Blue Moon Blog

Well, this one sure was fun!

My client, Matt McCabe asked me to do up for his site my spin on a cross between Dr. Strange and the monkey from Family Guy and this is what I came up with. The image above shows the stages of work, from rough pencil, to ink, and color – all digital.

For context, here’s how Matt used the image at his SemiTechnical site. Look over rest of his stuff, too and perhaps avail yourself of his services – he’s a good guy!

Once I’d decided to draw an Imp creature for my Alphabeast entry this week, I knew I wanted to keep it simple – no composition, no black areas, just character and goofy fun. I began with a quick blue line rough in Manga Studio. Nice and loose, but the gesture and construction is there.

I was shooting for a rough look on the finished piece, so tried inking with the brush tool in MS, but didn’t like the look at all (above). So I inked with the pen tool as usual. I think I lost something in the tongue and while the hands are still expressive, I wish I’d done better. I added some details as I’d intended and some that came to me while inking. I changed the swoop of the tail.

Since I gave up the rough look in the inks, I decided to give the colors a rough, chalky look. Though some coloring was done flat initially, and I used the opacity flow marker tool in Photoshop, the chalk tool was used for the rest, whether darkening areas as I modeled or lightening for highlights. I colorized most of the lines but kept his eyes and hair black to pop ‘em.

I wanted a general light fleshy tone, pink in particular spots, a yellowish cast to the lighter areas. The purple-blue shadow was the final touch to balance the mainly warm tones used throughout. He turned out fun! But…NSFW?

Alphabeasts is a 26-week project, a blog where artists of all types and stripes contribute a mythical beastie any old way that suits them, as long as it’s a new drawing or sketch of a creature whose name begins with the letter for that week. Check out a cornucopia of crazy creatures by an amazing array of artists at the Alphabeasts archive, and be sure to check in every Monday.

Okay, so it’s not cheery. Just an image/idea that came to me, though I’m not particularly feeling Christmas stress this year – I can’t afford to.  C’mon even Santa has to take the edge off as the Dreaded Deadline looms….

With a lot of my drawings lately I’ve planned them for color, but sometimes like the black & white art better. Not so with this one. It works all right, but seems way too busy to me. The dramatic, muted flat color helps simplify the piece some.

And here’s how it began, with a very rough pencil, leaving much of the drawing again left for the inking stage. As I drew, I added detail and busy-ness – too much, as I said.

I’ll do a happier Christmas illo or two before The Day, promise.

I couldn’t find time to draw up my “G” Alphabeast til that week was nearly up, though it was one I’d been looking forward to for weeks. I finally drew and posted it just under the wire late Sunday night: G is for Gallu.

Gallu are underworld demons from Mesopotamian mythology, beasts which haul off unfortunate victims off to the Realm of Death. Rather than drawing a single demon, the image that popped in my head immediately was a bevy of beasties below the surface in the dark, threatening the innocent above. My roughs/pencils were very loose…

…even more loose than I thought they’d be, looking back again. Yep, I inked from those squiggles, and perhaps I was able to because I did all the inks immediately and wanted to produce it quickly, saving most of the drawing for the inking stage. Which turned out like this:

If I’d allowed myself more time or return to the piece to make a more finished art print, I’d vary the creatures more, change the composition slightly here or there. And what I’d envisioned as a single color for below the surface need a few spot colors added to separate and pop elements. I may darken the dirty purple, gradate from that color above to a deep, dark red below.

For “H” I was able to complete on the day intended, as new Alphabeasts are technically due and best unveiled every Monday. Maybe my Babooon Monster, or Hihi is more baboon than monster, but he’s pretty gnarly, I think. I used a small bit of reference, but only as a loose guide; I determined the angle and pose separately. Again, my rough is on the scant side, just enough to go on…

I did most of my drawing in the inks, figuring details, shapes, approach and shadows on the fly.

As much as I like the black and white line art (it stands on its own, I think), I already had a plan for the colors, which were fun to do. Double light source, cool from the left, warm from the right, a more neutral dark brown in the middle, with a bit of yellow, red, pink and magenta to pop the violent eyes and add some spice.

Alphabeasts is a 26-week project, a blog where artists of all types and stripes contribute a mythical beastie any old way that suits them, as long as it’s a new drawing or sketch of a creature whose name begins with the letter for that week. Check out a cornucopia of crazy creatures by an amazing array of artists at the Alphabeasts archive, and be sure to check in every Monday.

Having done a character sketch based on a photo, I tried a few more stabs at Grampa Fisheye without the benefit of reference, save but my initial drawing. It’s a challenge to keep on model as one explores various angles and expressions. What is lost in this process? What is gained?

The old coot can’t always be grumpy, so a smiley profile was up next…

He still kinda looks like himself. Not bad. But not so great with the arms & shoulders. How about a full figure shot?

I tried to expand on the character, add personality with body language and gesture. This is the pose that first popped into my head after that initial sketch. But the details we’re foggy. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his hands, which tell a story. Somehow I ended up drawing him pulling his wallet from his pocket, perhaps suggested by him leaning forwards, finger on chin. Now I figure he may be considering a purchase at a garage sale. There’s more than a little of my Mom’s Uncle Bill in these two drawings above.

As I set out, I just wanted to draw like myself, in my own style, but had the work of Alex Toth in the back of my mind. It didn’t turn out that way at all. I see some Robert Crumb and Will Eisner influence crept into the drawing. That might have something to do with the nature of the Manga Studio pen tool?

