(Apr 08, 2010)
Anybody else watch Doctor Who?
I had put the third series on while I was working on the last of the little redrawing I had to do on Americus this week, and I’ll admit there were times where I was watching a little more than I was drawing. Anyhow, the dude above is from one of the episodes and I couldn’t help myself from doodling him.
Sorry to cop out a bit this week. I just finished reformatting all the Americus pages to send out to First Second, I’ve got another double-page spread I’m doing for this year’s Finder for the WW, as well as some other odds and ends that I need to wrap up before I head out on vacation next week.
But something is better than nothing, right?
(Apr 08, 2010)
So I’ve taken on another artistic “project”. This time it’s the PAGE 100 PROJECT, which was started by Jason Turner on his livejournal. As an exercise, Jason decided to adapt the 100th page of any book of his choosing into comics form (you can see his first two adaptations here and here). He invited others to join in if so inspired, so I thought I’d try some adaptations of my own. My “to-read pile” is growing pretty tall, and this seemed like a fun way to get myself to start digging into it.
The first book I’m adapting is THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert A. Heinlein.
This was really only the first third of page 100. There’s a lot more yak-yak-yakking and I was trying to keep the actual comic down to one page. Also, the scene from panel two is out of my own head. Just thought it would be interesting to picture Mike’s report about cyborgs to add some variety to the scene, though it’s probably sillier than something Heinlein would have envisioned. Actually, the style of this page looks more cartoony than I originally intended.
Two quick notes before I sign off.
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You may remember me writing acouple of times about Joey Weiser’s fundraiser to publish his graphic novel CAVEMEN IN SPACE. Well, the drive ended this week, and I’m happy to report that he met his target goal. Congratulations, Joey!
…
An old buddy of mine, Nathan Kissel, recently started posting at a artblog that he’s keeping with another friend. Go give them some love if you get the chance. If it’s any incentive, Nathan draws a mean Wolverine.
(Apr 06, 2010)
Here’s my Jubilee!
I am working on other stuff. Just very slowly…
(Apr 01, 2010)
So I finished Americus last week!
Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. I finished doing all the initial drawing of Americus last week. It’s still not ready to be sent to our big cheese over at First Second, Calista Brill, to begin the major editing process. Right now I’ve still got to clean up some panels and do some editing on the last two chapters I just finished. I thought that maybe this week I would show everyone how I go about doing that.
Since the chapters I’m working on now are sort of the climax and resolution of the story, and I don’t want to spoil any of it, I pulled some pages from a couple of chapters ago that needed some editing to show you how I go about doing it. [I apologize ahead of time for the crappy quality of the photos].
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So here we are with two pages that had the same issue – its the introduction of a new character, and it had been so long since I drew her that I had kind of forgotten what she looked like. Admittedly, I should have referred to the initial character sketch I had done before I started drawing her, but sometimes I get lazy and try to wing it…
Now it might seem like a small issue, but basically her hair looked too normal and cute. This kind of issue is pretty easy to address – even though there’s some redrawing it’s simple enough that with the help of the computer I don’t have to completely redraw the panels. Anyhow, this kind of work calls for a some new tools – I bust out some Beinfang Designer Series Marker Paper [which I guess I forgot to mention in last week's post], which is basically like fancy tracing paper.
As you can see it’s translucent so I can just place it over the panel that needs the fixing and draw the what I need it to look like right then and there. I treat the corrections like I would regular drawing – I pencil it and then ink it. The nice thing about the marker paper is that it can take ink without buckling or warping like tracing paper would.
This set of pages is kind of funny because even when I was doing the editing, I caught myself making the same mistake over again. Her hair was a little more crazy, but not crazy enough. So I had to go back with another sheet and redraw the corrections again.
Note: In the first image you can see some of the other edits from the chapter. I try to fit as much as I can on one sheet so I don’t have to do a bunch of scanning.
After I have the corrections scanned, I open up Photoshop and erase what needs to be fixed and basically just drop the scanned correction in as a new layer. Anyhow, below is a side-by-side comparison of the original page and then the page with the correction. Like I mentioned before, it might seem like such a small thing to be fussing over, but having her hair the way it’s supposed to be really helps define her as a character, though it might be hard to see it in this short scene.
