background experience

Well, too close to this mess to judge this page impartially. OH I hate hate hate backgrounds. I realize now more than ever that I draw like a cel cartoon - characters floating against some vague background. Well, must stop beating myself up -- haven't done this in twenty years, have I? No wonder Dave Sim partnered with Gerhard. Always envied him that. Oh well, This is still a step forward from the zipatome days, when I'd find little triangles of 65 line 30 percent dots in my teeth and stuck to my feet...

Lionheart Blast from past

FB thread got me thinking about the extras in the kickstarter offer that will be the new Lionheart book. PDF digital extras, like sketchbook and color pages. So just for the heck of it, are some Lionheart sketchbook pages from the Quasi Norse saga

pantomime previews

I haven't posted in a while but have been wanting to. yet I didn't want to spoil a whole 3 pages of story exposition and backstory before it was solid. SO! I decided to hide the text and post the pencils in progress. 

page 5

Posting though I will be tweaking this page a slight bit more. As previous page, a  real challenge to keep my interest up in such dull images. Not dissing the work - the majority of the process is getting the faces and body language and the storytelling, and I am pretty content with my work there. But ugh, placing them within a "set"still makes me cringe.

I am still down with a cold, so the rest of the days' art will be in front of the tv. Time to proceed with the script and layouts through end of chapter one. Most of pages 6-7 are scripted, have to work it all the way out and see if chapter runs 8 pages as planned, or 1 or 2 more. Not holding myself to an 8 page max. But 3 chapters max for sure.

page 4 finals

Well, 99%. Tweaking still a possibility. TOUGH page - static talking and walking images. Must remember to write more stuff fun to draw like page 1.
I am experiencing that old feeling now, of being incapable of rendering judgement on my own completed pages. Love 'em one minute, cringe the next. Each page is getting between 5 and 8 hours of attention, and that is why I gave up on it as a career. Making an average of $35 a page, at 6 hours per page, minus materials - $$ on boards, ink, nibs, pencils.. do the math. Not a living.

The 'free" nature of the materials of this project makes a huge difference. I am still buying pencils and sketchpads and treated myself to a fine intuos tablet - and the on-demand printing model makes publishing not too painful.

Anyway, like the title sez: page 4.

pencils, 4 and 5

The next two pages have reached the pencil stage and I have reached the dinner and bad movie stage. Must attempt to finish battleship. G4, you sunk my self respect.

SOUND FX of a big KEEE-RASH missing top of page 5.

ANYWAY.. things are just kinda visually dull at this point, sorry, But the story unfolds...

page 3 pencils

The title page emerges on page 3, and the title was the last thing to come into place. It came to me in a flash 15 minutes ago; they often do just appear after days of fruitless thought. Still confused? The story WILL connect by page 8, at least in terms of how these elements relate and what is happening. Sort of. This is a good example of how things evolve, almost none of the dialogue on this page is as it appeared in the script. The only surviving line is "put down that meat cleaver!" Much of it was altered to express that they were looking into kitchen by splash panel. I thought I'd be able to express it visually, but it got too busy. Figured a way to do it through dialogue. This is how i have always done it, and why it is difficult to work with a writer. I edit on the fly, constantly, to fill in details or set a stage or even just alter dialogue to fit in the space. Damned near impossible for me to be comfortable with a writing partner, unless they surrender total control over finished product.
I will be adding some hand lettered screaming to lead into "run for your lives"