Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Backgrounds
I am trying something different for some of the backgrounds in the series. Since my figures are inked pretty tight, I decided to loosen up on the backgrounds that are not establishing shots and hopefully create a nice contrast in the artwork...sometimes it works...sometimes it does not.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
I got an award (!)
This is pretty cool...I have never won anything before, so this is pretty awesome. I think everyone knows what it feels like to put-in work everyday, week after week...not even knowing if anyone outside your circle of friends is even aware of your efforts. It is such a gift to hear that there is an audience out there looking at my work!
ForeWord Book Awards
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
BasketHead
As silly as it looks, I am actually pretty happy with the straw basket on teh guys head. After 10 inked pages I am feeling like I am getting my "inking feet" back and moving along through tha pages.
Had a great visit with Ryan who shared some of his work with me and inspired me to no end...after he left Barbara and I started pulling the kitchen floor apart. We are getting ready to install the same floor as in the living and family rooms, before you know it we will have the same flooring through-out the house (what a concept!).
Had a great visit with Ryan who shared some of his work with me and inspired me to no end...after he left Barbara and I started pulling the kitchen floor apart. We are getting ready to install the same floor as in the living and family rooms, before you know it we will have the same flooring through-out the house (what a concept!).
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wanted
I have been struggling with the back cover for issue #1. Did I want to print a guest artist? Should I do the cover by myself? What image should I use?
In the end I decided that I was going to do the back cover by myself, and I was going to feature Bronski since he was the main character in the back-up story for that issue. My next question was..how can I do something new and cool that I have not done before?
After a few sketches, this idea of putting Bronski in front of a "wanted: dead or alive" poster worked itself out and I was pretty happy about it. When I was all done I showed it to Norman when he was visiting. I was all jazzed because I thought this was very clever and has never been done before...Norman pointed out that he has seen something similar when he was 9 years old watching "Tom and Jerry" cartoons...oh well. Off it goes to the colorist :)
In the end I decided that I was going to do the back cover by myself, and I was going to feature Bronski since he was the main character in the back-up story for that issue. My next question was..how can I do something new and cool that I have not done before?
After a few sketches, this idea of putting Bronski in front of a "wanted: dead or alive" poster worked itself out and I was pretty happy about it. When I was all done I showed it to Norman when he was visiting. I was all jazzed because I thought this was very clever and has never been done before...Norman pointed out that he has seen something similar when he was 9 years old watching "Tom and Jerry" cartoons...oh well. Off it goes to the colorist :)
Monday, May 21, 2007
San Diego Dreaming....
I have started inking the next issue and if all works out as planned I hope to have the next 30 pages done (inked/lettered/scanned) by San Diego Comic Convention...
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
I finished....and reviews
...penciling another issue and just started inking again. I hope to post a few inked pages in the next week or so. In the mean time, here are two recent reviews for the hardcover collection of the first series:
PopMatters
Legion of Doom
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Anatomy of a fight...scene.
I have always had a tough time with fight scenes. I am not talking about a shot of two opponents squaring off against each other; I am talking about a panel-to-panel sequence that lasts longer than a few frames.
Partially this is due to the fact that I do not practice any martial arts and that I have not been in a fight since 5th grade...maybe 4th. This really became a problem recently when I got my main character, Niko, involved in a fight that was going to last most of the issue (interwoven with other events in the storyline), I wanted something that made sense and not just a collection of shots of two toughs. I was not even sure how to begin.
I was kind of stuck until I remembered that at the fitness center, where I work out at lunch, there is a jujitsu class that is being taught every Tuesday and Thursday. I came up and introduced my self to the instructor, John Nguyen, and asked for help.
John graciously agreed and after we talked for a bit about the set-up, he started introducing some very cool ideas. Thanks to him, the fight is starting to take shape and is much more involved than just two guys duking it out. There are now different phases to the action, each involving a different element (fire, water) and it has it's own rhythm that is echoing the beats in the rest of the story.
Below is the opening sequence:
Partially this is due to the fact that I do not practice any martial arts and that I have not been in a fight since 5th grade...maybe 4th. This really became a problem recently when I got my main character, Niko, involved in a fight that was going to last most of the issue (interwoven with other events in the storyline), I wanted something that made sense and not just a collection of shots of two toughs. I was not even sure how to begin.
