Quasi-productivity

Hey, you guys remember this guy? Well, I randomly decided to revamp his design just for kicks. I actually didn't look back at the comic for his redesign, so I completely forgot about the half-hakama and human right leg. The new guy is entirely robotic...for now anyway. Who knows, he might have a human brain or eyeball or something.


I drew him with a brush pen...I love those things so much. He's also digitally colored in Photoshop with some dry media brushes. I don't have a name for him yet, so if anyone out there has ideas, feel free to leave a comment! I'm sure this guy will appear again somewhere down the line. He's part of my character roster, along with Ganpen and his minions!

Finally enjoying spring break just a teeny bit,
J

Comic-Con

As some of you guys know, February 6th-8th was the New York Comic Convention.

It was awesome.

It was the first really big convention that I've been to. After walking around the convention floor all weekend, my feet hurt for the first time since move-in day! I was fortunate enough to meet David Gibbons, the artist for Watchmen, and Clay Enos, the unit photographer for the Watchmen movie. Mr. Enos and Titan Books put out and absolutely amazing book called Watchmen Portraits. Like the name implies, it's a huge book full of black-and-white portraits of actors and actresses from Watchmen. If you've got the money and are a fan of Watchmen, it's definitely worth picking up. Amazon has it for the great, great price for $31.50. I also met Gabe and Tycho from my favorite video game webcomic, Penny Arcade.

On Friday the 6th, when I was wondering around the convention floor, I spotted some authentic, original artwork by Ashley Wood. When I saw a huge original Zombies Vs. Robots painting, I nearly passed out! Ashley Wood is my favorite artist and I was absolutely floored to see his paintings and sketchbook pages in person. I could've studied his paintings all day. Seeing photos is one thing, but seeing the actual layers of paint and the brush strokes is something completely different...If I had a spare $400, I would've picked one up, but I had to settle for drooling over the display table. Someday....

Well, I'm not planning to write up a big con report, but going to NYCC was a great experience. Not only did I get to fanboy-out, I recieved a bit of inspiration and a goal to shoot for. Tonight, on this blog for all to see, I am making a vow: Someday, I will be sitting behind a booth a Comic-Con, showing my artwork, selling my toys, and making a name for myself. With any luck, it'll happen within the next ten years.

That's all for now. School is back in motion, work is starting to pile up. I've really been enjoying painting lately because we're focusing on portraits and the human figure. In my next update, I'll post some pics of some new work. I'm pretty proud with my self-portrait and the process behind it is pretty interesting, so be ready to read about that!


Lesson learned and the wheels keep turning

24 Hour Comic Book Day 2008

So last weekend was 24 Hour Comic Book Day. The idea is to create a 24 page comic in 24 hours. It was started by Scott McCloud a few years ago to show how capable an artist can be.

I was lucky enough to be near Jim Hanley's Universe, which was apparently the only place in NYC doing it. Here's my 24 hour comic.

Shodown is rated PG-13 for language and violence. Yeah.















It's interesting to see how the quality of work drops as time goes on... Compare the first 6 pages to the last 6 and you'll sorta see. See the Negative Laser Pew-Pew on page 16? Yeah, that's my way of getting rid of all the black space I'd have to color in. I thought it was clever....

Another way to save time was the use of splash pages; those pages with just one panel of stuff happening (pages 4, 24, etc.)

The idea was sorta random. I just drew some crazy UFO thing at the top corner of the first page and went from there. Very spur-of-the-moment. you get a good idea of what goes on in my head.

I learned quite a bit from my first comic book. It sorta reinforced the fact that I'm not a sequential artist....But I had fun. Making a 24 page comic in 24 hours once a year is alright with me.