Another background test for my story.  Was able to traditionally paint this and some other backgrounds rather quickly — faster than it would be for me to paint digitally — but the scans came out terribly. I’m picking up way too much paper texture, and when I blast it out in the levels adjustment I eliminate all the subtle lighter values as well.  So I end up having to do a lot of Photoshop retouching on top of the digital finishes I already have to do… not an efficient way to work!

I might use a tripod and camera next time.

Hey everybody, I’ve been gearing up to write a full length graphic novel and thought it’d be fun to show some of the early sketches. Obviously, I can’t give away the story or the really fun visual stuff, but these should at least give you an idea of what kind of story it might be and who the main characters are.

The Three Main Characters.Color Sample. Going for a 2D animated feature look, with cell characters on top of rendered backgrounds.

Sample background. Still playing with approaches. It needs to be fast since I’ll be doing so many of them, but also look relatively finished (without overpowering the story or characters).

I’m very excited about the story since it combines a lot of ideas I’ve been toying around with for a couple years but didn’t have the know-how on putting it all together. I’ll try to update the progress whenever possible!

I found out that today is National Tooth Fairy Day. Actually, there’s some debate on whether it falls on August 22nd, or February28th, the latter being my birthday… which is problematic. You see, my brother has a birthday right next to Christmas, and I’ve witnessed firsthand how close proximity between birthdays and holidays result in less gifts…. that is, one gift for two occasions. So I must confess that I’m not about to start sharing my special day, especially when it might result in teeth as gifts.  So for my sake, Tooth Fairy Day falls on today.

Here’s a sketch I did a little earlier in the year. Happy Tooth Fairy Day folks.

I couldn’t ask for a better first-time experience being behind a booth at a comic convention. Admittedly, I was nervous of the fact that I was going to be in the Flight booth, signing books for a very well known series, situated next door to super-giants like Marvel and DC. And it was going to be at the largest comic convention in the world, the San Diego Comic-Con. Adding to the pressure (unintentionally, I’m sure) was Kazu Kibuishi, a personal hero of mine, handing me a Flight 6 book to sign and saying,”You’re about to sign your first book”, while he and Kean Soo, another cartoonist/writer I admire, stood next to me and watched.

Some 300 books or so later, I think I finally began to feel comfortable, and I can safely say I’ve walked away from the experience with some great new friends, both behind and in front of the booth.

I’m very thankful for the opportunity Kazu and everyone else involved in Flight gave me by allowing me to be a part of the series. It’s been an exciting journey getting to this point. I’ve been doing an online comic for a year now, which initially began as a way for me to teach myself sequential imagery. It was a personal goal to reach a level where I’d be invited to contribute to Flight, perhaps two or three years from now. Much to my surprise, I was invited after the sixth or seventh page of my comic. I know in my heart that I put a lot of hard work into getting here, but I also know there are plenty of far more talented folks out there who have been doing this way longer than I have. So you won’t find me settling into any kind of comfort zone. I owe it to them and myself to do even better in the next volume. I can almost hear Capt. Miller played by Tom Hanks, saying to Private Ryan, played by me in this case,”Earn this.” Not that an epic WWII battle should be used to illustrate doing comics in any way, shape, or form… but hopefully you get the idea.

My head sticking out of some heroes: Scott C., Jeff Smith, Scott McCloud, along with Kazu and Amy Kibuishi, Kean Soo, Johane Matte, and Rodolph Guenoden.

You can see more pictures from my Con experience over at my Flickr page.

I had an overwhelmingly positive experience from my art show last year at Berkeley Ironworks, so I’m doing it again this July.  This time I’ll be showing poster length prints from my comic, One Swoop Fell, along with a few illustrations from the Journal. If you happen to be around in the Bay Area, come on by!

Berkeley Ironworks

800 Potter St
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 981-9900

Get Directions

And just a friendly reminder, just a little over 2 weeks left to send in your coloring contest entry. Don’t be like me — get it done early!