en vacance

going on a trip tomorrow.. will be back on in two weeks with some sketches from the trip...


honest...

I wonder if I'm catwoman as played by Christy Turlington?

hey.. at least I'm a bruce timm catwoman.. not a halle berry catwoman..
be thankful for small mercys..

Your results:
You are Catwoman

Catwoman 75% Spider-Man 70% Hulk 65% Green Lantern 65% The Flash 55% Superman 35% Batman 35% Supergirl 35% Iron Man 30% Robin 25% Wonder Woman 20%

You have had a tough childhood, you know how to be a thief and exploit others but you stand up for society's cast-offs.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Man I'm ugly..

I either look like a lot of old, ugly men... or a supermodel...

"Which would you choose?" or "Analysis Paralysis"

alrighty then.. above are three thumbnail versions of the same page..
pop quiz (for the two peeps who read this.. Steve and Rory).. which one should I finish up? Or should I take parts of each and make another version?

ta..

gaz

some new stuff for a new thingy...

here are some roughs that will eventually be composited into a page for a little "barbarian-type" scene..

learnin'

So.. I'm trying to get better at being loose (on purpose), while actually finishing things so that they look finished..

I had on my hard disk a lo-res sketch from one of my very favourite artists, Benoit Springer. I blew it up to 11x17 and printed it as a blueline.. then I went at it with a brush pen (chose this tool as it would stop me from noodling.. and because I love me them fat loose lines)..
then I coloured it in p'shop..

all in all I'm very happy with my part.. if only I could draw like Benoit too I'd be like a pig in shit...

the kid comic prototype

here's the page for steve's kid comic proposal..

(tried to give it that old comic look.. did the dot screen thing but the image is wasn't high enough res and so the screen obscured the art a little too much)

..been doing stuff...ok?

inbetween taking 2,400 mg of ibuprofen a day and periods spent sitting in a hot-tub (torn the muscles in my calf).. I have been working on the kid strip for steve's secret project..

here's the composited rough page and the inks page.. next to colour and letter..

oh if only I knew what I was doing......

just to show I've actually been doing something..

here's a blueline of the first page.. I'm going to 'refine' some of the drawing in the finishing/inking stage.. and then I'm going to colour it (which is the steepest learning curve so far..)

At the prompting of friends...

.. I thought I'd best post a post to say I'll post soon.. redid the ranch completely (in google sketchup).. have decided to go back to doing the western in a true comic page layout (a - so that I can post it on pixelstrips.com, and b - so that I could use it as a submission package should it be of sufficient quality...
all that said I'm aiming to have a pencilled. inked and coloured page finished every week..
once I learn how to pencil, ink and colour..

bear in mind that these aren't entirely the finished article.. but then neither am I...

time to post something

I've been looking at Travis Charest's space girl strip.. and I like the format (http://groups.msn.com/travischarest/spacegirlcomic.msnw?Page=1), and I like what Gabriele Pennacchiolio is doing (http://gabrielepennacchioli.blogspot.com/) so I thought I'd copy from them and do my cowboy 'strip' one panel at a time (like a storyboard)..
have to decide whether to full colour it or greytone it.. but here's the inks in the meantime..

been drawing (some) just not posting.. however I haven't drawn every day so... one more time up the hill..
anyway.. tonight I 'built a set' for the first vignette in my western strip.. google sketchup.. it's free, it's fully 3 dimensional modeling and it's pretty damn cool.. if you draw anything with a repeating set (inside or out) I fully recommend mocking up the set with this thingy..
here's some 'flattened' jpegs of the set..

day 4, drawing 6..

and here's the (very) rough bottom panel...

day 4, drawing 5,

and here's the middle tier/panel...

day 4, drawing 4

the titular peacemaker..

day 3, drawing 3

tonight I redrew a panel of the strip..
so I'm posting a marker sketch I did for a friend.. he got a bum sketch from a pro (for way too much money) at the phoenix comic con recently.. so me and some of the other local boys gave him sketches to make up for it..

day 2, drawing 2..

here's a gesture drawing from tonight's life drawing class...

ding ding.... round two... day 1, drawing 1

Starting the 365 thing again...
here's some prelim stuff for the western strip I'm working on..

Right then.. essay time.
I haven't posted anything in a while (as you can see) for a few reasons..
some very private and some not so...
the "not so" is mainly that my (previous) writing partner of the comic we were developing is behaving very poorly (see early blog posts if you need background). Long story short I will not be contributing anything to the comic from here forward, while still retaining the joint ownership of the story/characters.

So... a redefinition is on the cards.

Part of this redefinition will be a recommencing to draw every day for 365 days..
part will be a slight revamp of the look of this blog.. as I plan to manage the links and such a little differently..
part will be that I've decided to 'practice my craft' by creating a webstrip (which will probably be hosted on pixelstrips.com), with a Western theme.

