2013 Art in Review

Decided to follow suite with Jingles and post my own 2013 art summery. It feels like ages since I've done any prop making but I'm hoping to get back to work on my Alencia statue soon. I just picked up this awesome book and I'm ready to take another go at it.

I'm hoping to barrel through this year doing more and learning more~

Sick Day. Gotta Work on Comics.

Had a sick day today. Managed to get some work on Alencia: Tomb of the Unspoken pages done when I wasn't sleeping or moaning in misery. I missed working on her adventures so much!

This girl.

Is getting into lots of trouble.


Stay tuned for more!

I've got Art Books on the Brain

Hello everyone! I’ve been working a lot lately (at both day jobs and on art projects) so here’s a little update:

+Alencia webcomic- I’ve decided that launching Alencia as a webcomic isn’t the best route for right now. As I’ve already proven to myself with ‘Or Maybe Not’ I find updating a webcomic to be mostly stress and guilt inducing (stressful trying to update on time and guilt ridden when I don’t or the comic quality suffers due to time crunches).

Alencia is my main comic project and I never want to feel tired of drawing her stories so making it as least stressful as possible is important to me. Instead I will continue to self publish each story as its own mini comic. In the mean time I’ll be sharing teaser photos, sketches, concept art and posting preview comics so you can get a taste for the story before possibly buying a completed book. I'm also looking into releasing downloadable PDF versions of my comics too.

Later when I have more stories completed I will hopefully pitch the book (or books) to a publisher. It would likely have some never before published stories in it when I do. But that is still on the distant horizon.

+Art book- I’m currently working on an Elder Scrolls/Skyrim/Oblivion themed artbook collecting illustrations and comics of my game characters along their adventures as well as photos of props from the game I have/will make. I plan on sending some to Bethesda as a thank you for making such awesome games; especially now since work is wrapping up on Skyrim. I’m not sure yet how/if I will handle selling copies of the artbook but if there is interest then I will think of something. I’m really enjoying working on this so far and I’m really excited to finish a physical book of it all. I’m in a strong book making mood lately :D


A look at just some of the notes and thumbnail images I've done recently. This is how I figure out ideas and concepts for illustrations and comics before I start working on them.
+Other comics- Ryan and I are currently working on about three anthro comic projects right now. A mermaid love story called ‘Oceanborn,’ a maid café slice of life-drama “Unintentionally Alice,” and a horror themed collection of short stories called “Fur-raising Tales.” As concept work on these stories gets done I will be sharing those too (I’m also planning a preview booklet for “Unintentionally Alice” showing concept work, illustrations, and preview pages. I’m also working on a mini print/post card set!) We will be self-publishing these stories.

I’m also starting early concept work and writing for tales about my Gravedigger, Lor. I’m hoping to do comics about her in the future too but as you can see my plate is quite full of personal projects already :P I think its also safe to say that reworking Kale’s story has been on the back burner too. I’ve done more writing and figuring things out for her story but it’s not in my immediate to do list right now. Still, fear not her story will be told! One reason I like to work on many projects at once is so when I’m burnt out on one I can rotate to another one. Kale is still on my list, just a little further down for the moment.

+Prop making- Currently I’ve done five out of nine Amulets of the Divine. I’ve picked up supplies and will start sculpting the new ones soon. I’m also hoping to try my hand at replica prop/display weapons after the amulets. I’m thinking of the Blade of Woe from the Dark Brotherhood quest line first. Being a dagger it’ll be smaller so I’m hoping a good introduction.

Also as my comics go on I will be looking into creating props based on items and weapons from my own stories. I’d like to try some mold making so I can cast multiples of an object after I sculpt it. I love the idea of being able to create an object from concept to fabrication; being able to bring something from my own comics into reality and sharing it with others.

As you can see I’ve got a lot of fun projects going on right now. Lots of hard work that is (happily) eating up my time out side of my day jobs. So stay tuned and be sure to follow the art tumblr for sketches and rough updates as well as my facebook page for updates, polls, and general interaction. I love hearing from folks so if you have a question or comment feel free to let me know!

Comic Spotlight: Of Stars and Swords

Hello everyone!
As you may or may not know, I was able to attend Megacon in Orlando, Florida about two weeks ago and of course had a great time! Aside from being able to visit friends, meet celebrities, and spend my tax refund, I was also able to discover a new favorite comic.

While browsing the artist alley I noticed that many artist's tables featured distasteful images of women to sell their books. This cliche' isn't new, but failed to grab my interest so I kept walking for a while, until I passed by a table that caught my eye. It was the table of husband and wife writer/artist duo, Graham and Caroline Johnson, of 'Serious Turtle Studio.'

