City of Cards C3.25: HERE!

Okay, this is probably one of my favorite pages so far. I don't even know how many hours I spent working on this page from pencil to finish, but I can guess it adds up to at least a full 24 hours. That may seem ridiculous, but it was worth it to me to figure out a lot while doing this page.

And besides, it's always nice to draw Ace looking smooth in his element.

I also did another Halloween creepypasta sketch and definitely had a lot of doing this one:

TV Man

You can listen to this story here: "TV Man by CreepsMcPasta"

City of Cards C3.24: HERE!

Decided to go with one page this week to help with building my buffer, and because these next three pages are definitely time consuming. But, on the bright side, this page signals the return of a familiar face.

I also did another quick creepy drawing this week. This time it's Mr. Widemouth:

Mr. Widemouth

You can listen to his creepypasta story here: "Mr Widemouth" by perfectcircle35

COMICS YOU SHOULD KNOW: Missing Monday

It's been awhile since I've done a write up for another comic and I've been wanting to get back into the swing of things. I just read through the archive of Missing Monday and I have to say this is pretty much everything I could want in a comic. It's a character driven scifi-fantasy with a a gorgeous setting, great characters, and plenty of mystery.

The world that Elle creates feels fully developed and she's very good about giving the reader just enough of a hint at how the society works to keep you intrigued and never feeling mystified.

But really, that's not what this story is about, and this is why I love this story. The main girls, Monday and Foyle, are just too lovable (and yeah, I'm not going to pretend that if you look at them and start reading you won't immediately understand why I like them). I also have a fondness for Foyle's cousin and the fact that we've just gotten a good glimpse into his backstory. All the people that show up in this story feel like actual people and one's that you hope you get to know more about.

I love the art style and the pallet. The soft earth-tones really suit the world and the story and Elle has a style that is the perfect balance between simple and defined that allows for a great range of subtle emotion in her characters and gives the reader plenty of room to bring in their own emotions.

So yeah, to sum it up, this is a new favorite of mine.

City of Cards C3.22-23: HERE!

And with that, we will be leaving the girls for a bit. They'll be back, but for now it's time to check back in with Ace and Plato and see what's up with them.

Speaking of which, one thing I'd been wanting to do is to finish this three page interlude from Plato's perspective. I wanted to make this part to help explain a little bit more about the world that Ace and Plato live in and the impact this has on their relationship.

I also wanted to do something that clarified the eventual nature of their relationship because even though I was pretty sure I wasn't being subtle, I'm also not trying to pull any surprises here. I know I've labeled this comic mature content, and it'll still probably be another chapter or so until any real mature content shows up, but the story will progressively get darker with each chapter.

So I've decided to continue my creepypasta sketch thing going by drawing something from one of the more well known and possibly one of my favorite stories: Candlecove

Skintaker

Skintaker Static

Seeing as Candle Cove is a story about a lost children's show I figured I'd play around a little bit in Photoshop on this one, even though I think I still like the original better because the static washes out the details. Still, there's a lot I love about this story and this was a lot of fun to draw.

And because I'm trying to force myself to get into good habits, I've started doing character sheets for my upcoming side story based on an Aesop's fable but that still takes place in the City of Cards universe. There are ten characters total and I'm hoping to do one sheet a month while starting the script process.

First up is Coal, who I decided to completely redesign from any of my previous versions of him.

CoC BBB Model Sheet 1: Coal

I still have to design his tattoos which take up half his torso and are an important element to the story and his character. I also want to do to a couple of different outfit designs as well, but this gives me something to work off of.

And you know what, I've got to say it feels damn good to be this productive. Not only have I am really happy with how this weeks comic pages came out but I've managed to keep up on pretty much all of my side work while dealing with home stuff. I still have a lot more I want to get done, but giving myself weekly/monthly goals makes a huge difference. After October I'm going to figure out a new weekly drawing exercise to replace the creepypasta images. I'm thinking I should probably do some color work and I really should do some fanart.

Also, speaking of accomplishments, I've briefly mentioned him before but Dakota recently drew his 1,000th daily comic strip. Even though I take a pretty different approach to my own work, he has amazing perspective on what it takes to grow as an artist and it's really worth a read.

October 2012: 1

City of Cards C3.21: HERE!

This past week has been pretty good. I still have a lot of work to do at home, but I got to Knott's Scary Farm for the first time and it was fantastic. The mazes were fantastic, the costumes were really well done, and I had a lot of fun. It was a great start to this Halloween season, something I hope to take full advantage of. One thing I've been wanting to do this month is sketches based on scary stories.

Knocking

This one was inspired by this piece, which is short and worth a listen (and may make the picture make a bit more sense): "Knocking" - By Wedgeff7

I know in the past I've mentioned how horror has played an important role in my art and how certain specific works have had a real impact on the kind of horror I not only enjoy but hope to create.

I just watched a film I'd been wanting to see for awhile last night called The Innkeepers. I'm not going to say this film was perfect, but it did do some things very right that in my mind not only make up for many of the film's shortcomings, but are the aspects of not just horror but any really solid storytelling. This is a film I want to watch again.

If you're looking for something with a lot of gore, this probably isn't your bag, but if you want really well written and likeable characters then you'll enjoy this. It also has a really great music score that while not overly present throughout the film does a great job of setting the mood.

Other than all this, I'm hoping to get the three page side story that takes place in between the events of Chapter Three done by next week. I'm also continuing work on my redrawing and the latest batch I've put up are pages 1.12-13 in which I added another page to help spread out all the dialogue from the original two pages. No new text has been added, but it's a lot easier to get through.