Anyhow, this is what next week or so looks like for me. I’ll be doing a lot of this, and then straight up redrawing of panels that are too complicated for me to do some quick fixing like this. It may be tedious, but all this little drawing is relatively easy and each bit brings us closer to finishing.
‘Till next time!
(Apr 01, 2010)
Sorry about another Thursday post. I swear I’ll crawl my way back to Wednesdays eventually.
Here’s something I drew for the
Johnny Cash Project. The Project is creating a music video where each frame is a portrait of Johnny Cash provided by people online (though each portrait is based on a still that is assigned by the site). I love Johnny’s music, and I thought it would be fun to participate (though I overworked my frame waaay too much). Anyway…
Johnny Cash mourns the dying tradition of finding porn in the woods. As do we all, Johnny…
Last week I picked up a book called BLACK BLIZZARD by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. It’s a 1956 manga about two prisoners escaping from a crashed train. One of the things that appealed to me about this book is its design. The cover recalls the look of pulp crime novels, though the similarities to old peperbacks don’t end there.
We should have asked this guy to do an image for this year’s BPB calendar…
The book is printed on heavy newsprint, and the image quality is crude, like bad xeroxes of old photostats. This is not to say the comic looks unreadable, but these touches give the feeling of reading something from the past. This is the fourth book by Tatsumi to be released by Drawn & Quarterly, but it’s the first to have the physicality of the book recall the time period in which it was originally produced. I’m interested in seeing if future books by the author follow this route, or if they will continue to experiment with each book’s design.
As for the comic itself, Tatsumi’s work seems overly simple, but there are many nuances in his cartooning that build tension to these prisoners’ tale of escape. Tatsumi frequently plays with composition inside his panels, allowing some figures or objects to loom over others to create a disorienting effect. The simplicity of his drawing allows actions to feel direct and explosive.
Throughout the book, the escaped prisoners have to make their way through a raging blizzard. In these scenes, diagonals become much more prominent… snow pounds down in harsh, zipping lines, the panel views tilt and rock… All of this helps to create a disorienting effect. We feel the characters’ struggle as they try to navigate the powerful storm.
It’s also interesting to note that Tatsumi builds the story on a simple six-panel structure. One method of conveying the disorientation I mentioned earlier would have been to change up this grid, and use more unconventional layouts. Instead, Tatsumi chooses to manipulate the composition within the panels. I think it’s admirable that he can get such great energy out of a straightforward layout.
On a random note, this is probably my favorite panel in the book. I just love that face.
One more thing before I go… Earlier this week, I stumbled upon a
blog post by Tim Hensley, who helped design the cover of BLACK BLIZZARD. He talks about designing the title text and shows some variations that he had come up with. It’s worth a read if I haven’t already bored you with all my yammering.
Anyway, see you all next week… Same Bat-Channel, though hopefully not the same Bat-Time.
(Mar 29, 2010)
Well, this one’s kind of a cop out… Sorry Polaris I wanted more for you.
(Mar 26, 2010)
So I realized that my posts on the blog have been pretty stagnant for the most part. I mean to say that there hasn’t been a lot of variation – it’s been me posting the illustrations I was assigned that week with maybe some splashes of quick drawings here and there.
To try to break that up and in honor of me finishing up Americus wicked soon, I thought that I would show a little behind the scenes the next couple of weeks and document me in the process of drawing up a page of comics, as well as go over the tools I use to do what I do. This could be interesting to anyone who doesn’t really draw comics and potentially boring to anyone that does. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
Part I, Weapons of choice
I didn’t think I used that much when I draw, but after going through what I actually use I realized the list is longer than I thought, though not really that crazy or diverse. Anyhow, my weapons cache consists of a the following tools:
2H pencil
Pictured is Samson. He’s the pencil I used to draw EVERYTHING starting with my last year in college up until a year or two ago. Seriously, EVERYTHING. I think someone left him behind in one of my classes, and I picked him up and it was magic for many, many years. The only reason I started to use different pencils was because I thought I lost him and was forced to get a new ones.
That boring story being told, I like the 2H because they last forever, and since I do a lot of sketching and redrawing when I work on stuff, it’s nice that the hard lead doesn’t smear like softer Bs do.
