This past week, I did some illustrations for the Viet Nam Literature Project’s newsletter:
Vo Tay Cuong, which is a pseudonym that refers to martial arts and bodybuilding.
Poet Thanh Nhung. She’s been around the world.
See you all next week.
Hello. Here’s my Wolverine.
I have to admit to a new found respect for any artist who has drawn Wolverine without making him look ridiculous, because, well he looks ridiculous. This is my third attempt by the way (one of the reasons I missed last week, I’ve also started working at Sweetpea Baking Co. again, so stop by and say hi on the weekends sometime). Originally I wanted to have him in costume, sans mask, but wound up deciding to do two different versions, one of Wolverine, as you see here, and one of Logan, out of costume. Hopefully, you’ll be seeing that soon. I like this drawing, kinda feels a little dated though, sitting somewhere between Byrne and Paul Smith. What do you think?
~Ty
Not much this week. Did some spot illustrations for the Willamette Week. It’s a little better to see them in the context of the article, which you can read here.
Anyhow, I had a nice vacation from drawing last week. But it’s back to the grindstone for me. The last leg of Americus is upon me. Only 10 pages to go!
Just a quick one this week — I was sketching characters from AMATEURS, and inked this drawing on a whim. Added some quick colors in Photoshop. Joey Kojima, folks… what’s up with this kid?
For shats and gaggles, here’s the original ink drawing without the digital editing:
See you next week!
So I had a breather for a second while I was getting the Asian Reporter cartoon done and I figured that posting something was better than nothing, so I took one of those cliche panoramic mash-up photos of my workspace.
I hope there’s nothing embarrassing on my desk there… Anyhow, see you next week!
Rogue!
I missed the last couple of weeks, I’ll try not to let that happen again.
~ty
So I’m hoping, er scratch that, DETERMINED to get the 10th page of chapter 9 of Americus done today, which will mean that I’m halfway done with the final chapter and also only have 10 PAGES LEFT! Woo-hoo!
Here’s a set of two panels from chapter 9:
Also, I did some work for the Willamette Week this week, as well as some pro bono work for the great folks at Hyphen Magazine for their next issue. Check them out.
EDIT: Forgot there’s a NDA with the illustration. The issue should be out the second or third week of April. Will keep you posted and repost the image when I am allowed to.
I’m taking a vacation with the misses next week so don’t expect anything from me.
My apologies for the last two weeks of silence. Things have been hectic since I’ve been hanging with my man Michael Caine. You wouldn’t think it if you saw him, but when he comes to town, the party gets started. And if there’s already a party going on, “Sugar” Caine kicks it up to the next level, where they start spelling it with a “double-e”! There are about 60 hours from the last few days that are just lost from my memory.
Don’t eat Taco Bell around Michael Caine. He will cold smack you.
While I’d love to ride the Caine-Train from here to Partee Citee, that’s not how one becomes a Prince of Maine or a King of New England. No, no. Rather, it’s time to awkwardly pull myself back onto the old blogging horse.
Here’s how I start planning a page:
Each comic, for formatting purposes, is built on a 16-panel grid. In my sketchbook, I rough out 16 panels and quickly sketch the major “beats” of the story. Once I’m sure my idea will fit the allotted space, I scribble in the text of the comic to see if it will fill up too much panel space. While imprecise, this does let me know if I need to start editing down the text.
Now this is where computer lettering has helped me with these comics. Using a 16-panel template in Photoshop, I add the text from my layout. Now I know just how the lettering in the comic will look.
Other advantages to this method is that this gives me a readable draft that I can send to my editor. Also, when I draw the final comic, I can just paste the drawings into the template, and presto– instantly lettered comic! How ’bout them apples?
AMATEURS updates will probably take up the majority of my future postings. There’s a lot of pages to draw, and Jeremy and I want to get this book to the people as soon as we can. Unfortunately, the Fan Art Apocalypse of January taught me I don’t have time to draw the comic, and extra stuff for this blog…
Last weekend I went to see UP IN THE AIR, which completes the triumvirant of George Clooney movies released this past holiday season (the other two being FANTASTIC MR. FOX, and THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS for those who may not know). Instead of going into a lengthy review of each film, I thought I’d sum up my feelings in a humble illustration:
I’d hoped to close this post out by mentioning a movie that George Clooney and Michael Caine had done together (we in the blogging business call this “bringing it all home”), but it turns out there are none. Their closest connection is that they’ve both been in Batman movies. Perhaps the world isn’t ready for the team up of Sugar Caine and The Clooninator.
Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hope the Year of the Tiger treats you well.
If you’re interested in reading your horoscope for the coming year, you can head on over to the Asian Reporter’s website and download the Lunar New Year section in PDF form. Be there!
Nothing fancy this week. Just working on the design of a mix cd. Here are the illustrations without the typographic elements.
I volunteered to do some pro bono illustration work for Hyphen Magazine, so I will probably have some of that process stuff up next week…. Wait, no. Next week is Tet, so I’ll have that image up. Anyhow, see you next week.