New cat story accepted!

Just in time for autumnal antics, my short story, "Fall Season"(& 2 art pieces), was accepted and will appear in the FurZine anthology! As it's a Scottish press, this will be my first overseas publication!

https://bsky.app/profile/coinoppress.bsky.social (Bluesky)

@CoinOpPress (Twitter)

Giving myself my own art challenges for 2023

This May, will be drawing and posting my fake furry K-pop idols, groups, and bands! Look for them! And then, in June, Pride Month artwork! 

My "Summer to Winter" Pride Month 2022

"Septimus pan rollerskating" 

"Campbell and Artem"

"Imogen and Leyon"

"Imeda and February"

"Yanina and Tyler"

  

                

 

 

 

 

If you want to see these pieces in progression, their final copy, and more    info on each of these characters, head over to my Instagram page. The link is on the right-hand of this blog!

Campbell and Artem will be a couple and so will February and Imeda! I have plans for Tyler, Leyon, Imogen, and Septimus for they will end up with.

 Nothing burns me more than a media shows so many clues that a pair will become a couple and that story doesn't follow through. Since SUMMER TO WINTER is a romance comedy, my couples will be HEAs(Happily Ever Afters) or HFNs(Happy For Nows).

I Was Worried For Nothing...

 I am not trying to make light of my concerns when I began to digitizing my comic last week. 

What I mean is when I started to work on the comic in 2018, I did it manually- pencil first, ink after, blacks put in last - but I realized the story was slow-going , my formatting and my art style kept changing, and the narrative was all over the place... And then a light came on. I began working on the story as I did with my comics back in grade school. I simply did it in pen.

The dot grid pen drafts

And WOW, did the story begin to FLOW. Not just in sequence(though that remained haphazard), but in growing subplots, in narrative scope, and an unexpected benefit: a permanent art style began to solidify...

So what I worried about was since the original draft pages were in pen, how did I fix those? I thought and did trace a number of chapters in pencil. Yet, with the new tablet, erasing, correcting, and editing pen and clearing up what was also on dot grid paper(which I will forever use as it helps tighten my perspective and background/setting issues).

The same page on MS Paint

MS Paint retouch

Original dot grid pen draft

What a difference this Bosto tablet makes! My mom continuously tells me "Good things come to those that wait" and I feel this display tablet was made for me.

As somebody returning to digital art after so many years, and trying to do it the 'right way', which means I used digital art as a touch-up to my manually made artwork and illustrations. 

Now, I'm cleaning up paper and pen work, and will use other software for colors, shades, backgrounds, and settings.

Will continue to discuss my process on this blog and on Instagram: Handdrawnbycarmenjr 

Thank you again for sticking with me, dear readers!

I'm Back To Digital Art! Or, at least, trying to

Digital art was something I did for fun. Then when I attended community college majoring in Art, I took my first digital art course, known as Computer Art at the time. 

Yes, it was a pain. We were using Corel at the time. Years later, I upgraded to PhotoShop when it was its own company and still affordable. 

Once I got into an IT Baccalaureate 'accelerated program', I was still fudging around with PhotoShop, occasionally Illustrator and InDesign, to name a few. This was in keeping with my Web Design studies so I could better edit and improve my artwork to upload to my personal website.

Now, after being out-of-the-loop with digital art for several years, I've been studying and retraining myself. Start off with the easiest app and work my way up. MS(Microsoft) Paint. I've also found art, illustrator, and comic software/apps that were free and fully-featured or affordable enough that one did not need a subscription. 

Caption: 3 characters. Cleaning up and redrawing as well so extra strokes in MS Paint.

I'll speak about those other softwares in the next post.

Especially a display tablet of this size: 15.6 inches. Bosto has a variety tablets: regular[opaque gray/black] to display[with its own screen]. 

Caption: My hand wearing my drawing glove with tablet pen

I prefer the display type, like what animators and other digital artists use, as I learn better with visual aids. I'm using my Bosto Tablet(16HD) to clean up and erase/correct my original pen work.  

NOTE: If any of my fellow artists are shopping around for an affordable display tablet, Bosto is an option. Because of supply chain disruptions, I gifted myself two display tablets from the Walmart app. It's important to shop around on Walmart and other stores online. If you see the Bosto below at least $100, it is NOT THE DISPLAY but the regular Bosto tablet.

"Don't you draw any humans?"

I've always enjoyed drawing aliens and otherworldly mythic beings. And yet, I keep getting asked the same question over and over.

