Nov 13 update...

Well folks, and of course Loyal Legionnaires from all over, it seems I just can't keep up. I have a couple of additions to throw at you so here goes.

The first are the finished pencils for a piece produced for the project 'Number 13'. An ERBurroughs adventure published in 1913, adapted by Martin Powell. Number 13 is the original name of 'the Monster men'. We are going to use the original tales' name to try to keep things straight.
This is a piece that I roughed out, sized up in photoshop and fixed a couple of things, then lightly printed out onto board, then I finished the pencils on the printed board. It is a great way to get things composed and organized on the page before committing to highly finished pencils or even inks.

The second piece is the finished cover design to 'PreFlight' which is taking over, kind of cutting in line in front of the promised 'Solo Flight' issue of Captain Spectre. Again the reason for this juggling of issues is that 'PreFlight' will be a short tale, and easier for me to get to. It will be an introductory tale to Captain Spectre....kind of setting the stage. But it isn't an origin story. It will have a taste of an origin to let new readers know who, what, why, and all that of the Captain Spectre story. But nothing long and drawn out. I have posted this before, but it didn't have the cover treatment done to it. 

And if you want to know a bit more I will post this below the actual good stuff up top. The reason I haven't posted much, is I haven't been able to get much done. I have had many bad days lately and things just aren't moving along at a decent pace. I hate it, and I hate even writing about it. I feel like I am whining, and have never been know to whine much about myself, just about my day job and stupid things. ha. Anyway I will continue to post the medical stuff below the art so as you Loyal Legionnaires pass over the art, you can ignore the last paragraph of my posts. Here's to better days and more art which leads to more posts. 

part 3, that's it for this week.

part 2

Image, or Sketch dump....part 1

I just discovered you can only upload five images at a posting. Weird. Oh well this will be a many part update then. I produce tons of sketches in warm ups, character designs, layouts, thumbnails, and all aspects of drawing a comic. So I rounded up a bunch of them from my piled up table and scanned them in. Most of these were done in just the past couple of weeks.

the process.....the warm ups

I thought I would post a bit about 'the process' as it were. I had some people ask here and also email me about this little known part of the drawing process.

The first thing when I sit down to draw is the 'warm up'. I guess like most things involving controlled parts of the body, ha, like a baseball pitcher or something is the 'warm up'. Same in drawing. The 'warm up' gets the arm moving so you can work on control, movement, and just generally working the kinks out. And of course the older you get the more kinks you have to work out. I find it also gets some of the images out of your brain you may have stored while watching tv or reading or whatever from the night before. It also serves as kind of an 'idea factory' for poses and other stuff.

Also after doing this I usually scan them with my 11x17 scanner and save most of them. I usually scan all my work. Even pencilled pages before inking. Sketches I like, finished work and all. My scanner is one of my most important pieces on my computer table. I paid a ton for it, but it has been worth every penny. I used to have a small scanner, and when I started doing Captain Spectre I had to scan each half of a page and put them back together in photoshop. What a pain that was week after week. Or whenever I got a page done. Now I can scan a full size comic page, they are draw bigger than the print size, if you don't know. The drawing field on a full size comic page is about 10 x 15.25 inches.

Anyway you can see the simple sketch of the Captain Spectre drawing I posted last week, in the lower right corner of the top page of sketches. That is where it started, and I thought it was a cool pose so I finished it up on the bigger paper of a comic page.

From the past....into the Future....

Well here is an odd update. As I progress with this medical problem, and kept trying to find some comfort as I worked....I have discovered that those ratings for pencil lead, you know like HB - 2H - etc. also has something to do with age. ha. I kept trying to sketch and draw thru all this even though I wasn't getting much done. With the new meds I am taking I am also getting hand tremors or shakes. So this is all kind of like learning to draw again. I also found the lead in the pencils I have used for decades was driving me crazy as I would place a line down on even the smoothest bond paper I use for roughs and sketching out ideas. The HB which is a middle ground was driving me nuts. So in the last few days I have tried out all the different leads I have around here, which is quite a backlog of lead types. Oh I know some people will think I am crazy and can't tell the difference in the feel, but I can. Hell I even have paper on my computer tablet because I can't stand the feel of the plastic on the stylus against the plastic on the Wacom tablet. I know it is a small thing, or it should be. But it happens. So bare with me as I work thru some of this and come out on the other side. It's like learning to draw all over again in some aspects.

Also the paintings above are ancient history. Back when I thought I was going to chase a fine art career I painted. These paintings represent a period I was going thru as I dealt with some issues from being a veteran. Well I have dug these paintings out to take some photos of them to actually enter into a show....veterans doing art about the war, specifically VietNam. But more on all that as it progresses.

