busy, busy, busy

Really excited for C2E2 to be coming up. This is the last con that I plan to just attend to wander, make introductions and simply enjoy (after this I gotta start tabling). Today I put together a portfolio packet to hand out to editors, writers and such; did some inking; and did a ton of scanning.

Here's a page from my auto-bio web-comic I'll be posting in the near future (no text yet, especially since it's a personal project... I got a lot of stuff lined up with others folks that has to take priority).

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.

Page w/o text (mostly)

Page done without dialogue added. Traditional inking with tones added in PS.

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.

Digital Pencils again

Some more digital pencils for my Stretch of the Imagination project. I will hopefully start inking these pages in the next week.

Digital Pencils...

First time I'm working this process. I'm gonna rough in all my pencils digitally, then do the inking traditionally over top my monster lite-box. I'm going to knock out the rest of the pencils (6 more pages) before I move on to ink.

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.

My Process Step 002

Alright, I figure since I shared the first step of making this strip, I will do my best to keep folks updated in the process till the finish(this will also crack the whip on me getting this done).

This is the thumbnail stage. Since I'm basing this on an idea that I scribbled for myself, based loosely on myself, in this stage I tare apart, rearrange, expand and contract on the text. Dialogue is still up in the air, but space still has to be considered for the text to go.

Here are a couple of brush warm-ups, about 2.5"x1.5" I did at the start of this to get myself in the mood.


The actual thumbs are done in a mix of blue pencil and ball-point pen at 3"x4".
The first page of the comic is just there to set a bit of the fantasy element of the story and to establish the time of year and maybe implant a little bit of craving.


Since I avoided an establishing shot on the first page, I needed to set up the environment that the story would take place in. That's the only real pupose I set for this page.


I know in on the third page that I'm going to put down some narration where the dialogue is gonna wander around a bit, then return the reader to the story.


The fourth page is when fantasy and reality will begin to overtly mix.


I set some restrictions on what I can do on the page (firm belief in the idea that people become more creative when they need to find ways to work around limitations). The main rule for myself was that I would work in a twelve panel grid. No page so far actually uses twelve panels, but the grid format seems to fit a horizontal composition really well.

A bit more of this story to create, I'll post up the final few thumbs tomorrow.

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.