Canister X – A.P. FuchsWriter, Artist, Creator
Posts showcasing drawings and art.
Axiom-man in Black
Axiom-man in black. Hmmm. I’ve been toying with the idea of introducing a kind of stealth costume into THE AXIOM-MAN SAGA. A uniform he could wearing when he has to really conceal himself at night. Not quite sure as yet where this would fit in the storyline but I think it’s a cool piece anyway so what to share it here. Besides, my Artwork page needed a new piece.
Axiom-man in Black
What’s cool is I also used this image for items in my Merch Shop. Go check it out to see what it was used on.
A.P. Fuchs 2023 Studio Tour
A.P. Fuchs 2023 Studio Tour
Well, here it is: Home sweet home.
It’s definitely not like other writers’ offices with books everywhere and a computer. It’s also not like your traditional artist studio with the smell of paint on the air and lots of brushes and pens laid out.
When I say in my newsletter I work in a bunker, well, you’ll see that I’m not far off.
My studio was originally going to be a basement bathroom but the previous owners of the house didn’t finish it. They got as far as framing it and marking out on the cement floor what goes where (i.e. the tub here, the toilet there, etc). So, I went out and got a roll of carpet, cut it to size, put it down, then put all my equipment where I wanted it to be. What I forgot to mention in the video is the computer desk I’m using I’ve had since I was about 5 or 6. It’s small, but I’ve made it work and the room is too small to put in something new from IKEA or wherever. Besides, one of the drawers has a sticker on it one of my kids put on it when they were toddlers. Yeah, I’m sentimental like that.
Anyway, this is it, the A.P. Fuchs 2023 Studio Tour. This is where I produce my books and comics and make sure they get out to you.
Hope you dig my little nerd’s nest.
Welcome to the real-life Realm of Heroes and Monsters!
As always, don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel, especially with the Realm of Heroes and Monsters: Story Time Podcast debuting this Sunday.
Fredrikus Webcomic Announcement.
The other day here on the blog I revealed the real name of one of my code-named projects, which is a webcomic about a cartoon dog I created some 20 years ago in animation school named Fredrikus. In this video, I give a very brief description of the premise. More to be revealed in time.
To be notified of when Fredrikus debuts, please visit http://www.fredrikus.com and bookmark the site.
Also be sure to subscribe to the channel to be notified of all the latest videos. Thanks.
An Elaboration of 2020 and a Career Shift.
After years of putting it off, I’m stepping down from being solely an author. “Solely” being the operative word. The book publishing industry rewarded me in the ways I needed, taught me the things I wanted to learn, and helped me meet the types of people I wanted to meet, both creator and reader alike. And while true that since I’ve been back from being ill, I’ve taken on the mantle of writer/artist instead of just writer, I thought it’d be a fair thing to tell you what the current road map looks like career-wise so I don’t accidentally mislead you.
This is the general plan:
2020 is a year of rebuilding hence Project Rebuild. Throughout the course of the year–with the very end of the year being the ideal-but-flexible deadline–I’ll be bringing my book list into the 21st century and will release a new thing or two along the way. And it will take the whole year or potentially more because I have a lot of titles and all this takes time.
Going forward in 2021, I have a few books that are done that need releasing so those will be tended to as well as finishing off some works-in-progress to wrap them up.
While the above two are occuring, I’ll be spending most of my time and energy devoted to making comics. Comics are what started me on the publishing path and are a great love of mine. In short, writing books will be a secondary thing compared to the comics.
All I want to do is finish the last bit of my book publishing life and make comics going forward.
For Axiom-man fans, don’t worry. Lots of prose adventures coming. I’m referring to my non-superhero work.
I also need to point out something to my readers that needs to be taken into consideration: I’m still sick. I’m much better than before, but even when I started up again at the end of last August, I was operating at around 65-70% capacity. Going hard at 1000mph has dropped me to about 50% on a good day, 40-45% on every other day. Each day I come to the keyboard, I’m not healthy on multiple levels, but I work anyway because making art and stories is what I do and it’s what helps me survive. All I’m saying is I’m changing things on various levels so I don’t keel over and die one day in the middle of a script or while drawing something. It is also important to point out that my shift to comics isn’t about accommodating for being unwell. It’s about looking ahead to my deathbed when I’m lying there and looking back. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t do comics and since time is the most valuable thing on this earth, I want to spend it doing something I love.
Thank you.
