P is for Pilar

P is for Pilar, another character from a-NOTHER story I'm planning.

Pilar is a Hispanic woman who suffers an immense life changing tragedy. She joins a Muay Thai kickboxing gym in the hopes that it'll help her relieve stress and give her something to do, but she never anticipated how much she would fall in love with it. The story is about finding purpose in your life again after life cruelly rips purpose from you. It's going to be a lot of fun, I hope, filled with fights and drama and I hope, actual warm hearted stuff. I know I write a lot of tragedy and sad stuff but I do like seeing these characters happy. Sometimes.

Tools: Zebra brush pen
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook

M is for Marie

M is for Marie, a character from KCNO. The entire book is available online to read here: KCNO

Marie is not a character who was very popular, in fact for most of the book, people tended to dislike her because she had ideas that ran against the other characters of the comic. I think characters like Marie are ESSENTIAL to storytelling. To create characters the audience can disagree with, that is important to creating a world that feels real. Too often I'll read a comic, or watch a movie, or see a tv show where characters are all in agreement, or it's a character who is so unlikable that you hate them, but either of those can be boring. Like, SUPER boring! Character's should feel like people, not motivations, or cut outs or NPCs in a video game. A good character, whether you agree with them or not, is a character you want to see become better, no matter what they do or who they hurt, and Marie does hurt some people in KCNO. But I find that most people, after they read the book, like Marie a lot because she does become a better person. She's one of the more dynamic characters in the story in that she makes amends for being a jerk and she ends up happy. I don't think I knew what I was doing when I created her, but I think now I understand why a character like her is so important to good drama.

Tools: Pentel pocket brush pen
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook

F is for Frey - A to Z Character Challenge

F is for Frey! Another character from my series Wolves of Sariel.

Frey was a Mexican American man who became a very important member of the Wolves, which is the same group of psuedo-religious vampires that Delilah was a part of. Unlike Delilah though, Frey saw the importance of having an organization as he knew that power is often the only language that people can understand. A potent boxer before he was turned, Frey's existence on the streets made people think twice about crossing the line into evil, and his use of a bizarre object to create white flame meant that every body he left behind was a torch to remind people that he was out there looking out for good people. Unfortunately I didn't get to draw all of the most interesting scenes of him, but maybe one day I will.

Tools: Zebra brush pen and Pentel pocket brush
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook

C is for Connie - A to Z Challenge

C is for Connie, and continuing on with the A to Z character challenge thingy is the goth girl who was the focus of my Thesis.

Connie is an introverted high school student with more books than friends. I think she has... 1 friend. And that friend is an Eldritch like creature she summoned in an abandoned cult house by accident. Curse of the Eel is a high school comedy drama with a splish splash of Lovecraft inspired horror, where the ever changing Eel is not the scariest monster to be lurking the halls of her high school. Here is a link to the first chapter and the first book is still available in my store although I'm running short on copies.

Tools: Pentel Pocket Brush and Color brush
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook

B is for Bellona - A to Z Challenge

B is for Bellona! Continuing on the A to Z thingy I started yesterday, which I hope the people who read this are enjoying it as much as I am!

Bellona is a character from my story Hybrid Ghost, an update of the old "Hibrida Prima" comic that is lost in the dusty hallways of this blog. The updated story focuses on espionage and diplomacy. After decades of long brutal fighting, a tenuous peace has been established, but like any real conflict, not everyone is done hating and fighting. Bellona's father was a soldier for the humans and he was stolen away from her when she was very young. She holds a grudge against all aliens but especially the one who is responsible for ruining her family life. Bellona is half Irish half Hispanic and is a strong boorish woman with no empathy for anyone who doesn't have roots on Earth. She is a main figure and villain in the story by the halfway point and she is one of my favorite characters to write because villains are oh so INTERESTING! I'm not giving a ton of detail here but I hope that sounded at least somewhat interesting.

Tools: Zebra brush pens, Copic multiliners, and the Pentel color brush
Paper: Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook

A is for Arya - A to Z challenge

Arya is one of the main characters of my fantasy comic, Rare Drops. Arya goes on adventures to find rare treasures and generally just enjoy life! Check out the first chapter here, The Ice Cave. Or you can purchase the comic here in my Store.

I'm going to try to make a new post everyday with a drawing of another character of mine whose name begins with the next letter of the alphabet. Tomorrow is B! When it's complete, I may compile them all into a sketchbook to sell here and at cons.

Drawn in my Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook, although I had to remove the lovely cream color in clean up.

24 Hour Comics: Clementine and Oh What a Dream

 Hello! This is the first part of my 24 hour comic challenge. I wanted to adapt a Johnny Cash song into comic form, and I was inspired to try my hand with this one, Clementine. It's a lovely song, if not a little depressing. Here's a link to the late great Johnny Cash's song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYoVLVKi7fM I hope I did it justice, and I hope I adapted it reasonably interestingly. Next is Oh What a Dream.

Here's this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fRBXPF6byY This one I like a bit more than the first section. The whole 24 hour comic event was really interesting for me; I penciled this faster than probably I've ever penciled anything. I spent like 7-8 hours to thumbnail and pencil the entire 24 pages, but where I sorta fell apart was in the inking. I was working at a smaller size and thought "oh, well the pocketbrush will do for this!" In the end, I don't think synthetic brushes are for me, but it made things more complicated, and Clementine suffers because of it. For Oh What a Dream, I inked with my friend Brian Prince's Kuretake pens, and they were a ton of fun to use. I'm going to have to get some, they offer a flexibility I would need at least 6 microns to cover.

Overall I don't think this is a bad set of comics, considering this is my first 24 page comic that I actually finished it's probably okay. I feel like I have some missteps but I feel like I have more insight into where I need to streamline my process (inking) and where I'm making decent headway (pencils). But yes, I love these songs, and I hope that they do the work of Johnny Cash justice!