7 comics 7 days

I get the feeling I'm not the only one who can't think of a comic to draw today.

'Bigfoot has writers block'



























3rd day. Super rough one today as I'm low on ideas & I'm planning on getting drunk tonight so staying up and working on a near finished comic isn't on the cards.
Was looking through 'Mysterious Cults' book and read about the Witch Hunters of the 17th century burning lots of old ladies.

Concentrated more on the ideas behind the comic today.
Witch hunter characters are a large part of the Warhammer universe in their games, comics and novels.

'Condemned by Fire' Graphic Novel with a Witch Hunter main character.

Couple of Grandpapier comics I liked.
David Libens: Badaboom Twist Pick this one for the use of wash shading that i've been playing around with. A few pages in it turns English which helped a bit.

I have no idea what is being said in Theo Calmejane: Spaceship Cruiser But the Characters and body language are universal so you can pick up what is happening even with the language barrier. Might try the thick black negative spaces in one of the 7 days comics. It also reminds me of one of my favorite and biggest influences (you will probably see while reading them) the Jamie Smart comic 'Bear'. All 10 issues of which can be read online at bearfoo.com Or purchased from Forbidden Planet in Birmingham.

Jamie Smart & my other favorite Comic artists are all published by Slave Labor Graphics which is where I am aiming to be published from as the fanbase from the type of comic I write is a large part of the publishers market.

Slave Labor website
And the All important Submission Guidelines which after reading through a few different ones ( Darkhorse being one )I felt Slave Labor where a lot friendlier in their Guidelines whilst it comes across in Darkhorse's that sending them a submission is a big pain in their side.


No comic today as I got preoccupied with drawing this. My Tattoo machine arrives Monday so I need to get drawing designs to practice with.

If it had came today you would be seeing a comic tattooed onto pig skin but Royal Mail is a bitch.






























If there is a Staples store near you pick up a A3 scanner/printer for £168.

More images!!!

I think these are coming along ok, Im finding that I'm more frequently re-assessing the tonal quality of each image more than I used to and either rectifying it or re-doing it. The actuall mannequin should make an appearence soon!

For lesson Four - the making of INK SOUP

For next monday the 22nd of February can you please bring in the 300 dpi files for the making of ink soup 05 biblical Tales! Those of you you have sent the correct layered files should still bring in their work just in case.

submissions for lesson 03

First one up = toby! Well done! You can see I've adjusted the curves, and the boxes, just for discussion - well done with the layers, everything perfect! If you email him! I am sure he will send you the link to his file!

Second in (top image) by Dan Griffin Hayes

Lesson 03 Photoshop Layouts - Masking Clips

From todays lesson can you please send me tiff layered files by Midnight (those of you who don't do it will turn into rats!) through:

http://www.yousendit.com/

more info on clipping paths can be found here:

http://www.vtc.com

in

http://www.vtc.com/products/Adobe-Photoshop-CS4-Tutorials.htm

and some insights into how other graphic novelists may work:

http://garethhinds.com/blog/?cat=13

you need to do at least one page based on either an "ink soup submission" or "you, me & us"

SEND THE TIFF Layered 300 dpi file + FONTS that were used (put them all in a folder)

you need to get used to this way of working if incase you get publishers asking you to edit your work

The Dressmaker's Mannequin

1st completed panels so far - minus the numbers on the clock face!

59 panels to go so should be completed in about 2 months (exhaustion). Would be good to get some critical feedback before I really get going. Thanks :)

Cheltenham Illustration Awards 2010!

Coming Soon - Call for Entries 2010 New Call for Entries web page, entry forms and details for the 2010 Awards will be posted soon- But we can tell you now that the theme will be "Traveller's Tales" and the deadline is 14 May 2010. http://www.cheltenham-illustration-awards.com/

lesson 02 Scriptwriting

Two online resources for scriptwriting graphic novels:

"III. THE SCRIPT

A.The Format

A comic book script is very straightforward; it looks a lot like a screenplay or stage play. The story is broken down into pages and panels. Each panel is described, so the artist knows what he's supposed to draw. Immediately after the panel description, the text that goes into that panel is listed, whether it's a caption, dialogue, a sound effect or whatever.