Superhero author and creator J.L. MacDonald recently commissioned me to draw her superheroine, Nightcat.
Here she is in glorious black and white!
The image was created with pencil and ink with Copic marker gray toning. She was a blast to draw.
For more Nightcat by J.L. MacDonald, visit Nightcat directly on the Web by going here.
To read Nightcat short stories with other fantastic superheroes, read Metahumans vs The Undead and Metahumans vs Werewolves.
If you’d like to commission me to draw your hero (or anything else), please see my artwork page for rates and samples. If your type of project isn’t listed in the standard drawing/fee schedule, inquire anyway and I’m sure we can work something out.
Thanks.
The Daily Schedule of a Writer/Artist
It’s been a long while since I wrote the daily schedule of a writer/artist (me, in this case). It might have been in one of the newsletters I sent out in the fall that I last talked about it. Might have been on the blog though I’m leaning toward the former. Anyway, regardless, a new layout of the schedule is probably due so here is what a typical day looks like for me at Axiom-man Central. Of course, like in any life, things happen that can throw a wrench into the following general workday. However, I stick to this schedule as the backbone of my whole operation and make time for it as able on days that get screwy. I’ve long advocated a schedule for creators as one of the important ingredients to making a successful career out of the arts.
Monday to Friday:
Wake up – Lately it’s been averaging between 8:30 and 9:30am. Next, roll around in bed for a short while to let the brain come online before checking the news.
Coffee – Go down to the bunker and turn the computer on. Go back up to the main level and get coffee while the computer is loading (older machine so takes a bit to warm up).
Patreon – On a day a Patreon post is scheduled, I do this first and get it done for my patrons. For example, today was the latest chapter of Gigantigator Death Machine so that was posted before writing this entry. Market Patreon entry.
Blog – Skip previous step if a non-Patreon day. Write and/or edit blog entry. Take any required picture(s) and post. Market blog entry and set up in the broadcaster a couple of extra notices about the latest entry to air throughout the day on the social feeds.
Break – Maybe around 15 or 20 minutes. Used to change mental gears. On the break I’ll either read something or play a game or fiddle with something around the house.
Email – Check email and respond, if needed/able to.
Work – Writing, drawing, editing, freelancing, book production, marketing, etc. Could be all of those or just one of them. Depends what’s on deadline and what isn’t. Work until 4 with a couple breaks thrown in there between tasks to rest the eyes and/or hands and get blood moving throughout the system. I’ve been trying to give careful attention to lunch because I get so wrapped up working I forget to eat then around 2 I start to feel real sick. A bad habit I’m working on. Back to the job: Pressing work is in my day planner so I consult it every morning so I know if I’ve set the day aside for something(s) specific. Whatever the day planner says I’m doing is priority one for the day. If the day planner shows the day as open, then I work on the next thing due. If things are due more or less around the same time, then I pick whatever I’m leaning toward at that moment.
End of day – Around 4pm. Start shutting things down; possibly do a couple small tasks that had to wait until the end of the work day for whatever reason (i.e. a quick marketing thing or a phone call or whatever).
Evening – Cooking is my thing so after the work day is done, I put on my chef’s hat and start thinking about what I want to make for dinner. This involves scoping out the deep freeze and scanning the pantry for ideas (though I usually start getting ideas mid-afternoonish). Then I cook dinner and let the day’s issues–if there are any–melt away. Once dinner is done, the evening is mine to do whatever with whomever (I usually hang out with author Melinda Marshall and this ranges from playing games to reading to TV to going for groceries, etc). On other nights, Melinda and I hang out with my boys.
Bed – 10pm or thereabouts.
Saturday:
Wake up – Somewhere between 9:30 and close to 11am.
Coffee – Enjoy a cup of coffee with Melinda.
Newsletter – Head down to the bunker to send Saturday’s newsletter.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday are days off, and it typically takes until late Saturday afternoon for me to put the week in my back pocket. Saturday evening and all of Sunday are used to do next to nothing and purposefully not think about work so my brain can heal from the week and be sharp for the week to come.
And that’s what a typical week looks like here in the Great White North.
To touch on what I said above about this schedule being the backbone on days things don’t go as planned, on such days I still let this overall schedule float in the background of my mind so that when a window of time opens up amidst that particularly goofy day, I can still do what needs doing or at least get a start on those things so the day isn’t a wash.
