Thomas.

As with Mel and Marie and Annette, every good carnival has a seal-boy.  Or seal-girl.  Whatever.  People love people with deformities because it makes us feel better about ourselves.  Well, I suppose that's the reason some people do, I think others just want the shock value of a guy with a huge hole in his face.
N. Tep Enterprises assumes no responsibility for the disturbance potentially caused by the provided link.  

Thomas W. Kavanagh

 Enter Thomas W. Kavanagh.  He was born with webbed feet and big flipper arms.  His father, a modestly successful day-trader with a huge degree of curiosity and acceptance, decided this was unusual and worth looking into.  He eventually discovered his quiet wife was actually a selkie and his own great grandmother was ALSO a selkie.  Now, common mythos says selkies are always female water spirits who wear a seal skin and can be tricked into living as a human if their skin is taken from them when they come onto the land.  Who's to say that a selkie might actually desire to live on land and take a human husband and have little seal-pup babies?  In my world, the combination of selkies within the family tree caused a short circuit.  Thomas wasn't born as human or selkie but a literal mix.  Because I like the idea of curses and what happens down the line if someone IS cursed.

Oh, and his middle name is Waits.  Because his father has a TERRIBLE sense of humor.  Also, he hates that joke.

And I realize I skipped a day in the posts.  But 26 is such a bad number!

Mythology is my dark mistress.

Melisandra.

Over the summer, I worked on a production of Master Peter's Puppet Show with the Puppet Kitchen.  One of the characters is called Melisandra, she's King Charlemagne's adopted daughter and the plot pusher for the tale.  Then, later that summer, I was starting to draw up the characters for Entropy Driven's Cirque du Deeskay and wanted to try drawing something outside of my usual designs (read: always the same size).

 

 

 

Melisandra

Like Marie and Annette, every good carnival has a sword-swallower or two.  Mel was fun to figure out.  Since she's really obviously Aryan (at least to me). She was born in Svalbard (my most favorite place that can KILL YOU).  Her dad studied arctic microorganisms and as a result, they eventually moved to Alaska.  Since her father raised her in a scientifically-minded environment, she was one hell of a book-worm.   Where her father passed away in 2007.  Mel moved south, eventually settling in New York City after reading about the freak show traditions of Coney Island.  She rarely wears more than the minimum of clothes, the most being a tank-top and shorts (she's in her performing gig up in the drawing) because after living in Svalbard, NOTHING IS COLD.

Entropy Driven.

I have too many stories in my head sometimes.

And several of them take place in the same vaguely fantastic place.  They converge at some point, but I've mentally filed them all under the title of Entropy Driven (because I love the gradual heat death of the universe).  Part of Entropy Driven is the Cirque du Deeskay (AKA the Dapper Cat Carnival), but specifically the iteration of it started in 2009 by Vladimir (yes, I have a back story; yes, it's longer than it needs to be; yes, it's not finished).  And in his travels, Vladimir and his assistant Meryl White pick up the usual assortment of carnival performers, rousties, workers, barkers and freaks.  Of course I had drawn a bunch of them before I wrote anything, but they still fit into this grander Entropy Driven universe.

Marie and Annette

Marie and Annette Jackson are thoraco-omphalopagus twins and are a lesson about listening to Evelyn Evelyn when designing a circus.
I love you so much Amanda Palmer...you too, Jason Webley.
Always having had a soft spot for divided characters (I blame you, Gargoyles)and knowing no respectable carnival goes without conjoined twins...this happened.  

Marie is the boisterous, she likes her music loud and BRUTAL and is fiercely defensive of Annette.  She prefers boots to shoes (because her leg is slightly shorter than the other two) and keeps her hair long and natural. Annette  really likes to jam out to symphonic stuff, ranging from techno-breakbeat to Nightwish.  She loves to experiment with hair colors and styles.  She's always been shy and usually lets Marie do the bulk of the talking.  They're brunettes but Annette has been dying her hair red for a while and they tend to disagree on which direction to go when asked.

Next time: Melisandra the sword swallower.

Oops.

NSFW lolololol

What, I gotta have a reason for everything?

Shun!

I love drawing monsters.  And I love absurdest literature.  So, Alice's adventures in wonderland is one of my favorite things ever.  Specifically, the Jabberwocky.  It is awesome.

Snickersnack

 This illustration was done by a gentleman named John Tenniel and is exceptional, at least for me, because he's wearing a vest.  HILARIOUS.

It also has the mention of two other creatures that have been embellished by other artists (who I totally stalk on twitter):  The jubjub bird and the bandersnatch.  Carol was always vague as to what these looked like.  So, I took a stab at the frumonious bandersnatch.

