Pain in the ASS!

Took me a while but I finally figured out what was going wrong on my last two posts. I fixed the link problem so now you can click on them. Damn blogger!

Anyway, I'm off to the Dominican Republic for the holidays. Hopefully when I return I can finish off John Doe and start my next project . It's a secret for now (attached jpeg is a clue) but I've signed the contracts so it's definitely a go! Can't wait to post about that! See you next year!

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A bright New Year ahead....

Well with issue 2 of John doe in the books and three moving along I have to say I'm pretty pleased so far. I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this before but Mark Waid is a pretty talented writer. He also involves me in the process so it makes working on the book a pure joy.

But with the end of the last issue in my sights I can't help but get totally excited about my next project. With the release of John Doe w/ Waid and then getting to work with one my favorite comic creators/creations, it's really gonna be a big year for me and I can't wait! Here are a couple more pages from issue 2 of John Doe.

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Been a long time....

Well to make up for not posting to frequently I've decided to make this one packed with stuff. First I wanted to mention a great book coming out from Image comics. It's called Wonderlost. It's an anthology filled with autobiographical stories by the one and only C.B. Cebulski. I've known C.B. for many years now and it's taken a long time but we've finally done something together. Here are a couple of pages from the short I drew for him. When I first read the story (to me) it really felt like something that too much drawing would get in the way of. It's a kind of quiet moment and I didn't want to pull to many tricks with it. So after a little trial and error I went with a real simple style that I hope compliments the story. I even lettered it myself and purposefully didn't try to be too neat so that everything can have that hand-made feel.
Next are more pages from John Doe. Everything is moving along and I'm moderately satisfied with my work so far. First is the same page I posted before but finished and then two other random pages. Soon I'm gonna post about the cover. I have something in mind that, if I pull it off, it could be pretty damn cool.

Happy Halloween!

A quick sketch for the greatest of all holidays... well not really. What the hell is the point of Halloween anyway?

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UNFINISHED...

Wow! I've been knee deep in John Doe so I haven't posted as much as I want to. Here's an "in progress" page I was working on this week. It serves as an intro to one of the supporting characters in the book. Mark Waid has really delivered with this book and I hope people give it a look. He mentioned he really wanted to make the first issue something the reader can feel he got his moneys worth and I think he knocked it out of the park. It's a dense issue without feeling claustrophobic. My hats off to him. Maybe he'll teach me some tricks so one day I can actually give the writing side a shot..... Maybe if I pay him

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The Cast

As I've said before I'm really trying to push the envelope on making distinct characters. At least with my own work. So when it came time to do some of the cast for John Doe I was determined to make them each there own person. What I've been doing lately is start with a celebrity or actor and find out what makes them distinct. Then try to duplicate that without making it a likeness. I really don't like doing likenesses (probably because I'm so bad at it) so I stay away from them as much as possible. In these sketches Paxtin was at first based on Steve Buscemi but then kind of went more into an older grumpy looking man. Steinway is based on Jim Norton who I think has a great face with great expressions that I hope to capture somehow. I'm also gonna try to really give them there own persona from the way they dress to the way the walk to even the kind of expressions they give. Hopefully in the future I can really make characters as distinct as real people and give a sense depth just in the visuals. I guess we'll have to what and see how that goes.

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Behind the Curtain!

So here's a basic behind the scenes of how I approach a page. The first Image is my thumbnail for page 2 of John Doe. When doing a thumbnail I'm never concerned about getting a tight drawing. In fact it would be the exact opposite. I just try to lay down a basic composition and pick shots that best tell the story. That's it. Simple. When I get to the actual page is when I start to think about the drawing, where to lay blacks, and especially the acting.

With the second image you can see that in the beginning I'm more focused on getting a solid drawing and less preoccupied with what the final drawing will look like. As in this panel I often draw on a separate piece of typing paper so I can be as loose and messy as I want. Then I'll quickly trace it over in marker for easy viewing through the bristol on my light table. THEN when I trace the basics onto the actual page I go straight to inks. I rarely do this but on this panel I was playing with maybe blacking out the buildings totally for that dark alleyway feel and you can see some quick sketches of that under the panel. .

Here's where the fun starts and most of my time is probably spent. I really don't have any rules I follow (I used to but as I've gotten better at inking my own stuff they went out the window) except to make it look good. I use anything from a brush or brushpen to a quill pen or marker. A whiteout pen is invaluable since I seem to always be making mistakes. It also works for some effects like the light from the flashlight (which is a bit of smeared whiteout).
The first few pages are a kind of intro to the series so I kept that four tier layout with the three panels in the box. I think it worked so far and I'm pretty happy with them. I'm really trying to make each work better then the last. So that's a glimpse into my working process and I'll see if I can do it again. Maybe on a more complicated page so you can see the fun of storytelling problem solving.

