kory bingaman dot com!

Max Riffner is Awesome

2008-09-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

I just got a really nice review of Skin Deep from my friend Max Riffner. It's super nice. HE'S super nice. You should check out his comics.

Maybe I'll start a comic review thing here sometime. Lord knows I need to update this thing more often. Update with actual content.

Oreo Skull Truffle Recipe

2008-09-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

My mom taught me how to make these. They might not look like the most perfect things ever, but they are 100% super delicious and super easy to make.

SERIOUSLY IT COULD NOT BE EASIER.

Ingredients
- Package of Oreos
- Package of Cream Cheese
- Package of Almond Bark

Crunch the oreos up like crazy and mix it up with the cream cheese until it's smooth. It doesn't have to be powdered and perfect, but try to get all the big chunks crunched up. Put the bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes so it can harden up a bit.

Melt the Almond Bark in the Microwave. See I told you this thing is easy.

Make the oreo stuff into a ball and dunk it into the almond bark. Don't be afraid to get messy with this. I know I did. It works best if you have one hand reserved for making oreo balls and one hand for dunking.

Decorate with icing. Or not. They're delicious both ways. I tried to dye the almond bark orange and purple, but the food dye reacted strangely to the food coloring and turned it pastey and gross. SO instead I made skulls. ARE THEY NOT CUTE.

Cute and delicious.

Aviator Gremlin Costume!

2008-09-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've finished my Halloween costume! I know it's only early September, but this time I actually have a REASON to finish this thing months in advance. I'm going to be spending the Halloween Week in Vancouver, Canada, with my good friend Sfé, and I have to mail the costume up there as early as possible to make sure that it gets there in time (something tells me that airports wouldn't be to keen on letting me bring horns and stuff onto a plane, and I don't want to deal with the hassle of checking a bag (which costs money now), and praying that it doesn't get mega-crushed during flight.) So I will be mailing most of it.

Anyway on to the pictures. I'm calling it an Airplane Gremlin because it kind of looks like some sort of '40s WWII monster of some sort, but I didn't try too hard to stick with the theme. It's actually loosely based on a sketch of a future Skin Deep character I did a few years ago (see above), and I didn't really want to walk around saying "Well I'm a bandersnatch that's half-human and wearing a costume for a fictional band that I've created for a comic that I'm making." ENOUGH TALKING ON WITH THE COSTUME.

These hoof boots were the whole reason I decided to make this costume to begin with. Briana Barber makes these fantastic hoof-boots that I just fell in love with, and I was able to wrangle a discount on a pair by throwing in an art trade and a cameo in Skin Deep for her harpy character. I provided the boots that I found at Goodwill for supercheap and she modded them for me and sent them back. I wanted to make a Halloween costume with them, and that reminded me of the sketch I did previously, since the gal had hooves in that drawing too.

The hooves are surprisingly comfortable, and are more comfortable than most of the high-heeled boots that I own, funny enough.

Click above photo for bigger version (it gets cut off for some reason). I went on the internet and looked around for parts of the costume. My sister Kate had bought me aviator glasses last year for my birthday, so I already had those. I found ram horns for the hat and springbok horns for the fingers off of eBay, I figured I could buy an aviator hat at any old Halloween/Costume Supply store, and I found an outfit from Folkwear.com that I thought would be a cool '40s-looking outfit (Big Sky Riding Pants and the Armistice Blouse).

I knew about Folkwear from my mother, who loves to sew. When I was in High School we made several Folkwear patterns for a couple different occasions (a Chinese Cheongsam for Prom and an Irish cloak that I never ended up using till college for a different Halloween costume), so I asked her how difficult it would be to get the pants and the shirt and make them. Low and behold, we actually already HAD the Big Sky Riding Pants pattern, because apparently I had wanted to make them years earlier but never got around to them.

I made this sketch after picking the materials that I wanted to make the costume out of. My plan was to use a cheap costume aviator hat and cut holes in it for the horns to go through, and to build a wire armature for the claws so I could slip my fingers out of the springbok horns and they wouldn't flop about or drag the arm off under their dangling weight.

The horns arrived from eBay in great shape! They cost relatively little for what they were and the shape they were in, but they were still the most expensive part of the costume (it was about 90 dollars total for 10 springbok horns and two ram horns, plus shipping and handling).

By the time I took these photos I had already started working on the claws. At this point all I did was sew the rabbit pelts (purchased at Hobby Lobby for about 4 dollars) into tubes and sewn the springbok horns onto the ends in a vaguely hand-shaped pattern. Lookin' good! The ram horns were even bigger than I thought they would be!