Shun the frumonious bandersnatch!

Because somehow the word "frumonious" makes me think poisonous.

Now, some may know, I work two jobs (have for almost a year) and one of them is at night at a school for medical and dental assistants.  People who aren't clever enough to be dentists or nurses.

They have, two or three times a year, a national phlebotomy (blood drawing) exam.  

I have to baby sit for it.

On a Saturday.

For regular pay.

It is one of many facts I hate the job.
BUT THEN I DREW THE JUBJUB BIRD AND EVERYTHING WAS OK!

I so loved the little detail of the Jabberwocky wearing a vest that Edwardian fashion came into my jubjub and bandersnatch.  The bandersnatch is wearing a bowler, the jubjub bird has a monocle and spats.
Spats=classy, it is a scientific fact.

The Rose West.

Wow, it sure has been a while.

How have you been?

I've been very busy, you know, after you MURDERED ME.

Wait, I'm not GLaDOS, or was murdered.  I've been holding down the two job thing, working on puppets and some comic stuff and what not.

ANYWAY: Here's some Rose West work I did.  Rose West being the Roommates' band.

They're some sort of prog-rock, with some metal kind of thrown in.  Any fan of 3, Coheed and Cambria, or Dear Hunter would like them.

Here's the map for the world.

Third Earth.

And one of the things I want to do is a bunch of propaganda-style posters with some of the story-elements.  Mostly because post-war propoganda posters rock my world.

HONOR AND GLORY TO THE LEFTLORD.

That's all for now, but soon, very soon, lots and lots of sketches.  And by soon, I mean every few days.

DECAPITAAATIOOON!

So, the convention was last weekend.  And I've been trollin' the interwebs since Monday morning in desperation.  I have finally FINALLY been shown a photo from the con of my hard work.  The wonderful DSK has found a photo of my axe being wielded by Robare.

Show'em your METAL face!

The mighty Separator in all it's bloody glory.

The original photo can be found here, along with a hundred thousand or so other photos from the convention.  I plan on trollin' the interblags more for photos of my hard work.  So hopefully, there will be more.

Coming soon

Alright, the axe is almost done now.

The next chunk of work for Comic-con is all detail work and the dagger for the axe-man's girlfriend who's going to dress as Ophelia.  Since I had half a brain for this one, I'll be getting lots of process shots so I can step-by-step this bad-mother.

Fun fact: you can get a giant axe and a short sword out of the same ethafoam sheet.

Been a long time.

It's been a while, and I promised more axe photos and such.  While lacking pictures of its current state of completion, I do have a decent spread of build shots.

I document my process, and no one is surprised!

Step one.

First I drew out a pattern and prepared the world for an axe made of such RAW AND BRUTAL METAL.  I had a bunch of reference shots from around the internets.  It's a surprisingly (not really) huge axe.

Fleshing out the pattern, the ruler (for scale) is 18 inches.

Step two.

Step two: cutting the roughs out of ethafoam (soft, sort of spongy, but reasonably sturdy foam).  The handle is PVC.  Now, the problem I'm going to have at this point is painting the thing.  Ethafoam is a smooth closed cell foam and takes paint poorly.

Step 3.

Ahh, now we're getting somewhere.  More carving and cutting.  The blades as well as center spike have been shaped and the center fit to the PVC.  Next, I have to begin attaching it, more detailing and preparing the handle.

Step 4.

Oh, look.  Attachment!  The blades are supported and attached with aluminum flat-stock.  This was it's got some sturdiness.  At this point, I had found better reference material, and Michael of Puppet Kitchen gave me the advice to use charcoal foam for the top.  So, that whole top had to go.

Safety tip, kids, always be careful when you carve INTO foam to insert your support rods or flat stock.

Fuckin'...ow...

Moving on!

Step 5.

It's starting to come together now.  The detailing on the blades was a pain and I neglected to use a pattern (always make a pattern, kids) which meant each one is a little different.  They aluminum also gave me some problems where it angled and popped through the foam where it had been carved out for flames.  OH, WOE IS ME.

Damn, what a sweet axe.

And now some detail!

Step 6.  Also: huge dork.

After problem solving adhesives and carving down the charcoal foam (and making a new, accurate top), the thing's really coming together.  Yeah, I'm a huge dork.  Oh, and I gave it a stupid little face because we had a spare tongue lying around.

Ppptthhhbbbb.

...Well, it IS a puppet studio.  We're professional five-year-olds...

"Stab!  Stab-stab!  I have a traumatic past!"---Carl.