100 lb. Strathmore smooth Bristol board
I used to use a vellum finish, which has a little bit of a tooth, but as I slowly moved to using the brush exclusively and relying on a more clean line, I have switched to the smooth. I’ve found that if you want to do some dry brushing, the vellum is better.
#1 Rosemary brush
I used to use Windsor Newton Series 7 Sable brushes up until very recently because in school we were told they were the Winchester rifles of brushes and that hype was generally lived up to. Then they started to suck. Like suck bad. Like every brush I would by would fray and lose its tip after the first time I used it. Luckily, my good friend, amazing illustrator, [and maybe roommate in the future] Meg Hunt introduced me to Rosemary Brushes. It’s this lady in England that makes the brushes by hand [I don't think she personally makes them.] Anyhow, I would swear by these brushes now. They’re incredibly affordable and I’ve found them to keep their tip through and through.
And as a side note to brush selection: I used to use a #2, but since drawing Americus, I’ve found a #1 gets me the fine line I need. I don’t know if it’s because my touch is getting less delicate, or if I’ve just needed to have a finer line in my drawing, but the #2 has just seemed a little too clumsly for me lately.
Micron pens, [#1 & #3]
I only use the Micron for tiny details that are too fine for me to get with a brush, like facial features in wide shots and what not.
Pentel brush pen
These bad boys are really, really great when you’re traveling and want to draw and sketch with a brush on the go, but don’t want to worry about having to carry around all your inking supplies. They’re nice because they have actual bristles. I’ve seen some brush pens that just have tapered felt tips and they are really, really horrible. Anyhow, I’ve also found the Pentel brush pens to be really great for lettering because the brush has a consistent tip and you don’t have to keep dipping them into the ink. It’s a completely different experience, but if you’ve ever wanted to start drawing with a brush and need a stepping stone these are great way to get the feel of the tool without diving straight in. They also come in varying colors, so you can try out some different stuff with them. I just have a black one and then a grey one in hopes of sitting down and practicing tones one of these days.
and finally
Windsor Newton Black India Ink.
To be honest, I haven’t really used a lot of other inks so I can’t bring up comparisons of them to the Windsor Newton stuff. I have used Windsor Newton ink since I started drawing comics and I haven’t found a reason to switch.
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I’ll be finishing the first draft of Americus today, but I still have some edits to do and then I have to throw it all into a PDF and send it to my editor, but I should be able to start devoting more time to art for myself, and as a result, my blog posts should be a little more diverse and experimental. Please stay tuned!
(Mar 25, 2010)
The comic I wrote and drew for the Viet Nam Literature project just went up on their website, so I thought I’d repost it here, since I showed some of my process for it a couple of weeks ago:
This comic, as well as past comics by myself and fellow ‘bagger Jonathan are available in pdf form at the VNLP website. I have a couple more comics about Lucy coming up, plus the VNLP will be putting out a mincomic collection of the strips I did for them last year. I should have more news about those projects in the coming months.
Since this week has been light as far as new art goes, I thought I’d do a quick bit of fan art. Below are some characters from Joey Weiser’s comic CAVEMEN IN SPACE:
You may remember that I mentioned this comic a while ago, when Joey started a drive to raise money for its publication. I’m glad to report that he’s raised around 2/3 of his goal, but he’s got to get his book the printers soon. If you’re interested in learning more about this project, feel free to check out these links:
Hoping to post on time next week. See you all then.
(Mar 22, 2010)
Storm!
So next week will be Polaris, can I get some Polaris love?
~ty
(Mar 17, 2010)
Excuse me while I jump aboard the caboose of the Wolverine Train that’s pulled out of the station. Yes, I’d hoped to share my rendition of the most ubiquitous of X-Men last week with Tyler and Jonathan. Better late than never though, eh?
As Jonathan hinted at last Friday, shortness is an important aspect of any Wolverine drawing. These days, Wolvsy tends to be drawn as tall as his fellow marvel heroes, but true believers know that he’s really a five-foot-nothing fuzzball of adamantium-laced fury! Returning Wolverine to his stumpy roots was the main inspiration behind the following illustration.
This week’s drawing is also a transparent excuse to draw Tom Cruise’s nutty-looking mug. Below are some of my warm-ups and face studies, which have a more grotesque look than the finished piece.
Seriously, if you gaze long into Tom Cruise’s smile, so does his smile gaze into you!
