Episode #2 and From the Dust is goin' retail!

In the Media. From the Dust is getting a lot of attention lately! In addition to Heather Farrell of Women in the Scriptures, Felice, who co-wrote The Gift of Giving Life with Heather and others, posted about From the Dust on their blog!

Also you can read an interesting review of From the Dust by Jeff Needles of The Institute for Mormon Letters (also affiliated with www.LDSBooklovers.com).


TV Interview! I had my first TV interview today with Donnie Morris of Confetti Antiques and Books in Spanish Fork. It will air on local public TV stations and will be up next week on YouTube!

Lastly, here's Episode #2 of my Creator's Commentaries speed paintings!

EPISODE #2: Sariah and Her Land of Inheritance

This episode talks about the land of inheritance and how the kingdom of Judah's geography was much different than what we often imagine the Holy Land as (if you're anything like me, you picture it as a flat, dry, dusty place with few trees, little water, and lots of rocks.) Judah was in fact a mountain country filled with valleys and mountain forests. It was so mountainous, in fact, that they had to terrace the hills in order to farm, just like they do in China and other places in the world.

Learn more and watch the video! (You may want to Subscribe to my YouTube channel as well >> )

Women in the Scriptures

First, watch this video. I made it for my friends that I met at LDSBA Convention in August, Heather and Felice. It is the beginning of a new series of informational speed paintings! This one talks about the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, one of the world's most deadly landscapes. Be sure to watch it in HD!



Now go to this website.   Women in the Scriptures - From the Dust Giveaway

Now read the following:  Special thanks to the women at Women in the Scriptures for putting together such a wonderful article together! If there's one thing I know, it's that women don't get enough credit in the scriptures.

I made the following pieces of artwork for Women in the Scriptures. If you are a follower of theirs (and you should be!) you can use these for your blog buttons on the sidebar.

The challenge is to read the Standard Works focusing on the women in them.

This is a fun badge that Heather had on her website.  It's sized perfect for blog sidebars (200px wide).

If you click on this it will be 2x the size of the others...use it for whatever you want!

Sariah and the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, one of the deadliest deserts in the world.

More artwork coming soon!

Start to Finish!

This digital realm is pretty intimidating. It has so much that you can do! The biggest step for me in the next few weeks and months will be getting acclimatized to producing videos, which is one of the iPad's greatest strengths. To start us off, remember this image from last week?

Original concept, maybe 3 minutes of quick sketching.

I finished it. You can watch the vid, too!

I got some freelance work for the next few weeks, and even though From the Dust has been doing fine financially you can never have too much money! One thing I've learned is that when you are starting out you always take the good opportunities that present themselves to you!

Have fun, y'all! I will try to post another video next week!

Final image: about 5-6 hours.

For those interested, this is a cobra that these archers are riding. The smaller, less athletic Chaldean on top is the driver/reloader for the archer, who obviously gets the best vantage point. Mounted archers are some of ancient warfare's most deadly warriors.

The Babylonian Empire stretched into Persia and across Mespotamia (and ultimately into Egypt as well.) Cobras were a regular danger of the peoples of these lands.

Detours and Course Corrections

Two weeks ago I announced the website's comic story would be updating once a week in countdown for the next comic. However, a lot has happened including the LDSBA Conference, and I'm taking Spider Comics' business model a very different direction -- From the Dust is taking leaps and bounds towards the digital realm, in particular, the iPad. While we will always be publishing print comics, the future of the print industry is tablet devices and their multimedia capabilities.

Any wise business owner will know that when you create a new product you have to craft that product for its distribution medium -- in the last 4 months I've created a beautiful print comic that is being enjoyed by many, but now I'm having to re-envision the entire thing for the iPad.

So far a few of the aspects that the iPad allows me to do:

• have large introductory material and "extras" sections
• not have to worry too much about page counts
• I can now do videos and music
• all the imagery can be interactive
• I can now deliver my product to a much broader audience

I think this digital route will be the way to go for From the Dust. It really helps to sell that From the Dust is more like a TV series than a graphic novel.

Just know I'm hard at work making the next big thing! All this is to say we will be holding of on the Tuesday story updates. I'll update the website soon to reflect this -- in the meantime, thanks for your patience as I get From the Dust off the ground and flying!

Lastly, I don't want to leave you hanging with no new artwork! From the Dust will shortly be going to war. Here's a sneak peak at some of the Babylonian armies. Keep in mind that Babylon was a plains city, and Ur (of the Chaldees, this is where Abraham was from) was a swampland/delta city kind of like Egypt, but over in Persia. Yep...Abraham was Persian, y'all! Surprise! Anyway all that happened many thousands of years prior to the time of Jeremiah, but these landscapes are what sculpt the peoples of the of the areas. I've also been researching war tactics so that the armies reflect the actual war tactics of the Babylonians.

Keep in mind these are just quick thumbnail sketches. Most of my art starts in the black-and-white stage.