I used 20 gauge wire that I picked up at walmart and some pliers to make the armature that goes under the pelts and fastens the claws to my arms. It also keeps the claws from putting all of their weight on the rabbit pelt, since I didn't trust the hide or the thread that I used to sew it on to hold a whole lot of weight.

I also used to velcrow at the palm of my hand and on my forearm to kind of tighten the claws onto my own arm. The velcro didn't work as well as I wanted it to, as I had sewn it all wrong for what I needed to do (I used way too much of it), but it works for keeping the claws on.

The horns! I had tried for weeks to find a decent aviator hat but to no avail. I didn't want to get one off the internet because I wanted to make sure it fit right and was made out of material I could easily cut through. After weeks of not being able to find what I was looking for I suddenly came to the realization that I already had a hat that would work for this. It's my winter hat that I had bought at Target several years ago, and it worked just perfect for this. Instead of cutting it up I used the same wire I used for the arms and made a sort of hat that fit on top of the whole thing. The original hat has buttons and clasps that I used to hold the whole wire thing in place.

Also: I bought some Werewolf Fangs cause hell yeah I want giant fangs. Do they not look fantastic? These worked a lot better than the last time I got fake fangs I tell you what.

My wire secrets revealed!

I liked the way the exposed wires looked on the horns so I didn't try to conceal them. I just hope they come off like "I wanted the wires to be there" and not "I was just too lazy to try and cover these up."

The finished product! At the end of the day I didn't want to make the Armistice Shirt because I (read: my mommy hurrr) had already made the pants and I didn't really wan to shell out 15 bucks for a pattern and then more for fabric and time. SO INSTEAD I found this really swell kid's-size bomber jacket that I think works even better than the armistice shirt would have. Plus it was $1.50 at the Salvation army GO THRIFTING YAY. I also used one of the billions of scarves that I own, and plunked on the goggles and COSTUME IS FINISHED.

New Twitter Sidebar

2008-05-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

I added my twitter feed to the side on the left over there, so I can go months without updating (oops) and you can still find out what I'm up to.

I have a goal to start getting this thing back up again eventually. I promise!

I'm Still a Lousy Updater

2008-03-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll! I still suck at updating this blog! But I just wanted to plug my fiance's writing blog, which can be found at benfrancka.blogspot.com. While you're at it, you can read his first published story, A Coat of Many Feathers, over at the Red Ink journal, check it out check it out. He uses a character from Skin Deep in it. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH ONE?

Worst updater ever

2008-02-14T07:57:00.001-08:00

So I kind of blow at updating this journal. Let's try to keep it together Kory, hmm? The voting on Threadless is over and I got a pretty fair score of 2.8 out of 5. So now it's up to the Threadless Gods to see if my shirt gets printed or not!

I've been chillin' for the past two weeks, takin' a break from my comic and all. I have been doodling though, check out this page of brain explosions.

I wish I could make sketchbook pages that look like this more often. Most of the time they're just ugly pencil drawings that get mushed nearly immediately.

Has anyone ever sold stuff on Amazon.com? I tell you, it is the way to go. I went home last weekend and got all the CDs that had been rotting in a box since I started college five years ago and put them all up for sale. Man it is super easy and you get so much more cash than if you just drop them all off at a CD Warehouse or something. I highly recommend it for anyone who has a bunch of crap they want to get rid of.

It's hard, though, because I am an awful packrat. Someone bought my Magical Mystery Tour CD, and I got it to put into a bag and all the memories I had associated with the album were just screaming "NO DON'T SELL ME." I bought it during the best of my spontaneous road trips I took when I was in High School. We decided to drive to Kansas and it took all day through squirrely backroads to get there. We ended up in an antique mall in Harrisonville, where I bought this album. They had a big double-decker bus advertising a Beatles Tribute Band. I thought it was a neat set of coincidences to be buying the Beatles in a town named Harrison-ville where a Beatles Tribue Band was also performing. We listened to the album through the trip while making up crude lyrics to Penny Lane. It was a good time. I feel a little sad selling the thing, even though I haven't even looked at the CD in five years since I ripped the music to my computer.

2008-01-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

Cross fingers that I win!

Gossypium Snuggidisciform

2008-01-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

I've made a tshirt design for Threadless, and it's currently up for critique! What do you guys think?

Happy New year! I'm Ill!

2008-01-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years Guys! I haven't updated for several weeks, partially because I got real behind with all my work and I'm struggling to catch up, and partially because I got super ill last week (and I'm still ill now!) and it's killing all my project progress. Crap! Crap crap crap! I have a doctor's appointment for Thursday, but knowing my luck I'll probably be just fine by Thursday and have to pay for a doctor's appointment anyway!

