Halloween's a MENACE!

I know it's late, but HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents

Comic art is, as a general rule, a line-based medium.  I know, I know, there are plenty of artists whose work is painted, or who depict their subject in ink using solely light and shadow.   But these folks are unquestioningly in the minority, as the history of printing technology originally dictated the use of line to depict form in the early days of comics.  This became a stylistic expectation, and it’s an expectation that I enthusiastically embrace, as have many others.  But using line to draw the world invites chances for that cardinal sin of composition: the tangent.  A tangent is when two or more lines interact in a way that insinuates a relationship between them that the artist did not intend.  It can create confusion on the part of the audience as to what it is that they’re looking at.  It can cause the spatial depth that one attempts to cultivate through the use of planes to become flattened.  Most of all, it creates a decidedly unwelcome aesthetic response: tangents are just plain ugly. There are a lot of different types of tangents, as least according to the way I define them.  In order to make it easier on my students when giving critiques, I’ve categorized them and named them.  This may have been done before, but I’ve not encountered it.  My hope is that, by making this “spot-the-enemy” guide, fewer artists will fall into the tangent trap by knowing what to look for.   

1. The Long Line

The long line is when a line from one object runs directly into the line of another. This is the tangent that everybody knows. The one that’s easiest to spot, easiest to avoid.  For a lot of folks, this is the only thing meant when one refers to a “tangent.” Even in the work of the very best comic artists, a vigilant eye can find the occasional tangent.  Even when a cartoonist is constantly on the lookout, a tangent can slip through.  But, as each of strive to better ourselves and the quality of our work and our medium, 

2. The Parallel

The parallel tangent is when the containing lines of two objects run alongside each other.  This causes one of two negative outcomes.  Either one object becomes “lost,” as the other overpowers it (figure 1), or one object feels strangely contained by another (figure 2). This can be avoided by ensuring that any object that COULD run alongside another is angled at least 45 degrees from the first. The next two are REALLY tough to spot, and most artists have fallen victim to them before.   

3. The Corner

The corner tangent is when two lines in an object meet in a way intended by the artist, but another (accidental) line runs directly into the place where they meet.   

4. The Bump-Up

A bump-up tangent is when the containing line of one object “bumps up” against the containing line of another object.   When these two lines touch, it creates a bump-up tangent (and even when they don’t technically touch, if it’s close enough to raise eyebrows, they might as well).  The bump-up gives the impression of containment.  In figure 1, it seems as though her ponytail is physically unable to enter the space occupied by the pole.  In figure 2, it feels as though her elbow is unable to LEAVE that space.

Also, be careful not to let elements of the drawing bump up against your panel borders!  Either give them room to breathe or decisively crop them.   

5. The Directional

A directional tangent is basically just a long-line tangent that’s been broken by empty space.  Now, this one isn’t always bad – it can, on occasion, be used to draw the reader’s eye through the image on a specifically determined path.

6. The Panel-to-Panel

This one is exactly the same thing as the directional (in fact, I shouldn’t even classify it as its own thing), save that instead of empty space dividing a long-line it’s a panel gutter. My gutters are crazy wide, but with normal-sized gutters this can be a real problem.   One more thing… This ain’t a tangent, but it is a compositional no-no. 

Fake Panels

Comics generally have panel borders, so readers are used to having images contained by straight lines.  Some artists don’t allow gutters between their borders.  Though I believe that, as a rule, this can make it harder for new comics readers to follow the story (and new readers are always important), it’s done with enough regularity that we must expect the audience to feel comfortable with gutterless pages.  What does this mean?  It means that we can’t draw a straight line in any panel, either vertical or horizontal, without having some object overlap it.  If we do, readers may think that it is a panel border, incorrectly breaking one moment into two.

See how the overlap of the elbow causes there to be no question? That's it for Lesson #1.  Lesson #2 will come around in the next few days. Feel free to use any terminology that I've laid down in this one, or feel free to abandon it in favor of better, more accurate terminology.

Frankenstein!

Halloween is rapidly approaching. And man, I love Halloween. I love it so much that I was going to do thirteen spooky drawings and post them all this month. But then I remembered that I've got to finish the next Crogan Adventures book, so you're only getting two: the Dracula I did on Friday, and Frankenstein.

click the image for a full-sized version I was Victor Frankenstein in a play once. This was in college. College for me consisted of studying, dating, and loads of humanties-related extracurricular activities, which meant I often had days at a time where I slept two or three hours a night. During Frankenstein I was in one of these no-sleep cycles, and was nearly dead on my feet. During one performance, I tried to bypass this little roadblock by taking three no-doz tablets (caffeine pills), in addition to the coffee that I was pretty much breathing. Then I forgot that I'd taken the no-doz and took three more. I got a pretty heavy case of the shakes about halfway through the show, and was sweating a lot. My eyes were full-blown twitchy. On the positive side, this was around the scene where my passion and obsession over finishing the monster were at their peak, and I was alienating my friends and loved ones with frantic, single-minded nuttiness, so the shakes/sweats merely served to bolster my performance. The negative is that I spent intermission throwing up behind the theater. Happy Halloween! Oh, and the original drawing for this piece IS for sale (you can see the uncolored scan on the original art sale page).  It's $200 (that includes shipping). It's one of the most detailed things I've ever drawn, and we need a leaf-blower.

