Long Time, No Post

Sorry about the long delay. Classes and what not. Here's some new work sketches.
Enjoy

Life Drawings

Need to do more drawing from life. It helps in that I tend to incorporate stuff that I picked up from life drawing into the cartoony stuff. It also goes in reverse. Not too happy with most of this stuff, but then again I don't really do this as often as I really should.

The one on the bottom right is another attempt to do a profile shot in the "style"

Strip One

So. after two and a half years of talking about this thing, I've finally got strip one up.

To begin with, I didn't realize it would take me THAT long to crank out one strip. Way too damn long. On the plus side, I've learned what to do to make this process easier on me.

1. Draw thumbnails of every fucking strip. None of this "Oh, I've got an idea of how the strip should look and I'll just draw each panel on the fly." crap. Layouts and composition get worked out with the drafts.
2. Attempt draw a weeks worth of panels on one shot. a) this keeps things consistent b) Once I'm in the groove, I can stay in it, and hopefully minimize "off days"
3. Those same panels will be inked the next day in one shot, again to maintain consistency. I apolgize for calling any inkers in the past "tracers". In order to really go the pencils any justice, you really do wind up redrawing the image all over again, using the pencils as a guide.
4. Colors on the third day. This is actually the easy part.

-Enjoy

Process

So, I've just got to do one more rewrite on the first story arc, but I've already begun to plot out the second story line. For that one Abbie get her hair cut and I've had an idea on how I wanted it to be, but could never really get a firm grasp on it. So I did what I did with Jo's hair, and just repeatedly drew heads out, and experimented with various styles. For the most part, it was really just refinement, and forcing myself to continue drawing.
No.1: an initial design of the 'do.
No.2: me trying to flesh her out.
No.3: didn't really like no.2 that much (too stiff), but didn't have enough time to redraw the whole thing, so I just redrew the shirt and skirt. Thought the shirt needed to be more feminine.
No.4: me trying to hammer down Abbie's hairstyle.
No.5: the approved hairstyles with the first one being after she first cuts it (she just grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off her ponytail) and the second one being after it's been cleaned up.
No.6: Abigail with the new hair and outfit that she sports during a particular scene in chapter 2.

Really happy with the fact I figured out how to draw her bangs correctly.

Slideshow

Nothing new right now, just wanted to post up some photos. The first set of my new drawing set up. I tweeked my drawing board a bit and came up with a setting that left me with a "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" The next set are of a bike trail called the Holiday Trails back home. Saw it, wished that I had lugged my bike with and then took photos. The camera died about fifteen minutes into the photo shoot. I'll probably wind up using the rest of these photos as a references for Abbie's own local spot.
Enjoy

Hot Buttered

Think that I was repeatedly drawing head sketches for about an hour or so straight. Ugh. On the plus, I nailed the hair within the first 15 minutes, the smile within the first five. The head shape is slowly coming together. The nose, however, keeps eluding me.

More Josie

Still wasn't completely happy with the Josie sketches. As previously noted, I'm really happy with her face, but not her hair. Tried to hammer out some more doodles today. I really like the texture with these. It's a call back to the very early Jo sketches, when she had really wavy hair. Guess it's going back that way. Fiery with hints of restraint. I think I've got it, just need a bit more refinement. The one with the two on the left will be the hairstyle used when Neil experiences his flashbacks in the first chapter. The one with the one on the left will be what Jo sports when Neil first meets her.

Josie Sketches and Then Some

Been trying to work on some drawings for a friend of mine, and began by drawing some warm up sketches. Most of these are of me still trying to flesh out the character of Josie. The basic shape of her face and head have been hammered down, however I'm still trying to figure out what to do with her hair. And as you can see with the torso, and full body sketches, the face is the last thing that I wind up doing. The order usually winds up going pelvis, torso, legs, arms, and then head. The basic shape of the head gets filled in, then hair, ears, nose, mouth and finally eyes. It's kinda weird (in my opinion) the order that it gets filled in, but it's helped in the development of this particular style. It used to be that the face didn't look at all like the rest of the body, but for the most part, that's no longer the case. And as you can see, I still need to work on the hands.

The Ballad of Abbie Jane

Some character sketches of Abbie as she will appear in the first chapter of "Life and Love in Loudon." I've begun to surprise myself with the degree of consistency that these recent drawings have. Guess that shows that I've really begun to nail the drawing style that I've been shooting for with the series, which is basically a style in which I can draw quickly in and that doesn't allow me to obsess over. Really happy with the front and 3/4 views of this style, but I'm still working on the side views right now. It still just looks odd. This particular style is also loose enough to allow me to add inks over it as well. I've been leaning more towards the penciling end right now, since I'm a better penciler. However, once I get more comfortable with inking with a brush, hopefully it will lead to really loose pencils with more polished inks.

Ink Practice

Here's some practice inking that I did tonight. I'm still trying to get the hang of using crowquill pens. It's been fun, I actually look forward to this. I've been placing mylar sheets on top of the drawing and on it, so that I get to keep the original sketch intact and more importantly, if I screw up, all I gotta to is place a new sheet on top. I still need to work on the line variability. I also need to stop thinking of it as tracing and more of re-drawing the same piece.

Both are of Abbie, I forgot to fill in her hair with the first sketch

The second one is also of Miss Locke (in the mornings)

The Maid of Might

I wandered over to Dean Trippe's website and discovered that a Supergirl meme had begun. It's been awhile since I've drawn superheroes so I figured that I'd give it a shot considering that I'm also not a big fan of the current costume. I still cringe when I see the Turner renditions.

This actually turned out better than I thought it would. My rendition wound up going from a more contemporary look to one of a 1940's pulp hero look. The biggest pain with was working out the color scheme of the outfit, because let's face it those colors can be a pain to work with.