Right now, this schedule works well and hasn’t changed much since I last talked about it. It will no doubt change somewhere down the line since life isn’t stagnant, but this method works for the time being.
I have a lot to do.
Lots has been done but I still have some fairly large projects that need completion.
At the end of each day, I’m beat.
The frustration: After a full day, I’ve hit my wall. I can’t work anymore. Technically, I could and get by, but I care enough about this stuff to ensure I carry it out to the best of my ability so I honor not only the work but, more importantly, my reader. That said, though I could work a little more or do some task a better way, I know I won’t be at my best therefore run the risk of messing up. Sure, I might still do a solid job overall but if one thing is off, well, I don’t want my reader to be the recipient of that. When you want to work because you enjoy it but you know you can’t is very irritating.
I live and breathe books and comics. This is what I do and who I am. It’s tough when you need to step back even though you know it’s for the best.
A character flaw I’m working on, the flaw being not always knowing when it’s time to step away when it’s a good thing to do that. This applies to both knowing when to call it quits for the day and when it’s time to declare a project done.
Anyone know when the next workaholics meeting is?
I have a full creative plate.
Lots going on, with some projects for clients on the tail-end of completion, Project Rebuild in full swing, and working on other projects both in terms of on-line content and for hardcopy books and comics. While this week seemed full on the onset, the load is already beginning to lighten due to tying up some things yesterday. I figured out on the weekend why things have seemed hectic: Project Rebirth. When Project Rebirth started in the fall, it was a project that had a lot of moving parts and a lot of little tasks associated with it so each day I was doing a plethora of things to get my career running again. Now, and I’m fairly sure I’ve previously mentioned, my workflow is shifting to fewer things in the day because those fewer things take more time. In the end, this switch-up in working is a welcome one because I nearly crashed prior to the Holidays with juggling so many things.
Anyway, adjustments made. Focus change pleasant.
Speaking of focus and zeroing in, today I posted a couple of pages to Patreon of pencils from Secret Project No. 3, showing what these things look like before they’re ever printed in comic book form. Go here to check it out and read past patron-only blog posts, essays, a serial novel, and more.
Not long ago I was commissioned to create a biker logo for Down the Lane by Paul Lafferty. The name of the biker gang in the book is the Royal City Riders.
This is what I came up with after hearing some ideas from Paul:
It’s thrilling when your art is used in a book. In this case, for Down the Lane and its sequel, Down the Lane 2: Brantford.
Please go here to check it out more on Paul Lafferty and Down the Lane.
If you’d like original artwork created for your project, please see my art page.
Thanks.
Some quotes on drawing for Jan1420.
Drawing and making comics was how I stumbled my way into the book industry. It’s a long story and one I’ll be sharing in my upcoming memoir. I’ve made it my goal to draw regularly in 2020 and get back to my comic-making roots. The picture above is from an old sketchbook, circa 1999. At this point in my life, all that mattered in terms of career aim was making comics.
Here are some quotes for my fellow artists to ponder:
“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.” – Beatrix Potter
This is true. I find I’m the most inspired to write or draw when I’ve hit a hard time. It’s a way to deal with what’s going on and get out on paper all that it is making me feel. This has also led to some strange, and sometimes even dark, drawings.
“In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.” – Pablo Picasso
There’s something raw about a first effort. That might go without saying, but a first try carries with it a lot of heart because if one is gung-ho about drawing a specific thing, that passionate thrust carries through into the drawing and makes it come alive in its own way, even if the drawing isn’t that great. A second attempt, as per my experience, seems to lack the same heart as the first and looks flat even if it’s technically correct. This is why I don’t agree with comic makers going back and redoing earlier work or pages. Artistic expression is a journey and there’s something to be said about looking back on earlier work and seeing where you were in that journey and what you were feeling at the time. It’s even better when someone from the outside sees it and knows where you came from and where you presently are at. This applies to early writing work, too.
“Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.” – Leonardo da Vinci
This is true and, admittedly, a weaker area for me. I can do perspective when it comes to inorganic objects, but ensuring your character is 3D takes a lot of practice and is something I’m working on.
In the end, the new 2020 art journey is going to be a good one and I look forward to sharing more art with you when it’s ready. In the meantime, please head on over to my art page to see what’s there.
Lastly, on a side note, a new chapter of Gigantigator Death Machine was uploaded to Patreon this morning. In this chapter, those who are left desperately wish the gator will just plain go away. Head on over and get reading for just a buck. Thanks.