Dracula!

Halloween's approaching! So I'm gonna do a couple Halloweeny drawings over the next few days. Here's the first one:

(click for the full-sized drawing)

Askari, King's African Rifles

Another one of those drawings I mentioned, this one of an Askari from the 3rd Battalion of the King's African Rifles, just prior to WWI. 

King's African Rifles Officer, 1912

I've been doing nothing but inking Crogan's Loyalty (for which I now know the release date: June 6th) and teaching for the past few weeks, so I've had very little to post on here.  Yesterday during Penny's nap Liz and I watched some TV, and I drew a handful of pictures - just-for-fun drawings of folks in uniforms, based on reference pics that I had in books.  I figured I should post them over the next few days. First up: An officer of the King's African Rifles, 3rd Battalion, circa 1912: 

Dad's New Book

My dad's newest book is out today!

It's a period (1940s) mystery set in Chicago in which a giant cop (and ex-Bears lineman) named Merl tries to catch a killer who is sure to strike again.  I enjoyed the heck out of it.  And pop let me try my hand at a cover - my first for one of his novels.  Anyway, YOU SHOULD GIVE IT A READ.

CAS Postcard

Well, Dragon Con was a LOT of fun.  I did far better moving books than I expected - I sold out of all of my Crogan books (which means I'm out for the rest of the year, though YOU can still get them) and about a case of sketchbooks.  And though there were quite a few folks who had, say, read the books at a library, there were a LOT of first-time readers, and in both instances most of these people were folks who I'd not met at cons before, with a few exceptions. A lot of times I'll find the same people at a lot of shows.  This was an almost entirely different crowd than the one I find at Heroes, SDCC, NYCC, etc.  Anyway, it was great to meet so many new readers!  Plus I got to see Janet Lee's amazing original art again, which is always a treat.  For those who don't know, she does her pages on inch-thick pieces of wood. I also tried my hand at a new type of art yesterday, that digital painting that looks like mid-century kid's books, or posters.  I may make a postcard of this.  Does it look okay, or should I keep at it? 

Jungle River Packet

Before explaining the pictures below, I want to remind everyone that I'll be at Dragon Con this weekend. I'll be in the comic section (not sure where that is yet, but I'm sure your program will tell you if you're going) doing sketches, commissions, and I'll have plenty of sketchbooks and Crogan Adventures to sell, so please come by! I'm also on a few panels. Here's the info: Friday, 11:30am: The New Age of Comic Strips Hanover Room F @ the Hyatt Friday, 1pm: Graphic Novels and Young Adults Room A707 @ the Marriot Sunday, 4pm: Brigands and Buccaneers: Myth and Reality of Pirates International Room (BC) @ the Westin The other day, my colleague Nolan Woodard had a baby (well, his wife did) and I subbed for his concept design class. They were finishing up maquettes, and I thought "hey, I've been wanting to make a paddle wheeler for some time now" and so I stopped at Hobby Lobby on the way and picked up a couple of pieces of balsa. During the class I built the deck, and that night built a boiler, engine, and paddle. I haven't taken a day off from doing comics in quite a while, so it was fun to do a hobby project.

I made the deck from three pieces of foamcore, topped by a thin-ish piece of balsa wood. I "drew" in the planking and wood grain with a bamboo skewer. The sides were done the same way.

I made the boiler itself out of one of those little wooden barrels. The rivets were added with puff-paint, the pressure gauge is the inside of a brad, the whistle a couple of pieces of plastic tubing, and the smokestack is a faber-castell PITT pen with the top cut off. The valves are the backs of sewing snaps. The engine is two more (though smaller) wooden barrels, some plastic piping, and more balsa. The paddle wheel was a round needlepoint pattern (two, actually), cut to look like the metal part, and balsa for the planks. If you look next to the boiler, I added firewood, some old coal leavings, and a stack of replacement boiler tubes.

Here's the thing with the cabins on it, and the upper deck. It's still not finished - I need to add the bridge (which I expect will take longer to build than I presently have time for, as I want it to be open-windowed with a visible interior) and the stairs to the upper deck, which I have but forgot to paint and put on. I'll do that later.

I wanted the boiler visible, but wanted the area to feel like it could be enclosed. Hence the hanging canvas, made from "green stuff," a type of sculptable epoxy.

The railing is just chicken wire, with dabbs of puff-paint put on the cut edges to keep it from being sharp (which, believe me, it IS when left uncovered). You can see where the stairs will go on the upper deck, in the middle and on the back, where the rails open up. There will be four staircases total.

