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I’m putting in countless hours trying to meet deadlines and get multiple projects out to everyone.
It would be an understatement to say that I’m excited to get both Day 165:Vietnam and Salvagers into the hands of fans of both series. I’m blessed to be on art duties for both and can’t wait to see all of you at upcoming appearances.
Here’s to a safe and productive 2022!
My first convention this year is Wicked Comic Con, April 9th at the Westin in Boston!
I’ll have new art, original pages and comics. Stop by and we can talk shit about Bob Salley before he shows up late and makes a mess of the table.
Conventions are finally back and we are all excited to get back out there and bring our stories to you.
Here’s hoping things stay open and we will see you all real soon!
Yea, 2020 sucked all around for everyone. I took a few months off from creating in the studio to focus on studying for a promotional exam at the fire department. I had gotten into a rut working in the studio where it felt like ‘work’. The break was needed. I finished building out the new studio space and gave my hands and the creative side of my brain a much needed vacation. Since the test is over I have signed onto a handful of new projects, along with working on the next volume of Shelter Division, which will carry me through into 2022! I cannot go into any details yet but I will be posting nonspoiler peeks at works in progress.
I hope that everyone stays safe and healthy throughout the holidays and look forward to getting new projects out to all of you in the next year.
After some delays the production final files for the books is off to the printer!
The entire team is eager to get the floppies & the hardcovers out to our backers. It has been a bit of a long road getting the series going but now we have a complete team who is firing on all cylinders. We are already working on the story for Volume 2 and should have the art in production by the start of 2021
I’m excited to see everyone again at cons next year and to get back to the drafting board after some time off
Get to your local comic shop and order Wretched Things and these other great titles from Source Point Press. Use code JUL182143 in July's edition of PREVIEWSworld
C2E2 is coming up fast. Devon and myself will be at the Source Point Press booth for the launch of Wretched Things in a collected trade. Over 130 pages! We will be at the booth throughout the weekend along with the creators of the other books from Comic Experience. Come by booth 417 and say hi.
Time lapsed inking session creating the rejected cover for the Wretched Things collected edition. Music by the multi-talented Devon Wong. Published by Comics Experience and Source Point Press
Various brushes, mostly raphael 8404 no 4 or a W&N series 7 no 4 (I like bigger brushes) and pens, map & maru deleter nibs. I believe this was the last of my Eon brand black ink and Eon branded bristol board in a plate finish. This is about 3-4 hours of inking squished down under 7 minutes.
For the process junkies here's a time lapse of the creation of the cover image for Wretched Things printed collection. Several hours of work shrunk into 6 minutes. Music by @VignetteProject . Big thanks to @Comicexperience & @SourcePtPress #makecoomics
The Next Dance kickstarter is winding down and only a few hundred dollars away from being a success. Head over and take a look all reward tiers are still open from a print copy of the book to original art and sketches.
I'll be posting more process videos soon. If there is something you'd be interested in seeing such as the inking or coloring stages let me know.
We left off in part 1 with the final digital pencils.
From this I print out bluelines directly onto 2 sheets of 11"x17" bristol board, taped them together and start inking.
Here I've ruled in some straight lines with a tech pen. Ignore the big spray splatter, I was testing out a mini spray bottle with ink.
Blocked in some solid blacks and started in on The Deserter (the yellow jacket).
Finished the antennae of the ancient centipede, The Deserter, a few background centipedes and started on rendering Bran's fur. Also did some experimenting with texture for what should be insulation between the rafters.
Closeup
Finished The Deserter's wings and started on the ancient. Lots of texture on his crusty old shell and legs.
More detail work.
Finished up the ancient, outlined some more background centipedes and inked Tal Salwin, a centipede general.
Finally the 2 spiders in the foreground (Impatience & Gallop) and Bran's tail. A few random splatters and reverse lines added in too.
Close up of some spider butt.
The spread scanned in and blacks adjusted in photoshop. Finished size of 22"x17" at 300dpi
Colors done by the great John Hunt bringing the characters to life.
Finally the published spread with Devon's letters and the credits on the inside of the front cover.
I'll be sure to post some more process stuff in the future. If you have any questions leave a comment or contact me. Hope you enjoyed seeing this spread come to life.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out Wretched Things on Comixology at http://bit.ly/2c7ynlf
One of the most often asked requests I get is if someone can watch me work. While I enjoy watching the process used by other artists I find my own way of doing things uninteresting. When sitting at a table during a comic con you just need to let go and not feel awkward drawing in front of people, but usually I'm in my studio with my dog as the only silent witness to my trash can full of awful sketches that will never see the light of day.
