Far from Success...

...but not quite failure. My back-up story is done and it looks nothing like I had hoped. It's not all bad though. At least that's what I keep repeating to quiet the pessimistic side of my brain down.

Anything that challenges you away from your normal operating procedure is good a thing.

I usually tell my friends if they want to grow they have to break something and put it back together...which means usually their bad habits. I'm not sure what got broken in the process but I did many new things that I hadn't done before.

Firstly there's the hand-lettering. Not true hand-lettering mind you but traced from the computer lettering that I had spec'd. It livened up the page, made it feel more genuine and I think overall loosened me up when it came to inking.

As for inking, I backed off further yet on feathering and texture and spent more energy on thick outlines and finer quick flicks of detail throughout. Hoping by far the look to be impressionistic and more reliant on the complicated coloring that I had in mind.

The coloring...for all my efforts to venture into Mitchell Hooks/Bob Peak/Robert McGinnis territory I was shunned. Half the look is based on the medium that they use...well maybe half I don't really know. What I do know is that I wasn't prepared to color that way on sequential art as the story beats change sometimes on the same page. Things were a bit disjointed and as a whole fought with each other. We usually see their work as a single piece of illustration. Sure that's my excuse but then there's guys like Bill Sienkiewicz who thrive...I am not Bill Sienkiewicz. I can barely spell it.
All in all I did push my coloring and tried new things. Well maybe they're not so new since I think some of them were done in North Country. Regardless...I think it worked okay, and being a back-up story, if it didn't no one's going to notice anyway.

Let's here it for experimentation. woo.

Finally, this concludes my 3 years of collaborations with others.

While it was fun to play and learn, I look forward to getting back to my toys and my time to engage the nether regions of my own creative endeavors.

stay tuned...

=s=

A Gringo Like Me

I decided to take a break from coloring to post some more sketches. Years ago I bought this so-so card stock to make business cards. It basically resembled manila envelope stock. At any rate the idea was to print them with my photocopier. The end result was the collision of high-end graphics with low-end production values, which equalled "amateur".

I believe one has to examine what their goal is and if they are using the right tool for the job. If not you either adjust your goal or idea or you adjust the tools. If all else fails adjust your expectations.

Funny thing is, I've never really understood the concept of the superhero. It's always been a problem for me to conceive and moreso when I draw them. They come across as posed icons and lack any real humanity to me. But recently I started to examine the characters in terms of acting . When constructing a character I've found myself looking for the core of the character much like the way you'd right a story. What is the character/story about? Can it be defined in one word? a paragraph? What one thread runs through everything there is to know about the character that all their actions hang on? What is their spine?

Oddly enough this has helped me break the molds that these icons represent, and now they feel malleable to me. I think if my interests continues down this path I may finally be able to personalize what superheroes mean to me.

This is a terrible sketch. It turned out nothing like what was in my head. There's a lot of that going around lately. At least I like the clouds.

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New Color Test

So I'm getting closer to the ideal of what I want the coloring to be for this Hawaiian Dick 8-pager. The ideal being...

...Mitchell Hooks. At first glance it's close, but then I start to realize how much the colorwork just kicks the linework in the teeth. It wants to brawl and take over the piece...still looking for that balance. I'll also pull out more anachronistic color choices too as befitting to the scenes. That will help a little in executing the feel of this era of illustration.

Of course it doesn't help that we're working in two different mediums. I think there's a way to do it convincingly though and have more overall control. Photoshop gives me the flexibility that traditional media and my lack of experience won't give me: freedom from ruining a job. While that may be shortsighted, I hope to readdress my traditional shortcomings and use this experiment as a springboard. Unfortunately I'll have to get used to not looking for the UNDO command.

We'll see how far I fail...I mean, fall from grace.

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A Mess of Sketching

Just pulling from a variety of sketchbooks the odds and ends of hand and mind. Some of it is handless and some of it is mindless but all of it is pure escapism and experiment at the very least.

Currently working on several new comic projects in various states. I may share some stuff...it's hard to say as I never like showing how things are done before they're done. We'll see.

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