Curse of the Eel volume 2 cover!

Hello everyone! A lack of updates to this site means I've mainly been working on freelance works that I can't really share, but it's good to be busy! I've also been doing my best to keep up with all my original comics, and Curse of the Eel volume 2 is almost ready to go! Here is my process for this cover and some of my thoughts on it.

Curse of the Eel is my take on a modern day world where eldritch creatures and magic wind up in the hands of some odd peoples. Connie is a goth girl who is bullied at high school, and the only person she's able to trust/talk with, is the weird Cthulhu-ish Eel monster that she accidentally summoned. Unfortunately for Connie, Eel isn't the only weird eldritch abomination wandering the halls of her school and the woods of the surrounding area.

This comic was my thesis for my MFA and has been running for 5 years at this point, and I'm working on the 12th chapter as we speak! It's actually doing well on sites like Tapastic and Smackjeeves.

For this cover, I wanted to mirror the first volume cover but also showing that the earth and the Eel's realm are being smashed together, and the thin veneer keeping the worlds separate are cracking, hence the fun glass cracks!

As always, inked with my Raphael 8404 #3 brush with Yasutomo sumi ink on Stillman & Birn Beta Paper.

 

Paper Champion pencils and inks

Hello! Another long lapse in posts, but here is a freelance comic I illustrated earlier in the year for Jeff Morris titled "Paper Champion." This is a highly personal story for Jeff and I was happy that he approached me to draw the comic for him! You can read the comic, fully colored and lettered on his website: https://ibuiltamountainofthunder.com/i-built-a-mountain-of-thunder/paper-champion/

Script: Jeff Morris
Pencils & Inks: Me
Colors: Emily Elmer Walker
Letters: Micah Myers

These pages were drawn on Stillman & Birn paper and inked with Deleter Nibs with Sumi Ink.

Requiem Sonata chapter 3 pencils and inks

Hello! I've been drawing a lot lately and I need to share them on here more. Especially since this is the main site on my business card! Here are some non-spoilery pages of Requiem Sonata which I inked 18 pages of for Inktober!

My tools here are Zebra and Kuretake brush pens, Pentel Hybrid Technica pens in my Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook.

Requiem Sonata Inks pages 13-16

So I've been working on pages and other things a bunch lately. I've also gotten more hours at work so my days at a computer outnumber my days at my desk. I'm fine with having a day job especially when it starts really helping me make it through the weeks so comics can come out effortlessly. These pages aren't quite effortless and I think they show it, but still I want to share them. I'm thinking the next batch will be better.

Also I owe a HUGE inktober post. It's almost impossible to keep up with this blog on a daily basis so a lot of my inktober posts went straight to my Instagram which has become my in progress art blog. This one is more scholarly I suppose, but soon I'll compile those posts on here. Or try to. We'll see! Some of these pages were Inktober entries so there is that too.

So these pages are inked with Zebra and Kuretake brush pens primarily. I like using them at this size (7.5x10.5in) over a brush simply for comfort. Holding a brush at this size is murder on my fingers so this is the best way to do it. As usual these pages are drawn in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook, which is a new thing I was trying to keep my comic making mobile. It has its pros and cons but ultimately going smaller was not a bad decision. I feel like I'm getting rid of all of my excess and focusing only on the necessary. This will help when I get back into my 11x17in pages, which I will once the first chapter of this story is in the can.

For now, please enjoy Requiem Sonata pages 13-16!

Requiem Sonata, inks ch1 pg 1-4 and 9-12

I've been working on these pages on and off for a few weeks and I really need to take more time to post them. These are inked with Zebra and Kuretake brush pens and the occasional Copic multiliner. There is a hunk of pages that are missing because those ones will be done with watercolors so I'm saving those all to do at one time. Overall I think it's coming out well, drawing smaller means less time to spend on things that aren't important, so I hope the pages don't seem bare, but instead feel less distracting. I hope you like them!