7 - The Eyes of Horus

Wazzup my nonexistent fans.  Still learning and chugging along.  

This time I switched to standard comic paper I cut in half.  11x17 Bristol board.  It was a lot easier to work with generally speaking than the card stock.  It's much smoother and works better with finer details.  

Here's the pencils.  Although I did ink some borders in ink.  

My inner critic pretty much hates everything I do but I've been doing a pretty good job of shutting him up and just putting my butt in the seat and drawing.  

I didn't scan my little outliney inks as it was pretty sparse and frankly I forgot.  So the final is the inks.  But here it is again but smaller just 'cause.  

Now I tried out some more ink wash action, but I forgot which bottles were lightest, medium and dark gray.  Needless to say that screwed up my plans.  I tried to fix it as best I could with okay success.  

I do like that the roof is darker and separated from the well lit below.  I eyeballed perspective so I'm sure it's all wrong, but screw it.  It is what it is.  

Anyhoo.  Still plugging away.  

I hope anyone reading keeps plugging away at the hobbies/arts they love.  That's all we can really do.  

Nick.  

6 - Electroshock

Final strip above was done with dip pens, brush for the large black areas, and the gray tones done via dip pen into watered down inks.  Lettering, borders and little touches done with microns.  A little PRO white paint for touch ups.  I'll discuss that further below.  

Been rescheduling how I organize my week.  Been doing more consecutive art on weekends and less during the week.  Art like life seems to be a permanent experiment.  Nothing is static.  

Here are the pencils.  I like pieces.  I like the expressions on panel 2 and 4.  I totally gave up too soon and studied too little on my electricity effects on panel 3.  It's cool, though.  Time constraints and learning on the go.  Next time I'll do more studies of just lightning prior to drawing it.  

So I forgot to scan the inks.  Sorry.  But I have some extras for those who care about my crappy technique experiments.  So I wanted to try another form of gray-toning and so I went with ink wash.  

I found Will Morris's blog and I really liked his art and he had some ink wash pieces that were inspirational.  In particular these entries...

http://whmorris.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-shadow.html

http://whmorris.blogspot.com/2012/06/hairlet.html

http://whmorris.blogspot.com/2010/08/hearty-breakfast.html

And he was kind enough to even comment back to me his technique on the last blog.  I sorta used his technique.  I didn't quite follow instructions.  I eyeballed some things.  I dumped some of the wash and thinned out the ink once or twice.  I played around with using ink wash with brush and with dip pen to see what's up with it.  

I bought 3 airbrush jars to hold my washes from Plaza here in Nashville.  They look like this.  http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/badger-airbrush-jar-34oz/

But I put a I, II, III on the lids to keep track of darkest to lightest.  It holds a crap load and I should run out in the years 2050 maybe.  

Anyway here are my ink wash experiments.    

Above, the face on the right is entirely dip pen, different shades/solutions of ink wash.  I like the effect to some extent but I find it distractingly busy.  I like the invisibility of the brush.  All those little lines focus too much attention on the lines and not enough on the drawing as a whole.  

These pages were pretty warped by the wetness level of the ink washes.  You can see the shadows on the pages.  I put my "big dictionary" on the scanner for my final comic to reduce the distortions in the scanning process.  It's a giant unabridged 1967 (or is it 1963, I forget) Funk and Wagnalls dictionary which I love but rarely use.  It helped flatten things out.  

I'm getting a crapload of bleeding on my inking.  I know my skill is somewhat to blame, but I think it may be in part the card stock I'm using instead of standard Bristol board.  I'm also working small (8 1/2"x11") which doesn't help.  I'm going to have to return to microns as my primary inking tool until I work through my card stock.  

Here are some random sketches of characters that will be/are part of the comic strip.  

And that's all I got for now.  I'll try and publish next Sunday, but we'll have to see how I do.  

Audi 5000, 

Nick.  

5 - Ghoul Fight

Next ep.  Getting a little faster.  Playing and learning.  Not much new to comment about, more an extension of what I've been learning.  Pieces I like and some a I don't.  Learning as I go does that ya know.  

