Week in Review 11/30/12

Thursdays progress shot

So i war hoping to get several pages of tight roughs done tonight, bit as you can see I am still working on page three. As the scenes get less populated it should go much faster, but in the mean time, here's a few shots of what I did today. Another big news piece is that, with the aid if a good reference book, I finally pinned down what I wanted to do with Harris' outfit.

Inspiration: The Watchmen

Not really the comic, but I am in love with the grid style. As you can see from the roughs, I'm just doing variations of the grid style. Some times I feel like I've varied it up more than I actually like, because there's something to be said about consistency. Mostly that when you break from the similar layouts, the different panels have more subconscious impact. So if you ever think, man, I wish she'd do something crazy fifties and put in a big circle panel, or maybe some major rad diagonal panels, know it's not going to happen. :) See you all tomorrow with another progress shot.

Tuesday progress

So today was a big writing day. I got to about page 25 of issue 5 and decided some rewrites were in order. I'm in the process of smoothing out some transitions. The issue will be fully written tomorrow. See you with an inspiration post tomorrow!

Taking a break from Character Updates

There are a lot of characters, but I'd like to wait a little while before posting any more. I'm afraid it'll give things away. Here's a little progress shot.

Holiday updates in a day.

Sorry about all the delays! Like I say in the video, my mom was in town. I don't get to see her very often, but I did get work done while she was in town. She said she reads the blog, so hi mom! Got a lot of rest with my days off, so I'm ready for more late nights for a while. Here's the week in review:

And! Here are the roughs. I'll be updating this post until I decide to go to sleep. It'll be hard to tell what's going on in the pages, but it's a good progress report to make up for three missed days :) Pages are in order:

 It's 10:01 PM on my clock. I will post new pages after this time stamp.

So here are pages 21-32:

And surprise! Some roughs of the cover!:

See you all tomorrow with another character update!

Inspiration: Eastern and Western Comics

A big part of my making comics are the comics I've read growing up. At a younger age I read a lot of manga, and as I got older I began reading superhero comics. The thing I really love about superhero comics is the style. I would give just about anything to be able to draw as well as Neil Adams, or paint as well as Alex Ross. But a lot of superhero comics fall just short where manga goes too far. Manga is huge with its quiet moments. Another major point is pacing vs content. Manga, particularly shoujo, focuses on relationships (all types) and focuses on a little action in most cases. Shonen and superhero comics tend to have more in common. There's not as much focus on the relationships, but darn it if kicking butt doesn't take up 90% of the book. These are all things I keep in mind. I'd like to have a product that everyone can enjoy, and I try not to keep too much of one and not enough of the other. More progress reports tomorrow. Enjoy stuffing yourselves sick tomorrow!

Tuesdays progress

I've started sketching the pages. So far up to six pages sketched. This will help to place my horizon line when starting to throw down perspective grid.

I also finished writing issue four and have since gotten five pages into issue five. still trying to figure out what to post for inspiration tonight. See you then!

Character Spotlight: Harris

Today's character spotlight in on Harris, first mate to Captain Valkrias. There's nothing he hates more than taking his time to bother with Mikala--but, orders are orders. It's not completely certain why such a young man would have devoted his life to pirating. The queen's fleet is, after all, always looking for useful young men. The longer he's near Mikala, the more agitated he seems. After taking care of a ship, a spoiled belle is an annoying and tiring task.

Sunday

I got back a little later than I'd hoped, but i did finish a panel on page two.

Saturday's progress

So I got a little drawing done tonight after the wrestling show, here's the pic. Also on livestream you can see my practice my inks on some of Paulina's beautiful character sketches.

Week in Review 11/16/12

Ready for tonight's progress?

You'll find it live here: http://www.livestream.com/alkeneartlive

I'll be streaming from 7-11, and I may even come back for a 12-2 stream. See you all there!

Inspiration: Space and all its uses

I'm not really sure how much I've talked about how I'd like to utilize space on the blog--I'm too young for memory loss...--but it's something that plays a big part in the story? Remember that log line? Space is the half of it. I'm not a huge follower of planets and moons and all that gobbledygook that goes with it. I'm still learning about life here on Earth. A lot of my designations for space come from other media.

No, I'm not saying that I'm stealing anything. More of just reaffirming my plans.

I really like the visual of old pirate ships. ("Because I like _____." is my reason for doing a lot of things in the story...). I wasn't sure how this would jive with audiences and a friend brought up a Disney movie I loved.

Treasure Planet!!!

Talking to her about this also quelled another fear of mine: breathing in space. I say, it's only an issue if you bring it up. It's the same in this movie. Because they can. I don't make up the rules, but I will always try to.

But space is mostly used in the comic because I like certain time periods and want to draw them.

I find that two film series exemplify this:

Star Wars:

Firefly/Serenity:

These are two very popular sci-fi series who approach life on different planets in unique ways. Star Wars is the only thing I admit to borrowing from. Lucas Films made an amazing decision when each planet was a different color theme. This way, even if you weren't really following, you could still figure out that people were in vastly different locations.

Firefly was great for me because it was another one of those reaffirming moments. Each planet had its own unique civilization, building style, etc. So when I was trying to explain to someone that each planet would have a different look, and a different culture. Joss Whedon (love love) was unknowingly to my rescue.

This is a subject I'm sure I'll divulge more into, but right now that seems like a very sufficient overview. If you have specific questions, feel free to rattle them off and I will address them in a future post.

On an unrelated note, in case you wanted to know, my computer's dictionary made sure I spelled gobbledygook correctly. Win.

Progress shot tomorrow. See you then.

Borders, perspective, and roughs, oh my!

So tonight I have officially finished doing all my panel borders for issue one. I'm trying something a little different--all of my open projects include experimenting with process--and doing things in steps for the entire issue. I've removed 34 pages, added 34 14x21 borders, and as of tonight, I've finished 31 pages of panel borders.

Well, that doesn't sound very exciting. Where's the real progress?

No, it isn't very exciting, but it is progress. Each page of panel borders takes about five minutes, and I get very easily distracted on them...It's taken about a week to get them all done between sickness, soreness, and working on anything but panel borders.

The next step is adding perspective lines. But don't worry. My to-do list has other takes interjected between the boring stuff. So, now that I'm done with panel borders, I plan to try to finish panel 1 of page 2 and get started on the next 13.75 pages worth of perspective. If drawing boxes and drawing people are two different parts of your brain, I will know by the end of this project for sure!

See you tomorrow with another inspirational message.

Character Spotlight: Caden

Caden is a gentleman if ever his generation saw one. Of course, when you pine for the daughter of the greatest trader this side of the Lomak System, you have to. Aside from knowing he would do just about anything for her, Mikala doesn't know much about Caden. Try as he might, he just can't seem to figure out why Mikala is so cool toward him. Perhaps it's just a matter of trying harder...

Progress for Sunday

Tonight was a lot of planning and determining the best course of action proceeding into issue three. I had begun drawing out roughs, but writing out a potential schedule, it looked like sketching directly onto the pages would not only be more time effective, but would also help me keep my interests in the right places. Tonight I worked on panel borders again. In another ten pages I well be moving on to plotting out my perspective grids. Here's a shot of my layouts in sketch form--to keep me from using the same patterns too often if at all--and a few schedules I wrote out. (still deciding which I will follow)

Week in review 11/9/12

Sorry it's a few days late, but I will be posting a progress shot today! I'm back on schedule for sure!

Script Progress

Just finished writing chapter three! This has been a really fun issue to script for me. The story it's written but after issue two I decided there were a lot of changes that needed to be made. I have the rest of the issues plotted out. More progress shots tomorrow.