My Comic Book: Issue 3 page 6 WIP part 5

That last panel got a little more detailed than usual, but I think I can still keep it focused with color later on.

Okay, onto lettering!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 6 WIP part 4

I'm getting REEEAAAL close to finishing up this page. I just need to add people in the seats and some more tweaking with the line-weight and minor corrections and it's onto the letting part. The layout of the last panel might be an issue with the word balloons I have planned for it, but let's figure that out when we get there (totally not the thing to do but hey).

Did a few cheats and hid some things with the addition of the blacks into the page, but that right side of  panel 5 is feeling a little cramped when I add detail to it (like seats) so I left it a little bare but filled in with black. I might put a line in there on my next pass to break up how solid black it is.

I think I'm just rambling now, I'd better hit the hay. My daughter isn't sleeping too well (growth spurt, we think) so I'm pretty sure I'm going to pay for it staying up this late...

God Bless and good nigh... morning! Sigh.

My Comic Book: Issue 3, Page 6 WIP part 3

Did I say a panel a day on that last post? Maybe I meant a couple hours of distracted work a day...
This panel's angle was a little funky for me to try to figure out. The faked perspective wasn't quite working, so I spent some time drawing and re-drawing perspective lines.

Still needs some futzing to get it working...

After awhile of getting nowhere, I went to the trusty internets... my gigantic personal photo reference resource. I picked a shot where I had to fake the interior, since actual airline aisles are REALLY narrow. So I took out a couple rows of seats to make the cramped establishing shot in panel 5 kinda work.

Anyway, I am going to be late for work again if I keep this up! Maybe later tonight I'll have better luck finishing it off!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 6 WIP part 2

So my motto for the moment is: "A panel a day, keeps the deadline away". Or something like that. So the idea is to try to finish a panel everyday. Honestly, just typing that out makes me feel like it's crazy, but we'll see if I can keep that up.

Trying to spot more blacks in this issue.

Maybe in my swingin', reclusive, bachelor days I could pop more than a panel in a day after work. But with my responsibilities at home with the wife and baby and house chores (which I am naturally horrible at already), I'm usually brain-dead by the end of the day. But I need to push!

I'm trying to spot more blacks into my pages for this issue compared to issue 2. The second issue I relied a lot on colors to bring out contrast in my pages. In the first issue, I think because I was still doing that traditionally, I worked on the black and white stages longer, so I was more concerned with how that looked first before I moved onto the coloring stage.

But with my switch to digital, I'm moving onto the coloring stage quickly (like the last two pages). Color is good however for my target market, bright and bold appeals more to kids. However, I do love high contrast black and white artwork. While I'm not planning to go all Hellboy on the art, maybe I can find a happy medium.

Wondercon this year is apparently not going to be in San Francisco, so there go my chances of trying to get a table there (since I hoped it's be in SF to keep it local). The A.P.E. expo, however, should still be around here towards the latter half of the year. So it still gives me sometime to finish up this issue and hopefully have 3 issues to sell there, as well as some art books. Well I gotta get a table at A.P.E. first, but that might be tough.

Time to hit the hay! Good night and God Bless!

2nd Wedding anniversary

I have been sick three times since Christmas. It's been really annoying since I'm the only one that seems to be getting sick in the family (which is a good thing, but the wife and have been kid playing keep away all this time!). I guess I'm still recovering up until now. The wife is taking every precaution so the Baby doesn't get sick from me since she had a milder form of pneumonia during the holidays.

Anyhow, how does me getting sick relate to anything in this post? Well, I drew up a card for my 2nd wedding anniversary without telling the missus. And I was still sick and going to work (shhh, don't tell the co-workers) while this was going on. So let's just say something this simple was pretty tough.

I drew up a rough sketch of it at work in between rendering frames and backing up some work files. Oh yeah on top of this too, the project I was on got cancelled, so everything was in transition for me.

What large heads you have!

I had the idea in my head already, and I kinda did a similar process for the gags in my proposal comic book. I planned to use the same pose and simply put new clothes on the characters. It's fast, cheap and works for the gag.

I broke up the actual final work into two parts. One session I think I had 2 hours to work on it, then the next was 4 hours. Only 6 hours of work, but I was pretty tired and mighty distracted. I actually think I should've been able to do it faster, but there was a lot of figuring out as I drew.

Happy ANNIVERSAY hey hey hey!

What you see here is the 'fixed' version. I guess I was so out of it, I initially spelled 'Anniversary' as 'Anniversay' on the final printed card! And my wife posted it up on Facebook too, so my spelling prowess is up for the world to see! Ah well, can't win 'em all.

There are a few things about the drawing the bug me, but it got the job done. The wife gave a good laugh and said I really got her look with the drawing. And that's really the kind of reaction I wanted when I set out to do this card. Anyhow, that's it for tonight, Good night and God Bless.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 6 WIP

I cut up some of the panels I have all over my sketch book to get the layouts for page 6 down. So here's a sample page from my sketchbook. I write all sorts of scripting details whenever it hits me, and I'll sometimes try to figure out the composition for the page and layout in a disjointed order.

I tend not to scan the original that large, since it's just for a rough anyways, Sorry if it's blurry.

Then I arrange the panels I like onto a page that already has borders and margins. I then create the frames for the panels. For this page, I decide to add an extra panel (the fourth one) during this phase, but I never really planned it in the early stages.

The thing is, I work really loose, even to the layouts as I go to final. And frankly even as I'm 'inking' I tend to cut up stuff and re-paste all the time. Since everything is digital, there really should be no fear of experimentation or moving things around even at the 'final' stage. I've actually cut up things even when they were all colored up already...

I remember wanting to add another panel on the top tier, but figured three could get it done just fine, less cluttered.

I was just going to leave the layout stage as my work for the day, but again because it's all digital, it's really easy to dive into the final inks. Plus, the characters I designed are purposely simple. I tend to overwork things and over think things and it always leaves me stuck. So, with characters this simple, I can move faster on the drawing and I can concentrate more on the storytelling (and just having fun).

That's it for today! It's my Anniversary tomorrow, so I might have a slightly different art post tomorrow! The Neverending Battle continues!

My Comic Book: Page 5 Final-ish

I think this page is all done. I went back in and fixed up the first two panels. The character was still off model. For this pass I added in the word balloons. I've said it before, but once word balloons are added to a page, it just feels great (for me). Like my page and story start coming alive.

Maybe because I also tend to edit dialogue a bit from when I first jot them in my sketchbook, as I'm lettering. Anyway, that's it for this page. Good night!

My Comic Book: Page 5 Work In Progress

Okay! I got some random hours during this weekend (inbetween baby-naps, burps and diapers) and I got to work on my comic again. I've been sketching roughs of the pages of my book during lunch at work. Sometimes I skip around and draw pages, and even panels out of order. I scanned a few pages from my sketchbook and pieced together the panels of this page.

Not a very difficult page really, so a good one to ease back into working on the book. I initially drew the doctor in panels one and two off-model since it's been awhile, but the colors and ink work are all done.

I have to go back and letter it just to see if my layouts work, then it should be all done. That's it for tonight! Good night and God Bless!