Their table featured books and images from their ongoing comic "Of Stars and Swords" which can be read online. They had two printed issues available which were colorful and featured female characters in a fantasy setting, (which immediately appealed to my interests). Furthermore, they were clad in practical yet colorful, and well designed, costumes which further peaked my interest. Upon making eye contact with Caroline I asked her what the comic was about. She said along the lines of "It's about a girl who has to decide between taking revenge, or doing what is ultimately right." Intrigued I bought the first two issues. I read them both while waiting for our flight back to Virginia, devouring them before our plane even landed.

The art was lovely and improved with each issue. The story was strong, keeping me guess with twists and turns, even inspiring a few out loud "OOOhhh!" moments while reading. The characters were each distinct in their design so I couldn't confuse them. The story itself continues online and I highly suggest anyone who appreciates well written and drawn fantasy, as well as spunky female leads, to check it out! I'll be keeping an eye on the updates as well as the release of issue #3. I believe the comic industry needs more well done stories staring female heroes. As I strive to add my own comics to this ideal, I will read and praise the stories of others. If you a know a great comic done by, or staring an awesome female hero, please share it in the comments!


OSAS I2 Cover by ~SeriousTurtle on deviantART

Check out the comic and support the creators!
Of Stars and Swords Comic
Serious Turtle Studio Blog
Caroline's Deviant Art
Of Stars and Swords Facebook Page

Alencia Webcomic Plans

Aside from all the Skyrim inspired fun I'm currently working on (and thank you to everyone for putting up with all my Skyrim shenanigans lately) I'm also working on getting a buffer of Alencia comic pages inked and ready for lettering/toning. I've got about 7 more pages to go until this next story is all inked. (You may remember some of the comic pages I started back in October, well this is that story continued!)Then when I'm done with the pages I will officially launch Alencia as a webcomic!

The Alencia mini-comic I printed at the end of last year will not be posted online but will remain a printed exclusive. I'm thinking of doing a giveaway soon to celebrate the launch. I don't have a date for it yet as I'm currently getting ready for a vacation and nailing down a second job soon after, but when I have the details ironed out I will share them! Aside from the pages I've also still got to come up with a banner and logo for the project. Progress on those will be posted too!

In the mean time, here's a sneak peek!

TotU pg 5

Hey folks! Managed to get another page drawn, but won't have time to add tones for a while so here is the inked page in a more raw stage. I did get some work done while I was gone, especially for this comic, but showing it would spoil too much of it so for now we have this raw page. I'll post more when I can. I start training for my new second job bright and early tomorrow ;3;

I hope you've been keeping up with El Goro at Talk Without Rhythm Podcast for "31 Days of Halloween." He's been able to keep updating every day this month, much better than I have, so go reward his hard work by telling him how awesome he is. There's a facebook for the podcast too.

See you folks later~

TotU page 3

Hey everyone! Got my errands (read: finding pieces for a Mabel of Gravity Falls Halloween costume) done this morning so page 3 of 'Alencia: Tomb of the Unspoken' got done early today. Enjoy, more is on the way!

Be sure to check out El Goro's review for "31 Days of Halloween" with today's review of "Dread."

Tomb of the Unspoken- pg.2

Hey everyone! Things are getting pretty cray cray around here. Between work, family/home obligations, and this project I'm getting a bit stretched thin over here. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. But I'm gonna keep going with these as best I can. On Thursday I'll be out all day, and spending Friday and Saturday with my beloved (celebrating Halloween with a huge movie marathon. I need this.) So I'll be working on pages while I'm out and uploading them in a bigger upload when I get back (looking at some time Sunday). Then Monday I start my new second job and things will get even more crazy 8D

So here is page 2:

Don't forget to check out what El Goro is up to with the "31 Days of Halloween" podcast.

[EDIT]- Added the text to the page :P

Back in Black and White

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed the Clockwork Queen mini comic because now I'm back on "31 Days of Horror" but this time I'm mixing it up with a new comic! I'll be posting a page (or more!) every day following a new Alencia adventure, "Tomb of the Unspoken." The way it's going right now this might last past October, so if that happens I'll just keep updating until it's done! :D

Here's page 1

Make sure you're checking out El Goro's "31 Days of Halloween" podcasts! Today he reviewed the french horror film "Sheitan."

