It's not always all about drawing...

Lots of things got done over the weekend. First the fireplace is finaly done!
Before:

After:

And I got to work on a ChainGang putting up a retaining wall for Frank's driveway.
Here we all are (except Miss Lela, who is taking the photo):

Sketches/Ideas

Cover to issue #3

My color guide to Joel for issue #3 cover.



This image was inspired by the image on my DVD cover of "Seven Samurai". The DVD image was just a group shot of the samurai looking into the distance. When I was sketching ideas for the issue #3 cover, I kept coming back to "group" shot...I have never done anything like this before, so this was an experiment.

Interview(s)

Two interviews are up for promoting Robotika. One at Newsrama:

Newsarama

and another one at PopThought:

PopThought

I am working on two more and having a lot of fun verbalizing thoughts that have been in my head for a while...but I am always afraid that folks will think that I am taking myself too seriously (am I?)

Back to work.

Many faces of...

Issue #3, page #15, panel #3

When I was penciling, I wanted the female character to look at Niko in a sort of a tender way. I liked the face, but there was something wrong with the shape of her head...and the neck looked way too thick. I figured I would fix it with ink.



By the time I got to the inking stage, I finished scripting the whole issue and I wanted to change the tender concern expression to more of a "what the heck is going on..?" expression and of course fix the tilt of the head and the neck.




In a way I still very much like the penciled face...I hope to be able to use it sometime later on in the story.

Hanging out with my heroes.

Fantastic Frank Cirocco making what will go down in history as the best rib BBQ dinner...ever!


From left to right: Fabulous Frank Cirocco, Luscious Lela Dowling, and Bodacious Barbara Barni somewhere in the woods.
One of the highlites of the evening was seeing the almost completed layouts for Lela's artbook. The range of illustrations is awesome and I can't wait for the book to come out. My favorite section was the ABC chapter with individual color illustrations and clever one liners for every letter. Great stuff.


Rapturous Ryan Sook and the original NIKO THE SAMURAI!
We spent the evening eating, laughing, and talking about the good things in life. Also I got to look at Ryan's originals...he has such elegance with storytelling and drawing. It feels like I just brute force my way through drawings, but Ryan always figures out a new way of depicting scenes...and he draws so well. Very inspirational, I can't wait to start drawing again!

Double Page Technology Spread

Pencils from the first issue featuring the technology in Robotika. I used markers in the final version to add gray tones.

Moment of truth

Robotika is listed in the new Diamond Previews...page 227 order number OCT052776...wow, just like downtown!

Tender Moment

I have been inking pages for the last two months. I finished inking the second issue and inked the first half of the third issue. Yesterday, I ran out of pages to ink...so it is back to penciling. I feel "rusty" and it took me almost an hour to warm up before I could even start on a page. I guess that is the trouble with doing everything by myself. If I spend some real time doing the lettering, by the time I feel good about it I forget how to ink...if I spend a few weeks inking...I forget how to pencil. It is a never ending struggle.

October Diamond Previews

Ad designed by Mark Smylie

Pencils for cover #2

Tough guys from Issue#3

Letter balloons

This is something that I am starting to play with.

Issue #2 cover ideas

Title logo...by accident

This is the title page to a 2-page-spread introducing the technology that make the world of Robotika possible. I wanted to have "The World of" in cursive script form to contrast with "Robotika", but by accident I ended-up with this, which I kind of like because it is readable, but at the same time very different.

When too subtile becomes...obscure.

This is something that I was very proud of at one time. In issue #2 a CEO of a company tries to explain to Niko how beneficial his company is to the country...later on in the same issue The Queen explains to Niko how beneficial her reign is to the (same) country. In both cases it is just propaganda (even though different words are used) and I wanted to make a connection between the two speeches. I tried to do it by giving the same gestures to the characters. I just inked The Queen's monologue and as I was finishing it up I realized that no one will make that connection. Bummer.

Another fix

This was another area I fixed as I started inking. Both Brian A. and Ryan S. gave me suggestions that resulted in this final version. My problem with the penciled drawing was that Niko's sword intersected The Queen's hand at an odd angle, almost blurring the foreground into the background. I believe this is a much easier picture to look at.

Awkward

This figure always bothered me. It looked very unnatural and awkward. As I started finishing the last few pages of issue #2 I tried to fix it with ink. The final version, while still a bit odd around the hand, I think looks much better.

Color Samples

Presented above are 3 samples of various pages colored by Joel Chua. I was very impressed by his color selections...especially since he worked without any color notes/guides. Mark was also very impressed. I believe Joel will be a great asset to the team and I can't wait to see the first colored issue.

Back cover