I guess the point of this entry is that I am closing off commissions until I get healthy and get caught up with all my work. It's a little ironic for me, actually, because I've always whined about nobody wanting to commission me and then as soon as the new year started I got several offers, but now I don't have the time to do it! How sucky is that? My Etsy Shop is STILL OPEN, however, and I sell cheap simple commissions through that, so if you're just dying for something from me and can't wait till I'm sane enough to open up proper commissions, well there's your solution!

Mythical Creature of the Day: Halcyon

2007-12-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

The Halcyon is a type of kingfisher that lays its eggs on the beach in winter. During this time when they are laying and hatching their eggs, they charm the winds to make the seas calm and the weather pleasant. This period of unusual calm and pleasant weather is referred to as the "Halcyon Days" and is where the phrase originated.

Mythical Creature of the Day: Musimon

2007-12-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

The musimon is a goat that also has ram horns, for a total of four horns. In heraldry it is used to symbolize an authority who leads with strength. Sometimes it is called a "tityrus" or "tytron". I think it looks like the Loughton Ram from Matthew Barney's Cremaster 4. But of course, I usually associate everything with at least one of the Cremaster cycles, so this is not surprising. You know what's hard to find on the internet? An image of the Loughton Ram from Cremaster 4. No foolin.

Mythical Creature of the Day

2007-12-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

The Mantygre, also called the Man Tiger, Lympago, Satyral, or Montegre, had the body of a tiger and the face of an old man with horns. Easily confused with the Manticore, this animal was used mostly in medieval heraldry.

I found a new mythical creatures website that boasts many of those cool old engravings of mythical creatures that i love so very much. I may do a Critter of the Day post to illustrate my favorite obscure critters.

Updates!

2007-12-23T13:35:00.001-08:00

I've been pretty bad at keeping this blog up-to-date. I'm going to try to fix that. I have a livejournal for my more personal day-to-day crap, but I'd like to use this more for public musings, music reviews, movie reviews, etc etc. So let's get started!

That's right, Patrick Stewart! My wonderful boyfriend Benjamin proposed a few days ago! I'm engaged now! I know! Holy crap! Want to see the ring?

It's a blue sapphire set next to two antique diamonds in a platinum art deco band. Does this boy know me or what? It's a good thing I said yes, amirite? Man I love this ring. LOOK AT IT. Seriously. Man. Just don't ask me when the wedding is. I do not want to think about that yet, hah.

On the Art Front: I've changed the way I draw Skin Deep, and now it's almost entirely digital. I still sketch the pages onto paper and scan them in, but now I'm inking digitally as well as coloring digitally. Does this not look great? I was thinking of maybe making a tutorial or something, since so many people ask me how I color Skin deep.

Inspired by my mother's issues of Readymade and Craft magazines, I bought some Russian Nesting Dolls, which I'm planning to paint as various mythical creatures. WILL THAT NOT BE FUN? That will be lots of fun.

Internet Crap
I just joined Twitter, since that's what all the cool kids are doing. So if you want to know all the minutia of my life well then check it out!.

I'm also super addicted to www.ffffound.com. Have you guys seen this? Oh my god it is amazing. You can find things like this:

Sesame Street is Too Hardcore

2007-12-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently Sesame Street isn't for children anymore

Now this is just dumb.

Paprika and Oedipus

2007-12-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not know, I have a fondness for the Grecian Sphinx, so much so that one is the main character of my webcomic. I've fought with drawing her for years because of her bizarre anatomy, and recently I've had trouble trying to draw her in flight because I felt that I draw her wings too small to support her. So when my boyfriend Ben and I decided to rent the weird anime Paprika last night imagine my surprise when this scene popped up in the movie.

Open for Business!

2007-11-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll! Just in time for the holidays, I set up an Etsy Shop! I'm selling tiny adorable little prints of individual Bestiary letters. You can buy as many as you want! The whole set if you so wish! They're super cheap and super adorable! Why not get your friend their initials spelled out in obscure mythical creatures? THEY'LL THINK YOU'RE SUPER AWESOME INDEED.

A Page full of Letters for 7 bucks!
Buy One Card for 5 dollars!
Buy Two Cards for 8 dollars!
Buy Three Cards for 12 dollars!
BUY THE WHOLE SHEBANG FOR 25 SMACKERS.

GUYS SERIOUSLY. This is a great deal. They make super swell gifts. I DON'T THINK THE PHOTOS ACCURATELY SHOW HOW ADORABLE THESE THINGS ARE.

Buy a bajillion of them. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

I KNOW SUPER ADORABLE.

