That's a What Blog's For, Silly!

So this month of January, for me, in my Earthbound comics duties, is deadline fever.  I'm prepping 3 (possibly 5) books to be ready in time for March and April conventions.  I seem to be mostly ahead of the game though...

My big big project is getting the Mastorism trade paperback volume ready, which, last night, meant I had to write a forward for the book (for lack of a better term--  I coaxed Jeff into writing an introduction).  All the while, putting this thing together I had thought about how far I had come from the first page...  but it really wasn't until I really put my head into writing the forward that I truly analyzed and saw the scope of how transformative a process this volume of Mastorism was.

I mean, I certainly knew that I grew as an artist.  A quick comparison between the prelude and the epilogue would convince anyone of that.  And as a writer, I likely also grew.  One of the things I noted in my forward was having to adapt the story, hitting the beats, so that it worked well as a bi-weekly webcomic but also as chapters and finally as a full story.  (Not to sound like a pretentious snob, but there is most certainly a difference between developing a story to be presented as a webcomic at certain regular intervals versus just posting your story comic on the web.)  So there was significant (and documented) growth in those areas, and pretty much every day that I completed a page, I was reminded of those things.

But the look back brought to light some other transformations that I hadn't ever stopped to consider, which are interesting to dwell on.  At least momentarily:

Webcomics.  My views on webcomics have practically done a complete 180 since the early development of Mastorism.  While my first run of Explosion Proof was more or less an experiment for myself to see the ins and outs, process wise, of getting a book created and published, even with a heavy promotion effort on my part, it seemed nigh on impossible to do what I wanted with a print publication.  What I wanted, of course, was to reach an audience.  A few message board chats  with DJ Coffman turned me on to the concept of publishing my story as a webcomic.  It was still swimming upstream. 

At the time webcomics had almost zero appeal to me, so why would I want to do that with my own comic?  But I persisted, learned everything I could (DJ was an amazing resource)--  today, not only has my own comic been relatively successful in the webcomic arena, but I'm a totally converted webcomics reader.  Totally part of that scene, to the point where, in this blog, I'm working to have a weekly webcomic feature.  I care about them that much. 

Digital Art.  Okay.  I noticed this.  In fact, many people know me as digital art/wacom evangelist.  Its one of my favorite subjects.  But the thing is, I can't remember when I wasn't.  Unless I think about it, that is.  Because two years ago I thought my Wacom tablet was a waste of money.  The REAL truth about how I came to make the digital jump is this:  I can't draw fast enough the traditional way.  Pure and simple.

You see, I had originally set out to draw Mastorism 100% traditionally.  In fact, I have one or two of the first pages drawn out traditionally (what you see published, though, are digital re-works), and about 2 or 3 more pages with the panels delineated that I never even got to.  I had dedicated myself to getting 2 pages done a week, and working traditionally was simply not cutting it.  Traditionalists like to sit an argue that traditional art is actually faster (they seem to think that us digital artists spend half the day hitting ctrl-z simply because its there), but I think its more up to the individual, and for THIS individual it cuts several steps from my process, and is just way way way WAY faster in excecution for me.  So I forced myself to learn to first ink, and shortly after also draw digitally.  And I never looked back. 

Okay okay, I look back all the time.  My wife would totally bust me on that since I've bought like 45 cheapo brushes (and one expensive one) hella pads of paper, pens, nibs, etc over the last two years.  I actually nerd out on that stuff.  Buuuut, when I want to get something done, I'll flip on the computer, and its most certainly how I define myself as an artist.

So, those are two of the biggies... there are some others, but I'll spare you for the time being.  You can see why I chose not to expand on these in the forward, or half the book would be just me writing about how much I changed during the book. 

That's a what blog's for, silly!

Bouncing Back with a Vengeance

After hitting somewhat of an inter-project drawing slump, I think I’m finally bouncing back with a bit of a vengeance (as the blog title would indicate).  I had spent quite a bit of my “work/drawing time” doing anything and everything I could think of to avoid moving any of my projects forward.  I resolved that it was likely my anxiousness to get started back on some new Mastorism being dampened by the fact that I had other projects that needed to be finished first.  It took me a while to figure this out.

If you’re a drawing person (not a drawer, cause that’s where you put stuff), like me, then you probably understand the constant urge to draw draw draw.  I don’t know how better to explain it, and its something really difficult to explain to someone who does not experience this.  I’ve talked to a number of fellow artists that feel the same way.  There’s a certain weight that’s lifted off of my soul every time I start making marks on the page.  So, anyhow, you can imagine, then what its like when some non-drawing aspects of my projects stood between me and drawing the stories I love the most…  depressing! 

