Monday, October 31, 2016

Last day of Inktober. Did this one even a bit faster than the last one, partially because it's got less detail in it. That being said, I think I finally nailed what I want for the style of the comic. I do love reference but I often get too caught up in its details to really let myself draw. These two both had photos for the background but I tried not to let that dictate the feeling. The city should feel used, broken, dirty. It's as much a character as the folks wandering around. Also found a good use for that Lucco-speak lettering I do; it will provide a contrast to the actual English I use for Silas' songs and as such emphasize it without having to resort to word balloons. Because I've developed an allergy to them. I don't think I can actually bridge that gap where the brain disconnects from the art to read the words but by not circling them and pointing an arrow at them, I can hope that people's eyes wander a bit more than with conventional methods. Also, when coloring these, I think that the blocks need to be a lot more organic, that I used a lot more subtle shade variances so that there's a kind of 'texture' to what's behind. Usually, I leave things pretty flat. This time around, I think I should use Illustrator or Designer in a more painterly fashion. We'll see. It FEELS good in my brain but what does that mean?

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Inktober day 29.Silas and the city. Did this all at once, no ref for the figure, used a photo of Boston for the brownstones though I changed a lot. The graffiti is one half of a stanza from one of the songs. Once I color this, I think it represents the final piece of what I was looking for if I do the whole comic. That being said, it's not THAT different from Tamino but enough so that I needed to find what I wanted. Pencil, pen and ink. Could be less messy.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

So I know I said I shouldn't do more of this stuff and really, I haven't..well, not much. One of these is from today, the others are from days ago and I'm just scanning and posting them now. That being said, I HAVE been thinking more about this stuff, wondering about adopting the general art deco style stuff for this comic, a 9 panel grid layout and...thinking too much about doing this. Whatever the final decision, here are some more pencil character studies because I haven't come nearly close to designing these characters enough. :P

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

I need to stop doing this. This comic won't go anywhere and even if I make it, it's using a style that's WAY out of date. Gah. I've been doing more and more research on this style and era and applying it to Ghiroy lately and really, where can it go? Nowhere. I'm re-watching a great documentary on newspaper strips called, "Stripped," and it's making me want to do this comic. And I really shouldn't. I've completed two long form comics, one short form and a collection of short stories as well as a pointless journal comic of over 100 pages and I still don't feel I can call myself a cartoonist. This isn't me asking for answers, I'm just venting likely based on some other crap that's going on in the background.

Monday, October 24, 2016

So there was this thing I went to on saturday... it's a local Halloween masquerade called Theater Bizarre. And it is that. The folks who put it on rent out an eight story Masonic Temple in downtown Detroit and do... this. The few photos I have here don't even cap the iceberg, or whatever. It's Carnivale with that 'demonic' twist, tons of shows going on at all times, music, costumes, burlesque...yah. I did what I could while wearing my 60 pound orc costume to take photos and I wish I had a lot more. You almost couldn't take a bad photo as the colors and eye candy were so amazing on their own. Everyone was behaved, it was a hell of a show and I tromped around for 7 hours only wilting in the last hour. I'm still a bit sore from it all and can't wait to go again next year.

Managed to get this one done on thursday but haven't had time to post. More on this 30s rubber hose style stuff which I still find satisfying in some way. Made me re-watch Pinocchio and Snow White which are past this style but still have some elements to them that are similar. Probably just a diversion. Should it be? Dunno. Ghiroy WAS supposed to be a quick and dirty D+D comic and then became so overblown a thing that it got away from me. Or something. Anyway, this.

VERY busy weekend which I'll get to in the next post. Did the drawing for this on thursday and just had time to ink it before work today. The otter's name is WatrDog and that's Scum next to him. Seems skivvy skating sounds like a keen idea but the otter needs to borrow a board. Scum's not having any of it. Anyway, was speaking with a friend online so managed to nab a scan of the pencil drawing before inking, so there's a before and after, for what that's worth. Inktober is fine and all, but I'm not too energetic about getting the drawings done because I draw with ink all the time. That being said, I think it's a great idea for folks that might not otherwise work with ink to try something new or stretch a little. One friend chose to make this Vectober, doing all her stuff with Illustrator which is fine though that's her normal tool. Should be a month where us analog folks have to do only digital, too I think. Or maybe we all need to sculpt. Or something.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Ink, but not technically inktober. Been playing a lot with this sort of 30s style with the old Ghiroy characters. Don't know why I can't let this one go but I feel there's something of worth here, both in story and style. The more innocent looking style is kind of at odds with the story I suppose but that -might- work in its favor? Certainly makes it easier to draw. I swear, looking at my sketchbook, this one especially, I'm some kind of artistic schizo. Oh well. I've been going through some old animation and comic art to soak this in. Strange to me how the colored version doesn't evoke a feeling of old animation at all, while the black and white kind of does.

