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| Didn't even get water everywhere | Nov 30, 2017 11:35 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I fixed a clogged sink faucet late last night and was inordinately pleased with myself as a result. ^_^
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| I use a lot of tape | Nov 29, 2017 10:47 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:No Wednesday sale today because guess what yep I'm still running late somehow yet again today. Going for a clean sweep this week! I did get some original A* art boxed up to mail off to someone tomorrow though so that's something.
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| Not really worth reading ahem | Nov 28, 2017 11:03 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Still mostly doing an awful job of getting pages done in time to have time left over for good, thoughtful, informative blog entries, it seems. So, uh... How *you* doin'? *v*
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| A* original art still $2 less! | Nov 27, 2017 10:28 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Just wanted to say again that the original 16" x 6.75" watercolor artwork for each new A* page now starts at just $16.99 on eBay. : ) People seemed to like that starting bid price about 2000% more than the $2-higher price it was at for the past few months or so, so it's back at $16.99 and it'll stay at $16.99 for the foreseeable future. = ]
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| New A* watercolor pages now just $16.99 : ) | Nov 25, 2017 10:30 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:The watercolor artwork I make each weekday for these new A* pages now starts at just $16.99 on eBay. : )
That's $2 lower than what it was previously, and this is not a temporary sale or holiday special or anything, it is the figure at which I'm going to try to hold for the foreseeable future. My bidders—and I am very, very thankful for all of you!!—seemed pretty okay with this price when it was the regular price earlier this year, but most have not been so inspired by the $2 higher figure it was at for the past number of months; so I'm rolling it back to the previous, lower price.
And as for that master financial plan I announced early in the year of trying to work my way up to a $25 starting bid price—well, no more of that notion! The A* artwork starting bid price is going to stay at $16.99 for as long as I can hold out there.
Thank you *very* much to everyone who has bought any of my A* artwork, particularly recently—I really appreciate your continued patronage. : ) And if you held off on some of this episode's recent A* pages because of that higher bid price they started at, fear not! I'm going to be bringing my favorites among those that did not sell back around for sale at the new lower price in the upcoming weekly Wednesday A* archive art sales, so keep an eye out for those if you're interested. : )
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| Oh hey Thanksgiving | Nov 22, 2017 10:46 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I'm off for the Thanksgiving holiday! Have a nice Thursday, everyone. : )
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| It was nice being able to blame tryptophan | Nov 21, 2017 10:24 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Just an early warning: I *will* be taking this Thursday, also known as Thanksgiving here in the States, off. = o But we still got... Wait, what day is it today? Oh! Yeah, we still got one more page before then. : D
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| 1st interstellar object seen in Solar System | Nov 20, 2017 10:09 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Big space news recently as the first ever confirmed interstellar object passing through our solar system has been spotted! "Discovered on 19 October this year by Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy," the apparent interstellar asteroid was named 'Oumuamua, "which means 'a messenger from afar arriving first' in Hawaiian."
'Oumuamua tore into our system at nearly a perpendicular angle, traveling at up to 87.7 km/s as it whipped around the Sun; its estimated velocity as it came into our system was over 26 km/s—for comparison, typical comets in our system travel at a mere 3 km/s. 'Oumuamua's velocity is sufficient to escape the Sun's pull and return to interstellar space travel after its slingshot around our star. Its speed, steep approach angle, and the very wide arc it was describing mean that it could only have come from outside the solar system.
Although too small for any human device to capture a detailed view of it, 'Oumuamua was confirmed to be of a light reddish color, as is not uncommon in some of our system's native asteroids. But readings indicate that it is rotating rapidly and is unusually elongated, with dimensions in the ratio of at least 5.3:1, which equals the most elongated objects seen before in our system; its dimensions are estimated at 180x30x30m.
As the first known interstellar object seen in our system, a whole new space object classification had to be created: "I" for "interstellar." 'Oumuamua's designation is thus 1I. It is also the first of a new class of asteroids: hyperbolic asteroids.
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| Twirling a nightstick may be tricky | Nov 18, 2017 8:19 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Thanks to everyone who's helping me make A* by contributing through my Patreon campaign! = D It makes a huge difference! Here's a sketch I got to mail to one reader as a monthly reward for their support:
Thank you very much! : )
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| When in doubt, add more smileys | Nov 16, 2017 11:47 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I still don't seem to be getting much more than the pages themselves done this week, but hey...I got another page done! :"P (:D)
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| I only have all this other art! | Nov 15, 2017 11:59 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Well it's an hour past my bedtime and I need to get to it, so no special archive art sale today. But! The watercolor paintings I made for the newest 5 A* pages *are* up for auction on my eBay, and you might like one or more of those. : )
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| From the darker reaches of my pantry | Nov 14, 2017 11:00 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I accidentally used a newer tiny brush (size 0: one I've just been using for inking a Patreon reward sketch once a month ; ) rather than my usual, rather worn down tiny brush for the detailed lines on today's page, and that worked so nicely—having an actual point on the thing instead of sort of a line segment ending, having better thick-to-thin ability, and having it hold more paint at once—that it finally convinced me to bust out a new tiny brush from the little stockpile I'd accumulated while they were coming for free with the larger brushes I used to tear through pretty quickly when doing A* pages with waterproof black ink. So tomorrow will be brand new brush day, whee! ^_^
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| That was short | Nov 13, 2017 10:18 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:That's it for Monday! : ) Seeya Tuesday!
