Lightshade page 2 for Zuda

Here's the second page of the Zuda submission Kevin L. Sheath and I are hard at work on:

Wolverine sketch

Selling original art (published)

I'm selling the original artwork for Robot: 2047, which was published in last year's Fat Chunk anthology by Slave Labor Graphics. Each page is 8" x 12.5" on 2-ply Bristol board, and I'm asking $10 for individual pages or $18 for both.


Robot:2047 page one inks by ~ScottEwen on deviantART

Robot:2047 page two inks by ~ScottEwen on deviantART

I'm also selling the pin-up I did for Dave Chisholm's Let's Go to Utah, published in the trade paperback edition. This is 11"x17", and I'm asking $15 for it.


Let's Go to Utah pinup by ~ScottEwen on deviantART

If you'd like to buy any of these pieces, email me at ewen.scott@gmail.com

More Lightshade

Inks for page two:

More on Lightshade

I never put up the pencils and inks for the first page of Lightshade, so here they are:





And here are the pencils for page two:

Lightshade page 1 for Zuda

This is the first of eight pages for a Zuda submission. It's a redo of a short story we did a couple years ago, but it never got finished.



The page can be seen in progress in my art blog here: http://www.penciljack.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1057183

And here's the original version of the page we did two years ago: http://scottewen.deviantart.com/art/Lightshade-pg-1-of-5-69673699

New panel in the strip jam

This is my... I dunno, 24th panel, I think. It's the 179th panel overall in the Never-ending Strip Jam.

New Anchorbird page

I've done a new page for the collaborative webcomic Anchorbird. This is going to be my last page for a while, but I plan on making a return to the story after I've finished some other projects I'm working on. I will be staying on the project as an editor, though.

Me and Cristina

Me and my girlfriend went out for breakfast. Photographs courtesy of her brother Joe.

Two new Strip Jam panels

Two new panels for the Never-Ending Strip Jam.

New Anchorbird page

New Anchorbird page

This is page six of my new webcomic, Anchorbird, which is a collaboration with a ton of other Kubert School students and Penciljack members. Read it here: http://anchorbird.blogspot.com.

iPod: Smart Playlists

I have around 50 gigabytes of music, podcasts, comedy albums, audiobooks, and videos in my iTunes library, and my iPod is an 8 GB nano. This means I can't fit nearly my entire collection on my iPod. For a couple years I simply went through my albums and manually dragged the ones I liked over to my iPod, but with that system I got sick of hearing the same stuff over and over. I figured there had to be a way to make it seem as if I could take my entire library with me, without actually doing it. And there is, provided you listen to your iPod on "shuffle" a lot. This system works with any size iPod, and depending on how many podcasts you listen to you can probably use a 2 GB iPod and never have any need of a larger one. I have my iPod synced to several Smart Playlists, and when I plug it into my computer it deletes music I've listened to and puts new stuff on, automatically. Here's what I do:

First, this system is dependent upon rating your songs. If you don't rate your songs, this is not going to work. Until I figured this stuff out I didn't rate my songs, but now I do for every single one of them. A lot of them I did in bulk: I would select all Belle and Sebastian songs and rate them "4 stars," for instance, then I could go back through as I listen to them and give them 5 stars or 3 stars as needed.

The way my ratings work is this: 1 star is for songs I absolutely hate... this is for tracks I want to delete out of my iTunes library ASAP. 2 stars is for filler tracks: skits and noise that are part of an album (so I don't want to delete them), but I'd rather they not come up in a shuffle. Tool and Pink Floyd tend to have a lot of these in their albums. 3 stars is for songs I don't really like but I don't hate them. 4 stars is for songs I like, and 5 stars is for songs I love: songs I get excited for when they come on.

I have a manual playlist dedicated just for podcasts, audiobooks, video, and comedy albums. This is 1 gigabyte, and is generally enough space that I have a lot left over.

I have another manual playlist called "New Stuff." This is 1 GB and is for new albums I've added to my iTunes library in the last few months. When I get a new album I add it to the end of this playlist and remove an album in the list to make room. I try to listen to all albums at least 5 times and rate all the songs before I remove them from the list.

Now for the smart playlists. The following are not synced to my iPod, but are important for the playlist that is synced to it.

