My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 19 Final Inks

Page 19 is done! 5 more pages to go! I think I may have gone a little overboard with the inking style for this one compared to the rest of the book. I might simplify the blacks on it... or my usual M.O.: fix it in the coloring stage...

My Comic Book: Issue 3 page 18 inks

Page 18 is done!

A little legibility issue on the bottom 3 panels.

There's a lot of detail and reverse color fills of the black lines going on in the last set of 3 panels, that some readability is being compromised. I think I can solve it by lightening up the black in the background, some simple color work and maybe even coloring the fill of the blacks in the background. In any case, I'm moving on from this page and onto the next one.

There's a few bits throughout this issue that I need to address with another pass, but I want to maintain my output, so I'm sacrificing the finishes for now. When I go back for the color and the lettering pass that's when I start going back into the problem areas.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Pages 16 and 17

I got the double page spread inked up finally. I have quite a few things going on in these pages (as usual), so I'm probably going to rely on coloring to help me bring focus back to this page (yet again). I'm hoping the middle of the spread doesn't get too smooshed together when it appears in printed form. It was a little tricky trying to space out the words so they don't get gobbled up by the binding. I'm still not sure if it'll work.

Return O. da M.A.C.!

I loved O.M.A.C. when I was a kid. It was just so fantastical and out there, with some totally impossible sci-fi concepts that blew my mind. It still is one of my favorite works by Kirby to this day. I also loved the new 52 reboot version of it by Dan Didio and Keith Giffen. Anyhow, Happy Friday everyone!

The fastest man Alive!

I'm still working on an inking style I like and my control over it, which line widths to go with and how fine a feathering line I want. I'm having a lot of fun doing this quick sketches and loosening up the way I ink.

Green Lantern's light!

More quick sketching. I actually lost the first sketch I did of this, since my computer crashed. But doing it the second time went by really fast! I want to get looser with my inking process, so it was actually nice to have lost that initial sketch. It really forced me to be quicker the second time around.

P.S. I just got the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern on Blu ray recently. And while a lot of geeks will look at me funny, I have to say, it wasn't as bad as people were making it out to be. If anything, it's quite true to the comics! It was fun and even though I initially was turned off by the costume, it's actually quite cool looking!

Manhunter doodling

More messing around with Manga studio. Pretty hooked on how quickly I can get the line quality I'm looking for with this program!

Messing around with Manga Studio 5

I'm late into the game, but I just started messing with Manga studio 5's demo. I have to say, I'm VERY happy with the inking tool they have. So much so, I'm going to pick up the digital version of it! Sold! From what little I've dabbled in, it's already much nicer to use for my ink work than sticking with Photoshop,  but it can still pop out PSD files. And it's pretty affordable: at less than 50 dollars for the digital copy. Doubly sold!

Sadly, we have a guest staying in my office for a few days, so I won't be able to tear into quite just yet! Up up and away!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 15, final-ish inks.

I think I'm ready to move onto the next page finally! It's sad that my finished inks for page 14 was on April! I really need to get back up to speed, but at least I'm kinda back in the saddle.

There's still a few things I want to do to the page to increase readability, but I think I can let it go for now. The second tier of panels will get a little stronger once I put some colors down, I think. And the silhouettes of the robots on panel one will also get better with a color pass.

It's late and I need to catch some Zzzzs! Good night, God Bless and let the neverending battle continue. And hopefully a bit faster and more regular than my usual pace!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 15 WIP inks

Chugging along. Only two more panels left to finish off the 'inking' of this page.

Belated happy Batman day!

A little late to the party, but...

Happy Batman day!

A quick break from my comic book...

I've slowed down on my productivity with my comic book this past week to work on a side project. It was my niece's birthday party this past weekend, and my sister-in-law requested I draw an Olaf (from Frozen) poster for a pin-the-nose-on-the-snowman game.

I sketched out a quick pencil under-layer then started to ink it with a sharpie. However, I quickly switched to some sumo brush pens that I had. The sharpies weren't reacting well to the paper (the back of a glossy calendar) and the pencil lead for some reason. 

I then cut out a bunch of noses out of construction paper and just left it black and white.

There were somewhere around 12 kids there, and it was a blast to see the kids having fun and lining up to play the game. It's certainly a good feeling to have kids enjoying something I made.

I took a picture of the aftermath of the game. Not bad kids!

The neverending battle continues on!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 15 WIP inks

Started inks on the first panel... finally!

Do whatever you can...

I've been out of creative steam this week. Even though I've finished the rest of the book's thumbnails, I've been lacking any drive to start drawing them.

I've been playing video games, watching TV, reading comics... anything else except actually drawing. So here I am, in my study's floor, flipping through the hardcover edition of "The Amazing Screw On Head" and the "Swamp Thing: love and death" trade paperback, while printing some pages.

What am I printing? I've found when I got stuck when I was drawing the first and second issues of my book, I could "jazz" myself up by flipping through printed versions of the pages I had already done.