With the third chapter of Wretched Things out now I'm going to walk through my process for creating the opening double page spread, which included the credits page that is found at the front of all comics. Why the hell would you do such a thing? Well it sounded cool and cinematic when Devon pitched the idea to me and he did a helluva job describing the scene in the script. I'm always in for a challenge no matter how much extra work I create for myself.
Here's the script for the opening spread
From here it's scribbling on the script page and on random pieces of paper to come up with layouts and visual ideas.
Here's one idea, however I didn't feel like it would work by leaving enough empty space on the left for all the credits and publisher info
Small thumbnail of what was explored for the final layout
Here's the final layout. This was sent around to the various people at our publisher to get approval as we were deviating from the established design of the series as to the credits and opening pages. Once we got all the approvals this was refined even more.
Here's the final spread as digital pencils. Details have been added in for all the hero characters. Some changes were made with the spiders and centipedes. Some background centipedes were also added in to populate the scene. From here it is converted to bluelines and printed to be traditionally inked.
I'll stop here for now and continue on to the inking process in part 2.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out Wretched Things on Comixology at http://bit.ly/2c7ynlf
Progress is steady and starting to gain momentum this week. Some sleepless nights of comics making ahead but I'm stocked on caffeine, movies and music.
Big congrats to Chris Lewis and the team on Karma Police on their successful kickstarter. Here's to more and future success for the creators coming out of the Comicsexperience workshop!
Fun page from Wretched Things #2. A story within a story.
After a long delay Wretched Things #2 will be out on Comixology this Wednesday.
One of my favorite pages from Wretched #1
Being an artist is a full time job. It takes self motivation and commitment. I can't stress that enough when doing production type art and comics/graphic novels. When I tell people that each page can take 10 or more hours they look at me confused. When I reveal that I didn't do the colors for Wretched Things they simply don't understand it. Then I start explaining that I need to take the script and turn those words into pictures. Design characters, pose them, find the right 'camera' angles for each panel, throw down some perspective (for each panel!), populate the panel with characters, props, background buildings and characters, then render in details (dear god the fur and spikes in this series), make sure the scenes are lit right, it goes on and on.
I'm not writing this to complain. I won't get into working 2 full time jobs and clocking over 100 hours on the average week. I love creating art. I'll stand up outside and weld all day, throw paint at a canvas until the brushes start falling apart or sling ink onto paper until I notice the sun is rising and I've been at it all night. Why I'm writing this is so many don't appreciate the amount of work and effort that goes into creating. So many people aren't willing to pay or when they hear the price quickly run away or worse try and haggle to some obscenely low rate.
Seriously art takes time. Time costs money. Are you going to donate 10+ hours of your time to me for every page I draw? I'll have you walk my dog, do the laundry, cook meals, etc. If the answer is no then don't ask me to work on spec or for some absurdly low rate.
Issue #1 has been out a few weeks now. Issue #2 is taking longer than hoped but we're only a few pages away from that goal. Working 48 hours per week at the fire dept. then the same if not more in the studio has taken its toll. That said I am happy for the opportunity to be doing both. It is a great feeling seeing the finished product and hearing the positive feedback and knowing that someone actually cared enough to already pirate it and make it available for illegal download.
One of the most asked questions I've been getting is along the lines of 'What's the most messed up thing you've had to draw?' For Wretched it has all been pretty crazy. Lots of fantastic environments, creepy things with lots of hairy legs and huge freakin fangs. Though spider on spider torture would probably be the most twisted item.
Back to the drawing board for now. Make sure to check out Wretched Things #1 over on comixology.com!
Issue #1 of Wretched Things is fully colored and the lettering is getting the final tweaks and polish.
I learned a lot about my production process during this issue. While I was happy with the results I was certainly producing slower than I had hoped. Some of that was due to scheduling and an injury at work but a big part of it was how I was working. I talked to a bunch of other artists and I think I've refined the process down where I can produce the quality I want in a more timely fashion. That and becoming more familiar with the tools I'm using and the characters Devon has populated this story with.
I've also made it a point to take weekends off, at least from drawing comics. Apart from family time it will be spent on sculpting and painting. Stepping away from comics for a day or two is definitely needed for both physical and mental health.
Now back to more mouse and spider action...
I hate when 'real life' gets in the way of my comics making.
Issue #1 of Wretched Things is fully penciled and inked with colors and lettering well underway. I've got thumbnails and layouts for half of issue #2 done and most of those pages worked up to roughs.
I've fallen way behind on working on this new site and getting sketches and sketch covers done. Hopefully get all my EMT renewal stuff done this week so that I can get back in the groove.
In the meantime I've attached a rough from issue #2 of Wretched.
Changed up the site and added some new features. Will be adding to the galleries and store over the coming days. Have a good stock of sketches and sketch covers to add. Stay tuned!