Ramblin' Man

Sorry, folks. Just a page of sketches to show. Haven't had any time or energy to whip something up. I'm sick. Again. Great start to 2010, eh?

Going to be putting all my time into drawing the Last Leaf story, for the Digital Webbing anthology. After that, I've got some zombie stuff to do for the 3rd installment of Zombie Bomb.

After that? Hoping to be going into production on a large project with writer and pal, James Powell. I've also been given word that I may be drawing another Perhapanauts Special, this one written by Rich Woodall. It starts Big, one of my favorite characters from the book, so I'm pretty stoked on that!

I'm rambling, now. Time to go take some decongestant and lay down.

Afterglow

And here's the inked drawing from the previous post... but now in colour. I'm pretty happy with it, although I really need to learn how to do better "glow" effects. The little lights around the base of the tree just aren't looking like what I envisioned. I also need to figure out how I want to handle smoke (make it an opaque white cloud or something like what I have here). If this was for publication, I would be more of a perfectionist. But, since it is more for helping me prepare for the actual drawing of the book, I'll let it slide.

We R In Control

Here's the previous pencil drawing inked. I think I'm starting to get a handle on how to approach this project, in terms of inking. All this was inked with a Staedtler Mars Graphic 3000. It's a brush pen that artist extraordinaire, Brian Churilla, suggested. Using the pen means a more immediate drawing experience, as you don't have to dip and roll the brush before every few lines. That is not to say that I like it more than a traditional brush but using the 3000 is definitely an easier way to control the marks and to speed up the inking process. So, in that sense, it's a fun way to draw. (still feels like cheating a bit, though...)

Tomorrow... colour!

Murder By Numbers

I started doing some sketches of imaginary scenes that will help me when it comes to do Davis. Mostly to get a feel for the world that the story will live in. This is the quick pencil drawing of a murder scene that I envision Davis attending.

Tomorrow I will post the inks of this. And on Wednesday, I'll post the colours.

By-Tor and the Snow Dog

Drawing of a rat. Or dog. Or both...? I dunno. It just sorta drew itself.

I'm feeling good.

The Zombie Bomb story is done. The Perhapanauts is done (barring any changes asked for). The One Night Stand story is done. The next thing on my plate is a set of illustrations for my friend, Nuv Takhar, who is putting together his own website of movie/music/what-have-you reviews called, ReView 2 A Kill.

After that, it's all about Davis (working title), the new project with writer/editor/pal, James Powell. We ain't shooting for no 5-8 page submission that will make the rounds to the usual suspects. Oh no, not this one. This is going to go the full distance. 100+ pages of "near-future crime story". Beginning, middle and end. Something to put on your bookshelf. It's going to be awesome.

Believe that.

Betty Davis Eyes

I've had my head down, working on the Perhapanauts pages. I'm having all kinds of fun. And they're looking good, too. But, sometimes, the need to break out and do something different takes hold. Sometimes you can ignore it and continue working on what you're supposed to be working on. Other times...

James Powell and I are in the process of putting a project together that I'm really excited about. Although the first 8 pages are scripted and ready to be drawn, the project is currently titleless. So, for now, we're referring to it as "Davis", after the name of the main character. Here is a drawing of Davis that I did yesterday... when I should have been drawing my Perhapanauts pages. This might not his "final" look but it's close. Hope you all dig it.

Now, back to the Perhaps'!

Night Fever

Work continues on the UFO story but I thought I'd give you another sketch that I've done in preparation for my collaboration with James Powell.

James is fleshing out the story at a fever pitch and I'm loving what he's come up with so far. This is just my first pass on the main character of our still unnamed "near future" project.

Distant Early Warning

Putting together a new project with writer/editor/pal James Powell. It's still in the very early stages but James and I are excited to finally get the chance to collaborate on something together. This image is not of anything in particular, I'm just trying to get a feel for the drawing and colouring style that we are going to go with for this story.

Some Heads Are Gonna Roll

Here's the next page of the Braids of the Gorgon pitch. Nothing like a little decapitation to start the day!

Diary Of A Madman

I thought I'd do a post about my process for coming up with the new cover for our Braids Of The Gorgon pitch. A visual diary, of sorts. I know I dig these kinds of things when I see them on other artists' blogs. Are you seated comfortably? Then we shall begin... Step 1.
This is the first ink sketch I did as I started to get a sense of what I wanted on the cover. I did a loose drawing in pencil and then just let the pen and brush do the rest of the drawing. I was pretty happy with this, hand/temple roof tangents aside. I did up some simple colours for it and shipped it off to James and Ken for their reactions.Step 2.
One of the things that James suggested I change was the placement of our resident Gorgon and place her behind the temple. I did a few quick sketches to see how that would look and thought it was an interesting idea. Step 3.
I felt the emphasis was too much on the architecture (something I love to draw) and made it smaller and had the Gorgon more prominent and more "gorgon-like". I decided that a logo placed on the bottom of the cover was probably not the best place to have it. Instead, I pushed the whole image down and left more room at the top for the logo. I was also flirting with the idea of adding some figures, like Damara and Perseus, in the foreground but decided that it was looking forced and taking away from the narrative of the image.Step 4.
I then picked up my brush, grabbed my cup of ink and did this. No pencil drawing, just ink and all the happy mistakes that can happen. I dug this drawing and sent it off to the Braids crew (Ken and James). I waited breathlessly to hear their reaction. Well, maybe not breathlessly...Step 5.
It was suggested that I try and open the Gorgon up for a tad more detail and to maybe put a hand coming forward to give it more tension. All great suggestions, so off I went to my drawing table and redrew the image. Again, no pencil drawing first. All ink, baby! I was jazzed with this and decided to throw some colour over it.Step 6.
With colour applied and the Braids logo (designed by Avi Goldberg) in place, I sent this off to Ken and James. And, what do you know? They liked it as it was! Cover complete!

