SpiderForest Comic of the Week

This week's featured comic is Ley Lines. This is another one of SpiderForest's flock of epic fantasy adventures. Siblings are trying to unravel the mystery of their mother's death - and conspiracies, magic and a cast of intriguing characters await them. Give it a look!

Book sketching tests

The time will soon come when I'll be working on book sketches for the artist editions and those who buy the sketch package at cons.  Sweet!  Now, how should I handle it?

Every artist handles things differently.  I wanted to offer something more than the typical pen and ink approach, so now it's time to find the look.  I've seen some wonderful book sketches Darc of Code Name: Hunter did with monochrome colored pencil, so... monkey see, monkey do.

What you see here are various tries to find the best combo of pen and pencil application. Do I sketch in regular pencil, or no-copy blue?  Should I erase the pencil or show the process lines? What type of pen should I use for the inking?  When should the inking stage occur?

The first try was Tiffany.  I began with blue lines, then inked with the glorious Fude pen that was recommended by Becca of Nattosoup.  It was all awesome until the coloring began. SMEARS! Noooooo!

Darn it!  I want to use that pen whenever possible, so that was disheartening.  The next try was Jacob, where I colored him first and use the pen overtop the pencils. That looks great, but it does make coloring more imprecise.  It should be OK, though.

Autumn is the standard sketch, using regular tech pens. I erased the pencil after inking, so it's a little cleaner. No problems here, but it's harder to pull off line variance.

Bud's inking went the other way.  I left the pencils to show process and used a brush pen, which gives nice lines despite my complete inability to use it.  The downside here is that error potential is high, and I take it a bit slower in drawing.

And then there's the blue. I've been on a monochrome kick for a while, so this should be no surprise. It's also practical.  It's a lot easier on the logistics to keep it in one color family, and I think it's a nice touch.  It doesn't have to be blue.  I just like it, and I can use the blue pencil for sketching.  (Although it doesn't scan well AT ALL. This is an iPhone photo you see.) There's a chance I could switch to toning with markers, but there's a bleed issue there.

The actual book sketches will be a bit larger, of course.  Gotta come up with some scenes to draw, especially since I need to have 21 unique sketches for Autumn.  (Yes, that's out of 25 pre-orders. Dang, guys.)

I know I'm getting ahead of myself.  Most book sketches won't be happening until August.  Still, it's a fun thing to practice!

The book! It exists!

Earlier tonight I was commanded to show up on Skype by the good folks at RCSI Publishing. Why?   Because the proof of the first Precocious book was in! It's real, and it's spectacular!

That would be Matt, of the Code Name: Hunter team, holding a VERY REAL book in his VERY REAL hands!

The first good look you folks have gotten at the back cover. I love the layout.

Bonus art! Bonus art everywhere!

And, oh yeah, an introduction from one of the founding fathers of Webcomics, the great Bill Holbrook!

Also: Those comics the people seem to be going on about.

A look at the Sunday strips in their book form. No color, alas, as that would have more than doubled the printing cost. I hope we made up for that with the giant 48-strip print-exclusive bonus story!

Guys, this thing is happening.  They checked over the proof and it looks FANTASTIC! We'll be putting in the print order for the pre-orders soon (they'll ship out to you early August) and the amount of pre-orders is going to determine the print run. Unless you're planning on grabbing a book at a convention, get your orders in now!

I got some special fan art!

Every time someone makes fan art for me, it's awesome - but when another busy comic creator takes the time to draw something for me, it's really special.

Ok, so I kinda asked for this one. Mark, the creator of Autumn Lake, wanted to draw something and asked for ideas. I told him to draw Precocious fan art. Instead of e-slapping my arrogant face, he did! Check it out!

This makes me happy, as Autumn Lake is one of my favorite webcomics. There's something very classic about the feel and execution of Autumn Lake, and it's that sincerity that is so appealing. Mark and I share many influences, so of course it pleases me to see another out there aiming more for timeless than trending topic. It's special, and it really needs to have more eyes viewing it. For those scared of the archive size, I suggest starting with the epic Lonely Robot saga.

Overdue sketches

I'm only 12 hours late with these! These represent the last of the May commission project.

This should be my May 31st commission.  I started with Bette at the beach, I should end with Bette at the beach! Here, she is joined by Mitzy Bard, as they sunbathe after a tough school year.  Hmm, maybe I should replace their cooler with the beach ball from the first pic. Continuity!

It's getting warm out there, so Gren wanted his hyena character dressed as Jack Frost and enjoying ice cream.

And I guess I can't have a sketch post without more Wen sports poses.  This one was him in motion actually throwing the football. Unfortunately, those poses aren't that elegant or readable.  Also, I'm pretty sure I'm in some government database now, as I got these poses by watching a video of an eight-year-old girl throwing a football around - pausing and rewinding, pausing and rewinding, pausing and rewinding...

Wen again

First off, my apologies to the two folks who are still owed commission sketches. I know I promised them tonight, but I lost track of time with my Precocious inking and now I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll sit down and do them as soon as I'm functional tomorrow.