I was kind of stuck until I remembered that at the fitness center, where I work out at lunch, there is a jujitsu class that is being taught every Tuesday and Thursday. I came up and introduced my self to the instructor, John Nguyen, and asked for help.
John graciously agreed and after we talked for a bit about the set-up, he started introducing some very cool ideas. Thanks to him, the fight is starting to take shape and is much more involved than just two guys duking it out. There are now different phases to the action, each involving a different element (fire, water) and it has it's own rhythm that is echoing the beats in the rest of the story.
Below is the opening sequence:
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Storytelling
When Robotika was being published I did a few internet interviews about the series. It seemed like every interview ended (or begun) with a question about influences. The truth is that I am influenced by just about everything that I came into contact with: all the comics, books, movies, paintings, animation...
Sure, I get excited about some particular techniques that I see in comics and illustration, but it does not motivate me to sit down and draw for 8-10 hours. I file stuff like that away in my mind and look for an opportunity to use it some day...most of the time with mixed results :(
What really inspires me to continue doing pages is talking to people like Jim Williams III, Ryan Sook, Norman Felchle, Brian Apthorp, and Frank Cirocco who are always thinking about experimenting with storytelling and are always pushing themselves to continue studying all aspects of drawing. These guys are amazing and it is my privilage to know them, but there are also other very talented storytellers whom I never got to met who challenge me to think about my work. Folks like Rodolfo Damaggio, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Marshall Rogers, Alex Toth, Sergio Toppi, Claire Wendling, Will Eisner, Damion Scott...the list is never ending :)
Talking about storytelling here is a cool bit from a recent Ryan Sook story in Worldstorm #2:
Believe it or not, I did the layouts for the bit below before I saw Ryan's page, but I must admit that by the time I executed the actual drawng I was well aware of the Worldstorm story and I am sure it influenced my approach:
Sure, I get excited about some particular techniques that I see in comics and illustration, but it does not motivate me to sit down and draw for 8-10 hours. I file stuff like that away in my mind and look for an opportunity to use it some day...most of the time with mixed results :(
What really inspires me to continue doing pages is talking to people like Jim Williams III, Ryan Sook, Norman Felchle, Brian Apthorp, and Frank Cirocco who are always thinking about experimenting with storytelling and are always pushing themselves to continue studying all aspects of drawing. These guys are amazing and it is my privilage to know them, but there are also other very talented storytellers whom I never got to met who challenge me to think about my work. Folks like Rodolfo Damaggio, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Marshall Rogers, Alex Toth, Sergio Toppi, Claire Wendling, Will Eisner, Damion Scott...the list is never ending :)
Talking about storytelling here is a cool bit from a recent Ryan Sook story in Worldstorm #2:
Believe it or not, I did the layouts for the bit below before I saw Ryan's page, but I must admit that by the time I executed the actual drawng I was well aware of the Worldstorm story and I am sure it influenced my approach:
Friday the 13th
Ever since I got to buy a Swamp Thing reprint back in the late 80's I have been a huge Wrightson fan. Wrightson was somehow able to take the ugly and the scary and draw it in a way that made it look fun and playful...with an edge to it. I still spend hours looking through the "Look Back", "Swamp Thing", and "Frankenstein". It's beautiful stuff.
Recently Ryan did a cover for Friday the 13th series from Wildstorm that had the same effect on me. The subject matter is crazy, but the picture is executed with perfect lines and beautiful anatomy, mixing the innocent with the horrific and flowless technique with the unthinkable subject... everything in perfect balance. I am simply fascinated by this...work like that doesn't just inspire me to try to do better, it makes me understand things about drawing that always seem to elude me.
Friday, April 13, 2007
David Petersen
A cool interview with David about his work on Mouse Guard, movies, and artists who have influenced his art. David is so enthusiastic about his work and the medium that it is hard not to be excited about making comics after reading his answers:
And it is now official:
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
ForeWord- Book Of The Year Award (!!)
Robotika has been selected as one of the finalist for the ForeWord Book Of The Year Awards! I am not sure what the chances of winning are (check out the other finalists!), but it is an honor for me to be included:
ForeWord
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Random Panels
I am penciling on this smaller size boards and the pages seem to be moving much faster...a coincidence?
Some random panels from the last few pages:
Some random panels from the last few pages:
Monday, March 05, 2007
New Links
I just wanted to take a moment to mention that I have added a few more links.
