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Preorder Wretched Things
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 with Comic Experience and Source Point Press
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.
Wretched Things Rejected Cover
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.
Wretched Things collected edition cover time lapse
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
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.
Process videos
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.
I've got how many pages to ink?!?!
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!
Wretched Things #2 out this week! Story time!
After a long delay Wretched Things #2 will be out on Comixology this Wednesday.
Creating art isn't a part time job and no I won't work for free
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 #2: the finish line is in sight
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!
Final colors are in!
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...
Work getting in the way of work
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.