Yeah... I'm Still Alive...

Even if barely. 

Literally the last couple months have been pretty much nonstop for me.  All of it has been equally important and time sensitive so its been really hard for me to justify taking time out of everything I'm to do blog posts, y'know?  I'd be hard pressed to explain to someone why I wasn't working such-and-such for them, but yet I had time to write to you about my thoughts of, say, Jim Lee becoming the publisher of DC comics, or even talk about the various projects I'm doing.  So, I've kinda let it slip, but everything is starting ease up a bit, and I have ton of cool process-y type stuff built up to write about after everything I've done so....  That's coming up.

Right before things got heavy, I spend a little time planning a new story that hasn't quite materialized yet, but I've got some sketches I did to get my mind flowing that I don't mind sharing today... so here ya go:

 

  

Cheap brush on bristol.

I'm also working on some illustrations for my friends EP cover.  It's actually turned from one into three illustrations (so far), so I'll share those with you too over the coming weeks.

I'm off to the Long Beach Comic Expo one-day shin-dig this weekend.  As an attendee (which will be nice for a change).  So I'll be sure to report back and let you know how that went.

That's all for now.  Take care folks.

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!

Moving Right Along + DJ concept sketch!

Have you noticed I totally ditched my ghost story idea?  Did you even notice the ghost story thing in the first place?  No?  Well, never mind then.  The point is:  I'm getting focused!  The covers for the last Mastorism book, and the trade paperback are complete.  I'm (with luck) sending them off to my colorist this week.  So I'm going to be into full bore pre-press mode with those soon.  Wrapping my brain around the whole trade paper back thing is going to be the most challenging-- Keeping track of all the pages and whatnot.

With 132 story pages (plus editorial content that could push it close to 150 total pages), its most certainly the longest publication I've ever prepared.  So, equal parts excitement and nervousness.  Well, mostly excitement actually.  I actually really nerd out when it comes to digital pre-press and just working with the print world in general.  With my job, in a relatively short amount of time, I've had quite a variety of design/pre-press/print projects and I love every minute of it.  Usually there aren't enough minutes of it... making the minutes I do have a tad stressful, but hey!  That's the biz!

Anyhow, here's what you want to see, a prelim concept sketch from my upcoming Mastorism project.  This time it's DJ:

Oh yeah.  That's the good stuff.

So again, its a loose "ink" sketch done in Manga Studio, to kind of get the costume/character design down a bit.  Here's the concept for her:  From the beginning she was always kind of a "wannabe" Mastor.  Those of you who've read the comic know that she came from the Dark Universe to Mastorism Universe to become a Mastor, but got rejected, and has since joined up with (everyone's favorite) Z-Squad.  So, her costume was always a tad of a knock off of the Mastor uniform as a nod to this fact.  Here I've more or less done the same thing.  The Mastor uniform got an upgrade, and so has DJ's outfit.  Blatantly showing off my laziness, you can see that I gave her different pants/boots.  I'll likely switch that up to better match the Mastors.

I've purposely made her outfit a closer knock off of the M uni because I think it fits an interesting conflict within her character, and also makes for an interesting contrast between her and Ash.  Ash, the former Mastor, will have completely un-identified herself with the Mastors.  DJ, who's long been bitter with the Mastors at this point, still considers her role with Z-Squad as a consolation prize for not making it as a Mastor.  So, some of this will play out in the story.  Should be interesting, to say the least.

Well, that's it for now.  More fun stuff coming your way soon!

Links Outside the Bottle

Week in Review and Friday Linkblogging, wee!

While I try and get my poop together on regular features, one of my ideas was a Friday linkblog post/week in review sorta thing, so let’s try it out and see what happens!  Here we go!
 
Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!

