My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 4

Just a quick update on the cover progress today...

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 3

I just got jazzed again this morning to work on the cover (instead of playing video games!). While I did want to get through Vanquish on my XBOX, I am not going to pass up the muse when it beckons!

Where the heck does the logo go?!

Cleaned up some of the lines this morning and went ahead and blocked in some colors. I think I still have some composition and detail issues I want to address, but I think it's coming along. Okay gotta go! I'll be late for work!

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 2

I'm still trying to push through all my daily distractions and did a little bit of work on the cover.

slowly but surely!

I've been inking the background elements of the cover as well as fixing up the foreground character bit-by-bit. I'm also messing around with the logo placement. It looks like the top left corner of the cover is BEGGING for something to be placed there, but I always pictured the logo to be in the sunglasses...

I'm going to mull it over for a bit... but that's it for tonight, I'm beat! Good night and God bless.

Thank You Cards

I have absolutely come to a screeching halt with my comic book.

It's very sad. I keep justifying my 'stalled' predicament by thinking, "it's okay, I've been working hard to finish the colors... I only have a cover to do... I need a break". And that's where it gets dangerous.

When I don't ride that artistic momentum, it's really hard to get it back again. Kinda like excercise. You get into a groove, and it becomes 'easy'. BUT, you miss even one day from your regular schedule, and it's so hard to find that groove again.

Sigh. Anyway, my blog is looking sad, so I thought to post something up.

This is the thank you card I did for my wedding. Still going with the comic book theme, I whipped this up relatively quick ('quick' for me at least). Unfortunately it's been taking me and the wife a LONG time to send them out!

I can't find any physical sketches of the thing, so I think I did it all digitally. Sorry about the way I laid out the images; it's a little weird, but the top half is actually the inside of the card and the bottom half is the front.

Rough digital pencils

Trace-worthy background reference!

inks

flat colors

First color pass

Final Colors

For the background, I just googled up our hotel and traced one so it would fit into the cartoony world of the characters. What can I say? I'm lazy, slow and get even slower when I do backgrounds. I had to do this card quick. I knocked the linework for the building back, so that the characters would pop-out more.

My initial color pass had gradients in it, but I felt like it was trying too hard. I didn't like the colors when it came out in print, and I felt the gradient wasn't really adding much. So in my final color pass, I left the colors very flat.

I was also experimenting with a caption at the front of the card, but I think it took away from the image and opted to get rid of it entirely at the end.

That's it for tonight! Here's hoping I can get my groove back and really put issue #2 in the can! Good night and God Bless!

My Comic Book: Issue #2 first test print!

Yay! I got the test copy for Bomb Squad #2 in the mail last week! Sorry for just dropping off the posts, but after coloring and sending off the files to be printed I just stopped to a halt with my comic book work! I got sucked into video games again (I've been sucked into Yakuza 4, Binary Domain and Rhythm Heaven Fever lately!)

Anyhow, the print came back, and I am so excited! The paper quality's better than the first run of the first issue, but the color ink seems a little sparse, it's not QUITE a solid color when it's laid down on the page. Still it's a nit-pick; the book looks pretty sweet in print and in my hot little hands!

Temporary cover. I need to get a-crackin'!

The first two page spread looks like it's working. Still I need a few color
tweaks on the highlights on the window in the panel with Kid Hotshot.

This page is almost there, the highlights on the building need a little tweaking as well.

It's nice to see some of the colored pages when they're side-by-side like this.

The print is a little strong on the blue, the sky is supposed to have a little more green and some of my really subtle light tinted grays aren't picked up, so they just go to white. I'm actuallu using the same chade of blue for the sky in the first book, but they turned out pretty different. Still, I like the print from Ka-Blam. I'm excited to finish off the cover and sell it at a con! But the only cons (close to me) are A.P.E. and Wondercon (if it comes back to SF) next year!

I need to get back into the regular groove of working on the book again, then ride that flow into issue #3! The idea was to do a book a year, so I'm already late! Story of my life! Seeing my book in print though always gives me a second wind. God Bless you all, and see you next post!