5 Stars: 309 MB. This playlist is for 5 star tracks only, and only for songs I have not played in the last 2 months.

4 Stars: 338 MB. This playlist is for 4 star tracks only, and only for songs I have not played in the last 4 months.

0/3 Stars: 61 MB This playlist is for songs that either have not been rated, or songs that are rated 3 stars. The songs also have not been played in the last 8 months, so it's a good sample of songs I'm not that crazy about but haven't heard in a while.

New Stuff Shuffle: 108 MB This is a small sample of songs from my "New Stuff" playlist that haven't been played in the last two weeks, but nothing that has 1 or 2 stars.

Recent: 213 MB This is for songs added to my library in the last 6 months, that hasn't been played in the last 1 month. Nothing below 4 stars shows up in this playlist.

I also have a manual playlist called "Classic" which is just in case there's an album I haven't listened to in a long time that I get the hankering to listen to again. It stays empty most of the time.

Now, all the above playlists (except "Classic") get combined in a random order into a 1 GB playlist called "Play This!", which is the one that gets synced to my iPod. Playing it is like hitting "shuffle songs," but it shuffles through my entire iTunes library.

What all this means is that when I'm driving around in my car I hit the "Play This!" playlist. When I'm done, I plug my iPod into my computer and the stuff I've listened to gets taken off and new stuff is put on. It is, in essence, like shuffling through my entire iTunes library, but only for songs I like and haven't heard in a while, so it actually works a lot better than the "shuffle" feature.

All of this takes up a couple gigabytes on my 8 GB iPod, and it could work for a smaller iPod as well. Just reduce the amount of megabytes each of the smart playlists take up, although it's smart to have a higher ratio of 5 star tracks and lower ratio of 0/3 star tracks. This ensures that most of what comes up is going to be songs you like, love, or have just added to your library. If you don't listen to many podcasts, you can reduce the size of that playlist as well. You can also reduce the size of the "New Stuff" playlist or make a smart playlist to replace it that adds random songs that have been added to your library in the last few months. If you don't listen to podcasts at all, you can make this work with an iPod as small as 1 GB.

Annoucing Anchorbird

Anchorbird is the new webcomic by myself and several other people. The idea is we all take turns adding a page to the story, and nothing is planned out beforehand. Check it out at http://anchorbird.blogspot.com.

Fables for draw-off

This is for a Fables draw-off at Penciljack. It went up a couple days ago but I'm just now uploading it. It was essentially a sketch because it was all I had time for and I got my ass kicked in the draw-off. Serves me right.

This is Snow White and Bigby Wolf from DC/Vertigo's "Fables." They have five "cubs" in the story, but I only drew three because I finished the third one about 50 minutes before the deadline, which I'd already asked for a two-day extension on.

By the way, while we're on the subject, if you're not reading Fables, I highly recommend it. It's an epic story about a war between fairy tale characters in the present day, and is (in my humble opinion) one of the very best comics to come around in the last decade. Incredibly entertaining, with gorgeous artwork from Mark Buckingham that evokes early Bachalo. Read it!!

Webcomic Jam: It Begins

The webcomic jam is a new project on Penciljack being organized by myself, Oscar Padilla (Spidey), and Karl Savage (Wild&Uncouth). There's a rotating group of artists, along with a few guest artists here and there, and we'll all take turns doing installments of the comic. Here's the first installment, which you can click to make bigger.



We're going to have a website set up for the comic eventually, but we don't know what the comic is going to be called yet. Here's the thread on Penciljack where we organize the thing, though.

Even More Album Covers

More album covers made by combining a random article on Wikipedia, a random quote, and a random photo on Flikr. Photos are attributed to the original photographer where I remembered to do so, and here are more of these if you want to see them.


Photo by Felix M. Cobos


Photo by chrisfriel






Photo by sigma-zeta


Photo by Jan Durina


Photo by beldyga.com

Mary Marvel meets Thorn

This is for the P.U.M.M.E.L. tournament at Penciljack. Round one (against Bathill8) was to team up a character from Justice League International (or "Formerly Known as the Justice League" or "I Can't Believe it's Not the Justice League") with a character from Bone. Bathill went with Phoney Bone and Booster Gold, I went with Mary Marvel and Thorn.