The big news this week in comics was the 47 or so “bombshells” DC dropped about 2010.  The one that seems to stir up the most controversy is the Year One “OGNs.”  If you’ve been under a rock (or at least don’t fanatically read comics blogs like I do), DC is launching an all new series of out-of-continuity “graphic novels” (meaning, no floppies) aimed at new readers in book stores.  The idea behind their intentions is a good one, but I think, marketing wise, they’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.  Time will tell.  They’re starting with Superman and Batman origins, which is kind of, sigh…. But again, time will tell.  Its caused a bit of ruckus with the online community.  But I’m thinking the reason for such a ruckus is only that so many folks are concerned that SOMETHING needs to be done to bring comics to a wider audience, they get passionate about it.  If nothing else, though, they’re trying and it will be a learning experience for all of us.

I’m not super enthused about the rest of their “bombshells.”   

The return of Bruce Wayne:  too soon, I think.  I like the Dick Grayson version--  I would have liked to seen them run with it a little more.  Which, I get the feeling we’ll have more time with it while Bruce has adventures throughout history, apparently. 

War of the Supermen the big event of 2010:  I had barely gotten interested in Superman comics again when this while New Krypton debacle started.  Its been pushing me away while I’ve been waiting for some status quo and some smaller stories.  I guess that’s not happening.

Legacies and the Who’s Who revamp:  I can get behind these.  Not sure if I’ll buy it, but ok.

New Flash series: Not really a big announcement, but the hype on new Flash stuff is not lost on this Flash fan! 

Other stuff…

Not a big Marvel fan, but I was pretty intrigued to hear about Valarie D’Orazio’s upcoming stint on Punisher MAX.  I’m a fan of her Occasional Superheroine blog, and the story behind her relationship with Punisher is pretty nifty.  I’ll likely check it out.  Rich Johnston seems to think its going to be an attack on the publishing industry, though Valarie’s blog post doesn’t seem to touch on that specific comment.

My colleague Mike Luoma wrote a really informative article about how to go about making your own comic book.  Gives all the need-to-know for every step.   On the pre-press side of things, it’s a tad skewed towards Ka-Blam’s specs, but I’d recommend them anyway, and it’s a great way to get a feel for pre-press stuff.

Crazy and sad story this week is the family infighting and, now, strange burglary within the Frazetta family. 

It’s a bit older, but Optimum Wound put up a post this week with a ton of cool inking videos (if that sort of thing floats your boat).  I haven’t even seen em all yet, but… yeah.  Rad.

I saw Doctor Solar/Magnus as a solicit from Dark Horse for Free Comic Book day.  No link.  Just pointing that out.  I have to wonder if Jim Shooter is going to be involved or not…  heck, I have to wonder if its going to HAPPEN or not. 

That’s it for this week.  Probably more than enough!  Just touching on stuff that caught my interested.  So far this feature seems to be fun enough for me.  I’ll slowly be adding these regular features in…  with luck!

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!

"They don't call it artfun."

"I believe in work and work and work to make things good.

They don't call it artfun."


That little gem came from Charles Yoakum's blog, Ink Destroyed My Brush, today.  He's a credit-where-credits-due kind of guy so I would have to assume the words are his own.

Anyhow, I thought those wor some good words for artists to live by, so I had to share.. and speaking of which, I have a page to go ink.  You ought to go check out the post too,  has a great work-in-progress from his comic The Human Hourglass.

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!

More Ghost Story Development

Okay, probably the last time I'm going to subject you to this for a while....

Yet a third option, but now I am working with a real brush (albeit a cheapie) and bristol (strathmore 300).  Looking back, I wasn't very happy with what I had in my last post.  In fact I was happier with the sloppier version before that.  This one, I don't think falls between them, but not sure where.  I'm focusing more on the light vs dark, and trying to not be so anal with my brush.  One of the main things I'm doing is trying to be more courageous with my brush strokes and work faster.  I'm the sort that tends to pull a line very slowly so I can micromanage every minutae of the brush stroke.  I'm trying to teach myself that I need to save that for digital, which lends it self to that sort of cleanliness anyway.  If I'm going to get dirty with ink...  I need to GET DIRTY WITH INK!

