sketch: rhino beetle, the doctor, nate and the scorpion

quick little doodle prepping for page 3.

nate and the scorpion sketch

page 2: backgrounds, tightening up

more work tonight...more tomorrow.

chapter 2 page 2

Page 2 layout. More + backgrounds tomorrow.

monster fights ch 2

Still scanning in some work I've done the past coupe weeks. Here is the first page of "monster fights" chapter 2. Kevin is still finishing the script but it looks like this chapter is all action. and should be tons of fun to draw. Here are the initial pencils for page 1.

scanner works again

Ugh. finally got my pc to recognize my scanner after three weeks. Computer trouble really sucks. I was crashing every month or two so I decided to give windows 7 a try to see if it would be more stable for me. nope. some cool features but it wouldn't let me install photoshop CS4 and then my old scanner just totally stopped working. so I spent another week putting XP back on. gak. Now I got everything up and running. it's been so long dealing with this it seems like i've been walking around with a rock in my shoe all this time. Anyway, finally I am back and can scan and post some work.

I'm between scripts on superwrestle and haven't done much but I do have some little things to scan and post.

Here's a self portrait of me in my cycling gear.

Link: potomac peddlers

Potomac Peddlers July 09 rides

Page 14 colors

Here are the final colors for page 14 and the last page in the chapter. This project has been a blast to work on. Thanks to Kevin Panetta at SuperWrestle.com for giving me the chance to draw superwrestle comics!!! Looking forward to more soon!

more progress on page 14

Here is where I am now. Made a lot of progress but the whisky is catching up with me pretty quick. More later.

page 14 colors

Making progress on the page 14 colors. I'm pretty excited by how the first scorpion is coming along:

Page 14 inks

I got the inks done on page 14 last night but the scan came out a bit funky. I think it's a solid page and I did pencils and inks in one week. Ok that isn't exactly fast but it is faster than I have been working. My goal is to finish the colors before Friday.

Here's the full scan:

jungle reference

Jungle pic 1
Jungle pic 2
Jungle pic 3

page 14

scanned in the board in 6 pieces and pieced it together and it looks ok. I was worried that the inside edges would look bad. anyway, more tomorrow.

page 14

Made some decent progress on page 14. Solid layout. Made a first pass at the composition and started adding details. Unfortunately I had ran out of bristol board so I dug out some super-thick illustration board Bruce and I were experimenting with a few years ago. It's 20x14, has a smooth hard surface and it's great to pencil on. I imagine it will be even better to ink on however it is about 1/8th on an inch thick! So Now that I have made some decent progress I am worried about scanning this beast in. Here it is on my drawing board.



And some of the detail. (Nate cowering at the appearance of the men in lab coats!)

Sketch: scorpion sketches and scorpion riders

Page 10

Page 10 is up at superwrestle.com

Page 13 colors

colors on page 13 are done.

page 12 colors

page 12 colors: progress

Got most of page 12 roughed in today. Not sure if I like the color red for the hearts with images in them. I'll have to try again tomorrow. the rest of the page is coming along.

Links: Kaiju Big Battel

Cool site. I need to check it out a bit more.

Page 11 Colors

Another week another page of colors. This one actually didn't take that long. I started on Monday and finished tonight. I feel like I'm getting into a bit of a rhythm with the colors. Page 12 is next.

Page 10

Here are the colors for Page 10. This page came together pretty quick. hopefully I can get page 11 done before this one goes up next week. whew!

Page 10

page 9 colors

getting back on track...here are the colors for page 9! Now it's off to LOSW HQ for letters.

blip dj

trying this little web dj site out. kind of cool. it's easy to find songs but hard t ofind ones that are actually available.

http://blip.fm/mikeyboy42

missing time, weddings and crashed computers

Missed a couple days at the end of last week trying to get some stuff done for my sister-in-law's wedding in South Carolina last weekend. Now I'm back. Fixed my computer (again) and am ready to get back to work. hopefully I can get a page colored by monday.

page 7-8 colors

Almost done with this. got a little to do on the back grounds, panel 1 and some clean up but this is pretty much it. some work to do over the weekend and then on to page 9.

Colors page 6

Colors page 5

Back into colors now. Kevin has to add the words, then this should go up over at Legendsofsuperwrestle.net pretty soon. WE are trying to get a page a week up for the next couple weeks. I am already a few days behind on that but this was a good page for shaking the rust off. Let me know what you think.

page 13 done

I am pretty happy with this. inking and all. probably the most ink I've ever put on a page.

page 13 work

found some time to draw today. I have to say t's really nice drawing in the afternoon rather than in the middle of the night. ah well...

life drawing

Attended another open life drawign session at the art league this weekend. my best drawing was my first of the day, a 10 minute sketch.



Will post some work on page 13 of Pinned tonight.

life drawing

Links: Bike Trainers

http://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6610,s-1-4-304-1,00.html
http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-4-20-13681-1,00.html

page 12 done

page 12 more work 2

page 12 more work

lots of drawing this weekend but didn't spend too much time with the comic until today. Added a lot to page 12 today but still have a way to go.

page 12

did some work on page 12. major page elements placed. I like how it's shaping up so far.

Some tunes to listen too:
Nothing ever happened to me - Deerhunter -
Adam and Steve - Megapuss (tropical taint?

page 12 - gettin started again

Shook the rust off with some sketches yesterday so tonight I tried to do some work on page 12 - -still rusty. Trying to get the perspective of the city street and nate on his bike so I created a little scene in sketchup...here are two layouts I like.