I did draw these sketches earlier in the day, so I'll share 'em. I was asked to make a few more Wen sketches, and I was happy to comply.

This one has him as the football thrower instead of the receiver.

I was asked to show him unable to catch the football, but the "ball flying just over one's reach" is more of a baseball thing, so I drew that instead.

Side note:  Since I used photos of athletes to draw these pics, the Wen I drew came out looking like a teenager instead of an 8-year-old.  I had to do a LOT of Photoshopping to get his limbs to a reasonable level of stumpiness. Gotta watch myself with that in the future.

New Copper Road! 5/23/12

If you've been following along with Twitter and the blog, you'll know I'm Trekking again. (I'm almost done! So sad!) This Copper Road is for you Next Generation geeks out there. As for the rest of you? Go watch all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix. Then this comic will be funny.

Anyway, vote to see the fun!

Commission sketches: The final frontier!

Ok, yeah, I've been watching way to much Star Trek recently. (Just wait an hour for the new Copper Road!) Anyway, sketch work has begun on the final batch of the May commissions!

I was give free reign on this one for Phil, and that is always so scary. I decided to take a proper crack at his fursona. (His look was previously used as a cameo in the strip, but not in-character.) Since he's been having technical difficulties with just about everything he's touched recently, I drew something with him being taunted by a tech demon.  (Blue screen of death demon?) As is, the demon is singling him out as his choice for torment, but an alternate idea could zoom in a bit and keep the demon to a face on the monitor. Yes, he's wearing the SCIENCE! shirt. He said geeky shirts were good, and I chose mine!

Karl wanted a sequel to his Derpy and Bud watercolor piece, with Derpy hunting down the jerk who took the last muffin. Unwitting subject of an impending lightning strike? Had to be Jacob. Instead of making multiple sketches, I just drew alternate Derpy poses in the empty space.  I love the idea of her riding the storm cloud behind Jacob.  This piece could benefit of a shift to a horizontal layout.  It could also be flipped, with Jacob walking the other way. That way the eye would start on him and then move to angry Derpy.  I don't like that angle on Jacob as much, so it may not happen, even if it helps the narrative.

This one started out as Autumn being territorial about her library, but drawing a full library background in the time allotted is impossible. It's a shame, because it was a good idea. (I may have to turn a variation of that into a strip down the line!)  A smaller-scale version of Autumn protecting her books that was suggested was her sacrificing herself to keep a book dry in the rain.  Sounds cute!  If I went with this, I could do regular color or something more experimental.  I think a rain scene would look neat in all blues.  I may have to redraw her to show her a bit more hunched over, but the idea is there.

Here's an alternate take, showing the set-up.

I was given two options for this one:  Kaitlyn and Autumn having fun together, or Kaitlyn making Autumn all poofy paranoid. Since I couldn't think of a good activity for the friendly stuff, I turned to the dark side.  I'm torn over trying to make this a vertical or horizontal piece.

Hey! Wen got a commission! That's right, Roddy, even Wen got chosen before you. The question about Wen was what he does when not tormenting Kaitlyn.  He's a sporty jerk, so I decided to have him playing catch.  Maybe it wasn't the smartest move to make him play American football, since this for a European reader, but you must admit football is a suitably jerky sport for him. Bonus insult:  I swiped this pose from another drawing I'd done... a drawing of Roddy!

Finally, I was asked to bring back Tiffany dressed as fruit, from an old sketch of mine. It proved harder than I thought to find an alternative to the original pear look.  I through inverting the shape and going strawberry would be good... but the pear shape still beats it. I suppose it'd be cheating to make her an eggplant.

There are two more commissions that need sketching, but I ran out of sketchbook pages. (That means I'm down to just two empty sketchbooks! Ack!)  They'll have to be sketched tomorrow.

SpiderForest Comic of the Week!

But first... some self-promotion! Aside from the obligatory begging to pre-order the Precocious book and snag one of the last commission spots, I did a guest comic for Ginger's Bread, so go over and witness the Precocious kids assaulting that comic's universe. (They can do that now. No comic is safe.)

And now on to the fun stuff! This week's comic is Footloose, a silly and sweet romp about fighting, faeries and whatever they feel like it being about! There's lots in the archives to chew on, plus some more comics on the site to enjoy. There's a lot to choose from!

Button set 2

New post for the "final" group of button designs. I've printed them all out, and I like what I see.  My main doubt is regarding the Autumn button.  The text, while blurry here, works in print well enough. It's more about me re-using a magnet design for a button. That creates a conflict.  I only did it because I don't have any more pre-existing art to use for designs. (And no good idea to cause me to create new art.)  Aside from maybe switching out Autumn with another design, I think this is it for my button creation times.  Any more than 10 designs and things get crazy.  Heck, I wouldn't have expanded so much this soon if it wasn't for a desire to use up the rest of my button parts while I can.  I need 'em done by the end of the year, and might as well do it now so I can take them to the cons.

And, yes, these are still con-exclusive.  If I can figure out a cost-effective method of shipping, I *might* sell button sets - but for now you'll have to track me down at a convention some day.  (Hey, when you do, I can sketch in that Precocious book you've already ordered, right?)