I have been a quiet creator for my whole life. while my profession is in carpentry, when I’m home, I make all sorts of projects. creating a good story and honing my art has been a constant itch in my life needing scratching. I haven’t always been good, but my steady devotion has brought me to a point of pride in my work.
Choosing to go by DogHouse on most media as it match my real initials, Doug Hurtado, I have learned a variety of skills and have always been excited for more. In my last year of collage earning a BFA I began working on several small pet projects in cartooning. As A big gaming nerd, most were parodies of what was popular at the time. Most didn’t get very far, being simple jokes that many others had told before me, however I did begin to favor one in particular. starting the same as the others, but becoming more important to my growth over time, I gained tunnel vision over my version Of The Legend of Zelda. Ocarina of Time in particular, I called it Ocarina in 3D with the classic blue and red to emphasize dimensions. At the time of its peak I was putting out 6 full comic pages a week and it had been what I needed to force my skill as an artist and story teller to improve. Unfortunately I had to quite at a point of several story cliff hangers, I feel a bit bad about that.
This was because I had taken up a job in the print industry, as much as I enjoyed comics they weren’t paying any bills. My time here as a project manager was exhausting, I was working in the make up department, Nars, Hourglass, ect making sure their many prints came out correct. I worked with skilled professionals that taught me everything I needed to know, now I can tell you specific difference of capabilities in substrates, what machines those can be used on and what’s just a generally bad idea. That last skill turned out to be the most important as it was 90% of my day. Explaining to the department before me in process several times how what they had asked for was impossible, you can not print inkjet on the UV printers, those are not the same!! I spent a grueling, but scholarly one year here before getting downsized in 2020 after covid broke out, eventually shutting down the warehouse.
feeling absolutely determined to work in a less managerial position, away from those insistent on telling me that I who is standing next to the printer was wrong, I found a job in carpentry. Which was a good fit, I’ve always played around with wood in my spare time and never am shy to learn an interesting skill. Hell at the time I was stock at home over lockdowns I built an arcade cabinet out of boredom. I Then became a Furniture Finisher, my job was to assess and repair damages. I learned quick, passing in house tests quickly, until I could make a missing chunk of dresser reappear. Now that I’ve learned quite a lot there I’m taken on the new challenge of comics again, making my own characters and world.
literally, my own world. As my latest project Paper Ninja, the small worrier in training, is created through CGI and photography. It’s unique nature has been a frustrating, but rewarding challenge at every corner. I’m leaning the specifics of aperture, lighting, texture mapping, simulations, all in effort to bring whoever’s curious enough to read. With this site I hope to continue spreading Paper and building his Small world until it feels massive. But no mater where I end up in time, I am, and will always be a quietly creating.
