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

page 9 done

This one took me forever....mostly due to distractions outside of comics. feels crappy when something takes so long but it's nice to finally finish. I think panel 4 looks really nice. the rest is ok. Still a lot to learn when it comes to inks. On this page I used a Hunt 102 on most of the people and clothes, a tighter nib (Hunt 107) on the backgrounds, a brush on some of the clothes and a PITT brush pen on some of the touch ups.

page 9 - more work

page 9- first pass

warm up sketches

page 6

Pinned!

Page 1 of "Pinned" went up today over on Legendsofsuperwrestle.net. The comic is drawn by me, written, lettered and colored by Kevin Panetta. I have been posting black and white stuff here but it looks a lot cooler with Kevin's colors. It's a pretty cool story and I think it's looking sharp so go check it out and let me know what you think.

There will be new pages every week (Wednesdays?)

page 5

Also here is a composite of the thumbnail, pencil, and final inks for this page. I got this idea from Sam Hiti's blog.

sketches

inks -- 7-8

These pages took me way too long but they're in the books for now. going back to ink up pages 5 and 6 tomorrow...sleep now.

page 7-8: last little bit

added some detail to the background of the bottom panel. I think that does it. inks tomorrow.

pages 7-8 - more work

getting closer......

preview of Pinned in Legends of Superwrestle #1

This is a preview of this story "Pinned" written and colored by Kevin Panetta. Lines by me. This preview appeared in Legends of Superwrestle #1 (by Kevin Panetta and Andy Kettler) that came out at SPX this weekend. Check out the website for information on how to pick up a copy of LOSW.

page 7-8

pages 7-8

took a crack at pages 7-8 tonight.

sketch

Did a little sketch of nate while my kids were at the play tower this weekend.

page 6

page 6

thumbnail layouts pp6-14

Spent some time this week reinstalling Photoshop and doing some thumbnails.
Page 6


Pages 7-8


Page 9


Page 10


Page 11


Page 12


Page 13


page 14

giblet chef

BYAAAAH

page 5

Actually I did this last night. Tonight I spent 3 hours repairing my machine. but I finally got it working again and was able to scan the page. A little more work and it will be inkable.

page 5 more work

page 5 first pass

page 5 thumbnail

page 4 inks

page 4

page 4 more work

page 4 layout

finally got to draw again after a full week of catching up at work...here is the layout of page 4. I added some block tones to help see what's going on...the pencils came in pretty light.

page 3 inks

page 3 - more work

put a little more drawing in tonight but more importantly got my pc and scanner up and running again. looong week. glad its over.