Stephen Colbert has a new(er) segment called The Colbert Questionert. He asks guests fifteen questions “‘scientifically designed, psyche probing’ questions” to really get to know them. I enjoy these lightning round question and answer type segments (see the Pivot Questionnaire from Inside the Actor’s Studio).

Here we go:

1. What is the best sandwich? Meatball sub
2. What’s one thing you own that you should really throw out? My old Citadel stuff. Uniforms, manuals, belt buckles. Honestly, what am I going to do with them? It’s just taking up space. But can you donate those uniforms? Maybe that’s why I still have it. I don’t know who to give it to.
3. What is the scariest animal? Snakes are quite creepy
4. Apples or Oranges? Oranges, but only those cutie oranges. They’re simpler to deal with.
5. Have you ever asked someone for their autograph? Yes, on multiple occasions. I was heartbroken though one time when my brother and I went to ask three wrestlers for their autographs at a Shoney’s. We were rejected and it hurt to the core.
6. What do you think happens when we die? I don’t know, but I hope it’s something unbelievable.
7. Favorite action movie? (Right now…) Mission: Impossible: Fallout
8. Favorite smell? My wife’s lotion
9. Least favorite smell? Poop
10. Exercise: Worth it? Yes, it just helps you feel better.
11. Flat or sparkling? Flat.
12. Most used app on your phone? Disney Magic Kingdoms. It’s a game that delights me to no end and my kingdom keeps expanding. 🙂
13. You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: What do you listen to? Eye of the Tiger by New Found Glory…it doesn’t say I’m listening to it on loop.
14. What number am I thinking of? 21
15. Describe the rest of your life in five words…A fun and memorable journey

In March, the Society of Visual Storytelling (SVS) held a contest for a design sheet for a fairy tale traveler. The prompt read as follows:

Your assignment is to design a Fairy-Tale Traveler. Your character is young, naive, but resilient and stouthearted! Their quiet village is hidden away in a secluded valley, but is in grave danger. A horde of goblins have promised to raid the village when the harvest moon rises. Our young traveler is on a quest to find someone, anyone, powerful enough to fight back the horde and save their village from destruction.

What we want from you is a character design sheet with your own take on the traveler. They could be a halfling, elf, human, or animal. Just make them appealing and interesting.

Every entry must have 5 color drawings on ONE page:

1 neutral pose front, 3/4 view
1 neutral post back, 3/4 view
1 walking or running pose
1 sitting pose (ground or chair)
1 close up of face

It took me awhile to get started. I wanted to plan and complete the challenge using ProCreate. Completing the image 100% digitally though proved difficult for me. I tried for a couple weeks, pressing on with very limited results. I pulled references, I ideated, and even wrote out traits and characteristics for the character. I just could not get going.

So I took my ideas analog and sketched in my sketchbook. It felt more natural and what I was seeing in my head started to get translated.

I then imported my drawings into ProCreate and was able to stitch together the design sheet poses. After laying it all out, It was smoother to start editing and inking my sketches.

After it was all inked, I got some color selection help from my daughter. We found this great color palette on Pinterest and it even came with hexcodes.

After I finished up coloring, I added a texture to the background and hit submit. Here are the other entries: http://cshellmedia.com/clients/svs/.

Endnotes: Overall I'm happy with how Nena turned out. She's the most complete work I've put together in quite some time. I do need better time management for the contest. This image was pulled together at the last moment. The image could use more shading and the inking could use better line weight variation. Plus,the silhouette could have been more dynamic. 

The last time I wrote about waffles, I shared how we use a really elaborate Ree Drummond recipe.

Since then we’ve minimized the dishes a little bit, and adapted our own recipe. We also added a very key ingredient…cinnamon

They’re really tasty and I thought I would share. My oldest son doesn’t like the cinnamon that much so I’ll make the batter, make a couple plain, and then add the canela.

Also, if I put it here (and my kids lose the notebook the recipe is written in), I’ll be able to find it no problem!

• Macaroni and Cheese
• Cranberry sauce
• Fried Turkey with an injection and a rub
• Wings

Rub for the Turkey: thyme, herbs de provence, black pepper, paprika, and brown sugar.

Injection for the Turkey: 1 cup unsalted (melted) butter, 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 3 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 sprig of fresh sage, 2 cloves of garlic and salt (to taste).

I had a really fun (and interesting) time getting sucked into a livestream with Jason Inman and his wife, Ashley Victoria Robinson.

Everyone is asking…

Are you ready??

Everyone

And does that really matter? I’m not so sure. The point of Inktober is to grow your skills and creative thinking.

One of the only mobile games I play consistently is NBA2K Mobile. The news came out recently that the main console game is adding WNBA players. Of course, because “the internet” there were numerous detractors of this idea.

In a world where two grown men combined the theatrics of wrestling with the knowledge of movie trivia comes the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. Do some of the competitors take it too seriously? Yes. Do some of them not take it seriously enough? Hell yes! What’s undeniable however is the dedication of all involved to deliver a top notch product.

Jake Parker, on what artists should consider regarding style when they are looking for work:

Here’s the question to ask yourself: Do I want to get work from a particular industry? And if so, am I willing to change my style to fit what that industry wants? Or am I content on building my own personal following, my own fan base and willing to do the extra work, the hard work, that it’s gonna take to figure out how to monetize a following…which is, you go into not just being an artist but also being a business person as well.

For some odd reason, I’ve gravitated towards this song over the past few weeks. Total honesty, I don’t know why.

I made a conscious decision during vacation to unplug from any sort of news or headlines. So now that I’m back in society, I have to point out something that will bring my kids and I joy.

Season 8 of Game of Thrones May have left a conflicted taste in your mouth, but we can all appreciate the details that went into creating the languages in the lands of Essos and Westeros.

David Peterson, the elaborator of two phrases, created a full language for the show. He’s created languages since he was in college, and now its available to learn in the app Duolingo.

Newsarama editor Chris Arrant interviewed designer Tom Muller about his take on the classic X-Men logo for the two upcoming series, Powers of X and House of X. I love these deep dives into the details of comic production. The logo is a key item on a comic cover, and when it comes to creating the newest evolution of the X-Men, the logo deserves to reflect that as well.