News

Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately. I've had a lot going on and I'm still finding my bearings.

News!

+Kale: Lost & Found issue #1 is now available at Mad Arts in Madison, VA! A lovely establishment that has recently opened its doors to me. If you ever find yourself in the area, or even in C-ville, I highly suggest taking a drive down to check out this cute little house brimming full of handmade art, jewelry, discounted books (like really good art books and books from local artists), workshops, classes, and baked goods!

+OMN has been on a temporary hiatus but I'm currently working through the update. Hoping to have it ready by the end of the week, permitting no more unexpected hurdles get in the way (story of my month).

+I'm also currently finishing up my current Alencia mini comic. All that's left is the cover to finish. I've also been contacting local printers to get prices for printing books, so look out for more news soon! I'll be posting the books to my Etsy when they are printed.

In the mean time, here are some recent warm up/cool down sketches.

Alencia pouring over some research while being bothered by a strangely concerned looking demon. (I still haven't named him, it's the same guy from his post.)

Graphite portrait of my Steampunk character Layla Von Gedge. I invented the dress design and decided to put more effort into a detailed background. I plan on coloring the sketch later. The scan ate up the line work and values so much I think it needs color to save it :/ Or to at least give it some of its lost softness back.

I'll be back as soon as possible with comics and artwork! Stay tuned!

Classwork and Photo Exploring

Hey everyone! Today I bring you a media exercise from my Projects for Illustration class. We basically had to do some experimentation with media by drawing a face. I chose to draw a bald man so I could focus on the shape of the head, even though hair is fun to draw. I found my reference via Coribis and got to work with some brush pen action.

I used the Pocket Pentel Brush Pen so I could get fine detailed lines as well as bold areas of solid black. This was originally just a study but it came out as a nice drawing on its' own. Even my teacher liked it. Which means a lot to me.

But then... my pen ran out of ink. And I had no refills on me (that'll learn me). So I switched to a 0.05 Staedtler Pigment Liner and sketched a bigger drawing of the face, with cross hatching. Needless to say it took the rest of the period to do. And it paid off!



This is the whole page from my sketchbook so you can see the size difference between the sketches. The clown-looking one was me mapping out the planes of the face roughly. As for feedback I got on these, I'm doing well as a draftsman, and I need to keep drawing from life. My teacher said it'll help me with my comics the style I use for them. I agree and I'm glad I'm on the right track.

Now have some photos!

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
Cupcakes I made for Sarah's birthday.


Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
Photos I took at the Honors Studio where I was lurking with a friend, and at my bus stop as the sun was going down. Now that I have batteries again I've started carrying my camera with me just in case I see something worth documenting or capturing. I'm taking a leaf from T.Yate's book with the photo slide shows here. I think it helps to keep larger batches of images organized.

Until next time!

Comics and Cards

Things I've been up to lately in photo form...


WIP shot. Page 15 of Kale is finally inked. I'm really happy with how it came out. (You'll see later!)


Speaking of Kale, I started some bookmarks last night and finished them today. I am REALLY happy with how they came out. I planned on doing a group shot with the guys as the 4th bookmark. I may get to it later. Also planning on doing Lolita ones too. Lets see how that goes :P


WIP photo of the first 5 of my Burlesque card series. The finished scans are posted on my Deviantart page.


The three cards I finished yesterday with a commission I also finished yesterday; which is also posted on DA.


Also bought the hardcover edition of Blacksad! I'm so happy this finally came back into print. I was even more ecstatic when I realized that this isn't the first book, but ALL THREE OF THEM in one beautiful volume. Nerd heaven, I am there. Now I can read the third story and have all of them to reread and study :) I LOVE the watercolor work and expressions of the characters in these books. I HIGHLY suggest this to anyone who likes anthropomorphic characters/stories, or fans of noir detictive stories. Or fans of GOOD comics in general :P


I also decided to pick up a 0.1 copic refillable mulitliner pen. I have a set of the disposable ones (the affordable ones) and the 0.1 is the one I use the most often. I buy so many of the 0.1 Microns for sketching (really, I buy one or two whenever I go to Main Art) so this is definitely a cheaper investment.

Not only can you refill the ink but you can also replace the nibs! A great addition since I tend to ware out nibs before using all the ink. However, I wouldn't recommend getting the whole set of these since each pen is about $8 with the nib replacements being about $2 and some change, and the ink refills about $3 and some change. My purchase was about $16 with tax but it should last me, which is important. I won't bother getting any of the other pens like this since I don't use all of them near as much as I do the 0.1. The only one I would probably consider, later down the road, is the 0.05 since I've started using it more and I have nib concerns with those too.