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Did some warm ups...well they started as warm ups... then i was having too much fun and kept going.

work

New page is live on www.catledrivers.com and it is a weird directional shift in a lot of ways. Yep I am back to painting in photoshop for finishes and yep, still black and white. I am going with a loose style for this since I am trying to breath some fun back into the book for both myself and the readers. The book is going in a new direction and the art is reflecting that.

I've also started to do and inked lettering for the pages since reading some Cerebus by Dave Sim and realizing how much I have neglected sound FX and lettering. Eventually I want to do all the dialogue and captions by hand but right now my handwriting just isn't there yet.

On the linked blog post for this page I talk a bit about trying to maintain the fun and enjoyable side of art in the face of real life, lack of time and depression. I don't think I'm spilling the beans here by sharing that most artists are emotional wrecks. I'm totally guilty of it too. It hits you when you'll least be able to stand it. Those feelings....UGH>>>>>>>>!!!!! Those feeeeeeelingssssss..... The feeling that you're not good enough and that you'll never be good enough. Everything you do turns to crap and you've been fooling yourself all this time. For me this hits when I've been away from the drawing table for too long and try to pick back up where I was the last time I sat down to draw. I'm always shocked that gold isn't just flowing out of the brush (or stylus). But it will sometimes hit when I'm at the day job and the pressure there gets to be overwhelming. I don't pretend that my job is like anyone else's. I know its high stress. I know that it is the exact opposite of what I want to be doing with my life but the money's been good enough to keep the lights on and food on the table. Sometimes though the feelings hit me while at work and there....there it could easily break me. The idea that this is just a bump in the road (a little detour on the road to success) morphs into a convenient lie I've been telling myself to be able to get through the day. That this is forever. Things aren't going to get better. LIFE IS HARD!!!!!
And BOOM! I'm in a bad mood! A desperate and frustrated person that nobody wants to be around.

Really the only cure for me is getting some work done and realizing that none of that matters. I'm young, healthy and married to the best person I've ever met. Things can always get worse and I rarely notice the good things until they're long gone.

Hell, I don't have answers for myself let alone anyone else. I read things like http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/surviving-post-employment-economy-201311373243740811.html and the "POST EMPLOYMENT ECONOMY" and the hope for a cushy "ART JOB" seems like a fairy tale I've been duped into believing. It probably is.

I took a drive up through Northern Wisconsin not too long ago and the real POST EMPLOYMENT ECONOMY is incredibly visible. Every house you go past has a car on the front lawn for sale, a sign offering to do some type of work, a shed or barn that has collapsed on itself and somebody sitting inside because they don't have a job to go to. Its crazy and its not getting better.

From my point of view---- If you're going to be an artist. You cannot do it for the prospect of a job. "SOMEDAY I WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH!!!" Its a B.S. reason to pursue this thing. Do it because you love it and can't imagine not doing it.

I was going to post the 4 versions of this drawing that I did. The struggle that I went through in laying this out and getting it just the way I wanted but what would be the point? All that matters is that its done and I can move on to the next piece.

FEEL BETTER you're not alone and ITS NOT YOUR FAULT.

http://www.amazon.com/King-Road-other-short-stories-ebook/dp/B00JQMXO7E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397926707&sr=8-1&keywords=aaron+walther

Hey Everyone!
Since its available on Amazon, I figure its safe to show some of my work for the kid's book KING OF THE ROAD by the venerable Aaron Walther.

Its a beautiful story that has great lessons in it. Be fearless even when life doesn't really go the way you expect it to. A great story with some great art (if I do say so myself!).

Thor Portfolio piece

Cat-LE Drivers #2

Advertising Tryout

Here is a look at a try-out that I did earlier in 2013 for a company that makes those dry erase advertising videos that you have probably seen on YouTube. I didn't get the job but I still kind of like the end result. Rather than have these collect dust on the hard drive, I figured I would share them with y'all.

What the @#$% happened to the colors!

So, I am going to be going sans color for awhile on Cat-LE Drivers.
It was a tough decision but I need the time to devote to some other projects and I don't want to stop or slow the story because of it.

