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!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 10 WIP part 2

Quick progress post! Working away on that last panel. Also need to do a pass on Mur's face on panel 4, the damage is missing. Maybe I can clock in a few more hours tonight. Okay gotta feed my baby!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 10

Gah. Slowly working my way through the 10th page.

..very slowly... gotta get back up to pace!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 9 lettering pass

Lettering is done! I'm onto page 10 finally!

My Comic Book: Page 9 sketch and ink phase

I got the ol' ball rollin' again for my comic book and got page 9 inked up and ready for lettering.

I have all sorts of jumbled up thumbnails in my sketchbook,
trying to figure out the panel flow and dialogue, like this page.

Once I'm a little comfortable with the panel
layouts, I blow up the thumbnails from my sketchbook
and generate a rough layout for page 9 as a guide.

Then I go in and tighten up the details with
the digital inks. Panel 4's 'wall lines look a little wonky
still, but the word balloon placement might hide it. We'll see!

And that's it for today! What little free time I have, have been taken up by games lately. So it was a good feeling for me to try to power through this page. I already have some decent layouts for pages 10-12 in my sketchbook with some rough dialogue and a really rough thumbnail for page 13. After that I can cut loose with some fun fight sequences to take me towards the end.

I had originally planned the arc to be 5 issues, but now I'm wondering if I can wrap it up in 4. I'd like to get the first arc in the can and start to finally feel comfortable trying to shop it around to a publisher as a limited series. I'll still be self publishing of course, but I feel like I need to get this done and finish up the story I wanted to tell. It has been a loooong time!

When I started it, I was following mainstream comics' write-for-the-trade way of doing monthly comics. That is, 4-5 issue runs that tell one story. Since then, I've started to enjoy my old comics that can tell a story within one issue. So I'd like to do that for the Bomb Squad after I wrap up this arc.

God Bless you as He has me (more!) and... The Neverending battle continues!

Lamb attack!

I have a little update on those lamb illustrations I did for the baby's room awhile ago. Here it is: I've finally put them up!

It only took me a year to do so! I tell you time becomes such a scarce commodity once you have a child.

My wife and I picked out some nice white frames to go with my drawings. They're smaller in size than what I had planned, but they look kinda neat smaller.

First panel. Sunny morning!

Second panel. Warm sunset.

Third panel. Together with Mama and Dada lamb in the evening!

The whole panel sequence above my baby's changing area.

The concept was tied to something that would help her sleep and lambs. The lamb theme was what my wife wanted for the room (though admittedly that theme has gone by the wayside!). What better way to help the baby sleep than by counting sheep jumping over fences right?

 Anyhow, here's a link to the first post of that series if you guys want to see what they look like in their original digital form.