The whole thing was painted black, and then I added colors in successive layers, drybrushing on really cheap acrylic with a bristle brush. Since this is supposed to be a jungle paddler, I decided to show algae growing on the paddle and around the bottom of the visible hull. I tried to let it show that it would've splashed up around the wheel and the back of the engine, too. These kind of boats are prettiest when they look their worst.

The whole thing measures in at about sixteen inches long. I don't have a story in mind for this one right now - it really was a hobby, something I could turn to finishing this afternoon when my back started to hurt from being stooped over the drawing desk all day - but I'll find one for it eventually. Since I've got it (mostly) done, it'd be a shame to not use it for reference. One more note about Dragon Con - I'll be bringing most of the drawings in the store section, so if you've had your eye on a piece and want to guarantee that you get it before somebody else does, I'd say get it now. Have a great weekend!

A Few Pages, Inked

Well, two big bits of Crogan-related activity have occured.  The first is that I've undertaken inks on Loyalty.  Here are a few pages to give you a taste:

The second is that I've written the fourth Crogan book, Crogan's Escape.  Usually I don't get to writing until about six months or more after the previous book is finished, but this doing pencils first approach has been so trudging that it's given me the opportunity and inclination to do research during production, somethign I've not heretofore had time to do.  The story treatment (tight, but covering only the specific plot details) clocks in at thirteen pages - roughly the same as the last three books.  Hunter Wook-Jin Clark read it for me, and gave me a couple of things to think about and fix, but they're minor.  In my free time, I plan to continue doing design work and practice sketches, with the hope that I could, in theory, start pencils on Escape the day I finish inks on Loyalty.  I probably won't, of course - I tend to indulge in a day's vacation upon  completion of a large project - but I like the idea of having the option to work on through, should I be in a lather, or just wish to prove a point. Another note: If anyone is going to DragonCon,  I will be there!  I'll post my panel schedule in a day or two.  Also, don't forget that sketchbooks and original art can be purchased here.

Boat Studies

Sorry to have been so long betwen posts! I've finished the pencils for Crogan's Loyalty.  All of it.  Framing sequence and everything.  So I'll start inking next week.  Woo! Some notes:  I've posted a bunch of original art for sale.  In the past, it's been all pages.  Now it's drawings, too.  Check it out. Here are some sketches done in preparation for the next book.  I'm having a tough time coming up with the name of the boat.  I'll keep at it, but I may have a contest sometime down the road, if I can't think of one. 

The Borneo Identity

While Liz and I were hanging out last night, I drew this Borneo Tribal Chief. 

Funny Animal Pulp Project

My friend Chad Thomas (whose art run on Archie's Mega Man begins next month) and I have, since first meeting around five years ago, played with the idea of working together on a kid's adventure comic.  The ideas continually shift and change, and he's one of maybe five people that I can comfortably chat on the phone with for more than a couple of minutes (I'm just not a phone guy). 

We had the chance to work together on a couple of books coming out this Fall - some younger reader choose your own adventure-type of books that I wrote and Chad drew (he handled Coyote and Monkey) - and are chomping at the bit to do so again.  I love Chad's animal characters - he's really great at them - and we've been talking about the idea of doing a "funny animal" project together ("funny animal" is basically just a term for anthropomorphized animal character stories, which includes comics like Usagi Yojimbo to Blacksad and movies like Disney's Robin Hood, Kung Fu Panda, and Rango... they don't necessarily have to be FUNNY).  We're starting to put it together to pitch to a publisher - hopefully as a floppy - and have been doing a few sketches just to get an idea of things.  We'd both be handling writing AND art duties, in an attempt to do a much more intensely collaborative approach than is usually done.  It would have a very 1930s setting, and be very pulp high adventure type of stuff (big surprise, I know).

Anyway, here are a few sketches we've done to start getting our heads around it.

And here are a few of Chad's...

In any case, we're in the EXTREMELY early stages right now, but feel good about the project.  It has a good premise that allows for a lot of episodic narratives, a fun idea for an overarching story, and best of all it gives me and Chad a chance to work together again.  Don't worry; Crogan's comes first.  I'm working on finishing the current book and am hard at work prepping the next one.

Steampunk Commission

Well, I just got back from a long trip - two stops in Texas, Miami, and New Orleans, hot on the heels of a visit to Kentucky and just before a trip to North Carolina and then Tennessee. Woof! I'll post some details later (maybe - I'm bad about remembering to do that sort of thing), but for now I want to offer my sincerest apologies and thanks for the patience of the many people who have ordered sketchbooks and Crogan Adventure Society memberships over the past few weeks. I've finally caught up, and just in time for the post office to close! That means that, because of Monday's holiday, everyone's stuff will go out on TUESDAY. Including a commission that slipped under the radar somehow from almost two months ago (eek!), a "steampunk guy and girl."  Here it is below:

(click the image for a full-sized version) The drawing was done at 5x7."  I'm putting more details in my inks these days.  My thanks to Robyn for her patience!