As I said on Twitter, random folks over the years keep asking, "But you draw animals all the time! Don't you [or] (can't) you draw humans?" 

*Me taking a deep sigh* 

Very well. Here's a human character with her furry alien lover. You're happy now?

From my working series 'Time Tiger: 4846 A.D.'

I call this piece "A Girl & Her Cat" (a play on the neverending 'A boy & his dog' media out there). 

This Caribbean-diaspora character and her alien partner are just some of the cast from my working-series titled Time Tiger Chronicles: 4846 A.D. 

These two have gone through multiple incarnations and their story has gone through several drafts and revisions, but now I think their new looks have forced more questions and the only way I can answer them is by rewriting their tale once again! 

My Deviantart is finally updated: 

➡️CopperSphinx on DeviantArt

and my artwork and story-related drafts are available firsthand on my Instagram: ➡️http://instagram.com/handdrawnbycarmenjr 

From the Land of Twitter

When I get an idea in my head, or I'm nursing a story, I'll either jot it in one of my journals or I'll rant about it in a series of tweets (or lately, in a Twitter 'thread'). Here's my latest rant expanded so there's more here than on my Twitter timeline.

I seem to take a lot of influence from the story Country Mouse, City Mouse. That theme became my canine Mafia furry historical stories. Yet, lately, I ended up thinking about an old idea remade into a graphic novelette. Will revise old drawings accordingly before I draft the scenes.

I already have a squirrel and a rat characters. And no, the rat isn't a bad guy but a love interest. I'm so sick and tired of certain animals being demonized in stories. Such tales have real-world impacts. Right now, wolves are still hated and feared globally. And sharks are thought of as continuous eating machines.

My influences with Romance will come from Harlequin and Avon. I'll use regional ecology where my main characters are indigenous animals to a given area.

In this case, my squirrel will be from the  Midwest and my rat will be from the Northeast. Both characters will be urban beings but have early ancestral roots in a rural past. And I'll say no more.

When I start to draft these scenes, I'll post on my Instagram. I'm also struggling to find a publisher for these ideas. Where can one get short comic stories published? And at my own pace? I'm not good with deadlines, and even worse when it comes to artwork. In the meantime, stay tuned, Dear Readers.

Illustrations, New Concepts, and a New Art Account!

[NOTE: Here, there be links!]
As a return to my Tabber the Red writing, I had an idea for an illustration while writing the latest cat fantasy.

 ShadoWalker & his Autumn angel (2018)

The concept was difficult and it took some planning but I think I got my point across. Oh! I can also introduce my new Instagram account: Hand drawn by Carmen Jr - While the Deviant Art is my official online portfolio, the Instagram is for friends and other artists to see progressions of my work - such as rough sketches, thumbnails, preliminaries, and drafts! As well as previous versions side-by-side with updated versions.

The blessings keep coming...

My illustration submission to furry convention Furlandia 2017 has been accepted! I submitted the drawing in its original color and then formatted to black and white. The black and white version will be published in this year's conbook! So excited!

In the same news, a furry poem I based on my love and research for Harlem Renaissance poetry will also be published in Furlandia's conbook!

In other news, while getting ready to submit to another writing opportunity, found out I was one of a list of women honored in March for Women's History Month on an official furry online newspaper! Are you kidding me? How on earth did I miss this?

Here's the link for those interested:
Dogpatch Press - March is Furry Women’s Month – guest post by Shining River

Remember I mentioned back in February of this year I would have another story from my historical novel coming out in an online journal? If not, click on my Featured Post on the right-hand link above my Micro Bio. Also in March, I and other guild members were mentioned for upcoming publications on the official guild website.

Here's the link to that as well:
Member news - March 2017

Not To Become Stagnant, I Often Turn To Creating Digitally

         When I am overwhelmed with other work, errands, or, just Life in general, I like to let my whimsy step in and create something crazy on the computer. Since I'm trapped, for whatever reason, and I can't pick up a pencil, pen, or sketchpad or to even lean over my art table, then I try not to let my imagination go stale by updating my site, post text, or do some quick digital art on my desktop.
This leads me to what's been going through my mind for almost two weeks: Book Covers.
One of my Facebook groups posted a URL I'm sure would've been hilarious if I could just get to it. Unfortunately, the particular site's server kept timing out and so I could not see the list of inappropriate children book covers.

On Tor Books, I had just read a delightful article on an artist-turned-author whose fantasy books got a gleaming, freshness from a pro artist the author admired.