The Official Beatles Coloring Book

2007-10-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

My grandmother, Nan Pollard, used illustrate coloring and children's books. She's done hundreds of the things, ranging from the Berenstien Bears coloring books to Planet of the Apes to Grizzly Adams to Lassie to Trolls, and my mother has a copy of nearly all of them in our house. One of the few that we didn't manage to have, however, is the Official Beatles Coloring Book. They made it in 1964, at the absolute height of Beatlemania. My mother was 15, and when she found out that while her parents were working on an official piece of merchandise for her beloved band, they could not manage to score her tickets to see them live in Chicago, so she locked herself in her room and cried for days. I love that story.

A few years back someone linked me a tshirt they found on Threadless, thinking that I would like it. The shirt had been stirring up some controversy because people were accusing the artists of tracing their design off of a Japanese Artist, but it's actually from a page of this coloring book! Nobody believed me when I told them that.

Yesterday a package arrived from my uncle Paul, and inside was a wonderful birthday present: A copy of the Beatles coloring book intact, with no pages missing or colored in. This is very hard to find, and I have been looking for a very long time for this. There are over 100 illustrations in this thing. I had it in my head that I would scan and post downloadable copies of every page so you could have your very own Beatles coloring book to enjoy, since I've always had a bear of a time finding scans of it online. The book is too old, however, to risk cracking the spine on every page to get it to lie flat enough to scan. I managed to scan a number of them in for you, however. So enjoy this wonderful little piece of greatness. Click on an image to get a large very printable version to color!

The Peculiars

2007-10-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Sheana turned 23 yesterday, so I made her this poster. It's The Peculiars, a group of characters from her upcoming webcomic, Team D.U.D.E, WHICH SHE NEEDS TO START SOMETIME C'MON SHEANA. I'm excited for it. Anyway I'm super happy with how this came out SO I THOUGHT I'D SHOW IT OFF.

Happy birthday, fartface.

Jeezy Creezy

2007-09-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I do in fact draw things that aren't cartoon versions of myself or monster people..

Sometimes I draw British transvestite comedians!

I need to see Across the Universe so bad. Its not playing anywhere around here and this gives me an eternal sadface. I did some schlub design work for it for my uncle, and I'm super curious to know if any of it made it in the film or not, you know?

Too Much Free Time!

2007-09-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

More found here!

Skin Deep Issue Four!

2007-09-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hey cats and kittens! It's that time again! Time for another exciting issue of Skin Deep to start! This is the biggest issue yet, weighing in at a gigantic thirty-five pages! I know! Wow! I almost forgot how much I loved drawing this comic, but three weeks of not drawing it sure made me pine for the days of screwed-up sphinx anatomy and effeminate green-haired gryphons, let me tell you what.

This issue features new locations and new characters as well as a boatload of new information pertaining to the exciting world of Skin Deep and how all ths magic crap works. Isn't that exciting? Aren't you excited? Aren't you just dying to know how ancient illusionary magic works? I know I am! Jim, do you have anything to add to this argument?

Back from Canada!

2007-09-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all you happy people! I just got back from a week-long trip to beautiful Vancouver, Canada, to meet my friend Sophia! It was my first time in Canada and second time out of the Country in my whole life, so that was pretty exciting! I'm super excited that we could go from Internet Friends to Actual Real Friends so easily, and it opens a lot of doors for future traveling. Our new pet project is getting a bunch of people together and going to the San Diego ComiCon next year. Let's cross our fingers that that will work!

Skin Deep: Orientations Part IV starts this Tuesday! It clocks in at an impressive 35 pages long; the longest issue of Skin Deep so far! Only two issues left till the end of the arc! Exciting! Exciting! Stay Tuned!

Skin Deep Guest Week!

2007-08-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! There's only two pages left in this wonderful installment of Skin Deep: Orientations. Isn't that exciting? I'm super excited.

But here's the deal, boys and girls. This issue has been hard on me since I've been an irresponsible comic maker and have been making each page the day before it goes up (typically posting it a few minutes after midnight when the page should appear), and it's taken a pretty big toll on me. So I'd like, if I may, to try to build up a backlog again to kind of ease the pressure of getting the strip up every Tuesday and Thursday, I will be taking a break for two weeks (perhaps three, as I'm going to be in the Great White North aka Canada during this time and one week might not be enough time) in order to try to shore up some backlog.

What does this mean for you?
Well I can't possibly not post anything for those six days you would normally get comic! So I am proposing a Guest Art Week, where my wonderful friends and fans can showcase their talents at drawing my beloved comic book characters.