Strip Jam: Ghost Yoda

My nineteenth panel and... I dunno, a hundred and something panel overall for the Never-Ending Strip Jam on Penciljack.

Penciljack's down at the moment so I can't post this yet there, but I'll post it as soon as PJ comes back.

The Beatles album that never was...

Please excuse me while I become a complete Beatles nerd for a minute.

I've been a big fan of The Beatles for a few years, but until recently I wasn't familiar with any of the individual members' post-breakup music. I decided a few months ago to start listening to their solo albums and to my delight there's a lot of great music there for people who love The Beatles' music. I've listened to almost all their 1970s stuff now and I can tell you that if you're a fan of The Beatles and never heard their solo stuff, here's the stuff you should get.

JOHN LENNON - The best album is 1971's "Imagine," without a doubt. Lennon's a bit too political for me generally, but if you like his stuff you might also seek out 1970's "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" and 1972's "Some Time in New York City." That last one is a double album and is credited to John Lennon AND Yoko Ono, so there's some weird stuff in it, but I feel like Yoko gets more shit than she deserves sometimes. "Sisters, O Sisters" and "We're All Water" are pretty good even though Yoko's singing.

PAUL McCARTNEY - After The Beatles broke up, McCartney released one pretty good solo album, called "McCartney," then released an amazing album co-credited to his wife Linda called "Ram," then the two of them formed a band called Wings with whom he released several albums in the 1970s. 1971's "Ram" is definitely worth getting, as is 1970's "McCartney," but as far as Wings albums go, I'd recommend 1973's "Band on the Run" and 1975's "Venus and Mars." The others are good too, but those are the best.

GEORGE HARRISON - A huge surprise, George Harrison's music wound up being my favorite of the Beatles' solo releases. If you are at all a fan of The Beatles, run out and get 1970's "All Things Must Pass." An AMAZING album. 1973's "Living in the Material World" is also fantastic, but I can't stress enough how great "All Things Must Pass" is.

RINGO - Don't bother. Most of his stuff is blah, and his best stuff is written by Lennon or Harrison. Get 1973's "Ringo!" if you must, don't bother with anything else.

Okay, now the real purpose of this journal is to talk about my new project, which I got the idea for a few weeks ago. My idea was to create an album of post-breakup Beatles songs, as a way of seeing what the next album after "Let it Be" might have been like if they stayed together. I had a few rules for selecting my songs, for instance the songs had to be released in either 1970 or 1971, since that's when the next album probably would have come out. Two Harrison songs, one per side, since that had been the pattern for several albums. I wanted one Ringo song, but nothing that came out in 1970-1971 fit the tone of a Beatles album. In 1970 he released two albums, one was an album of old standards, and the other was a country album. The closest song was "It Don't Come Easy," released as a single in 1971, but it doesn't sound exactly like a Beatles song, despite being co-written by Ringo and George Harrison. Similarly, I didn't put "My Sweet Lord" on there because despite being Harrison's biggest hit from "All Things Must Pass," it's not very Beatles-like.

I tried to choose songs that were released as singles, and songs that sounded like Beatles songs to me. I chose a time limit of 50 minutes. Then I put them together in an order that sounded good to me. Linda McCartney's backing vocals are featured on a couple tracks, but that's okay. Yoko's voice is on the White Album.

I'm calling it "Another Day," after the first song on the album. I've included the track listing below and the albums you can find these songs if you want to try this out for yourself. Listen to it and tell me this doesn't sound like a "Let it Be"/"Abbey Road"-era Beatles album.

ANOTHER DAY - 47:24
Side A
1. "Another Day" (1970 Paul McCartney single, bonus track on the "Ram" CD)
2. "Hold On" (John Lennon, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band")
3. "Teddy Boy" (Paul McCartney, "McCartney")
4. "Oh My Love" (John Lennon, "Imagine")
5. "Wah-Wah" (George Harrison, "All Things Must Pass")
6. "Oh Yoko!" (John Lennon, "Imagine")

Side B
1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (Paul McCarney, "McCartney")
2. "Imagine" (John Lennon, "Imagine")
3. "Too Many People" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
4. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
5. "What is Life" (George Harrison, "All Things Must Pass")
6. "Heart of the Country" (Paul and Linda McCartney, "Ram")
7. "Crippled Inside" (John Lennon, "Imagine")