Now i just read some battle angel so I am jazzed about the way Kishiro draws speed. Not sure If I am going to try this in here but I played with it a little bit on Nate's legs and the wheels as he pedals fast down the street...



looks a little hairy but could look cool.

sketch

Liquid Revolver

Liquid Revolver is a comic I worked on with a handfull of other folks is being published by Matt Dembibki at Three Crows Press. I only did a handful of pages but I am really excited! Go check it out and buy a copy!!!!

Life Drawing

Note to self:
Don't forget.

Bernier At Comic Tools

Matt Bernier over at comic tools hits the nail on the head:

I feel good about the work I'm doing, but I'm not working this hard because I want to, I'm doing it because I have to. The way I stay balanced is by making sure that nothing leaves my table that I'm ashamed of. But it's SO hard not to get lazy. It's so hard, when you're ready to move on to the next page, and you see that a panel could be re-shot from another angle to be a little better. It's so hard not to say "It's good enough, no one will care," and move on to an earlier bedtime.

But what I know is, when I buckle down and do it, I'm always proud and I sleep soundly, and when I don't do it I sleep with a thief's conscience. When I do it, people look at those panels and compliment me, and the memory of that praise obliterates the memory of the labor, but when I don't do it, I know what I did and the work feels wasted and pointless.

So true.

inking tools

Inking. I have no idea what tools to use so one month I am dedicated to pens and nibs, the next month I go nuts on markers and brush pens, then the brush. Over the past year or two, I have settled on using markers and brush pens for sketches and using nib-pens and brushes for more formal/finished work.

What I like so far is the nib pens and brushes mostly becuase the ink itself just looks so much better on the page then the ink in markers. However the markers and brush pens are easier to use and have a lot less mess. Also everything is scanned in and the quality of the black is lost in that process anyway for the most part so maybe that doesn't matter (?).

So over the last week I was looking at some comics and decided to try and figure out what tools the artists are using.

The two artists I started with are Yukito Kishiro and Sean Phillips.

Over at Sean Phillip's blog he posts some examples of his work

So his work is great of course and he has a real loose style which I love. from reading the comments people ask him what tools he uses and he mentioned Copic markers for "pencils"; Staedtler pigment liners and Pentel brush pens for inks.

Kishiro does my favorite manga - Battle Angel Alita. The story is ok but his designs and drawings are great. His website "yukitopia" has a section that shows his studio. In there he has a picture of some of his tools.

In his pens tray he has 6 nib-pens. 2 crowquills, an 801 Hiro Leonardt, and 3 tachikawa "G" pens.





More later...

Listen...not yet though

Free Preview of Andrew Bird's new album next week at NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98649962

sketches 12 22 2008

The VET

Got an idea for a story and wrote the whole thing while I was watching my kids this morning. It's a short story about a vet. This is kind of notable for me since I've never had the experience of a complete story just coming to me out of thin air. I'm glad I had the chance to write down as it came to me so I don't forget it. Maybe I can turn it into something. Also notable since it's the first story that's ever come to me that I don't think is lame the split second after I think of it! Cheers.

Page 11 done

Page 11 is inked and sent off to LOSW HQ a couple days ago. It's an ok page. Panel 3 is a bit goofy - (I think Nate's head is a bit too wide) and there are some other issues but overall I am happy with it. I used a brush for the whole thing and got some of the best results I have ever got out of that tool. It takes a lot of concentration for me not to rush when brushing..to be deliberate. I need to imagine the line then try and make the line instead of just slapping it down and hoping a nice line happens. Anyway, I'll never be a great inker but I think I am improving so that's positive.

page 11 - more work

I blasted through this page in about an hour. It's a conversation page with nothing much really happening and I think the composition and poses I chose in the first pass were pretty boring. So tonight I changed a couple things. I think it's an improvement.

page 11

ink study

practiced using my brush over a Rip Kirby panel by Alex Raymond today.

page 10 done

This page went through a lot and I really like how it looks now. The inking is ok in parts. I used a brush (WN7 size 1) on the floor tiles and a lot of the detail behind the bar. WN7 size 2 on Nate in the foreground and a Hunt 102 on most of Casey and the bar itself.

I'm trying to work the brush in more and more since it is a lot more versatile but I still like the pen for it's consistency. My main problem is that with the brush my tendency is to rush the lines. It's a lot harder for me to get a consistent line weight with the brush. That said, I have been looking at my other work with the pen and lines are all too uniform. They are consistent but they don't have enough variation causing the elements of the composition to run together. I will be trying to use line weights to tie the elements of the picture together. heavier lines on focal areas and thinner lines on background elements.

Anyway, one more page of the coffee shop then the story begins to make the transition into the crazy! I can't wait!

page 10 improved

looks a lot better! Inks tomorrow.

page10...bah!

This happens sometimes. The drawing is ok but it misses the mark. Never feels quite right. The composition is just bad. It felt wrong from the start but I kept trying to make it work. I need to learn to trust my instincts a little sooner to avoid losing hours. Ah well. It looks ok but everything is clumped in the middle. jumbled. No flow across or through the page. I'll be redoing the whole thing closer up and from a slightly different angle....tomorrow.

skull and drumsticks

flower sketch with color

colored the sketch with photoshop

colored the other one too...

sketches 11 24