Date Night (Part 2)

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Please note that both this comic and this blog are available on my new site http://www.twoxtwo.ca and that starting september 1st 2011 I will NO LONGER be using this blogspot account to post material. This is, in fact, likely to be the last post I ever post here. *tear*

So this is the second installment in what I believe will end up being a 5 or six part series. I’m fairly happy with how this turned out. I was drawing this one while sitting next to Sarah, so she was giving me pointers as I drew. I’m a lazy man, so I took the pointers moving forward, but didn’t correct anything already inked (that would just be way to time consuming). As a result, you may notice that Roseanna’s head gets bigger in every frame.

I always ask people permission before rendering them in comic form. Occasionally thereafter I will show them a glimpse of what the comic might look like. In this case I posted the picture on her facebook. I found the exchange most humorous. Now, as you may well know, I am almost completely computer inept, and so I have no idea how to photo capture the screen from facebook and display it here. As you also may well know I am extremely lazy, so I am not about to go on Google and ask how to do the above mentioned action. It just seems like way too much work. So instead you will have to rely on my old friends “Ctrl C” and “Ctrl V”

Jeff Baker posted a photo to Roseanna’s Wall.
Sorry you had a bad day yesterday! Here is a frame from your upcoming debut into the world of comics! Hope it brightens today :)

*
o
Roseanna: Y do I look so angry? and like I hate life?
o
Joshua: i love you and all Jeff but I am married to her and would have had no idea who this was a picture of if I didnt know it was supposed to be her. Skin is too dark and hair looks wrong. Sorry buddy but it needed saying. Love you!
o
Jeff Baker: ‎@Roseanna: you are unimpressed to see us
@Josh: yeah… I never said I was a GOOD artist…
o
Roseanna ‎:O when have I ever been un impressed to see you?! gasp!



So, apparently “Ctrl C” and “Ctrl V” work just fine, lol. I deleted their last names and their photos to protect their anonymity.

Adding new characters always poses the problem of how to make them somewhat recognizable to the person they represent. I thought the black and white ink and paper version of Roseanna was spot on, apparently she lost some likeness in the colouring process. I have a few other characters to send out to people for approval. I hope I do a better job with them that I did with Rose.

I didn’t get anymore comics drawn on my vacation, but I did finish this one and edit the colours a bit. I suppose that is enough. I was more focused on relaxing. It turned out I needed the break more than I had anticipated.

Anyway, I suppose that is all I have for today. I’ve been pretty bad lately about posting blogs that are not comics, but I am trying to get better. I managed to squeak one out on Tuesday. I’m hoping to get back into a MWF routine. Keep me accountable! Send me e-mails of angry comments demanding that I blog. I always give in to peer pressure.

-Jeff

Date Night (Part 1)

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Please note that this comic and blog are also available on my new site http://www.twoxtwo.ca and that starting on September 1st I will be posting exclusively on twoxtwo.ca and will no longer use this blog as a forum.

This is the first in an indeterminate amount of strips in a series I call “Date Night”. I wanted to write these strips after I realized that Sarah and I spend an inordinate amount of time on our dates looking at pictures of our kids that we snapped on our cell phones. It’s also a good way to introduce new characters. Roseanna will be appearing in next weeks comic, which opens the gate to eventually feature her husband Josh, and later in the Date Night series we will meet up with Joel and his wife Lynn. I’ve been meaning to add these characters for a while but the opportunity thus far has not presented itself. My original vision for the comic was to be about parenting, couples relationships, and ministry(two by two, get it?). I’m having trouble coming up with ministry based story lines (except so far for “the power of prayer”) mainly because the things I find funny about church and ministry others either won’t, or will be offended by… Sooo…. it’s more of a “know your audience” issue right now.

I’m proud of myself for planning ahead. Next weeks comic is currently drawn and sitting in front of me :) So it will be up on time for sure, despite the fact that I will be on vacation in Windsor. I will be using my vacation time to further increase the amount of aheadedness that I am in my comic drawing.

Any way, I must go and do the dad thing. Enjoy!

-Jeff

Essential Fatherhood Skills #1

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Please note that this comic AND this blog are both available on my new site http://www.twoxtwo.ca Starting September 1st I will no longer be posting here and will be exclusively posting on twoxtwo.ca.

My sincere apologies for not getting a comic out on Friday. Sarah hasn’t been feeling well so I’ve been working from home. On top of that I was preparing a sermon for Undignified North, so things just didn’t work out. This is a concept I have been kicking around that I hope to revisit in the future. I plan on having a whole line of “Essential Fatherhood Skills” that will appear sporadically throughout the series.

This comic, like most actually happened. I wasn’t playing Halo though, I was playing Prince of Persia. I think it’s a bit presumptuous of me to assume I would hit a running riot as well (15 consecutive kills without dying). Either way, I was pretty proud of my accomplishment. Both babies were fed and happy to stare at me while I played. They are too old for that now though, any type of TV screen, even one that is off, will distract their attention from whatever they are doing.

