I'm back! I'm back and I want YOOOOUUU!!!

Alright then! Its been a while since my last post it seems. But needless to say I have been busy, leveling my digital painting skills or at least trying to as best I can. Below are some examples of my toil!

Exhibit A. "FemShep" This was one of my first attempts in working with a painting approach rather then starting with sketched line art. I decided to keep it simple black and white until and use and unoriginal character design until I had a better mastery of the technique. Overall though I think she turned out well. 

Next I attempted to try color. It proved a little less successful as shown by the two incomplete works below. The first was a simple nude I started but abandoned do to frustration from not being able to create the desired skin tones. The second is an original character design I came up with. Her name is Sahari and she was more of an experiment in character design writing then art. My goal was to create a middle eastern heroine, who used an original magic style. I will most likely finish this one on a later date adding more background and detail to the glass spikes around her.

Feeling a little daunted by the color again I returned to black and white for the next one. This black and white portrait, is of another original character I have created. I will leave some mystery to him for now, until I come back to this face and perhaps make a body for it. His name though is Alexander Sidon.

 Finally after working for a week or on the other pieces seen I felt confident enough to try color again. I decided though to attempt an original work, although with an unoriginal character, so as to be able to focus most of my attention to the color and not as much on the raw imagination of making a new character from scratch. The subject a chose was Raziel from the epic Legacy of Kain game series. Six and half hours later yielded this little gem. I might go back eventually and work on the background. for now I just shoe horned in some grey values and called it good. But I must say I am very pleased with the end result :)

 

ITS HERE! ITS HERE!.... What do we do?!

YEAH! That's right, the first printed copy of the "Necrocomicon" has arrived. Feast your eyes of some of these glamor shots below. FEAST!

Look at that glossy cover. Classy!


The printed version contains 52 pages and something like 60 strips. The result is a healthy little book with a certain THICKNESS to it. That some would find rather appealing.


Check out these interior Shots:

here we got 2, 4 panel, comics. Each one taking up one page so they are nice and big!


This one shows one of the pages containing several smaller strips. Look at 'em all packed in there! Epic!



So yeah I know you guys are like "Omg I want one of those!". And you will be able to get one shortly. This first printed version met my approval and I am just waiting for a response from Indyplanet letting me know they are ready to sell these beasts. I will update when the message arrives, so be sure to keep on eye on the ol' Facebook.

Cover and Logo

Below are two works I did today. The first is a concept for what my logo will look like for my comics. RTB or Random Thought Book comics. This is designed to be something I could put on the book and other products I eventually make.

Below is the cover concept I came up with for the Necrocomicon. One will notice where i inserted the new logo on the left.

Cover and RTB Goes to Hell Update!

Here is some progress I have been making on the ending of the Necrocomicon as well as a very rough concept for what the cover might end up looking a bit like.

Kinda a Lovecraft tentacle elder evil look I guess...
God don't let this be my artistic Legacy


"The RTB Goes to Hell"

This is a series that took its first roots with some roughs I did in high school but the story never got this level of polish till now. It is a several parter which follows our beloved heroes on their craziest adventure yet. Into Hell! But enough spoilers...

"Yep I just got there..."
Readers may remember a while back I made a comic where Trevor's new dog "Mary Jane" helps itself to his cigs.


"Are you kidding me?! Look at him!"
In my world the devil looks like Charlie Sheen


"The Hell for Artists"
Not sure if not artists will get any of this one but I am also not sure if I care.


"Righteous Axe"
I think this would be Hell for everyone in the room


"Are you ready for your punishment?"
The lovely Jenny returns!


To Be Continued...

SOON!!!

Time Line and Project Proposal

Working Title: THE NECROCOMICON!

My plan for this coming term is to continue the comic production although at a slower production rate then before. I now have enough comics to theoretically put the book together. The timeline and week to week goal of this term will certainly be more varied then before but I shoot to still have at least 1 new strip per week as I attempt to tie up some of the story lines I have begun so far.

The Process will be about the same as it was been. I will begin as before with a rough sketch or at least some loose concept that I have jotted down on paper. After which I will scan the sketches and proceed to ink the outlines, add color, definition and text bubble in Photoshop.
Note the Transformation in the examples provided below.



The book I am thinking would not be a "Comic Book" in the classic sense of a dark story driven narrative, but rather a humorous collection of my work. An anthology of the strips I have done over the past several years. This is common among newspaper strips and even web comics to release something like this every several years.

Timeline wise I would like complete at least 1 comic strip a week depending on the length and number of panels, as well another goal relating to the construction of the actually book.

