Sketch a Day: Sketch 5

Sketch a Day: Sketch 5: "Quick pencil sketch brought and painted on in MyPaint"

This is related to this blog.

Do I Miss This?

You bet I do.

I chose to put this book and story on hold for a bit while I try to figure out a way to actually make money in the short term.

That has meant that I have started working on a short animated film.

To earn money I had to take a job at Future Shop. It appears that nobody is interested in hiring me at the moment.

That being said I think about this story on a weekly basis and would very much like to juggle both projects instead of focusing only on one.

I do think that this has given me the opportunity to refine my story.

What Recession?

Oh!
You mean that thing that is making me dirt poor?
Or maybe it's just me.

Anyways... Freelancing isn't working out so well for me. Seeking full time work right now and haven't been able to focus on this at all.

Hopefully things will change.

In The Mealtime

Still working on fleshing out the characters of the world when I can.

Like so many people out there working and living in the world today, I have very little time at the moment. While I'd like to work on this more, I am currently on the search for paying work.

I'm also trying to be the best dad I can be. :)

American Werewolf in London is having a pretty big influence on me at the moment. Are there no other great werewolf movies out there?

Don't say Teen Wolf. ;)

I'm trying to make a werewolf that is uniquely mine. I've got more work to do. Personally it doesn't have half the inherent evil in it that AWiL's werewolf did.

Fanger!

Prologue

Early version of the comic.

Pages 1-6 are available.
This is definitely a work in progress though.

To view this as a slide show

EDIT: welcome to how I work. This is going to be changed. I've decided that I will be working on this comic with digital ink. There is a beauty to working with actual traditional media, but I think in the interest of me actually getting something completed... digital is the way to go.

Troubles

I'm having problems trying to get a version of the line work that I am happy with.

While this comic is coming here as a web comic I would eventually like to bring it to print. And right now I think that my lack of experience is making it difficult to convert the line art into an acceptable print ready B&W copy.

I think what is difficult for me too, is seeing the original with its variations in black ink (I really should try to get markers that are all the same value) and seeing the print version.

Another Weapon of Choice

I'm running low on special black ink for my Copic sketch marker work horse.

Going to have to order more online, which means a slight delay in posting the first 6 pages. In hindsight I should have ordered it sooner.

In the meantime here is another weapon of choice post.

I like coffee. I like it a lot.


This thing makes my brain as a sharp as a knife! An old school Salton espresso machine found at Value Village for $8. Weeks later newer models from other manufacturers showed up on shelves. But I was happy with my purchase since the quality didn't seem as good for a higher price.

She's not the prettiest thing around, but if you like coffee, there is only one way to drink it and she does a good job. The press doesn't even compare. As for drip? Are you crazy? Get that crap away from me.

Fooling With Styles

So...
I'm developing a graphic novel and at this current point in time I've produced 3 pages.

You'll be able to read it here. Free.

It will most likely be considered a horror book, but I hope that it comes across more as a study of a man.

I was recently very inspired by the works of Yoshihiro Tatsumi and his inspiring ink work. I've pretty much decided that I want to go in the same direction with my own book.

There is something deeply traditional in reading black and white ink work on paper that I feel can really make the reader connect more deeply with a book.

I think it was something I loved about Jeff Smith's Bone and Jim Woodring's Frank too. There is just this sort of simple graphic appeal to the contrast between black ink on paper.

That's not to say that I am not inspired by colour works though. Ben Templesmith's art is very moving too.

Below I sort of did a quick monochromatic experimentation with his work as inspiration to test the waters.

What do you think?

My Weapons of Choice

So I thought I'd start things off by showing you what I have been using to make comics with recently.

I've tried quite a few things over the last few years and read about what others are into using.

For me though, this seems to work best for now.

The 3H is used for roughing in the page and figuring out the details.

The Chinese brushes are for any wet ink work I plan on doing. Or maybe if I plan on doing watercolour for illustration purposes.

The Copic Sketch marker is my true work horse, I guess. Pretty much 85% of the line work I do is currently done with it. I love the variable widths I can get with the brush tip. The Copic marker is for borders and any sort of detailing I want to do with less variable width.

The Marsmatic700 is for text and fine details. The Uniballer is for fine details and cross-hatching. I am probably going to replace it with a finer pen tip for the Marsmatic.

And for filling in black areas, I've decided to stick with my Pilot Super Color markers that I use in my fine art work. They stink and it might not be the best for my head, but I love how utilitarian they are.

I'm happy with these right now.