Enough with the sob story, though, eh?  How about some art!  Well, okay.  I’ve been working on the front and back cover artwork to the Mastorism collected trade that will collect the Vol. 1 Issues #1-6.  The same one that you saw the chapter lead in art for in my process post.  Guess what?  Not showing you that.  Nope, that’s between me, me, and my colorist for now.  BUT, I have been doing some prelim sketches for the new volume/story/whatever you want to call it.  So here’s a pic of D in a dramatic comic book-y pose:

Swell, eh?  I like to think so.  This is a super rough kinda concept sketch.  Not quite the tediously clean finished stuff one might expect from me.  In fact, since I work digitally, here I just jumped right into the “inks” blocked in some forms and went to town without really worrying about ending with a clean final product (I wasn’t planning on showing it to anyone).  The advantage here of being digital is that I don’t have nearly the commitment that jumping straight to inks all loose and free would have on paper.  Anyhow, I was actually pretty pleased with the loose feel that I ended up with.  So much so, that I’ve pondered adapting some of this to my own style.  I dunno, though… time will tell.   I want to have a more consistent style throughout this next phase of Mastorism,  so I’m a tad apprehensive about committing to a style I can get 100% behind. 

So what you see here is a pretty major update to the uniform.  D had always had a “special” uniform (skirt, weird black sleeves and tights), so here I am giving her a standard issue Mastor uniform… although that’s been updated too!  You see, quite a bit of time will have passed where this next story picks up.  You’ll also notice she’s off dispatch duty and ready for action.  So that’s a pretty good preview for you!

Boom!  Well I have another nifty prelim sketch (with an even more radical costume redesign), but I think this post has probably already bombarded you with too much reading already, so I will save that one for tomorrow.  Here’s a hint, its another favorite female from Mastorism…..

Still trying to get my act together as far as regular blog posts, I suspect it may take a little time yet.  I’m planning some regular features so every day or so, you’ll have something different to look forward to.   I think I write better if there’s a little bit of structure involved, so I’m just setting that structure up for myself.

Take care, all!

Quick Process Overview

Hey everyone.  I want to first apologize for erratic posting schedule-- its been a, well, erratic time for me, but things are leveling out, so I'm going to try and work on a more regular posting schedule.  Hopefully it will include some regular features, etc.

Anyhow, one of the reasons why I started this blog was because when I started to get serious about creating comics, I was shocked at how hard it was to find answers to my questions.  To get where I'm at now (which, I would still describe as the beginning of a long journey) has involved a lot of trial and error, and also a lot help from people more wiser than I (you'll find that the comics community, by and large, is filled with lots of friendly helpful folks), which I'd sought out on forums and elsewhere.  So in turn, I'd like to try and share what I've learned, and what I continue to learn everyday.  Partially to help other people learn, and partially to get peoples opinion on what I'm doing and ways to refine/improve upon it.

Before I delve to deep into the particulars of my process, let's to a quick overview of how I work.  First off, unless I'm just drawing for kicks (which is not as often as I'd like), pretty much all of my day to day artwork is 100% digital.  I currently do all of my drawing in Manga Studio (I started in Photoshop, but have found Manga Studio far superior for drawing comics) on a tablet PC (Wacom Penabled, of course).  So, what you're going to see here is work pretty much all done in Manga Studio.

The piece in question is a chapter lead in page for the upcoming Mastorism collection. Its a little atypical of my normal page approach. Unfortunately, this means we'll be skipping panel layouts, and all that fun stuff, but it should also simplify things.  Each of the lead ins are going to feature a profile of a prominent character.  The one we're looking at features the Dark Mastor.

Here we go!

Speaking of Ink Work...

Almost like fate, while I'm considering all this inking stuff, I stumbled upon a blog I hadn't visited before called Illustration Art.  The newest post was called "Ink and Commitment" which was truly inspiring and thought provoking.

I read a lot of digital vs. traditional articles, blog posts, and forum debates.  Since I'm primarily a digital artist, I find it an interesting subject, albeit a tad aggravating at times, as some of the traditionalists have some pretty harsh feelings toward digital art.  But that's okay.  I can understand where they're coming from (even if I don't totally agree with their opinions), and I love working traditionally as well, and have a great respect for all of those who do.  (Really, I go digital because I can just get more done faster).

Anyhow, you'll find none of that in this post.  Sure it's an arguement for the traditional side, but for the virtues of working with ink, not for the "pitfalls" of working digitally.  Well, minus one amusing remark noting that the Wacom tablet's ancestry can be traced back to the Etch-a-Sketch.   Its almost a love letter to ink.  And it was just what I needed to read today at just the right time!