The Niftymancer Kickstarter Campaign & Symbolia Process Photos!

Hey everyone, long time no blog! I have a couple pressing items to throw out before I dive back into finishing these stories for Symbolia magazine. Niftymancer, the lane defense game I’ve been doing some animation work for, is entering the final hours of its Kickstarter fundraising campaign. There’s a chunk of change left to go, but with your help we can push it over the line! The game features character designs by Justin Hillgrove, of Imps and Monsters fame, and has been a ton of fun to work on. You can check out the characters I’ve been animating below:

In the land of comics, I’ve been hard at work on the finishing stages of my story for Symbolia Magazine. Here’s a quick bunch of photos from the two weeks I was away in California. Lots of inking, lots of toning,  lots of lettering, and even a little color! All that’s left are the interactive elements and then this thing will be finished.

More news to come later this week, including an exciting announcement about the publication of Navy Ink, the tattoo-based story I posted a few months ago. In the meantime, check out Niftymancer on Kickstarter and enjoy the rest of the weeekend!

MC Kellog Box

New Kickstarter backer comic for someone who, surprise surprise, keeps chickens. With thanks to my rap-meisters Sam Alden and Ron Chan — though why anyone should be rewarded for rhyming things with “cloaca” I’ll never know.

Free Workshops Next Week! Creative Motivation and Kick-Ass Kickstarters

Come learn things from me! I am a PROFESSIONAL.

As promised, here are the details for the two free workshops I’ll be teaching next week at Reed College. These puppies are open to the public and will involve SNACKS. Do I have your attention yet? Good!

First up is Freelance Badassery 101: Maintaining Enthusiasm in the Face of the Unknown (Monday, January 21st, 5pm-7pm). This is a long and fancy-sounding name for a very simple class. The goal is to help you figure out what you love doing, then empower you to do it more and do it better. It’s a class for anyone wishing to light a creative fire under their ass. It’s gonna have some nitty-gritty info about contracts and taxes and invoices and other business things that might be useful to a freelancer, but what comes first is the Work. And that’s what we’re going to tackle head-on. BYO creative self-doubt demons. They’ll be begging for mercy by the time we’re done. Facebook event with directions and other info is here!

The second workshop is Kickstarter Bootcamp: Harnessing the Herd to Make Your Creative Dreams Come True (Wednesday, January 23rd, 5pm-7pm). This will be a hands-on, practical info workshop for those wishing to fund their creative endeavors. The first hour will cover Kickstarter basics, then we’ll critique specific projects. If you have something brewing that you’d like feedback or advice on, bring it in! I’ll be spilling all the dark secrets I learned while riding out the True Believer Kickstarter (730% funded?! How is that even POSSIBLE?!) and incorporating lessons from other successful projects in the Portland area. Facebook event with directions and other info is here!

Both workshops will take place in the Gray Campus Center at Reed College (3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.). The GCC sits in the central Quad and also houses the College’s dining hall. Parking is available in the North Lot (enter on SE Steele and SE 33rd) or the East Lot (enter on SE Woodstock and SE 36th). The workshop will be held in the Campus Center conference rooms, GCC B, GCC C, and GCC D. Most anyone should be able to steer you towards them, if campus maps prove unhelpful.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at lucypcbellwood(at)gmail(dot)com!

Hope to see some of you there.

 

Sketchdumps!

Some sketches of Greek statues from a current exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.

Extreeeeeeemely delayed portraits for Kickstarter backers.

An anniversary commission.

Aaand some anteaters. Because AWWW.

Still Truckin’

Slogging ever onward through the deluge of orders. Custom prints wrapped up today, limited posters signed and numbered, offset print run in the works…it never ends! Just put in orders for t-shirts this morning as well, so if you’re excited to get some True Believer swag you’re in for a treat. To keep the blog active in the meantime, here’s the latest commission I churned out for a backer who happens to be both a doctor and violinist! What strange and wonderful times we live in.

VanCAF is Here! (And I Am Still Terrible at Blogging.)

News Item #1: I’M IN CANADA! As promised, I’ll be tabling at the first ever Vancouver Comic Arts Festival tomorrow and Sunday at the Roundhouse Mews in downtown Vancouver, B.C. I’ve made a handy map so none of you is in the least bit confused about where I’ll be located.