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| Interstellar handwarmer | Nov 11, 2017 7:41 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Patreon is a great way to support your favorite artists, and I even get to send folks supporting the comic through the A* Patreon campaign unique A* rewards each month, like this sketch I mailed off to one reader for their support:
Thank you very much! : )
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| Hand-stitching NASA spacecraft | Nov 09, 2017 9:43 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:The recent BBC article The Women Who Sew for NASA talks about the female technicians who dominate NASA's cabling and thermal blanketing teams; that golden foil you often see covering sensitive space probe components, for instance, is stitched together from "over 20 individual layers - some just 1/1000th of an inch thick," then hand-sewn into place on the spacecraft.
The article also points to several examples of similarly skilled female technicians who made earlier, crucial leaps in NASA's space exploration possible:
- the custom spacecraft program hardware of the Apollo spacecraft was woven together by a team nick-named the "little old ladies": "many of them were in fact young women, threading copper wires through tiny magnetic loops to create the individual ones and zeros of programme code."
- "the seamstresses of lingerie brand Playtex pioneered new sewing techniques to create the Apollo spacesuits. Working to unprecedented levels of precision, and often late into the night, their innovations made human spaceflight possible."
... I really need to learn to sew one of these days.
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| A fresh line on this week's A* art sale! | Nov 08, 2017 9:45 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Wednesday original A* art archive sale! This is where I pick out what I think is a particularly nifty page of original artwork from the A* archives and put it up for auction at a bargain price! And this week we're doing the 16" x 6.75" watercolor illustration I made for page 31:16, catching Selenis in a dimly lit alley in the lower sub-levels of the artificial world known as The Pearl, where she is busy applying some leverage to the back of a security patrolman's knee. : ) It's up for auction for the next week on eBay!
Here are tiny preview versions of the high-res images of the page that you'll find included in the auction listing:
This particular page is one of my most successful applications of colored line work, I think. Should I do more of that, or try to form forms without lines, which can potentially look more natural but also easily goes kinda blobby? Maybe going for form, then applying line where necessary for further delineation would be the wise route? Or do the particular demands of each image require different approaches? Well if I could answer these questions I wouldn't have to agonize over each new day's page, and then where would I go for drama in my life?
... Anyway, thanks for checking out my artwork! : D (You'll find other attractively priced A* artwork under my eBay handle while you're over there, including the last week's worth of new page paintings!)
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| Well, duh | Nov 07, 2017 10:49 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I just discovered that shiny bar tops are really fun to paint. : D
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| Don't forget to erase a lot | Nov 06, 2017 10:00 PM PST | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Trying to work on boiling the page layouts down to strong elements. We'll see how long I can keep this up. : ) Action scenes probably help, I suppose!
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| Is it too late for Halloween? | Nov 04, 2017 7:47 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I'm not quite making a living at making A*, but I'm getting there, thanks in large part to readers helping me out through the A* Patreon campaign! As little as $1 a month means a lot to me, and if you splurge on a higher level of support you can even get unique monthly A* rewards; for instance, here's a sketch I got to send to a reader for their support:
Thank you very much for keeping me at work on A*! : D
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| And just think if I used more than 2 colors | Nov 02, 2017 9:56 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:I think I am gradually figuring out what type of coloring I like with watercolors—by process of elimination. ; )
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| Check out my layers in this A* art sale! | Nov 01, 2017 11:24 PM PDT | url |
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Added 1 new A* page:Wednesday A* original art archive sale! This week's lucky piece is the 16" x 6.75" watercolor illustration I made for A* episode 31, page 84, which finds Selenis reading some hot info off a mobile device she just swiped from a rather disgruntled gentleman. You've got three count 'em three faces, each showing a different emotion, with a pleased Selenis up front, bathed in the tiny screen's glow. This painting is on eBay for one week now, starting at just $18.99!
The auction listing has high-res images; my blog is only big enough for these tiny previews:
This page I think is one of my more successful attempts at layering the watercolors: heavy red with heavy blue on top built up an intense background, leaving bright blue and red highlights dancing around the figures; and the hair of the central female figure came out in a kinda neat duotone with a swirly purple splashed on over a lighter blue.
I hope someone likes it enough to take it home! = ) I've got other pieces on sale on eBay too—the latest week's A* pages are there; for instance, the painting behind today's new page is up for auction right here. Yep!
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