Week 1- Initial Planning, Project Proposal and Inventory of Accumulated comics thus far

Week 2- 1 New strip (Concepts to be decided), Touch up work on older comics

Week 3 -1 New strip (Concepts to be decided), Perhaps continue touch up work, Begin organizing strips into an Indesign layout

Week 4- 1 New strip (Concepts to be decided), write artist comment on old strips

Week 5- New comic if manageable but it will be midterms. write more comments if necessary, begin to organize bonus material for back of book (Character and style evolution)

Week 6- 1 New strip (Concepts to be decided) Make Cover

Week 7- 1 New strips (Concepts to be decided) Put all together and send off (if the time allows)

Week 8- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 9 -2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 10- Present Finished Book

This timeline is meant to be a jumping point but in all honest I am going to uncharted waters with most of the actual "book organizing stuff" and some of it might take more or less time then I expect. I also need to find out exactly how long it will take to get the book sent, printed and back and if necessary adjust my timeline accordingly.

That Got a little Dark...

"Its Hot in this House...."
Based on a True story of when I lived with Hastings. Apparently temperature in very important to beer brewing, and some people take their beer seriously enough to literally loose sleep over this kinda stuff.



"Like Gorillas"
I am not entirely sure how or why I got the idea to write this one. I think Brent may have been involved in the general idea somehow. The concepts seem to have his dirty little Aladdin looking finger prints all of it. Although I think my favorite thing is the way Kyle's neck is turned int he last panel. Atomically correct? No. Should I go in and fix it? Probably. Is it too funny as it is. Yes.


"Establish your Dominance!"
The idea for this one came to me as a variant of the previous comic. I remember I had been bouncing ideas off of Trevor over facebook trying to get some dialog for the other one right and somehow at some point this one sort of grew from a pile of discarded ideas that had gained some level of sentience.


"Our Brenty is on a Date"
This is a cleaned up version of one from 3 or 4 years ago not quite in old enough to be form the golden RTB era but probably my freshman year of college. I always enjoyed this one, as did most of the people who I have had read it. The writing for the dialog was given to me by Trevor while he was visiting me in the dorms. It introduces the character of "Jen" the female variant of Brent who was going to naturally perfect for him though he would be do dense to realize it.


Below is a "Recapping Heep" of the other comics I was able to forge during this term.

Drawin Bout Love

These 4 comics were mostly done with some thought in my head of Valentines Day. This is February and so to some extent I had thought I needed to have some "love" theme.

So just remember-
1. Some times the love of February drive men to summon lust demons form the depths.
2. Some times the love of your family is seen more clearly after you are past the drinking age.
3. Some times loves isn't about what you feel but instead how you choose to word it
4. And sometimes love drives men to offer women money in gratitude of something that was freely given.

"I Did it!"
It only took him 3 strips and a year to do it but Kyle has finally summoned himself a sexy little succubus.... or has he?

I have waiting for the right time to finally make this one but here it is. The lovely young lady in panels 3 and 4 is based off an actual friend of mine and I have decided to immortalize her in cartoon form. All in all I consider this comic to not be an end of a mini story so much as a new jumping point for future story arks. As Kyle will no doubt express the fullness of his feelings on this latest summon in the future and perhaps even take steps to rectify his error.


"My Rowdy Uncles"
This is a comic I made more for myself for the purposes of documentation. It is a visual detailing of my cousins recent wedding reception. The style of telling is a little different then the usual but I think it works well in this case. People always tell me I could get rich it I made comics exclusively about my family. I don't know if that is true or not but here is a way to get an idea I suppose.


"My Bride and Future Dark Queen"
This is one of those amazingly wonderful magic comics I hold so close to my heart, because they actually happened. Some of you may remember the character of Tyler Cote aka "Tyco". You may also remember he has a very unique way of expressing himself and his thoughts/feelings. Again I want to clarify, this comic is real. He literally said all the things in panel 3 about me word for word.



Brent's Date (a working title)
This is a work in progress of a popular old favorite I made when I was a freshman. I won't elaborate on it till it is done but you can look at what I have so far if you want.

That Got a little Dark...

Last Year I decided to draw something Valentine's Day themed. Ever one for tradition here you go.

The Peck, The Fett and the Dog!

I only managed to get 3 completely finished comics up this time. But I did include the modified sketch of what would have turned into #4. Its not much to look but its here too.

"Smarter then you are."
I am not a dog person. However literally everyone I know, the only exception probably being my father, is a dog lover to the max. Recently I had to make a trip home in which I was exposed to my mothers latest pet. The experience was "inspiring". I decided for this comic to take the liberty to fuse mom's current dog with a dog with a dog use to have named "Marry Jane"(seriously). My goal was to create the ultimate obnoxious cartoon animal, minus the ability to speak.



