About My New Blog Tittle Image

So I finally put up some of my own art behind the title. Honestly I'm not too happy with it. Originally I thought it would be cool to have some of my sketches up behind the blog title. I don't think it was a bad idea but I don't like how it turned out. I'll probably change it later on.

Here's all the images I started with. I just selected a bunch of images from my sketch book that I thought where fun. Not necessarily my best art but images that I thought had the most appeal to them. Appeal (at least in the animation world) is kind of a nebulous term. It encompasses good art but it also covers things that are just fun, interesting, or engrossing to look at. A super simple cartoon character, a beautiful woman, and a rotting corpse can all have appeal. They just have different kinds of appeal. Any who, here's the image. Your probably going to have to click on it so you can see it better.

YouTube Dump

I was going to post about four Youtube clips on Ira Glass talking story creation. But then in the process of watching the videos I found this. . .



I can’t believe people actually get together and do this! I’m jealous. Oh in case you wanted something not so goofy, here are the links to those Ira Glass storytelling clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7KQ4vkiNUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qmtwa1yZRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9blgOboiGMQ

Ape Chase

Click the comic for a closer look.

I've been a little slow in getting this one out. It has been done for a week or so but with Thanksgiving and everything well . . . Thanks Amy for giving me a little push.

10-12 with 71Paul2

Last night I went a ride-a-long with my brother Joe. According to Joe it was a quiet night. But is seemed like non-stop action to me. I got to see a domestic disturbance call where a son and father got into a shouting match, but everything ended up cool. I saw a bunch of Vietnamese gang members that who had 10 machetes, a couple of samurai swords, and baseball bats in their trunk get to go scott-free cause they knew the system. I saw the aftermath of a drunk who flipped his car getting off 101. I also saw a crazy old Mexican slum lord lady who charged a family of five $800 a month for a 15x10 room with no kitchen and only a communal bathroom that was shared by all the other tenants. I got to watch as my bro with the help of another officer cleared a Grocery store with guns drawn. I also got a little lesson in prison tattoos from an 20 something ex-con (I mean parolee) who Joe pulled over for a broken license plate light. My sketch above is from my two guys who Joe stopped outside a motel. One of them was on probation (which means he could be searched at any time), a quick search of their room only revealed the stench of marijuana but no actual drugs so they got off free too.

It was a busy night. By the time 6:30am rolled around I was really tired but had a new appreciation for cops and a new understanding of how hard police work is these days.

Eekeemoo Fan Art

Here's some fan art that I did for Eekeemoo.

Eekeemoo is the silent web comic that I've been following on the Flight Forums by Willy MJ about Eekeemoo the Eskimo and his ogre friend. It is in a different format than most web comics which makes for some fun reading. The art is unique and fun and adds a nice flavor to the story. All in all it is great read that I've been following for about six months now. The UK comic artist Willy MJ is just finishing up with the second part of the three part series that I believe he started at the beginning of the year. Eekeemoo has slowly grown on me till I can't wait to find out what happens next. But come on, how can you go wrong with an epic adventure with an Eskimo, ogres, singing rocks, a giant octopuss, and dragons creatures?

More Playing With Inking techniques

Still playing with inking techniques.

I liked how the second one (the blue one) turned out. I think I could have pushed it a bit farther but I liked the results. I drew it with a non photo blue pencil and then "inked" it with pencils. The only problem was that it was really time consuming to scan it in and prepare it for coloring.
The other drawing (green tentacle guy with flower) was one of the fast methods I've tried out yet. It didn't take long to ink or prepare it in photoshop for coloring. I've been looking at a lot of Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes) and Sergio Aragones (of Groo)art for inspiration. I really like the loose feel to their work even though their styles are very different. After studying those two I came up with this approach. My drawing style can't be called loose by any stretch of the imagination but I'm hoping to loosen up a bit for speed sake and for the look and feel that approach achieves.
I'm trying to speed up my inking so I can create my comics faster. That's why I've been trying out different inking methods. I've got a longish comic book (50 pages) story thumb nailed out/written and I don't want it to take a year for me to draw it in my free time. I also have been playing with an graphic novel series idea that if I'm ever going to finish I would either have to work at it full time for 7 plus years or get really fast at drawing and inking. Now realistically I probably won't start drawing my graphic novel epic for several years. But the worm of that idea has been burrowing in my brain for more than 4 years now.
I don't believe fast inking and drawing is something to strive for in and of itself. If I can't find an efficient inking style that I like the look of I'll just have to do with a slower style. The art should serve the story not the clock. But even so its good to have a reasonable production schedule.