Process!

This is going to be a big process post. It's not to show off at all, though. It's for me. First, so I can look at my work objectively (for some reason, when I post it, I can look at it differently than I can on the wall, or even in Photoshop). Secondly, maybe someone will stop by and say, "oh, you do that? Oh, try this instead, you'll get better results in the end". Or something.

This is the splash page for the comic that Andre Zero and I are creating: the adventures of Mr. Twilight.

This page started, ultimately with the script. But, you don't get to see that. Here's the initial thumbnail I made in the sketchbook when I was at work. Given that I had no time, it was just a basic reminder of the idea:



Then, while waiting for a code build at work, I took a minute or two to flesh it out a bit more:




then, one more time, a little bit bigger. These are all about actual size btw:




Then I did some figure studies. I felt I could base Mr. Twilight off of an older image, but the others needed to be worked on. You don't need to see all of the thumbnails and stick figures, so here are the ones that I had on the board when sketching out the final. Looking At Watch Guy was first:



Then came Fat Guy Talking To Conductor:



Then the hard one The Happy Couple. It's only been this past year that I've really done drawings of people interacting and this was extra hard. Doubly so because they were walking. STANDING is easy. I'm still not entirely happy with her feet, so I pulled a rare cop-out in the final piece and hid them behind a suitcase. You'll notice her lack of hair. This is because I did this at lunch and didn't want to be at my computer looking at Google images for research into 1930's hairstyles. It was easy enough to wait until I could hit my tearsheet file at home. I thought of giving her a hat, but changed my mind:




Then, the big sketch. First on greenbar paper (I actually found a big box of it in a closet at my dad's house. He was a programmer from way back and would bring home tons of the stuff. Great for a kid who likes to draw!) then traced onto comic board and refined in pencil. I am out of blue leads, so it was in 2H. This is full-size, about 9.25" x 13.75":



Then inked. I had already started on this when Swinebread suggested working with thicker lines, so it's thin lines. I am going to experiment with thicker linework this weekend.



Then color was added, type was placed and a piece of 40 year old (no kidding) newsprint from an old drawing set was scanned in and put in the background. AndreZero thought it would be cool if it looked old and distressed like a comic we'd found in a basement. The finished product:



Oh, Swinebread. If you've got some ideas, hit my design portfolio for some contact info that works. Cheap as free, man.

Listening to while posting: "Triangle Man (acoustic)" by TMBG

BBWW redux

So, my last BBWW was considered grotesque. Even without my usual hatred of my art minutes after its completion, I have to agree. Here's another. It looked really good inked, not so good scanned. Hmmm. I'd like to blame the scanner, but that's probably a cop out. I actually wonder if I need to find a good inker; my pencils look great, my inks... need work. I'm going to submit it to the BBWW blog. I'm just not sure whether the background works or not (or if the entire thing works at all). Sure, it's kind of weird, but at least it's not another Elevated Bear...

Opinions?





Listening to while posting, Selected Shorts on the Vermont Public Radio stream. It's the 'dog' show. Pretty damn funny. Especially Sleeping with Dogs on a King-Sized Bed.

Weekly sketch dump

So, not a bad week. Wednesday was almost a no-drawing day, but I got some small sketches done. Too small to post. I'm working on a finished piece (gasp!) and will hopefully post this weekend.

Dr. Smoke offered to draw me a picture of whatever I wanted. Of course I wanted a piece of fanart of one of the characters from the comic AndreZero and I are working on! He posted some of his stuff and I can't wait to see what he does with our characters.

Monday wasn't bad I did some sketches in anticipation of the next segment in the 'Hero's Journey" challenge at Dare Detectives. If what I'm thinking isn't the next challenge, I'm going to do a story comic (not a comic story) with the stuff I've come up with. This is another picture of Ann Johnson, pilot. The figure in the cockpit doorway is Raymond Queeg. Of whom we'll see more in a bit.



Tuesday was working on studies for the finished work, I may post a process post if I like the finished product. Wednesday, as I said, not so much. Thursday was pretty good. Got some nice sketches of Raymond Queeg. He is part of a twist in the story, but I don't think these sketches reveal much. The big face is an example of what happens if you don't do construction shapes and just start drawing from a feature. I started with the eye on the right and then decided to do a face. This resulted in crap. However, if you block one side or the other, it doesn't look too bad.



Friday brought a BBWW . I'm frankly trying to make one as good as the one Mike Wieringo sent it. Sure, fat chance. But, a boy can dream, can't he?




I also decided to post something that I do for a coworker. For the past year or so, I've drawn a coworker a 'Weekly Monster'. She seems to like the, so I've kept on doing it. She has taped them together to make a sort of growing poster. Some have been scary, some funny, some nicely rendered, some embarrassing. This is a funny/nice one. They are usually about 1" x 2" or so.




Listening to while posting: nothing. Hey! what's up with that. Let's see what comes up first on Pandora.

Ahh... It's 'Grace Cathedral Hill' by The Decemberists. Or, as I like to call them: The Band That Haven't Been to the East Cost Since I Got Into Them.

sketch dump 2

Another week without a finished work, and this weeks offerings are sketchy even by sketchbook standards. I hope that doesn't bode anything. I am working on my first cartooning commission. I'm doing business related cartoons for the presentations of a guy who consults about something or other. This is interesting because I am not a cartoonist. I have no real cartooning style at all. Oh, well. He liked the comp I sent him and he doesn't mind the fee I came up with (which makes me think I lowballed it. Oh, well.).

