Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Dreams

One of the things I got into for a while was writing down my dreams. I'm not going to say your dreams are an untapped reservoir of potential, but they are definitely a good place to pull out some wacky ideas.

Several years ago I dreamed I had an alien organism on my back trying to control me, like the movie the Puppet Masters. I also recently noticed it had a really close similarity to the harness creatures on Falling Skies. It's not the first time I've dreamed about something that I see later on, but that's another post all to itself.



Anyway, I jotted it down in my sketchbook the next day. If I had dreams like this every night I'd probably start keeping a visual dream journal more often.


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sketch - Glob Monster

I spent all night submitting Black Hole Cafe to Comixology Submit, so I didn't have time for a full post. So here's a pic of a glob monster I did on my iPad. :)



Friday, March 8, 2013

Conductor Sketch


Since it's Friday and I'm going to the symphony tonight, I decided this would be a perfect post for a sketch I did several years ago. http://www.austinsymphony.org

As you can see it was very rushed. I was more interested in capturing the idea then doing a finished drawing. (Note to self: Start posting finished pictures you hack!)

It reminded me of something you would see in the movie Brazil. It's an idea that's stuck around, so I may incorporate it into Black Hole Cafe. 


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Storyboards






Since yesterday's post was about thumbnails, I figured I would go with a similar theme and talk about storyboards.

Storyboards are typically created for movies, cartoons, commericals, etc., in order to give the director and producers a visual representation of the script. it shows the action and gives direction for framing shots.

Storyboards can be as simple as stick figures in boxes, or as complicated as fully animated test reels. Even though it's not necessary to make storyboards look great, many have turned it into an art form unto itself. 

I dabbled in making short films with some friends of mine for a while, so I had the rare privilege of storyboarding about ninety pages worth of script. It was grueling, but incredibly satisfying. Storyboards are basically comics broken into individual panels, it's all sequential art. 

I feel like I grew a lot as an artist. It required me to draw normal people doing normal things. I have a ton of boards, but I've posted some of my favorites below. Notice that some have arrows. That's to indicate the movement in the shot. Sometimes these are for the actors, but other times they can be for the camera movement. 












Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Thumbnails

I wanted to cover something that is near and dear to my heart. Any time I approach a comic page, I always thumbnail out the layouts first. I have a lot of fun doing this because it lets me experiment before drawing the actual pages.

Definition: Thumbnail (noun): A very small or concise description, representation, or summary: "a thumbnail sketch"... not the thing that ends up on your bathroom floor. Gross dude.


Basically, a thumbnail is very small rough version of your final page. It should have very little detail, and only capture the layout of your page. I usually try to thumbnail about six pages in advance. I find thumbnailing my book first gives me an idea of the flow. Here's a few examples from issue 2 of Black Hole Cafe.



As you can see, it's very loose. I try to capture the flow of the action without putting too much detail. Anyone familiar with gesture drawing will be familiar with this concept. I feel if I can capture the feeling of the scene in a thumbnail, I can usually recreate it later on. Here's the finished page.



This page stayed pretty close to the layout of the thumbnail. However, sometimes they can vary drastically. Take a look at page 16 from the same issue. 


I really hated this thumbnail. I didn't like the pose and was worried about what to do. So, I sat there in front of my drawing table for a few minutes imagining the scene and then whipped out a different pose. The layout is basically the same with Dodd standing over an altar, but the end pose and angle are completely different.


Both of the thumbnails above were done at 1/3 size. Since I use smaller illustration boards than a traditional comic, it comes out to about 2 X 3.5 inches. Yes I know these are bigger than an actual thumbnail... but you've never seen my thumbs! I do this to draw a little more detail than a normal thumbnail. Once again, I do this to capture the feel of the scene.

I love thumbnails. Sometimes I love them more than drawing finished pictures. There's something so immediate and free about doodling. I enjoyed this process so much, that I thumbnailed out all four issues of Black Hole Cafe's first story arc in two days. Needless to say, I had a good time. :)

Go out there and try doodling some of your own!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Sketch

I've been a little out of pocket the past few days. I'll make sure to post more consistently in the future.
Here's a random sketch from the vault.


 It was based on a short I did in Lovecraft style. This one was scanned directly from the sketchbook so you can see some dirt around the edges.

I wanted to draw a character who goes through stages of transformation. I can't remember what the inspiration was. I just know I wanted him to have lots of boils and big eyeball.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Staple - Independent Media Expo

Today was the annual Staple Expo. I decided to stop by for a few hours and was really impressed with the turn out. I even ran into a friend who had booth. Check out the logo they posted this year. (None of the artwork on today's post is mine)

Staple

 I was really impressed with the turnout. It seems to get better every year. What I like best is the variety you can find there. it's not just indie comics, but various shirts, buttons and prints too.

Here's a few things I picked up today. I didn't grab any typical comics. I decided to go a little alternative this year.

** It goes without saying that these images are owned by the artists. I'm just posting them here to show off their stuff **

Here are some amazing prints from Jessica Grundy. I usually mosey past the tables, but I stopped at hers and had to buy something. These have an Alice in Wonderland feel, so I grabbed them for Misty's office. Everything in there is Alice themed.

Jessica Grundy



Here's one from the wife of friend who had a booth. She does a lot of really neat intricate pencil work.

Kim Scoulios



And of course there's this guy. Not only does Kenon have really good illustrations, but who can pass up a shirt with Cthulu riding a bike?.....no one... NO ONE I TELL YOU!


Kennon James


I plan on getting a table next year. I would have this year, but I missed the cut off working on my second issue. By next year I should have all four issues of the first story arc done, and plan to combine them into a single trade.

See you then!


Friday, March 1, 2013

Random Sketch!

It's Friday and I'm wiped out from the week. So, here's a random sketch I pulled from my sketchbook.
It was supposed to be a character for a comic I was working on. Half-cat guy with giants knives!
Apparently, I like drawing half-animal characters. You'll see a lot of those show up in future editions of Black Hole Cafe.

Happy Friday