Updates!

I can't believe it's August already. Where has the summer gone? Granted I'm pretty ready for fall :P

I just wanted to let everyone know what's going down as things are changing a lot in the world of Fran.

1. Comics
Right now I have a three page update for OMN waiting to be looked over and hopefully put up tonight. I didn't tone or color it like I had planned to because I was invited to take part in a Steampunk Anthology comic by a friend of mine so I'll be trying my hardest to finish up a few pages of comic for that. I'm really excited about it and did a little coloring test to see what kind of style I'll be doing it in.

I've decided to do the comic on watercolor paper with ink and inkwash, and then color flat colors under it in photoshop. This will allow me to have the black and white versions of the comic that I like doing, while providing the book with colored pages that they require. Long time followers might remember this gentleman as he's a hint to what story I'm adapting for this book :)

2. VA Comicon
The Alencia fan art contest ends on the 4th, and any entries I get will be formatted into the book, and it will be sent off to get printed. I am SUPER excited! Also a bit nervous as the con gets closer and things around me get more hectic. But I'm too excited to let the nervousness last too long :P

3. Side Projects
My media studies for the most part are on hold but in their place I've been doing a "30 day monster girl challenge" on tumblr. I've been using it as a character design/media excercise and it's been going well so far. Click the link there to follow the tag on my art tumblr. It will resume after the comic anthology is done (as that deadline is pretty close).

4. Kale
After sitting down and thinking it over I've decided I'm going to restart my Kale story. The first issue, while being an important early mile stone in my comics career, doesn't allow me to take the story in the directions I'd like to. So I'm working on completely rewriting it, and already I'm seeing a massive improvement. I'll bring more news and behind the scenes look at the story as I work on it.

Okay that's all I have for now. Keep an eye open for an OMN update either late tonight or tomorrow!

ART PLANS.

Hey guys! It's been a while but loads have been going on. Mostly busy at work. But now I'm starting to settle down a bit and I've got plans. ART PLANS.

+VA Comicon Small Press Table
You've been hearing me talk about this for a while but that's because I'm super stoked for it! My first table at a non-anime convention! I've been making plans for merch that I want to make and bring including the new Alencia comic, buttons, prints, and some other small items like key chains and book marks.

+Media Studies
There are things like animals and landscapes that I feel like I need to draw more of so I'll be doing a lot more studies to get in the swing of drawing them. For now I'm using certain sketchbooks for this as well as making ATC style cards that I'll be doing studies as miniature illustrations on. I'll be posting them to my tumblr and then grouping them here too. Here are a few so far:










+Or Maybe Not Webcomic
I've got scripts from Ryan lined up and am currently working on the next update. Looking to have it up by Friday since I have a few days off work. I'm going to try to update it as much as I can between now and VA Comicon since I plan on making post cards to pimp it out for the con. I also need to just sit down and draw more comics.

+Kale issue #2
Is still in progress! I've been rewriting an reworking things and I'm starting to think that I should do it as a one shot book like I originally planned but maybe start it over after all. I learned a lot from the first issue but the more I look back at it the more I see things I wish I had done differently. I'm going to keep working on it and when I come to a final decision I'll talk about it here. But either way Kale's story will continue.

+Alencia Comics (and Contest!)
Writing for Alencia's stories has been much easier. She comes more naturally to me than Kale so her stories will be more in number and varied. I really like working in short story/episodic format and I will continue that. I'm also really enjoying mixing horror with fantasy so that is a plus!
Alencia's first short comic will be featured at my table at VA Comicon and will feature FAN ART! I have a fan art contest running from now till August 4th, where anyone who sends me fan art for Alencia will be included in the book (with their name and information to their website) and will receive a free copy of the comic for themselves! Just send me a copy of your fan art (large file size, TIFF, 300dpi, I need it large so when I format the book it will print nicely and not be pixelated) to fran_rowan(at)yahoo(dot)com. Here are some references for your use:
-Alencia close up
-Alencia and Human!Theloyn height chart in color. Theolyn hasn't been introduced in his human version yet (he appears as a cat in the comic for now) but if you wish to draw him then by all means go for it :)
-Preview of the comic. Also for your inspiration here is the preview of the comic featuring the first 6 pages.
Also please keep fan art to PG-13. The comic isn't really rated but it's not really hardcore or anything. If you have any questions please let me know. I'll be sure to share the entries and their artists here too!

I'm also making jewelry that I'll be selling on my Etsy page soon so keep your eyes peeled for that! This post is epically long as it is so goodbye for now and stay tuned!

Clouds Parting

Hello everyone!

The last month and a half have been rough. Between the sickness and death of a close family member, dim job prospects, printing disasters, and loosing some self esteem I've managed to start picking things up again and moving on with projects. I now have portfolios printed for new prospective art jobs, I've got a really good commission going, an Illustration contest entry to work on, some possible job opportunities opening up, and a small press table for VA Comicon this September to look forward to. Things are finally looking up and moving along.

As such I have finally finished a 3 page update for Or Maybe Not that I've been fretting over for the last month. So enjoy! There will be more to come. I'm not sure if I'll stick to Friday updates or move to Monday but we'll see. I'll spread the word when I make a decision.

As always I'll be posting sketches and drawings at my art tumblr and my Nabyn page. I might slide things over to my Deviantart too but I don't use it as much. I'm trying to be a little more active on it lately but tumblr and Nabyn are good for me so far. I also keep my portfolio site updated with all my best work and previews of comics. Speaking of which, I will be posting a few pages from my newest Alencia story "Noble Deed" soon as I prepare to print the story as a mini comic for VA Comicon this September. Keep an eye out for it!

OMN Episode 3

Update at "Or Maybe Not."