The other versions were much smaller (two or three inches max) so it was easy to be really brash with my brush strokes.  Here I worked on a much larger scale, so it was a bit more challenging to keep up that rough look.  Its a whole new approach for me..  which is most of the reason I'm posting my progress on this since I'm really working through it.  If I pull this story off, then I may extend it to more stories in a series.  I guess I just feel like trying somethign different.

Hm.  I think the girl could use some more rendering of shadows.

Alright, I think I'm going to do some big tests, and probably won't bug y'all with this for a while...

More Ghost Story Development... and an Explosion Proof Preview

Refining the heavy brushwork a bit.  I'm not sure if I like this or my previous attempt better.  Maybe a happy medium is what I'm after:

I have a very specific mood in mind that I just don't think my regular artwork will capture... I think its going to be a process, and these are just very loose initial experiments.  Once again, this was done on cheap copy paper (not bristol) using my Pentel Pocket Brush. 

For those of you wondering if I'm totally abandoning my normal style you've become so accustomed to in Mastorism and Explosion Proof....  NO I'M NOT!  In fact, here's a sampling of what I'm currently working on.  Its a couple panels from the newest Explosion Proof story for a (scheduled) March edition of Lady Fight:

For those of you wondering, drawn top to bottom in Manga Studio 4 Debut.  I wanted to give you a little bit more, but, sorry, I'm gonna have to make you wait!  I'll probably run this directly after the current story that I'm running on Drunk Duck-- which I think will likely be before it goes to print.  How bout that!

For those of you who aren't familiar with my regular art, though, I hope this illustrates how far against my natural instincts this ghost story experiment is!

More as it comes!

Just in time for Halloween? A ghost story!

Okay, my ghost story will be done no where near in time for Halloween.  In fact, I've barely even started the development portion of things.  I'm not saying much about it yet (so as not to jinx it), but a decent enough ghost story popped into my head the other day, bounced around, and sort of developed itself into something I want to do.  Its short (so I have no idea how I want to publish it yet), but hopefully sweet (in a ghostly way).

The first hurdle for me, though, is that I envision it drawn in a style that's not my own.  If you're familiar with my work from Mastorism, you're probably aware of the fact that I'm insanely anal about line work, etc.  Being that I made the jump to digital, only made me that much more so.  That's not the look I want for this story.  I want something rougher.  Looser.  More free.  Basically, heavy sloppy brushwork.  I wasn't totally sure that it was within my capabilities, especially with me (working on) perfecting my super clean ways over the last few years....  So, you know what that means... experimentation!  So, in sort of a "development blog" spirit (pun!), here's my first whack at how I want the artwork to look:

You see, quite a contrast to my usual fare.  This is probably way more rough that my actual artwork to be, but I figure I gotta get real loose and see how it feels.  And, to tell the truth, it didn't feel all that good to me while I was doing it.  Felt worse when I was done.  But I scanned it for the purpose of this blog, and walked away for several hours, and now looking back at it, I'm not so un-happy with it after all.  I certainly think it needs work... refinement...  rules... but as a first whack, I think I'm on the right track.  Let's see if I can actually do this.

For me, it's kind of the artistic equivalent of people facing their fears by jumping out of a plane, or some non-sense like that.

For you process nerds out there (my people!), this is not digital (I want to break away from that for this project).  I just penciled some loose break downs on a piece of cheap paper and went to town with my Pentel Pocket Brush (my most favorite pen type thing ever).  Obviously when I get to my actual execution of the project, I will be working on bristol, likely with a real brush (though, I'm having a hard time beating my Pocket Brush).

I'm kind of apprehensive making this my first "art post" on this blog, being that its way uncharacteristic of me, but what the hell, if I'm gonna jump out of a plane, I might as well jump out of a plane!