"Chespo Kutata Kreesta"
This idea came about from an actual threat I made to send my "top bounty hunter" after Kyle if he didn't pay up. This lead to the obvious cantina scene parody. Although this comic is not entirely truthful as my top bounty hunter would be Scarlyn. Who I am actually trying to digitally paint a picture of right now, so I might post that in the future at some point.



"A Deception"
For this one I wanted to achieve 3 goals.
1. I wanted it to be funny (duh!).
2. I wanted it feature a lot of characters. Not sure why exactly I guess I just felt the strips lately have been a little Nate, Kyle, Trevor heavy. So You will note that this comic has a lot of people, including the first appearance of "Lindsay" and "Tawnee" in a comic.
3. I wanted to poke fun at Lindsay (just a little bit) and the fact that she doesn't know how to deal with unwanted male affection.
All these considered I am really happy with how this one turned out.


This one is unfinished, I just tossed it up to show kinda what I will be working on next. This one is going to be a little different. Its basically a true story about my cousins wedding reception and how funny my family is without really trying. Its more one I am making just because I want to, but who knows maybe other people will enjoy a glance into the a Bowers party.

Timorous Beasties

I am not sure why exactly but all four of these have to deal with monsters of some form or another... This was not intentional and I didn't even realize it until now as I am posting them. So I hope that doesn't discourage anyone...

"The Inner Darkness"
This began as a sketch did of my roommate one evening when I couldn't sleep. I don't remember why I decided to draw him a feral cave creature, exactly, but I believe it had something to do with him being a bit broody that day and saying something about needing to "battle his dark side and become productive". At any rate I looked at the sketch a few days later and somehow stretched it out into this.


"I Gave You Life"
This is one I sketched up at the end of last quarter immidiately following the creation of T-Sev 3 part series. I guess HK-Trevor-7, much like the characters he is a rough parody of is just contagious. I decided to give the reader more of a glimpse into the kind of creature he was, and just really get a more solid feeling for his personality.



"Programing is Glitched"
In addition to introducing Trevor-7 at the end of last term I also in the same series introduced Artemis. I can't quite remember how this idea came to me, I think I just wanted to have something introducing and awkward interest between the computer and the robot. I might flush out this awkward relationship in the future if the idea proves to be funny to other people besides me. Oh and don't get me started on Artemis and Hal 9000, that guy was a dick.


"Remember How I wanted a Succubus?"
Do you remember how Kyle wanted to summon a succubus? Well he did, and if you don't remember how that adventure ended I encourage you to check it out again. This comic is meant to be a follow up to that story, not directly following but some times after. Things still aren't working out for Kyle still as you can see. I eventually intend to do at least 1 more of this series in which he actually succeeds at summoning someone. The concepts for that are still kinda in the rough though, so for now your get "Cthflowndulu de Profundis Infernos"

The Necrocomicon

My plan for this coming term is to continue the comic production from spring and fall in preparations for the art book I eventually I hope to create for my senior capstone. The goal follows a plan almost identical to last term of, 2 new comics a week 3 if I can manage it.

The Process will be simple. I will begin as before with a rough sketch or at least some loose concept that I have jotted down on paper. After which I will scan the sketches and proceed to ink the outlines, add color, definition and text bubble in Photoshop.
Note the Transformation in the examples provided below.





The eventual goal of producing these comics would be reach a number that would be suitable to form an appropriately sized book. The book I am thinking would not be a "Comic Book" in the classic sense of a dark story driven narrative, but rather a humorous collection of my work. An anthology of the strips I have done over the past several years. This is common among newspaper strips and even web comics to release something like this every several years.

Timeline wise I would like complete at least 2-3 comic strips a week depending on the length and number of panels. Following this timeline it should put me with at least 20 new comics by the end of term if not more. As to what the strips will each be about I will have to determine that as the week draw nearer.

Week 1- Initial Planning & 2 Strips (I gave You Life) (The Inner Darkness)



Week 2- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 3 -2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 4- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 5- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 6- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 7- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 8- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 9 -2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

Week 10- 2 New strips (Concepts to be decided)

If for whatever reason something prevents me from meeting a weekly goal of 2 strips, then I will add them them onto future weeks spaced out evenly.

Possibly in the future I will work on concepts for other elements of the book, such as front and back cover, table of contents and devoted to my personal commentary on individual strips should I choose to include it. This is only a secondary goal however and will probably not be focused upon heavily until the final term of the project.