Three Trees Studios NEWS

WE'VE MOVED!

2009-04-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

www.threetreesstudios.com/blog

That's the address for our new site. You'll find much more content there! Be sure to change your bookmarks to the new address.

For those of you following us on RSS, you'll want to switch to this feed: http://threetreesstudios.com/blog/feed/

See you over there!

The NEW RookCity.com!

2009-04-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Some of you might have noticed the new little Rook City button on the right sidebar. Maybe you even clicked on it. Well, if you did, you noticed that there is a whole new site up for that webcomic. That was basically all I worked on over spring break. The entire site is much more streamlined now with a heck of a lot more content....

Not only can you still read the 50+ pages of Rook City that were up on the old site, but you can also read the second Rebuker story online for the first time. In addition, there is tons of info on all of the main characters, sketches, pin-ups, fan art, and even a suggested soundtrack. You can also download some free wallpapers and bookmarks!

Anyway, I hope you take the chance to check it out and let us know what you think. In the coming weeks, all of our comics are going to be revamped in this way... with many more pages for you to read for free! Rook City will also resume soon with regular updates.

Stay tuned, folks.

Planet Comicon 2009

2009-03-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Whew... another great con. "We'll never forget this one." That's what I said many times this weekend. Matt, Laura, and I drove up in the rain Saturday morning, despite the predictions that KC was in for a snowstorm later that day. We got setup, and things were pretty slow for the first hour. But after that we were plenty busy talking to people, selling books and prints, giving away bookmarks, and doing sketches for everyone who bought something. Everyone was worried about the turnout, but the con was pretty full most of the day, even as the snow started to fall outside.

We were lucky enough to get to sit by Matt Hawkins and Kyle Strahm, two local comics guys I knew from the Comic Creators Network. Below you can see Matt, along with a sketch of him that someone requested I draw when they bought a book.

Matt was there selling a new book collection of paper toys that he and others designed called Urban Paper. You should give it a look. Check out the awesomeness below (the close-up shows the one he designed)!

Kyle Strahm was cool enough to do a Rebuker sketch for me in his style. Definitely the freakiest version of any of my characters anyone has done. I love it!

And our buddy (and fellow Joplin Sketcher) Randy Rustin was there kickin' out some crazy watercolors...

Of course, there were a ton of great costumes there. I think Laura's favorite part of the con is getting pictures of all of them.

The snow starting falling really hard. Apparently even Cobra Commander had to call and get a ride...

The craziest part of the trip for us was leaving the con and trying to find a gas station, some food, and our hotel. Even though we were on a main road, the snow was still piled up about 6-8 inches. We eventually got to our hotel, only to be thwarted by the tiny hill of the parking lot. Much pushing and shoveling ensued, and we were rescued by a well-timed snowplow. We collapsed and dried out in our hotel room, and Matt and I finished up some sketches that people were coming back for the next day.
Sunday was warmer and sunny... the roads were no problem. We arrived back at the con well rested, only to find it was even busier! This was weird since usually Sunday is dead compared to Saturday. A very good kind of weird.

I think our favorite part of the whole con was meeting so many of you there. The response to our books was really great... everyone seemed to find something that appealed to them. Here's some of the awesome people who bought our stuff...

This lady teaches teaches middle school Social Studies, and her favorite character is Wonder Woman. So of course she requested a sketch of Wonder Woman teaching Social Studies. I think she liked it.

And hey, even Ash likes our books! How cool is that?

Here's a closer of view of some sketches we did...

By Seth:

By Matt:

So, once again this was a great con. We sold way more books than we had at any other event. We took 300 bookmarks with us and came back with none. This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

If you were there and stopped by... we really appreciate your support and encouragement. And we hope you stick around!

P.S. A few of you never came back for your requested sketch. If you can email me your name and what you requested, I'll snail mail those to you.

Headin' to KC

2009-03-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we will be at Planet Comicon in Kansas City tomorrow and Sunday. If you're anywhere near there, we hope you brave the snow and make it out to it. It's a dang fun show, and we'd love to see you there!

Check back here for con photos in a few days...

Splattering ink with friends

2009-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't checked out Stefan Bucher's The Daily Monster, you need to. It's a creativity exercise where he splatters some ink, blows it around with compressed air, and turns into something interesting. We enjoyed making a mess with this on Saturday's Sketch Night. We had our biggest turnout so far, and everyone cranked out some crazy, fun stuff... check it out.

Hurley Con Wrap-up

2009-03-08T20:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's Hurley Con was even more fun than last year. And last year was pretty dang fun. This year there was twice as much floor space and more than double the attendees. It's turning into a really great con, especially considering the size of Joplin. All four of us were there. Above you can see (left to right) Matt Meyers, Elton Gahr, Dusty Roberts (in the back), and me.

