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Every so often, for one reason or another, I find myself re-evaluating my life.

Anybody who knows me offline will be up to speed on what’s going on in my life, but for readers who are really only familiar with my presence online, I probably owe you an explanation. So here goes.

Earlier this year I went from having a live-in partner – the inimitable and delightful Maya – to being a single parent (again) and feeling somewhat adrift. Through a month-long moving process and one of the most spectacularly gradual relationship collapses, I managed to keep drawing, thanks in no small part to the Daily Dragon exercise I’ve undertaken this year. Now I’ve recovered, and I have begun to take stock of my life, my career, and my future.

Suffice it to say that I’ve spent a lot of my time, over the last several weeks, engaged in a great deal of self-reflection and careful consideration of where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going. As a part of that, I’ve been thinking about my daughter’s future as well.

A week ago I took a plane – actually two of them, and it was quite the mishap-laden adventure, let me tell you – to Seattle to see some friends and go poke around in the Pacific Northwest for a long weekend. I’ve traveled all over the U.S. for various reasons over my lifetime, but I’d somehow never managed to make it out to Oregon or Washington.

(Possibly because they’re so terribly, terribly remote.)

Partly, this was to explore. Partly, to take some time away from things. I really felt like I needed to get away and just think for awhile, and a road trip just wasn’t going to cut it. Lastly, I am trying to decide how much longer I’ll be staying in the Chicago area, and where I’ll go when and if I leave. I love it here, but there are some definite down sides to this city. If I’m moving, I’d like to know what my options are. Seeing as how I’d been almost everywhere else in this country, it was a good excuse to find out what my last unknown option is like in person.

I’ve had a couple of days back to cool down and reflect, and I have managed a couple of real conclusions:

The Pacific Northwest is beautiful. I mean, frickin’ gorgeous. I took photos. If you ever get up thataway, you should visit Oswald West State Park, it’s dang purdy.
If I move in the next ten years, Seattle is definitely on my short list.
If I can swing it, I’ll retire to the northern Oregon coast. Unless there’s a Mars colony by then, in which case red planet here I come!
I think I know what direction I want to take.
I have a lot of work to do, right now. It’s time for a productivity and priority check.

It’s that last one that’s the kicker.

So here’s the deal: I’m taking the rest of November off from the internet, more or less. Minimal face time with Facebook and Twitter, and no scheduled content. I’m going to use this month to complete some things I need and/or want to do, tighten a few things up, and generally kick ass and take names. This site will relaunch soon with a new look and new content, and I’m going to focus on the latter. Should be some good stuff.

In the meantime I will be continuing to make my daily dragon art, but I won’t be posting it. At the end of the month all of the November dragons will go up in a gallery for the month (as always) but no individual posts or commentary will be forthcoming.

I’ll see you in December, The Internet. Godspeed.

Daily Dragon #186: Arboreal Quadroxis

This delicate, minute wyvern is endangered in the wild, in part due to the great demand for quadroxis eggs and hatchlings among wealthy dracophiles looking for exotic pets. Despite its fearsome appearance, the arboreal quadroxis is a highly social and affectionate creature. Most of its larger relatives are adapted for hunting in the open skies, where their four eyes and wide field of vision afford better hunting opportunities. This species is adapted for a life of climbing and short glides among the dense tree branches of equatorial forests, where the animals hunt in family groups of up to twenty individuals. They move silently, maintaining constant line of sight and communicating exclusively through an intricate language of body movements and wing-flapping semaphore.

Their unique method of communication makes it possible to train arboreal quadroxis to recognize very complex hand signals, and some owners report that the creatures become adept domestic helpers. The animal’s high intelligence and long life means that a quadroxis is a lifelong companion to the owner, although stories of their supposed intense devotion are more hearsay than fact.

Daily Dragon #185: Tusked Daggerback

The tusked daggerback is a true dragon, a massive, mid-sized wyrm native to subarctic uplands. This heavy-bodied creature is a slow, clumsy flier with a powerful form more suited to terrestrial predation than aerial hunting. Older daggerbacks rarely fly at all once they stake out their territory, taking to the air mainly during mating flights or to ambush herds of reindeer on the move.

As a true dragon, tusked daggerbacks possess a powerful attack derived from their own arcane essence – a concussive sonic blast, too high to be audible to humans. This attack is remarkably precise, focused into a narrow beam along the dragon’s line of sight, and emitted from a complex organ in the back of the throat. The beam is capable of shattering bone and pulping tissues, and causes severe internal hemorrhaging even in very large victims. Daggerbacks rarely use this ability when hunting, as it spoils meat, but they have been known to attack small aircraft and trains that enter their territory in order to reach the prey within.

Happy Halloween!

Just a little something seasonal. Now where’d my pie go?

Daily Dragon #184: Cath Draco

With the short horns and muzzle, the spotted neck, and the posture, there’s something decidedly feline about this one. Cath is basically old Irish for “cat” – a cath sith or cath sidhe is a fairy cat, for instance. Draco is, of course, Latin for dragon.

You can probably guess where this is going.

Also…Happy Halloween!

Daily Dragon #183: Magnificent Wyvern

With the long, decorative tail, the ornamental wings, and the odd crested snout, I was thinking of this fellow as the draconiformes equivalent of a tropical quetzal or perhaps a bird-of-paradise. I’d lean toward an “outrageous” color scheme, in all likelihood – something day-glo maybe.

Daily Dragon #182: Grace Notes

This one’s practically screaming for color – the lines look a bit lonely by themselves on the page. I thought I’d take a break from the oh-so-serious pencil renderings I’ve been doing lately and try something more stylized and cartoony.

Daily Dragon #181: Gustavus

Pencils on bristol – and yes, his name’s Gustavus. He doesn’t look like he’d answer to ‘Gus’ though.

@hexink

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