One more…

For this one, I first did a quick rough, inking on another layer. I wanted him to be giving the viewer the Hairy Eyeball, but from a different angle. I was going for less harsh and crusty, but wonder if he became too round and friendly? This drawing reminds me a bit of character actor S.Z. Sakall.

Hmm. Uncle Fisheye. Will he appear in a story or comic, or is this it for him? Time and the creative process will tell…

Drawn with Manga Studio, no pencils…

from this photo…

The idea of working from reference is to not copy directly, but make a few changes, add and delete. Augment, exaggerate, make it your own.

Tomorrow: Taking the drawing challenge/exercise one step further….

We recently completed our twentieth comic for Tzivos Hashem’s Kid’s Zone, a magazine for Jewish kids, so we can finally show off the previous one since it’s now seen print. Aquatic Adventures starts off with a SPLASH! as Joey and his pals are pulled into the river while fishing off a dock…

…where they come face-to-face with a huge talking fish! It was fun to have room to blow out this panel to a sizable semi-splash at the bottom of the first page. Now underwater, little bubbles/circles begin to appear, which I used throughout the three pages as a design element, in the panels and gutters, leading the reader’s eye. We carried this through to the word balloons of the fish, which we also gave a different font, more open and round than the comics font we usually use (one based on my own hand-lettering). Mary approached coloring the fish differently than I probably would’ve, weaving warm and cool colors together, and shading various blues and greens. A nice touch, adding depth and color to the fish, helping to pop the Big Guy from the watery backgrounds.

On page one (below, left), I established the scene, the boys fishing off the dock on the river, the city in the distance. We used cool and warm colors to distinguish one panel from another, and to break things up. I prepared a diagram (below, right)  to show shapes and flow of the page. The orange line shows a couple main shapes. The blue line tracks the flow of the text/word balloons and sound effects. The red line shows further the composition of the page, how I used the fishing poles and line to direct the reader’s eye so the action flows naturally from panel to panel.

I wish I had even more room one page 2 to show the magical underwater world in which the crew finds themselves, but somehow was able to pack a lot of stuff into this panel (shown larger here than in the printed comic). For all the underwater scenes we considered and could have cast everything in darker hues, but decided to bring it to life, keeping things colorful and magical.

Pages 2 & 3 (below) appear in the mag side-by-side, bleeding together a bit. The red line I drew for page 2 shows the general flow for the page and panels. We kept the background for the masthead white to pop the title, utilizing the bubbles as I mentioned earlier. On panel 2 I used a series of arcs (as suggested by the sunken ship), carrying them through the whole panel and to direct the eye to the proper following panel. I bled out all the background for page 3 to establish an underwater backdrop for the talking fish and Joey, using panel borders for cutaway shots and an inset. Because this page is therefore more free-flowing and open, I overlapped word balloons over panels to make sure the reader followed along in the right order.

Here’s a close-up which shows how we bounce and balanced warm against cool colors. Notice again the difference between the fish font and boy’s speech.

I’ve written and posted more about how we’ve created this comics series, which we’ve now been doing for five years. Read all the comics at Google+, Facebook or in our Prime Projects section of this site. It’s already been a good run…with more to come!

Character names for the adorable snowboy revealed!

Méto is the adorable snowboy, but he’s a bit out of sorts here…

Every one needs to let off a little steam every so often, hey? I’m gonna be using a weird, bright-but-sometimes-subtle color palette for this comic. Lots of color knock-outs, colors to fit the mood of any given scene or panel.

Here, our li’l Nepali kid, Jyoti is feeling the fear -

Just for grins, here’s the line art of that Méto shot. No pencils, just straight with the pen tool in Manga Studio (okay, I used the eraser tool for a couple spots)….

I can’t seem to stop drawing these guys. And this is just scratching the surface of their story and world.

Still messin’ in Manga Studio. Upgraded from the demo and acquired the full version. I’m sure I’ve but scratched the surface of this software, but this new comic I’m developing will be drawn digitally, using this program. I need to play more with coloring in MS, or may end up doing that in Photoshop.

This kid has got a hold on me.

He’ll be the pal of the adorable snowboy. I drew this one at the Book Festival last weekend with a thick marker, colored today with Photoshop.

Oh, there’ll be more…

I spent Saturday drawing with kids in the Children’s Pavilion at the Twin Cities Book Festival. Tried to teach ‘em a thing or two about cartooning, creating characters and stories. I learned from them, too. Always do.

All kids draw. Some don’t stop.

At the Festival, some kids drew known characters, some created their own. Some scribbled abstract shapes and textures. Some were off on their own, others wanted some pointers. Others called out ideas and suddenly I was taking requests. It was fun! I drew some cartoons versions of some kids who stayed by the table a while, gave ‘em a little memento.

It’s funny, at an early age, kids draw free ‘n’ easy. The sky’s the limit. There are no rules. In all my drawing sessions with kids, I try to encourage that. Sure, I offer tips, tricks, guidance and insight, but It seems a mistake to shackle young kids with too many boundaries and guidelines. There will be a time for that soon enough. At some point, if a kid keeps drawing, they’re gonna put in a lot of hours, learn the rules before they can break them again.

Lots more pix of the day and event viewable for anyone at my Facebook page.