually leaving me convinced to pursue (and recently complete!) an art degree at college over a tech degree. But most of all, it encouraged me (along with the help of Slightly Damned, but that’s a story for another fanart) to begin Mutt in the Middle.

When I began sketching more often after I began reading Twokinds, I wasn’t exactly super confident in my skills (heck, I’m still working on that problem…). But as I looked at Twokinds‘ humble beginnings (I mean that in the nicest way possible Tom!) and where it had gone, it gave me just enough confidence to put the pencil to the paper. If Tom had started in high school and had gone that far, maybe I could too! Of course I knew I was being a little optimistic, but I was willing to look like a fool trying rather than looking back at my life wondering if I could have done it.

Oh! I guess I should at least say a word or two about the actual fanart itself…
I haven’t been posting them here on this blog, but I’ve been designing several posters from different graphic design eras. I kinda wanted to give Art Nouveau another shot, and the concept of building a composition around Trace and Flora hugging came pretty easy to me. That said, I would normally fill the background elements with some complex designs (probably something nature-themed, leaves, flowers, etc.), but I was curious how it would look just left simple and clean like this. Also the hair, specifically Floras, not sure if I like how it came out. On my last Art Nouveau poster I did the hair long and stringy, more according to the style of that era, but I kinda wanted to keep Tom’s style and eventually it ended up somewhere awkwardly between the two…

Well, I’ve certainly been talking the night away and I better stop there before I unleash more boring “growing up” stories onto the depths of the internet. If you’ve never read it or never gave it much of a chance, please go take a look at: Twokinds Homepage. And if Tom Fischabach ever skims though this, HOLY CRAP!!! Er…I mean…thanks for everything! You’ve certainly made an impact on this random artist’s life ^^;

New 2017

January 1, 2017 WindGuardian No Comments

Happy New Year Everyone!!
May 2017 be an even better year for you than 2016.

Personally I’m not a huge “New Year’s Resolution” guy, but there is one thing I like to do. I enjoy naming the music band that had the biggest impact on my year. If you’ve been staying up with my Monday LPs, you might remember I mentioned it was Jethro Tull. Although if I had to pick a “newer” band from my generation, I think I’d say FIDLAR.

If ya never heard them, I’d really suggest them if you like some more punk-styled music. ^^

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