FrankandFett

commission work. All traditional (Pencil, pen, watercolor, acrylic and airbrush)

work in progress

still doing digital inking and really digging it!

also-

are you reading

www.catledrivers.com

?

Relative Space

So the last two weekends were absolutely insane! I had to pencil ink and color 10 pages for the awesome Aaron Walther and his anthology Science Hero (available at this year's Wizard World Chicago). I'm pretty happy with the outcome and the process was a revelation for me- going fast is good! Comics aren't about perfection. Its about the story. Tell the story in as pretty of a way as possible as fast as possible so the reader doesn't lose interest. 

Wizard Chicago

This year I decided to take a break from this show. Last year wasn't really all that great for me. The new layout, the lack of organization, my own personal lack of enthusiasm for the show led me to this decision. I couldn't get motivated to commit the time and money to it this year. I will go visit for a day as a spectator but really that's just to catch up with friends. I am thinking about doing it next year but it depends on if this year is any better. There are a lot of shows that I would much rather do (Emerald City, Heroes, New York) and I am starting to make plans to attend them.

Sorry for the break in posting.

Its been a bit. I know. I'm sorry. I just wanted to share a few shots of a much larger commission that came out of C2E2. Great group of friends here. SO MUCH FUN TO DRAW! They wanted to be drawn as ancient gods. I couldn't say no!

C2E2 was a blast. I was pretty sick but I mustered through it. I wasn't going to miss a second of it no matter how sick I got. Cat-LE Drivers got a lot of great reviews! People seem to dig it so I guess I gotta keep it going.

Came back from C2E2 and found that our roof was leaking! The carpet was soaked and it ruined a bunch of my comics collection. Very frustrating. Then a failed windows update fried the main computer I use for painting. So long story short I got a new computer and I am finally back in action. I am really excited to share some of the illustrations I am doing for a young adult novel. The drawings are a lot of fun to do and are a huge departure from the comic book stuff. It makes me want to do a cartoony children's book just for fun.

Cat-LE Drivers #1 coming soooooooooon!

HERE IS THE COVER TO CAT-LE DRIVERS FREE EDITION #1 DUE OUT AT C2E2! mmmmmmm ROASTED KITTENS! www.catledrivers.com

The watercolor to digital Method

So while working on  http://catledrivers.com/ , I found that I was being too much of a perfectionist with the value stage of the page. I do a black and white value painting and then paint over that with color adjustments. The problem was that It was taking so long to get through this stage. I decided to give up some control and do this stage in watercolor. I went from having total control to having very little with watercolors. I have been using watercolors for years. Its always been my preferred medium when painting traditionally so I do have a pretty high level of control for a medium that is notoriously hard to control.

The first step in this process was sketching out the page. I don't have the original scan of this but just imagine a really rough bad drawing that is little more than chicken scratch on the page. I take this into Manga Studio and do a really quick inking on the page. Manga Studio is great because I can drop in perspective rulers and get things laid out fairly quick.









I take that inked page to photoshop, drop the value (in HUE/SATURATION>Lightness to maintain the line), Then print it on Bristol. At this point I block in the drawing with a 2h pencil and then start to lay in my values with watercolor. I am constantly trying to refine the drawing and tighten up parts that I want to stand out. 









Once that is done I scan the final watercolor/ink drawing into photoshop at 400dpi. I clean up the paper texture with a few filters to just get the watercolor and the ink in the scan. I then throw in some quick light and shadow to try and bump up the value. The part I enjoy the most in painting is painting people. I spend the bulk of my time on this and it tends to be the focus of my work. I paint out some detail on the figure and try and make it pop. From there I color the piece. My color process is a whole tutorial onto itself. Its totally different than anyone else but it works for me. I will post a color tutorial in the future as well as the Pre-Viz tutorial I promised awhile back.

So there you have a rough look at how a page comes together. The full page can be found at www.catledrivers.com

Sleepwalker (Marvel Comics) sketch

So over on http://catledrivers.com/ I wrote a little love letter to how great the comic Sleepwalker from marvel was. Bret Blevins art is amazing in this book. I have issues 1 and 2 and 14. Threw together a sketch this afternoon just for fun.

