Howard Tayler

@howardtayler

He/Him, Husband to Sandra Tayler, Father of Four, Fully Vaxxed, #mecfs/#LongCovid, howardtayler.com, schlockmercenary.com, writingexcuses.com. This feed is 100% artisanal human me.

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Howard Tayler@howardtayler· 7d

Alt text missing, out of practice...

The last page of a Schlock Mercenary book. There's a sketch of Sergeant Schlock, numbered 063/1200, and a stack of tracking sheets sit next to it.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· 14d

Two of the photos I got.

A bald, bearded man looks over his shoulder at a 9 foot tall Space Marine

A convention booth for Jim Zub, Howard Tayler, Stacy King, and Sandra Tayler.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Jun 8

Today I discovered that there's a Google Gemini button cluttering the bottom of my page when I write in Docs. I also discovered that it can be made to go away.

Gemini Menu in Google Docs. Select "Bottom bar preferences" and then select "Turn off."

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Jun 3

In related news, the printer for FUNCTION OF FIREPOWER just sent us pix of some of the pages, fresh off the press, and asked for our approval to bind them into a book. Why would I say no? We've checked SO MANY THINGS at SO MANY STAGES, this is just a last step to make me nervous again.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Jun 2

(We're just four backers away from the backer-number-of-the-beast!)

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 22

Now they're mad, they're political, and they're werewolves.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 22

Logo is ready.

AVENGOCRATS, in the font face of the MCU "Avengers"

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 22

Thag shroom-trippin' is probably why Thag ended up immortalized...

From THE FAR SIDE: A caveman points at a drawing of the tail of a stegosaur, and, addressing a group of other cavemen, says "Now this end is called the thagomizer... after the late Thag Simmons."

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 21

Tom ka for breakfast! Per the reskeeted thread I used pre- made broth and other front-loaded ingredients to make an amazing cup of fresh, delicious soup.

A cutting board with ingredients around it: cilantro, onion, red bell pepper, and cooked chicken.

A small sauce pan on an induction burner. In the pan: a cup of broth and bits of onion, red bell pepper, and cilantro.

A cute, 18oz soup mug that says "kitty" over a drawing of a kitty. The mug has broth with veggies. It's next to some diced, cooked chicken.

The soup is assembled! The cute kitty mug is now full with the addition of the chicken and the coconut milk. A cute kitty soup spoon is in front of it.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 19

FORKING THE THREAD FOR A CORRECTION: 1 tablespoon of SALT, not sugar.

From THE FAR SIDE, by Gary Larson. On the castle wall a helmeted guy is telling two others "I told you guys to slow down and take it easy or something like this would happen."

Their catapult arm is up, and a third defender has been launched at the enemy.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 19

"Three quarts of soup will not fit in one jar" you say. True. But TWO quarts will, and the rest maybe you eat today with a friend. Which brings us to the NEXT recipe: Daily Single-Serving Tom Ka !

A 2-quart mason jar with a plastic pitcher lid. It's about 2/3rds full of a pale, yellow-brown broth. Next to it is a 1-liter box of coconut milk.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 19

The "Doodling as a Hobby" sketchbook project is pretty close to hitting the "more pages" stretch goal. www.kickstarter.com/projects/how...

A stylized diagram showing that 150% more pages takes the sketchbook project from 32 pages to 80 pages.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 13

I pulled the above photo into the tablet and worked up a properly colorful version to see if the character design works. I think it does, but most of the time the force-field limbs won't be extended. So I guess I need to work up a version without those.

A lanky, mechorganic alien stands on telescoping legs of bubbly force-field. They have spindly little close-to-the-chest arms, and longer, "regular" arms attached in a familiarly humanoid way at the shoulders.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 12

Sixth page of sketches, this mechorganic sophont is coming together nicely. Two eyes, one mouth. Gotta have a face to do comedy.

A rough pencil sketch of a high tech, mechorganic alien. Legs and forearms extend with force fields, and they have a pair of spindly inner arms for grabbing and fiddling with close stuff.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 12

I've been taking a break for a bit, playing NO MAN'S SKY (10 years late to the party). I got a cute little red ball space ship, warped into a system, and realized I had to meme this.

A round red spaceship flies toward a round red space station. The screen shot is captioned:
"Are You My Mother," in the same style as the classic children's book of the same name.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· May 4

I finished (FINALLY!) the bonus story for Book 19, and Sandra sent it off to print over the weekend. Today I'm grinding on stuff for the next book, which Sandra is slipping into the queue *before* book 20 because apparently all my work has been done already (except for some grinding on stuff?)