What's in it for you?
A good question! Everyone who helps me out by donating a guest strip (or even a drawing) will get a Set of Skin Deep stickers, a mini-poster of your choosing, and a larger poster of your choosing mailed to you. For free! Isn't that keen? Isn't that wonderful? Don't you just want to hop out of bed and draw some wonderful guest art right now?

Ya'll have till August 21st to do this! I'll love you all forever! For serious!

Fanart!

2007-08-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have been emailing with the fantastic David Petersen lately (we used to frequent the Hellboy Message board), and today he surprised me with super awesome Skin Deep fanart! Wow! Look at how awesome that is! He's been a big confidence booster for Skin Deep since before I started posting it, so finding this in the mail today was just a wonderful surprise!

Ya'll should check out his book, Mouse Guard!. In stores now!

Stickers!

2007-07-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today I made stickers! Hurray! I may sell these (along with buttons, as soon as I can find the clear plastic button faces! I lost them!

I also made a bunch of mini card versions of my posters. This is fun!

Finished Promo Posters

2007-07-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Finally! All four are finished! Watch for these guys around town, since I'm going to be hanging them up soon!

Portfolio Update!

2007-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

I finally updated the portfolio section of my website. Not the greatest range of my talents at the moment, but at least there's more updated pieces than the last one!

Skin Deep Promo Posters

2007-07-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just one more before I have a poster representing all four of the core characters of Skin Deep.

I've been spending the summer working on my comic! I've joined the Springfield Area Comics Creator Network, and we've been planning an anthology of Ozark folktale-themed stories, planning on coming out around Halloween time. Watch for that!

Site Update!

2007-06-08T19:27:00.001-07:00

I updated Kory Bingaman dot Com today! The portfolio hasn't been updated but that's for another day. Aww, cats, it's my first working flash site! If anybody sees anything wrong with it just let me know!

Commission Prices 2007!

2007-06-07T09:41:00.001-07:00

EDIT JANUARY 15, 2008
I'm currently closed for commisions. Please read this for details.

Hey all, I'm still in the midst of giving my website a much-needed update, so I'll be posting stuff here until it goes up.

I've opened myself up to commissions again, and I would love to draw for you! Check it out! Remember that these prices are estimates, and I will take each commission person by person for the final prices.

You can contact me through a comment here or email me at kory @ korybingaman dot com

Black and White
Photoshop Sketch - $10
Pencil Sketch - $15
Example 1
Example 2
Coloring-Book Styled Inked Lineart - $20
Example
Hatched Linart - $20
Eample

Color
Photoshop Portrait - $25
Example
Flat/Simple Colors - $25
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Shading - $30
Example

Illustrations
Full scenes with backgrounds and character interactions
Black and White - $30+
Grayscale - $40+
Flat Color - $50+
Shaded Color - $60+
Example1
Example 2
Example 3

Character Sheets
Multiple angles of a character with headshots and character details
Simple - $25
Example
Complicated - $40+
Example

Character Blam
Multiple characters put shoved together on a page
Example
Four to Six Characters - $50+
Seven or more Characters - $70+

Buttons
1/4 inch buttons made with a button press. Images are black and white inks or flat colors
One button - $4
Two buttons - $7
Three or more buttons - $2.50 each

Icons
100x100 pixel icons for LiveJournal, Message Boards, DeviantART, or wherever you might use icons. Black and white, grayscale, or flat colors
One icon - $5
Two icons - $8
Three or more icons - $3 each

Prints of My Work
High Quality Print of any of the work I have currently in my deviantart gallery, or any page of Skin Deep or the Bestiary.
8 1/2 x 11 Print - $10
11 x 17 Print - $15

All commissions include a high-res copy of the commission and original lineart and concept sketches mailed to you for keepsies. For $5 extra dollars I can make a button out of your commission and send it along as well.

All prices are subject to negotiation, and these are just estimates of what one would cost. I evaluate each one on an individual basis to come up with a definate price.

Also don't be afraid to email me with questions. Asking me about a commission is not a binding contract to actually BUY a commission.

Fun times? Fun times. I hope I wasn't too scary. I want to work for you!

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

2007-06-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Quick update: I've moved to my new home for the next year or two and I'm getting everything settled in. I'm going to be overhauling everything this summer; website, blog, portfolio and comic, so stay tuned!

It's Been a Good Day

2007-04-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

I think I'm done with these for the time being. I've got to work on my final projects from here on out!

I had a good day yesterday on the art front! I put all my stupid little biographical comics together and made a little series out of them on Webcomics Nation.

Speaking of Webcomics Nation, Skin Deep is featured on their front page at the moment! With a wonderful little review! That's a nice boost to the old ego, I tell you what. I'm just waiting for someone to tell me they hate it because I've gotten nothing but positive comments.