CAT-LE Drivers

Some cropped panels from Cat-LE Drivers. This is the new book I am working on. I hope to launch a webcomic of it soon. Print editions to follow.

Scarlet Witch and some figure drawings

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lapse in posting. I have been busy with a bunch of freelance and with my next book Cat-LE Drivers. 

The Bible 2

Here is a cover I did for Z.M. Thomas's The Bible 2. As you can see its going to be awesome.

Prom Queen Art Test

Hey sorry for the summer slump! I am working on a new book and it is going great. The story is the best thing I have ever written and I am having the most fun I have ever had drawing the pages for it. I will be posting an Ideation Tutorial that shows how I come up with poses layouts and I will get into some nuts and bolts of process.

The prom queen above was done as an art test for a local video game company. I didn't get the job :( But that's fine. I had fun making this little piece of concept art and a little rest cycle animation. I can see why I didn't get the job. Most of my problems are with the animation. I can see how rusty I am with these. I haven't done pixel art in years. It was a lot of fun to do though.

Look forward to my tutorial.

Captain America

So I have been busy but not productive. I feel like I have a pretty firm grasp on Manga Studio for inking now. I have been working on a previz method that has produced some interesting results. I was drawing right on top of the renders from zbrush but I soon got tired of it. I know a lot of artists are doing this method but it is just too rigid for me. The results look fantastic but I kept questioning the validity of the lines I was making. Was this a line that I decided to make or was the 3d mesh making that decision. My proportions were all predetermined based on the base model. The happy medium I have come to is doing previz in 3d, printing it out to size and using it as a reference for the final art. This way I can be looser with my penciling and still have the safety net of the previz to lightbox if something proves too difficult to just freehand in (for example a tank with treads ripping apart all in perfect perspective. I can light box that and not feel guilty).

I have been writing my next book. I am really excited about this book. I have an interesting distribution plan and a really solid marketing plan for it. I think its the best thing I've ever written. Megan is hard at work on the next HWID. I handed over all writing duties to her so I can focus on the new project.

Expect a lot of updating in the next few months. I have broke free of the slump and have been putting together some cool things that I cant wait to show. In the meantime enjoy this pinup of ol' Captain America posing all deliberately. 

Still alive....

Sorry for the absence. I have been super swamped with shows and with real life (non-comic book related) things. I have been making work. Just nothing terribly impressive. Here is why- I have been learning Manga Studio EX 4 in order to ink my pages digitally. This is an early page I did. I have a whole bunch of reasons that I have made the switch back to digital for interior pages. Most of these reasons include the increased speed and flexibility that digital provides.

Manga Studio is great and the perspective rulers are amazing. This program has really challenged how I think about laying out my pages. Things that worked before are not working now. My little cheats don't work the way they used to. This is a good thing though since it pushes me to get better. I am working on all sorts of problems and finding dynamic new solutions. I am really excited about this.

HWID will have a new color edition out for Wizard Chicago. I am also working on an unrelated webcomic project that I want to launch as soon as possible. The new project is going to have some of the sci-fi and fantasy elements of The Carriers but will be grounded in a reality that is much closer to our reality. I don't want to get too far into it until I have some finished pages to show but I am super pumped about it.

What I am working on this week...

So one of the things that stood out to me at C2E2 was how important color is to my work. Not for me personally. I could care less if it was black and white or full color. The story and the line art are the most important to me. But seeing people pass over HWID because it was a black and white comic just broke my heart. So I am going back into HWID #1 and coloring the first 14 pages and adding a 6 page backup called The Big Scoop. The Big Scoop is a supporting narrative for HWID it offers a glimpse of what's happening outside the safe zone. That's all I feel comfortable saying right now. Anywho...here is a crop from HWID #1 (THE GLORIOUS COLOR EDITION)-

The second issue of HWID is in production as well. I am working with my lovely and talented wife Megan Bandt again and the second issue allows us to see more of Quinney Williamson and how she arrived at the safe zone.

little late night sketching and process design

Right now I am trying to push the color schemes in my work. To do this I have started to use a color underpainting in my digital work. I really should have gone to bed two hours ago but I really wanted to run this test.