Just be kind when you look at them, they are probably close to thirty years old now, and are huge.....three by six feet is the average. Hell I even used to build my own canvases. Also the lighting on these are kind of weird as I was experimenting with some really shiny paint to bring in metal since they are about the war.

Research, sketching, daydreaming, writing...

Things are coming together for all you Loyal Legionnaires. This past week I have been pounding the pavement, or rather the great research tool - the internet, getting together images for reference, costumes, vehicles, buildings and all things needed for the first issue of Captain Spectre.

As prep work, as you all know, I need to get comfortable with all the characters in the book. No matter how little they have to do with the story. Mainly because visually I want this book to be the best thing I have ever done. So I went back to the 'Mary' the waitress character to do a bit better design work than before. Also found a better truck that I needed. This two and half ton ford cab-over from 1939 is a better fit for what I wanted. So as I mentioned the process begins. How do I draw these vehicles, what kind of inking do I want on them. What style or degree of contrast in the inking. So I did a rough with a new pen brush I bought. Served two purposes, tested the brush, and gave me some vehicle inking practice for the book.

It seems more and more I try to make things, drawings, sketches, and the like to do double duty - as time is always a factor.

So my plans for New Years are to continue with this process, as this morning the ice is coming down already. The sidewalk is slick.....the dog was even sliding around as he went out for his morning bathroom adventure, I have food in the icebox, the power hasn't gone off, and I have no plans.....other than working on the book today. It is going to be a very good day I think.

So Happy New Year to all you Loyal Legionnaires! Stay safe, don't drink and drive, try not to drink too much......and get rid of this year and let's make this new year a much better one!!

And again thanks for tuning in...... oh and also, I finally have my main villain for issue one. I am trying to figure out if I should post it, or keep it a deep dark science secret.

Dancing is hard to do....

....but drawing it is even harder.

I know this isn't right, but it is a start. I don't think I have ever drawn two people slow dancing before. It is tough for sure. But with resizing pages and lettering for the second issue of the Phantom today....and six hours of mowing and yardwork, the day has been a tough one. So I settled in for a little bit of sketch time before more page sizing. And officially I guess this could be classified as a sneak peek to the first issue. Captain Spectre out on the town with some lucky lady.....or is she really lucky? We shall see.

I also feel compelled to update here more often with whatever I have, since the strip isn't being updated. I feel guilty about all of that. Just too many irons in the fire....so back to work for me.

The unstoppable Kong!

Well, I didn't think I was going to get around to inking this yet....but, Kong proved once again to be unstoppable. Mainly I think since - to put it mildly, I felt like hell sunday. A total sinus attack for some reason, maybe because tomorrow is the beginning of fall. And it seems today isn't starting off any better. I just wanted to post this before leaving for work this morning. If I didn't have a deadline at work today, I would probably take a sick day. But, work goes on, the rent must be paid.....hell I have to pay for those gliders too. And yet this is another piece for the Fallcon charity auction. Irony, maybe, but more the call of duty. Plus I try each year to out do myself, and what I feel is a bit of competition at the auction. Or maybe I just feel there should be competition at it. Each year I almost feel like not letting the pieces go. But then I like seeing people bid on them and hope it helps in some small way.

And as I said, I felt like hell yesterday. So I would ink for a couple of minutes, then blow my nose for ten minutes or so trying to breathe. When that happens I can't really do much brain work, so this is just raw inking from me. Trying to follow the lines, balance some blacks and whites, and do a bit of drybrushing, and some of that fantastic split brush that Mark Schultz has mastered as a technical skill. I do feel this was rushed a bit, just trying to get one more thing off my plate because ... we are all living on borrowed time .... just like the Challengers of the Unknown.

Also wanted to throw in....there isn't a quill mark on this.....only brush, except I signed it with a marker. I love the brush.

Progress on KONG...

Well I had some time to get around to the pencils for the Kong piece. Not much has changed since the full sized layout drawing in the last post. It was torture to get this thing scanned, I installed a update to my operating system the other night, and tonight - or rather early this morning found out it took out my scanner. I would be lost without a scanner. So about three or four hours of messin' with it all - looking on forums and trying to find someone with the same problems with the scanner model I have....anyway it all ended up costing about 80 bucks, I had to go to the only software known that works with this scanner and operating system. And now it is 4:30 in the morning, and I haven't been to sleep yet.....I am going to try to head that direction now. So hope you enjoy the pencils to Kong. I probably won't get to the inks just yet, I need to do some other work tomorrow....or later today.