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Sorry for being so long absent from the blog, after I'd done a decent job of posting every day. I've been working on a paper I have to present at a conference in New York in a few days, and doing Crogan stuff, too. Here's one of the more recent, less spoiler-filled pages of late. I've mentioned before that I do my "pencils" in pen, so this is not the final art, just the underdrawing. Using pen and spotted black areas helps me nail down the compositions and hopefully make sure that even detail-filled areas like forests still have the visual clarity needed for a reader to know what's happening. I'm still hoping to have Crogan's Loyalty entirely finished by the time school lets out this summer. I have no idea what the release date is going to be - I think we're going to figure that out as soon as I'm done with the pencils/script (I do them together), but keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, the first two books have been popping up on a lot of "best books for teens" lists lately, so if you haven't checked them out yet, do (even if you're not a teen).
I was going to post this one tomorrow, but rumor has it that we'll be knee-deep in snow with no power, so I thought it prudent to drop it tonight.
This is the last Star Wars pic I'll be posting for a while - the school week is starting back, and during weekdays I need to work on Crogan's Loyalty - but I wanted to post my favorite new character from the TV show before wrapping this round up.
Star Wars has been one of the few action franchises to have strong female characters. Princess Leia is lots of fun; Padme Amidala is like a shrewish, second-rate version of Princess Leia, but at least she can handle her own. But the show has introduced the character of Ahsoka Tano, the first Star Wars female character that, had I been a girl growing up rather than a strapping young lad, I would have wanted to play in the backyard as. Fourteenish, daredevil, and optimistic, she's one of the more likeable characters in the whole SW franchise, at least in my opinion. Kudos to the Lucasfilm folks for making a character that my daughter can identify with should she ever want to play Star Wars.
Another one of the Star Wars portraits. This one's unfortunately named "Whorm Loathsom," but he's got a great design. I love how shape-based the new aliens in the TV show are.
Here's TV show Obi-Wan Kenobi destroying the battle droids. Using the droids for humor was a great move on the part of the showmakers - it really helps to keep the show up to the action-cartoon standard of, say, Avatar (the good show, not the bad movie).
Here's another Star Wars drawing - Hondo Ohnaka, chief of a band of Weequay pirates, from the Clone Wars TV series.
If there's one thing Star Wars can't have enough of, it's pirates and cowboys. Well, not cowboys per se, but western-influenced stuff.
I don't think I mentioned the size at which I'm drawing these. They're fairly small - 4" x 6".
Here's another Star Wars drawing - Han Solo.
I got a few Star Wars miniatures on a pretty big clearance markdown just before Christmas and stuck 'em in this display cabinet that I have in my studio that, until now, has remained empty save for a few papo animal figures that I use as drawing reference. This, plus starting to watch the Clone Wars cartoon series on DVD, has put me in a pretty Star Warsy mood. So I figured that when I do my keep-in-shape drawings this week I'd do some Star Wars characters.
Here's the first:
Sand People. The worst.
I got a commission to draw the cast of Community, easily my favorite show on TV. I decided to draw them as the Avengers. (Click on the above image for a full-sized version)
For folks who watch the show, here’s a Christmas present for you: I went ahead and sized it for wallpapers, should you be inclined to use ‘em. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know how to make 'em download straight away, so just click on the one that fits your screen size and drag the image to your desktop (if you're on a Mac) or save it, I think (if you're on a PC).
• 1600 x 1200
• 1280 x 1244
• 1280 x 960
• 1152 x 864
• 1024 x 768
• 800 x 600
• 640 x 480
For folks who don’t watch Community, start! I promise you, you are missing out on one of the best group dynamics of any sitcom, ever. I could go on and on about how great the show is, but I won’t, ‘cause it would be boring.
I’m taking a few days off posting to the blog for the next few days. Merry Christmas, everyone!
I have a twitter now: http://twitter.com/#!/schweizercomics/
I guess follow me to get the play-by-play.
For my pencils (underdrawing), I use a black Col-Erase pencil to put down extremely loose lines, giving me a sense of my composition, and sometimes (as is the case here) a grid of sorts for the ground plane. I tighten it up just a little bit, and then I go over those pencils with Faber Castell PITT pens, using all of the sizes but mostly XS. I wanted to scan this one before I erase the pencil marks, which I do so that when I scan this to blow it up and print it out in light blue it'll be easier to decipher my own intent for the inks, especially since I'll be laying them down much later. I wanted to save this one, though, because I did far more with the pencil than I usually do at this stage.
Back to work! I want to see if I can finish this, the third page for today.
Here's a guy I drew a few days ago - a costume study for a US shore patrol sailor in 1920s China.
Click the image for a full-sized version.
When I was a really little kid, out next door neighbor had old Navy tattoos that had turned blue-green with age, so I always like to throw that color down when I can. A big reason why I don't have any tattoos myself is that now they're "better" and won't age in such a way, which to me is like buying leather that won't scuff and shine. What's the point?
My dad's got a great mystery novel series (the St. Germaine books), but has written a new book that's less a cozy and more of a hard-boiled. It's set in 1940s Chicago, with a cop who had been a pro footballer back in the days of leather helmets. I enjoyed the heck out of the first draft (I haven't read the final version yet), and asked if I might take a crack at designing the cover. He said sure.
Here was my mock up - I sent him a bunch of different color versions, and this is the one he liked best:
He ran it by his book folks, who cautioned him that it looked a little too much like a graphic novel, so I eliminated the line-work on the final version and made it more of a collage-y type of deal.
Anyway, here's the front cover:
Here's the wraparound, though it doesn't yet have publisher logo/ISBN/text yet.
Anyway, it was fun! He's been very patient, too - I told him I'd do this back in the summer, but pressing deadlines have prevented me from doing so. Anyway, not sure when it's coming out, but keep your eyes peeled - I think it's soon.
I might eliminate the shadow on the big guys gun arm, and just have it be all light orange, save the gun itself. Thoughts?
While visiting my folks for Thanksgiving I did a few pages worth of rough building designs for a book I want to do sometime down the road. Here they are.
Click on the image for a full-sized version.
I get told that I don't draw enough girls, so I used my high school freshman yearbook to grab some faces. Click the image for a full-sized version.
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