And speaking of awards, my friend Max was just awarded the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics with his wonderful comic, Quick Step! Congrats, Max! That's awesome!

I am not dead!

2007-04-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Woah, I've been quiet around here for awhile, haven't I? Well I'm getting ready to graduate, don't you know, and so I've been quite the busy bee. Here's a few things that have happened to me since I've been gone:

-I made it into Creative Quarterly Magazine yet again! Horay! And this time it's not with a drawing of Greg from my comic book! It's with that painting I did of Pete Townshend a little while back. So great. I get rewarded for being a moronic fangirl.

-I'm a finalist in the Chaumont Student Poster competition. That's exciting! Proving that I can draw a picture of Britney Spear's crotch and get rewarded!

-I'm a finalist for American Illustrators 26. Oh man how cool would that be if I got in for that? I have no idea what finaled for that contest, so it's a tooootal mystery for me.

-I "finished" my final project for my Illustration Practicum class. I put "finished" in quotation marks because they're not 100% finished yet. I still need to tweak them up and polish them to get them ready for the BFA in Design Show on May 4th. I'm doing theatre posters! I kind of love theatre posters. I hope I can get a job doing them.

But enough about that, here's what I've been drawing lately. I'm also getting ready for a website update, so be on the lookout for that!

DJLWABINSOMAAHFHGHW 2007!

2007-03-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

My friend Sophia Morley created a holiday a few years ago called "Disregarding John Lennon Was A Brilliant If Not Slightly Off Man And Appreciating Him For How Gorgeous He Was", or DJLWABINSOMAAHFHGHW for short. Basically it means "Kory gets to draw her favorite rock stars" and cats I will never say no to that.

What's New?

2007-03-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here for awhile! What's been going on, you ask? A lot! It's been a busy busy semester for me, and I'm just constantly working working working!

But I have done a few things! Would you like to see?

First off: I CUT MY HAIR!

I cut 12 inches off! Made a nice donation to Locks of Love, because I never had the opportunity before. Doesn't look half bad for just having my boyfriend Ben lop off the ponytail, does it?

Secondly: Have some art! Works in progress for classes and sketches!

Work in progress for the Design Against Fur campaign.

Work in progress of a magazine spread illustrating a story called The Rose that takes place in ancient Babylon.

Poster about Global Warming. The final piece has different, smaller, text.

I'm working on a coloring book for the wonderful band, Of Montreal! I saw them recently and they are just amazing.

I made that!

I'm also thinking about updating my website soon, so stay tuned for that! Also don't forget to check Skin Deep! New page every Tuesday and Wednesday!

What blog post would be complete without a post to

Orientations Pt II starts today!

2007-02-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

Excitamundo, folks! The second issue of my comic starts today and I couldn't be more thrilled. Mainly because my plan of "just start the damn thing, you'll get better as you go" is coming to fruition. This issue looks a whole lot better than the last one and I think it certainly is more exciting than the last. So if you liked the first issue I'm sure you'll like this one even more! Want a sneak peak?

Seriously. Jim wouldn't lie to you. Check it out at www.skindeepcomic.com!

Michelle Jocasta Turnaround

2007-02-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

I finally had time to do another character sheet, and whaddya know I actually drew Skin Deep's main character this time. I know! Crazy, is it not? I think so. Anyway I love Michelle. Sphinxes seem like a good idea in theory but when you actually try to draw a character that's half human and also a quadruped it gets tricky. Human shoulders and necks just aren't built for that kind of movement. I think the solution I've come up with now is fairly feasable. I mean I think it works.

Issue II of Skin Deep starts this Tuesday! I'm excited! The pages I've been churning out for this issue are considerably better than the last episode, and that makes me feel really good about the evolution of my comicing skillz. I still have a long way to go (oh good grief I cannot draw enough space for text ever).

School is Killing Me!

2007-02-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

School started two weeks ago and it's already the craziest semester of my poor college life! I'm taking my very last Illustration class as well as starting my intermediate design classes so I can graduate in the fall with a BFA in Illustration AND Design rather than just Illustration like I had originally planned. So I've got quite a lot on my plate right now. Want to see what I've been doing?

School started two weeks ago and it's already the craziest semester of my poor college life! I'm taking my very last Illustration class as well as starting my intermediate design classes so I can graduate in the fall with a BFA in Illustration AND Design rather than just Illustration like I had originally planned. So I've got quite a lot on my plate right now. Want to see what I've been doing?

