Freaky Sketchbook Comic

So in my last sketchbook I decided for a bit that I was going to try drawing a comic actually in the book. To make that section of the sketchbook a comic itself. As you can see, I did this for one splash page and half a page.

I then got excited about it, and bought a special sketchbook just to do a project like this in. Then everything I drew in it was crap. None of it was inked, so maybe there is still hope. In the meantime please enjoy the experiment.

ALSO. I am discovering the joy of hand lettering. This is because how much I hate computer lettering Benthic. Dicking with the text in InDesign and the bubble in Illustrator at the same time is my least favorite thing to do, possibly on the planet. The people who do this professionally need to be diagnosed. Hand lettering is a pain, but at least I feel like I'm eliminating a step on the back end.

Ill Advised Side Project? Yup.

Worked a bit on a side project last week, mostly for fun. I figured I would share the opening two page spread (hooray insomnia!), and a quick drawing of the other main character.

Welcome to The Crater

My friend Chris had said he wanted to see that city panel from Page 7, so here you are. See panels like this is why this project can, at times, drag on. I am looking forward to see this panel after tone though...

Inside The SHLPTE - Issue 2

Once again, a peek inside the crazy place where all my work happens. The first half of the next issue of Benthic in nearly inked, laying out the second half this week.

Benthic - Promo Poster

You want a montage! Montage! Even Rocky had a montage! Montage!

I don't know about you, but I'm excited.

The Chojun and The Methuselah - Ship Designs

Merry Christmas! This year I got you the designs for the Chojun (top) and Methuselah (bottom, with the Chojun to scale). All these things are brush inked now, but I feel lame re-posting all the characters in brush form. Maybe after the New Year.

The Rest of the Cast

The remaining major players are tonight's installment - Tsaigen, Dr. Fos Blusan, and Vuid Juande. Of which, only Tsaigen is really a main character, but whatever.

The Methuselah - Crew Members

In today's installment, we'll see the main crew members of the Methuselah - Issalai, Zef, and Olcee. I thought drawing all the random people working on the ship was overkill

The Chojun - Crew Members

Finished up the pen drawings of all the characters from my comic. Today, we'll see the crew of the Chojun- Karda, Tel, Hinei and Mu.

Concept Art, Under the Sea

Despite the fact I'm still penciling the first page of Issue 2, I did the page breakdown for Issue 3 on the train this morning. This could only mean one thing- its dive suit and deep sea submersible concept time! I could draw sketcky inky biomorphic designs all damned day. Now I just wonder how many times I'll end up tweaking the hell out of them before I get that far into the story.

Tsaigen, The Pete Best of Issue 1

I've been doing random drawings of the characters for the inside cover, and I decided to do the only main character who isn't in the first issue as well. I just feel like a tool putting him in the final, because I want this first issue to also stand on its own, so I'm just gonna post it here.

This September has been and will continue to be the craziest month of, well, definitely this year and in the running for craziest ever.

Excerpts

So I'm scanning, editing, laying tone and laying out all the work from the comic now. Tedious and time consuming, the little bit I have managed to draw this week certainly shouldn't be seen in public.

Instead, heres a couple excerpts from my pet project; Brian's favorite panel of Karda entering the concert, and a shot of the Chojun rising to show some of the tone I've been putting in the underwater scenes. The tone scenes are coming out a bit better than I had expected and are now overpowering the black and white stuff, so I may have to end up toning a lot of it (but probably not the concert shot).

SHLPTE Update

I may be slacking on editing ASIFA stuff, but all sequential pages for the first issue of my comic are now penciled, inked, and up on the wall(s). The excitement is beginning to mount.

Inside The Walls of The SHLPTE

So you know how I'm always talking about this comic and I've only posted four pages? Its just cause scanning takes forever and I've been working on actually drawing it. But it does exist! Here's a little blurry slice of whats going on in my home, the Saddam Hussein Love Palace and Taco Emporium (SHLPTE, prounounced as "Shluptay")

Theres another page going on the wall tomorrow, and then only four pages left! All major artistic operations on this project will conclude in August.

Insert Working Title Here

Okay, here are the first four pages of my current ongoing project which I have yet to title. I actually have two working titles and neither of them are going to stick, so whats the point even choosing one to use here?

There is still a little ink touch up to do on some of these (Pages 3 and 4, I'm looking at you) but these are pretty much done being inked. I'm not planning on color but I am wanting to do a tone. I just haven't decided exactly how I want to do it. Gradients, cell shading, convert to a half tone? I'm definitely taking input. I may actually post a few different versions of the first page when I get to that point. Right now its more about producing pages to have a chance to tone later. Fortunately I am a little ways ahead of this right now.