Like so:

	PAGE [Page Number]
	1. [Panel Description]
Caption: [Narration]
Character: [Dialogue]
FX: [Sound Effect]
	2. [Panel Description]
Character: [Dialogue]
Other Character: [Dialogue]

And so forth." Each part of this format is discussed and described in detail here:
http://www.whiterose.org/dr.elmo/cwrite/writing2.html

a detailed panel to panel script with the eventual visual outcomes to compare with:
http://mysite.verizon.net/joe_edkin/sevengate.html

Lesson 01 - roughs & thumbnails

roughs and thumbnails for the graphic novelist

http://www.comixperience.com/archives/too_soon/index.html

http://idrawgirls.blogspot.com/2008/08/manga-process-tutorial-step-1.html

not really just thumbnails, but the whole process:
http://www.drewweing.com/archive/2007_02_01_archive.html

Check some of the favourites from Angouleme

http://www.bdangouleme.com/competition-officielle

Ed Homer is in C'est Bon Kultur!

fantastic news! Ed Homer is in:
http://www.cestbonkultur.com/index.php?menuitem=publications&submenuitem=publications_cba
Looking forward to seeing the anthology in the flesh!

A Revelation

Be gentle it's my first time ;P

First two pages - Chiu I have made a few alterations as discussed, decided to take out the character in the final frame as he was not really adding anything to the narrative.

issue#5 frontcover ???

Ok! what is THAT? It's my proposition for a frontcover (back in progress). Let me know what you think, what to change or if I should just throw it away and do something else...


http://krystiangarstkowiak.blogspot.com/

The Forth Dimension

Comix Competition YOU+ME=US

"The competition’s theme this year is You+Me=Us.- Between You and Me there‘s a difference, but a lot of things connect Us, both of Us live here. Especially in a globalised world cultural diversity needs to be perceived as an opportunity. This can only be achieved if as many people as possible from different parts of the world develop an understanding for each other and foreign cultures."
http://www.fumetto.ch/index.cfm?nav=162,473,486&SID=2&DID=1

INK SOUP 05 - so far ready for print

Krystian Garstkowiak have both his stories 2 pages & 4 pages
Dan Griffyn Hayes 4 or 5 pages (depending on what works best)
Dan Griffyn Hayes single page
Ed Homer 5 pages (shortened version, unless there's more work done on narrative)
Mez (Shane) 4 pages
Dean Ebernhardt 4 pages

Alex Hovey 2 pages

Tom Bishop 4 pages
Tim Ki-Kydd 2 pages

so far 33 pages - now hoping for at least 40 pages altogether

anyone else??

This any better?

character design

Now I need to write a story : P

Finally got my computer fixed!

4 pages without text yet!
looks like a silent black and white movie, with text it will makes more sense.

this story is for the next ink soup hopefully, i based on the downfall of the roman religion and Catholicism taking over, the words are from a poem i found in a dance song.

Biblical tales inksoup 05

New deadline for Biblical tales is Monday 8th of February 2010!

DYSTOPIA - opportunities for comic short stories

email from Mattias Elftorp

"Hi,

How are you? I'm working on this new thing now, and I'd like to ask if you'd want to be a part of it.

It's called DYSTOPIA and it's a series of comic short stories on the theme of dystopia, as the name suggests, but dystopia in a broad sense. We want the title to be open for a wide variety of genres and subjects, like science fiction, cyberpunk, horror and current political subjects.

It will be a series of 32-page books in 140x182mm format. Optional color or black & white. Each book will be one story (24-26 pgs) or it will be done as a split (flip book) between two artists if the stories are shorter. They will be made in two editions (Swedish and English) and in small quantities, since we do them on Print-On-Demand basis.

Participants will be a mix of new and established talent, old classics and new material. The first book was a split with Danijel Zezelj and Carl Swain and other interesting artists have shown interest as well. Will you be in one of the upcoming books??

More info at http://www.wormgod.net/

The budget is minimal, as usual in these cases. If it's successful enough to generate anything, we'll try to distribute the wealth somehow, but we can't count on it. Until then, participants will get 5 copies for a full book and 3 copies each for a split (let me know if for some reason you want any of them to be in Swedish).

This is a cooperation between Wormgod (which is me and Susanne Johansson) and the Swedish Comics Association.

Please spread this information to anyone who you think might be interested.

Best,
/Mattias Elftorp

--
http://www.elftorp.com

http://www.elftorp.com/freeinformation
http://www.elftorp.wordpress.com
http://www.myspace.com/elftorp

http://www.wormgod.net
http://www.myspace.com/officialwormgod

Kristyan, Ed, Toby, Mezz?