Clockwork Update

Hello everyone! I'm getting some things sorted out today (errands and chores that need to be done) and spending some time with loved ones so to make up for yesterday's lack of a proper update, as well as today and tomorrow I'm going to post a special treat for you! A six page comic! This was the comic I did for an anthology that later got cut from the book. It's a snippet from a story I was working on in early college, a steampunk-horror-scifi involving a scientist who uses his wife as a prototype for a military robot project as well as kidnapping other people. The rest of the story is a rescue mission involving other characters, but this mini comic just concentrates on the scientist.

The comic pages were on 5x8" watercolor paper and were drawn with pencil, inked with pocket Pentel brush pen, and toned with India ink. The color washes, as well as text and speech bubbles, were added in Photoshop. I definitely want to experiment with water-coloring comics in the future and have been looking to comics like Blacksad for inspiration. I hope to have my pages that well painted in the future.

Let me know what you think! Enjoy, and see you in a few days horror fans!

Clockwork Queen in a Comic Anthology

I recently was invited by a friend to participate in a Steampunk themed anthology project put together by Neoflux Productions.

My entry was a short, tl;dr version of the intro for a steampunk horror story I was working on back in my early years at SCAD. I’ve redone the comic twice for school projects but it’s been sitting on the back burner since about early 2008 so I thought I’d revive the idea for this, but take liberties and shorten it to just get the basic idea across. I had gotten a small watercolor paper journal recently and decided to draw and ink the comic in that. Working so small was both interesting and challenging but working with ink wash was a pure joy. The colors were added in Photoshop since the entries had to be colored. I really wanted to keep the comic in greyscale but the simple color wash look has grown on me. This project has inspired me to try more watercolor/wet media techniques with my comics and I look forward to doing more of that as time goes on :D

http://www.facebook.com/groups/236795539754275/ (the FB page) Steampunk Originals is an anthology of Steampunk comics. Coordinated by Neoflux Productions. Published by Arcana.

I’ll post updates once it gets published! Also be sure to check out the work of my friend Steven Yarbrough. He was also part of the project and told me about it in the first place. He’s a super nice and talented guy, so be sure to check him out!

Goat Steed

So during my senior year in college me and friends started all going to the gym together as motivation to get healthy. One day we went the weather ended up being so nice we couldn't bare to stay inside so we hoped in my friend's car and drove to Maymont. Maymont is a beautiful estate with parks, a petting zoo, animal inclosures, ponds, and lovely Victorian buildings (and horse drawn carriages!). We had a great time walking around (those hills make a good workout) and took loads of reference photos. While walking around I took lots of photos of goats and a great appreciation of them was born. As was the in-joke that if I could have a mighty steed to ride around on I would want a giant goat. References to Thor's goats were also made.

This comic page is pretty much word for word a story I made up as we walked around that day. My friends featured in the last panel are Reach and Seir.

This is pretty much the result of having too much fun with comics, and friends. No regrets. And I really do suggest everyone go visit Maymont if they ever find themselves in Richmond, VA.

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.

I Comic, Therefore I Am.

Hello all!

In the busy hustle and bustle of the holiday season I have finally put together my illustrated guide to my comic work process. I origianly meant this to be a comic but I had so much to say that I figured an illustrated guide would be more appropriate. But it's done and ready for your enjoyment. This is not meant to be a 'how to' guide, this merely shows what I do and why. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Click here to view the PDF---> Fran's Illustrated Comic Process

Alencia: A Noble Deed Preview

Hello all! I'm nearing completion of my current Alenica solo story and I'm very excited. Alencia is a character who has been with me a long time and has grown into one of my favorite and most developed characters (in case you didn't realize by how much I draw her). My plan for her is to make episodic stories for her, with an over arching story arch. I've been doing lots of writing and planning and I'm on my way. The first story is nearing completion so I thought I'd share with you a preview of some of the pages so far, sans text.

Down the road I'd also like to formally introduce you to Alencia and show you my method and process in drawing comics, both in their own posts. I'm also thinking about releasing each 'episode' as a PDF file for a few dollars. Then when I get more stories done I can release a full book. I enjoy reading web comics but there is something so satisfying about holding a book in my hands and reading it. I also have grown a distaste for online e-readers for comics. I've been reading Dark Horse's 'The Thing' comic online and the e-reader for it drives me crazy. The panels don't always fit the screen size and it stretches some panels to pixilate them and I just really don't like it. If they release a trade for it I will buy it in a heartbeat. The Thing + Vikings = A-OK in my book.

Well enjoy the pages and let me know what you think! I'll get back to you on the PDF files once I figure out a good way to sell them. Maybe an Etsy page? We'll see.

Everyday I'm Hustlin...

