A BREAK UNTIL JANUARY!

We've all gotten a little burnt out - to be honest. But for right now, through the holidays, we are going to take a little break and regroup. We've had a great year so far, but everyone has other projects they need to focus on - also families and work. So, until January, we love you all!

Late to the Image party.

Okay so it's not exactly circa 1992, but let's be honest. I had no idea what image was when i was a child. I saw spawn yeah, but i had no idea where it came from. All's i knew was it had a scary fat clown in it.

Fast forward to today and Image carries more comics that i continuously read than say DC or Marvel. So i figured i'd do my picture based of one of my more favorite titles, even if it isn't from 1992. Invincible was a close second followed by the walking dead. But i don't think Chew get's too much spot light.

For those who don't know, chew is about a detective named Tony Chu who is a cibopath where, through a psychic link with whatever he eats he can tell what happened to it, and pretty much view the history of that thing. I'm sure you can already imagine some of the stuff he's done for the job using his ability.

Savage Dragon (So Very Sexy) by Jarrod Pope

I wanted to do more sexy. So I did.

Pitt vs Spartan by Walter Ostlie

A little something different this week.  Sequentials!

Not only that, but I go a little into the process from different thumbnails up to a semi completed page.


 This is my first attempt at a layout.  I don't have a script, I am just spit balling right now.  I know I want a city, PITT and Spartan.  I always loved PITT.  He was just so brutal and made no apologize for not being anything more then that.  And then Spartan (or is it Cyclops?) I just really dug his design.  I didn't understand his leg fins but I didn't care.

So that first panel is supposed to be a city...hey I am just thumbnailing, leave me alone.  Then Spartan faces off with a foot.  Then close up of Spartan.  Then PITT being stoic.  Then fight.  Then PITT chokes out Spartan. 

I thought it was a little tight and the panels didn't really breath.  There was no WOW moment either.  All the panels are about the same size too.

So this is the second attempt. There may have been a couple other panel sketches. I will try to keep better track of all my skribbles and not erase them all.

Starts with the city.  Then PITT crouching in foreground, Spartan in background.  CU of Spartan and then aggressive PITT.  Then attack.

Not much different then the first one.  I thought the panels had more room and panel 4 was more exciting.  But PITT was way too small in the last panel.  LAME.  I do like panel 4's PITT pose but it wasn't meant to be.

Here I get rid of the cityscape and just show the side of the building with a energy blast and PITT jumping to safety.  Tried a more interesting composition in panel 2 with PITT kneeling in the foreground and framing Spartan in the background.  But the pose didn't really work with the shot, his leg would have been in the way.

This one didn't change much, I tried to make PITT bigger in the last panel.  But it still was too small for me.

OK, now I am getting annoyed.  Sequentials are tough.  There are a million ways to draw something but prolly only a handful of good ones.

So we go back to the cityscape.  panel 2 I decide to show full bodies on both characters plus some buildings.  Then we do a close up on PITT, notice he is on the other side.  The Spartan charges up.  Then ATTACK.

PITT is pretty large in this last panel, which I like.  I prolly tried to draw the last panel 20 times before I got this. I couldn't figure out the perspective of PITT in the air, Spartan on the ground and energy blast between then. 

I take a step back and decide this is the best I can do right now.  I am moving the camera from long to short distance.  I am moving the horizon line up and down.  I am including background.

So I decide to stick with this layout and now clean it up.  I twisted Spartan in the last panel because the original pose was a little too lame.  However it kind of threw off my alignment of characters.  I could have slid PITT up a little but then I would have lost some of his hand.  I could have broken the panel border but that would have made the reader skip panel 4.

Now I do a quick "ink".  This is really loose for a finished page.  I did it more for practice of composition then taking it too completion.  I figure if I can fire off a lot of these quick layouts then I can get better quicken then if I did a page all the way to completion.  Really after the layout it is just polishing.  So hopefully you're polishing a diamond and not a turd.

All of these are digital.  If I was doing this page for real.  I would have printed out the blue lines above on 11x17 bristol and then pencilled it for real.  And then inked it.

I know it is a lot of steps. but I am still unsure of my skills, so I take a lot of steps.  Maybe in a few years I will be able to shorten the process.

I try to put some thicker border about the characters and foreground elements.  thin lines on the background.  Just trying to create some depth with line weight and quality. 

The Spirit in the Glass Bottle

Here's the cover page for what i wanted to to do for the fairy tales theme. I've been super busy with work so i haven't gotten too far on the rest. I will finish this though. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time.

I have a book of Grimms fairy tales that i love to read every once in a while. My favorite story inside it is the spirit in the glass bottle about a father that works hard to send his son to school and they run out of money so the the son decides to come back and help his father out. And some other stuff happens but we'll just wait to talk about it until i finish some more pages. :D

Beauty & the Beast by Jarrod Pope

I felt such remorse for not posting last week, but I hope this picture will make up for it.

Initially, I wanted to do something less frightful and just... stranger, but Travis wanted to see who can make the creepiest post for this week. I think he's going to win.

As for the piece, I have Beauty being dragged in by the Beast, who is more a rose monster that has taken over the countryside. I'm trying to get myself to paint more often, and try completing pictures. It's a gradual process for me, but I'm improving.

Little Mermaid by Walter Ostlie

Fish on the bottom and fish on top.  I've got a thing for tentacles...did you know?  Also got a Little Red Riding Hood action.

Hansel And Gretel

Thanks For Looking!

Jonny Quest by Walter Ostlie

You say action cartoon kid and I say Jonny Quest.  He was the first thing I thought of when I heard the topic.  I searched the web for other shows, but none of them really seemed all that cool.

Though I did have thoughts of doing Goonies or Venture Bros.  But Goonies are not cartoons and Venture is more comedy then action.  One day I will do a piece for them though.

When I was looking Quest reference I saw that they were trying to make a movie or something.  I think an modern uptake on JQ would be sweet. 

I picture Hadji as the quiet and deadly type.  I am picturing the one dude from League of ext gentleman or black mask from green hornet or Spock.

oh man, J.J. abrams should do a remake of JQ.

The Three Investigators By Brian Wolf

Okay, I went a little off the Reservation this time. We were supposed to do "Cartoon Action Kids", but I chose three characters from a book series instead. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Three Investigators, was my favorite book series as a kid. Wildly unpopular in the states when I was growing up, each time I would find a Three Investigator's book, it was like a little secret I had.

Jupiter Jones and his friends had a secret base in a Junkyard, had a Chauffeur ferry them about, and solved creepy cases with a greater element of danger than any Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy.

Go and discover these books.

Thanks for looking.