This was Matt's first ever time selling his stuff at a con, and he did great! His book, Decaying Death, was our best-selling book of the day. Not bad for your first book, huh?

In total, we had three new books to show off. Matt had his Sketchings #2, as well as the previously mentioned book. And all four of us worked on the new Random Ink #2, which was also our very first full-color comic. It sold well, and people really seemed to dig the cover.

We also had four posters to sell and ton of bookmarks that we gave away. Traffic was steady pretty much all day. A big "thank you" to all of you that stopped by! Some of you even mentioned this blog.

We did a ton of sketches all day long, since they were free with any purchase. Below you can see Matt sketching the villain from the upcoming Decaying Death #2. This is one of the best parts of the convention... getting these quick little assignments from people. Everything from our characters to Iron Man to an eyeball to a robotic elephant trapped in a water bottle. One of my students challenged me with that last one, believe it or not.
Overall, it felt like we took some big steps forward this year. More books, more stuff, better presentation, and more creators. We had a blast and the day seemed to fly by. Afterward, we got to hang out with some of the other local comics guys, and we talked about trying to do some more stuff together.

Don't worry... online previews of all these new books I mentioned are on their way. Stay tuned.

Next up... Kansas City Planet Comicon!

The cons are coming!

2009-02-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

We are barely a week away from our first convention of the year... Joplin's own HURLEYCON. We're getting everything together for our table there. Elton, Matt, Dusty, and I will all be there this time, along with seven total comics for you to check out. If you're within driving distance, you should definitely try to make it. It's free admission, and it has literally doubled in size from last year. Come by and say hi! If you mention this blog, you can even get a free sketch...

Speaking of that con, I wanted to thank Jason Hurley for mentioning me and my Cartoon Studio at the high school when he was interviewed recently on a podcast (at about the 3/4 mark). That was cool of him.

We also wanted to let you know that we'll be attending Planet Comicon in Kansas City once again this year (March 28-29). This is the biggest show in the area, and a ton of great artists will be there. We're looking forward to having a great time up there!

Sketch night hobos

2009-02-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

Fresh sketches are up over on the Joplin Sketch Night blog. This time we were inspired by John Hodgman's list of 800 hobo names...

Check it out, if you dare.

A couple more sketches

2009-02-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

Matt came over a couple days ago, and we drew each other's characters. Above is his take on Dimitri from the Vlad Squad. He said he wants to draw the other members, and I'm gonna hold him to that.

And below is my version of Monty, the main character from his new book, Decaying Death.

Fresh sketches

2009-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

A new batch of sketches is up over on the JOPLIN SKETCH NIGHT BLOG. Check it out, if you dare.

Vote for Amber!

2009-01-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, our friend (and fellow Joplin sketcher) Amber Stone has a comic in the current ZUDA competition. It's called "Love the Dango" and it's pretty great! Loose, fun, cute and creepy all rolled into one.

You definitely should check it out, if you haven't already. And make sure you register and vote for her... she has the chance of winning a year-long contract with DC Comics. How great is that?

(The contest is up at the end of the month, so make sure you give it a look before then.)

Hurley Con and great expectations.

2009-01-10T19:31:00.001-08:00

Last year's con was very good... this year should be even better! Elton, Dusty, Matt, and I will definitely be there. We'll have seven books to sell (four more than last year) and some other goodies. Our fellow Joplin sketcher Amber will be there, as well. More info on the convention can be found here at the Hurley's Heroes site. If you're anywhere near Joplin on March 7th, you should come. I mean, c'mon... it's free!

I usually don't like talking about stuff we're working on until it's actually done, but I wanted to let you all know that we're really on the verge of some exciting things here. We're about to release three new books in print (which include work from Dusty and Matt for the first time). Our website is about to get a drastic overhaul and streamlining. We're going to put much, much more content up for you to enjoy for free. I'm working on one submission for Zuda Comics right now, and Elton and I are already planning another one, too.

Stick around... 2009 is going to be pretty dang cool!

Watch some lyrics!

2009-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Some of you might remember the Illustrated Lyrics I was posting here a year or two ago. Some of you might have even won the original art by being the first one to guess the artist and title of a particular one. Anyway, I recently made a video that puts those images with the music that inspired them. These were a blast to work on, and I'll have to do some more eventually. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Illustrated Lyrics from Seth Wolfshorndl on Vimeo.

Superpowered kids

2008-12-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

Just realized I never posted these... I did these last year for my nieces and nephew, while visiting them back home in Montana. Gannon (above) wanted Wolverine's claws, Reed Richards' stretchiness, Ghost Rider's chain, and the Flash's speed. And a jet pack, of course!

