2013: DO IT

City of Cards C3.37: HERE!

So after this there's only six more pages in this chapter to go. Crazy!

All the pencils are finished, and just for the record, the last three pages of this chapter bring back someone that hasn't shown up in the comic October of 2011.

What does that tell me? It tells me comics take way too long and I gotta figure out a way to make this go faster without losing any quality. Isn't that the ultimate goal, though?

Which reminds me, there isn't going to be a 2012 retrospective on this blog. I feel like I reminisce enough as it is and this upcoming year is going to be me working hard towards whatever my next goals are going to be. Actually, I know what they're going to be but I need to gather myself a bit before taking this next crazy steps.

SO!

In the mean time, let's look at some of what I can talk about. First, shout out to the awesome people at Comic Rocket for the great work they've been doing lately and here's a link to my page there where they were nice enough to give me an announcement space for my upcoming convention dates. And here's another peek at my upcoming mini comic that's going to be released at Emerald City:

CoC KoH 9

And I'm still doing the whole get the first two chapters up to par thing which has actually been a lot more re-inking than it has been anything else. Here's a comparison of the page I just uploaded and the original:

Updated C1.17

Original C1.17

As far as what was changed, a lot of what was done was re-inking the second panel and doing some minor art adjustments. I didn't have the hang of doing the perspective in quite the way I do now so I wanted to go back in and get Ace and Plato to scale with the picture, fix the room a little bit, and also because I've learned a lot about how to shade my comic I changed that.

The other thing that's noticeable is just the line quality. My old lines were very heavy and rough and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like it visually hindered and muddled a lot of my art. My pencils are usually really clean and tight (they've gotten even moreso I've noticed) so I think the way I ink now is more reflective of the kinds of pencils I'm doing.

My goal had been to be done with Chapter One fixes by Emerald City. I'm partially readjusting my goals. I want to spend some time on Chapter Two, so right now I'm just going by priority. Chapter Three needs to be finished and Chapter Four needs to be started. Whatever shape the first two chapters are in at the time of the convention, that's what they are. When I get ready to do the big print collections, by that time I'll be where I need to be on these chapters and have been able to go over the third chapter a little bit.

I tend to ramble on about my plans in this blog, adjusting them each time, but it's a good way for me to clear my head and do a check up on my progress. Back at CCS I had the benefit of friends and classmates and advisors who gave me checkmarks and deadlines to push towards. When you're out of the structured studio environment you have to build that system for yourself.

Here's hoping whatever you hope to accomplish in this upcoming year you get at least a little bit closer. Hard work and dedication are key, but it can happen.