SO MANY STARS.

My fabulous tablemates are Sam Alden and Ryan Dirks, and we’ll be flanked by The Shanahan Siblings and Tony Cliff! I’m super thrilled to be seated next to such a bundle of talent. There are a load of other exhibitors (90 in total) and several panels to check out, so stop by and say “Hello.”

Did I mention it’s FREE?

New Item #2: I have been seriously rubbish at making sure this blog stays updated with all the Kickstarter news of the last few weeks, but I promise there’s a big post coming up with all the juicy gossip. In brief, I managed to graduate without falling on my face, I’ve spent the past week addressing and shipping HUNDREDS of envelopes, and I’ll be reprinting True Believer (already?!) next week!

That’s all for now! I’ll leave you with this extremely attractive portrait of me stapling the first limited edition copy at Gann Brothers printing last week.

Delicious.

 

24 Hours

You guys remember when I was all excited about having hit $3,000 on the Kickstarter? Well, I’ve been remiss in not posting on the blog these past weeks, so things have gotten a little out of control.

The campaign closes in 24 hours, right before I receive my diploma and graduate from college. Currently, the figures stand as follows:

- $11,000 in pledges

- 300 backers

- 730% funded

I’m kind of speechless at the moment, but I hope you can glean some sense of my mood from the following sequence of images:

Thank you all for chipping in and making this such an extraordinary experience. I’ll be sure to post something a little more eloquent after things settle down next week, but for now I am full of gratitude and sunshine. Keep being your amazing selves.

Portrait Sketches – Spring 2012

The semester is almost over, which means it’s time to throw the fruits of my classtime labor up on the Internet for all to see. I was feeling frustrated with my ability to capture good likenesses of people, so for the last three months I’ve been drawing students from two of my conferences at Reed. Here’s the compiled batch of them.

In other news, for those of you following the progress of the Kickstarter campaign, things have gone through the roof. We hit our fundraising goal in just FIVE HOURS, and then kept on climbing.

2 Hours In

 

24 Hours In

With such extraordinary results, I’ve had to rethink my goals for the campaign. It’s looking like the excess funds will go towards a brand new, long-form project, which is really thrilling. Expect an update on that soon.

For now, to everyone who has spread the word, chipped in, and helped fuel the stratospheric success of this project:

I can’t thank you enough. Let’s make the remaining time even more amazing.

Off to the Races!

Ladies and Gents, the True Believer Kickstarter Page is Officially LIVE!

I have been overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm I’ve received from you all so far, and now it’s time to translate that hype into action. Check out the campaign, make a pledge (even $1 helps, and nets you a shoutout right here on the blog!), or, if you’re down and out, simply share the project with friends. You can talk about it, Tweet it, Tumblr it — whatever floats your boat. The more people we can reach, the less everyone needs to chip in in order for us to make it over the $1,500 mark.

Thank you all so much. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Kickstarter

Prepare Yourselves

At 8am on Monday, April 23rd, the True Believer Kickstarter Campaign goes live. I know the video says Friday, but we were alerted to the fact that people have these things called “weekends” where they’re generally off enjoying the sunshine rather than trawling the web for worthy new projects to back. This makes sense to me now that I think about it.

So while we wait, a little about the campaign: I’ll be trying to raise $1,500 to print 200 copies of True Believer. The comic will be 36-pages, with full-color covers and interiors. 100 of those copies will feature limited edition two-color screen printed covers with French flaps by Matt Davison of Dueltone Printing. Aside from pre-ordering copies of the comic, I’ve included a number of Kickstarter-exclusive rewards that include handwritten postcards, custom sketches, limited edition prints, and even dinners and studio tours with yours truly.

So what does this mean? We’ve got two days to get the word out as widely as possible. You can share posts about the project with friends on Facebook, point people to the Facebook fan page so they can stay in the loop (facebook.com/Baggywrinkles), plug the project on Twitter as #truebeliever (you can find me under @Lubellwoo), follow me on Tumblr (tumblr.com/lucybellwood), or let me know if you have suggestions for media sources to contact with the press release.

I’m so thankful to all of you who have expressed your enthusiasm and support for this project so far. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get this thing into your hands.

Now let’s DO THIS!