Kendra here wanted to be a combination of Invisible Woman, Elektra, and Storm. Pretty lethal combo there, I think...

And Brittany loves the Jaina Solo character from the newer Star Wars books, so now she finally gets to wield a lightsaber.

November Sketch Night

2008-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Pencils by Seth, inks by Matt:

Pencils by Matt, inks by Seth:

Well, there were only three of us at the last sketch night. Matt suggested that we draw some fantasy creatures, so I drew the most powerful mythical being of all... the Jackelope.

But the low turnout actually worked out, because it gave Elton and I time to help Matt scan in the last images for his new (and first!) comic... Decaying Death. I just finished editing it tonight, so it is completely done. We'll post some more details soon, but in the meantime here's a preview image...

Zombified!

2008-11-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

Over at the Joplin Sketch Night blog, you can see the results of our last sketch night, where we drew each as zombies. The results are enjoyably disturbing...

Joplin Sketch Night and such

2008-10-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I told you all I might be a bit absent with school starting. I didn't think it would take this long to post something, though. This first quarter has been incredibly busy for me, but I think things are starting to settle down. I'm actually getting some time to work on my art again. So we'll see what happens with that...

Anyway, we started a blog for our little Joplin Sketch Night gathering that we do once a month. We'll be putting up all of our stuff from those nights on that site, so check it out!

Sketches Ahoy.

2008-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that oh-so-magical time of the year... that's right... school starts Monday. It's already started for Dusty. We'll both be teaching high school art now, which is quite cool. I'm at the high school full-time, instead of half-middle school/half-high school. And I'm going to be tackling some new classes I haven't had before, so I will be pretty busy the next couple of months. But I'll still be throwing some new stuff up here, don't worry.

This crazy creature came out of a sketch night with Dusty earlier this summer. Just havin' fun with a brush pen. Don't even try to make sense out of the words... inside joke.

No more WOWIO.

2008-08-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Just so you all know... we will not be using WOWIO, at least for now. They are under new ownership and have restructured how the downloading of comics works. It is no longer as simple as it used to be... find a book, download it for free. Not everything is free now.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but we will not be using them for the immediate future. We may eventually, as things stabilize over there.

Thank you to the many of you that downloaded a copy under the old WOWIO! Your support is very appreciated! We are looking into new ways for you all to read these books online... stay tuned.

Monster Jam!

2008-08-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Good things come from sketch nights. Dusty came over last week for one, and we came up with a really groovy new drawing challenge. Basically, one guy draws the basic form and layout of a creature, and then we pass it back and forth, taking turns drawing limbs, heads, and details. Then one guy inks it to sort of tie it all together. We call it a Monster Jam (or Monster Jelly, as Dusty prefers). It's amazingly fun, and the creatures look a lot more cohesive than I thought they would.

The dragon above was initially roughed-out by Dusty. I drew the head, an arm, and the tail; Dusty drew an arm, leg, and lots of body details. I had a blast inking it... I'm a big fan of drawing wrinkles and cracks, so I really savored this one. We both agree it's the best dragon either one of us have ever made.

The other creature we made is a little more original... the Aqua Yeti. I did the rough plan, the claw, and legs, while Dusty did the head, tentacle arm, and body. He inked it and really went nuts on the details, as usual.

We both agree it's the best aqua yeti either one of us have ever made.

We got together again last night and both did a Hellboy drawing. Here's mine...

If you've seen Hellboy II (terrific movie!), then you'll really understand this one!

Sketch Night Numero Dos

2008-07-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, the second Joplin sketch night is in the book. We had a couple less this time due to scheduling issues, but we still managed to crank out a lot cool artwork. As usual, it all gets swapped around with different people inking and coloring each others' work, and at the end of the night it all gets divvied up. Here's the stuff I ended up with...

The first one up there was penciled by Randy and painted/inked by Amber, I believe.

This one was penciled by Matt and inked by me. It is the main character from Matt's upcoming book. This was fun to ink, because Matt and I share a love of bold lines.

The zombie was penciled by me and painted/inked by Randy. It turned out like a zombified Rebuker (accidentally, I think).

The rest of these were penciled by Randy and inked by me. Randy puts us all to shame on these sketch nights. While the rest of us finish a half-dozen drawings or so, Randy ends up with a inch-thick PILE of drawings by the end of the night! His pencils are extremely loose and fun to ink over with brush pens.

That last one I actually finished the day after. I seem to have indoctrinated my daughter with my love of Spider-Man. She watched part of the movies with me this summer and really liked it when he was swinging around. Anyway, all day today she was carrying this sketch around like a cherished toy.