Another inktober image. It's not my favorite but I wanted to change things up, so tried this otter dood. I think he'd be over seven feet tall if he stood upright. Adapting an otter to the style of the coyote was hard and not entirely successful. That being said, still glad I did it.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Day 17 of Inktober. I can't possibly do them all as I have this job thing. That being said, I think this is the most inspired of the bunch so far. I see no reason why skating in your skivvies can't be a thing as long as I don't have to do it. Tried not to be too fussy with the ink this time around, so there are times when there's a little dry brush and I'm fine with that.

Friday, October 14, 2016

And then later, I drew this thing. No idea what's wrong with me at this point. :"D

Inktober day 14. Scrawny, ugly rabbit guy because we can't all be pretty. Tried to keep the inking as close to the sketchiness of the pencil lines as possible. While I like my current tip, it doesn't flow over the paper all that well.

The second image is actually from yesterday. I didn't think it was that exciting though it did jolt me out of my 30s cartoon phase. Didn't post it elsewhere and probably won't.

This is a page of me doing character design. Started out of my head, went into some reference based designs and then took it back out again. This is a pretty good illustration of my thought process if read from upper left to lower right (more or less). Eventually, I got something I more or less liked, but as this is just for Inktober, I didn't take it too far. Found it really hard to try and come up with something that looks like it would live in the same world as the recent coyote skateboarders. That might be a weakness of my designs; that I can do one but not a whole line up. Don't know. Don't do it very often. Still, this is about a half hour's worth of work which eventually lead to the next post's image.

As I said, I got stuck in this groove yesterday and couldn't get out of it til late. I can sort of see a value in this style of stuff. It's taken right from a 30s book on learning to draw comics though there's a definite sense of old Tezuka art as well, though nowhere near his level. I never thought of Japanese comics having influence from early Disney stuff, but I think it's very much there. I got lost in this, wondering if there weren't a reason to do the comic in this style and eventually decided that I didn't want to do this, as satisfying as it was to draw. This is as far as it goes. I hope.

My brush fought me on this one. Turns out it needs replacing. Took a different tack on this one and went all toony. Thing is, that mood kept with me all day and it took hours to get it out of my system as the next post will show. Just another inktober image otherwise.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Inktober continues after a little delay because of houseguests. Not really pushing myself too much with these, but I did ink this one a bit differently. Used two different sized brushes and tried holding them further back to be a bit more 'painterly' here. Also used a pen for final, little details. That being said, another coyote, sans skateboard.

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

More ink, more inktober. I have a thing for skaters it seems.

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

Been doing foxes so now, for something totally different, I did a coyote. How can you tell the difference? Why, the coloring! This guy's name is Scum because. I don't think he's as 'bad' as he thinks he is. Day four in Inktober. Think I might be able to squeeze one in tomorrow after work and before housework. Then things slow down.

Monday, October 03, 2016

Inktober day 3. Went back to the brush for this one and also changed style. Was trying to use the same ref photos but things were coming out too stiff, so I changed tack quite a bit. It's all good fun though I might miss a day here or there because of various things like work and house guests. Still, worth doing. Hell, I did an entire comic project this way once.

Sunday, October 02, 2016

So, Inktober. For those (hey, Vince!) that don't know, Inktober is this internet thing where you're supposed to draw something with REAL INK once a day for the month. It's not like I rarely use ink; it's one of my main tools. I think it was started to make people go back to the basics or something. Thought I might try it this year, though I have house guests coming next week, which will make it hard. Couldn't hurt. I've been drawing these skater foxes lately because why not? When I went to LA a few weeks ago, I took some photos of some skaters at Venice beach and have been making use of those photos since. My foxes are what I call 'mud foots,' or those that have the darker 'socks' and 'gloves.' In my head, there's a prejudice against them for some reason or maybe it's considered more attractive to have red socks or something. Don't know. It's something that entered my mind when I developed Digby awhile back. Dunno what it is about skaters. Sure, I like looking at them but they might represent something which I don't really understand. A kind of freedom? Surprised I haven't made them into mice. Anyway, these are the first two days' worth for Inktober. We'll see how it goes.