Back in the saddle again (I hope)

Wow...

It's been a long and testing summer. Without trying to make it sound too much like I'm making up excuses for my sudden disappearance, the summer of 2009 has pretty much been the low point of my 28 years as a human on this planet. Seriously though it could be much worse, but since the beginning of July, I've been hit with a flood of really depressing events. From the death of a close one to a severe injury that keeps me from practicing virtually any sport, it just seems I’m paying the bills for all the good karma I’ve spent. But hey, that means it can't be worse right?

Enough with the complaints and on with the news: I’m currently digging deep in my motivation to get this thing on the road. I’ve fallen way back on my current schedule because of my slacking off but I’ve continued writing and thinking this project still. I also picked up my pencils recently and got back to drawing which is always a good sign.

My estimate is that I’m roughly 20% ready from publishing the first page to the open public. Initially, I set January 2010 as a deadline but this is virtually impossible to meet given the fact that I’ve been practically inactive since May.

I still have a lot to practice and I didn’t yet find a comfort zone in terms of weekly schedule. When I’m comfortable with my rhythm I’ll try to draw a few pages and if I’m happy with the results, I’ll be posting and you’ll be reading ;)

Cheers.

Leo : Inked

Title says it all.

This is the second step in my process.

The idea behind this step is to give definition to the raw lines done with the pencil. It's also a lot easier to work with when it comes to colors and shading since the lines are on a whole different layer than the background.

Only one good news this time around, from start to finish, it took me less than 2 hours. That's a 300% improvement over my previous similar work. Have to admit though that Leo is a bit easier to draw considering he has a lot less hair...



Colors should come as soon as tomorrow since it's so easy to do.

Also, if you're wondering why the eyes don't show up behind his goggles, the only reason is that I'm not sure how I'll be doing the "glass" effect as of now. So I decided to draw the lines but leave the details out.

By the way the file's name is supposed to be "ink" not "pencils"... I know but I'm too lazy to change it.

Cheers.

War vet

I'm going to do a small segment here to show the evolution of a piece on the blog.

First, the sketches. So let me present to you Leo :



The concept of this character revolves around having lived a very tough life. He's a war vet who has completed many tours of duty, and just about anything that could have gone wrong in his life went so, except lose it obviously.

Nevertheless, he's still alive and tough as nail. Ten years ago he had baby girl with a woman who ultimately hung Leo out to dry. The girl, Saunie, is now what drives Leo to stay alive.

To sum it up, his daughter is just about the only good thing that happened to him.

Visually, the character should look like he's gone through hell. He's about 50 years old and he's still very fit physically and mentally. Of course he's not the soldier he was back in his 20s but what he lost in quickness and strength, he gained in wisdom and toughness.

Cheers.

Instant cloud and other stuff...

Wow,
I didn't realize I had to moderate the comments and publish them in order to see them on the blog. Sorry to all of you who gave feedback to my work and thank you very much! I appreciate it!

Also, a cloud! It's actually the very first piece of background I did... What surprises me the most is that it's not that bad. I did followed a quick tutorial to give my ideas on how it could be done though but hey, I ain't doing this for the pretty landscapes. Anyway I'm sure some kind of style is going to grow on me in time... The good news in all this is that it took me like 15 minutes to do this. If you're as amazed as I am you're probably having a seizure as of now.

Behold!



Cheers!

Colors!

So last update was almost two weeks ago. There's a simple reason for that: I wasn't satisfied with the results. One thing's for sure... I Don't really have a problem with coloring, lighting and inking. It's the damn shadows! Ever since I had my tablet, I've been trying to find a decent way to draw shadows. And the sad truth is that I'm still not 100% sure about the product.

I mean some of these are believable enough. To be honest, if I posted them here it's because I think they're pretty enough to be on this blog... Still, there's something not right and I've been trying to put my finger on it for the last week or so.

The progress :
-About 6-7 hours to draw the facial expressions and be happy with them;
-About 6 hours to ink;
-4 hours total to put color in them (I had to start over a few times because of layer mix-ups)
-Aaand a good 20 hours or so to mess with the shadows and lighting.

So you can immediately see where the problem is. And think about it: I was doing shadows on something I'm already way better at than anything else, and that's the human body. That makes me extra afraid of landscapes and objects.

In time my friends... in time.



Cheers.

Yeeeep! Lied again! Twice!

Okay I'm off to a bad start.

-First I lied about post length;
-Then I lied about everything on here being sketches;
-AND I lied to myself about never finishing drawing after 11h PM.

I was so caught up with the techniques I'm developing to draw quick, accurate and realistic characters that I began to grow over-optimistic. Yes, the kind of "optimistic" that robs you of your precious sleep. It happens to me mostly when inspiration takes my brain hostage and forces me to draw until the juice is all out.

So here's my thoughts on my progress to greatness so far:
1.Clothes, skin, hair, lighting, color and eyes are not going to be problems;
2. Guns... I made an oath to myself to draw REAL weapons... that's going to be a problem. I have to draw them much much much faster;
3. Vehicles... I have no stinkin' idea how that's going to work out so yeah, it's going to take some time;
4. I have yet to produce any kind of background, much less forests or ruined cities. This is what frightens me the most. I'll have to read tons of comics to find a quick way to draw something half-decent and learn the shortcuts...

To sum it all up, it's only now that I realize I created some kind of a ferocious beast... It's going to test my patience... and my girlfriend's. Love you honey :)

So ANYWAY, I present to you... Cassie :



Go nuts.
Cheers!

What? More portraits?

Thaaat's right! But this time it's the other way around. Women! How clever!

Also, I was messing around with my comic books to get some pointers on how to ink properly. I guess the skills will come in time. I still think there's some improvement over the other drawings.



Cheers!