Process Animation

Process animation for the creation of a panel.

coming soon...

...to a website, somewhere.



Kevin Mellon and I are working on something that will either keep us from going insane, or drive us over the edge. It will be a fun journey, and when we launch it (2-3 weeks) we'll let you know where to look to follow along.

being creative for me

I love drawing stories. Even if it's only one image I want people to be able to read a story from that illustration. I'm working with a bunch of writers right now, enough to keep me in projects for a few years. That's fun, and I love the collaboration.

Random Person: "I think I hear a 'but' coming on."

But... sometimes it feels best to have projects that are only mine. I want to be selfish and choose which of my "darlings" I'm gonna snuff and which I'm going to coddle.

To Keep myself sane, I'm working on some personal stuff, while working on the collaborative stuff. For a guy who pulls a regular "joe job" while trying to work his way into the comic world, this isn't easy... but necessary. You may have seen the post of the new Mr. Simian comic I'm working on down the blog page. Along with that adorable monkey-man I'm reviving my favorite inner devil, Lil' Charlie.

One of the benefits of doing this is that it will allow me to update my blog more frequently (writers tend not to like it when you give their entire stories away on your website).


Lil Charlie is coming back...

I am first developing some prints that I have been thumbnailing out, and will show more progress on in the near future.

digi-inked

tension

deadlines loom, tension builds, guns come into play on the page.

cover stuff

long time no post right? Sorry about that. Packing, moving, unpacking, and telling myself I need to work and not play on the internet has hurt my blogging ability.

Here's a cover for the upcoming OMEGA COMICS PRESENTS, which is planned for a November release (I believe... I'm really bad at remembering stuff like that). It's traditional inking with digital finishes done in Photoshop and Illustrator.

page-in-progress

a very cop filled page-in-progress, as a matter of fact. Digital-pencils, and about to start on the digital-inks.

Morning Shot

finished up a bit of inking today before heading off to the butcher shop. This is going to be part of the first strip for my website, which will be started week after next.

Desk Shot 12-30-09

finished inking a page of Stretch of the Imagination today, and starting on another. Pretty soon I'll have to start the finished artwork for the READING WITH PICTURES anthology, which means I'll be setting this aside for a week or so.

I'm learning how I'm approaching this as I go. Most (97%) of the b&w line-work will be traditional, with the other 3% being mostly borders and text I didn't want to fudge with in brush. I am using a gel pen as well, but due to the drying time it needs I only use it on the areas that really need a hard-straight-edge.

deskshot 12/17/09

I figure, "Kevin Mellon does these all the time, seems like fun, why not." So here is a deskshot of a page I'm inking on my massive light table/layout table. The pencils were done digitally, and the inking will be done mostly in brush with a little office max gel pen mixed in.

Thumbnail for RWP anthology

Looks like I'll probably be doing a story for the READING WITH PICTURES benefit anthology. Figured I would show folks a thumbnail of a page from my story.



still playing with the dialogue, so thought balloons and captions are just hints at the moment.

Thumbnails: Part 2 the revenge

Here's some more thumbnails connecting to what I posted yesterday, plus a second 2 page comic that would lead into it. This time I'm going to be less talky-talky.









Now to get to doing some digital pencils.

Ink Sketch: Stretch of the Imagination

Doing some prep work for my "Stretch of the Imagination" idea. Since the stories I write will involve me, this includes the first self-portrait that I've done in a few years. The drawings in this picture were done with a brush pen(pentel black 101) and an Office Max gel pen 0.7. It feels good to get back to messy materials, but I have to remember to be carefull not to smear the ink as I work... especially with the gel pen.

Final One for the night

Last character sketch I'll be posting tonight... maybe not the last one I'll do, but it's time to get away from the computer for a bit.

and another

digital character sketch

decided to do my character designs for the characters of this story digitally, since I'll be working the entire project this way... and I really don't want any disconnect in my mind on the look of the thing.

promo development

working on promo stuff for a comic I've developed called Mr. Simian. Here are some of the illustrations, I'll be stamping out the tag lines over the next few days.

A page of...

a comic I'm now finishing up with Elizabeth Genco.



I'm not sure where it's getting placed yet, but once I know I'll put the word out.

A couple of roughs...

for the story with Costello:




getting to a particularly bloody part of the story, that will be a blast when it comes time for me to do the finished pages.

Quick update

just wanted to post a few things I've done recently