I also read on The Paris Review that Edward Gorey, one of my favorite and macabre artists. He used to do book covers during the 1960s.(Those that remember "Masterpiece Theatre" in the 80s, the bleak but whimsical cartoon intro is his creations all the way. (There's even a running gag in my family with the young woman draped over a tombstone, her ankles tied, and she's wailing 'Oooh, oooh, OOOhhh' for help! I used to do this scene as a child to the delight of my family).

I even read another article I posted about the horrendously, inappropriate new edition cover for V.C. Andrews' notorious and infamous story "Flowers In the Attic", which I read while in junior high, my big sister read, and our mom saw the movie while visiting our grandmother in Jamaica.
So I started surfing the 'net for other lists of book covers.

This got me thinking about my own novel draft I'm working on and what type of cover it may get. Now, I know I may have little to zilch control of my cover, but I thought it would be fun if I made up a couple of drafts on my own. Months ago, I was painfully trying with Adobe InDesign, to no avail. But when I decided to use my trusty Microsoft Publisher, the ideas flew. It's a hodgepodge of images reminiscent of those late 60s and early 70s paperbacks, or pocketbooks, as they were called back then. Maybe I will have the guts to upload it to 'The Copper Sphinx' blog. We shall see.

Another revised sketch

"Slash" & Stacey in each other's arms (c) Carmen Welsh

Here is my story couple. Wanted to give the image a sense of those love scenes from 30s films. I updated my female protagonist's features and her hair. She got a "permanent wave" as they called processed hair then. Like how my male protagonist did not vary much.

In Summer/Fall Chic circa 1932 (REVISED & ORIGINAL SKETCH)

"Summer/Fall chic" by Carmen K. Welsh

I originally posted this on Dec. 21, 2011. (Orig. 5 1/2in x 8 1/2in.)

For those following the blog, there has been a series of pencil sketches (and I apologize, some have been so faint) pulled from the work-in-progress.

When updating, realized I was fresh off reading and reviewing popular1920s/1930s art movements, such as Art Deco.
Art in this period, was highly exaggerated, and with very angular, bold lines.
(Just check out Dagwood Bumstead from the "Blondie"(r) comic strips!)

This kind of caricature was also used often to portray celebrities and politicians in the glossy magazines of the time.

And the update (9in x 12in):

Another character...

Ok, so here's the BIG secret, although, if you're following me on social media, you may have already guessed it: I GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOL! Why is this important? Well, it's in Creative Writing, and since I get to submit drafts, read tons of stories, and rewrite projects I'm currently working on, this degree program is right up my alley!

Now, on with the show...

My male protagonist's father.
Like all else with this story, I am trying to multi-fold each character with a history, and not just for background sake, but with the intent that we are all woven into a fabric, and that each life is part of a tapestry.

"Antonio Di Castellan" by Carmen K. Welsh (c)

Take, for instance, Antonio's story - a native Italian, born ethnically a Gypsy, who later takes his inheritance to travel to the New World. His story is like millions, and this immigrant experience continues, wonderfully, to this day.

The history books gloss over things once a person steps off the boat, the ship, or the plane. Yet, luckily for writers, the story does not end there.

Here, I had creased the paper, to find it quickly in the sketchbook, and looking at the sketch, I now realize it almost resembles an Ellis Island photograph, so I'll keep the crease there.
This is a sketch that I will hopefully revise soon. I also studied Ellis Island pictures so that I could get the sense of what a man, recently from Italy, in the 1890s - 1900s, would wear.

I also added the earring because many Romany men do wear jewelry proudly.

"Don't cry, honey." (REVISED & ORIGINAL SKETCH)

"Don't cry, honey." Pencil sketch by Carmen K. Welsh

I originally posted this on Oct. 29, 2011. (Orig. 5 1/2in x 8 1/2in.)

For those following the blog, there has been a series of pencil sketches (and I apologize, some have been so faint) pulled from my novel draft.

After some soul-searching and researching through Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogues, I decided to do a dark pencil-wash. Kind of like imitating the black-and-white days.

And the update (9in x 12in):

"Don't cry, honey." Ink and pencil-wash by Carmen K. Welsh

"Bascomb" & "Slash"

"Bascomb Thompkins" (c) by Carmen K. Welsh

"'Slash' Castellano" (c) by Carmen K. Welsh

Art again! Jeez, I really need more breaks! Was so drained, I couldn't even lift myself to do more image uploads to this blog.
But now I am back and, hopefully, in FULL FORCE.