School school school! During my free time I usualy try to steal some time to work on Skin Deep (the first issue of which, by the way, wraps up on Tuesday! As you can tell from the picture, it will start up again on the 20th, yay rah!) but all my other free time is work work work!

Three Years!

2007-01-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

I meant to make this post yesterday but I forgot. Three years ago I started dating this guy. And I still am today! We drove all over town to find a restaraunt that was open despite the ice storm so we could have a fancy dinner. I am firmly under the belief that drink menus should have some sort of size scale put on their drink photographs because I ordered what I thought was a normal-sized daquiri and ended up with a strawberry-rum concoction the size of my skull. It was delicious.

Frozarks '07!

2007-01-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

I was going to take more pictures of the carnage but i forgot and this is the best example of the weather that I can see from my window.

The radio called the ice storm 'Frozarks 07' and it knocked out my power from Friday evening till Monday morning. Also school is cancelled tomorrow! The first day!

Oh winter, you are hilarious.

Also hilarious: Adventure Time by Pen Ward

Edit: I joined ComicSpace today. Check me out, yo.

I Only Drew Meg Because My Friends Told Me To

2007-01-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

I bought a bunch of really cheap wallpaper when I was visiting my sister in Mississippi (I really wish Dirt Cheap had a couple stores around here because seriously that place is awesome. Two bucks a tube? Count me in), so I bought like 7 rolls and decided that I would paint something on them.

Turns out I drew the White Stripes!

I made a skirt!

2006-12-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago I went to a vintage/thrift/second hand store in Columbia and saw a skirt made from old t-shirts. "Now," says I, "I have a lot of huge tshirts that I will never ever wear just sitting in my closet because I don't have the heart to throw them away. I need to make me a skirt."

My mother is a wonderful seamstress and I set out a set of old t-shirts I would never wear but still liked and a couple pairs of pants that no longer fit me and scuttled off back to college for a few months. When I returned my mother had made me a skirt from the tshirts, but it just wasn't quite right. I told her more of what I wanted and sat on my bed coloring the character sheet from the previous post and listening to the London Symphony Orchestra perform the Who's Tommy while she farted around on the sewing machine next to me. "How about this?" she said as she presented me with my new skirt.

The moral of the story is my mother can make just about anything, including figure out what I want from a jumbled mess of words thrown at her.

Speaking of which, she has an Etsy site now!. You should check it out. sherrybingaman.etsy.com.

Anthony Gillis Turnaround

2006-12-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

This is the last 'just for fun' thing I've allowed myself before I really buckle down and work hardcore on Skin Deep issue II. I guess it's not a totally useless drawing, since Anthony is the psuedo-main character of the comic after Orientation. Anthony was created by Sophia Morley, and I just think he's awesome. Perhaps because he's based off a frigate bird. Perhaps because he has feather muttonchops. The world may never know.

Alec Hyde Turnaround

2006-12-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

So I was going to do a bunch of these kinds of drawings for the current characters of Skin Deep, but instead I got sidetracked and started doing secondary characters that show up later because that's how I roll. This is Alec Hyde, a character created for Skin Deep by Sheana Molloy (she's populated like half of the Skin Deep world I swear to god). So this is a taste of the kind of people who show up in the comic book later. Bugbears are like my favorite obscure mythical creatures because they're these gigantic freakin' spooky bears but the only thing they do is frighten runaway children into going back home. Totally harmless yet 100% creepy. Leave it to the English to think of something like that.

School's Out!

2006-12-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

Winter break has officially started here in good old Missouri, so I'll be spending a lot of time working and drawing! My goal is to get the next issue of Skin Deep drawn out. That will be fun. I hope I can stick to my guns.

I posted this over at my deviantart account, but I'm doing dirt cheap sketch commissions for somewhere near 5 bucks a character. That's dirt cheap, ladies and gents. And especially since paypal takes money for every transaction I won't even be getting that whole 5 bucks. AND YET I AM STILL DOING THIS SPECIAL HOLIDAY DEAL. That's Christmas for you. I give and I give because I care.

I usually put pictures up of what I've been drawing lately but I haven't drawn or scanned anything for awhile since it's been finals week and what I have drawn has been pretty lousey, but here's a photograph of my roommate and I in our respective fudd-duddy hats. Hers keeps showing mine up. Jerk.

edit: I went trolling through Webcomics Nation, where my comic is hosted, and discovered that there is a "supernatural/magic" category. That might fit Skin Deep more appropriately (it was originally categorized as 'Fantasy', but it was up with a bunch of Lord of the Rings-esque comics and I don't really think it belongs there), so I moved it there. Plus there's only one other series floating around that category, so who knows, I might get more noticed. Or maybe it really does belong in fantasy. How do you classify a comic about modern day mythical creatures? It's kind of Harry Potter-y. Maybe there should be a Harry Potter-y category.