Anyway, I hope to provide my 'blog-readers' (hi mum) with more and better content going forward.

Thank you and I love you all.

Sept 6th.. catchup..

seeing as I "owe" some drawings.. here's three parts of a whole.. will post this as I progress through ruining it..

Sept 4th..

Haven't posted in a while..
thought it might benefit me to learn to draw..

will be doing a few 'studies' over the next few days/weeks.. these two are based on a couple of pieces by Claire Wendling.. if I could draw like Wendling/Springer/Lauffray/Bodart I'd be very happy..

Aug 28th, drawing 22..

thought it was time I made up for the recent postings o' poop.. so here's something I'm not embarrased to show (unlike the last post or two)..
btw.. if anyone wants to comment on anything.. even if it's to say 'you suck'.. then speak up mamma-jamma..

(oh.. btw it's after Guy Gerard Noel and the french poster for the killers (A Bout Portant).

Aug 27th, drawing 21..

another painter experiment..

Aug 26th, drawing 20..

drew lots tonight.. but.. it was all page 1 again (I know I said I liked it.. but I didn't).. then I washed my hands 47 times and locked and unlocked the front door for 20 mins...

joking about the last two.. but a little OCD over the first page (maybe)..

so here's another 2 min gesture sketch to take your mind off it..

Aug 25th, drawing 19..

didn't draw at all today (first time in weeks) as we got into a litle 3 car fender bender and I just didn't feel like it..

so here's a very old first pass at the main female character from the comic.. who has changed names several times since this was drawn..

Aug 24th, drawing 18...

and guess what.. I redrew panel 1 page 1 for the umpteenth time.. but now I'm happy with it..


had a bit of an epiphany actually.. was trying to learn to do too much at once.. so I thought "how about I just learn to pencil a comic right now and leave the learning of inking, lettering and colouring until later?", "splendid idea" I replied..

so anyway.. will still prob miss my self imposed deadline.. but at least I feel it's more approachable now..

Aug 23rd, drawing 17

hey look.. another 10 min doodle in painter..

Aug 22nd, drawing 16

not to sound like a whiny bastard but... I hate my stuff... I mean.. would you show this to anyone? particularly an editor? I think I need to go sit in a cave and learn to draw..

Aug 21st, drawing 15

did lots of thumbs for the comic tonight.. so nothing worth posting there...
so I took the 'spanish lady' sketch into painter for more playing.. it's come out looking like I could have done the whole thing in markers (which wasn't really the effect I was going for)..

Aug 20th, drawing 14..

did some more comic stuff today.. in fact, redid page 1.. which is why I'm so behind schedule.. cos I can't get past page 1..
soo.. rather than show you another similar version of a page you've seen twice already.. here's a marker sketch..

Aug 19th, drawing 13..

another 2 min gesture..

aug 18th, drawing 12

another before bed drawing.. if I didn't have a real/day job I'd actually like to draw in the afternoon sometime.. must be nice....
anyway.. more painter experimentation...

Aug 17th, drawing 11

had to knock this up between football practice and bed.. might take this one a little further sometime...

Aug 16th, drawing 10..

2 min life drawing gesture sketch...

Aug 15th, drawing 9..

redrew some panels, tweaked some others.. think it's an improvement..

Aug 14th, drawing(s) 8..

here are some less rough roughs for page 1 of the comic.. will tighten these up later (after roughing out some more pages) and then they'll be ready to ink..

Aug 13th drawing 7...

attended an on-line digital painting course today (Rob Ruppel through entertainmentartacademy.com).. it was awesome.. so I played with painter again.. and I was far from awesome.. did several studies.. didn't want to post any.. but..
here's a study from a painting by Robert McGinnis.. the face is awful, but at least I know what I have to work on eh?

aug 12th, drawing 6..

more roughs for page 2.. changing some of these..

Aug 11th, drawing 5..

had to knock this one out before I went to bed as I hadn't drawn all day/eve..
should draw this tired more often.. I quite like this one.. completely done in painter (even the underdrawing)..

Aug 10th, drawing 4

played with painter again.. the more I did, the crappier it got.. but I did say a drawing a day.. so here it is (don't look too close)..

Aug 9th, drawing 3

man this one just wouldn't come out...

Aug 8th, drawing 2b (bonus)

first attempt at using painter.. will get better, just you watch..

Aug 8th, drawing 2

here's some more roughs from the first page of the comic.. and yes.. they're very rough.. but then I don't want to give too much away.. do I?

Aug 7th, 2006, drawing 1..

here's a rough of the first panel from the comic.. and it's only taken me a week or so to get this far...