Anyway, I didn't include all of this weeks sketches (aren't you lucky) because some of them were not so good. Just pencil moving on paper as I tried to get some ideas going. Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes the bear eats you.

Monday went well. I worked out another sketch for a huge, ongoing challenge at Dare Detectives.


This is the second part of the challenge; create an associate for the hero we created last challenge. His look and some of his personality traits are based on my best friend when we were helicopter crewmen in the Coast Guard together. One of the main differences is that the character is a widower, while the real guy's wife is alive and well. Here's the hero. Everyone else seemed to be creating superheros in capes or big guys in armor with swords. I thought I'd go with a Sephen King-y 'ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances' direction.




Then on Tuesday, for some reason, it was spaceships.



On Wedesday, it was a generic superhro being attacked by his nemesis. The figure works pretty well for being done at my desk at work. His left forearm is a bit long, but it is a sketch. One problem I run into is that the current lead in my pencil is too soft and it smears like the devil, so going back over a sketch becomes futile.



On Thursday, I had a few sketches, but only a couple were any good. Here's Twilight again (audience groan) and an El-Bear (audience groans). I really like the eyes on Twilight in this one, which is why I posted it.



Friday was not much, but I did do a picture of Wendy Watson from the Middleman turning into a werewolf, but that may come later. One thing that is cool. Yesterday, I got an initial script from AndreZero for the Mr. Twilight story. So, if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled.

Listening to while posting: "Shellshock" by New Order (from Substance 1987)

Maybe I need help

So. It's elevated bears again. I can't help it, they're fun to draw. One of the (many) things that I've been having trouble with the elevated bears is how the eyes work around the snout. So, at the suggestion of (and with clay provided by) Sweet Enemy, I did a small bust of an Elevated Bear. It's rough as I haven't done any kind of sculpture in about eight years. I think this turned out well. Of, course FUR is an advanced skill so this is a de-furred elevated bear. I started about 8pm EST and worked on an off until about 11. Here it is, two inches tall to the ears:









listening to while posting: "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra

storage hog

So, no new finished works this week. However, I have been drawing every day for a while now, so I thought I'd post this week's sketchbook offerings.


A rear view of the Valkyrie suit. Designed by myself and AndreZero (15 Jan).




Since AndreZero is finishing up the script for the first installment of the Mr. Twilight story, I thought I'd brush up on drawing some of the characters. Here's Jackson Cort. And a hopefully thirties-esque airplane. And a random guy I made up who I think looks pretty cool. (16 Jan)


More Mr. Twilight. I'm trying to codify his look. I'm getting very close. It's nearly the same guy. I'm really happy with the expression on the right. (17 Jan)




While sitting listening to Sweet Enemy read Paula Poundstone's funny new book out loud to me. It was about midnight or so when I did this. I don't usually draw with a sketchbook in my lap, but these seemed to work out well.

A spacegirl! Yay! This was a bit sketchy so I worked it over at lunch. (18 Jan)



Another Twilight. Sweet Enemy says he has girl-eyes. So. He likes wearing a little mascara? He also packs a pair of M1911s. These weren't worked over, but done at midnight.



Also at lunch, I drew a little generic European car. It's an amalgam of many memories of 1930's cars.



The last lunch sketch from 18 Jan. I don't really draw a lot of guys, so I decided to try to draw Nightcrawler. I ran into the age-old problem faced by many comic artists during the years: how the heck do you show where Nightcrawler is looking? He's got yellow eyes with no iris!


Finally, here's an old picture of Jackson Cort. It was before AndreZero came up with the cool idea of having him in a cavalry shirt and Swinebread suggested rodeo gloves. It's even before I did research on Henry Rollins, J.C.'s inspiration. He's still pretty cool, I think.



Whew!

Listening to while posting: "the Pillows (Japan)" by Moon Marguerite. It was on my QuickList on Pandora.

More Process

In an attempt to harsh on my own work and to hopefully elicit outside critiques, here is more process work. I enlarged the original sketch and re-pencilled the entire thing. Then, on the recommendation of Sweet Enemy , I then traced the pencil over in blue, refining the shading a bit more. Then I inked the entire thing by hand. I could ave just done the outlines and filled in in Photoshop, but I really like inking large areas. It's meditative to me, like sweeping. Then a dash of color. This is a really basic color job. I'm going to hit colorist Steve Hamaker's blog for some of his coloring tutorials. He'd done the entire Bone series and Jeff Smith's Shazam! as well. So, he just might know his stuff.

Blue. Man, I do like how blue pencil looks:


Ink. I think I really got the fur, and solved the breast problem this time. Now, the doctor's face is a bit off:


Color. Yup. color. Very basic, just enough to show the characters:





Listening to while posting: "Charles Darwin" by Artichoke from the album 26 Scientists Volume One Anning-Malthus . It was listened to on Pandora the coolest online radio station. It is the result of the Music Genome Project . IPandora = cool. Songs about scientists = cool. Go! Go now!