The upper 1/3rd of the draft cover of DOODLING AS A HOBBY: The Retrospective Sketchbook of an Accidental Career

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Apr 22

"Would you like me to tell how..." is fine, but when I re-read the line I thought I'd left out a pronoun. "Would you like me to tell you how..." would be better. As written the meaning is "Would you like me to describe how" or "Would you like me to tell the story of how" and nope, can't unsee.

A long shot of an orbital city. Two people are speaking.
"Would you like me to tell how we used the Teraport to rebuild a hundred and fifteen cities"
"Not if you can't do it quickly."

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Apr 22

Today I finished the last of the marginalia with a comparison piece. The bonus story has sapient therapods in it, and I started off trying to make them look like the same raptoroid characters introduced in the prologue, but I'm not very good at imitating myself I guess. Hence this piece:

A left/right comparison of two feathered, sapient therapods (roughly "dakotaraptor"-ish). On the left, the new one. On the right, one of the few full-body drawings done back in 2019.

Are they the same guy? Headcanon it however you'd like. I'm saying "yes, same guy, we're seeing him through two very different lenses."

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Apr 22

I fnished the front and back covers, and Sandra ran a test print.

The wraparound cover of A FUNCTION OF FIREPOWER, complete with art, back cover copy, and all that stuff.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Apr 17

Here's a screen-grab.

A wide shot of a carpeted hotel convention space. The words "Mr. Right" are overlaid. Sam Rockwell is all the way at the right side of the screen, having walk-danced his way across the screen.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Apr 1

Mainstream news source told me that Bloosk had an AI feature that lots and lots of people are blocking. Turns out I already blocked it!

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 15

I post WIP stuff from time to time. Here, have a fluffy t. rex roaring at the sky.

Comics illustration: A fluffy tyrannosaur roars at the sky.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 14

The fix went pretty quickly. LEFT: Fethrell Harbor, looking west. Sun-yellow gradient center is above horizon to the left. CENTER: inset panel, ignore. RIGHT: Chixulub ocean view, looking southwest. More purple, more red-orange, & the sun-yellow circular gradient center is below the horizon.

A screen grab of a portion of a WIP comics page. Dialog isn't present. The tops of three panels are shown, and the sky coloring in the left-most and right-most is meant to be representative of two different stages of a sunset.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 14

Here's a crop of the establishing shot (very, very loooong establishing shot) that pins the general location of the story: I could move it up or down the coast a little, but it has to be coastal because a ship of refugees is arriving from the European Archipelago.

A comic-style illustration of North America 66 million years ago. North and South America are not connected, and North America is very nearly bisected by what will eventually become the Mississipi river. A pair of dialog arrows are aimed at a location on the east coast, roughly where DC would be.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 13

Just the one world, but yeah, time to rest.

An illustration of Earth's eastern hemisphere 66mya. India is an island continent, and it is on fire with volcanoes.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 12

My list should be longer, and for a true feel of "what games made me who I am" I think I need entries for some Intellivision titles, Zork, the Xenophobe stand-up arcade game, and a bunch of dopey mobile things I had to learn how to NOT play. my9games.com

A 3x3 grid of video game titles. L to R, top to bottom: Pong, Battlezone, Super Mario 64, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Fable, Skyrim, Fallout 4, ARK: Survival Evolved, The Elder Scrolls Online

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 12

Here's a screen-cap of part of one of the panels. I've turned off some of the foreground elements for clarity. I spent an hour looking for good references of sequoia tree bark, another hour tracing the references until my hands "knew" the texture, and THEN I started in on the actual panel.

A screen-cap of a comic book illustration of an ancient sequoia with a multi-platform, multi-hut tree house in it, along with a couple of sapient raptoroid dinos on the lowest platform.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 11

Still growing! The biggest threat is Milo, who is a plant muncher. The 2nd trellis is there a a shield.

Bean sprouts, about 5cm/2in tall, in an indoor pot.

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 10

If you see this, post an eye 👁️ #art #illustration #darkart #artshare

Howard Tayler@howardtayler· Mar 10

Here's the picture of the grow-lamp I used for my review. It's a very attractive housing, the bulb seems to be making the wee sprouts happy, and it came with an automated timer so I can create day/night cycles without pushing an on/off switch. It's a nifty lamp. It DESERVES a garden, yes?