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July 21st, 2014
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Stew

by Administrator on July 21, 2014 at 1:00 am

This short story at the end of Genesis 25 has always stuck with me. Up until this point, we had not heard much about birthrights, and it seems no one in this account comes out smelling like roses. The parents played favorites, the brothers took sides, and the manipulative younger one (by a few seconds) takes advantage of the less-discerning older one, and not for the last time.

I don’t know how old they were when this took place, but it seems like an impulsive adolescent thing to do. This much I do know, you don’t get in the way of a hungry teenage boy and food of any kind.

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Two for Two (for two)

by Administrator on April 8, 2014 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Blog Posts

tutuTwo strips a week for two years of your two favorite comic dinosaurs. That’s what today marks. April 8, 2014 means there are more than 200 Moth & Ethan strips available for your reading pleasure. Not too shabby. Happy anniversary to us.

That being said, we have some news to share involving a minor change. Don’t get upset. There are plenty more installments headed your way. However they will only be posted once a week.

For the foreseeable future, Moth & Ethan will be uploaded on Mondays. We’ll keep reminding you, so don’t worry.

The objective is to allow Andrew some time to stay ahead of his work schedule, and be able to focus on some other projects that have been sorely neglected. This webcomic is still a priority, and certainly isn’t going away, but hopefully this means that you’ll be seeing some other exciting announcements arriving soon.

Thanks so much to you, the faithful readers, who make Moth & Ethan a part of your day. This past year has seen a dramatic increase in subscribers, comments, and Facebook and Twitter followers. The word is spreading, and it’s because of you! We hope you’ll stick around and continue to share us with your friends and family.

Blessings.

A.R.C.

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Dashing

by Administrator on July 25, 2013 at 9:27 am
Posted In: Blog Posts

It’s official! We finally have a real domain name (at least one that is easier to remember). Tell your friends to look for moth-ethan.com !!

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The Process

by Administrator on May 24, 2013 at 8:00 am
Posted In: Blog Posts

I thought I would take this time to include a brief blog about the process I use to bring you new Moth & Ethan strips every week. Right or wrong, love it or hate it, every artist has a method and technique that they are comfortable with or are constantly honing to produce their craft. This is one of mine:

I use a 11" x 17" 100 lb. Accent Opaque Digital bristol board with a smooth finish.

I buy this in large packs at Arvey or Xpedx.

This laminated template gives me a rough guide for placing the panels.

I made the template so I wouldn’t have to measure every time.

I sketch in the cartoons and concept dialogue with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil.

I don’t usually render the drawings any more than this since the characters are pretty simple and familiar to me.

Inking the cartoons and letters with a variety of pens, including brush markers, Sharpies, Rollerball, and felt-tip pens. And "yes", I ink from right to left since I am left-handed.

Older classic Moth & Ethan strips were inked with brush and India ink. Brush markers, while less sophisticated or opaque, are also not as messy.

Quick clean-up with kneaded artist erasers.

Some artists avoid this kind of clean-up by inking over a light table on a separate sheet, or just inking digitally.

Move from the drawing table to the computer workstation.

I am currently running a new generation Mac Mini, to which I’ve connected a 12″ Wacom Cintiq, and new Brother large-format scanner, both of which are tremendous time-savers.

Scan the inked drawings at 300dpi in Black & White.

Black & White or Greyscale images scan faster and make it easier to adjust the levels.

I crop and rotate the scanned images in Photoshop, then save them as memorable PSD files. The Brightness & Contrast usually has to be adjusted. I also change the flat Background to a Layer and set it to Multiply. After that, I convert the image from Greyscale to RGB, and add two more layers beneath that line layer.

This is also the point where I digitally clean up the inks and fix mistakes or make changes – a common occurrence..

Finally, I add the background and foreground colors on the separate layers, and Merge the Visible Layers together before saving the PNG file at a reasonable screen resolution.

Selection tools, Paint Bucket, and Brushes are all used to fill in the colors. I also have a color palette specifically for Moth & Ethan and a few of the other characters.

That’s about it! Hope you weren’t too bored and I hope it doesn’t take away the “magic”. Feel free to ask more detailed questions via e-mail or in the comments section below.