Here's the pencils.  I like these better than my inks and finals, mostly.  

Here's the inks.  

Used mostly microns and brush again.  Screwed up a lot due to low visibility using my lightbox, particularly around the tiny itty bitty areas.  So next time going to lightbox for broad outlines.  Then I'll put pencils side by side with inks so I can kinda copy the details.  

Shading stage up top done with #2 pencil.  Mixed feelings about it.  But that's how it goes.  

Messing around with dip pen and I think I'll use that next time and ditch the microns except for panel borders and lettering.  

Hope you enjoy.  

Nick.  

4 - The Unexpected

Alright my non-existent fans, long time no see.  I'm still working the same basic method.  Started out with rough script.  Then thumbnailed a couple of layouts and ended up taking what I thought were the best elements of both and merged them.  

Here's the pencils, yo.  

8 1/2 x 11" white Cardstock Pack, acid & lignin free from The Paper Studio.  50 sheets for $5.  Did roughs colerase blue and red.  Figures got a little confusing so I used red for the ghouls to help my eyes differentiate.  Lost some patience on last panel and didn't do enough planning/underdrawing to really nail it.  Ah well.  

Inking went pretty well.  I like some bits more than others.  I liked my Derek/Silent Seeker reaction shots even though I'm not good at keeping anyone on model.  Partially because I don't create model sheets, maybe.  Partially because I'm not that good yet.  Inked w/microns (mostly 8, 5, 3) and brush.  

I'm feeling the ink then pencil shading.  I started out with an H and found it too subtle and used mostly 4B with different levels of pressure.  

I'm pretty happy with my progress although I still see all the flaws.  I'm more optimistic than I've ever been about my art even though I still criticize it.  I feel progress.  

I think the thing I really have to do is budget time better.  Its not taking me terribly long, but I'm find it hard to get to the art table.  It used to be about fear/dread of seeing how horrible I think I draw, but not any more.  It's my second character flaw, poor time management/absent minded professorishness. Also I tend to put art last on the To-Do list.  

I'm going to really try to put this out weekly.  I'm about monthly now and that's just ridiculously slow.  At this rate I'll get my first story arc out in the year 2350 AD (although I'll get to meet Duck Dodgers - bonus!).  

So hopefully I'll make that goal.  

Check ya later.  

Nick.  

3 - Fill 'er Up

Okayyyy folks.  I have been super slow with this one.  I haven't been meticulously drawing, I've let myself get distracted by life and to some extent listen to my inner critic.  

The process was pretty similar.  Wrote up a script that wasn't terrible detailed at first, semi-move scriptish.  Then penciled in blue and a little red as needed.  Then went back with darker pencil.  Something like a HB or 2B.  

Then I ran into a problem.  Basically I couldn't see my pencils with my lightbox and got frustrated so I just threw out what I was doing and inked on the pencil page and erased later.  The colerase blue/red didn't erase very well which is why you can see bits of blue and red here and there.  I just realized I think the ambient light was too high (dusk with windows wide open).  It probably would have worked just fine if I'd gone to my drafting table and closed the curtains.  Ah well.  Maybe next time.  Anyhoo...

Panel borders in micron 08, then lettered in micron 05 (I think, could be 03).  Then did balloons in micron 08 pen.  Stayed with micron 08 for lots of the outlining of foreground figures.  Then I actually bounced around a lot.  I'm still figuring out my tools.  I tend to like the big microns 08, 05 for almost everything.  Dipped much lower for some of the line work.  But 005, 01, 02 feel almost interchangeable at my skill level. 

So I butchered it some with my pens and then did some brushwork w/ink.  Parts I liked, others I feel I butchered even worse.  But this is part of learning.  

I hadn't gotten around to getting proper pro-white paint and so I white-outed again which was like trying to paint with my arm cut off.  I already have crappy brush control, but that thing is a nightmare.  

Anyhoo.  I hope you the comic and/or my painful learning process.  

Check ya later.

Nik.  

