Graphic Novels

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

deviantArt neglected to publish last week's comic to anyone's notification list, so if you feel like you are missing something you might want to try reading Page Three first. :P

There is a consistency error on this page that really bugs me, but the rest of you may not notice it until Page Five. Oh well. Book I and II have so many little glitches that I should be used to it by now. And yeah, the textures were fun for awhile but I am now bored by them. Again, Page Five next week will probably go a long way to explaining that (went too far? A BIT).

And I just wanted to mention for those of you who aren't on facebook that dA's FlamiaTheDemon has translated Book I into Italian (well, both books I and II, but there have been technical difficulties with book II, so it will be arriving later... :P ). It is the most awesome thing ever and makes me feel terribly self-important. Well, no, not really. But if anything could, it would be that. So, many thanks to Flamia. :)

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

Had fun this week drawing little sketches for the comic pack orders. I've been drawing on the computer for so long, I felt a little rusty with a pencil. MUST DO MORE SKETCHBOOK PRACTICE! And I read the Army of Darkness comics (well, the omnibus vol 1). I am now a huge fan of Nick Bradshaw, and not just because his Bruce Campbell/Ash cartoon character was totally perfect. :)

I've got a page or two ahead in the comic by working insanely hard over the past month, and although I appreciate the slightly reduced stress, I now have forgotten whatever I wanted to say about this page. I will have to start leaving myself notes. :/ I remember that I struggled with the Queen's coloring. That fine line between her standing out and her completely not matching the overall color scheme... hrmph. I hope it worked out in the end. I probably just gave up and decided I had better things to do, like when I was drawing Crane's close-up and he wasn't as dashingly attractive as I would have liked. Oh well. :P

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

I ended up getting rid of fairy Mallard because his color scheme was too far off from the other fairies. So I gave his basic costume to this new guy, Egret. Of course, in retrospect it would have made more sense to just give the costume to existing character Heron, whose status is never specifically noted as dead in Book II. But I didn't think of that until it was too late. The other guy is Crane, whom you've met before in other clothes.

I believe my printed copies of Book II will be on their way soon (after several weeks of nothing, they have just demanded that I finally pay them, anyway...). So I may set up the order form next week. And I have a couple dozen tiny charms (and little boxes, squee!) just waiting to be listed. :)

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

My average file size for book II was 50MB. Book III? 150MB. Urgh. My poor little thumb drive is not going to be able to hold all of these files. :/

And can I just say, I know my vacation between books was very short, but it is very strange drawing Holly and crew again. I had to pull out the character sheets. I feel a bit like I'm starting from scratch. Hrmmmph.

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

Okay, deep breath, here we go! I will try to keep up with the weekly update schedule, but these new pages are taking a very long time to create and I think it is very likely I will fall behind. I will post WIPs or sketches or filler art if that happens. Maybe a breakdown of my process - I've been meaning to do that one of these days. :)

This page is one of those rare artistic moments where I am completely happy with how it turned out. I am very, very proud of it. :) I've revealed more plot secrets than I wanted to, of course, but as they are all out of context, I don't think they will spoil anything until after the fact.

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

And that's it. The end. At least they took her along this time. :)

And now for some time off to rest, stretch my back, and deal with Real Life. Both relieved and saddened by the idea. Real Life sucks. :/

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

Yes, there is a fairytale castle in the middle of Salt Lake City. But unfortunately you are only allowed inside if you swear off coffee, tea, alcohol, cigarettes, premarital sex, and agree to give lots of money to political causes against gay marriage. And the grounds are constantly overrun with newly marrieds getting their photos taken, romantic couples, and missionaries. And they boot out anyone who makes any of the aforementioned feel uncomfortable. :/

Also, did I mention how this used to a major city street that was sold by the city government for a tiny sum to the mormon church in what became a huge church-state scandal a few years back? Fun place to live, Utah. :P

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

I finished my sketch early this week, so I got to spend a little more time coloring. I ended up experimenting with the watercolor-y brush I used to create Page 6 (my favorite page, as I'm sure I've said many times). It does some things beautifully (the lighting in the bottom panel, for instance), and some things less beautifully (the car, and the shadows) - but most of those things I suck at anyway, so I shouldn't really blame the brush. Overall I really like this page, though. I hope the next one comes out as nicely, because it's an awesome big splashy page and I intend to add it to my postcards - although I will have to wait until next year to paper SLC with them. :P

In other news, I've been reading The MiddleMan comic by Viper and I am completely in awe of the artist (example). I can't possible express what an awesome job he's done, particularly given that it's all done in b&w.; The layout (and variety!), pacing, character consistency, emotion, and inherent snarkiness are all just perfect. The bit where they meet the mexican wrestlers and there are little english subtitles, with the one line exception where Wendy says something in english, and then the subtitle was in spanish, oh lol, I laughed so hard. I wish, wish, wish I could draw Holly even a tenth as good as Wendy - she was so cute and sassy and ass-kickingly perfect. But if you want to read it, better get a move on because this is the second printing - the first sold out - and I have a feeling it won't last long.

This is probably easiest to read in my facebook collection.

Wow this page was hard to color. I've gotta say, Holly's black clothes are awesome for standing out in daylight scenes, but when trying to create contrast between her and Anna and magic and shadows... damn, I just can't make that work.

I also tried a new SketchBook brush for inking the solid outlines. It seems a bit too black to me, but it was easier to draw (the pencil brush takes way too much effort to get those heavier lines).

And I guess it's probably because I always knew Morgan was going to die, but I felt a lot worse drawing Janice's death than this page. Mostly I was giggling because Jack gets to carry off Anna again. If she wasn't so distracted, damn she'd be mad as hell. :P

Oh, and remember that moment in OfficeSpace where he's supposed to go to work on Saturday and he sleeps in and ignores his phone calls from the boss? Yeah, that was me this week. But I don't want to get fired. And I didn't sleep in. I just forgot that I had put my phone where I couldn't hear it and that I had Very Important Work to do. At 11:30PM I checked my messages and you could hear me down the street screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOooooooo!" Hopefully I will still be gainfully employed tomorrow. Otherwise, more time to draw. And less food to eat. :P