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Covenant

by Administrator on April 4, 2013 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Blog Posts

Special 1 year Anniversary guest blog post by Connie Chandler

As an English as a New Language (ENL) teacher, it seems obvious that the story of Noah’s Ark is a prime opportunity to introduce 100 new vocabulary words for animals. What went on the boat? Aardvarks, Bats, Centipedes, Zebras, and everything in the middle. With graphic clip art, photos, stuffed animals, and trips to the zoo, the learning possibilities are endless, and by the time class is over, there will be 15 more international people who can list all the species of the animal kingdom in multiple languages! Well, that plan might be a bit grander than reality, but you get the idea.

But as much fun as it could be to teach a lesson on lions, tigers, and bears, that isn’t really the point of Genesis 6, is it? I am so thankful that God chose to protect all the animals from dying in the flood… but I am even more thankful that he spared a family of humans. See, animals are beautiful and interesting and useful and inspiring, but they were not made to walk and talk with God through a garden in the cool of the day. They weren’t the ones he made in his image, for his purpose, to his glory. We are. And as often as humanity has made a mess of things throughout history, God – in his crazy love and mercy – keeps rescuing us, calling us back, and redeeming us.

In Genesis 6:18, God says he will establish his covenant, not with the animals, but with Noah. If Noah trusted God and obeyed him – if he built the ark according to God’s plans and put his family inside – then they would be saved, protected, preserved… they would live. Sound like something else you might have heard? We don’t need an ark, but we do need Jesus, and the power of his death and resurrection. We need to be covered by him and live by his grace to receive forgiveness, salvation, and true life.

God loves the animals with feathers, fins, and four feet, but he didn’t step down from his throne in heaven to put on scales or fur… he put on human flesh and died as a man to save and redeem and restore relationship with you and me.

Read more from Connie at Life is Sweet.

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Outpouring

by Administrator on April 2, 2013 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Blog Posts

Special 1 year Anniversary guest blog post by Kevan Chandler

There have been two floods in the history of man that have covered the whole Earth. Cleansing waters poured out and drenched the world in its darkest hours.

The first came from the sky, rain – a curious thing that no one had ever heard of before. God told a righteous man, Noah, to get ready. Noah built a boat, and was mocked for his vision. What’s rain, anyway? An old wives tale, I say! A bedtime story to scare the kids! Water from the sky? Ridiculous! Next, they’ll say the moon is made of cheese! What’s cheese? But the world was falling apart, sin was rampant, and the Lord said he would fix it. So, fix it, he did. He opened up the heavens and let the rain fall. The earth, they say, even opened up to release geysers, which was new as well. Water was coming from everywhere and it wasn’t slowing down. God filled the world like a bathtub and then drained it – a fresh start, a new world without all that sin. Let’s try again, starting over with good ol’ Noah and his kids. Surely, things will go better this time! But it was only a matter of days before the righteous got carried away with drink, and everything went back to a big mess. And so it went on for a while
longer – a few hundred years, in fact – until word got around that a savior was coming to clean up again and make everything right. And one day, he came.

Jesus of Nazareth showed up and said he was the Son of God. He showed it too, not just in miracles, but in his attitude and wisdom. Some believed and others didn’t. After all, last time God fixed things, he made a much bigger scene, and this Jesus was so meek and mild. If judgement and salvation – if a flood – was to come from a man, it would be a warrior, right? Jesus was no hero, no gladiator. He wasn’t even that handsome. The press didn’t care about this carpenter and his fishermen buddies. But he was who he claimed to be, and he showed the world what it should look like, and it reacted by killing him. And here is the second flood – as we reflect in this Easter season – that when he died, Christ’s side was pierced and there came forth an
outpouring of blood and water. It was in his death that the second, and the final, cleansing flood was poured out upon humanity. Our sins washed away, a chance to start again. No longer dependent on a somewhat righteous man, prone to fall, but it is God himself through whom this new life comes. It’s not just a rinse, but an entirely fresh beginning, and it is good.

Read more from Kevan at Half-Broken Busy.

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