And a HUGE thanks to the Puppet Kitchen for putting up with me and letting me use the space while they're between gigs!  Michael, Emily, Eric, you guys ROCK!

Stab stab-stab.

me.
More to come...

[Begin Message]
[Main Body/]
I've been working on a commissioned axe. The Separator from the game Br?tal Legend. It's ridiculous and huge and aweso

Der Großmann-more sightings.

Besides moving to a new place, I've been stuck in the archives for two weeks.  Almost literally, there was a very confusing intradimensional rift that kept turning me around in circles.  Fortunately, I'm always prepared for such an event...I carry a crowbar.

But, while I was back there, I found a couple more note books filled with the mad hand of others who had searched beyond the veil and found only terror, or at least found something that turned their hand writing to chicken scratch.

Most of the writing I found looks like it was done in the wrong hand and in the dark.  Then smudged and buried in soft peat.  But I did find some photos.

Not creepy at all...

 This one is easier to spot than others.  I think it was done on purpose, but since the journal looks like it was in the mud and rain for a few days, no way of telling where or why the photo was snapped.  The photo was in better condition, disturbingly so given the quality of its accompanying notes. 

Outlined terror for your benefit.

I would take a guess that this one was of the stairway, and the Slenderman was just in the background, lurking.  There were several other photos of similar woods, but no sign of Slendie.

Another one that's hard to spot.  This time, this was tucked in a history book from 1965.  No names in the book, and two (maybe three) 'USED' stickers on it.  My guess is that this was being carried by who owned the book exactly because it was OF Slenderman.  Dr. Jones will have no part of Slenderman and refuses to even say his name.  Obviously, this is something I need to dig into more.

Now with more contrast!

...And outlined.

I sure hope it leads to a glimpse of the unspeakable madness beyond the veil of the stars.

Sketch book: More ESS members.

Look, more members!

Rather, new sketches of ESS members.

This is Krystal, "Zaku" and Ali W.

This is Rushstone the gargoyle.  Dr. Jones brought him back on a trip to Scotland a year or so ago.

He's nice, in a curmudgeon kind of way and likes to talk about how things were "back in his day."

Sketch book: random

Last week, the Puppet Kitchen finished a six week build on Master Peter's Puppet Show for the Castleton Festival in Virginia.  I, sadly, was not going on the road with the show.  But it means I do have some time in the day to play video games get work done.  

So, here's a sketchbook page from when I was reading The Tempest:

And this one has a story attached to it:

 You see, Emily (of the Puppet Kitchen) had a friend who was working on a film.  his job was being the Walken Wrangler during a shoot in Central Park.  Which is exactly what it sounds like.  He kept Christopher Walken in line.  So, lunch was called, and Walken opens the door to his trailer, dressed in only shoes and a bathrobe:  "Get the car.  I have to shit."

"Mr. Walken, the toilets are right over-"

"No.  I don't shit in the park.  Get.  The.  Car."

The car was retrieved, Walken gets in and they begin to drive.  Passing one of the fountains, Walken calls for a stop.  He gets out of the car, walks into the fountain, hikes up his robe, and slowly lowers himself into the water.  Right up to his nose.  And then just sits there.

"Mr. Walken?  Sir?  Sir!?  Mr. Walken?  Chris?  Please don't poop in the fountain!  Mr. Walken!?"  Naturally, when your job is only to keep Christopher Walken from being fucking insane, something like this puts the fear of unemployment in your mind.

Twenty minutes later: Walken gets up, steps out of the fountain, streaming water, calm as you please.

"Alright.  Now let's go.  I gotta find a toilet."

"But...Mr. Walken, you just spend all of lunch in the fountain shitting."

"No!  I told you before; I don't shit in the park.  For lunch, I was a turtle."

Seriously.  This happened.

I live.

Yeah, I'm alive again.  It's been sort of rough being me the past few weeks.  I'm working in a puppet studio called The Puppet Kitchen baking puppets before I go to my strength-sapping night job.

IN THE MEANWHILE:

1.  I'm going to start working more on the ESS related comics.  At work.  Being a bad worker.
2.  Mr. Tep wanted me to alert the masses that he is on Twitter and the downfall of man should be any day now he's quite pleased with it.  So, Mr. Tep will be updating that and I'll try to get a Twitter page or something.
3.  I'm gonna be working on small hand-crafted bits and bobs related to some of the blog posts and selling them on N. Tep Enterprises' Etsy page.  So to share: here's a prototype for the Bad-luck Dæmons that will be up there soon enough.  It's about two inches long.

That's all for now.  Sorry, all two of you who check this, that posts have been sporadic.  Myself and Ali W. have been busy with the ESS, jobs, life in general and an underwhelming supply of cider.