Hope you dug that! See you on Friday!

Divine Intervention

This is the Pallus Athena, patron goddess of Athens. She is another one of our major characters, as her presence is woven throughout Braids.

One of the things I love about Braids of the Gorgon is that it deals with the mythology of the ancient Greeks. As much as I love Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze (and I really do love that book), I can't help wishing it had some Greek Gods in it, meddling in human affairs. That's just where my heart felt interests lay. Heck, they don't even have to be almighty Gods erupting with cosmic power. They just have to walk among the masses and exude their divine influence.

All the Braids character sketches have now been coloured and are ready for inclusion in the pitch packages that Ken, James and I will be sending out soon! Actually, the pitch should be ready to go for the Emerald City Comic Con, which is at the beginning of April in Seattle. There will be a few excellent publishers at the show that would make a great home for Braids. Once we know that the pitch is ready, we'll try to set up some meetings with them. Ken showed some of the Braids material around at the New York City Con and got some genuine interest in the book, so hopefully showing the whole pitch will get us picked up for publication.

You're So Close

These are a few shots of another major player in our tale that is Braids of the Gorgon. This is Perseus, slayer of Gorgons. I wonder what part he'll play in all this... (add maniacal laughter here)

The pitch pages are sooooo close to being ready. The lettering and the actual design of the pitch are the next steps. I'll even try my hand at another cover for the book. I have one from years ago, which I really like, but I'm interested in seeing if I can come up with something better.

What God Wants, Part 1

smash image with club to see it bigger

Here's another Braids character sketch. This one is Hercules, my favorite Greek God (or demi-god, in Herc's case). The colours aren't "final", as I haven't run it past Ken and James, but I think it's pretty much what Herc will look like for the book.

On Friday I'll post another colour Braids character sketch.

Any Colour You Like

click to see image bigger

Still trying to get my head around the whole colouring comics thing. There are so many hues to choose from that it can be hard coming up with final colour choices.

One such example of my inability to come up with a definitive color scheme is that of the Gorgon, Euryale, one of the main characters of Braids. Right from day 1, way back in 2001 when Ken and I had our first start working on Braids, I've always visualized her as green. In my brain, Euryale was green. Well, she was until I started colouring the first panel she showed up on. Suddenly, green didn't seem to fit her, it was too obvious. She needed to stand out, be different from the majority of "monsters". But not too different. She also had to be visually interesting when interacting with the other main characters. Sigh.

The above image is part of my attempt to find the right colour for her. I've narrowed it down to more of the blue/purple range, as red, yellow and orange don't really work when she is with certain other characters. Ken and I think we know the one we want. We still have to hear from James to see if we are all in agreement.

In the meantime, I'd love to know which one of the 4 hues shown above would you good people choose for our Gorgon. No answer is wrong so please leave a comment below, if you are so inclined.

Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil)

click image to see it bigger

Here is a fully coloured Braids of the Gorgon page! This is the first page of the pitch Ken, James and I are putting together.

Colouring my comic art is relatively new to me, the only other colouring I've done was on my 5 page Dear Santa story, "Whatever It Takes" and the 14 page Trickster tale I drew. So, yeah, colouring is still pretty much a "learn as I go" experience. I posted an earlier version of the colours for this page up at Digital Webbing and got a few great critiques, especially the amazing post from pro colorist Nick Filardi, which helped me improve the page. I think it's "done" now, but I never can really tell when something is done.

I'm now almost finished colouring the third page of the pitch. The colouring is getting a little faster, but not any easier.

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

Coloring on the Braids of the Gorgon pages has begun. Ken, James and I decided that I should give the coloring a try, so I've been doing that, mostly. I'll post a finished page once I get the thumbs up from the crew.

click image to see it bigger

In the meantime, I did manage to do a few more sketchbook sketches. I'm almost all caught up on them, now! Here's one I did for my friend, Dino. Thanks for your patience, it's in the mail!

Finest Worksong

click image to see it bigger

I've been drawing a lot lately. Work on the Braids of the Gorgon layouts has begun! Looks like Ken, James and I are going to do 6 pages for the pitch, most of which are action packed! This is a panel from one of the pages of rough layouts. I'm having a blast on these!

In addition to the Braids stuff, I've been working on the sketches for all the Convention Sketchbooks that I've sold (they're still available. see this post for details!). I've been pretty happy with them. Hope the recipients are too!

Lorelei

click on image to see it bigger

James Powell, editor of Braids of The Gorgon, has just written about how he got involved Braids and where we are, in terms of progress in the project. He even shared a couple of my character sketches I've recently done (different drawings from the one I'm sharing!). He's a valued member of the BotG team and a great guy. Go check out his site by clicking here.

I'll be out in Minnesota this weekend for FallCon 2008! Looking forward to hanging with good friends, talking to comic fans and making flight connections in Chicago (well, not that last one)! I'll have my brand new convention sketchbook, Marks On Paper, for sale so please drop by and give it a looky. Talk too you soon!