~ UFOs and Storyboards ~

Full storyboard PFD can be found here. The thumbnailing and tying-down process to how I usually do boards, or flesh out scenes and short sequences. Panels read from left to right, with additional poses plugging inbetween at various points.

An additional page featuring the opening shot; another can be found here. The rest of the boards and story are in the PDF.

There are more development pages than here, but these are the most presentable. Anyone who takes a look at the full version can also see where I added some Photoshop finesse (relatively speaking) in terms of grey tones, additional poses, or camera work.

Probably not the most efficient time-wise to work in traditional means (Colerase and Moleskine), but I like the end result better, in linework, composition, and generally being able to see outside the frame, or further forward or behind several scenes. There's something to be said about being able to compare shot-for-shot at a single glance on an actual physical page sitting in front of you. There's also something to be said about not being rushed with a stylus on a canvas the equivalent of waxed ice.

Plenty of Close Encounters, ET, Super 8, and general UFO folklore fueling the above.

 ~ Fight Sequence Vignettes ~

Sequential beatboarding. If there is such a thing:

Not much to it, but I'm pretty spent from the last gig I was on. I need to read more and formulate some short stories that are manageable graphic novel projects. The above helps, but more with the technical end of things (anatomy, pacing, moments) rather than coming up with real inspirational story kernels to run with as of late.

Read something the other day asking "Where are the [Clint] Eastwoods of animation?" Someone followed up with the astute observation that the American animation industry's decisively said "no" to wanting that possibility come to pass.

I'm tempted to say: "Let me see what I can come up with next post"; but it only underlies the whole point - as redundant as it will sound - that most anything apart from the "recoup-franchise-investment" studio system is more than likely going to be happening outside of the usual 9-to-eternity animation workplace. Whether any of it will be to the level of eclectic Eastwood cinema is left to be seen. And it will probably need more than naked chimeric ladies to meet that bar.

~ Semi-mega sketch dump... ~

Some screw-around pages that turned into a sequential of sorts, along with some random sketches below.

More to come, possibly before the new year, depending on if my internet craps out.

~Call me Lazarus... ~

...So seems to be the case as of late. Anyhow, semi-monthly update.

Some explanations for the drawings are in order: The several pages here are a continuation of the Chthulhu tank crew page I posted several months back. The blue pages are the most recent (last night); the others in red were back some months ago - the crimson was pretty much at the same time as the first page posted (somewhere below in another post); the scarlet were a few months after. In fact... quite a few of the things posted here have considerable gaps inbetween, some going back to almost a year ago. Hooray for procrastina... I mean, progress.



If you pieced them together from oldest to newest, they'd be somewhat consistent as far as being sequential. As far as actual story... these are more screw-around pages, to keep my mind fresh with drawing something sequential. I think I spent more time trying to figure on how the steering mechanism operates the tank rather than where I was going with any of this.

Panels below are separate. Pen and ink somehow found their way onto the pages. Not entirely happy with every panel, but some of the individual character drawings turned out alright. The large panel that takes up half the page (right side) is an artifact of that screwing around I mentioned earlier. Find myself doing more and more of these - what are these called... friezes? - as of late. I blame Klimt.

(There was a second page of ink. Will post another time.)

Some early sketches of these characters. Probably the 3rd pass, right after I did the initial two comic pages. You can see a gradual codification of the faces, esp. in comparison with the first comic page and character sketches (somewhere below in another post).
Some more random sketches from some months ago.

I really like how this last one turned out for some reason. Maybe it's the environment being something more down to earth rather than sci-fi or abstract. Or maybe the shapes on the nurse. Definitely not the Grim Reaper lurking in the bg; no...

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And as an aside, wanted to try to repost some of the color pieces I threw up (quite literally) back around November. Adjusted the saturation levels between the Cintiq and the monitor to compensate for how pastel the tones were looking on my computer back home. (These were done on another work station). Not sure how these'll fare out on most other monitors though:

I'm growing to hate the process of translating color to digital, since it seems like no matter how much color correction you hope to achieve on any one monitor, you still have to troubleshoot how the color is going to turn out between several other monitors before you can settle on a palette that you not only feel comfortable with, but that will translate well once it goes to print. Have had enough bad experiences with locking in to one work station (monitor, tablet, Cintiq, etc.) while painting or color correcting a scan, only to find that it looks like f**k all once you see it elsewhere on another format.

Anyhow, some additional panels:


Think the key is to punch the core tones and shadows to a nice level of vibrant, while wrangling in the light source tones (both primary and secondary) to a point where they remain both bright and vibrant - at the same time not being washed out, etc. Which is tough; you want those secondary light sources (or shaded areas) to not draw the eye away by being too saturated.


In either case, I'm sure someone will comment on these being too dark. Which is probably correct, given that Wacom and Kinko's seem to have as a mission statement that no matter what I do, I have to constantly guess what the actual color I'm painting in looks like. To quote Robin Williams; "It's like hunting with Ray Charles."

~ Surprisingly not dead... ~

...but getting there soon enough. Some vignettes, with color, despite the Cintiq and the 2nd monitor getting all womanish on me and deceiving me eyes with the tones.








First two were from months ago, around the same time I did the daytime vignette studies (below a few posts); spent the past hour doing cleanup on the lines. Yes, they are cleaned up. Still working on how this will end

Next 3 were from this past month. The entire sequence of 20-something panels is actually finished, with the panties playing a vital role near the end. But then again, when do they not.

Last 2 are more recent; still working on the sequence, but I have an idea of where it'll go. Although a decided lack of underwear, a jetpack and a Chthulhu will more than make up for it near the conclusion.

~ Color Studies, or: Comic Panel Procrastination... ~


Wanted to do some studies in color. These are around the Golden Hour, sunset. I have another set of panels set during mid-day; I'll post those next time. The negative space is presumably for word bubbles. The panel layout was kind of an after-thought.

I'm noticing that I need to open up my character expression vocabulary a little more, give them a bigger variety of emotions and expressions. As is, I'm tending to start these scenarios or scenes with the introductory shot of someone looking dire or morose. I blame Russian novels.

Besides this, I need to work more on being able to pace a scene out, find where to bring the emotional level up during an interaction between characters. Plus, there are more than a few ways to make a scene interesting without having to resort to yelling and/or violence. I blame Tarantino* and whoever made Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

(*Although he's gotten better. Reservoir Dogs is the only one that I've seen that's annoying in that respect.)

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Something from the sketchbook this past week:On a side note: Fabric softener is probably one of the best inventions of the modern world.

~ Mega Dump... ~

..Or post, as is more polite. Some profile pages drawn in Cintiq, sans rambling story text. I like how these turned out.

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And some WWII sketches from... eons (months) ago.

[First pic deleted, as per the rule of not posting shyte drawings.]

Colors turned out ok on this one.

This one... I really tried to make the lighting as balanced as possible. Considering the number of light sources, and forcing the balance so that the eye's directed where I wanted it to go... Eh, needs work. Fire's a pain to render in daytime settings.

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Some Boyar Bots. Da, Cintiq:
And our favorite heroin having LOTR dreams involving said bots. Must be the drinking milk after midnight.