Scotland.

Wow, that took a while.
We had an outbreak of pixies in the library and were a bit tied up with that.
Here're the Scotland photos I promised:

Fleshmarket Close

This was our first stop. Mr. Tep insisted that we walk through Fleshmarket Close upon our arrival. I checked with Dr. Jones on that one, he said it was probably a good idea. Edinburgh worries me a little.

World's End Close

We check out World's End Close too, it was were the city's boundary used to be when it was walled and medieval. It was neat, and have a good pub, but no leads as far as Vladimir and Kraus.

Foundation of a workshop.

We had a Scottish ESS member meet us at the World's End Tavern and exchanged info. he told us a good place to look right near Flesh Market Close. It was were the Scottish ESS records placed a Vladimir and Kraus workshop. Apparently, it was destroyed when some machine of theirs backfired...

Sir Walter Scott Memorial

Ahh, the giant Gothic Sir Walter Scott memorial. We climbed this the first day in Scotland. It was great for getting a look around. It was also one of the things E had to do for Mr. Tep. Yeah, None of us got it either.

Tombs, also sandwiches.

I just thought it was cool they turned a sepulcher into a cafe.

Nerd.

Irik HAD to. HAD. TO. Stop to get this photo. See, there's a show called Doctor Who, BBC sci-fi. Main character flies around time and space in a big blue police phone box. So, yeah. He had to.

Also a nerd.

And the E had to get in on the action. Part of his assignment fro Mr.Tep was trying to find doors to Edinburgh Below. There was so much disappointment when the door to the blue box was locked.

On the Old Man of Storr.

Let me break it down for you: It rains in Scotland. All the time.
Irik and E decided we should try and truck up to the Old Man of Storr through this creepy forest. It started pouring buckets the second we passed through the first bit of forest. We got soaked. I punched Irik.

Arthur's Seat.

And the last day in Edinburgh. We trucked up Arthur's Seat, a mountain by the Queen's Scottish palace. Dr. Jones and Mr. Tep insisted there was something worthwhile on the top. I found a cool rock, that was about it.

Jolly old England.

Back in November, Dr. Jones left E, Irik and myself a not to go to London and find out what we could about two figures of the ESS's history (Vladimir and Kraus of Her Majesty's Royal Eliminators of the Loathsome Undead). They were, at the very least, pioneers in steam-technology and superfluous machines. Such as the automated back-worn tea, toast and hair-cutting apparatus. Most of their devices have been lost or destroyed (or self-destructed) but the originals are in the London ESS archives. I'll shoot some e-mails off and see if I can get copies. Dr. Jones, because he's Dr. Jones, left us about $40 and a single bent pound.
Because E is an indentured servant and Mr. Tep felt generous, and had an ulterior motive, as he always does, he funded the trip for the three of us.SO TO ENGLAND WE WENT!

We bummed it in hostels and B&Bs as we investigated. There's a British ESS branch, they helped us on our way. Our first place to look was in London itself. A pub called The Strutton Arms. V&K lived near Westminster on Greycoat Place.

The Strutton Arms Tavern

This pub was right in their neighborhood, and down the block from Westminster Abby, which is only a short ways from Buckingham Palace.

The first of many pints.
When all that The Strutton Arms yielded was a few pints of delicious cider, we moved on.
Our next spot of interest was Greycoat Hospital.
Greycoat Hospital.
We were allowed to search through some of the records, but not take photos (bastards). We got as far back as 1870, which gave us limited information on V&K. We got an address, 2739 Greycoat Place, which we could not find, at least not in current London.
When all else fails: go to pub.
So, we found nothing in London. Although, I got a picture of a faerie door.
Next up: SCOTLAND.

Some news.

Irik, get down from there!

Sorry for the lack of updating, internets. But there's good news on the horizon.

E's sent word that the extensive ESS business trip is almost over, and that it went well.

I've been working my butt of on about a million research projects here in the city and have a few photos to show. Dr. Jones sent a postcard from Taipai and some interesting notes regarding a spirit there. Well, the post card is months old, but whatever...

I ran out of words, have a flat squirrel.

[Begin message]
[Main body\]
It would seem as though it is May again. And also a most auspicious day. Happy Towel Day, internets. It's time to hitchhike the galaxy yet again.
[//Main body]
[Message ends.]

[Begin message]
[Main body\]
Merry met, dear readers. Things are progressing with acceptable delays and chaos. Ali W. informs me that she has been busy wih ESS work and mentioned something about a stone tablet from Mu. Your patience is appreciated.
[//Main body]
[Message ends.]