ECCC 2016 Follow Up Part 1

This year for Emerald City Comicon I drew a short ghost story, inspired by real life, that I hoped would demonstrate my strengths and be a welcome change of pace from all the superhero samples I imagine other aspiring artists are showing. The pages I did can be found on my Tumblr here: Stray Cat

In 2015 I got a lot of positive feedback and useful critique of my work, but instead of going back and redrawing those pages, I moved onto some sample pages for Marvel that I was completely unprepared for. In the interim from then and now, I practiced breaking down scripts into layouts, worked a little on my anatomy and did a whole bunch of sketch requests and commissions... basically, I wasted a year trying to prove how prolific of an artist I could be, without finishing much actual sequential art. That year I was looking for validation, but this year I wanted more direction. Thankfully I got some.

Before I continue, I want to thank several of the creators who went above and beyond to help me improve as an artist, giving valuable advice and often panel-by-panel suggestions on how I could improve the clarity of my art, both stylistically and narratively. This year Benjamin Dewey, James Harren, David Marquez, Tony Parker, Simon Roy, C.B. Cebulski, Neal Adams, Ryan Ottley, Kris Anka, Ibrahim Moustafa, Adam Gorham, Skottie Young, Farel Dalrymple, David Walker, Sanford Greene & many others all took the time to pass on some of their knowledge to me. I thought I'd share some of this for any other aspiring comic book artists who stumble upon my (recently resurrected) blog.

Several artists said that the first panel was a nice enough establishing shot, but that there was a disconnect between panels 1 and 2, so far as tracking which figures were which. Also some perspective issues. To correct this, I did some quick sketches of the location (the St. Regis travel center in western MT) using other photo references from Google.

I found a reference I liked a little bit better than the original and used it to rework the first two panels. First is the original version, the second image is still a work in progress, but even in its unfinished state represents what I hope is a step forward.

original page 1

revised

One thing that surprised me is that a lot of people criticized my font choice and suggested letter by hand. I had added the dialogue because I wanted to present this as a finished project and show off my writing to those who had time to read it. It never occurred to me that the lettering would detract from the art, but it was a welcome reminder that EVERY DETAIL MATTERS.

You can see that I've also started to simplify the line art, getting rid of a lot of the cross hatching. My natural impulse is to scribble all over everything and I enjoy the work of a wide variety of artists, whose styles range from very restrained and minimalistic (Mike Mignola, Jeff Smith) to very frenetic and busy (Sergio Toppi, Bill Sienkiewicz). One thing that Benjamin Dewey and others have repeated is that every line must serve a purpose. TO WHAT END am I putting each mark on the page? I had a minor epiphany after he sketched this for me:

sketch by Benjamin Dewey

Burlap sac vs pillow. Same basic shape, but a few simple lines communicate the difference in texture and therefore function. Multiple artists pointed out that if I'm including grayscale, there's really no reason to use cross hatching for shading - it's redundant. The only marks I need are those necessary to convey form or imply texture. Below are some attempts to put that into practice.

I think I still lean more towards the heavily rendered version, personally, but are all those extra lines actually communicating anything that the more simplified version isn't? This comes down to a matter of personal preference and it's something I will probably be experimenting with for the rest of my life. Since this is a ghost story based in part on a real life event, I believe the more realistic I can make it the better - it serves the story to exaggerate every pore on his nose, every stray whisker on his beard, because I want the reader to feel like they were right there with me.

It seems like a lot of artists labor over developing their own style. I've never really been conscious of my own struggle to express myself because until recently drawing was just something I did for fun, without any voices other than my own saying "what if you did this?" Recently I've found it difficult to harmonize my disparate influences - I try to simplify and it looks like a lifeless coloring book; I try to loosen up and looks sloppy and unprofessional. In order to move forward, I've sought to educate myself more seriously in the art of comics and to take a more analytical approach to my own drawing. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do, but I have no deadlines. There's no rush to prove I can "finish" something in a certain amount of time and I don't need to pander to some imaginary fan base. This year I'd like to take more time to think about what and why I'm drawing, so that instead of having over a hundred hasty sketches of random crap at the end of the year, I have a handful of finished story pages I'm actually proud of.

Thanks to all the family, friends and brief acquaintances who've inspired and encouraged me to pursue my passion for storytelling over the last few years. I appreciate any feedback I can get!

-RtR

PS - I'm going to try to make these posts a weekly thing on Mondays, we'll see how it goes.

Batman meets ???

Get ready for awesomeness.

Rough page for a new portfolio piece. No photo references used, which is why Frank Miller Batman in panel 1 transforms into Jim Lee Batman by the 4th panel. Will fix it as I tighten the line art.

JOB Test Pages

Some test pages for my barely-an-idea JOB graphic novel. Still struggling to find the right artistic style and color palette for this. The line art for the pages below is very rough and the colors are way too "Technicolor". You can definitely feel the Mike Mignola influence, but I'm considering eventually painting over the final line art to end up with something more like Francisco Goya doing a comic book.

The Date Thumbs

Here's an example of what I mean by "thumbs" - small sketches (maybe 2" tall?) where I figure out the page layouts. When I get stuck, I usually use a 9 (3x3) panel grid like famously used by Dave Gibbons in Watchmen to help me figure out the "shots" i want, before I worry about the best way of fitting them together on the page for maximum impact.

"The Date" p1-6 WIP

At the beginning of the year I set myself a goal of completing a page of comic book art each week. With only a quarter of a year left, I'm way behind. In order to catch up, I'm posting some very rough, unfinished pages I've been working on. This is meant to eventually be a portfolio piece for the big publishers Marvel and DC.

p1

 As you can see, there are several layers of lines. I draw in black and then use an adjustment layer to change the hue to blue to draw over the top, refining and refining until I'm happy with the lines (I never am). The orange is for background stuff, especially when I use a grid for perspective.

At first this might seem like a simple scene, but I probably drew about 20 rough thumbnail size sketches of the layout. At first I was going to start with a wide shot of the cafe, but since the setting isn't important to the plot (they could just as well be at a fast food joint or library), I decided to start with a two shot giving the two characters "Parker" and "Stacy" equal importance. Yes, they're intentionally hipster versions of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy.

p2

Very rough digital lines, not happy about the layout on this one. That face in the first panel is horrendous. Basically, this is supposed to play as a reversal of the cliche "Clark Kent runs away in fear, but is really just changing into Superman", but it's not working yet. Because the twist is...

p3

 The superhero is the girl with the mohawk. Her powers are supposed to be based on the control of gravity. Need to add some bricks or something so you can tell she's running through a back alley.

p4

Most of the layouts started as small pencil sketches done at work. Here you can see how I blow 'em up & blue 'em before I start drawing digitally.

p5

I kind of like how the monster can't fit in the page, but I also think this should be a 2-page spread, so you can see more of the city, people fleeing in terror, the creatures legs smashing cars, etc... Sometimes I do sketches in grayscale just to get a better feel for the composition.

p6

Not sure if this page layout works? Sort of a weird sequence of shots, with the characters moving in a circular motion.

Lots of work still needs to be done before I'd feel confident showing this to an editor at a comic book convention. Sometimes I need to abandon things for a while and come back with fresh eyes. These six pages represent several months worth of sporadic noodling and including the Hellboy drawing and the Spider-Man commission, I'm now only three 3 months behind.