Just got back from a fantastic show at Rose City Comic Con!  A big thanks to everybody who stopped by to chat with us!

A more detailed followup post is on the way. If you're visiting the site for the first time, be sure to check Skyfaux out on Facebook as well and to bookmark us for the latest and greatest updates. As mentioned to many of you this weekend, there will indeed be a second book and it is currently in the works!

Thanks again Portland - we had a great time!

Just received more stock of some of Skyfaux's most popular buttons!  Of course, this includes the previously sold out "BUTTon" - a crowd favorite and one of the many amazing reasons to stop by and see us. Seek us out at Rose City Comic Con, and claim one as your own!

The blog may be a bit quiet, but there's much afoot behind the scenes! Work has already begun on Book 2, and there's some new art in progress for Rose City Comic Con in September. See you there!

Moving forward, I think I'll try to make Monday Night Sketches an official thing. Today, I'm featuring a sketch that inspired a finished drawing:

My notebooks are home to many invented plant and animal species along with variations on existing ones. Sometimes I'll write a little blurb about something after I sketch it. The pod dandelions in the lower left corner above served as the inspiration for this final piece:

Ta-da!

Continuing with the About Elementals blog series, here's a bit more info on water form and what makes it so cool. Be sure to check out More About Elementals: Fire Form if you missed it last month!

Appearance
Elementals in water form take on an aquatic set of colors, including shades of royal blue and aquamarine. Although many Elementals are blue in their normal forms, water form blue tends to be much deeper and darker, like the ocean depths.

In water form, the skin of an elemental appears noticeably more scaly. Some Elementals are covered head-to-toe in a bubble-like pattern of rings.  The feathered crest that runs along the spine is rounded and can be either bright green or blue, giving it the appearance of either splashed water or kelp.

Abilities
In water form, an Elemental can control small amounts of relatively pure water. Often, this controlled water is held in place as an orb between an Elemental's hands. Water form Elementals have the same control over ice, snow, and steam that they do for liquid water. 

A single Elemental can typically only control a gallon or two of water at a time, although some elders are said to be able to control significantly more. As a group, Elementals can chain their powers. In one legend, hundreds of Elementals gathered at the edge of a mighty river and managed to reverse its flow for several minutes.

When in water form, an Elemental is granted amplified swimming powers and the ability to stay submerged without air for considerably longer than in normal form. While swimming, some Elementals have learned how to displace the water around their heads in order to create an air bubble for breathing assistance.

Limitations
Elementals cannot create water from nothing; the water must already exist in order to be manipulated. Unless there is visible mist or steam present, an Elemental cannot pull moisture straight from the air.

The lower the purity of the water, the more difficult it is to control. Elementals cannot control water that is deeply saturated with salt and/or organic compounds, like sea water or blood. Although an Elemental can control snow or ice, they are not granted any sort of resistance or immunity to it in water form and therefore must take caution not to freeze when working in cold conditions. 

Usage
Elementals generally use their aquatic forms for transporting water from one place to another, or for catching fish. Groups of Elementals have been known to build makeshift fish ladders from suspended water in order to help salmon and other species move upstream. 

Water form is often used side by side with fire form to quench flames, including forest fires. In a village, water Elementals often stand as "spotters" near campfires or fire starters with an orb of water at the ready in case the flames start to spread.

Kings, chieftains, or other important Elementals are often granted an escort of water Elementals whose sole job is to manipulate rain and other precipitation so that it does not fall onto the leader. This is also a common practice in parades, funerals, processionals, and general courtesy... especially on dates. 

In recreation, water form is often used to play a form of "hot potato" in which an orb of water must be thrown from one individual and caught by another without breaking the surface tension. It can be tricky to catch a water orb mid-air, meaning the loser typically winds up soaked. Additionally, water form is the chosen form of Elementals for snowman building and snowball fights.

The site got a bit of an update today!  Here's a quick overview:

1. Some images that were positively giant (file size) should be much more tolerable now. 
2. Cleaned up the site menu. As a result, Appearances is now stashed in the About section.
3. The Appearances page also now shows Skyfaux's newly announced appearance at RCCC!
4. A tour of the Minecraft cathedral "St. Kilometer" was added to the Other Projects section of the site. 

Expect a new post in the next couple of days that delves into a little more detail on the Minecraft project. The short version:  I built a Minecraft cathedral a very long time ago on a server that no longer exists. I resurrected all of the old pictures and commentary from a website that has long since passed into memory. Enjoy!

It's been a busy week of travel for Skyfaux, but now we're finally back in home sweet Portland, Oregon. Speaking of Portland, Skyfaux LLC is pleased to officially announce an Artist Alley appearance at the 2015 Rose City Comic Con!! We can't wait to exhibit on our home turf!

We'll be bringing the first edition of the Skyfaux graphic novel to the show along with a restocked supply of our sought-after BUTT-ons. There will also be original art prints for sale along with a whole bunch of other goodies and freebies.

This is just a preliminary announcement. More info soon!

Thumbnails are perhaps the most crucial piece of the comic creation process (at least for yours truly) because they offer a chance to let words and artwork collide on the page for the first time. Like a chemistry experiment, the two components don't always interact in expected ways. Sometimes a particular piece of dialogue will take up way more space than anticipated, or a section that was planned as a single page ends up making more sense as several. In other words, thumbnails offer a chance to goof things up as much as necessary without requiring lengthy do-overs of the final product.

Sometimes, something awesome and unexpected emerges from the carefree spirit of the thumbnail that persists into the final version. On page 22, I liked the two Elementals laughing in the top panel so much that they were added to the final version with only minor changes. Click the images to see full-size:

Page 23 stayed mostly the same, but I fixed the orientation of the watch face in the final version (Skreer, why would you wear a watch where 12 isn't at the top!?) and combined the last two panels into one after thinking over the note I wrote in the margin. Click the images to see full-size:

Hooray for thumbnails!

It's Monday night, which is as good a night as any to post some sketches. Here's a favorite image from an old notebook called Grand Peacock Fish. 

Fun fact:  The circular "eye" shapes on the side and lower fins are partly a collage made from cut out pictures of pizzas. 

I am very pleased to announce the arrival of a brand new section of the site: The custom shoe gallery! It features numerous hand-painted designs created by the author and artist of Skyfaux (aka yours truly). 

The gallery is a scroll-through format, and there are currently 5 shoe designs available for viewing. There are quite a few more in the backlog that will be added in the near future.

This also means that the entire Other Projects wing of the site is now open!  The shoe gallery is the only project available for viewing at the moment, but more are on the way. Enjoy!