It kinda helps me realize how far I am to the end, and I get more clarity on seeing how the book flows together. Thought I suspect it's really more because I have it physically in my hands. It's like a little carrot dangling in front of me going, "c'mon! It'll look better once its a REAL comic! Just a few more pages to draw

Kinda sad I have to play mental mind games with myself (its not satisfying enough for me to flip through my book digitally), but you have to do anything you

Can I keep that drive going!

It worked for the first and second issues; let's see if it works for the third! Good night and God Bless!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 pages 15-23 thumbnail sketches

I've been out of the posting loop for awhile, but I did manage to do thumbnails for the rest of the book! Now  that everything is laid out, it's just a matter of execution.

It's quite messy but it's all (somewhat) there! It's kind of a nice relief to know I know what to draw on all the pages to finish this book off! Still a lot of work to be done but I can see the light at the end of the tower.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 15, 16 & 17 thumbnails

I got a few more pages thumbnailed out.

My brain usually works out of order when I'm doing thumbnails. Sometimes some sequences come out clearer than others when I'm first "piecing" pages together.

For page 15, I knew exactly what those last two panels should be. And from there, I worked backwards; connecting it back to page 14. 

And along the way, I started a rough script. Strangely, I'm writing it in the correct chronological order. And as that's being written I start getting a clearer idea of how much can fit into a panel, what things need to be dropped and what HAS to stay.

After that, I'm a little more confident on what I want to show and around how many panels I can use. The way the scene is staged also becomes much clearer, and gets dictated by the script and the page space.

At first, I had a different layout planned for page 16 and 17. But soon I began to realize that I had much more information I wanted to depict than I had space in those two pages. 

Eventually, 16 and 17's layouts merged together so it became a double page spread. A panel from 16 got moved over to 15 and I dropped a sequence (for now) involving a shot with all the other Bomb Squads.

It would've been fun to show all the other teams in the Bomb Squad, but I really wanted to devote more pages to some action at the end of this issue. The sequence with the other squads, didn't seem that necessary to keep the story moving.

I actually got to start designing some of the squad members before scrapping the sequence.

By the time I got to the new thumbnails for page 16 & 17, I had already generated sketches for what the panels in it would be. So, all I have for the thumbs end up looking like a bunch of blank squares! 

Well, that and I'm done sketching thumbnails! Time to hit the pages! The never-ending battle continues!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 14 Final inks

Not sure why, but I'm kinda beat tonight. Still, I managed to push it a bit and get the "inks" on this page finished up.

Remind me to go easy on the R's in the next page!

I had a little help from some of my favorite game soundtracks to spur me on tonight... Thank you Jet Set Radio Future, Rez and my all-time favorite Sonic Rush, for getting me through outlining all those "R"s!

I don't have any more pages for issue three thumb-nailed. So I'll have to spend a few days doing thumbnails for the rest of the book next. It's going to all action packed in the next half of the book so it should be pretty fun. Okay, time to craaaaash.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 14 WIP

Tired today, but I still managed to clock in some drawing time. Some very lazy drawing time, but hey you take what you can!

I usually try to give my wife a break and take care of my daughter for most of the weekend, so weekend drawing time is almost non-existent... and are hardly restful. Not that I don't like taking care of my daughter mind you, but I do get tired out on the weekends. My 'rest' time is during the weekdays... and apparently so is my comic book drawing time.

I'm going to rely on color heavily to make this scene clearer.
All the robot silhouettes at the bottom might make it hard to read what's
going on. Hopefully the "Rrrr" text helps a little bit.

It wasn't easy to push tonight. My body was screaming for me to take a break or relax (I even indulged in some comic book reading). Still I was able to slog a couple panels out and get closer to getting this page done. Okay, time to crash! Maybe I can finish this off sometime mid-week...

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 14 WIP

I had to mentally "bully" myself into getting this page started.

So many distractions lately. And it's really trying to prioritize things that I'd like to do. When my baby goes to sleep my wife and I have a few hours of 'me' time. We've both found that there are SO many things we'd like to do during our baby's nap time, we end up trying to do EVERYTHING.

And doing everything, usually ends up with us not doing anything at all (freezing up since there are so many choices), or foregoing much needed sleep and trying to do it all. For me it revolves around, watching movies/ TV shows, Playing video games, Reading comics and making comics.

So to continue my momentum in getting this issue done, I've been trying to drop all those other things or really limit myself. My comic book reading habit has dropped also because comics cost so much. So lately I just cherry pick and wait for the digital sales of back issues on comixology. As for movies and TV shows, I usually have them running in the background while I work on a comic book page. Playing video games comes in odd bursts. Sometimes I'm too fried after work or my late nights, so then I push my comic book drawing aside for a day or so and allow myself some game time.

It's hard to balance it. Especially since I know how I can get if I 'relax' for one too many days in a row. I get lazy and the cycle starts over again!

Anyhow, I think I'm off to a good start with this page. I hope I can get it done by the end of this week!

My Comic Book: Page 14 layouts

I blew up some really rough thumbnails to page size, to get my layouts going. I got the borders blocked in and my next step is to the inks.