Jim Finn Turnaround Sheet

2006-12-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

So this is kind of a spoiler to Skin Deep, and I apologize if you're actually one of the few people reading the comic who doesn't actually know anything about the comic.

Today's update is the first appearance of Jim Finn, one of the weirder characters in the comic. Completely unrelated to this fact I've just finished a character turnaround sheet for him, so I thought I upload it for fun. Like extra content or something. It's a ball everyday over here on kory bingaman dot com, folks. I could have added more ages for him like 'angsty teen' and 'high school', but that would be a tad more spoilery than I'm already making this. Also it would make this thing even more ungainly looking. Check out how long that is! Dang!

B is for Bestiary!

2006-12-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start uploading the Bestiary Alphabet to Webcomics Nation along with Skin Deep. I know I'm already up to V with this thing on my DeviantART account, but I thought this would be a fun place to put it as well!

Printmaking Extravaganza Closeups!

2006-12-09T10:33:00.000-08:00

All my final prints from my Printmaking class! And I love each and every one. Fun times, printmaking.

Printmaking Extravaganza!

2006-12-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

I worked for 13 hours straight yesterday finishing up my portfolio for my printmaking class and this is the end result: 5 different prints printed a billion times. I wish I had more time to take more printmaking classes; I think it's great.

H is for Harpy

2006-12-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with Sirens.

G is for Gryphon

2006-12-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking off on updates. It's Finals week!

Machine Man Fanart!

2006-12-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Aaron Stack AKA Machine Man is the best Marvel Superhero ever. Only because he's written a lot like Bender from Futurama in the Nextwave comic. I have a fondness for really lame characters being remade into interesting funny characters. If you don't like him you can bite his valve because he is the hero.

F is for Faun

2006-11-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Fauns are some of my favorite mythical creatures. Maybe because deer are really fun to draw.

E is for Echidna

2006-11-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

Nobody ever knows who this gal is supposed to be. She's always overshadowed by her children.

Off and rolling!

2006-11-26T15:26:00.000-08:00

So it looks like the good folks over at Webcomics Nation are keeping Skin Deep up and rolling like it's supposed to, and that's good news for me! I'll be updating the comic at my deviantART account as well, at least for the first issue. Then it will be exclusively at WCN. Fun stuff.

Max Riffner plugged the comic on his site recently. Don't tell me I wasn't excited about that.

D is for Dragon

2006-11-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

Movin' right along with D is for Dragon, ya'll!

C is for Chimera

2006-11-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

C is for Chimera.

B is for Bugbear!

2006-11-23T10:47:00.001-08:00

B is for Bugbear! One of my favorite obscure mythical creatures. My friend Sheana brought them to my attention and we've expanded their mythology a bit for Skin Deep.

Bestiary Alphabet: A is for Ammut

2006-11-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

A recent assignment in my Illustration class was to make an illustrated alphabet. I did one I call 'Bestiary', and I liked it so much I'm expanding it in individual mythical factoids. I'll upload one a day for 26 days! Learn and Enjoy!

Skin Deep goes live on Turkey Day!

2006-11-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned to www.skindeepcomic.com, because this Thanksgiving my comic project of over 6 years is finally realized with regular updates on Tuesday and Thursday!

I created the premise for Skin Deep back in High School. Before then most of my time was taken up by doodling characters I created over and over and over again. I needed something to do with them, but what? Create a story for them, of course. These weren't normal people, though, they were mythical creatures. How do I explain that? I created a premise and built upon that premise and worked out the logistics of the world I was creating. Questions would come up and I would answer them, expanding the world, creating rules and expanding the characters and their families until I came up with years worth of story and 60 plus developed characters. In 2002 when I was a Junior in High School I made my first attempt at creating a comic involving these characters. I was never happy with the script or confident enough in my drawing or comic-making skills to ever finally start it, however. When I started college in 2003 I decided to try again, but I again hit a wall because I didn't know what I was doing and I was too afraid to step outside my comfort zone. This starting and stopping and working and reworking went on until Christmas of 2005 when I finally decided 'To Hell With It!" and just started it. So what if I don't know what I'm doing! I'll learn!

And the first issue finally goes live on Thanksgiving. It's as much of a learning experience as anything, and I hope all the work and love I've put into it shows through.

I hope you all have as much fun reading it as I had making it!

The first post?

2006-11-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is the official blog for kory bingaman dot com! I'm Kory Bingaman, and you'll see news and updates for both my portfolio site and my comic book project, Skin Deep. Stay tuned for updates!