I will have another comic up this Friday and then, hopefully, I will resume posting with some frequency and consistency.

See you then!

-Jb

Precious Cargo

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Please Note that both this comic and this blog post are also available on my new site http://www.twoxtwo.ca

As of September 1st I will no longer be using this blogspot account to post in and will ONLY be using http://www.twoxtwo.ca Don't get left behind!

I had accepted a week long speaking engagement at a summer camp in Muskoka (go camp Kwasind! http://www.kwasind.com) Sarah has been going to Kwasind since she was a kid, and I more recently have been involved in ministry as the Assistant Camp Director and Staff Chaplain. We were excited to go back and to start a family tradition of our own for our boys, but our kids are a lot of work; so we asked Sarah’s sisters, Rachel and Leah, if they would come help us as our nannies for the week. It was a fun. Half way through the week I needed to go into town and Leah needed WiFi, so we packed up Eli (Caleb was sleeping so we let him be) and headed into town. Then it happened, after I passed a guy (going a speed my mother in law is comfortable with me driving at ;) ) Leah reminded me that I have precious cargo in the car. I was humbled, until she mentioned that on top of the precious cargo I also had a baby in the car. I almost died laughing. It was at that point that I knew: I would be drawing this episode in a few weeks.

It didn’t happen exactly like that, we were short one baby in real life, and I’ve never got my car up on two wheels (nor do I think an Elantra Touring would make it on two wheels, lol) but never-the-less, an episode in hilarity to be sure. Thanks Leah, for being awesome.

Like I said in my last post; I’m having trouble respecting my own deadlines. I finished this strip yesterday and reaaaally wanted to post it right away, but I’m trying to maintain some iota of professionalism (crappy drawings and infrequent blog posts aside, lol).

Note also that I still can’t draw hands. In Leah’s introduction her hands are conveniently in her pockets, and in the strip only my hands are shown, and only on the wheel (10 and 2 o’clock y’all!) I’m just not a hand guy. I’m more of a face guy. Well, not eyes. Or noses… or lips, I hate lips. Ears are weird too. Okay, so I’m not so much a face guy as I am a perspective guy. …as long as the perspective isn’t an object. Not all objects, just cars, or guns, or swords, or phones… okay I can’t draw objects. But bodily perspective is my specialty. …As long as the perspective doesn’t involve faces or hands…

Okay, so I can’t draw, alright?

…Which begs the question…

…Why do you even come here?

lol

-Jeff

Dream Theory 2

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My new website is up and running! Yes, we have our very own domain name now and a fully functioning website! I still need to tweak some things for better efficiency on the website, but other than that, thunderbirds are go! check it out http://www.twoxtwo.ca I'm posting the comics and blogging there, and come September that will be the exclusive source for the comic. Well, I already blogged over there, and I don't have much else to say, so read it on the website! WOO!

-Jb

Man of the House

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I should start by saying that it's been a few years since I've heard a telemarketer ask for "the man of the house", but the last time I heard it I was mildly offended. Is my wife incapable of making decisions for us? Is she to clouded by her female emotions to make an informed choice? Truth be told, Sarah handles most of our finances anyways as I am terrible at math and budgets. I can do budgets for work and stuff, but when it comes to a personal budget I just lack that ability.

This is one of the few comics I've done that hasn't actually happened. Although, when Sarah did her pregnancy test I was playing Halo, and apparently when she came out of the bathroom her thought was "really? can I handle another one of these?" lol. Jokes on her, we had twins, ha ha. The boys love video games too; they can't play them obviously, what with being only 7 months old at this point. But they love playing with the controller, and they love watching the screen. I've had to stop playing video games when they are in the room because I don't want them exposed to that kind of violence (but I'm okay exposing myself to it? hmmm....)

Great news! Soon this blog will be moving to its very own domain! In the next week or so we should be up and running at twoxtwo.ca I've registered the domain and found a web host, so all I need to do now is design the site and we're good to go. Mind you I'm tech impaired and don't know the first thing about designing websites... I'm sure it will be fine, lol.

Any way, should have gone to bed an hour ago. Hope you enjoyed todays comic! I will post another on Friday and two next week as well to make up for my lack of comics the past few weeks. Ciao!

Sleep Deprivation

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I did it! I can't believe it. Amongst all the craziness that happened this week I still got 2 comics out. I hope you enjoy this one. Next week I will be up at camp so I wont be able to post a comic, but I will post 2 again the week after.

So... yeah... this actually happened. In my defense I don't think I had slept in about 45 hours by this point. The boys were still pretty new and just back from the hospital, so I still didn't know what I was doing (I still don't know what I'm doing, lol). I was able to calm him down by rocking him back and forth, and eventually his bottle warmed up and I could give it to him. ...poor kid...

Exciting news! I am working on shifting this operation to an actual domain name! this way I will have a little more control over how the site looks and the different features that are available on it. I will keep you posted as development happens, and I hope to have it up and running in the fall.

Well, I have another busy day today so I will leave you with that!

grace and peace,
Jb