Here are two characters from the dog novel (Yes, it is still being typed). The one on the left is my adorable Newfoundland (Yay, I like these dogs the same reason I like Saint Bernards and Great Pyrenees - the later used in an 80's Japanese anime "Belle & Sebastian"). As pups, these breeds tend to resemble bear cubs, and these dogs seem to know they are of immense size, and so, they are often good with children.

Bascomb is my straight-shooter, a down-to-earth guy. In the middle of the story, he meets my canine gang leader to the right.
Both men, though worlds apart, become fast friends. Yet, in spite of my dog gang boss' ties to the underworld, he does not try to besmirch his boxer friend.

I also have Boxers who are boxers, but I did not want to use the breed for my champion heavyweight character. Too obvious, done to death.
Also, though the Newfoundland is considered a gentle giant, I think, in a boxing match, could take on a Boxer any day! But, I digress. I don't want the dog lovers to come with torches and pitchforks!

"I'm SO sorry!"

"I'm SO sorry!" 1st draft

"I'm SO sorry!" final draft

Here are two renderings of the same scene. The chapter this scene originates has already been drafted. 

Here, Stacey Hankin is looking for her friend, 'Slash', who, after being left for dead, the young woman found help for him. 

When he's mostly recovered, he disappears, leaving his forwarding address with their mutual new friend.

Stacey goes looking for him, and finds him recovering in his family house.

However, when she is led to him, he's sleeping and wakes up shirtless. Stacey is embarrassed enough to quickly turn away, much to Gina Castellano's amusement.

Did more research in order to render the clothing on both women. Also, by Stacey's dress, it changes the day the scene originally took place. Now, I may make changes not only to the next draft, but also within the story. *Sigh* The life of a writer/artist.

'Stacey Hankin' as a little girl (circa 1922)

Yay! Art again! Sheesh... It's not productive OR fun when one's sick for awhile.

Here is my heroine, as a very tall 7 year old in the year 1921. So that puts her birth year in 1914, and the next year (1915) should be an important year North Americans, as well as anyone else who cares about history, should know. That is the year when the film, "Birth of a Nation" was released in theatres.

What is "Birth of a Nation"? Well, controversial is too mild a word to use.
Simply put, based on a bigot's book by the same name, both movie and book claim that the Ku Klux Klan won the South and freed it from the tyranny of blacks, who were demonized in both the book and film.

The author, whose name I will treat as Harry Potter's nemesis, I will not write it here on my blog, became a celebrity and his viewpoints were agreed by other racists across the country.
When Hollywood got wind of the book, instead of letting this dangerous volume remain within pages, decided it made a good film, no matter how disastrous and historically inaccurate it was!

Now, you see a cute picture of my protagonist and wonder why I am such a downer about mentioning this? Simply put, while researching my characters and their background, I began to wonder, what it must have felt like, being Black, or being any kind of minority, and what were the emotions when this film was released?

What terror could many American blacks have felt? What measures could they have taken to protect themselves and their communities? And worse of all, I have learned that the Civil Rights' Movement did not start in the late 50s and early 60s as many of us are taught in History class, but actually, many decades before.

What damage did "Birth of a Nation" do to the Movement? How much did this book and its companion movie set progress back?
****
Research this, DON'T use Wikipedia, I implore you, but more legitimate sites to research the author, his book, and the movie.
Maybe the film is even on YouTube, but PLEASE, see for yourself... And ask me why I write this with my character's art.

'Slash' with little girl

"Slash with little girl" (c)

This is a darling picture, but without giving away the plot, I can tell you I outlined the above scene.

Miss Francis as a young girl (circa 1923)

"Miss Francis as a young girl" (c)

This is my gangster's secretary, at age 13 or 14, I believe.

Man, I just love that little gem I discovered online: "Children's Fashions 1900-1950".

Miss Francis is about to enter her apartment building. In the scene where this image comes from, she will encounter her future employer.

I am studying Hester Street, an area famous for being predominately Jewish, with immigrants from many Eastern-European countries.

Isabella Spinoli

"Isabella Spinoli" (c) by Carmen K. Welsh

Someone noted that this character reminds them of those "Rosie the Riveter" WWII posters, and it makes sense.
She is no stranger to hard work: as a young child, she labored in the factories during the 'Teens (circa 1913, 1914, and 1915).

Isabella is my gangster's childhood friend. They grew up on the same block. Because of Slash's reputation and lifestyle, she does not keep in touch. However, when the gangster shows up again to do him the favor of checking out his young pal, Stacey Hankin, Isabella feels a new affection for him that he trusted and thought enough about her to such an important task.