Just a quick update- I've added more projects to my portfolio site, and fixed the buttons so they are smaller and look nicer. I think it's a bit easier to navigate now. I'm also working on finishing up the current Alencia story and adding grey tones to it. Then when that is done I'll be adding text and doing a cover image. I'm also hoping to do more concept work for some other comics I want to draw soon, including some collaborations. My good friend El Goro is putting together a script for his own Alencia story that I'll be drawing. I am so excited, you have no ideaaaa!

Grey Snow

I just posted some old digital comic pages over at my art tumblr so I thought I'd share them here too:






These are pages of a comic I started working on last year; the first page is still in the rough stage and is incomplete. They are based on an introduction for a character that my good friend Ian Davison (El Goro of the podcast ‘Talk Without Rhythm’) wrote for a story idea we were working on together. I’m still hoping to see this project out the end, even if it will most likely take quite a few years to do.

This was my first time working on a comic completely digitally. I learned a lot doing it and I think I will continue to do it this way for this project. I’m hoping to finish the introduction comic for this character, do an introductory comic for another character in the story, then start the whole story from the point that they first meet.

Needless to say this will be on the back burner for a while...

Final Countdown

My FINAL finals are drawing to a close. I'm nearly finished with my '3D Image and Movement' class. I just have to finish the packaging for my CD and then drop it off.
Then.
I'm.
DONE.

It still hasn't 100% kicked in yet.
But while that kicks in, enjoy some of the work I've been working on:

Here's some screen shots of my 3D Image and Movement animation. It's really simple but I worked really hard on the squid model, creating it, rigging and animating it (it's little fins on its head move) and figuring everything out. My teacher Matt Wallin was a huge help.


I'll post the actual animation once I get the blogger bugs figured out.


Here are some of my Projects in Illustration projects.

I'm still not 100% satisfied with this poster but it's a lot better than it originally was.

This one I was very proud of. There were some things compositionaly I could have done differently but it was my first time doing a completely watercolored illustration and I loved it. I'll be doing more watercolor illustrations in the future thanks to this piece.

This illustration was done to go with an article about women in comics as creators and as an audience. For this illustration I focused on women as an audience and how mainstream comic companies typically don't cater to them, and even treat them in a condescending manner. I think this issue has gotten better than it used to be but it could stand to be better. I still cant' walk into a comic store without seeing covers like the ones in the background here. All those covers are based on covers from Marvel and DC from the last few years (this decade).



Project number 4 was a group project. I had a really great time working with my group members and I got my best grade so far for this project. We had to turn in production work for a comic that we created together and we decided to go head and do two pages of finished comic.
The story is about two people with Synesthesia who become friends. The girl, Antoinette, has visual/auditory Synesthesia (like me) and Tyler has auditory/taste Synesthesia. The backgrounds were done by Tim Robinson (he also did a huge painting of the bar/club environment for this) and the character design and pencils for the pages were done by Aimee Hwang. I inked the pages on a separate page of Bristol board with a series 7 #2 brush. Which I am now going to marry. I am in series 7 heaven with this brush and will definately be using it more, and practicing more.

This post is getting pretty long so I'll post my finals work for figure painting and digital drawing later. I hope everyone at VCU is having a good end of the semester! After graduation (the 20th of May) I'll be working on moving out so I'll be busy for a while. I'll try to post some sketches here at my tumblr before then.

Until next time!

Comic News!

Cool news everyone! Velocity Comics in Richmond is officially carrying my comic 'Kale: Lost & Found'! Each book is $5 and comes with a bookmark, also made by me.


Can't make it down to pick one up? You can still order a copy directly from me. Product and ordering info here! Ordering from me the books will be autographed and doodled in for your enjoyment. Also comes with a free bookmark.

Proper Victorian Ladies

Its' a double post! What does it meaaaan!?
Breaking up the class paintings with some sketches.

Here are some sketches from a story I've been working on with a friend.


Not sure why I wanted to draw them in their undies but corsets are pretty fun to draw. Layla is fighting off baddies with a steel pipe and Zelphia is complaining about the lack of appreciation for her job. On the left side is part of a scene where Layla has finally punched through a wooden board (hence her knuckles are bloodied). Hugo promised that if she punched through it he would teach her how to fight. She finally did it.



Zelphia sketches! Her hips keep getting curvier and rounder the more I draw her :P I'll have to keep that in mind when doing her turn around sheet. I finally got her nose down. Doodles with no refs so proportions are off.


Part of a scene where Layla has been abducted by sky pirates and held for ransom. She is fiercely angry and giving those lousy pirates the 'what for'.

More art to come soon!