skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Above, are thumbnails for upcoming pages for Border Crossings, which you can find right here. If you can make out my little scratchings, some of the pages up there (most notably 9, 10, and 13) have an alternate or two, in the event I didn't think a panel was working as well as it could have been.This is actually a pretty recent trend for me in thumbnailing for my comic pages. Before, I would often scribble directly on the script, often right beside the panel description or near it. It was great because I could immediately map out what I had in mind, or I could try a few different variations and then notate which one I wanted to use later. Eventually, I'd reference them for them I start laying in my pencils, or I would scan them in, and stitch them together into a frankenstein Photoshop file, then pencil above that.Unfortunately (at least for me, as all artists have different quirks to them,) it wasn't ideal. I often ran into the problem of having panels that didn't mesh together well enough, or were a lot more out of proportion with the comic page than I actually thought. What was once a great composition for the panel would have to be readjusted, or completely rethought if it turned out not to work as well.So I made up a little thumbnail contact sheet in Illustrator, something even the simplest of graphic program users can do. From there, I still will occasionally scribble an idea directly on the script, but now I thumbnail directly into the little boxes (which, if you notice, are proportionate to a 10 x 15 live area of comic board, which is what I most frequently use.) Everything's in proportion, it's a small enough space to prevent too much noodling (though you might notice I couldn't help myself here and there,) and it lets you see a set of pages all at once to see if they work together or not (an incredibly important notion regarding any sort of sequential pages.)
A quick little pattern/color study on an alien doodle...Photoshop.
So this post is going to be ridiculously stupid, because A) I can't show any of the artwork I worked on this past week or week before (and I didn't get much sketch time in that yielded any good nugglets) and B) Because it's a week later than I meant to post.So we have some writing time instead! I got back from Heroes last Sunday, and all in all I can safely say that it's one of the best conventions I've gone to yet (and it brings my tally up to...3.) I loved how big "Artist's Alley" was (which it's almost a misnomer, since it takes up half the dang floor,) and I got to meet a lot of great people from the Sidebar Forums (anyone from there following this, I'm registered, but I can't post yet...) as well as from the Drawingboard.org, which was a great treat. I also got to meet one of my industry heroes, the always-talented Guy Davis, who was cool enough to give me a portfolio crit. The dude is seriously THE nicest guy I've met. Great talent and great personality.In other news, Heroes also marked the launching of the comic I've been actively working on for a couple of months now! Border Crossings, which is written by my good friend Christian Sager, is a dark fantasy steampunk story that takes place in an alternate world with all sorts of monstrosities, water, and zombies. Think 20,000 leagues under the sea, mixed with H.P Lovecraft, creatures from movies like Dark Crystal, and you're more or less on track.For all interested, you can check it out at www.thelastisland.com. Right now, we have 5 pages from the first issue and all 8 pages of the promo comic up, and we'll be updating it at a page a week. So check it out, leave a comment, and enjoy!And I swear - I WILL have some new artwork up very soon.
Trying out some new techniques when I should be in bed sleeping...approximately 1 hour.
This is a painting I did for ConceptArt's Creature of the Week (CoW.) I think it's about 2-3 hours put into it? Maybe less, maybe more, I dunno. It's not perfect on the painting side of things, but I like the idea of it quite a bit. Here's the description I put in for it on CA:
Supposedly discovered by a druid in medieval England, Donovan's Basilisk is a large, cave-dwelling reptavian. Unlike other breeds of Basilisks documented, it doesn't possess the ability to paralyze by venom or stare, and is considered one of the more 'docile' varieties of Basilisk to be found, if such a thing can be believed. It possesses an oily, slick coat of quill-feathers, which seems to aid in retaining the creature's unnaturally high body temperature. Large bioluminescient skin tags line the creature's back, and seem to vent much of the heat off of the creature, while a smoky discharge continuously emanates from the creature's nostrils. This combination of sweltering heat and stifling air gives it a huge handicap when it hunts, often suffocating its prey simply by laying in wait while it pours out this noxious concoction.
Here's a paint study I did from Rien Poortuliet and Wil Huygen's book Gnomes. Great book with some fantastic illustrations done in watercolor/gouache from what it looks like. I did the study in Painter, and since Painter's watercolor features aren't as great as some of their other media (Artist's Oils come to mind...) It's not recreated using similar media materials as Rien. This was a pretty fun exercise, as it teaches some mindful color picking, and using brush strokes to their full effectiveness. Maybe I'll try somebody like Leyendecker or Sargent next...or if I'm stupid/brave, a Bierstadt! Obviously, original image and IP is copyright Rien Poortuliet, Wil Huygen, and Abrams Publishing.
Hey All,Here's a quick little doodle I did during lunch yesterday. I named the critter "Ploorg."
