Hello true believers! 

Two weeks ago I, and a fellow comic art enthusiast, decided to try a two week long comic art challenge. We were both feeling frustrated a bit with our work for, different reasons, and thought a challenge might shake things up a bit.

For me, I just hadn't been doing any panel to panel work for quite a while. The last page work I did I was super unhappy with.  I had done 8 sample pages for the Top Com talent search and I ultimately felt that the pages were super blah, stiff and overwrought. 

I was thinking about my process and the manner in which I had approached those pages. It took me forever to do them and I overworked and overthought the shit out of them. Anyone who actually makes a living drawing comics can't afford to work that way. The process has to be decisive and in the moment - for the most part. Working to a deadline does not allow for too much agonizing because the work has got to get done!

So I approached these 10 pages from that standpoint. I had two weeks - and in that two weeks very little actual time to draw because of my crazy work schedule. 

In the two weeks I drew these I averaged about 60 hours a week at my respective jobs.

This left little tiny packets of time in the day to draw!

I averaged about 3.5 hours a page on these which for me is crazy fast!

Looking back I really cant remember when I drew these!

So here they are and I feel that there is some fun drawing here. Some of it is pretty rough and alot of it is pretty dorky but at the end of the day I am excited that I finished the challenge and churned out this work:)

First three pages of my Top Cow sample pages - Artemis IX

Hello All!

I am in the process of finishing up the last couple of pages for my Artemis IX sample work for the Top Com talent search. 

I am liking these pages, generally, but as always it is hard not to be overly critical of your own work. I think that's why it is important to get your work out there-even if it is simply posting it on your own blog, as I am doing:)

Standing behind the work you do and being proud of where you are in your development as an artist or as a whatever can be hugely challenging for most of us. 

I am as guilty of this as anyone, if not more so.

We tend to judge ourselves a bit harshly and unfairly compare our own work with those of others that we deem superior.

So, in my ongoing endeavor to be supportive of my own work and be my own champion here are the first three of the Artemis IX sample pages.

Not perfect, maybe not even any good, but it is what I did with what I got right now and I am standing behind it:)

Thanks for looking!

Tight Roughs for sample pages for Top Cow Talent Search

Hello out there comic art weirdos!

So, I have begun creating the final pencil pages for my submission for the annual Top Cow Talent Search. Now that I am rolling on those I thought it would be a good time to post my tight roughs to the old blog for folks to take a look:)

These are pages 1 and 2.

As I usually do when I start a series of tight roughs, I have overdrawn these. I try not to do this because roughs are really just for figuring out perspective, storytelling and basic acting. Spending time rendering and being overly fastidious with the line work can be a waste of time.

Here are pages 3 and 4.

Again, just trying to figure out the storytelling and making sure the panels flow together.

Pages 5 and 6.

And the final two pages, 7 and 8.

I will be posting the  pencilled pages as I finish them and talking briefly about the decisions I make when moving from roughs to finished work. 

Thanks for looking!

T