Comicpalooza Coloring Demo!

For those who came out to Comicpalooza today (or were just interested), here's the working copy of the final file, prior to merging down to the files export!  Also within this folder is a Doc-file of meditations on the process.  The basic moral is that you can do basically anything and build as high as you need, so long as you have a fairly ordered structure and a few smart work habits.

Download away!

Other recommended reading:

Color and Light, by James Gurney.  One of the modern masters of color theory whose insights are valuable even in our hypersaturated world of four-color comics.

Muddy Colors, a daily-updated blog curated by some of the brightest names in art and illustration.  Every post is a gem, but some are super useful for process.  Keep an eye out!

Adobe's Photoshop Default Keyboard Shortcuts.  Well worth knowing!

Also, I promised a pack of the brushes I used:  That, too, is on its way!  Sorry; check back in a couple days.  Need to get some time aside to reverse-engineer and compile them :X

Comics Coloring Demo @ Comicpalooza next week!

If you’ve ever been curious how a comics - page goes from inks to full-color, I’m slated to host a Comicpalooza panel next Sunday explaining step by step how this page was made! Panel Room 08, May 24 @ 4:00! Hope to see you there!

Commission update -- Venomess #2

Finished up another commission piece over the weekend! Fun piece to do... the next couple of commissions I have slated will be a bit different in style and tone, particularly the second which will be very involved. I'll share the big piece in- process since it'll be a long project. I think I'm almost ready for it though -- excited!

Commission Time!

Realized it's been awhile since I've updated; sorry about that :\  It's been busy times.  The good news is, I have a lot to share since Alamo City!  I'll space it out a bit so as not to overload, but for now I'll just show off a piece I wrapped up over the weekend.  I've had a number of commissions waiting in the wings for awhile as I've dealt with work-overtime and the #Inktober challenge and moving to a new place and a lot of busy personal-life scheduling --  Finally getting to a place where I can settle in to knock out some artwork for folks!

This was a commission for a fellow who wanted to see a female Venom, mid-transformation.  I spent #Inktober trying to develop my inking technique, and looking at how this turned out I'm glad I did.  I'm not sure I could have pulled it off quite the same way even a month ago.  That's how I try to see all my work; every piece a step-stone to improvement.  I need to be honest -- I have three commissions remaining on my queue right now, and I'm afraid of the last one.  I'm gradually refining the pencil-work on it but it's huge, and it includes many characters who are real-world people, and it's based on a famous illustration so I need to make it at least as good as that guy.  It's intimidating, and it's taking forever to Rocky-montage my way up to it -- But I remind myself, the dude who commissioned this believed in my work strongly enough to put money on my ability to pull it off.  It's on me to prove him right.

Anyways, that's my philosophy on commissions.  Creators, art-buyers, how do you look at commissioned artwork? What do you look for, or what repels?

Prepping for Alamo City!

Next weekend, if you’re going to Alamo City Comic Con be sure to check out my table along with all my art-buddies in CCP Comics! I’ll have bunches of art-prints, sketchbooks, and comics on hand, plus equipment for sketches and commissions. If you’re quick enough, you may even be able to score one of these two exclusive prints! They’re adorable, they’re very limited and the only set of these pieces that’ll ever be made, and the only place you’ll ever see them will be on that grand showfloor unless you take one home with you! Priced at only $10 each, or $15 together :)
Hope to see you there!

Dr. Sketchy's, 5/19

This afternoon I found out that there was a Dr. Sketchy's event going on downtown a few hours later --  As luck would have it, I had time enough to make it!  The model was a burlesque performer/cosplayer Ms. Gemmi Galactic.  Great time had!

Started off with warm-up sketches, featuring Gemmi in a Dorothy-in-Oz costume.

After the first break she changed into a Poison Ivy costume, complete with face paint I never did justice to.

One of the contests they ran throughout the session was for everyone to interpret a pose as a comic panel.  I won a pop-up book!

I was pretty tired before going, but fortunately my lady-friend was able to talk me into it.  I know I need to train up -- ComicPalooza is not even a week away, and I'm slated to run a table!  I'll be drawing all weekend, and I'll have a couple of new prints to show -- If you're going, I hope you'll hunt me down at Table 1433 and say hi!

Nerd Poker!

Probably my favorite podcast to listen to is Earwolf's Nerd Poker, starring Brian Posehn and Friends. The premise? A gang of buddies, actors, comedians, and comedy writers sits down in front of a tableful of mics and plays D&D for an hour, and the results are some of the most hilarious audio ever captured. I've never even played D&D -- But because it sounded so fun, I did recently get into a Shadowrun game with some of
my buddies. Good Times :D

Out of love for the show, and needing a subject to practice on traditional inking-media, I sketched up my take on the characters.  These are all drawn with crowquill pen and sable-brush.