Now if only I can make her a 49ers fan...

Back in town...

2008-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been out of town for a good chunk of July. First a trip to see family in California and then a week-long art teacher workshop in Kansas City. Both were lots of fun, but I'm feeling a bit out of the loop artistically now. Ah well, I'm sure some drawin' will cure that. Above is a sketch I did while in KC, from photo-reference. I'm feeling more and more comfortable with brush pens now.

This is Scott Morse's Magic Pickle, from a graphic novel I just got. It's a great, fun read! Superheroic produce... ya gotta love it. This was really quick and easy to draw.

One of the comics I'm picking up every month right now is the Perhapanauts, by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau. It's about a group of paranormal adventurers that include a bigfoot, a ghost, a psychic, a mothman, an interdimensional guy, and THIS guy... Choopie (the chupacabra). It reads like a really light hearted Hellboy.

And here are a couple more drawings from our last sketch night. This one was penciled by Amber and inked by Matt. Inspired by our resident dachshund, of course.
And this one was penciled by Amber and inked by me. Hopefully we can do a bunch more of these on Tuesday when we have our second Joplin sketch night!

Collaborations are swell

2008-07-05T03:11:00.000-07:00

Pencils by Matt, inks by Seth:

Ditto:

Pencils by Seth, inks by Matt:

Matt was over the other night, so we could scan in some of the pages of his upcoming book. Towards the end of the night (actually early morning) we did a little sketching. It's dang fun to see someone ink your stuff... almost as much fun as inking over theirs.

Upon further review...

2008-06-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting things as a creator is getting a chance to hear what people who spend a lot of time reviewing comics think of your work. Well, some of those reviews are starting to show up for our newer books, so here ya go...

The fine folks at Pulp Secret included DUEL in their regular comic review video podcast. They had a lot of kind words and really seemed to get what I was going for with that book. Check it out right here (the Duel review starts at the 3:48 mark):

Broken Frontier took a look at both new books (they also reviewed the mini-comic version of Random Ink way-back-when... nice people). Tonya Crawford had a lot of nice things to say about ROOK CITY #1, including

"With a $2.95 price tag for over 32 pages of highly enjoyable comic book stories Rook City comes off as a bargain. Wolfshorndl has crafted an overall strong first outing and will hopefully keep turning out these stories that are sometimes witty, sometimes silly, but always entertaining. This comic is like a trip through the funhouse – a lot of laughs, some good-natured teasing, and at the end anticipation of the next time we get to go for a ride."

Meanwhile, her fellow Broken Frontier reviewer, Richard Pulfer, seemed to enjoy DUEL #1 although he would like to see it develop farther, saying

"The character designs are imaginative, especially in later characters like Cyborg Stan and Triode. Once again, it’s the execution of the battles themselves, seen in the expression of the combatants and their ultimate fate which give the book a disarmingly cinematic feel. While Wolfshorndl’s art is more than sufficient, it might be interesting to see two artists with contrasting styles duel one another in later books."

Funny he should say that, as that is just what we have planned. More on that later...

Over on her Comics Worth Reading site, Johanna Draper Carlson reviewed both ROOK CITY and DUEL. Of the two, she seemed to enjoy DUEL more and really gave me some things to consider.

I really appreciate all these people taking the time to look over our books and spread the word about them! Hopefully, there will be even more to tell you about soon.

The 1st Joplin Area Sketch Night!

2008-06-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this was pretty dang cool... and something we've been wanting to do for awhile. Last night, a bunch of area artists interested in comics gathered at our house for a sketch night. This was sort of inspired by the CCN group in KC. It was great to get everyone together, as I knew almost everyone there, but many of them had not met. We stayed up until 2am showing each other what we'd been working on, comparing favorite drawing tools, and sketching like crazy. Eventually we started inking/coloring over each others pencil sketches, which produced some crazy cool results.

Anyway, I think this is going to be the start of something really cool. Who knows what kind of collaborations are going to spring out of this? We're going to try to meet every month like this and see what happens.

The Phoenix drawing up top is by Randy Rustin, who is a drawing MACHINE... cranks 'em out like no one's business. This was one he did for Laura (Phoenix is her favorite character). I'm helping him put together a sketchbook of his stuff for print.

This one is a portrait of our dog, Zoe, by the super-talented Amber Stone:

This is one of the guys from Evil Ain't Easy, pencilled by me and inked by Matt:

And the Rebuker, of course, pencilled by me and inked by Brad Shipp (check out his deviantART page here... amazing!)

This is just a small sampling of the art produced last night. Most of it we gave away to each other. Hopefully, this is the first of many of these sketch nights!