final stretch

I woke up today with a nagging feeling that I needed a time machine, but after drawing all morning and realizing that I can see the finish line for Salamander King #2, I realized that if I had a time machine I'd probably do something foolish like go back in time and change my "career path" to something that has more of a path. Discovering the band She & Him (comprised of one-time-Portlander M. Ward and cute-as-a-button-actress Zoe Deschanel doing 60's style pop) also improved my mood, so thank you lala.com for allowing me to listen to free cd's all morning.  That Broken Bells cd is pretty good too.

Here's another page from the new comic, I realized that if I don't post progress shots I:

• Don't feel like I'm making any progress
• Don't get random comments of encouragement that I feed off of like a shark with low self esteem (get it? fishing for comments? Sharks? Sharks are fish...I think!)
• End up using my computer for procrastination

PS. Special thanks to those of you who are following me now. I read an intimidating article about how you can make a living as an indy artist type if you have 1000 fans.

Stumptown Art Show

Hey fellow Portlanders, the Stumptown Comics Fest Art Show opens this Thursday (April 1st) downtown! Come have a drink and talk to the Mayor about how he should hire me to work for the government on the condition that I never show up to work and just get to stay home and draw all day (Teddy Roosevelt did that, seriously, and its about time Mr. Adams lives up to his campaign promise to let me be a stay-at-home-artistic-layabout), you could also say nice things to me since this has been the week of rejections.

I'll be fashionably late due to my fashionableness (and my work schedule), but I should be there around 6:30. 

sneak peaks

I know I said I wasn't going to show full pages before print, but I had to scan and assemble this page anyway, so I thought I might as well share it (sans lettering).  I'll have a few more to show since I'll be dropping off originals at the Sequential Art Gallery tomorrow for the annual Stumptown Art Show at PCPA.  The opening is on first Thursday (which is on April 1st) and I heard that the Mayor is going to be there to announce "comic book month" in Portland. I'm looking forward to calling him Mr. Mayor should I get the chance to meet him, it'll be just like the 60's Batman TV show! Not sure if I'll have the guts to dance the Batusi though.

Poster final

I just got back from Emerald City Comicon, and I'm a bit disappointed. One of my main reasons to go up to Seattle was to apply to DC comic's talent search program since they have a kid comics division.  Unfortunately, DC doesn't do their talent search in Seattle, despite evidence to the contrary on their website.  It turns out that they only do it at New York, Chicago, and San Diego.  To say that I was frustrated is a gross understatement, but, live and learn I suppose.

On the bright side, I got to see my good friend Kuyler and I had a great time geeking out with him and his friend Ted.  I was more than a bit grumpy though, and left pretty early on Sunday so that I could get back to drawing on Salamander King #2.  I also wrapped up the concert poster and submitted it, but I won't be surprised if there isn't a contest at all or that its only open to people living in Florida.

Concert Poster Painting

 Well, I had a hard time getting the scan of the painting to look like the actual painting.  I'm not sure if its due to the gloss on the painting, but all my dark tones came out shiney looking, I mixed my paint with acrylic glazing liquid (gloss), so maybe I should try a matte medium.  If anybody has any thoughts or experience with this I'm all ears. I thoroughly enjoyed painting acrylic over charcoal, once I got used to how much of the glazing liquid to mix into my paint so that my charcoal drawing still showed.

Overall, since this is my very first acrylic painting, I'm pleased with how this is turning out. I need to finish all of my digital tweaking today so I can print out some copies to take up with me to Emerald City on Saturday.  Again, my main gripe with Photoshop is that you never feel "done".  There is always some pixel that can be nudged around.  I think I need an egg timer to force doneness upon me.  OR, maybe I need a real deadline and a taskmaster AD to tell me I'm done.

As always, feel free to comment or make suggestions. I've been looking at this thing for so long that I need to take a break.  The bottom of the painting needs some more digital tweaks, but I'm going to wait until this evening to play with that.

Color study

This is the quick color study I did before I started actually painting. Photoshop makes it pretty easy to adjust colors quickly so that I can have an idea of where I'm going once I start using REAL PAINT. This is going to be my first painting in acrylic, so I'm nervous but I'm really excited to be doing something new. As you can tell, I'm most excited about painting that burning building on the right since I spent too long on it getting details down instead of just blobbing color on it like I did with the other two buildings.

Concert Poster Drawing

 Earth vs. The Sonictopi

18" x 27"

Charcoal on Arches 140lb hot press

Well, I've been trying to bust this thing out as fast as possible since it really is a distraction from what I should be focusing on artistically, but man is it fun to work on.  This is final drawing that I am going to try painting on top of, I'm hoping that I can lock the drawing down with acrylic glazing medium and then paint thin glazes of acrylic paint on top of so that the image is tinted but I don't lose too much of the rendering of the drawing (I was thinking of it as an underpainting).  I've never tried this before, so I really hope I don't ruin this thing.  Sure, it's a rediculous specatacle on par with a B movie by Ed Wood, but it has been REALLY FUN to draw and I'm rather attached to it.