2 - The Empty Town

Well finally here.  Pretty much used the same process as strip #1.  Struggled with perspective and visual reference from Google Maps street view.  I could't jive the visual reference and using perspective rules.  Drawing what you see vs. perspective rules.  So I just used basic 2 pt perspective from How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way and Google maps image as a design guide and just approximated.  

I wanted to use my copy of Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork by David Chelsea, but while awesomely comprehensive it was daunting in the short period of time I had to figure things out.  I've started to re-read it and will probably re-read several times so I can absorb it more.  I'll be using knowledge from that more and Marvel's book less as time goes by.  

The Pencils

Tried to use red pencil in Aimes lettering guide, but kept snapping.  Old faithful cheap automatic pencils working best.  

The Inks.  

Still figuring out inks, well actually still figuring out every single thing to be realistic.  Used mostly micron pens and some brush.  Did some hatching and it's fairly effective but I'm not big on hatching.  I like a starker ink style, like Mignola, Toth, etc.  Although obviously they are infinitely better than me.  

I did better on lettering but not perfect by any stretch.  Comic artists say, "use Pro White paint instead of whiteout."  I used whiteout.  I now understand why whiteout is no good.  It distorts too much anything you try to do on top of it.  Screwed up some lettering with whiteout.  Ugh - bottom of last panel lettering.  Whiteout bad.  

I know I need to improve in all areas pretty much, but perspective, tighter pencils and understanding how to lay down the inks are my latest focus.  

See ya next time.  

Nik.  


5/3/14 update - I forgot to mention gray tones were via COPIC marker.  

1- Dead Zone

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my webcomic debut.  I'm an old fart (41 y/o) amateur and I've finally decided to just follow my dream and make my own comics.  I've had a very long time of self-criticism and perfectionism which has led to massive artistic paralysis for the past 20+ years.  I know.  It's ridiculous.  It took me a long time to realize that...

You have to MAKE COMICS to IMPROVE at making comics.  

My intellect (my inner Spock) has known this for ages, but my internal critic was so brutal I couldn't make it happen.  Now I'm doing it.  Below each comic strip I'll have a little peek behind the scenes to show the methods to my madness and I'll include realizations and crap about my learning process.  I'm going to shoot for a strip a week, but since I'm learning I may be a little slower at first.  

DOING IT OLD SCHOOL

I have spent money on old school tools over the years - drafting table, pencils, microns, pens, ink, brushes, t-squares, triangles, etc.  Because I don't know if/when I'll make any money doing art I've basically vowed to myself to stick old school until I feel I've earned a wacom, adobe photoshop/illustrator or mangastudio.  Knowing my high standards this will be years away.  

Besides I just feel like I'm going to learn a ton of crap doing it the old ways.  And it's cheaper.  Anyway... on to the methods to my madness.  

So my scanner is small and can't handle 11x17 pages.  So I'm just doing drawing on 8 1/2x11 pages.  I tried out regular typing paper for the pencils and a card stock paper for the inks.  Still pretty cheap and fits in my scanner nicely.  And FYI 11x17 ain't nothing but two 8 1/2x11 pages put together (dimensionally speaking).  So I'm doing my webcomic aka comic strip on 1/2 comic pages.  I figure if I ever do well with this thing I can slap my 2 strips together and make a comic page with some tweaking.  

SCRIPT

I've had this main universe of characters and setting in my head for the past 20 years although constantly mutating because I never set anything down in a final form.  Just reams of jotted notes, sketches, and a database.  

I've written a number of comic scripts, a novel version, and an illustrated web serial version.  Then I came back to my senses.  I'm doing this like an adventure comic strip as best I can.  

I have a malleable outline for the near future of the series which is good to start with.  I then wrote a quickie script of the smallest bit of the story and tried to end it on a little punchline or at least something a little punchy.  I wrote is as vaguely as I needed since I'm drawing it.  

PENCILS

So I sketched up a thumbnail of the strip at the same size as the actual pencils.  I did a couple of reworks.  I didn't keep any of that to scan for you, sorry.  