I'm trying to re-enforce the left to right read by leading the eye with the "rrrr" lettering to follow that movement. I'm also thinking it might be able to break up some of the black spaces the silhouettes are creating in this sequence. That't the plan at least. As always, we'll see if it works once I start hitting the inks!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 13 final inks and lettering

Final inks and lettering pass is done for this page. I keep looking at the final word balloon on this page and keep thinking if I need to move the little "speaking-arrow" over to the lower side so it looks like the voice is coming from Bomb Girl instead of Mur (the robot). But I think I'll worry about that later on, it works fine right now as is.

Good thing I used a different font and word balloon shape for both characters. It's tough enough to follow since we don't actually see two characters having a dialogue. The unique font and balloon shape per character helps differentiate the two voices in the conversation.

 I need to tighten up my layouts for page 14 next. Let's see if I can keep this momentum going.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 13 WIP

Almost done! I just have to do a bit of cleanup on the final panel, and do some more lettering, but I'm close!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 13 WIP

Wooo! I pushed it a little tonight and cranked out the layouts and a rough block in of page thirteen. I got some of the inking started too.

From what I've learned, once you find the momentum, just ride the wave and keep drawing! I haven't quite gotten the momentum back, but it's getting there!

This page is essentially a zoom out from a tight shot. To emphasize this and to make the last panel have more "ooph", I made panels 1-4 graduallly get bigger. Panel 1 is nice and conservative: working within the safety zone of a printed page. By the time the eye gets to the bottom panel the drawing goes all the way to the edges.

That's it for this post! Good night! Er... Good Morning! I'm gonna be paying for this since I have to take my daughter to swimming classes tomorrow! Splash!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 12 Final Inks

Yeeesssss. Another page in the bag! Well aside from the colors and the lettering that is!

I finished up the last panel in the page while watching Man of Steel in the background. I really do like that movie even though every critic and fanboy has poo-pooed on it.

Anyhow, this page came together a little better with that second panel finally inked. I tied the panel progression a little better with the sound effect across panels 1-3. It really is a matter of getting back into the groove and remembering the great feeling of finishing a page.

The solid black shadows really save this page a lot, otherwise it'd just be a very floaty mess. Anyhow, it is 1:30 am right now, and I will be paying for this in the morning if I don't get some rest! Up, up and away!

My Comic: Issue 3 Page 12 WIP

I got the third panel started up and almost to finish. There's some minor tweaks I want to do with it still, and it needs an SFX pass, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. For tonight, it's good enough.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 12 WIP and Page 13 WIP

Not keeping up a panel a day...

However, I did get to finishing the layouts and script for page 13 and off to a good start on the layouts for page 14.

My Comic BooK: Issue 3 Page 12 Thumbnails and initial inks

I started page 12 as soon as I could, but I was tired this weekend and simply lazy since my last post. Still, I managed to push myself a little bit this late Sunday/Monday evening/morning!

A panel a day should get me to finish this page by the end of the week.

I have some very rough thumbnails of this page in my sketchbook. I've gotten more and more lazy with my thumbnails. Not having a lot of time on my hands makes me really not want to draw the same thing twice. So I just jumped in for this page once I figured out where the panels would go.

This page, once finished, marks the halfway point of the book, as well as the last of my current rough thumbnails. I have an idea of what the next two or three pages will be, and pretty much the end page, but in between those pages is where I get to cut loose and have some fun with action sequences.

Okay that's it for tonight! Good night/morning!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 page 11 Final inks

Finally got around to wrapping up the inks on this!

Aaaand, I'm tired. Page 12 will be started soon! Halfway mark finally!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 11 WIP part 2

Slowly...ever so slowly inking through and laying out this page... I've been sick for most of the past week, and will be back to work tomorrow. I wanted to squeeze in some work on the book though, so I pushed it a little tonight. Every little bit helps!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 11 WIP

It has been slow on the updates for my comic book, and frankly speaking this updete looks pretty sad:

I have the sequence blocked out panel wise, but my sketches for what's IN the panels have been absolutely sparse. I'm stuck creatively, I'm off my regular pace... and my best solution to get back to work is... well... getting back to work!

Overthinking this never, ever helps. So jumping in head first may not be the smartest thing to do... but it sure is better that curling up into a creative ball and being unproductive!

That's it for tonight! Time to hit the hay!

Comic Book Relay!

Super quick post today as I have to feed my daughter real soon!

My friend, Roque Ballesteros and I decided to do a comic book jam (well more like me forcing my friend). The idea is to produce a page of comic in a week, then hand it over to the next guy. There are no real rules, just try to incorporate the story sequence already in play (and even then I'm fine breaking that rule!). The point is to get us back in drawing comics again!

He bought a Moleskin notebook with 4 panels in each page. I kicked it off with a couple splash pages, just because!

I wasn't able to take pics of my process for the first splash, but I got some of the next one:

My inking needs some serious work. My fingers got fat and lazy from the "undo" button.

And that's it! I've handed it over to Rock, and we're trying to figure out how to get our other buddy, Shanth Enjeti, to get in on this mix. He's all the way over in Rhode Island (and we're in San Francisco). But with today's digital speed? I'm sure we can find a way!

That's it for today!