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The Cross Bronx! The Cross Cross Bronx!

Just wanted to throw up a quick post about CROSSBRONX. If you don't know about it then you've been living under a rock. Mike Oeming and Ivan Brandon have gotten together to bring you a compelling story about crime, gangs, and santaria. If you like Oeming on Powers you'll love him on Cross Bronx. He's really kicking ass and drawing his balls off for this book. Ivan's not slacking either when it comes to the noir feel. The pacing is great and the lush storytelling is top notch. GO get it now!!

Why am I going on and on about someone else's book? Because they were nice enough to print my pin-up in the inside back cover of issue #2. Here it is and I'm working on getting this John Doe stuff up so stay tuned.

I never understood comic artists that say they only want to draw the "action". The fun for me has always been the problem solving. How do I make this read clear? How can I add drama to this scene/panel? How do I make this interesting? I have just as much fun (if not more) making a great character moment happen then drawing Spider-man punch Doc Ock threw a wall. I get excited when I have two people talking in a room with nothing going on. Picking the right camera angles or staging the "actors" to bring the dialogue across is amazingly fun. It's the little character moments that I try to capture. Like in The Godfather when Al Pacino is telling his brother-in-law his punishment. The way he sits, legs crossed, and picking at his nails. All the while you can feel his power and viciousness. That's fun! I'm not sure I've really succeeded in that but it's something that keeps me going and why I love drawing comics. So like I said, I never understood some artists.

Speaking of artists. We had the unfortunate luck of a great (perhaps greatest) comic artist pass away recently, Alex Toth. I finally got a chance to pick up The Alex Toth Doodle Book . I haven't even been able to fully read it yet because I keep getting side tracked by the illustrations. It's an amazing book about an amazing artist. I'm not sure what to say that hasn't already been said to death. Here's a small homage to Mr. Toth. It's a few quick sketches I did recently while trying to train myself to draw different and distinct people. Toth was known for filling a page with these quick doodles that rivaled in skill what others spend a lifetime trying to achieve. I know mine isn't as good but I gave it a shot damn it!

So I figured I'd post some of the John Doe stuff I have laying around here because that's what I'm diving into now. I don't think I have to say what an amazing writer Mark Waid is and how awesome it is getting to work with him. The first image is the promo piece I did up. I hardly get to color my own stuff so it's always a bit troublesome to get what I want. There are some really great computer colorists/artist out there and hopefully I'll find the time to hone my skills enough to do some really nice pieces. Mark wanted an ambiguous piece that kept a mystery about the book. A cool tease... I think it works.

The quick sketch below is of the main character. We went for a real world look (nothing fancy and far from a "superhero" look) and something easily put together. I think I'm actually gonna give him some stubble to rough him up a bit. I never really do full body sketches when I'm trying to nail down a character. I guess I figure that the body is the easy part and the part I focus more on is making the character's face distinct. I never wanna be an artist that has a stock look for his characters. I've been trying more and more to really make each character his/her own person. Well I've rambled enough... I'll have more stuff soon.

Here's a new panel I did today for The Pack. I'm really trying to be a bit looser with this book because of the horror angle. I actually watched a few horror movies to get into the mindset before I tackled these pages and I think it really helped. I never liked reading "horror" comics that didn't take advantage of the visual language of horror stories. There really is a more specific shot selection that goes into making it work. Too many times have I seen people just splatter some ink on the page or use moody coloring and pass that off as scary. Granted I'm not sure if I'm gonna succeed but I wanted to really try to translate what makes a scary movie into the book.

By the way... The book is written by Mike Raicht (yes the former Marvel editor Mike Raicht) and if you don't know his work check out his new Marvel book called Zombie. It's drawn beautifully by Kyle Hotz (The Hood) and I really think Mike nailed what makes the zombie genre work.

My pencils were a little light and the scanner didnt pick them up but next time I'm gonna do a step by step. Thanks!

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Here's a panel from a new project I'm working on. It's something on the side so it's gonna take a bit to finish. I've been itching to do a horror comic and I'm trying to tailor my storytelling to make it as scary as possible. We''ll see how that works out.

I'll have some scans soon from my main project right now JOHN DOE. It's written by Mark Waid so you know it's good... unless I really screw the pooch.

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I thought it would be cool to document my progress on my next project and hopefully have something cool for people to look at. So welcome to my blog! Exciting isn't it?