Taped the paper down so it stayed still.  So for the actual pencils I used colerase blue pencil on typing paper.  I used t-square and triangles and did up the panels first.  Then I worked up the main figures and sets in a rough way.  I didn't work with vanishing points as much as I should but whatyagunnado?  

I then went in with a H or HB pencil, not sure which.  

I then broke out my aims lettering guide and followed the instructions I found in one of my comic how-to books.  I tried to use my drafting pencil w/blue lead but that thing kept snapping on me so I just used a crappy disposable mechanical pen you find in the school supply aisles and that worked better for me.  I don't have the most patience with this kind of thing, part of my issues.  

I did a rough pencil of the lettering mostly for approximate spacing than for panache.  During this process I realized that my script was too freaking wordy, even wordier than the finished product.  There was a good amount of script editing that went on during the lettering stage.  

Then I scanned it.  

INKS

I taped pencils with blank card stock paper over it onto my lightbox.  Old school, yo!  I tackled with thickest micron (08) first for outlines of panels and balloons.  I did everything free hand because I felt like I wanted that look, not so sure anymore.  I then used a smaller micron, an 03 maybe, I think, to do the letters.  

After dry, went back with 08 micron and inked largest figures.  Stuff smaller and farther away I used smaller microns.  Not terribly systematically I must admit.  

Once everything was kinda outlined I took it off the lightbox and taped it back on my drafting table.  Then I tackled with ink and brush.  Then I let it dry.  Then I scanned it.  

TONES

I wanted to gray tones and as I go I'll be experimenting with different methods.  I'll probably do ink wash, COPIC markers, and hatching at least.  

This time I went with pencil shading.  I basically grabbed a 9B pencil and shaded mostly with the sides however I felt like it.  Once I felt it was done I scanned it.  

SCANNING

My scanner is like 8 1/2 by like 12" and so I had extra crap on one side.  I tried to use Open Office Drawing program but I have no idea how to use that crap and it kept crashing on me.  I'm familiar with paint and a little photoshop, so I just went to sumopaint.com and used their free app.  I cropped using the change canvas size function.  It scanned pretty big so I saved that and a smaller version that would fit better online.  

And that is the final strip you hopefully tried to read in the first place.  

LESSONS FOR ME

I worked faster and looser than normal to shut up my inner critic.  My critic is still there and still brutal and also still correct about a number of specific points, but I don't listen in the same way.  

It was both harder and easier than I thought.  I got to the end and that's what freaking counts and it is very encouraging no matter how much I focus on all the mistakes and problems.  Speaking of those...

Next time...

• Fewer panels.  I'm working too small, much smaller than your average professional comic page.  4 panels max since I'm working on a 1/2 comic book page scale (that would make it up to 8 panels/page).  
• Actually use some of those perspective instructions I have in my little reference library to construct sets for the characters to move about in instead of just kinda winging it.  
• Just got a print from Arthur Adams himself for my B-day from my sweet wife.  Monkeyman and O'Brian and the Elasmosauras.  It is crazy awesome and also made of super microhatching, which I'll probably never do, but it made me look at my stuff and realize I'm working too thick sometimes - start out smaller and finer and be VERY careful with brushwork.  
• Use dip pen and play with line weights more naturally.  
• At a certain point I got impatient and didn't solve the problems in the pencil stage where it should have been decided.  Doing it in the ink stage was not good.  So...
• Do tighter and much darker pencils.  It will help spot problems of drawing, storytelling, clarity, etc.  Plus darker pencils would help me see things better on the lightbox.  
• Slow down on the lettering, Tex!  What I felt was "personality" at the time just feels like so-so legibility and laziness now.  
• More minimalist tone style.  I actually kinda like the inks better than the final product.  Tones kinda made it busier and more monotone at the same time.  Need to try another approach.  

Each ep will be full of my experiments with pretty much everything.  Now this is training wheels stuff for the pros, but for me it's boot camp.  

I encourage everyone to just dive into the things you love, don't waste time like me.  Follow you bliss and all that crap.  

See ya next time, 

Nick