Perfect Love... Gone Wrong

Page 3 of the 4 page Cloak & Dagger Marvel sample.

I've worked and reworked that 3rd panel far too many times. In fact, I was working on that panel while in Chicago. I had to run down to the local Jewel Osco at roughly 10 PM to buy a pencil, a pencil sharpener and some invisible tape so I could do a quick fix on the left hand figure before showing it to CB on the Sunday of the show. I've reworked it again, since getting home from the con. It's not perfect but it's soooo much better than it was before.

More con recap on Monday. I promise.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor

This is page 2 of the 4 page Marvel sample I showed to a few people. There are supposed to be images in the monitors/holoscreens but I ran out of time to draw the scenes that Stuart had asked for. They were to be shots of destruction and death as a result of superhero battles. It was Cloak's very own "A Clockwork Orange" moment.

Sorry Charlie

I know. This was supposed to be part II of my C2E2 wrap up. What can I say. I suck at writing real copy. But, for all the interested, I'll be posting pages of my latest Marvel sample that I showed around at C2E2 until I can get the recap post written. This page is the first of 4 pages I did from the recent Cloak & Dagger one shot.

That makes up for my tardiness, yes?

Keep Yourself Alive

This sketch was done in the hotel bar while waiting for my C2E2 roommates to show up. I'll be writing more about my Chicago experience this weekend but I thought I'd better put something up here so you all would know I'm still alive!

The Goin' Get Tough From The Getgo

I'm working my way towards the last page of my Cloak & Dagger sample pencils. I'm feeling pretty good about them. The last page is going to be tough to finish as I have to almost completely redesign it. After doing the previous pages it has become apparent that the last page just isn't up to the others, in terms of layout design.

I need to put it into high gear if I want to have all 5 pages ready for my 4:30 AM departure, on Thursday! Wish me luck!

My Old School

Things are coming down to the wire. I'm working my ass off trying to get my Marvel sample pages ready for C2E2 (I leave for Chicago on Thursday!). I'm about halfway through them and I think they are decent. I'm sure once I pull them out at the show I'll see tons of things I'll want to fix. But, for now, they seem to be working out nicely.

The image above is of 2 panels from my Cloak & Dagger sample.

Sample And Hold

It's not much to look at but this is another rough panel for the Cloak & Dagger sample.

I think I've decided to focus on just the penciling of the pages. If I have time (ha), I'll try and do a inked page to take with me as an example of how it would look if I did the pages my usual way (inking directly from roughs). I won't hold my breath on that one, though.

Thanks for all the input yesterday, folks!

All Over The World

My process is all over the map on these Cloak & Dagger sample pages. Seriously. It's a mix of traditional pencils and digital "pencils". The digital pencils are looking a lot like inks... not sure what to do now. Pencil the pages or digitally ink the pages. It's turning out to be almost the same amount of work, in terms of drawing time.

The above image shows the rough pencil drawing and a tighter digital drawing. Not quite tight enough on the hand and bodies to be considered "finished" but the face is pretty much ready to go straight to print. I'm just not sure if I should finish it up in the computer or with a regular pencil...? C2E2 is coming up fast and I need to make a decision.

Just A Job To Do

The rough layouts for my Marvel sample pages are done. Now it's time to tighten them up into properly penciled pages. Tight pencils weren't exactly what I was thinking of taking with me to C2E2. I was planning on just showing inked pages done from the rough layouts but I've decided to pencil the pages as though I was going for a penciling job, instead.

I *may* have time to ink one of the pages to show as an example of what the pages would look like if I inked them. That is time dependent, though.

Everything Is Broken

I've shifted gears a bit and have begun working on some Marvel sample pages. My plan is to have at least 5 pages of pencils ready to show C.B. Cebulski at C2E2, which is a brand new convention happening in Chicago in less than 2 weeks. I was going to work from a Spider-Man Team Up script that C.B. had given me but I had the good fortune of getting writer/editor Stuart Moore to let me use one of his scripts, instead. The script I'm working from now is the Cloak & Dagger one shot that just came out called, "The Broken Church". So far, the roughs are looking good. Let's hope the final penciled pages turn out solid!