(Sorry the last one's a photograph; I had my HD crash on me this past week and I haven't been able to get my scanner to cooperate ever since.)

Sir Richard of Glinishmore, played by Gerry Duggan (writer of Deadpool)

Brian Posehn's character, Amarth Amon!

Ken's Dragonborn, Barthoset Bu'rall!

Blaine's Blackie Green, with pet/R2/spatial singularity Stargoyle!

Mildred Maxxton, Dwarf Fighter!

Down to New Orleans!

Howdy,

So... Evidently, the last time I posted an update was on November 14.  About the same time I started playing Skyrim :X  There are certain conclusions one might draw from that, but I actually haven't so much as launched the game in over two weeks now -- Been busy at the grindstone!

First off, there have been not one but TWO Naked Lunch sessions, which means lots'a life drawings..

I've also been readying new stuff to sell for New Orleans Wizard World, going down on Jan. 28 and 29 in Big Easy, Louisiana.  Started small with sketch cards..

..And an inkwash of the Spectre, which was a lot of fun to do so here's hoping I'll learn enough to continue..

..And then some full-sized 11" x 17" prints!

Pencils and inks by Vo Nguyen!

So, yeah!  If you want to come out to NOWW and buy up some'a this stuff, I'll appreciate it :D

Meantime, I'll try to get back on top of updating around here!

Batman, Again

With a little more serious of an approach than the last one..

16" x 20", Mixed media [Prismacolors, Ink, and white Conte Crayon] on matte-board.

 

24-Hour Comic Day!

This year, after dodging the past two years, I decided to give this a shot!  A few nights ago a whole bunch of other folks and I holed up in Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy here in Austin to attempt to write and draw a 24-page comic book in 24 hours.  There must have been 20~25 people in there at the beginning of the night, by the time I went home it was down to maybe seven -- It's a hell of an endurance-trial!  I lasted through the night, but around 1:00 pm the following day it became clear I wasn't gonna finish 24 pages in time.. So instead I steered it into a 12-pager and called it done at 21 hours.  I might try again next year, and if so I'll simplify my drawing a bit and see if I can pull off the full page-count.

Anyways -- Hope you enjoy the pages..

(If you think she's overreacting a bit to a phone, a few bruises, and a somewhat steep ledge, it's partly an echo of my own tendency to imagine the worst possible outcome of any problem that comes up, projected on a not-terribly-strong character. It's also partly because, to speed up the story, I cut out a lot of other missteps and difficulties that would have stacked up on each other more effectively.)

(That first panel is one of the few where I think I actually hit the age-group she was supposed to be in. She looks too old in most of the story :\ )

(at this point I was still less than halfway on my 24-page plot outline, I knew I couldn't do the rest in time to finish it all by 5, and I wasn't prepared to give myself another project to work on during the week. So after this page I derailed the story to its quickest, tidiest conclusion available.)

(to give you an idea of how far afield this is from my original plan, the birds originally reacted the way they did in the page 10 because a panther was prowling nearby. Later she would have run into a tree nymph, followed it to an ancient grove, and possibly have been turned into a tree herself. THAT was actually the stuff I wanted to draw from the beginning; ironically I never even got to it :D

The route I ended up with has less going on, but at least it does focus more on how the character's developed somewhat since the story began. And, y'know, wrapped it up in half the time.)

In the course of this I amassed a nice fat list of things I need to work on.  Let's see how I do on my next project!

Nananananananana Batman!

One of my side projects for the past little while has been a piece for a lady who wanted a birthday present for her husband -- Of him being rescued from the Joker by Batman.  It sounded like a fun job, so I said sure -- And since I thought to scan it at various points, I can share some of the making of it!

I started off sending some rough sketches her way, to gauge what direction she wanted me to go in..

...And as it turned out, she really liked two of 'em and asked if I could make it a two-panel comic page. Groovy!

(This is an animated GIF; click inside to watch!)

Here's the final piece drawn with brush-ink, Prismacolor marker, and color-pencil on 11"x17" Bristol.  I hope it feels as fun as it was to draw!

Powerman, Iron Fist, and Woodlands

It's been pretty busy this past week!  In addition to studio-work I've been sorting out the final details on CCP Comics' Reichenbach #1 (debuting this weekend at the Albequerque Comic Expo!) playing with some color-work for a friend and trying to come up with drawings to put in a sketchbook; alas, too little too late on that last bit :\  Ah well, maybe in time for the next show.

In the meantime, Saturday I took a walk around the neighborhood and jotted down some plantlife.

Another of my side-projects right now is a portfolio-piece of Powerman and Iron Fist because the old-school-iterations are such fun characters.  It's still in-progress; I intend to color it in Photoshop sooner or later and slap some marker-toning over the original.  I wish I'd thought to put it in the scanner while it was still in pencils.