Comic update!

Hello everyone! We've got a two page update today for my webcomic Or Maybe Not. Drawing Ian angry is one of my new favorite things. And no rogue mustaches this time!

Webcomic goes LIVE!

IT LIVES!!!

My webcomic with Ryan Moody, "Or Maybe Not" goes live tomorrow morning! Be sure to read it and let me know what you think about it! I'm still figuring out my inking methods for it (each comic project I do seems to want to be inked differently).

And here is some artwork I did of me drawing comics for my "Make Your Own Comics" class fliers. Blue Non-Photo Pencil and Pocket Pentel Brush Pen.

Comic Comeback

Hey Everyone! I'm currently working on some new pages for the revival of "Or Maybe Not", a slice of life geek comedy that me and Ryan Moody started in 2008 and are working on once again. He's got a stack of finished scripts for me so I'm working on some content for a new web comic. I'm hoping to update once a week, and some updates (most at this rate) will contain multiple pages. So far I'm working on the first script which will be 3 comic pages. I also have to do a banner for the webpage which will be on Smackjeeves.com. We had a keenspace one I made a few years ago but I've lost all the information for it and cannot find it. So with a new year we will start fresh!

But while I work on that and deal with job/work stuffs, here is the DA page containing all the old OMN comics that we had on LJ http://omn-comic.deviantart.com/ As the comic goes on I'll see if I can revive that too.

I'm hoping to finish the pages this weekend but we'll see how it pans out. I'm very excited to finally have a webcomic up and give OMN the chance it deserves.

(Click the image to see it move!)

Fools Never Die

Hey guys, here is that post I promised you! Here's what we've got:

+Gifts
My fiance and our best friend Ian's birthdays land on the same day so I was set to prepare a pair of gifts for them. They are both writers so I thought I'd customize a journal for each of them.

Here's Ryan's:

It features his 'Or Maybe Not' persona, writing more scrips for the comic. Which I will work on... I swear!

And Ian's journal:

It's a metaphorical portrait of a character of his from a story we are working on. I used colored pencil, ink and white gel pen for both journals.

While working on both journals I sketched out thumbnails trying to figure out what I wanted to draw on them and how. I ended up with a few sketches as a result of this that I ended up liking on their own.





+Pen Tests

During my weekly movie night with my friends I also did some inking pen tests.

This one is of Theolyn from my Alencia stories. I used a new ballpoint pen I picked up earlier this week. It's nice to work with but it does not take to pencil very well. This will probably stay a sketching pen.

I also did some brush pen tests to show myself that if I did Alencia's stories inked with a brush pen how it would look. Here's what I came up with.


Next I will do some actual comic pages inked with brush pen for a final test. I am pleased with the look so far. I can get lots of detail, line weight variation and contrast. (And that little rabbit at the bottom is Reach's rabbit Clover.)

I didn't want to stretch this page too long so I'll be posting the best of my latest Dr. Sketchy's sketches later. Also, if I can't think of blog titles I may just stick to metal song titles from my Pandora station.

Back to work for me!

OMN now on Facebook!

So OMN has been updating regularly (not that there's a schedule) and now we're on facebook! :D Join us on our adventures and get updates on the comic! I'm also going to post WIP pics of the comic, pin ups, and photos of our comic related IRL adventures :D
You can find us using the facebook widget to the right.
see you soon!

Comic update!

The first comic update from the Or Maybe Not comic blog is up! :D Excitement!

Lolita Wars- OMN story arc cover

It is with an aching hand that I post my newest illustration. I was talking with my good friend Ian Davison (of the Talk without Rhythm Podcast) and we've been tinkering with the idea of story arc for "Or Maybe Not" having to do with the whole Lolita culture and basically spoofing it. All good fun. So while he's working on writing up some ideas I sketched out an idea for the 'cover' image for the story and two or three hours later (not sure, I lost count, I just know my hand is really hurting from all the drawing I've done today) I came up with this:



Sorry for the obnoxious watermark but even with small pictures I want to protect them. However a better version will be available in the black and white art book I'm currently working on :D Also might consider making it a print or post card. I'm that proud of it <3 However I'm not sure on the font... does anyone have any good ideas for Lolita-ish or pretty (yet readable) fonts?

Also my awesome friend Sarah gave me a lovely lolita drawing today for my birthday :D I absolutely adore it and I'm getting it framed as soon as possible!


You can see more of her artwork at her Deviantart page!

New arts!

Despite having homework (which I have been doing) I've managed to get some personal art done :D This includes two sketches colored on photoshop and an Or Maybe Not comic page, but I'll be saving that one for the first issue. I don't want all of them being show before the book gets done. Which is really hard because I want to show them all ;_;
moving on.


Here is a promotional image for our geek comedy comic, "Or Maybe Not". Click on it to download from deviantart!
I spent pretty much all night on this but I'm really pleased with it. It was based on a poster I saw for KERA magazine (with some changes on my part).


Here is a 'wedding photo' of one of my steampunk characters from a story I'm doing with my good friend Ian (he's also writing and editing OMN with us). Unfortunately for her, her wedding is not a happy one :/
The more I look at her dress the more I want it.

That's it for now, I might take photos of some homework assignments I've done lately tho they aren't terribly interesting. I did do a good pencil drawing of a skeleton torso. Skeletons are fun. Unless you're in my figure drawing class x_x
More updates later!

OMN Cover

Today I finally finished coloring the cover to issue one of "Or Maybe Not".



You can see it a little closer here

Still to do:

1) Next three Clayton Chronicles bookmarks (color)
2) Spork-Bunny picture (color)
3) Ashley sticker (color)
4) Ink page 2 of Clayton Chronicles
5) More OMN pages