Proud Mary

Today's drawing is courtesy of Stewart Copland. He is 4 1/2 years old and this is his first drawing of Spider-Man. Stewart and I are very proud of this drawing.

This post was co-written with Stewart.

Kickapoo

So, I haven't mentioned this but Trickster is coming out very shorty! I'll let the words of the anthology's editor and contributor Matt Dembicki fill you in on the particulars...

'Trickster' to debut at SPACE

The 232-page, full-color anthology Trickster that I've worked on for the past four years will debut at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo April 24-25 in Columbus, Ohio. The book features trickster stories from more than 20 Native American storytellers illustrated by some of today's most dynamic indie comics artists! (You can also pre-order copies here at Amazon.com.)

Needless to say, I'm very excited to be a part of this book and hope you all will give it a chance!

Words (Between The Lines Of Age)

No zombies in this panel but I really liked the way I drew this so I'm going to show it. I even left some room for words!

Of These, Hope

Here's another panel progression look at a zombie panel I just inked. I love seeing where the image started and ended, visually. It's about the process.

In art school, I was way more interested in the process of drawing than I was in the final outcome. It made for many many messy pictures that seemed to have no real "value" other than giving me the experience of making marks on a surface. For some strange reason, when I started drawing comics, that love of markmaking seemed to get pushed aside. I blame it on the fact that I was inking tight pencils and didn't want to lose whatever I had drawn in pencil. I am glad to see that I am taking more chances with my marks. My hope is that I continue to show more and more of the drawing process in my comic work and make the pages

That's What They Say

There's a cool little interview with the 2 dudes responsible for putting the Zombie Bomb! anthology together. Go check out what Rich Woodall and Adam Miller have to say about the project!

But not before checking out a page from "Not At The End", the first part of a story Anthony and I are serializing in the anthology, of course.

Art by me, the rest by Anthony.

Victim Of Changes

Here's a panel progression example. The left is my pencil rough and the right is the inked panel. There will always be slight changes to the original rough drawing when you ink it. Case in point, as this panel was inked, I came to the realization that I needed to make the zombie's shirt black and leave the woman's jacket white so that the blacks were distributed better. I think this new spotting of black puts more emphasis on the woman, visually, than giving her the black coat.

Uncontrollable Urge

I wanted to share this drawing of a kilted zombie before I start throwing the "fog" all over the page which will end up cover some/all of him. This little guy happened as I inked a basic form of a figure I had penciled. The kilt was a last moment thing. But, it reinforces my urge to do a comic that has a kilted main character in it.

One day.... soon.

Suspended In Gaffa

Another inked panel from the Zombie Bomb! story. I've been using this trick of having only partial panel borders to help give panels a little extra interest, visually. Basically, I only draw the panel borders where the characters/background elements touch the panel border and I leave the rest of the panel out. I think it helps give the panel a sense of "suspended time", making the panel read for a slightly longer story beat. That make any sense...?

Anyway, the pages are looking good and I can't wait to for everyone to see the final product.

The Morning Fog

Inking has started on the second installment of "Not At the End", mine and Anthony's contribution to the Zombie Bomb! anthology series. I'm going to like inking this as it has lots of fog in it, which means I get to draw stuff that will then be obliterated when I dry-brush white over it all! That might have sounded sarcastic but, believe it or not, it was said with all sincerity. I've never drawn much fog so this is a great opportunity to learn how.

The above image is the first panel of the new NAtE chapter.

Blame It On The Rain

I lost a week of posting/drawing/life due to my back going out on me. I blame the hotel bed in Seattle and the fact that I was walking the convention floor for 2 days with a bag of heavy trades/comics hung around my neck. The Emerald City Comic Con was excellent, despite all that, though. I got to hang out with some very cool people, chat comics with some very cool creators and buy some amazing books at very cool prices. I spent some time at the Pop Goes the Icon table with PGtI's head guru, PJ Perez. We gave away 2 pages of my original art. I had an awesome time.

Now that the week of crippling back pain has (mostly) subsided, I'm starting to ink the 2nd part of the Anthony Schiavino penned Zombie Bomb! story, "Not At The End". This is going to be so good. The image above is a panel from that story.