#24HCD2013 preparing the way

I'm off today and Monday to prepare and recover from #24HCD.
I've been running this blog for about 3 years now, and seen some 40 thousand visitors, and the most popular post by far is the first post I did for #24HCD 2011, http://www.strangebiros.co.uk/2011/10/24hcd-first-post.html
which is odd, because it's not really about 24 Hour Comic Day, but about my previous career as an illustrator.
SO for #24HCD 2013 I'm planning to relax a little, mainly due to the Glenlivet I'm drinking to fend off my cold.
I'm planning to do a HellBoy story, and have prepared by reading Mignola's 'Baltimore'
The story is ok, the artwork acceptable, but mainly I feel "I could do that"
So  I will.
#24HCD for me starts at about 10am tomorrow.
In the spirit of #24HCD I've no idea what the story will entail, except that it'll have a big red guy in in.

iPad sketchbook pro

Had half an hour on my hands so thought I'd have a bash with the stylus... Based on a Mignola batman...

Monster#1

Monster#1, a photo by killercarrot on Flickr.

Someone pointed me at the link to 100 days of monsters http://www.youtube.com/user/StefanGBucher which reminded me of an interview with Mike Mignola where he said, he just wanted to draw monsters.
I've been trying to have a go at drawing a page of webcomic a week, for www.wychwolf.com with more or less success.
However watching this reminds me that what I really like doing... the stuff that makes me happy, is just drawing monsters... it has been for over 40 years now.
So I'm going to try. I have dallied with the ipad as a drawing tool, with little success, but I'm guessing it'll be ok for unpolished sketches...
I may post them here, or I may try some lightweight ipad based workflow... sending to picasa or somesuch...
The first attempt is a sketchbook pro doodle.. this has export to a range of services, but only Flickr fits the bill for this idea.
I had a little bother remembering my account details, and went in circles once or twice trying to use the Google login credentials, briefly toyed with using facebook account, but the list of permissions was way too long for sharing a pic.
The pic uploads to Flickr quite quickly, and has a share with blogger button... however I then had to nip into blogger to fiddle with links, and resize the pic, add tags etc...
SO an interesting project to learn how best to use the ipad arty tools,  get a view of best workflows for publishing,  and maybe get Dom doing a little drawing too.

Drawin' in the style of..

In my effort to add a bit more action I decided I'd have a bash at drawing one of the early scenes from the WychWolf story in another style... obviously I favour the dark grittiness of Mike Mignola, and his Hellboy.. so I sat there with my copy of Seed of Destruction, and tried to be inspired...
I'm happy with the result, although it is by no means what I thought I was going to draw...