I was introduced to Brian Churilla via Leif when Leif moved to Portland. I have already mentioned Brian in an earlier post. Brian is not only a very talented artist, but is also a very charming individual. He has contributed a short Robotika story and a pin-up that will appear in the second series. Brian is also working on a creator owned series titled "The Engineer". I was so impressed with the artwork and the storyline that I recommended the property to Archaia Studios Press and I hope to see "The Engineer" as part of their line-up some time soon.
Brian in turn exposed me to the work of Joe Suitor and Joseph Cross. Mr. Suitor is working on a series "Monoluminant" that will be published by APE Entertainment and Mr. Cross is developing a storyline titled "Kyogen". I am very excited to see both of these series develop and if everything works out to be able to feature some of their work in Robotika :)
I was introduced to Brian Churilla via Leif when Leif moved to Portland. I have already mentioned Brian in an earlier post. Brian is not only a very talented artist, but is also a very charming individual. He has contributed a short Robotika story and a pin-up that will appear in the second series. Brian is also working on a creator owned series titled "The Engineer". I was so impressed with the artwork and the storyline that I recommended the property to Archaia Studios Press and I hope to see "The Engineer" as part of their line-up some time soon.
Brian in turn exposed me to the work of Joe Suitor and Joseph Cross. Mr. Suitor is working on a series "Monoluminant" that will be published by APE Entertainment and Mr. Cross is developing a storyline titled "Kyogen". I am very excited to see both of these series develop and if everything works out to be able to feature some of their work in Robotika :)
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Old School
Archaia Studios has been getting lots of nice press lately. Here is a sample of what folks are writing:
ComicReaders
ForeWordMagazine
A few weeks ago I got together with Ryan for lunch. We showed each other the pages we were working on and just had a great time talking and hanging out. At one point during the art "show and tell", Ryan casually mentioned that my originals are "giant". I was kind of surprised at that, "I work in standard size" I replied. Ryan gave me a sidelong glance and said, "Standard in the 70's maybe." I looked at his originals for the Wildstorm story he is working on and sure enough they were smaller...I went home and looked at the Dark Horse pages that Brian sent me...sure enough the space is only about 9x13.25 (as compared to 10x15 that I have been using), that is a huge (!) difference.
I just finished cutting a new batch of bristol to the new specifications...I am really looking forward to trying this new format.
A few weeks ago I got together with Ryan for lunch. We showed each other the pages we were working on and just had a great time talking and hanging out. At one point during the art "show and tell", Ryan casually mentioned that my originals are "giant". I was kind of surprised at that, "I work in standard size" I replied. Ryan gave me a sidelong glance and said, "Standard in the 70's maybe." I looked at his originals for the Wildstorm story he is working on and sure enough they were smaller...I went home and looked at the Dark Horse pages that Brian sent me...sure enough the space is only about 9x13.25 (as compared to 10x15 that I have been using), that is a huge (!) difference.
I just finished cutting a new batch of bristol to the new specifications...I am really looking forward to trying this new format.
Monday, February 12, 2007
A review of HC at IGN.com
A very thorough review by Dan Wrobel at IGN.com:
IGN.com
Here are also the pencils for the newest Robotika pin-up. It is a reworking of a pose from an older page (the opening of "The World of Robotika" from issue #1) that I have always wanted to re-draw.
Here are also the pencils for the newest Robotika pin-up. It is a reworking of a pose from an older page (the opening of "The World of Robotika" from issue #1) that I have always wanted to re-draw.
Monday, January 29, 2007
JPKComics and PopCultureShock reviews
A very nice review by of the hardcover collection by Jonathan Kuehlein (scroll down to January 15th reviews):
JPK Comics
and another review of ASP as a publisher with a nice Robotika write-up:
PopCultureShock
and another review of ASP as a publisher with a nice Robotika write-up:
Page 1
This is page one of the first issue in the new mini series. I wanted to do something to pay tribute to Robert Altman and thus I am starting out with 3 panels (that I feel go together compositionally) and even though they appear totally unrelated, fit into each other like puzzle's pieces as the story progresses.
The captions are taken from a speech by one of the main characters from the middle of the book and I think fits in nicely with the images.
Script is by David Moran.
The captions are taken from a speech by one of the main characters from the middle of the book and I think fits in nicely with the images.
Script is by David Moran.
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